Day 3,926-7 —the Shippey 100 2025: Needed Ice Skates—the Complete Edition with the Video and Pictures—

 

Before the Race

That morning I was up at 3:30 putting the final stuff together and heating the soup to bring. My daughter, son, and wife all got up too, and we were all standing around the kitchen together at 4:45 a.m. when my dad got there to take me in his FJ.

It is a quick 20-minute drive from my house to the Scout Ranch and there were not many people present a little before 5:30, so I went to the bathroom while I had a chance. I am not sure if I was getting sick, but I had been having to use the restroom frequently for the past couple of days. I didn’t want to think about too much because of what I could do, but the morning of the race I sat down in the bathroom at least 4 times. 

My dad and I got my drop bags and other supplies placed in the two aid station areas and joked about how crazy it is that these two aid stations are so close together, but that’s only if you take the road.

I saw the race director, his wife, and their young kids when I was in the Start/Finish area and the kids told me that they always get up around 5:30 to get ready for school, so today was no big deal for them. I saw Eric, but nobody else I recognized yet. I knew Chris was going to be there. The guy who won it two years ago, but I hadn’t noticed him yet.

10 minutes before the start, they called us to the starting line to have the pre-race meeting. The race director, Jake Grossbauer, went over some changes from the previous race and chided us for choosing to run a winter ultra. I saw Jeremiah from previous races at the start and talked to him about the 200-mile race I signed up for. It is always good to see familiar faces on the starting line at races. 

The First Lap 0-20.3

Time of day 6 a.m.

I started fine, running with the leaders, talking to Chris a little, who told me he was carrying everything he needed in his 15-pound rucksack. Next, I talked to this guy who was wearing a Davy Crockett hat and jean shorts. He seemed soft-spoken when I talked to him, and even though I mentioned that I liked the hat, he didn’t seem to respond. He wasn’t doing the 100 mile but the 100k, but still that is many hours running in jean shorts.

When I made it to the first aid station, I already slowed down some and went to the bathroom and had some potato soup that my wife made. It was so icy, but I was still feeling that 100-mile energy and figured I needed to slow down and be careful. By the second half of the first lap, I was slipping and sliding all over the trail. I quickly noticed how many other runners were using poles and/or Yaktraxs, but I didn’t bring either. When I made it to the next aid station, and they asked if I needed anything, I told them ice skates, or maybe cleats would be helpful, but I just got some disconcerted looks.

I dropped two of my gloves when I was trying to take a video of the sunrise. I figured I would find them the next time through, but I was gloveless for a while, and I kept falling and sliding, so I had to slow down more and waive other people ahead of me. There were a couple of sections where I just gave up and crawled on my hands and knees, and some others where I sled down the ice on my butt instead of attempting to run.

When I made it back to the Start/ Finish, my watch said I was at almost 17 miles, which I knew couldn’t be right, but that’s because I still had another leg to complete for the first lap. I found out later that this run was a little off with a 20.3 miles per lap, so my watch ended up being off by some, but not that much considering the 1.5-mile add and when I went the wrong way, so my watch might have been 2 miles off in total.

By the end of the first lap, all the guys going faster were ahead of me. I saw Eric at the aid station, and he was debating dropping because of the danger on the ice, and I concurred with him after falling several times, and now going slow enough to be careful.

Lap:                     1

Miles:                   20.3

Time of Day:         10:32

Course Time:        4:32:07

Pace:                   13:25 min/mi

The Second Lap 20.3-40.6

Time of day 10:32 a.m.

I ran until I got a signal on my phone, a little after 11 a.m., and texted my dad and Joel, my pacer, “need poles.”

My dad I knew had two sets of poles, and I figured Joel would have something he could bring to use for himself. This was a major departure for me because I never run in poles, but I felt like I had no choice. I wasn’t sure when my dad would be back with them, but I had done my part. If I didn’t have anyone to ask, what would I do? Would I need to leave and go buy poles and Yaktraxs and come back? During the first leg of the next lap, I went the wrong way and ran down a steep icy hill only to realize, “This doesn’t look right,” I saw Brian the guy I ran most of the Shippey with last year pass me as I walked slowly back to the route.

At the end of the leg at the aid station, I saw a set of poles from myself from my dad. He also brought some for Joel and put them at the Start/Finish aid station. Joel told me later that he was trying to cut down sticks to make poles before he contacted my dad and told him he needed some.

I was getting annoyed with the two creek crossings that were impossible to pass without getting your feet soaked. I tried so many ways to jump around, but my shoes just kept getting wet. I complained about it only because the aid workers were asking me if I required anything else, and I think someone might have thrown some logs in one of the crossings that I was able to use for the rest of the run. The major crossing still had nothing to help, so I started throwing branches to create spots one could jump to.

Even though I was finishing a marathon and a 50K in this lap, it didn’t feel like much of an accomplishment when my focus was only on not falling, and I did fall and hit my elbow hard on some ice.

I didn’t look at it until I was back at the aid station, where my dad was. I pulled down my sleeve to see a wound as big as a silver dollar, and it was bleeding. I was hoping it wouldn’t be bleeding. I asked him to put a Band-Aid on it after cleaning it out.

         “You’re not supposed to clean wounds with alcohol anymore. You’re supposed to use only soap and water,” he informed me of this as he used a wet washcloth to dig into my wound.

         “You should have brought bigger Band-Aids to use for this.” I responded and said I had brought that little first aid kit everywhere, but this was the first time I had used it.

         “You should bring bigger Band-Aids.”

I asked him to put Neosporin on the wound, but he didn’t seem interested. I brought some that numbs the pain from the wounds as well as helps your skin recover. Part of me is mad I didn’t put the ointment on myself, but I am pretty impressionable when running.

Before, I left, my dad made sure I understood I needed to put my hands through the hand straps on the poles, which I did for almost the whole leg back to the Start/ Finish.

However, it wasn’t easy using the poles the entire time, which I had to do because my hands were through the straps. I was wearing my arms out trying to keep up with my feet, and I was moving substantially slower.

Another runner passed me who was carrying their poles in one hand as they ran, and I immediately started doing the same, and I was finally able to start moving like normal again.

Lap:                     2

Miles:                   40.6

Time of Day:         4:35 p.m.

Course Time:        10:35:36

Lap Time: 6:03:29

Pace:                    15:40 min/mi

The Third Lap 40.6-60.9

Time of day 4:35 p.m.

I had been carrying my headlamp since the start of the race. I could have left it at any of the aid areas, but I just kept forgetting to take it out of my vest. It is always so stressful at the aid stations to remember all the things I wanted to do and by the time I look down, I notice that it has already been 10 minutes.

I lost a lot of time at the aid stations. I know this because I changed the type of run to “ultra run” on my watch after talking to some guys after the R3 run, and they said that it would still be listed as a “run” in my official stats, which was the only hesitation for using it in a race, and I like the feature that it keeps track of when it shows that I am resting.

However, it was super discouraging when it would just stop and say “rest” when I was walking up a particularly steep and slippery hill. This was the last lap I would have to do without my pacer! So I was excited that Joel would be there by the end of this lap, but still, it is always hard to hit 50 miles and realize that you still are only halfway there.

I looked at my watch at 50, and it showed I was a little over 13 hours, so part of me was like maybe I can get there in 26 or 27 hours, which isn’t great or even close to my PR on the course. I knew this was discouraging, so I stopped thinking about the math, knowing that it was only making me realize more and more how difficult this run was going to be.

I started running some with these two guys Pat and Hank were their names I think, but Hank’s name might be Tom; it is always tough to remember names while you’re running and thinking about so many other things. Pat I had met before in the 6-hour run I did over the summer. He told me he tried to do a running streak after our conversation over the summer, but it only lasted 10 days. He seemed a little disappointed in himself, but I felt encouraged that a conversation I didn’t fully remember had such an impact on him. I bet most people don’t get to that many days their first attempt.  

He was struggling some, as was the other guy, but they were trucking along and excited to be running their last lap. One of the guys dropped back, and the other one ran ahead of me, and I ended up doing most of the lap by myself.

A little before 8 p.m. I looked at my phone and Sarah had sent me some videos of her and the kids. My daughter had asked me so many times to make videos and send them to her, so I watched their videos first, and then I created a few of my own, which wasn’t easy because it was getting so cold, and I had to take my phone out of my pocket and remove my glove to start recording. I recorded for a few minutes before I realized that nothing had been recorded, so I had to start over. At the same time, my tights kept getting pulled down as I was running, so I was reaching to pull them back up and when I did that the safety pin on the bib came loose, so I had to bend down to reattach the safety pin.

      

Imagine having to stop in the ice and cold and take your gloves off repeatedly to get the safety pin back in your clothes, only to have to do it again after my tights kept getting pulled down. I tried to get my running pants up higher past my bellybutton, but I had tied a knot earlier in the race that wouldn’t come undone easily, so I couldn’t think of anything to do when I was running, but figured I would take care of it at the next aid station, but then I kept forgetting.

As I was finishing the last leg of the loop and went down this particularly steep part that had a rope you could use. I saw the previous race director from the Shawnee Hill taking pictures. She recognized me and said hi, but it was crazy to see someone familiar at this point. When I went into the aid station area, I saw one of the other guys from the Shawnee Hill working the aid station. It was good to see him and be around so much positive energy. I mentioned how I thought that the Shippey was the Shawnee Hill for the Winter.  

Lap:                      3

Miles:                   60.9

Time of Day:         10:39 p.m.

Course Time:        16:40:08

Lap Time:             6:04:32

Pace:                    16:26 min/mi

The fourth Lap 60.9-81.2

Time of day 10:39 p.m.

I saw Chris finish in first place at 22 hours something. He was sitting in the aid station in a great mood, so I kind of figured, but I asked him and congratulated him. It is weird. It is not like other sports I have done. I really do want everyone to do great. I wish I had placed higher in the end, but you got to do your race and that’s what I did. And, I will talk about it more later, but I know a lot of the guys who beat me, and they deserved it. I have had some fantastic days, and I am too old to wonder why or blame myself when things don’t go my way.

It was this moment too when I decided to tell everyone that I was vegan. It is not like I am keeping it a secret, but when people first ask me if I want stuff like bacon. I just "no" or "no, thank you." Also, I had a full cooler of soup my wife made and plenty of snacks, so I was full, but at this moment, I was like “No, I don’t eat bacon.”

It is weird because sometimes I get one guy who will be like, “you don’t eat bacon?” And he says it like I told him that gravity doesn’t apply to me, or that I prefer to use my mouth to pick up trash on the ground.

This group didn’t have anything to say. They just seemed to maybe feel bad they had been offering me all these meat and cheese options, but I don’t want anyone to feel bad. I appreciate them being there and helping with water and genuinely providing me with encouragement every time I see them.

Everyone was looking for Joel when I got there, and it didn’t take him too long to be ready to run.

We started out mostly walking, and I didn’t realize how slow until I asked him what place I was in. He said I was in 7th out of 9th, which seemed crazy to me, so I had seen only two other 100-mile runners on the course, but that’s okay. 

There were two guys about an hour ahead of me and the two behind me were a while behind me. One was an older guy moving pretty slow and there was one female runner in the race. Joel did a great job as a pacer for the first couple of legs of the fourth lap. He asked me to retell him stories he already knew, and we talked about TV shows and different stuff going on with our kids. He has three between 1 and a half and 4, so he can always relate to the stuff I have been going through with my two.

I wasn’t sure how he was going to run 40 miles through the night on so little sleep, but it wasn’t that long ago when he did his last ultra.

I was telling him about some of the more dangerous sections, and he didn’t believe me until we got there. I kept telling him that I don’t exaggerate. I was like if I said it was this, then it was. I am not someone who tells everyone it was -20 degrees if it was actually zero degrees, which did come up when talking to Eric about the run last year. He told me that he had run in a -20 winter ultra, so last year’s -10 wasn’t so bad. I was like at the top of that hill in the clearing with the wind was at least -20 if not colder.

When we went back to the aid area, I ate a veggie burger that I would later regret. I was excited when I saw it was an option, and I got it with ketchup and mustard, it went down easily, and I found that I was still hungry. I shoved some cookies in my mouth as well as a bite of my vegan KitKat. I finished a lot of my soup, but it wasn’t warm anymore.

As I was sitting around eating my veggie burger another runner Jeremiah offered to let me use his Yaktraxs, so I, of course, said yes. He was done, and I wasn’t sure how I would get them back to him, but we were both going to be at the 200-mile race, so at the very latest, I would be able to give him the Yaktraxs then.

They were a little small for my clown-size feet, but eventually, I was able to get them on pretty sung, and it was nice that Joel was there because he helped put them back on 3 different times when one of them came off.

I was telling him about the creak crossings and how you had no choice but to get your feet wet. He didn’t believe me until we got there. The first one he made it, but he didn’t walk over the tiny logs like I did. He thought I was crazy jumping and walking on these logs about as thick as my arm, but it had been working so far and the last two times I didn’t get wet at all.

The next one was bigger, and I had thrown more stuff in the middle to build that bridge, but Joel decided to go a different way and jump to this area that looked like it had a spot you could easily climb up.

I almost shouted and told him not to try, but I didn’t want to be a jerk. Who knows maybe he will figure it out, and I will end up following his lead when we go back the same way.

The next thing I heard was Joel yelling in pain and a splash, as he hit his knees on the ice-covered bank, and then slid down and went into the water.

I laughed a little with Joel about his decision to go against the conventions and try something different, but after a mile, we weren’t laughing anymore because he told me his knees were starting to swell and that he wouldn’t be able to continue after we made it back into the next aid station.

I still thought it was funny just a tiny amount how I had been out here all day and hadn’t done anything like that yet, and it didn’t take him more than 13 miles to have to call it quit.

Still, I am glad he came out: it was a good time. I told him not to worry and that I would be fine, and honestly I was starting to feel better than I had before, and all I could think about was almost one lap left! As I ran the last two legs of the 4th lap by myself. I was blaring music, too, so I could sing along as my feet continued to crunch every time, they hit the ground.

Lap:                     4

Miles:                   81.2

Time of Day:         5:45 a.m.

Course Time:        23:45:31

Lap Time:             7:05:31

Pace:                    17:34 min/mi

The fifth Lap 81.2-101.75 (actual distance: 103 + wrong turn and leaving the poles).

Time of day: 5:45 am.

When I started the last lap it was still dark, but I knew the sun was going to come out soon, which was nice to think about. I couldn’t wait to see another sunrise and bask in the warmth of the sun. And true, the sunrise was spectacular, but the warmth never came.

I was finally feeling good and moving fast as I started the last lap! I did find out that the veggie burgers at the other aid station had egg whites in them, which was annoying because I thought it might be possible, but I didn’t know for sure, then someone who was trying to be nice looked at the box and confirmed my suspicion. I told them that I had also eaten some mashed potatoes that had milk powder in them at a previous race, and I emphasized that I just didn’t ask because I didn’t want to know. So now, I have eaten at least 2 if not 3 things that were not vegan during an ultra-run. I wish I could say they were a total accident, but when I saw the veggie burgers at the other aid station, part of me knew that some veggie burgers use egg whites, and I just didn’t ask.

At the same time, whenever I became vegan, I decided I would not give myself a hard time about stuff like this. I knew there were going to be times when mistakes would happen, and when I am in that 60 + zone in an ultra, I am not thinking super clearly, so I can forgive myself for making some mistakes I wouldn’t make in normal circumstances, or maybe I can’t? No, I am good. This ended up being my 3rd fastest lap and a full hour and a half faster than my previous lap. I would like to say it was all me, but the Yaktraxs helped out a lot. Now, I could actually run, which was such a huge difference compared to what I was able to do before. 

I kept thinking that other 100-mile runners were about to pass me. I could have asked someone, but I knew I wasn’t doing well and only 1 or 2 people were behind. Brian and Connor were the closest to me, and while I could see that I was catching up to Brian some. It didn’t bother me to see either of those guys beat me. Brian, I had done the race with in 2024 when I DNFed, and he was a nice guy, and I was rooting for him to do well. I could tell he felt bad I wasn’t moving as fast, but that’s the nature of these things. Connor had won it the year before, and he is another good guy who is a dad who I talked to last year. I don’t know if I know everyone else who was ahead of me. Chris won the thing in an insane 22-hour time as I was finishing my 4th lap.

I felt good that I was going to finish this thing. I knew I was going to finish and not get injured, which was the goal, and as I closed in on mile 90, it just seemed more and more inevitable. I still hadn’t seen my dad all evening. He thought Joel was going to be with me, but Joel had to go home, I still had plenty of people around me willing to lend a hand. However, at this point, I was barely stopping at the aid stations, and I didn’t need that much water anymore.

When I reached the Start/Finish for the second to last time, I was giddy with excitement. I went up one of the steepest hills in the race with a smile on my face, screaming goodbye. There were still tons of other runners on the course who kept passing me, but they were the relay people, who mostly frustrated me, I am glad they were there to remind me to keep moving. This one guy was moving especially quickly but didn’t know where he was going, so it did feel odd he stopped me at one of the sections, shouting at me if he was going the right way. I was nice to him, but I was also thinking --yeah, I am a little slow right now. I have been up all night, running for 26 hours, so it took me a second to process what you were asking. Eventually, I responded with, “Sure, that’s right, we double back on this leg. You’re going the right way!”

As I ran the last 3.5 miles of the course, all I could think about was that little tent where they had a chip reader. I knew it was about .25 miles from the finish, so I kept on looking for it, and eventually there it was!!! The little red tent! I am so glad to see you! Now, I was moving as fast as I could to the rocks that you need a rope to get down: I was almost there.

I climbed to the bottom, going face forward, this time holding the rope. I saw the railing with the lights, and I kept moving. There was the finish! I saw my dad holding his phone waiving me and the race director, Jake.

I put my hands up and shouted as I crossed the finish line. I knew I didn’t have a great time or place well, but I finished, and I ran the best race that I could have that day.

Lap:                     5

Miles:                   101.75

Time of Day:         11:14 a.m.

Course Time:        29:14:46

Lap Time:             5:29:15

Pace:                    16:10 min/mi

Later that night, I found myself running another mile. I didn’t need to because I had already run both days technically, but I wanted to. I was still feeling good after I took a nap. As I turned for home, the thought crossed my mind that I could keep going if I needed to. 

I was thinking about the 200 Potawatomi coming up, and I was feeling more than prepared: I was excited. I am coming for you Potawatomi 200! You and me on April 10th—it is on!