Quadzilla was amazing this year for many reasons (starting with I actually finished it)! My race report is from a BACK of the packer. I wont even lie and say I was even close to a mid-packer :) Personal goal for the quad was 24 hours. Hey if that's a decent goal for a 100 miler it works for a 104.8 miler as well (at least that was my thinking going in). You have to have something to shoot for, right.

It started out on day 1 with a BANG (literally!). Les Wright, the race director starts it off with a shotgun blast and in the mountains that thing sounded like a cannon! Being from Alabama, the shotgun made me feel right at home hahaha. It was cool, probably around 30, and a absolutely perfect day to run a marathon. We started at inspiration point (a place we would see again on day 3, mile 20). Day one started with a major downhill and ended with a HUGE uphill. It was mostly through town and with the exception of the first 3 miles, it mostly was un-scenic and boring (in my opinion). Day 1 down - time 5:39:44 . A new personal worst but I knew I had 3 more marathons to go. Can't empty the tank too soon I thought.

Day 2 started off with an alarm clock I wanted to smash into a hundred pieces and a wife who understandably got my mad/slow/sorry butt out of bed. The excuse of 'I ran a marathon yesterday, can't I sleep in' didn't work so away we went. The huge mountain at the end of day 1 we climbed proved one thing on day 2.... What goes up must come down. After miles and miles of downhill we came to the north end of the lake and we were greeted with a view that no picture, postcard or words could begin to describe. I'll just say picture the most amazingly beautiful thing you've ever seen and multiply it by 10. That is semi close but not really it. We were at the north end of the lake and it was B-E-A-Utifullll. The course then turned through Incline village where there were 10 - 25 million dollar houses.... One even recently sold for 65 million. Yeah, it was jaw dropping (Yall in the front, yeah, you know who you are..... This was the blur you saw flying by you about 90 minutes into day 2. I saw it at around 2.5 hours :-) I was so slow I actually stopped and picked up flyers in front of houses for sale and played the 'guess how much this mansion cost' with Steve, the guy I was running with. You can take the triple as fast or slow as you want, so I decided to have fun with it.... Why not huh? Anyway, day 2 ended on a VERY bad note for me personally because about mile 13 I decided I had not seen enough of Tahoe so I figured I'd see more of it up close and personal (ie I bit the dust..... literally). Twisted my ankle, busted up my knee, landed squarely on my back (on a rock to add insult to injury). Blood everywhere I could see the look on Steve's face.... It was one of 'well, I'll be running the rest of this solo'. Blood everywhere, I decided then and there the motto of 'You can do it' was more than a maniac saying. I had put WAY too much time in training into this to quit (not to mention I REALLY wanted 6 stars damnit). Steve helped me up... I hobbled along for a mile and decided the hell with this %$#& I'm gonna run or die trying. I made it to the end in 5:56:29. Well, on a good note day 1 was no longer a personal worst huh :) Total time - 11:36:13. Still on track for that sub 24.

Friday night we had a pasta dinner at the Maniac house and I met some of those AMAZING people I had only seen in pictures or followed as they had performed amazing feats of running I can only dream about. Tony (our leader and all around big brother to everyone), Annie (our day 1 new course record holder), Laura (WAY TO GO!!! Our new Tahoe Triple CHAMPION!! And all around super nice lady), Sean (4 time triple winner!), Andy Kumeda (who had run a hundred miler just 2 weeks before and a full the weekend before), Al Harmon (who was going for 6 in 8 days and made it!), Kurt Lauer (AMAZING runner and every bit as nice of a person), Sam Thompson (who helped me with my training plan and I owe more than I can say). Needless to say I felt like the underachiever here but just darn glad to be there. Everyone there treated me like a brother and friend and it was a total treat for me to be in such great company.

Day 3 started with another attempted murder of my alarm clock and some choice words for my wife who was rather insistent I get my rear out of bed. It was her first full, and she wasn't about to let me miss my third in a row (yippee... Said with all the enthusiasm of a 13 year old going to the library:-) It was the normal Lake Tahoe marathon, another AMAZING morning and luckily nothing hurt. How that happened I'll never know but it didn't. Don't question it I said. It was great to be around probably 500-600 more people this day but all the triple runners really stuck together and bonded. It was like a little clique where we would talk to everyone but we had been through hell together... We had a bond these single dayers just couldn't understand. Looking back now the 3rd day was a total blur until mile 16ish when the mountains started kicking in. I remember a bunch of walking and cussing (when will this %#^*!$# hill be over, I believe I said). Anyway, at mile 20 we made it back to inspiration point, and I actually teared up. I realized at that point, no matter what, I had made an entire lap of this 72 mile monster lake. It was the most amazing moment of my life.... Until 1 hour later I finished my third marathon in 3 days. A new most amazing moment and more tears. To top it off I beat my personal worst..... 5:52:08. Total time now - 17:28:21. On another note my wife finished in 7:05. She wasn't happy with the time but she finished and I was VERY proud of her accomplishment.

Day 4 started off with another scare that almost cost me quadzilla. I had my old pair of running shoes with me for the Bizz, since it was a trail marathon and I didn't want to screw up my new ones. Only problem was I had NO INSOLES!! My brother in law actually flew out of the room (at his pace he would have given Laura a run for her money... At least in the hundred yard dash :-). 5 Minutes later he was back with 4 pair of insoles and said pick whatever will work. With brother in laws like that who needs friends :-) Jumped in the car with Laura and away we went. The Bizz is an fantastic race, no matter if it was part of the quad or not. Every aid station had food (MANY kinds), water, Gatorade, salt pills, you name it every 2 miles. The scenery was so relaxing you kept on running because you couldn't wait to see what was coming up next. I was almost sad to see it come to an end. I actually DID end up in tears at the end. Not because of achieving what I thought was IMPOSSIBLE but because as I rounded the hill at the end, I saw on one side of the finish line my wife and brother (in law... After what he did for me he's a full brother in my book) and on the other side of the finish line I saw my fellow maniacs. I saw Tony there with his camera and Annie, Laura and the rest of the gang cheering as I came across the finish line. I have never been so touched in my life as to see these maniacs that I KNEW had finished a minimum of an hour before my pokey self there cheering me on. WOW! Yall really know how to make a guy feel special. If yall read this, know I am forever indebted to you all for making that day the most special and amazing day of my life. It meant more to me than you'll ever know to see you all there at the finish, and I mean that.

Finish time for day 4 - 5:00:01. Man where were those 2 seconds huh? Anyway, total time - 22:28:22. Beat my goal by 1:31:38. Even with 3 personal worst times I could not have been happier!! And to top it all off, nothing hurt. Once again, don't look a gift horse in the mouth. Is there another marathon next weekend maybe :) Let's go... As it says on our homepage 'YOU CAN DO IT'. Sorry for the long report, but my hand written report is 16 single spaced legal sheets of paper. This BARELY touches the high points (and a few of the low ones as well). This is as concise as it gets for a 104.8 mile journey. For anyone who has ever thought about doing Tahoe..... Just do it. Everything you've ever heard is true. Sitting in the COLDDDD lake afterwards, the food galore, the awesome 5 pound plaque you get for finishing, everything is there.... Including the pride you'll have forever knowing you've completed something most believe is nearly impossible.... 4 marathons in 4 days. If I can make it, ANYONE can. It's a different mindset, but so totally do-able. Next year the triple and the Bizz will be on different weekends, so who knows what next year's quad will be... But I bet there will be some semblance of it..... And you can bet the bank I'll be there.

Andrew Edwards Maniac # 131