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The pre-race:
I drove up my rent-car from Las Vegas late Wednesday night and stayed at St. George, UT for a night. This was my second visits to stay in the town since I was in the climbing trip with friends in Dec. 2005. I remembered one tiny cafe we visited in 2005, named "Jazzy Java", So I went there for good coffee and breakfast on Thus. morning. Although the cafe had remodeled to expand its space a lot bigger than before, the cafe did not change a thing for good old breakfast menu and coffee.
Since I shipped my camping and running equipments via USPS, I had to pick them up at Virgin post office before 12:30pm. Shortly after my breakfast, I drove another 28 miles to my next destination. I arrived in front of post office 8:55 am. The post office lady kindly let me in before the operation hour. This one room apartment size post office held my stuffs since this Tuesday. I picked up two of my boxes with gratitude to the lady and opened them to check what I stuffed in. It was like a little Holiday moment for me.
After I went my campsite to set up my tent, I drove up to check out the location of start and finish in the town of Virgin. There were few people prep. for tomorrow's race, and I briefly talked to Race Director, Matt Gunn. Probably his head was already spinning for prepping the race, but he kindly speared some minutes to talk with me about the race and good site seeing locations in Zion national park.
Shortly after my dinner at the fancy town of Springdale, I came back to the park around 6:30 pm for picking up my race packet and briefing. Then I saw Gary Gellin, who I have met with him at post race party from Chuckanut 50km race earlier this year. I briefly introduced to Mark Tanaka where both folks were sitting together at the picnic bench. I felt lucky to meet two veteran ultramarathoners before the race.
The campsite was supposedly full, but two sites next to me were still being empty at 9 pm. Both sites were eventually filled with late night arrivals of family with four young kids and few college students around 11:30 pm. Well, I was hoped to sleep at least 3 hours at that point.
The race day:
I woke up around 4:30 am and had breakfast with banana, oatmeal with yogurt, soy chocolate milk, and one piece of leftover vege-pizza slice from last night's dinner. After quick sanitation walk, I change myself to be ready for the race. I drove up the start/finish location about 25 minutes before the starting time of 6:00 am. I did one more quick laboratory use 5 minutes before the start. Gradually, 100+ people gathered at the start line, and everyone seems so happy to be here for the race. One thing I like about ultrarunning is the start. Although it is still a competition among runners, it feels to me more of self competition against my own goal. I always feel far more relaxed and enjoyable for standing at start line in any ultra marathons I've attended. It was not like a standing at 1500m track race, 5k, or 10k road races in my high school days to feel my gut squeezing. The sounds of trumpet were the sign of start, and runners were slowly moving forward. The sky was still in morning twilight at 6 am in Utah (5 am PST) air temp was still be cool like high 40's to low 50's.
The first two miles were gradual uphill with red dirt road usually used for recreational quad bikes. Runners with fresh legs tend to go slightly faster than necessary, and my pace was at 9:30 for first two miles, which was still comfortable and easy enough. I found Mark Tanaka with a lemon color La Sportiva shirt, like Pam Smith is wearing now, so I decided to stick with him to experience the ideal pace for 100 mile race. What surprised me was Gary Gellin, who was only 100 ft in front of us running. Soon we are walking steep uphill section so called "Flying Monkey Trail" at 3.0 to 4.1 mile point, the 1000ft gain slow me down from 9:30 pace to 21:00 pace. The gradual uphill continued until the 9 mile point, but the pace was maintained between 9:40 to 11:00. Mark seems to know where he can relax or push to keep his pace in his comfort zone for long time. His sense of humor is very funny, and he has many interesting ultrarunning stories to share us from his running experiences. Although it isn't appropreate in the blog, I have never seen a guy can do his small business while walking that takes some skill and practice to be done the job! (Sorry!) We were able to run with Gary Gellin until the first aid station, and his goal for this race was somewhere between 19 to 20 hrs. He also mentioned that he will try to break the speed record of Tahoe Rim trail (165 miles) this year, and the Zion 100 would be his test piece to maintain 25-30% less effort than his regular heart rate in his running races.
We were mostly packed with Mark Tanaka, Joshua Malpass, Brian kamm, James Gifford, Daniel Widerburg, and Tim Stroth from 18.5 to 35 mile point. The technical downhill started shortly after the 18.5 mile aid station (Smith mesa #2) to see the beautiful sandstone canyon with water fall. Although the trail was unlike well maintained single track in Pacific North West, the rocky sandstone and small brush to run thorough for next 3 miles. The trail eventually opened up for double track house trail. Whole group of people were smiling from the Mark's ultra running stories, and we were in comfortable pace of 10:00 to 12:00.
I changed my running shoes and socks at the mile 27 aid station (Kolob traverse Rd), and I felt still in good physical condition with no significant pains. The next 4 miles with 1000 ft of downhill had the fastest lap of 8:00 to 9:14 pace, and I felt very comfortable and good. However, I have not urinated until the mile 29 point, and the color of pee was somewhere between a thick brewed green tea to almost english tea color. I simply thought I need to drink more fluid even though I consumed electrolyte in 2L Camel bak bladder within every 10 miles. Soon we approached to the 35 mile point aid station (Sheep's Bridge aid station), I was able to see Gary's back just leaving the dust, but that was the last time I saw his back for the rest of race. Although scale is not always perfect, but I apparently lost 6 lbs of weight from the start (160lb to 154lb). I decided to sat down the aid station to take more food. I ate PJ sandwich, banana, canned peach, soy chocolate milk, honey electrolite ice cone. At this point, my watch was already past 12:30 pm and temperature is about hitting 85F or even higher. I felt heat but was not felt any physical discomfort at that point.
However, my life suddenly underwent upside down shortly after I left from the 35 mile aid station. It was probably 3 mile in, there was a portable bathroom to take a crap. Imagine those small honey bucket toilet under full sun of 85+ degree. It was like in a sauna inside to do the business. I did it anyways, but it was a such relief when you get out of the bathroom. My stomach felt significantly better, and I tried to take a Hummer gel (Montana Huckleberry) that I got from the last aid station. As soon as I put first sip of the gel in my mouth, the sour acidic taste with sugar induced me to puke all foods out that were from the previous aid station. It was very very instant reaction that it looks like a little waterfall. I was stupid enough to try sip same stuff again and did it all over again. If you have ever seen a movie "Team America World Police", I probably looked like the puppet puking scene in the movie. I washed my mouth with electrolyte and took two S-caps and continue walk to the next aid station without thinking too much and told myself "just powerwalk it".
My upset stomach seems not calm down even I got to the 42.4 mile aid station (Virgin Desert). I sat down in the aid station, change my clothing from singlets to Waldo 100k tech-T. I also had an soy chocolate protein drink and coconut water in my drop bag, so I put them together in ice cup to drink it down slowly. I thought I still need some food in my stomach before I go up to the big climbing section at 45 to 50 mile point, so I asked for a boiled potato. Unfortunately, the potato was cooked with zesty italian seasoning, which taste of sourness reminded me what was just happened me back in 38 mile point. It was little torture to myself, but I squeeze all four red potato with my hand and mushed them up and added coke to swallow all potato with SIMPLE sugar taste. It looked like all worked out at that point. I finally left from the aid station about 35 minutes later. I was walking for a less than 3/4 mile from the aid station, I had to go bathroom again for another squeeze in the bush. Then I had one hiccups that magically brought back all foods I took from the last aid station to "Team America" again. Seriously? I had to take care of both end at the same time? It made me more laugh than cry, and I remembered once I was a freshman college student to underestimate the misuse of alcohol from the party. I was peeing and puking to urinal at the same time. But current situation was even worse!
I managed to continue walk and approached the short but steep uphill (1100+ft gain) section at 45.7 to 47.4 miles point. The late afternoon sun with no breeze made me even hotter than actual 92F. All I did was powerwalking, which was paid off from walking session at McDonald forest. I was able to go up to the top of Gooseberry mesa without any stops, and there was nice breeze to cool off my body a bit. For next four miles of flat section, I debated myself not running until the 51.5 mile aid station (Gooseberry mesa). While I was powerwalking, I evaluated my body conditions, which had pretty screwed up stomach but relatively good legs. There were no crews for me to have a little advice or help either. Then I was thinking about calorie loss, which I probably lost 1600 calories from the mile 35 to 51 because of the empty stomach (16 miles x 100 cal). "I need to bring calories back up somehow though it is very difficult to refuel it completely once the calorie uptake gets behind of schedule." "Also if I kept going like this, my blood sugar level would go down eventually", which can see myself the absolute worst situation. "What types of food at the next aid station can possibly be bring back my blood sugar?"
As soon as I got to the Gooseberry mesa aid station, I asked for filling my bladder with coke & ice, a piece of bread soaked with honey, and six Nabisco saltine cracker. This caffeine with HFCS somehow settled my stomach down better, and I felt I was ready to run again. The time was already 7:32 pm, and the cool breeze finally came in the late afternoon at high desert. The breeze felt my body to forget anything happened earlier in the afternoon. I started to jog slowly; however, I accidentally kicked one of cacti at the edge of trail and had to stop for taking care of all needles stubbed my right foot. It was not painful but was rather annoying. I approached to beautiful sand rock bed with various angulation area within a mile, which was like a roller-coaster ride of small up and down, left and right turns. I continued to follow the white dots on the rock bed as a course markings and managed to jog thorough the section probably between 11:30 to 12:20 pace.
I arrived at the Cattle Grate TH aid station (62.8 mile) around 8:13 pm. I changed my shoes to 1/2 size bigger with new socks and grabbed headlamp and wind block outer layer. I was surprise to see Mark Tanaka was at the aid station just about leaving. I thought he would be running at least one hour ahead of myself. I refueled with soaked honey bread, coke-mountain due mix bladder with ice, and took off from the aid station around 8:29 pm. Air temp. was finally dropped down to 75 F at that point, and the distance to the next aid station was only 7 miles. This section was fairly smooth dirt road and runnable downhill to flat course. My leg seemed to be fine and my pace was somewhere between 8:45 to 10:00 pace.
I arrived to Smithsonian Butte turn off aid station (69.8 mile) around 9:47 pm. My body weight was 157.2 lb at that point, blood pressure was 124-62. My pee color had been good like an one of cheap german beer since 55 mile point. I felt I am finally back! Although I was supposed to meet with volunteer pacer, she/he was not there at the aid station for me, so I took off from the aid station around 9:54pm. I was walking and eating honey soaked bread, then I approached to E Highway 59 and got confused. I admit my biggest rookie mistake I made was that I forgot to bring a portable size map with descriptions. I waited for Mark Tanaka and other runner with pacer to follow with correct course direction until the little creek mesa aid station (77 mile). To the little creek mesa, there was gradual uphill totally runnable section. I managed to switch between jog and powerwalk (10:30 to 12:00 pace) to approach the aid station around 11:26 pm. At this point, my garmin 310 XT died from no battery left.
The group of runners left all together from the aid station around 11:40 pm. I was walking down mostly at technical rocky downhill section for a mile, then we approached intersection look like "X" at Kokapelli golf course. Two grow sticks was laid on ground, but did not indicate which way would be the right way to get out from the intersection. We accidentally continued wrong direction for half a mile and realized something wrong because we saw HWY 59 on our left hand (it was suppose to be our right hand side). We went back to where we lost and took another wrong way into the golf course for another half mile. At this point, the last choice was the obvious one to take, and we found a tape with reflective strip attached mark after half mile in. The next 4 mile or so was very widely spread the course marking. Although we were on the right course, the very widely spread course markings on the dirt road made me skeptic to my brain for next four miles. About a half mile away from the Gould's Rim aid station, the unknown Chevy S-10 drove like a madman to dust out the dirt road, it probably a local young kid being idiot at Friday late night. My headlamp turned off at that point, so I turn it on to flush the car 100ft away from the car to let the driver know there were few runners. Somehow, the driver scared off of me and stop and turn around like "First and Furious" style. The S-10's tailgate and rear bumper smashed into the side ditch resulting almost stuck the truck. The S-10's rear tire skidded to get out of the ditch and managed to got out and drove away in full speed. Well, I was regret my action to try to slow this idiot truck down resulting that we got more unnecessary dust cloud to run thorough from it.
I got the Gould's Rim aid station (82.8 mile) about 1:14am, and my last weight was at 158.4lb. I filled with more coke, eating honey soaked bread, S-caps, and M&M's candy. We left the aid station within 5 minutes or so, Matthew Smith was leading the way out. Somehow the aid station volunteer crew got an information wrong. She guided us to continued the dirt road for a mile and turn left at the intersection with Portable toilet. Within a less than quarter mile away from the aid station, I saw two rocks with big red tape strapped on them. Since we do not have any directional signs, the red tape had been a "wrong way"sign to us for entire way. Matt also came back from the road he was on the road for at least half a mile. His face with confusion indicated we lost the way again. Then we found the reflective tape on our right hand just next to the red taped rock. which was toward to a single track trail. Matt and I were believed with the tape and followed the taped direction for a 1.2 mile. It eventually approached to the same location that the volunteer crew mentioned to us earlier. We continued this Gould's Rim single track for another 5 miles. This nice single track would be great during the daylight to see everything; however, I accidentally kicked the rock with my right foot. The pain on the right toe shot up instantly, knowing my toe probably got a black nail from it. The incident was a little unfortunate, but I accepted that it is a part of unexpected event in ultra. We were actually in good mood though Matt and I were little bit winy and complained about course markings, but this is RD's first year big race. I was expected something unexpected would happen during the race. We pretty much toward to the goal for under 24hr mark to finish at that point. At 2:38 am, I had to wait for Matt to show up at the end of single track. There was no sign to turn left or right at the "T" section merged from the single track trail. There was no marking near our sight. "Not again!" Matt, Josh, Mark, and I were in search for right direction for another few minutes. Finally, I found one pee mark and red flag tied onto the rock on left side (West) of the dirt road. Within 2 miles or so, we cross the HWY 59 looking down to the town of Hurricane.
Matt and I approached to Hurricane View aid station (90 mile) at 3:16 am. I met a volunteer pacer named Jason Smith who was waiting for me at this aid station. It was such relief for me that someone actually knows the course better than us. We had quick greeting together and left the aid station at 3:19 am. Only 10 more miles to go, and we had more than 2hrs to finish before 6 am. I told Matt "Let's finish under 24hrs! We can achieve it!" Matt also smile back to me, "I hope to catch you up soon". My legs seemed to have a power left, and I did the fast pace powerwalking for uphill and jogging on the flats/downhills. This single track trail was nicely maintained, even had a mile marker. While Jason and I were on the move, we had conversation with him a little bit. He has done 26 or more marathons in his running resume and wanted to try ultra. I suggested him to try few 50 km, 50 mile, and 100 km before jumped on to 100 mile. At the same time I told him that this was the first 100 m which took me 3 years to come to this point.
We approached to 95 mile aid station with quick drinking with mountain dew for more caffeine with bad sugar, and I was ready to pursuit the final 5 mile to the finish line. The single track downhill was probably nice for running a normal day, but I had to be extra caution myself not getting any injuries at this point like twisting ankle. I managed my foot steps in attention for downhill, and then I saw the flashlights about 300 yards down the valley that was constantly looked back at me for few times. I told myself that I can catch him and pass his within a mile. I caught him at the end of single track and passed Ron Hammett with small greetings. Soon my volunteer pace, Jason, told me that I had less than 3 miles to finish. I nodded to him and told that he did not have to keep up with my pace. He backed to me "see you at the finish line!" My leg got an energy to fire up once more and knowing myself that I will run the paved road section as hard as I can. I existed from the dirt road to merge into HWY 9, I switch my gear to the paved road running pace. I was probably running under 7:40 a mile pace for the last two miles, seeing another struggle runner in front of me at 500 yard at a mile to go. I reached to right turn to the town park way and just saw her back disappeared to the park. Although I could not catch up with her this time, I made strong finish. The pace of the last 5 mile section was 8 min 40-45 seconds. According to ultralive.net data, I left the Virgin Dam TH Turnoff (95.2mile) at 4:28am and finish before 5:10 am. I was under 42 min to run 4.8 miles. RD Matt congratulate me with strong handshake and was asking me where we were lost in the dark. I replied him "Well, there were few parts (that we were) hard time directing us correctly, but it was a part of the ultra. Since this was your first year race to put it up, you have a lot room to improve it for next year's race, right?" Indeed, RD Matt put so much work into the Zion 100/50 race, and his team staffs and volunteers had done so much to runners. I appreciate his work and say "Thank you for putting up this awesome course for running!"
Injuries report:
Black toe nail (right big toe nail will fall off soon for sure!) Four small blisters on foot (not an issues, but interesting to find the both outer side of heels were unusual). The top of quad muscle from right leg (rectus femoris) was the first one to be crying as early as 29 mile point, but icing leg to manage thorough the rest of the race (compression shorts were perfect to held ice cubes in place!). chafing at lower back where backpack rubbed against tech-T, back of the knee cap, and mid-upper back just under arm pits (so called chicken flap area). Shoulder sunburn from wearing a singlet in morning. I guess never underestimate Sun!
What I wore:
At start: single handheld water bottle from Ultimate Direction, Sporthill singlet, Waldo 2010 hat, Julbo Ultra (White), Craft Arm Cooler sleeve, Kooltie, CEP Calf sleeves, Drymax light trail socks, Sporthill gloves, Scott eRide Grip (size 10.0)
At 18.5 mile: switch handheld to Nathan 2.0 backpack with 2.0 L Camelbak bladder (installed with insulated tube).
At 27 mile: switch shoes to Scott eRide Grip (size 10.0), Injinji socks, Outdoor Research Sun Runner Cap (it was good, but capture heat a bit. Wish to have mesh pocket inside of the hat to stuff ice and more sweat absorbing material around headband area!).
At 42.5 mile: switch singlet to Waldo Tech-T (Sporthill).
At 62.5 mile: switch shoes to Scott eRide Grip (size 10.5), Drymax light trail socks, Petzl RXP headlamp (regulated), Baff headwear, Patagonia Nine Trails Jacket (packed in the backpack), small bodyglide(saves me at 77 and 90 mile point).
Amazing job Mikio, and a great write up. Congrats!
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