This is part one of Melissa's Lean Horse 2014 race report. Melissa asked me to help edit her story, to reduce the length. After a breathless first read and tearing up on the last several paragraphs. I advised her to just leave it be and let the words sing. They may be a little off key in places and raw in others but my-oh-my, that girl sure can hit the high notes! Her story soars. Part 2, 3, and 4 will be published on SMR over the next several days. Enjoy.
The weather forecast called for cold and rain. At 18 C, humid and windy, this hardly seemed
like the Lean Horse 100 I had known for the past 5 years. Usually the daily high was between 30-35C
and dry as a bone. I suppose this was
fitting as the Lean Horse 100 2014 was almost an entirely new course. I was ready for an adventure!
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| "Running is not something I do, it's more like something I am." Melissa Budd |
As a teacher I’ve always treasured my summers, no marking, no lunch making and scheduling is
minimal. One of the things I most look forward to is training for Lean Horse
100. Running to me is not something I
do – it’s more like something I am. It
is as much a part of my day as anything else, sleeping, eating, relationships…. At times, it is my comfort, my burden, my
sanity. I love the Paul Maurer quote below (The Gift - A Runner's Story) as
it summarizes the rawness of running….
Running isn't a sport for pretty boys...It's about the sweat in your hair and the blisters on your feet. It’s the frozen spit on your chin and the nausea in your gut. It's about throbbing calves and cramps at midnight that are strong enough to wake the dead. It's about getting out the door and running when the rest of the world is only dreaming about having the passion that you need to live each and every day with. It's about being on a lonely road and running like a champion even when there's not a single soul in sight to cheer you on. Running is all about having the desire to train and persevere until every fiber in your legs, mind, and heart is turned to steel. And when you've finally forged hard enough, you will have become the best runner you can be. And that's all that you can ask for."The best runner I can be" is not about PBs, PRs, or BQs. Don't get me wrong, I still run hard, give it my all on the hills, I push beyond what I think I can do. I love seeing how far I can go and feel grood when I improve my time. What makes me feel best however, is when I handle the stresses of running better than I did last time. I also love the feeling of losing myself in the run.
This summer I set out to train for Lean Horse. I was excited about the new course and was
looking forward to training with my running partner David. David is one of the only people I know that
doesn’t blink an eyelash when I ask him if he wants to go on a 40 mile training
run on Saturday. One of his best
qualities is that he is always ready for an adventure.
Unfortunately David, AKA my ultra-training
partner, broke his collarbone at the beginning of July as he was making the
transition to triathlons. I suppose I
could have been more supportive and not said to him, “serves you right….running
is an angry mistress and will not put up with your cycling” but I’m a work in
progress. To David’s credit, he laughed and understood
my disappointment. He impressed me with
how he maintained such a positive attitude while he was healing that I couldn’t
help but to be inspired. I know I would
not have been so gracious and light of heart had it been me.
Without said training partner, I began to ramp up my mileage
and quickly got to running 100 mile weeks.
I would run 8-15 miles 6 days a week (usually starting around 5am) and
then one long run on the seventh day of 35-40 miles. I did hills once or twice a week in the
mornings with my great training partner Christine (who was battling with
planters fasciitis and ran way more
miles with me than she intended to – but did it because she knew I was hurting for
people to run with). Scott Burton, one
of the most well trained ultra-runners I know was wonderful with filling in
many miles on those long runs that are so hard to do alone. He, along with Tim Du kept me company and
kept me laughing. I also had a few
special events to break up the regular training. Scott organized the annual Slurpee run that
David and I had done in the past, to include lots of people and 35 miles of fun
and sugar. I also did a few triathlons
to switch it up a bit and found out I like swimming and am a pitiful cyclist!
By mid-August I was feeling strong, partially due to the
fact that Christine kept telling me how strong I was (tell someone something
often enough and they will start to believe it) and was anxious to get to South
Dakota!
The ride down was great.
David graciously offered to drive down with me and be my crew. He wasn’t sure if he could pace me, but having someone on the course at
every station, attending to all my running need was going to be a luxury I had
never experienced. I was sad for him
that he wouldn’t be able to run but grateful for the company and the future
help he would be giving me.
The pre-race meeting on Friday was filled with
anticipation. It was somewhat like a
family reunion. This was my 6th
year at Lean Horse, and seeing familiar faces is always a comfort. I was excited to see Mike, Loren and Al (Mike
and Loren were running the 50 mile and Al was running the 100 mile on a relay
team). The race director, Royce, told us
about the new course, how beautiful it was and how excited he was to have us
finally here. He warned us of the longer
climbs, the elevation change of 6000ft and the altitude (although South Dakota
is over 5000ft above sea level, I’ve never had a problem with the
altitude). He also warned us not to “poop” directly on
the trail (move off and cover with dirt), I guess there has been some issues
with this in the past. I wasn’t too
worried about this request as I am not a “trail-pooper” and prefer solitude and
cover when engaging in that activity.
The weather was cool, cloudy and very windy with a prediction
of more cool weather in the morning and rain.
After Loren, Mike, Al, David and I had a quick supper at Subway (as a
bonus, we had the privilege of dining
with Jeremy – who eventually won the race) – David and I retired to our rooms
for a good night sleep. In retrospect, I should have switched rooms
with David. His was at the back – very
quiet and dark and on the inside. My
room was an outer room and I had trouble falling asleep due to anticipation and
the sound of the relentless rain that gave me dreams of painful chafing and
miserable cold.
Morning came quickly (although it was quick only AFTER I
fell asleep – the time between when I got in bed and fell asleep seemed
endless). I got dressed, made sure I had
everything I needed, had a bagel, a banana and a Coke, slipped on my rain
jacket and by 5:20 am I was ready to go.
I was a little miffed when I heard
about what a good quiet sleep David had – but that didn’t last for long
when I thought of how much help he was going to give me and that driving
requires more alertness than running.
We met at the Custer track.
Large lights illuminated the area and over 100 people were milling
around nervously talking and laughing. I
met Brittney – a runner from Winnipeg who was doing her first 100. Amazing that a young lady (early twenties)
was attempting such a feat. I asked her
what her friends thought – she said most of them were impressed but thought she
was crazy! She told me her longest run
was 45 or 50 miles….I felt a little inadequate and told her not to tell me such
things!! I was anxious to see my friends
Peter and Yen – I knew they were signed up – but I didn’t see them at the
prerace meeting. Peter is from Texas and
has a distinct southern drawl. I heard
him before I saw him (so I thought). I
walked quickly toward him and gave him a big hug. I asked him how he was and said that David
wasn’t running this year because of his accident. He was smiling and nodding. I called David over. When David came over, he looked really
confused. I looked at who I thought was
Peter, who was still smiling, and then made the realization that it wasn’t
Peter. Awkward! “Peter” introduced himself as Bob. He was incredibly gracious and said when a
pretty lady comes over and gives him a hug – there is no way he would correct
her.
