The Comeback
Those of you who are training for anything at all know how challenging it can be to execute a perfect training plan. Suddenly there are long work days, dentist appointments, school projects, sleep overs...all sorts of things to get in the way of a good run. For any one of us, there are a thousand reasons on any given day to prevent us from doing what we need to do to get to our goal. Especially when we are training for something long and those weekday runs last for 1-2 hours.
Just imagine having 4 kids, one still nursing; moving (twice), managing all the things that go with a large family and somehow training for a 100 mile mountain trail run. Successfully. Good luck!
Well, that is exactly what Ashla Bryant did when she was training for the Pinhoti 100. She tackled a large family and everything that goes with that and still managed to get some good running in. It was not uncommon for me to see Ashla log a run before I was out of bed in the morning and you should know that I am a very early riser. She not only ran her heart out in training runs, but she ran a few races along the way and won them. She worked very hard and to me it seemed that Pinhoti, although her first 100; would be an easy finish for her.
The week before Pinhoti, we got everything into place. We met to talk about food and gear. We talked about pacing, time at aid stations, cutoffs, everything. The only thing that we did not discuss was not finishing. To me, not finishing seemed highly unlikely. Ashla had all the components. Training, mental toughness, passion, experience with some pretty long distances. She had everything in place and although I know things can come up, she seemed as ready as anyone could be to run 100 miles. I have always believed that you need to plan for the finish, so it seemed natural to me that we talked only about the goal.
On race morning Ashla’s toed the line with a few hundred other runners and started her long day on the trail. She most definitely ran her heart out and she was ahead of cutoff easily the entire day. When I reached her at mile 56, she was upbeat and feeling good. This was the case until around mile 70 when nausea set in. I will not go into the gory details, but at some point, she struggled with keeping anything down and she most definitely lost a lot of fluid. She gave it her best, but finally had to drop from the race at mile 90. Ashla could not recover from dehydration. Later on that same day, she would end up in the hospital with Rhabdomyolysis. Thankfully, she was able to get to the hospital where she spend the night and received lots of fluids.
Rhabdo is a tough adversary. I’ve also suffered from Rhabdo in the past and remember going from winning races to struggling to run 3-4 miles. It’s a big deal. Ashla not only had to deal with the disappointment from stopping her run before she reached the finish line, but she also had to deal with recovery from pretty severe dehydration. Double bummer for sure. However, Ashla did not let that stop her from getting out there and running almost immediately after returning home.
Fast forward to almost exactly one month after Pinhoti. Ashla decided that she was still going to run the Pine Mountain 40 mile trail run at F.D. Roosevelt State Park. She could have easily passed and justified the decision with recovery from the 90 miles she ran a month earlier or the time in the hospital. But she instead decided to toe the line and race. Ashla WON the race for the women that day and came in 6th overall. WOW! I would call that one heck of a comeback.
To me, this is a perfect example of her determination. She navigated a tough training plan, a DNF at 90(!!) miles in a race that she trained for over a year, as well as hospitalization. She dealt with her setbacks and disappointments in a fashion that is truly remarkable and to me, a clear sign of a talented and gifted athlete and person.