I'm annoyed that I have to report this after almost 3 years without any injury thanks to the guidance of coach Heather, but for the 3 months leading up to Mogollon I was (and still am) dealing with a piriformis injury. It definitely caused a lot of anguish for me, knowing I was in the best shape of my life for ALL of 2020 when I didn't get to do any races. I will always be thankful I got that sub-20 5k RIGHT before things shut down, but dang. For about a week and a half I decided I was going to drop from Mogollon because I wanted a GOOD race there, NOT a Run Rabbit Run repeat. There were a lot of tears. I was tired of being in constant pain, even if low-grade, and was dedicated to healing. I began the extremely annoying process of getting a referral to see a PT. However, I was then told that stopping running can sometimes make it worse, and since I was still running (just not as much as I wanted to be), I decided I might as well go for it. After all, I was able to hike my way through 64 miles on the Hardrock course over 3 days with the injury, so maybe I'd be okay. I REALLY wanted to be on a start line again.
I have family in Arizona and I hadn't seen my mom since December 2019, so I managed to convince her and my aunt to come to the race, share an airbnb, and do a little crewing (though initially I told her she wouldn't have to crew haha). When I thought I wasn't going to be racing, my mom was actually more excited because it would mean we'd get to spend more time together!
The week of the race was not exactly the ideal taper. Work at the hospital has been insane thanks to unvaccinated humans and I worked overtime every day (which we do not get paid for as salaried employees). Anxiety gave me stomach troubles and allergies/stress kept me from sleeping much. I also am in the middle of buying a HOUSE, which is incredibly exciting, but also a bit stressful and time consuming! THEN the afternoon before the race I took a shower in the airbnb and the ENTIRE bathroom flooded with 2 inches of water! Naked, I grabbed my towel and furiously sopped up water, drained it in the shower over and over and over again as the water began seeping into the carpet of the bedroom until my legs were burning from squatting. The airbnb host was incredibly nice and thanked me for letting her know, she suspected a previous guest had broken something that caused water to pour outside of the shower, unbeknownst to me. It was a huge relief that she was so nice about it, but holy cow. That was not what I needed the night before the race!
"Start slow and slow down." I don't remember where I read that before my first 100 miler in 2014, but I had to repeat it in my head a few times in those early miles. It's easy to get caught up in the excitement and a lot of those early miles were super runnable- I was starting to question how technical this course really was when we ran on some pavement along the top of the rim! I met a very nice woman named Honey as we trotted along, but when I realized I was running with Blake Wood nearby, I thought "uhhh what are you doing," slowed way down and fell back from them. Slow down, slow down.
The first aid station was uneventful. Refilled my water, took advantage of the pit toilet, and headed back out. I had a cheat sheet with me telling me what to do at each aid station since it's hard to remember when you're out there. |
At the Horton Springs aid station I met Katie, whom I had gone back and forth with a little, and ate a bunch of watermelon- heaven, and I put ice in my sports bra- also heaven. I LOVED the next section. I was oddly alone for much of it, but it was this very gradual uphill mostly in the trees with a couple spots to go down to the river and dunk your hat and get some cool water on you, which I did happily both times. It was also really the only spot with a lot of other hikers, and they cheered me on, which was great. Then there's a STEEP uphill with most of the 2800 feet of climbing in the 4.5 miles from the aid station to the top of the rim. Here I met Fred and stayed behind him as we slowly but consistently trekked through the rocks and bushes. There was some carnage here for sure. We stopped at a guy who kept vomiting and asked him if he needed anything. We passed a few people just by not taking breaks. At one point Fred fell backwards and I caught him and thought "this is exactly where I'm supposed to be right now." I loved that climb. I wasn't feeling the heat too much yet and I felt strong. At the top of the rim was where I would get to see my mom and Bonnie too!
When I first started looking at high temps on race day about 10 days prior, they were forecasting a high of 79 and I was super excited. However, as we got closer to the race, that went up every day and temps on the two race days were 89 and 90 and sunny. It was getting hot. |
The next climb was steep with a bit of bushwhacking, but those uphill miles were such a relief for my body. I was out of water, having gone through all 2L since the last aid station and hoped the Myrtle station was soon. I had a little bit of a headache, but not too bad. I passed a few people, including another person who was needing medical assistance and luckily the emergency responder was already with him. The sun was starting to go down, which was a huge relief! Jubilee took a great photo here with the sun going down behind the mountain.
Luckily the aid station was not far after the summit and I filled all of my bottles, ate some ramen, and got to pet a cute dog. I instantly felt better with the sun now gone and got my headlamp out during the road section that I tried my best to run, but was doing a walk/jog on. The Buck Springs aid station came quickly, it was so nice to have a couple aid stations close together!
Right when I got to the aid station I saw my drop bag on a chair, so I went to it while yelling "Kevin!" since I hadn't met him before lol. He appeared and got right into pacer mode, asking what I needed and getting me food and filling my bottles while I got my lights and other things I needed from my drop bag. What I DIDN'T get, was the 400 kcal of Skratch Super Fuel that I was meant to grab to make a bottle a couple aid stations from there. That was kind of a big mistake. So much for having a cheat sheet!
II didn't have a crew at General Springs, so the next section was 9.2 miles to Washington Park. The night section is a little blurry in my memory. I wanted to run more while it was cool, but it was difficult to get a good pace going. Putting Kevin in front helped us at least do a faster hike, and we chatted nonstop for awhile. We usually had the company of at least one other guy who I think enjoyed having people to be around and listening to us talk. I tried to include them in the conversation too. At one point, Kevin had us stop and pause to listen to the elk bugling in the distance! It was so cool! We also turned off our lights to pee (which was the first time I peed since the second aid station that morning) and the stars were INSANE.
Onward we went to Geronimo Aid station where I had a drop bag and a change of shoes and socks. I could already tell the skin on my little toes was coming off and my knees were pretty sore. Every downhill hurt and it was hard to make good time. When we FINALLY got to Geronimo around 1:30am, I sat down and changed my shoes and socks, made a Skratch electrolyte drink, and grabbed.... Hawaiian rolls. When I did Softrock last July, I had a bagel on the trail, but it was awful, did not work. I couldn't choke it down dehydrated, BUT, I was able to eat the Hawaiian rolls and really enjoyed them on the trail, so I thought they'd be a great addition to my Mogollon nutrition plan.
They weren't.
I had more potato chips because not much else sounded good, but I was getting too much fat and not enough carbs from them. My stomach started to feel slightly queasy, and Kevin had to listen to me bemoan my mistake over and over again. I was SO MAD at myself. All I wanted was a Skratch super fuel. It would have given me the calories I needed, gave me some hydration, and I wouldn't have been feeling queasy. Lesson learned for next time, but I was not having it. It took me HOURS to choke down those darn rolls. Luckily, instead of being mad at me for whining, Kevin thought it was hilarious that I kept trying to eat them and kept taking pictures of my misery.
I just remember the rocky, steep downhill in the next section and how tough it was both physically and mentally as all these people passed me- including 4 or 5 women. I felt like an idiot if I'm being perfectly honest. I'm usually so good at taking the first part of the race slow and passing people in the end, but I was having a repeat of Run Rabbit Run with my body falling apart and I didn't know if it was a pacing issue or just a body issue. I actually started taking Tylenol at the end of this race, and I have NEVER ONCE EVER taken a pain pill before, during, or after a race. It hit my ego hard, but I just did not want to be in the pain I was in at RRR again. I hated taking those pills though. I will still never take an ibuprofen- too risky when you're dehydrated, and this race was bad for that with the hot weather and long stretches between aid stations. We ran out of water, and at one point this guy FLEW past us, saying he was out of water and just wanted to get to the aid station already! I could feel how sunburned my lower legs were, but they were so dirty I couldn't really put any more sunblock on.
I wasn't expecting to hallucinate in this race since it was only one night, but I had some pretty vivid ones. The only caffeine I had the entire race was one caffeinated Spring gel, so I think that may have contributed, I was pretty zonked. I stopped dead in my tracks and almost yelled at Kevin when I thought I was staring straight at a moose that was a tree. Then there was an elaborate A-frame cabin in the middle of the forest that was again, just trees. The most interesting was a middle aged, overweight white woman crouching in a tree. Our brains are so wacko. After much suffering, we FINALLY made it to that last water-only aid station. They teased us by saying they had otter pops, but they had MELTED otter pops 🤣😂 We got some water even though it was only 1.6 miles to the finish because we were that dehydrated and desperate. |
Kevin left early the next day, and us girls went and got lunch and played games before they went back to Prescott and I began my journey home. I was sad to leave them, but I see my parents again in early/mid October, and my aunt again at a family reunion in late October, so that made it a little easier. I'll always cherish having them at this race! I'm so grateful my butt injury let me get to the finish line (and to be honest, everything else hurt so much, the injury was almost a non-issue, which blows my mind.