This weekend marked another running of the
Cascade Crest 100 miler. Our local 100 miler under new race directorship. Charlie Crissman really did an amazing job with the nuances and newness of RD'ing in his first go at it. He brought many special touches to the race and you could tell he put a lot of heart into everything he did for the event.
It seems I've been talking with Jenny about running this event forever. She asked me ages ago if I thought she could do it and I told her "definitely and I'll pace you." What a night! This girl was a total rockstar, her attitude was always positive and even if she was feeling down, her comments were more funny than whining... "why does every rock have to be wet?" Every suggestion Seaver (her boyfriend) or I made she would at least try and always replied positively. She never said I can't, I won't or I don't want to (to me anyway - she did spend 6 miles with Seaver and had a bit of a rough spell); something I think is key for finishing an event of this length. Staying positive on the simple things will keep you positive for the big picture. She ate really well, paced herself brillantly (15.5 hours for the first 50 and 14 hours for the second 50), and stayed focused on her goal of finishing.
There are all sorts of stories from the wet, chilly night. I had a great time crewing with Seaver... as the night wore on our stories were less and less relivant and more and more funny. We've got to right a book (or at least a page) of quotes from this event.
For Blog sake I'll just share the last 10 miles. Jenny is an amazing climber (rock yes, but also hiking uphill), but could do without the downhills (we will work on that). There is a 5 mile descent into the last aid station at mile 95 and on the way down I started looking at the times and realized she could break 30 hours. I put the idea out there and the smile on her face told me that she'd think about it. She was definitely tired of the long descent, but she stuck it out and once we heard the cheers from the aid station she perked up and we made it in just before 3pm. Seaver, Darcy & Bob Africa (women's winner and good friends to both of us) along with many other crews were there which added to her excitement. We dropped our packs and anything excess and put on the tutus Jenny made us for her final 5 miles. Darcy looked at her watch and made some comment about... could she break 30 hours? And Jenny responded "if we bust it!"
Then I new she was into it, we had 1:06 minutes to run the flat 5 miles. She flew out of the aid and I couldn't stop talking and shouting encouragement (maybe the double espresso Clif shot I took had something to do with it). We quickly caught up to Hans Dieter and she settled in with him. He was talking about running 31 hours or so and I told him that if he stuck with us he'd go under 30. Every time I tried to pull Jenny away he hung on, we caught 3 more guys in the remaining 5 miles and those two ran the last 5 of their 100 miler in about 40 minutes. So they maybe worked a little harder than necessary and Jenny even got after me (the only time in 13.5 hours of running together) for constantly prodding her to catch another guy. (she passed at least 20 people in the time we were together!)
In my book she didn't just make it to the finish line. This girl finished with pep, a huge smile and well exceeded her expectation. It was super special to be out there and take part in her first 100. She went through all the ups and downs (both literally and figuratively) and took it all like a Champ! Congrats JU!
Finally as follow up to an earlier post, where I shared that Jenny was raising money for the American Alpine Club in honor of her friend who passed away in a climbing accident... Jenny set a goal of raising $1000. It is looking like she will raise nearly $6500 with a generous matching from her employer,
Outdoor Research!!! This girl is something else.
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