Pine To Palm 100

SmilinG_ON_TRAIL.jpg
Pine To Palm 100
By Zapmamak

My crew said I had been closing down aid stations all day since they saw me at Squaw Lakes. Left behind me was a wake of bodies wrapped in space blankets lying on the ground waiting to be taken off course. I was the closer for very aid station. It seemed weird to me at the time that I was always DFL because I remember passing people. In fact, I passed about seven guys coming over Stein Butte. A few of those guys were in pretty bad shape. They had run out of water on a hot and exposed section of the ridge before they got to the aid station. In fact, we all anticipated that aid station being A LOT closer. If I had water to share with them I would have, but as it turns out my hydration pack was empty as well and I still had another tough climb ahead of me and a couple miles to go before I got a refill. Yeah. That was pretty rough and it took a lot out of me.

I had done my homework. I knew this was a tough course with some technical sections and some long climbs. Out of 160 people registered only 120 were on the starting line at Pine To Palm 100 miler on September 14, 2013. So 40 people dropped even before getting to the starting line. According to realendurance.com this race was ranked slightly harder than Western States, Tahoe Rim Trail, and Leadville. I knew it wasn't going to be a cake walk, but I have a tendency to make things out to be much harder in my head than they actually are in reality so I figured this race was one of those races.

Um. NO. I was sorely mistaken.

To continue reading, please visit: http://nakedonsharppointystuff.blogspot.com/2013/09/pine-to-palm-100-september-14-2013.html?m=1 (Contains some colorful language, but hey, that's our Zap, right, colorful?)
 
I'm an artist, mom, barefoot/minimal runner, and the official Zaps Threads tshirt designer. I came into barefoot running as part accident/part experiment to see if it could help me run without pain for longer distances. Not only did I discover...
View all 2 featured items
Such a great report Zap. I am so glad they let you continue at that aid station. This was my biggest worry working the aid station at the Zion 100. What to do about the cutoff time, I did not want to stop anyone. Matt told me to use my judgement. Lucky the last runner came though at 9:30 pm (the cutoff was 11 pm), the rest had dropped, thus avoiding an uncomfortable situation.

Such an inspiration. You rock!
 
  • Like
Reactions: zapmamak
That is totally insane, amazing, inspiring... so many things.
I'm speechless. So I'll just quote 5t3ph... that pretty much sums up my thoughts as well. And I'll add, YOU ROCK!
party0031.gif


Its just amazing what all it takes to go through a race like this. For the races I've been doing (10k's, half marathons, etc) all you really worry about is just how fast you can go. This is like a whole different world with strategy required, gear, crews, food, mental stress... but I got to say I love just going fast!

Beautiful scenery too. That looks so nice, I absolutely love being up in the mountains as you probably could tell from my current avatar. But dang, I've never even done that kind of elevation change in one trip before, even when spread out over a few days, and thats just hiking and not running! And as much as I love hiking I hate running in the hills, I suck so bad when it comes to hills! Maybe someday, but for now I'll leave running the mountains to you and for me save the mountains for something I can savor a bit more with an easier pace while carrying a big camera and stopping a lot for pictures!
 
Rock stars!