Burning River 100 experience

Today I joined Alex on his adventures as a sort of crew-member for his cousin during the Burning River 100--a 100-mile foot-race that travels all through some of the most beautiful rural parts of Cleveland. The experience was absolutely 987345893 more amazing than I expected. Our schedule today looked a little something like this:

• 3:40AM--Time to get going, we've got a race start to watch!
• 5:00AM--Burning River 100 starts
• 5:20-6:00AM--Wonder what we are doing awake at this ungodly hour
• 6:15AM--Remember why we are awake! Watch and support runners as they come through the 6-mile mark (first water stop).
• 6:30-8:30AM--Donuts.
• 8:30AM--So exciteddd! More cheering and support on the sidelines at the 17-mile mark.
• 10:00AM--Arrive at 26.2-mile mark and gasp in awe as these ultra-amazing runners speed through this landmark and continue on, 1/4 of the way done with their race.
• 10:30AM-12:30PM--Get completely (and embarrassingly) lost/disoriented!  Take an adventure.
• 12:30PM--After having found our way, we began to cheer on runners at mile 41! 
• 2:30PM--Go home. Finally time for US to eat (It now feels like 8PM to us)!

Alex ended up back down at another access-point on the course later this evening, and he will be stopping a final time this evening to run for the last 30 miles of the race with his cousin. I am in awe of this kind of running--just about 24 hours of constant movement, constant motion. To me, the ultra-distance is appealing in it's challenge to just keep going, and (in a lot of cases) not think about pace as much as you might with shorter distances--when you're asking your body to go through this, you simply have to judge running off of what you're feeling. Finishing is a world of accomplishment. I don't think I would ever do 100 miles--I think I'd lose my marbles far before the finish line! However, my experience today has brought an entirely new respect for the individuals who compete and complete at this level. I would most definitely crew for another ultra (especially this one!) in the future, and actually hope that it's something I can be a part of in that way. The energy of the athletes is just amazing, inspiring, at times entertaining, and overall an awesome thing to be around.

Things I Now Know About Ultras:

• It is not uncommon for a runner to order a pizza to a crew-access checkpoint and then run off down the course with it.
• Race belts (like in triathlons) are great--don't have to fumble with pins when you change shirts!
• Duct tape is a life-saver. Shoe falling apart? Duct tape it. Knee bothering you? Duct tape ice to it. Sprain an ankle? Put ice AND splint it, wrapping duct tape around the whole thing. It is NOT unusual to keep going in the face of physical or material crisis. Duct tape helps ease this process. 
• Bring lotssss of extra shoes. This actually makes a lot of sense (you might change wet socks, but you're stuck with wet socks again if you put your feet back into wet shoes!). Plus, you never know when something detrimental might happen to a shoe over the course of 100 miles...backups are great. We saw one crew-van with 5 pairs of shoes lined up in the trunk at one the checkpoints!
• Many runners will take a somewhat "leisurely" stance at some of the checkpoints. This is completely normal. Many runners will stop, sit down, chat awhile, eat a sandwich, change all their clothes, bandage wounds, get cleaned up, etc. before leaving the crew-access checkpoint.

It was really great to learn more and more about these amazing athletes and this race throughout this great (albeit long) day with Alex. This weekend is a memory that I will always think of with such excitement (and amusement--we're funny when we have to wake up at 3:40AM!). I hope to crew for ultramarathons with Alex in the future, and I can't wait to crew for him when he does his very own someday!

Sadly, I didn't get any photos of the race-course or runners because I didn't put my camera in it's usual spot and couldn't find it in my bag! When I got home I realized it had been in there the whole time (of course!). I should be able to dig up snapshots from a few people who I know did take photos--will share those when I can get them! For now a (slightly irrelevant?) photo of us will have to suffice, because I will miss this guy for the next 3 weeks.