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I'll make this a quick report. hopefully...okay turned out I couldn't keep it "quick"...

To anyone stopping by here I just want to again say thanks for coming out to participate. There were so many people at the start it was sort of overwhelming ... so I had to put on my sarcastic hat to get through it - apparently I seemed bitchy to some! :)

Anyway, we actually started on time! Yay! I didn't have much time to get my own running stuff together, but managed still to grab my cambelbak and one water bottle.

After we got running, all I could think was "why is everyone running so fast?" although it did little to hold me back from trying to catch up. Steve ran with me and I got to hear about the Stoyles family running legacy. Everytime I'd try to speed up, Steve would remind me of the distance!

Mom missed the first 3 mile "aid station" which turned out not to be a big deal. I gave Scotty some sunscreen and we were off again.

Did my best to be a cranky runner to my mom and sister at Rattlesnake Lake, filled my bottles, grabbed some chips ahoy and we headed out again...skipping the nice bathrooms.

The next 4 mile section to Twin Falls was uneventful. Mom and Jon Yoon were there waiting. I think I asked Jon "Did you really carry all that up here?" Jon was crewing Tim Lofton to Tim's first 100 mile finish (er...make that 90-92).

Found another port-o-pottie between Twin Falls and the McClellan Butte detour. Relief! Until I came out of the bathroom to find my water bottle missing. I was sure that Steve, Arthur or Tony had stolen it...but still I checked the other potties to make sure it hadn't been hidden somewhere. When I finally caught up...it took them (i.e., Steve, about 5 minutes to fess up and give me my water bottle).

The McClellan Butte Trail markings were a little confusing. I had given Jay a bag of flour and told him to "mark the trail" but didn't think to tell him to mark wrong turns, so I began to worry. But soon enough there were the flour arrows pointing us down the real trail. Not 10 minutes later we were out of the shaded single-track and down to the cars to catch a ride to Easton. I said goodbye to Steve and hello to his Dad, Bob Stoyles, who would wait for Michelle Barnes and Sydness Stoyles.

I fell asleep in the car and the drive was over too soon. I was REALLY glad for the break. At Easton, we spent less than 5 minutes getting gear together before we were off. Tony picked up the pace trying to catch Tim and soon enough I fell behind. I decided to walk and wait for Arthur...thinking if I keep running I'll just kill myself and besides that Arthur will still catch me and pass me up.

Easton to Thorp passed pretty quickly in hindsight...despite almost running out of water and despite the heat. Every once in a while we'd get some cloud cover but then the sun would come back out. I think it was 5 p.m. or so when we got to Thorp. One of Tim's other crew member's, Gary, was out on the trail here cheering for us. That was cool, but strange! Just because it was unexpected. And when he said the Thorp trailhead was just up ahead, he wasn't lying! (You know what I mean, when someone says the next checkpoint is just a miles ahead, and it is always way more than that!)

Next stop, Ellensburg...and a lot of rain as we entered Ellensburg. We got a call from *tc who said he would wait for us there. When we arrived, I got a voicemail from Ray Gruenewald (who was running virtually unsupported, as he had stashed his own dropbags on Thursday) asking if I had heard about the Ranger pulling people off the trail. Then I talked to cousin Ryan who said he had been pulled off. Ryan gave me the Ranger's phone number and I called and ended up leaving the Ranger a voicemail (never did get a call back from the Ranger). Talk about stress. Somehow, through word of mouth, or rebellion, most everyone decided to ignore the "Ranger Danger" and just keep going! I changed out of my soaking wet shirt at Ellensburg into dry clothes and off we went.

At Kittitas, my mom was joined by Tom Ripley and Chris Ralph. It was good to see them. Chris told me not to worry about the Ranger. After a few phone calls here, right now I don't remember who I was talking to, we kept on to Army West. My mind was stewing over the Ranger ordeal so these miles went by quickly. However, as soon as dark hit, I started to get tired and fall behind. I'd been fighting sleepiness since between Ellensburg and Thorp and couldn't fight it anymore. After keeping up just enough to follow Arthur and *tc through the detour before Army West, I told them they shouldn't wait up anymore and I would have to take a nap.

I never really fell asleep at Army West while they were packing their food and water. I told my mom to wake me in 15 minutes and then asked for another 15 minutes. Just as I was getting moving, Tony called and said they'd taken the wrong trail and were heading out. I was still getting my food, water together when I saw their lights head back up the correct trail.

I was still very tired. I plugged into my ipod almost immediately after getting on the Army West trail. Probably 20 minutes later I had laid down the rain jacket my mom had lent me (mine was still in Kaitlan's car - Kaitlan was crewing Scotty and he was probably just one "aid station back at this point) and laid down on it to take another nap. I actually did fall right asleep this time...until it started raining. From here my mind was totallyl obliterated and the only thing I could think of was finding the "next" place to nap, thinking if I could just find a place out of the rain I could wait it out. Funny how the mind can make you focus on totally silly things. It was as if I had never been rained on before the way I was trying to avoid it.

Finally found a bush that hung over enough to keep out the rain (after testing out many, many bushes...pretty funny now that I look back). Slept with my head on my knees until I was awaken by headlamp coming down the trail. It was Tim! I flashed my flashlight at him and got back on the trail saying I would try to keep up with him. Hah! He was out of sight in no time. I was back to looking for good places to sleep out of the rain. After about 10 minutes another light came towards me on the trail. It was *tc saying he was turning back and that Kaitlan was meeting him. I think we stood there for at least a minute while I contemplated my options. Eventually I said "I'm feeling better now, I'll keep going." It was surely a lie intended to make my sleepy head cooperate.

I came across the first bank of trees that *tc said he'd been hiding under and I ducked under for another nap. Next was a tunnel. I thought I'd be freaked out, but was so relieved for the cover that I took my time going through. After exiting the tunnel I was dissapointed to find it was still pouring. After about 50 feet, I actually turned back to the tunnel to stay out of the rain for longer....my mind was really fried.

At the next bunch of trees I found to hide under the lightning started. Finally I was ready to quit. I got out my cell phone to call Kaitlan to tell her to wait for me too, only to find I no longer had cell service. I sat through another song or two on my ipod and finally went back out.

At this point the rain finally did dwindle. Thank you I yelled! (Hey, I practically had waited out the entire rain storm under the bushes and trees.) The lighter rain made me feel better but I was still stopping to sleep every 45 minutes to an hour. I didn't care about time, just wanted to finish. The rain was totally gone by the time I got to the one outhouse on the trail, but I still went inside and slept for 10 minutes. Gross! :)

The sun started to come out and I enjoyed the sights. Sung/screamed outloud to my ipod...felt happy that I'd kept going. Remembered some of the spots from last year...though they weren't as close to the finish as I recalled. At some point, finally did hit a bad point and started yelling at the Columbia River ..."you better f*cking show yourself!" etc., etc. Took a few more naps...timing myself...only letting myself rest through one song on the ipod before I'd get up.

When I finally got cell service back I called my mom...sort of crying, mostly just sleepy and whiny, "I'm okay, I don't know how far away I am, can't see the river yet, but I know I'm close." Mom said she was coming out to meet me. The 3 mile kiosk came quickly then. I thought about not dropping my slip in the box, but then did so anyway.

Finally found my mom a mile later and she ran the last 2 miles in with me. I was really happy to see her. We took a few more walk breaks, but mostly ran in. When she said she was going to run ahead to take a picture, I picked up the pace so she couldn't :)

Arthur had finished way earlier (and won) at 5 a.m.; Tim Lofton finished about 20-30 minutes in front of me. Yay Tim!

Had a great time at the finish. Was so surprised that Jane Herzog and crew and Jon had stuck around to see everyone in. We got lots of warm food from both of those crews. Eventually the sun made it warm enough that I wanted to dip in the ice bath Jon had set up...still reallly cold! We hung out and waited for Ray Gruenewald to come in. He did awesome, coming in just around 11:30 a.m. We all lazed around in the sun for a while.

Good time, good friends. Thanks everyone!

(Pictures to come. Mom?)

Post Script: Seth finished! He said the last 20 was hell - and I told him that was the "fun" of it! Stan, Seth's dad, almost got his head taken off by a deer, but otherwise we had no "DNL" (Steve's phrase: Did Not Live) Seth is already checking out mtn biker mags and planning his next big adventure. Fuk! There's not budget enough for two of us! :)