I drove to Phoenix for the Javelina 100. I left SL a week ago Monday and camped in my camper van at Palo Duro State Park in west Texas, near Los Cruces in southwest New Mexico and at Patagonia State Park in southeast Arizona along the way. I arrived in McDowell Mountain Park on Thursday afternoon. It’s located just northeast of Scottsdale Arizona. The park is at 2000 feet elevation with lots of mesquite, ocotia, chola cactus, barrel cactus, prickly pear cactus and saguaro cactus and is surrounded by a rim of low mountains.

Friday I rested in the morning and then went to race headquarters, where I met fellow SLUG Dale Perry and his friend Vince Gerber who drove down with Dale from Colorado. We helped set up the start/finish area, picked up our packets and listened to RD Geri Kilgariff’s last minute instructions. I went back to my campsite in the park for pasta, organized my gear and went to bed. Saturday morning dawned cool and clear, in the high 40’s for the race start. It never got too hot during the day or too cold at night, and a dry cool light breeze made for excellent running conditions. We wore Velcro-strapped transponders and ran across a receiver at the end of each loop for timing. This high-tech system was provided (and monitored for the entire duration of the race) by Rodger Wrublik of Nardini Manor and Across The Years fame (also a HURT finisher this past January and a 2005 Hardrock hopeful – hope you get in Rodger!!). With Rodger’s system no lap counters are required and lap results up on a computer screen instantly.

The course starts with a couple of miles of fairly flat open undulating trail and then a couple more miles of climb on a single track rocky trail to the first aid station at 5.4 miles. From there the course continues to rise over undulating mainly soft dirt trails for a couple of miles before turning onto a wide dirt/gravel/sand service road which goes very gently downhill to aid station number two at about 10 miles into the loop. From there the course continues on down the service road for a couple of miles before turning off onto more undulating single track dirt trail in to the S/F area at 15.3 miles. After reloading you head out in the opposite direction as you reverse direction each loop. The race is 6 of these loops plus a shortened final loop for approx 101 miles.

The first few loops I was feeling fresh and cool and the hills were easy. I ran with Dale off and on and had a good long chat with Linda McFadden. Reversing direction each loop is kinda cool as you get to see and greet all the other runners. I saw lots of people I knew from previous races – Lynn Newton, Ron Vertrees and Robert Schulz from Across The Years, Lou Joline, Louise Mason, Hans-Dieter Weisshaar, Niki Seger among others. Both Dale and I went through 50 miles in a little over 10 hours. I seemed fine at the time – but that soon changed – as they say if you’re feeling good, don’t worry, you’ll get over it. The course is deceptive – think the rolly-poly hills of the Ice Age 50 miler with long but gentle climbs and descents thrown in – the hills seem easy at first – but they sneak up on you and as Dale (who ran this race last year) told me the hills will “pick your pocket” in the second half. He was right.

We hit 50 miles about 4 miles into loop 4 (run counter-clockwise) and it became obvious that the sun was dropping to the mountains off to the west much faster than I had thought it would. I figured I could get through this 15 mile loop without a flashlight but was wrong. I made it into the second aid station at 10 miles into the loop and was lucky to bum a flashlight from Don Meyer who was working at the aid station (thanks Don!!). The last half of that 5 mile section got really dark (the moon – which was just past full - hadn’t risen yet) and I would have been in trouble without the light. The next two loops from about mile 60 to 90 were a struggle. That was rather strange as I love running through the night and even though I slow down I’m generally able to do some decent running. I think there were three reasons. I hadn’t done any serious training since July when I got a calf injury and the injury lingered through the summer and into the fall. Second I had a cold and was spitting up all kinds of crap. That seemed to worsen in the cool damp night air. Third I went out faster than I should have. Anyway I just kept on truckin, and walked for a good part of those 30 miles.

Shortly after starting out on the last full loop (about 75 miles) I was not paying attention and went off on the wrong trail. That cost me a half hour or so but I was walking anyway so no big deal. Once I realized I was not on the correct trail (there were not enough footprints in some sandy regions and then I began to realize I hadn’t been here before) I back-tracked to the correct trail. I focused on getting into the 5 mile aid station and then on into the 10 mile aid station. The 10 mile aid station in that final full loop was where you cut off on the return trip to go back down to the finish and I was really wishing I was at that point but I had to get to the S/F and back out to this point before I could think about that. Also that nasty rocky section would face me twice before I got back here again. So on down over the rocks again, meeting runners who were on their return shorter finishing loop coming up the rocky trail towards me – that’s where I wanted to be – heading home to the finish like them.

Dawn broke shortly before I got into the S/F. I reloaded, stripped off a bunch of clothes, dropped my lights and headed out again. Knowing I only had 9 miles to go I started running more consistently and got some good running in until I hit the rocky uphill at least. This time I was meeting people coming down the rocks as I worked my way back up to that 5 mile aid station. Once there I didn’t linger and headed off down the cut-off trail. That trail was really nice, wide and smooth and downhill. And it was daylight. A hat with a brim would have been good here as I was running directly into the rising sun. About 3 miles down this trail I turned back on the original loop trail for the final mile or so into the finish. Once again I was running fairly well here knowing I’d soon be finished. Then there was the S/F area, what a great feeling as I crossed the finish line. Rodger was there to congratulate me. My time was 26:17, somewhat off my goal of 24 hours but still quite decent considering my melt-down during the night.

It has been a good year of ultras for me, first the 72 hour at Across The Years in December/January, then Umstead 100 and the Cornbelt 24 hour (112 miles) in the spring, followed by Howl At The Moon 8 hour (42 miles) in August and then The Equalizer 24 hour (102 miles) in September and now a finish at Javelina. Now I’m going to take it easy for a while. At least until Rocky Racoon (2 more Rockies for a 5 year jacket so I’ll be back at least two more times Joe).

Geri should know that her efforts are appreciated by everyone. One of her rules is don’t be rude to the volunteers and I don’t know how anyone could be as they are exceptionally friendly and helpful, so thanks to them too.