Bataan...Heather Hofstetter...Part 2...

For the first 8 miles I was surprisingly meeting Mike, Tommy, Jason, and Brandon B. at each water station. I felt a sense of pride that I was able to some what keep up with these amazing athletes for this long. I think I surprised them at one point when they realized I was a little ahead of them between mile 4 and 6. I remember the humor as they passed me like they always do and told me that I “was making them look bad”. Brandon B. asked how I was feeling and I told him that I felt good, but all the dust from the course was making it hard to breathe. He offered me a bandana, but I told him I had one in my rucksack and that I would get it out when I stopped. Every time I saw these men they would check up on me and ask how I was feeling. When I got to mile 6 and took my ruck off as I walked up to the guys, Brandon B told me that I might want to take an EFS (Electrolyte Fuel System) shot. I kept to my plan and took the EFS shot along with 6 individual cups of water that the volunteers were handing out. I watched the guys take off as I rested a bit more and didn’t think I’d see them again after that. Rested another couple minutes, put my rucksack back on and took off once again.

 

From mile 6 to mile 8 the course was slightly uphill and I could definitely feel it in my backside. When I came up on mile 8 I didn’t see any of the guys at first until I got to the porta potties.  I could hear the worry once again in Mike’s voice as he told me at mile 8 that I needed to, “drink more water, more than you think you need”. The rest of the guys asked how I was doing and vice versa and shortly after they took off. This was the last time I saw Mike, Tommy, Jason, and Brandon B. I rested a couple minutes more as I drank water and used the porta potty then threw my ruck back on and went back to it.

Leigh, Jennifer, and Heather overhead squatting the day before the race. Photo by Brandon D.

Right after mile 8 there was an underpass where I saw Clay Pilkilton and his cousin Brandon Denham. I walked and talked with them for a minute and Clay asked me if I was going to do my intervals on the uphill portion. I told him that’s the plan and told them that I had to get back to it and that I would see them in a little bit. Well, this plan quickly changed as I progressed up the hill. Brandon and Clay weren’t far behind and it seemed like every time I would run ahead and then start walking again they would quickly catch up. To save energy I started to walk with them and stayed with them from about mile 8 ½ to some where between mile 15 and mile 16. Clay and Brandon D. checked up on me numerous times to see how I was doing and vice versa. Around mile 14 I took another EFS shot to see if I could gain some energy back and continued to drink 6-8 cups of water at each water station. Not too long after I asked the guys if they were fine with me doing intervals again and they told me to go ahead.

As I set off on my own again I started my 35 seconds on and 75 seconds off back up, but now the uphill portion turned into rolling hills. If I was on a downhill portion and my timer went off for me to start walking I continued to run just so that I could cover more ground. I felt pretty good and at one point on top of one of the hills I could see the military base and the highway, which was a nice sight to see. The trail stayed hard packed sand until mile 18 when we came back out onto the road and started to head downhill without the rolling hills. I kept to my intervals pretty well, but again was trying to run downhill as much as I could to cover more ground.

As I continued my intervals downhill from mile 18 to mile 20 it became extremely hot from the sun beaming down on the desert and I could feel it reflecting off the sand and asphalt. You couldn’t escape it and there was absolutely no shade or breeze what so ever. There were, however, some misters set up around mile 19 that gave every participant a little break from the heat. Even if it was for just a moment it felt really good to cool down a bit.

On mile 20 there was another water station with cots lined up. I grabbed a couple things of water and Gatorade from one of the volunteers, sat down on one of the cots, and took my ruck off to rest for just a couple minutes. One of the volunteers came up asked me if I was ok and I really didn’t want to say anything to her, but the words just slipped out of my mouth. I told the girl that I was a little nauseous thinking that maybe it was from the EFS shot earlier or gulping down water and Gatorade too fast. The girl told me, “ok, let’s go into the med tent and get you out of the sun for a bit”. I really didn’t want to and I really just wanted to keep moving, all of you who actually know me know exactly how stubborn I am, but I didn’t argue with the girl. I followed her into the tent and it felt so good to get out of the sun and lay on a cot. 

The girl went and got me some more Gatorade while one of the medics came over and started to ask me questions about my medical history and how I am feeling. I just told him I feel a little nauseous so he took my pulse, which ended up being 112 beats per minute. The medic told me that my heart was beating really fast and that it sounded a little off. I really wanted to tell him, “well I am running with 35#’s on my back in the middle of the desert in March”, but I just listened. He told me what really concerned him was the fact that I wasn’t sweating, something that had escaped my attention. He then proceeded to tell me that I am showing all signs of heat exhaustion and asked me what I wanted to do. The only thing that I kept thinking was that I have trained for months for this and that I am 6.2 miles from the finish line and that I will be damned if I am not going to get there. I told the extremely nice medic that I wanted to finish and that I was going to be pretty pissed if I didn’t. He told me ok and gave me some more water and Gatorade and had me eat an orange. There was an actual doctor on duty so he also checked me out and felt my arms, which were apparently extremely hot. He told the medic that we needed to get my body temperature down and to put water on me. 

Who knew rubber gloves could be so refreshing?

This is the fun part, the medic got a rubber glove and poked holes in it, then poured a bottle of water in to the glove, and sprayed my entire body with the “improvised mister system”. They proceeded to douse me with water three separate times to get my body heat down. I kept looking out the to the road to see if Clay and Brandon D. were out there or passing by, but I never saw them. After about 30-45 minutes of cooling down and getting my vitals back to normal they finally released me. I was never incoherent and I was even joking around with some of the medics, but I did feel much better. Told them all thank you and went back at it.