|
Race Report from Ricky Scott: Boogie
All Night Long, Again! Flashback…..June 14th,2009…. 6:19AM…..I finished my first 50 miler and said it was my last. Next year “I’m doing the marathon,” I told Sharon on the way home. A few months later, Greg, a friend from Charlotte who DNF’ed at the 50, emailed me and said he was going to try it again. I knew I had to be there, so Sharon and I both entered…..AGAIN! This is a hard race, but you will not find better people to run with! As winter turned into spring, we talked 3 of our friends into doing the marathon, Johnny, who did the Boogie Marathon last year and Tommy who crewed for us and Tommy’s daughter, Kimya. Interesting to note this would be Kimya’s first marathon. When Kimya first expressed an interest in doing a marathon, I told her about the Boogie’s nine hour time limit. Sharon convinced her that she could do it if she trained properly and ultimately, to try it. So she entered. One last addition to our team was a 2x Boogie 50 Mile finisher himself. A solo cross country cyclist and last year hiked the entire Appalachian Trail, Marc “Spokes” Deluca agreed to come and crew us this year. With Marc helping us, we were all set. Interesting fact, Marc is the one who convinced me to try the Boogie 50 Miler a few years back. “What’s the harm in trying?”, he said to me. Race Day: I can’t sleep late on a Saturday as I’m usually running by 6AM. Today I actually slept until 6:12AM, and then laid in bed thinking about where I’d be in 24 hours. Finished I hoped! We left around 12:30 to allow us enough time to stop for lunch and a bathroom break with a target of arriving at Bethel Hill at 4:30. Goal 1 - Achieved! We arrived precisely at 4:30 and the first person we made eye contact with was Marc. He had already established our pre planned race support site, (kept secret as we hope to be back in the future) and also all the info about packet pickup and prerace briefing. Greg rolled in a few minutes later. Everything was falling into place for us. We spent the next hour getting all our stuff organized and laid out. Marc was there with us being sure he knew where our stuff was as he knew that in about 6 hours our minds would not be as sharp. Greg quickly laid all his stuff out and then retreated to the air conditioning in his car. I thought that was smart, but did not want to waste the energy to walk all the 50 feet over there. So I just sat in whatever shade I could find and tried to not move. 5:45 PM - It’s time
for Doug’s prerace briefing! Unlike last year, Doug was not
as intimidating. This year he was wearing brown Croc’s instead
of black combat boots. Even though he said all the same things like
“This ain’t Disney” or “if you don’t
finish, you’ll probably be back”, it just was not the
same without those boots on. Loop 1- I had several plans and unfortunately had not decided which one to follow. At the bottom of the first hill I kept running. Next thing I know, I’m running with ultra running legend Ray Krolewicz. I first encountered Ray back at the Freedom Park 24 Hour race. So for the next couple of miles I ran with him. He was very talkative to everyone. Real nice guy! Finally at the aid station, I decided I had better walk some. It was after all 90 degrees in the shade and who knows what out here on the pavement. Since I had run all the first 3.5 miles, I figured it would be a while before I saw anyone from my group. Especially since I told them I’d be walking all the hills. I even ran the hill back up to Bethel Church, surprisingly I felt real good, but my shirt had to go and my hat as well. It was just too hot. Marc gave me a fresh water bottle and down Bethel Hill I went……. running. As I headed out to the two mile turn around, I was actually looking forward to it. As it would give me an opportunity to see the others and I could calculate when they would catch me. First there was Greg, then Tommy, then Johnny and then Sharon. I’m a slow walker and as I headed back up Bethel Hill I knew they would start closing in on me. Finally near the top there was Kimya. I told Kimya, “you’re doing great, just keep moving.” I finished the first loop in 1:42 way faster than any of my other 50 attempts. Loop 2 – Marc had another water bottle ready for me and I wasted no time at the top. As I headed down hill, I decided that for this loop, I was going to truly walk the hills and try and run everything else. For the most part, I was all alone, every once in a while someone would catch me, but then I was also catching people which was a surprise to me. Arriving back at our camp, Marc gave me another water bottle, asked me how I was doing and sent me on my way. I was now past 16 miles and surprised not to see any of the gang catch up with me. Am I walking faster? Are they having problems? At the 18 mile turnaround, it was quite dark and I had trouble seeing, especially since I forgot to get my headlamp. All of a sudden a shadow says “Ricky?” It was Greg, he was closing in on me. I knew he would catch me pretty soon. As I made my way up Bethel Hill, I did not see Tommy or Johnny, but since it was dark I assumed I just missed them. Half way up I did spot Sharon, unlike last year where she closed the gap on me, this year she had dropped back a bit. I asked her how she was doing and she said, “it’s hot!” I told her that it was no shame in stopping, halfway hoping she would stop so I could as well, but I knew she would not. I was having trouble with the heat and my stomach kept turning over. At least that’s what it felt like. Arriving back at base camp, I was surprised to see Johnny sitting there with his shoes off. Goal 2 met, 20 miles in 4 hours! For the first time tonight, I sat down, 20 miles done 30 miles to go. I looked over at Johnny and asked, “You finished?” He replied, “cramps!” I offered him some electrolyte tablets and for the first time ever, he took them. I knew he was hurting then. I grabbed my headlamp and half a sandwich. Marc gave me my bottle filled with ice cold Dr Pepper and off I went into the darkness. I wondered about Kimya. Had not seen her this lap, but a good sign was that she was not back at camp. She was still out here. Loop 3 – I carried my food with me until I stopped running at the bottom of the hill. First real food since 2PM. It was now 10 PM. I knew I needed something to eat. The sandwich went first and it went down well, but one bite of the powerbar that I had was enough to make me not try a second. My stomach kept turning over on me. I had not puked, but never had I had this sensation. So here I was, all alone at mile 21…time to assess what I was going to do the rest of the night? Stop? Well that’s always tempting, but that’ll mean I’ll HAVE to come back next year plus, I don’t want to fail on Kimya’s first marathon! Just then I heard someone closing fast, must be the leader I thought. It was and as he flew by me, he said a quick, “Hello!” He was 10 miles ahead of me and leaving me fast. I watched as his little red blinking light disappeared into the distance. Okay, back to me, what am I going to do? Stop? Oh I wish! The truth was, I was still running the downhills and walking the uphills. I had finished the first 20 miles in 4 hours. This meant I was doing good. While I knew my 30 mile goal was not going to be 6 hours, I knew it could be better than last year. So the question ended up being do I really want to be out here all night? It’s hot, my feet hurt. This conversation with myself was just not getting anywhere. As I was closing in on the dog pen aid station, I heard another person closing down on me. It tuned out to be a girl named Jenny and she was doing the marathon. This was much better than talking to myself. So for the next few miles we walked and talked. I did get her to run just a few sections with me. At what we thought to be about mile 25, Jenny pulled out her cell phone and starts typing as we walk. I said to her, “are you typing a text message during a marathon?” “Yes” she said. Then out of the darkness I hear, “Ricky?” It was Greg! He pulled up along side us. Funny thing is he caught me exactly in the same spot he had last year when I educated him on the phrase I have a fork stuck in me. (That’s another story, see last year’s versions both Greg’s and mine). With about a half mile to go, Jenny said her good byes and started to run to the finish. Greg and I continued to walk as we still had a little over 24 miles to go! Back at home base, Marc tended to both of us, I sat down for a second, to let Marc give me a pep talk. It’s funny when you tell someone you are going to stop and they simply say yeah, right, get up and get going! Deep down I knew he was right. Greg had already left, now I had to catch him. Marc put ice in my bottle this time and as noisy as it sounded, that ice hit the spot!!! I chased Greg all the way to the bottom before I caught back up to him. He is a fast walker. Greg had been hurt for the last month or so and could only run a couple minutes at a time. On the way back up, I was able to pick Sharon out better this time. I think she was the only person wearing a glow stick. What the…? She was about the same spot this lap as last, but was still doing great. Finally, I was back on top. 30 miles done, 20 miles to go! 6 hours and 30 minutes, about 45 minutes ahead of last year. However, I missed goal 3 which was 30 miles in 6 hours. Once again I took a quick seat, recharged with Dr Pepper, grabbed a sandwich and this time I had Marc with me. Let’s go find Greg! Loop 4 – Yes, Greg had once again left me sitting. As Marc and I worked to catch him, I gave Marc explicit instructions to follow. I said, “Marc, if I even mention doing this again next year, you have my permission to beat me to a pulp!” I figured that would hurt less than I felt right now. Marc looked at me and gave me his patented grin! It took us 3 miles to catch Greg and when we did, I was amazed at how fast Greg and Marc could both walk. I had to keep running to stay with them. We all stayed together until we reached the end of the 6 mile loop. Arriving back at Bethel Church, 36 miles down and 14 miles to go, I sat down. Johnny, Tommy and Kimya were all finished and having a good time just sitting there. Kimya was now a marathoner! Greg arrived and for a change, I headed out before him. Marc decided to do a few more miles with me. I knew I had the 10 hour 40 mile cutoff made. All I had to do now was keep moving. As Marc and I headed back up Bethel Hill we encountered Sharon, a little further back than before. Hey, I might beat her this year. Marc said his goodbye to me and flipped around to run some with Sharon. 10 miles to go! Loop 5 – I just lost my ace in the hole, world’s greatest race crewer when Marc stayed with Sharon, so arriving back at our base, I started barking order to the others, “get up, I want to sit down”; “get me some more Dr Pepper”; “where’s my cooler, I need something to eat.” They complied and as I changed shoes, I noticed they were moving slowly. As I headed off down the hill, I wondered where Greg was. 10 miles to go, just keep moving forward. Surprisingly, I could still manage to run most of the downhill sections. The Dr Pepper was doing its job. I was not hungry, I was always hot and every once in awhile, my stomach left like it was flipping upside down, but I was moving good. The only life I saw was a car every once in a while. It had to be folks who had just finished the marathon or maybe even the 50 miler by now. I kept expecting Greg to catch me. I’d look back and not see any headlamps behind me. I hoped he was okay and still out here. As I made a quick stop at the dog pen I informed them that I would not be back anymore tonight so as far as I was concerned they could go home. These guys deserve a really big thanks for staying out here all night. They do make a difference! The section from the dog pen back to the church is one of reflection for me. The first time I ran the Boogie Marathon, my friend Frank Guler, marveled at the beauty of this race. That night back in 2005 was very lit up by the moon and the fireflies were amazing. Last year on this section, I turned my headlamp off and just enjoyed the beauty of the moon light. You could really see quite clearly. So I decided to do the same this year. Only one problem, no moon = you can’t see anything at all. I did however try, but then Doug’s words from 10 hours earlier rang in my head. “There are critters out here!” Just then I thought I heard something in front of me. I turned my headlamp back on. What is it? A deer or is it an opossum? “Hello” I shouted. No response. I had not slowed down and whatever it was it was still in the road. Finally, I could make out a little more detail, a shoe? Yes, another runner. I pulled up along side and it was Ray Krolewicz. What’s he doing way back here I thought. So, I introduced myself, as did he. I told him I did not recognize him since when I first met him in the Freedom 24 hour event, he was wearing a tie. He laughed. Seems for tonight he had taken a nap or two and was just going to finish this lap. As I moved ahead of Ray, another person, came up and passed us both. I thought at first it was Greg, but it was not. Mile 46, one last stop for aid, I asked Marc for more ice. Everyone looked a bit better this time than they did the last time I was here. Perhaps due to the fact they knew they were closer to going home, getting a shower and food!! Marc told me Sharon was doing great and that Greg was still out there. One more time down Bethel Hill I went. The flashing lights that marked the turnaround were still blinking, but dimmer. 2 miles to go and it’s still dark! I started looking for Greg and Sharon as I headed back to the church Finally there was Greg, he was about a 1 ½ miles behind me. I said, “you’re going to finish!” Somehow, I actually found the energy to run up parts of Bethel Hill, probably because I could smell the finish line. I was almost to the top before I saw Sharon. She was still smiling. She was going to finish her second 50 miler! I waited until I could see the official scorer and then started running. This year I was going to finish running. A PR, my second (and last) 50 miler. Greg soon finished and provided the highlight of the night or should I say day when the chair he sat down in flipped over backwards. Imagine running 50 mile and then finding yourself upside down in a chair. Sharon finished in the early morning sunshine, basking in the beauty of the morning, just as I had a year ago. All in all a great night,
with some great people, I look forward to the next MTC event. |