Some months ago I decided that I wanted to be a pacer. I wanted to test myself as a companion runner, see what the final 30 miles of the VT 100 course looked like, and see what a runner that far into the race was feeling. I finally thought I was fit enough to pace someone for 30 miles, giving them my energy and concern and not worrying about myself. I thought about the Vermont 100, I was going to go to it anyway, either to crew, pace, or volunteer in some capacity.
After taking mental inventory of everyone I knew pacing VT 100, I decided there were people I could and could not pace. Some people I knew running were just too fast for me to be useful. Some were too slow for me to want to walk so far. Some were people I don’t really like. I thought about one runner who I admire a lot as a person and especially as a competitor and when I realized she was running, I immediately begged her to let me pace her. I’m talking about Lauren, RunsWithMacy! Lauren is an ultrarunner from NJ who I ran briefly with as a member of RVRR. She has completed the 100 mile distance once before at Rocky Raccoon. She is a smart, sassy, honest and strong person, who I think I can identify with. After asking, she didn’t give me immediate gratification, but had other strong RVRR women who expressed interest in pacing as well. I told her I was healthy and happy to pace the whole 30 miles and if she could let me know at some point, I’d appreciate it. As backup, I contacted the race to see if they could pair me with a racer who was looking for a pacer.
A few weeks later, early June maybe, I got an email from the race asking if I’d like to pair up with a racer. At this point, I reached back to Lauren for confirmation. Within a few hours I had my gratification—I would be pacing Lauren! Awesome.
Fast forward to race weekend. The 100 mile racers start at 4am Saturday morning, the 100k racers were to start at 9am. Many friends from Massachusetts and NJ were racing one of the races, and others were up to watch and crew or volunteer time at aid stations. Hannah again was captaining Keating’s and would bring Dani along, Jayson and Alli would be at 10 Bear along with everyone from TARC, tons of RVRR caravans were arriving. Ryan decided last minute to give it a try, too!
I hung around at the start/finish (Silver Hill) before the pre-race meeting to hang with Ryan and catch up with Lauren for a bit. After the dinner, I headed away towards Springfield, VT where Lauren and Kyle had rented an apartment for the weekend. It would be a full house. Turns out Dave, John, Joel, and Anne were also crashing there! Friday evening turned into a late one as I hung out drinking beers and catching up until nearly 2am, without falling asleep until after Lauren got up and left for the start. Sleeping on the couch meant I was in the way of apartment traffic for the most part. Overall, I think I cranked out 3 good hours of sleep that night. I wasn’t too worried for a number of reasons:
- I was excited, and that is enough to keep me awake
- I could nap later at 10 Bear before Lauren comes in
- I banked some good sleep earlier in the week
So Anne, Joel, and Kyle were off to find Lauren earlier in the day, while John, Dave, and I slept in and tried to eat breakfast. John was in Vermont, unknowing about the race. He was under the impression that everyone was just hanging around for the weekend and that sounded like fun to him so here he is! While that is hilarious, it’s still awesome because John is great, and I learned that he and Giselle are moving to Newton center ~ 2 mile from me! Dave was up because he was pacing a racer he knows from somewhere and thought he was going to be on his own all day, and yet we 3 had each other.
Neely (Miss Vermont) has some weird pre-race rituals…
We went to Hartland Diner for breakfast. This would be the last part of my weekend with cell service and thankfully we dragged our feet for breakfast because while awaiting my eggs bene, I got a couple of missed calls from a number with a SoJerz area code. They left a voice mail that was along the lines of “Hey, Do you have a dog named Sky? We found her and she’s safe. We’re in Cambridge, give us a call back and we can get her to you.” I heard this voice mail and bolted out of the diner to try to deal with this. My advisor was pet sitting for me for the first time, and I realized that I didn’t have his cell phone. I tried to call a few people I thought might have it and they didn’t respond, I played 6 degrees of Dr. Blake and eventually got his phone number through another professor, who was now invested in the story. I tried to call him and he didn’t answer, so now my mind raced to “great, Peter is dead. He was walking Sky and got mugged and she ran away and he’s dead and I should call 9-1-1.” I then attempted to find local friends who could go pick Sky up from her new friends but that was proving hard also. One of my roommates was the first responder and could go after breakfast.
In the meantime, I’m sitting outside while John and Dave are eating inside and I’m hungry and worried. I keep texting the SoJerz Savers thanking them and apologizing for taking so long, and they asked if it’s okay if they buy Sky treats. I said yes but please don’t feel obligated. She then sends me a photo of Sky with the caption “We bought her a margarita toy so she can be on vacation, too.”
Peter finally responds—he’s not dead! Then all is taken care of. I thought about telling the Savers to just let Sky out and see if she goes back to where she came from. Turns out she just walked away from Meighan for a second, and found people walking around and went up to them. This dog. Anyway, with that taken care of, I ate up heartily and then we went to Silver Hill, dropped John’s and Dave’s cars, grabbed Ryan’s unused Crew Pass and went off to 10 Bear, where I would stay for 10 hours!
10 Bear was great, it serves at the only double aid station of the race, where 100 miles and 100k racers hit it twice. 100 milers come in at mile 47 and again at 69. My first thought was to hang here, see Lauren, and then maybe eventually go out and eat a dinner. But since we knew so many people who were so spread out, I ended up staying forever.
First I saw Ryan come through mile 47, he looked awesome and felt awesome. Then Lauren. Then Gene for 100k. Then I went off and took a brief car nap. Then I scared myself by thinking I locked my keys in my car—which I technically did but luckily had a window open, the flood of relief when I realized my window was open nearly brought tears to my eyes. Anyway, it was getting late. I had subsisted most of the day on pickle flavored potato chips and fruit snacks. My stomach was complaining, as it should. Kyle had told me he had burgers and hotdogs that he was going to make for dinner for us, but where was Kyle? I was hanging around in the dark with Tom and Jayson, also waiting to pace, just thinking about how hungry I was. Then Ryan came through! He made it to mile 69! He wasn’t looking quite as great, he had ankle pain in both ankles and needed to see medical for a bit. He got on his way. Then Kyle, wonderful Kyle appears! I scarf 2 cheeseburgers and a hotdog like a fat kid and immediately feel better.
Around 10:45pm Lauren comes into 10 Bear for the second time. She looks fantastic. She is moving well, her IT band issues are resolved (thanks Advil) and she could stand up on her own. I was changed and ready to go out with her! I was wearing my dope Janji shorts, singlet, and prAna hat—my favorite outfit. I had in my pack arm warmers, headlamp, notes about how far to the next AS, some gels and Gus and fruit snacks, batteries, and I quickly downed a 5 hour energy. I left my running bag with Kyle, thinking he would bring it to all the Crew stops for the remainder of the race. That was my assumption and that was wrong—he would be at mile 76 but after that, he was going to sleep. Whoops.
Around 11pm, we were off for the night. As a pacer, I learned a lot from watching Lauren and also felt an almost maternal need to make sure she felt good and finished. Despite RD Amy’s forecast for a dry race, we ran almost the entirety of our time together in pouring rain and thunderstorms. I mean big storms and lots of rain. It rained over an inch of water during the night.
Lauren and I were both running with literally the shirts on our back essentially for the final marathon of the race. She didn’t have a drop bag, I didn’t either, and we had no Kyle. This was fine. I immediately made the rule that neither of us were to take off socks/shoes. Lauren self-diagnosed herself as having drank too much water and she was able to solve it by not drinking and peeing every 5 minutes. I was very impressed with her cognizance and composure to figure it out so far into the race.
As we moved steadily, our splits got faster! Once Lauren figured out her body, we were able to run every single downhill and walk with speed up each climb. I think we passed between 20-25 racers from when I picked her up to the finish, and we were only passed once. Lauren had a great attitude and never once talked about stopping, she got up from every chair on her own and she must’ve done 30 squats just getting up from peeing. I am so impressed and inspired.
She crossed the finish line seconds after 8:30am, for a 28:30 finishing time. She is a machine, and next year I want to say I did the same thing: I’m going to try to run 100 miles at the Vermont 100 next year.
See you next year, finish line
The course was mostly dirt road, with a few trails thrown in for good measure. I think this course could be run with road shoes. I ran in my Topo Runventures, which was far too heavy duty for this course—but I also don’t have any other shoes really so there’s that.
What goes through a racer’s mind in the final marathon of a 100 mile race is where I must find my own motivation and strength. There was nothing worth saying about the entire distance to keep a racer going. There’s nothing stupider than to hear “Only 25 miles left!!!” because that is ignorant. If anything I would say, “2 miles until the aid station.” Or “we just ran a whole mile straight, you’re crushing it.” Yes, a whole mile is worth the celebration sometimes. Its little steps, moving forward, and repeating that until you finish or until you physically cannot do it anymore. This type of distance is when you beat yourself mentally to actually test yourself physically. I have never been at that point, the point where my body forces me to give up and I have the mental push to continue.
I cannot wait to try put myself in this extreme condition, to see what happens to myself, to see where my mind draws strength from. 50 miles is not trivial, but it is not flirting with the limits of what my human body can achieve. I’m thankful to be able to pace such a strong role model, impressed with her composure during the race, and motivated to find my limits and realize they aren’t as limiting.
Of course, one step at a time. I’m focusing now on Bigfoot 100k first. I was scared of this race for a while, it’s a lot of climbing and descent, but between White Mountain adventures and recognizing that I can do so much more, I’m starting to have fun and look forward to kicking some ass in the Cascades. Trail running, ultramarathons, and finding yourself alone in the woods have been pivotal for me as a growing person. I encourage everyone to try to test themselves in the same way.
48 peaks 