I took Friday Dec. 11 off work so I could sleep in some and rest up before the 12:01 am Saturday morning start. Friday afternoon I got to packing up my stuff, race bag with shower stuff and street clothes for after, drop bag with extra shoes and socks and gels, and my hydration pack, spare headlamp and batteries. I planned to leave home in time to get to Camp Bethel for the 5 pm check in and 6 pm meal so I could chat with others and relax. Well I was a bit late leaving but still had plenty of time to make it for the meal...about 25 minutes down the road, my wife calls me and informs me that my hydration pack is still at the house! I will definitely need that with how warm it is going to be on Saturday afternoon, so I went back to the house and got it. I was a bit concerned this might make me too late for when the meal would be over at 7:30 pm, but I was still able to get there for the food. Nice veggie lasagna I might add!
After the pre-race briefing and the matching up of people who needed a ride to the start (huge car pool caravan to the start of this point to point race) I went out to rest in my car, and make final prep with pinning my race number on my shorts, making sure I had what I wanted for food, Tailwind mixed, and extra Tailwind powder in my pack and so on. Blake Edmondson gave me a ride to the start and kept a small bag with some of my things I would want at a few places on course. He met me at Pettite's Gap, and worked the aid stations at Jennings Creek and Bobblet's Gap.
Midnight and we have had a prayer, sung the "Star Spangled Banner" and at a minute after midnight Dave Horton starts us on our 66.6 mile race through the trails of Viginia's Blue Ridge Mountains, specifically the Glenwood horse trail which has as it's northeast terminus the Big Hellgate Creek trail head parking area, which is where the race gets it's name.
In the first half mile I found myself kinda boxed in behind a group of runners that weren't going at the speed I thought was fast enough to suit me, so I managed to get around them to get in a clear section and Todd Thomas came around them with me. We ran together another half mile or so then Todd pulled away. The slightly rolling trail felt good, especially the downhill sections, so I took full advantage of the gravity pull on those places that I could. It seemed like we got to the first creek crossing pretty quickly and then out on to the first long uphill gravel road (Pettite's Gap road) where I took a moment to eat a Honey Stinger waffle and a gel, then set about running as much of that uphill road as I could. In retrospect, I probably pushed too hard up that hill, running most all but a couple short sections all the way to aid station 2 at the Blue Ridge Parkway. Hmmm, come to think of it I did pretty much the same thing last year. I still felt good though over 8 miles in, descending away on the east side of the Parkway and through the single track section that goes over to Hunting Creek road. I did not feel like I was pushing too hard.
As I got going up the gravel climb of Hunting Creek road, I slowed to a hike and took out another Honey Stinger Waffle and a gel. I was trying to jog some of the not too steep sections and hike the steeper parts. Several people passed me on that climb as I started to notice my left hip was aching and overall I had a feeling of being really tired. Of course it is after 1 am! As we got near aid station 3 at Camping Gap there was a guy hiking near me that wondered out loud about how soon the next aid station would be coming. I must have lost track of where I was because I answered with "oh, about another half mile" only to look ahead and realize "oh, well, we are here already"! Then I said something like " wow, too early to be hallucinating already"! My time to this point was very close to my last years split here so I felt pretty good about that but I was concerned my left hip was going on strike. This past summer I had battled a couple injuries that were not running related, but kept me from training. In June I pulled some muscles in my left lower back and hip / upper hamstring area while using a pole mounted chain saw to cut some limbs off trees at my house. In July I had a heavy truck tire, mounted and aired up, fall on my left foot. That stopped all running training till the end of July. The combination of these two injuries affected my stride as I got back to training in August. All experienced runners know what happens when you have to alter your stride...aches and injuries tend to transmit all over, going from one joint to another, or one muscle group to another. I have felt a nagging, slowing me down, type of pain near the end of some of my long runs this fall in my left hip and it chose now to show up again...ugh!
On out the loonngg grassy road toward Floyd Field in the wee hours of the morning, I felt like I was slowing down more and more. My left hip got to where I was noting I was not able to pick up my left leg as much as I should and was grazing some of the higher spots with my shoe. This is not good. One thing trail running requires that is different from road running is being able to lift your feet to clear obstacles like roots, rocks, sticks and logs. When you can't lift your feet, you WILL trip and fall. I began to work on massage techniques as I hiked uphill climbs, hammering and digging into the muscles in my left hip as I continued to make progress on the course. I took the single track down to Overstreet Creek road easy as there are lots of obstacles on that section. I had picked up a piece of a stick in my right shoe, so when I got off that single track to start the climb back up to the Parkway and Floyd Field, I stopped and took off that shoe and got the stick out. I looked up at the sky several times during this climb. The stars were so bright on this moonless night. I came up on a guy hiking with no light and asked him if his light was ok. He said it was and was just enjoying the hike in the dark. I had a hand light and two head lights with me so I wanted to make sure he was ok. I could have let him have one of my lights. We talked about how pretty the stars were. They seemed really big and close. He mentioned he had seen a couple meteorites. There was a meteor shower but I didn't see any. Getting to Floyd Field at Headforemost Mountain is the first major hurdle in this race. It is the first place there is a hard cutoff. That is, a time limit to get there. If you don't get to Floyd Field by 6:40 am then you can't continue on course. I was there at about 5:45 am so nearly an hour ahead of the cutoff, but lost ground on my time from last year. Kathie Colling and Melissa Early were there working the aid station, and they gave me red carpet treatment! Kathie even hiked across the Parkway a few yards to collect my trash as I was leaving on my way toward Jennings Creek.
As I started the descent toward Jennings Creek I knew it would be getting light soon. My batteries in both my head light and hand light were worn down. I was trying to conserve them by alternating use of each so I wouldn't have to stop and get into my pack for batteries. I managed to make that work. My reserve headlamp was in my pack also but I wanted to save that for the (increasing) chance that I might have to use it near the finish. I didn't need it last year but I was going slower this year, and the warm temperature was sure to slow me more as the day wore on. There are a few little rolling up and down sections here and a creek crossing that is too wide to jump across before you get on the grassy road that makes the last drop into Jennings Creek aid station. At that creek I had caught up to a guy that had been in front of me. Here he is blocking my way and hesitant to cross the creek, looking for a way across and keep from getting his feet wet. That sort of thing irritates me in a race. I can see wanting to keep your feet dry on a training run where your time doesn't matter, but my goodness, if you are any kind of a trail runner you should be okay with just stomping straight through a creek in a race! I stepped up beside him and said "here ya go, just go right through it"! I hope he didn't take offense. By the time I got to the Jennings Creek aid station it was daylight. Blake was there and I handed him my headlight, hand light, gloves and long sleeve tee shirt. I could probably have done ok without the long tee and gloves, but I wore them anyway for the night time portion as the temps were in the 50 degree range and you never know whether it will be cooler and windy on the ridges than the valleys, plus my hands get cold easy when I run. I saw Steve Wolbert come in the station behind me, and Alissa Kieth came in just as I was heading out on course with breakfast in my hands.
The first climb up the gravel road leaving Jennings Creek is a good place to eat breakfast. It isn't too steep, and not as long as the first two gravel roads in the race, and there is a nice gravel downhill once you get past a short single track at the top. Funny thing, there is a little grove of pine trees on the left within the first quarter mile of the downhill here. Both times I have run this race, I had to stop at this pine grove to go get rid of the used food that had accumulated in my digestive tract to this point. Same exact spot both times...in a 66 to 67 mile run...weird. The single track at the bottom of this gravel road is a really nice section. I'm going to have to make a trip out there and run a loop course using that section sometime. In fact I don't know why I don't hear of more training runs using this part of the course. I guess there are other trails that are closer to Lynchburg, or more scenic or epic runs. But if you look at a map of this area there are lots of trails and forest service roads nearby here that could make nice loops. I guess that makes for more places to get lost at too, ha ha! I have never been lost, only temporarily disoriented! Steve Wolbert caught and passed me back at the top before the descent, and I kept waiting for Alissa Kieth to catch me but unknown to me at the time, she had been experiencing severe indigestion and her race would end at Bearwallow Gap on this day. I felt bad for her when I saw her later. I know the long hours and loss of family time as well as the expenses of training and racing the "Beast Series". To have finished well at all 5 of the previous races in the series, then to have the wheels come off in the last half of the last race in the series and not get the finishers award for the whole series is just a real disappointing thing to happen. Somewhere along here is halfway through the course. After the nice single track trail there is another gravel road climb as you approach Little Cove Mountain aid station, then a couple rolling up and downs then the aid station. Here your are confronted with a notable incongruity if you are wearing a GPS watch and have been keeping tabs on the distance covered. I remember last year, looking at my watch here and seeing over 37 miles. The mileage chart on the website, and the hand made sign at the aid station will say you have run 34.5 miles to get here. I know the course is long. I know about "Horton miles". I readily accept the fact that most trail races are longer than the advertised distance. I realize you can't just start or stop a race out in the middle of nowhere, there has to be a semi-convenient venue for the start and finish where there is room for people and cars. But for some reason the 37 plus miles on my watch here and the 34 plus I was seeing on the aid table sign just grated my already thin patience last year at this point, so I purposely wore only a time keeping watch this year.
Leaving Little Cove aid station headed toward Bearwallow Gap you are on a really runnable double track for a good while, maybe around a couple miles, then on a singletrack that isn't too bad with nice views for awhile, then you enter the "Devil Trail" with seemingly endless switchbacks, lots of rocks on the trail that are determined to make you twist an ankle, and to make it worse, the rocks are covered with very slippery leaves. You know you are getting closer to where the trail crosses route 43 just above the town of Buchanan, but the switchbacks just don't seem to be helping your progress much. Bearwallow Gap aid station is another of the Glenwood horse trail parking areas that this race utilizes. It is large enough so that folks who have horses and use trailers can pull in and unload and loop around without having to back up. This is the second hard cutoff location with a time of 12:30 pm or you can't continue. If you get here before that you are pretty much a lock to finish, barring any unfortunate circumstances. There is truly only 20 miles to the finish from Bearwallow, so all the extra miles have already been covered. If you have a pacer to help you finish it is here that you are allowed to pick up your pacer. Last year Blake paced me from here to the finish. This year I did not have a pacer, so I just concentrated on moving as best I could. Running the flats and downhills and power hiking the uphills. I bumped into Kathie C. and Melissa E. here again and they seemed to follow the race, driving to the next two aid stations as well, and being of great assistance to the aid crews and runners. They filled my hydration pack as I grazed pretty well off the aid table and then set about the power hike uphill for the first little bit out of Bearwallow .
After the first mile or mile and a half out of Bearwallow headed toward Bobblet's Gap, the single track uphill becomes more runnable for good stretches as it winds in and out of small hollows in the side of the ridge. Eventually the trail drops you out on an old dirt road that climbs to the left, back up to the parkway where Bobblet's Gap aid station is. Here Sam Price is running his remote wilderness restaurant (just kidding, but seriously, he has got all kinds of food, pierogies, cheese quesadillas, and so forth). I remembered last year eating a bit too much here, so mindful of that, I ate well but didn't overdo it. I wanted to be able to make good use of the next 3 miles...downhill at first on washed out rocky dirt road, then as you descend the road gets better until you are on a real nice gravel road for about a mile. As you get close to the bottom of this road, you turn right on a single track trail that is known as the "Forever Section". It isn't all that terrible as far as trails go...if you are on fresh legs! By now I am hiking every little uphill and trying to do something that at least looks like running on flats and downs. This section has a few ups, a few downs and a little bit of side hill on trail that is covered with leaves about a foot deep. A few little rocky sections and about 9 or 10 little creek drainages thrown in for good measure. It is only about 5 or 6 miles long but, it...seems ...to ...take ...forever! At last I am on the nice flat trail that leads into Day Creek trail head parking area and the last aid station. I get straight water in my pack with a little ice. I had been mixing Tailwind powder in my hydration pack the whole race up to now. Eat a few pickles and chips off the aid table, and off I go on the last climb, about 3 miles back up to the parkway for the fourth and final time.
I am close to an hour behind my time for last year. I get my spare headlight out of my pack in preparation for darkness. As I approach the top of this climb I see a group of people ahead and it appears that I am closing the gap on them. I cross the parkway and start down the last long descent. As I go past the group of runners that were just ahead of me, I realize one of them is Kim Weatherford. I'm glad to see she will finish. About halfway down the last hill the light is pretty much gone from the sky and I am glad I have my spare headlamp to see by. I get to the Camp Bethel driveway and head in for the finish. So glad to make it with about a half hour to spare... around 67 miles in 17:31! Dave Horton is there greeting and congratulating each finisher. I get my finishers awards, nice jacket, nice hat, and nice pair of running socks all embossed or embroidered with the Hellgate race logo. It is so nice to have the Camp Bethel facilities to finish at. Hot showers! I chat with friends who conquered the same trails I did today, then head home. I pull in the Shell station on route 220 on the way home for some coffee and a bite to eat. Blake is there with the same thing in mind. Second time that has happened. We both stopped at the same place in Lovingston on the way back from Grindstone for coffee back in October.
As an ultra trail runner I sometimes get asked why I do this. I am not real sure I can pin down one reason. I read an article in the January 2016 issue of Trail Runner magazine (that just came out a few days ago...why are magazines always a month ahead of the date on the cover?) that partly answers this question. The article is titled "The Siren Song of Mount Blanc" and is about the Ultra Trail du Mount Blanc trail races that are held in France. The author of the article is Yitka Winn. Near the end of her article she is pondering this same question...she quotes a mountaineer named Whymper who penned a work called "Scrambles in the Alps" and I quote her here to answer this: "In 'Scrambles in the Alps' Whymper addressed the question that he, as a mountaineer, was so often asked. It is one that we, as trail runners, also often face--the question of why we do it, and whether our toiling in the mountains "repays" us. "We cannot estimate our enjoyment as you measure your wine or weigh your lead; it is real nevertheless," Whymper wrote. "My scrambles amongst the Alps have repaid me, for they have given me two of the best things a man can possess--health and friends."
