"I am WoMaN hear me ROAR!" The ultra 100 miler. YIKES!

So my younger sister Loni has known to be a little intense. Not so much in an overbearing personality. But in her endeavors of taking on challeneges, especially physical strength ones. She did take on 4 children in four years, let alone all boys. She did finish up her degree in Micro-biology with her first pregnancy and after the birth of her first son, taking no time off. She did have a home birth with her fourth son, she has ran many marathons, even collapsing at the end of the St. George to qualify for the Boston. So needless to say running an ultra 100 miler would be right up her alley. She has been preparing for the very rough course of the St. George Iron man. When my mom's good friend Carol just casually suggests she does the Buffalo Run on Antelope Island near SLC, only a month a way. So of course Loni pretended to be torn for a day or two before the deadline of registration was coming upon her. However Loni and I are very much alike in the sense we just can not say no, it just happens to be to complete opposite things. She can not say no to a challenge presented to her and I can not say no to fun opportunities presented to me, especially when it involves traveling, it really is a weakness of ours. I think I am the wiser one in my choice, though she might be a heck a lot tougher than me and any another woman I know, even tougher than my mom, and that's hard to beat. Loni is such a great example of strength, and endurance. Willingness to go the extra mile and really push herself and pursue her interests and maintain her own identity. I guess her example has lead many others in her area, especially in her ward to get in shape. Loni is definently not a talker, she's a doer. She does stuff that most of us would never even talk about doing. The coolest thing about Loni, besides being my sister :) Is with her great intensity of taking on life and these crazy events and other life defining events. Is she really is one of the kindest, most gentle and loving people I know. She has the intensity to accomplish so much, yet is so mellow, humble and just enjoyable to be around. I have always looked up to my younger sister, and I am very proud of her and grateful for the sister she is to me.

Here is part of blog post from her blog about her race. Since it was 6 hours away from Vegas and mostly was done on a Friday, and since I had UOP of training that Saturday. Sadly I was unable to attend. But I sent reinforcement. She was in need of pacers from mile 40 to mile 100, so 60 miles. The very first person I thought of suggesting was my dear and close friend Melanie, who too has many great attributes and strengths like Loni. She has done a couple of Iron Man's, loves a good race, good physical challenge and always up to help someone out, she is just such a gem. Sure enough she accepted the offer. Was nice enough to meet up on Friday evening at 6PM, and ended up staying with the group until midnight, then did the longest stretch with Loni in the middle of the night until 7 AM, run/walk 19 miles with my sister.  When I heard what she did, expecting she would run a few hours and like 10 miles. I had tears in my eyes, I was never so touched by the kindness of a friend to another. To know I could count on her to help my dear sister, at a time I could not. The beatufy of life really are the people it is filled with, especially great friends like Melanie.

Check it out: oneilies.blogspot.com/

I felt pretty good, a little fatigued, but still excited that I had just completed the first half of the race. My next pacer was Melanie. She was Lyndee's roommate in New York City. I met her once while visiting Lyndee, then I met her again at Lyndee's wedding. The morning of Lyndee's wedding, Melanie, my mom, Todd, and I all went running together, and the thing about Melanie is that once you meet her and get to talk to her, you fall in love with her. She is so likable and very compassionate and sweet... and hilarious. When I was trying to think of pacers, Lyndee suggested Melanie and I instantly agreed. Melanie was the best choice for this particular section of the run as well - 19 miles, lots of hills, in the middle of the night. Melanie has done lots of endurance races, including 3 Ironman, marathons, including the Boston Marathon, and lots of century (100 mile) bike rides. She had the mental strength and ability to help me through this next portion.

Miles 50-69

At 12:40 (40 minutes at the aid station!!!), Melanie and I went in the dark to conquer the mountain. Before leaving the aid station, I knew there was something I needed to get from Todd, ten minutes into the run I figured it out...the No-doze!

The first time through this section was difficult, but I had fresh legs and a beautiful scenery. This time it was difficult and I had tired legs and could not see anything. I kept telling Melanie that I wished she could see the beautiful landscape that was around us.

The trails were difficult, and a lot of inclines. We were moving quite slowly, but Melanie was perfect. She kept the conversation up and going the entire time. She changed subjects frequently enough that I didn't get bored with whatever topic she was talking about. Plus, she has done 3 Ironmans, one of them being Kona, so I utilized that to my advantage to pick her brain about doing an Ironman. When we did get to some-what flat trails, Melanie pushed me to run as much as I could, but there weren't a lot of flat spots, and when there was a flat spot, it didn't last long.

I was feeling so tired, I wanted nothing more than to sleep. I was grateful for Mel's conversation, for it did help me keep my brain somewhat active. I was mad at myself for not remembering the No-doze. I hardly ever have caffine (can't even remember the last time) and I knew that it would definately wake me up.

We got to the Elephant Head Aid station, mile 55, and I gave the volunteer my number for checking in. "Loni O'Neil?" Ya. "Here" he said as he unzipped his vest's pocket and pulled out a small waterbottle, "Someone left this for you....he said you would know what it was." I looked at the waterbottle and saw that there were peculiar little round things floating all around in a gel-like substance. It was Chi, and it was from Ad Marshall.

On my flight to Utah on Thursday I was sitting across from the aisle from a guy wearing the finger-toed shoes while reading a book. I glanced at the book and realized that it was Born to Run. I commented to him how that was an excellent book. He said that it was his second time reading it in the last two months. We started chatting about running and soon realized that we were both headed for the same race, and that it was his first 100 mile Ultramarathon as well. He introduced himself as Ad Marshall and we instantly became friends.

For the remainder of the flight we talked about running. He talked about his running partner, Brian, and I talked about mine, Kara, as if we were talking about our significant others, but we both "got" what it really means to be and have a running partner. We shared stories and ideas of how we were going to get through our first 100 mile race. He talked about Chi, which is mentioned in the book Born to Run. I had never seen it, nor used it, so he told me he would "hook me up". We talked through the entire flight, he got the stewardess to give us extra water bottles (she was insistant that we not show nor tell anyone about it for she could get into trouble!) by telling her about our race. We talked down the jetway and all the way to baggage claim. After picking up our bags, we wished eachother luck and went on our way.

Holding the small water bottle with the fisheggs-like water, I remembered what it is to be a runner... to live life, to experience it, to meet people on your way, to learn from them, and to help each other. I opened the bottle and chugged the concauction, surprisingly it was tasteless....thankfully.

Mel and I chose to do the shorter 3 mile out and back first. It was a lot slower for our footing was not as sure as it was in the daylight, and there were moments that we were on the ledge of the mountain. We reached the end, got my high-tech sticker, and went back to the aid station. It was cold and I was still incredibly sleepy when we got to the aid station. They had several cups of pop set out, one pop was a caffinated drink. I considered taking it, knowing the caffine would help me, but as I consideered it, my friend that had attempted 5 Ultras before and had to drop out of 3 of them was sitting there in the tent trying to will his stomach to allow him to keep going. I haven't drank carbonation since I was a Freshman in high school. I had stopped for soccer season and never went back (once you don't have it for awhile, it's just bubbly, tastless, and hurts your stomach). I knew that if I drank the pop, I may wake up my body, but I would be paying for it with my stomach. Instead I drank some Ramen Noodles, had an oreo (one thing I like about this kind of running is that oreos are recommended, not restricted), and went on my way.

Melanie was such a sport. I was not fast, the terrain did not help, it was dark, and it was getting cold. My fingers were frozen - which did not help my sleepyness. Noticing that my gloves were my dad's size, therefore causing a lot of extra space, Melanie offered to trade me gloves. I was so grateful to put on her warm, tight gloves. It made a huge difference, and later when I offered to switchback Melanie refused, claiming that I had a lot more to do than she did. In the end she gave the gloves to me, stating that they would be a good memory keepsake of our experience together.

Later Melanie jokingly told my mom that all of the racers needed to see a psychologist. My mom then said that Melanie needed to see a psychologist because she had been over on the island for over 12 hours, awake all through the night, running with her friend's younger sister. I thought it was funny, but after what Melanie did for me, the sacrifices she made, she is a very dear friend of mine as well.

Things were slow, we were going up switchbacks, we were close to the edge, I was tired, I was cold, and my light was getting dimmer and dimmer. We tried running when we could, to help warm us up, but the terrain made it very short-lived. Even though it was difficult, and I felt like I could sleep walk. I made sure that I didn't focus on what I still had to do. I was just focused on making it through the next mile, the next corner, the next step.

Here's the elevation map of the course. Notice that most of the elevation gains and losses are in the first 19 miles...and miles 50-69.

We saw the aid station for the last time, and we were happy about that. We continued on our way. While heading back there were a couple of people that passed us, mostly because their brisk walk was quicker than ours was, but I didn't care. I was focused only on complettion, not competition.

With only a few miles left until we were back at the starting point, it suddenly got light out. It wasn't like someone turned on a light overhead, but rather all of the sudden it was like we could see the trail, we could see our immediate surroundings, we could see our footing! With new enthusiasim, Mel and I started jogging, but that soon turned to running. We passed all the people who passed us earlier, they all gave encouraging shouts, one guy stating that we were "inspiring". As low and as difficult as it was before, it was even more that much of a high and effortless to run now. We were going at least a 8:00 min/mile pace and we were not slowwing down. We both yelled at the top of our lungs because it was so incredibly climatic. Words cannot even describe how amazing it was. It was a great feeling to be alive.

A quarter mile to the aid station there was a herd of buffalos, 10 yards from the trail. They were beautiful and magestic, total addition to our experience. Joy was exploding from us. We got to the aid station with wide smiles. We got there at about 7:15 AM, it took almost 7 hours to do that 19 miles. Carol and Kris had come through an hour and a half before us.