My first time as a true "pacer" for an ultra run event was the Rocky Raccoon 100-miler in Huntsville. I accompanied Bob Botto on his last 20-mile loop. I'll be honest, I was pretty worried about going for 20 miles! The longest run I have done in like a year was the 25k (15.5mile) trail at Bandera this Jan, and I walked a lot of that (the uphills). I know Bob, and he's a solid runner, no matter what the distance, so I thought, 'Gosh, I hope I don't slow HIM down!' His other pacer Sema Beavers and I, both rookies at this pacing thing, nervously discussed our concerns as we waited for Bob to come through from his 3rd lap when Sema would then join him as his first of two pacers for the run. We thought, 'What if we get blisters?!' We agreed, 'If that happens, we'll have to suck it up, b/c this is about Bob and we can't have him taking care of us!'

Sema and I were keeping warm in the tent when we heard Bob yell out his number to the Aid Station workers. I jumped up and out of the tent to confirm it was him. I knew that he would be looking for us so didn't want him searching for us. Bob was looking strong at this point. He was so happy to finally have someone to keep him company at mile 60 and beyond. We joined Sema in Bob's well-organized giant tent and Sema tried helped him get ready for his second-to-last lap. He looked as fresh as if he'd only run 10 miles! We were asking him all kinds of questions: "How many layers are you wearing? Should we wear a hat?" I think we were getting more help from him than we were giving to him! Bob changed out of his damp clothes into some fresh dry layers, grabbed a couple of fresh lights (headlamp and hand-held light), ate a bit of fruitcake, grabbed a full bottle of maple syrup...and he and Sema were off!

I got dressed in my running clothes and then crawled into my sleeping bag on one of Bob's cots and tried to sleep for a bit until they returned. I heard a lot of cheering of the 5+ hrs while they were out running miles 60-80. I think the winners might have finished then, b/c it was like a party going on for a bit w/ so much screaming... I felt I should get up and join, but I didn't want to get out of my warm cocoon! I heard a couple of other runners come in from their 4th lap as they got ready in the tents next to me.... One gal, Kim, I think, sounded so focused and strong and confident; I thought, 'This girl knows what she's doing!' Another guy, Les, commented about having vision problems. I later learned he went partially blind due to hyperglycemia (?). I saw him finish-amazing determination as he finished that whole last lap alone w/o a major tumble w/ impaired vision!--and his pupils were nearly non-existent, I guess they contract as a result of the high blood sugar (?)... This was a new ailment to me.

Back to Bob...Well, unfortunately, somewhere before mile 80, he started getting blisters on the balls of his feet and they were causing him a lot of pain. Poor Bob was in a rough state when he came into the transition for his last 20-mile lap. The opposite of what he was like when he came in for his previous lap. He was completely quiet and looked almost defeated coming into TA this time. Back in the tent, Sema attempted to wrap up the blisters w/ some padding. I didn't know what to do for blisters other than moleskin, which hasn't worked for me in the past. I had heard of the Ultra Runner's remedy--super glue. Oddly enough, Bob wasn't familiar w/ the super glue method. So, I didn't go that route. I'd actually never used super glue before either and didn't want to make things worse experimenting w/ it. I figured (hoped) that if things did get worse, that the volunteers at the aid stations might have some good suggestions.

So, off we hiked for one last lap. A little bit of jogging on the downhills there at first...by the end, the downhills hurt Bob's tired quads and blisters too much to jog.

We made it to the first aid station where Bob asked if I would help take the padding and wraps off his feet b/c they were bothering him. The folks at the aid station suggested trying duct tape (NOT the sticky side on his skin, rather away, just as a protective non-friction layer). Bob was open to anything that might help at that point. So, here I go taking off his shoes, stinky socks, and unwrap and rewrap his poor beat up feet. The folks at the aid station were like "Man, you are the best pacer ever! I want you to be my pacer!" I replied, "Hey, I'm an adventure racer, I'm used to being helped and helping out....even to the extent of fixing people's feet!" Funny enough, one of our former AR trainees, Jill Bauer (I think that's her name), was there working that aid station and she recognized me and confirmed the AR team mentality. Then, we were ready to go, and I said to Bob (he was kinda getting forgetful by this point) "Do you have your water bottle? Your glasses? Your flashlight? Hot chocolate?..." Then I looked to Jill and smiled and said "Got our passport? How about our map? Teammates?!" ARing trains you for all kinds of things!

Anywho, so Bob and I slowly made our way through the Huntsville trails. The two out-and-backs were the roughest for him mentally. Plus, they seemed to be the hilliest and muddiest. Each time we'd get through a particularly hilly or muddy section on an out-and-back, I'd say, "That's the last time you'll see that! No more of it!" Bob was happy to hear that! He was accepting of any and all forms of motivation. I'm typically not a huge cheerleader when I race, so I was trying to think of things to say that kept him going. I found that getting him to tell stories really helped perk him up and make the miles go by faster for both of us. He liked telling and acting out the stories and I enjoyed hearing them. Though, I don't know about the horror stories in the dark! ;) The last few miles seemed like forever for both of us. Bob had started at 6 AM Saturday, and I joined him at 2:30 AM Sunday....here we had made it through the dark and very very cold hours w/o getting sleepy, through a beautiful sunrise, and into what was seeming like maybe a nicer day. The daylight did help to perk us up. But the sleepies were starting to creep in. Bob started counting down every half-mile, each which seemed like a mile!

We, finally stumbled across the finish line at 9:30 AM, 7 hours after I joined, and 27:31 hours after Bob started! He was SOOOO tough to endure those painful blisters for 20+ miles!

I got some great ideas from Bob in his tent set up in transition as far as how to set things up and organize and things to have (e.g. disposable hand warmers are the best. Also, I never would've guessed that a run would require so much stuff! But if you think about having to change clothes each lap (b/c they were sweaty wet and it was to darned cold out to be in wet clothes), that's like 5+ sets of clothes (an extra set at one of the aid stations) that are multiple layers thick b/c, like I already mentioned , it was really cold. Bob only went through two pairs of shoes the whole time, which surprised me. He took maple syrup in addition to (or maybe instead of) the Hammer Gels! I recall Bob saying, "Hammer hasn't quite figured out this one!" Wow, talk about a sugar punch! Bob only ran w/ one water bottle (compared to me and my usual ARing running w/ like a tank of water on my back!). I only had a water bottle too for this run, thankfully. The aid stations were 4-5 miles apart and they were well stocked w/ a variety of food and drinks, plus it was pretty cold so we just didn't drink as much... I drank more hot chocolate than water! MMMMMM, it tasted sooo good!