AC100 2017

(If you're new, or haven't read my other posts on ultra running, you might want to check out this post first... go here! There are many others, but that sums up the whole concept)

This year's AC100 was extra exciting for me because I DIDN'T HAVE TO DRIVE BACK TO TEXAS after it was over. And I mentioned that several times over the weekend!! It made a HUGE difference and made me VERY happy!!

Dad had been in Sunland dog-sitting for a week when AC rolled around. Slugger and I were still based in Big Bear, though a house existed in our name (yay! - but that's another post). So on Saturday morning, Slugger and I made our way to Sunland. Slugger would spend the night with the rest of the pack there while Dad and I did our radio thing at Millard. Dad would go back and feed them all late Saturday night and early Sunday morning. It was a good plan! It worked too :)

We arrived to Millard a little later than usual this year. Dad had talked to Bob so we knew he was also running late. There's really no point in getting there before Bob since he has the key to the gate. I do remember carrying all the stuff up one year. Let's not do that again!

The campground actually had campers in it!! Not sure why it was so popular this year. Pretty sure the majority of the folks were more or less living there though. There was a tent where we usually set up. We set up there anyway. The new camp host, Steve, said he hadn't seen the guy in a few days. Turns out that doesn't mean much as Steve is also not seen much! Shane, the owner of the tent came back before dark. He was very understanding and didn't seem to mind our presence. We warned him we're up all night and aren't quiet. He said he had earplugs :) He woke up looking refreshed so I guess he really did sleep through it all!!

One of the other "residents" was an odd fellow whose name I can't remember! About 8pm (totally making that up, I just know it was before runners), he "cleaned" the bathrooms. The bathrooms are portapotties with walls... yup, mop, cleaner, etc. He was really actually kinda my hero - those bathrooms have never ever smelled GOOD before! And they did, for most of the night!! Then he got high and just became creepy. I will always remember him for his cleaning ability though :)

Some words about the new camp host, Steve. He was pretty cool!! He is young and seemed interested in what we were doing there. He helped us out several times and hung around and watched some runners come through in the middle of the night. He also went to get a milkshake at about 2am and didn't come out of his trailer the next morning until we were starting to wrap things up! Guess he has a different schedule than I'm used to.

Let's see... what else? Our first runner wasn't until about 12:30am. All day, it seemed 3 guys had been hopping back and forth for the lead. OUR first runner was Jerry Garcia (hehe). He had passed Brandon on his way to us. They were about 2 minutes apart. Dom was behind them by 15-20 (?) and asked who was leading. He said that Jerry REALLY wanted it. I already assumed this - I knew he'd run it several times and never won. This year, he DID!!  They finished in the order we saw them actually. Well, those three anyway.

Later, the first female came in. She had slowed down from her earlier pace, but she'd led the whole way (as far as I remembered from Twitter that morning). She was running "solo" but ran with Jorge Pacheco. When they got there, he said he wasn't having a good day and I encouraged and thanked him for taking care of the #1 female. He seemed to appreciate that I appreciated that. Jorge has won the race several times; this was her first race so I'm sure she was grateful for the company of someone who knew every detail of the trail and such!

The night wore on. Not too much excitement. Only 9 runners finished in under 24 hours. Jorge and Rachel (above) were the only 2 "sunrise to sunrise" finishers (they get a special buckle for finishing before the sun came up on day 2). We had SEVERAL "slow" runners according to the system. As always, they showed up, walking but able to go on.

We got down to the last few runners. I was radioing them to the station before us as they'd already broken down their computers. Yay for radio time :) We knew who we were waiting for and in what order we might expect them. Sure enough, it didn't happen in that order! I can't remember his # of course, but the Texas guy moved to last, well behind the others, apparently with blisters. We started to warn the aid station folks that they might want to think about how to transport him out since he probably wouldn't make it in time (according to the system's algorithms), not to mention being in blister pain. Sure enough, he came running in. And out. He then passed someone else and finished with 8 minutes to spare!! Go Texas!! The system was lagging at the finish line so I actually thought at the time that he'd passed several people. I was so excited I cried (note, I'd also been up all night). I still think it's AWESOME that he found the oomph to obviously RUN the last 5 miles!!

In the end, all 114 runners who came through Millard finished the race within the allotted 33 hours. That always makes me feel like we did our jobs well.

Oh yeah, the AC100 REALLY likes to make me cry. Here's this year's tearjerker story:
Runner #10 was Andy and Runner #12 was George. Andy was actually running with both bibs because George was in a hospital bed kicking cancer in the butt. Yes, BOTH #s were recorded at each aid station. George got his 10th finish. THIS IS THE HEART OF ULTRARUNNING!!!! I LOVE THESE PEOPLE!!!!