Marc's Waldo Adventure

As mentioned in a previous post, Marc completed the Where's Waldo 100k, and finished by 9 o'clock to get his hat. So there's no suspense to the story, but here's a little more detail, mainly in pictures.

We attended the pre-race all you can eat pasta dinner.  They certainly lost money on the LG.  This was his 3rd plate.  Yes, he ate the whole thing.  No, he didn't have a stomach ache.  Can't wait to see how much he eats when he's a teenager.

Marc took the 3:00 am early start.  Yawn!  The lodge was open at 2:00 am and the race provided coffee and bagels.  One of the many nice perks of this awesome, well organized race!

Does he look nervous?  No...Marc doesn't really get nervous.  Well, maybe just a little bit.

There they go!  Can you see them in the dark?  I was glad to go back to the cabin for a few more hours of sleep.

Mid-morning, the LG and I made our way to the Charlton Lake AS, which is the halfway point by mileage, but not necessarily by effort.

We arrived at the Charlton AS about a half hour before the first runner came through.  I talked for a long time with Caroline, who was crewing.  Soon Gail joined the party.  The LG had fun playing in the lake with a few other kids. 

About 15 minutes ahead of Marc, Bret came in looking pretty good.

Marc coming into Charlton, looking a little tired.

Marc was wiped and said he felt like dropping.  The day before he had decided to go for the Wet Waldo Award.  The fact that the fast guys (and gals) usually win this award didn't deter him.  Charlton Lake is the first one you can go in and no one had gone in the lake yet.  And a lot of the faster regular starters had already passed Marc.  It was predicted to be a cool day so I think most of the runners were worried about getting cold. Marc decided to take a dip and see how he felt to continue.

Contemplating

Submerging

Surfacing

Refreshed!

He definitely felt better after taking a dip and was ready to carry on.

The LG and I hadn't planned to go on to the RD 4290 AS because the crew directions said it was on a very rough road.  But considering that Marc had talked about dropping, I thought I better go anyway to cheer him on and help motivate him along.  Turns out the road wasn't bad at all.  I've driven much worse!

Fun playing in the rocks.

One of the highlights of the weekend was meeting Gretchen!

Here comes Bret right on schedule

Marc was feeling a lot more chipper

Marc seemed to be on a roll now so we decided to meet him at the only other crew-accessible aid station.  We drove to the trail head and enjoyed a nice 1.5 mile hike into the Twins AS.

Airborne on the hike into the Twins AS

Bret extolling the wonders of the popsicles just minutes before a viscous case of brain freeze

Marc coming into the Twins AS

Marc contemplating the AS offerings with assistance from the Devil. 

Moments after this picture was taken, an Angel (yes, the one lone AS worker dressed as an Angel) helped him aside as he puked his guts out.  Nothing revives you during an ultra like a good hurl.   Seriously, I was a little worried, but he definitely felt better after letting it all out.  It was 3:00 and he still had 18+ miles to go with the biggest climb of the day ahead.  That gave him 6 hours to get his hat.  I was optimistic he could do it.

 He was a new man and ready to take on Maiden Peak.

I love ultra people!  There's Meghan, who won hours before, helping at the finish, cheering and handing out hats.

Back at the start/finish, we had a long time to wait.  The LG played around while I chatted with others who were awaiting their runners.  As the awards ceremony approached, I heard Craig (one of the RD's) ask over the mic if anyone had gone in a lake.  It turned out that no one had!  I let Craig know that Marc had gone in at least one.  But now I was even me more anxious for Marc to finish, since it looked like he'd win the Wet Waldo Award if he did. 

Bret's a Waldo finisher!

When I saw Bret approaching the finish I literally jumped up and down!  Not only was I happy for him, knowing how much he wanted this finish and the hat, but I knew it meant that Marc wasn't far behind if he had kept up his pace.

Only .25 mile to the finish!

A little before 8:30 the LG and I decided to walk out a quarter mile to wait for Marc.  Just at the spot we decided to stop and wait, I saw a figure coming towards us about 50 yards away.  The gait and silouette looked like Marc, but it was getting dark and I couldn't really see.  I yelled, "Is that Marc?"  He yelled back, "I went in 4 lakes!"  We ran with him to the finish and he got his hat with 30 minutes to spare!

I couldn't keep up in my sandals, so didn't get an official finish picture.  Here he is seconds after he crossed, with hat in hand!

Turns out one of his lakes was a pond and didn't count, but still good enough for the Wet Waldo Award!  No one else went into even one lake.  Marc's win was the slowest and he went in the fewest lakes in the award's history.  But who cares?  He won some awesome swag and now has his name in the history books.

A few minutes after the finish, I asked about the Pine to Palm 100.  His immediate answer, exclaimed without hesitation was "No way!"  But lo an behold he's packed and ready to leave tomorrow for P2P.  He'll give it his best shot, the only way he knows how to do it.  You can track him here:  P2P webcast

Update Sunday morning 9/19: The P2P webcast hasn't been updated very much, but it did show some drops. Yesterday evening, about 30 minutes after seeing Marc on the drop list, he called.  Webcast says he dropped at 36 miles, but he actually dropped at the next checkpoint at 42 miles. We only talked briefly so I won't get the full story until I see him later today, but it sounds like conditions were brutal. Not sure exactly, but I think he preemptively dropped when he realized he was getting slower and slower and wouldn't make the cut-offs. Nevertheless, I'm proud of him for giving it a try. It's likely his only attempt at a 100-miler (remember - he's not really a runner after all ; ) ), but you never know!