Crewing and Pacing the Pony Express 50

Last Friday I had the awesome experience of crewing and pacing for my brother as he ran a 50 mile race - the Pony Express 50 (there's also a 100 miler)

We started out Thursday night heading out into the middle of nowhere South and West of Tooele Utah. Tooele is where the Tough Mudder was, and it's already middle-of-nowhere-enough as it is!

We arrived at the Lookout campsite in the dark, set up our tent, checked out the GORGEOUS stars, and went to sleep.

In the morning we woke up, got my brother off and running, and started our fun!

Brr! Cold early morning!

Beautiful Sunrise!

I don't need this yet!

 

Two(ish) hours in - SO happy!

Random Rock Peacock!

Simpson Springs Peacock!

  

Jeans and a running tank - that's hot.

See!?

Calories!

 And by fun I mean that at about 28 miles in - I was still doing stuff like this:


And the girls were doing THIS:

Heeeeeeey! Sexy Lady!

 I knew I'd be pacing soon, so I stripped down the layers (seen previously) to my running stuff  and got ready.

I threw in some Astavakrasana

Ready for anything. Yes, that bucket is a toilet. A 'Luggable Loo'

 Kakes paced first - he was starting to get more tired as he had already passed a Marathon distance.

At mile 31 I started running with him, right as his hip was starting to bug him so we started off (well I started off, he'd been going THIRTY-ONE miles already!) quite slowly due to the hip issues.

He's got wings!

Kakes hopped in the van with Alicia a few miles later.
 
The hip issues caused some calf issues and some knee issues - but eventually, (and with the help of my amazing wife!) it worked out, and we really got moving again after Dugway Pass.

Fixing the hip!

Cresting the hill! (About 6 miles into my run, 37 into the 50)

Around here I told him "I plan on pacing you as long as I'm not slowing you down" and he replied, "Yeah that probably won't be a problem!"

A few miles later my sister and her husband showed up, and my brother in law Ben jumped out to run with us.

Matt was moving a lot better here - and I was getting close to my all-time longest run ever. (14 miles last year in the half marathon I got lost in!) And my knee was starting to tweak a bit.

A funny thing about the end of the 50 miler is that you get to the finish line at 48.5 miles... so they make you run 3/4 mile farther down the road, turn around, and THEN cross the finish line! Yikes! My knee wasn't too happy right then, and I was right around 18 miles - significantly more than my previous long-distance. (I still blame the cold and shock obstacles of Tough Mudder for messing up my knee.)

So Kakes parked the van, and everybody got out to run the final 1.5 miles.

The Magnificent 7! (minus 2, although only 1 person is missing)

Back to the finish!

I actually slowed WAY down and basically hobbled the last 200 yards or so. My knee was NOT very happy with me. Considering I had just run 18.91 miles straight (not including all the dancing and yoga and crew-running done earlier) I felt pretty good! I know I could do a marathon if I wanted. Who knows. Maybe someday I will!

We collapsed into chairs at the Finish Line almost 10 hours after we started. Kakes is awesome and took care of us with stuff we needed from the van. We ate some of the Argentine BBQ that was being prepared at the finish, and talked to a few runners, pacers, organizers, and took some pictures.

BBQ in the background!

19+ miles, sunburned, still alive! Thriving!

 

I love this woman!!

50 miles! Amazing!

 When it was time we piled into the van,

Enjoyed the BEAUTIFUL sunset

and went back and packed up the Tent and bedding we'd left at the start-line campsite (yay for people not stealing anything!)  ((Not that I expected them to - I'm still happy about it sheesh!)) It got dark fast!

Great adventure for a fall Friday! Saturday morning I woke up feeling a little sore, but not bad at all!

I still have no plans to run a Marathon, let alone an ULTRA marathon, but it was a blast crewing for my brother as he ran this 50 miler.

Now to catch up with the rest of the week!