After nearly 174 miles, Lori decides that the race has taken a large enough toll to call it a day. This interview serves as her story of what happened in the time leading up to that point and some after. The grit and perseverance she displayed is among the best. Thank you Lori for sharing your journey.
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Height: 5’3”
Weight: 120
Calories per hour: 0-400
Run Elevation Gain: 30,000ft
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Facebook: Lori Enlow
Instagram: @Lorilynenlow
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In her own words:
7am dawn start, cool upper 20s. Ran easy through the streets of Moab then onto pipeline trail that runs along the base of a Mesa for about 9 miles. Hit the 1st aid feeling great, perfect split time (although I was not relying much on splits, other than eta for crew and not to go out too fast). Munched on and finished a homemade muffin from local shop on way to first aid. Filled one of my water bottles and out for next 9ish mile stretch.
Up over Mesa and down gnarly single-track trail to paved road for about a mile or two to Amasa Back trail/aid. More water and munching on stroop waffle. Headed up and over Amasa and down Jackson's Ladder, a steep gnarly 3/4 mile chute down the mesa to a dirt/sand road out to Hurrah aid at mile 30ish. There is an adventure park there. It is literally an 8 hour drive to get to this spot. Refilled my pack with water, ate 1.5 hot dogs at the aid and stuck 2 more in a plastic baggy to bite on for the next 20 mile segment. At this point I was in 3rd place. 2nd place female arrived with me at Hurrah. We left and ran together for a bit. Then I gradually pulled away no more than a few minutes over the next 20 miles. The sun began to set and the giant rock formations and canyon/washed we ran and hiked through were massive. I saw Wes Ritner toward evening, sitting on side of dirt road. I sought him out as I was getting ready for Moab. He has done this course and several other 200s already. He was taking a few minutes to get a mental break and "reset my head". He said his head wasn't in the race and he was trying to reset it. FYI, it worked and he finished strong around 80 hours. Came into the nighttime aid around 50 miles with plans to eat big. I asked, "what do you have to eat?" The aid station volunteer said.."chicken wraps with guacamole, turkey wraps with guacamole, veggie wraps with guacamole..." I love the green stuff normally, but every time he said "guacamole" my stomach turned I said as kindly as possible, "could you please not say "guacamole again?" He laughed and fixed me mashed potatoes with salt and chives which were amazing. I drank a coke and sat by fire for just a minute as it was getting cold fast. I got up trying to figure out what to put in my plastic baggy. Nothing sounded good. The volunteer offered red vine licorice. I said sure. He stuffed about 20 red vines in. They sounded horrible, but I thought I could at least chew and melt them and get some calories that way. Once I started nibbling them they tasted better and better and I was so grateful the volunteer had stuffed so many in that baggie. The next time I saw my crew was at mile 72. As I got about 2 miles from the aid, I accidentally turned into a turnouround campsite. I ended up turning around on the course going backward...toward the start.i was following markers, but going the wrong way. Like scuba diving at night and thinking your going up when you are really going farther down. Mena, a runner from Egypt was running toward me. He said "what is wrong?" I told him nothing and that he was going the wrong way. He was persistent with me thankfully. I kept trying to convince him. He finally said, "unless you want to go back amd get female number 3 and run with her, you need to turn around". It finally clicked what I had done. We ran to the aid station together. He was belching and nauseated. My headlamp suddenly died. I had an extra battery, but we were so close to the aid that mena let me run by his light into the aid. I had not intended to spend much time here. Alert, stomach back in good shape, I wanted to add some warm layers, get some food and get out. But my smart crew made me get in the warm truck and rest for 20 min. I barely dozed and was out. I put my Kogalla light set kn...600 lumen waist light and was off again with my first pacer Jarrod. I stayed warm and alert. I drank and ate well through the night. We ran intermittently with other runners chatting and passing, all in our own rythms. At one point one guy came slowly up and stayed " I'm just gonna draft you for a bit if that's ok..". I knew he didn't mean it in the true sense of the term, but thinking about how well drafting works when you are only moving at 4-5mph makes for a funny mental image. We arrived at the next aid station at mile 102. Again, not sleepy my crew did not mince words about making me get back on the truck for another 20 min. I felt myself start to doze and say "hey". About that time my crew popped the door open and I was out again. I ate, drank, changed clothes and socks for the day and I was off with my second pacer James. My stomach still pretty good, my legs getting sore and stiff. The flexor tendons in my lower shins and tops of my feet starting to hurt. I was also starting to lean a little to the left. I couldn't feel it but James would instruct me to "straighten up". As we approached the climb up Shay Mt it was really warming up. While only in the mid to upper 70s, it felt hotter. As we climbed the technical singletrack trail up Shay, I started to feel the the aching in left lower back. The side I was leaning a little to. i often stopped to stretch and breathe. I was also starting to cough and wheeze. I have had maybe 3 asthma attacks in my life. The last one at Hardrock100. I did not bring an inhaler. I never used one. I thought the asthma attack at hardrock was a fluke or possibly pulmonary edema from high altitude and a small hole I have in my heart. I was completely cleared by cardiology when I had this evaluation, but the pulmonary function/vo2max test I did revealed exercise induced asthma. I blew it off because I never ever cough or wheeze on any training runs.
We came into Shay aid station at mile 121. My lungs completely seized up and I thought I was going to pass out. My crew stuffed me into the back of the warm truck with sleeping bag and I slept hard for 1 hour. 1st and second female were there when I arrived. We got me fed up and back out I left that aid station in 1st place female. I left with a cheese quesadilla in hand. O got nauseated quick and continued to wheeze and cough. Very soon I began having upper abdominal pain. It felt like a goat was kicking me in the stomach. I had to stop every little bit and lean over my poles to make it stop. I would get going again, but very quickly the kicking goat returned. I was so so nauseated. My pace dropped to a crawl. I could sort of run down, but had to walk gently up. I do heaved several times, and then finally threw up a little. That gave me about 10 minutes relief and then it started over again. I kept waiting for the first 2 girls to pass me but they didn't on this segment. It was absolutely horrible. By the time I finally rolled in to dry valley aid at mile 140 I was very upset with the situation, but I knew my crew would get me in the warm car. I knew not to think ahead. If I thought about how much further, how much longer the misery might last I would've had a complete meltdown, which would not help a damn thing. The aid volunteer asked, do you have an inhaler?. Of course not, he looked bewildered as to why in the world someone with asthma would not have their inhaler. . I heard my crew talking, Jarrod, my other pacer asking "how long we should let her sleep". I heard James say, "just let her go till she wakes". About an hour and 15 minutes on the nose I was wide awake and ready to go. Females 1 and 2 had come and gone, I was back in 3rd. We added layers and left with baggy of food and Tailwind. I decided to try to switch to liquid calories to see if my stomach would cooperate better. My quads and shins feeling shredded, trying to squat to pee was a huge ordeal drought with cold sweat and awkwardly maneuvering myself to the ground and then back up. This segment was almost entirely fast hiking. Anything faster and the goats kicked my stomach violently. I was still wheeze and ng and coughing, but my spirits in a bit better shape. The next aid station would be wind whistle at mi 153. There would be no crew allowed at wind whistle, so no warm car. I came in cold, headed straight for the tent and piled up on an air mattress under several wool blankets. I had caught up with one of the 2 girls in front of me. I heard her coughing too. I pounded down 2 full cups of ramen noodles and passed out for 1 hour solid. Up and out again, now in 4th female position. I continued to struggle for air. My back cramping, me leaning more to the left. The kicking goats back with almost any exertion over a moderate hike. Any increase in effort and pain would clench my upper stomach, under my ribs, and now pulling from around my back. I finally realized this wasn't my stomach, although causing intense nausea and even dry heaving, it was my abdominal and back muscles spasming and cramping in like a trash compactor on my stomach. Any increased need for oxygen by the muscles...i.e. me moving faster, raising heart rate, would trigger. Once I realized this, that I didn't have a giant ulcer or my gallbladder was not about to explode I was able to try to problem solve these away. I continued just to sip tailwind, to avoid solid food between the aid stations to avoid increased need for blood flow to my stomach. I resigned myself to this slow hike, as I had plenty of time to finish as long as I could just keep moving, and hey, maybe with enough time and easy pace it would resolve and I might actually even be able to run again. I focused on these positives from miles 153-167. Jarrod pulled friend and running store owner, Mike Rush up on his phone and we face timed as I hiked. It was such a kick seeing his scrubby, bearded mug, bright blue eyes, and wild excitement. Jarrod my pacer was awesome. Patient and persistent. No telltale signs of frustration or disappointment in my slow progress. The heat amped up and we were completely exposed on a dirt road for hours. Up ahead I saw photographer Howie Stern and his 2 dogs, Miki and Joey. I had seen them at a high point around mile 30 and now I was at a very low point. There was a bit of shade off the tail gate from his truck and Miki was underneath. I decided to sit down for just a minute in the shade and pet him. Immediately the abdominal pain stopped, the vice sound my chest relaxed and I could breathe. ....and I started to talk to Miki. Then I just started crying. My voice shaking and tears and snot rolling off my face and on to Mikis fur. I knew I need not get too much further with the snot and tears or I would be ugly crying and spiral down. I realized very quickly that I could not get myself up. My legs like noodles and the bed of the truck to high to grab and pull myself up. Jarrod lifted me and I gradually got moving again, much like the tin-man in Wizard of Oz,
A few miles ahead I saw 2 guys with all black on, cross armed at the end of the road. Looking like 2 crows. It was my husband and crew member Chad. They escorted my into the aid. I laid flat on my back to stretch the abs. I ate a huge piece of sausage/pepperoni pizza, knowing full well I would likely regret it later, but for the moment it sounded good and I desperately needed calories. Only taking in sips of tailwind for the past many hours. I drank a ton of water and laid there for about 20 minutes. During that time I got my game plan together. Get tons of calories in, get water in and when you start moving go back to just tailwind. Stay slow and steady until you can start running again. I also made sure I had extra layers. I knew climbing up I would be moving at 1-2mph based on how things were going. That would mean at least 8-10 or more hours to the next aid station. We left that aid station late afternoon/early eve. Which. meant we would be going high at night, I knew the odds were not great, but if I could just stay moving I could stay warm enough to make it through the night and arrive at the next aid at mile 184 before dawn . James now with me we headed up the road and onto a rocky wash that went straight up. We picked our way up over rocks and boulders. We hit another double track trail/road. I was sipping tailwind, I had filled my bladder and bottles with this. I did not have any plain water, which I really wouldn't need, except for the fact that I still had a giant pizza in my stomach. One rule in endurance sports....you cannot drink a sugary sport drink and expect to absorb real food together. You have to have enough water to absorb the solutes. You either drink sport drink and get calories that way or you eat solids/gels and drink water. I had no water and about 500 calories of pizza in my stomach. I hoped to escape this rule and tried tiny sips of tailwind, as I was very thirsty. My stomach revolted and now the abdominal cramps were constant. They only relented when I was at a dead stop. I tried to just "push through" them, but within minutes they would become so severe I would start heaving. I finally asked James if he had water in his bladder. He did. So, I sipped his water in hopes of absorbing the pizza and then moving on to tailwind. Dusk was turning to dark and I was shivering more, cramping constantly and now moving about 1-1.5mph. The wheezing constant. I finally stopped and looked at James and realized, I was freezing, and I was going to freeze to death if I didn't have a way to move faster/get warm. All my warm gear on...check. moving as fast as I can..check....doing everything possible to stop the abdominal pain and nausea...check. I could not think of any other trick to try. I told James, "I think I'm done" or something to that effect. I was starting to feel confused . James nodded and we wrapped me into my emergency blanket and fortunately James had a cell signal to call for help. Mile 175. The only way, so far, I can think of that I might could have saved my race at that moment, would have been to go back down to the last aid station, 8 miles back and slept and warmed up again and try to get the food to settle. But in pretty sure I would've developed hypothermia going back down anyway. I am sure it still would've taken me 4 hours at least to get back to the las aid.
