Pacing Ray K in the Great NY 100 Mile Running Exposition

Ray K came back for round two of the Great NY 100 Mile Running Exposition - and it was even better the second time around.

Ray K. is one of my best friends, my coach, and used to be one of the top ultrarunners in the world. Now, he's begun truly focusing on his training, and it's amazing how much he's progressed since he began 100% focusing - and when he doesn't stop to take a nap!

I got up at 7am, ran and trained over to Central Park to do the Pride 5 Mile Run, called Ray to hear his updates and update him on my race (7:11 pace for 5 miles, not too bad), came home, showered, ate breakfast, and then Wayne and I drove down to mile 71, where we were to report to at 2:30. We got there at 1:30 and it was Far Rockaway Beach - yay, RIGHT on the street in front of the beach. Wayne and I hung out on the beach until our co-volunteer of the aid station called and told us we didn't need to report until the first runner came in to at least the aid station before - so Wayne went surfing, I waited anxiously for the phone call, checking the FB page to see the status of runners coming in, while spraying on sunblock and reading a Wade Davis book. 

Our aid station was pretty much the most awesome aid station ever. We were in front of this weird MoMA dome w some sort of cafe during the day and club at night. All these random sometimes drunk people kept talking to us and asking us what was going on. The RDs only supplied water and gatorade, but Wayne, Yuri and I brought pickles, bread, chips, pretzels, watermelon, crackers, and other random snacks. And the ocean was across the street! Great people watching, and you could see the runners from far away.

It was fun, greeting runners. I'd run into the street, doing high kicks, shouting things like, "I AM YOUR AID STATION!" and chase them along to the aid station. People went inside the dome for a mid-100 mile dance. Others did cartwheels coming into the aid station. Some people were out of it. Others, so with it I was amazed. It was pretty impressive.

Ray came up an hour later than he was supposed to, but that's okay. We ended up having a lot of fun instantly, so who cares?

We headed on the road, sharing stories, asking each other for advice, talking about our days, the fun and struggles and getting lost (Ray got lost, not me, for once).

Mile 75 aid station was hidden in the bushes, but we welcomed it, said hi to Todd Jennings and ran on. We began catching up w runners who left way before Ray, so he was happy.

The Marine Parkway Bridge. I HATE this bridge; it freaks me out. When I run over it by myself, I have to SPRINT AS FAST AS I CAN or I'm frightened like crazy. Ray couldn't sprint to save my sanity so instead he gripped my hand as I hyperventilated across the bridge.

The run along the Belt was very dark and sandy. Ah, Plum Beach where Wayne likes to go kite surfing. We ran a little with Michael and sometimes Shannon (who was experiencing extreme chafing problems...) and pacer Claudia.

And...into Sheepshead Bay. On the other side of the bridge was Mary Harvey, armed with cheddar penguins. We ran over to the beach where two guys rapping Eminem sent us into hysterics. We ran down the boardwalk, trying not to trip, looking at the amusement parks, the drunk people, the beach.

Let's not get lost....and through Brooklyn. Parks. So many parks. We sang a little, sometimes the same song, sometimes making up songs, sometimes we were all quiet and the songs just took place in my head.

4th avenue. I got in a shouting fight w a drunk jerk who ended up calling me "White bitch" (Seconds earlier I was sexy....I talk back and the tune changes....) and I was worried Ray would have to protect me after 80-something miles....

Last year, Ray had stopped here for a sit-down Chinese meal during the 100 miler. Mary kept pointing out every single Chinese place (all closed and shuttered at this early hour of the morning) to ask him if it was the one.

And on...and on....

Ray was feeling good. Strangely good for running as far as he had. We ran hard into the mile 95 aid station, and he drank some Coke and "let's go." We did. I had been pushing him earlier but now I didn't need to. He was pushing himself.

On the bridge, Ray complained abt the uphill...and THEN WE WERE FLYING DOWN! It was amazing. We picked up speed, and pushed, and pushed. I was so proud of him.

We ran faster. I looked at the directional sheet and then would catch up.

On Broadway...we counted down the streets...closer, closer, closer...and then...the finish line!

It was a beautiful experience to support a wonderful amazing friend - the stores we shared that night, the fun we had, the great running, the trouble we almost got into...and then we took a nap, like Ray K specializes in...

From the Other Side: Being a Pacer & Crew

I've had so many wonderful people help me in races - strangers, friends, family, loved ones. And this weekend was time to pay back!

Mary was running the NYRR 60k (fka Knickerbocker 60k). It's 9 loops + of the 4 mile loop of Central Park. Mary has paced me before (in 2011 at Bear Mountain 50 Miler) and it was a lot of fun to pace for one of my super energetic and cheerful ultrarunning friends. She was having a crummy day due to some stuff going on; I pointed out that personal probs seem better after running, but the personal probs don't make running better! Like when my Papa died, I dealt with it by running a lot - my running was crap but it helped me feel less like crap.

Erin was crewing her, and Sherry and Chantel and Kristen were also helping with pacing. I ran the last three loops, pushing Mary how I could, and then, at the end of the day, encouraged her to indulge in ice cream. Mmmmmm. It was really nice to help out a good friend.

Sunday Wayne once again ran the Brooklyn Marathon. Steve, the organizer of NYC Runs, puts on a great race. The medals had a cool design - and they blinked, runners got tech tees,, and post-race, bagels, cream cheese, apples, grapes, cheesecake. Nice! The course was 2 small loops and 6 big loops of Prospect Park. I started by volunteering with NBR and handing out water. It was fun to cheer for people and hand out water. I like giving back, esp since I know I depend SO MUCH on volunteers so much of the time - including in the middle of the night. At least runners have adrenalin and hallucinations to keep us going - volunteers staying up all night have love.

Wayne was having a rough race - he hasn't trained very hard lately, and had a long taper (due to NYC Marathon cancellation) and spent the day prior to the marathon moving stuff on stairs from the basement to the third floor of his old roommate's storage unit. Tiresome. So I ran with him and he was hurting. It was great to push someone I love. He asked me to sing him songs and we held hands and I kept telling him how awesome he was and he told me how he was going to eat a pint of ice cream when he was done. (And for the record, while he ate a lot of other things, he only ate a half a pint of ice cream. Though if we had a full pint, he might have eaten it...) I cheered incessantly and like Mary said the day before, he was running a "victory lap" (instead of his last lap). He pulled into the finish, strong and then proceeded to eat enormous amounts of food. That's my boy.

We hung out at the aid station and then I saw Caroline pulling in. She ran the Burning Man 50k, and so I caught up with her a little while I was volunteering earlier in the day when I ran up a few hills chatting with her. I ran next to her as she pulled into the finish, encouraging her, pushing her. She had a wonderful finishing pace.  I got everyone we passed to cheer for her and I was so glad when she told me she got a PR - and she said it was b/c I helped her. YAY!

I went back to the aid station to help volunteer, but soon saw Kaet and Erin. Erin was smiling and Kaet looked near tears. She was having a hard painful first marathon - but she was pushing forward. She grabbed my hand as we climbed a hill. Her grandmother had died just three days ago, and was running in honour of her grandmother. It was really beautiful how she pushed forward through the pain to a successful awesome finish. And then I met Erin's family.

It was weird to NOT be racing - esp since I feel quite recovered from last weekend's race and kinda wished I was racing both races. But you can't race all the time...and it's always really awesome to be there to push the ones you love forward.

AWESOME RACES, EVERYONE!

Pacing Ray K in Great NY 100 Mile Running Exposition

The Great New York 100 Mile Running Exposition was happening for the first time ever this year. When American 48 hour record holder Phil McCarthy asked me to run it, I wanted to but thought it was too close to VT100 - only 3 weeks away. Turns out I got the dates wrong, it was 4 weeks away, but I thought pavement was probably a bad idea. In the days prior to the race, I was regretting not signing up -

but now, after the race, I'm glad I didn't.

The illustrious Ray K was running it, and as he's one of my good friends, and oh-so-entertaining, I decided to pace him. Mary offered to pace him 35-50, I'd pace him miles 50-100, and Wayne (on bike) and Mary would probably come together at the end so we could all do the amazing finish in Times Square. The course was pretty amazing - really pretty, tons of nice parks (Who knew there were so many beautiful greenways and parks in NYC?) - but all concrete. Ouch.

Wayne and I were following texts from Mary and ended up getting to Alley Pond Park (mile 50) an hour or two early - so we talked to other ultrarunners, paced Emmy and Paul for a while, ran with Mat for a bit. It was a lot of fun to see them, though they all complained abt the concrete. My favourite thing: when I asked Mat if I could get him anything he needed, he responded by saying, "Trails."

Finally, we ran into Mary and Ray, which of course involved in all of us screaming across a field at each other as I ran towards them. Ray showed us his shoe with a separated rubber bottom from the shoe - he used the electrical tape Wayne and I grabbed for him from our house and taped up his shoe. Oh my. And all those 5k runners throwing away their shoes every 300-500 miles and one of the top ultrarunners in history is running in shoes he bought at a thrift store that are held together with tape. We stopped every so often so he could retape.

Mary briefed me on how she was forcing Ray to eat, how he was doing. And then Wayne whisked Mary away in The Grey Fox (Wayne's pickup truck). And Ray and I were alone.

We were running, and doing the infamous "Ray K shuffle." I chatted with him about what Wayne and I had done that day, about training, about Burning Man. An extra ticket appeared and Ray was now coming with us, so we were all excited.

The course was pretty. We ran through parks, greenways, bike paths, occasionally pretty roads. It was really nice. We followed turn-by-turn directions and yellow arrows on the ground. The yellow arrows were mostly good, but there were a few times where they were scarce and it was hard to follow. Apparently, everyone got lost in the Bronx. Ray and I only got lost once, and of course it ended up with us running more. Grrrrr. Ray fell behind the cut offs so there were no aid stations - one time we passed a spraypainted H20 with an arrow and we filled up water there.

Ray started fading. It started getting dark, but luckily, headlamps were not needed because it's NYC and there are streetlights everywhere. Whew.

Ray was feeling down, really weary and in a lot of pain. It is so hard to see someone you care about in pain. My poor pacers at VT100, I'm going to be crying for sure for a while.

As the sky grew darker, the people grew drunker and weirder in the parks. Oh joy.

Luckily, the trees meant lots of easy spots to pee. :)

Ray needed food, so when we crossed Queens Blvd, we stopped and got sandwiches and a cookie for me. I was feeding him a homemade brownie every hour or so - I had a stash in my backpack and tried hard to feed him.

Ray got tired. Someplace close to Cross Bay Blvd, Ray crossed the street despite my scoldings and crawled into a park and napped for a half hour. I called Wayne, who was sick with worry, and worse, had lent his car to a friend so he couldn't even come out and support us. I assured him we were okay and told him I wouldn't leave Ray. "Well, you'll be by the A train soon," he told me. I told him we wouldn't need it - Ray would be finishing for sure!

Finally, Ray started and I was glad as I got chilled when stopping. We ran down Cross Bay Blvd and he got a frozen coffee drink and a Dunkin Donuts. He ate and drank while we walked. Finally, we got to the bridge, which was a hotbed of fishing and drinking. Then we had a nice long journey through the pretty Broad Channel bike path. I saw a dead fox, which wasn't quite as good as the raccoon family I had seen in Alley Pond Park earlier.

Ray was swaying and swerving and I tried to keep him awake by telling him stories, yammering on about Burning Man, my cat, work, my family, whatever. I was so tired all I wanted to do was sleep. I kept pushing us forward the best I could, trying to get Ray to drink Gatorade and go! It was rough because no one else was out there. The race was only 31 people (and apparently only 15 finishers) and we were behind and alone. It was not obvious what we were doing.

More drunk people, more swaying. C'mon Ray. I kept pushing forward, every so often texting Wayne or Mary to update them, posting photos on Facebook.

We arrived at Rockaway Beach! My dad taught here, so please don't tell my dad I was walking with a weary, swerving and swaying because he's tired man, down the boardwalk. Most people were very friendly, esp those who we told what we were doing. We saw bonfires and all sorts of fun parties. We were probably the only sober ones, though I was hallucinating due to lack of sleep and Ray was sleepwalking, so I don't know if we count as sober.

Ray kept wanting to sleep on a bench and I was fighting with him. "C'mon, I know what this area is like - you cannot sleep! When we get across the Marine Parkway Bridge." We pushed forward with him going towards the benches and me getting very worried. The sky grew pink - so pretty.

We got a little lost and then, the Marine Parkway Bridge. I hate this bridge. We talked about Ray's marathoning days (he ran a 1:37 en route to winning the 100k National Championships and has run 50+ 2:40-2:45 marathons). I got scared a bit because I hate the feeling like I could fall so we held hands as we made our way across.

And then, yay, we pushed on down a bike path. Ray began swerving. He wanted to nap. My feet were getting messed up - swollen and blisters. The socks were running socks, and because we were doing so much walking, it wasn't helping. Ouch. He fell asleep in the grass and I took off my shoes to inspect the damage. Pretty terrible. Red spots and splotches all over, blisters, ouch. When I put my shoes back on, I was in agony. I decided like Ray had said was okay to try to get a cab. Of course there was nothing around. I looked on my phone while he slept in the weeds. And then, like a mirage, a cab appeared. He turned around and waited while I woke up Ray and said goodbye.

The cab ride was long and expensive but I was glad to be off my feet. I felt bad leaving Ray but my feet were killing me - and I have VT in just a month. I need good feet!

I arrived home, waking up Wayne who had slept poorly due to worrying about us. I took a shower and we tried to figure out my feet - but because of callouses, the blisters cannot be penetrated. And the splotches, ugh.

I'm in pain, yes, but I'm so happy I helped out a friend. I wish I could've been there until the end, but alas, that would not be good for my tootsies.

Ray was pushing on. I left him at mile 74 and now I'm imagining he's approaching the Brooklyn Bridge.

GO Ray! Finish strong!

Pacing at a 100miler gave me a strong appreciation for pacers - but also for a clue on how completely insane running 100s are. Stay running shorter races - a lot less pain. Trust me.