Greetings! Rachel here. My plan is to update this post, with newest updates at the top, after each crew access aid station. Sometimes that will mean about a six hour gap between updates and sometimes it will be more like 24 hours.
2:55pm, Tuesday, 10/11- She finished! After 240 miles over 5 days, she actually ran the last several miles! I was shocked how well she was moving at the end. After she finished she drank a bunch of fluids and talked with people she had run with throughout the race. She also picked out her custom finishers belt buckle. Erin says she never wants to run another step in her life. I predict that will last about a month. She said it was so much harder than she could have imagined. Now we are eating pizza and chilling!
9am, Tuesday, 10/11- She moved slowly and steadily through the night and appears to be spending some quality time at the last aid station (no crew allowed there). It won't be pretty, but her new ETA is early evening to finish. She has until 11pm to beat the cutoff and be an official finisher, so she could almost crawl. Very few people attempt this feat, a lot are not able to finish. Even if she has to roll across the finish line after the official cutoff it will be an absolutely massive achievement that I think she will be insanely proud of. The picture below is of the stretch where she had to drag herself to the aid station. A very beautiful spot to hit a low!
5:45pm, Monday, 10/10- I was waiting at the mountain pass aid station when a runner came up shouting "Rachel who has sisters!? Rachel who has sisters?! Your runner is in trouble and needs you!" I went to the race staff and asked what they thought I should do because I didn't want to get Erin disqualified if it wasn't an absolute emergency. They decided search and rescue should walk the half mile with me to where they were and if talk was all that was needed to get to the aid station then I could walk with her. We found her basically dragging herself along by her walking poles and quite emotional. Despite the massive amount of pain she was in it soon became clear that what she was really upset about was thinking she would have to drop from the race. Talk about persistent! It turned out to me a muscle that was really really cramping and pinching a nerve very badly. The aid station hopped to life for Erin. I worked on her hip, Heidi started resetting her pack (after 20 hours of pacing!), volunteers brought her a meal and drinks, a medic worked on her feet and search and rescue piled blankets on her. After sleeping, more food, taping both hips for support, and a physical therapist working on making sure she could go down the mountain, she was off for the night. It was exhausting and emotional for all of us. It also basically guarantees I will cry happy tears if I get to see her cross the finish line.
Story on the physical therapist to give an insight into the flavor of this race- he is Finnish and was flown over just to work on a Scottish athlete who has been racing about the same pace as Erin. I had been watching the physical therapist do stellar work since about mile 70. I asked him if he would be willing to give me some tips on how to get Erin in shape for going down the mountain. Without even a second thought he knelt in the dirt and fixed her up himself. While he worked, the pacers, who were from Glasgow, joked and kept things light to cheer Erin up. This is really just par for the course during this race.
7am, Monday, 10/10- I won't see Erin and Heidi until this afternoon, but I wanted to give a timing update. After the low that was the flat section yesterday, Erin made it to the next aid station in the night an hour faster than her dream pace for that section! (Mom, I slept a full night last night and feel better this morning. So don't worry about me. 😉)
I would say that her ETA for finishing is probably between 2-10am tomorrow morning. The cutoff is 11pm tomorrow, so she still has time if she starts moving really slowly, or needs 8 hours of sleep.
9pm, Sunday, 10/9- After 27 miles of mostly flat dirt roads through open range, Erin came in to the mile 166 aid station. She said most of that section was mentally and physically the hardest of the race so far. On paper it should have been an easy section, but it turns out maybe the body gets really tired after 140 miles and less than four hours of sleep. Who knew! Erin said she felt like she was getting the full Moab 240 experience by being THAT tired and exhausted. I mean can you even say you did Moab if you didn't take a nap on the side of a dirt road?
Even with all that she was the life of the party at the aid station, and had everyone there laughing! Her sleep didn't go great at this aid station because sort of like a baby, I think she was too tired. However, after 90 minutes of laying down she still felt more refreshed and was excited to be going out with Heidi to tackle the La Sal mountains.
Side note: This was the hardest aid station for the crew too. I was extremely tired and felt like my brain wasn't working anymore. Heidi was struggling a bit with the ever changing timeline and how that changes the challenges of her pacing section and the challenges of getting home after she paces. No pictures because I was the one who should have taken pictures and you need a brain to remember that.
4:30-9:30am, Sunday, 10/9- Erin and I (Rachel) spent 17 miles together running down the mountain. She felt great at first and was definitely on a high mentally.
At about mile 10 I helped her figure out what stretch her hips needed. Pictures below. 😆
About the last 4-5 miles of that section she struggled because of not eating enough at the top of the mountain. She was really determined still, but without fuel there is only so fast the legs can go. She ate a LOT of food at the next aid station and got a clean bill of health from the race's medical director (I think he was trying to check in with as many runners as possible at this aid station). Her plan for the day was to listen to audiobooks on what is a rather flat stretch. She said she hasn't considered quitting once yet. That is awesome after 40 miles past her longest run ever!
12:30am, Sunday, 10/9- Our sister Heidi and I drove to the top of Shay mountain expecting to be ahead of Erin by 1-2 hours. We were super surprised when she was already at the aid station! She had found a climbing buddy and went super fast up the mountain. She was so pumped! She slept, reset, and ate at the top of the mountain.
3:20am, Saturday, 10/8- Just driving to the aid station was breath taking. Canyonlands National Park midday looks like a Western movie (it's actually where a lot were filmed), but at night, with a full moon, it looks like something from a SciFi. I imagine the experience walking through it at night is that much more intense.
Erin said that her first day went well. She powerhiked a lot of it with another guy, and it mostly felt good. At mile 65 she bonked, which is where you feel completely depleted. That slowed her approach to the mile 72 aid station where we met up. She was very smart in her aid station time. She ate lots, focusing on things like broth and oranges that would specifically replace what gets lost in the heat. She had a good nap, reset herself and her pack, and said she felt much better. Her departure time from that aid station was 6:30, still hours ahead of the cutoff.
10:30am, Friday, 10/7- I met Erin at the aid station for mile 17. She was feeling good and left the aid station 20 minutes ahead of her "optimistic" schedule. She was heading into the section that goes along the edge of Canyonlands National Park, as well as the hottest part of the course. The racers are still pretty bunched together which gave the aid station a hopping feel. What she ate and what I sent with her would read like The Very Hungry Caterpillar.
6am, Friday, 10/7- Erin, and over 250 runners from around the globe, are off and running. She seemed calm, but excited. It was dark and about 50 degrees, but this first day will eventually be the hottest. I will get to see her again at mile 18. The first part of the race is through Moab and then out into the desert, following the Colorado river.
