Two incredible stories

One of the many reasons I like ultra running is the incredible support of the runners for one another.
My run was a personal best for me, better then I had hoped for. Two other runners though showed what true heart is all about.
Jamie Donaldson, 35, is from Littleton, Colorado. I had never heard of her before the race but will never forget her after it.
She had won a 100-mile race before Badwater and started in the 10 a.m. wave but at some point passed me (I have to admit, much of the race is an incredible blur).
I caught up to her when I notice a stake driven in the ground on the side of the highway (see leaving the course.) Each runner is given a stake and if they need to leave the course for what ever reason, they must drive it into the ground and return to that exact spot to continue in the race (I have to admit I thought we were going to be fending off vampires when I saw the thing in my race bag).
Jamie was so worried about following the race rules, she had staked out just to cross to the other side of the road to get her aches and pains taken care of.
I would see her next (she passed me again somewhere) hobbling along the side of the road with her husband at her side outside Keeler. I should explain that Keeler, a tiny town in the middle of nowhere, seems to be where most runners have a big break down. You can see the switch backs leading up Whitney and the finish in the distance but are still more then 30-miles away.
She was suffering with a GI problem. We offered her some help but she was worried about being disqualified and almost panicked at the thought. Eventually the all knowing John Turner was able to offer her some advice and she continued to hobble along as she fell behind me.
The last I saw her was on our way off Mount Whitney after I'd finished. She was hobbling along the portal road but even before I could recognize her I could see her glowing red shins. She had developed a horrible case of shin splints and was again incredible pain. But her face was set in a determined grimace and she would finish despite the incredible pain, in 41:00:57. My hat goes off to her!

The other performance of the race was my friend Don Fallis, 65, from Kaneohe, Hawaii.
Don has a small problem that when he runs, he eventually starts to lean to the right until by the end of a 100-mile race he is almost dragging his right hand on the ground. Before Badwater he had developed a problem with a foot and almost had to pull out.
Don had gone to Badwater to prove that age is only a number and that 60 is not such a big one.
He sure did that!
Somewhere around mile 95 he was leaning in a bad way. A chiropractor from another team told him he'd better end the race or risk being permanently in that position. His team has trained for the problem, and had been treating him with massage and exercises.
He left the course for a good night's sleep.
The next day it was decided to continue to mile 100 before calling it a day. But others got in his way.
My crew on the way back to Las Vegas stopped to cheer him on and helped drive him past the 100-mile mark.
David Goggins, a Navy Seal who had finished the race in 3rd place, reappeared wearing a pair of Crocs and started to push him along. Eventually David's whole crew would return with proper shoes and his whole crew joined in.
Eventually Beth and I would join the fun when I awoke from my coma.
One he went, bent to the right, at points carrying a rock in his opposite hand for balance but still with his sense of humour intact.
As the clock ticked down the plans kept changing. All runners and trace of the race have to be off the course 60 hours after the start.
When reaching Whitney became impossible in that time, the goal was the school where the post race dinner was to be held. Don would run in as a victory of sorts.
Eventually Don would make it to 122 miles, the Lone Pine time station, in 59:55. He was spent. It was the end of the line. He was so tired he almost fell over trying to mount the curb.
There was hardly a dry eye in the crowd as we watched his race end. He done himself proud and proved his point.
Age has nothing to do with it.

During Don's race his beloved Heather Spencer was filming for a television station. The footage has been edited into Mission Possible: Badwater.
On March 2, the 60-minute long documentary movie as part of the New York International Independent Film and Video Festival. The film shows Don's incredible journey.
The movie will be shown on Sunday March 2, 2008 at 10:05 pm at the Village East Cinemas, 2nd Ave. & 12th St, in the East Village. Tickets are $12.
Tickets can be purchased through www.ticketweb.com 855-468-7619.
You can read about his race at his site.
The movie's trailer:

Salt, Don't leave home without it!

The one item you should not go to Kiehl's Badwater Ultramarathon without is salt tablets.
The runners need it and your crew better be taking it too.
Since I fell into ultrarunning and the ultrarunners in this area, I have used almost exclusively Succed S-caps (just so you know there is no sponsorship or remuneration for this plug).
I do not work on the scientific side of things and know only the combination of items in the caps, reportedly the highest doses of what you need that you can get in a salt cap, has always seemly worked for me.
The race can seriously deplete your body's salt content from not only the strain of running it but also the heat induced sweat.
During the race I weigh just under 200 pounds and was talking one cap every 20-minutes during the heat of the day.
After the sun was down I was taking one every hour or so. Last year the temperature really dropped to about 68 degrees just before the sun came up. After the heat of earlier in the day, it seemed really chilly.

Scott Weber, Badwater compeititor

Scott Weber is an amazing man.
He's been to Badwater, a lot.
In 2007 he had a few problems and did not make the official time cutoff of 60 hours.
But he's driven. After a good night's sleep, he was back out on the road finishing the job.
I was in the restaurant in Lone Pine having the post race breakfast when he walked through town and turned up the Portal Road. Others in the restaurant rushed outside and cheered him on his way.
I finished my breakfast and Beth and I drove up the road and I walked with him for a while.
He said he just had to finish what had been started in the basin at Badwater. He had to finish it for the crew.
Way to go Scott!
See more about him at his website.

There is nothing really healthy about this.......

Badwater Party Video

A crew, do not leave home without one!

I cannot emphasis how important a good crew is.
Meet mine: from left, Sandra and John Turner, my lovely wife Beth, Monica Scholz, Phil McColl and Geoff Linton.
You success depends on their success. A crew that does not pull together has led to many runners dropping out of the race.
This was the first race I have had a crew at.
I have absolutely no doubts I would not have finished the race or maybe even made it to the start line. During the course of the many hours it takes to run this little adventure they have to nurse-maid your every need. They must be there constantly handing you drinks and food. Reminding you to take your salt. Keeping you focused and it my case out of the front seat of the van when all you want to do is sleep.
My crew rotated shifts of three people on for 4-6 hours and then going to rest as the other three took over. It's a long hot race for them too! They need their rest! Grumpy crews make for upset runners!
The members of your crew have to understand they are there primarily to support you. But even before they do that they have to take care of themselves. They have to be healthy or risk becoming a liability to the runner and the success of the race.

Pay attention, there will be a test!

You have convinced yourself you really want to do this.
No one can talk you out of it.
First you better read the rules-twice.
Next is to see if you qualify.
There are several ways to make it into the three wave starts of the race. (The applications are in for this year's race with successful entrants getting their e-mails this week.)
I highly recommend you take to heart the suggestion that you crew for a runner before entering yourself. It will definitely expose you to all the problems you might never otherwise considered before venturing into the valley of death for yourself.
Did you know that the nuts on a car's wheels, the rims themselves and the tools required to repair a flate can become so hot, you need at least oven mitts to handle any of them. I also do not recommend sitting on a car's body with bare skin touching metal at high noon!

Welcome to hell, or something like it....

So you really think you want to run what has been called "one of the toughest foot races on the planet"?
What are you crazy?
Don't worry you are not alone. People have been questioning my sanity since I began running these things called ultra marathons.
First I have never run a marathon.
I started this nonsense about seven years ago after my wife Beth force me to join the gym with her. She'd decided she was going to compete in an triathlon before she turned 40.
I started by running on a treadmill. I would not go near the muscle-heads using the weight piles.
I ran my first race that summer. It was the 5-km race portion of the 30-km Around the Bay Road Race here in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. As I waited for my race, I remember watching the 30-km runners line up and saying out loud "Who the Hell would want to do something for three hours straight, especially run!" (Things we say always come back to bite us in the arse!).
I had heard about the Marathon Des Sable race in the desert and had been intrigued by this race. The thought of running with all my belongings on my back seemed like a natural extension of my interest in back packing. I had seen a special on the race and a Hamilton area runner named Monica Scholz was featured.
Two years later, the paper I work at (The Hamilton Spectator) did a feature on women in extreme sports and Monica was interviewed. I volunteered to do the photos for the article. The result has been a lasting friendship and a further push into ultra marathons (I was already training for my first 50-mile race at the Sulphur Springs Trail Race).
In 2004 I ran that 50-miler (and another later that same year amongst other races). In 2005 I ran the 100-mile race at Sulphur Springs and an iron distance triathlon. In 2006 it would be 4 100-mile races.
That same year I crewed for Monica in her first place female finish. The year was incredibly hot with high temperatures near 130 degrees F and 25-per-cent humidity. You could taste the moisture in the air--if you could breath at all.
For 2007 my wife Beth would be at it again. She said I should enter. It was a case of do it now or never......and so the entry went in and here starts our story.....