2016 Rocky Raccoon 100 Mile...Everything is BIGGER in Texas :)

The Rocky Raccoon 100 mile race is one that's been on my radar for many years. Living in Iowa, I've always heard about how "flat" and "runnable" the race is and for a guy who doesn't have the opportunity to train in the mountains, the terrain was something that really intrigued me. When I got the word that my good friend Byron, who is also a really great runner, was moving to Texas in early 2015 and was thinking about throwing his name into the hat for the 100 miler, I knew the decision had been made. 2016 was going to be the year that I took on the race.

My training coming out of the 2015 Equalizer was...we'll call it...less than great. I took a couple of weeks off from serious training just to rest some injuries that had manifested from running on concrete for 24 hours. My hips were really wrecked for about a month after. In fact, I didn't do a single run over 7 miles for nearly 6 weeks. With the pressure of not disappointing myself and those around me, the month of December and January I really hit the weight machines hard just to try and get my "systems" working together. Because I was also worried about the heat/humidity of TX, I also spent a large amount of time indoors training on the treadmill as opposed to being exposed to the wonderful Iowa winters. How this was going to affect me in the long run? Who knew, but I wanted to make sure that if the warm weather hit, I was going to be ready.

Making my way down to Texas was pretty painless. Having friends that live in the area and are going to be at the event as well always helps when making your plans. I wouldn't normally take this route because I love to be with my family, but in order to save a significant amount of money I decided to fly out 2 days ahead of time. Leaving my family on Thursday and knowing that I wouldn't see them again until the following Tuesday was really difficult and it weighed on me a lot even up until the morning of the race. As I boarded the plane on Thursday morning I just kept praying for calm over my body, safety for the race and that I make it down and back unscathed mentally, physically and emotionally for them.

Time to Fly :)

The trip to Texas was flawless. This is where I really have to give some significant props to Southwest Airlines. I've never flown with them before, but the whole trip was awesome and they did a great job. I arrived at the Houston Hobby airport early and when I stepped out of the terminal finally got to experience what Texas is like in the winter and I must say that I liked it. It was sunny, no clouds, mid-60's and gorgeous. Byron swooped in to pick me up, when went to the store to grab a few adult beverages for the next few nights and my trip had officially begun.

Their home is located in a very nice community just north of downtown Houston. Everything was green, there were palm trees everywhere and I have never seen so many people out and about in February. Having spent all of my life in snow and awful temperatures in the winter, you get used to people not being outside. It was almost like a foreign land. Thursday was spent just relaxing, having a few drinks, sitting in the hot tub and just unwinding from a long day of travels.

It was determined that on Friday, their children would head off to school, we would go get some of this world famous Texas BBQ I always hear so much about and that late in the afternoon we would make our way to Huntsville for the packet pickup and pre-race briefing.

Yep...we're in Texas :)

We got to the Huntsville State park about an hour before packet pickup to get the camper set up and take in some of the beautiful park. It really is a great park to have an event like this and apparently not all that well known even by Houston residents. Packet pickup was simple. Get in line, give your name, all packets with your stuff is pre-packaged, walk out, drop off your drop bag and you are free to hang out. Tejas Trail group has a great system that works really well. After dropping off our bags we had some time to kill so Byron and Joe kicked off their cowboy boots (they are such Texan transplants...hee hee hee) and we headed out to scope the course a bit.

The start/finish line is lined with tents, trucks, signs and people. Honestly has the feel of a major marathon finish line in a really condensed form. It was pretty cool.

The start of the course takes you out a couple of hundred yards on a jeep road. You cross a couple of road sections and you are out on the single track in no time. I had read coming into the race that this course was "rooty". While part of me wanted to believe, I am somewhat of a pessimist when it comes to believing too much hype without a myriad of photos showing me otherwise. There are some photos of the course floating around on the interwebs, but most look like this

What I didn't account for is that the roots really don't "start until you are about 1 1/2 out of the start/finish line, but more to come on that.

We made our way back after about a mile or so just walking the course to attend the pre-race briefing. It was a really cool setting on the back patio of the shelter where the packet pickup is located. It was fun to be back there because it's a gathering of a lot of old friend, nervous 100 mile newbies, and some of the fastest ultra runners in the country all converging at one location. We met a few of the Tejas Trails staff, Chris McWatters (RD), the USATF rep who was going to be out watching the course as this was a USATF 100 mile championship race and a few others. As I'm an ultra geek, I kept my eye peeled for the famous folks and looked for my photo op. Ian Sharman (100 mile trail world record holder) was behind me a few yards, Nicole Studer (RR100 course record holder) was around but the one that I was so excited to see was literally 3 feet away from me.

No Byron...I'm not touching your butt :)

#LetsGoHOKA #TimeToFly

Mmmmmm Bearded Brothers.....

CS Turkeys Represented!!!!

Damn roots

Gordon (Gordy) Ainsleigh for Western States 100 geeks like myself is one person I have sought to meet for almost a decade. My reports do get lengthy so I won't go into his story so I'll leave it to you to look him up, but sitting on the ground next to Byron eating a bag of grapes and plain bread was the WINGED GOD himself, Mr Ainsleigh. He told me if I was willing to crouch down next to him he would gladly take a picture with me :)

GORDY!!!!!!!

After the briefing, we chatted for a bit with the others from the Des Moines area who had also made it down and headed back the hour for our final resting spot for the evening. Like most, I have a difficult time sleeping before an event so I'll have a beer to relax, but I wanted to make sure that I got the best sleep possible and passed. After laying out my kit, I was ready to hit the hay.....which didn't last too long.

Thanks to UVU Racing, Nuun Hydration, Honey Stinger, HOKA ONE ONE and #RunIowa

Alarms were set to go off at 3:00am, but guess who woke up promptly at 1:00 and couldn't get back to sleep? You guessed it, THIS GUY. For the next 2 hours I watched "The Office" and tried to avoid getting my clothes on to leave. It's a problem I have...I've learned to live with it :)

Breakfast

3:30am we are out the door to pick up my crew/pacer Jason. He and I had spoken a few times prior to the event and met very briefly at the Equalizer in October. He had offered up his pacing services as I think he was still living the high of finishing his first 100 back in December. I was really excited for the time we were going to spend together and get to know each other. As we made our approach to Huntsville, we'd heard that there as a potential for rain and just kept watching the sky. After picking Jason up it started coming down in sheets and knew the dust that was being created by the warm dry winter was about to make the course really interesting.

We made our way into the park, picked up Joe (Byron's pacer) and got to the start line with about 25 minutes to do final gear check. I'm always a bumbling idiot and this is where I lost my bib on the dash of the truck and Byron kept yelling at me to just calm down because I was making him nervous :) All ready to roll, we threw on our headlamps, got in line said a quick prayer, gave each other hugs and the 2016 Rocky Raccoon was on.

Joe, Byron, Me & Jason pre race...after I remembered where my bib was

The first 5-6 miles of the course was really spent just trying to understand the course in the dark and not stepping on the person in front of you. The thing I love about trail races is the people involved. I won't go into every conversation but you really do meet some wonderful people with the same goal in mind, finish. The thing about the first 5-6 miles is the RELENTLESS footing. I had read prior to the race that the course is covered in CRAZY roots that are covered by pine needles. I actually just kind of joked it off, but the first loop of this race was insane. The roots were unbelievable and I think I tripped more in that first 5 miles than I have of any race that I've ever done. Welcome to Texas, the home of very few hills, but roots that will eat you alive!!! :)

I had told myself going into this race that I was going to eat at every single aid station no matter what my stomach did. I was never going to stop eating and sabotage like I had done in the past. All of the food at the aid stations was really well laid out, everything was clean, everyone grabbed you as soon as you came in to see if you needed anything. I was doing just what I had told myself to do and eating  and it was working. My mood was great. I was hydrating well and I was really feeling good.

Coming into 20 miles in 3:46, I felt good about my pace. I was keeping steady but had to get a blister on the ball of my foot addressed. It's the same spot I get one during every long race and knew what needed to be done. I was in/out of the AS in roughly 3 minutes.

Going into my 2nd lap I was still feeling really good. No real concerns. Obviously at this point the trail had widened out but because of how great this course is laid out, there are sections of a couple of miles where you see two way traffic the whole way. I was saying "hello", or "good job", or "way to go" to everyone that I passed. Most didn't need the encouragement but I am a true believer that my words of encouragement may be that one thing that one person needs at that time. During this loop I had taken off my UVU gillet and was donning the #RunIowa shirt that I had gotten from my friends at the RunIowa podcast. It was awesome spending the next 15 or so miles hearing "HEY, I LOVE IOWA" or "Go Iowa!!!". In some of the rougher moments of the next lap it was really a great energy boost.

As I came into the 23ish mile AS, I was feeling a little "tight" or "crampy". I was carrying some extra S Caps with me that would supplement my Nuun if necessary and decided that I might need one. One of the volunteers had heard me say that I was grabbing out some of my salt from my flip belt but was having some difficulties getting the package and said "Oh we've got some right here". Having done enough of these races I know the different salt brands and "how to take them". I prefer S Caps. Always have, always will. But out of sake of convenience I obliged the wonderful volunteer, looked at the bottle, said to myself in my head "oh, that's the one with the lesser salt content. Take two" and asked for two of them. BIG.....MIS.......TAKE!!!!

When I came into Damnation, I was starting to feel a bit "off". Earlier in the week I had struggled with a sinus congestion issue and couple with running for 5 hours or so I just figured that my stomach was a little off. I grabbed something to eat and made the move for the Damnation loop that about destroyed me later in the race.

Because of a course change, this is the most amount of time between AS's. It's about 7 miles but it feels like it's 20. There are long straight sections that if you had read the map prior you know where the turns should be, but those turns NEVER came. Of any race that I've ever done, this section of the trail screwed with me the most on all of the laps. It was through here that my stomach started to really take a turn for the worse. I was also noticing that my fingers were swollen to the point that they were fire red.

Coming into the AS, I walked up to a volunteer, showed him my hands and said, "my stomach is in knots and look at my fingers". They promptly beckoned the AS captain Lynn. I was approached by a guy who was roughly 6' 2", blue jacket and a stern look on his face. Could have been former military, but not sure. He starts asking me questions which I had very quick one or two word responses for. When he was looking at me in this feeble state I felt very intimidated but I could tell that he cared for my safety. We determined that I had taken in too much salt and was retaining too much fluid and that I needed to back off. Which was disappointing because I felt like I had it spot on this time around. His prescription was water and ginger ale until I pee'd. No food. No other drinks.

Coming out of Damnation is where you meet the only "road" section of the course. Because of some construction to the dam and a course change we spent the next 3ish miles on a rolling dirt road that the construction crew brought in boulders to drive over. This section of the course, for most, was unrunnable because of the fact that most of the rocks hadn't been flattened out and if you caught your toe just right, you were bringing a rock with it and smashing it against your leg. This is also where I met one of the most caring volunteers ever named Sami. She was walking back to her car and we just chatted for a while discussing all of the crap that I was dealing with. She said that she was going to keep checking on me at Damnation and we parted ways. This was also the section of the race that I got a huge shot in the guts because I saw the current course record holder and 100 mile world record holder Ian Sharman go bounding past me like he was out for a casual jog. It was so cool to see how effortless he makes this sport look. Unreal.

I made my way into the Park Road AS. My attitude was crap because of what I had been dealing with regarding my stomach and I think that people could sense that. I walked up to the table, told the volunteers what was going on and asked for some water. I was so bummed. I was only 36 or so miles into the race and knew that the rest was going to be a slog if I didn't get it figured out fast. As I was standing there wallowing in my own despair, I was approached be a lady wearing a HOKA hat. She asked what was going on and told me to fill up one handheld with water and one with ginger ale. She also told me that people have been using ginger ale for 100 years and that it would still give me some calories. She walked me through what I was going to do and kicked me out of the AS. I was so appreciative of her seeking me out to give advice that I asked for her name. She simply smiled and said "Meredith". Once again my ultra geek brain recognized a face and, probably creepily, said, "As in Meredith Terranova?" She laughed. I told her my name and how much of an honor it was to meet her and she told me to get out of the AS. It was awesome!!! :)

Coming into 40, I told Jason about my stomach, had him wrap my heel as I was starting to feel a hot spot, grabbed my headlamp and was back out. The next section was basically me whining and complaining in my brain about my stomach yada yada yada. Somewhere in this section, my brain was fried, I also got my first glimpse of Sabrina Little who I had met over twitter conversations about Rocky. I won't go into her resume, which is stout, but she is the world record holder for the 24 timed event and one of the funniest people I've ever read on her racing. I yelled at her that she was doing great and she actually yelled back "Hey! It's you! I was wondering when I was going to see you out here." It was another great moment and really picked my spirits back up :) This was just one of the times where I was star struck by the crazy talent that was out on this course. Ian, Sabrina, Nicole, Paul Terranova. It was awesome. I felt like a fan boy when I would see Paul and say, "Hey Paul!!! Great job!! Keep it up!!!" and he would respond with "Hey! You too. You're doing awesome!!"......I'm like a high school girl at a One Direction concert :)

Somewhere in the 3rd loop between the start/finish and Damnation I FINALLY went number 1. Now, for those who run long distances races, you know that you have to monitor color of the flow to make sure your kidneys aren't shutting down. Finally when I went, the color was really good and it was a HUGE relief. When I came back into Damnation, I was still dealing with just a wonky stomach and went back into the brush to see if I could make myself throw up to get out what was bad in there. I was quickly descended on by Lynn again with some wet wipes and he told me to have a seat. Immediately as I sat down I was shaking uncontrollably. Lynn and Sami, as I will forever refer to as my guardian angels, very quickly recognized that I had gone from WAY too much salt to REALLY dehydrated in a very short period of time. They grabbed me an extra set of gloves, some clothes from my bag and the jacket of a volunteer and told me that I needed to start adding back in salt and calories in the form of real food. Slowly I got back out on the trail with some beef jerky and some Honey Stinger chews and just walked....and walked.....and walked....the 7 miles of the Damnation loop. Coming back into the Damnation AS my stomach was starting to rebound but I could honestly tell that the 24 hour plan that was originally set was gone. It was up to just finishing at this point.

I had originally told Jason that I wasn't going to need his pacing services until 80 because my plan was to be done with that loop by midnight. He recognized how wrecked I was though coming into 55 that he knew that I needed him much earlier than that.

With roughly 2 miles to go until the start/finish line, I had been yo-yoing with a group of people. It was fun to hear their conversations even if I wasn't a part of them because I was trying to get out of this REALLY bad patch. As we're going along, I heard a very recognizable British voice and thought "HOLY CRAP!!! IT'S IAN SHARMAN COMING INTO THE FINISH!!!!" and at the same time thought "HOLY CRAP!!! THIS MAY BE THE ONLY TIME I CAN EVER SAY THAT I RAN WITH IAN SHARMAN!!!"...and that's what I did...for 2 minutes. I kept up with the overall winner for a total of 2 minutes as I was finishing 60 miles...and he was finishing 100 miles :)

At 60 miles, it was time to change my clothes, grab my pack, get Jason and get back to the slog. I won't go into a lot of the conversations that Jason and I had, but he is a really interesting and smart dude. A lot of the things he was talking about would have been WAY over my head even it I hadn't been 60 miles into a race and been dealing with a wonky stomach for nearly 25 miles. As we moved on he was unbelievable at making sure that I was eating and drinking constantly. Every AS it was "what can I get for you?", "did you get some ginger ale?", "did you have some ramen?" "how many cups of ramen have you eaten?" He was a ROCKSTAR and made the last 40 miles possible.

Miles 60-80 were pretty slow going. We stopped at every AS and sat under the warmers just to try and stay at least slightly warm. Being from Iowa, mid-30's isn't all that cold in February but because I was battling the dehydration that was still plaguing me, I had every single layer of clothing I had brought with me. 5 shirts, 2 UVU jackets, 3/4 length UVU tights, calf sleeves and a pair of wind pants that I had brought to wear after. I really am still not 100% certain as to WHY I was so cold but I was FREEZING. Both stops at Damnation meant that I checked in with Lynn. He probably didn't care, but I needed to let him know that I appreciated him for helping to figure out what was wrong so early on.

Coming into Park Road, I just needed to sit. I was 75ish miles into this race and my legs were just tired. My feet felt fine. I hadn't really noticed any blisters. My legs felt strong, but were just tired. As Jason had hit the porto john, this was one of the first times where I thought quitting might have been the answer. I didn't tell Jason this, and he might be shocked to find this out while reading, but this was the moment, with 25 miles left that I really contemplated just throwing in the towel. Not because I was hurt, not because of any particular thing, just because I was exhausted.

As I sat in that chair, drinking the rice soup that a volunteer had given me, I honestly thought I saw a bearded angel wearing shorty shorts, a white wind breaker and a helmet. Could it be? It was!!! Gordy was still on the course!!!! I popped out of my chair went over and told him that I was a huge fan and that just being around him was one of the coolest moments of my life. I don't remember "exactly" what he said, but in my head it sounded like this "Cool man. Just keep moving. A lot of time left but you're doing awesome. You remind me of Scott Jurek"......OK.....so it might not have been "exactly" like that, but he did say something inspirational.....I just can't remember what exactly :)

The 75-80 stretch is really a tough one mentally. I could see where I was on the map, but this section does have a pretty dense population of roots and it does mess with your mental status. I had made the decision early in my planning that I was going to use my Black Diamond Storm headlamp and a Nathan Zephyr 300 lumen handheld to make sure the majority of the rocks and roots were seen, but I'm glad I had the secondary lighting source as during this final stretch my batteries gave completely out and I was basically walking on my backup and Jason's headlamp. I got pretty lucky that I had some extra batteries and a charger back at the start/finish.

As we came into the warming tent of the start/finish, this was when I found out that a couple of people from Iowa had dropped. I was pretty bummed but it sounded like they were having pretty crappy days. Katie L changed the batteries in my headlamp, I listened to some stories from those who had finished about their last loops and just tried to get warm again. I had drained my hydration bladder during the last loop and made sure that I got it filled up before leaving again. As we moved out from the AS, I noticed that my jacket was all wet. The mouth piece from my pack was leaking and had leaked down my entire front. If I wasn't cold from being wet, I was about to get real cold.

What? Your feet hurt after 80 miles??? :)

One of the funniest moments of the 80-100 mile stretch happened when I decided that I needed to "take care of some self maintenance" before we got too far. I pulled off to the side of the trail, grabbed my stick of Body Glide and......well....you know. Just as I had started to apply, two gentleman came approaching on their way into the start/finish. At this point in the race, I really didn't care who saw me doing it, but I said "Don't point your lights this way or you might see a part of a grown man you really didn't think you'd see today". Everyone had a good laugh and we moved on. I was so tired, that I literally laughed about that for the next 6 hours.

Jason had heard someone say as we were sitting at the start/finish that the last lap is your victory lap, and that's the way we decided to treat it. Everything was the last time we were going to do something and we were going to celebrate it. As we came into Damnation for the last loop around Damnation, I got a little emotional telling Jason that I was so excited to not have to see this loop anymore. I could think of nothing more than giving this loop my final goodbye. In the moment, I made another huge error. I forgot to grab anything with caffeine. I had taken a red bull nearly 5 hours previously and completely forgot to grab something. I would pay for this for the next 4 hours.

As we kept pushing forward, I could feel my body just shutting down. Jason was doing an amazing job trying to engage me in conversation but this loop eats you up in the middle of the night. You know the this one section should turn, but did you miss it already? Where is the stupid timing mat? Did they move that? Where are those long bridges with the weird boards that feel like they are going to snap? What is that on the ground? Did you hear that noise? Is that someones iPod on the ground? No, it's just a branch. Do you see that dead squirrel? Oh, wait. It's just a stick. Why are there chapsticks all over the ground? Oh, wait. Those are sticks. My mind was in some seriously weird new territory. I'd had hallucinations during ultras before, but these were way different.

At one point during the Damnation loop, Jason told me that I needed to pick my feet up because I was stumbling over the roots. I was sure that I was picking up my feet. As he said that though, I realized that my eyes weren't even open and I was in essence, sleep walking. Great!! We've got 3 miles to the Damnation AS and I couldn't even keep my eyes open. I haven't looked at my watch data (plus it's not correct as I selected a wrong setting) but my guess is that during this section we would have been lucky to be doing 2 mph. It was SO SLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOW.

I've never been so lucky to see lights from a tent in my entire life as we made our final approach to Damnation. We were struck by how much trash was on the final straightaway so we spent the last 1/2 mile or so just picking stuff up to throw in the trash. ***Note to trail runners: Pick up your stuff. If you take things out of an AS, carry it with you or throw it in a trash. It's not that hard....end of soapbox*** As I approached, I walked up to the tent, asked a volunteer for some coffee, sat my butt down, guzzled the coffee, asked for another, ate some ramen and just like THAT, I was back in the game.

I made sure to give Lynn a huge hug and thank everyone at the AS as we were leaving. I truly believe that they are the best AS volunteers I have EVER experienced. They were singing and dancing maniacs that were spending their weekend just to serve us and I could have been more thrilled to be a part of this.

Walking away from the AS as the sun was coming up, this was the first time that I truly broke down. I had some meltdowns earlier, but I was 7 or so miles from the finish and knew that we were going to finish. I was a bawling, snorting, snotty mess. Jason did a great job just letting me have my moment. We had the short gravel/dirt road section remaining and I got a burst of energy and told Jason that we were going to make up a little bit of time. We came up with the plan to walk the hills, run the downs and the flats and walk the rocky sections and that's exactly what we did. The next 3 miles went by in a flash, we came into the Park Road AS and I just felt on top of the world. Jason needed a quick toilet break and I needed some more coffee. I had 4 miles to go, I sat down and realized that it was really going to happen. 20 miles earlier, I sat in the exact same spot wanting to stop and quit. What a feat of accomplishment. I broke out of a serious funk in 20 miles.

We spent the next 4 miles running when we could, walking when we needed to. We were both just exhausted and talked when we could. I kept a pretty close eye on my watch during this time because I knew that 27 hours was possible to break if we just kept a good pace. With just over a mile left, I knew that we had to make a break and we hauled butt like we hadn't for nearly 39 miles. The last mile was an absolute blur. As you make your final approach of a finish line you know that your friends and others are going to be there and want to make sure that you do your best finish line "dance". Some do handstands, some do pushups, some do cartwheels. As we made the final approach down the tent lined chute, I stomped on the timing mat and screamed like a man possessed. When I came to the race, I wanted to leave everything I had on the course and that was the moment when I gave everything I had to the trail. 26:55.....and my Western States Endurance Run 100 qualifier!!!!!

Coming into the home stretch

It is finished!!!

HE gets my first, my last, my everything

I said a quick prayer of thanks to God for giving me the strength to continue on. I prayed a lot during this race just to be able to have strength to persevere and He nailed it. I grabbed my beautiful buckle, gave hugs to everyone I saw...I'm a hugger, what can I say...grabbed a bite to eat in the tent, called my wife to let her know that I finished and headed back to Joe's trailer with Byron, Joe and Jason. As usual, I had my celebratory beer (this races choice was Avery Brewing's Maharaja Double IPA), got showered up and changed and headed back to Houston.

The next 24 hours were kind of a blur. I took a nap for a couple of hours, had some great burgers, soups, dips, and a bunch of other stuff (April is a WONDERFUL cook and hostess), sat in the hot tub and went to bed. We woke up early the next morning to go do a couple of tours at some breweries in town and I was back on the plane early Tuesday morning for a flight back to 10° Iowa. Honestly, I can say that I've never been so glad to come back to Iowa so that I could see my kids in person (we had been Facetiming while I was down there) and just hug my wife. It was a great way to cap off another adventure.

Really cool brewery

8th Wonder Brewery and the Houston skyline

Didn't really taste it because I was starving but amazing!!! Torchy Tacos (The Republican on right and Trailer Park on left)

I love coming home to these ladies in their new souvenirs. Thanks Houston Airport :)

As I reflect back nearly a week later, I can't believe how much the human body is capable of. I put my body through some crap during this race and 2 days later I could have probably run. Yeah, I spent the good chunk of 50 miles walking, but for me on this day, that's what I had. That's what I could give. My stomach is a constant work in progress and one day I'll get there, but by the grace of God and surrounding myself with some wonderful people, I was able to finish. Sure it was about 5 hours slower than what I should have been able to do it in, but I finished and I am OK with that.

I am so grateful and blessed to be able to do the things that I do. God has given me a special ability to suffer a great deal, but I believe that He has given me this ability to show the world what it's like to put yourself out there and just keep moving forward. I do think a lot about how Jesus was beaten as he was carrying the cross and how he just kept moving forward. When we are faced with adversity and challenge, don't do what I was looking to do at 75 miles and just call it a day. Unless you are broken, don't give up.

Per usual, I need to tell a HUGE thank you to my wife and kids. They stuck it out at home while I was basking in the sun of warm Texas and I can't thank them enough for their love and support of me following this crazy dream of mine to one day run the grand-daddy of all 100 mile races, Western States.

I have to thank the companies that also believe in me and support me. UVU Racing, I can't thank Gerhard, Hayder and Basti enough for showing me that great things are possible when you have the mental fortitude to keep moving no matter what gets thrown at you. Thank you to Nuun Hydration and Honey Stinger for making the best products on the market. I may have had a rough day, but they will always be #1 in my bag of tricks.

Thank you to Jason Nicholson. You are my boy. You were a rockstar during this thing. You are making huge strides in this crazy sport and I can't wait to see what you do next. Byron, you had a rough go at it during the event, but you gave it everything you had and I am SO proud of you. April, thank you so much for your hospitality and listening to Byron and I talk so much about running, shoes, trails, ultras, yada yada yada. Katie, Gary, Adama & Patty, it was so great to see you all out there so much during the race.

A HUGE thank you to Chris McWatter and the Tejas Trails, Austin Trail Running, Houston Trail Runners, North Texas Trail Runners, Footsteps for the Fallen, Lynn, Sami and the hundreds of volunteers. THANK YOU SO MUCH for your kindness and willingness to help all of us crazy people as we pursue our dreams. You are all amazing individuals and may the light of God shine on all of you!!!

What I wore at the 2016 Rocky Raccoon 100 Mile Race
UVU Vim Race Tee
UVU Brio Vest and Jacket 
UVU Stamina Jacket 
UVU Race Shorts 
UVU 3/4 length Tights 
HOKA ONE ONE Stinson ATR 3 (40 miles)
 HOKA ONE ONE Challenger ATR (60 miles)
 Injinji Performance Trail socks (two pair)
 Mobeben Arm Sleeves (provided to me by the one and only Shannon Farrar-Griefer) 
CEP All sports Compression Calf Sleeves 2.0 
Nuun Hydration tabs 
Honey Stinger gels and Chews 
Suunto Ambit 2R (ended with 42% battery remaining)

My Strava data