Quick Wasatch 100 overview. I finally felt recovered from Leadville. It was time to race another 100 miles. I drove over Thursday to Salt Lake City with Duncan Callahan and my brother Super Danny. Duncan was going to crew for me; Super D was going to crew for Duncan… and me. We arrived 2 hours prior to the race meeting so Duncan and I went for a quick run which I followed up with a subsequent nap. After the meeting we drove to the start, ate some food, and found a nice quite cul-de-sac ½ mile away to crash at until the wee early hours.
I slept soundly and was ready to race. At 5:00 am sharp we started our bid to pocket 100 miles in the rugged Wasatch Front. Little did I know that I’d be dropping out of the race 60+ miles later. The first 2 hours went by quickly as we slowly trudged from 5000 feet up to nearly 10,000. We were mostly in a fast walk and I felt controlled. By mile 8 the majority of our early race climbing was completed. I fell in step with the leaders including Evan Honeyfield eventual winner. Meanwhile Luke Nelson was leading about 3 minutes up. Evan and I ran and chatted. I ended up passing him on a steep uphill. We both were walking I was just walking a little quicker. I soon caught Luke and put a minute lead on both Luke and Evan.
The trail was overgrown difficult to follow at times. At one point the trail disappeared and I had to bushwhack and guess where the race went. I luckily kept finding the race ribbon showing that I was indeed on track. My minute lead was short lived as Luke and Evan caught up to me at mile 33. I was happy to have the company. We ran together through the mile 35 aid station which had frozen popsicles which helped revive me. I was overheating and starting to feel nauseated. Luke took the lead at mile 36 and never looked back, Evan followed and held off a charging Carl Metzler for 2nd place. I was unable to reciprocate. I arrived at mile 40 just a few minutes back from Evan and Luke. I felt dehydrated and drained. I rested about 5 minutes at the aid station getting much needed help from Duncan and Dan. I soon left but felt lethargic and slow. I was unable to run at a decent clip. I tripped and stumbled and somehow made it to mile 53. Duncan was planning on running with me from mile 60 but decided to go from 53.
I was deflated and felt like it was not my best day of running. With Duncan by my side I was soon able to run again. He kept me going and I felt ok. Then it came. There was a long downhill which although I felt good on, I lost my cookies at mile 58. Then again at mile 60 and 61 and 62. I stumbled into the mile 62 aid station feeling horrible. I puked several more times in the next 30 minutes all while sitting in the aid. After an hour of hanging out in the aid station I finally could keep light food down. To continue or not, that was my question. I decided to call the race. I did not feel like stumbling for 12 hours and 40 miles just to walk and maybe jog a little. I dropped out.
Duncan, Danny, and I started the drive back to Gunnison . We camped out in Price and finished the drive the next day (Saturday). Once home I started feeling poor. That night I went to bed with a fever. On Sunday and Monday I slept or rested all day. I was congested and felt like puke; I still did not want to eat. My fever finally broke Tuesday morning.
Wasatch was fun but I felt horrid. I think I was coming down with the flu yet I just did not notice any symptoms prior to racing. At any rate, I want to come back and race well at Wasatch. Until we meet again, Wasatch, until we meet again.
