27 minutes with Annie and Bruce

27 minutes with Annie and Bruce: 

This was from the final moments of the Grand Mesas Ultra. The full story to come on mine and Jessy's shared blog.

Mesa, Trees, Mesa, Trees.... Leaving flowing point to begin the final leg of the 100 miler felt amazing. We breezed through the aide station knowing we were still racing the clock, but felt good about the time we had. The cheers from the volunteers was amazing as in the final gasps of race verses Jessy, everyone was celebrating the victory coming to play.

But the mesa had one card left to play, and it laid its final hand with a cruel sneer. Our feet were away from the aide station by 1:05 pm and our race chart stated all we had left was 7 miles. But the mesas cruel sneer lay within the lightly printed asterisk by that figure. 

*aide station distances are estimates

And so for the next hour and a half we roam through trees and then the trail would break away into meadows and then back into trees and then toward the mesa edge where we could look out and see all of Grand Junction and the vast rolling desert of West Colorado. It was gorgeous and amazing, but seemed stuck on repeat. Because then we saw another meadow, and more trees, and another mesa view, back into the trees, to another meadow and so on. 

I tried to begin speculating what are distance was. We were power hiking it out, some jogging down decent, but that was all Jessy could muster at this late stage in the race. There was not a lot of speaking, she was hurting and ready to be done. She wanted to be in her head and I was out of tricks to get her out. As I was thinking through the race maps and the miles, the aide stations and the people I met, something horrible dawned on me. 

When speaking with Rachel at Flowing Rock about her wife running the 50 miler, she asked if I had any crewing tips. I let her know what Jessy and I had read about the Indian Point loop. She would come in really hot and tires from the long loop with no food and only one water stop, and then she mentioned, "That's crazy! Because then she has to go another 8 something miles before she is done!"

This memory surfaced with horror. I visualized the sign leaving the Flowing Rock aide station, it said 8 miles to the finish. The aide station distance chart asterick that was an afterthought for the last 34 hours was now a glaring oversight. We needed to pick it up and I couldn't dare tell Jessy why. 

I was kicking myself and trying to muster her final boughs of strength, and just as I was feeling my recourses drained and exhausted, a miracle took place. 

Through the trees burst two smiling faces, it was Annie and Bruce whom we met at the Kannah Creek aide station!

They let us know we had about 25 minutes of running to reach the finish! They immediately began complementing Jessy's form, discussing the final stretch of the course and being new and much needed sources of energy and life. Jessy's form did look amazing and though we could all see how much it hurt her, she was running! We were moving and we had two angels guiding us out. 

Annie told tales of her own pursuit of those "crazy rodeo buckles" while Bruce gave positive reinforcements. At one point we hurt a distinct grunt, scrap of dirt and I turned so see a puff of dust. Annie was down, but a few moments later, back with us chuckling and joking that at least Jessy could stay upright after 99 miles!

Bruce ran ahead to tell the folks at the finish that Jessy was almost in and though I wish I could have stolen her watch, she continued to watch the seconds creep by with no effort, while every step was now a huge labor. We were within the final half mile when the strangest sequence began. 

Her shoulders rocked as she began a sob that the cut off was so close. Annie raced past us asking to borrow a phone camera. She wanted to take a picture, which at the time seemed strange as Jessy was crying and we were racing to the end and it was hot and most things seemed strangely horrible and beautiful at the same time. She took a picture while we moved, later telling me that seeing my dedication to her, her perseverance and our persistent non stop movement was too beautiful to her to not at least try and capture. 

And so we continued to move and while Jessy was still fighting tears of emotion, defeat, pain, and struggle we began to hear cowbells and cheers. Bruce had summoned everyone from the mesa top he could find and they all gathered around us as we moved from the trees to the parking lot for the final 100 yards of the Grand Mesa Ultra 100 mile trail run.

Jessy ran to cheers and Bruce's deep intonation, "Amazing! Look at her go!" I filmed on my phone, Annie cried out and cheered with joy, and Jessy finisher her hundred miles.