Cascade Crest Challenge 100 - Pacer

The Starting Line - CCC 100 Mile Race

The previous week I did Where is Waldo 100K. Now we headed up to Easton Washington to "Do" Gary's first 100 mile race! He was nervous and ready to go at the same time. The 10am start gave Gary plenty of time to get things done and then sit and wait! They took off and Gary was going to be starting off nice and slow. I wouldn't see him for 23 miles. When I saw him @ 23 miles he looked good and way ahead of schedule. We had a hard time gauging how long the race would take him, so we settle on someone else's times and made our chart. He was now 1 hour ahead of schedule.

Gary @ the Start

Gary @ mile 33.

At mile 33 - He looked great and felt great.
At mile 40 - He felt the same.
At mile 47 - He had a small hotspot but nothing major so they left the small blister.

I was sure at mile 53, that would give me a good gauge at how things were "really" going. Gary came into Hyak AS, he looked great and said, "everything was firing and his legs felt great". That was when my adreneline really began to race! I was so excited for him. We ran along the paved section for about 5 min. together. I encouraged him to take it easy up the next climb and gain on the downhill if he could. I would be running with him from Kachess Lake to the finish.

I met him up @ Kachess Lake, we ran the "Evil Forest Trail or the Trail from H-e-double toothpicks! It was an amazing trail, I was fresh and he was not but we stayed right together. I was running with a handheld light which was new and a disaster...I dropped it about 10 ft. off the trail and then the battery died. We ran for about 1/2 mile with only Gary's headlamp with me out front which was quite tricky and scary. Finally Rod H. from Hawaii, came by and we asked if he had an extra light and "YES" was his answer. The 3 of us stayed together for most of the time till No Name Ridge. I took pictures of Rod & filled his water bottle, trying to make up for such great kindness.

Rod H. - almost to No Name Ridge.

After No Name Ridge - Mile 80, I knew it would be a challenge for me to keep up with Gary. The views were spectacular and amazingly hard! After Thorpe we headed down to French Cabin AS. We had a couple of really hard climbs - Cardiac style. From French Cabin - we had 6 miles of major downhill.

Gary shot like a bullet on the steep downhills and I hung tight on his heels. The last mile before AS - Silver Creek the incline was so steep that my IT band was becoming unbearable. Approx. 200 yards before the AS, I shouted to Gary to go ahead and I'd see him at the finish. He dropped his pacer! That was the last thing I thought would happen, but he was so strong and had such a great race!

He finished @25:12, 28th overall out of 128 people. He is so amazing!! I came in about 12 min. after him. We had a long drive home, neither one of us could keep our eyes opened. I drove for awhile then stopped for a triple espresso & a burger. Nothing seemed to help. Gary took over and drove the next 1.5 hours home. We made it to Beaverton to pick up the kids and took a small nap at my moms before loading up the kids to drive another hour home.

CCC 100 - Is all we can seem to talk about! And of course, next years races are dancing in our heads!