The Road to Badwater Part 11: Post Race

This is part 11 of a series highlighting an ultra-marathon run by my friend Gregg Geredes.  Gregg came in 5th place and was th 1st rookie to finish!  135 miles: 28:28:29.
This achievement was done to raise money for the Diplomatic Security Foundation. Click here to find out more.
Post Race
We drove down the mountain and talked about the race, although I’m not sure how coherent I was. Even though the race was over my crew was still taking care of me, they got me to my room with all my gear. I took an ice bath to reduce the swelling (by the way the water felt cold this time), showered and went to bed. I slept about 2 hours, when I awoke I couldn’t figure out where everyone was. After looking around the room I finally realized my wife was lying right next to me, still taking care of me.

Photos: Best Crew Ever! Post race crew with vehicles
A little while later the crew came back, they had gone to dinner in town. We all talked about the different parts of the race. It was amazing the lifetime you can experience in the course of 28 ½ hours.

Photo: Post-race runner. And you would look any better?
One of the questions Nanc asked me was “There were other runners as good as you with crews as good as yours that didn’t finish as well as you, why is that?” I didn’t fully answer her question at the time, but I will now. First off, although I know there were better runners out there I am positive no one had a better crew with more invested in their runner, more importantly my entire race was covered in prayer, prayers from my family, friends, and crew. I want to thank all of you for your prayers and words of encouragement. Without you I am sure that I would not have had finished as strong as I did.

• Lesson: It is amazing the lifetime you can experience in the course of 28 ½ hours.
• Lesson: Thank you all

The Road to Badwater Part 10: Lone Pine to Whitney Portal

This is part 10 of a series highlighting an ultra-marathon run by my friend Gregg Geredes.  Gregg came in 5th place and was th 1st rookie to finish!  135 miles: 28:28:29.
This achievement was done to raise money for the Diplomatic Security Foundation. Click here to find out more.
 
Lone Pine to Whitney Portal (122 – 135) - Hardest race finish EVER
From Lone Pine to the finish, once again you are only allowed one support vehicle. My crew parked our 2^nd support vehicle and everyone piled in the van as we headed for the Alabama Hills, which are famous for all the movies that have been shot there. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alabama_Hills


Photo: Nanc giving her support through the Alabama Hills
About one mile into this section I decided to change my socks and shoes. They were both soaked and mentally I felt switching to dry shoes for the climb would be helpful. My feet looked pretty rough since they had been wet for most of the race and since both my big toe nails were broken free (I would end up pulling both a few days after the race, I think I should have gone with shoes ½ size larger). At least I didn’t have any blisters between my toes; my Injinji socks were doing their job. I put my Asics back on that I had worn for the first 80 miles (had changed my socks and shoes for the first time back then). They were dried like a piece of leather now and it took me a painful mile to break them back in.

During this section I wanted to make sure that I spent time with all my crew who weren’t pacing me; Janet, Nanc and Dave all hiked with me as we went through the Alabama Hills, and it was a joy spending time with them as they had supported me through the entire event. By the time we reached the base of Whitney Portal Gord had pushed through his sickness and was ready to go. I can’t think of anyone else I would have wanted by my side during this battle or any battle for that matter. He kept a non-stop wave of encouragement going when I needed it most. We each had a red bull and continued to the top as the rest of my crew patiently waited knowing my biggest concern at this point was that we didn’t accidentally disqualify ourselves in the last few miles.


Photo: One more time into the breach, with Gord giving me support
As we neared the Whitney Portal camping area Janet in her excitement told me that the finish is right around the next bend and that I needed to push it in. The crew drove up to the next bend and Janet soon realized her error, we were still 1.5 miles from the finish. She insisted they return and let me know. When the crew arrived she began apologizing profusely for giving me the wrong information. She knew that I was completely exhausted. I accepted her apology, but was so focused on moving forward and us not being disqualified by having two pacers that I told her to get in the van. This was the only time I had snapped at my crew and it was my lowest point during the race.

The last mile seemed endless, as I knew I was close, but still couldn’t see the finish. Finally it was there. My crew joined me for the run across the finish line holding the sign Janet and Nanc had made “I fought the fight, I finished the race, I kept the faith” – 2 Tim 4:7. It will be my most memorable finish ever, I knelt thanked God, then stood called in my crew and thanked God for them and protecting all of us.



Photo: The FINISH – 2 Tim 4:7, Janet and Nanc’s finishing sign

RD Chris Kostman interviewed me and gave me belt buckle. (If you have to ask why do this for a belt buckle, you probably won’t ever understand). Afterwards I sat down in a chair and passed out from exhaustion. My adrenaline was spent; I had given everything I had.
 

• Lesson: Get the right equipment
• Lesson: Run with everyone on your team and let them know how important they are
• Lesson: Mistakes happen, control yourself
• Lesson: Finish together
• Lesson: NEVER forget GOD and his hand in EVERYTHING
• Lesson: Be true to your crew
  Lesson: It’s not about the BUCKLE

The Road to Badwater-Pt 9 The Looooong Section

This is part 9 of a series highlighting an ultra-marathon run by my friend Gregg Geredes.  Gregg came in 5th place and was th 1st rookie to finish!  135 miles: 28:28:29.
This achievement was done to raise money for the Diplomatic Security Foundation. Click here to find out more.
 
100 mile to Lone Pine (100 – 122) The loooooooonnnngggg section
Cal was my primary pacer for much of the run to Lone Pine. He continued to keep up a constant chatter as he was still working off the Red Bulls. We watched as the sun came across the desert and felt the temperatures rise again. The day before the race someone had told me this was a rough section, you’ve just completed 100 miles and now you need to run a marathon to Lone Pine, which you can see the entire time, but somehow just can’t reach. Well he was right; it seemed like no matter how much we ran we still weren’t reaching Lone Pine. Mike did his share of the pacing during this long section and Gord, now feeling better, even was able to come back and pace a few miles.

Photo: Crew in action, Cal pacing, Dave spraying and talking to me, Gord with a new water bottle. They did this every mile for 135 miles.
At around mile 110, my left hip started to hurt. 4 weeks prior to the race my left hip started to hurt and there was significant swelling in the area. My doctor quickly scheduled me for an MRI. From his best judgment of the MRI he determined that my I.T. Band was torn vertically – the race was over. You have no idea how devastating this news was to me. I had so much invested in this race too include all those who had donated to my charity www.dsfoundation.org. I knew that I had to run no matter what, but I would be risking tearing my I.T.B. further.
My doctor wasn’t 100% positive on his diagnosis so he personally took it upon himself to set up an appointment for me with another specialist. The other doctor determined that it wasn’t a tear, but was a fluid pocket developing on my hip. We discussed the situation and with two weeks from the race we agreed upon a cortisone shot to see if it would at least reduce the inflammation, however the odds of me being able to run at Badwater were dwindling. (By the way this was all happening while studying for my Chinese final exam – fun times).
The cortisone shot did reduce the swelling, but the fluid pocket remained and was of serious concern to me and now at mile 110 it was starting to cause irritation. My biggest concern was my hip would ‘go out’ or the inflammation would throw off my stride and reduce me to a crawl the rest of the way to the finish. Thankfully neither happened, but it did mean I had another area of pain to deal with the rest of the race.
We finally came into the outer limits of Lone Pine, but even then you still have over one miserable mile before you hit the Lone Pine checkpoint. At the Lone Pine check point I went in my 4^th and final ice bath. I was feeling wore out from the run to LP and I wanted to bring my core temp down before I made the final push up to Whitney Portal. While in the bath I was interviewed by the webcast guy and got to say hello to my children - Nathaniel, Shannon and Jonathan. That was awesome. Reaching LP was a significant milestone.

Photo: Lone Pine Checkpoint
Although I still had 4 hours left of climbing, I knew I was going to finish with a good time and place. I could feel my crew was also excited, they were excited about our effort and they knew we were going to be done soon.
 

• Lesson: Sometimes it’s a long, long road, keep going
• Lesson: It’s not over till it’s over
• Lesson: Be aware of your weaknesses, but don’t quit because of them
• Lesson: Doing something for others will often motivate you to do more
• Lesson: Prepare yourself for the final push
• Lesson: Don’t forget your kids

The Road to Badwater Part IV

By Gregg Geerdes

THE RACE
Start to Furnace Creek (0 – 17): The start
When the race started I quickly fell into an easy pace of about 8:30-9:00 min/mile, a very comfortable running pace for me that I have trained myself to maintain for a long time. I watched as over half the field took off, the leaders going as fast as 7:30 min/mile.
I actually started to feel better as I ran. I was well hydrated, having plenty of water in my system to run comfortably for quite a while. I almost felt like I was going for easy run in Tucson, well maybe it was a little hotter than Tucson.

My crew went to work right away meeting me about every 5 – 10 minutes, all of them jumping out of the van seeing if I needed anything, just like a well trained assault team or possibly the keystone cops as they chased after me asking if I needed anything. Even though for this first section I didn’t feel I needed them as often I knew it was necessary for them to use this time to get the system down that they would be using for the next 135 miles.

Photo: Crew in Action

The system I had laid out for my crew to follow was pretty basic:

• I needed to drink at least two full hand bottles (20 oz each) of electrolyte fluid every hour. I was using Ultra a product made by Karl King, which is easy on my stomach. http://www.succeedcaps.com/

• One succeed tab (sodium and potassium) every 20 minutes. http://www.succeedcaps.com/
  
• Change my neck wrap (a gym sock full of ice) about every 30 minutes. I had tested this out in Tucson and found it to be amazing. You may laugh at the idea of a gym sock around your neck, but that was probably the best piece of advice I have for anyone running Badwater. The upside is the ice on your carotid arteries and the constant flow of water down your body. The downside is that I had problems with water flowing into my shoes.
  
• Change my North Face safari hat (pocket for ice) as needed. Although this wasn’t nearly as useful as the sock, sometimes just having ice on your head made you feel better. Interesting fact is that most of the time I couldn’t even feel the ice on my head until it ran out and my head heated up.
  
• Twin Lab Amino Fuel with water every two hours. I had used this as a post-exercise replenishment in training, but decided to use it during the race to minimize tissue breakdown. I try not to experiment during a race, this time though it worked.
  
• Finally, they needed to try to get me to periodically eat something, although with the heat I wasn’t quite sure what I would be hungry for.

In general for most of these 17 miles, I just enjoyed the amazing scenery of desert and mountains and tried to stay relaxed, there were many more miles to run that day.

• Lesson: Don’t get overly caught up in emotion in the beginning and burn out
• Lesson: Give your team space to operate
• Lesson: Ice around your neck is awesome, but even the most beneficial things can have a downside.
• Lesson: Know what works beforehand and try to save experimentation for training when you can

The Road to Badwater Part III

The morning of the race
We all turned in early and were out by about 10:00 p.m. I slept well until about 2:30 and then woke up hourly until 6:00 when we all started moving. We went to breakfast at the FC Inn. I didn’t have much of an appetite, but I forced down some bacon, eggs, fruit and coffee – I don’t have much of a pre-race eating ritual like some runners.

Everyone was a little quieter in the morning as we focused on the event ahead. My crew jumped into, as Dave would say ‘it’s all about Gregg’ mode. They loaded up the vehicles with my gear and labeled them with ‘Geerdes 29’ and motivational verses, while I got dressed and rested. My race didn’t start until 10:00 so I was trying to relax as much as possible, but even when lying down I couldn’t get my heart rate below 60.

At 8:45 Dave’s alarm went off and we drove to the start.

The heat at Badwater by 9:00 a.m. was already intense and I knew it would only get worse. I was truly having second thoughts about my ability to handle this heat and even my bronze goal was looking slim. Experts say that you can only effectively consume about 1 liter of water per hour. At Death Valley, during physical exercise you can easily sweat through double or triple that amount, i.e. you can’t keep up with your hydration demands.


While I was baking in the heat, drinking more water, and going through the motions of the 10:00 a.m. wave photos, all I could think of was the intense heat. How am I going to run in this heat? Then I heard Race Director Chris Kostman call for the 10:00 wave to line up. A young lady sang the national anthem and suddenly I began to feel my confidence come back to me and thought - let’s get this party started. The count down was given and ‘BANG’ the race was on.

• Lesson Learned: Prep your crew well, the more they know you and the situation the better they can prepare themselves and support you
• Lesson Learned: If you trained correctly your body will start acting independent of thought in preparation for the event
• Lesson Learned: Fear is a good thing, but don’t let it control you.

The Road to Badwater Part 2

This is Part 2 in this multi-part series featuring my friend Gregg Gerdes and his inspiring tale of running the 135 mile Badwater Ultra-Marathon

The Day Before the race

On Sunday, we drove to Furnace Creek, CA, stopping along the way in Pahrump, NV for Breakfast. I can’t say we were big fans of the city of Pahrump, although we did learn about the ‘Chicken Ranch’ and came to the conclusion that Pahrump appears to be the ‘XXX’ center of NV, that being said the Pahrump Café has a great skillet Breakfast and the waitress there was a lot of fun, she even prayed for me and my upcoming race. (Interesting fact: Pahrump was in the movie ‘Rainman’.)

Before we left the city of Pahrump we picked up a few more groceries and our last Starbucks Frappacino. (Note for would be travelers: If making the trek from LV, this is the closest Starbucks to Death Valley.)

Photo: The last Starbucks
We arrived in Furnace Creek and were welcomed by an intensely bright sun and exhausting Death Valley heat. I mean it was REALLY hot. We checked into the Furnace Creek Ranch and soon found out that the hotel ice machines were broken and so we would be paying $3.50 per bag of ice – how convenient. And believe me, we went through a lot of ice. The hotel was nice, has a good restaurant, general store, and even a golf course – Yes, a golf course in Death Valley. I didn’t get to play a round (this time), but I highly recommend the ranch if you ever find yourself in Death Valley.
I’m not sure what the temperatures were that day, but as I said it was REALLY hot. As we waited for the pre-race briefing we were all feeling the heat so it was nice when the doors finally opened for the pre-race brief. The pre-race brief is quite an ordeal as they acknowledge all the volunteers, the runners as well as lay out the race rules. As you look around the room you see all these people and their crews, (most crews were between 4-6 people) who are making this huge sacrifice to be there in Death Valley to challenge themselves, it is quite inspiring.

After the pre-race brief, we enjoyed a pre-race dinner at the FC Ranch. I announced that I believe everything happens for a reason and that each of my crew members were on my team for a reason and I was blessed to have each one of them with me, I also announced that I was making Dave Strauss my Crew Chief. You need to have one-voice if . . . when things go bad. Dave had already crewed me in the Viaduct Trail 100 miler last year and we had run the Oil Creek 100 miler together. He had the most experience on the crew on what a pain I can become during these events.


Photo: Pre-race briefing
MY CREW:
Janet Geerdes, my wife – Prayer warrior and my #1 Cheerleader
Gordon Geerdes, my brother – The Finisher
Calvin Baker, my uncle – Long mile man
Nanc Baker, my aunt – Prayer warrior and crew caretaker
Dave Strauss, friend – Crew Captain
Mike Densley, friend – Downhill Pacer

After dinner we all wanted to check out the infamous BADWATER. We all packed in the Van and drove the 17 miles to Badwater. Along the way we realized that we had no water in the Van with us. Now in any normal situation I wouldn’t care about not having water in my vehicle, but with as intense as the heat was I was hoping we didn’t have any vehicle issues. Badwater is an amazing location, it humbles you when you realize that if you were left here and had to make it back to any form of civilization, 17 miles away, you would surely die. For those who don’t know, Badwater is the lowest, hottest, driest place in the Western Hemisphere and the 2^nd hottest location in the world. Word has it that Charles Manson came there to find a doorway to Hell. Believe me, you need water.

We spent about one hour walking around the area, taking photos and taking in the beauty of the area. Death Valley is mind blowing, the question that came to my mind is why did God create such a desolate place, but yet make it so breathe-takingly beautiful.

By the time we left we were all feeling the intense heat and were drying out, (I even allowed Dave to run the air conditioner on the drive back). We returned to the hotel and everyone drank at least 2 bottles of water/Gatorade trying to recover from our 1 hour Badwater experience, and then we drank even more in preparation for tomorrows adventure.


Photo: Badwater Basin

That night I debriefed the team one more time on all my supplies, which I had set up in clear bins and then I gave them my ‘penciled-in’ race strategy, knowing that the heat could ruin all strategies. When I run 100-mile races I usually have 3 goals, bronze, sliver and gold. For this race my bronze goal was to just finish, and I figured I could do that in 36 hours. My silver goal was to finish in under 33 hours which would mean I would need to average better than 4 miles an hour, a little more challenging especially for a rookie. My Gold goal, which I admit I rarely tell anyone, was to finish in less than 30 hours and in the top 10, not very probable unless everything came together.

• Lesson Learned: There are diamonds hidden everywhere if you are willing to open your eyes to them, even in Pahrump
• Lesson Learned: Pick your crew wisely
• Lesson Learned: You need a strong crew captain. He won’t always be right, but you need a single voice when things go bad.
• Lesson Learned: Enjoy it
• Lesson Learned: Know your environment and stay hydrated
• Lesson Learned: You need to have a strategy and you need to share it with your team, once you get started you aren’t the only one making decisions

The Road to Badwater Part 1

Today I would like to share a journey with you, one that, if you are like me, you may find inspirational as well as full of surprising insight. 

Gregg Geerdes is a former member of Connections.  Along with his wife Janet, he is living in California preparing to go overseas in service to our country.  This is his story.....


The Road to Badwater
by Gregg Gerdes

I can’t give you a definitive answer as to when I started on this path. Was it when I first applied to the 2009 race while in Baghdad? Was it after I ran my first ultramarathon in 1997? Was it when I began running early in the morning while in grade school? Or maybe have I always been on this path and just now become aware of it? I don’t know. What I do know is, now that the race is over, Badwater was an amazing memorable section of road along a much longer road, a section of road through the desert that I will remember for as long as my memory serves me well. Here is my story.

Photo Left: Team ‘Geerdes 29’ at Badwater Basin – 282 ft below sea level

In 2009 I had received my orders to Taiwan. You might say that preparing to move to another country is enough to keep a family busy; between selling our home, learning Chinese, and saying our goodbyes to so many amazing friends, we didn’t have much time for additional pleasures, yet alone challenges of a lifetime. However, on February 18, I was accepted into the 2010 Badwater Ultra marathon, a 135-mile race through Death Valley, considered by many to be the world’s toughest foot race. How can you say ‘no’?

• Lesson Learned: You can do more than you think you can, but it will take sacrifice 
• Lesson Learned: You need good friends; they will help you through everything 
• Lesson Learned: Seek the Lord in all things

10 days out

 After moving out of our home on June 15th and then spending 3 weeks living in various hotels, a timeshare, and a friend’s home, on July 2nd we departed Northern Virginia for Tucson, AZ via Los Angeles. The State Department, my employer, wouldn’t fly us directly into Tucson so we would have to drive the 500 miles from LA back to Tucson. I had told my situation to Brandon, a good friend who also was my roommate in Baghdad. Brandon now works in L.A. He not only offered up his Ford F150, but also met us at LAX with keys in hand.

Photo: Final Algonquin Ct. BBQ

We packed up our 10 bags of clothes, my running gear and everything else we needed since our pack out, filling the truck bed and thus preceded to make our drive across the Mohave Desert. Along the way temps reached 110 degrees. To us Virginian’s it felt like an oven, but I would learn soon enough that it wouldn’t be the hottest temperatures I would experience.

We arrived in Tucson that night and spent the next week relaxing at Grandpa and Grandma’s while I bought supplies, went for easy training runs in the heat of the day, and generally tried to acclimatize to the 100+ temps. In my training back in Virginia I had acclimatized myself by wearing extra clothes on my runs and spending time in 195-degree saunas, however I knew I still needed a week under a hot sun.

On Thursday, July 8th, Janet and I left the kids with Grandpa, Grandma and Auntie Jean and drove to Las Vegas, stopping for one night in Laughlin, NV. Laughlin is a small casino town on the AZ-NV border. The hotel room only cost $30, and it was a comfortable room. Not much to do in Laughlin unless you like to gamble, although Janet and I found an awesome Sushi restaurant there, which we highly recommend.

The next day we finished our drive to Vegas. Our accommodations in LV were excellent. Back in February, Janet my accountant, logistics manager, and #1 cheerleader had traded-in our one-bedroom unit timeshare for a two-bedroom unit timeshare at the Desert Paradise Resort. It was excellent resort and would serve us well both before and after the race.

After arriving we picked up our rental car. I had wanted a full size van for the race, but the cost for one week was outrageous so we settled for a mini-van. Just before we picked up the mini-van Janet prayed that we would get a white mini-van, to protect us from the sun. Not only was the mini-van white, but also the license plate was 135-ABC (can’t remember the letters). It brought us a good laugh.

That night Janet and I went to dinner at Chipotle’s and met a recent friend of mind Keith, who just happened to be in LV that weekend. Keith had crewed at Badwater 3 times and had given me his personal insight into the race. Keith through his connections had also gotten my team Injinji Safari Hats, which were perfect for the race.

On Saturday the crew began to arrive. Mike Densley flew in from Virginia; Cal and Nanc drove in from Tucson; Dave Strauss had the most trouble as his flight from Virginia kept on getting delayed. This however turned out to be a blessing, since our wonderful white ‘135’ mini-van was having mechanical problems. When Janet and Nanc picked up Dave at the airport they brought the vehicle back to Budget, who didn’t have another mini-van in stock so they gave us a 15-passanger van and added Dave as a driver at no cost - Totally awesome. (Note: My final Team member Gord wouldn’t meet us until Sunday in Furnace Creek) 

• Lesson: You need to ask for help 
• Lesson: Train specific for your event  
• Lesson: Seek advice from people who have experience 
• Lesson: Plan early and if you don’t have that skill, find somebody who does to assist you 
• Lesson: Pray for everything and then leave it up to God, he usually has a better solution

Coming up: The Day Before the Race