Pacing at Wasatch 100

Most trail ultramarathons, 50 miles or more, allow runners to use a “pacer” to run along with them for the last half of the race.  Pacing is true service.  There are no awards for pacing, just the satisfaction that you have in some way helped a runner accomplish something pretty spectacular.  “A race is just a race, but a friend who paces you is a friend for life.” – Joseph Franko

This year, I decided instead of running Wasatch 100, that I would pace someone. I linked up with Matt Van Horn who I had run with a couple times.  He would be trying to finish his first Wasatch 100.  I’ve finished Wasatch four times and each year had some very painful low-energy sections.  I really had no strong desire to run it again for awhile.  I could run those trails any time I wished, with much less pain.   At the pre-race meeting I was asked if I felt bad not running for myself this year.  In all honesty, I was not envious at all.   I looked forward to being a pacer.

A pacer’s job includes:  1. Get your runner to the finish.  2. Get your runner to the finish. 3. Get your runner to the finish.  Other duties include, motivate your runner using any trick you can think of, monitor your runner’s condition and suggest things to help, and reduce the time your runner spends in aid stations.

Matt had some lofty goals running a sub-24-hour finish.  I knew how tough that is, but didn’t try to take his eyes off that goal.  I sent him two pacing charts, one for a 24-hour finish and another showing my 2010 split times for a 28:28 finish.   Matt looked very nervous at our pre-race BBQ.   I hoped he would get some good sleep.

I slept great!  During the day at work, I monitored Matt’s progress.  He started very fast, getting to Francis Peak at 8:49 a.m. on a good 24-hour pace.  At Bountiful B (mile 24) he was still on that pace in 28^th place.  His pace slowed a bit, about 20 minutes behind 24-hour pace, arriving at Big Mountain (mile 40) at 1:32 p.m. in 35^th place.

At that point, I left work and made preparations to get up in the mountains to meet up with Matt somewhere along the trail.  I decided to avoid the hassle of getting a ride or shuttling at car, I would just run up into the mountains from the finish at Midway.  Yes, pretty crazy, but I looked forward to doing my own little run during the afternoon.

I parked my car at the mile-99 point, and loaded up with everything I needed, started running up the road toward Guardsman Pass and Scott Peak.   After a couple miles in the hot afternoon, a car came up the road.  I stuck out my thumb for a ride and was picked up by a nice couple from Chicago.  They saved me about seven miles of climbing.  They had never heard about ultrarunning and peppered me with questions during the entire ride.  They were shocked to hear what we do and when they dropped me off, insisted on taking my picture, thinking that I was someone famous or something.

On the trail toward the Wasatch course, I was feeling great.  I had finished Cascade Crest 100 two weeks ago, but felt fully recovered.  My problem leg, still recovering from a massive fracture seven months ago, was doing pretty well.  It gave me confidence that I could really survive pacing some big miles with Matt.  I passed the Scotts Peak aid station location at 4 p.m. but there was nobody there and nothing set up yet.  Above Desolation Lake at about 5:00 p.m., I used my phone to check on Matt’s progress.  He had was still coming, but the delayed report indicated that he had not yet arrived at Lamb’s (mile 53).  I became a little concerned because I knew he was now in the hot portion of the course.

At about 5:15, I ran into Desolation Lake aid station (mile 67).  The guys there shouted out that I was going the wrong way.  I laughed and explained that I had come up from Midway and was on my way to pace a runner.  They invited me to stay, but I said I was going on and would be back in three hours. I had told Matt that I would meet him here, but I still had plenty of time so went on. On my way again, in just a mile down the trail, at 5:20 p.m., I stepped off the trail to let the race leader, Jeff Browning, go by, followed closely by the second-place runner.  I was truly amazed.  Jeff went on to win in 19:33.

There was a big gap of more than a half hour before the next runners appeared.  I cheered them all on.  At about 6:45 I arrived at Big Water aid station (mile 62) ready to wait for Matt to arrive.  I really had enjoyed my 15-mile warm-up run.  I received surprised looks from the guys at the aid station when I explained I came up from Midway.

A few minutes before 7 p.m., Craig Lloyd arrived looking very well.  He was 45 minutes ahead of my best time to this point.  I felt very proud.  I had introduced Craig to ultrarunning several years ago and raised him from a young pup runner.  He went on to finish in a very impressive 24:25.

As I continued to wait for Matt, the temperature went down and became chilly.  I decided to continue running down the road.  But I kept running into friends and would turn around and run with them up the road to the aid station.   I did this over and over again, greeting Tom Remkes, Matt Connors, Brian Kamm and others.  Finally, I saw Matt’s number on an electronic board indicating that he was among the next ten runners to arrived.  As I ran down the road, Seth Hales told me that he had passed Matt and that Matt was really struggling, talking about quitting.  Seth said he needed my help right away.  He added, “Don’t tell him that I told you he wanted to quit.” As I continued to run down I asked other runners if they had seen Matt.  Most had, and their description of his struggles didn’t sound good. (Sitting down, moving slowly, etc.)  A car came down from the aid station and the lady recognized me and asked me if I wanted a ride.  I sure did.  She drove me down another mile and there was Matt walking slowly up the road.

I jumped out and started walking up the road with Matt.  He told me he wasn’t doing well and I could see that familiar look of defeat.  I didn’t let him dwell on that.  Instead I asked him questions about the problems, asking about all the pain points, checking into his fuel intake recently.  He sounded pretty down.  To me, I suspected that he experienced a delayed reaction to dehydration.  He had low energy but his stomach felt fine.  He had some nasty blisters, but nothing terrible.

Matt later told me, he had already decided to quit.  He planned to either hitch a ride down into the city, or walk to the next aid station and call his wife to pick him up. He was thinking about a warm shower and bed, and seeing his wife and kids again.  Those are nasty things to think about during a 100-mile race.

After my interrogation, I determined there was no serious reason for Matt to quit.  So, for our final mile to the aid station, I told him stories about when I had felt terrible too, but recovered and finished. I had even quit in my mind three times during a Bighorn 100, yet still finished.

Matt arrived at Big Water around 8 p.m. or so.  He plopped down in a chair, still with that defeated look and wasn’t answering my questions very well.   He later told me that what he was thinking was, “How am I going to tell Davy that I’m not going on?”  I didn’t let him talk about quitting. He went to work on his feet, and I brought him soup, drink, and Vaseline.  I found a heater and pointed it toward him to keep him warm.  As he worked slowly, I wondered…    But finally to my surprise, after 20 minutes, Matt stood up.  Something clicked in his mind and he decided to continue.  Within five minutes we were back on the trail!

As I had promised him, within a mile he felt so much better.  I was even surprised as he started to run up the trail!   He was back in the game.  Energy came back and pain went down.   His pace was good during our climb to Desolation Lake and he even passed a few runners.   We came into Desolation (mile 67) at about 10:10 p.m.   Around the fire I noticed several runners planted down there.  They all looked pretty good.  Why weren’t they leaving yet?  I joked with everyone and yelled out to the group, “It is time to leave!  Come on, let’s all go.”   I was serious, but we all laughed.  They still sat there. One guy there remembered being with me there a year ago when I was pretty sick.  Matt only stayed a couple minutes and stayed away from the fire.

Matt had another low point before Brighton but we worked through it.  At times he could run fast enough to really make me work.   I used some tricks to get him to run faster.  Sometimes I would run ahead and ease up the pace, hoping that he would keep up.  Many times he did.  Other times I ran lagging behind, hoping that it would motivate him to try to leave me in the dust.  And other times I would just sing badly hoping it would motivate him to run away fast.

We came into Brighton around 12:35 a.m., about 15 minutes behind the 28:30 pace we were keeping our eyes on.  We still had hopes to finish around 27 hours.  Matt’s stay at Brighton (the morgue) was long, about 30 minutes or so.  I didn’t rush him.  He was doing productive things and getting new motivation from his family and friends, retelling the story how he had almost quit.  I could see in his eyes determination to finish.  Behind the scenes, I received some very, very kind words from other runners who had seen Matt in bad shape before.  They were amazed that I was able to keep him going. I just smiled.

The cool thing about pacing is that you don’t run as hard as when you do when racing, and you can eat anything without getting an upset stomach.  I feasted on grilled cheese and sausage.  Yum!   I felt fantastic, not tired at all….yet.

Matt kissed his wife and hugged his sleepy kids and we made our way out the door to cheers.  Next was the huge climb up out of the canyon.  We made it to the top faster than I had ever done.  At times, Matt was leaving me behind.  I had to push hard to catch up.  We passed several more runners before the top.

The run down to Ant Knolls aid station (mile 80) was tough on Matt’s feet.   At times he would lag far behind me and I would have to stop and wait until I saw his light appear again.  The problem was that he had loosened his shoes because his toes were being crushed but this then caused his feet to slide around on the downhills, causing blisters to start in his forefoot.  We arrived at Ant Knolls at about 3 a.m. We had a long stop. A guy there did a very good job helping Matt tape his forefeet.  It should do the trick to get us to the finish.

Matt made his way up the next huge climb just fine, using my trekking pole.  Once up on the rolling trail, we kicked it in gear.  It was wonderful.   At one point I blasted on ahead and right before Pole Line Pass (mile 83) I looked back and could see a ton of lights coming down the trail.  I decided to have some fun.  They were all within ear shot, so I flashed my light and yelled back to them that they all needed to run faster, and yelled a few insults.  Ha, ha.  Pacing can be great fun.

We arrived at Pole Line around 4 a.m. or so, still a half hour behind 28:30 pace.  Matt only stayed a couple minutes and we went back to work.  One thing about Matt…I have never seen a runner who needed to make four-minute bush stops so often.   On one such stop I went on ahead, sat down and took a quick cat nap.   On our way again, I discovered that I had left behind my trekking pole where I had sat down.   That was more than a quarter mile back.   I told Matt to just continue, I would go hunt in the dark for it.  Miraculously I found it.  But now I was well over a half mile behind Matt.  Could I catch up?   Now, I could really have some fun.  I cranked up the speed like crazy, flying up and down the trail and eventually caught up.

As we approached Rock Spring, I was amazed to look back and see so many lights chasing us about a mile behind.  It was quite a sight.  We could also look across the dark valley to Mount Timpanogos and see flashlights making their way to the summit of that high mountain.  Down in the valley we could hear a coyote howling at us.   I flashed my green light down there just to tease it.

After another quick stop at Rock Spring (mile 87.4) at about 5:30 a.m or so, we pushed on.  We were in the long home stretch with some crazy plunges ahead.   Things went very well and dawn arrived at about the same point it did for me in 2009.  Several other runners caught up to us who were running well.  For a couple miles I took the lead and pushed the entire group on at a nice fast pace, running both uphill and downhill.  But eventually I knew I was too far ahead of Matt, so I stopped and waited.  He had done very well to keep up with most of the group.   On the long downhill to Pot Bottom, I again took the lead and pushed to pace.   We arrived there (mile 93) at about 7:50 a.m.

Matt asked how long it would take to get to the finish from there.  I said typically two hours, that we still had a very good chance at breaking 29 hours.  Then I threw out a little challenge, “Well, one year I did do this stretch in under 2 hours.”   He did well on the long uphill and even ran several times.

But once we hit the downhill, I could tell that he caught “finish fever.”   I’m sure he blocked out all the pain and just charged downhill at great speed.   I struggled big-time keeping up because the pace was causing pain in my bad leg.  I was worried that Matt would drop me for good this time.  But as the road got rockier and I kept up the pace, I eventually caught up before the next climb.  He asked me if there was any sign of Scott Wesemann back there.  I guess he was worried about being passed by him.  I assured him that Scott was at least two hours behind.  I said at the pace we were going, no one was going to pass us.   Matt charged on ahead.   On the single-track above the golf course he really kicked it into gear.  I had to go full speed to just keep him in my sights.   As we passed runners, I explained that my runner had “finish fever.”    As we neared the end of the dirt trail I backed off, knowing that my car was just ahead.   As I reached the road, I saw Matt about 100 yards ahead running strong.

I was finished.  I took off my stuff and turned on the air conditioning.  As Josh Greenwell and his dad ran by, I offered them a ride to the finish.  That got a good laugh.  I drove down the road and as I passed Matt, I also offered him a ride.  He laughed and said he really wanted one, but would be DQed.

I parked at the turnoff to the Homestead and jumped out of the car in time to run with Matt to the finish.  I told him, “There was no way you were going to drop me!”  We crossed the finish line in 28:32.  Matt had crushed those last five miles.

I just stood back and watched all the smiles, cheers, and congratulations to Matt.  A lady came up to me, I think Matt’s mom.  She was so kind and thanked me over and over again for helping Matt continue and get to the finish line.  Pacer duties were over.  It was a good successful finish.   Kendall Wimmer stopped me as I was heading to my car.  Kendall had seen us both back at Big Water and congratulated me on successfully getting Matt out of the chair and to the finish.  We had seen Kendall a couple times during the night. He understood.

My leg was sore, but I don’t think damaged.  I live to run again another day.   For sure, I will pace again another day.  It was great fun.  A nice 57 mile training run.