Subject: Wasatch 2002 Race Report From: Dale Perry Date: Wed, 25 Sep 2002 10:00:02 -0600 ------------------------- I'm looking at my finishers plaque from this year's Wasatch Front 100. It says "100 miles of Heaven and Hell". I think back on my 34 hour, 46 minute and 33 second journey through the beautiful Wasatch mountains and I agree. I never thought I would have so many wonderful memories of an event. Yes, there were some not so pleasant memories (crampy stomach, dehydration, mud, howling wind) but these make for great stories. But they both complemented one another and made for one hell of an adventure. I had seen the about 40 miles of the course the previous two weeks, when I stayed with fellow SLUG Mike Price in Park City. We did the Big Mountain to Brighton segment, with Catherine's Pass thown in as well. This proved to be invaluable to me during the race, as I pretty much knew what to expect in this section. The others I wasn't so sure. I just about died on the Big Mountain to Lamb's Canyon segment (mile 39.2 - 53.0) due to the heat. At least I knew what to expect here. It rained most of the day Friday, and Mike and I wondered what the course would be like during race day. I was hoping for a good, soft trail and not the dust we had two weeks prior. One thing was certain: heat was not going to be a problem during this run. Since I don't do well in the heat, I was relieved to be running in pretty much my ideal running conditions: cool and cloudy. Mike, his wife Diane, and I got to the starting line Saturday morning about 4 AM. Checked in (we were the first) and had no waiting at the porta pots before the busload of runners arrived. While I wasn't nervous, I was getting antsy and pacing and walking around, wanting to get this show on the road. Soon, we all lined up at the East Mountain Wilderness Park trailhead and with the words "GO!" we were off down the trail. For the next 3.6 miles we climbed, then descended, and more gradual ups and downs. I wanted to go fairly conservative here and not go out too fast.I found my position in a long line of runners as we made our way up to the Chinscraper bowl. Before I knew it, the sun was coming out and our flashlights were no longer needed. The trail was pretty nice, a bit soft with some rocks and roots thrown in to get your attention. The climb was fairly steep in places, and it reminded me a bit of the south side of Hope Pass at Leadville, with all the trees and shrubs. Then I thought that this was actually two Hope Pass climbs: 4 miles and 4000' of climb! Mike and I were together through about most of climb. He was ahead of me a bit for some of the climbs, but I passed him when he stopped for water at Cool Springs. Before I knew it, I was at the top of Chinscraper and making my way along the ridge towards the Francis Peaks Radar Domes. After about an hour and a half of walking, it was nice to run again. Mike finally caught up with me about a mile from the domes, and I had to stop to dump out gravel from my shoes. This would be the first of many during the next 32 hours. Got to Grobbins Corner (the RD's pickup truck with water). Since I was using my Camelback, I went on through and turned onto the dirt road leading towards the radars. Then, we headed downhill on a smoother dirt road for about four miles. The sun was shining, had great views of Salt Lake City below, and the wind was howling about 25 mph. I had to take off my hat several times to prevent it from getting blown off. I casually made my way downhill toward the first aid station at Francis Maintenance Sheds, and I noticed it was getting warmer. Got into the aid station (mile 19.6) in 4:45. Saw my pacer for the Big Mountain segment, Pat Homelvig, there and asked me what I wanted. I needed my drop bag. Met up with Mike's wife Diane and saw Mike sitting there at the car. Put my camelback at the car and got my two bottle pack. Changed my shirt, hat, got my bottles filled, and left. Checked out at 4:54. Grabbed a PBJ sandwich and a coke. I went out with Mike, and we made out way up the road to the next aid station at Skyline. Ran (walked) with Mike for about 3/4 a mile, and he started to pull away. The sun was out, and I was not feeling well. Wished I had taken the time to use the porta pot at Francis. Soon I was running, but still not feeling well. I needed to take a side trip, but nowhere to go. After about another mile or so, I came to a meadow and did nature's call. I also found my urine was yellow! A bit dehydrated. I started drinking more. The next few miles to the aid station was slow anda lot of climbs. I finally got into the Skyline/Bountiful "B" aid (mile 23.7) in 6:25. Took two minutes to fill my bottles and mix up my energy drink, downed a coke, and got outta there. As I was walking up the hill, I was starting to feel a lot better. Soon, the clouds started taking over the skyline and it started sprinkling. As I made my way along the ridge, the wind really picked up and the rain turned to graupel, stinging my face. There was a guy ahead messing with a plastic bag poncho, but having difficulty in the wind. I met up with a gal (Shawna) with a similar setup, and she was running the uphills. I was walking. We would be playing cat and mouse for the next 70 miles to the end. I'd pass her on the downhills, she would pass me on the uphills. We finally introduced ourselves in the dead of night going up the Lamb's Canyon climb. My nickname for her was the "uphiller". She called me the "downhiller". The rain/graupel only lasted 15 minutes, so it wasn't all that bad. Got into Sessions aid station (mile 28.0) in 7:29. Spent a minute here getting my bottle mixed and grabbed a coke. I was following Shawna when a guy behind us said "Hey! This way. Not there!" I yelled out to Shawna that we need to turn left and not go straight ahead. Gotta be careful or you can get lost really easily. Thing was, it was marked well, but I was just following the runner ahead. They HAD warned us about doing that. It woke me up anyway. After a fairly long climb, I got to a ridgeline where I could run again. I again caught up with Shawna and passed her along the ridgeline. At one point I looked back and she and another runner were about 200 yards behind me. The views here were nice, although the horizon was shrouded in clouds. More descents and associated ascents, and before I knew it, I was at the Swallow Rocks aid station (mile 34.7) in 9:34. I took more time here having to sit down and empty the rocks from my shoes. It was here I took my gaitors off and stuffed them in my pack. Didn't work well on this course. Refilled my bottles, grabbed some potato chips, and headed out on a slight uphill climb on a road. This 4.5 mile section went really fast. A lot of it was very runnable, and I took advantage off that while I at least felt like running. Met some runners along the way here as we chatted about this and that. Then we hit the trail heading down towards the Big Mountain aid station at mile 39.2. We were way above it on the ridge, and had about a mile to go to get there. Soon, I crossed the main road and into the parking lot and got checked in with a time of 10:45. Saw my mile 53 pacer Bert Bond from Colorado, and then saw Pat who I was picking up here for the next 13.7 miles. Someone got my dropbag, got three new bottles, changed my hat, and made my way over to Diane's car and picked up a sandwich. She looked surprised to see me, but I think she was just glad to see I made it. She said Mike just left minutes before me. I was talking and Pat said "Dale! Let's go!" With those words of encouragement, we checked out and made our way up the trail. Again, it started to rain a bit as we made our way up the trail. There was quite a bit of trees that shielded us from a lot of the rain, but at least the trail wasn't too bad. We had a good time chatting about many things, and soon we were heading up to Bald Mountain. Then the descent down Baugh Bearing Hill which was a bit treacherous due to the slick rocks and some mud. We continued to make our way over to Alexander Ridge aid station, running along an elevated ridgeline that overlooked a reservoir to our right. Soon, we were at the aid station (mile 47.2) in 13:13. I couldn't believe how time flew here. I guess having companionshiip here really made the time go by quickly. Got out rather quickly and made our way up the long, muddy jeep road ascent. I spent most of the time off to the side in the tall grass to avoid all the mud. It was a caking mud, so I was trying to stay off it as much as possible. This stretch went on (seemingly) forever, and Pat and I finally got to the trail turnoff that would shortly take us to the top and along an old narrow gage railroad grade down to the next aid station. I was feeling rather well here and ran most of it, and told Pat when we see the aid station ahead and to our right, we still had a mile and half to go. We then turned left and headed away from the aid station. Soon, we turned back to the right, and ran parallel to I-80 on a very muddy trail. Crossed over a beaver dam, and before we knew it, we were at the lower part of the parking area marking Lamb's Canyon aid station. Since it was so muddy, they used the upper lot as the aid station. Checked in with a run time of 14:53. Just before 8 PM, and we hadn't used our flashlights yet (although we had them). I parked it here for about 26 minutes. Changed into my nighttime clothes: long pants, longsleeve polypro, gloves, hat. Picked up a bigger LED light, ate some food, got my bottles filled, and headed off with my other pacer Bert. Mike's son Brad was here this time and was great! He cleaned off my shoes and made sure I had everything I needed before heading out. Bert and I got confused upon leaving, not knowing where to check out. Turns out we had to go a bit up the paved road near the I-80 overpass to check out. We then headed up the long 1.6 miles of paved road before heading up the steep climb out of Lamb's to the top of Bear Ass Pass. It took us about 56 minutes to do the 1500 foot climb and before you could say anything, we were heading back down. Got to the next paved road section and made the long, long climb for 3.1 miles to Upper Big Water aid station. The road was narrow and had a lot of twists and turns in it. We had to be careful as the cars seemed to be coming down (and up) the canyon pretty frequently. Most cars dimmed their headlights and slowed down. There were some idiots who did neither. I think it took us about 50 minutes to get up the canyon. We saw Brad off to our right, and I said I wasn't needing anything as I had a drop bag just ahead. Got into the aid station (mile 61.5) in 18:23. A little over 3 hours: right on schedule. Parked it again for 19 minutes, changed my shoes, added a shirt, put on a wool hat, and ate a bit. Picked up fresh bottles that Bert promptly filled for me, and we were off. The night was turning out to be really wonderful: saw some stars in the night air, it was fairly calm, and not too cold. Bert and I did a lot of conversation as we made our way up to Dog Lake (named after water dogs, but during the day, it's usually filled with canine dogs). Once again Shawna and her pacer passed us, but we soon passed them on the short, but steep descent that led us to a nice, wide open meadow. We were making good time, and ran some but mostly walked up the trail to the next aid station at Desolation Lake (mile 66.7). Got in with a time of 20:47. Sat down and emptied my shoes again, ate some noodles, got my bottles filled, and we were out in less than 6 minutes. A nice little climb out of the aid up to Red Lover's Ridge afforded us some nice views of the Park City lights. We continued our way along the ridge and around a hillside that gave us a chance to do some more running. Made pretty good time here as we saw the lights to the next aid station coming into view. Passed a runner bent over along the side of the trail (puking) and continued up the now jeep road to Scott's aid station. We got to Scott's (mile 70.6) in 22:22. It was pretty windy here, and didn't stay long but to fill bottles. Made our way up the road and onto a ridgeline overlooking the next aid station 4 miles away. Got to the top, and ran some of the road down. We ended up walking some of the road as it was pretty rocky and I needed a break from all the rocks. So we walked to the paved road. Got to the paved road and shuffled down the 2.5 miles to the next aid station at Brighton Ski Area (mile 75.4). I had told Bert earlier that I wanted to run this section and keep the walks to a minimum. I wanted to get it over with quick. Arrived at Brighton in 23:50. Brighton is a black hole of runners and warmth. We parked it here for 30 minutes. I just sat, ate, rested my legs, while Bert took care of his needs. I soon realized I needed to get out of here if I was going to make any progress. I was really feeling sleepy here, but I hoped I would wake up if we got going. I made a quick stop to the men's room (nice and warm). We checked out, and made our way up to the trailhead taking us to Catherine's Pass 2.5 miles ahead. Either I was really sleepy or the trail wasn't marked very well. I kept going off the trail. I'm glad I did this section a few weeks earlier with Mike, otherwise I might not have known where to go. I think we got off the trail half a dozen times. But we were soon on the rocky part and the trail was now a pretty easy one to keep on. We got to Mary's Lake, then soon after Martha's Lake. We kept climbing. Bert pointed out some lightning to our west. I hoped it would stay away. But it wasn't looking good. By the time the night was over and we switched off our lights, we were about half a mile from Catherine's Pass and 10,200 of elevation. Got to the pass, stopped to take in the views. Absolutely gorgeous! We then had more climbing to do: 200 feet to the high point of the course and Point Supreme. When we started heading down, the land- scape was surreal. We were in the clouds, and the fog was shrouding the trees and visibility was limited. We continued on down a long and steep descent littered with rocks. Kinda reminded me of Zane Grey. The scenery over here was vastly different from what we had the previous 80 miles: steep, rugged canyons with a grand view of the trail ahead. Got into the Ant Knoll's aid station (mile 80.0) in 26:43. They offered us hash browns and sausage. I opted for the hash browns. Drank some coke. Got my bottles filled. Then, the thunder came. A loud crack roared overhead. I quickly ate my breakfast and Bert and I left there for the climb up the Grunt. It was starting to rain. Soon, the Grunt trail was the Grunt River. Water was about two inches deep down the center. And it was starting to hail now. Bert and I had been together for about 12 hours with little rain. That was soon to change. We made our way up the Grunt and onto a ridgeline. The trail was filled with water and hail, and we ran to stay warm. Bert said he recognized the scenery when he used to live here. I said he could show me the way to aid station. This section to Poleline Pass aid is supposed to be 3.2 miles. We were on this segment for 71 minutes, and about a half mile from the aid station I turned to Bert, in the pouring rain, asking him if we may have missed the aid station. He was wondering the same thing, as it seemed a lot longer than 3 bloody miles! We soon caught up with a couple of runners asking them if we had already passed Poleline yet.. They said no, and the distances here seem short. I was relieved, as I told Bert I was not going to turn around if we did in this pouring rain. Got to Poleline (mile 83.2) in 27:57 in the pouring rain. I wasn't sure what to do, as it was cold, wet, and just miserable conditions. Bert was shivering while I got my bottles refilled. After about 10 minutes, I told Bert let's get the hell out of here. Soon, the rain let up. But the mud was everywhere! This section to Rock Springs is only 4 miles, but it took forever with all the ups and downs in the mud. I took several falls in the mud. Bert offered good advice and said to keep my feet in the center groove of the trail where there was water. I had better traction there. I still found myself grabbing trees to keep from falling. I got passed by a lot of people here. I found myself stopping halfway up many climbs just to catch my breath. This mud was putting me near exhaustion. I wasn't sure what was more scary: seeing a long up hill climb in slick mud, or an equally long downhill in the same conditions. I got passed by Hans-Dieter Weisshaar with his traditional hiking poles. Boy, I could sure use them now. I asked him if I could use them, he just laughed. But I made my way through it eventually and the trail actually improved so that we could run a bit and we were at the Rock Springs aid station in 29:50. This was a wide spot in the trail, manned by a couple of guys with a PVC pipe sticking out the hillside with water. So I filled my bottle and left. As we left Rock Springs, we were headed to probably the worst section, for me at least, on the course. It was nearly 11:00, I had been on the go for nearly 29 hours. I was tired, and I found myself in a kind of haze. I've heard stories of other people hallucinating, and I had my first experience with that on this stretch. I didn't see spiders or pink elephants, but I kept seeing people in the forest and several aid stations. We were slogging along and I thought I saw a guy off to the side stretching his quads. On second notice, it was only a bent over aspen tree. I then saw what looked like two porta potties, a white pickup truck, a picnic table with several people around it. Nope. Just a couple of big rocks and trees placed to deceive this poor soul. This went on for nearly an hour or so. The other thing that was driving me nuts was the constant roller coaster of the hills: we'd go up a ways, then go down. Then back up, only to down again. Ad nauseum. Bert mentioned to me, "I don't know about you Dale, but this is starting to piss me off." I didn't say anything, as it was annoying me as well, but there wasn't anything I could do but continue on and get it done. After the tenth of so up/down, I did tell Bert I was pretty pissed at this. We finally seemed to be going down now for a while, and I was hoping this was the last downhill to the Pot Bottom aid station, the last one. We finally met up with a couple of guys and I asked them if the next aid station is down this descent. He said he wasn't sure, but he thought it was about a mile or so away. What seemed like an eternity, Bert said he thought he saw it just ahead. I wasn't so sure since I had been seeing aid stations all the way for the last hour. But then I saw the blue awning and the cars. Hooray!! Mile 92.9 in 32:11. When I figured out the average times between aid stations, I calculated about a 2:25 time for this segment of 5.8 miles. It took us 2:21! Up until this time, I knew I had a good chance of finishing, but it wasn't until I walked out of this aid station and up the road that I was 100% sure. You never know on these things, but barring any major problems, I was going to finish, and hopefully under 35 hours. As we made our way up the 1.5 miles of road, I asked Bert to get in front on this segment to pull me along. I'm not sure if he was being nice to me or not, but I was able to keep up with him reasonably well. We soon got to a sharp left turn, were greeted by some people who said a bit more climb and a sharp turn to the right for the trail going down to the finish. Pretty soon, we were going down the trail. We had to side step off for a bit for some ATVs whizzing by, but for the first mile or so, we were shuffling along pretty well. My quads started to feel bad about here, and I was very happy I was able to keep them from getting trashed early in the run. Soon, it started raining again and the road turned to water, mud, and slick rocks. I mentioned to Bert I was going to walk since I was in a foggy haze and not really concentrating on the road. I was scared I would fall and get hurt. It took us a while to pick our way down, then we had another climb for maybe a half mile. We then hit the trail and made our way down. The trail was a mud pit, ankle deep and slick. It was about this time I yelled out "I'm tired of this shit! I just want it over!!" I started to run more of this slop as I just wanted it to be over and I wanted to get to the finish line. Soon, we hit a dirt road which led to a paved road. A sign was there saying we had 1 mile to go!! We started shuffling on the paved road. I got very emotional at this point knowing it was nearly over. We walked one little hill, then ran the last 1/3 of a mile in and under the finish banner. There was Mike and Diane. I gave Diane a hug. I shook Bert's hand thanking him for the company and support. The RD, John Grobben came over and asked me why I was shaking my head. I mentioned something about all the mud he managed to put into the course, or something of that nature. He laughed. Mike asked me if I wanted to do it again. I said yes, but not next year. I will be back next year though to pace a friend. But I will be back in 2004! Thanks Mike, Bert, and Pat for the company out there. It was highly appreciated. A great run, a great time, and a great adventure. I highly recommend this run to anyone wanting to do a tough, 100 miler in the mountains. Not the altitude of Leadville, but twice as much climb. Yeah! "100 miles of Heaven and Hell." Yep. I agree. As Arnold sez, "I'll be back." Dale