Javelina Jundred - a jell of a party...

Dallas finished his first 100 mile race - Javelina Jundred. His finish time was 20:42 - 19th place!

Javelina is a 15.4 mile trail loop. 100 mile runners do 6 loops, and then a final 'cut-through' loop of 9 miles, for a total of 101.4 miles.

Dallas and Mike a few minutes before the start.

I volunteered at the Javelina Jeadquarters aid station from 7-3. This allowed me to see the action for runners every 15.4 miles (and be able to crew Dallas!)

Dallas coming in from lap 1

Dallas at Jackass Junction Aid Station on lap 3

Looking good before his 4th lap

After finishing my volunteer shift, I hooked up with Jeremy Dougherty from the Phoenix area to put out glow sticks on the course from 4-8pm.

We had a great time! Jeremy marked the shorter, 9 mile loop, and I marked the 15 mile loop. He was pacing someone and needed to get back for that duty. That meant that after mile 5, I would be on my own for the rest of the loop, which would be 10 miles. The great thing is that I got to see all of the Tucson runners out there - Dallas, Ken, Harry, and Jerry - as well as Catra 'Dirt Diva', Hal Koerner, and others.

Jeremy is a hoot to hang out with.

Posing with my glow sticks. Can't see 'em yet. :)

Jeremy and I ran into Dallas, who was starting to deteriorate a bit on his 4th loop (but still smiling!) I was a bit worried about him, but he had been running strong up to this point. So, I just hoped that Kristi and Mike would take good care of him at the Jeadquarters aid station between his 4th and 5th loop. I would still be putting glow sticks out during that time. Unfortunately, Mike dropped early on in the race from a pre-race injury, so he was there to help at the Jeadquarters aid station, which was great. Thanks Mike and Kristi!

Dallas on lap 4

I estimate that I ended up running about 11 of the 15 miles. It was so fun! It was dark after 6pm, so I ran in the dark by myself for several hours. I had my headlamp and also a 'knuckle light'. I borrowed it to see if I would like it and it was awesome! You can even hold a water bottle with it on your hand. It has a broad beam, so it doesn't 'bounce' around like a regular flashlight does.

There were several more aid stations, so I stopped and got a bite to eat and visited with people. I love the ultra atmosphere!

After getting back to Javelina Jeadquarters at about 8pm, I waited for Dallas to come in after lap 5. He was starting to feel a little tired, and was hoping for a pacer for lap 6. Some friends of ours were supposed to come up from Tucson, but that didn't happen. I told Dallas that this would be a hard loop - that he would be by himself and probably feel lonely and tired, but that when he came back in, I would be pacing him on his 7th and final lap. He steeled himself mentally, and headed out again.

I knew I didn't have much time to sleep, so I just decided to shower at the trailhead and pump myself full of caffeine. It started pouring down raining shortly into Dallas' 6th lap, but he didn't bring his rain gear. I was worried he would come in cold and soaking wet. However, when he arrived at Jeadquarters, he was feeling pretty good! We grabbed our shells and headed out at 12:30am for his final 9 miles in the downpour.

I was told that Dallas would be walking a lot by this point. Nope! He probably ran 8 of the final 9 miles. I had a hard time keeping up with him! He said I gave him energy. It was raining so hard! The trail had become a muddy slip and slide. Our shoes, caked with mud, became 10 pound weights! It finally quit raining about an hour into the 9 miles. Up to this point, I had only been using my knuckle light to see, which was fine, but it was nice to have my headlamp back on. My rain jacket hood had been covering it.

He was so excited to see the finish line, that he started picking up the pace. After crossing the finish line, we hugged and our friends congratulated him. He didn't realize that he finished 19th place until we got home to Tucson. What an accompishment - 100 freaking miles! Only 174 people finished the race out of 339 starters and Dallas was 19th. He really trained well - you can't fake that.

I ended up with about 19 miles of running out of 24 miles on the course. Much more running than I've been doing, but I felt so great!

We showered again, and got on the road to Tucson at 3:30am. I had not slept, and Dallas, Kristi and Mike were cashed out in the car. By the time we got to Casa Grande, it was apparent that I was close to involuntarily falling asleep at the wheel, so I pulled over in a dark shopping center and we all slept for over an hour. I woke refreshed, and me and Dallas rehashed the race all the way back to Tucson.

Dallas said his favorite part of the race was running with me the last 9 miles. It was raining hard, about 1:30am in the morning, and I was running behind him thinking, "This really is the life - running with my best friend as he accomplishes something not too many people are able to do."

The shining spirit that is Dallas and our wonderful friend Mike

Dallas said that finishing that 100 miler was the 2nd best thing he has ever done; marrying me was the first. :)

The Super Stevens Couple