Bear 100 Race Recap

Two years ago after pacing for my son Josh at the Wasatch 100 he challenged me to run a 100 mile race. He knew I had paced for someone almost two decades ago and that I had talked about running one someday. I'm not getting any younger, and as a result I accepted the challenge and have spent the last two years training for this 100 mile event.

Friday September 28th at 6:00 am began my first attempt at a 100 mile mountain race. The Bear 100 takes place in the beautiful mountains starting in Logan, Utah and finishing in Fish Haven, Idaho on the banks of Bear Lake. The course boasts just shy of 22,000 feet of elevation gain and 21,000 feet of elevation descent over the 100 mile course. It was a beautiful calm morning and although it was cool, it was not as cool as I would have liked it. The temperature was in the low 50's which meant that it would get into the mid 70's during the day. I was hoping for a day about 10 degrees cooler than that. Heat is my enemy when I run, I typically don't do well with it. Hydration would be key for the day, along with nutrition, patience, persistence, and a positive mental attitude which are always major factors. After looking through all of the information available and trying to put a realistic expectation on my abilities, I thought this run would take me between 32 and 34 hours. This race has a maximum time allocation of 36 hours.

The first 10 miles of the race is uphill and I took it very easy. I knew it was a long race and I didn't want to use all my energy in the first 10% of the race. After hitting 10 miles there is a long downhill, which felt great. I got into a rhythm and really felt good. At the 20 mile mark I got to see Brenda and Josh (my crew) for the first time. They had a chair set up and my gear there so I could get what I needed quickly and move on. They would be able to crew me at nine locations throughout the race.

The next 10 mile section has a lot of climbing. I was more deliberate in my climbing and ran the downhill sections. In this section it started to get hot and would stay hot until about 7:00 pm. This is the first time that I realized I was out-climbing everyone. No one passed me on the uphills, I was better prepared than I thought I might be. For the remainder of the hot period I just consistently plugged along, doing well on the climbs but very average on the flat and downhill.

At about 35 miles my left knee started to hurt. I had the same pain back in March when I ran the Buffalo Run 50 Miler. I knew it was not going to go away. I had to figure out how I was going to finish this race with a knee that would not allow me to run downhill at all and that I knew would get worse as the day wore on and I would not be able to run the flat areas either. If I was going to get through this I had to hit the climbs very hard as my knee didn't hurt at all on the uphill, and walk at a crazy pace the flat and downhill areas.

Up until I got to the Tony Grove aid station, 51 miles, I was passing runners like crazy on the uphills. This would be the theme for the race as I never had anyone pass me on an uphill. I was making up good time now. I had been about 45 minutes behind my schedule for finishing at 32 hours at the 45 mile mark. I was now less than 10 minutes behind on my schedule.

At Tony Grove I picked up Josh to pace with me the rest of the way. We would spend the next 11 hours in the dark with headlamps lighting the way. We went from Tony grove at a very fast pace, once again passing runners on uphills but surprisingly not getting passed on the downhills. We were now gaining time on my schedule of 32 hours.

When I made my schedule, I looked at the last couple of years results to see the times for the runners who finished in the time frame I was anticipating I would finish. I then calculated my anticipated split times from those results. I knew from being involved with several of these events that runners really start to fade in the last 40 or so miles, and especially in the last 25 miles. At this point I still felt very good. I was not tired, I was not fatigued, so I just kept pounding the pace.

A couple of aid stations later I was more than an hour ahead of pace. Josh and I did some calculations and figured I might have a chance of getting in at under 30 hours if I could continue with the current pace. This was a huge motivation for me as 100 mile races typically have 3 different finishing classifications or award levels. The first is under 24 hours, the second from 24 to 30 hours and the last is 30 to 36 hours. If I could finish under 30 hours I would be in a different award class than what I ever thought possible. When we came into the next aid station it was now light. I told Brenda to forget about meeting us at the last aid station and go call the kids and let them know that I was going to be in by noon. They needed to come now as they were definitely not planning on being to the finish until about 2:00. I didn't want them to drive three hours to find out that I had finished a couple of hours earlier. Brenda said she thought she could get to the highway, find cell service, make the calls, and get back in time to help us at the last aid station.

We went into the last aid station which is at 92.2 miles. I was now getting tired and my knee was now screaming at me all the time. Brenda was concerned at this station as I was not in as good of shape as she had hoped. But I was still very focused and bent on getting in under 30 hours. I took some Ibuprofen, talked to Brenda (found out she had contacted the kids), pounded down some Coke, cookies, M&M's and potato chips, and we were off for the final section.

The final section has a very steep uphill coming out of the aid station for about a mile. It is then followed by a very steep four mile section of rocky downhill. I paced Josh through this section last year so I was familiar with it. The uphill was good, again passing several runners. Now the downhill. My knee was on fire! I went as fast as I possibly could but had multiple runners pass me on this section. With about 2.5 miles to go Josh let me know that we were going to make it under the 30 hours. At that point I eased up a bit until we got to the last mile which is flat. Once we hit the flat I walked fast for almost a half mile to let my knee recover a bit. I wanted to make sure I could run into the finish. I started running again just before the bend in the road. At that point you can see the main highway and there are people who can see you.

As we came around the corner I could hear my kids screaming. It was awesome! Coming around the turn onto the main road and then into the last 75 yards into the yard where the finish line is I was overwhelmed. My heart was full and I was holding back the tears. Before Josh peeled off about 30 yards before the finish line he said "You did it Dad, great job!" I couldn't say a single word back to him as I was on the verge of crying. Thankfully I did manage to keep it pretty much together as I crossed the finish line. The last thing you want is a bunch of pictures of you balling your eyes out.

My official time was 29 hours, 49 minutes, 18 seconds. I came in 83rd place out of 165 finishers right square in the middle of the runners. There were 230 runners that started the race, 65 either dropped out or did not finish under the 36 hour limit. In my age group for men I finished 12th out of 26. Even after being very diligent and disciplined in training I never imagined I could finish under 30 hours. I truly feel like I won the race! I far exceeded what I ever thought I could possibly do.

This course is absolutely beautiful. The fall foliage was beyond spectacular. The people volunteering at all of the aid stations were extremely helpful and friendly. The race was very well organized and the course well marked.

I have to thank my family. I never could have done this without Josh helping me over the last couple of years. He was a completely awesome pacer, keeping me focused during the race, especially during the sections when I was in tremendous pain. His experience in running three 100 mile races really helped me. My family has been very supportive during this entire process and although they often question my sanity they have remained supportive. Mostly I could not have done this without Brenda. She always supported me when I went up in the mountains to run at least twice a week and at least 3 times a week on the road in the early mornings. Most of my Saturdays over the last couple of years and especially the last six months have been taken up with running. I was rarely home before 1:00 or 2:00 p.m. on most Saturday's. After the long day running I rarely was in the mood to do yard work or most anything. My back yard looks worse today than it has in the 18 years I've lived in my house. Thanks Brenda for all of the support as well as crewing me during the run. I could not have done this without your help, love, and support.

 I don't know where my running will go from here. Right now my feet really hurt and are very swollen, my knee is not too bad. It may be that this running ultra marathon thing will be like a mother giving birth, they think they will never have another child but somehow time dulls the memory of the pain and all they remember is the joy and happiness that it brings to them. We'll just have to wait and see what happens with time.