Whispering Grace 100 #24

How do you write an interesting race report for a race that is 50 2 mile loops, can there possibly be anything interesting to say? Ha!

Saturday July 10 I participated in Whispering Grace 100, an inaugural race held at Whispering Grace Farm in Masillion Ohio, where they offer free equine therapy to veterans. I wasn't going to do this race. even though my favorite Race Directors were putting it on and I loved the gorgeous 100 buckle, but 100 miles in 50 laps? In July? In Ohio? I thought it was nuts so I initially wrote it off, but it kept lingering in the back of my head and I finally paid attention to the still small voice and signed up.

I was extremely worried about the heat after crashing miserably at Mohican with heat exhaustion so I made some changed to my fueling plans and planned on how I would stay cool. Usually I fuel hundreds on eating real solid food but decided in the heat this time I would stick to liquid calories for as long as the temps were above 70-75 degrees. I knew I'd miss out on some delicious Aid Station fare and these guys do great aid stations, but finishing without vomiting or going to the hospital was my goal haha.

A running friend of mine, Bob Mohr, asked me to participate in a fundraiser with him for Save 22, a suicide prevention organization for veterans and I was honored to join in that. I didn't raise much money but I was able to finish the race strongly in behalf of everyone who cared enough to donate. <3 It was so great to see Bob at the race start and cheer each other on through the loops...he is a fast runner! He was always way ahead of me! I was really grateful he let me be part of his effort to help veterans.

Started out early with a small group of runners. Bill, the farm owner, started the race off with a beautiful sincere prayer, and we sang the National Anthem. This is the kind of race I want to run. Though there weren't many of us being a first time race, it was kind of nice because even on 2 mile loops I still had the chance to spend plenty of time by myself which I relish, and got lots of help and 100% individual attention going through the Aid Station. :) There were several guys running who were obviously veterans so I felt honored to run with them. One guy, Josh, carried a big American flag for like 40 miles. Every time I'd pass him in and out each loop I just wanted to salute or something, and he always met me with encouraging words every loop and knew my name! Just a great guy.

With a small group and the chance to pass them twice every loop, it became obvious that this loop social situation would require some thought...I was either going to have to go introvert and ignore everyone which is the most comfortable to me, or say hello to everyone. So I decided to push myself and do the latter. Not a hello every time but every person I passed even for the 100th time haha, was a thumbs up or encouraging word. A couple people didn't say anything but most everyone else did the same. It was fun to see how everyone slowly progressed as the race went on. One guy I think over 60 who won the 100k was cranking out 7 -8 min miles for almost the whole duration! I cant count the number of times he flew past me haha.

When I got to the race Eric and Jeremey the RD's told me they'd specially bought 2 things of Orange Juice just for me! I thought that was the nicest coolest thing ever. Made me feel special running their race. Since we'd hit the main Aid station which they manned the entire race 50x it was a little bit of a party and was so fun and encouraging to see them, the early miles seemed to fly by.

There were runners crews parked all along the gravel driveway section, (where Jason fell and tweaked his back :-P ) They did some cheering but most kinda tuned out after awhile. One group starting the grassy section parked with a big RV though were out cheering until late at night, so encouraging! Their runner, I didn't catch him name, was fast and solid, plowing forward every time I passed him. He helped contribute to my finish because at the RV was his little baby son Daniel. This guy had the BIGGEST smile, and if he was awake, he grinning across the parking lot, one of those chunky baby smiles where they smile with their whole body, kicking their little legs. I looked forward to getting a chance to coo at him every loop and was sad if he was in taking a nap or they were distracted haha. Baby cheerleader, definitely a highlight! I wanted to tell them to cherish every second with that little guy. Sons are so special and childhood is so fleeting. Had a tear or two missing those baby days. and thinking of chunky little Dexter.

For fueling my goal was liquid calories until after 100k, and then I would eat real food if I felt like eating because it would be late, cool and a much lower heart rate. I read in a race blog that someone saw Karl Meltzer using Ensure at Grindstone 100 so I thought I'd give it a try. Also used some Liquid IV packets for electrolytes, 3x the salt as my regular electrolyte + an electrolyte pill every 10 miles. 1 packet of that makes up 16 oz so I had a set routine to get through the miles...the loops were 2 miles long. The first 2 loops ) I'd drink 8 oz of liquid IV each, (4 miles) then 8 oz juice next loop (6 miles) and then a liquid meal drink (ensure knock-off) every 4th loop (8 miles) It was kindof a redundant to count the loops but I managed to keep track and stay steadily fueld and hydrated. . Once the day started to get hot Jeremey fired up his famous snow cone machine so I added one snow cone every loop to my fueling plan haha. He made them extra syrupy for me. :-D For some reason sunkist drops tasted pretty amazing and salt water taffy toom so I did nibble on a big of sugar, maybe 3 pieces every 2 miles for most of the day. All the food they were turning out was amazing but I knew it would not be amazing when I threw it up, so I stuck to this boring liquid diet lol. Oh, early on Jeremey offered me a hot sausage McMuffin and dang, sounded so good couldn't turn it down. It was before 9am though so I didn't worry too much. After that though, I think the only solid calories I had were late in the afternoon when Eric got me to eat some delicious watermelon...cut into these long rectangular wedges so that you could just shove them straight into your mouth. So refreshing!!!

Sweaty me trying to figure out simple math.

I noticed as the day got hotter, which it quickly did, running on the asphalt out and back got extremely hot. The grass around the pastures managed to stay a bit cooler and there was always a breeze but I felt like we were kinda frying for a few hours in the afternoon. All the other runners were losing their clothes to cool off so I felt like I was maybe the burka runner of the group haha. T shirt instead of tank top, knee length shorts, hat, and arm sleeves....most of the other women I noticed in tiny tank tops and short shorts. But, I did my research and found arm sleeves are cooling and help you retain moisture and keep your body temperature down, and when Jeremey showed me how to stick ice in them....man I was set! For this race the 2 mile loop was hugely beneficial because I could grab ice and stick it in my hat, in a baggie down the back of my shirt, and into my arm sleeves every loop. I did this all day long until probably 7pm when it finally started cooling off. Meant my shoes were wet with a mix of sweat and ice water but the water dripping down my arms really kept my body temperature moderate and I felt great. The melting ice off my arms kept my hands washed which was great because one thing that really bugs me in ultras is when you are losing salt and your hands get super sticky.

Jason came to walk a loop with me at about 50k which I hit in around 7 hours I think. That was fun that he got to experience the course, you can see in the pic how much he's sweating from just 1 loop....it was a sweaty day!!! A veterans organization came out and lined all the horse pastures we ran on with large American flags, a constant reminder every loop of our great country and the men and women who defend it, some of them paying the ultimate price to do so. The ray of light on that flag...

Having just celebrated Independence day I took the opportunity to really try and reflect on our blessings living in America. Thought of Dexter and Jacob and Taylor and the things they each did as individuals and soldiers trying to serve our country, giving the best years of their lives in her defense. Its something that always chokes me up and as I truly believe America is a Promised Land, blessed by God, I think He has a special love for those that defend the freedoms that we are given by living here. So many losing their lives, families losing sons, wives losing husbands, children losing fathers.... It comes at a high cost. “Greater love hath no man than this...”

I hit 50 miles in around 12 hours so that was a great indication that the race hopefully wouldn't take me the full 30 hrs till the cutoff, I was predicting 28 hours when I thought it was a flat loop. There were some sneaky little jerk hills though, and running in wet grass the first 20 miles I worried it might take me all 30 hours to finish. When it cooled off a little I risked eating a bowl of macaroni and cheese which was amazing, Jason made it back at the hotel room and still got it to me hot. I really couldn't finish these races without him, he's always running around helping me with everything I need. He even stopped at walmart to get me some sanitary pads .... Sorry guys...TMI but when you've had 8 kids and you've run 50 miles, sometimes you just leak a little especially if you start dry heaving. :-P It was hilarious because he got me some massively huge ones that were practically the size of diapers. I could vomit for 5 minutes and completely empty my bladder and it wouldn't fill one of those things. Hilarious. So, if you ever find yourself incontinent during a pukey 100 miler, I know someone who can hook you up. :-D

My friend Susan that I met at Tuscazoar 2 years ago, came out to say hi and walked a loop with me. When we first met we hit it off because we are both Latter Day Saints, ultrarunners, and both have suffered child loss. It is always special to see her. Sues walk was as fast as my jog but at least I was still in running motion, lol. Actually aside from a few technical moments around the aid station, the porta potty and the crewing car, I stayed in running mode the entire race. No long slow death march this time, that's always a plus! It was around 7-8 pm so I was able to lose my running burka gear, back to just a tshirt. Never did dry out. My shorts were covered in dry sweated out salt. Once the sun set it got cooler but the wind died down so the air stayed a little but suffocating, still, tolerable.

I was really looking forward to the night hours because it would be a change of scenery...even no scenery at this point would be a welcome change. With the few stars that were out it was really quite nice running under them to good music. Felt fairly steady. So far I'd beat off the boredom with 12 hours of Sabaton, and probably just as many hrs with Imagine Dragons, some Strumbellas, Dragon Force, & a few random 90s hits or songs my kids had sent to me. After about 10 pm there were only half a dozen people still out so I could sing under the stars and not really care. Alot of time during the day I'd spent looking at the ground for heart shaped rocks. I spotted one in someones gravel driveway and I watched it for 30+ loops but waited till it was 2am to pick it up, haha. I didnt want some homeowner yelling at me thinking I was messing with their mailbox or something. Every once in awhile even after 30+ miles I'd notice something new on the loops, a blooming flower or an American, flag, a yard decoration, a guy who locked his keys in his truck...that was pretty cool because someones pacer and a race staff guy came down the street and helped him get it open. He had a cooler sitting out by his motorcycle all day and several of us were wondering what was in it. It turned out he had a packed nativity set in there, randomly, so he layed it all the pieces out on his driveway and TBH it kinda choked me up a little bit. Just the reminder of Jesus. <3 It was kindof a neat mind experiment at times running 50 loops...looking for the little things, being in the moment and appreciating what was immediately around me.

Sometime around I dunno, 10 or 11, Jason was driving back to the hotel and stopped the car to ask if I wanted my trekking poles. I was running right on the edge of the road and he startled me, I looked at him and tripped into the slanty gravel and did complete face plant. Whacked my chin hard!!! Hurt like crazy. I said...um...no... but later I made him bring me some pain meds and my trekking poles because I went down hard on my left knee and strained the surrounding muscles, it was kindof excruciatingly painful. I didn't plan to run a flat-ish race with poles but they ended up helping to alieve the pressure on my knee so I could keep running.

Sometime in the wee hours of the morning I did a few loops with Fernando. He was a speed demon early on, kept passing me. I took less time at the aid stations I guess? So we were both about the same # of loops in. He was absolutely hilarious. Told me all kinds of stories from other races and was just so funny, cursing throughout. The funniest was him dropping a bunch of Fbombs about this little puffball of a dog with a blue bow who hung out on the street and would growl at us, haha. I was faster on the ups, he was faster on the downs, so we kinda paced each other for an hour. He eventually stopped for a nap because he was super tired. Those were definitely my most fun miles. What a hoot. Credit to him for this photo of said puffball. Fernando did finish soon after I did, but failed in his goal to pet the "little sh** " :-D

Jason met me around mile 70 I think. To bring me my poles. Grabbed a couple snatches of hot bacon Eric fried up and some chicken noodle soup which was really good. I had Jason set a 5 minute timer so I could lay down and stretch and close my eyes for a sec, and make sure my stomach settled so I could eat a cup of noodles. For the first time ever, Jason actually made it too salty. If you've ever crewed me, you know what an impossible situation that is. Like, that never, ever ever happens, haha. Sadly so salty that I wasn't able to eat it and ended up dumping it out on the grass.

I was thinking about little miracles and how many I'd seen through running ultras, and feeling so grateful for the prayers of my friends because I really believe they give me strength when mine is running low. I had a particular memorable stretch coming up one of the grassy hills under the stars, thinking of my friend Sally and her brother Nate who passed away. She is always so supportive of all my races and we are great friends, have so much in common though we've really only met in person once. She kindof feels like a sister to me. Nate isn't a veteran but I feel a connection to him so I always carry his picture in my pack. Out of the blue I just felt this strong personality and feeling of joy and appreciation and friendship, and had the thought in my head how much I/he wanted Sally to know thatNate was close to her and was full of love and just, happy. Just a feeling of being happy. I found out today that one of his children passed away this week, and I don't think its a cooincidence that I felt that so strongly. “I'll come back when you call me No need to say goodbye”

...........

So funny story, Susan told me when we were walking that shed been told there was a lady in blue who was cheating by cutting the course...pretending to do the laps but actually just kinda waiting at the start of the out and back on the road, then walking through the timing mat. I was just so shocked that someone would cheat in an ultra! So then I was talking to Fernando about it and he had heard about her too and said the guys who saw her and reported her were really pissed off. We kinda agreed she must have some kind of insecurity issue or something...who lies and cheats just to say they ran an ultra?? He at first wondered if it was me because I was wearing blue, Aaaaa! I swear it wasnt me. Ha! The lady was walking a lot, always on her phone and I'd randomly see her taking breaks on the side of the road. Anyway when I was chillin by the fire for a few minutes we were talking about it and I remembered the story of Rosie Ruiz who famously cheated and won the Boston Marathon but later was caught catching a subway haha, she had to give back the prize, so I started calling our course cheat Rosie Ruiz. Then, I actually caught her myself!!! I couldn't believe it. I passed her coming into the AS standing by the road talking on the phone, and when I went back out she was not on the entire loop even though I passed a couple people who had been in front of her, and I KNOW she didn't overtake them. I didn't see her after that but I know Jeremey had to talk to her and I can't imagine what an awkward situation that was for him. So sad. A DNF giving it your best effort is admirable, cheating to say you finished is pretty rotten. I was mildly hallucinating that every mailbox with a reflective light was Rosie Ruiz. I felt sorry for her...but that's something Ill never forget. My first Rosie Ruiz experience. :-D

By 3-4 am it had cooled off a bit, or so I was told, but the air was still and stuffy, and I was still feeling super hot and started peeing every 20 min, sign of dehydration, so I took a couple salt caps and grabbed my boonie hat and stuffed it with ice. I had to do that until sunrise. Extra salt cap with a full bottle of liquidIV got me hydrated. Id texted my friend Tracy who had done an amazing job pacing me at Tuscazoar last year ,because she was going to come out... I was making really good time and thought Id have a solid 27.5 hour finish so I told her it was ok if she didn't want to come out early....but she texted a little after sunrise and still offered to come out. I told her I wouldn't say no! :-D I was afraid Id be walking by then and it wouldn't be worth the time to drive 45 min. She still said she would come.

Just as the sun was coming up I remembered it was Sunday morning and said a prayer thanking God for the Sabbath, and I apologized that I was going to be listening to rock music instead of going to church but I promised I'd plug in an LDS General Conference sermon on the way home and I just got the nice quiet feeling that its ok, because you are serving. And the scripture “When ye are in the service of your fellow beings, ye are only in the service of your God.” came to my heart. I'd never thought of that before in this particular way... I mean, running, how is that service? Ha! But somehow, it is. I choked up and just felt so grateful watching the beautiful sunrise reflecting on that. I spent a little time then praying for Jacob and Taylors families.

With the sun rising came the dread that it was about to get hot, but just as Tracy arrived with 8 miles to go, we started getting some intermittent steady rain which gave us the perfect running temp. It was so awesome catching up and she was running just slightly faster than me so we started making some decent time, then after awhile I apologized, said if I'm going to go faster I can't talk. I cant talk and run at the same time at this point, so I cranked my Sabaton playlist and tried to watch Tracys feet, match her pace and keep to the tempo of the music. Man she is such an awesome pacer!

.I thought with Tracy I *might pull off getting under 27 hours and I would be so happy with that! We came in right about 26:22!! Tthis beat my second fastest 100 by 6 minutes! I was so happy, I couldn't believe we pulled it off. When I realized I was the first female finisher and second overall I was mildly astonished, haha. So that would never happen in a big race but in a nice little intimate race I actually placed!!

So relieved to be done. Rested a bit and talked a bit. Stared at my beautiful buckle! Bill the farm owner gave me a basket full of tshirts and hoodies and gave me a huge hug and thanked me for what I do. That was when the emotion finally hit and I choked up with a bit of a sob.

We went back to the hotel & got a hot bath, but got a text that I'd forgotten my poles so we checked out and drove back over. I put on my massively huge gorgeous blingey buckle that I'd earned and one of Bills shirts. He gave me a big hug when we went back and gave Jason and I a tour of the stable and we got to meet some of the horses. Boots on the ground and Amazing Grace stopped eating long enough to come over and sniff me and say hi to Bill. He told us all about how they rescue these damaged horses from the slaughterhouse, and then in turn these horses turn around and help rehabilitate and rescue damaged people. Man, talk about tear jerking. I felt almost like I was in a holy place. I could just feel the labor of love by this faithful man in the stables and felt overwhelmingly honored that I was able in a small way, to help support their efforts. I realized I was sold and that I am now committed to running 50 2 mile loops every summer. <3 <3 <3

It was awesome to spend some time chatting with Eric and Jeremey while they packed up everything and we cheered in the last runner. Jason was looking for a heart shaped rock for me that I could paint as a gift to Bill. I told Eric how I paint rocks from races to take to the cemetery for Dexter. He told me he looks for a heart shaped rock every run as well, and takes it to the veteran memorial. Man I thought that was the coolest, the only other person I know who does something like that, AND the only other person I know who fuels on orange Juice. :-D Btw I drank every drop of both bottles they bought specifically for me. Just as I was leaving Eric found a heart shape in a rock right at the start finish. There was just like a little spark of something special in that and its meaning brought tears to my eyes.

I'm just so grateful for the amazing connections and friends I've met running 100s. Its such a gift to me and its been so healing in so many ways. I still have very difficult days but running gets me through, doing something to help veterans was Dexter's dream after he got sick, and I'm grateful to give him my legs and have a work we can do together.

I just want to acknowledge my amazing husband Jason. I couldn't pull these races off without his logistic skills and huge support both during races and in all the time I've got to take for training. He doesn't blink an eye when I tell him I've gotta get up at 2am to go do some elevation training, and only kinda sorta does when he finds out I've signed up for some crazy hard races before telling him, ha!. Also want to thank my praying friends, I know those prayers carry me, give me strength to persevere, can temper the weather, and bring moments of crystal clear clarity . One thing I've learned 100% running 100s is that prayers are heard, and answered. <3