Umstead 100 volunteering and photos

Yes, I'm a little behind on my writing and not much to report here. It was a pleasure to once again be in attendance at the Umstead 100 miler. I love the atmosphere of the event and it is so nice to have a weekend with so many runners that come year after year to race or help out. So many volunteers come from the NCRC as well as quite a few MTC folks. And there are always some from the clubs in the races to cheer on. I think it is so neat to see new volunteers and pacers that come out for the first time and see them become excited about the event only to return as an entrant in later years.

I started my volunteering a little later this year. I knew that I would not be pacing my normal 37.5 with Anita Fromm this year since her husband Tim would be sharing in that duty so I decided to go ahead and run my normal workout with Karla Saturday morning. It was a gorgeous day and we had a good run while watching the race and cheering on the familiar faces as we made our way through the park. Afterwards, about noon I headed over to Camp Lapihio to check in and begin my day of helping out at Sally's Asylum aid station. We had plenty of hel;p during the day so there wasn't too much to do but it was great to watch the race and give out the occasional assistance to the runners.

About 6:30 I changed clothes and prepared to meet Anita to begin her 6th lap. She had been having a good day but was a little behind her hoped for pace. She seemed in good spirits when we went out but she was already tired and not feeling too well and knew that today was not going to be a pr day for her so we just planned on having our usual good time running together and get her to the finish as comfortably as possible. We did have some fun and it was nice to get caught up since we hadn't seen each other in a year and it had been two years since last I paced her. But apparently she had been running too much too hard recently and her energy was fading fast. I hoped to keep her motivated and moving but after a break at the end of the loop she called it quits so I only got to pace her 12.5 miles this year.

I went back up to the lodge and changed clothes. I considered finding someone else to pace but there were plenty of volunteer pacers waiting for runners when I got up there and some had been waiting for an hour for someone to come in to run with. I had already run 25 miles for the day and since I'm not really in ultra shape right now I decided to just hang out in the lodge and offer any help as needed. If a friend had come in wanting a pacer and no one was available I'd have gone out. It was a lot of fun hanging out in the lodge watching the runners come in after finishing and others that were preparing to head out for another loop in the night. It was all the more pleasureable since Laura The Trail Angel was working the night shift. It has been way to long since I'd been able to see her too.

Here is a link to the few photos I took.

And here are some Laura took in the lodge