02/03/2022
“What I can clearly express is a lesson I learned from this race:
You can set the best intentions with well-laid plans, but life is going to test you relative to your desired outcome. The more ambitious the outcome, the harder the test.
It was mile 51 and I had just finished half of a 3700 ft climb. I was headed up a 11,500 ft mountain as I watched the sun setting. A few minutes later the hail and rain began as the temperature dropped. 5.5 miles in, there was no going back, no one was coming to save me, the only solution was up and over. As the storm worsened, I pulled out an emergency blanket for the first time in my life. 1000 ft from the peak, fog started pouring in, making it hard to navigate the trail. Then the lighting started. This was the rawest power I have ever felt as the bolts struck a few miles away. One of the few times in my life I felt like things could get very bad.
Traversing this section with my plastic Jedi robe, 3-inch shorts, tank top, and waterproof shell, I thought I had made it to the aid station. I was there according to my map but there was no aid station. A minute later my headlamp died. Pitch black I waited for the next runner to come through and luckily they did. I made it to the next aid station 15 minutes later finding out there was an error in the map.
Just like that, I was sitting next to a warm heater, soup in hand. Then the rain stopped. The storm had passed.
The Lesson: When things look like they can't get much worse, they can. When you most feel like giving up, aid is right around the corner but you must push up and over through the storm.
Tushars took me 20 hours and 49 minutes of grueling effort to finish. It was one of the best things I have ever done.“
— Scotty Arellano
On peaks Founder 🏔
