Ultra_Tales_Issue_13

ARTICLETHE GRAND SLAM OF ULTRA RUNNINGback to Leadville and I had one more hill leftbetween me and the finish, the Power Line Climb.I’d hiked it the week before the race when I was outin Leadville acclimatising, I’d been warned about allthe false summits, and doing it fresh it is a reallynice walk. Eighty miles into the hundred mile race itwas a different experience. I was pretty ruined.Crossing the Leadville finish line with only one hourto spare was the best finish yet, it wasn’t justanother finish. I was still in the slam, I’d givenmyself the opportunity to toe the line of theWasatch Front 100 as I didn’t have a ballot space,slammers have to finish the first three races toqualify. Brad, Dave and Brent all finished. Tom Greencrossed the line in 29.5.49, just over four minutes tospare. I crossed the line in 28:59:15 233rd out of700+ starters 357 finished. 8 Slammers dropped.Wasatch Front 100 Mile Endurance Run, 5th ofSeptember. Slam Miles 300 to 400I’d actually got a place in the Wasatch Front 100, I’dchecked in and got my race number, I’d met up withsome of the other slammers and there was a reallypositive atmosphere among us. We’d come a longway, this was it, the final round of the slam. Onpaper it’s the toughest of the four races with 25,000feet of climbing and descending on remote trails.The Wasatch Front basically climbs a mountaintraversing the ridgeline before descending downinto Lambs Canyon, the halfway point constantlyclimbing and descending all the way at highaltitude. You then do it again just after Brighton aidstation, where at around mile 77 you climb to thehighest point at Sunset Pass which is 10,222 feetabove sea level. After this comes the final descentand less than a marathon to the finish at SoliderHollow.“I’d been in America justshy of three months, it wasall a build up to the lastrace”The night before the race, sleep just wasn’thappening. I’d been in America just shy of threemonths, it was all a build up to the last race. Gettingthere was an achievement on its own, and not manyslammers DNF the Wasatch Front 100 but I wasn’ttaking that for granted, anything could happen overthe next couple of days and I would reflect back onthem for the rest of my life. There was only onething I could do, get out there and give iteverything I had left, not too early as it was goingto be a very long day and a half! I knew there wasno way I’d go sub 24, sub 30 would be amazing but Iknew it was more likely going to be longer, as longas it was 100 miles under 36 hours for an officialfinish I would be happy, very happy!The confidence I started with disappeared early on,I had started steady and enjoyed the first climbalthough it was tough. They don’t call it the chinscraper for nothing! But a quick scramble after ahiking up 4,235 feet in the first ten miles is all partof the fun. It was reasonably cool, and when the suncame up from the darkness we started in there wasan amazing view of the great salt lake and the citybut it didn’t seem like long until it was up properlywith the heat that came along with it alongside therelentless climbing and descending that was takingits toll on the body. The first aid station with foodand drop bags was Francis Peak eighteen miles in, Iwasn’t feeling too bad but it wasn’t too many milesafter things started to seem tougher than theyshould have been. The profile didn’t look easy but itdidn’t look as hard as it felt when I was out on theridgeline, it looked like a long slog to get to theridge, then I thought we’d be able to jog across thetop but I was wrong, the descriptive word to afellow runner would be “undulating” , myvocabulary may have been a little more fruitful untilI was crawling up a steep monster of a climb, gotround a corner and the view was spectacularlooking out over miles of wilderness, peaks andcanyons as far as the eye could see. The mountainshad interesting profiles like none I’ve seen out ofUtah, two lads were sat there taking a breather, Ineeded five minutes in the shade so joined themwhich was a mistake, one of them needed a rope, orat least to phone his mum. I’ve never heard so muchnegativity from someone out on such an adventure.I felt sorry for his mate who thought he had to sitthere and listen to the dribble, it worked in myfavour, I was up and out of there! No way was I199 ULTRA TALES | OCTOBER 2014Sponsored by thehttp://