#Eternal frontier spirit highlands 3 15 driver#

The driver ahead of her had gone up on the grass to the left of the road, but there was a difficult lip to traverse to get up there. She passed me then stopped because of a severe washout in the road. The last ATV was driven by a woman with a toddler on her lap. Finally they started passing me, one by one. They werenвЂ™t going much faster than I and it was annoying to hear them slowly creeping up on me. Running on the old jeep road I heard a set of about six ATVвЂ™s behind me. It was ten miles to the next aide station at Trout Creek, so I made sure I had water and gels. Just before arrival I had plunged through a creek, so I got a fresh pair of socks and carried them back over the creek before putting them on. In the Silverheels run I would had to overcome three moments of adversity: a fall which produced a large goose egg on my forehead, an asthma attack while climbing the steepest and highest point of the race, and the old familiar nausea.ДЄt 19 miles I met my crew, Rebekka for the first time at the Gold Pan aide station. For me the Silverheels journey and indeed all of my 100-mile journeys are of the latter category-not necessarily вЂњunhappyвЂќ but very unique in what I have to do to overcome adversity. Tolstoy in his classic novel, Anna Karenina started it off with (paraphrasing): вЂњAll happy families are alike, all unhappy families are different,вЂќ or close to that. ItвЂ™s that fine balance that you have to achieve between maintaining the body and bonking. You donвЂ™t need a lot of calories to get through 100 miles. There is a fine balance between taking in just enough calories and too many calories. IвЂ™ve gone for forty miles taking in only vegetable broth for calories. IвЂ™ve also found foods that I can take in without problems-clear vegetable broth with no spices and orange juice. Before changing my mindset I might have dropped out for that reason (excuse.) Now IвЂ™ll take a quick catnap, let myself settle down, and see if that works to overcome it. For instance, I know that I always suffer nausea about sixty miles into these things. My strategy now is to overcome adversity and to quit only for legitimate reasons-no excuses or because IвЂ™m tired of running. In order to raise my 100-mile completion rate I had to change my mindset from вЂњracingвЂќ to finishing. I counted the runners ahead of me as they came back towards and put myself at 12th place. The scenery of the high country above treeline was glorious in the early morning. It was easy enough to run the downs and most of the ups this early in the race. The out and back is close to 12,000вЂ™ and rolling. I left my hydro-pack at the aide station and filled up a collapsible handheld with water for the five-mile round trip to the Silverheels Mine, knowing that there was water available at the mine. The sun wasnвЂ™t up yet, but the dawnвЂ™s early light suffused the landscape and Mt Silverheels dominated the scene. From the unmanned water-only aide station we climbed steadily to the fully stocked Highland aide station. Starting in the downtown metropolis of Fairplay, Colorado we ran dirt roads to Alma, which at 10,578 feet is the highest incorporated town in North America. Out of all the other races IвЂ™ve run IвЂ™ve had only one DNF-that includes 136 marathons. IвЂ™ve had five successful completions and four DNFвЂ™s at the 100-mile distance. Marathons, 50KвЂ™s, 50-milers, and even 100KвЂ™s can be run as a straight-out race, but you will need a different mindset and unique strategies to get through the hundred. Hundred mile endurance runs are different than other ultra-distance runs. YouвЂ™ll be at this for at least 25 hours, probably longer. The first pre-dawn miles were an easy affair-gliding along at a nine or ten minute mile pace under the cover of darkness and guided by the frequent sighting of an orange ribbon marking the course.

Eternal frontier spirit highlands 3-15