Lake Tahoe 72 Mile "Midnight Express" Run: Oct 9-10, 2016

It’s important to test yourself every once in a while, to see just how real your dreams are, or how false the extent to which you believe you have capacity may be. At least this notion is important for me and I find that each time I am deliberate about this exploration I have new insights that emerge which are relevant to my daily life, and can serve to inform decisions I make on how to use my time and energy - - and where not to.

I was fortunate to be part of a great event this weekend, Oct 9-10^th, 2016, called the Lake Tahoe Midnight Express. It was a 72-mile ultra marathon put on by Les Wright, the ring leader. I talked to Les at the orientation on Saturday afternoon and he said he’s been in Tahoe for 30 years. Les has pulled together a series of events that draw a great cast of characters interested in various outdoor adventures. The Tahoe Marathon is a major draw which was held on Sunday, Oct 9th at 9am. If a marathon isn’t enough, or isn’t the right flavor of fun, Les also hosts other options to add on or participate in ala carte. There are stand up paddle board races, kayak races, and other options. For those wanting to do something a bit harder, which is what I was after this weekend, there are options that will push any athlete to their limit. The Tahoe Triple is 3 marathons in three days. I did this a number of years ago and it was amazing. My goal this weekend was a 72-mile run, navigating around the perimeter of Lake Tahoe and intersecting with participants in various other events, either on the race course as we overlapped routes, or on and about the town as we prepared for and celebrated our accomplishments.

The first portion of the race consisted of a mandatory orientation at 4pm on Saturday. I showed up to a small conference meeting room at the Lake Tahoe Resort – the kind of room I’m usually speaking in or hosting client meetings for work. There were about 13 people, including a few crew members, in attendance. I didn’t know how big of a field to expect but noticed that from past year’s race results, there were usually between 10-20 finishers. Suffice it to say, this is one of the smaller racing cohorts one encounters. It was refreshing, as are most ultra marathons, to not be in the middle of a big commercial event. These are people who want a certain experience of general solitude. Les clearly enjoys fostering these experiences and he borrowed a map of the lake from a fellow runner, who had bought one at the expo, and unrolled it on the floor. While on his hands and knees, he told us about the course. It was about 5 minutes of advice on where to turn, to ensure that we clicked on our lights at dark, and to casually ask if anyone had questions. One runner asked if she could start earlier than the 9pm gun. Three additional runners said they would like to as well, and with that the official race time changed to 8pm. I started mentally calculating that with 60 minutes less before go-time, I still had to have dinner, take a nap, and get race ready. I was glad we were starting earlier but the reality of the starting line looming that much closer was an awakening.

Before adjourning the orientation, Les asked if everyone had a crew. Ah hem, “I don’t and I really would like to have someone’s number in case I run into an emergency”, I said. Then 3 more runners said they needed help from a crew as well. Thomas was there crewing for his wife Vanessa, who is an altogether different breed who had already run a marathon the day before, and that morning, and was about to do the 72-miler. He was kind enough to offer his service to both me and another runner. We traded numbers and fifteen minutes after the meeting began we were on our to individually prepare for the start which was just under four hours away.

I went to the hotel restaurant for my last supper. The menu had a nice grass-fed burger so I ordered it with accompanying sweet potato fries and an iced tea. This is what runners eat before a race, right? I ate as quickly as possible and headed to my car in the parking lot for a nap in the passenger seat with my feet up on the dash. With my phone alarm set for 7pm, I figured I had an hour to sleep before getting dressed. I turned on some music and drifted away for an hour. The alarm was a rude awakening because the sunset had come and gone while I was asleep, and there I was in the middle of a hotel casino parking lot, staring at the dark, wiping the sleep from my eyes. It was time to rally.

I opened the trunk of my car and unpacked my gear. It was a daunting logistical task to be done in the dark. Normally my amazing wife is my crew on events like this, meaning she labors through endless hours of boredom driving my essentials (food, water, clothes, motivational support) up the road every 5 or so miles. On this one, I decided to try the run unassisted. I had arrived in Tahoe on Friday and went for a 2.5 mile run to test the air, my gear, and the temperature. With these localized trials in mind, I calculated what to wear, at which temperature, and how often I should store my food along the route. I went to Safeway and bought $90 worth of groceries (nearly all of which I ate during the race, just to give a sense of the calorie consumption) and packed it into five drop bags. My plan was to stash the food and some extra dry clothes in various ditches or hiding places along the way. On the night before the race I had a dream with a great idea, so put it into play on Saturday morning. I sought out the 24-hour businesses on the course and asked their front counter for a favor of holding my food cooler and clothes. As I stood at the trunk of my car I mentally calculated what I needed to carry on my back versus what I had planted along the way earlier that day.

The first stash I had planted was 27 miles away from the start at a Casino between the California / Nevada Stateline on the north side of the lake. Imagine walking into a casino with a cooler and running shoes and asking for an “odd favor”. The hostess looked at me sideways as if I was an alien. She could not comprehend running around the lake, nor could she wrap her head around where to store my food. I had to say, “If it makes you uncomfortable don’t worry about it, I can go up the road”. She finally figured out a way to help and agreed to hold my gear in the Lost and Found. She called a security guard to help me who had her own reaction as to why someone would intentionally put something in the Lost and Found. It was so clear in my mind why I would need their help, yet so foreign to them. I guess this was a moment of insight for me, just how odd what I was about to do actually is to most people.

The next stash was at a hotel called “Basecamp” in Tahoe City. They didn’t have a 24x7 lobby but let me place my items on their outdoor patio. I tucked them behind some orange cones with a note that said, “If you find this please leave these items here, I am relying on them to run around Lake Tahoe tonight”. Basically this was a pity plea for any drunk hotel guests who might think it funny to eat my food or otherwise taint the stash. This drop location was 10 miles from the casino, which seemed like a good distance to reload.

The third and fourth stashes were in more remote areas of wilderness. One of them was in somebody’s roadside yard, where they had piles of cut firewood logs underneath tarps to keep it dry. I lifted the tarp and placed another drop bag, with another note, under it. This was again 10 miles from the previous. I kept this pattern up for another 2 stashes.

To make the logistics a bit more difficult, the temperature at start time was abourt47 degrees and was forecasted to drop to 32 degrees by 6am, then climb to 70 degrees the next day before my estimated finish time. This meant that I needed various clothes along the way. On Saturday morning I mapped my pace compared to the weather forecast and anticipated which clothes I would change into at which drop location.

Back at the trunk of my car with now 45 minutes until race time, and with all of these logistics in mind, I was really having trouble deciding what to actually wear. I ruffled chaotically through my duffle bag and settled on long pants and a long t-shirt. I had purchased the Salomon Skin-Lab 12 as a running backpack I would wear, which both would hold my water, food to get me between my drop locations, a few extra clothes, and necessary provisions. I loaded the pack with a 70 oz bladder of water and filled 4 soft flasks (water bottles) with 17 oz of water each. I had made 15 sandwiches for my drop bags and kept 3 of them for my starting pack. I put my running cap and headlamp on, extra batteries, toilet paper, Vaseline, band aids, electrolyte supplements, and phone in their respective packets. All I needed to do next was don my GPS watch and get to the start. As I looked around however, I couldn’t find my watch. I panicked a bit but then noticed a fellow runner who parked next to me also getting ready. I didn’t want to look like a panicked crazy man, so I just let it go and met the fellow runner, to start without my watch. I found it later in the car and was pleased to meet David from Florida, a fellow e-Learning careerist.

After one last bathroom stop, I got to the start line, tied my shoes, and the race director had us take a group photo before nonchalantly saying, “Ok, you can go”. Another runner turned on my blinking red light on my back and with that, we ran off into the darkness leaving the South Lake Tahoe Stateline (casino area) heading north, counter-clockwise around the late. Before we got into the darkness, however, we had about a mile of getting through the city streets. At 8pm, the normal tourists are heading out to their night on the town for gambling, drinking, and other fun things that sounded like a better idea at the time. Some cheered, others were annoyed, but eventually we got off into the dark.

I like to chunk my races up into bite-sized segments. The first 13 miles was my first bite. After this half marathon segment, we would end at the top of Spooner summit. It’s a rolling, if marginal incline most of the way, and then the climb to the summit goes for about 2.5 miles. I personally enjoyed that it was pitch black, because I couldn’t see the hill in front of me. I remained happy about this fact until sunrise at 7am, preferring to grind out each step without really knowing what hill I was actually climbing. I had mapped out the mile by mile elevation on paper and it was in my pocket, but without my GPS watch it really didn’t mean much. In retrospect, I am happy about not having my watch because while I came into the event with the big picture in mind, not having the mileage to elevation overlay made me simply focus on how I was feeling and what was going on in the present. This was a big insight for me, that knowing the big picture is important but acting in the moment is often more powerful. Indeed this might have been what made me finish at all.

During these first 13 miles, each runner varied their pace a bit and had some idle chatter, getting to know where people are from and mentally sizing up their pace to see if they may be a good running partner for some of the race. I ran a few miles with David, who happened to be the guy parked next to me in the lot before the race. He has done really cool things with the Blackboard technology including writing a book and developing mobile applications. He came with two other friends, who I didn’t get a chance to talk to except for a head nod and handshake at the orientation. I eventually settled into a pace with another runner, Susie from Seattle. We ran approximately 20 miles together and the conversation kept me from thinking too much about the early stages of fatigue that naturally begin to set in. Every time I do an event like this I am amazed at the people I meet. Susie was no exception. A neurologist from Washington state, she has organized her life to work four days per week so she can travel every weekend to a race. For nearly the whole twenty miles, she shared stories about all of her ultra races and marathons ranging from Capetown to Scotland to most of the majors in the US. She has done 190 marathons and 90 ultramarathons. She was also there with her crewmate, Max, who adopted me for about the first thirty miles. Max would drive up every five miles and be waiting with a smile, water, food, and provisions. Around mile twenty, I stopped to grab water from another crew member and Susie kept running. By the time I got back on the road, I could not catch Susie and didn’t get a chance to see her again in the race or at the finish, although looking at results she came in about 10 min behind me. Max let me know around mile 30 that she had missed a turn. The people who had helped me with water turned out to be from Coon Rapids, MN. As I welcomed their water the crew member Jen noticed my Twin Cities Marathon T-Shirt and we made the connection. She said her husband Eric was coming up the road and that I could run with him. I waited for a minute for him to catch up, and realized he was running far faster than me. He blew past me and kept going – I later learned that he won the race. He also hadn’t heard about the start time changing from 9pm to 8pm, so by mile twenty he had already made up an hour on me. Amazing. These transient connections during a race like this are common and enjoyable. People drift in and out of your race and give you a boost when you need it, and you hope you do the same for them. Another life insight about the journey being so important and how the meaningful things involve getting to know people, their stories, and sharing parts of yourself and your experience with others who are doing the same.

In the Casino 

At mile 27 I pulled into that Casino which was holding my food and clothes. It was about 3am when I staggered out of the dark 35 degree weather and into the flashing lights of the casino through the front door. If not for my running clothes and headlamp I may have looked the same as the gambling patrons – tired, rugged, beat down, out of luck. I forgot to turn the light off, and as I meandered through the craps tables, that same sideways look the hostess gave me earlier in the day was shot at my in all directions. I convinced the next shift security guard that it was ok to give me my items, and explained that after I refilled my bottles and loaded sandwiches into my pack, I would need them to hold my items again. It was funny. When I had dropped my gear originally, I wasn’t fully confident I would be able to get it, so I hid a thermos of chicken broth behind the bushes on the side of the casino. I stopped by that bush and guzzled 20-ounces of warm broth before hitting the streets again. Chicken broth can bring new life to you when you are down trodden – highly recommended!

Five miles up the road I had buried three water bottles near a fence, under some field grass. Right when I got to the location I came upon two more fellow runners. I excused myself while I ran to the ditch and got the bottles. Then I caught back up to Matt and George and again found the power of drifting into and sharing a journey with others. Matt had registered the week before and George was out to prove himself on the course. George and I spent a big chunk of the remaining 40 miles together. His brother Linh and friend Eric were kind enough to adopt me next. I parted from George for a bit when I got to the basecamp hotel, my second food stash. He kept running and I reloaded my gear, and then crossed the street to Safeway, which I was pleasantly surprised to see open. I figured at 37 miles in, a bathroom would be welcomed and cleaning my hands with some soap and water to get the sticky food washed off would feel nice. I bought a bottle of Pepsi (which I didn’t know was actually still a brand for sale) and then headed back out into the night. It was about 4:30am. I wanted to catch George to have some conversation, but it took me about 8 miles of pushing the pace to make up for the time I lost during my stop. I came up to him about 3 miles short of Homewood, where the Sunday morning start of the Lake Tahoe marathon was. The temperature was dropping right around sunrise, between 6-7am. We ran together and had great discussion for another 13 miles. He thought it was funny that I was storing my food along the way like a squirrel. We past the start line of the marathon about 30 min before it began, so saw a lot of the aid stations just popping up. It was great to have water and small food items every 2 miles from this point through to the end. I had planned on this, so didn’t stash anything in the final 26.2 miles except a hidden coconut water which I shared with George. Matt caught up to us around this point and seemed to be getting new life in his legs.

George and I meeting back up at the finish line

At 54 miles in, we hit the “Hill from Hell”. It was 1.5 miles long and quite steep. I power walked most of it which seemed to be a good strategy because I was passing people who were trying to run/walk it, and when I got to the top I felt great. I stopped at a restroom and Matt and George kept going. I caught them again and we enjoyed the summit of this big hill. We got to an aid station for water and I pulled to the side to get my water packs filled. It seemed to take so long that I thought Matt and George had already hit the trail again. I was feeling good and thought I saw George down the road, so picked up the pace and decided to throw down the hammer. When I finally reached “George” I realized it wasn’t him. I would later find out that I had left them at the last aid station.

The next segment was a climb up to the most amazing view of the race, Inspiration Point on Emerald Bay. It was the last hill of the race and when we summited, the rest of the race was downhill.

While at the summit I met Jennifer, who was doing the Tahoe Triple. She was really moving fast but we talked a bit and she offered words of encouragement before leaving me in the dust. She ended up winning the triple, which meant she was the fastest person to run 3 marathons in three days around the lake. What an amazing accomplishment.

I descended the next few miles into the last 10-miles, which was the flattest portion of the course. I was clearly suffering about this time and had text Bethany that I was falling apart. She has Grace and Silvia send me a video of encouragement. It really helps to see your 5-year old and 2 ½ year old send you a “go daddy go” message. I tried to rally, which meant breaking from the now walking pace into a jog as often as I could. Then another drifter floated into my journey and I met Stephanie, who was also doing the triple. By this time the majority of the regular marathon runners had past us so the running crowd was thinning. Stephanie was kind enough to encourage me to start running again and we ended up doing a run/walk effort together through the end of the race. I’m pretty sure I cost her about 20 minutes on her race, but we kept moving through the Tahoe Keys and even found an aid station offering beer shots, and another with wine. With about 6 miles left in the race my phone started exploding with people offering words of encouragement. I later realized that Bethany had posted to our friends that I needed some encouragement, which I did. For the next miles I couldn’t keep up with the number of awesome texts coming my way. It kept my mind off the pain and focused on the end goal. Stephanie took off to the finish with 1-mile left and I reveled, as I always do, in the glory of the last mile. At this point, for me, I get to reflect on the efforts and enjoy the moment of accomplishment. I finally crossed the line in 17 hours and 37 minutes of running. Stephanie and Jennifer were waiting for me and I found out they were best friends. I waited for George and his crew and we celebrated his finish. We ate hot dogs and had $1 beer and gathered our t-shirts and medals. Somehow I missed Susie, who I saw from the results had finished just minutes behind me.

Mexican Food, Tequila, and Fire with New Friends Post Race

The beauty of the lake laid out upon us, and finishing at the place it all started the day before, made it all worth the effort. To show up and test yourself against your limits is so important, and to share the journey with people who are doing the same thing is what, for me, these events are all about. Thanks to my family, old friends and new ones, who who helped support me along the journey.