Start to Aid Station 1

The start of the race was relatively normal for a Horton race. From the bitter cold temps to the guy tying his shoe that no one could find it was pretty normal. Horton counting down, no one to sing the national anthem so we all sing it together in the beautiful tone we all carry pre race, to the simultaneous beeping of every ones watch to start their own race clock. All in all this is the point of the race where you feel that Hellgate is just another run. Well, I think we all can agree that that feeling soon slips away as we all slip on the rocks at the stream crossing. As much as none of us would like to admit, Horton was right. We should have just went right through the stream. “Forget trying to stay dry” he said, yet we all still tried to span the ice covered rocks and eventually found the same wet and cold fate of freezing cold feet and frozen lower pant legs. Everywhere you look you can see the LED’s navigating through the trail and moving closer to the first of 9 aid stations. If only all of these aid stations came as fast as this one. I’m not too sure why this aid station is where it is, but it is way too close to the start. Either way my wife was there and I gave her a quick kiss and ran on. Still feel good at this point of course, but the lower half of my pants are clearly ice, hmmm great. The best is yet to come.

Aid Station 1 to 2

The first major climb comes to you pretty quickly here. It starts out relatively gradual but we all learned quickly that Petites Gap was a long ways away and we had a lot of climbing to do. The headlamps proved to be helpful on the well covered trails but the trend seemed to be to conserve the headlamp use due to the overwhelming bright light we had from the moon that evening. Orion (the constellation) was parked right over top of most of the race and for some reason (call it hallucination if you want) it seemed as if he was laughing the whole time. My good friend Ben Weise drew this great word picture the night before the race “Mother nature heard Hellgate was this weekend and she got mad.” Was he ever right. The temperature here on this climb really stated to drop as we climbed closer to Mr. Petite and Mr. Orion. Both I am still convinced laughing at us. What a climb though.  This aid station was well lighted with “Rosy” Neal Bryant and the Crabtree spotlight. Going through here I am sure we all still felt good but what is it about the first climb in these races that always feels good. For those who experienced the last big climb of the race, I am sure our feelings were not so positive then. I hate Horton (not really, but what is the deal with that last climb).

Aid Station 2 to 3

It is hard to explain to people what it is like to run over leaf covered sharp protruding rocks in the dark, but I like to explain it this way…..guaranteed adventure! You never know what lies beneath each layer of leaves,  but no matter what lays waiting for us is for sure going to be a surprise. The rest of this section seems to be very similar to the above described but just different location. The temptation to run hard is high but deep down inside we are all questioning if this is ok. I said “heck with it” I am running. As you all laugh right now because you know that later I paid the price, I enjoyed it while it lasted. The cold temperatures did not seem to change to the positive. Mother Nature continued to test our will with the wind gusts and frost covered trails. Did anyone else seriously question Horton at this point? How did he find this trail? How in the world does he convince us into this stuff? We all know deep down inside that there is something about that guy. Either way this section was a good run with little climbs and good solid downhill. Still feeling pretty good I cruise on into Paul Kelly’s aid station and there they are (as most of the aid stations) with frozen ham and cheese sandwiches. Another question “ how cold do you have to be to freeze a ham and cheese sandwich?” Well, let’s make our way to Aid Station 4

Aid Station 3 to 4

Holy cold!!!! Did anyone else loose fingers in this section. My conquest turned to slushy, and my water turned to as can be assumed….. hot chocolate!!!! Nope, sorry just ice. This section is a hard one primarily because this is the first point we most of us mortals are starting to feel some of the race. And not to mention it is only 3 or 4 in the morning and it hits you that even though we all tried we could not sleep at Camp Bethel and we are now working on the sleep we got Thursday night. Which for me was lacking. To not make this report drag on, the trails here were the same as all of the others, “Horton Hard”. And then comes the aid station…..um cold. Here I find my wife again working another aid station trying to stay warm. How about the station crews. They worked harder than me I am convinced. It was so brutally cold that I am sure that they had it worse than us. They would say differently but we all know how hard it was for them…thank you all. You are angels in your own right. But anyway, back to my wife…what is about your spouse that makes you feel like just stopping and wrapping the blanket around and calling it a day. What a temptation! “You want to quit…but you can’t!!!!” So because my shoes are in many ways still ice from the stream crossing, I switch out shoes into my “Air Horton’s” (Montrail Hardrock’s) from my Montrail Highlands which advertise for dry feet. Well needless to say my feet were dry after the water froze, but that stream was too much for the Highlands. Anyway, I got crewed by two great friends  (Joe Gahagan and Nate Kinder) up to 4 and a little past. Thanks guys. Once out of the aid station the fire quickly fades away and we are all off to the next station. For the record my pants are still frozen at this point and it had to be below zero back there.

Aid Station 4 to 5

I thought that the trails in here we very different from the others. These were very rocky, covered in leaves with very difficult footing….oh that’s right…they are no different… anyone else starting to question Horton yet. I  know I am. This was a very hard mentally challenging section huh. First of all you are tired, cold, and starting to really rack up the miles. Secondly, you have made the first cut. We all know now that station 4 had the highest drop rate, so you have survived that. But we got a ton of time until the next cut and a seemingly 100 miles until the end. With my fresh Air Horton’s and my new Conquest slushy drink and my water/ice bottle I am making my way to breakfast. I was tempted to put the hot soup in my water bottles but based on what the soup did to me at the MMTR in the loop, I figured I would spare my bowels and stick to the “slushquest”. Even though I thought I could avoid the soup blowing up inside of me and me having to make a “Horton Slam” on the trail I still made the stop and lowered my leg to weight ratio of you know what I mean. Oh chaffing…..don’t we all love chaffing. The funny thing is about those annoying rashes is this….we do all that we can to prevent them only to have them pop up just past the duct tape we placed to prevent. Did anyone else have square chaffing around the duct tape on your nipples?

I made it to the breakfast aid station that advertises a hot breakfast. But we all came to realize quickly that there was nothing hot that day. Here is where the race starts to become a little less fun then your typical carnival. Anyone else starting to really dislike Horton? Either way the fire feels nice and Neil “Rosy” Bryant laid a big kiss on my cheek because he claimed that his aid station was better then my wife’s. I told him she gave me a kiss….well you can imagine how that Fed Ex guy reacted. Thanks Rosy. Pants still frozen!

Aid Station 5 to 6

Is that the sun….once again unless you are Grossman, or Moehl (congrats to both by the way) you were starting to see the sun come up here. The front runners did not see the sun rise until later but it came up for us. The funny thing is that I took my headlamp off and I could still see that round light on the ground in front of me. It was as if it was etched in my vision forever. I had Ben “The Juggernaut/Pukie” Weise with me in this spot and had just passed the always encouraging “Cat” Philips during the aid station (Thanks Cat for hanging the lights, they helped big time).  The climbs in this section were a bit old. I start to tell Ben that “I am a pretty good judge between good ideas and bad ideas, and this race was a bad idea”. The miles are starting to wear on us and for me I am thinking that my bed at this time on Saturday would have been a much better idea. I love the guy that says “would you rather be doing anything else on a day like today?” My mind was full of “better” ideas. They should have asked me. But the sun finally did come and we got a break from the blustery punch from Mother Nature. The moon is still up there looking down as if saying “ I got see the rest of this” and the trails keep coming. We work our way into Aid Station 6 at the top of the climb and we get a good solid bit of thawed out food here. The fire here was especially comforting. There is something odd about standing next to a fire at sunrise trying to recover from the first 35ish miles. Cat was here as she was at each Aid Station it seemed, no wonder Horton has her mark the course. She beat me to each Aid station and never broke a sweat. She must have been cheating like driving or something. My pants are finally thawed…..yes, but I am really starting to feel the miles.

Aid Station 6 to 7

Another long section that seemed to go on for forever. At this point I am not longer having fun. There is nothing good going on in my head at this point. Anyone else tired of hearing Horton in your head “but you can’t!” This section I do not remember much of, but it seems to me that the race is getting kind of old by now. Here comes Aid Station 7 and I am ready for my burger. I arrive and everyone is offering a burger but moments later they come back and break the news to me that they do not have any. Lunch was great from that point. I came in just past Bethany Hunter working her way down with the issues she was having which was hard to see a running giant like her go down. At that point I was well aware how hard this race can be if she is going down. (We are all glad you are ok Bethany). Here is where the Roanoke Times newspaper got their story about me and my wife and my negative advertising for Conquest. Sorry Dr. But as you all saw in the paper I gave my wife another kiss at this Aid station and set out to 8. It took all I had to leave that nice fire. Here I shed my previously frozen pants to bear my spandex covered legs for the first time.

Aid Station 7 to 8

This section I set out to do alone (Thanks Weise for the last section). How about the leaves in this section. They were up to my knees it seemed. I actually marked this section last week with Horton, Fat Girl, and Space. Space and I did this section and I think she actually could have drowned in those leaves. She probably had to snorkel through. Either way the memories of Space and her family stories in this section from last week came and brought a grin for a while (Red Rash, Angry Beaver are apparently family members within the Johnston family. Now we all know why she is the way she is) I was under the impression that Horton comes out with a leaf blower and clears the course before each race……right. So with most of the race behind us at this point you would think that quitting would not be an option but we all still are considering it. I toss my MP3 player on and start to work this section with a mixture of Linkin Park and the Snatch soundtrack. I end up running right into one of co-workers (Mike Mogren) out of nowhere and he has made plans to run back to 8 with me. What a lifesaver. At this point the suffering is no longer occasional and has now become who I am and what I am becoming. Suffering is great! Anyone else starting to really dislike Horton yet. With one other great friend (Dean Short) crewing me back to 8 I make it in with plenty of time to catch Rosy before he falls asleep in his car. No kiss this time but it was nice to see the Crabtree’s and Rosy at this stop. I sit down and get really comfortable here. My best friend Josh Yeoman had picked me up a pizza here and because of the lack of hamburgers at 7 he made a special effort to take care of a friend. I like many others love Josh Yeoman. No wonder Horton picked him to help him in the PCT run. Josh (HB) tried to force me to eat two pieces but I could hardly eat anything it seemed, so I opted for one of his famous Horton foot  rubs…..just kidding, he said that he only does that for the king. So I stand up to face the infamous next section and all of it illustrious miles.

Aid Station 8 to 9

For the skeptics out there this section is not as advertised as you may assume, but seriously Horton, this one is intense. This late in the race no one likes a joke and even though Horton made us laugh the night before about this section, I doubt anyone was laughing about it at the end. You keep reaching areas where you feel like the end is finally near. Where you think you hear cars or maybe you think you see a station but no…it never comes. This is because of one reason, this whole section is the length of the Masochist. Or that’s how it felt. For crying out loud this was not necessary. But all in all it was a nice trail to run/walk. I wish we could have run it backwards and started from Camp. This would have been a nice first section. But hey miles are miles right…..wrong! You get to station 9 and what do you have….the most annoying climb ever.

Aid Station 9 to Finish

With enough time left to be able to walk from 9 on I felt I would take it easy and just finish and call it a day. Desperation is setting in. You want to be done. You just want to walk past the line, grab your “golden” shirt and crawl in your bed and never be wakened until Holiday Lake.  What the heck is with the last climb. There was nothing funny about that climb. It is hard at this point to screen the thoughts that were really going through my mind but I will do my best. I had to envision one thing to get me through this last section and that was my pillow. All I wanted was my pillow. I was so tired of this “blankity blank blank” race. The top of the climb is over and there is the radio club guys having a great time, what is it about reaching the top of that climb that makes you want to curse. But the energy that it would have taken to expel those evil words had far been lost on the climb. Good one Horton. Thanks for that climb. The downhill wasn’t much better huh ladies and gents. But oh was it glorious to make that left hand turn into Camp Bethel. To hear the cheer of others finishing and Horton’s voice fleeting was like sweet nectar. As I cross the line some of my greatest friends are there to great me. My best ever, my wife Lindsay, Josh Yeoman, Ben Weise, Mike Mogren, Chris Palladino, the Crabtree’s and or course the king, Horton. Oh how good it was to be done. You figured the finish line would have been far more illustrious then two little invisible fence flags and a line of paint but Horton spared no expense. Either way I saw that little 3 foot line and felt the most amazing relief. The race is over and 100k++ behind. What an adventure. I started the race with a whole lot of grass to cut and finished the race with nothing left but the handles on my lawnmower, that my friends is a word picture that speaks volumes.

Thank you’s:

Thank you Horton. Despite the jesting comments above we do appreciate your enthusiasm and your inspiring attitude. You are a very special person, sick but special. You put on a fantastic race.

Thank you Lindsay. I love you with all my heart and to have you  there was a true treat. I love love love you.

My crew (Joe G., Nate, Ben,  Josh Y., Sarah G, Mike, Deano, the Crabs, Cat, Chris Pal, Paul Carrasco). You guys all played a special role in getting me through the race at different times and you guys deserve far more than a thank you note. So I offer you this…… I volunteer to help you all next year!!! Suckers.

Aid Station workers (Rosy, Pauls Team, Crab’s, Sarah G’s Team). You guys did more that day then anyone could have expected. You guys all played a special role and gave us the best race we could have asked for.

Above all else. I thank the my Lord and Savior for sustaining me through the most difficult challenge of my life. To God be the glory. “He will never leave you nor forsake you”.

See you all at Holiday Lake!!!!!!ortoHor