The Crew Perspective
How it all began...
Have you heard about Cocodona, it is a 250 mile race from Black Canyon City to Flagstaff? Oh yeah I have heard of it. Well, Lynn is going to do it. What is your plan? Linda says, I am going to have this camper stove and he is going to eat his hunting food. Okay, what else? What else shoud I do.....oh dear.
]\\\\Lynn does a race in Tucson and he had on a pack from Nike that he was going to use for Coco. Let's just say it is cute for a 5k, not 255 miles.
We discussed an idea of where he wanted his pace to be, some goals and we printed out the handbook. Seems easy enough....
Lynn's preparation: print out some of the pages and highlight food options at aid stations. Get out favorite orange bag. Run a lot of miles to prep.
In the days and weeks that followed I sent lists of things for Linda to get. Things for his foot care. Gear. Nutrition. SO many little things. She got everything we needed and most importantly came up with our shirt. No matter what it had to be "Where's Lynn". We are always looking for him and he is always looking for things that are his. So much that just about everything he owns is orange so it stands out to try to find it. So the shirt had to have Where's Lynn, color orange and of course DONKEYS.
I worked on the spreadsheet which involved formulas to add, multiply, compute predictions on pace and when he would be at each aide station. We did a range of 14 min miles to 30 min miles, expecting an area in between. Set up a pacer sheet. Tried to plan it all out, from point A to point B and beyond. Time of Day, everything.
Making the spreadsheet
I printed and typed up all the tips people shared on the Facebook Page, Cocodona 250 runners and the main page. I printed out each and every thing. I put it all in a plastic folder. An orange folder with page protectors with Where's Lynn written on it. This orange folder became our Bible. I had a blue one with pages that weren't as important that Linda would look at from time to time. But the orange folder. It was key to our survival. Survival is exactly the right word for this.
We made a trip to Colorado to bring the donkeys from Benson to Colorado and had a Cocodona Meeting in Lynn's parents home.
Guess what? The only thing that went to plan on the spreadsheet was that Lynn may lose his phone. (It wasn't orange) Because, he did. The rest...
This journey may wander to and fro some because the sleep dep....note, while writing this I nodded off a bit, still trying to catch up on my sleep. How much sleep did Linda and I get? About 15 hours for the week.
The plan was to use my camper as the roving crew station with Lindas vehicle for any leap frogging or when we needed to drop the camper. Seemed simple enough.
I got the camper in tip top shape ready for the adventure.
The Saturday the weekend prior to the race my bonus (step) son Matthew got sick. Seemed a simple stomach bug, vomitting, diarrhea, fever. Sunday my husband took him to the urgent care, he was sent home with antibiotics for a possible kidney infection. Monday at 0300 my husband took him to the ER, suspected appendicitis. Tuesday/Wednesday confirmed it had ruptured. Sometime Thursday/Friday determined to put in drains because there were absecces to be drained of the infection. Once it is ruptured you have to stabilize it with antibiotics before you can remove it. Plan was to stabilize it and in 6 weeks have surgery to take it out. As of this day and writing, my son has been in the hospital for 17 days. Today he had a chest tube put in to drain his lung of infection that is related to this damn appendix. He has been on multiple antibiotics and has had a fever varying from low grade to high the entire time. Each day we hope and pray it is better than the last and some new thing shows up. Up until the week following Coco only his mom and dad were allowed with him in the room due to COVID. As soon as we found out what happened and he was admitted to the hospital I told my husband, I will cancel being crew Captain for Coco. He said no. All I was doing was working or being at home worrying and not being able to help. We decided, I could worry and be helpless while helping Lynn and Linda. The decision was made, I would still get Lynn to the finish.
I got into Black Canyon City, the starting area Sunday afternoon. Lynn, Linda and their dogs Lola and Lenny would come a little later. I was nervous and excited about the journey to come. I had no idea what to expect, but to expect epic greatness would be an understatement.
While I was sitting there waiting for them to show up I was finishing listening to Jamil Coury's podcast on his experience running a 200 and how he got the idea for the Cocodona 250. He kept saying, 200 miles is really far. Yes it is. So why not just throw an extra 50, 52, 55, 56 miles on....
I got the camper set up for us to be able to sleep in for the night and in rolls the Drains. Look out world.
They are in the process of moving back to Colorado and their truck is packed with everything in various boxes, bags, buckets, totes. Their stuff for the race--in the front.
We put on our "Where's Lynn" shirts and headed to race checkin.
We got Lynn checked in and took some pics. Some girl asked us about Donkeys and we said, yeah we like donkeys but didn't elaborate. We usually do, but we were so focused on the race that we didn't want to talk about it. We had good intentions, but, we had a lot to do!!
We headed back to our camping spot and went to the task of unloading the truck. It looked like we were moving in. I am sure folks were like, wow, are they going to use all of that stuff? Well most of it.
My friend Ryan was running and he stopped by for a chat, I had offered to take his tent back to Tucson if he needed me to. He talked to Lynn about his plan and training for the race and other races.
We were able to nail down some particular boxes and got them in the camper. Nutrition of various forms. Electrolytes of various forms. Medications, creams, ointments. I put together a box called Lynn's hoof and body care. It contained all the first aide items needs to manage his feet and any ailment that may happen.
We had Lynn's clothes, all of them. Linda's clothes, all of them. We had every kind of bottle and pack available, we simply had everything. We didn't need it all, but, they were moving and well we had to put it all somewhere. My camper has two bunkbeds and so the top bunk was filled with boxes and the bottom was open for sleeping. Lenny and Lola really liked this set up!
A couple days prior Linda called and we talked about the food. She had a bunch of frozen stuff in thier freezer that she didn't want to toss out, so we decided to have her bring them and we would make something out of it all. For dinner we had some frozen italian suasage, frozen veggies, some pasta and sauce I brought. It all was working out perfectly. We also had some small margaritas....
We went to task to get things ready for an easy morning. Lynn's start time is 0550, he needs to be in place by 0505, easy to do since we were pretty close. We all tucked in for bed, but Lynn wanted to sleep on the cot outside. No problem, he usually sleeps on the cot by the donkeys so this felt normal.
In the early hours we got Lynn's feet ready with some pre-tape of hot spots. Also, a little funny photo prop from a FB post about gummy bears.
At 0300 what wasn't normal, there were the giant lights shining in the parking area waking everyone who was in direct line of sight. Couldn't have planned that would happen. We planned to wake up at 0400 and we woke up before the alarms went off. Let the adventure begin.
Pretaping hotspots
We got Lynn checked in and his SPOT tracker on him. It looked scratchy against his skin so we put moleskin on his body in an effort to protect his skin. We sent him off in his wave, which was the last wave. But there is a strategy in being last wave. There is those moments of joy as you pass a person. In Coco, that person you pass will pass you and you will pass them, a hundred times over and over, it is the way of the game.
Lynn set off on his first route. We wouldn't see him again as his crew until 37.2 miles. In those 37.2 miles he would go through 11.1 as his first AS (Aide station) and another at 33.4 then see us at 37.2. We estimated by way of the spreadsheet between 3-7pm. We joked that it would be between 14 and 16 min miles, which is 15 min miles--that is MATH. This would begin the game of, Where's Lynn and look at the tracker. Always checking the tracker and asking, Where's Lynn?
So, Linda and I felt, we have plenty of time to get to the Crown King Aide Station, AS3. We walked the dogs, we packed up the truck, we packed up the camper and we hit the road. We knew approximate times from AS to AS based off a post in the Coco page that they drove from AS to AS. Which we found very helpful. However, pulling a 25 foot travel trailer throws some dice not expected.
We left Crown King and it should be noted that I need to follow a GPS, I have a terrible sense of direction.
We left Crown King and I turned right instead of left. Took us past the Rock Springs Cafe and onto the interstate. I called Linda and said we need to turn around, but Lynn did say he wanted a cherry pie from the cafe, they have the best pies. So we would turn around and get a pie and some hard candy for him. Off and onward bound.
We get onto this dirt road that goes from being washborad to tight turns to absolute crap. I can't continue on this road with the camper. I am going to wreck the truck and camper and it is key to our survival. I look for multiple places to turn it off into a pullout without damaging the stabilizers. We find one and make the decision. We head up to Crown King.
SO happy we made the decision, It got really dicey after that and when we got to Crown King, it would have been dicey to turn around let alone find parking. Where we parked it was possible we were in someones driveway. So we parked and waited.
As we waited, we learned quickly that things have gone epically terrible from the start to where we are. Front runners expected at 1130, they didn't show up until 3 hrs later. Reports came in of running out of water. Heat exhaustion. There is a 11.1 stretch, a 22.1 mile stretch and a 4.1 mile stretch. It was very hot. We kept shifting spots for shade for the dogs.
We kept checking the tracker and we thought Lynn was lost for awhile, it is just how the tracker works.
We also wanted to see everyone else's crew set up, what they had, what they were saying. We kind of laughed at our stealthy, but, not really stealthy skills checking everyone out. It was funny.
Ryan came in, we helped get him sorted out so he could head back out. He would be joined later by some friends to help get him to the finish.
We were looking at the clock and said Where's Lynn? We thought he got lost by how sometimes the tracker would jump or stay in one spot at times, we just weren't sure if he was lost or not, which could likely happen. Given the time of day it was heading towards, he would leave out of Crown King into the night. We should make a run to the camper for night gear.
The camper was 10 miles away on a terrible bumpy road, about 35 min away. We moved a bunch of stuff into the camper to make room for stuff from the camper for Lynn. The whole week was a matter of moving stuff sometimes the same things multiple times.
We headed back up to the mountain to wait for Lynn. We saw folks come in and heard their stories.
--It was bad out there, I ran out of water, it was so hot, I laid down under some trees, I was overheated, people are really having a hard time, I tried to share my water, I don't know if I can go on, this was the hardest thing I have ever done and it has only just begun--
Crap. Where's Lynn? We kept looking at the tracker and at times it looked like he was lost, the line from way point to way point would jump and we were sure he was lost. We sat and worried and waited. We talked to other crews and the stories coming in. Coco-magedden.
We set up our 'crew station', a series of grocery bags on the hood of the truck, a chair, the dogs. Some night clothes and lights. We really had no real set up. We kept looking at other crews and we were very impressed by their set ups. We strived to do better.
We got sight of him!! Hallelujiah he is alive and he made it. We got his pack off and sat down and we went to work cooling him down and rehydrating him. We had him sit there for awhile until he drank 2 16 oz cups of water and peed.
We sent him off again, he was feeling better, ate some food, cooled off, hydrated. Off to the next spot. Camp Wamatochick, we would see him at 71.4 miles. Would give us plenty of time to get there, get settled and get some sleep. Perfect.
Down the bumpy dirt road to the camper. It is dark now. One thing I said when we were on this road is that we didn't want to be on this scary road with the camper in the dark. But here we were, in the dark.
Time to turn the camper around and just grind it out.
Truck on. Seat belt. Camper connections checked. Truck in gear. Turning. Turning. Turning. Turning.
Can't turn anymore. I am stuck. I have jack knifed the truck and trailer. I can't pull forward because of huge sand wall, I can't seem to go back for fear of damaging the trailer. I am stuck in a V, sort ot L position across the dirt road going to and from Crown King. What the f am I going to do?
We call Kevin (my husband) and Eero on what to do. Can we drop the trailer and try to get the truck out? What do we do? People pulled up and got out and stared at it and said you will need a tow truck. Said, wow this sucks and squeezed around us the best they could behind us. No help at all. The cell signal was terrible. Eero said at one point, ya'll are in a bad spot--meaning the signal, but it could mean everything. Yes, we are in a bad spot indeed. We had vehicles backing up on either side. I was crying. Linda was going around asking them for help and all they wanted was to get by us.
Linda saw this couple who were towing something and she went up to them, I see you are towing something. Can you help us? God sent us an Angel, named Ricky. He was with his partner heading up to Lane Mountain to recover runners who didn't make it to Crown King and had to be picked up.
They got out of the truck and talked with us and helped me out of the situation. One inch at a time with calm cues on which way for me to turn the steering wheel. It was amazing. So stressful. We got it back out and he told us of an area up the road that should be better to turn around at. Thank God.
We went up to the spot and Linda had to get out to make sure I didn't take the stabilizers out and we were able to turn around. What an ordeal. We got turned around and back on the road.
Linda got in Greenie and I led. I was able to get a signal and we followed the route on the GPS. Linda calls me. You are dragging something??? What now!! One of the stabilizer bars came off and was dragging on the ground. Seriously. well got it hooked back up and on the road.
Somehow we ended up on Bumble Bee road which is a paved twisty turn road, at least it was paved.
Along the way we needed to get gas and we pulled into a Circle K and fueled up. I got Linda and I these goofy glasses and she went in with her Minnie Mouse glasses, mask on and came out with two doughnuts!! I am sure the clerk thoought we were crazy. Best doughnuts ever.
We travel along through a sleeping Prescott to Camp W, we looked forward to seeing it in the morning. We get to where we are supposed to be headed and we had Linda go into the campground to check out the situation. We decided side of the road right before you go in. There were a lot of Class C RVs in there that took up a ton of room with how they were parked and it was dark, we were so tired, so the side of the road.
It was so unlevel!!! We jacked up the one side so we wouldn't roll out the door!! It was pretty funny. We figured we had at least a couple hours left and could get some sleep. In case you are keeping track...Lynn took 13 hours for the first 50K, it took us at least 7 hours to get from Crown King to Camp W because of the ordeal, the drive and setting up the camper to sleep. We set the alarms to wake us up to start checking the tracker. Started at 0545, then on the hour. We got up and headed to Aid Station at 0700, he came in at 0830. We got about 4 hrs of sleep.
However when we woke, we had deer outside the window which was a nice surprise!! Good thing we didn't let the dogs out right away.
We decided to have Lynn sleep for 3 hrs, shower (with help) it was on a slant and he would slide to one end and fall.
We went into Prescott to get some supplies while he slept. (note, he never ate these, our boys did, he didn't want any sweet stuff)
We washed some things and hung them to dry.
We got him set up again and out the door. We taped up some hot spots. Eero would be his pacer for the next two routes. We would see him on Whiskey Row, 80.7 miles.
Heather went ahead and found me a great parking area. I am sure it was illegal, but it was safe and easy.
Eero and Lynn were moving pretty easy as they came in and it was a quick turn to the next one. Not a lot to be done since it wasn't that far from the last one. Some more sunscreen and nutrition and he was on his way. Some yummy ice cream fro the crew!
Next stop was Iron King. Eero and Lynn were in some major sun for this route so we planned a little longer rest so he could cool down and we could get his night gear set up. When we were at Whiskey Row Lynn's friend, Bill came and wanted to help pace if he could so we planned on him pacing from Whiskey Row. He was so excited to do this!!
To get to Iron King seemed simple enough, but the aid station was down this road to the left and since they had done the planning for the race they have decided to do a lot of constructon and we couldn't park down there. I learned of this after I am driving to it and have to do a U-turn....in a camper.....again. I ended up going through the mud and went into 4WD and turned back around to get down the road. Linda went ahead and scoped out our area. We pulled off into a grassy area along the course.
We stepped up our game with the Aid Station set up. It was so good that the runners coming in thought it was the aid station. We felt bad that it wasn't. Heather went and got some KFC which was great. When Lynn came in he thought he died and went to Heaven. He loves KFC!!! It was so good for us too. Linda and I had a fridge full of food and never time to eat it. We got him all set up and out with Bill. We would go to Fain Ranch next, 104.4 miles. It would be dark again.
Seems simple enought to get to. I led the way. We made the turn through a gate into where the ranch was at the end of this road. Another dirt road. Easy going road. No problem.
We get down there to discover-----------------can't fricking turn around!!!! We didn't think to send Linda forward to scope it out like we have been doing. Heather texted don't come down, but I didn't see it in time. So, we had to back up about a mile to the gate. In the dark. In the travel trailer. It was so fricking dumb. I couldn't go off the sides because the drop off would take out the stabilizers. So we started backing up which I suck at. I got about a 1/4 mile when Eero stepped into help. He was there with Heather who would be joining Lynn as his pacer next. So we backed it up a mile to the gate. You can guess how fun that was, took us about an hour or so of course. We climbed in the camper to try to lay down. I think we slept, I don't remember. I have a vague recollection of us checking the tracker and saying we had more time until we didn't and he was at the aide station. We were so tired. We got down to the Aid Station, Linda drove us down and we got him set up with some more layers and food and we sent him and Heather off. It was getting so cold. I didn't take any pics.
Off to the next one, Mingus Mountain. This section may have been the hardest on Linda and I. We were so tired. Physically and emotionally tired. The drive was so rough, twisting, winding road. I was in the lead and a class C pulled off to the right, Linda called me to ask about it and I thought maybe they were pulling off for us to go by. We keep driving this treacherous turning road with the camper and the whole time I am gripping the steering wheel taking deep breaths to not freak out. Then, what the hell, we are in Jerome????? I called Linda and I was like, why are we in Jerome?????? I put in the handbook, under no circumstances will the camper be in Jerome. I repeated it. So many times. The camper can't go to Jerome, the parking, the narrow roads, the tight turns. Yet, here we are in fricking Jerome with a Prius behind me while Linda and I were talking on the phone what to do. The Prius wouldn't move. It got in the way a few times so it was no shock it was just sitting there. I look up where the aid station for Jerome is and there is an area we can pull off at by the mine. I considered turning around and us heading back to Mingus. But we talked about it and decided we would use Greenie and head up. We were both so tired and didn't really plan well for the next stop, we just wanted to get there. We were worried about missing Lynn. It was unspoken, but, under no circumstances did we want Lynn to come into an aide station without us there. We checked on the way up the mountain Where's Lynn?
We drove there with the music blasting to stay awake. Little known fact, Linda is a huge 90's Rap music fan. She can hit the scan button on the radio and find a station anywhere. We sang all kinds of songs besides her rap. It was the highlight of the night for sure. I still giggle.
Then we saw it; that right hand turn was where we were supposed to turn. I was so focused on the road, I missed the sign. I felt bad. But, once we got up there, it would have been tricky. It was dark, we were tired, we may have had another terrible incident. So Linda and I and the dogs slept in the truck for like 20 minutes like homeless people and then we headed to the aid station.
Lynn and Heather got into Mingus safely. They reportedly saw a possum or racoon on their journey. The aid station crew were great. One of my friends Tom from Tucson was there and it was good to chat with him.
Lynn announced how tired he was and wanted to lay down. He tried to lay down under the table.
They have a great sleep station there, showers too. Had Linda and I had better wits about ourselves we would have planned this better. Now we know. They saw Lynn laying under the table and they let him sleep in the sleep station and Linda too. She was joining him for the next leg. I was happy they were going to get some sleep. It had been such a long road so far and we were wiped. Heather and Eero left and we would meet up with them at Deadhorse, after Jerome.
I left with the dogs driving Greenie back to Jerome. On the way a mountain lion ran in front of the truck and jumped over the guardrail. Scared the crap out of me. I drove like 20 mph after that! I thought for sure when I got to the camper there would be a note saying I couldn't park there. Jerome was super sensitive with their permits. No sounds, no cheering, no pictures, nothing. So parking the camper outside of the aid area I was freaking out. I got there and no note. However, I locked Greenie and managed to set off the panic alarm. Seriously, horn going off at 3 am. I got it shut off, dogs peed and we climbed into the camper to sleep.
I slept about 2-3 hours and checked the tracker. Where's Lynn and Linda. We had told Bill an estimated time of arrival would be 8am, so I was awake for when he got there. I decided to rework our timeline sheet. The cut off times had changed since the starting 50K went so terrible for everyone. So many DNF from that section alone. So I wanted to put it all together again for the next couple of days. It took all my brain power to work on that.
Bill got there and we talked for awhile and Linda messaged that they were burning up.
We didn't have his hat, sunscreen, glasses when we went to Mingus. They slept for 2.5 hours and left in the daylight. Bill helped me get the generator out to get the camper cold to cool them down. When Lynn and Linda got in he laid down inside and cooled down and Linda napped on the cot outside.
We put some moleskin on the bottom of both feet and lukotaped them. He was showing some areas of concern on his feet, but they looked better than some of the others we had seen. I texted the crew and told them the plan, we were getting Lynn back out at 2:00, getting through the hottest part of the day. Bill would join him going down into Dead horse and the water crossing. They left at 2:01 and we made the trek to Dead Horse. He was at 126 miles.
We drove to Dead Horse, we couldn't park at the aid station, it was full so we parked at the Lagoons. We were able to dump the poop tank (shitter's full) from the camper and Linda and I took showers in up at the campground. We felt a lot more human after that. We had just enough time to get stuff together to take to the aid station and get Lynn back out there with Heather. He was doing so well. Next stop was Deer Pass which was pretty close.
We drove out and dropped the camper off, after Linda scoped it out!! From there we drove back into Cottonwood to get some food. Sonic for the win. We had been in communication with Chris who was coming down from Colorado to pace Lynn, he was going to meet us at Deer Pass and stay the night there. We got things set up for Lynn to come in. Heather brought some pizza which Lynn was happy about, heck we all were!!. We got him cleaned up and ready for night running. He went out with Eero and we had an idea of when he would be at the Church in Sedona. Chris who has done a multitiude of 100s and 200s was concerened about our crewing until he saw us and was way impressed. Linda and I felt pretty proud of that...he didn't see the first one with grocery bags on the hood of the car and getting tips on the right things to say.
Sunset at Deer Pass
At this point we found out about the "projected time" area on the tracker. Everyone kept talking about it and we had no idea how they were coming up with this number!! We decided we would stay in Deer Pass for the night. We were so tired. We set our alarms to wake us at 115 am. We had our best sleep that night, we got in 4 hrs. It was supposed to be 3.....
Lola the dog was sleeping with me. She was licking and cleaning herself and woke me up. I kept saying, no Lola, stop honey. Then I woke and looked at my watch, 2:05 AM!!!!! Crap. Look at the tracker. Where's Lynn.... We gotta go. Linda, Linda wake up, we got to go.
We got the camper cleaned up (meaning we threw all the stuff on the bed and hoped it would stay there) and ready to roll. Linda knocked on Chris' truck and told him we are leaving for the Church in Sedona. He told us later he had never seen a camper peel out before...we were on a mission, beat Lynn to the aid station.
We got to the Church and got parked quickly and crooked...then went to the aid station, just in time to meet him. Success. We didn't miss him. We got him back to the camper for a rest. His next route would be a long one without crew access. It would be 21 miles with an aide station in the middle. Chris would be going with him. I think we had him shower, I can't remember. He slept for 3 hrs. We had to do some logistics with getting Chris' truck driven out to Cinder Pit because when he got done with the next two routes he would need his stuff in his truck. Since they were going out for a 20 mile stretch we had time to get out there.
Or did we.... The directions on how to get there were not correct. It said 5.6 from the main road and it was closer to 10.5 so we turned back several times thinking we missed a turn. Took us a long time to figure it out. Longer than we wanted. We got his truck dropped off, may have eaten a couple of his snacks and headed over to Black Tank aid station for when they would come in.
Something to note is that Lola and Lenny are the best travel dogs. They would just find a position to lay and just roll with it. No matter how bumpy the road, how tired, how loud the music, any of it, they just went with it!!
We had a hard time finding black tank, we passed up the road, which was forest road C and we were at D so we needed to go back. We laughed and said C comes before D and that is the ALPHABET. We got there as they were coming along the road which was cool to see. We haven't seen him on course, just at the aid stations. When they came in, he was super over heated. We iced him down and got him to rest there for awhile, at least an hour just cooling him down. Took care of his feet, refueled him. He had another 20 mile route ahead of him and we wanted to get him rested and recharged. He had a 3K climb ahead of him too. Chris remarked we were like NASCAR getting him sorted out. He is our focus. Do what we need to do to get him out. Kristin Clark had joined us from Sedona and was having fun helping other people. We were thankful for her hatchback to get out of the heat. I was currently rocking one hell of a migraine, heat, stress, dehydration...all the time with taking care of crewing, checking with home about Matthew. Whenever I had a moment I was calling home.
We headed back to the Church to move the camper to Ft Tuthill. Of course there was traffic and issues.
We ate some food, washed some gear and hung it on the make shift clothing line and tried to lay down for a little bit.
We set a ton of alarms and made sure the volume was loud. We would wake on the hour, look at the tracker and call out another hour, then another hour. I think we slept 2-3 hours and then onto Cinder Pit where I would join him. We got there and it was so cold. I was thankful we brought extra layers for Lynn. We also brought his sleeping bag and pillow so he could lay down for an hour before we headed out.
We all sat around the fire and talked with other crew and runners and their experiences. Lynn had a running buddy he made along the way, Saul. Him and his wife were asleep in chairs by the fire. We told their crew that Lynn was laying down for an hour and we would be heading out. We nicknamed Saul, Velcro. Lynn was connected with him wanted to make sure he was okay. When I woke Lynn up to go and he wanted to sleep longer. He spoke in different languages and the only word I got was Saul. I said he is resting, it is okay. Let's get you going. Filled him up with Ramen, pancakes and motivation to get this thing done. Albeit Lynn asked about Saul at this point, he also asked about Matthew. He also asked about any Burro News. We started preparing ourselves for the updates. We also prepared ourselves for the other facts he would ask, how far, how many people, time of day etc. we would feed him information as we could.
I also took pics of the route etc if anything were to come up I could tell him about it.
What we didn't tell Lynn at that point is that we were concerned about the cut offs and the huge climb up Mt Elden. We wanted to create as much of a buffer as we could. He couldn't rest any longer than an hour, we had to keep moving. Eero had done the math and about his pace and he needed to either pick up the pace, or it will be really close. So as his pacers, we needed to motivate him to go a little bit faster, in the 21-22 min pace window which was entirely doable. With understanding of course he was at 204 miles. However, Linda and I didn't come up that he was getting close, Eero is the numbers man. He said one of the most profound and kindest things.
"Your husband is the smartest man I know. He has this race dialed in and is the smartest runner I know. He knows exactly what he is doing and he is doing exactly what he should be doing."
We know that we kid with Lynn losing things, but, he is the smartest and best logistician we know. I kept this in mind.
We set out into the darkness. Sleepy. Cold. Searching for flags. Talking about the race and future plans. Telling stories. Looking at the moon in the trees, stars shining and birds announcing the start of the day coming. I gave him some caffeine pills and Saul's wife gave him some caffeine gum and they took some too. This route had a smallish climb and then it would smooth (compared to the rest of course) downhill. I told him he could gain some time on this and that the slight climb we had was over. I was encouraging him to run a little here and there. On one run, I fell. It was funny really. He was so concerned on what rock did it. Once identified he poked it with his pole and we moved on. Thanks Lynn!
Then he wanted to get in front of me to run, absolutely. It is your race. He took off like rocket fuel got in him. Honestly, I couldn't keep up. I fell again and rolled my ankle. I think I was more tired than I thought. I texted the crew that I lost him. The tracker stopped tracking him too. Crap. I knew we made it past the critical turns for this section so I knew he would be okay.
Video of Lynn running very well!!
Funny story, everyone on the crew runs with donkeys. To slow a donkey you have to get in front of them, so they were all telling me to get in front of him. Turn him in a circle to slow him down. Not so easy. He is in Muzzy-Mode, Muzzy is the donkey who Lynn runs with. He is a fast donkey!! Lynn was in Muzzy-Mode. I did say at one point, out loud, all alone..."Loose donkey". That is what you say when a donkey gets away from you, well mine got away. It was kind of funny because I said that he donkeyed me. I mean I did try to get him going when he didn't want to and it is a donkey's world. It was with no hesitation that I was happy to see him ride that magical wave of knowing you are getting close to the end. He was smelling the hay in the barn. It was awesome and awe inspiring!!
Our crew caught him as he went by the camper at Ft Tuthill and I came in a little while later. We did a quick turn for him, a small nap. He said he wasn't sleeping, he was....
Addressed his feet, at one point he asked if I was mad at him stabbing his blisters. No Lynn, proud as shit of you, but, yes I need to drain this blister. I also made a toe condom, you put some cotton in the end of a finger of a glove, coat the toe in antibiotic and put it on the toe. Tape it on. Keep the toe protected and puts some cushion there. Linda text Kevin and said, "Just so you know, there's some guy in your bed and your wifey is putting a condom on him!" Crewing isn't always pretty and it isn't always sane!!! We turned him loose with Eero. The next route would be with Linda, his last one!!
We got Linda's gear ready, Lynn's night gear ready and cold weather gear. Fed Linda and we were going to take a little rest. But, damn, Lynn was cruising. No time to rest. So we downjacked the camper and headed Walnut Canyon to send off Lynn and Linda for the 21 mile trek up and down Mt Elden and into the finish.
We had to do some training with Linda on how to use the poles! No way would we send her out without the poles.
Eero and Lynn coming in
Eero and Lynn came in and we got Lynn all fueled up and sent him out. I forgot his hats and buff!! I was so upset I forgot it. Turns out they found one out on the trail all crumpled up under a bush. Looked like a kid dropped it, it was small but fit on his head. Thank god for small mercies.
After we got them sent off I headed back to Ft Tuthill and got some food and worked on putting all of Lynn and Lindas stuff together in the camper and all of my stuff where it was supposed to go. Tried to clean it up and get some sleep. I was too excited for him to finish and kept checking the tracker. Where's Lynn!! I slept about an hour I think.
I headed to the finish line at Heritage Square at 1130 at night in Flagstaff. Chris was there already. Heather and Eero came later with Cherry Pie, Champagne, Sparkling Cider, and plates. Funny story about the Cherry Pie. We got him a Cherry Pie from Rock Springs Cafe from a place near the start of the race. We put it in the big cooler in the back of the truck ON the ice. Well a billion bumps, miles, and heat later, guess what sank in the water like the Titanic, that is no longer ice. The pie. We cried a little as we poured the water out. Lynn said, we can save it. Just dry it out. No Lynn. That isn't how it works. He still feels it could have been saved. No Lynn.
While at the finish line I checked lost and found for Lynn's phone, there were a couple others, not his. They did post later after the race some other cell phones found and his was one of them. Lynn losing his phone was the only thing we had correct on the spreadsheet that we had right. I will address the spreadsheet later.
Being in "the square" as the locals call it attracts some interesting people. A gentleman who was either drunk or high tried to pick a fight with Chris. A lot of people walking by were like, what is this going on and the looks on thier faces when we would tell them was classic.
Being there at the finish is emotional. Seeing runners come through into the arms of thier friends and family, tears streaming down your face. I cried with each one as they crossed. We all cheered them in. It was such a powerful emotional experience to witness. We all joked, I am not crying, you are.
Where's Lynn????
We kept checking the tracker. They were getting closer. We were so dang excited. We paced around and made small talk.
Where's Lynn?? They are like a half mile away. We stand together looking down the road for them to come in and get our cameras ready.
Lynn and Linda come crusining in like he was finishing a 5K and not 256 miles!! Absolutely amazing. I had tears running down my face. I am so proud of him. So poud of our entire team on what they did to get Lynn to the finish.
Lynn was cool, laid back, happy the whole time. He never hit rock bottom with us. He dealt with the demands to drink water and eat even when his belly was full. He dealt with not getting more sleep and me stabbing his toes to drain his blisters. He dealt with all of the challenges, the climbs, the sleep deprivation, the heat, the cold, the terrain. He is amazing. So proud to call him my friend. I would support him through any adventure!! He has helped me with learning to run with donkeys, even when the donkey is running at mach speed, he taught me how to hang on. He has taught me how to be patient with donkeys and how to be fearless around them. He has a giant heart and cares for everyone. Doing this adventure with Lynn and Linda was life changing.
Linda is even more amazing. She handled the same challenges and set backs and unknowns with GRACE. We dealt with so many obstacles and it was never far from mind the worry she was having about her husband pushing through such pain and obstacles. I wanted to be on my A game not to just get Lynn to the finish safely, but to reassure Linda he was going to be okay. Linda and I laughed so hard so many times during this that we had tears rolling down our cheeks. We got frustrated, we laughed, we laughed some more...we didn't get mad at each other, we rolled with it. If there is one thing that is constant with crewing is that the "plan" will be every changing. You have to be flexible, or you will fail to get your runner to the finish and your friendship will absolve.
Some moments that i can't put into order when they happened. Pics from our crew, moments.
Through out this adventure I was in contact with Kevin and my family about Matthew. My brother in law Grant and other my other bonus son William dressed in orange in support. William stayed with them while Matthew was in the hospital when Kevin and Noelle needed help.
Again, through out we had Matthew in our thoughts and part of this event. Kevin and Matthew would watch the live feed and the tracker. One of the competitors had a tricky name so we thought we would see how Matthew would pronounce it. He is kind of a genus, so we knew he would excel. Little did we know that Lynn and Linda would be running with her and learn she goes by "Tiger". Cool.
Now this set of pictures
Foot care was my number one concern for Lynn. I don't know that I have been so close to a set of feet besides my family before. Lynn's feet and I have a close relationship. Linda took a pic of me making a "toe condom" on his baby toe. It was pockets of blisters and I was worried for infection and the pain. So I put cotton in the end of a cut off piece of glove, coated in neosporin, drain bilisters and attach to toe. Helps protect toe with cushion and with infection. Linda though, sent a funny message to my husband!!
Top 10 things learned on how to be a crew for a crazy massive race like Cocodona
10. Educate yourself on the course, know the elevation gains and losses, terrain, turns, key points. Break it down for your runner each section at a time. Aid station to Aid station is the angle to take. Not you have 200, 150, 100, 50 miles to go. Use a mapping system that can be done offline to get to the aid stations. We got turned around several times and couldn't find the forest roads. We realized far too late in the game we could have just used CALTOPO that we all had for the route, which could be used offline.
9. Have an idea on what mph pace means. I know this sounds so basic, but, for me I am a min per mile pace person and really had to adjust my thinking to mph. I mean I know if I drive 60 mph, I will get to the next spot in one hour. Take that down to 2, 3, 4, 5.5 mph etc. and that throws the mind off a bit. Hence why Eero helped with the math.
8. Be flexible and ready to change your "plan" at any time. In this kind of event, there are so many variables that to try to stick to a plan will set not only you as the crew up for failure, but will project onto the runner that they are failing.
7. Educate yourself on foot care, be ready to get up close and personal. There are a lot of great resources and books out there on foot care. Educate yourself. Be the armor your runner needs. I said it a hundred times, your feet will make or break this race. Change socks every chance you get, swap out shoes. Deal with any hot spot. I would push on his feet and if anything kinda hurt it was taped or dealt with. A tip we got from another which I think was awesome is to wash the feet in a basin each time. Brilliant. But, stay on top of foot care.
6. Organization. We did the best we could. There were many, like every time, we would go through all the bins looking for something. Organize it all prior. Nutrition. Hydration. Medication. First Aid. Foot Care. Lubes, chapsticks, sunscreen. Socks. Warm gear. Cold gear. Lights, battery packs. Have a go-pack for if you need to get into an aid station where you can't get your rig into.
5. Food and hydration for crew. We were so focused on Lynn we didn't take care of ourselves. Have a cooler in your second vehicle for sandwiches, water, etc. We got so dehydrated and were starving so often.
4. Have 2 vehicles, one is the main hub, the other is the shuttle or scout. Would definitely make sure that the second vehicle has a high clearance, SUV, truck etc. chances are, aid stations will be on remote forest roads.
3. When your runner gets in, think of it like NASCAR. Get the pack off. Your focus is them, not talking with the aid station peeps and other runners, it is all on them. Get the pack, get them sat, loosen the shoes, fill the bottles/bladder, get them food and more food and a little more, get them hydrated, cooled down, sunscreen, lube, warmed up, laid down if it is a rest, massage legs, foot care... Be 100% focused on them. For the last xx miles they have focused on getting to the aid station, don't be an ass and control them, but, they have an expectation that they don't need to worry about lube, sunscreen, their pack etc. because you are there. If they had a pacer, communicate with them on what the runner wants to eat etc. Be ready with that. If it is a point that you know they need a little pick me up (enter in Heather with KFC and pizza) then do it.
2. Pacers/whole team crew. Create a group text and for your pacing team have some experienced ultra/longer distance runners. Don't throw a 5K road runner in there. Don't throw a first time trail runner, a first time heat/cold runner, first time climber. Nothing is more crappy than a pacer that the runner has to feel responsible for. This didn't happen with us, but it does happen and worth mentioning here. Don't have your pacers become a hinderance to your runner's success. We had a pacer for every leg that Lynn could have a pacer. We saw so many runners out there who didn't have a crew or pacers and the longing in their faces at the crew and pacers was sad. It was heartbreaking really. Not to be partial, but a crew and pacers are a must for first timers at least. I don't know, I don't want to step on anyone's toes but, from several runners they wished they had a crew.
1. HAVE FUN. This is an adventure. It is meant to not go to plan. It is meant to suck and be hard sometimes. There will be highs and lows. There will be frustrations and tears. But, it is also a hell of a lot of fun. When I drove to the start on Sunday I had no idea or expectations of the week to come. I was excited, nervous, scared and exhilerated to be part of some major epic event. Linda and I had so much fun. It was exhuasting, but the good kind of exhaustion. We had a lot of FUN!! When I drove home back to Tucson, I passed all the exits and places from where we went. It was surreal the distance Lynn covered and how we got to him.
As we sat around eating pie, drinking champagne and cider, I looked around to this crew and I was just in awe. What a gift to bring us all together to celebrate the finsih of an epic journey. The greatest human potential on display over the previous days. That pie tasted a little sweeter, the bubbly a little more bubbly.
We got back to the camper around 3 in the morning and all crashed and slept until 8. It was time to get up and moving, get Lynn in the shower so we could all get some breakfast with our crew team and with Becky Lynn and her husband Jeff. We decided on the cracker barrel. Lynn used the trekking poles as a joke to get into cracker barrel. His feet were looking like they had done some serious stuff, not terrible though. The one baby toe took on another life form at the end of the toe! The thing that hurt the most was his knee. Not too bad.
Lenny tried to help his feet before we soaked them and got the tape off.
We all sat around swapping stories of the race and other adventures. To other patrons we probably looked like a group of friends just laughing and having fun, not knowing the magnitude of awesomeness that Lynn and Becky Lynn accomplished. The community of ultra runners and burro racers is a special thing to be a part of. Pretty fricking awesome. I am sure Lynn ate enough food for 2 people and he was still hungry afterwards.
Walking into Cracker Barrel using the sticks
But, we had to head back to camp and pack up the truck and I needed to head home to Tucson. Lynn and Linda were staying in a hotel that night. A real shower, a tub, beds and rest before they make the trip home to Colorado.
When we got to the camper area, the wind had blown some stuff around and the parking lot was filling with day use folks doing the zip line, hiking and biking the trails.
Linda got her fingers stuck on this pole that we lost multiple times. Took WD40 to get her fingers out.
We came up with the title, Redneck Ultra runners. It was a funny sight for sure. Added in that I still needed to empty the shitter tank. Can't get any more classy than that.
We got Greenie loaded up against Lynn's plans of sleeping forever. He helped me empty the shitter tank. We talked a lot on the course and through out the days leading up to and after about one pretty big thing.
He asked me why I like to run. Over the sound of the shitter emptying, it is because you can disconnect from the world and reconnect with yourself. He looked at me and nodded, exactly and asked...
Would you do this? Would you run Cocodona?
It got me thinking, not just once, but mutliple times in leading up to this before Lynn and Linda shared their idea of a plan....
What if I did this? Could I? Can I? Will I?
It looks hard as hell. It is hard as hell. It detroyed people. Will it destroy me? Can I do this?
If you were wondering about Matthew, he is home now. After 22 days in the hospital for a burst appendix, two drains in his body to drain abscesses, a chest tube to drain fluid from around his lungs, multiple antibiotics, 25 days of having a fever, massive rash from the prep for the chest tube, he is home. He came home on Wednesday, on Thursday he went to the school and gave his graduation speech to the school, 4 times. He is the class president and due to COVID, there were 4 ceremonies. So he stood before them and gave such an amazing speech, 4 times. He was also awarded Student of the Year, Outstanding Academic Excellence, and Membership to the National Honors Society. He is an amazing 14 year old. He has completed Bataan Memorial Death March (Marathon commemorating the survivors of the Bataan Death March in WWII), 4 times. He is an amazing young man with drive and perseverance to rival anyone. He inspires me to be a better human, friend, mother. He has appendectomy surgery planned for 2 June. We are planning a trip to see Lynn and Linda in June, so he should be healed up and recovered for us to see them.
So, if Matthew made it through all of this, the answer is, yes, I can and will do Cocodona in '22.
I turn 50 in 2022, Lynn did it, I can too, I will need to work incredibly hard over the year to get ready.
50 is nifty especially while doing something epically shitty. Game on Cocodona '22. Game on!!
Thanks for reading, from The Crew Perspective. It was awesome to see everyone out there working thier but off not just running, but the volunteers, crews, family, pacers, friends and ultimately the runners. Amazing to witness and be a part of!!
Update---Lynn sometimes sleeps a lot. In the bath even...
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