Ray with Paul Goransson at the
start of the London Marathon.
Ray's friend Paul Goransson at the Boston Marathon.
Three very good friends of mine got me involved in running too far. Funny thing is between them all, I believe they have only finished two Ultras --- hmm. (Correct me if I'm wrong.)
They are
Claire, who is a two-time Olympic trials marathoner, and I grew up together in New England. We used to run together as teenagers. After several years where we hadn't seen each other, it turned out that we were both enrolled in Ph.D. programs at the University of Washington.
I had let my fitness level slide while Claire had been running steadily. I began running with her and the first week back I ran 35 miles; I lost about 10 lbs. that week and developed a real bad case of shin splits -- surprise.
Claire had a friend Kim Moody who held the world record for 50 miles. Claire ran a 50 miler down in San Francisco and finished third (overall). We talked about running Western States together and since then I have been out on the trails.
Randy immediately liked the idea and now it was just a question of when the weather would be good enough. Since the route went high into the mountains, we needed to make sure there wouldn't be too much snow.
Well, the perfect day arrived weatherwise (naturally, it was the first day of the quarter when we had classes to attend). We left my house in Seattle at 8:00 p.m. and dropped my "car" at Steven's Pass. Arriving a couple hours later at Snoqualmie Pass, we got in a quick sleep in the back of Randy's truck.
We got up at 4:00 a.m. and started the run immediately; I don't remember eating anything that morning. The scenery on this run was great --- once it was light enough to see. One thing I'll never forget is the pace Randy started out at. He was flying up the first mountain with me falling way back in total darkness. We had only one flashlight and Randy thought to bring it.
We'll we made it and the run has become part of the legend in the UDub CS Department. I've heard it told that we started running at separate Passes and exchanged car keys at the midway point. Actually, this sounds like a good idea. I'll have to run it by Randy next time I'm in the Seattle area.
Naturally, Doug was taking me on a century --- the Daffodil Classic. We begin riding and for the first ten miles or so, no problem. It was about this time that a cycling team, complete with colors, rode by us. Surely, we could ride with them in their pace line. Well, since I had a rack on my bike, a kickstand, and fenders, they didn't take too well to me. I was relegated to the back of the pace line. Each time someone peeled off the front they would have to be let in in front of me. I really had to struggle to catch back up each time this happened i.e., every minute.
By fifty miles I was totally bonked. I hadn't brought anything with me but Doug was nice enough to let me eat about 50 of his Fig Newtons. Fortunately, we started the second fifty before the cycling club! By seventy miles I was in sorry shape. I didn't have any water bottles and Doug was again nice enough to let me drink his exceed (or whatever that stuff was). I finished both his bottles. I was hurting so bad that by about seventy-five miles I could no longer keep up --- even though Doug had slowed way down for me. I had to force Doug to go on. I said, no problem, I'll get there. Reluctantly, he sped away.
Well, I finally finished and Doug had been done a long time by the time I arrived. After that we continued cycling together. We did a bunch of centuries, RAMROD, the monster mash, and other long rides. I still go on long rides alone without taking food or food money. I have however learned to carry a number of water bottles.