AC 100 2013 (21 years later)

This has been an amazing vacation of reunioning, realizing, and reminiscing. Because I just posted to FB saying I couldn't describe this weekend in a FB post, I thought maybe I should attempt to talk about it here! Besides, I have to keep myself awake long enough to finish icing my knee :)

Backstory: Twenty-four years ago my family started running an aid station at the Angeles Crest 100 (AC). This is a 100 mile endurance run over trails from Wrightwood to the Rose Bowl. Well, 24 years ago that's where it finished. About 10 years ago they changed that, but I digress. Our job was to hang out at Shortcut Saddle, about 60 miles into the run, and greet runners. We had food and water and soda and all sorts of goodies. The runners could have their "crew" (friends and family) meet them there to give them any special items and encouragement. There was a medical team who assessed injury and blisters and gave massages and such. It was basically a little city on a wide turn-out on the side of the road. For one night. I LOVED doing this with my family. I even missed Homecoming my senior year of high school so I could go to AC.

The ultrarunner, someone who runs more than the standard marathon, is a special breed of human. They are in FANTASTIC shape and are some of the nicest people you'll ever meet! They have normal jobs but in their free-time, they are found running along trails wherever they live.

At all of the aid stations along the way at AC, there are ham radio operators working diligently to make sure every runner is accounted for at all times. They know where and when each runner was seen last, and where (and sometimes when, back then) to expect them next. My memory of the radio guys at Shortcut was that they were on the other side of the road. I was a teenager and it didn't interest me so that's all I can tell you!

Fast forward to 2013: My trip to CA began with my HS reunion. When dad and I were discussing dates, he mentioned that he was signed up to work radio at an aid station of the AC100. Somehow it was agreed that my trip should finish with helping him! I admit I didn't actually know what helping him would mean until Saturday night! But I knew that I had very fond memories of AC and I had no reason or desire to say no. As it turns out, his usual partner, my uncle, didn't get to go so I was his ONLY help.

Dad's aid station these days is Millard Campground at about 95 miles into the run, the last station before the Finish. It's technically a remote site in that cars aren't allowed up the 100 yard drive to the actual campground. Except ours :) We got there about 4pm to start setting up, the first runner would be there by midnight. Oh, I should mention that I have decided to get my ham license so this was also a big lesson for me. Anyway, we put up the antennas (I'm too tired to go into detail) and got everything up and running. The technology of this is awesome. They use a software program created just for this event to track runners through the computer, using ham radio waves! Dad also had his radio for actual voice talk which he used more than I expected him to.

Bob, the aid station chief, came in while we were setting up. He is an ultrarunner himself and had run from our station the 6.7 miles to the station before us, and back, marking the trail with yellow tape and chalk. These runners run through the night so having a well marked trail is very important!

The rest of the aid station help arrived and we began making dinner. Bob went off down the trail toward the finish, to check out the sunset. What he found was a bike rider who had, for unknown reasons, taken DOWN many of the yellow tape markings! And someone (else?) had smudged out the chalk arrows. To make a VERY long story short, this was very bad, no one did anything about it (who should have at 6pm when we reported it), and so at 3am Bob re-ran it all to re-mark it all, 4.7 miles to the finish and back to us at Millard. Most runners didn't know about any of this but he was kinda the hero of the day. To get lost at 97 miles would royally suck!!

If you think I'm rambling or a little all over the place, you'll see why in a bit. So, the first runner got there at about 11:30pm. He didn't stay long. We had runners fairly steadily all night long, mostly one at a time. There were a few 1 hour gaps between them in the true middle of the night so the aid station folks went to sleep, except Bob. When we realized, via voice ham radio, that the markings had NOT been replaced at 6pm, we knew that Bob was the only one to do it. Why did this matter? It meant I was the only one to be working at the aid station if a runner came in. Not a huge deal because I love this stuff and they were there one at a time and dad could handle the radio side. Oh yeah, my radio job was to write down the "in" and "out" time for each runner so that there was a paper trail of what dad was sending over the waves. Anyway, what this really meant for me, is that if I'd wanted to sleep, it really wasn't going to happen unless I quickly learned how to catnap. I did not get that gene from dad, unfortunately. Maybe I'll grow into it. And thus my exhaustion by the time we got to Big Bear at 6pm on Sunday.

Eventually, people woke up, Bob returned and we all did our "assigned" duties. There were 6 of us there in total. Dad and I were "radio" and Bob, Jeff, Susan, and Summer were "aid". Summer was technically medical but the only thing she did was say that our walker (#127 who took the longest to get to us) was okay, just walking, thus slow. He finished!

The awesome part of being radio and/or the software we were using is that we knew where every runner was. The software gave us a not always accurate ETA, who had dropped out, etc. We knew exactly who was heading toward us, when we might expect them, and when they finished. When the 1st woman came through (39 year old Angela!) her pacer (someone who runs with them to energize, coax, hydrate, etc.) said she was on pace for a course record. We knew, an hour later when she finished, that she'd done it! That's not true because it took us several hours to figure out what the record was (22 hours) but we could look back and knew! She did it in about 21:30. Oh she was also 4th overall!!! That's 21 hours, 35 minutes. Running. On trails. Over mountains. She's MY AGE!!! She SOOOO rocks!!!!

Knowing they were coming meant that I could almost always know their name when they got there since I had the list with bib number and name. I enjoyed being able to say "hi Malcolm, welcome to Millard". It was harder when there were several due within a few minutes because they traded places in order often!

I will have a second blog post about some of the specific runners we saw. We saw 74 runners, and almost all of them had a pacer. It's a very interesting scene that some moments are seemingly boring with absolutely nothing happening and then you see feet ahead on the trail (or bobbing headlamps in the dark), hear a shout (usually from me) "runner", and it's a hive of activity again. Runners stayed from 10 seconds to 5 minutes. I think #69 stayed 10 minutes because he had some soup.

Part of our job is to stay at our site until every runner reaches the next stop, the finish in our case, and until the sweep team got to us. The last runner (who was passed by the last runner we saw) finished in 32:38, 22 minutes before the "cutoff". The sweep team ended up being one poor girl who got to us about 2:30. We were about half packed up (because we still had an antenna up to talk to her and others). We left about 3pm.

Although I began this post just hours later, I hit a wall and went to bed so I could finish it when I had a little brain power left :) The memories and inspiration are still with me though! I can't wait for next year!!!

The 6 of us (plus Perry who brought ice on Sunday morning!) in between runners at about noon... sleep deprived!

Who are these crazy runner people? (2/2)

(Be sure to read the post "AC100" first!!)

A few memorable runners... 

I can’t remember his #, 29 maybe?!! Jamil was 3^rd to get to us. He is memorable because he was eating something out of a Ziploc bag. I asked what it was – a mashed potato burrito! He said it’d been his carbs the whole trip!! I wish he’d stuck around longer; I am intrigued by his eating!! Also, his pacer was very cute (I am a single girl; I notice these things).

Because AC is a hard race, few runners finish in less than 24 hours. In fact, in some years, it's just a handful! Runners aiming for this needed to leave us by about 3:30am if they didn't want to sprint. It took an average of about 1.5 hours to get from us to the finish for normal, tired people. The winner took 45 minutes. Anyway! At about 3am we started to get a "rush" of runners. At one point we actually had 2 runners and 2 pacers at once! These guys were SO pepped up!! It was really hard not to be infected by their enthusiasm. They had pushed themselves to meet their goal and when they got to us they knew they could do it, I guess. Anyway, we watched the computer to see if they did it, and THEY DID!! Every one who left us on pace to get under 24, did it. There were FIFTEEN who did it this year which is a LOT. We didn't see a runner for a good hour after those guys left. The rest just wanted to finish. Some were racing personal best times, etc. But most really just wanted to get done, especially by the time we saw them. 

Sometime about when Bob was thinking he was going to have to go out and fix the markers, a random dude walked into our camp. He had paced a guy earlier in the night and ran up to us from the finish to see his runner, #99, Brad. Brad was almost to the station before us so we invited this pacer to hang out with us. I nicknamed the pacer as Orange Hat Guy because he was wearing an orange hat. He kept talking about runners with cute monikers that he and the rest of his friends had given them throughout the day. His actual name is Craig. He was a HUGE help since soon after he arrived, Bob left. Craig helped when runners came in and prepped stuff for his own runner. The computer made it seem that we would get several together or in quick succession so I was glad he was there. As soon as #99 left, so did he. He went the shorter route to the finish so I assume he made it in time to see his friend cross the line. 

Hansen Dam is apparently a location not too far from the race. I had never heard of it but MANY people came in wearing shirts for the Hansen Dam running club. On the back was something about AC100, someone named Mendoza. People wearing these shirts also liked to come up from the finish and go meet their runners. It stopped being creepy having people come up behind us once the sun came up. I finally asked one of these folks what the shirt was about. Apparently Mr. Mendoza was running his 10th AC100 and they were all celebrating this. When he finally got there, I congratulated him and he just looked at me funny! I might add that no one with a red shirt on spoke fluent English and they all talked to each other in Spanish.

#127, Chris and, #26 Diana left the previous aid station almost at the same time. We expected to see them at about the same time. Diana came in about 1.5 later all perky. She claimed this was the best day of her life. She'd been running about 25 hours... we then saw what seemed like every other number that ended in 7 and still no #127. He turned yellow in dad's software, meaning the algorithm thought he was taking too long. Finally, at least 2.5 hours later, we see a very slow walker and pacer coming down the hill to us. Ah, this would be Chris. The first thing he asked for was Ibuprofen. He sat a little while but not long and walked off toward the finish. He had PLENTY of time so walking would get him there. At that point runners were still taking a little over an hour, he did it in 1.5. Yet another runner we cheered when Dad announced he'd finished!! 

I think Tim's # was 151. Tim was memorable because, well, we never really saw him! He went straight into the bathroom while his very perky female pacer (his wife I hope) filled their bottles, etc. and continued to holler, every 30 seconds or so... "Tim? You okay? Tim? We gotta go, Tim! Let's go, Tim! Tim? You alright in there? Come on, let's go!" for at least 3 or 4 minutes. He came out and I'm pretty sure just started up the trail! I have no recollection of ever seeing his face!!

#23 was Wally. This didn't mean anything to us until he got to us. Wally is 70 years old!! He became the oldest ever finisher in the race's history. We made sure that Dad announced to us all when he finished so we could cheer. He finished in about 31 hours (I could totally go look this up but that's not fun! Dad did though, 31:20). It was well into the morning :)

#121 came to us late in the morning. There was no doubt he'd finish in time (they are given 33 hours to "officially" finish and there are cut-offs at all aid stations to attempt to ensure this). The man was all smiles. He never stopped smiling the whole 3 minutes he was in our station. I made him promise he'd smile all the way to the finish. All I know is that he finished, but I like to believe he was still smiling! 

If you know me, you know I love the number two and 22. Even when I'm at home, I follow along with this race and others (if dad's working) on the web. You can see all the runner's names and numbers and basically all the info about when they get to the next station and stuff. I always pick a few runners to "watch". I always pick a runner from Texas, a female about my age, and #22. Last year, #22 didn't finish. Actually, I don't think anyone I was following finished last year! Maybe I'm bad luck. Anyway, I was very excited that #22, Andrew, was making his way along the course. I'd have dad check on him now and then (via the cool software this was so easy!). I was SUPER excited when he was on his way to us!! Summer and I had looked him up in the race book thing and figured out that he was about 63 years old. Even more exciting - we like "old" guys who do this stuff!! He stopped long enough that I felt okay chatting with him. I explained briefly that I'd followed him the whole time (and why) and was so glad to see him. He said he'd had the same number last year but hadn't finished but that he thought it was neat that I'd been watching him. I congratulated him on doing so well this year and that I looked forward to seeing him next year. He finished!! 

I should point out that every runner we saw, all 74, finished. We don't really have "drops" at our station because there's no real way to get out except to wait for us for hours or to walk/run to the finish! And yet, knowing they got there made me happy!!

Our last runner out was #46. Lambert. He is memorable for being last, of course, but his pacer is really the memorable one. Eric is a ham radio guy! AND he had his radio with him! So we knew pretty much EXACTLY when we'd see them. Eric talked to dad on and off the whole 2 hours between the previous station and getting to us. It was very nice! They actually passed #104 though so were the penultimate finishers. 

All 74 runners were memorable and inspirational. No, I still have no desire to run, especially 100 miles. But I do have the urge to get out and move and be active as well as become active in the ham radio world so that next year Dad can be away from the radio and I can just respond instead of having to yell to him to come back!! 

AC100 runners, See you August 2, 2014!!!