Wasatch 100

Not one of these Slam events has seemed to go to plan and last Thursday our trip to Wasatch looked like it was headed the same way. Our flight was delayed and we didn’t arrive in Salt Lake City until 2 am on Friday morning! But that was the sum total of the mishaps (so far!) and the race went off promptly at 5am on Saturday.

The previous day Ultra showed us the start location  and an indication of the dusty trails that made up the majority of the course. When the race started, the sun still hadn’t yet poked over the horizon, so it was a quiet dark, dusty run over undulating trails before we began to ascend bigger hills. These were not your standard gentle undulations! Pretty soon, the eye balls bulged and the lungs sucked in as much air as possible. By the time we crested the higher ridges, the views out of the Salt Lake were spectacular and the quality of the vistas continued for the remainder of the day in perfect weather conditions. I would have added pictures but Guthrie soaked my camera with sports drink so we’ll have to see if it can be salvaged on our return home!

The Wastach course is by far the hardest course I’ve ever taken on, the hills were relentless. I had quietly set my race goal as a sub 30 hour finish but hadn’t voiced it after my experience in Colorado, in fact I was a little nervous about a similar outcome. Around mile 40 my stomach started to play up on every climb until I was trying to avoid eating between aid stations. At each stop I would spend a little longer than I had planned in an attempt to eat and drink as much as I could tolerate. However, on some of the longer legs, the intake wasn’t enough so, with a few miles still to go before the next stop I was forced to try and eat my regular snacks. On three occasions I deposited the content of my stomach by the side of the trail.

Guthrie was only able to get access to 5 aid stations and we decided not to use drop bags at the others. Everything worked out fine and as always her enthusiasm was always a welcomed sight. Despite being out for so many hours the race seemed to pass quickly and while 30 hours might appear to be a long time, it was long before the sun was rising on Sunday morning and the views across the salt lake reappeared. All through the night we had been treated to winderful start filled skies (you’ll notice that unusually for me I did try to pay attention to my surroundings!).

As I approached the final stages, I didn’t think that I would be able to finish under 30 hours, but a race volunteer suggested that the penultimate stage was only 5 miles and I wondered that I might afterall be in with a chance and upped my pace. This section had some particularly steep downhills covered in small loose stones that offered no grip whats so ever. Several times I came close to flying head long. I then discovered that either I was having difficulty juging distance of the stage was nearer 8 not 5 miles – it dragged and I was close to developing an upset stomach again; I eased back. When I started the final leg, I again played it safe as we began to climb. The trail twisted and turned and there was no way of knowing when it would turn towards the finish. When at last we popped out of the trail onto a road, I started to run believing that a sub-30 wasn’t possible but wishing to at least appear to finish strong. I crossed the line believing that my time was 30:07 but as the awards were presented realized that it was in fact 29:07!

Ultra didn’t have such a good time, he had retuned to Utah to revenge not finishing last year but Wasatch as I’ve already said is a tough course and there might be something to be said for not knowing what is coming next. When things weren’t going well, Ultra decided that maybe it wasn’t going to be his day. That might sound disappointing but I now from experience that making such a decision isn’t always an easy one to make and he will at least be fit and well to run another day.