Every year on the anniversary of Dexters death, Feb 25, (2018) I run a 100 miler. I used to run from my home in Berryville VA to Washington DC and finish up at the Marine Corps monument. It was always so meaningful and cathartic to be moving that entire day, it really helped get me through those first few years. I had just a couple choices friends who'd come out to support me, Jennifer, Margaret, and one year Paul, who ran the whole course with me. Moving to Southern Virginia, I wasn't sure what I should do this year. I mulled it over a lot. I didn't want to drive 4-5 hours to DC to run alone and was anxious about wanting to do official races working for my secondary goal of the 100 100s club record book. Well, Kevin my dear friend and business partner, suggested since I'm now a race director and soon to be owner of the Froggy Mountain 100, I should just direct my own race. It seemed like a perfect solution. I wanted to test the waters of doing a local course off our property. Flying under the radar of permits and such, I created a group run that would offer a buckle to anyone who finished, a tiny sign up fee, with $22 from each person going as a donation to #22toomany. The Warrior 100. I sort of organized this on a wing and a prayer, and happily had 8 runners show up race morning! It was a small number but perfect to test out the difficulty of a race without too much setup or worry. Kevin set us up a hot tent where we'd have basic food and supplies, but it was meant to be mainly self supported. The course would be 7.10 miles up to a stunning local lookout, Fisher Peak, a 2.70 out and back along a moderate technical trail through the woods and a short turn around .2 mi to round out a 10 mile loop. I had calculated roughly 15k feet of elevation gain for the course. I was so impressed with the friends and runners who braved the start line where we began in 10 degree weather.
To keep track of loops, at the top of Fisher Peak a runner would tear a page from Thoreaus Walden, a book that Dexter and I loved, and at the opposite end of the loop would be a bib punch.
I was excited to have my friends Cecy & Charles out to run, and a couple guys, Stuart & Fitzgerald , a father-son team, who have come out to our races at Froggy Mountain. Luckily as we started out there was no wind, and the 3.5 mile climb felt easy and warmed us up. Everyone seemed to be in good spirits and we all kept a similar pace to the first climb to the top where we met a glorious sunrise. The perfect start to the day. Everyone took a different pace as we descended and each fell into our own rhythm. I was impressed with everyone's pacing, everyone seemed to have consistent splits and we kept roughly the same distances between us through the duration of the race until people started to drop out.
The race was held on 2-22, not the anniversary date because it fell on a weekend so I was in a decent place emotionally and found a lot of joy cheering on my runners, keeping a comfortable midpack pace to keep tabs on everyone. I wasn't concerned about finish time as much as I was making sure everyone finished! I was extra hungry and craving carbs so I had no trouble chowing down on muffins, zingers and mini donuts throughout the entire event with chips and soda and chocolate milk thrown in here n there. A beautiful sunny but chilly day. I really enjoyed each summit and seeing what words of wisdom I'd randomly tear out of the book. We had many hours of slow going because the road climb to fisher peak had an inch of snow and long sections which are icy and treacherous, not to mention limbs blown down that we had to navigate.
A week before the race we had a big ice storm that blew through Galax and took out tons of trees! A few days before the race Kevin had come out with me to cut up limbs and branches blocking our trail, and he actually got knocked out and got a concussion trying to move one large tree out of our way. It was a good day. Most of the runners made it till past dark. I was fairly comfortable running in the night hours, but the winds picked up on the summit and we started getting some heavy wind gusts. The skies at the peak were crystal clear and we were treated to brilliant and beautiful stars. A few hrs before dawn the temperatures plummeted and we had most of our runners drop out from mile 40-60. I'm used to cold winter runs and it got to me... I was shivering and approaching what I felt was hypothermia near the 60 mile point. I got back to my car and had to take off most of my layers that had gotten wet with sweat and put on 2 wool base layers, a mylar poncho and 2 coats, plus my trusty thick sheep pajamas over my leggings, and stuffed a few hot hands down my shirt and in my mittens. My toes stayed comfortable. Kevin brought hot tacos for runners and brought me a big hot chocolate. Hit the spot and helped quell what little nausea I'd struggled with.
A few times during the night I got sleepy, somewhat hallucinating, emotional...I had a couple friends call me overnight and spend a bit of time getting me talking and keeping me distracted. We had to be cautious in our footing with portions of the trail covered in ice, black ice and downed limbs.
By sunrise only 3 runners were left.
A blast of wind carried our tent off but my friend Charles who had been running but dropped from cold helped Kevin grab it and set it back up.
Satya, Dipak and I continued pushing solidly through the day. They were just a lap behind me.
It warmed up a little but the wind stayed bitter.
Kevin met us runners up on fisher peak road with chicken Alfredo pasta. I was so hungry I wolfed down the entire meal. My stomach was more sensitive than I thought because it hit like a rock..I was nauseous for awhile and eventually threw it up.
I finished in 33:51 hours and Kevin presented me my buckle, Zen frog 1st place award, and a nest he'd found for me.
I cleaned up most of our tent area, changed into dry pajamas and slept for a few hours in my car waiting for Dipak and Satya to finish. I wàs really proud of both of them, she looked so exhausted and maybe a little delirious, but she more than tripled her vert PR. They finished with 30 minutes under the 40 hour cutoff.
I was really proud to pull off my own race even though it was tiny. it was a good distraction. When the date of Dexters death actually arrived I sortof wished I'd gone and done my solo run in Washington DC, but it was special to honor Dexter with great friends and athletes and I really felt his love and approval. My heart's been heavy, I find myself dragging through the day, crying sometimes at night, trying to get my act together and work out in the mornings, make plans and feel normal but the sadness February always brings us an oppressive heaviness. Next week I'll begin a 3 week attempt of back to back 100 milers and hope everything goes well. I expect to be exhausted but I hope it'll help me shake off the last of winter and the grief blues, flashbacks and nightmares that come rolling around every year in February. Sadly when I'm feeling the blues, I feel distant from Dexter and strength I desperately need, I think he's always there and never lets me down, but some days I feel like I'm walking this alone.
Ran for Dexter, Dillon, Morgan, Taylor, Nate, Jacob & Jake, and Jenn.
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