Free State Race Report

Let me start off by saying that this is one of the coolest races that I have ever been a part of. The KC Trail Nerds are one of the greatest groups of runners/volunteers/RD's I have ever had the fortune of meeting. I will get into specifics throughout the report so lets dive in.

We started off our magical weekend Friday. I got to spend the morning just me and the girls. While the Mrs. went off to work for a few hours I got rested, did some work around the house, created my playlists and watched some TV. I really wanted to spend some time just relaxing since it seems like we always have something going on. I took the day off to do just that and it was amazing. I decided that I was going to take my iPod and while on the run and I wanted to just have some playlists so that I wasn't fumbling with the thing while I was running. To give you a little background, my iPod talks. No, not like the voices in my head, but it actually says whatever you are scrolling over. I am assuming that it is for the reason so people don't have to look at the screen while scrolling through things. I decided that it would be fun to create some playlists that had funny sayings in case I needed a little kick in the pants when my energy was low. I made one called "Calm Down" which comprised of some mellow stuff, one called "Christian mix" which is pretty obvious, one called "Why is this even on your iPod?" which was all country (hey you never know when you might need a little twang) and one for when I really needed something hard and fast called "C'mon. You're getting your ass kicked out here".

After having some down time, we jumped in the car to make the 3 1/2 hour drive south to Lawrence, KS. It was going to be cool because even though Mrs Messenjah and I have driven all over we have never driven to KC before. So, completely different experience for everyone. The girls had also never been on a car ride of this duration so this may be a challenging drive. Within an hour it was bliss as both girls closed their eyes to take a nap. The silence was glorious!!!!

Coming in to Lawrence my wife didn't realize that the area was the home of Kansas University. I guess I just assumed that she would know that, but she's not really sports oriented so why would she? We made our way through all of the construction, got to the hotel, checked in, went to our room to discover that the room that we were going to stay in had a door that wouldn't close. With 45 mins left until packet pickup was over with this is when I started to freak out. If you know me, I HAVE to be early to things and thought that I was going to be late. Luckily the hostess at the Quality Inn in Lawrence found us another room right away and we headed out.

If you have never been to Lawrence, I would suggest it. It is a beautiful town, at least this time of year, and on Friday afternoon the downtown area was buzzing. There was not a single spot to park when we went to the packet pickup at Garry Gribble's Running so this was going to be a fast exchange. I got to meet "Bad Ben" and Sophia (the RD's) and they were incredibly inviting to someone like me who was doing their first Ultra. I wish that I would have had some more time to pick their brains, but with my wife and the kids in the car I had to scoot.

Since we were unfamiliar with the area we went to check out Clinton State Park. Upon our arrival we decided that this was going to be some place that we were going to come back to camp. It is beautiful and has a HUGE lake. After driving around for nearly an hour we went back to the hotel for the final carbo load and to hit the hay. My mother-in-law and her boyfriend so graciously drove down as well and we got to hang out with them for a little bit. We ordered some pizzas, pasta and got a few beers down before I decided that it was going to be time to go down. Since I am a planner I made sure that everything was packed and put into a place where I could remember everything in the morning.

My nerves of course got the best of me during the night and I only managed about 3 hours of sleep. I knew that I was going to have to count on the coffee in the lobby to get me through the morning at least though until I got there at 5:30 and realized the only coffee they had that was hot was decaf. DECAF!!!! REALLY??? At 5:30 in the morning!!!!! UGH!!!!! This was not starting off too well. Oh well. Coffee wasn't going to help me much anyway at mile 30 :)

I got down to the starting line and did my pre-race ritual and just tried to get calmed down. I was having a difficult time with this task. Even though there was 0 chance of me winning this thing I was just in awe of the feat I was about to embark on. This is where trail/ultras truly just begin to differ from normal road races. As I was standing around people kept coming up to me asking how I was doing, asking about which race I was doing, asking if this was my first time doing this race or any other ultra, and no one was stretching. You don't get that at other races. People don't care. They are so focused on their own performance and how they are going to do that they don't take time to talk to other people. I don't know if it was the group that was there, being the KC Trail Nerds, or what but it was different. It felt more like a family then people you were competing against. It was a cool experience.

"Bad Ben" & Sophia toed the line about 5 minutes beforehand to give us some final instructions and while continuing to check the time on his iPhone he asked the crowd if there was anyone here from farther away than Pennsylvania. One guy spoke and said "LONDON!!!". London???? Seriously??? This race apparently was big time. As he counted down....3......2......1....We were off and this was going to be the cleanest I was all day

About 50 feet from this picture is where we hit the mud for the first and definitely not the last time that day.

The first 3-5 miles went by fairly well. We had some mud to deal with but nothing too drastic. I was keeping a very good rhythm and taking breaks on the uphills and whenever I needed to. I was feeling really good. My feet/legs/knees/hips felt really good. When I got to the shore along the lake the first time around is when I started to question my performance. Being that it rained quite a bit the night before, maneuvering on the slippery rocks became quite the task. One wrong step and the worst was going to happen. I got pretty lucky though when I did make that one wrong step and fell on my butt. Luckily I have a big butt and it gave me some cushion. I got to the aid station, ate some took an S! Cap and kept moving. This was the fastest aid station that I went through the entire rest of the day.

When I got to the 10 mile station I took a little bit of a break. Had a chat with some of the volunteers, ate some and was just trying to stay loose. It was pretty cool out, mid 60's, and when I was slowing/stopping I was getting cold from the evaporating sweat. I left the 10 mile aid station still feeling pretty good.

Along the way I was talking to a lot of people. I met people from all over. I unfortunately don't remember many of their names, but do remember their stories. One guy was a prof at a college in NE Nebraska that actually grew up in Des Moines and went to Iowa State. It was fun to talk about our Alma mater and some of the fun things about Ames. One guy was from Olathe, KS and has run in a ton of races. He was very helpful at offering advice early on and was just hoping to finish the 100k. Another guy that was also running his first ultra and coined himself as a "trail expert." I thought initially it was a little pompous but later realized that he was just joking with me. It was awesome because I was talking to everyone that came by. I even found myself trying to talk to a guy that I later realized wasn't talking back because he was wearing headphones that I couldn't see. Ooops. Oh well. I love this aspect of the race.

After leaving the 17 mile station, I kind of started to fall apart. I had read that the last 10 miles of the loop is a "bugger" and more difficult and boy was I feeling it. When I left 17, the wheels really started to fall off. I was questioning EVERYTHING. Why was I doing this? What did I have to prove? Was everyone right in telling me that I was crazy? What would my wife think if I quit at 20? Would I be disappointed if I quit at 20? The negative thoughts were there and I was officially hitting "The Wall". In all of the races and training runs that I have done, I have never officially "hit the wall" so this was a totally new experience. It felt like everything was going wrong. I was stubbing my toe with every step. I fell forward once and almost bit the dust. My chest strap on my Camelbak broke. I hit my head on a large overhanging tree. Everything was going wrong. I came in to the 20 mile station REALLY down.

As I crossed the timing mat for the first loop, I looked down at my watch for the first time in a while. 4:02. What? Really? I actually wasn't doing too bad considering the conditions. This was the breath that I needed.

I took off my camelbak and left it at the aid station. There's some weight lost. I did some doctoring to my feet and legs, changed shoes had a bunch to eat grabbed my iPod for the first time all day and took off. In and out in 20 minutes. That was about what I had planned on doing at that station. The volunteers at this station were incredible. Offering everything from baby wipes, band-aids, duct tape, bottles of water to wash my legs, paper towels, everything. They were amazing. They were suggesting things for me to eat because I was having a hard time stomaching much. They were great!!! This was also were I would get my first glance at a guy that I would see have a complete breakdown 17 miles later.

I left the aid station rejuvenated. I had finally busted through the wall and was feeling great. I found that boiled potatoes dipped in salt really do the trick. I think that my fast, screaming music also helped but it didn't last long. I found my mantra in a song by The Chariot called "Teach:" I kept repeating to myself "I refuse to breathe the breath of a failure" and WOW did it work. This race was really starting to get fun now.

I could bore you with a sob story of the amount of mud and how much I slowed down because of it, but what good would it do. The second lap was much slower and much more muddy due to everyone going through churning it all up. It was seriously like running in natural peanut butter. It was gross and incredible at the same time. I came in to mile 30 and this is where I picked up my pacer. I was really needing him too to keep me going. Now a little background on him. He is a great runner. Veteran of 30 marathons+. He has been running for more than 15 years and has run in nearly all conditions but this was going to prove to even be a challenge for him. His laughter was definitely what I needed at this point as I was again starting to crash a bit.

The next 7 miles were constant jokes, stories and run/walks. I felt like I was hydrating well but realized that I hadn't went in almost 4 hours. Not a good thing.

We came in to the 37 mile station and my stomach was churning. I was trying everything I could to keep things from coming up and one volunteer offered me a drink of ginger ale. Wow, my stomach turned right around and almost instantly felt better. After just a bit of food, some more water and a very slight rest we took off.

Up until this point I really hadn't had a COMPLETE breakdown until I heard one of the volunteers yell "you only have 3 miles left" and then it hit me REALLY hard. I had come so far to do this. I had trained for so long and here I only have 3 miles left. What an incredible feeling, but so depressing that it was almost over. When we left the station I actually started to cry, if I had any liquids in me what-so-ever it would have been like an episode of "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition". Everything that I thought about made me cray. All I wanted to do was see my girls and I was going to do anything to get there to see them.

As I mentioned earlier, this is where I met a guy that I was pretty sure was on the brink of death. He was hunched over, standing with his pacer and I was for sure she was going to have to carry him. His face was white and looked like he might have just gotten done puking. When I saw him at 20, he had just gotten stretched and looked to be hobbling quite a bit. I don't know if he went out way to hard at first or what but I heard him say a couple of times "I shouldn't have picked a 40 for my first...". I'm not sure if this was "I shouldn't have picked 40 for my first ultra" or if this meant "I shouldn't have picked 40 for my first race". My guess is the first, but who knows. He was lucky enough to find someone at the 30 mile station that just happened to have her running gear to be able to pace him for the last 10 and I honestly think that is what saved him. We were so close to the end and I knew that he just needed a little encouragement. Even though I had never met this guy, I just went up and gave him a hug and told him that there is JUST 3 MILES LEFT. I just had to keep yelling that as we ran past. We were lucky enough to see him at the end and I just yelled "I knew that you could make it!!!"

About a mile later we caught up with a guy that was one of the funniest people I had come across all day. Constantly cracking jokes, telling us about his "alternative methods of calming down after these races" and about some the races that he has run. He was telling us that since 1994 he has pretty much stopped running any races over 50k and has been spending most of his time on trails. This guy truly loved to run and loved to run in the worst conditions possible. He was having more fun at mile 38 than anyone legally should be allowed to. He was from Madison, WI and was a great person to run with for a couple of miles until I started to feel some cramping in my hips. We bid each other adieu and parted ways. Dennis and I made a pact that once we heard people we were going to get going again.

The sound of voices was very easy to pick up since you hadn't heard much in the previous 9 hours. As soon as we heard them we took off. I knew that once I saw the ribbons guiding people down the hill that we weren't much further from the end. As we came out of the woods there they were. All of my ladies!!!!! The pain all of a sudden went away. I picked up Mini-Me and Lil' Red was doing everything in her power to stay away from my mud caked legs. With my girls in tow and with the power of Christ on my side, I had done it!!!!!!! I had just run/walked/hiked/slogged 40 miles in 9:40 (not blazing fast but better than I had predicted). When I crossed the line I was handed my medal and couldn't decide what to do first. Drop to my knees and pray or cry. So I did a little bit of both.

Overall, I finished 26th amongst 40 finishers. I can cope with the fact that I am not fast, but I found more about myself during this 9 hours than I ever thought were possible. Many people say that a marathon is a true test of endurance, but not many marathoners that I know would be able to run through the stuff that we were and not give up at the 20 mile station. Not to discount the effort, training and mindset of what it takes to complete a marathon, but I don't know of any other race that I have done that makes you dig deeper than this did. I know that what I did was a little strange compared to what most people/runners conceive of being fun, but if you asked me immediately afterward if I would do it again the answer was consistent "Absolutely". What an incredible experience. What an incredible day. Despite all of the mud, the rain, some minor dehydration and hips that hurt for a few days it was an amazing event that I can't wait to do again.

To see more photos, read others reports, or to see finishing times click here