Zion Crew Race Report: Team Bean Burrito

Team Bean Burrito (TBB) consisted of Jim Skaggs (Runner), Breein Clark (Crew Chief) and myself (Chief Pacer).  Event: Zion 100.  Why is this on my running blog?  Because I ran.  TBB drove down to Zion Thursday after work, hung out at packet pick-up, ate some soup, and dropped Jim off.  Breein and I were going to paint the town red.  However, fundamentalists and double bagged beer made us tired...we went to bed instead.  In the morning, we were practically besides ourselves with excitement at the prospect of giving Jim a dozen donuts for breakfast.  Despite his smile, he managed to let us know that his favorite was not in the box.  

No matter, after dropping Jim off at the start, we went back to bed for an hour or two, showered, found coffee, went 4-wheeling in Jim's Mercedes, got stuck, missed seeing him at mile 19, and barely caught him at mile 31.  BUT WE DID!

TBB-Jim, who was running, decided to chill at the Goodbump AS until Jim returned at mile 58.  He was looking great, was ahead of schedule, and we were afraid that we would be pushing out luck and would definitely have to call AAA.  

Based on previous times, we calculated precisely when Jim would be 3 miles out from mile 58 and I ran out to meet him.  I ended up 5 miles out at a turn in the course as a freezing cold cairn covered in gnats, but it was fun talking with all of the runners.  After waiting for approximately forever, Jim jogged up the hill proclaiming that he FELT GREAT, but had recently had a really rough patch.

Sure enough, we ran back to Goosebump (58) where Jim gave us our team name and ate two bean, rice and salsa burritos...apparently he had been consuming them all along.  I sure had something to look forward to when I was to start pacing at mile 81.

We kicked Jim out of the AS, CHECK YA LATER!, and headed down to Maverick for dinner.  After dinner, Breein and I drove to mile 81 set our alarm for a 2 hour nap and proceeding to get flashed by runners headlamps until the alarm went off at 1:30AM.  Jim ran in at 3:48AM.  He had a great attitude and FELT GREAT and proclaimed to be gas powered.  Perfect!  Let's run (walk)!

The next AS was 2 miles away and we start to catch wind of the BadA AS to come. WhiskeyTown.

These AS people were rad and wasted.  Jim took a tiny catnap by the fire white Breein and I drank all the whiskey.  JUST KIDDING.  Sadly we were not tough enough to drink whiskey on Maverick hotdogs at 5AM.  After WhiskeyTown, we climbed up the last mesa of the race that I am told is similar to Malins Peak in Ogden.  Dawn was fabulous and sunrise was welcome.  Jim was solid until mile 91 and then rocked it.  We basically jogged after 91 and basically ran the last 5 miles.  He looked great!  We all got a little sun, Jim ALSO got the coolest belt buckle ever, and fun was had by all.