Alex Proctor

By mile 27 I was bonked out of my mind. I planned on quitting at the first crewable aid station. My body was defying me. I was walking any uphill grade and stumbling down any downhill grade.

I never trained harder for an objective. Where did it go wrong? I was so frustrated, wanting my dizziness to knock me completely over and out of consciousness so this nightmare would end and I’d have a reason to completely call it.

In that moment, I leaned as hard as I could on the Lord in prayer. I remembered that day 41 will come and just tried to keep moving forward no matter the pace. Into the first crewed aid was a nice downhill that got my momentum going again.

Upon arrival @corneliociprian blew by me putting me into 7th place. I saw my crew eagerly awaiting and put on an all time mask. I didn’t tell them anything. I followed the plan I wrote in our binder and requested my yerba mate from Sam 20 miles early.

I chugged the liquid energy, threw my headlamp on, and as day turned to night, the darkness inside me turned to light. Legs and morale 180’d. Within a few miles I made up 4 places and found myself in 3rd place rolling into the mile 39.7 aid where Max was filling his bottles.

I quickly linked up with Max and we shared the next 17 miles, working together to bridge the gap to Cody.

At mile 55.4 I picked up my friend Dan as a pacer, we went around Max and started to throw down. We ended up running that 14 mile section faster than any runner ever beside @vincentbouillard .

Sarah picked me up at mile 69 and we hiked up Sugarloaf Mountain eventually crossing paths with Cody. At this point his lead was 15-20 minutes near the summit.

Through the rest of the night Sarah and Natalie paced me to my best 100 mile performance yet.

I didn’t have the A+ day (I’d rate it B-B+) I expected but my crew and my competition willed me to an elite result with memories shared I’ll never forget.

At UTMB’s North America Major, the Kodiak 100 miler, I crossed the finish line in 2nd place between @cody_poskin and @woah_max with a time of 17:23 (847 index). We qualified for UTMB again but not sure exactly what’s next.

Perhaps a cheeky pivot to the backyard scene 👀