“Wasn’t that epic?” Meredith Terranova said to me right after I crossed the finish line at Thacher School in Ojai, CA on Sunday morning at 8:15. “Yes! That’s exactly what it was!” I replied as I stood with my new running friend from San Diego, Jill Childers. Meredith and I were musing on the plane back later that day as to how I had signed up for this “event” (because it isn’t really a race so much as an event). We ultimately agreed that she had told me that she had signed up for it and then I jumped in. I had circled this on the calendar to be my “goal” race for the year. With over 19,000 feet of climb packed into 62.5 miles, it looked to be an even bigger challenge than Headlands Hundred last year with its just under 18,000 feet in climb. It would prove to be a daunting task for a flatlander like me. The Two Moon Buffon, aka Race Director Chris Scott touts C2M as being designed to “promote participation and camraderie rather than performance”. Everything about the event reflects that attitude. By the end of the weekend, I had fully drunk the Kool-Aid and am now a Mooner. C2M has a different approach with respect to how the event is run,
literally. You submit times of comparable races and then the RD seeds
the runners into different start times. For example, some 100 Milers
started their adventure at 8 p.m. on Friday night. Moogy started at
11 p.m. on Friday night. There were 5 start groups in the 100K. I was
right smack in the middle in K3 with a noon Saturday start time. K3
was the largest of any of the start groups with 20 listed runners.
Meredith Terranova and Kevin Sullivan, the respective winners of
Rocky Raccoon 50 miles were in K5 starting at 3 p.m. I met a couple
of my fellow K3ers shortly before the race started. I had nearly two
hours to kill before the start of the race as drop bags were due by
10 a.m. Meredith picked me up from my hotel and we dropped the bags.
She left to go whittle away more time and I hung out at the
start/finish. As I waited for my start, I kept buying little
trinkets (coyote pins, mugs, etc) that they were offering for sale.
By my start time, I now had invested so much that I HAD to finish the
run. The staging area for the race is a soccer field at a private
school on the edge of Ojai. . Figure 1The start! I am flanked by Jill (my right), Karen, Melissa and Charles (on my left) who would all play major roles in my run! Coincidence? Note that we all wore blue! We lined up under the banner by the soccer goal and left promptly at noon when Stan Jensen told us to “go”.
START TO RIDGE JUNCTION(4.9 mi) Knowing that the first part of the race was a 4.9 mile climb that went up 3500 feet, no one really dashed out of the gate. We hiked up past the school and all began to shuffle along on the flat gravel road. As is my wont, I took off a bit faster than most folks, but still not at the very front. The road quickly dissolved into single track and off we went climbing away. There were four creek crossings on the initial section of this ascent. All could be forded without getting your feet wet with a little tiptoe dance. Most of us opted for dry shoes this early in the race.
Figure 2 One of four creek crossings on the first climb up Horn canyon
After moving back and forth for a bit with several of the group, I hooked on to Drew for the first half of the climb. Drew was a local and this was his first 100K. He let me lead for the first 45 minutes or so until we reached the Pines picnic area. After that I began to fall behind him as I was snapping photos with my disposable camera on the way up. The route was mostly single track with a few nice shady spots at first.
Figure 4 Nice shady trail section on the way up It was getting warmer now as the fog was burning off the higher I got. I had worn shortsleeves, but had my Moeben sleeves with me just in case it got cool. As I was now plugging along by myself and enjoying the views and finally moving my legs after waiting two hours to start. The single track was a little skinny in a couple of spots as I climbed so when I turned off of it onto the wide jeep road near the summit, it was a bit of a relief.
Figure 5 the last bit of climb before the first summit It took me an hour and 45 minutes to make it to the Ridge Junction Aid Station. 21 minutes per mile was hardly stellar, but I wasn’t too concerned. I had done the turista thing with my camera and had made it up the first of five ascents and felt okay. I topped off my water at the aid station and got the friendly folks to take a picture of me.
Figure 6 HH at Ridge Junction AS RIDGE JUNCTION TO ROSE VALLEY (12 mi) I took off at a jog as the Ridge road was nice and flat. The route circled around and rolled for a couple of miles. After a mile or two, I stopped and took another picture or two, including one looking back from where I had left the Ridge Junction Aid Station:
Figure 7 Looking back toward the Ridge Junction AS The route kept meandering and the breeze made the exposure to the sun tolerable. I circled around and spotted something I hadn’t expected: snow!
Figure 8 Snow on the Ridge There must have been half a dozen patches of it on this half mile section. Some covered the entire trail and some you could pick a path on the soggy dirt. Just for grins I ran through some of it and it was nice and yielding. The return trip many hours later would not find the snow as much fun. I was still running mostly alone, passing the occasional hundred miler or two. The route eventually opened up again and began to roll up and down. Again there were spectacular views on this side of the Nordhoff Ridge which reminded me a lot of the Guadalupe Mountains.
The jeep road was mostly runnable with a few climbs up and some nice downhills as well. I finally got to the turn to go down to Rose Valley. This was the first descent on the course. The 100K runners had five ascents and descents and the 100 Milers had seven. All of these were connected in the middle by the Nordhoff Ridge which I was running on. I made the turn and started heading down. Tall trees lined the jeep road on the first part, but I still got glimpses of scenic vistas.
Figure 10 Scenic view from the route down to Rose Valley The trees began to thin and the grade got steeper. I started running faster and faster. I kept seeing runners climbing up as I careened downward. That is when it really dawned on me that I was going to have to turn around and go right back UP this steep hill. “Oh crap!” I mumbled. But I decided I might as well make time while I could and kept heading down. I saw a couple of the leaders of our K3 group as I neared the bottom and kept plunging down. The aid station was near the park entrance and was a beehive of activity. I was now 12 miles in and figured that I had traveled the equivalent of getting to Chapas Aid Station at Bandera. The only difference was that it had taken about 3 ½ hours to get here and I would have been most of the way to Crossroads by that time at Bandera.
Figure 11 Me with my mouth full at Rose Valley I refilled bottles and accepted a turkey and cheese quesadilla from Patagonia rep George who used to live in Austin and gave me good-natured grief for being from Texas. It was well past lunch time when I hit this station so it really hit the spot.
ROSE VALLEY TO HOWARD CREEK (18.2mi)? I walked out of the aid station figuring I should get started on the climb ahead. It was the heat of the day and the first part of this ascent was very exposed and very steep. According to the elevation chart, this climb was about 1500 feet over about 2.5 miles. There was probably 14 miles of the course that was on the Ridge and the remaining 48 miles were on the ups and downs to get back to the Ridge. As I slogged up out of Rose Valley, the joy of free falling down to the aid station had now been sucked right out of me. My breath was labored, but I tried not to stop, knowing that the best thing to do was just keep marching up. A couple of runners slowly gained on me and finally passed me. I stayed close to them and the woman turned back and said :”I see the top!”. That was good news because I was about done in. My mind was swirling downward. I was a little heartened to see the turn onto the top of the Ridge, but I was trashed. I started jogging to give my muscles a change from all the power-climbing, but my mind was racing downhill rapidly. “I can’t do three more climbs like that!!” No freaking way!” “Why did I think I could do this?” “I hate races” “What am I doing here?” I managed to shake myself out long enough to admire the fog rolling over the Ridge.
Figure 12 The fog blowing over the Ridge This section was runnable and I passed a couple of 100 milers on the downslopes on the Ridge road. I was feeling drowsy and a little lightheaded. My mind continued to run downhill even while my feet climbed up the Ridge road. I was soon in a dark, negative mental swamp. Every thing in my life suddenly seemed a challenge that I couldn’t conquer or control. “I will just drop at Howard Creek Aid Station (mile 18.4)”. The downhill for Howard Creek finally materialized and I started heading down. I began to see a lot more runners on this shaded single track. I passed a few going down and saw others climbing back up from the bottom. This section reminded me a lot of some of the switchback trails down into the canyons at Western States. Nice runnable downhills with cool views. I was in the shade mostly and decided that maybe I was a little dehydrated. I started drinking more. I took a couple of pictures as I neared the bottom.
Figure 13 the flat section just before Howard Creek AS
Figure 14 Another runner came flying around the corner as I snapped this one I made it to the short paved road that led to the aid station. It was a whirl of activity. I sat down for a minute and was attended to by the friendly, helpful volunteers. I drank some broth with water added to it; ate a little and tried to rehydrate. Almost without even thinking about it, I had rallied enough that I didn’t quit here.
UP TO GRIDLEY TOP (22.5mi) I walked out with some orange slices in a bag and started the climb back up to the Ridge. The climb back up was not as long as the last one in that it was only about 1000 feet over 2 miles. And it was shaded! The grade made it easy to keep up a good power hike pace. Some runners were even running up it. As I neared the top, I saw Kevin Sullivan who had won the Rocky Raccoon 50 miler and was in Meredith’s K5 Start group. He was flying down right behind another runner with his group and we said we would catch up later. It was a boost just to see a familiar face. When I got to the top and finished the connecting single track back to the Ridge road, I came upon three runners standing around as if deciding which way to go. It seemed obvious to me, but I stopped, too. We exchanged greetings and when they found out I was a foreigner from Texas, Charles Savage said: “We could really mess with you then!” I then joined with this group of Charlie, Karen Hanke and Melissa Johnson. They seemed to be having a great time together. They absorbed me seamlessly into their group and we were soon chatting away and running along the Ridge toward Gridley Top Aid Station. I figured out that I had seen Karen at Headlands last year. She had done the 50 miler. She had also just run with Meredith in Napa a couple of weeks ago. It was remarkable what a difference joining up with these three did for me! My legs felt better, my mind was clear and my heart was no longer weighed down with all my junk. These three literally saved my race. They had apparently resolved early on to hang together to get through this beast of a course. I felt very lucky to have been able to join them. We rolled into Gridley Top at mile 22.5 and found another lively aid station featuring Mr. and Ms. RD. Chris had on his infamous cow suit. This was yet another GREAT aid station that served us up and kept spirits high. I even felt a little bit at home as Chris had been in Austin a few weeks ago and had purloined one of the “road closed” Austin Marathon signs which was being used as a Wrong Way sign at this aid station. Next up was the fabled long downhill into Cozy Dell, the halfway point.
DOWN TO COZY DELL (30.2mi) But first we had to climb up on the Ridge road. This was only a blip on the elevation profile, but the route was pretty hilly and steep. The four of us hiked away on it and it finally began to slope down. It was still light, but it was fading some. We made the left turn onto the single track and started heading down. This again reminded me of the Guads and then Karen warned me about the sheer drop offs. “Huh?” “Yeah, it is cactus on the right and sheer drops on the left on the single track” “Oh crap!” Now I really did feel like I was back in the Guads! This downhill was all very runnable, but Karen was right. The drop offs were shielded on the first part of the downhill by tall bushes, but then it began to open up a bit. I tried not to look, but there looked to be 1000-2000 foot drops! Unfortunately there were a couple of these where the trail had been eroded into powder so there was little margin for error on the skinny single track. I was REALLY glad that I had chosen to wear my Vasque Velocity shoes. I had never gone more than 25 miles at a time in them so they weren’t the most comfortable of my shoes, but they have the best grip/traction of any of my trail shoes. There would be no changing into road shoes at Cozy Dell! Indeed, I would NOT wear road shoes on this course. Despite the fair amount of Ridge road, the ups and downs were far too technical for road shoes. It wasn’t Bandera, but it wasn’t Headlands either. Charles and Melissa got ahead and Karen and I hung together on the initial descent. We saw Moogy and he said he lost his stomach, but considering where he was on the course, he was doing GREAT! We got back together again after most of the single track turned into a wide trail. Light was fading fast, but this is what and where I had expected to be at this point. I had projected that it would get dark about 45 minutes before I hit Cozy Dell where I had my nighttime stuff, including my big flashlight. We pulled out our lights and poor Karen was using a cheapie from CVS because she had forgotten her good lights at home. It was pretty pitiful. Charles and I took off, chatting away as the wide trail sloped down under a canopy of trees. It was a little cooler now and this looked like it would be a lovely picnic place. We stopped to wait for the ladies to catch up at a sharp right turn. I told Charles to go on and I would wait for them. I hung for a minute just enjoying the dark and recharging a little. Melissa and Karen arrived and thanked me for waiting. It was a small price to pay for the mental boost they had given me. We headed down on the single track. It was a little soggy here and there and Karen splashed in a creek, surprising herself it seemed. I think she was just not getting enough light from her flashlight. At one point Kevin Sullivan came flying by. I hooked on with him to chat for a couple of minutes on the downhill and then let him go to hang with my group. The route got a little treacherous here as there were a couple of big erosion holes. We picked our way down and soon made it to the paved road. The volunteers guided us to the well-lit aid station. Again it was a bustle of activity. We all grabbed our bags and got ready for the night. I got my big light and my thin windbreaker and extra gloves. I dropped the camera and my visor and put on a Montrail hat. We seemed to be moving pretty well so I didn’t change my shirt and stuck with a short sleeve with Moeben sleeves. I had been using Spizz to supplement my food consumption and I grabbed an extra packet and then split a half of turkey and cheese sandwich that Karen’s husband had brought her. I was ready before the rest of the gang and could tell that I was going to get cold if I didn’t move. I told them I was headed out and would walk until they caught up. It was 8:45 and I had predicted arriving at this point at 8:30. I was dead on my projection. That was hard to believe after my low point out of Rose Valley. I was now halfway done and on my estimated 20 hour, 8 a.m. finish.
COZY DELL TO GRIDLEY TOP (37.9mi) I enjoyed the quiet hike in the dark back up. I zipped my jacket to warm up, but was soon unzipped again and hiking up. I got all the way back up to the turn off the single track onto the wide trail and waited for the gang. I dumped rocks out of my shoes and enjoyed the dark. I had plugged into my IPOD shuffle for this first part and it had gotten me there quickly. My three amigos showed up and off we went again. We hiked up out of Cozy Dell in good spirits and got to the single track climb again. We took turns leading for a bit and then I decided to go. Fear can be a real motivator for me and I wanted to get up and past those dreaded drop offs as soon as I could. I have done the same thing out at the Guads climbing up out of McKittrick Canyon. I just put my head down and went. I cranked on the IPOD and slogged up. When I got to the drop off sections, I tensed up badly. I tiptoed across with stiff ankles and kept trying to tell myself to relax. I could feel my stabilizing muscles in my lower legs and ankles straining at the tension I was putting on them on these sections. I was sweating like mad from the exertion and the stress. “When will it end? I want to be on the Ridge!” I thought. Another 3500 feet of climb, most of it over about 5 miles. My IPOD stopped working. I didn’t stop to figure out why, but later learned that it was so cold that the battery had frozen as it worked when I got to the finish. My heart rose as I finally saw the turn onto the Ridge. The wind on the Ridge was icy and I struggled as I zipped up my thin jacket. I walked slowly up looking for my gang’s lights below The lights were far down the switchbacks and I was too cold to stand there so I hiked up the first uphill. It was very chilly and breezy on the Ridge so I had to keep moving to stay warm. I had soon reached the top and the route headed down. As I had been climbing, the clouds had obscured the stars, but once on top, I could see their brilliance. I had also contemplated demanding (jokingly) of the RD for a refund as I had seen no moon at which to howl! I fully intended to insist on at least a cow moon. It was then that I saw the orange glow peaking over the mountain line. The moon was rising just before midnight. It was amazing. I ran down and kept going and going. I knew I was putting some distance on my group, but I needed to stay warm. I passed a 100 miler on this section and kept moving until hitting the Aid Station again.
GRIDLEY TOP TO GRIDLEY BOTTOM (43.7mi)
I came in and refilled my bottle and drank some broth and some Coke. I chatted with RD Chris Scott for a moment noting my jacket matched his wrong way sign. I was fishing for some Bonus Minutes. The RD empowers the volunteers to assign Bonus or Boner Minutes to a runner for various actions. I was about ready to go by the time Karen, Charles and Melissa came in. Karen was still struggling with her light so I offered her my backup. “Oh no! you need that!” she said. I tried again but she declined. Jill Childers, who had been close to our Gang of Four most of the evening came in to the aid station then. If you look in the dictionary for the word “vivacious”, you will see Jill’s picture. She was always smiling and laughing whenever I had seen her up to that point. She breezed in and was ready to go while Karen, Charles and Melissa were still getting refueled. I don’t remember if I asked her if I could go with her or vice versa, but either way we quickly agreed to head down together. I had mentioned to Chris the worn out trails along the route to Cozy Dell and he warned me that there were a couple like that on the way down from Gridley Top. “Uh-oh!” In less than a quarter mile from the aid station, we encountered the eroded trail. Again it was a matter of the trail being pounded into dust so there was no real traction in the powder. I gallantly let Jill lead who seemed unfazed by the drop offs. We made steady progress down. The drop offs would pop up once in a while, but not for extensive distances. I had finally started to relax on them a little which helped the stability and balance. Jill had a steady pace that I could mostly keep up with on the downhill by powerwalking. So while I may have been able to go a little faster downhill, it was awesome to have her company. We had visited a little before, enough for me to know that she was from San Diego and knew Paul Schmidt. We chatted a good bit as we made our way down. At one point Meredith and her running pal came flying down past us. I was frankly surprised that she hadn’t already passed me. It was tempting to chase after her, but I knew she would lose me on the uphill so I stayed with my new pal. I’m not sure how long it took to get down. After all we were dropping over 3000 feet over this 5.8 mile section. We also Moogy cruising up this section, he was doing awesome. When we were down and the trail leveled out, we essentially were trying to make our way through a dry creek bed full of boulders. This was the only part of the course where there were glowsticks to help us navigate. The rest of the course had silver reflective ribbon along with orange ribbon to mark the way. We finally got down to the road and the Gridley Bottom Aid Station where fellow HCTR member, Ryan Beard was waiting for me. Ryan was my own personal crew! He refilled my bottles, fetched food for me and waited on me hand and foot. It was great! I had soup with some potato wedges and was still trying to get some in my face when my energizer bunny pal, Jill had fired down her caffeine and was ready and raring to go. I got up and off we went. Thanks, Ryan.
GRIDELY BOTTOM TO GRIDLEY TOP (49.5mi) Just under 20 miles to go. And now we had the same 5.8 miles up and then another 1000 feet up before getting to the high point on the Ridge. Yikes! My legs were still okay, but the Sandman was starting to follow me closely. Jill was a solid, steady climber and pulled me along. Not far up the slope we saw what appeared to be a two-legged cow approaching. It was Chris and crew coming down from Gridley Top. We had a good laugh with them and kept on. As long as I could RUN, I had been able to stay awake. I had gobbled lots of caffeine, but now the slow trudge up the mountain was lulling me to sleep. I ran on the very few short flats that we encountered, but it wasn’t enough. The IPOD was still frozen and I just couldn’t get going. This was a struggle. I managed to keep going, but Jill was pulling ahead. I even tried running uphill which did rouse me, but I could only do that for so long for fear of totally trashing out my legs. It seemed to take forever. Jill would call out the mileage from her Geek-O-Meter, I mean GPS, and I didn’t really want to know that we still had 2.8 miles of climb left ? Somehow we made it up and got back to Gridley Top. It felt really good to be here. We didn’t spend a lot of time here. It was cold so we got out of there quickly and headed for the last aid station.
GRIDLEY TOP TO RIDGE JUNCTION(57.3mi) Even though we were back on the Ridge road, we still had to climb some more. It was another 1000 feet of elevation gain to reach the top of the Ridge. This was a long stretch, 7.8 miles to be exact. The 1000 feet of climb was almost all in the first 2.5 miles. At least here on the Ridge road, I could shuffle a little to not only keep warm, but to stay awake. I was still struggling on the steeper climbs to stay awake. Jill hung with me by marking off the time till light. Of course, by now the caffeine etc was making me pee every 15 minutes. Jill would walk on ahead and I would jog to catch up. This became our pattern for several miles. I kept looking for light in the sky to save me. It was a test now, but I also knew that I WOULD FINISH. I could finally see the turn to circle the Ridge, the high point of the route. Jill and I were gaining inexorably on a few 100 Milers. We got to the level Ridge and could finally run again. It was really cold before dawn. Jill’s GPS said 31, but there was a stiff breeze which made the wind chill much worse. To run is to be alert and alive and I could run again. We came upon the lovely snow that I had seen that previous afternoon. The problem is that it was now refrozen and as hard as concrete and as jagged as knives! Jill realized that quickly and she was soon leading us through a weaving dance through the easiest spots. We must have passed half a dozen 100 milers on this little section. As we rounded the corner, there was now light in the sky. Hurray! I knew that we just had to keep going and we would soon get to Ridge Junction Aid Station. Jill and I had talked about music a good bit as her husband is a musician. We had plenty of shared tastes and as the light brightened, we started singing “happy” songs. We totally amused ourselves with abbreviated renditions of a number of 60s and 70s cheery ditties. It is hard to remember them now, but I know we sang the Turtles’ “Happy Together” among others. This was definitely fuel for my soul as we neared Ridge Junction. We finally arrived there about 6:45 a.m. Remarkably, my projected arrival time before starting the race was 7:00 a.m. The hardy volunteers fueled us with soup, fresh grilled cheese sandwiches and other goodies.
RIDGE JUNCTION TO FINISH/THACHER SCHOOL (62.2mi) 4.9 miles to the finish, all downhill. Yee-freaking-haw! We started on the jeep road that led to the single track. We both had good legs, despite Jill having a bunion issue for miles. When we got to the turn to the single track, I told Jill to go ahead as I HAD to go make a stop in the woods. After that I felt a heck of a lot better. I dashed down the single track trying to catch Jill. The 100 Milers we passed in the snow had passed me when I was stopped. I reeled them in along with a number of other 100 Milers who were gingerly making there way down the slope. I can’t imagine how tough the 100 miler would be, especially on the steep downhill finish. But I love me some downhill and was booking it. My legs still felt good. With all the walking, they were not cramping and I was able to just go. It took me 10-15 minutes of solid running to catch up with Jill. I accused her of sandbagging me on her downhill skills! Again I could have gone down quicker on this section, but it mattered far more to me to hang with Jill who had stayed with me for the last 20 miles to that point. “Do you think we can make it there by 8:30?” Jill asked. “Oh yeah” I replied, “maybe even 8:15.” We hit the Pines picnic area and I told Jill that it had taken 45 minutes climb to get to this point the previous afternoon. We had to be only 30 minutes away. I had been letting her lead and had powerwalked/jogged behind her. Now I was smelling the barn. I went ahead and ran some of it and then would wait for her to catch up. Then we hit the creek crossings. All of these were now tricky going down. The footing was awkward and uneven. It slowed us down a good bit and we both felt really bad for the 100 Milers who would have to navigate it. We passed a few more runners as we headed down. We finally got to the open wide trail where we started. “I see the school!” I yelled back to Jill. As we had come down the mountain, we had plotted our finish. We agreed that holding hands across the finish was not for us. Arm in arm seemed the way to go. We also decided to let loose with our “coyote howl” as we reached the field. Once at the field, you had to do a lap around it ala Western States before finishing. Down we went and there was the field! We gave our best howl and made it down to the soft grass of the field. As we started our lap, I spotted Moogy and Meredith tiptoeing gingerly down from the parking lot. What timing! Meredith “dashed” across the field and took pictures as we made the final straightway and headed for the line. Arm in Arm we made it to the end. Big hugs, pose for photos and hug again. We came in at 8:16 a.m. My projected time was 8:00 a.m. I was more than happy with 20 hours and 16 minutes.
THE VOLUNTEERS The volunteers for this event were nothing short of fantastic! They were unfailingly cheerful and helpful at all hours and under sometimes difficult (cold) conditions. A couple of the aid stations on the Ridge had to be freezing cold for those just standing around. There were always enough volunteers that you got “served” without having to wait. Time spent at aid stations was entirely up to you. It was pretty cool to have the RD out on one of the most remote aid stations directing runner traffic and instilling the Mooner spirit out on the course. One notable volunteer was a young blonde haired girl who couldn’t have been more than 7 or 8 at Gridley Bottom aid station. She peppered Jill with questions and words of encouragement. She even walked with us out to the trail head and told us that she would see us at the finish line! A true ultrarunner in the making!
THE SCHWAG Sunmart may be dead, but the bountiful goody bag lives on at Coyote. Wow, there was so much stuff! GREAT Patagonia jacket and capilene half-zip shirt for everyone. There was a pair of my favorite RaceReady shorts in my bag, too. Everyone got a mug and an assortment of useful and sometimes simply humorous stuff. I got a Starbucks gift card, a Dunkin Donuts gift car and one for Joe’s Crab Shack. I got an old book about a nun named Sister Pauline as well as a Lebanese newspaper and a commemorative edition of Newsweek with Barack Obama on the cover. I almost needed another bag to bring home all the loot.
THE COURSE 5 climbs and 5 major descents for the 100K. All of these spun off of Nordhoff Ridge. Much of the trail was technical, at least more so than I expected for a California race. The jeep road on top was not my favorite, but I didn’t mind it that much because it gave me a chance to stretch my legs and was a nice break from the tricky footing on some of the single track. TOUGH climbs and fun downhills were the order of the day. I had to cope with my irrational fear of heights both during the waning light and again at night on Cozy Dell and Gridley. I still haven’t conquered it, but at least I am able to get through it. A beast of a course that would be a challenge for any runner.
THE LESSON
What an incredible
experience and event! The spirit of this race is remarkable. For me
personally, I was in such a bad spot until I joined up with my new
friends who literally saved my event. Karen, Melissa and Charles
pulled me up from the depths and got me going again. Jill and I made
a great team for the last 25 miles. It would have been an awfully
long journey without her company. I have no clue what Hardrock is
like from the “vibe” perspective, but my guess is that it is the
same sort of “brotherhood/sisterhood” thing. Sure there are
people at C2M that are looking to run the fastest, but that is not
the focus of the event. You don’t really know where folks are in
their race unless you started with them or figure it out by chatting
with them. The entire thing is set up to foster a reliance on one
another and to boost each other up as you tackle a really difficult
course. I can see this being an annual pilgrimage just to recapture
the “spirit of the mooner/coyote” each year. I think it is a
glimmer of why folks go back to Hardrock every year. It is ALWAYS a
test of fortitude and a chance to re-bond with those who are doing
the same thing. I had one of the lowest points mentally in four years
early on in the race and thought I would drop at mile 18. It was BAD.
Instead I managed to keep going and join up with Karen, Melissa,
Charles and Jill and got stronger and tougher as I went along by
drawing from the spirit of fellow runners. Thanks to them, I finished
Coyote 2 Moon. And because of them, I will return each year with the
chance to regain the coyote/Mooner spirit to carry with me throughout
the year.
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