Rim to River 100 Miler in West Virginia & Citizen Of The Year Award
100 Mile Run, Citizen Of The Year, James Lenon, Inspiring Note, & Tesla Video.
Rim To River - 100 Miler
This past weekend I had the great pleasure of joining my friend Elissa in the 100 mile run through the beautiful mountains of West Virginia at the New River Gorge. I was a pacer for her. “Pacers are experienced runners who join the participant at various stages of the race to provide companionship and support.” I’m not experienced, but somehow Elissa still let me join her.
Pacers have strict rules about when they can join and what they can and cannot do. For instance, in this race, pacers could only join after the 50 mile mark and they were strictly not allowed to carry (mule) any items for the racer. My job as a pacer, as Martin described it, was to “just talk to her and keep her moving forward”.
Check out this video I made capturing a small portion of the event. Keep in mind, this does NOT show the difficult portion of the run/hike.
Elissa completed the Ultra Marathon in 25 hours 53 min. She finished as the 11th female, 2nd in her age group, and 51’st overall. An absolutely incredible time for someone doing this for the very first time.
I had the privilege of accompanying her for the final 7.5 miles, an astonishing 92.5 miles into her journey. Before I joined her, Elissa tackled an elevation gain of 13,000 feet, enduring a full day of continuous running and climbing without sleep or rest.
In the pitch-black night, she navigated a narrow mountain path, guided solely by a headlamp. The trail was mostly sharp rocks that were covered in wet & slippery leaves. The leaves were sometimes two to ten inches deep and made it very difficult to see even in the daylight. But when nighttime fell, it was nearly impossible to see the path through the mountains.
Some sections of the trail were so steep, Elissa had to crawl up the mountain on a path just 2 feet wide, with a dangerous drop off to her left. She had to ask a pacer to “please make sure I don’t die” as she tried to navigate this dangerous cliff, in absolute darkness, and being awake for nearly 24 hours.
Elissa is absolutely amazing. When I had the opportunity to join and support her for the last 7.5 miles at about 3am on Sunday morning, she had already fallen 7 times and had bloodied her knee. She was taking Ibuprofen to reduce the swelling and pain that was radiating up her leg from the inflamation. Somehow, even after all that, she was in great spirits. She wasn’t hallucinating and she was still cracking jokes. It is not uncommon for people to be hallucinating and literally seeing imaginary things at this point in the race due to severe exhaustion, dehydration, malnutrition, and lack of sleep. But somehow, Elissa was still cracking jokes.
Obviously, it was Elissa’s training, will power, and mental strength that kept her going and in such great condition at this point in the race. But I think the other thing that played a crucial role was her amazing Pacers & Crew, Matt, Lana, Martin and Laura who provided her incredible support. The crew were amazing.
For instance, as I awaited by the campfire for Elissa to arrive at the final aid station where I was allowed to join her, we were only a moment away from leaving. I was so ignorant about the process that I had forgotten to bring a headlamp which would have been catastrophic given that I would be attempting to help her run up a mountain in pitch black from 4am to 7am.
Luckily, her husband and my close friend, Matt, provided me a headlamp to use. We were only a few minutes away from leaving on our run and Martin asked if I wanted to bring his extra headlamp as a backup. I considered brushing him off but I decided to heed to his experience and I brought his extra headlamp along. I was extremely lucky I did! After just a mile of running with her, my headlamp ran out of batteries and I had to use the backup lamp he donated to me. If I wouldn’t have had that lamp I would have been screwed! I would have been lost in the mountains of West Virginia and probably eaten by tigers. Okay, maybe not that dramatic. But it would have been bad.
I mention this because I had previously had ambitions to complete my own 100 mile ultra marathon and the only obstacle that I considered was the run itself. But this experience made me realize something that I had completely ignored. The importance of your support crew & pacers.
Elissa’s husband, Matt and her amazing daughter, Lana, were helping Elissa the entire way. Matt had meticulously calculated every aid station along the way and what time Elissa may arrive. He helped her resupply with new clothes, water, food, gels, batteries, lights, and literally everything else that she may possibly need. Matt and Lana stayed up all night with her, driving from point to point, picking up pacers and supplies whenever needed. I had no idea how important the crew was to the successful completion of an amazing accomplishment like this. It was truly a team effort.
On the other hand, I can’t say I was much of a help to Elissa, lol. I was unaware that one of the main roles of the pacer, aside from being moral support and a companion, was to be a navigator. Every race that I have been a part of had the course clearly marked with baraccades, ropes, signs, and even people standing along the route guiding you towards the finish line. At every race I have been a part of, it was almost impossible to go off course. (Kudos to Playmakers!)
But this was different. Not only was it pitch black darkness, the trail was covered with wet newly fallen leaves, but in addition, the path was only marked with tiny orange flags that were the small size of a business card. They were incredibly hard to see with only a headlamp. On top of that, they were placed very very far apart. Sometimes we would go nearly a quarter mile without seeing a marker! I managed to get us lost a few times and even though my portion of the trip was supposed to be 7.5 miles, we ended up doing 10 miles. Sorry Elissa!
But, one nice result of my error was that instead of her finishing the course before sunrise, we were able to cross the finish line while witnessing a gorgeous sunrise over the West Virginia mountains. We were greeted by her husband Matt, daughter Lana, and the two other pacers, Martin and Laura. It was an absolutely incredible experience. I am so amazed by Elissa’s accomplishment and I was so inspired by the love that Matt and Lana showed to her. I was honored to be a small part of it. Thank you, Elissa for giving me that gift.
And thank YOU for reading about it and letting me share this moment that I will forever remember.
This week I had a few incredible things happened that I wanted to share with you all.
On Tuesday, I was named Citizen Of The Year by the local Kiwanis club. I had no idea I was even being considered for this honor. I thought I was just showing up to give a little talk and they surprised me with this amazing award. I’m incredibly grateful and honored. The Kiwanis club supports a lot of the missions that I am passionate about. They are the largest donor to the robotics club, they give books and dictionaries to children that need them, and they hang flags to celebrate America and our Veterans. (To name a few) I’m not even a member of the Kiwanis club. To know that these community servants selected me to receive this award was truly amazing.
I received this email from a stranger that I have never met and it warmed my soul.
“I read an article about your AMAZING Transformation in Yahoo. Thank You Sir, for detailing your journey, for everyone to see. Thank You for motivating me, to start my life change, with the "just making my bed up" line. I started doing that too. I looked at your "before and after" pictures and said, "That's ME!" I just want to tell you, how your story, got me off the couch and on my stationary bike! I've lost weight because YOUR story, inspired me to to do so. THANK YOU SO VERY MUCH AGAIN. You're right. Just "making the bed" does make you feel better. Take care Sir. You are a true inspiration to a lot of people!”
One of the best photographers, a great friend, and an inspiration to me, James Lenon, wrote this amazing post saying that my information about Vo2 Max helped him. It made me feel absolutely amazing. Thank You James. You give me motivation to keep writing this crazy journal.
“In the spring of 2022 I made a decision to chase a healthier lifestyle. This decision was spurred on by the desire to start competing and "racing" my mountain bike. I knew my fitness needed to improve, but as a son who lost a parent far too early I also knew that I needed to fight other genetic issues like high cholesterol and heart related health. At the time I was chatting with my buddy Travis Stoliker as he was doing his "Year of Opposite". He was referencing VO2 max a lot and how it directly correlates to mortality and longevity. Since the summer of 2022 I started tracking my VO2 max and although I was already quite active my VO2 max was only tracking at a 31 placing me in the "poor" category. Translated........High mortality. To me....."Poor" was not acceptable when we are talking mortality and longevity. Over the last year my focus was of course in endurance mountain biking, but I also started running again, continued to lift heavy weight and eat a diet heavy in antioxidant super greens. This last week my VO2 max is now at a 49. This places me in the excellent field and the top 15% of the worlds population and just a few points out of superior. More importantly within 1 year I lowered my all cause mortality rate by over 76%. Im not sharing this to puff my chest, but sharing this to emphasis the importance of fitness and cardiovascular fitness in hopes I can see my family and friends live long and abundant lives….”
Is Driving A Tesla Cheaper Than a Gas Car? Michigan to West Virginia
In case you missed it, I recorded my journey to West Virginia in the Tesla to document what it’s like taking a Tesla on a long road trip. I discuss all the topics that everyone asks me about: How long does the battery last? Where are the chargers? How long does it take to charge?
Check out the video here:
