Here’s my IMTUF 100 mile trail run race report. The race itself is more like 104 miles and the elevation gain is +/- 20,000’. I can’t tell you how much I enjoyed this day! Not only is this course beautiful and technical, but it offers a lot of remote solitude. I chose IMTUF because it is a Western States and a Hard Rock qualifier, which is new, so if you have any desire to do this race I would suggest signing up as soon as registration opens. Beware though, this is a tough course with lots of technical climbs and descents. They have a 36-hour cut off for a reason.
My day started Saturday at 3:30 a.m. to get to the 6:00 a.m. start at Bergdorff Hot Springs. This time in September we only have about 12 hours of daylight and we had to use headlamps for the first 90 minutes or so. I started out great and maybe a little too fast since the first part of this course is very runnable. Even though I was feeling some odd little aches and pains, I decided I wanted to go faster while I could. Typically when you have little aches and pains during an ultra they eventually go away, but unfortunately, on my first significant climb the pain in my butt made it very difficult to climb. I went from averaging 11-minute miles to averaging 35-minute miles. I didn’t give up though and the whole race I kept telling myself to just keep moving forward no matter what. My race prep leading up to IMTUF included some pretty difficult races that I thought would help prepare me for this course. In May I ran the Smith Rock 50k, in June I ran the River of No Return 108k, and in July I ran the Beaverhead 100K. I completely enjoyed each of these races, but unfortunately I dropped out of the Bearverhead. While that DNF was a huge disappointment, I feel that Beaverhead was a very good lesson for me and I tried to take that attitude into IMTUF. I told myself over and over that I was not going to quit this race no matter what. When this butt pain didn’t improve by mile 49 I reminded myself again and again that I just need to keep moving forward.
Fortunately mile 49 is also when I got to see my Motley Crew for the first time. Even though I barked orders at them like a Drill Sargent, I was actually almost in tears when I first heard their cheers. I was so fortunate to have my friend Wendy the PTA who can stick her elbow so far up your … well you can imagine how much she helped me out! I also had my sister in law the nurse to advise me on pain meds, my wife Kelly to get some warm water heating up so I could rinse the important parts, and of course Maria the best cheerleader ever who could make a Marine Corps D.I. cry. My crew was mainly made up of ultra-race virgins, but what they lacked in experience they made up for with their enthusiasm and belief in me. I simply had the best crew out there and I am so grateful to them.
After she fixed my badonkadonk, Wendy started out pacing me at mile 49. I gave Wendy the shortest stint, but neither one of us had any idea how tough that Snow Slide climb was. When I previewed the course a few weeks earlier I had started at the Fall Creek trailhead (mile 60ish.) Needless to say we made the 11 miles at a snail’s pace, but that was all I had in me at that time. We got into the Lake Fork aid station around 11:30 p.m. and my next pacer was my wife Kelly. Kelly has paced me at night before and I knew we could handle this 30-mile remote section together even though it was an extremely difficult section. I’m somewhat embarrassed that it took us 12 hours to cover that 30-mile section and I wonder if I could have done it any faster without the injury? I would like to think so. I remember running sections of this part a few weeks earlier, yet this time it felt impossible. Some of the climbs I had to use my hands and crawl up.
Finally we showed up at upper Upper Payette Lake aid station. By this time I was flirting with cut-offs, and I had 30 minutes before I was going to be removed from the course. I wanted to get in and get out of the aid station quickly, and fortunately my Motley Crew took over and Wendy insisted on taking care of my feet (thank you so much Wendy – I know how disgusting that was). We fueled up, switched out some clothes, fixed my feet, and this is when I picked up Maria the “Drill Sargent”.
Maria and I left the Upper Payette Lake aid station at 1:15 p.m., and we had to make it to the next aid station (6 miles) by 3:30 p.m. After that we had another 11 miles to the finish, which I had to reach by 6:00 p.m. By that time I had been up for so long and obviously my math skills were not very good, but in my head I thought I just had to average a 20 minute mile to finish before 6:00 p.m. Fortunately Maria is able to run and do math at the same time, and she corrected me. We made it to the final aid station with about 20 minutes to spare, and this is when I finally woke up and realized that I had to cover 10+ miles in 2 hours and 50 minutes. I had heard rumors that this last section had technical descents and I knew that was going to slow me down. This is when I made the decision that if I wanted to finish I was going to have to work my ass off. I told Maria that my math was all wrong and I needed to lead. I went out in front of her, took off my backpack swallowed 4 Tylenol, took a Hot Shot for cramps, and chugged a bunch of water. I turned around and told Maria that I wanted that fucking buckle and I took off running as much as I could. When I pulled into the last aid station I had about one hour and 15 minutes to finish. I had noticed all along that the mileage between aid stations was off, and I was afraid that the 5.5 miles left would be closer to 6.5 miles. I told the aid station caption that I had some work to do and took off again. I admit that I got a little scared when I came to an uphill and Maria had caught back up with me. She yelled at me that I was running out of time and that spurred me on again. I also remembered my wife telling me to finish this because she was not going to be doing shit ever again. I told myself I had to make it to the road by 5:45 in order to give me enough time to hopefully make the cut off. I made the road by 5:41 and averaged an 8 minute mile while I was on the road to Bergdorf Hot Springs. I still get emotional when I think about that last hundred yards and how good it felt so good to hear all my friends at the finish. When I finished I said “that was close” and “my ass hurts”! By the way it still hurts a few days later. I have never been so proud of my running. I may not have gotten the time I wanted and I was the second to last finisher, but that was my day I did not quit no matter how I felt!