Crewing Loretta at Tunnel Hill 100 was incredible! The field was packed with elite talented Ultra Runners, and Loretta had worked so incredibly hard and focused for a good part of a year to be in position to best them all!The Crew/Pacers-
Crewing a hundred mile ultra can be a bit challenging but we had a great group that was up to the task!
Long time friend Teddy Foote, who has earned the nickname “The Loretta Whisperer” for slowly talking her back into a running pace from a walk at the eighty mile mark at Hennepin last year. Nearly helped her to a win as Loretta and the eventual winner traded the lead back and forth in the last miles of the race.
Chris Heckler, Talented runner herself looking to break into the Ultra scene competitively.
Jeff Hickman, Jeff just recently found out he had a natural running ability when he out paced his date in the spur of the moment half marathon. Also known for providing jello shots and fireball on training runs.
Chris and Jeff part of Loretta’s excellent running pace group from Running Lab in Brighton Michigan, ran hundreds of miles with her in training.
Maddelynn Horn, our awesome daughter was able to take a break from her psychology studies at U of M to help out. She has really stepped up her running in the last year on the M-Run club team. and is working towards her first marathon. This summer she joined Loretta on their first long run together, ending with her beating her mom the last mile with a campus kick!
Myself, co-conspirator of 28 years and fellow empty nester. Not a natural runner but able to barely keep up on short segments. At Hennepin I joined her at the fifty mile mark for 3 miles @ 9ish minute pace. A mile in to my segment we stopped to stretch her hamstring. She then decided that we needed to make up lost time with some 7:30 pace! I was about ready to drop dead when the next aid station came into sight. Loretta told me she wanted bacon and coke as we ran up. All the camera caught was me about dying and quickly getting bacon and Coke after running only three miles! It’s for my wife, really! After she got a quick stretch in she took off strong with her new pacer, as I finished her bacon and coke!
As a crew when not pacing our job was to try to anticipate Loretta’s needs without asking too many questions and get her a fresh bottle of tailwind about every hour as aid stations allowed. This sometimes resulted in cups of unwanted snacks getting thrown back at us, lol, (sorry Chris). Loretta’s aid station stops were extremely efficient! Most were non stop handing off of supplies while in motion. She came thru surprising fast and always smiling.
Our crew was like a moving tailgate party! We had snacks and beverages for ourselves and managed time between aid stations for Chris to cook us some coffee on her camp stove. 17 hours 21 minutes and 5 seconds went by extremely fast! I have set thru many professional football and baseball games that seemed longer! We followed her progress relative to other runners on my.raceresult.com. Which added to the excitement and helped with strategy.
Loretta went out really smart at her pace, running her race as planned. She was several places back early in the race. It was so exciting to see her close the gap and pass the other runners one by one as their pace faltered and hers did not. Between the 20 and 30 mile marks Loretta would go from 7th to 3rd.
Can she finish? 33 miles in her body began to protest, probably because it hadn’t had its usual post five hour training run meal at Zukey Lake Tavern of, “I am very thirsty and hungry! Please bring me ice water with lemon, Dr. Pepper, Bells Oberon, small pizza with pepperoni, bacon and pepper rings. Extra crispy please!” Once her race machine realized it was going to have to wait for its prize, she hit her second wind! Knocking off the next almost 50 miles with the same effortless stride and smile!
By the 50 mile mark she would find herself in first as she passed her competitors with a smile and a little pace pick up to let them know she was strong! The last 20 miles would prove most grueling as her pace dropped drastically interrupted with walks and stretching sessions. We could see on the live tracker that everyone else was also slowing and she just needed to finish. Despite a late effort by Lindsay Phenix to eliminate Loretta‘s 30min lead in the last six miles, Loretta would still win by more than 10 minutes!
Three miles at Loretta’s pace plus 17 hours plus of crewing definitely requires bacon and Coke – and earns it, too!
Your reference to Loretta’s “race machine” – that’s exactly how I’ve described how she looked whenever she went by a few years ago setting the Bad Apple record. It is really something how she runs.
And for any other readers, I know from experience that Derek is an *awesome* pacer; ignore his modesty!
Great post! Keep the adventures rolling!