As was reported previously, Wicked members Bill Morse, Jay Curry, and Dan Cooper recently took on the challenge of the Vermont 50 miler. Read what Bill and Jay have to say about this extraordinary experience. Bill Morse:
Jay, myself and Dan all finished in good spirits,physically spent but unscathed/uninjured, and Steph ran a very impressive 20 mile leg to anchor her relay team–Team Kokopelli–with friends Brian and Claudio who flew in from Seattle for the “Vermont Weekend”. Jay finished at about 10 hrs. 25 mins. I was about a minute or two behind him and Dan was just over 11 hrs. I think that I can speak for all that we had a fabulous time. We had great accommodations in a quaint/spacious Vermont hideaway less than a mile from the race start/finish, delicious home cooked meals, and enough running through the hills and dales of Vermont to last a very long time. The weather was great for 90% of the race–overcast low 60’s. T-shirt or singlet and shorts were perfect even at the 6:40 am start. A couple of downpours came in later in the day but stopped soon allowing us to keep the body from cooling off too much. The views, despite the mist and clouds were non-stop spectacular. We passed many, many spots that could have made perfect postcards. The fall foliage was in typical Vermont splendor. We had glimpses of sun, an occasional breeze, and even a rainbow arching across the landscape later in the day.
This was my second 50 miler (Stone Cat in 2002), Dan’s second (Vt. 50 last year), and Ironman Jay’s first. We started out running together with a threesome of very talented “ultra” ladies from the GAC club. We knew that their long distance resumes could help to get us through this feat. Soon Jay surged ahead and Dan and I hung back with the GAC group. The pace seemed comfortable to me but by the marathon distance it began to feel too slow. I’m not sure why but by the time our group reached the 6th aid station at 30.2 miles I was feeling great and was ready to kick it up a “notch” to see if I could catch up to Jay who I had heard from Steph’s team passed through the 6th aid station about 20 minutes ahead of us. I left the aid station a little ahead of Dan wondering whether or not this was a foolhardy thing to do–I still had almost 20 miles to go and Dan had been a pleasure to run with for the first 30 miles. Why change what was working? Maybe I was becoming delirious but off I went!! As with the entire 50 mile course I immediately encountered a massive hill close to a mile long. The GAC ladies were in front of me but were walking. I ran most of this hill passing the threesome for the last time in the race. I ran more and more of the uphills eventually catching Jay by the next aid station. We were able to run with or near each other to the finish offering encouragement to each other especially as we left the last aid station. A strong downpour just before we hit aid station # 9 turned the single track sections into very slick mud. I took one “face plant” when my toe caught a root. I recall swearing alot over the last five miles because of the mud which just added to the misery of burning “quads” and calves. After all the hills, the mud, the downpours and penetrating aches over the last 10 miles, the sight of the finish line was beyond words. The feeling of accomplishment will hopefully continue for days and weeks.
So what is next for some of Wicked’s endurance “lunatic fringe”? You’ll have to ask Jay. Within minutes of finishing he reminded me that we just ran a time that would qualify us to enter the lottery to run the Western States 100 Mile Trail Race in California next next June. NOOOOOO WAAAAAAY!!!
–Bill
Jay Curry:
Well, Sunday morning, Steph had us up at 4:30am so we could start getting our stuff together, eat, and get down to the race area by 5:30am for the pre-race meeting. The weather was in the low 60’s and a little humid, no rain though, just a light mist. After hearing the pre-race meeting, we went back to the car to sit down and relax before our 6:40am race start. The race started out on a cement road for about a 0.5 mile before turning onto a hard packed dirt road. The group of some people from GAC, Dan, Bill, and myself were all together for about the first 4 miles of road before turning onto single track. Once there, we noticed some people scurrying about on the trail either standing still or running back toward us. We then heard them scream “BEES!”. Great, some people got stung and there was a swarm of bee’s buzzing around this trail. So basically we went into a full sprint and went through them without getting stung. After a while, the thought of running 50 miles was starting to set in. I started to really focus on my breathing, keeping myself loose, and on my pace. In the beginning I was running everyone else’s pace, but thanks to Sal and the ultrarunning book he gave me, I learned that each person needs to run at his/her own pace, too fast and you’ll burn yourself out, too slow and you will have trouble going fast later on. Before I knew it I was running by myself. The course was beautiful, lots of great single track, nice dirt roads and plenty of scenery. I met some very nice people on the trail including a guy who climbed Mt Everest back in 1992. That made for some interesting conversation from about mile 20-30. Around mile 30 I started to have some stomach problems. After thinking about what may have caused it, I remembered that the water I went to drink at the last aid station was actually HEED. I heard some runner calling it HEAVE and that they were having the same problems as me. So it was tough to eat from about mile 30-45. I was just surviving on water, coke, ginger ale, and chicken broth from the aid stations. It was great, I would drink these things, run great for about 2 miles, then start to fade until I got to the next aid station and repeated. Around mile 35 or so, I heard a familiar voice say, “Time to start racing boys,” IT was Bill. We ran together pushing each other every step of the way. He was hurting, I was hurting, but we kept each other in check. We finally made it to the last aid station and it started to pour out. The rain made the single track trails very slippery. This is where I started feeling better. I was on slippery single track that really helped me to focus. I forgot about the pain in my legs, my hunger, and I basically just let the finish line pull me in. We did a short climb up Mt Ascutney(about half way up), traversed the mountain, then began a 0.5 mile descent to the finish line. I felt really focused on finishing, just thinking to myself that 6-7 years ago, after running my first half marathon, that I was never going to run anything over a 10k again, and here I was running a 50 miler. These races really test a runner to see what you are made of. You have to dig deep within yourself to find out what you are made of. It was great having Dan, Bill, and Steph there as well. Dan, stay off the road and away from apples. Seeing some familiar faces out on this race was very comforting. I think that is why I enjoyed doing these past 2 ultras this summer. However, next summer my focus is on Ironman Lake Placid, an ultra of a different sort.
My goals of finishing, meeting new people, enjoying the scenery were all accomplished. My race time was 10hours 36 minutes. I can’t believe that I ran for that long. Bill, Dan, Steph and her team all finished this race in one piece, no injuries. This race was a lot of fun, but not as hard as I thought. The aid stations were all well stocked. My only complaint was that they gave us tote bags for a prize. Not that exciting. I thought that the Jay Mtn. Marathon (33 miles) was much tougher and took more out of you. I remember in that race that at mile 28, I was done running. However, my legs still felt pretty good on the flats and uphills at Vermont; the downhills were a little tough until the end.
See you on the trails
Jay
Chip stops traffic as Billy P. crosses the street “Abbey Road” style. He does look a bit like John Lennon in this photo, don’t you think?
