High Five 100

Catching Up

It's been quiet on the "doing big things" front for a couple of years following the giant Nolan's 14 year of 2020. Summer of 2021 was dedicated to a massive home deck rebuild, which was followed by knee surgery for John to repair a torn meniscus. 

A tear of another sort put the kibosh on our summer 2022 plans to get out and do adventuring in four of the big mountain ranges (Gore, Sangre de Cristo, Elk/West Elk, and San Juan) in the Colorado Rocky Mountains and pace friend Brandt Ketterer in the High Five 100. In the first week of July of that year, John was diagnosed with a detached retina, which required two eye surgeries and downtime for basically the entire summer season.

Thankfully, the last few years haven't been entirely dedicated to recuperating from injuries. In September 2022, we took a trip to celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary. We did a couple days of sightseeing in Geneva, Switzerland, then five days of hiking and trail running in the Alps out of Chamonix, France and next to Nice, France for some relaxing and beach time on the Cote d'Azur (a.k.a. French Riveria). Fantastic trip! John did manage to squeak in an injury, though...badly rolling his ankle on a trail run in the Alps above Courmayeur, Italy. 

The Alps above Chamonix, France

Onward

December and January is when we start contemplating big challenges and adventures that we may want to do the coming summer. Jennifer proposed that perhaps I'd like to submit an entry for the High Five 100, or attempt a solo run on the Hardrock 100 course. The High Five 100 caught our attention when it debuted in 2019. It's an under the radar challenge that most mountain ultra runners haven't heard of. Logan and Caitlin Rhodes are the couple from Lake City, CO who created it to capture the essence of the ultra marathon by making it just on the edge of what's possible to do in 48 hours. It's different than a typical ultra race, in having no aid stations, no course markings, no entry fee and an application process consisting of submitting your mountain trail ultra resume with emphasis on your experience in relentless mountain terrain and unpredictable weather conditions.

The purity of it appealed to what we have come to value in mountain ultra marathons and experiences.

Still recovering from my ankle injury and uncertain if it would hold up through the training required in the coming months, I submitted my application on UltraSignup in January. In early February, I received the email with condolences confirming that I'd been accepted!

Preparations

As she does, Jennifer immediately began the planning. She set out a training plan for me, which, among other big efforts, included what we called "Elbert 3 Ways" in early July, which ended up being a 15+ hour overnight extravaganza up and down Mt. Elbert via 3 different routes, with almost 15k' of vertical. It yielded benefits 3 Ways. 

First, it was a great test piece to hone and see how my endurance was shaping up after a couple seasons off.

Second, Brandt Ketterer joined me for the whole thing and it's always great getting out with him. Our tired eyes were treated to an amazing sunrise inversion from the top of Colorado at 14,438". It also gave me many hours to ask him questions about his experience running the High Five 100.

Third, Dave Scheibel took note of my Strava and offered his services to pace me in the comments. I'm generally more comfortable doing these things alone, but as with Nolan's 14, I figured I'd need all the help I could get. Although I hadn't spent a lot of time with Dave, I felt that we would be compatible, he was experienced playing in the mountains, and he seemed super stoked for the experience. 

 Jennifer and I targeted several trips to Lake City, Colorado, which is a 4 hour drive from our home, as soon as the mountain snow conditions allowed, which ended up being late June. The main objective of these trips was to get feet on and scout as much of the route as possible, but also to enjoy the amazing San Juan Mountains of southwest Colorado. We hadn't been there in years and it was great to get back into the depths of that amazing area.

Doubts remained about whether I'd be able to do it, due to my still painful right ankle and the uncertainty of whether I'd be able to get back into "ultra shape", three years removed from Nolan's 14. 

Texted to me during a difficult training run in June

Fortunately, my ankle started feeling better by the middle of April, which was the latest that I could start training hard in order to be ready for the August 11 start of the High Five. I had ups and downs, but overall, the 54 year old body held up well to the well thought-out training plan (for re-entry to the 100 mile world) that Jennifer had laid out for me. It prioritized measured steady progress, and vertical ascent/descent and time on feet over miles. I also got as much sleep as I could fit in, I do really good on lots of sleep. 

Final training stats: 

May 200 miles, 40'k elevation gain, 45 hours on trail

June 200 miles, 70'k elevation gain, 80 hours on trail

July 200 miles, 70'k elevation gain, 80 hours on trail

Although we tried to share as much of the scouting hikes and runs as possible, it was unavoidable that Jennifer often got stuck driving and hiking up and down gnarly jeep roads in order to crew me during long days, and shuttling from the start to the end of my route for the day.

Crew Stop All Set Up

This is the downside of preparing for and running these events, much of Jennifer's summer is spent supporting it, as opposed to doing what she would prefer, which is being out in the backcountry doing her thing. 

Fortunately, we did get to share a bunch of time training together...

Jennifer with Matterhorn and Wetterhorn Peaks

...in various types of Summer mountain weather...

Mt Antero in June

The Run

The concept is simple: Start in Lake City at 6am on Friday, get to each of the proof points in order as listed on the High Five website and get back to Lake City by 6am Sunday (48 hour time limit). For me, the stats ended up being 96.25 miles with 35,060' of vertical and it took me 46 hours 40 minutes. 23 people started on Saturday and 9 of us finished. 

Purple markers are checkpoints with no crew access.
Black checks are checkpoints where Jennifer will crew.
<Click to enlarge>

I thought about it in three big blocks. Start to Capital City, Capital City to Sherman, Sherman to Finish. 

With Brandt and Dave, the only pacers I've ever had, on the eve of the High Five 100
I'm proud to be associated with these these tough gentlemen.

 

Start to Capital City - Checkpoints 1-6
27.5 Miles; 10,300' Ascent; 10hrs 40min

The Start

I knew this segment would involve a significant amount of climbing through the first 6 checkpoints, which include two 14,000' peaks (14ers), a 13,000' peak (13ers), and a damn near 13,000' peak (12er). The start was super low key, as it was just a small group of us standing in the middle of the street at 6am. It wasn't even the full group of 23, since those who had completed the run in prior years start an hour later for each time they've finished. So there were a few that started 1 or 2 hours after our group did, including my buddy Brandt Ketterer, who finished in 2022. 

A funny thing happened as we ran down Silver Street to the north end of town. I made a right on 8th St, while every other person made a damn left! I was committed to sticking to what I knew, I'd scouted this section with Brandt a few weeks earlier and had my GPS track on my phone, so I knew this way got me to the trails. Downside was that I wondering for an hour or so whether I was really smart and would end up way ahead, or really dumb and far behind. Turns out, I was just a little dumb. I caught up with the folks toward the back about 45 minutes in and was at least relieved to stop wondering about where I was in relation to everyone else. 

Meanwhile, Jennifer started her long journey, as well. After seeing Brandt off at his start at 7:00am, she was headed to meet and crew me at checkpoint #2 - Uncompahgre Trailhead. It's about a 30 minute drive, including on some fairly rough Jeep road, and then a four mile hike up a rougher section of Jeep road carrying all my food and water for resupply. She has and will be navigating much rougher roads on this adventure. 

The steady climb toward Crystal Peak and the steep climb to the summit to checkpoint #1 went smoothly in under 2.5 hrs, as did going off trail cross country and descending to the Jeep road that Jennifer had hiked up to meet me just before 10am, about an hour ahead of my estimated split time. 

Crystal Peak 2 hours in

It always lifts my spirits seeing her and this time she hiked with me for a bit on the trail to Uncompahgre Peak. We caught each other up on our journeys to that point and after 10 minutes, we parted ways, as we both had a lot of distance to cover before we'd see each other again. A couple of minutes after she left, I inexplicably tripped myself right into a small creek, jabbing my left knee and lower quad on rock and ending up butt-down in the water, along with my half-eaten rice cake. I was pretty pissed at myself for that careless blunder for a while, but continued on, trading places with a few other competitors along the way. 

Uncompahgre Peak is the high point of the route at 14,318' and is a beautifully distinctive looking mountain which I hadn't been on top of since 2010 when Jennifer and I climbed all of the Colorado 14ers.

Uncompahgre Peak 4.5 hours in

I summited in just under 5.5 hours elapsed. On the way down, I started running into a few of the fast guys on their way up, who had started an hour or more after I did. One of them was Brandt, so we had a brief chat about how things were going. The other was the eventual winner, Dustin Simoens, who had started two hours after me. Truly amazing, so I cursed him out for being so awesome, and continued to do whenever our paths crossed. Fortunately, he seemed to get my sense of humor. He went on to finish 16 hours...16 F$^@!ng HOURS!!...ahead of me.

This section is one of the most dramatic, as once on top of Uncompahgre, you can see your next couple of checkpoints across an open basin, Matterhorn (13,590') and Wetterhorn (14,021') Peaks. Several of the runners were taking a steep scree field off the side of Uncompahgre, but I hadn't scouted that route, so I took a bit longer on-trail route and a smaller shortcut toward the steep climb up Matterhorn. 

Next - Matterhorn and Wetterhorn Peaks

I began the climb briefly with Dustin, before he left me in the dust. I'm pretty good on climbs, but his pace in this terrain was ridiculously fast! I got to the top around 2 hours after my previous summit and on the way down, I saw Brandt again on my descent, when I was quite off-course in some big, unsteady talus. After getting back to where I should have been, I was off toward Wetterhorn, which is the most technical peak of the route with some tricky route-finding and exhilarating exposure in a few spots. Fortunately, I'd scouted Wetterhorn a few weeks prior and laid down a GPS route that I trusted. It was a fun scramble to the top where I arrived about an hour after Matterhorn. 

San Juans Glory coming off Wetterhorn Summit

Steep, Exposed Scrambling Near the Summit
There's no other 100 miler with terrain like this!

From there, it was back to the trail and then about 3 miles down the jeep road to the Capital City checkpoint, where I'd see Jennifer for a crew stop and pick up Dave Scheibel, who flew all the way in from Seattle to join me for the remaining 70 miles of the adventure. 

10.5 hours in I get to see Jennifer

Dave joins at Mile 27 - Just in time for a river crossing

I'd say I consistently pushed hard, but stayed mostly within my comfort zone during this section. I was especially cautious on the long downhills, not to exhaust my quads. 

One of the Tamer Roads Jennifer Chases Me Around On

 

Capital City to Sherman Townsite - Checkpoints #6-12
53.7 Miles; 21,270' Ascent; 24hrs 23min

This section began with a segment that I knew would be one of the more challenging segments, the 2.5 mile / 3000' bushwhack up to 12,800' Cooper Lake Ridge (checkpiont 7). 

Coming off Cooper Lake Ridge

There's no trail, it's super steep, often loose footing, through tight trees with sharp branches and needles and, as I found out, some aggressive, ground-dwelling yellow jackets. Many F-bombs were dropped when I got stung by about 20 of them.

Cooper Ridge Checkpoint Greeter

Damn, they hurt, but fortunately they did not create an impediment to continuing. It was a relief to get to the ridge and the skeleton guarding the check-in canister, knowing that section was done and it is a very impressive basin with Cooper Lake and the surroundings. The way down to Grouse Gulch is on trail and the way normal people hike in to get to Cooper Lake. After stopping to get water at the lake, we ran into Brandt, who had caught up to us. I couldn't keep up with his downhill speed, so he went on after we shared a bit of trail. 

Day 1 Sunset

We got down to the Jeep road just in time for a gorgeous high mountain sunset, made more impressive by the gathering clouds, foreshadowing the overnight adventure to come. 

By the time we got to the Grizzly Gulch trailhead it was fully dark. It's an active place, as it's the starting point for this route up the final three 14ers on the route - Handies Peak (checkpoint 8) and Readcloud (CP 10) and Sunshine (CP 11) Peaks. We also knew we'd be back here again, since I chose to do an out-and-back to tag Handies, as most people did. A few runners chose to take a slightly longer, but more elegant route up one side of the mountain from American Basin and down the other side into Grouse Gulch and not re-tracing their steps. The 8 mile 3500' round trip took about 4 hours. Along the way, I broke one of my hiking poles and it started blowing and raining as we got closer to the dark summit. Dave, being the awesome pacer he was, gave me his poles and I would keep them, leaving him with none for the next two mountains. We crossed paths with Brandt at the summit, which buoyed my spirits because I thought I was going so slow. It was encouraging to know that I wasn't that far off the pace of Brandt, who is a stud mountain ultra crusher.

Retracing our steps on this out-and-back section and descending into Grizzly Gulch and thankfully, back down to treeline and protection from the wind and some warmer temps, Dave and I passed the time solving world hunger, urban decay and finding my broken hiking pole. 

At about 11:40pm, we rolled back into the Grizzly Gulch trailhead (CP 9) where Jennifer was waiting, along with the other runners' crews. Entering and then leaving this bubble of civilization, campfires and comforts deep in the mountains in the middle of the night is a surreal experience. 

As much as I had put in to get to that place, Jennifer matched. It's many miles (and even more hours) for her to drive between crew points and the route to this one involved driving our Jeep the final 5 miles each way on the notorious shelf road to the trailhead with sheer dropoffs of 100s of feet and often only just wide enough for one vehicle and rugged 4x4-only steep terrain. She also had to drive in and out in the dark and rain just before midnight and then after 2am.

A Not-So-Tame Shelf Road Jennifer Drove
The Darkness on the Left is a Sheer 800' Drop

In the warmth of our Jeep, we chowed down warm food that Jennifer had prepared for us. Some macaroni and cheese and a new concoction of salty goodness that Dave dreamed up...mashed potatoes with Pringles. Yay for salty simple carbs!

Grizzly Gulch Checkpoint and Crew at midnight

Yeah, that was a hit! Soon enough, we were back on the trail, Jennifer hiking with us around midnight in the rain for about 10 minutes up the trail toward Redcloud (14,037') and Sunshine (14,004') Peaks. We had no idea what we were climbing into. 

Jennifer left to get back to the Jeep, break down the camp she'd established for us and drive down the crazy 4WD shelf road at 2am in the rain. Once she got back to our campsite, next was to swap all the gear and supplies from the Jeep (previous checkpoint was not accessible by our truck camper) to our truck camper, and then get over to the Sherman Townsite before we got there. 

She doesn't sleep during these events and takes on a lot of stress worrying about me and making sure every, single detail is thought through. She gives me a huge advantage to be able to complete these things. 

On the mountain, at around 13,000', the rain turned to snow and as we ascended the ridge of Redcloud Peak, the wind was whipping the snow horizontally. Fortunately, these are not technical peaks to climb, but we had very little visibility and even with all of our layers on, we had to keep moving to fend off hypothermia, for more than three hours. We relied almost exclusively on Dave's Garmin watch and the GPS track he had on it for navigation, as I could not afford to take my mitts off to navigate with my phone.

It was nuts! It took us 6 hours to get up and over those two peaks and back down to the road where we would meet up with Jennifer at the Sherman Townsite, where it was still raining and the road was a slippery mud bog. She had assumed that we had a horrible night in the rain. Seeing the shape we were in, she immediately knew that we had experienced more than just rain up on those 14ers. 

Coming into Sherman Aid

Jennifer immediately got Dave and me situated, me in the camper and Dave up front in the cab of the truck, fed, warmed up and into dry clothes. Next up, some serious conversations about continuing on, or not.

John, Dave, Jennifer

Brandt was at the crew access point and came by to discuss whether or not he and we were going to continue in light of the beating we all took overnight up high at 14k (biggest result being a huge loss of energy with the cold and wet, we could never replace all of that lost energy with calories during the race), and the prospects that we'd run into more snow in the early morning hours as we ascended the next climb to Cataract Lake and then on to the summit of Carson Peak (13,662') and running the ridge over to Bent Peak (13,405'). We all decided to go on. This was a point where a good number decided that they'd had enough and dropped. Understandable.

Sherman Townsite to Finish - Checkpoints #12-22
96.25 Miles; 35,060' Ascent; 46hrs 40min

On our 5 mile trek up to Cataract Lake, we crossed paths with a few more runners making their way down after deciding to drop after getting views of the snow-covered ridges and peaks that lay ahead. At gorgeous Cataract Lake, we met up with Clinton Straughen standing in the marshy grasses looking up at the snowy ridge that lay ahead and in a state of indecision about whether he should continue. 

Cataract Lake

Dave and I both encouraged him to come with us on the off-trail shortcut we were taking. Looking in his eyes and talking to him, I had no doubts about his ability to continue, as he looked way fresher than I felt, he was moving really well and we're all in this experience together doing something exceptionally difficult with a non-trivial level of risk, so we look out for each other. I'm really glad he decided to continue, as he finished super strong 2.5 hours ahead of me. 

Carson Peak

It was around this point where I was getting very slow on the steep climbs and had to work through my frustration with that reality. Steep climb up from the CO Trail to the Carson Peak summit checkpoint, then gentle ridge hike over to Bent Peak and down to the Carson Townsite (CP 16), where Jennifer would be waiting to give us aid. The hike down to the Carson Townsite was a bit demoralizing, as it's an out-and-back section. So we knew that every step of the 2 miles and 1000' of lost elevation on this jeep road would have to be retraced to get back to where we'd started in order to continue on along. 

Jennifer was waiting for us at the checkpoint/crew access. She'd hiked miles up the rough Wager Gulch Jeep road with all of our food and water re-supplies, and her own water and food, would crew us, hike back up with us for about a mile and then hike back out on her own. And then she had to reorganize everything and get to the next crew stop well before us. It would be great to do a video journal of her experience crewing me on these things. Incredible!

As Dave and I came into the crew area a little after 1pm, Brandt was just heading out after his extended stay there, caring for trench foot issues after the wet and snowy night prior. Good to see him moving on. We spent about 45 minutes in crew getting refueled, hydrated and re-loaded for the next 15ish mile leg before seeing Jennifer again.

Getting started with the section was the hardest, even with Jennifer hiking up with us for over a mile, giving me love, pep-talk and in general, just looking after me for a few more minutes. I shared that I was feeling embarrassed that I wasn't climbing so well anymore with my tired legs and lungs. Silly, but that's what I was feeling at the time. 

We had to retrace our steps up the Jeep road for 2 miles and 1000' back up to the Continental Divide and then continue climbing another 1000' and another mile to the summit of Coney Point (CP 17).

Coney Point Checkpoint

Those 3 miles took 2 hours. Good news was that there were no more big climbs for a while as we rolled along the Continental Divide to CP 18 at the CO Trail Yurt. I was hoping to run more of this section, but I did the best I could to run a few steps here and there and Dave did a great job of kindly encouraging me to run whenever I could. We eventually got to the Yurt at 6pm, 36 hours in. 

From the Yurt, it was a long 3 miles downhill to the final crew checkpoint at the Camp Trail Trailhead and the lowest point on the route at 9200', other than the start/finish in Lake City. It was a high point, though, as I'd get to see Jennifer again at the final checkpoint where she'd be able to crew me. 

Going into the second night is a tough mental challenge, but Dave and I knew that we had the time to get me to the finish in the 48 hour time limit, even if I was slooow in those final 16 miles. Good thing, because that took some of the stress off my exhausted mind and I was slooow on this, the final and of course, biggest climb of the entire route. The 6 miles and 4200' slog to the summit of Whiley's Peak (CP 20) took a brutal 4 hours in the dark and at the top it was really windy and cold. In the moonless night, on the steep, cold and windy slopes of talus on the last 1000' of vertical to the summit, both in our headlamp bubbles, we were trying to make out what the dancing lights were up on the summit ridge. They were far enough away, that it was hard to get a real bead on what they were or what direction they were moving. My vision isn't the best anyway, since my retina surgery, but Dave shared later that he didn't know what WTF he was seeing either. I'm sure they were just other High Fivers ahead of us, but it was a weird scene for both of us. Maybe we were both hallucinating?

Coming off the summit, I knew we had to stay on the ridge longer to the north than I did when I scouted this section, but in the darkness of the cold and windy night and the fog in my tired brain, I felt that were were way off track and floundering for a long time and I couldn't quite get us righted. Somehow we crossed over the trail that we were trying to get back to and ended up below the trail in a steep gully. We eventually got back on the trail and in the end, Dave didn't think we lost too much time, but to me it felt like a big mess there for a while. There really wasn't any more true off-trail for the remainder of the run, so we cruised and chatted in the dark as we descended the Alpine Gulch trail and through the woods, crisscrossing the stream until we got to the last checkpoint (CP 21) before the finish in Lake City, at the intersection of the East and Middle forks of the Alpine Trail. This section of trail cris-crosses the creek 7 times. Fortunately, we found ways to mostly keep our feet dry, thanks to Dave's ability to find logs crossing the stream at every crossing. Amazing neither of us fell on these balancing acts at this point, exhausted and in the 3am darkness. 

At last we got to the final 3+ mile smooth dirt road section into Lake City, normally easy sailing, but as much as I wanted to, I couldn't run anymore. Every time I tried, my stomach tightened up and I just had to go back to a walk. Making that final left hand turn and entering the park and the finish to the massive adulation of Jennifer, the Race Directors, and a crowd of at least 2 more people at 4:40am was overwhelming. Actually, it was. It's always one of the best feelings imaginable, to stop, to let go, not have to start again, to finish, to exhale, to sit down. 

The Whole Shebang

Sitting in the camp chair, next to Dave, I downed a Gnarly protein shake and I think a Coke and cheered in the lone female finisher, Whiley Hall, 6 minutes after I came in. She started an hour after I did, so she finished in 45:46 vs my 46:40. I was laying down to sleep in my camper 5 minutes after Whiley finished. I was really tired. 

Minutes After We Finished - Exhale

Wrapping Up

After a couple fitful hours of sorta sleep in the camper, we were up and on our way over to Logan and Caitlin's house for breakfast Sunday at 10am. They are a wonderful couple to allow all of us runners and crew to invade their home - period - let alone after managing this multi-day event! It was great to catch up with everyone and yeah, eat a lot of quiche and breakfast pastries! The Rhodes do a great job of representing the town of Lake City, CO. Every time Jennifer and I have been there, the people have been nothing but welcoming and kind. 

Same to You, Lake City 
& San Juan Mountains

Logan asked me at the finish if the High Five lived up to my expectations. Yes, it did and I'm proud to have my name on this page, among an elite group of mountain athletes. That was a very challenging couple of days and nights moving through tough terrain at consistently high altitude with some extreme Rocky Mountain weather and wasps thrown in for good measure. We get to experience a lot of beautiful mountains, but the San Juan Range is a real special place...the size, the volcanic history, the way the mountains hold snow, the colors, the wildness, all of it.

Race Director Logan Rhodes

Endless heartfelt thank you to Dave for sharing the journey with me. It can be difficult finding the right personality that I am comfortable spending many hours with on these endurance adventures. I am often content with silence and value self-reliance. Dave showed up in elite shape and with just the right combination of what I needed, no pressure to talk, gentle prodding and encouragement when I needed it, patience for my complaining and a match for my often off-color attempts at humor. 

Thank you to Brandt for joining me on Elbert 3 Ways and scouting some of the trickier parts of the route with me in July.

So happy to have Brandt and Dave as a members of Team Kick Ass (TKA)!

The Aftermath Debrief Breakfast Feast Meetup

And Jennifer, WE did it again! Thank you for all of the planning, packing, pursuing and pushing that you did for six solid months leading up to the event. I loved getting back into the San Juan's and rediscovering this amazing area with you. It had been a while and we missed it. We had a great summer, but you sacrificed some of your enjoyment in order to hike and run Jeep roads instead of single track and drive around to crew me during training more than I wanted. I appreciate what you did to support me throughout and couldn't have succeeded without all that you did. 

❤TKA❤

High Lonesome 100 - August 2018

Ultra marathons are hard. Mountain ultra marathons in the High Rockies of Colorado are world class hard. No matter how many times you take them on, you're in for a thorough ass-whuppin'. If you're not physically and mentally prepared for and maybe even relishing that reality, it's very unlikely you'll make it through. Instead, you'll be looking for the exit at some point. The second running of the High Lonesome 100 was held on August 3-4 and it was also my second running. Second time around is not any easier, but I was able to incorporate improvements throughout the course, especially in the latter stages, where I struggled most last time.

The High Lonesome 100
(Click on any photos to enlarge)

Bottom line is I was able to finish in 26 hours 40 minutes, vs 27 hours 55 minutes, good for 9th place overall, while running 3 more miles due to some course changes and some questionable navigation on my part. The only other 40-something to finish in the top 10 was the woman's winner, Kerrie Bruxvoort, who came in 6th overall. Proud of that...Hey, Let's Hear it for the Old Guys! Next year I'll be in the 50s and out of maybe the most competitive age bracket in this sport.

Some other numbers that stood out to me are improvements in my average moving pace by almost a minute/mile from 16:02 to 15:05. This was due to more running and less walking, improved downhill pace, and incorporating a more efficient stride in the flats. I also reduced my stopped time (mostly in aid/crew stations) by more than 30 minutes. This is due in huge part to Jennifer's preparation in advance of each of the 6 times she gets to crew me throughout and the NASCAR/Formula1 style that she swaps out my hydration, restocks me with food, imparts targeted words of encouragement and information, and sends me off.

Click on the image below for the full Strava data of my race and here for the full results.

If you are connected with Jennifer or me on Facebook, you know Jennifer does great updates along the way. This she does in between driving hundreds of miles on all kinds of backcountry roads to the various crew spots, making sure she's ready for my arrival, and looking for cell reception. She posted some of her best for this race. Each time she knew exactly what I was going through, so I figured I'd include them here.

The Beginning - 6:00am Friday

 

Race Strategy

Fresh off my improved performance at the San Juan Solstice 50 Mile Run and the confidence it gave me, I decided that I would take a more aggressive and risky approach to the start of this race. I'm not a pure runner. Rather, my strength is in climbing, consistency, and just grunting it out, so flat out speed is not my strong suit. In spite of this, I decided that I would line up at the front of the pack at the start, rather than somewhere in the front third of the pack and go out fast with the lead pack. The race starts in a field on a plateau and within a hundred yards or so, we're on the only paved road and almost the only road section of the entire course. We go downhill and then flat and slightly uphill for about 2.5 miles, then climb on a dirt road for another mile, before getting to the first climb on steep singletrack trail. My aim was to get to that single-track climb, where I would be among the fastest, ahead of the main pack to avoid traffic.

Raspberry Gulch 1 Aid

As it turned out, everything went exactly according to plan and I was able to stick with the top 10 runners through this section, even doing a sub-8 minute mile or two along the road and I ended up staying in that general position through to the finish.

Cool to get mentioned in a race update with the leaders.

Approaching top of first climb around mile 4
Credit: Mile 90 Photography

 

Race 1: To Monarch Pass-Mile 67.8

For this part of the run, I was primarily looking to replicate what I did last year, as I felt I ran a good race to that point. I was actually worried that I wouldn't be able to replicate what I did in the first half, but I felt pretty energized, was having a good time and wasn't getting passed, so things felt good. I hadn't memorized many of my split times into aid stations, instead going by feel and continuing to push as much as I could and keep numbers out of my head as much as possible. My post-race analysis showed that I was beating last years splits into aid stations by 5, 10, 15 and then by Monarch, 25 minutes. Plus, Jennifer was getting me out of aid as quick, or quicker than last time.

Mile 90 Photography had people all around the course taking great shots. I must've been feeling good at the top of the 7 mile, 4000' climb before the Antero Aid station, because I felt inspired to do a horrible Heisman Trophy impression. Hey, I was oxygen deprived at 13,000' and hadn't really studied the image of the trophy in a while.

The "Heisman"

Next up was the Antero Aid station at mile 17. It's on a rough downhill jeep road, I was very happy to see the friendly faces of the aid station volunteers, I came in a bit too hot and at the last second, decided to give the Aid Station Chief, Kelsey a hug. Didn't go smoothly. I slipped on the loose rocks and almost took poor Kelsey down to the ground.

Antero Aid - The Scene of the Debacle

Kelsey took it all in stride. Thankfully I didn't hurt her! The aid crew took my hydration bladder, filled it with the amount of fluids I requested, I grabbed a handful or two of potato chips, maybe a couple cookies, half a banana and I was off within a couple minutes.

The Antero Aid Crew - Kelsey in Red

Without exception, the aid station volunteers were positive, funny, super helpful and just awesome. These are hard jobs in challenging environments and these people always provided a positive oasis to which I look forward to arriving.

At the Finish Re-enacting the Botched Antero Aid Arrival to
Caleb (Race Director and Kelsey's boyfriend)

I had a relatively smooth descent down into the town of Alpine, but did roll my left ankle a couple times on the very rough jeep road trying to keep up with my friend Dave Scheibel from Seattle. Likely I was distracted by his amazing legs. They are something to behold.

The out and back to Cottonwood over Laws Pass (it's officially unnamed, but naming it after lead sponsor, Laws Whiskey House works for me) went smoothly. I got to see Jennifer at Cottonwood before heading back up to the pass and down to St. Elmo.

Climbing to Laws Pass

Down Toward Cottonwood from Laws Pass

We Got Rained on Here for a While

This is a cool section because we get a view of the leaders as we pass each other and also the rest of the field. It's also beautiful, but so is the rest of the course.

The Technical Descent into Cottonwood with Jeff Wanner

All eyes on my Crew Chief Kicking Butt

From Cottonwood, I turned around, power hiked back up to the pass and started running down the other side. Just after cresting the pass, I was happy to see my friend Matt Ozanic. I was excitedly yelling to him as I approached, but as soon as I saw his eyes, I knew all was not well. His gut was acting up every time the course went up above 12,000' in elevation. I'm glad we shared this moment out there, both battling hard.

Me: "Anything I can give you? Salt tablets, M&Ms?"
Matty O: "Nah, just get going. I don't want to mess your shoes."

Things went smoothly for the next 17+ miles into the Hancock Aid where I saw Jennifer again at about 5:40pm, 30 minutes ahead of last year. I was all alone for this section. I saw NO ONE in front or behind even where I could see a fair distance. The spacing was odd this race. I feel that most of the time, there was a small pack 7-9 of the elites ahead of me, then there was me alone on an island and then quite a ways back was the rest of the field. 

Everything Prepped and Waiting for me At Hancock

Jennifer got me out of Hancock in 8 minutes with a veggie turkey, cheese and mustard wrap in my hand and ready to face the night.

It Was Tough to Leave

It's always hard leaving Jenn when I know it's going to be a long while until I see her again, but heading into the night alone and away from her for 6+ hours is especially hard for me. Fortunately, I had several more hours of daylight and was headed into some of the most beautiful and rugged sections (and this course sets a high beauty bar throughout). 

Hancock Lake at mile 51.5

The Climb Toward Chalk Pass

By the time I got to the Lost Wonder Hut Aid at mile 55, I was feeling a bit creaky in the hips, knees and ankles, but fortunately ultra aid station nurse extraordinaire, Daisy Clark, was there along with the rest of the great volunteers who had hiked in to work that aid station, to take care of me with some ibuprofen and fresh pierogies in the 2-3 minutes I was there.

As I worked my way up the big climb to the high ridge that leads to Monarch Ski Area, darkness descended and I had to turn on my light to see. On the climb, I joined up with Leonard Strnad and his pacer, Clare Gallagher, 2016 Leadville 100 woman's winner. They were fun to spend time with as we climbed in the dark, traversed the ridge together, and enjoyed our mutual appreciation for salty language. I do try to give people I run with proper warning that I curse like a pirate when I've feeling really good and when I'm feeling really bad. Clare was very caring and paced and took care of Leonard and me together for a while, making sure we were eating and drinking as we should be.

Eventually, I was alone again, working my way through the darkness high up on the dirt access roads at the top of Monarch Ski area. Then I thought I heard someone call my name. This is not uncommon. I often see and hear things in the darkness, but this time, it repeated, clearly my name from up on a small bluff to my right. Then Brandt Ketterer strolled out of the darkness. Brandt and I had scouted and attempted Nolan's 14 together back in 2016 and I wanted him to pace me in this race, but he got injured. Brandt is one of the very few to have completed the Nolan's line in under 60 hours in 2017. If you want a very entertaining and twisted account of what it's like to do Nolan's check out his post about it.  He said he might pop out to high-five me at some point, but I didn't expect to see him here deep in the night. I'm touched he made it out to talk with me for a few minutes. No idea what we discussed.

 

Race 2: Monarch to the Finish

I rolled into Monarch at 11:46pm, 24 minutes ahead of last year and Jenn hurried me off the camper, which she'd been assured she could crew me in, as long as the heater was not on. As I was about to climb in, a volunteer came running over to tell us that I'd be disqualified if I went in. After a few minutes, we had it straightened out and I was sitting down in the camper changing into new shoes and socks, eating a slice of pizza, and drinking some Gnarly Vegan Feast. Prior to this race, I'd only used this product for recovery, but it makes total sense to use it during long activities like this, especially when taking in solid food becomes challenging. It was satisfying and worked great!

After 19 minutes, I was on my way, up a short climb then down, down, down toward Fooses Creek Aid at mile 74.5. This was the beginning of the part of the race where I knew I had significant room for improvement and I viewed the remainder of the race as my big challenge. To this point, my goal was to move quickly and efficiently and leave enough in the tank to finish strong.

Looking at the course profile, it would seem to be easy sailing after Monarch Pass...mostly downhill with some small climbs. That's what I anticipated last year and I was wrong.

Course Elevation Profile with Fooses Creek Aid Marked

This year, I was focused on improving this section to the finish. In spite of some navigation uncertainties in the dark and a bit of backtracking to find marker flags, I arrived at Blanks Cabin Aid an hour ahead of last year. During this section, I spent some time again with Leonard Strnad and his new pacer, Kirk and we figured out some of the uncertainties together, as we leap-frogged back and forth several times. I appreciated their company and their checking in with me when I fell behind them...calling back to me in the dark to make sure I was ok. This is a great thing about this community of people. We share pretty unique experiences and although we are competitive, we look out for each other.

As I approached Blanks just before 4:30am Jennifer was yelling into the darkness to me, "Hey runner, are you #2? We have a surprise for you!"

Blanks Cabin Aid - A Sight for Sore Eyes Toward the End of  Long Night

Just getting there and seeing Jenn at mile 82 is great, but sure enough, there was a surprise. My friend Julian Smith, was volunteering and was also there to welcome and help crew me. Julian did so much to introduce me to Nolan's 14 and we started out our attempts in 2016 together. He also brought me some hot broth, which really hit the spot. Jenn sent me back out after 8 minutes, but it must've really been a good stop for me, because it felt longer.

Arrival at Blanks and Big Smile with Julian

With some renewed energy, I set out to finish this thing. Next stop was Raspberry Gulch at mile 92 and I got there 1 hour 7 minutes ahead, still gaining time.

Mile 92

Preparing to push for the last 7+ miles

I was feeling pretty crushed, as expected, but determined. In the 2 minutes I stopped, I downed some Gnarly, Jennifer told me she'd see me in 1:40 at the finish, I was in 10th place and I can do this in under 27 hours, so GO finish STRONG!

Getting some final calories in

The Awesome Raspberry gulch Aid Crew - Thank you!!

Last year, I was able to rally and finish strong on this final section, picking up a place along the way to finish 10th. This year, I was able to cut a few minutes off my time and picked up a place in the last couple miles (to my surprise) to finish in 9th place overall and the 8th male. I'll let pics tell the story of these last few miles...

4 Miles To Go 

Can Taste It

Finish!

Doesn't Get Any Better Than This (period, exclamation)

Relief

Team Kick Ass!

Spent

Two-Timer

This is a solitary sport much of the time, but it's also a team sport. You have no idea how much support I get from Jennifer in this. You may get a sense of what goes on during the race days, but there is so much more support and sacrifice that my partner makes for me in the months leading up to race day, fitting in training, planning, prepping, making time, packing, then driving, staying awake, chasing me around the course for the duration. Do people do it alone? Yes. But, in addition to improving my time significantly, creating these memories together with my Crew Chief, Wife Coach, Love and Best Friend makes them so much more enjoyable and meaningful. 

💕TKA 💕

Thank you to the entire High Lonesome 100 team, headed up by Caleb Efta, for all of the incredibly hard work you do in putting on a truly special event with unwavering soul, spirit, energy, and class! #HL100isFamily


In March 2019, the HL100 team released the video of the 2018 event - You may recognize my stunt double in the opening scene. And here are some parting friend shots in the aftermath and after a few beers and Laws Whiskeys.

With Matt Ozanic & Caleb Efta 

With 2nd Place Finisher and 2017 Winner Anthony Lee

Chris Pack, Char Ozanic, Matt, Me, Jennifer