Dave's Northface Endurance Challenge

This was Dave's third year doing the Northface Endurance Challenge in Eagle, WI. It's a trail run that he has done before. The first year, I went with him and volunteered while he ran 31 miles. He did the same race last year. This year, he decided he needed the challenge of running the 50 MILE race!

The 50 milers can have pacers so we decided I would pace him awhile. Then there would be a problem of where the car was parked so he decided we needed another driver. He asked our friends the Adams if they would go to Wisconsin with us for the weekend and Tim could pace us too. They accepted! Our dear, dear friends never complained when we had to get up at 3:30 in the morning, wait for 12 hours in the car and drive all over the countryside for us! They said they had fun but I wonder if they'll ever go with us on a 'vacation' again:)

So Dave started at 5 a.m. in the morning.

We had an hour and a half before we got to see him at the first aid station. Then about another hour before we saw him at aid station #2.
We then had a couple hours to spare so we may or may not have made a Starbucks run.....while Dave was running hills in the woods.

Love, love, love this sweet picture of Tim and Teri.
The first three times we saw him, we were amazed at how fast he was going. He was keeping a 12 mile pace which is pretty amazing considering the terrain. Around mile 28, he was allowed a pacer so I jumped in and ran 7 miles with him. I was pretty nervous about keeping up with him but we ran and walked about half and half so I was fine.

Then it was Tim's turn. He was really nervous too since he doesn't run much but Dave was walking a bunch by that point. Dave took every opportunity to show how grateful he was for having us there to run with him. He feels like he would have given up if we weren't there to be the 'carrot' for him to chase. (I'm not sure he would have quit but I know how much better it is to have a running buddy.)
After Tim's 5 miles, I jumped back in and mostly walked with him about 9 miles to the end. I wasn't planning on doing that but when I realized he was hurting, I wanted to be with him and get him to the end. We just wanted to finish. Finishing was iffy for awhile when we got to mile 49.1 and Dave started feeling like his heart was fluttering. We had come down a really big hill and he said his heart didn't feel right. His heartrate, which had been 130-140 all day long, suddenly jumped to 188 and 190. We stopped running and stood on the highway for awhile, him leaning on my shoulder. I was totally worried and so was he of course. I wanted to flag down the sherriff parked down the highway a bit but he wanted me to wait because if he called the medic, his race would be over. No time. After all that work and it would lost. He could tell his heart was stuck in fibrillation. I looked at him and he was pale as a ghost. He had no color in his face at all. After about 10 min. of that he said "It's done. I feel so much better." Just like that it was over. His heart rate dropped down to 112 and his color came back and he was ready to go again. We walked, slowly to the finish line and we were so happy to be done!!

I am totally proud of him. He doesn't have any desire to do that race again and that's ok with me! But I'm happy for him that he could prove to himself he could do it and I know he's proud of himself too.