Sunday, June 8, 2008

Kickin' it at Kettle!

My good friends, frequent Sascha watchers, and Bendites Darla Brader and Chris Askew ran their first 100 miler yesterday in Wisconsin, the Kettle Moraine 100. After an incredible spring of hard, smart training, I knew they were fit, fast, and ready to rip it up. But, it is 100 miles, and anything can happen.

They played it smart all day long, not running too hard too soon. As the day wore on and eventually turned to night, our heroes just kept passing people and moving up in the field. We, their anxious fans, were getting updates from the webcast and their crew.

Darla did have a dark moment around the 100 km mark and contemplated dropping. But she decided to go on 7 miles to the next aid station and see if things would turn around. By 69 miles, she was pepping up again.

I went to bed last night and could hardly sleep...I was so excited to hear how they were doing. Then, finally, at about 2:20 a.m., the phone rang. By the time I woke up and realized it was ringing, it had stopped. Crap! Was it Tate calling to give me an update...was it Darla and Chris calling to say they had finished...was it their crew calling to give other news??? I didn't know, but wanted to, and could hardly get back to sleep.

Finally when I woke up I checked the webcast. This is what it showed:

Joel Eckberg 31 M 18:10:07 10:54
Mark Tanaka 41 M 20:39:37 12:24
Rick Gaston 36 M 20:40:38 12:24
Darla Brader 35 F 22:04:50 13:15
Chris Askew 37 M 22:04:50 13:15
(full results)

Yes, they kicked ass! Tied for 4th and Darla was first girl!! I was so excited when I saw it, I had to call them immediately. A quick run-down said what I thought: Darla pulled out of her funk and the two of them just kicked it in to the finish. Then, as is common at 100 mile finishes, within 2 minutes of finishing, they both completely seized up.

Chris and Darla...I am so PROUD! Congratulations! We can hardly wait to hear the blow-by-blow story.

5 comments:

I am a runner. "We are what we repeatedly do" said...

Wow! congrats to Darla and Chris. I had the pleasure of running some with them around the 20-25 mile point. They ran smart and moved well in comparison to the majority of the field. the heat/humidity/rain was rediculous and makes their finish all the more impressive.

As for you Sean....Your speed and training are AMAZING going into states. Promise me you won't do anything between now and race day to mess it up... Ie no more long runs, no more big mileage weeks. taper, taper and be ready. Then rip it up brother!

PS: don't go out with Wardian and Anton either.

I bet you run 18:30 or under.

seagull junker said...

i was "watching" them too on the net. they ran a great race to say the least. way to go darla and chris.

and sean, way to run at the dirty half. you and bronco billy showed some pretty speedy stuff also.

jenn said...

darla is my hero!
sean, sad to see you punked out of granite man...woulda been a lil' pick-me-up to pass you on the downhill...always next year...

Gary Robbins said...

Hey Sean, Gary from down at Miwok. I helped to pace my buddy down at Kettle this past weekend and the course conditions were truly epic, 90 degrees 100% humidity followed by torrential rains, thunder and lightning! Congrats to your buddies for sure!
Kick some ass at Western, I'll be following along and wishing ya well.
GR

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