Marji Gesick Duathlon 100 - The Worst of Both Worlds

As crazy hard of a race that the Marji Gesick 100 is, the race directors and the community have a way of pulling you deeper into it's clutches. Yes, it is a race but more so it is a way for the every day person to set personal goals, do things they never thought possible, and to find their limits and destroy them. This is a VERY hard course and everyone that toes the line, whether they finish or not, is to be commended and feel proud of what they accomplished.

I was set to race the Duathlon in 2020, but COVID had other plans. I was trying to get into a healthy state in 2021, but my body and mind were not having it and I bailed on the race. I worked my ass off to get into a healthy state and even though I continue to have issues with my running form it has taken me nearly 2-years of hard work, dedication, discipline, and the grace of God to feel like I was as ready as I could be for another shot at a buckle.  This would be my fourth attempt at buckling the 100 mile race with the prior years being 2017 - 2019.  The Duathlon category is broken up with 65 (ish) miles of mountain biking and transitioning to a 40 (ish) mile trial run. Yes, I know how to do math, but am fairly certain this basic skill has eluded the race directors their entire lives. In 2019 the race length was posted as 105.3 miles. I think I ended up with 110. To be fair, GPS is far from perfect and everyone's mileage ebbs & flows a bit. This year the posted course was 106.3 miles.

I like to mentally break up race courses into sections because it is much easier for me to think about small sections as opposed to the entire 100+ miles. 

• Mountain Bike
• Miles 0 - 17: Forestville Loop section (Top of the World, Rickles, World Cup)
• Miles 17 - 27: Lowes section (Ramblin Man, Wild Cat, Mild Cat, Pine Knob, Lowes)
• Miles 27 - 40: Last section before South Trailhead (East & West Grey Walls, Smiley, Eh Line)
• Miles 40 - 48: Technical Gnarly Bits (Gurly, Doctors, Marquette Mtn, Scary, Zuegs)
• Miles 48 - 65: Last section to Jackson Park (Off Grade)
• Trail Running
• Miles 65 - 74.5 - Where your legs are there or they are not (up to first Malton Rd crossing)
• Miles 74.5 - 85 - Where start contemplating your life choices (second Malron Rd crossing)
• Miles 85 - 90 - Back at Jackson Park (do I keep going or have a beer and pizza?)
• Miles 90 - 97 - Digging SUPER deep (Grand View, AM/FM) - What the actual he**?!?!
• Miles 97 - 106 - Begging for mercy, looking for the finish line and a cold coke

That isn't all of the trails, but it is the set of trails that sick out to me as being technical and/or fun. As I complete each section, I check off a box in my head as having successfully made it through and then I mentally line up the next set of trails to be tackled.

The weather for the race week looked dismal at best and lived in my head 24x7. Don't believe me? Just ask my wife. She was ready to throw me out of the house if I didn't stop talking about the damn weather. True story. Fortunately, the closer we got to the race the weather improved. It rained on Friday evening and over night into Saturday morning but by race time there was no rain in sight. Woo hoo!!

As we lined up in traditional Marji Gesick fashion, laying our bikes down in what we felt was the most optimal place to be picked up after our short and demoralizing 1/2-mile run in mountain bike shoes, the electric guitar player laid down a most excellent Star Spangles Banner like no other all while a dude on a motorcycle (was that a Harley??) rode straight through the center of the racers like parting the red sea. Meanwhile, three people were dressed up in Star Wars costumes; two as storm troopers and the third as Darth Vader (at least I think that is who he was supposed to be). Seriously, I can't make this sh** up.

Teammate Carey and I - " just get me to my bike"!!

The "Ride" (but not before a 1/2 mile jaunt through a field)

Todd gave the count down and we were off. It has to be quite the site to see hundreds of cyclists running across a field in mountain bike shoes, carrying Camelbaks, wearing helmets that are bobbing up and down, and bananas flying out of jersey pockets all while trying to not trip, make it to their bike, and get in front of as many people as possible without blowing up in the process.

My game plan for the race was to ideally finish with the mountain bike part in 8-hours best case and 10-hours worst case. For the run, it would all depend on how fast I finished with the ride. The closer I was to ten hours, the more the run was going to hurt and most likely miss the 22-hour buckle cutoff. I needed to work hard on the bike, but not so hard that I destroy my legs and would be unable to perform well for the trail run. It was a fine line that every duathlon athlete had to balance and figure out for themselves.

The first real check point for me was at the Top of the World. This is roughly 6.5 miles in and it a technical descent that I have ridden several times, but with the overnight rain and humidity the rocks were quite slick. I walked this section not just because of my nerves and lack of confidence on wet rocks, but the conga line of riders slowly making their way down the trail made for an easy decision to follow suite. I quickly made my way down to the bottom, hopped back onto my trusty steed, and took notice of my overall time at 35 minutes. Works for me! The rest of the Forestville loop is pretty calm sans the Rickles and World Cup. The Rickles is one area that I knew can get soupy and muddy but when I saw that it was dry and all very ridable, that put my mind at ease about the trail conditions. World Cup is this short nasty climb over small boulders that even on a good day I would be hard pressed to ride cleanly. This was definitely a hike section as it was for everyone else around me.

As we pass back through the Forestville Campground start area I recall that my teammates were planning to grab a fresh bottle but I had planned to ride through and keep the hammer down. I had no idea where I was compared to Carey, Lisa, Dave, or Chris, and while I did think about it a few times I kept reminding myself that this is my race and I need to focus on everything I can control to get me to the finish line in under 22-hours. I grabbed a fig newton from my top tube fuel bag, washed it down with the Skratch Super Fuel and I was on to the next few trails that I absolutely love to ride; Ramblin Man, Wild Cat, Mild Cat, and Pine Knob. Ramblin Man is fast and flowy, Wild Cat and Mild Cat have some really fun rock sections and short punchy climbs. I was glad that I brought a Camelbak with me filled with water, because when the trails get technical it's a fast way to get some fluids in without having to take your hands off the handlebars. Pine Knob I feel is not everyone's friend and the first time I rode it I was NOT a fan. Since then I have learned to ride most of it (other than the 2-3 super steep climbs), however, due to the previous nights rain the rocks were really slick and the risk was not worth the reward. I hopped off the bike and safely made my way down each of the nasty short descents. When the trail is dry, I really enjoy the challenge of riding these sections, but the goal was to finish the ride and not mangle my body in the process. There were a few brave soles trying to one-leg it down Pine Knob and unfortunately some of those people quickly regretted the decision. Some easier trails after Pine Knob give you a bit of a chance to catch your breath, maybe spin out the legs a bit, grab some food, and prepare for the Lowes climb. Had the rain been a total soaker the days and nights leading up to the race, this climb would have been a complete disaster. As I started into the climb I noticed that the ground was dry and solid. The roots were a bit slick but nothing terrible that my Maxxis Forekaster front tire could not handle and I rarely slipped on a root the entire day.

Now that I had a couple trails sections completed, it was time for more food, more fluid, and onto the third section. The temperatures were still feeling cool and my confidence was slowly building as the day unfolded. This next section is fairly uneventful but fun nonetheless. One particular part of the East Grey Walls trail sticks in my head. The trail has a large boulder that you need to get up and over and there is not much of a lead up. As I near the section I can see off in the distance two other riders, one walking the rock and another barely making his way up and over it. The rock looks slippery and as I approached I could see and hear the rider still on his bike spinning his rear tire. Meh. I have ridden this part plenty of times, but with riders making their way over it I made the split second decision to dismount and just walk the bike up and over. I actually look forward to cleaning that rock. Oh well. Forward progress is the name of the game. I quickly made my way past the two riders and eventually landed on the Eh Line trail. This trail is fast, flowy, and all downhill. This is where I wish I had the skills to hit the jumps and land with confidence. I made my "little Scott jumps" all the way down. It felt like I was launching super high in the air when in reality I was probably not gaining more than a couple feet in elevation. Regardless, that trail is hoot and I love hitting the berms hard to try and gain speed. Woo hoo!! At the bottom I reloaded my bottles and top tube bag with more fig newtons, downed some plain water, and off I went through the South Trail head and onto one of the more technical sections before Jackson Park. At this point I was 30-minutes ahead of of the last time I rode the race course 5-weeks ago. Cool!

The trails after the South Trailhead that tend to live rent free in my head are Gurly and Scary. Gurly has a rock garden that I have yet to ride, I walk it every time. In 2017 I was humbled by teammate and friend Carey Lowery as she rode right past me across that rock garden like a Boss! I can visualize how to ride it, I have yet to have the confidence to put that to the test. After clearing Gurly and riding clean through Doctors (Doctors is one of my favorite trails) I make my way up Marquette Mtn. It's a short but nasty gravel road grind. So as to not blow myself up on this one, I focused on spinning and not grinding a hard gear. Once at the top it was time to take on Scary. Scary isn't all that scary, except for that first drop between two trees with a nicely placed angled root just on the other side of the two trees. When dry, it's not a problem for me, but it was not dry. It was wet and slick and I have been visualizing that damn root for weeks. I have hit that root when wet and the outcome was not good. As I approached the drop I see a camera guy siting right at the corner ... perfect. As I dismounted my bike to do yet another walk of shame, I struck up a quick conversation with the photographer. Me> Bet you have seen some epic crashes at this spot today. Photographer> Yup.

Well, that told me right then and there that I made the right decision. The rest of Scary is fun and it leads into another trail named Not So Scary. I "think" it was just at the start of Not So Scary where the first token was located. You never know how many tokens or the location of the tokens, but if you don't have them all by the time you cross the finish line then you have two choices: 1) go back and find the tokens you missed or 2) be disqualified. Harsh, but it's why you make darn sure you grab a token (or two or three) and secure it to not lose any of them. I know this game well, so I learned to bring a small pouch that can be cinched closed and I place it in my jersey pocket that zips closed. I take the one minute that it takes to make sure that token is not going anywhere! It is a minute well worth the time.

Got going again and continued on down the trail. Somewhere along the line the trails get real flowy and fast and it is an absolute blast to ride. I look forward to it after working my way through Scary as the tasty desert for all the hard work put in. As the course flattens for a short bit before hitting the Zuegs trail I made sure to put down more food and kept the fluid going down. It was around this time that I realized how much I had been sweating. I could still feel a cool breeze but I am pretty sure it was humid and I could start to feel my stomach act like it might be a problem during the run. Thinking maybe it was that I was only eating fig newtons for solid food, since they generally work really well for me, but for some reason maybe not this time. There was nothing I could do about it at this point other than not eating and that wasn't an option. I needed to continue to fuel so I wouldn't bonk or hit the wall when I got into the run. I had wider selection of fueling options for the run and I hoped this would offset things for the better. I made quick work of Zuegs trail and made my way around to the corridor underneath the road allowing us safe passage and away from the traffic. One more section down, one more to go to reach Jackson Park where my drop bag awaited along with a 40+ mile trail run. The climbs along the next few trails are not terrible but continue to throat punch you with some off camber techy sections that challenge your bike skills. As I made my way up the climb I saw that Lisa Randall was just ahead of me. What I mostly noticed is that I would walk some sections that Lisa was clearly riding. Impressive for sure. I slowly clawed my way up to her and chatted for a brief moment. Not wanting to be too disruptive to her flow, I moved away and continued to make my way to Jackson Park.

Can't help but mention the amazing Trail Angels that man the Worst Aid Station. The last couple times I raced here I snagged some of the best tasting grilled cheese sandwich's and Oh My Gosh did those sandwiches hit the spot! However, I had a run yet to do and I really did not want to tempt fate by eating a bunch of cheese and then roll the dice on how my stomach would feel during the run. So ... much to my disappointment I passed on that wonderful cheesy deliciousness with my eye on the prize of getting that damn buckle. Passing the Worst Aid Station I made my way through the sandy trail, that sits right next to a perfectly good paved road, that this time thanks to the rain was not an issue to ride. In past years this was a royal pain in the arse because the front tire would sink into the sand and change the direction of your wheel in an instant. At least when you fall over it's like falling on a nice sandy beach. I finally made it to the final stretch of what seems to be an old rail trail following by a stretch of the paved Iron Ore Trail. It was along these flat miles that I was joined up by another rider looking for a break from the headwind. I didn't mind him wheel sucking because I wasn't going to work any harder than I would have if I was by myself anyway, which is usually how I found myself along this section. We chatted for a bit before we rolled past a young lady asking us what mileage we had at this point. I said we would be at around 65 miles by the time we reach Jackson Park in a few miles and she said ... "Crap. I must have cut the course somewhere". Apparently she only had about 41 miles. I have no idea where she would have accidently cut the course, but man I felt bad for her. All the training, all the time spent preparing, and that happens. Ugh.

Whelp, mission accomplished. I safely made it to Jackson Park, unscathed, not feeling terribly beat up, and fired up for the next part of this adventure ... a 40+ mile trail run. The sun was shining, the temperatures were a bit warm but tolerable, and Lisa and Carey's crew did me a HUGE solid and got my drop bag to Jackson Park. I cannot tell you just how appreciative I am for the help that they provided me. They took care of my bike/helmet/shoes, took my drop bag to Jackson Park, and handed my drop bag to the race affiliated crew that was running the Jackson Park drop bag area after I left the first time so that it would be protected from any possible rain. Not only that, but when I saw them along the trail run they would offer me help as if they we doing a full crew for me. Incredibly grateful for the help!! Wish I had the opportunity to repay them for how much mental relief that they provided me. Thank you!!

Brooks Sherpa 7" - #brooksforlife

The "Run"

Soon after I reached Jackson Park, Lisa rolled in and a few minutes later Carey rolled in. Was so happy to see that we were all really close to one another and that we all made it into the transition in good time. Lisa transitioned the fastest as I think she has a ton of experience in this type of race and has everything perfectly dialed. For me, transitioning from the bike to the run went about as smooth as I could have hoped. I practiced it several times during training sessions so I knew all the basic things I needed to focus on. Trying to gracefully change in a towel behind the wooden structure at Jackson Park with a ton of people around was a little uncomfortable but I made it work and fairly certain I didn't moon anyone in the process. Took several big drinks of the warm broth I had prepared (I wanted all that tasty sodium) at 5am that was still warm, yummy! Lubed up all the necessary body parts including all ten of the little piggies. Made darn sure I had that first token with me before I left for the first 25-mile loop! I believe my total time was under 15-minutes. I could have gone faster but I wanted to try to take my time and not rush it. I had a lot of time on the clock to complete the run and rushing out of the transition, possibly forgetting something, is not where I wanted to try and save time. Got everything in order once I put on my running vest and I was off to tackle the "run". I know Carey was just about ready to set off as well and would be just behind me. She looked ready and was in great spirits.

It all started off with a fast paced hike. I practiced hiking a TON! I knew the further into the race that I got the more I would need to lean on just hiking, especially all the stupid steep climbs. I know Lisa and Carey were using trekking poles, but I opted to not use mine. Didn't even pack them for the trip. I have not practiced enough with them and when I used them on the Rim to Rim to Rim adventure in April, I felt like they slowed me down. That said, there were times throughout the night that I thought .... dang ... I wish I had poles because I wonder if that might have taken some of the pressure off my legs. Oh well ... should ... woulda ... coulda. No sense crying about it at this point. Within about a mile I started to run, well probably more like a snail-like jog, but it was more than hiking. My legs felt pretty good, no issues with my hips that I have been dealing with all summer (and spring), and I felt like I had energy to burn. All good signs at the start of this next phase of the race. Maybe 2-3 miles into the run I hear a familiar voice shout out to me "Hey, this is a run ... not a hike!" It was my good friend David Jolin giving me sh** for hiking and not running as he shot past me on his bike. LOL ... love that guy! I don't recall exactly where it was, but I know I managed to catch up to Lisa and the first thing I noticed is just how smooth she was moving with her trekking poles. I could probably take some lessons from her on how to use trekking poles! Her pace was really good and since I had caught up to her I figured maybe I am going to hard this early in the run, so I tried to stay with Lisa for a while but think I was getting under her skin a bit following her pace. Again, not wanting to make any enemies I shuffled off up the trail and let her do her own thing.

I had brought music with me but decided not to turn it on right away. In fact, I had music with me during the 65-miles of riding as well but never used it. I love to listen to music or podcasts during training sessions (MindPump has been my go to podcast lately). I think I was just so focused on the names of trails, tackling each one of them, and then focusing on what was coming up. I am less familiar with the trail names on the 25-mile run loop. I know trails like Humpty Dumpty which is very early on  but then it becomes a bit of a blur until the nearing the end of the loop. I had dropped some self-support drop bags (and yes I clean all my stuff up before I leave because I am NOT one of those people that dump stuff all over the trail and expect someone else to clean up after me!) along three locations. Along my way to my first drop bag and on the Panorama Trail we got our second token. Cool. I was happy to find this one in the day light, but there were "possibly" two more to capture. Or at least at this point that is what i was thinking, but you really never know for sure until the race is complete. The nice part about the run is that it has some easy access points for vehicles, such as Malton Road which we cross two times and Suicide Bowl Rd which feels like we get onto about 100 times on the second loop. I reached my first drop bag near the first crossing of Malton Rd and as I neared the road I noticed that Lisa's team was all ready to support Lisa and Carey. As I popped out of the woods with my self-support drop bag in hand, they offered up any assistance as I was trying to wrangle the bladder out of my vest, open up packets of Skratch powder and open up bottles of water. Again, their help was so awesome and so very much appreciated!! Grabbed my food out of the bag, got my vest bladder loaded up and I was out of there. Since I didn't need anything else out of the self-support drop bag Lisa's crew offered to throw it out for me. Sweet! One less clean-up stop for me to make after the race is over! Thank you ... again!!

9.60 (ish) miles down and ready to tackle the next 9-10 miles to get to the next crossing of Malton Rd. One of the food items I was looking forward to eating were some salty pretzels and soft pretzel bites that I had prepared in a small zip lock baggie. Here's the rub ... it rained the night before and during the night I had thought to myself ... I wonder if two layers of zip lock bags is enough to keep the moisture away from those tasty little crunchy pretzels. The answer is no, it is not enough. The pretzels were like soft baby food and what had been soft pretzel bites were like rock hard nuggets ready to break my teeth. Dang it! This means that the two other drop bags that had similar baggies of pretzels would also be worthless. #sigh Hard lesson to learn but it wasn't the only food I had packed. I did have enough calories in Spring Awesome Sauce gel packets and Untapped Maple Syrup (Coffee) to get me through this first loop. So I was prepared, but all of the food I had was sweet and over time .. sweet can really get to my stomach. That is pretty much what started to happen. I continued to eat the gels and felt like I had plenty of energy, meaning I was not hitting the energy wall or anywhere close to feeling like I was going to bonk but I could tell my stomach was starting to go sour on me. Not good. All this means is that running will depend on how my stomach feels and if it did not feel good, then I would need to resort to much more hiking than I wanted which also means that I needed to keep a close eye on the time.

One of the two empty checkpoints. #blametodd

I have a love hate relationship with this part of the race course. The trails are fun, but this is the point during the race where you essentially pass within one mile of the finish line. You can actually see it and hear the announcements of racers finishing their race. You can smell the food, the pizza, and yet you must carry on with your race bypassing all of that and focus on getting back to Jackson Park. So carry on I did. I think I made it just over 15 miles before I needed to flip on my headlamp due to the nighttime darkness slowly creeping in and making the trails impossible to see w/o a light. I actually love the nighttime running. I was looking forward to the cooler temperatures, the sound of the woods at night, and hopefully not get run over by a crazed cyclist trying to make a cutoff. I was pretty surprised at how busy the trail got after dark. Seemed like I had a handful of cyclists around me every few minutes and often times yo-yo'd with them as I would pass them up the climbs and then have to step off the trail as they came screaming past on the next descent. This happened for hours on end. I don't recall exactly where but at one point I had a cyclist tell me how easy I had it since i did not have to push a bike up the climbs. He's not wrong, but trail runners cannot coast down hills or soft pedal the flats at 10-15 mph. Hmmm, maybe soft pedaling is akin to walking? Regardless, I got a good laugh and it was nice to chat with some other racers along the way. I have to admit, when I got to Sissy Pants and the Hamptons, I was not unhappy about climbing and not having to push a bike up those short steeps. Once I got to Cheese Grater I knew I have the first loop done and dusted. In fact, my stomach was feeling good so I was able to lay down a 12/mile pace on the IOT back to Jackson Park. Felt great being able to run in and not looking like the walking dead!

As I reached the location of the drop bags around 9:40pm I looked up and saw Chris Randall waiting to lend a hand. Seriously, I was floored by the attention he and his family were offering up to help me. I know I have said it a lot, but I can't say it enough. The help and just simple conversation asking how I felt and if I needed anything ... it was absolutely wonderful!! I dug into my drop bag for my spare headlamp battery (I also had a fully charged third spare battery in my vest as an additional backup) and swapped that out first and foremost. Them woods is dark yo! For food and knowing that my stomach is less than happy with sweet food I downed the rest of the broth grabbed my ramen broth a(it was STILL WARM!!) and are a few bites of the ramen noodles. Noticing the Ginger Ale that I had, I cracked it open and downed the mini can I had. Realizing I had a second mini Ginger Ale and seeing as how that went down real smooth I took a few gulps of the second can as well before pitching it. Wish it was ice cold, that would have been much better. Chris thought perhaps bread might help the stomach issues and that triggered the thought that I had two plain bagels I had packed. Not certain how those would feel I broke one in half and stuffed it into my vest. Also took a few seconds to clear out any trash I had accumulated and threw that back into my drop bag (even thought the trash can was right next to me ... yeah ... bit of brain fog going on at this point). Refilled my vest bladder with plain water because anything sweet would probably have been quickly ejected out on the trail. All set to go I left Jackson Park for the second time, headed to the finish line, at 9:52pm. Only a 12-minute transition time so I was pleased with that and I didn't forget anything.

Once I got out of Jackson Park I could really feel the fatigue setting in the legs and body. Yeah, this next 16 miles was going to be a slug fest but I was determined to win. I never had a thought of turning back around and texting #quiter. It's not in my DNA. I am much more familiar with the trails in this final section of trails. Dirty Mary and The Luge are a bit of a grind to climb. These trails I have burned into my memory. Dirty Mary is twisty, tight, and has some almost ditch like dips to it that make it challenging on a bike, but not so difficult for running except when you have to continually step aside for riders. That got annoying real quick, but I was kind and always stepped aside knowing full well that the bikers at this point in the race are in survival mode so I provided encouragement to every one of them that I came across. Finally got to the top of The Luge climb and headed down to hit Suicide Bowl road. I made the connection to Grandview trail in quick order and looked forward to the vista view across the valley where, during the day, you can see the ski jump but not in total darkness. The mountain was backlit by the city lights and it gave off a very cool orange glow. Man I love views like that! Not wasting time I made my way back down to Suicide Bowl Road to hit the AM/FM trail.

The fun thing about Suicide Bowl road and something that I had not experienced before in this race is the number of Trail Angels hanging out in camping chairs having a good'ole time and helping out the racers long into the night. That was so damn awesome!! One of the things I have always enjoyed about running races into the night is that it typically turn into a party scene and this race seemed to follow suite. In fact, these fine folks not only motivated me with their cowbells, woops and hollers, and hand clapping but they had exactly what I needed to keep me going. Mind you I never expected to see anyone out that late at night and especially lending a helping hand. So damn grateful!! This first time I came across the Trail Angels sent from heaven I asked if they had any cold pop and they came up with an ice cold coke and a banana. One of the ladies asked how I was feeling and I told her my stomach had gone south for the winter. She recommended eating a banana. I was leery of eating anything remotely sweet (except I knew the carbonation from the pop would be good on my stomach) but I was willing to give just about anything a shot at this point. Whelp, she wasn't wrong. It didn't completely get rid of my sour stomach but between the banana and the cold coke, I was getting in MUCH needed calories and not purging any of it so I will take that as a win. My stomach would ebb & flow from feeling ok that I could run to ... dang ... I need to power hike because if I keep running I may be doing the purge of shame. This had been the constant battle for about 30-miles of the run but got worse as the night progressed. Never felt that urge to hurl, but I suspect that is because I listened to my body and slowed down when I needed to slow down.

As I moved along Grand View and entered AM/FM it was along AM/FM that we found our third token. There was a couple riders that had just grabbed their token so I quickly got in, snatched up a couple tokens for safe keeping, and quickly (ish) got in front of the mountain bikers to make my way to the end of the trail. After completing the Carroll Jackson I think we drop down onto a beach by Lake Minnie. Yet another Trail Angel party and what a great place to pitch an easy up and help out racers! I still had the coke bottle that I had been carrying in my hand so I asked if they could take the bottle and trash it for me. Since the pop seemed to settle my stomach I asked if they had any on them but they did not. No worries. They were so uplifting and motivating to keep me moving that it probably helped more than another soda would have helped. Plus I wanted to make sure my stomach wasn't going to reject the banana and coke so best to let that settle for a bit longer.

I took a quick look at TrailForks on my phone because I knew that it wouldn't be too long before I was next to Lake Sally which means I would be on Sally and then Angeline. Sure enough, after another mile or so I would be on Sally. One more dip onto the service road and what do my tired eyes see, the same group of Trail Angels still hanging out but just further down the road. They asked if I needed anything and of course my first thought was an ice cold coke. No coke this time but they had orange soda and root beer. Neither sounded great but I asked if I could have a root beer because 1) calories and 2) the carbonation would likely continue to help my stomach. They kindly provided me an ice cold root beer, I thanked them up and down, and I was on my way. I must have downed that cold root beer before I got to Sally because I remember crushing the can and stuffing it into my vest before hearing the water of Lake Sally. I look forward to getting to Sally because you can hear the water rippling against the shore and it has this very calming feeling and sometimes you can catch a nice cool breeze off the lake. In fact, one might say that it is the calm before the storm because Sally leads into a series of big, steep climbs. I am not 100% certain that these are the trails that have the one climb that has this terribly placed rock that is typically slicker than snot when trying to push a bike up it, but I am fairly certain it is Angeline.

As I made my way past Lake Sally I could here voices just ahead. Several cyclists were making their way through the gnarly climbs but seemed to be in good spirits. I would pass them heading up the climb and then have to step off the trail as they "zipped" past me. Even on the descents, they were still just crawling at this point. As we approach the well-known flat rock climb, I started up the climb ahead of them and recall hearing one of them blurt out "Oh man gosh what sort of hell is this?!?!". I laughed out loud, told them to stick to the right hand side as far as they could get and just take their time. Pretty sure I did not see them again. From the top of the climb and around onto .38 Special I don't remember a whole lot. By this time it was probably around 2am and I was keeping my eye on my overall time like a hawk. I had a lot of time to work through Old 56 which was a new trail added this year which added an additional mile. Oh goody ... more miles. Finally reached Cry Baby and this trail can be a grind. It has climbs if I recall and I did come up on a few cyclists chatting the night away, not overly concerned about getting to that finish line, but just working their way through the trail. I knew once I could get through Cry Baby there was only one more climb to go and then a one mile descent to reach the finish line. At this point I knew I was going to finish this thing and get that damn buckle. I had plenty of time on the clock. Had to be done before 5:30am and I still have a couple hours to finish three (ish) miles.

As I finished Cry Baby I dropped down onto the road that will take you around to where you begin the climb to Jasper Knob. Right as I reached the corner of the road where you take a right hand turn my headlamp began to flash telling me that the battery was about to die. Some people might panic at this point because that climb to Jasper Knob would be quite the pitch black hike but I had been carrying a spare battery with me for the entire run. Once I got to a streetlight so that I could see what I was doing (I have old man eyes), I took a minute to swap it out and continue on. As I climbed up the road a female mountain biker passed me and encouraged me to keep going as she headed on up into the woods. Figuring I would see her as she made her way back down I was careful to keep an eye out and not blind her with my headlamp as she came back down. Sure enough, I was heading up and she was making her way back down. We exchanged a few words of encouragement again (she told me "Good job runner"!) and I made my way to the top. I think everyone loves and hates that climb. We hate it because it is a short, steep out and back at the end of a VERY long day with a ton of elevation and it kind of feels pointless. I actually look forward to the climb and getting to the top. Some times there is a checkpoint, and other times there isn't. You just never know. This year there was a checkpoint so I nabbed my fourth and final token and began the one mile trek to the finish line. While it is great that the last mile is downhill, it is no where near as fun when you're running downhill at this point than it would be to let the bike go and scream down that last mile on a bike. Still, it was the final mile of this 106 mile adventure and I was smiling. After getting to the bottom and working my way down the, what seemed like forever, stretch of trail I made the turn onto the road that takes you into town. There was a gentleman standing on the corner cheering racers on as they came through. It must have been around 3:35am so I gave him many thanks for being out there and cheering us on. I mean seriously, I would have been so in bed and sleeping hours and hours ago. Just goes to show you how stoked this community is about this race and supporting all the people that come to race it. It's a damn cool vibe!! I had been hiking and jogging on and off but as I was about to shut it down and just walk it in, I got a glimpse of the Marji Gesick banners and lights and could faintly make out a good size group of people still waiting at the finish line. Whelp ... might as well run it in. So I picked up my pace and ran the last tenth of a mile across the finish line all while people were cheering and drumming their hands against the bannered fences along the finish line.

Todd was there at the finish line along with the person or two that look at you and immediately you know what they want. They want them TOKENS!!!! This is where you either have them (#finisher) or you don't (#unfinishedbusiness). Well I had all of mine. Made darn sure of that. My finish time was 20 hours and 16 minutes which means after starting this journey in 2017, I finally earned the coveted buckle after 3 MTB races and nearly 2 years of battling lots of personal struggles. Now, I wanted to have some sort of smartass comment for Todd. Something to laugh about afterwards. Something to make light of the massive effort I had just put in. I was so tired, so cooked, and drained of all energy, that I think I just smiled as he congratulated me on earning the buckle and then shuffled off to find my drop bag. Todd said he would like to take a picture of me near the statue with "a" buckle (mine would be mailed to me because I guess the blacksmith doesn't work at 4am ... LOL), so he followed me over and I asked if I could lay down for a minute. Honestly for a few seconds I felt like I was about to pass out. I am 100% certain that my electrolyte balance was massively f**'d up. I laid down onto the street and instantly felt better. After a few minutes I made my way over to my drop bag and Todd came over to chat (or maybe just make sure I wasn't going to die or was dead already). I wish I could have had a more meaningful conversation with him, but again ... SOOOOOO TIRED. Once I got up from laying down a second time we walked over to the Indian Statue and he took "the pic". Thank you Todd!

I ended up with 65.05 for the ride and 41.81 for the run for a total of 106.85. Pretty spot on from the 106.3 miles that the course showed me on TrailForks.

Thanks to everyone that helped me complete this part of my journey. From my nutritionist, to my Sports Psych, to all my friends and family that I leaned heavily on, to the wonderfully unexpected support from Lisa Randall's family.  It all came together and I get'er done.

Now, where's that buckle that I was told would be mailed to me? I've wanted this long so a few more weeks won't matter but I #blametodd and I #blamedanny.