Angeles Crest 100
16-17 September 2006
Wrightwood, California
By Linda Dewees

I can't believe it's over.  I survived my first 100-mile ultra.  It was an experience of a lifetime, and I'm still overwhelmed by it.  As people say, it's an accomplishment just to get to the starting line of a 100 miler.

My story starts when I decided to try a 100.  I ran a few 50 milers last year, and I recovered from them well enough to make me wonder about a 100, although I'd run only maybe five ultras up to that point.  I ran the Calico 50K in January 2006 with my friend Curtis Davis (AC finisher in 2003) and asked him for advice.  He said the AC is hard for a first 100, but because I liked that it was a point-to-point run and closer to home, he encouraged me to go for it.  I sent my entry in at the end of January, and I can still remember the trepidation I felt putting the envelope in the mail slot!

I used ultras as my long-run training, racing basically once a month, including three 50 milers this year.  On each one, I concentrated on eating and drinking and taking salt.  I also went to official and unofficial training runs on the AC course.  They were wonderful!  Hal Winton organizes the official runs, and the course is marked and has aid stations.  It was a huge help to see the trail ahead of time, and it was such a joy to get to know the friendly Los Angeles area runners.  My training went well except that my weekly effort was only about 30-35 miles.  I meant to get it higher but was too lazy, I guess.

I tapered the last four weeks before the race—probably too much.  I did some hiking in the Sierra, and two weeks before the race, I turned my ankle pretty hard.  Good grief!

I packed my gear, bought food and drinks for my crew, and made a detailed pace chart of my ETA at each checkpoint and exactly how much water, nutrition drink, salt, and food and what gear I'd need at each stop.  I had horrible anxiety those last two weeks; I wished the race would just come and put me out of my misery.

Finally, the day came, and my crew and I headed down to Wrightwood.  I’d never had a crew before, and it felt really weird having people take care of me like that.  My crew comprised my daughter Kelly (who came all the way down from UC Davis to help), my husband Randy, and Curtis (whom I could now blame for getting me into this).  They were so wonderful and worked so hard for me, I just can't believe it.  Randy and Curtis also paced me.  None of my crew got much sleep that weekend!

I felt good when I woke up race morning.  The bad headache I had the day before was gone.  We lined up under the START banner, and I took my place in back.  On the way up the Acorn Trail in the dark, I met the amazing Hans-Dieter Weisshaar.  (He's a self-described animal—fifth 100 in five weeks at age 65!)  I felt good at that point, but I was surprised that I still had that anxious feeling.  Meanwhile, my crew was eating breakfast, packing the car, and checking out of our quarters, but they got to cold, windy Inspiration Point in time to meet me.  It was always so good to see them.  They'd look out for me and cheer as soon as they spotted me on the trail before each aid station.  I crossed to Vincent Gap and noticed a little discomfort in the knees on the downhill.  Hmmm.

We were lucky that the weather turned cool for the weekend, but I was prepared for heat, and because I tend to get dehydrated, I was extra generous on the amount of water I planned to carry.  As a result, I had to carry four pounds of water I didn't need over Mt. Baden-Powell.  I did this long stretch with Wendy Young, whom I had met at the AC training runs.  I was tired, and my knees hurt on the way down.  This really concerned me because we were only at mile 20, and I never felt this way on my previous ultras.  Wendy really helped me here, saying not to worry, and we just cruised nice and easy down to Islip Saddle, where I started to feel better.

At Islip, I was one pound up in weight.  So far, I had eaten a couple of fruit cups, half of a PB&J, and a couple of cookies.  My crew had made bottles of Perpetuem for me to drink, and I had flavored them with a little too much Crystal Light.  Perpetuem was a new drink for me that I hadn't experimented with much (mistake?), but it seemed to be working well.  I tried to drink one serving, each with 230 mg of sodium every 1 to 1.5 hours.  I also had Kelly give me a Succeed at every aid station and two before warm Cooper Canyon.  Was this too much sodium on a cooler day than expected?

I went over Mt. Williamson and had a pudding at Eagles Roost.  The next stretch through Cooper Canyon to Cloudburst Summit took 2 hours, and I didn’t see another runner the whole way.  I saw some hikers, though, who asked where I was going and when I'd get there.  That was a bit surreal.  I was just glad it wasn't hot through this section!

I ran most of the next 5 miles into Three Points.  I didn't want any more lemon Perpetuem, so my crew gave me one with fruit punch flavor and a bottle of SPIZ.  I've used and liked SPIZ on other ultras, but it has a lot of vitamins, so I decided to use it only on the second half of this race.  I didn't want to overdose on vitamins.  I felt really good on the next section to Mt. Hillyer, and I was happy to see Hal Winton at the aid station.  The sun was going down, and the volunteers were getting cold, but Hal just had on his uniform shirt.  He's tough.  I ate half of a donut here.  I managed to drag my butt up that little super-steep hill after the aid station and then weave down through the boulders.  I was glad to get that section done.

I got to Chilao (mile 52) just as it was getting dark.  I weighed in, but I don't remember what my weight was.  I had some soup and mentioned that the front of my ankle had some sharp pains because of pressure from the tongue of my shoe.  My crew had a different pair of shoes ready for me in an instant, and I was so glad I changed.  I may not have bothered to do it without them.  Curtis started pacing me here, and I was happy to have him with me.  I started talking a lot and probably went too fast up the hills.  I realized I had to get my old groove back.  I was using a headlamp and a Fenix L2P flashlight, but I still turned my bad ankle twice.

I started feeling not so great and a bit queezy on the climb up to Shortcut.  I sat at the aid station and tried to recover, but I chilled quickly.  Randy changed the batteries in the Fenix; it was already dimming.

My ordeal began here at mile 59 at 9:30 p.m.  While Kelly and Randy drove around to Chantry, Curtis and I headed down the fire road.  I mostly walked, but I jogged when I could.  I tried eating some ginger Altoids to settle my stomach, but I still didn’t feel good, so I didn’t talk much.  It's a long way down to the bottom of the road, and I was glad to finally start going uphill to Newcomb Saddle.  My stomach got worse then, and I had to pull over to throw up.  I got to see Hans the Animal along this stretch and hoped he could give me some advice.  He said the first rule of ultra-running is "Speed kills!"  Is that what I was doing wrong?  I didn’t think so, but I wished I knew.  When I got to Newcomb, I sat down for a while and tried to recover.  I drank a little soup and coke, but that came back up a few minutes later.  I was really disappointed I didn't get to try the chicken I'd read so much about.

I walked most of the way down the trail to Chantry (mile 74).  Curtis let me use his extra flashlight because my Fenix was already dim again.  I threw up a few more times.  I saw Xy and her pacer Kari.  They gave me some sympathy and encouragement.  My legs still felt good, and I wasn't out of energy.  I just had the poor stomach.  I weighed in at Chantry 10 pounds up!  That got our attention.  Randy got on the scale to test it, and it was correct.  My hands were also swollen up past the wrist.  I sat a while and tried some coke, but Randy knew I’d better be going.  His pacing leg was about to start.  He put new batteries in my Fenix again, and off we went.  I'm glad no one pulled me out of the race there.

We walked slowly up the BIG hill.  It went on and on and on.  I was so sleepy, but there was no way to keep caffeine down.  I tried to lie down for a minute right in the middle of the trail, but someone was coming, and I had to throw up again anyway.  Finally, we made it to the bench, and I took a 3-minute nap.  When I sat up, I sipped some water and took a Succeed to see if it would help.  Just after the capsule dissolved, it came back up—and did it ever burn.  My throat was raw by this time.  Randy said I was worse after I sat down and I should probably just try to keep going.

We gained the Mt. Wilson toll road and started down the hill.  It was morning, and that helped.  We walked and jogged down to Idlehour and saw lots of large deer along the way.  Getting to the base of the hill up to Sam Merrill seemed so much farther with a lot more uphill than I remembered.  I was so sleepy going up the switchbacks that I closed my eyes to slits and basically slept while hiking up the trail.  Randy said I was going strong, too!  I could hear Wendy behind me somewhere.  She was tired but feeling good and talking up a storm.  I sat down at Sam Merrill while Randy filled my water bladder.  I tried drinking some Mountain Dew and watched with envy while Wendy ate a sandwich and some grapes.  I had been thinking about my weight gain and suddenly got scared it could be hyponatremia.  I told Randy I was worried about going on.  Was I hurting myself?  He said I was going strong and acting fine and I should just try going on down the trail because it was downhill now.  So we headed out, and after a few minutes, I threw up again—green this time.  My legs still felt good, so we went at a nice pace down the hill.  It was getting hot, but I kept sipping water, and it was staying down.  No more vomiting, and I was feeling good.

Then, we were at Millard—the last aid station!  They filled my bladder for me, and I ate three pieces of watermelon.  We soon left to go up the hot road, which was so much longer than I remembered.  On the trail, we leap-frogged with Robert Andrulis and his pacer.  We were a bit worried about getting in on time, so we ran, and my legs felt good.  I was running great.  The canyon was much shorter than I remembered, and soon, we hit the paved road that led to the finish.  Now we knew we had time to spare, so we walked quite a bit to be sure I felt good when I crossed the finish line.

Then, there it was!  I sprinted across the field and felt great.  I really finished.  It wouldn't sink in.  Randy, Kelly, and Curtis were all with me, and I was so happy.  Hal Winton, Xy, and Chris Rios; all were there with hugs and pictures.  I got a real finishers shirt.  And the BUCKLE!

I stayed to watch everyone get their awards.  But it was warm, and I was sleepy.  I sipped a little water.  I was so happy to see that my other first-time 100 friends Jeff Stein and Ricardo Ornelas ran good races.  They both looked on top of the world.

When it was over, I crawled into the car and was asleep before we left the parking lot!  I was out while my poor crew had to stay awake for the 3-hour drive home.  And they were tired, too!  I'll never be able to thank them enough.

Since I've been home, congratulations have been pouring in from so many friends and acquaintances.  It really touches my heart that people took notice.  That's why I say this has been such a huge and wonderful experience for me.  There will never be another 100 like the first one.  I'm sure glad I made it.

What went wrong?  Does anyone know?  When I got home Sunday night, I was ready to eat some eggs, and I peed out a lot of water overnight.  My swollen hands were almost back to normal by the next morning, and my weight was normal, too.  Did I just consume too much salt?  Was my body just breaking in to doing something longer than 50 miles?  Did the nighttime and lights give me motion sickness?  I was sick and hardly consumed any calories for the last 40 miles of the race.  It worked, but I'd sure like to avoid that on my next 100.

I want to do the AC again!  I love the course!  I love the people!  Even after my ordeal, it was fun!