Mt Whitney Zone Forums General Discussion Wild Wild West Marathon - May 7th

I wasn't really planning on you posting the GPS info unless there is a compelling need for it. I just know we have some other marathoners on the board and a few guys who are wizards at manipulating GPS files who might enjoy seeing the course profile information. I will try to email the link to you tonight.

Kent

Are you serious??? Run uphill and walk downhill. OMG, that would kill me....you all would be holding a funeral for me after the marathon if I did that. I can walk 26.2 without hills (maybe one hill, but that' it). Best of luck to you and Wazzu....I won't be at the WWWM, but I'll be thinking about you and anxiously awaiting a post after you cross the finish line. I sure hope you get a medal for all you effort.

Thanks for the well wishes. Walking uphill puts less pressure on my new hip. The problem is that it's uphill the first 5 miles until we cross Whitney Portal Road at about 6400 feet. Then it's pretty much downhill for another 10, then rolling hills and then the DREADED "Mother Hill" at the 18 mile point. Then a nice relaxing stroll through Alabama Hills (not real relaxing as at this point you really want to be done.) Then back on to Whitney portal road for about 1/2 mile, make a left and stroll through soft sand and chaparral till we get back to Tuttle Creek Campground.

No Medals.....it's actually made of ceramic. But, you do get a t-shirt for your $70.00!

That cracked me up because one of the sponsors of the WWW Marathon is the Mt. Whitney Funeral Home.

I wanted to know the course and could not find anything online. I called the Lone Pine Chamber of Commerce and was sent a very nice 4 page color brochure with beautiful pictures of Mt Whitney, the Alabama Hills, movie road, etc, with a very nice map of the course inside. Each picture on the brochure has a name of a sponsor. The Mt Whitney Funeral home is on the front page. I've been wondering what I committed myself too ever since.

OMG I would LOVE to do this. Unfortunately...don't the best excuses always start that way...I can't be in LP that day.

Trails are the best and with a little altitude thrown in, a complete endorphin-rich headrush of epic proportions.

Haven't run that far in..well...long time but so what...if I can get free that day y'all can just drag me across that finish line.

Have fun!

Wazzu,

Thanks for sharing the funeral home sponsorship info. How enterprising of them to sponsor this event..... I think it's fantastic AND FUNNY! I'm really jealous that I can't join all of you. I've walked many marathons and I'm sure with enough training I could have walked this one too. Oh well, maybe another year.

QS mentioned the medals are ceramic and this fact jogged my memory. I believe I heard somewhere that the Lone Pine High Schoolers hand make the medals....what a special medal that would be to have. Maybe QS can teach the high school kids some sculpting techniques and help them design some new medals with some new materials. The QS touch would be just the midas touch to bring even more runners to the Wild Wild West Marathon. Hey, I'll be dancing to that song at Stagecoach this weekend, there's a great dance to the tune of Wild Wild West.

Good luck and remember "no cheating", and no cutting across trails, you have to do all 26.2 miles, and be sure to post lots of pictures from the marathon,or as wagga would say, "no pictures, it didn't happen".

Thanks....it should be interesting. I did 18 miles on Saturday and wazzu did 20 on Saturday. I've been working out for a while, can do 12 to 15 miles easy, lost a decent amount of weight and am hoping for the best.

Yea, I understand about the "no pictures" thing. Wagga still doesn't believe the thing about me and Scarlet Johansson :-)

I have the LiLo pics - I thought you were a classy kinda guy.

Go get em men! Have a great run and let us know how it goes.

Kent

You guys are animals! I love it!

Longest I've ever done in my life running is a half marathon. My brother and I would drop cones every mile out of Badwater and run back. Always in July and always with a noon start. Sounds kinda tough, but it isn't really. We had a support van with wet towels, water, Gatorade, and anything else we could have needed. Still, a 1/2 is all I've ever been able to do.

Maybe someday I'll a full marathon.................DUG

Ditto - wazzu, Joe, have a great time!

I'm going to follow wazzu's suggestion of giving Joe a wake-up call at 4:30 am tomorrow (7:30 my time) and wishing them luck. Having backpacked on Whitney with Joe, I have first-hand experience with the degree to which Mr. Q hates the very early morning.

SirHikeAlot, welcome to the board.

I wouldn't be so quick to draw too close a parallel between hiking and distance running. Similar, possibly. Predictive, no. Some do both well, while some do one well and not the other. A lot lies in whether it's an activity you enjoy. Personally, I'll strap a pack on and hike all day happy as a lark, but I absolutely despise the thought of putting on a pair of running shoes and going for a jog. I was a sprinter in college, so I have a natural distrust of any run longer than 400 meters.

Plenty of accomplished distance runners have been defeated by peaks like Whitney. As to DUG's limit, I think he said the longest he had chosen to run in the past was a half-marathon, and that he'd like to do a full one some day. To me that doesn't pre-suppose that some "limit" exists, just that a choice has not yet been made. What I do know about DUG is that, on the trail with a pack, he's pulled some monster back-to-back-to-back mileage days in the Sierra, and has successfully made it to at least one very difficult destination that relatively few hikers have even attempted (Gambler's Special).

I can't speak to any first-hand knowledge of C2C2C, but I would never link DUG's having never entered a full marathon with an inability to crank out a hard, difficult hike. That assumes way too much.

As to the other thread you were questioning, just a disagreement between two respected, highly capable board members. The dialogue went off the reservation for a bit, but equilibrium has been restored and you'll probably see them scarfing a Portal burger and a brew together this summer.

So how did it go? I am sure it was a hard day, but hopefully enjoyable.

Kent

It was a long day but we finished. And we weren't the last to cross the finish line. YEAH! Took us 8.5 hrs and there were still a few folks behind us.

Thanks to Bulldogs wake up call, QS and his friend DJ were up and moving by the time I knocked on their door at 5:15am. Still had to wait for them to finish up and then a trip to McD's so they could get some breakfast and much needed coffee. (I was up at 4am and had eaten, geared up, and packed the car before knocking on their door.) Made it to the start line with 10 mins to spare.

Overall it was a great day, but there were a few miles on the course that I would never want to do again.

May need to write something up under 'Trip Reports', because for me, it was more of a 26.2 mile day hike than a marathon. Went on some trails that I would never had known existed, at several sections needed to use route finding skills, and there were several stream crossings that included rock hopping. There's a lot more. Will post more details later.

Hi Kent, yes wazzu, DJ and I all survived. Wazzu was the smartest, with a nice private room with microwave, coffee, TV, breakfast and cold air conditioning. DJ and I shared bunks and I ended up with about 4 hours sleep. McDonalds was the breakfast of choice early A.M.. And yes, that jerk Gary did wake me from Atlanta at 4:30 A.M.

Once I learn how to put videos up, I will do it. This marathon is a bit different than the Boston for several reasons: Trails not marked well, dirt and sand, a start at 5100 feet that goes to 6300 feet in the first 2.5 miles. Add several creek crossings, more sand and rocks, some light bush-wacking and you have it......ooooops, I forgot the "RATTLESNAKES"!!!!!!! Not one, but TWO! DJ ran across one stretched out on Hogback road, while we both saw a nice rattler on Movie Road, near Mother Hill. The second rattler didn't much appreciate us almost stepping on him and warned us, rattles, striking pose and his tongue sticking in and out quickly. Thoughts of Rattlesnakes certainly made the last 5 miles interesting as it was on a very narrow and steep horse trail.

I don't want to give people the wrong idea about me running this thing, as I didn't. I ran approximately 7 to 8 miles of it and walked the rest. Since all I've done is hiked the last few years I haven't run much because of my new hip, and it showed after mile 16. My buddy DJ is a Chiropractor and he worked on my knee several times in the last few miles. At the last aid station, there was a woman who was completely conked out, sprawled out on the ground in agonizing pain from cramps. DJ went to her aid and after several minutes, we headed back to reach the finish line.

It is absolutely Beautiful around the Alabama Hills in Lone Pine. Add in the spectacular views of the Sierra's, capped off by Mt Whitney and you can't ask for more. Wazzu, my buddy DJ and I did our own pace and separated after a few miles, but after mile 18, we got back together and bitched and complained on WHY we were doing this to ourselves. The temperature was a bit hotter than expected, so sunscreen was a must, and I'm not sure if I've ever enjoyed the water/aid stations as much as I did this time.

No world record in this marathon as we all finished together in 8.5 hours, slower than I thought we would do, but since the downhill running kind of made my left knee totally unusable, I figure that's not bad since I looked like Quasimodo in the last few miles of horse trail. Yes, about 3 hours slower than DJ's and my time in 1999, but we're still pumping and still keeping the dream alive. I think the best thing about this marathon is how friendly and caring everyone is. The organizers really enjoy being of help and asking you if you need anything to help you finish. Aid stations were supplied with pain relievers, sunscreen, salt crystals, sodas, Snickers, Cytomax, tons of fruit, juices, cookies, chips and one even had guacamole and chips. The worst thing about this marathon is the trail markings. Many people got lost!

But....You can't beat Mt Whitney Views!!!!!!

Wazzu.....thanks so much for the Snickers Bars. Gary will NEVER, ever have as many as I now have :-)

As a note, I have never seen so may snakes along the 395. Most of the snakes looked like rattlers and gopher snakes. And, several were two to three feet long. The majority were alive on the sides of the road waiting to cross and warming their bellies, but there were may dead snakes also.

And DUG.....setting out cones at 12:00 noon at Badwater so you can do a run......sounds like HEAVEN!!!! It's nice to know you're as sick as I am. I can't imagine anything more FUN than that. Now I gotta call DJ and tell him what we're doing next!

Awesome guys! That's pretty impressive and I want to give it a go with you guys next year. We did our Death Valley 1/2s by running into Badwater since I thought it would be down hill. It's not. Nothing nearly as bad as you guys went through though. I had a support van and pavement.

Again - great job!...........................DUG

Well done! Snakes, creek crossings, horse trails, big elevation changes...quite the adventure! I definitely want to come out and experience this one day.

Rest up.

Kent

Here's a video of appx mile 18....with 8 to go. Excuse my shaky hands, but you can see how pretty it is up there.

Mile 18 Wild Wild West Marathon - Mt Whitney

Great going everyone that did this incredible-sounding run/hike/walk/snake hop!

What a great report. Time to rename it the Wild West Snake Hop!

Congratulations on completing it.