Doxey: The New Jersey Chapter: Silver state 50

Doug really should be writing this post but I'm not sure I'd be able to talk him into it. He just ran his first 50 mile race on Saturday. I was so worried for him leading up to it. I was also worried for myself, Doug asked me to pace him the last 15 miles. I did a half marathon two weeks ago and just started feeling back to normal, not to mention I haven't trained on hills/mountains like Doug has. Anyway, this is about him. So I will tell this from my perspective.

Doug left about 5:30 am. The race starting at 6. Its very nice to have a race start in Reno. I was to meet up with him at mile 35, which he predicted to be about 6 hours into the race. I tried to go about our Saturday morning as regularly as possible but it was virtually impossible. I was so on edge! I dropped the kids off at the Jorgensens and tried to drive as calmly as possible to Somerset where I was to going to join him.

Most of the pacers met up at the 33rd mile aid station but I was so nervous to do 17 miles and arranged to meet up at mile 35 instead. I quickly saw Doug at the aid station (and made him wait around for 10 min) and then I drove to mile 35. At this point, I was so excited for Doug...he looked great! And I was going to be a part of it.

I didn't put much thought in the journey ahead of me as we started up the back side of Peavine. I wanted to push it, Doug knew all the wiser. You don't waste energy on the ups, you power hike. As we continued to climb, I just kept commenting on how absolutely beautiful it was! It was the most beautiful day, overcast, perfect temperature. Green and wild flowers everywhere. We finally reached the aid station at mile 37. The ultra environment is so fun to me, so different than other races. At the aid stations, you stop, the volunteers are so encouraging and offer everything from m&m's to quesadillas and coke. Totally doesn't fit the "runner" foods but in an ultra you need fast calories. Doug downed coke, a pay day candy bar, some fruit and a little bit of trail mix and then we were off- up a sandy steep hill.

At this point, Doug's groin muscles were really bothering him and he had definitely hit a wall. Once we finally got to the top of the hill, I encouraged him to run any flats. We'd pick a point to run to and then we could walk a bit. We went through a meadow and hit the last climb to the summit. Boy did it get tough! We were about two hours in and I wanted a break...all I could think was poor Doug! It was a GRIND! Not only was it steep but the terrain was very technical so you had to pay close attention to your foot placement.

We finally reached the summit aid station where they fed Doug more junk food, avocado quesadillas, etc. They said we had 10 miles to go. Doug was almost exactly eight hours into the race. We started to think that ten hours might be attainable. So I told him I'd pace him to get it. Going down felt so good. Again, it was pretty technical but Doug picked up his pace so much that I couldn't even keep up with him at first. Shortly after we started our descent, his watch lost satellite, I had a stop watch and tried to gauge our pace the best I could. It was about a mile down from the summit that I realized we still had ten miles and I really didn't want to go that much! But seeing Doug hurt and want to stop made me want to push him. I gave it all I could. It was fun to actually "feel" like a pacer.

We traversed down some great single track and up a few climbs, which felt huge on fatigued legs, and finally found the next aid station, which we were told was five miles away. Once we arrived, we found out we were lied to at the top, we still had six miles to go (the summit was 11 miles from the end). This meant we needed to do six miles in 53 min. That's not too hard under normal circumstances but given the fatigued, the terrain and the few climbs we had left, I knew this would be a challenge. I tried really hard and Doug just kept going. He was seriously awesome! I kept yelling out, "You rock!" Not to encourage him but because I just couldn't believe how awesome he was doing!

The last aid station was at mile 47. Three miles left. That's easy, right? Well, it got TOUGH! We needed to do it in exactly 30 minutes but there were two pretty significant climbs left and the last mile and a half was one tease after another, thinking you were about to go down to the finish. I lost all my steam and had to walk. Doug ran past. That's when I really knew he rocked! With some self talk, I started running again and caught back up. As we approached the finish line, I saw some tents and told Doug I'd take a short cut to video him coming into the finish. Well turns out those tents were for something else and his race finish was on the other side of the park. Sadly, by the time I found him, he was done. Seriously!?

Race stats: 50 miles. 10 hrs 8 min. 28th place out of 101. 9200 ft ascent, 9200 ft descent.

What a stud.

I am so happy I got to share this experience with Doug.