Burning River 100 and Beast of Burden Crew/Pacer Reports!

Lots has happened since my last blog post! My family and I visited my brother in Myrtle Beach and my husband has run his second 100 miler. I paced hubby at Burning River and my friend Kathy at Beast of Burden, my son started school again as well as cross country - and got accepted into the Perry Fire Explorers program. The little bugger is getting his temps in a couple weeks. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! Busy as always!

BURNING RIVER 100
After a very good running season my husband was more than ready for Burning River. The race was held at the end of July.

Like a big dummy, I forgot to charge my camera. So this is the only pic that we have. (Thanks Chaney!) The week was like any other, busy - and the night before the race my son had an interview with the Perry Fire Department's Fire Explorer Team. (HE GOT IN!!!)

Being the interview was late at night and after work - I had tons to do to prepare for the weekend. Hubby went to bed early as he should have, however chauffer duties and crew duties kept me up for quite a bit of time. Long story short I got a whole 3 hours of sleep the night before I would be up 24 hours plus! In the end lack of sleep wasn't an issue though, as I had not had any caffeine for a month, and just a small amount of coffee sent me through the roof. Problem solved. One of them. In the morning I woke up, jumped out of bed and felt a stabbing pain shooting through my foot. Not knowing what it was I tried to keep it to myself as I had to pace the old man for 38 miles. I was hoping it would go away FAST. I pushed it into the deep dark part of my mind and got the family ready and off we went! BR 100 start! The foot hurt during pacing duties even after popping one Aleve before pacing (do not recommend) at some point after we finished the pain went away. *POOF*! Like magic. I don't know what the heck it was but glad it didn't last.

Many friends were running this race so it made time at the aid stations fun. Eventually though everyone spread out and settled into their pace.

THE MIDRACE CURSE
At the halfway point my sister came out so we could take my car to the finish, and so she could drop me off at the next aid station, all in time to pace my hubby. Maybe not such a bright idea, as I already know - every single race, no matter what the distance halfway in hubby starts the mental business. He gets nervous, starts to think about how bad 100 miles hurts, etc., you name it. Sure enough when I was at the parking lot at the Nat I got a phone call from a poor volunteer at an aid station....Husband said don't forget this, husband said grab that, blah blah blah (bless her heart for satisfying him and calling me!) All I could do was laugh and say "Ok". My sister dropped me off at the aid station and I waited, talking with some friends and waiting some more. This time last year I was waiting for him in the dark here, but this year there was PLENTY of daylight to go around! All of a sudden I saw him, grabbed my gear and we were off - 38 miles to go! It was nice running through the ledges when it was light out. Hubby was feeling tired, but really pleased with the time he was making. He was so far ahead of what he did last year - just amazing!

THE SHUFFLE

Enter in the hubby shuffle. He slowed to a walk, but mostly it was just mental. I could tell from last year, he was still feeling strong. So I had said, "Well just try and walk every minute, then run the next. I'll tell you when it's time to start and stop". That worked for awhile, but I could tell when I started to annoy him with the whole "RUN" now "WALK" bit. Quite frankly, I was starting to annoy the hell out of myself, too! Soooo I decided to trick him a bit :) I started to make a shuffling sound, like I was running - and thought maybe that would work. VOILA ! Sure enough it did! Every time he stopped, I'd wait a minute or two then break out the shuffle. (Now that he knows what I was doing I don't think that will work again, ha!) Soon he didn't have long to go (don't recall since I'm a blogger slacker but it was 3 miles I believe). He really picked up the pace during this portion. As if he got a bit of an adrenaline rush, or just a rush because "thank god this shit's about to end" or something, I'm not sure - but he really pushed it through to the end to get a near 6 hour p.r. on the course! This race ends his running season for the year and so proud of him! He's really come a long long way. Way to go babe!!

BEAST OF BURDEN 100 MILER

One of my favorite races, Beast of Burden was held at the end of August in Lockport New York. What makes this race so awesome? Bottom line: the people. Just extraordinary. It's like a family! (Funny in running, you gain more than friends but family - it's great! I've got i2P family, Copper Canyon family, BoB family - love all of it!)

Early in the morning I volunteered at my son's XC fun run 10k - manned a water station and took some pics for the team.

My hubby got off of work, met us at XC and we were then headed off to Lockport! I had the awesome job of pacing my friend Kathy for part of her first 100 mile finish, which was incredible! We got to the finish line and waited for Kathy's husband, Ray Zahab. In the meantime I snapped pictures (of course!) and talked with some friends - no wait - -family!!

Not too long after Ray showed up with his friend Nathalie. Her husband Jeff was pacing Kathy, we got the low down on what was going on and chatted for a bit. Then Kath came and her, Ray, and I were off for the next 12-ish miles! They're fun people to run with, easy going and just great people. We soon got to the turnaround and I went with Kathy for the next 25 miles. I can say out of everyone I've paced, I have NEVER ever seen anyone run so much as Kathy during! She was amazing and got a kick butt time out there! It was great getting to know her more and be out there with her - truly an inspirational woman, and seeing her cross the finish line was extraordinary! And I might add, a mother of two young kiddos....apparantely to someone's surprise at the finish line - I just heard a gasp and..."WOW, she's a MOM?!" from someone. I smiled and thought... Heck yeah man! Moms are TRUE Badasses :) CONGRATS KATHY!!!