Day 4,346-7—From Chaos to the Podium: My First 100-Miler in Alabama—

 

Thunder Kiss 100 Part I: Before the Race

       I left 30 minutes later than I had planned for Travis’s house because he offered to drive. I was just starting to feel good about the trip when I realized I forgot my poles!!! How on earth, with everything I remembered, did I forget my poles? I turned around and headed back home. Once we were both together and on the road driving to Alabama, I began to relax a bit. The first four hours of the drive went by quickly, but then Travis suddenly felt exhausted, and I had to take over driving. I didn’t mind driving. It was a nice break, and his car was easy to drive, but when we got closer to Sterrett, Alabama, we suddenly hit standstill traffic, and I missed a turn. We decided to go to the campground before packet pickup. We camped in Oak Mountain State Park because it was the closest to the race.

       When we got to the park entrance, we had to drive 5 miles to the campground. The park was gorgeous and had every type of outdoor activity. We set up quickly and left for the packet pickup. It was outdoors, and even though there weren’t any signs, it was easy to find. On the way back to our tents, the sun was setting, and I took a picture of the sky reflected in a lake in the park. I made sure to stretch before I went to sleep. The race didn’t start until 7 a.m., so getting up on time was easy. I had eaten so much food the day before the race. I had most of a sandwich from Vegan Deli, almost an entire bag of Impossible Nuggets, and a meal from Chipotle, and that’s not including snacks.

       We were stressed about getting there on time because we had to leave via an alternative route, as the entrance closer to the start of the race was closed. We got there with over an hour before the race, so we were able to find a good parking spot and set up an area to put our stuff. I was surprised to see almost no other runners doing this, which was a good thing because there was almost no room. I found out that the race's name comes from a song, and that all the park's spots do too. You would see a sign that said, “Don’t Stop Believin’” and other classic tunes. It looked like there were between 50 and 70 people there. The race director said that this was the largest gathering ever at Double Oak Park. I didn’t realize how new the park was, but during the race, I talked with a local about the history. The other race director said it was a 20- or 21-mile loop, which scared me. Travis had said the GPS file was 20.6, so I was getting used to the idea that we would finish at 103 miles, but thinking about finishing at 105 miles deeply upset me. It might not seem like a huge difference, but think about how long this race already takes. Travis had said he was planning for a 30-31 hour finish time, which would mean we wouldn’t be getting back home until midday Monday at the earliest.  

Thunder Kiss Part II

Start Time: 7 a.m.

Date: 3/14/26

Number of Runners: 50-70

Temperature: 40s-50s

 

      A dozen runners stood in front of us at the start. Because the race's name came from a song, they played music to start the race. The loop measured about 20 or 21 miles, which worried me, but I pushed it aside and talked with Travis about whether to use poles. The course had less than 3,000 feet of elevation, but Travis was concerned about hills and technical sections. I was eager to see how many miles each lap would be.

       We started fast but conservatively. I stayed with Travis as 20-mile and 100K runners swapped places, but the group spread out after the first aid station. The section wasn’t tough. The next stretch to the soccer field was the easiest—soft ground, pine needles, and a stream. At the top, I saw rows of houses far below.

       At one point, there was no bridge; I crossed two logs, while others found alternatives. I spoke briefly with a local about other ultras in the area, but realized a point-to-point in November wouldn’t work for me. Annoyed by the out-and-back at first, it became my favorite section despite the uphill on the return. At the earlier aid station, I refilled water, knowing this was the longest segment.

       I hadn’t reached 13 miles on my watch, so the lap exceeding 20 seemed odd. The section was 6.75 miles, totaling a 19.55-mile first lap. I felt relief, suspecting GPS inaccuracies due to steep, rolling hills, making the section exhausting. I passed Travis, focused on finishing, but tough, rocky, and narrow parts slowed me. Travis updated me on elevation, and we expected fewer miles but more climbing.

       Running, I compared this course to the Shippey: both have 20-mile loops and elevation, but Shippey is steeper, with big hills and no switchbacks. Thunder Kiss had endless small climbs, switchbacks, tricky rocks, and roots. The rain left some mud and puddles. The loop wasn’t bad—I stayed hydrated but ate little. I was glad not to run 105 miles, though ending with around 98 was annoying.

Lap 1

Time: 4:04:20

Time of Day: 11:04 a.m.

Miles: official 20 miles (unofficial 19.55)

Average Pace: 12 minutes and 13 seconds a mile

Thunder Kiss Part III

Time of Day: 11:04 a.m.

Miles 20-40

Temperature: 60s-80

       For the second lap, Travis started before I did. I remember he drank some Coke and grabbed his poles while I was still trying to prepare, drinking more water and mixing my Right Stuff hydration. They had bottles of water at the start/finish, so I grabbed one, mixed it with two packets of gel, and drank it quickly. Although you’re not supposed to drink it at that concentration, I planned to follow it with more water quickly, as I was worried about hydration with the day warming up. It was already getting into the 60s, and I hadn’t stopped losing water since the beginning. Even though Travis started only a minute ahead of me, I couldn’t catch him in that first section. He was now moving faster than I felt comfortable with, so I decided to focus on finding my own rhythm for the lap rather than catching up.

       When I made it to the first aid station, hitting almost 25 miles, I saw Travis with the runner we had met earlier. They both seemed in good spirits, and they went on ahead as I filled up my bottles. I tried to eat a little more and had some orange slices and the corners of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. I usually avoid unknown bread and peanut butter, but there hadn’t been a lot I could eat at the aid stations except fruit, chips, and those sandwiches. I was already not hungry and knew it would only keep getting worse. I decided I would need to snack on something when I got to the next aid station, where my drop bag was. I caught up to Travis again just past the waterfall, which was gorgeous. I looked at it and debated taking another picture. I knew I already had one video of it, but now I wish I had slowed down and taken a more thoughtful picture. I was in a hurry to catch up to Travis. We were going at the same pace again, and we talked as we reached the soccer field aid station. Once there, I sat for a minute as I snacked on different treats from my bags. I was already getting sick of sweet food, so I tried a few chips.

       We hadn’t made it that far when Travis realized that he had left his poles behind. I suggested that he go back because it wasn’t that far, but he insisted on getting them next time. I had decided I would use my poles on the 3rd lap, but I was still doing okay on this one. At the same time, I felt like, in the first lap, I had held back; this one, I was pushing it a little past my comfort zone. I was getting more and more worried about my hydration. So far, I had peed twice, but I was losing so much water and getting so hot. No matter how hot I was, Travis was worse. He was wearing an ice bandana around his neck, and when we got to a spot next to the stream, he splashed himself with water, practically dumping his head into the stream. When we got back to the aid station in the middle, that was the last spot until we made it back to the start/finish. Travis filled up his bandana with more ice. I could tell my cheeks were burning, and my neck was red, but I still felt okay, but close to a spot where it might take me a while to cool down. I asked the guy to put ice in the spot on my hydration vest right next to my back. I had done this before, and it is nice because it is a decent space for ice, and I don’t have to put anything around my neck. I still felt like Travis was pacing ahead of me in this stretch, and I was just focused on holding back and not pushing myself past the point where I might start throwing up. I was already worried about how little food I had eaten, and I decided I would need to eat more at the start/finish because all the food was starting to sound gross to me.

      No matter how miserable I felt, everyone else I ran into seemed worse off than I was. I saw people struggle through the more technical section on the way back. One guy told me he decided he only had one more lap in him, and then he was calling it quits. I suggested he wait before making those kinds of decisions, but he wasn’t at a point where he could hear something like that. I have been there too, not being able to finish, so I am not unsympathetic. The one thing that was helpful for me to hear is that I need to be open to the possibility that no matter how bad I am feeling now, I might feel better in the future, or at least there is a chance I might feel better, so it doesn’t make sense to exclusively make decisions based on how I feel now.

Lap 2

Lap Time: 5:03:52

Total Time: 9:04:12

Time of Day: 4:04 p.m.  

Miles: Official 40

Lap Pace: 15 minutes and 11 seconds

Race Pace:  13 minutes and 36 seconds

Thunder Kiss 100 Part IV

Time of Day: 4:04 p.m.

Miles 40-60

Temperature: 70-50s

       This lap would mark the most difficult part of the race. It was still hot, and the impact of running 40 miles on your feet was starting to take a toll. I was happy that it would be dark at some point during this loop, but I was worried about making it to my headlamp in time. I was also starting to worry about my pace. I was going to hit 50 miles soon, and I wasn’t sure if I would make it in under 12 hours. Even at the Shippey, I ran the first 50 miles in under 12 hours. Even realizing that made me feel like this race still had the potential to be between 28 and 30 hours.

       I noticed my stomach was growling, but I didn’t like a lot of what was on offer, so I knew I needed to keep snacking. I brought a bar and some chips. I was surprised by how little I got into my Oreos, but sweets just didn’t sound good to me, so I would graze on potato chips. There were still plenty of cut-up peanut butter sandwiches, but the bread had started to dry out.

       So far, my lack of food hadn’t hurt me. I was starting to overheat and slightly dehydrated, but I knew the sun would be down soon, and before then, it would start feeling cooler. It was consistently cooler on the other side of the hill we climbed, so once you finish the first leg, you get a nice downhill and cooler weather. Once I got there, I was taking advantage of the long stretches of flat. It is also where you can see who is in front of you, since it is an out-and-back, so I saw a few people. I wasn’t sure who was in the lead in the 100 miles, but I wasn’t thinking about it. At the aid station, the worker asked if we wanted to know where we were. I said no because I was sure it had to be mid-pack at best, but Travis suggested we were in 3rd and 4th, and the worker confirmed it. That truly shocked me. I felt like I was holding back most of the race, and then the past loop and a half had been legitimately tough, and I was just trying to hold on until the sun went down.

       The last section took forever, like it did each time. This one, I focused on how long each of the different types of terrain you encounter lasts. The first mile wasn’t that bad, and the last mile was mostly flat and then downhill, so I tried to pay attention to those sections so I wouldn’t push too hard on the more difficult parts. I beat Travis back, but not by far. He told me he thought he was done, and I tried to clarify. He said he was at least going to take a nap and then go from there. I was worried he was going to call it, but I needed to go back out there, and he said he'd try.

Lap 3

Lap Time: 6:06:36

Total Time: 15:10:48

Time of Day: 10:10 p.m.

Miles: 60

Lap Pace: 18 minutes and 20 seconds

Race Pace: 15 minutes and 11 seconds  

Thunder Kiss 100 Part V

Time of Day: 10:10 p.m.

Miles 60-80

Temperature: 60-50s

        I had finally broken my caffeine fast, so I felt like I was moving so quickly, especially compared to how I was pacing before. I flew through the first 4 miles to the first aid station and barely stayed to get water. I have found that later in a race, I don’t drink as much water. Usually, because it is cooler, hydration is no longer a problem, and my body calms down and sweats less. I had one of those energy drinks that claims to be healthy. I mainly prefer them to the more popular brands because they have less sugar, and I get extremely sick of overly sweet stuff later in races.

        I still hadn’t caught up to the person I had talked with earlier in the race, so I knew I was in 3rd place. I recorded a short video of each aid station for the first time. Next time, I am going to ask everyone their names after saying something about their aid station. The start/finish was the only aid area where I had a few interactions with the workers. I thought it was crazy to see the same people all day, so I asked the workers if they were staying up all night, and many told me they were. You might think it is odd to sympathize with the aid workers, but running for 24+ hours is totally different from just staying up for 24 hours. It has been a long time since I stayed up all night without running. I get so tired that I can fall asleep doing almost anything. Although I have fallen asleep while running before, it is much harder than falling asleep while standing or leaning against something.

        Going into this race, I wondered whether I needed to do a caffeine fast for each overnight race, but this one paid off completely. I was able to rally and run much faster on the 4th and 5th laps than I have in the past. I got some veggie broth this lap, but it was tough to get the temperature right. At one aid station, I just drank it with ice just so I could finish it and move on. When you’re moving slower, you cannot afford to stop long at the aid stations, and I was still feeling pushed forward by my desire not to have a 28+ hour finish. I noticed I was finally getting closer to the 2nd-place finisher, and I passed her after the soccer field aid station. She was very gracious and asked about Travis. I always feel bad for passing someone later in the race. I am glad I was able to pass her on this lap, so she had plenty of time to catch up. Before I knew it, I had made it all the way back to the start. I was still singing along to my music and feeling invincible. I had blazed through what is usually the toughest section of the race. 

Lap 4

Lap Time: 5:53:09

Total Time: 21:03:57

Time of Day: 4:03 a.m.

Miles: 80

Lap Pace: 17 minutes and 39 seconds

Race Pace: 15 minutes and 48 seconds 

Thunder Kiss 100 Part VI

Time of Day: 4:03 a.m.

Miles 80-100

Temperature: 50s-60s

        I looked to see if Travis was sleeping in the car, but if he was, I didn’t see him there. I had another energy drink and tried to snack. I was so annoyed that I had to use the restroom, but I didn’t have an option. I checked one more time for Travis before I started on the last lap. I am a little surprised now, seeing that my 4th lap was only a little under 6 hours and not much faster than my 3rd lap. I am guessing it might have to do with the break I had to take, but I try to set the end of the lap as the finish, rather than after the break. I did run some 12-minute miles during the 4th lap, and doing that so late in the race always makes me feel more confident about how I paced the race.

        I was so happy to be on the last lap and possibly in 2nd place! I stopped wearing my headphones and just played my music loud from my phone speaker. I can wear those headphones for 4 hours, no problem. They’re the most comfortable pair of headphones I have ever owned, but there comes a point where I don’t want my headphones on, and I don’t want to listen to music. I was slowly getting to that place, and I had started to return to the silence. I looked over to my left and saw a hundred houses below. I loved the sections where we had a view of entire neighborhoods. Some sections felt dangerous, where you were on what felt like a tiny ledge, just trying to carefully step to the next area, but in those sections, I never looked anywhere but the ground.

        I was doing a better job of running with my poles. The new pair worked out perfectly. I did get tired of carrying them to run with, but they were so light it wasn’t an issue, and it helped that I could use my upper body to get through the hilly sections. A lot of people had the foldable ones, which I will get eventually, but my hydration vest broke during this race! I have been pricing new ones this week. The part of the vest that crosses your chest snapped, so I was still able to use it because 4 points were still connected, but I was missing the other two. I must have been making it too tight. I am just glad it made it through this run because I was worried the rest of it would break.

        I realized, when I was looking at the different types of vrest, that I had bought one that didn’t use as high-quality material as the later generations. I don’t know how much of a difference it will make, but this one started having lots of problems after the first year. Besides the string issue, I started getting rashes on my back from the vest. All I can think is that it isn’t fitting my back tightly enough, so there must be rubbing causing the rashes.

        When I made it to the soccer field. The lady there had veggie broth to give me. She said that she and the other aid worker wondered what the difference was, tried it, and noticed a significant difference! I couldn’t tell you. I haven’t had chicken broth in such a long time, but I love veggie broth, and I am thankful they had it.

        I was just getting comfortable when I saw two other runners arrive at the aid station. I was supposed to be far ahead of the next 100-mile runner. I hadn’t seen these guys anywhere. I checked their bib to make sure, and I could have sworn that these guys were 100-mile runners, and I hadn’t passed them, so I didn’t think they could be on a different lap than me. I did so much math trying to figure out whether they could actually be 100-mile runners like me, who had caught their second wind and were just flying. From that point on, I was hauling as fast as my fatigued legs and body could move. Once I got to the last aid station. I asked for water, but nothing else. I was on a mission, and I needed to at least maintain 2nd place. The guy at the aid station told me the guy in first was about an hour ahead of me. I didn’t have a lot of time to catch up with him, but I kept doing the math to determine, depending on what his pace is, if I could possibly catch up to him. At the same time, I was still thinking about the two runners I had seen at the soccer field aid station.

     I eventually passed a couple of runners, but neither could have been the first-place finisher. There was a guy who had been pacing ahead of me, but he must have been a lap behind me, I figured, and there was a woman whom I had passed twice and scared last time by accident when I said, “passing,” to alert her. I warn people before I get too close, but sometimes they still freak out. Especially in the middle of the night in the woods when they have been up all day. Now, I am so dismissive of my hallucinations. I barely notice them, but I remember a couple of times when they were scary. There were a few times when my brain told me I was seeing something like a bear or a wolf, but now I barely waste brain cells analyzing it. When I passed her this time, she said something like “This Section!” And I laughed and agreed emphatically with her. These 4ish miles in a 6.75-mile part reminded me of going up the Grand Canyon. You’re always wondering. Am I going up or down? There were these hills, vertical, with sections completely covered in rock and stone, and one section where there was nothing but roots.

        At this point, I was doing it for the 5th time, so I wasn’t phased. I went as fast as I could on the 2.5ish miles of mostly flat or downhill sections, and in the other parts I walked or used my poles to move carefully. My last lap was my 3rd fastest. I didn’t run any 12-minute miles, but I did run many under 15 minutes, and in general, I stayed consistent and cut down on time at the aid stations. I was trying not to look at my watch, just pay attention to the course and remember the distant markers. I told the other runner how many crossings we would make before we reached the easier section. I was completely focused on how long until the easy section, and then after that, it was over.      

      The turn marking the end of the course marks the last quarter of a mile. I kept thinking it was a different amount each time, but this time I was confident. When I got there, I yelled with joy while recording a video. This was it! I was almost there, and I would be under 27 hours, which was my goal! I would be in 2nd place, which is crazy! I would be finally back, feeling like myself again. I was so tired, feeling injured for far too long, and this race marked the beginning of feeling resilient again. At the same time, I kept trying to give myself credit for doing the Shippey in 31 hours. That was a much more difficult race than this one, but that’s always the thing about these races. There is always so much you don’t know when you show up on race day. Is it going to get too hot, or maybe too cold? Is it going to rain? Will there be any extra miles? Will the course be marked well? What will the aid food and drinks be like? And then there is the stuff about your body you don’t know about. Travis was there at the end. He said he had dropped, but he also got my drop bag and took a nap, so we could go back to camp and then go home. I was ready. I just wanted to sleep, but I was also feeling amazing having finished in 2nd place.

        There was no one close behind me, but I am glad I thought that. The third-place finisher came in 55 minutes behind me, and the guy in front of me was 43 minutes ahead, so it ended up being a spot where place movement wasn’t as possible as I thought. 11 people finished this race, and 6 of them finished in over 33 hours, so I think I did great. I am not even convinced that I could have gotten a better time had I paced differently. My biggest problem was some long breaks, but I was almost never at a point where I thought I could have paced a section that much faster. There were so many different ways things could have gone wrong, but this time they just didn’t, and I owe a lot of that to Travis for helping me pace the first 3 laps conservatively. Thanks, Travis! 

The Thunder Kiss 100: the Drive Back

       I knew there was supposed to be a storm on Monday morning, but not that there would be a tornado watch in the Midwest on Sunday night. Travis had slept in the car while I was running, so he was fresh to drive. The plan was for me to sleep in the car on the way back so I would be good to drive the 50 minutes from his house to my home afterward. In total, it should take about 8 hours of driving. Everything was fine for most of the trip, but once we got into Illinois, the sky turned dark and became one big cloud. I saw there was a tornado watch in St. Louis, but nothing in Illinois yet. Suddenly, it was raining so hard that we couldn’t see through the car window, and the wind was so strong that we could feel it pushing up against the car. The rain moved sideways, as if someone had thrown it against the car.

       Travis pulled over for a little while until he got visibility, and we continued the stressful driving to his house. I was thankful for his driving because my car would not have handled the wind nearly as well as the big SUV-type vehicle he was driving. When we finally made it to his house, it was freezing outside and still raining. The storm wasn’t as bad as it had been, but it was still wet and raining. The sudden change in the temperature was jarring. I was wearing shorts and had to use the restroom, but no one was home at Travis’s house to open the door, so we were stuck on the porch until Travis went around.

       I was nervous about the drive home. I had only slept maybe 2-3 hours at most, but I felt alert, just not keen on driving in a storm. It started out okay, but soon the wind had picked up, and I couldn’t see that well, so I turned my brights on. I could feel the wind, but so far it wasn’t a factor. I kept looking at maps to see how long it said it would take me to get home. It was just like the last five miles of the race. I was so focused on every step and trying to move as fast as possible, but every time I looked at my watch, I hadn’t run nearly as much as I had to do. Now, during this drive, I was so stressed driving during the storm. When I made it home, I was thrilled to be in a building and out of my car. It was great to see my family, eat food, and go to bed on time, but I keep thinking about that drive home. I am glad I wasn’t running in it, but it was not fun to drive through it, especially on so little sleep. I will start writing up the whole experience later today, but ending the trip on this note just seemed so odd. With all the other unpredictable things that happened, you'd think something like this would be less likely.