Subject: Rocky Mountain Double Marathon From: Paul Magnanti Date: Thu, 3 Jun 2004 10:57:47 -0700 (PDT) Thought I'd share a trip report of my first ultra. Again, thanks to all on this list who gave me some great advice. Was a pleasure meeting Katy Coton at the registration desk. A big kudos to her as she won what seemed to a be an usually difficult race this year. Anyway, hope no one minds a report from a first time ultra completer. Did not break any land=speed records, but I fiinshed. That was my ulitimate goal for the first ultra. This was originally posted to a Applachian Trail list I belong to... ********* On January 1st, 2003 did my first recreational run. Never considered myself a runner; I am on the short side (5'6"), have a stocky build, and tend to have more endurance than speed. Never thought I'd be one to enjoy running. Well, did the "fun run" that night and enjoyed myself. ( Sure the champagne toasts helped, too. ;-D ) Said, hey..I should do this more often. Started doing some trail runs in the many fine trails in Boulder, did a trail 10k, and did my first marathon (26.2 miles) in Sept '03. Did not break any land-speed records, but came in a solid 351st place out of approx 700 entries. More importantly, did not hit the wall, felt very good at the end and recovered quickly. So, thought I'd combine my thru-hiking background (which means for me high mileage days consistently) with my slow and steady running style and attempt an ultra-marathon. The ultra-marathon of choice was the Wyoming Double Marathon. http://www.angelfire.com/wy2/marathon/ There was also a half and a full marathon that weekend, too. The race was held not too far from Laramie, WY at the highest point off of I-80. (8600'). It is down the highway from Rawlins; a re-supply spot for the CDT. The race itself was held in the Vedavoos and the Medicine Bow national forest. A very beautiful area known for bouldering. The area itself has rolling hills characteristic of the high plains, views of the Snowy Range and just screams "THIS IS THE WEST". In short, this area fits what people picture when they think of the "WEST" of Clint Eastwood movies. Outlaw Josey Wales would not be out of place in this environment. (Though the big rigs on I-80 may not quite fit in this western motif. :D) On Friday night, three of us drove up and planned to make a long weekend camping trip. On Saturday, two more of our friends drove up. If you look at the link for pics at the bottom of this e-mail you will notice two very familiar faces from my others pics. Josh and Marni are perhaps my two closest friends in Boulder. After I returned from the PCT we got to know each other very well. They introduced me to running, I introduced them to many aspects of the outdoors. They moved to Boulder only a few months before I returned from the PCT. Besides our love of the outdoors the three of us are the same age, all grew up in the Northeast (NYC, NJ and RI) and all three of us value our cultural roots (Jewish and Italian). All in all many things in common that certainly helped for a close friendship. On Saturday, we met two of our other friends (Jeff and Becky) and went for a light hike in the area. We did about 6 miles on the Headquarters trail. Even with the mist, this gentle trail was quite nice. Wildflowers were out, could see the rolling hills. And enjoyed stretching my legs out a bit before the big race. Saturday night, we drove to Cheyenne, WY. The capital of Wyoming has 50,000 people and is the largest city in Wyoming. Not very big! We did do some shopping at Sierra Trading Post that had a big Mem Day weekend sale. Picked up some goodies there! There was a pre-race pasta dinner. The race director sat down at our table and was really cool to hear his stories. Brent is the first person to do an ultra on all seven continents! More important than all his accomplishments, he has an obvious love of helping and encouraging people at all stages of ultra-running. His enthusiasm and good humor was infectious. He even gave some last minute coaching to me that made me feel good about the upcoming race. Sunday morning, woke up and made our way to the vistor's center at 8600' for the start of the race. All the racers start at the same time. Besides the ultra run, there was also a 1/2 (13.1 miles) and a full marathon (26.2 miles). Jeff and Josh did the half, Marni did the full, one wacko (me) did the double. Becky did the crucial role of taking pics with our cameras and providing much needed morale support at various points along the trail. The morning was COLD, but once we got moving, warmed up quite a bit. The course was quite beautiful. Wish I had my camera with me! The cotton woods had leaves that were just starting to turn green, wildflowers were in bloom, the ponds sprakled in the sunlight. As I had a bit of way to go kept myself to a slow pace of 5 MPH (12 min/mile). I ran the flats slowly, power hiked the steep uphills, ran the downhills a bit quicker. Saw Jeff and Josh as they turned around to complete the half and said "See ya in 10 hrs!". Continued along and did the only non-scenic stretch of the run: a two mile bit on the I-80 frontage road. The first time doing it, was pretty easy run. The road had a very gently up and down hill...was almost flat. Made my way off the road and back into national forest land. More beautiful views. The rock formations that people bouldered on were esp. scenic! Near the 13.1 mile mark saw Marni on her way up the hill. Most people were walking this steep up hill. Told her more or less what I told our other friends. Had some much needed salt at aid station down the end of the hill, and started up again. On my second outing at the frontage road, it started to cloud over. The wind picked up in this exposed area. Do not know the exact winds speeds, but the gusts felt about 40MPH!!!! Decided to walk vigrously as running used up too much energy it seemed. Some of the volunteers yelled "You are walking faster than some people are running". The wind continued ALL day. It also started to snow for a brief time :O Got back to the start of the race, sat for a few minutes, ate, changed into long racing tights. Sue, the race director's wife, saw me coming in and said "Do you have enough warm clothes?" If my Mom did racing events, it would be this woman. In all seriousness, shows the level of support at the race. Ultras are less formal than traditional marathons, but the camraderie is tight! Made my way back down the same course. Ran down and people said "Wow! Great job!". Was a little sheepish as I had just started the second half of the loop. Still had 25+ miles to go. The race was much different. Very few people on the course. The weather continued to get windier and colder. It was me very much against myself. The frontage road (third time around!) was just brutal. Felt like I was swimming. Made it to the 39 miles mark aid station, very tired. Had some needed food and the volunteer shot me a "You are crazy look!" when I said "Well, only a half marathon to go..." Did the frontage road for a ***FOURTH TIME*** and almost lost it. It was by far the psychological low point for me. By this point, gave up any semblance of running and walked (though, at a very fast clip of 4 mph). Yelled and argued with myself, swore at myself, yelled at the road, wanted this stretch to end. It was a tough two miles. Finally got off the frontage road and made it to national forest land again. The wind was just as strong. What kept me going was my inate stubborness and I'd like to think my thru-hiking background. Have had some nasty curveballs thrown at me in the course of 6000 miles of long distance hiking...this was no different. Another big boost was one volunteer who drove back and forth along the last 13 miles of the route. He constantly asked all the ultra-racers if we need anything, gave us thumbs up, and met us at the aid stations to give us some much needed words of encouragement. Ran two - three miles to make up some time in the tree cover (less wind!) and made it to the last aid station four miles out from the end. It was a great psychological boost, and physcial too. Cheese danish never tasted so good! I knew I'd make it now. Made it to the 50 mile mark and there was Josh and Jeff. They power-hiked the last 2.2 miles with me up the VERY steep hill. At a half-mile before the end, saw Becky and Marni. Also saw the race director come by and he gave me a thumbs up. I was almost done!!!!! Made it to just before the 52.4 mile mark 13 hrs after starting very exhausted, sore and hungry. But, emotionally I was doing well. My friends were with me, Brent (the RD) and his wife Sue gave me a hearty congrats and my belt buckle. I did something that was totally off my mental map. If you told me 10 yrs ago that I would have walked more or less 2x north-south across the country, lived in the mountains of Colorado and do a race of 52.4 miles in one day (Providence to Boston!) on foot, would of thought there was something wrong with you. The only team I was ever on in high school was the debate team; in elementary school played the position reserved for the worst player in Little League (right field ..of course. :D), and never considerd myself an athelete of any sort. Yeah..I felt pretty good about finishing. I finished 9th over all. Of course, only 11 finished. Twenty-six entered total, so the people who completed the ultra was below 50%. The only way I'll finish in the top ten is to find a race with few finishers. Brent (the RD) was quoted as saying this was the worse weather for the race in his 27 yrs of organzing it. Did not meet my personal goal of finishing in 12 hrs, but I did finish it. To put in perspective, the winner did it in 10 hrs this year. The winner last year did in 8hrs 15 minutes! The weather caused not only a slow finish time for everyone but a high attrition rate, too. Last year, 25 people completed the race. Today (Tues) I am still a little sore, but well on my way to recovering. Will I do another ultra? Sunday the answer was HELL NO!!!! Today? Hey..maybe I can do a 100 miler! Pics at: http://gallery.backcountry.net/wyomarathon04 ===== ************************************************************ The true harvest of my life is intangible.... a little stardust caught, a portion of the rainbow I have clutched --Thoreau http://www.magnanti.com