We continued the long meandering uphill towards Darwin, which took a few good hours to finish off the night section. Sunrise was incredibly beautiful and the morning was not so hot .In fact, there was a nice cool breeze as the sun came up across the mountains.
For the first (and perhaps only) time I took in the beauty of the place. Molly, John and Darryl took turns walking with me up the mountain.
Darryl made a nice morning coffee on his camping stove. The avocado-delights continued to go down a treat and I was still taking in aqualyte and shake. Finally, we got to the top and then there was some nice running on the flat and downhill sections, which were gradual descents. I overtook quite a few people on these long downhill sections and although my legs were sore, it was a good section and I felt comfortable. I ran and walked some towards Darwin.
After Darwin, there was a 30-mile (50km) downhill section, but a long downhill is hard to run on sore quads, so I ran the most of it, but walked a fair bit, too. The running/walking helped to overtake quite a few runners and put me on a relatively good pace. John, Molly and Darryl all took turns to pace along this section, and eventually we ended up catching Jason’s team (a runner from the High 135-mile race in India). It was good motivation to keep up some speed as Jason did not want us to overtake him and we were trying to do just that (although he was in the 6 a.m. start group). This cat-and-mouse game continued for a long time. During this time we had reached the 100-mile mark and that was great, but we still had another 35 miles to go and the sun was starting to get very hot yet again. Finally we ran past Jason and continued on to Keeler.
From Keeler, you could see Lone Pine, the aid station before the ascent up Mt. Whitney. Problem being it was 23.6km away across a long, relentless sabca, in extreme heat, hot wind with sand beating my legs. It was then I started to fall apart, as it turned to 1p.m. I was very, very hot and extremely tired. I felt faint and could barely muster a walk. The end just didn’t seem to get any closer. After a few kilometers, my crew put a wet towel over me. It was heavy, but it kept out most of the heat (except the hot sand whipping my legs). John was pacing me at the time and I started sobbing. I couldn’t help it. It wasn’t pleasant and I was so tired, sore and hot. After a short stint, Molly changed my towel to a lighter one and I wrapped this around my head and body, and continued to shuffle on. I went across to the car a few times for some respite, and finally sat in the front next to Darryl and burst out crying. I remember saying that ‘it’s horrible out there and I don’t want to go back.’
Molly, having been in the same mindset herself during her race, in tears at the same location, helped by saying that I just had to get this section done and she understood completely. I said that I needed
something substantial to eat and Darryl made me a cheese and avocado sandwich. During this time I saw Jason pass, running on toward the finish. The sandwich, Jason, and Molly’s words that I had to
move faster and get this over and done with, got me back out into the hell that it was, and continued on. I started marching very fast, with purpose, and before I knew it I was running again. Darryl joined me for a long stretch and during this time, we fast-walked, fast-ran towards Lone Pine.
During this time the big blister under my foot burst, but I quickly treated it and ran on. We passed several people during this stage and finally made it to the sanctuary of Lone Pine.
At Lone Pine, Molly suggested I get my blisters tended to. My crew went and got burgers, refuelled the car and Molly went to get me a sandwich. During this time, the blister-expert lady fixed my blisters very well but did take a long time to do this (30 minutes) as she was showing another guy how to fix them properly. However, I got to then use a proper toilet, change my running skirt, change my socks and felt relatively fresh again. After this time I had a bit of a sandwich that Darryl made, then hit the road with John – the start of the Mt. Whitney ascent.
This final section of the race was a 13-mile climb up Mt. Whitney and felt like forever. Teams were passing us in cars, going back down the mountain and I was green with envy. I wanted to be finished
too! They were cheering us on though so that was motivational. I was sore and tired at this stage. The sun was going down, but my back was in a lot of pain. Molly, who had lent me her iPod, called
John over: a stretch therapist and chiropractor from Las Vegas to help me out. I honestly thought that it won’t help very much, my back was really sore, but Darryl got his thermorest out and by the side of the road, John gave me a 5-minute stretch session. I got up and it was like magic – my back had no pain whatsoever. I couldn’t believe it.
We soldiered on towards the end. Once I hit the steeper section, with 3.8 miles to go, I started marching faster. I had some of Molly’s sandwich and John was pacing me. I was going with a good stride and John was keeping me occupied with good stories. It was a long, long final climb, but with good pace we got near the end. The final 200m was great – Molly and Darryl had parked the car and joined in for the finish, and as a team we crossed the finish line at Whitney Portal. We finished the race in 36 hours,27 minutes. Oh, how I loved getting that belt buckle from Chris Kostman.
That evening on the 17th July 2012, I became a Badwater finisher. I’ve never been happier to get to the end of a race and I’ve never been more grateful to my team for getting me there. It was a
team effort and a shockingly hard race. I am also indebted to all my friends from Dubai who supported me in training and online whilst the race was going on. You are great.
We headed back to the hotel, absolutely exhausted (all of us), but apparently for our team, our adventure was not over – the hotel reception was closed. We managed to call from another hotel, but the manager had said that our rooms had been cancelled that day. A former crew member, Adam Dearing from Missouri, had cancelled our room on us that day without any notification despite the credit being in my name (although the hotel was in his name). So we had nowhere to sleep and all the rooms were taken everywhere in Lone Pine. We spent about an hour driving around and calling other towns, trying to find somewhere to sleep. After running and crewing 135 miles, this was the last thing anyone wanted. Finally, we found a room back in Stovepipe Wells, and John and Darryl drove us back there (they were so tired, it was dangerous). At around 3 a.m. we got to our rooms to sleep, but since this hotel was far away from Lone Pine, we missed the awards the next day.
Moral of the story – always book your own room at Lone Pine.
Was it the hardest thing I’ve ever done? Yes. Would I run this race again? Definitely.
To my most awesome crew: John, Molly and Darryl. Cheers!
Published in September 2012
