David Wronski successfully completed his Tahoe Rim Trail 168-mile run. Read on for an in-depth recap of his run!!
Before getting into the specific details of my Tahoe Rim Trail run, I want and need to thank my amazing crew who allowed me to even attempt such a grueling endeavor and come out healthy and alive. The amount of dedication, sleepless hours, work, and effort they committed to helping me towards achieving my goal is more impressive to me than anything I have or will accomplish. My success at these ultra endurance attempts, is 100% dependent on a strong, knowledgeable, and loyal team that is willing to do whatever is necessary at any given time to get me to the finish line. Also, thank you to all my friends and family who have wished me luck and shown me your support leading up to this amazing adventure. Trust me when I say that I use everyone’s positive thoughts during my long hours spent in the mountains; it not only keeps me motivated but makes me remember how many others I’m trying to make proud.
Now onto our 168-mile Tahoe Rim Trail adventure. The idea of running the entire Tahoe Rim Trail nonstop started in February of 2011, while I was recovering from my incredible experience running the Brazil 135. It’s been a long 17 months of dreaming, training, and planning on being able to attempt this endurance feat. What made the whole experience even more surreal was the fact that I had already tried to accomplish this feat in October of 2011; but was horribly unlucky with the weather, and got stuck in many feet of snow in the first few hours of our attempt, thus putting my hopes on hold until July of 2012.
My team and I arrived at the TRT trailhead in Tahoe City on Friday, June 29th and I finally realized that this was going to happen. I was going to be able to attempt to complete the longest distance I’ve ever covered nonstop, knowing I would have absolutely ideal weather. There would be no excuses, or reasons outside of my control that I would have to deal with; I was going to start and hopefully come back to the same location 2-3 days later, in a much more physically broken down but satisfied state of mind.
1st Segment-Tahoe City to Brockway Summit (19.2 miles)
We quickly took a few pictures at the start, documented the start time of 9:15AM on Friday, and Ray Sanchez and I quickly left to cover the next 19.2 miles ending at Brockway Summit. We were in great spirits, and feeling happy to be on the beautiful trail in 70 degree weather. Since I had done the first 13 miles of this section on my last TRT attempt in October, it was great to see familiar sites, only this time instead of stepping into three feet of snow I could appreciate all the dry forest around me. We climbed the first 6 miles which are all steadily uphill, until we reached a few great lookouts, Ray constantly snapping pictures with his phone (which he enjoys to do on all of our runs together). The section went pretty well with no navigational issues until we reached a fire road that required us to find where the TRT picked up again (it was not directly across the road we came to). Luckily we saw a couple mountain bikers enjoying a ride, and asked them to confirm what we believed to be the TRT. Once we received verification that we were on the right trail, we quickly said thanks and went on our way. I’ve learned from past experiences, that it’s very important to avoid the desire to push yourself physically early on, knowing you will pay for this mistake in the future. So Ray and I tried to stay conservative but were running at a good and steady 4-5mph, until we reached our first major navigational dilemma. We came to a Y shaped intersection, with a TRT sign that had been ripped out of the ground, and was now being helped up by rocks. Because there were arrows pointing in opposite directions on both sides of the post, we were unsure of where the post was originally supposed to be placed (which would determine which direction we would take to stay on the TRT). We chose to go right (which ended up not being the right way), and ended up running an extra 20-25 minutes, until we realized we needed to backtrack to the sign, and call Michael (my logistical expert) and figure out what to do. Luckily since we had phone service, I was able to take a picture of my location at the intersection with my phone, and send it to Michael hoping to get an answer of where to go. Our strategy worked and we figured out we were supposed to go left, which would take us to our first meeting point on the trail, about 13 miles in. After a quick stop with our team, Ray and I continued on to try to finish the 19 miles in a reasonable time. Unfortunately I was quickly introduced to the unforgiving terrain of the TRT, and was forced to hike quickly instead of run because my ability to hop from rock to rock in Vibrams was not successful or safe. We made it through the last 6 or so miles, and completed the 1st of 8 sections of the TRT. It was great to have Ray with me on the trail, but had to say goodbye, since I would not be seeing him the rest of the weekend.
2nd Segment- Brockway Summit to Tahoe Meadows (19.7 miles, 38.9 total miles)
The second segment proved to be very difficult even with semi-fresh legs, mostly due to its multiple 1,000+ ft. climbs, the rocky terrain, and adjusting to the highest altitude on the entire TRT, just above 10,000 ft. Michael was a great person to have with me on this section though for many reasons. First off he’s the current unsupported (meaning no crew, assistance of any kind) record holder on the TRT, but more importantly he kept me hiking at a fairly quick pace up the long climbs when slowing down would have been very easy for me to do. I realized I had made one key mistake early on in the first segment. I had drank too much water, and not enough salt/electrolytes; thankfully from experience I can usually recognize this right away and start taking in salt. After feeling very dizzy and lethargic early in our first climb, Michael graciously gave me some electrolyte tablets for my water which made an immediate difference and allowed us to resume climbing up to the highest point on the TRT, Relay Peak at 10,335 ft.
What made this segment so physically challenging, was my slow adaptation to the high altitude. I had not been above 10,000 ft in a very long time, and the time it took for my body to assimilate, definitely took some energy out of my body. The feeling of not being able to catch your breath, no matter how fast or slow you’re moving, always takes some getting used to. We eventually reached the summit, snapped a few amazing pictures, and was relieved to start a slow jog of about 5 miles downhill. The views from this section were absolutely incredible, and if I went back to hike just one section of the TRT, I would definitely go back to this segment. By the time we made our complete descent back to around 8,700 ft, night time was approaching and our first day of sunlight was just about over. However I was very excited to get to Tahoe Meadows because it would be the first time seeing my girlfriend Dawn, my new puppy Wendy, and the rest of my great crew. We arrived at the Tahoe Meadows parking lot, said hi to everyone, and enjoyed the first cup of many chicken noodle soups.
3rd Segment-Tahoe Meadows to Spooner Summit (23.1 miles, 62 total miles)
The third segment was by far the easiest, flattest section of trail on the entire TRT. What had made this segment different from the others, was that I had run the entire section before when I completed my first 100 mile race in Lake Tahoe in 2010. Thinking of this recent memory while being happy to be on the sandy Nevada side of the TRT, made for a very enjoyable first night of running. Also I was very pleased to be able to start this long 23.1 mile section with my good friend Lauryn, who paced me during my 1st night of the 100 miler, on almost the same trail in 2010. It was great to reminisce about that experience with her, while we made steady progress running the entire way, catching up with each other simultaneously. We made it to a waypoint on the trail (9.5 miles in) to Tunnel Creak Rd, where we were planning to meet the rest of the team to resupply food, water, etc.
This was just one of many spots on the trail that my team willingly hiked many miles (this one being straight uphill the entire way) to meet me on the trail, which allowed us to break up the long 23 mile segment. Unfortunately Lauryn and I were too ambitious with our pace, and actually beat our team to the Tunnel Creak Road meeting point. After a quick phone call to our team we realized we would wait about a half hour for their arrival. We weren’t too upset though considering it wasn’t windy thankfully, I was hungry, and we could just use the time to relax and refuel, which we did. We found a cluster of big boulders, settled in together under Lauryn’s jacket, and tried to stay warm while I ate half a turkey sub, Lauryn had packed with her.
After an impressive hike from nearly our entire team, we reunited and topped off our food/water, and prepared to finish the remaining 14 miles of the segment. I had to say another quick goodbye to Lauryn, since she would be leaving for the rest of the weekend, and got to have my new pacer Allison join me for the remainder. Both Lauryn and Allison did a fantastic job pacing me, staying in front of me and running every flat, downhill section, while setting a steady controlled pace up the hills. After a few miles of running with Allison, we were approaching another familiar destination on the TRT course, Snow Valley Peak 9,300 ft. This is another gorgeous location overlooking both Marlette Lake and Lake Tahoe, which we could not see unfortunately because were running in total darkness. I briefly explained to Allison what she would be seeing if it were light out, but instead we looked up and could see the entire milky way and every star imaginable. It was an incredibly clear night, with almost no wind which is rare at the top of Snow Valley Peak.
We started another enjoyable descent of about 5 miles to Spooner Summit where we would meet our team, and the 2nd morning of our adventure would begin. I was feeling great both mentally and physically at this point, but knew in the back of my mind we were about to tackle some very difficult sections and my physical state would not be as ideal during the next 100+ miles.
4th segment-Spooner Summit to Kingsbury South (16.4 miles, 78.4 total miles)
The 4th segment began in the early morning hours of Saturday (the 2nd day), and at this point I had just come to the 24 hour point of being awake and moving. This period of time can always be tricky if you’re not prepared, and ready to stay awake through the night. Your body has not yet switched into a survival mode type mindset yet, but I made sure to eat consistently which I’ve found to make a big difference in easing the transition from a “regular” mindset to a “survival” mindset. Once the sun came up though, and Dawn and I began our first and only long climb uphill, I felt fully awake and wasn’t having any trouble staying awake.
We finally made it to the top of a long uphill section, which thankfully had some easy terrain to hike up, not being full of boulders and rocks like I’d experienced in previous sections. The view of Lake Tahoe was spectacular in the early morning hours, with the sun coming up on our right as a giant orange ball. I was glad Dawn could see this great view, which I had been lucky enough to have already seen multiple great views of the Lake from my previous 75+ miles of being on the trail. This was a trail neither one of us had ever been on. We then started the descent which unfortunately absolutely sucked for the first few miles.
We went from climbing groomed dirt trail on the way up, to now descending large loose rocks again on the trail as our main type of trail surface. This was frustrating mostly because the downhill sections are usually the only parts of the run where you can make up some time, and let your legs loosen up and actually run some decently quick miles. This was completely not an option now, because of the extremely rugged terrain we were now faced with going downhill.
This was a common occurrence for the entire route, which was another reason I found out my time would be considerably slower simply due to the rough and rugged terrain I’d be approaching for the rest of the way. Obviously running in minimalist shoes like Vibrams doesn’t make the task any easier. We eventually made it through the rocky section, and actually found a few miles of rolling trail with scattered rocks and boulders, but at least the dirt surface was showing underneath allowing us to start running at a decent pace. We enjoyed a few miles of easy rolling hills, and caught a view of about 8-10 large bucks with huge sets of antlers, it was a cool sight to see, and would have been a great picture if they didn’t run away into the forest as we approached.
We then reached the last few miles of the section, where the new TRT is completed now (there used to be a 3 mile section with no trail, which you’d have to run on paved roads to reach the next trailhead). We were able to easily navigate this new section thanks to Michael and Sarah marking the trails with our own trail markers. Dawn and I completed our first section together around 10am on Saturday, the plan was to give her a break, and then she’d be joining me again during the 6th segment. Unfortunately the 5th segment was going to be quite daunting and long.
5th segment-Kingsbury South to Big Meadow (23.2 miles, 101.6 total miles)
As I was laying down getting my legs shaken out, eating, resupplying my food/water, and changing clothing, I knew I was about to begin one of the most difficult sections of my entire run. Granted the 2nd segment from Brockway to Tahoe Meadows was no easy task, and had a lot of elevation gain, but I was fairly fresh during that time and knew we could get through it. However this segment was going to be a long 23 miles, on not so fresh legs, and during the middle of the day. I definitely won’t complain about the weather because it was absolutely beautiful all weekend, but the sun was extremely bright and the UV index was at 10 (the highest it can pretty much be), and it definitely was noticeable in how it affected my hydration levels. So the next 23 miles were not going to be easy in any way, and mentally I knew I’d be climbing multiple 1-2,000 ft climbs.
Jason (my pacer) and I began a first huge climb that was slow and steady uphill, the first few miles took a while to judge how I was feeling. Soon after I realized I would be drinking a lot more fluid on this segment, which would mean we’d have to use as many stream crossings as possible (which thankfully were abundant). What made this section extra difficult, was the way we were climbing, not necessarily the terrain. What I mean is that the climbs required us to go up many steps, consisting of large flat slabs of stone set many feet apart.
This proved very difficult and tiring, because not only were they un-runnable, but they required large steps that used a lot of energy. It felt like a stairmaster, only with stairs requiring large strides and high steps to clear our feet. This section was where I later learned I had strained my left soleus (muscle underneath the calf) going up these high spread out stairs. It was not an acute injury that I noticed right away, but become a major factor in my running ability as the miles added up. After many more climbs we finally reached a section requiring us to go downhill. We quickly noticed no sign or TRT markers giving us any direction in how to start our descent. We asked a few hikers coming the opposite direction, and they informed us that the TRT picked up down the road a ways, and it would be on our right.
We thanked them for the help, and started our descent. This road had very loose sand as its base, and because of this I spent more time looking at my footing, since the decline was pretty steep. Somehow in between all of my looking at the ground, and talking we missed the turn off for the TRT, which turned out to be marked, but was on a side of a tree that wasn’t directly facing us at the time. Long story short, we ended up probably wasting 20-30 minutes trying to get back on the right route. Once we found where we were supposed to go, we came across a great stream with fast moving clear fresh water, where we refilled our bottles. Getting lost pissed me off at the time because I didn’t have tons of energy, and didn’t want to waste any little bits I had getting lost. So I decided to try to make up for the time we had wasted which we did a decent job of, running as much as possible on the flats and downhills, hoping to meet our team at Armstrong Pass (which allows the 23 mile segment to be broken down into 14 and 9 mile sections). The meeting point at Armstrong Pass required my team to hike up a few tough miles of trail.
Because of our newly acquired faster pace, and some issues using our SPOT GPS tracker, our team was still about an hour away when Jason and I had arrived at the meeting point. We had no phone service at all, and nothing to do except wait for our crew, we couldn’t keep going with the little food/water we had left, and I had to make sure our team knew we would be there still (no matter how long it took them to meet us). At the time it was easy to get frustrated at this situation, but in the end it was probably a blessing because it allowed me to get off my feet, and just try to recover from the last hard 14 miles of climbs and descents.
After waiting a while, we finally saw our crew at the meeting point, refueled, and started the next 9 mile section of the same segment with Sarah. We would be going to Big Meadow which would complete this 5th segment of the TRT. Because of my brief period of rest, waiting for the team at Armstrong Pass, I was feeling fairly strong and wanted to try to knock out the next 9 miles in a few hours or less. Sarah and I started hiking up at a fast pace, uphill for the first major climb. We then ran most or all the flats and downhills which ended up allowing us to finish that 9 mile section at about a 4 mph pace, which is a great pace for that far into the run.
We were in good spirits, and I was surprised how well I felt physically. My feet and legs were doing well, which is a rarity after 100+ miles, especially for the feet. Sarah and I ended the segment with a nice gradual downhill section, where we met Alex who had hiked up a few miles to see us. The three of us then finished the segment in good spirits, enjoying some good conversation. The night was nearing, and our sunlight was quickly disappearing. Dawn would join me again for the next segment which would be in complete darkness going into our 2nd night of being on the trail.
6th segment-Big Meadow to Echo Lake (17.5 miles, 119.1 total miles)
Dawn joined me again for this segment which turned out to be a very difficult segment, for many reasons but mostly due to the fact we would be doing it all in the early morning hours, approaching the 45 hour mark by the time we’d finish. We started the section with a huge climb that was probably the steepest climb of the entire run, which quickly reminded me of my injured soleus which was now becoming a lot more apparent. The steep climb required us to barely keep a 3 mph pace which I was always trying to use as the base of any pace we chose. My soleus becoming a bigger problem as we climbed, limited my ability to take advantage of the flat sections due to the fact I couldn’t run without dealing with consistent pain.
Acquiring minor injuries like this isn’t uncommon for me though, especially after being 110+ miles into a run. I dealt with the pain, while Dawn did a great navigational job making sure we were still on the right route. Some of the sections of the TRT are much more well marked than others, and this section was not very impressively marked. I have a hard time understanding why such a popular well known and used trail has such inconsistent and crappy markings; but it does and we were just trying to make the best of the situation knowing that slowing down to find the right way would still be faster than running more, but missing our turns resulting in getting lost and an even greater waste of time.
We then reached a point with a small wooden plank in the ground with Echo Summit engraved into one side. This was our destination, but knew it was a tricky logistical area to find and stay on the TRT. To make things more complicated there are additional signs for PCT which is the Pacific Crest Trail which shares the TRT for certain lengths and different times. We know were seeing literally no TRT markings of any kind giving us a sense of where to go, or how to stay on the trail. What we ended up having to do to continue on our way turned out to be a ridiculous combination of a river crossing, going under a fallen tree, making several snakelike switchbacks, and coming to an unmarked trail that could barely be identified as a trail, let alone the correct trail.
This delay ended up costing us another 30 minutes or so which ended up being the 3rd and final time I would be getting “lost” on the run. We were never “lost” but rather just trying to make sure we could find the correct trail, and not go to far off trail to then realize we needed to go back. Eventually after many frustration walking trips back and forth to survey the area, again in total darkness only with the help of our headlamps and moon could we try to distinguish where to go; did we find the right trail which would continue to take us to Echo Summit. This slow climb to Echo Summit proved very difficult for a new reason, unlike the previous sections that were extremely rocky and rough terrain, this trail was mostly mud and very wet. Our trail ended up being mud and water, which would then turn into a small stream at times requiring us to try to walk on the borders of the trail, staying out of the water filled sections of the trail. Nothing was fast about this whole segment, even keeping a 3 mph pace proved very difficult due to our slow moving trudging through dark, muddy, wet trail.
After what seemed to be an endless climb, we finally reached to be what we thought was the summit, only to then start descending before another final climb uphill to what was the actual summit. We were now only a couple miles from the next meeting point with our crew, however the descent could not have been more frustrating and slow. Just like during the last segment, when I was climbing up large slabs of stone in a stair climbing fashion, we know were going down similar rock formations. This really annoyed us both, and slowed our pace down considerably, because we were hopping down from step to step rather than being able to run more gracefully and efficiently. We continued to rock hop down further and further but never seemed any closer to our destination. The descent took over an hour, and finally we came across Michael on the trail. He had hiked up a considerable distance to meet us and show us the way back to the meeting point, and the rest of our crew.
Both Dawn and I were just happy to be over with the section. After the long steep climbs we had dealt with, the insanely horrible trail markings, and the ridiculous directions we had to follow to stay on trail, we were both mentally and physically spent. What we originally thought to be a 6 hour section turned into an all night almost 9 hour section that we were very happy to be done with. We were now starting our 3rd morning of being out on the TRT, and the goal was to not see another sunrise. I wanted to finish sooner than later, not because I cared about my time but because I knew I was approaching new territory in regard to staying awake without sleep. I had never stayed up longer than 52 hours, and this record was going to be easily broken by the start of our long Desolation Wilderness section coming up.
7th Segment-Echo Lake to Barker Pass (32.5 miles, 151.6 miles total)
We were now starting our 3rd day, and about to begin one of the most unique but grueling sections of the entire TRT, Desolation Wildnerness. This area is quite unlike the others due to the trail inaccessibility, its remoteness, and most noticeably its trail surface. The number one factor of the entire run that I was least expecting to be such a major issue, was the trail surface. My feet have become adapted to rough terrain, allowing me to run on very rugged terrain without having any major issues, but I quickly learned with Desolation Wilderness, and other shorter sections of the TRT was that the trail surface consisting of loose rocks and small boulders on top of other loose rocks was not a conducive trail surface for my abilities. Knowing the trail surface would be considerably more rugged and rocky than anything I had experienced until this point, I decided to change from my Vibram FiveFingers to my New Balance Minimus MT00, which is an actual shoe, but again is extremely minimal in its cushion or protection. Michael and I started this section on some runnable trail which I took advantage of trying to gain any ground I could while the dirt was still there, knowing the rocks were soon to come. Sure enough we reached many long sections which were 100% rocks, consisting of many layers which makes the instability of the trail even greater. Walking fast across the rocks wasn’t an option, let alone even trying to run.
The amount of walking we had to do definitely affected my energy levels, and my ability to stay attentive and awake. Michael did a great job of keeping track of how long I was going in between GUs or any other source of calories. I needed to keep consistent with my hydration and food intake to have any chance of maintaining enough energy to complete this long 32 mile stretch. During our time rock hopping for many miles, we saw some of the most beautiful lakes I had seen all weekend, which are completely hidden unless you are hiking in Desolation Wilderness. Aloha Lake was one of many absolutely perfect blue lakes with small islands of trees growing right out of the water. The steep mountain slopes in the background were still covered in snow, giving a great backdrop to our blue lake scenery. Thankfully again we had an opportunity to meet Sarah “halfway” around mile 17. Unfortunately before we would meet, Michael and I would be tackling an enormous task, which was climbing the steep and tall Dick’s Pass just under 10,000 ft.
This climb was good because it was a challenge that didn’t involve running, which at the time I could not do comfortably due to my increasingly painful soleus injury. However by the time we reached the summit of the pass, I had expended a lot of energy getting to the top, and definitely could feel the altitude sucking any energy I still had quickly away. We started the descent quickly because I knew Sarah was waiting for us at the bottom of the mountain, and I was in need of some food, energy, and an opportunity to stretch my now throbbing soleus. Michael did a great job again of trying to get me to run downhill and make our meeting with Sarah happen sooner.
We finally reached Sarah, where I was happy to stretch, eat, resupply, and try to regain some energy before heading out with Michael for the 2nd half of Desolation Wilderness. After a brief stop, Michael and I headed out for the last 15 or so miles which would bring us to the beginning of the final 8th segment. We were again moving through the trails at the height of the 3rd afternoon, the sun was starting to get warmer, and definitely had taken its toll on my face, nose, and lips which were all pretty well burned from exposure. After spending 3 straight days and nights outside, no amounts of sunscreen will prevent your face from getting pretty roasted.
We started on our way which now was through totally different environment, a very heavily wooded forest section with no views of any mountains or anything around you. It was a very confusing and closed in feeling where every foot of trail going through the forest looked the same. The craziest aspect of this section was that were literally no TRT markers anywhere, thankfully Michael has a lot of experience on the TRT, and was navigating with ease, and constantly moving ahead of me making me follow him as best I could. My speed was now diminishing quickly, due to my leg injury and my energy levels. I was now awake for 50+ hours about to break my record for staying awake, only I still had to run/walk 30 more miles, let alone just be awake.
After many slow hours of moving, I suddenly realized after talking to Michael, and looking at my watch that if I kept this pace I may not even finish on Sunday. Again, my actual finishing time was never a concern or important factor to me, but I was concerned about going through another night and finishing early Monday morning. This new reality made me mentally flip a switch, and turn off any pain I was having in my leg. I started to run, and at a much faster rate than I had previously been attempting. I was getting to the point where I didn’t want to see another sunrise, and I just wanted to finish. I ran at this newly found rate, for probably close to 2 hours. This allowed us to make up some considerable distance, and get me that much closer to the beginning of my last and final segment. We only had one more major hurdle to get over, before finishing this segment and that was to try to survive mosquitoes that were more aggressive and relentless than I’d ever seen before.
Since I was now running faster and using more energy, I was drinking more and required Michael to try to get me some more water on a regular basis (mostly again from running streams on the trail). We quickly realized that we were being swarmed and attacked by millions of mosquitoes. I had most of my body completely covered with clothing, had powerful bug spray all over my body, and still the mosquitoes were eating us alive. We could literally not stop for more than 1 second before your shirt, arms, and head would be covered with mosquitoes. When I say covered I’m not exaggerating, my white shirt would be full of small black mosquitoes in 2 second of me trying to bend over to adjust my shoe. It was miserable and something I did not want to deal with at all. This horrible mosquito problem made me even more motivated to get completely out of Desolation Wilderness and to the beginning of the final segment, which I knew would not have the same mosquito problem.
I came into the final meeting spot for myself and my crew, feeling very upbeat mentally, knowing I only had 1 more segment to complete before I was finished. Physically I was surprisingly feeling good, the running caused my soleus to lengthen and relax as I ran, which was not how it had felt for a long time in the past 50+ miles. I came into the meeting point at Barker Pass about 57 hours into the run. I knew I wanted to complete these last 17 miles as quickly as possible, and planned to run every bit I possibly could.
8th segment- Barker Pass to Tahoe City (16.7 miles, 168.3 miles total)
I left my team for the last time feeling very positive and happy to be on my last leg of this incredibly long adventure. I was know 57 hours into my run with no sleep, breaking my previous record of being awake by about 5 hours. I was encountering unchartered territory both mentally, physically in staying awake, but also the amount of miles we had completed (151). My plan to run as much as possible was quickly taken away by yet another long stretch of my dreaded loose rock terrain. Not only was the trail again horribly rocky, unstable, and sharp; but it was also a very thin trail with a drop off on one side, so paying attention was vital to staying safe and not sliding half way down the mountain.
This slow paced hiking on terrain that hurt with every step, in darkness again since we started the segment around 9pm on Sunday, was very mentally draining for me. All I could think was to get this section over with as fast as possible so I could get to a part of the segment that had runnable dirt trail instead of this insanely dangerous sharp loose rock surface which seemed to be the only thing we were ever going to be on. I remember looking at my watch and we had reached the 3 hour mark into our hike, and were still on this rugged rock surface, which resulted in us only being able to cover about 6 miles in this 3 hour period. By this time I had literally walked my self to sleep. I was in great need of being able to run, and force my body to wake up and stay alert, but the terrain we were on made this option impossible, and unfortunately crushed my spirit.
In addition to the terrain, I was now battling mental exhaustion more than I had ever experienced before, being awake for now more than 60 hours straight. Hallucinations were constant, and I had become so used to them that I almost didn’t even pay attention or care that I was having them. I was reaching the point though that I could not keep walking like this without falling asleep on my feet. All I wanted to do was sit, somehow my body equated sitting with sleeping even though when I did sit, I would not sleep at all but rather just take a few deep breaths and try to stand up again. I have never experienced such a situation where I felt very good so far into a run, just a few hours earlier when we completed the 7th segment to now feeling like I barely had enough energy to keep walking. It was very confusing to me at the time, and I had no plan on what to do to recover or bounce back from feeling as mentally drained as I was. I remember not being able to speak, because it was to difficult to have to think of what to say, and the amount of energy it took to open my mouth and say words was not worth the effort.
Thankfully Dawn was with me the entire time, in addition to Sarah leading the way, making sure we were on course. Dawn has had experience seeing me in a pretty broken down mental and physical state before, and knew I was probably reaching new heights of mental and physical exhaustion. To give you an idea of my physical and mental condition, we were covering about 1 mile per hour at one point, which is difficult to replicate if you try to go that slow. Physically my body was actually not completely depleted, but the sleep deprivation was now my biggest enemy resulting in a constant battle between my brain and body. My brain wanted to sleep, but my body wanted to keep going. This constant struggle sucked every remaining amount of energy out of me, and I had no idea how fast we were going, where we were going, or how much time had passed. Time had no meaning anymore in my mind, and I knew I was walking towards the direction of the finish that was all. I didn’t understand any instructions, advice, or information given to me. I was in essence walking unconsciously, having no recollection of doing so. But most importantly to me, I never did go to sleep!
As quickly as my mental state deteriorated, it suddenly bounced back just as fast and I was completely cognizant of what was happening, where I was, and how far I still had to go to the finish. I have no idea why or what happened to allow this switch in my brain to go off, resulting in me “waking up”. I was now aware that I was 7 miles from the finish, and was already well past my expected time for completing this segment. I was now going into the 4th morning (sunrise) Monday morning, and was now on pace to finish around 5am.
I was now so close to the finish, that nothing mental or physical would stop me from finishing as soon as possible. I had completely come out of my “fog” and knew I only had a few more miles to go, that’s all I knew and cared about. Anthony joined Dawn and I on our last 5 miles section, which seemed to be the fastest 5 miles ever. I was now approaching 68 hours of moving and being awake, 16 hours longer than I had ever stayed awake before, and 28 miles further than I had ever run. Anthony, Dawn, and I finished our 168 mile adventure just as the sun was rising on Monday, 68 hours after I had started. I had no emotional feelings other than relief that I could now go to sleep. That’s all I looked forward to, and even if there were hundreds of people waiting for me to finish (which of course there weren’t), I would have still simply desired to do one thing, sleep. Your brain is very well wired to protecting itself, and after that long of staying awake, and depriving your body of sleep, the only thing I wanted was to lay down, close my eyes, and not get back up.
I don’t know why or how I hit such a rough patch towards the middle of the last segment, but I can simply guess that it was because I was encountering new territory in sleep deprivation levels that I had never experienced before. I’m now much more aware of what my mind and body is capable of, and believe if I was in that situation in the future I could avoid the breakdown, and mentally be prepared for the mental and physical onslaught brought upon by extreme sleep deprivation.
My ability to run further and attempt more extreme challenges solely depends on my ability to stay awake and alert for greater amounts of time. Now that I know I’m capable of staying awake 70+ hours, I know my limits for distance are that much greater. Ultimately sleep deprivation will be the limiting factor in what I’m capable of accomplishing, and that’s why I decide to do all my adventures in this fashion. Once sleep is allowed than the physical abilities are endless, resulting in no limit every being pushed or tested.
I am extremely happy and content with the outcome of my experience running the TRT, and am eternally thankful to all my crew members who helped me so much and are invaluable. The biggest surprise to me about the TRT, was the lack of runnable sections (at least for my abilities), and how hiker-oriented the terrain of the TRT really is. There were countless sections of loose rock on loose rock as the only trail surface, and then others that may have been more dirt, but the steps were too far apart to run, so hiking became the fastest method of moving.
I have no regrets at all from the run, and am very happy I finally was able to complete the distance in “one go” with no sleep. I accomplished both of my personal goals: to run further than I had ever gone, which we successfully did by traveling 168.3 miles on foot, and staying awake without sleep, longer than I ever had previously done, which I was thankfully able to accomplish by staying awake for a total of 71 hours.
Thank you to my Crew: Dawn, Michael, Sarah, Eugenie, Anthony, Alison, Lauryn, Ray, Alex, Emly, Jason, and everyone who wished me luck and sent positive thoughts towards me during this difficult task! Without my crew I would never have even made it one mile, thanks to their hard work and sacrifice, I was given the opportunity to accomplish a goal I’d been attempting for a long time! I will now recover and enjoy looking back at this great adventure, and on to the next adventure which as of today hasn’t been determined?!
The race weekend started like most, we hit the road early to get to the Expo that would be held at the Prime Osborn Convention Center, to pick up our race day packets and bibs and checkout the other Expo offerings by running gear companies that were there. We arrived shortly after lunch on Saturday and headed straight to grab our packets and I was excited to see my fellow #RunDONNA Ambassador Marcia before heading into the exhibit hall. Note – My Race Recap 2 will be coming next week which I will highlight my amazing opportunity as one of the 2014 #RunDONNA Ambassadors. This race had been my first half marathon, which I ran in February of 2013 and I really loved the display of support for breast cancer patients and families that they offer for runners to be a part of. There are huge signs that are relocated on race day to the Memorial Mile on Jacksonville Beach and also a large garbage truck painted pink that we all get to sign and it is parked along the course. Sometimes the things we see are a bit emotionally overwhelming, but they bring out the huge heart of all the runners in our communities.
