Race Day(s)

It's been difficult to write about this race. I've tried a few different times, and have not succeeded. At first I attempted to share all the funny stories that happened during the race. That method seemed to take away the incredible experience of the race. This is my attempt at writing a more balanced report.

The race day(s) were finally here. This was the point at which we were all asking ourselves "Can we do this?", "How hard will it be?", "Will any body get hurt?" and about 100 other questions.

This first photo is the Dirty Half Dozen at the start of the race. From left to right are Shmuel Rochin (from Israel), Ray Wagner (Groton Gopher), Gideon Gal (Israel, and Ithaca), Ron Moore (Groton Gopher), John Dailey (Finger Lakes Runners Club, from Ithaca), and Steve Gallow (FLRC, Groton Gopher, from Groton) . This is also the order in which we ran the race. Each of us would run a total of 6 legs each for a total of 36 legs covering 200 miles.

On the left in the second photo was the start of our race. A total of 5 teams started at 9:15 AM on June 2, 2007. This looks like a small race, but there were actually 23 teams. The start times of the race were calculated based upon the teams average 10k race pace. Slower teams started earlier in the day at 7:00 AM, while the fastest teams started at about 11:00 AM.

There were 2 types of teams in this race. Six person Ultra teams, and twelve person regular teams. Gideon, our team captain, wanted an ultra team. In the end we were all glad that we ran as an ultra team. It was much more of a challenge, and more exciting. With a twelve person team the member may have to wait as much as 6 hours between runs.




The beauty of this course was incredible. There were 7 covered bridges along the course. Here Shmuel crosses the first bridge on the first leg.










Here is Gideon crossing one of the other covered bridges. (Note: ahead of another team)










The Ultra teams are broken down as 6 positions. Each position is rated by the difficulty level. The web site has excellent maps showing the topography and the distance of each leg. Gideon had each team member rate which position they would prefer. Everybody was given their first choice except Gideon and John. Both wanted to run the most difficult position. A coin was flipped and John won(or lost depending on your perspective) and received the most difficult position. Here John is running up one of the many hills, and Gideon runs along side him for support.

After each leg there was an exchange point. Here Steve just finished his first leg, and Shmuel is beginning his second leg. Steve got lost near the end of this leg, and ended up running an extra 1/2 mile.

While running each member of the team was wearing a Lance Armstrong yellow band, and would pass it on to the next runner. As team captain we presented Gideon with the band at the end of the race.

Volunteers from various organizations were paid to organize the stations. They did a great job, and the payments went to various charity organizations. They had to spend several hours at each exchange point, and were always very cheerful and supportive of the runners.




The heat became very oppressive during the race. The temperatures were in the high 80s and low 90s during the day. It was very humid as well. At night time it was still in the 60's and very humid.

After their first legs, John, Steve, and Mike Hammer went swimming in a public water hole that was along the route. Later Ray, and Gideon took advantage of the cool water near a waterfall. The water was very refreshing, and helped keep the swelling down in the muscles.








Ray and Ron had some of the hottest runs. Here Ray finishes after one of his killer runs. It took him a while to recover from this one.













On one of Ron's legs he came in dripping with water. I thought somebody had dumped a bucket of water over his head because the water was coming off in a steady stream. I asked him if he had dumped his water bottle over his head. He said no. It was sweat.

One of the suggestions that we followed was having multiple outfits, and multiple pairs of running shoes.

John was getting ready to run one of his most difficult legs. It was rated "Very Hard" and was about 10 miles of running up hill. The weather was very hot at the start. There was an Ambulance with a member of another team being treated at this exchange point. John decided that this was the leg that he most needed to show his membership to the Finger Lakes Runners Club shirt.













A huge thunder an lightning storm hit while John ran this leg. He continued to run through the storm. When I gave him water and asked him if he wanted to wait until the storm was over, he said, "No this is better then the heat."


As the day progressed and we became more tired, there were fewer and fewer photographs to record our memories. There are no night time shots of us running with head lamps, and blinking lights or our reflective vests. I wish there were. It was quite a site. At night time on one run it was so foggy that I thought my glasses were steaming over. I wasn't wearing any glasses.

Another thing happened at night as well. The apatite for the pasta salad, bagels, peanut butter, chocolate covered espresso beans, Coke, boiled eggs left us. It was very difficult to eat. We didn't feel hungry, but we had to force ourselves to eat. Here Steve himself to eat a power bar.

One of the other things that suprised us was how little we were able to sleep during the race. I think that we all thought we'd get more sleep, but we only slept about 30 minutes the entire night. Even though we didn't sleep we were able to stay active. Once in a while we would catch a cat nap in the back of one of the vans.






A humorous thing happened at one of the exchanges. John Dailey had the keys to Gideon's van, but wasn't sure how to use the door lock. He hit the panic button, and the alarm alerted everyone at the exchange to look at the van. Ray just happened to be changing in the back of the van while the alarm was sounding.








On one of Ray's runs near the end of the race he was running with someone on one of the other 12 person teams. Ray ran along side this runner in his 20's for a while, and they talked . The other runner was suprised to hear that Ray was part of one of the Ultra teams. When the runner arrived at the next exchange he said, "Hey I was running with this old man back there, and he was pretty good." I guess being in your late 40's in one of these races makes you and old man. We believe that we may have been one of the oldest teams competing. We were one person shy of a masters team.


It was interesting to watch the emotions of the people during the race. Toward the end many of us were getting tired, but others became fantastic cheerleaders in encouraging people to do well. After the last leg people were happy that they had completed their portion of the running. On Steve's last leg he wasn't sure of how much more he had to run, and thought that he wasn't going to come in before the 28 hour goal that we had set for ourselves. He pushed on, and we finished with almost 3 minutes to spare. The team was able to join Steve, and all of them were allowed to cross the finish line together.

Here we have the finishing team including Mike Hammer on the far right. Mike was key in getting us through this race.

I think as with every distance event, you find yourself amazed at what the body is capable. Each of the members of the team worked hard to get to this point. We were lucky to have no injuries along the way, and to complete it as a team. We ended with a time of 27:53:04. We ended 3rd in the Ultra Mens category, and 12th overall. (Including competing against the 12 person teams.)

The race was over, and now it was time to repack the vans (lots of gear), get a shower and a big meal. Shmuel said that he was ready for a steak and a beer. We all agreed. (Watch our for the bar tax in Vermont. It's a killer).








With one shower for all of us we took turns using it. Meanwhile everybody who wasn't using the shower caught up on some much needed rest.




















During the final couple of legs of the race, some of us said that we probably would not run this race again. We were tired, and still had a couple of runs to do. Later in the restaurant we began making plans for next years race. It amazing how quickly the mind forgets the difficulty, and a sense of accomplishment and exhilaration takes over. We're looking forward to the 2008 race. We hope that we can get a team together.