Betty’s cousin, Joe, sent an email yesterday describing his girlfriend’s remarkable experience running in the The Bighorn Trail 100 Mile Run.  This is Wendy’s story:

Just thought I’d let everyone know that Wendy finished the 100-mile Bighorn Trail Run this weekend.  She finished in 33 hours and 53 minutes (7 minutes before the cutoff time!!).  The race started at 11:00 am on Friday and she finished at 8:53 pm on Saturday.  She placed 95 out of 157 starters – she was the last one to finish (62 people dropped out during the race).  It was truly amazing watching her come up with the determination and ability to finish on time.  After running for 92.5 miles she came through an aid station and they told her “there’s no way she can finish on time.”  This really hit hard.  Erika Holland (who ran with Wendy for the last 52 miles – no small feat in itself) ran up ahead of Wendy to the last check point and told them that Wendy was coming and to let her try to finish on time.  She came into the last check point 20 minutes late (7:50 pm) and feeling MUCH pain.  She only had 1 hour and 10 minutes to somehow complete the last 5.25 miles.  They let her continue, but told her she probably wouldn’t be able to finish before the cutoff time.  Erika Holland, refusing to let her quit and refusing to let her believe that she couldn’t do it, encouraged Wendy to push through it and finish on time.  Wendy somehow dug down deep, got in “the zone,” and just started running as fast as she could.  She ran the last 5.25 miles at a 12 minute per mile pace (5 mph).  Pretty amazing considering she just ran 95 miles continuously for the last 33 hours, she was out of energy, her I.T. band was shot, and her muscles were ready to quit.  It was like a scene out of a movie – seeing her run that fast and finish that strong when she had nothing left in the tank.  She finished with 7 minutes to spare and a huge smile on her face!

On top of this all – you need to see this course to realize how incredibly tough it is.  The starting elevation is 4200′ and the highest point is 9100′ with grueling steep climbs, muddy and rutted single tracks, long hard descents, and cold weather while running over-night.  Here’s a brief description of the run:

“The Bighorn Trail 100 Mile Run is an arduous trail run that will take place in the Little Bighorn – Tongue River areas of the Bighorn National Forest. Starting time for the event will be 11 AM, Friday June 18, 2010, with a 34 hour (average pace of 2.94 mph) time limit to finish the event. Runners must be prepared for potential extreme temperature variation and weather conditions during the event with possible temperatures exceeding 100 degrees Fahrenheit in the day in the canyons and being well below freezing at night in the mountains. The course is wild and scenic traversing territory inhabited by elk, deer, moose, bears, cougars, mountain lions, and rattlesnakes with the potential for wildlife encounters with runners. Crew access points on parts of the course are limited and the runner should be prepared to participate with a fanny pack and other necessary equipment to ensure their ability to safely traverse difficult remote mountainous trails in potentially unpredictable weather conditions. The course is an out-and-back consisting of 76 miles of single track trail, 16 miles of rugged double track jeep trail, and 8 miles of gravel road with approximately 17,500 feet of climb and 18,000 feet of descent.”

What Joe failed to mention in his story is that he also ran the last 25 miles with Wendy and he hadn’t done any training.  What an amazing accomplishment for both of them!

Have you ever refused to give up on something even though you were told it couldn’t be done?  What was the outcome?