Mick is a buddy of mine who I spent 7 days with in the middle of the Sahara Desert when we did the 250 km run across the desert in Marathon des Sables. He’s a classic Aussie, tough as freakin’ nails and funny as hell… just a good guy.
Oh, and he’s a pretty good athlete… since he and I did MdS, he’s gone on to IM Hawaii, Ultraman Canada (set the record for the fastest swim!), then won Ultraman World Championships… and about a million other brutally hard races… and then decided to get into 100 mile Ultras this year. So he did the Ultra Grand Slam… Vermont 100, Western States 100, Leadville 100 and Wasatch 100… all in 11 weeks… and came 2nd overall… not bad for a newbie. Congrats Mick!
Cheers,
Rob
“So many of our dreams at first seem impossible, then they seem improbable, and then, when we summon the will, they soon become inevitable” Christopher Reeve
Dear Family & Friends – Fitting to end the Grand Slam newsletter series with a quote from Superman, don’t you think?
When Mike read my pre-Wasatch 100 update he said that perhaps I had a penchant for the dramatic, and although I has used actual quotes from actual race reports and web sites I wondered if I had romanticised this last one a little.
In fact (as I was told repeatedly at every aid station and the finish line) he had NO CONCEPT of how ridiculously tough this course was…apparently even the downhills went uphill. And! There were lots of wildlife sightings, even the winner Jeff Browning had to stop and wait for a Moose to move off the trail. Today we took a drive to Brighton Ski Lodge, because we were both there in the dark during the race, and Mike showed me the 10,000+ft peak that they climbed up over at 1 o’clock in the morning in freezing temperatures, all in the last quarter of the race. Mind-blowing, and I’m in awe.
Regardless of how many times out there Mike had to recalibrate his expectations and goals as the course and mountain weather battered him about, finishing the Grand Slam was always at the forefront of his mind, and finish he did. Let me proudly (and I can, as the wife) summarise his achievements:
- The first Australian and first South African to complete the Grand Slam
- Four 160km trail runs in under 11 weeks
- In a combined time of 88 hours of continuous running (well sometimes there was continuous walking)
- 2nd overall in the 2012 Grand Slam (15 finishers from 25 starters)
- An outright podium finish (3rd at Vermont 100)
- The fastest Australian over the famous Western States 100 course (and the first to break 20 hours)
- Three sub-24 hour finish times out of four (and a sub 30 hour buckle for Wasatch 100 for his time of 28hr41min)
- Not a single injury
- A lot more grey hair (seriously, its weird I know)
- More new friends than he knows what to do with
- Breathtaking scenery overload
I was a bit concerned when I arrived back in the States to find Mike was throwing out a pair of new running shoes already. As he explained to me – he knew he was running way too much in between races, but he lives with a philosophy of More Than The Finish Line, and part of that is not to miss out on opportunities, experiences and curb life because he’s hung up on a finish line. When your passion in life is to run and you’re living at the base of the San Juan Mountains; the Sierra Nevadas; at Apex on the Canadian Rockies; in Colorado with trails literally on your doorstep; and travelling through Moab’s incredible desert – the adventure outdoor capital of the world, I suppose you can be forgiven for wanting to lace up your running shoes every 5 minutes. All part of the journey that makes up the sum of the experience into the Epic adventure that it was.
Mike has coined the phrase ‘Ephi-scopic thinking’ which I love. It’s the almost spiritual epiphanies and detailed microscopic analytical navel-gazing that you do when you run (shuffle) in the dark (possibly to do with lack of food, oxygen and light), and you work out what’s what. He’s worked out that these past three months have been invaluable to him, a million miles wider than just the Grand Slam. Immersing himself in a rich and deep culture of ultra running in the States and enjoying the ease you feel amongst like-minded people (we met a man today who has completed SEVEN Grand Slams because his wife liked the t-shirt. The race director said if he made it to TEN they would pay for a life time of psychiatric care for him), cementing wonderful and important friendships and learning more about what he was capable of achieving.
When we originally planned for the Grand Slam’s challenges we were most concerned about his legs and muscles and how they would recover, as well as his mental state and motivation for starting each race in such quick succession. What we didn’t reckon on was his stomach’s stubborn refusal to bounce back and digest on the hop copious amounts of food while running exposed to the elements continuously for over a day, four times. This was the biggest and most unexpected challenge for us, particularly in the last two races, and was disappointing as he mostly felt like going faster in his legs but didn’t have the engine for it. Fortunately Endura has some great products that we were able to rely on, and Mike has a will of steel.
We fly back to Australia tomorrow and are looking forward to reuniting with friends again, and our little dog too who we have missed. Thank you to you all for your emails, texts and tweets of encouragement, it really all helps when the going gets tough, to rally and keep going, knowing that it matters to more than just us.
Coach Jeff www.coachjeff.com.au will be podcasting again soon so keep a look out for that, and Mike will work on a race report at an airport I hope.
Thanks again! Until the next epic adventure,
Kirsten Le Roux, UltraWife
MORE THAN THE FINISH LINE
MIKE LE ROUX