Usually I feel like I am terrible at blogging. Part of the problem is I don't remember much when I am racing. The other problem is that I wait too long and can't remember the few things I did remember. But Sunday I spent over 4 hours on the phone with Healthcare.gov and was able to get my blog done. (BTW - they never did sort out the issue and the deadline is passing and we are without insurance. But this isn't a political blog so I will only say that I drive a Prius and use my own grocery bags so I should be on HIS side, but I am not on this issue.)
A few weeks back I was asked by Aravaipa if I would be interested in pacing a runner at Black Canyon 100K. I’ll be honest - I cyber stalked her before agreeing. After checking her out I said “Sure!” to pacing Caroline Boller. We emailed a bit and I offered to crew for her also. This was great news for her because she has small children and it would have been difficult for her husband to crew for her with the kiddos (which we totally understand).
Some more emailing and a plan was laid out. But of course, nothing goes as planned and at the last minute Caroline’s husband was not able to make the trip because of a sick kid. It's a bummer that they couldn’t make the trip, but it was great that we had agreed to crew. I packed everything up and really over packed feeling like I wasn’t sure what I would need or want. It was going to be a hot day.
Up at 3:45am we had coffee and packed up food to eat during the day. We woke Ava up at 4am and told her to be ready to go in 20 minutes. I figured it would be good for Norm to have an extra set of hands while I was pacing. And I always think it’s good experience for the kids (they may not always think that, but they usually have fun in the end). Our dog Otto was sad we were leaving without him, but there was no way I was taking him when I was crewing for another person. In our rush to get out the door I did not notice that Ava didn’t have a bag with her. As usual, we start driving and a block from our house I was yelling at Norm about his driving. The pressure of crewing for someone else is almost worse than being the one racing.
A few weeks back I was asked by Aravaipa if I would be interested in pacing a runner at Black Canyon 100K. I’ll be honest - I cyber stalked her before agreeing. After checking her out I said “Sure!” to pacing Caroline Boller. We emailed a bit and I offered to crew for her also. This was great news for her because she has small children and it would have been difficult for her husband to crew for her with the kiddos (which we totally understand).
Some more emailing and a plan was laid out. But of course, nothing goes as planned and at the last minute Caroline’s husband was not able to make the trip because of a sick kid. It's a bummer that they couldn’t make the trip, but it was great that we had agreed to crew. I packed everything up and really over packed feeling like I wasn’t sure what I would need or want. It was going to be a hot day.
Up at 3:45am we had coffee and packed up food to eat during the day. We woke Ava up at 4am and told her to be ready to go in 20 minutes. I figured it would be good for Norm to have an extra set of hands while I was pacing. And I always think it’s good experience for the kids (they may not always think that, but they usually have fun in the end). Our dog Otto was sad we were leaving without him, but there was no way I was taking him when I was crewing for another person. In our rush to get out the door I did not notice that Ava didn’t have a bag with her. As usual, we start driving and a block from our house I was yelling at Norm about his driving. The pressure of crewing for someone else is almost worse than being the one racing.
Our cat Chrissie Wellington thinks a pack full of water is a great place to sleep.
Someone does like the 4am wake up call!
We picked Caroline up at her hotel. This was the first time we were meeting, but it felt like we were already friends. (Maybe she felt different…) We chatted about the race and our lives. We arrived in Spring Valley at the high school even earlier than I expected. We went through Caroline’s gear and hightailed it into the high school because it was cold and windy. We saw friends, we chatted with people and waited. I have never in my life seen this before, but the guy’s bathroom had an enormous line and there was little to no wait for the ladies! I made Norm give Hayley his jacket because she was standing there shivering (notice I did not give her my jacket) and then sent him outside in the cold to help with loading of drop bags. It’s good for him – toughen him up, right? Time to race so we head to the track. The runners will do one lap on the track before heading out of the high school to go through Spring Valley and hit the trail. Hayley and Caroline reluctantly handed me their jackets and took their places on the track. The track by the way is a dirt loop that was quite muddy. The runner’s head out and Norm and I return to the high school to help load drop bags onto the truck. We finish helping and I suddenly realize this may not have been a wise decision – the first crew spot is only 7 miles away. YIKES! We take off driving. We are maybe a block from the high school and I am saying turn left (reading the directions) and Norm keeps asking turn right? He has done this drive before crewing for a training run, but I am annoyed because I am reading the directions. We quickly realize the directions are wrong. We get headed the right direction and are now passing runners (sorry about the dust) in the back of the line of cars trying to get to the same AS. AGH!!! Also about this time, Norm asks “Ava is in the car right?” She has been sleeping the whole time in the very back seat. I look back to see a lump under her pink blanket and confirm we have her. We laugh at the thought of her getting out to use the bathroom and us leaving her. This totally sounds like something that could happen to us. We made it with plenty of time to spare. We chatted with our friend Lori who was crewing for her husband Michael Carson. Michele Yates was running and her husband was there with the baby. Poor guy, it took for ever to unload at the stops, I mean he is unloading baby gear and Michele gear. (I’m pretty sure the baby had more gear!) So her husband has moved up a bit from the stroller to look for Michele coming and the poor baby was not so happy. I asked if I could help by rocking the stroller. Sure he says, she’s hungry and needs a diaper change. I rocked the stroller and did my best comforting the baby voice. Here comes Michele, bottles are exchanged and before you know it her husband is changing a diaper. We over hear him saying, “sorry, it’s going to be a little cold.” Here comes Caroline – 2 minutes back, smiling and cheerful.
Waiting in the gym at the high school before the race.
Jamil making sure everyone is off and running.
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Hayley Pollack (I coach her) and Caroline before being forced to give up their jackets.
Here comes Caroline!
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She looked this happy all day. It's kind of annoying, but she's so sweet you can't hate her for it. :)
Off we go to the next AS. As we approach the next aid station we see a trail close by where we will be waiting. Walking to the AS Ava asks if she can hike up the trail. Sure I say. We get down to the aid station and I turn and look at the trail, but don’t see Ava. Oh crap. Maybe I should have given a warning about not going to far… Oh well, deal with that later, but in the end she showed up on her own.
About this time Ford Smith comes through the AS. He’s saying Dad you gave me Gatorade, not water at the last AS. Oh sorry says dad and hands him a bottle. Ford stops at the AS table and we hear, “Dad this is Gatorade again." You have to get this right! I love you, but you have to get this right.” Spoiler alert – Ford goes on to win. I share this story (and I hope Ford doesn’t mind) because we saw things like this happen again and again. And the patience of the people crewing is amazing! I yell at Norm all the time and I will yell him later in this story, but I did at some point tell him that I have a new appreciation for the work of crewing. The other thing about this incident is that it bonded all the different people out there crewing. We all laughed about it as Ford left the AS and later in the day would ask his dad, “Did you get it right this time?” He assured us before the race ended he would get it right.
The thing about being on a crew is of course you want the best possible outcome for your runner, but the people out there crewing jump in to help each other, offer things they have that you might need or just their help to get things done. It’s really humankind at it’s best and one of the reasons why I love having my kids out there.
Back to the race. Caroline comes through 3 minutes behind Michele and again she is smiling and cheerful. I am positive I am never this happy or cheerful during a race. I make myself a PB&J (a popular choice that day - we saw a lot of them being made) and eat before we head to the next crewing point. We know we will have a long wait here and this is where Caroline will pick me up. As we head to the next AS where crewing is available we pass an AS that does not allow crewing. I was pretty disheartened to see that 5 or 6 cars I recognized from crewing were stopped here. I am sorry, but I am pretty strict about following the rules. If you don’t follow rules it’s truly not fair to everyone else and it really pisses me.
About this time Ford Smith comes through the AS. He’s saying Dad you gave me Gatorade, not water at the last AS. Oh sorry says dad and hands him a bottle. Ford stops at the AS table and we hear, “Dad this is Gatorade again." You have to get this right! I love you, but you have to get this right.” Spoiler alert – Ford goes on to win. I share this story (and I hope Ford doesn’t mind) because we saw things like this happen again and again. And the patience of the people crewing is amazing! I yell at Norm all the time and I will yell him later in this story, but I did at some point tell him that I have a new appreciation for the work of crewing. The other thing about this incident is that it bonded all the different people out there crewing. We all laughed about it as Ford left the AS and later in the day would ask his dad, “Did you get it right this time?” He assured us before the race ended he would get it right.
The thing about being on a crew is of course you want the best possible outcome for your runner, but the people out there crewing jump in to help each other, offer things they have that you might need or just their help to get things done. It’s really humankind at it’s best and one of the reasons why I love having my kids out there.
Back to the race. Caroline comes through 3 minutes behind Michele and again she is smiling and cheerful. I am positive I am never this happy or cheerful during a race. I make myself a PB&J (a popular choice that day - we saw a lot of them being made) and eat before we head to the next crewing point. We know we will have a long wait here and this is where Caroline will pick me up. As we head to the next AS where crewing is available we pass an AS that does not allow crewing. I was pretty disheartened to see that 5 or 6 cars I recognized from crewing were stopped here. I am sorry, but I am pretty strict about following the rules. If you don’t follow rules it’s truly not fair to everyone else and it really pisses me.
See - always a smile! She was very cautious about being too confident, but I think somewhere inside she knew it was her day.
We get to the AS and get Ava her food. Nike did a great job in supporting their runners. There were lots of Nike runners not running out at the stations. I ran into Chris Vargo and chatted for a few minutes. I change into my running clothes and lay down for a 20 minute nap. My eyes were definitely feeling heavy at this point. I never slept really, but I felt a lot better when I got up. I mixed my bottles with Skratch and explained to Norm what I would need when they would see us at the final crewing spot. Ava was nervous about crewing, but I put her in charge of my bottles and gear because it would matter a lot less if they messed up my aid. Now we wait. It was hot. We chatted. It was really hot. I decided to run without a shirt. I wish I had a tan and weighed ten less pounds, but the white jiggly belly was going to make a debut. (Side note – I am really feeling serious about losing that weight I put on while I was injured.) Ava was also feeling very hot because she had on leggings and a thick sweater. Evidently when I told her to pack clothes for warm temps she did not hear me and I did not notice that she didn’t bring a bag. At 4:30am we were thinking pillows, blankets and jackets, not tank tops and shorts.
When Norm and I started dating more than one person said, “Norm is the nicest guy ever. He would give you the shirt off of his back.” I can now say this is a totally true statement as he gave Ava his t-shirt while he stood around shirtless. This guy is pretty amazing!
Suddenly Caroline shows up and surprises us! I hate to admit it, but I think we were kinda waiting for Michele to show up. We now know that Michele was suffering and Caroline passed Michele at mile 22. We get Caroline all ready and she and I head out. I have run this part of the course before in other races and I think being familiar with it helped. I was watching for course markings and watching behind us to make sure no one (female) was catching up to us. I think this was Caroline’s biggest concern. She had run this amazing race and she did not want to be caught. I also was wondering where some of the other women were too, but we had no information about where they were behind us. I won’t bore you with all the conversations, but basically it was a lot of Caroline complaining about how terrible she was doing and feeling and me playing the role of Polly positive. Anytime she would complain about something I would counter back with something positive. At one point she mentioned that she didn’t think she had enough to finish 20 miles. I told her not to think of it that way. Break it down into chunks – 8 miles to the next AS and from there 5 miles to Norm and after that only 10 miles to the finish. She was struggling with a sick stomach and dizziness and my course of action was to ignore it. She would say “I feel dizzy” and I would just say “Oh you do.” We chatted a little about other random stuff. The heat was taking a toll on her, but I assured her that heat was equal to everyone. It isn’t like being strong on the hills or good at technical, heat is terrible for everyone.
I watched pace to make sure she wasn’t ever going too slow. Honestly, it’s a little hard to gauge. I am on fresh legs and feeling good. I want to push her, but not destroy her. I really felt like we just naturally worked well together because any time in my head I thought I should tell her to pick up she would pick it up before I actually said anything.
The AS volunteers were awesome! I took the top off my bottle and put it down on the table, but walked away to help Caroline put ice in her pack. When I went back to get my bottle it was gone. “I had a bottle here” I say a little stressed. The volunteer hands it to me and it’s already full of ice water! Yeah volunteers! “Let’s go” Caroline says. Crap – I haven’t had my gel yet. I try to open it as we take off running, but it won’t open. Luckily I am able to tear it open with my teeth. I suck down my gel as we start running again and hope I don’t trip trying to do this. I usually trip when I am trying to do something and run. The good thing about pacing was if I fell a little behind to take care of myself or check behind us for runners I could easily catch up because my legs were fresh. (Like when I stopped to squat and pee.) BTW, peeing was my biggest worry. Sometimes I pee a lot when I first start running. I knew she would be dehydrated and not peeing much if at all. Luckily I only needed to go once.
We came into the last crewing AS with a little trouble. In my head that whole AS was a freaking nightmare. We missed the turn, but didn’t notice until we heard voices off to the right of us yelling "over here". We could see the AS straight ahead and I think we were both so focused on that we missed the tape. Caroline had to come back around and make a jump over a cactus. I hear a scream and think she has fallen into the cactus. She did not, but had rolled her ankle. I’m okay she said, but I could tell it was hurting. Before every AS she gave me a heads up on the plan. At this AS I was suppose to get her gin-gins and lifesavers, but in the plan she had written out Norm was suppose to have this to hand to her. We had been handing her 2 bottles, but she only wanted one. As we come in I am yelling at Norm to just give us one bottle, but he keeps asking ‘What?” Honestly I was a little pissed because why was he standing so far back from where we come into the aid station. Not helpful! I grab what I need from Ava and head to the table where Caroline is located. I am trying to switch out bottles with Caroline and there is all this fumbling around. “God damn it Norm” I snarl. I see Caroline say to Norm, “Thank you” in her very kind way. But now I am I trying to figure out where the Justin’s Peanut butter cup is that I was suppose to be handed to me. Norm gets my food and I ask Caroline if she is ready. “Did you get the gins-gins and lifesavers.” No – damn it. I grab them fast. I feel like a failure at this point. Norm says it seemed to him like we moved out of that AS fast. But as we start to move out I realize there is no Skratch in my bottle. I yell at Norm, “There is no Skratch in here.” “Yes there is,” he replies. There definitely was not! What we figured out later was there was a mistake when we made the bottles in the back of the car. I made one bottle with Skratch and was thinking that Norm was also making a bottle with Skratch, but what he did was fill it with water thinking that I put Skratch in it. Honestly, I was feeling a lot of stress at that AS. Later, I told Ava if I yelled at her I was sorry. The good news is I only yelled at Norm. He’s use to it. I had also told Norm and Ava to have our headlamps ready. Ava had tried to give them to me and I said I didn't need it, but today thinking things I ever I would do that different. I would have at least taken my head lamp. If anything had gone wrong out there we were close enough to dark that not having any light would have been a disaster. Lesson learned.
Off we went with only 10 miles to go to the finish. We were feeling pretty good at this point, but that would not last long. I don’t know how far it ended up being to the next AS, but it was too far. We both ran out of water. Caroline was really starting to feel like her tank was empty. Even I was feeling not so great at this point. On top of being really thirtsy, my right knee was hurting. This is not the knee with bursistis. I did not want Caroline to know, but about a week before the race the bursitis in my knee was bothering me again off and on. I told Norm I would just have to tough it out. When it hurts it isn’t so bad that I can’t run on it, but it is really annoying. But this pain was on the opposite leg and was making my knee lock up. I fell back a few times because the downhills were a little tricky with my knee locking up. The culprit was definitely my calf muscle. They have been extra tight since the race last weekend in Flagstaff. I am now thinking that was a poor choice. When we finally got to the AS I was able to stretch my calf and that helped for a mile or so, but the pain came back. After we left this aid station I knew I just had to suck it up and try not to think about the pain. Or the fact that my knee was locking up, that was really the worse part. After the AS we hit fire road for a small stretch before taking a turn back onto trail. I wasn’t sure how far we had to go. I really thought we had 2 miles to go when we spot what looks like a spectator. I seriously felt confused by this, why would a spectator be out here? Less than a mile to go he tells us. OMG! I think I even asked him, “really, less than a mile?” I got chills at this point. “Caroline,” I say “you did it!” She asked me to do one more check to make sure no one was gaining on us and I did. You’re good I announce. When we finally saw the finish line I got chills again. I had been telling her all afternoon that she had a fantastic race, she had been doing awesome. It was amazing to know she was about to win this race. I had watched her push through being dizzy and sick to her stomach all afternoon. I had watched her give more after saying she didn’t have anything left in the tank. She was seriously amazing! As we neared the finish line I came to a stop to let her have her finish line glory without my silly self in the picture. After she crossed I jogged up to where she was at and gave her a huge hug. I was so happy for her! To watch someone give more then they think have to achieve their goal is pretty awesome!
When Norm and I started dating more than one person said, “Norm is the nicest guy ever. He would give you the shirt off of his back.” I can now say this is a totally true statement as he gave Ava his t-shirt while he stood around shirtless. This guy is pretty amazing!
Suddenly Caroline shows up and surprises us! I hate to admit it, but I think we were kinda waiting for Michele to show up. We now know that Michele was suffering and Caroline passed Michele at mile 22. We get Caroline all ready and she and I head out. I have run this part of the course before in other races and I think being familiar with it helped. I was watching for course markings and watching behind us to make sure no one (female) was catching up to us. I think this was Caroline’s biggest concern. She had run this amazing race and she did not want to be caught. I also was wondering where some of the other women were too, but we had no information about where they were behind us. I won’t bore you with all the conversations, but basically it was a lot of Caroline complaining about how terrible she was doing and feeling and me playing the role of Polly positive. Anytime she would complain about something I would counter back with something positive. At one point she mentioned that she didn’t think she had enough to finish 20 miles. I told her not to think of it that way. Break it down into chunks – 8 miles to the next AS and from there 5 miles to Norm and after that only 10 miles to the finish. She was struggling with a sick stomach and dizziness and my course of action was to ignore it. She would say “I feel dizzy” and I would just say “Oh you do.” We chatted a little about other random stuff. The heat was taking a toll on her, but I assured her that heat was equal to everyone. It isn’t like being strong on the hills or good at technical, heat is terrible for everyone.
I watched pace to make sure she wasn’t ever going too slow. Honestly, it’s a little hard to gauge. I am on fresh legs and feeling good. I want to push her, but not destroy her. I really felt like we just naturally worked well together because any time in my head I thought I should tell her to pick up she would pick it up before I actually said anything.
The AS volunteers were awesome! I took the top off my bottle and put it down on the table, but walked away to help Caroline put ice in her pack. When I went back to get my bottle it was gone. “I had a bottle here” I say a little stressed. The volunteer hands it to me and it’s already full of ice water! Yeah volunteers! “Let’s go” Caroline says. Crap – I haven’t had my gel yet. I try to open it as we take off running, but it won’t open. Luckily I am able to tear it open with my teeth. I suck down my gel as we start running again and hope I don’t trip trying to do this. I usually trip when I am trying to do something and run. The good thing about pacing was if I fell a little behind to take care of myself or check behind us for runners I could easily catch up because my legs were fresh. (Like when I stopped to squat and pee.) BTW, peeing was my biggest worry. Sometimes I pee a lot when I first start running. I knew she would be dehydrated and not peeing much if at all. Luckily I only needed to go once.
We came into the last crewing AS with a little trouble. In my head that whole AS was a freaking nightmare. We missed the turn, but didn’t notice until we heard voices off to the right of us yelling "over here". We could see the AS straight ahead and I think we were both so focused on that we missed the tape. Caroline had to come back around and make a jump over a cactus. I hear a scream and think she has fallen into the cactus. She did not, but had rolled her ankle. I’m okay she said, but I could tell it was hurting. Before every AS she gave me a heads up on the plan. At this AS I was suppose to get her gin-gins and lifesavers, but in the plan she had written out Norm was suppose to have this to hand to her. We had been handing her 2 bottles, but she only wanted one. As we come in I am yelling at Norm to just give us one bottle, but he keeps asking ‘What?” Honestly I was a little pissed because why was he standing so far back from where we come into the aid station. Not helpful! I grab what I need from Ava and head to the table where Caroline is located. I am trying to switch out bottles with Caroline and there is all this fumbling around. “God damn it Norm” I snarl. I see Caroline say to Norm, “Thank you” in her very kind way. But now I am I trying to figure out where the Justin’s Peanut butter cup is that I was suppose to be handed to me. Norm gets my food and I ask Caroline if she is ready. “Did you get the gins-gins and lifesavers.” No – damn it. I grab them fast. I feel like a failure at this point. Norm says it seemed to him like we moved out of that AS fast. But as we start to move out I realize there is no Skratch in my bottle. I yell at Norm, “There is no Skratch in here.” “Yes there is,” he replies. There definitely was not! What we figured out later was there was a mistake when we made the bottles in the back of the car. I made one bottle with Skratch and was thinking that Norm was also making a bottle with Skratch, but what he did was fill it with water thinking that I put Skratch in it. Honestly, I was feeling a lot of stress at that AS. Later, I told Ava if I yelled at her I was sorry. The good news is I only yelled at Norm. He’s use to it. I had also told Norm and Ava to have our headlamps ready. Ava had tried to give them to me and I said I didn't need it, but today thinking things I ever I would do that different. I would have at least taken my head lamp. If anything had gone wrong out there we were close enough to dark that not having any light would have been a disaster. Lesson learned.
Off we went with only 10 miles to go to the finish. We were feeling pretty good at this point, but that would not last long. I don’t know how far it ended up being to the next AS, but it was too far. We both ran out of water. Caroline was really starting to feel like her tank was empty. Even I was feeling not so great at this point. On top of being really thirtsy, my right knee was hurting. This is not the knee with bursistis. I did not want Caroline to know, but about a week before the race the bursitis in my knee was bothering me again off and on. I told Norm I would just have to tough it out. When it hurts it isn’t so bad that I can’t run on it, but it is really annoying. But this pain was on the opposite leg and was making my knee lock up. I fell back a few times because the downhills were a little tricky with my knee locking up. The culprit was definitely my calf muscle. They have been extra tight since the race last weekend in Flagstaff. I am now thinking that was a poor choice. When we finally got to the AS I was able to stretch my calf and that helped for a mile or so, but the pain came back. After we left this aid station I knew I just had to suck it up and try not to think about the pain. Or the fact that my knee was locking up, that was really the worse part. After the AS we hit fire road for a small stretch before taking a turn back onto trail. I wasn’t sure how far we had to go. I really thought we had 2 miles to go when we spot what looks like a spectator. I seriously felt confused by this, why would a spectator be out here? Less than a mile to go he tells us. OMG! I think I even asked him, “really, less than a mile?” I got chills at this point. “Caroline,” I say “you did it!” She asked me to do one more check to make sure no one was gaining on us and I did. You’re good I announce. When we finally saw the finish line I got chills again. I had been telling her all afternoon that she had a fantastic race, she had been doing awesome. It was amazing to know she was about to win this race. I had watched her push through being dizzy and sick to her stomach all afternoon. I had watched her give more after saying she didn’t have anything left in the tank. She was seriously amazing! As we neared the finish line I came to a stop to let her have her finish line glory without my silly self in the picture. After she crossed I jogged up to where she was at and gave her a huge hug. I was so happy for her! To watch someone give more then they think have to achieve their goal is pretty awesome!
Caroline crossing the line and we tearing up in the background watching! I was so proud of her!
Caroline and I hugging it out! Mark Cosmas mean while misses the excitement of moment checking his phone! (I joke - I love Mark! He's been a he supporter of me and I couldn't do all of this without him.)
Not only did she win, she got a Western States spot. Of course, I was super thrilled that she asked me to pace her at Western States. How much fun will that be! We had pizza and beer and chatted with Ford Smith, Ryan Ghelfi and his wife and Patrick the Nike team manager. Norm checked out the beards of the other guys as he is working on growing an epic beard himself. It was a pretty awesome night.
Caroline finished in 10:06:31 and was number 10 overall. Freaking amazing!
At the end of the night Norm asked me if I was sad that I didn’t run. Maybe a little, but I knew in my heart of hearts I would have walked off that course. My mileage never had time to get high enough to really go out there and compete. Crewing and pacing for Caroline was a much better use of the day. I got to help a super sweet person, make a new friend, get in a training run, hang out with my friends and feel ok enough to get up and run again the next day.
If you ever have the opportunity to pace someone – do it! I totally see the advantage to having a pacer. When you have those low moments on the trail when you might walk or move really, really slow, a pacer is a tremendous help. If for no other reason
Caroline finished in 10:06:31 and was number 10 overall. Freaking amazing!
At the end of the night Norm asked me if I was sad that I didn’t run. Maybe a little, but I knew in my heart of hearts I would have walked off that course. My mileage never had time to get high enough to really go out there and compete. Crewing and pacing for Caroline was a much better use of the day. I got to help a super sweet person, make a new friend, get in a training run, hang out with my friends and feel ok enough to get up and run again the next day.
If you ever have the opportunity to pace someone – do it! I totally see the advantage to having a pacer. When you have those low moments on the trail when you might walk or move really, really slow, a pacer is a tremendous help. If for no other reason
Ryan Ghelfi and his wife earlier in the day.
My favorite moment of the day was at the end. We were all sitting around talking and the subject of balancing work and a family and training came up. Ford points to himself and says "This guy, no responsibilities." Ha! To be 18 again! We are just amazed at the talent of this guy. 18 years old and killing at a 100K race. Watch out people!
