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WSER

June 27, 2015 (Morning)

Exercise Type: Run

Comments:
I thought about blogging this, but I decided against it. Here's the bullet points:

- Slept GREAT and relatively long at CA's uncle's. He made us AMAZING espresso at his house (with heavy cream) and we hit the road
- We stopped in Truckee for Sausy B's...and more coffee. It would be a long day
- I dropped CA off in Foresthill. She would get a run in and meet Ford's crew in FH or MB. I chatted with Bruce L for a bit, then headed to the Thumb
- Got to the Thumb around 11ish. Had fun hanging out with Alene A and John Onate, among others, at medical. No scales this year.
- THE AS: it was a weird day. Not nearly as fun as '14. The AS workers were irritable: on me for using "too much everything". Apparently we were giving away too much ice, too much water, and too much soda. We "couldn't spare" giving DBz a WHOLE can of soda, even though he was bonky as fuck. KIDDING ME? Same with ice. It was stupid. This is WSER. We should not be rationing at a non-remote (e.g. cars can drive there) aid station.
- I felt really torn about how much to encourage people. If they were shitting the bed, should they really push it to continue, especially the burned-out elites, like Dbo? I did help out Jady Palko, who was having some weird hearing - numbness issue in his head! Thought it might've been neck stiffness, so I worked on him (thus perpetuating my habit of manual therapy "on the trail")
- Ford came through looking good, but "coughing a lot". He was already falling off and I didn't have a good feeling
- Topher bombed out at the Thumb and wound up supine on a cot, and pale. Just like RftS 2001! LOLZ!

- I left the AS mid-late afternoon and headed to FH. Ford had left after a lengthy stay, and it sounded like he'd be out there for a while. I rested at the AS and ate some food, then went to Worton's to eat more food (and ran into MLD, crewing for Meghan), then headed to Driver's Flat.
- After waiting there for a while, I suited up for pacing and head down to the River.

AT THE RIVER:

- LONG WAIT. First off, fucking Koop was down there, chatting up much of the Smith crew, all of which were now down there, including mom and dad. I avoided Koop for a long time.
- Watched a bunch of folks come in, as the minutes ticked by and sunlight waned. No one looked particularly good, but KacR looked solid as she came in around F5 or so. I avoided her, too, like I did previously at the Thumb.
- Later on Koop came up to me and introduced himself. Nice of him, but annoying. We didn't really speak about Ford at all, that I recall.
- FINALLY Ford came in with Dom, this older fellow (maybe early 30s?), his pacer #1. Ford was not doing well. Dom was REALLY worried, as Ford had been coughing so bad we was doubling over. I had Ford talk to medical and they examined him. They found his lungs to be OK, but we sat there and mulled over the intelligence of going on, into remote lands, with a nasty-ass cough. For a guy as young and talented as him, WHY go on? He's not the 50yo guy who won't have another shot... Of course, KOOP wanted him to continue.
- Finally, Ford said (literally), "Fuck it, let's go", so...off we went. It was about 8:30 or 9PM when we finally left.
- My strategy for Ford was to breathe deeply and keep the HR down. I figured (rightfully) it was the high HR and shallow breathing that brought on his cough - the nasty shit, beyond his horrible "throat clearing tic". So if he could avoid that, we'd shuffle it in.
- And that's what we did. At first, we did nothing but hike every up. Then, once at GG, he got a pretty good run stride going. And just like that, consistent momentum for the first time in MANY hours.
- I wasn't really sure what he needed. To avoid coughing, I advised him to limit talking. I would tell stories, then - for pretty long periods - say nothing at all. We just ran.
- He did pretty well on calories, but I pushed soda on him (as I did with Adam last year) to keep things consistent, as he (like Adam) would get bonky if he pushed the effort on the rollers.
- We made decent time to ALT and didn't linger too long. The water there tasted like shit! Hose water!
- ALT to Brown's was a little of a struggle, but not nearly as bad as Adam's hike-fest. But at one point, Ford told me, "You need to tell a story or something", lolsss. So I chatted some more, talking about my running and history, and some random relationship tales. That seemed to get us to BB, where he got buoyed by HK and the Ashland crew.
- Just outside BB, we passed Pam Smith and Dennis. She was running SLOW downhill. We were doing OK.
- Overall slow running gear (like 10min flat) but some running on some of the ups to Quarry Trail, then a hike fest. But we made good time.
- Not a ton of chatter, but I fed him as much course info as I could ("OK, just a mile after this curve", etc), which he appreciated.
- 49 was great. The family was ecstatic that he was moving well. We filled on soda and gels, then took off. Zac ran with us for a good kilo before turning back. There was a thought that he'd have Zac take over there (for some reason), but he called him off, and it was just us.
- Pointed Rocks was fucking awesome with a full moon. Moved OK on the descents, then we made our way to No Hands. My rule is always "No One Stops at No Hands", so I was a little annoyed when fucking Koop was down there (with CA). They handed stuff to him, but I tried to keep the momentum going.
- And so it goes: shuffle-hike-shuffle-hike to Robie. About halfway up, the crew came back at us, and we all ran in together.
- The track was a little desolate, but it was great to hear Tropical John's voice, and always a nice ego bump when he mentions my name. That means a lot.
- Ford ran the homestretch solo and hit the line in 22:xx?

Post-race:
- Congrats from LB. MB and AJW were there, apparently being annoying. They appreciated my self-depricating remark of "I'm great at pacing 5 and a half hours from the river".
- I did a good dirt rinse on the legs. It was dusty as fuck!
- Didn't linger too long: shared some congrats with the crew and Ford, then hit the Curley house, which was positively PACKED with Euros! Annoying
- Tecnu'd and showered and was in bed by 4:30.

Good...good day, I suppose. Admittedly, it wasn't as special as the last several years, but I was certainly happy Ford finished, AND was happy that *I* wasn't responsible for having him DNF. However, hindsight is always 20-20, and non one how much he could've struggled (as many do around ALT).

I dunno. I like Ford, but there are certain elements about him that rub me the wrong way - and the biggest is Koop. I've wasted too much of my time defying dumbass coaches, so it makes it difficult to try to provide mentorship to Ford without either:

A.) being frustrated because Koop's techniques nullify it
B.) having Koop be credited for the positive mentorship Ford gets from *ME*.

Also, I'm a little miffed at how little he credited me for his finish. Apparently, all I had to offer was "course knowledge"; he said nothing about how it was my pace plan that got him moving without any stall-outs. Koop didn't have a damn thing to do with that.

So...ya help the kid and hope for the best. But I'm fairly certain there are other folks (and kids) who might be better targets for my support, like Andrew Miller.