Old Man Still running

This was my third year running Slat Flats 100.  This year, three elite runners who signed up didn't start.  I wondered it the door would be open for mear motals.  I took the lead from start across the Bonneville Speedway on the Salt Flats.  My first miles were 7:44, 7:58, 8:12, 8:13, and then I slowed from there.  About mile seven I started to be passed.  By mile 20, eight runners were ahead of me.  But at mile 23 is a three-mile hill that rises about 1,000 feet.  I charged up the hill, passing all eight runners and was the first to the top at the aid station there.   I kicked in gear down the other side, clocking 8:15, 8:26, and 9:01, stretching my lead to about a mile by the time I reached the next aid station at mile 31.5.  The people including friends cheered, but they looked shocked to see me leading. I aarrived so soon that the aid station had not been totally set up yet.  After the next big climb my lead was about two miles.  I was very pleased with my hill strength.  I started to wonder if I could indeed win this race.   But reality set in on the next section, a nasty 10-miles of mud flats where your feet sink in a little.  I just can't run it fast, so a few runners caught up and passed me.  I hoped that during the night I could again run all the hills and catch up.  But it started raining and by 10 p.m. it pretty much poured all night into the morning, non-stop.  I was foolish and brought the wrong clothes.  I thought I had a good rain coat, and put it on at mile 80 but learned that it wasn't water proof.  The next 10-mile section was brutal and I froze in the cold 40 degree rain.  When I finally reached the 90-mile aid station, I had no choice but the plead to be allowed to warm up in a car.  They were very nice and it took about an hour for me to stop shivering and dry out most of my clothes.  I never lost my placing, because I had at least an hour lead on the next runners.  When they arrived, I took off with new energy and stretched a two-mile lead by the time I reached the 95-mile aid station.  But again, I was soaked to the core and had to again sit in a car for 30 minutes.  I asked if they had a poncho and they did have one of those cheap emergency ones.  But it did the trick.  The last 5 miles were brutal, pouring rain and at times 40 mph wind blowing from the salt flats now covered in water, looking like a lake.  I finished in 5th place out of 54 starters.  I looks like about 30 runners DNFed and there was at least a couple serious incidents, a possible air lift and a lost runner during the storm.  So, pretty brutal.   The 50-mile race the next morning could not be run on the course now buried in water and totally muddy elsewhere.  So they just run out-and-back on pavement in the storm.

This was my 61st 100-mile finish and coldest I have been in one.