Absolutely unreal experience. This was the hardest thing I've ever done, and it's not even close. I wanted my first 100 to scare me, and I got more than I bargained for. I had no business signing up for a mountain race at altitude with 22,000+ feet of vert as my first 100, especially when all of my training was in Kansas City over the summer.
I was wrecked by . Thunderstorms started within the first few miles. Then had the most brutal climb I've ever experienced — 5,000 feet over 5 miles. And that was capped off with insane hail and lightning during my summit push (someone else died on a neighboring peak after getting struck by lightning). By the time I got back off that peak, I was mentally and physically exhausted. I was holding back tears talking to my dad at , desperately trying to convince myself not to quit. Every step after that felt like a nearly impossible decision to keep putting one foot in front of the other — for another 70 miles over 27 hours.
Both of my achilles gave out around , I think due to a combination of bad shoes and not being adequately prepared for the steep climbs (given the conspicuous and regrettable lack of anything even loosely resembling mountains in Kansas and Oklahoma). At that point, I was reduced to a limp for the second half of the race. By , every step was excruciating. The last 20 miles took me 9.5 miserable hours, and all the while I was starting to stress about cut-off times.
As the race director told me when I crossed the finish line, I was "DFL" (dead f-ing last). But that just means I suffered more than anyone else, so I count that as a win. Besides, only around half of the runners that started the race even finished, so I was really more like middle of the pack.
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