The fifth running of Javelina Jundred at McDowell Mountain Regional Park this past October had a special place in my heart this year. For me and my good Colorado running friend Vince Gerber, it was to be our fifth finish. This year was particularly sweet in that everyone who knew us was supportive of getting in five finishes with a super fine 5-year finisher award: a great fleece jacket, with “Javelina 5-Time Finisher” embroided with our names on each jacket. The aid station captain for the turnaround area was Mike Melton, whom I ran with at Across The Years earlier in the year. As Vince and I decided informally to hang with each other during the race, like we did last year, Mike would greet us at each time in with “The Drive for Five is Alive!”. I guess it’s time for some history folks.
I guess I have Vince to blame to signing up for this run back when Geri Kilgariff introduced it to the Internet Ultrarunning Community ™ five years ago. Vince pushed me off the fence when he said he was going to go sign up, plus the initial $75 entry fee was incentive enough as well. Vince, Ron Wright, Jim Butera and myself all signed up for the fun and drove down to what was advertised as “A Party 100”, “Goof off 100”, “Easy 100”. Well, the first two might have been on the mark, but the third one was certainly a misnomer. Looking at the course profile and descriptions that preceded the event, it did seem like an “easy” 100. In fact, I talked some other runners in Colorado into doing the run for their first 100 mile attempt, Karen Pate and Stephanie Willingham. Sounded easy, so it must be. As we all soon found out, it was anything but an easy 100 mile course. Of the seven runners from Colorado I talked into entering that first running of 6.5 loops on the Pemberton Trail, only Vince, Matt Watts and I survived. This didn’t include Matt Watts, who signed up on his own and ended up doing very well in 22 hours and change.
This year, a special treat for me was a reunion, of sorts, with a couple of guys who got me into ultrarunning back in the early 90’s: Dave Giger and Chris Donahue. This was during my days in the Air Force stationed at Scott AFB in Illinois, just the other side of St Louis. Both Dave and Chris signed up for this years’ event, so I was pretty excited to see them again. Dave, Chris and I were the founding fathers, as it were, of an ultrarunning group in Illinois called the “Beach Fisher Ultrarunning Society”, to promote this new and weird concept of running beyond a marathon in the St Louis area. At that time, there weren’t any ultras in the area. Although the club died out a few years later due to membership attrition, it became the precursor to the current St Louis Ultrarunning Group (SLUGs) which has 100+ members strong. Dave still lives in Illinois, and Chris ended up moving to Tucson. I guess our vision of promoting ultrarunning worked, as Dave, Chris, and myself have been involved with ultra running over the years. Dave was joined by his brother Keith for the run.
When Geri first introduced the notion to the Ultralist, I e-mailed her to tell her it was on the same weekend as the full moon. As Geri was co-RD at Zane Grey a few years earlier in which race participants were encouraged to moon all the aid station volunteers, I asked her if there was going to be a mooning contest. She said “absolutely!” I guess my claim to fame was born with that e-mail, because the next four years I brought home the coveted “Best Ass Award”. Some will say it’s no contest for me, since I’m a pretty big horse’s ass, but my mooning was won by my packaging: I made up a little song and pretty much called the RD’s a horse’s ass or asshole while showing them mine. What makes this race such a challenge is dealing with heat and keeping it under control and not controlling you. I guess I got that part figured out to finish 5 times. The rocks also kick you pretty hard, especially in the later loops. And the sand. Yeah, the sand really sucks too. But the cacti were cool and so is the support. Best ever anywhere, and lots of food, ice, and whatever else you needed. In the five years I’ve been there, the aid just keeps getting better and better each year. This is a race you can’t blame the aid stations on for a DNF, cause they were run by ultrarunners and did everything in their power to get you finished.
So what about my race this year? As I mentioned earlier, Vince and myself ended up running together, although at times one would be ahead of the other but we pretty much stayed together for the duration. We both finished in 28:18, my slowest time yet there, but all I wanted was a finish and I was going to stick it out no matter what. As usual, I camped out at the starting area. The prerace dinner (a first for this race) was good, but unfortunately, I was already full of pizza and beer from an hour earlier thanks to Dave and Keith’s hospitality. So we ended up sitting at a table near other Colorado runners Nattu and Terri Spencer.
Chris wouldn’t show up until after midnight. I awoke and found Dave and Keith there, and eventually Chris. We had some nice pre-race banter, catching up with our lives since our last meeting. Soon, I was all ready to rock and roll and prepare for the day’s event and heat fest.
Soon we off into the morning darkness for the start, and I found myself with Vince and others as we all bantered about this and that. The first loop was uneventful, did it in 2:49:38. Vince thought we were going a bit fast, and I was hoping for 3 hours. I knew we would slow down in the heat later. Got to my car, changed clothes, refilled my bottles and pack, and headed out with Vince for loop 2. As I was heading to the turnaround aid station, Mike Melton was dressed in some costume. The only ones I remember he wore was as General Patton and in a tux. For now, I settled into my powerwalk mode and walked the uphills in a decent pace. Vince was having to run some to keep up. By the time we got to Coyote Camp aid, just 5 miles from the end of loop 2, it was already hot. Got back to the timing mat at the turnaround in 6:20:05, with a lap time of 3:30:27. Once again, I went to my car to take care of things. I had come in ahead of Vince as I was going to have to spend a few extra minutes getting ready for the heat: ice in my ice hat and ice in my bandana. I saw Vince leave for loop 3 and I said I’ll catch up.
Finally I headed out for loop 3, and it was mostly a walk. After 20 minutes, the ice in my hat was gone, and my bandana was just wet now. I met up with Chris as he was making his way down to the turnaround. He was looking great. My bandana would be bone dry by the time I got to Coyote Camp aid. When I got there, I sat down, downed I don’t recall how many cold drinks, ate a few sandwiches, but mainly sat in the shade to regroup. I was there about 15 minutes, well spent. As I got up, I was actually feeling better, and ran some of the downhills. Once on the other end of the loop, it’s pretty much a downhill run to the turnaround. I still haven’t seen Vince, but that was okay. I got to Jackass Junction aid station and refilled with ice in my hat and bandana, ate some food, and took off. I met up with (or she met me) Donna Daus, Theresa Daus’s sister. She was looking really great and strong. I passed her, she’d pass me. She ended up passing me about 1.2 miles from the end of loop 3. I got into the turnaround area with a time of 10:29:23, or loop time of 4:09:18, for total of 45.9 miles.
Regrouped at my car, and as I was heading back out for my counter-clockwise direction for loop 4, I heard Vince shout out “I’ll join you!”. So once again, Vince and I were together, and it would be for the rest of the race. As we were making our way up to Jackass aid, it was just getting dusk. As Vince and I were taking care of our sorry asses, Dave and Keith came in from the other direction and announced to me that this was going to be it for them. I was bummed, cause I knew Dave really wanted a finish here. I said see you at the finish line around 28 hours. Vince and I pulled out of there, and not long after, also our flashlights. I was in walking mode, and Vince decided to go on ahead a bit. I would end up catching him at Coyote aid station 3 miles distant.
Caught up with Vince, and we continued on to the turnaround for the finish of loop 4, with a time of 15:14:05, 61.2 miles (100K). I went through the timing mat and off to my car for a regroup, yet again. I met up with Vince again and we headed out. We saw Chris coming down off the rocky section and he said he was through with his 100K. I said see you later in the morning.
Not much to say about loop 5 and loop 6, except we were getting more and more tired. We did loop 5 in 4:53, or 20 hours total time for 76.5 miles. Loop 6 took us 5:10 to do for 91.8 miles.
The last half loop sent us back out in the same direction we started over 25 hours ago, except this time we get to head down a shortcut trail called Tonto Tank Trail from Coyote Camp. We had about 4:30 left to go, about 8 miles left. As we were in the sandy draw, Vince said we were going to have to run down the Tonto Tank Trail to make it in time. I guess my mind wasn’t totally gone yet, and I said we’ll get to Coyote Camp in 2 hours or less, leaving us 2.5 hours left for down. I said we have plenty of time. It was a slow but steady walk up the hill and though the ever-increasing distance of rocks. Soon, we saw the aid station and refueled for a few minutes before heading down. As we were shuffling down the trail, Vince said “let’s walk this. We have time.” No arguments from me. It was starting to get hot again and I was just wanting it to be over with now. The 3 miles down seemed like eternity, but we finally hit the bottom, made a left turn on the trail that would take us through the sandy draw to the finish, 1 mile distant.
We rolled into the parking area and across the finish line in 28:18:28. I sat down in the pavilion and was totally spent and tired. Dave and Chris showed up and offered their congrats, and offered to take down my tent and roll up my sleeping pad. I was SO greatful for that, as I was in no mood to do it. My good friend Robert Andrullis offered me a beer, but managed to drink only half of it. After sitting there for some time, Vince said I could use their shower at the hotel before heading to the airport. I took him up on it.
What a class act all around. The race next year will be under new direction from Jamil Coury who lives in the Phoenix area. I expect the race will continue to flourish under his direction. As Arnold says, “I’ll be back!”, for more fun in the sun.
All photos except third taken by Will LaFollette and are used with his permission.
