Remembering Africa

I posted this picture today to remind me of my trek across the Sahara Desert. It was just six short months ago that I had an adventure that changed my life.
Next to Badwater, Marathon Des Sables was the ultimate test of endurance for me. I remember feeling invincible when I arrived in Morocco...yes, maybe even a little cocky because I had trained well and felt that I could place in my age group. Out of the 800 participants there was only about 100 women...about 19 of those were American and only a handful in my age group. I expected to do well running across 150 miles of sand dunes and salt flats in one of the most remote places on the planet. The first two days I ran well. I loved being in Africa! I loved laying in that bivouac at night looking at those glorious stars....what an epic adventure! I expected the 60 mile day to be MY day. After all, I'm an endurance runner! The night before the race I felt weird...dizzy...I had stomach issues. After increased nausea and vomiting I knew I was in big trouble. I went to the French medics at midnight and they gave me pills. I didn't understand the language and for whatever reason the pills made me more ill. After no sleep and not being able to get anything down, I dragged myself to the start line. Getting dysentery and having to run 60 mile section through North Africa was a lesson I'll not forget. It wasn't really a race at all...more like the death march of Bataan....one foot in front of the other gutting it out...trying not to get behind the cutoff time. It was a lesson in persistence, determination, and mental strength. AND it was a humbling experience. There was not much left of my ego back at the tents. But, I was proud that I didn't quit...even when everything in my body wanted to stop. The final day was marathon day. I was able to rally and run to the final finish-line of the race. An incredible feeling of joy, strength, peace and thankfulness poured out of me.
I remember the first day back home in Las Vegas, sitting on the edge of the bed; I thought,"How did you do that Molly?" I certainly didn't do it alone. I did it with the love and support of my family, my friends who were supporting me, the kids at Boys Town Nevada who I was trying to help....all the positive energy that was sent my way.....
yes....I am thinking of all that today, as I sit in my comfortable home....remembering Africa.

Badwater documentary is on-line!

The Badwater video of my July 2009 race is on the web....follow the link below.
What a great job by videographer, Justin Yurkanin.

http://www.lvrj.com/news/badwater.html?video=1

The White Line of Badwater 2009

Rumor has it that it was 125 degrees in Death Valley on race day, July 13th, 2009. I was running the race of my life, the Badwater Ultramarathon. The biggest, baddest, 135 mile non-stop race on the planet..... destination Mt. Whitney. But, you know, you can't depend on rumors...heck, maybe it was only 124 degrees with 200 degrees radiating off the payment....all I know is it was like nothing I had experienced.

I did train an additional 6 weeks in a row at Death Valley, preparing myself for the barrage of heat. I sauna trained every day for months before the race. Living in Las Vegas, one of the hottest cities around, was an advantage to me and I drove around town with no air conditioning in my car. I tried turning off the air at home to further condition myself but my daughters Bailey and Taylor threatened mutiny and I refrained from further parental abuse. Still, race day came and it was a shocker.

I started off my 135 mile adventure with the goal of finishing under 48 hours. I had never run over 100 miles all at once. It was uncharted territory for me. I had never run in 125 degrees. I had never gone over 28 hours without sleeping, and here I was, pushing myself to a 48 hour non-stop finish with 13,000 elevation gain.

My other goal was to provide the kids at Boys Town Nevada a reason to be proud. I didn't want them to be disappointed in the runner who was representing them. I wanted to go the distance for them. And finally, I wanted my crew to be proud. I wanted them to experience the finish line like I had one year ago when I crewed and paced at Badwater. My crew was the best and deserved a finish.

My daughter Bailey was my Crew Chief. I raised some eyebrows choosing an 18 year old to be in charge of my very life. In reality, I was not blinded by a mothers love. Bailey and I are team mates. We are not mother and daughter when we are in the game. We established these rules long ago when she was only 15 and ran her first marathon with me. No one knows me better than Bailey. She is intuitive and smart beyond her years. Plus, she gives me major comic relief like no other. The rest of the crew, Georganna, Jimmy, Brendan, Justin and John are equally gifted team mates. It was an incredible blessing for me to have their support and care. Plus, we had a blast!


There was a lot of laughter, hilarity, and light heartedness....which turned into somberness, intense focus, quiet determination and every range of human emotion. When you are with 7 people on a mission to accomplish something out of the ordinary.....amazing things happen. Here is the blow by blow details of my race:

We were the first crew to arrive at race start 5:15 am. I was running around trying to keep from feeling totally terrified about what I was about to do. Well, that isn't necessarily true. I went from terrified to elated and then it flipped every two seconds. 6am the race began and I ran out too fast but I let myself go. I needed to burn a little extra energy off so i could start my Molly cruise mode (slow and steady!)


I felt wonderful at mile one!! hahaha. The sun hadn't quite hit and I was elated running on the white line of Badwater. It felt surreal to be along side some of the most talented athletes on the planet. I felt humbled and privileged to be on that white line.

At 17 miles, I was approaching Furnace Creek. My crew was yelling at me to slow down. I had given them my mileage goal sheet and race plan and we all agreed to follow the plan. So I slowed down.

Furnace Creek to Stovepipe the heat started pouring on. Jimmy began to pace me. Jimmy is ex-military and was as excited as I to be on the road. I had my crew give me ice under my hat, ice in a bandanna around my neck, ice down my shirt sleeves and in my running bra. I had them spray me all over with ice water....this went on every few minutes. Brendan became an expert with the spray bottle. Georg kept putting food in front of me. Justin, John and Bailey just kept flinging the ice. Every member of the team worked in perfect harmony to keep me moving. Sometimes it got so hot that I put a sponge up to my face and just held it there as I ran...it was a brutal heat.

I believed if I got to Stovepipe, the 40 mile mark, in good shape, that I could finish the race. That was my own personal belief. I looked through all the Badwater race results and noticed that a lot of runners don't make it past Stovepipe. It seems to me that a significant number dropped there. I was very conservative for that next 23 miles.


At Stovepipe my crew put a stake in the road to show that I was leaving the course for a break, and I took a 10 minute ice bath in the hotel road. It actually didn't feel good...it was rather shocking and horrid but it did cool me down and get my legs ready for the first climb of the race....17 miles up Townes Pass, 5000 ' elevation gain. When I was getting out of the ice bath I was completely bummed to see a big swollen bump on my Achilles tendon. It was sore to the touch. It was too early in the race for injuries. It freaked me out but there wasn't anything I could do at the moment. I put back on my compression socks and ran back out into the heat.

As I was climbing up Townes Pass, Dean Karnazes came running up behind me. I was in the 6am start and Dean was in the 10am start, 4 hours behind me. He said, "There's Molly! Hey Molly, I've been trying to catch you all day" I told him that I wanted that on a recording so I could play it back to family and friends back home!! Dean, who is a talented, fast, and accomplished runner, was trying to catch Molly all day....I still crack up when I think about that moment.

At about 7pm, trudging up the pass I started to feel sick. My crew had been trying to keep me eating 200 calories an hour, but the last hour I couldn't get anything down...that's when I started having problems. Georganna was on top of all the calories I was taking. She was instrumental in helping me to stay on course. But, no one can physically force you to eat. I threw up my guts on the side of the road and took a 5 minute break. I actually felt better. I began to eat watermelon and blue chips and started to rehydrate again. At the top of Towns Pass I took a break and addressed the Achilles problem which was bothering me more and more. Georganna with the help of John, a chiropractor on our crew, taped the ankle and I kept moving.


Down I went into Panamint Springs mile 70 or so. This is where I felt my first deep exhaustion. I took a break in the front seat of the car with the air conditioning on my face and my eyes closed. I really didn't want to leave the car. I just wanted to crawl up and have a 8 hour nap with a little blankie and fluffy pillow and a masseuse rubbing my feet and a little cocktail drink with a...... the crew chief then jolted me awake from my two second dream by kicking me out of that delightful van and my beautiful vision. I reluctantly got out of the van and John began to pace me. We scanned the road for rattle snakes and saw a couple of dead ones that cars had run over....so much for blankies and fluffy pillows.

Now it was an 18 mile climb up to Fr. Crowley....a never ending, long, long, dark...did I say never ending? climb in the dark. The sun started to rise when I got to the summit. At first I was happy for light then realized how fast the heat was coming back.

At the top of the summit I stopped and had blister care. I didn't even want to look at them because I knew they were getting bad. Georg taped them up and off I went. I was so happy to have flat road that I took off running with new energy. I ran well through Darwin the 90 mile mark. I felt great....then, not too much later down the road, probably around 110 miles I was spent. I was hotter than yesterday. I felt like I was having an out of body experience I wanted the van so bad. I couldn't get a grip so I stopped on the side of the road and just sobbed. I had a 10 minute pity party.

Bailey and Georganna were off getting supplies so it was just me and the guys. I noticed that John, upon seeing me uncontrollably sobbing, ran off to the van. I later learned that he text messaged Bailey saying " Your Mom is sobbing....what do we do?!!" I told them I was fine, just give me a moment. Then, I asked for my Ipod, dried my tears and started to put one foot in front of the other again. I was listening to some sort of techno beat that brought me out of my negative thinking. I really had to gut it out at that point. I was fully miserable. I didn't want to continue. All I could think about was stopping. I had to ask myself, Molly, is anything broken?...no....are you having a heart attack?...no ....are you in grave danger?....no...then you must move on and think of all your friends and families who are waiting for you to complete this adventure.


The last 20 miles was mind numbing. It was just an out and out gut it out to the finish for me. Maybe others cruise through this and have a different system that works...but for me it was mentally tough. I used every mind game I could think of...every motivation...every meditation and mantra. When I got to Lone Pine and started up the Whitney Portal I had been running 40 hours without sleep. I was weaving and sleeping on my feet.

Jimmy, ex-military crew man, told me to toughen up and get ahold of myself....I have to chuckle when I think about it. I don't respond well to military, in your face, encouragement. I need fun. I need someone to make me laugh or make me feel good....I need a soft touch. Bailey came over and told Jimmy to take a break. Then she held my hand for a minute and told me how proud she was of me. That is motivation for me. I did realized that I was leaning and unable to stand straight. Exhaustion was clouding my thinking. I asked the crew to let me lay down for 10 minutes then wake me. I completely crashed for 10 minutes in the van. I woke up feeling like I could actually function. But, now there were fire trucks screaming up and down the road and rumors that the race was stopped.

Brendan was able to contact his wife Kendall by text. We were able to learn that the finish line had been moved in 4 miles because of forest fires. We could all smell the smoke in the air. I was hallucinating during the last miles of the climb. I made a quick stop on the side of the road and told Bailey to pick up her purse which I distinctly saw laying on the road. She looked at me as if I had lost my mind....which I had! I started laughing because I realized how ridiculous I was sounding. I thought I saw a bunch of frogs jumping across the road too but I didn't mention it!!

The finish line was the most beautiful site on the planet. I held hands with this wonderful crew who had worked their hearts out tirelessly for 45:09 hours. I am forever in their debt and forever grateful. I will never forget our journey through Death Valley.

At 131 miles, I received my buckle and my official finish. The last 4 miles of the course were closed and trees were still smoldering. I had the option of going back the following day to do the last 4 miles but my race was officially over and my crew officially spent. Plus for me, Mother Nature was speaking. I didn't have any problem listening to her words. I felt satisfied and accomplished and at peace with a race that was bigger than me. I still feel that Badwater is daunting....a bigger than life Bad Ass course. I feel like I was granted safe passage on those precious days out there...and given a gift of an incredible crew that were able to help me through.