It Aint Fair, but it is Scary!

Well, tough news from Leadville.

My great friend Chrissy (Xy) Weiss (on left being groped by Western States founder, Gordy Ansleigh) was on track to do the Grand Slam plus 2 this summer. She had completed Western States with 20 minutes to spare. She had completed Vermont with 25 minutes to spare (even though she had taken the Red-Eye from CA on Thursday night/Friday morn). Chrissy has completed more than 20 100-milers in the last three years. She knows how to hang tough. In addition to all of this running she manufactures and sells all of those Dirty-Girl Gaiters that we love. All of this while working full-time as an assistant DA in Southern California. Any way, Chrissy's attempt at the Slam was waylayed at Leadville, she dropped at mile 50.

Another acquaintance, Don Halke, whom Becky and I ran with at Vermont, was also delayed at Leadville. Don was raising money for cancer research in his quest. He had a great crew with him at Vermont. He had finished Western States with 20 minutes to spare and Vermont with 30 minutes to spare. Don made it to mile 70 before he had to drop.

Besides Chrissy and Don, many others are out. The 2007 version started with 29 attempting to complete the Slam. Of those 29........... 13 are left. Of the 16 that have dropped, 10 of them dropped out at Leadville (5 at States, and 2 at Vermont.) Most runners agree that the toughest race is yet to come, Wasatch.

I TOLD YOU GUYS this is tough.

I'm thinking if I don't at least have a 4-hours of cushion at Western States, Leadville will be too tough. I need to drop a good 20 pounds to be capable of this. That being said, other than my post-Vermont burger, and one-bite of a sandwich while tubing on Sunday, I've been meat-free since June 28. I've also been virtually french fry free (that's a toughie). Still, I haven't lost any weight. That's ok, I've got time.

So, when I think about the task ahead, it's a little hard for me to be amazed at the 23-Miler that I did with you guys at Croom on Saturday. Yes, the run was very easy for me (until the hill repeats with Chris Wedge, yeah, he's 10-Years younger and a lot faster than me). Barb is a very sane and sweet person, she is amazed that I can easily run a marathon at the drop of a hat (as long as it's cool, and as long as you don't put a pesky five-hour limit on me). But when I look at what's ahead, a marathon seems like what it must seem like to me, if I am to succeed, it seems easy. It seems like 1/4 of the distance I need for 1/4 of the races I need to complete. On Saturday, I felt I could have easily run another 23 miles, geez, that would only leave me 54 miles short! And that wasn't in the cards. Like Woody said at the Vermont 100, "This makes that 45-mile training run we did seem like nothing."

However, I am not discouraged, not even a little bit. While I love Chrissy, she doesn't have the speed that I do (my speed isn't great, but I believe it's plenty to finish each of the races.) While Don seemed like a nice guy, he had very little experience in ultras and probably attempted the Slam too soon in his career. I am not discouraged, but I more than ever believe it will take a lot of luck, and that I have to go in to this task in the best shape of my life, this will be more of a challenge than I originally thought it would be. Being honest, I was naive.