Badwater. I don’t even know where to start. Yes I do – Phil McCarthy was amazing! What an athlete, what a person, what an inspiration! Phil finished 8th overall! What an experience!
Tim, Grant, Spencer and I drove down to Death Valley on Saturday. We stopped in Mojave to get gas and ran into Connie Gardner (former US National Team teammate) Shannon Farrar-Griefer of Moeben, and Deena Kastor, who was crewing for Shannon. After a hectic morning getting out of LA, seeing them in Mojave made me excited. No matter what happened, this was going to be fun!
We went to Furnace Creek to check in, but promptly realized we were in the wrong place – Phil was staying at Stovepipe Wells. Oh well, it gave us a chance to check in with David and Jamie Donaldson. My kids adore “Uncle David” so it was important that we saw them. Tim and the boys were just staying the night and heading back to LA for school, so that was their one and only chance to se them. I was glad our lodging mistake worked out!
At Stovepipe Wells, we met Phil’s family who made up the rest of his crew – his brother, Ted, his sister-in-law, Becky, and his nephews, Andrew, Garrett, and Riley. What a nice group of people! They welcomed me from the beginning, letting me know they were happy to have me. By the end of the trip, I wanted to adopt all of them and call them family!
I am going to have to write this report in 2 parts because there is so much to tell y’all about, but I’m still so exhausted, that I can’t quite get all my thoughts together. But, I want to say that the whole experience was phenomenal, and epitomizes what I love about ultrarunning – extreme challenge, adventure, camaraderie, and really connecting with yourself and the people around you. Everyone was rooting each other on – we had so many offers of assistance from competitors’s teams I was blown away – and I couldn’t help but be excited as I saw each runner progress along the course. How can you not be excited to watch someone take on that challenge and go mile by mile to the end? Even when we were in a mile by mile duel with another runner, I was so excited to see them finish I felt like I was part of their team! Where else do you find that kind of feeling? I truly think that is one of the best characteristics of ultrarunning – because of its intensity, the competition is always coupled with the support of others.
I chose the quote above because I thought I would get to the part of my report that included the “this too shall pass” piece, but alas, I am not even close. Suffice it to say, we had some very rough patches along the course, moments where I had to struggle with my own demons after Tim’s cardiac arrest on PCT last summer and my feelings of helplessness associated with it, so that I could be there for Phil and do what needed to be done without freaking out and overreacting. I promise to be more detailed, but for now, I’m just going to include some pre-race pictures, and say, that I am so proud of Phil I can hardly stand it! This guy pulled out an 8th place finish from a very close DNF – unbelievable courage, strength, and heart! I wish someone had been filming it because others could have learned so much from him.
More in a few days – after I sleep!
Happy Running!
Mom, ultrarunner, four-time US 24 Hour National Team member, adventure athlete, food writer. Graduate of the Pro Cooking Program at the New School of Cooking, Los Angeles. Will run for food.
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