Antelope Island 100
By Kristel Liddle
Kristel and her crew, Cat & Justin
I wanted a flat spring hundred miler to start the season so after waiting too long to sign up for Rocky Raccoon, I chose Antelope Island 100. I had a great training period and was a good girl, doing my track workouts and tempo runs. I was feeling good just hoping my training would pay off and I'd have a good day. The week before the race I spent with my girls at my mom’s house in Park City, UT. The weather was starting to worry me a little as it was cold and snowy, not ideal race conditions!
The Colorado crew arrived on Thursday evening and on Friday morning we all made our way over to the island. I decided I was going to try a new approach and 'run how I feel'. I’d go as hard as I could as long as I felt good doing it. The race started and it took me a while to feel warm. The first 20-30 miles felt good but then my stomach started giving me a little trouble. I pushed through it and after a bit it was feeling fine again and I pressed on. The first 50 miles passed in 9 hours and 22 minutes, during which I ran through some pretty breezy sections and a couple snow flurries. Nothing too bad and certainly much better than what was to come! At that point I picked up my awesome husband, Justin, to run the next 20 miles with me. We had a good time and kept it nice and steady. Before I knew it we were done with our loop and I had my good friend Cat waiting to pace me in to the finish over the last 30 miles.
Things were going pretty smooth until around mile 80 when we ran into a little blizzard. Snow blowing in your face with a headlamp on can be a little disorienting so I just put my head down and pushed forward. By the time we hit The Ranch (mile 83) the snow was really coming down and I was getting pretty cold. We didn’t spend much time in the aid station because I didn’t want to get too warm and cozy by the heater. So, reluctantly, we made our way back out into the cold and windy night.
At this point in the race I didn’t like looking at my watch or knowing what the time was but I kept asking Cat where everyone was. We didn't see very many people and we learned at that last aid station that many people were dropping. On our way to Lower Frary I was getting ridiculously cold as we were running and my VFuel flasks were completely frozen. I was getting a little worried about how cold I was and kept checking in with Cat to see if she was that cold as well. She fulfilled her good pacer duties and just told me to push through to lower Frary where we could spend the time to thaw out a bit.
I was so happy to get to that aid station… those guys saved me. They set me down in front of a heater, stuffed hot water bottles up my shirt, brought me hot waffles and broth, and sent me on my way with a nice warm hat and two of their jackets! I left there feeling confident I could trudge on to the finish.
I pushed on and made it thru the last rocky section and the end was finally in sight! I broke the tape with a time of 20:59 which got me first place female and a new course record. I ran most of the race in Pearl Izumi N1s which were pretty comfortable and worked well for me. I took in 1 ounce of orange sherbet VFuel (a flavor in development) every 30 minutes and drank coke and broth at the aid stations. The VFuel went down smooth and I never got sick of it. A pretty great day on a fantastic course doing what I love with great friends and family!
Crossing the finish line.
Race trophies to go with her course record!
Tags: 100, kristel liddle, race report, ultra running