Scott Brockmeier's SCAR 2 Report

On Sunday, March 7th, Matt Kirk set a one-day distance record for the Appalachian Trail. Scott came within a few miles of breaking the previous record.

What a day we had. As Matt said, we had great support and without if we wouldn't have been able to do this.
We had 5 people completely dedicated to helping us. Melinda, Kathryn and Patti were there catering to us at all those aid stops, preparing anything we needed and waiting on us as we became more and more wasted. Kathryn deserves special mention for being there at the start and driving the aid station (my Subaru) for all but 2-3 hours of the whole run. She only got a couple hours sleep on Saturday night and an hour's nap Sunday afternoon. She definitely completed her own endurance contest.

David and Mike were there to pace and accompany us on the trail and they did a fantastic job keeping us motivated, watching over us, and providing an ever more important safety net. David ran 20-30 miles with us and this after running the 34 miles of Catawba the day before. Mike ran an incredible 52 miles with us, doing 20+ miles from the midnight start and then providing absolutely indispensable support at the end. Given the problems I had, it's almost certain that Matt wouldn't have been able to finish if Mike hadn't been there. I think I would have needed a good hour of recovery to get to where I could have gone on (if I could have at all) and that would have been too much time to make the 24 hour goal. With me out it wouldn't have been safe for Matt to continue alone. So Mike deserves huge thanks and much credit for the success of the run.

So what happened to me? I'm still trying to sort it out. Matt mentioned that I had a bout of nausea but I never really felt nauseous. My stomach was definitely not feeling good and I seemed to be having trouble processing food but I never felt sick. One thing that's for certain is that I didn't get enough to eat from about 60 miles on and eventually just ran out of energy. Looking back, I'm thinking that my stomach probably could have taken more than I thought it could and I should have just forced more things like gels, coke, or whatever was easy to digest.

Another problem was that I was not thinking clearly. At one point David was running with me and he could see that I was starting to stagger recovering from catching my foot on a rock or root. He told me to eat some hammer gel he had but I didn't want it - it's clear to me now that I really needed it and should have drained the bottle instead of the meager shot I took. The mental problems and the exhaustion just led me into a deep calorie hole that I eventually wasn't able to recover from.

I really struggled getting to our aid stop at 80 miles and Matt had been there for what must have been close to 10 minutes. I was in bad shape emotionally and physically. It was getting dark, it was getting much colder and windier, and it was starting to rain. We had to keep moving but I was in no shape to go on without some serious help. I ate a few things and drank some chicken broth and left that stop after what I think was only 5-8 minutes. There was no way Matt and I could split up because of the aid support and only having Mike as pacer/safety runner so I tried to keep up with Matt. Matt went slow on this 2.5 mile section hoping that I would recover some and I was able to keep up for much of that climb but it was tremendously hard and eventually I called out to Mike and he let me catch up. I told him that I wasn't going to be able to keep the pace and that he and Matt should go on without me. I was going to drop at the next aid stop. The rain had been getting harder as we climbed and soon after I told Mike I was going to drop it started to get really nasty. Both Mike and I only had on light shirts, windshirts and running shorts and suddenly we were in full on blizzard. The snow was coming down really heavily and almost horizontal. We were running a ridge so we were getting the full blast of the wind and even though I knew this was a short section I started to get worried about exposure. It was a bit scary.

Eventually, though, I saw the lights of the cars and suddenly I was sitting in my car happy to be out of the wind. I was completely devastated at this point. Just after I told Mike I was quitting, I cried for the first time in I don't know how many years. Then the snow came and I struggled through that for what seemed like a long time, and now I was sitting safe and didn't have to push myself anymore. The windshield of the car was covered with snow and it was still coming down like mad. All the crew were running around and there were probably 2 inches on the ground. With the snow I thought that Matt would stop. The trail was covered with snow, it was dark, there were 16.5 miles to go, and it was cold. I'm *very* impressed that he chose to go on in those conditions. As far as he knew at that point, this is what it would be like the rest of the way. Fortunately, though, the nasty conditions didn't last. After dropping some elevation the snow was gone and the squall had passed. Matt continued on keeping a very impressive pace to the end completing something that he had been dreaming of doing for nearly two years. What a performance!

Jay Finkle sent me an email saying that he hoped I wasn't beating myself up over my decision. I'm not berating myself for the decision because there wasn't really much of a decision to be made. I tried my best to keep up but just couldn't do it and there was no time to try to get it back together. I had to let Matt go on without me. So while I'm not being hard on myself I am having difficulty assimilating the whole experience. I've never quit like this before and it's really hard to accept. The fact that I know I tried my best helps but still I quit and that's just not me. I **will** go back and do this thing, though, hopefully doing a better job of keeping fueled.

Thanks again to Mike and Melinda Day, Patti and David Kirk, and my dearest Kathryn. You all were great. I'm amazed and so grateful to have such great friends. Thanks to Matt too, for coming up with the idea and having the confidence to make it all happen.

See you out there,

Scott