| I just wanted to thank you for everything about Hellgate.
The best, worst, most miserable and most rewarding time of my life. It was my first ultra-marathon and definetly not my last. My entire body hurts more than it ever has before, more muscles than I can count. But at the same time, I have never been more proud of an accomplishment as I am of this. Nothing yet has matched the physical and mental suffering that I went through and kept pushing through that is Hellgate. A lot of people ask me what it was like, but I have found that there are no words that can truly explain what I went through. I find that unless you have run it yourself, there is no explanation that can entirely grasp the wholeness of this event. As you said at the pre-race meeting, Hellgate "is something special." I tell people about it starting at 12:01am, the freezing temperatures, the mountains I ran up, down and around. About the stream crossings, running in the dark of night and the light of day down trails covered with leaves covering rocks waiting to take you down with any bad footstep. I tell them about the times that the rocks got the best of me, down I went, once actually faceplanting, eating grass and pulling it from my teeth as I got up, once landing on even more rocks that felt like they actually pierced my bones(Grossman non-chalantly asking if everything was still in tact as he breezed by me). I tell people about the kamikaze Russian who could fly out of site on the very same downhills that took others out of the race completely. About the steep uphills that I could not wait to climb after my quads had been destroyed running down those furiously incredible downhills. I tell people that my eyeballs actually froze, but that it was only the insides of my eyes and I was fine the next morning when I woke up. About the aid stations, how cold it was for the workers, who faced the freezing temperatures with a lasting enthusiasm and a contagiously warm spirit that left you with more energy and passion than you thought humanly possible. These people volunteered their time to stand out in the freezing cold for hours on end, excitedly cheering as you approached, making sure that you the racer had everything you needed to keep going and to let you know that you were doing great and looked great. This was about as unselfish as you could ask of anyone! I tell people about the beauty of the race - the trails, the views, the streams, the mountains, the peacefulness of it all, midnight on the trail, the sunrise, the lonely stretches and the the smiles on everyones faces when they saw you(Go number 82!). About the animals that feverishly scurried away as you approached(deer, squirrels, something that made a lot of noise sturring the leaves, I swear I saw a bear but it might have just been my imagination). About the times I thought about just stopping and never running a step again that were immediatly followed by feelings of intense anger that I even thought of such a thing. About that one last uphill that you looked up at from the final aid station and said "NO!!!" but relentlessly charged because it was the last uphill. About the last downhill where you didn't care how much you hurt, you were gonna blast that thing because the finish was ever so close. About the tears in the racers eyes as they finished. Proud and happy. An experience that takes its own special place in the heart. Yes, sir, Hellgate is a special event. Special people, special places and special accomplishments. I will never forget this special weekend in the woods. Thank you for making this thing happen. I am forever changed and forever indebted to you. Steve Slaby |