Well I guess I’ll start at the beginning. It was June 19th, 1982, the day I was born. Okay okay, I won’t start that far back. But be warned that it is fairly long, and I’m not the best writer, so bare with me and enjoy the story!
(If you want to read from the start of the race feel free to click here)
I could say the nerves really started kicking in when I was scheduled to run a 30 mile training run, and only managed to run 21 due to knee pain. Two weeks later, I finished the Leadville Marathon and I felt pretty decent, but couldn’t imagine running another marathon on top of the first one. The 50 mile race was only two weeks after the marathon, so I started having major concerns about whether I trained hard enough to be ready. Part of me wanted to just not show and work through the next year to where I would feel much more confident in my fitness level. I decided I was still going to try it, and if things turned really ugly, I could always drop out and tackle it the following year.
The morning before the race, I headed to the airport to pick up dear friends as they were coming to watch and support me. Driving to Leadville with them was a blast as hanging out with them always is. It was really great having the crew I had with me because they really calmed my nerves and helped me forget about the race and just enjoy their company. We arrived in Leadville, and just checked out the town, picked up my race packet and relaxed in the hotel for an early night.
After a restless sleep, my alarm finally went off at 4:30am for a 6am start. We make our way to the starting line where I anxiously waited for the shotgun start. Surprisingly, 6am was approaching quickly. Usually in races like this, waiting for the race to start feels like an eternity. Before I knew it, the race director announces that there’s only 3 minutes until the start. I make my way and found a spot near the middle of the pack. Now time is feeling like it’s standing still, but eventually makes it to the 10 second count down. I start counting down while staring at the insanely steep initial climb we all have to make. I’m having more thoughts than I can really process in this ten second count down. “Did I train enough.. How will I feel if I don’t finish.. Am I ready to go through excruciating pain… Did I eat enough for breakfast.. Did I drink enough water before the start… Will my knee and ankle hold up later in the race.. Am I going to be able to double my longest run.. What the hell am I doi.. ..” 3 ….. 2 ….. 1 …. Bang!!
It’s go time…
I start off on the steep 100 yard start making sure I don’t use up too much energy too fast. Once at the top, I found myself settle into a comfortable pace for the gradual 10 mile climb. About three miles in, a lady tripped on a rock and fell flat on her face. Feeling bad knowing she will have to feel that for another 47 miles, I realized how easy something like that could happen, and focused more on the ground to decrease the chance of having similar accident.
The climb to the first aid station wasn’t all that bad. I was feeling okay, but they only had water there when I arrived. I refilled my bottles and set off for the next aid station without wasting much time. The trail quickly turned into pretty steep with technical terrain with a lot of loose rocks and big streams flowing down from the snow melt. Knowing that the race was an out and back run, I knew this part would be the most difficult should I make it that far due to my weakness in running steep downhills. I shoved that thought aside, and finally made it past the rough spot onto a nice gravel road with a gradual decline. Continuing on, I noticed both of my inner groin areas were cramping up a little. This was very concerning .. I was only at mile 11.
I finally reach the second aid station where I was greeted by my crew for the first time since the start. It was a nice sight seeing them especially since they came all the way out here to see me for 5 minutes at a time while waiting impatiently for hours between aid stations. This was also the first aid station with food and more than just water to drink. I scarf down some chips, energy gels, a banana, and an orange while my crew refilled my water bottles for me. They claimed I looked pretty good, but I felt worse than I really should be at mile 13.5
The run to the next aid station at mile 18 was a bit of a blur and it felt like I reached it pretty quickly. I really didn’t feel like I ate or drank enough at the last aid station, so I made sure I consumed more calories this time and continued on with the adventure.
At this point of the race, I was in a run/hike phase. If there was anything that would be too demanding to run, I would fall into a power hike and the terrain I feel I could run, I would switch to running mode. I hit around mile 20-21, and came across a section I thought was reasonable to run, and got my legs moving. Something wasn’t right though. As I started to run, I was feeling like a leg cramp was about to hit. I took it to a slower jog then back to a slow walk all happening in about 10 seconds time. Switching to the hike wasn’t fast enough. Both of my legs completely locked up. Both inner groins, both calves, both hamstrings, and both quads. Basically every muscle in both legs completely locked straight while in excruciating pain. I’m now standing in the middle of the trail, in utter disappointment, pain and confusion because I’m trying to figure out how I could get myself moving back to the aid station I just came from and call it quits. I dug deep and pulled out some inner roots that just wouldn’t allow me to quit. I worked too hard and too long to give up less than half way through the race, so I decided to keep going. But still, I couldn’t get my legs moving. As I stand there, another racer stops asking if I’m okay. I told him I was cramped up and couldn’t move my legs. He noticed I lost a lot of salt, and offered me salt pills he had. I gratefully accepted and took them down. He gave me a couple extra and off he went. I decided to just push through the pain and get my legs moving again. I was able to unlock one and started dragging the other along and eventually got my other leg moving again. Wow that was close. While moving, I started having major conflicting emotions. Happy I was able to move again, yet really worried that I cramped that bad and wasn’t even half way done. I finally decided that I will make it my goal to run past marathon distance of 26.2 miles since that was the furthest I’ve ever ran, and dropping out anytime after that will be somewhat satisfying with a distance PR (personal record).
The next few sections of the race proved rather difficult. Not only I had doubts, but I came across some intense steep sections and I was feeling completely depleted of energy. With about a mile left before the turn around point, another racer ran past me and asked if I knew of a cut off time for the half way point. Not knowing, all I said was that I have no idea. I move myself into another jog after that leaving her behind a little bit and back to a walk. I was graced with her presence once again as she caught up to me telling me that if we keep at the pace we’re at, we should make the half way station by six hours giving us an eight hour cushion to make the fourteen hour cut off time of the entire race. Again, not being up for small talk, I didn’t give much of a response and didn’t want to let her know I had no intentions of finishing the race. She then noticed I was covered in salt, and offered me salt pills which I gratefully accepted. She also told me her husband will be at the aid station and should have a large supply of the pills to provide to me since I tend to lose salt easily. After her kindness, I started opening up a little more and making more small talk where I also learned of her name, Anita.
We finally reached mile 25 at around six hours even. My friends greeted me once again. I must have looked pretty awful, because I could see their faces of concern. I then told them that it’s not looking good and I had major doubts in finishing the race due to the extreme pain and lack of energy I was in. In the meantime, Anita was telling me what I should be eating, while her husband was filling up my water bottle pouches with the salt pills. Not having a clue who she was, I decided to listen to her anyway since I knew there wasn’t a chance of finishing this on my own. Within a few minutes, Anita was telling me we need to get moving, so I grab my water bottles and off we went. (I had heard later that after I left, my friends started crying of sadness based on what I told them and how bad I looked since they knew how bad I wanted to finish this)
As we’re running, Anita was full of racing stories, advice and motivation. After she said she’s done the Badwater race five times, I had even more confidence in her ability to help me. She would have me run in twenty second increments telling me that every little bit helps to make up some time since there were some really hilly sections approaching. Listening to her coaching and stories, I started realizing that I was feeling a bit better and more energetic. We now reached one of the hardest hills of the race, Ball Mountain. When we arrived at the base of it, we both fell into a brisk hike. Although, very painful, I kept to a strong hiking pace because I wanted this part to be over as quickly as possible. After finally reaching the top, I felt so relived there was some nice relaxing downhill following immediately after. So I thought. As soon as we started our way down, once again, both of my legs completely cramped up. Every muscle in both legs. Locked. Before I even had time to assess the situation , Anita saw me stop and immediately started yelling, “Don’t stop!! Keep moving! Keep moving! Keep moving!”. I tried listening to her and shuffled my feet down the steep hill, each step more painful then the next. The steps were probably no bigger than an inch at a time. Ahead of me, there were two other racers that were already down the steep section of the hill, and they actually turned around and ran up the hill to try helping me. One of them stuffed food in my pockets while the other one opened up a gel pack and handed it to me to eat. Anita and the other two then stayed by my side as I kept trying to revive my legs back to a movable state. Finally reaching a more flat section, I felt more life come back to my legs and was able to move normal (relatively speaking) again. I thanked the other two runners, and they went on to continue their own journey.
One would think that after a second cramp as bad as I experienced would be so demoralizing, that it would cause me to want to just give up right then and there. In fact, the opposite occurred. In a weird way, I gained more confidence and hope that I will cross that finish line under the cut off time. I guess making it through the cramp, and knowing I was still moving towards the finish line made me realize I could fight through the pain and still make progress at the same time. I decided I will no longer doubt myself, and will push as hard as I can in order to finish the race.
We finally arrived at the next aid station at mile 30. I now had beaten my longest run by four miles, and every step I took was a new PR. Anita again pointed out what I should eat based on how I looked and felt and her husband Tim came to my aid as well by filling up my water bottles and giving Anita and I words of encouragement. Not wasting a lot of time at the aid station, we were back to the adventure.
With more confidence and proper food, I started feeling alive again. Anita couldn’t believe how much better I looked since the first time she saw me struggling towards the half way point. The section we were on was a general downhill, and we found ourselves running at a comfortable pace. No cramping, no (extreme) pain and no more doubts. I’m running again. Anita was sharing more tales of her running and even though they sounded very impressive, the true awesomeness just wasn’t registering for me, but on to that later. The only thing on my mind at this point was seeing my friends at the next aid station, knowing I made a complete 180. I knew they had to be worrying the entire time since I saw them at mile 25 and gave them a look like, “no way I’m finishing this thing”.
We finally enter the single track section that leads into the aid station at mile 35. Anita was in front of me, and as you approach the aid station, there was a small embankment that didn’t allow the spectators to see the runners until they came up and over it. With my friends knowing I left with Anita at the half way point, they saw her first and didn’t see me immediately after. As they were about to bombard her with questions about where I was, they look up and see me come in to the aid station. All I could really remember were a bunch of screams for me. It was an amazing sight to see. My cousin came over to me to help out, and I looked at him and quoted Rocky V saying “I didn’t hear no bell”. We hugged, and both started crying as we both knew I was finishing and wasn’t letting anything stop me. Anita once again rushed me through the aid station so we beat any potential rain storms and so I don’t start tightening up. We make our way to the next one with my friends screaming and yelling in the background as I pumped my hands in the air.
The next few miles was a gradual uphill, so Anita was coaching me through by having me run for 20 seconds at a time and falling back into a walk. It eventually got to the point where I would be the one to mention I’m ready to run and would hold them longer than the 20 seconds. I had so much excitement and adrenaline that would overcome any pain I was feeling and before I knew it, we were at the last aid station before the finish line. This one was a bit of a blur as I just couldn’t wait to get on the move again towards the finish line.
The last 7 miles of the race was downhill. We settled into a slow jog for most of the way and just kept taking a step at a time. At this point, I told Anita that if she wanted to try breaking 12 hours, that I’d be okay and could still finish. She refused to leave my side and told me how impressed she was at my resurrection as well as joking around with each other due to high excitement levels. Next thing we knew, we heard the sound of cars on the highway. The finish line was close! There was a little bit of an uphill section that lead to the straightaway for the finish line, and no amount of pain was stopping me from running the rest of the way. Anita and I hit the straightaway and see the finish line about a 100 yards away and tears started down my eyes with a smile ear to ear as I see all of my friends and finally cross the finish line! I have finished the Leadville 50 mile trail run in 12:52 minutes and experienced the biggest high of my life.
After the excitement level wore down, the stories Anita Fromm was telling me started to settle in. She ran Badwater five times and is the current world record holder from the start of Badwater to the top of Mount Whitney. After breaking the record, she turned around and ran back to the start logging in an insane 292 miles in one shot! One other crazy insight about her, is she actually grew up in Lock Haven, PA which is where I attended undergrad! Small world. I truly thank you again Anita! Without your help, I might still be on the trail somewhere crawling back to an aid station.
