Best Job In the World

Sat, 2:30pm, I joined 59-year-old L and his 18-year-old son S at
the Hacienda aid station, 41 miles into their race, the 2019 Quick
Silver 100K (62 miles) Endurance Run. It started early that morning
and they had already been at it for 10 hours. The toughest two thirds
of the race was already done. For that, they looked remarkably well.
After a brief stay, we set off for the next aid station three miles away.

Three days ago, as I was contemplating on the coming
weekend, L was kind to suggest I pace him for the last one 
third of the race, more for me to feel what it was like out
there. This was going to be my first ultra event although I
would ran only the last 21 miles. The race, course, and
pacing were all new to me and L warned of the possibility of
having to jog in the dark. In the spirit of antifragility, I
jumped at the chance.

The ball of my right foot hurt from past weeks' long runs. 
The callouses were there, but the inside felt swollen. Stepping
on pebbles was horrible, especially after certain distances,
say 12 miles, on the trail. Until it heals, I decided I needed
more cushion for longer distances. So today, I had my five-
year-old Merrells that were already worn thin at the balls.
(Looking back, they were no better than the 5mm Xero soles because under the balls of the feet, where it mattered, they were already worn hair-thin.)

The cushion came at a cost, though, as ground-grip was loose 
compared with the sandals. I learnt this before the Bull Run
station when descending a steep slope. It became too slippery
for me to slow down near the bottom and I fell and greased the
elbows and right hip. (Similar scenes played several times in my
life, including one on rollerblades.) Xeros never gave me a problem 
running down steeper slopes on MP. The mostly downhill 5.7
miles to McAbee tested the right foot. I fell behind and gingerly 
negotiated with the trail with no further incidents.

Coming back from McAbee was the highlight of my day. I was 
surprised with the strength of my glutes (thanks to weight
lifting) as I was able to enjoy running uphill when everyone
else was walking, some with trekking poles. Going up meant
my feet didn't have to take extra shocks from pounding
downward and my right foot seemed recovering. I let myself
lose and passed about a dozen guys before coming back to
Bull Run to surprise the volunteers there.

My runners were in great shape although S fell on the way to 
McAbee on the left side. They beat the Western States (a 100
mile race) cut-off time by over 30min. (S was also going to run
the Ohlone 50K next week and the BigFoot 200 Miles in August.)
 

From what I observed, ultra-running was for many a family 
event. Many runners were parents with young children and I
saw an 8- or 9-year-old girl pacing her mom between two aid
stations three miles apart. L's wife Lidia was driving from
station to station to meet us along the way. It was rare and
beautiful these days when more often family members living 
under the same roof have few things to share.

Pacing was the best job. Without paying a dime, I got the
same attention and glory, not to mention the food and drink
along the way, as a runner did. Most importantly, I learnt
more about myself today--I can run uphill and I still need
cushion for long distances on the trails. As a bonus for the
5.5 hr fun, the next morning, my weight went down to 142.4 lbs.