I towed the line of my 10th 100 miler this past Saturday morning. This was the only 100 mile race I did this year, despite the fact that I like to do 2 a year if possible. But as life would have it, I chose to pack away my dream of giving Hardrock 100 a chance and I pulled out of Run Rabbit Run (a qualifying race for Hardrock) which was in September. I decided to take my daughter to her soccer games in Florida and spend time with her. I mean, honestly I didn't train well enough to attempt a race like that anyways. Racing at high altitude, with steep climbing... I just wasn't ready for that. So I pulled the plug on it. Thankfully I had also signed up for Pinhoti 100 in Alabama , just in case Run Rabbit didn't go well. I have yet to give up on my Western States dream! This is my 6th year entering the lottery, and I have my fingers crossed for a pick this year!
Kevin and I left Friday afternoon for Sylacauga. We arrived at the hotel and unpacked. We went over my game plan and where I needed him to meet me. If you know me, you know I have everything meticulously planned out- complete with laminated charts. We headed over to Huddle House for dinner and got in bed by 8 pm.
Race morning started bright and early. We had to board school buses at the finish line at 345 am to make a journey to the start, which was almost 2 hours away. Luckily I was able to sleep on the drive over to Pine Glen and the start of the Pinhoti 100. This beautiful point to point race traverses the Pinhoti trail from Heflin, Alabama all the way to Sylacauga, Alabama. It's a gorgeous trail with lots of thick, dense forest, rocky outcroppings scattered about and lots of creek crossings. I have a whole race report on this blog from 2020 that went over the course as well, so I won't go into too much detail about that again, but I do wanna break this race down and go over what happened this year. If you would like to read about my last Pinhoti 100 race- CLICK HERE
The race started at 6 am central time. I grabbed a quick photo, and within 5 minutes of unloading the buses, we were lined up and ready to start. I used to get extremely nervous before ultra marathons, but I don't anymore. I just repeat the little phrase "I'm going to spend the day in the woods today" over and over. It's my favorite saying for ultras. Well, my other favorite saying is "It can always get better!", but I wouldn't need that one until later on. I dearly love to be outside on the trail, and I learned how awesome a 100 mile trail race can be... when I literally get to be in the woods ALL day and night! Like it's my job for the weekend, to just be in the woods.
I started out a little fast for me, but I knew after I hit that first aid station, High Rock, 7 miles in, I would back off. I just needed to bank a little time. Well, I felt good through the first aid station, so I decided to keep pushing a little and trying to bank as much time as I could. I had a good pace and was enjoying the warm morning and thought, why not? I had made my pace chart for a 29 hour finish, if it went south- I would go for the 30 hour finish. And of course, if things went real sideways- I would just switch over to making the cut offs.
Aid station 3, Horseblock, about 18.5 miles in is where I asked Kevin to meet me for the first time. I didn't really need anything, but I just needed to see him. If not, I would of had to wait 43 miles before I saw him. The race has implemented a even/odd bib policy for crew. He was only allowed to meet me at the "even bib" crew spots. I felt really good through mile 20 and I had a great pace going and was well ahead of the 29 hour pace time.
About mile 20, I kicked a small tree stump in the middle of the trail. It caught my left pinky toe and pulled it off to the side. I immediately felt excruciating pain. I have had this happen before, but after a few minutes the pain usually subsides. This wasn't case this time. The pain was so intense. I stopped on the side of the trail to take a deep breath and give it a minute to stop throbbing. Still, as I started back running I had severe pain. This pain would continue on for hours, and would never really go away.
I continued on despite the pain and at approximately mile 23 I managed to find myself in a "boobie trap". I stepped right into a 4 foot hole covered with leaves and sticks. My entire left leg, all the way up to my thigh sunk. I have a huge bruise on my upper thigh still! I wasn't "injured", praise the Lord, but it definitely didn't feel good. At this point I kind of felt like Pinhoti was out to get to me. I now had a broken toe and bruised quad. I continued on to the longest climb/highest point of the race in Cheaha State Park. When I did this race before it was super foggy and dark and I was unable to enjoy the sites. The top is called Bald Rock and there is a beautiful view. Then you head back down a massive boulder garden called Blue Hell before you pop into the lake and aid station. I was happy to make it down blue hell in the daylight. I made my way down into Cheaha State Park and found Kevin for an entire wardrobe change and some dinner. This was about mile 43. I grabbed my poles and headed out for what would soon be a long, dark night. At least it was still hot outside- so I didn't have to battle the cold.
When I got to Adam's Gap, I was a little earlier than he expected me. I sat down for a second and contemplated changing into Altra's (a zero drop trail shoe). I took off my Vibram's and got the first look at my toe/foot. Just as I suspected, black and blue. I put the Altra's on... instant pain. I took them off and changed socks and put the Vibram's back on. If I was going to finish the race, it would be in the Vibram's. Kevin made some mashed potatoes in the jet boil for me and I cracked open a coke zero. This food hit the spot and I headed back out. The next time I would see him would be at 530 am at Pinnacle and my best friend would be there as well.
Pinnacle is a 5ish mile climb up. Although it's nothing compared to Coosa or the DRT, it is the biggest climb of Pinhoti 100. The climbing took a lot of my energy/food from me. The day had been extremely hot and I felt depleted going into the night. When I reached the top I was pretty exhausted. I had been in the dark for over 10 hours, mostly alone, and my calories were gone. Kevin joined me here to run, thank God, and carried me through sunrise and the ridgeline. This 13 mile stretch is some of the rockiest, gnarliest trail on the course. We crossed through Wormy's aid station at mile 81 and then headed on to Bulls Gap. Annie would jump in here and get me through to the finish. The section from Wormy's to Bulls was difficult and lasted forever. I was trying to push myself to run but my foot hurt so badly. I settled into a really fast walk and tried to get through the pain. I felt like we would never reach the mile 87 aid station. The trail became downhill, soft with pine straw, and I was able to pick up the pace the last mile as we finally dropped into Bull's Gap, mile 87
I was happy to see the aid station finally, and Annie took over here. The sun was up and beaming, it was gonna be another extremely hot day. The next 8 miles were on dirt road and extremely exposed to the sun. I had slowed down so much, I had lost a lot of time. If I was going to finish, I had to be under 20 min miles. The first 2 miles into the last stretch with Annie I managed to run 13-ish minute miles. I was happy to bank this time because I was unable to maintain this pace any longer. We ran/walked the dirt road and finally hit the last aid station, Watershed. Per the pace chart I had 4.5 miles left from here , all on the Sylaward Trails. I remembered this area to be smooth and runnable from the last Pinhoti, but as memory would serve me... I was pretty wrong. The trail went on forever, the heat was miserable and my foot was throbbing in pain. I kept thinking, this has to be the last miles. I'm almost there. But the finish line never came.
Annie finally said, per her calculations, we still had at least a mile, and I needed to move faster if I wanted to guarantee my finish. As the minutes ticked on, we began to get dangerously close to 1 pm and the cut off. Every little slow down and stop entered my mind. I kept thinking- "if only I had" over and and over on how I could of saved myself more time. The what if's were running ramped through my sleep deprived mind. Finally, FINALLY we encountered a man who told us the finish was 1/2 mile around the corner and down the hill. I looked at my watch, 15+ minutes left until 1 pm. I had tears in my eyes. I was going to be okay! I was gonna make it!
At 12:47 pm I crossed the finish line of the Pinhoti 100, with crowds cheering and minutes to spare. It was extremely emotional and overwhelming. It had been such a long, hard fight to get there, and I was happy to have it end. And I had my Western States qualifier- which is ultimately what got me through this race mentally. I'm beyond thankful for my Kevin and Annie who saw me through the dark times, and chased me around all night in the woods. They made it all happen and I can't thank them enough.
I have no idea what is on the table for next year, but maybe.. just maybe... Western States? Fingers crossed!
