The Bryce 100

The Bryce 100

on the way to Pink Cliffs

Over the weekend I ran the Bryce 100. It was the inaugural race and also first time that I have run a 100 miler before September. Leading up to the race I didn’t really get the same excitement and nervousness that I usually do for races. I was worried that this would affect my motivation to put in a good effort and at times it did. The race started off on an interesting note riding in the back of a U-Haul for 2 miles to the start line. Then the briefing by the race director was short and to the point. He went over the course markings, aid stations, etc. and in the next breath before anyone could get prepared he casually said “go.” The first half of the race went by rather smoothly except for dirt building up in my shoes. This dirt build up would lead to foot problems later in the race. I had the privilege of running with some of my regular running partners Ryan and Harrison and also with some that I don’t get to run with much outside of races. Harrison, Ryan and I ran together for the first 15 miles or so.

Jeff Bertot and Harrison Fluman

 

 Then after that Harrison and I stuck together until mile 80. The scenery is definitely amazing in Bryce! This was the first time I have ever been to Bryce and I was blown away. It seems like I was stopping to take pictures at every turn. The miles seemed to go by pretty easily until mile 50. At most aid stations Sami and Lindsey were there waiting for us to come through. We also had Britta, Nick, Jim, Pam, Cammie, Debbie and Breein out and about to cheer us on. Sami did a great job taking care of me at every aid station she could get to. As soon as I would come in she was getting me anything I needed and even doing a little foot cleaning at times. She is best crew I could have out there with me and she does a great job of keeping me moving. I really enjoyed the course except for the fine gritty dirt. It worked its way into my shoes and then once it was there it got in between my socks and feet. No bueno. There wasn’t any way to stop it from happening so I just had to deal with it. Eventually I developed some blisters between my toes and toe bottoms of my feet became really raw and painful. This cost me a lot of time later in the race. So at mile 50 Sami worked her magic on my feet, popped some blisters and taped up my toes a bit. It seemed to do the trick for now.

 

 One of my favorite parts of the race was when Harrison and I saw my uncle Forrest just before he reached the Pink Cliffs aid station for the first time. He looked like he was having a great time and really enjoying himself. When Harrison and I got back to the Straight Canyon aid station at mile 61 I was not feeling so great. I didn’t want to eat, my legs were tired and I just didn’t want to do anything but sit for a while. Sami and Harrison weren’t having any of that so we were back on the trail. We hiked slowly up the canyon as I tried to get down a tortilla with nutella. There were delicious but nothing sounded good at this point. I was walking really slowly and Harrison pulled away a bit trying to get me to speed up. This was a bad low spot for me. I had a few thoughts about heading back to the aid station and dropping out. But something kept me moving and eventually I started feeling better after the tortilla settled. At the next aid station Harrison was picking up his pacer Britta. Sami helped me fix my feet once again and Britta gave Harrison and me some bling (glow in the dark bracelets, oh yeah!) then we were off. Britta did a great job pacing us. She would start running the flatter sections, then Harrison would start running and then I would follow. I really didn’t feel like running much but I didn’t feel like being on the course by myself more. The section before the Proctor aid station at mile 80 was brutal. It consisted of mostly steep uphill or steep downhill with very little runnable sections. This section destroyed my feet some more and when we got to Proctor I had to do some major work. I told Britta and Harrison to go on without me. I didn’t want them standing around waiting on me to be ready to go again and I also knew I would slow them down if I left with them. They didn’t want to leave me behind but they eventually headed off into the darkness. It took about 15 minutes more for my feet to be all bandaged up and ready to go again. From Proctor to the finish I had a horrible race. My feet hurt so much that I had told myself I would drop when I got to the next aid station. I was walking a lot of the downhill parts which is the most frustrating thing. The rest of my body was feeling pretty good but the bottoms of my feet were killing my spirit. I finally made my way to the last aid station where Sami was waiting for me once again. She could tell that I was in bad shape and let me stay longer than she normally will. I couldn’t seem to get warm so we crawled into the car and turned up the heat. I begged her to let me take a 10 minute nap but she told me I had to get moving. I changed into some warmer clothes and an hour after getting into the aid station I was finally heading out. The last section was my lowest part of the race. A one point I was sleep walking off and on for about half an hour. Every step was a struggle and I was moving extremely slow. But I kept moving forward.  I was passed by many runners over the last 13 miles but I didn’t care. I just wanted to be done so badly. I was getting extremely frustrated and cranky. Eventually I called Sami and asked her to start walking up the road to meet me so she could walk me into the finish. After what seemed like days I finally saw Sami coming down the trail towards me and I started to cry. It’s crazy how these races can work your emotions. She did her best to encourage me to move faster but I was locked into my bad attitude. We were moving very slowly but she kept me moving and after what felt like a year of walking the finish was finally in view. I managed a halfhearted jog down the final stretch and then I was DONE! I finished in 27:05. This wasn’t the hardest race that I have been in but it was one of my toughest mentally. Not being able to run any of the last 15 or so miles destroyed me mentally. In the end I am glad to have completed the race and not given up. There were many points over the last 40 that I wanted to DNF but there was always something or someone (Sami) telling me to keep going. I would recommend this race to anyone looking for a quality early 100 miler and I may even be back myself next year to try and exact some revenge.

I just wanted to thank those that were there to support me, all the volunteers at the aid stations and my amazing one woman crew Sami! Thanks for always believing in me and keeping me going even when I feel like giving up!