Resolutions, goals, trying to do better, re-evaluating, making adjustments, whatever you want to call it...many of us spend some time thinking about these things in our lives that might improve our quality of life every year around the days surrounding the transition into a new calendar year. As a runner, I have sometimes contemplated races or various goals I have wanted to accomplish. Sometimes those goals are thwarted by injury, mishap, or deficiencies in training, or as in my case age related degradation of my capabilities along with accumulated injuries to joints that will never heal.
There have been three things I have wanted to accomplish over the past 11 or 12 years, but realizing that I am well past my prime physically, I might not be able to see them happen. One of these things was run a 100 mile mountain ultra marathon race. I was able to do that twice. First in 2014 along with many other ultra marathons, and a couple personal best times that year on 50 k courses I had run before, and a couple very good times (for me at age 58 at the time) at the North Face DC 50 miler, and the Hellgate 100k ++ and some epic mountain training runs with good friends that year.
The other two things I have wanted to accomplish are run a marathon in each of the 50 States of the U.S.A., and run a Boston Marathon qualification time on at least one of those marathons. I have been very close (7, 6, and 5 minutes away) to the qualification standard several times in the 2007 to 2012 era. Now that the qualification standards for Boston have been made faster at least twice recently, and I can't seem to stay healthy and uninjured enough to maintain long time periods of intense training, that goal might well be out of reach for me.
I can still cover the 26.2 mile distance without too much difficulty though, with the proper training, so I will keep chipping away at my 50 states goal as time and money will allow. I have 14 States now, and contemplating marathons I might do over the course of 2019. Current limiting factors are my right knee (cartilage damage to the medial meniscus that won't heal and surgery won't help). Multiple accumulated hip and low back muscle tears and a chronic weakness with the L4 / L5 spinal joint that have left scar tissue that seems to get inflamed easily. Lastly, just the natural slowing down that occurs with age, arthritis, and decreased cardio capacity.
Not to say that I wont attempt to train into BQ condition...but I think my window of opportunity might be gone, and I don't know how much more strenuous training my body can take without throwing an all out revolt. Last winter was really hard on me. I was under trained, but attempted the very tough Mountain Masochist Trail Run 50 mile race anyway in November '17 and was over the time limit at 38 miles, so was not allowed to finish. That caused more trauma to my already problematic right knee, so I took most of last winter to try to rehab that. Then in late February '18 I got a real bad dose of the flu that took 2 weeks out of my life. This winter, I got a flu shot, so hopefully won't get that again. Anyway, I had lots of just over all soreness and inflammation that has hampered my training this past year and has made me exponentially slower as a runner than I should be. Back in August I travelled to Issaquah, Washington to run a mostly downhill marathon hoping the downhill would give me the few minutes I need to run a BQ. With all the difficulty I was having getting the training in, I knew I would not be fast enough, but did finish, so got Washington done in my 50 states quest. Beautiful course. Check out the Tunnel Marathons. There are 4 marathons on the same course there from Snoqualmie Pass in the Cascade Mountains, run on smooth pea gravel / old railroad grade trails, down into the Snoqualmie River Valley.
This fall I was able to continue training from my summer build up and was doing well up till around Thanksgiving. Back and hip injuries flared up again. Work and family responsibilities seemed to increase, and of course less daylight and more cold, wet weather didn't help, so not much running and fitness in December.
So...new year, new adventures. Hopefully I can get my base training built back up, then start working on the three main things most distance running programs and coaches will incorporate into a training season. 1) long easy paced runs from half to 3/4ths the race distance once a week, that would be 13 to 20 miles for a marathoner, usually on weekends. Sprinkle in a few faster sections once in awhile in these long runs. 2) tempo runs of anywhere from 3 up to 10 miles at about 90% race effort for that distance or something close to 10k or half marathon pace adjusted for the planned distance that day. 3) speed intervals, usually run on a measured course like a track or smooth trail with markers, or your own course if you want, but it needs to be a surface you can run nearly all out effort without obstacles. Usually this is the kind of work that has potential injury risk, but great reward if continued on a regular basis over a 3 or 4 month period of time. I hope to be able to get back to it soon.
One thing I definitely should do is more effort on core strength, especially abdominal wall and hip / low back mobility, flexibility and strength. When I have done that I have noticed the injuries stay away, or are less severe and don't take away from the training build up by making me take multiple days in a row off from running.
So, here is to the New Year (sip of coffee), following a training plan, not giving up, and staying healthy. Now to sit down with a calendar and plan out the next 4 months of training, and pick a goal race. Wishing you all the best. Hope to see my running friends out on the roads or trails, remember... working toward goals is great, but it should be fun! Give it your all while you still have it all to give.
...Mike Mitchell
Tuesday, January 1, 2019
Thursday, October 5, 2017
Runner Problems, 2017
So, this lament will likely sound selfish in light of the recent hurricanes in Texas, Florida, and the Caribbean Islands. People have lots worse problems than I do. However, I will continue with my ramble here to help me think things thru a bit. This was originally written before the Las Vegas shooting...such a sad thing that has affected so many...just senseless. My heart goes out to those people and their families.
I am currently recovering from a left hip and hamstring injury I got back in late June from tripping on a trail run. I haven't been able to run this past summer without considerable discomfort, and my stride is altered some. But at the same time, I have a decent fitness base I don't want to lose. I bought a mountain bike, but have not used it much. I have a road bike but don't use it at all. I have a Y membership but have not been swimming much. I have tried to maintain my fitness by sticking with hiking and running. When I try longer runs of 7 miles or more my pace has been very slow. I can do short runs on the track at a somewhat decent speed for a 61 year old, but not quite as fast or as many intervals as I think I should be able to do. I can't keep up with friends on social runs, so I have gotten to where I don't really want to go on those runs now either.
Running hurts now. It didn't used to. It used to be fun. It is not fun anymore. I am wondering if it is time to hang up the running shoes and call it off for good. I really don't want to do that. Running road races and trail races had become a big part of my life since 2005, not just with enjoying fitness, but socially as well. Now it seems to just not be there for me. I can't race. I can't train. My hip bothers me all the time. I have a marathon in Ohio I signed up for on October 8, and I won't be ready. I have a 50 mile trail ultra I signed up for that is the first Saturday in November that I doubt I will be ready for. This is getting pretty discouraging. In the past I have had injuries but recovered pretty well in 2 or 3 months. This string of injuries I have been fighting actually goes back into January when I pulled some muscles in my low back and left hip...never fully recovered. Feeling pretty unmotivated.
The hardest part of this is, I have wanted to qualify to enter the Boston Marathon for several years. At age 52, in 2007, I ran the Richmond VA marathon in 3:45. My qualification time then was 3:40. The time for the 55 to 59 age group was 3:45. I figured I would train hard and come back at age 55 or 56 and get my qualifying time. Well, that didn't happen due to a torn medial meniscus in my right knee in August of 2010. I never had any surgery for that because Dave Horton had the same problem, had surgery, and now could not run at all. I took 3 months to rehab my knee and got back to running. My right knee hurts all the time now though. The very next year, the Boston Athletic Association raised the qualification standards for those age groups by 5 minutes faster, so even after turning 55 I would have to run a 3:40. I ran Myrtle Beach SC in 3:47 that included a 5 or 6 minute pit stop in a port a john, close, but not quite there. I ran Rehoboth Beach in 3:46, close again, but not quite a qualifier.
In 2014 I got the idea to do the whole Beast series. Several of my good trail running friends were doing the Beast, and several more were entered in the 100 mile event in the Beast series...the Grindstone 100 miler. The Beast is 6 ultras in one year. ( 3) 50 k races in the spring, a 100 miler, a 50 miler, and a 100 k race in the fall, plus I had to do a 50 mile qualifier to get into the 100 miler in the series. I actually did another 50 miler that year for a total of (3) 50 K races, (3) 50 mile races, (1) 100 miler and (1) 100k. I think that took alot out of me at age 58, and Im not sure I have recovered yet!
At the end of 2014 I took the last three weeks of the year pretty much off from running. I had done pretty good at the Hellgate 100k (more like 108k...67 miles) in 16:29...something like 11,000 ft elevation gain and loss, that was the second weekend of December. I extended my laziness into the first couple weeks of the new year without running. I decided I was not going to run the first two 50 k races, and volunteered instead.
Finally time came for the VA 10 & 4 miler races. I had registered Aaron and myself to run as an assisted athlete team. He loves to race in his big push chair, and I didn't want to disappoint him any more. We have not been doing very many races lately, and he misses it. Anyway, we ran the Four Miler race on the Ten Miler course and did ok. My hip actually felt better at the end than at the start. This past week I got in a little over 37 miles in training, including a 17 mile run in the mountains. I feel pretty good, and hope that continues. I am registered for the Mountain Masochist 50 mile Trail Race the first Saturday in November, we will see how that goes. I have a month to continue training and get in a taper week. The tight cutoffs on the second half of this course might get me. This will be the first trail ultra for me since Promise Land in April of 2016, and longest race since the Erie Marathon in September 2016. This weekend (October 6,7,8, 2017) I was supposed to run a flat marathon. I know I won't be close to a Boston Qualifier time, so I am not doing that. Instead, I will be helping the Dowell's Draft aid station on the Grindstone 100 mile course, and hoping I can get a little mountain trail running in myself. Since this station is at mile 20 outbound and mile 80 inbound on this out and back course, I should have a nice gap between the last runner outbound, and the first runner inbound to get a run in.
I am currently recovering from a left hip and hamstring injury I got back in late June from tripping on a trail run. I haven't been able to run this past summer without considerable discomfort, and my stride is altered some. But at the same time, I have a decent fitness base I don't want to lose. I bought a mountain bike, but have not used it much. I have a road bike but don't use it at all. I have a Y membership but have not been swimming much. I have tried to maintain my fitness by sticking with hiking and running. When I try longer runs of 7 miles or more my pace has been very slow. I can do short runs on the track at a somewhat decent speed for a 61 year old, but not quite as fast or as many intervals as I think I should be able to do. I can't keep up with friends on social runs, so I have gotten to where I don't really want to go on those runs now either.
Running hurts now. It didn't used to. It used to be fun. It is not fun anymore. I am wondering if it is time to hang up the running shoes and call it off for good. I really don't want to do that. Running road races and trail races had become a big part of my life since 2005, not just with enjoying fitness, but socially as well. Now it seems to just not be there for me. I can't race. I can't train. My hip bothers me all the time. I have a marathon in Ohio I signed up for on October 8, and I won't be ready. I have a 50 mile trail ultra I signed up for that is the first Saturday in November that I doubt I will be ready for. This is getting pretty discouraging. In the past I have had injuries but recovered pretty well in 2 or 3 months. This string of injuries I have been fighting actually goes back into January when I pulled some muscles in my low back and left hip...never fully recovered. Feeling pretty unmotivated.
The hardest part of this is, I have wanted to qualify to enter the Boston Marathon for several years. At age 52, in 2007, I ran the Richmond VA marathon in 3:45. My qualification time then was 3:40. The time for the 55 to 59 age group was 3:45. I figured I would train hard and come back at age 55 or 56 and get my qualifying time. Well, that didn't happen due to a torn medial meniscus in my right knee in August of 2010. I never had any surgery for that because Dave Horton had the same problem, had surgery, and now could not run at all. I took 3 months to rehab my knee and got back to running. My right knee hurts all the time now though. The very next year, the Boston Athletic Association raised the qualification standards for those age groups by 5 minutes faster, so even after turning 55 I would have to run a 3:40. I ran Myrtle Beach SC in 3:47 that included a 5 or 6 minute pit stop in a port a john, close, but not quite there. I ran Rehoboth Beach in 3:46, close again, but not quite a qualifier.
In 2014 I got the idea to do the whole Beast series. Several of my good trail running friends were doing the Beast, and several more were entered in the 100 mile event in the Beast series...the Grindstone 100 miler. The Beast is 6 ultras in one year. ( 3) 50 k races in the spring, a 100 miler, a 50 miler, and a 100 k race in the fall, plus I had to do a 50 mile qualifier to get into the 100 miler in the series. I actually did another 50 miler that year for a total of (3) 50 K races, (3) 50 mile races, (1) 100 miler and (1) 100k. I think that took alot out of me at age 58, and Im not sure I have recovered yet!
At the end of 2014 I took the last three weeks of the year pretty much off from running. I had done pretty good at the Hellgate 100k (more like 108k...67 miles) in 16:29...something like 11,000 ft elevation gain and loss, that was the second weekend of December. I extended my laziness into the first couple weeks of the new year without running. I decided I was not going to run the first two 50 k races, and volunteered instead.
The volunteer work would intentionally prevent me from entering the Beast series again after just finishing it. Later in March, I went to Wisconsin for some training having to do with our ladder trucks at the Fire Dept where I am a mechanic. I ran a combined road and trail marathon there that had a wooden lookout tower about 50 or 60 feet tall that you had to climb (stairs) and descend...pretty slow time. I ran another road marathon later in April in Maryland and ran a slow time again. By June I was starting to get back to serious training because I had entered the Grindstone 100 miler again, hoping to better my time.
Well, that got side tracked by two injuries within a couple weeks of each other in late June. I pulled my left Piriformis while using a pole saw at home, then I dropped an ambulance truck tire on my left foot and totally bruised the whole foot. The x-ray did not show a break, but I think there was something broke. Could not run the entire month of July, just when I should have been getting 60 to 80 mile weeks and double long runs in the mountains on trails on weekends. Come August I was trying to get my running back to where I could still squeeze into my 100 miler in October, even tho I knew with the injury and lack of training I would not be as fast as last year, if I even could finish. But finish I did, two hours slower than the previous year. I still had Hellgate in December. I was an hour slower than the previous year at Hellgate, but I was healed up from the injuries and just wanted a rest again from training. I was thinking I would leave the trails and try some flat, fast marathons. Different training, different methods, and different results. So ended 2015.
While starting to think about what marathons to do, Dave Horton announced a new Virginia Triple Crown race series in spring of 2016, made up of Holliday Lake 50k, the Smith Mountain Dam 50k (new race, celebrating 50th anniversary of the dam), and the Promise Land 50k. This I had to do, ready or not. I finished all of them, not in very good time though. All this racing at less than racing condition made me pretty slow.
I decided I would look for a downhill marathon. There are several. I settled on Revel Rockies near Denver CO that Grattan Garbee told me about. We both did some downhill training on Thunder Ridge here, then went out to Denver and did it, but the altitude killed us. It started at 10,000 ft above sea level and finished at 5,000. No BQ time. I figured I had another shot before mid September when qualification attempts for 2017 Boston would end and attempts for 2018 would begin. I signed up for the Erie Marathon to be held the second weekend of September. Flat, shady course, with nice views of Lake Erie. I still was not able to hold my qualification speed past the halfway point. Just not enough intensity to my training. I figured I would rest a little, start a new training cycle over the winter, and look for some more flat road courses that I could BQ on, and try for more states, working to get a marathon run in all 50.
2017 brought new chances, a new President, and some problems with it. I had signed up for a couple marathons. One in Georgia, and one in Ohio. Both states I had not done a marathon in. By mid January I was gearing my training for some speedier work than I had done in the past 2 or 3 years, and more intensity.
February was unusually warm and I was looking forward to early Tuesday morning track workouts and doing some Thursday tempo runs. Then the beginning of a downward spiral struck.
Well, that got side tracked by two injuries within a couple weeks of each other in late June. I pulled my left Piriformis while using a pole saw at home, then I dropped an ambulance truck tire on my left foot and totally bruised the whole foot. The x-ray did not show a break, but I think there was something broke. Could not run the entire month of July, just when I should have been getting 60 to 80 mile weeks and double long runs in the mountains on trails on weekends. Come August I was trying to get my running back to where I could still squeeze into my 100 miler in October, even tho I knew with the injury and lack of training I would not be as fast as last year, if I even could finish. But finish I did, two hours slower than the previous year. I still had Hellgate in December. I was an hour slower than the previous year at Hellgate, but I was healed up from the injuries and just wanted a rest again from training. I was thinking I would leave the trails and try some flat, fast marathons. Different training, different methods, and different results. So ended 2015.
While starting to think about what marathons to do, Dave Horton announced a new Virginia Triple Crown race series in spring of 2016, made up of Holliday Lake 50k, the Smith Mountain Dam 50k (new race, celebrating 50th anniversary of the dam), and the Promise Land 50k. This I had to do, ready or not. I finished all of them, not in very good time though. All this racing at less than racing condition made me pretty slow.
I decided I would look for a downhill marathon. There are several. I settled on Revel Rockies near Denver CO that Grattan Garbee told me about. We both did some downhill training on Thunder Ridge here, then went out to Denver and did it, but the altitude killed us. It started at 10,000 ft above sea level and finished at 5,000. No BQ time. I figured I had another shot before mid September when qualification attempts for 2017 Boston would end and attempts for 2018 would begin. I signed up for the Erie Marathon to be held the second weekend of September. Flat, shady course, with nice views of Lake Erie. I still was not able to hold my qualification speed past the halfway point. Just not enough intensity to my training. I figured I would rest a little, start a new training cycle over the winter, and look for some more flat road courses that I could BQ on, and try for more states, working to get a marathon run in all 50.
2017 brought new chances, a new President, and some problems with it. I had signed up for a couple marathons. One in Georgia, and one in Ohio. Both states I had not done a marathon in. By mid January I was gearing my training for some speedier work than I had done in the past 2 or 3 years, and more intensity.
February was unusually warm and I was looking forward to early Tuesday morning track workouts and doing some Thursday tempo runs. Then the beginning of a downward spiral struck.
I got real sick with the flu, then a bad cold which became a sinus infection. So no serious training till about the last week of February.
In March, I had another incident with a tire, this time lifting it and putting it back on a truck got out of hand. The weight and momentum of the tire was taking it in a direction I did not want it to go. I stepped into it to get better control and wrestled it into position which strained my left Piriformis muscle again in my hip, and threw out my lower back ( I have a chronic condition in my lower back that causes misalignment of the 4th and 5th lumbar vertebrae and inflames the sciatic nerves). Chiropractic treatment usually works great.
My former chiropractor had retired so I was looking for a new one about the same time my daughter, Rachel, finished her classes in massage therapy and got a job doing exactly that at Chiro Med with Dr. Jennifer Tinoosh on Rt. 221, a little less than a mile from my job. Between them both working on me the pain reduced greatly and I was able to get back to normal activity pretty quick. So by mid March I was back to serious training.
High hopes crumbled however, as I re-injured my left piriformis, which in turn inflamed my sciatic nerve the first weekend of April. I just tripped on a trail run, then later on, not being careful, I had placed my self in a position where I had almost all my weight on my left leg in trying to stand up from being crouched down on the ground picking up a small box of race medals at the Point of Honor 5k. As I stood up with most of my weight on the wrong (left) leg, I felt my left piriformis tear again, and twinge on that sciatic nerve again, except this time I could tell the damage was worse. No running in April.
By May I was back to serious training and not doing too bad. I was not in great condition, but was able to do increasingly more and harder workouts. By June I was looking to register for a couple fall marathons. By late June I was moving ok and was on a Wednesday evening trail run when I caught my left foot on a root. I started to just go down and deal with whatever came of that. Looking at where I was about to land, there was a sharp stick poking up out of the ground right where I was about to land. I made some quick movements with my left leg and planted my foot up under me so I didn't fall, but I tore every muscle in my left hip, including the left hamstrings. No running for a couple weeks. More massage therapy, more chiro treatment. By the end of July I was back to some training but my hip was still not cooperative. My right knee has been giving trouble since tearing the medial meniscus in 2010. I can deal with that mostly, but the increased discomfort and the altered gait from my left hip not working right has really given me problems.
Now it seemed as though my whole body was full of inflammation from this latest injury. Still I didn't want to lose too much fitness, so I forced shorter runs when I could and tried to do some track work at a Middle School track that doesn't see a large amount of the running community so I wouldn't be embarrassed by my slower speeds. It was easier to run on flat smooth surfaces, but that also begs for faster leg turnover, faster running, and movements that now I'm not sure were beneficial to my injury. I tried to go with the Wednesday trail running group, but I am too slow to keep up so I just would start off with them and make my way back on my own after a slower and shorter run. Several times I would have minor tripping episodes that would put a little "stinger" in my hip and left hamstring on those Wednesday trail runs. Then I would be so sore the next few days, I didn't want to, or couldn't run. But I did not want to stop going. I love being on trails. I didn't want to totally lose "trail legs". It seemed that the tripping would set my muscle recovery in my injured hip backward though, so I just didn't know what to do for awhile.
High hopes crumbled however, as I re-injured my left piriformis, which in turn inflamed my sciatic nerve the first weekend of April. I just tripped on a trail run, then later on, not being careful, I had placed my self in a position where I had almost all my weight on my left leg in trying to stand up from being crouched down on the ground picking up a small box of race medals at the Point of Honor 5k. As I stood up with most of my weight on the wrong (left) leg, I felt my left piriformis tear again, and twinge on that sciatic nerve again, except this time I could tell the damage was worse. No running in April.
By May I was back to serious training and not doing too bad. I was not in great condition, but was able to do increasingly more and harder workouts. By June I was looking to register for a couple fall marathons. By late June I was moving ok and was on a Wednesday evening trail run when I caught my left foot on a root. I started to just go down and deal with whatever came of that. Looking at where I was about to land, there was a sharp stick poking up out of the ground right where I was about to land. I made some quick movements with my left leg and planted my foot up under me so I didn't fall, but I tore every muscle in my left hip, including the left hamstrings. No running for a couple weeks. More massage therapy, more chiro treatment. By the end of July I was back to some training but my hip was still not cooperative. My right knee has been giving trouble since tearing the medial meniscus in 2010. I can deal with that mostly, but the increased discomfort and the altered gait from my left hip not working right has really given me problems.
Now it seemed as though my whole body was full of inflammation from this latest injury. Still I didn't want to lose too much fitness, so I forced shorter runs when I could and tried to do some track work at a Middle School track that doesn't see a large amount of the running community so I wouldn't be embarrassed by my slower speeds. It was easier to run on flat smooth surfaces, but that also begs for faster leg turnover, faster running, and movements that now I'm not sure were beneficial to my injury. I tried to go with the Wednesday trail running group, but I am too slow to keep up so I just would start off with them and make my way back on my own after a slower and shorter run. Several times I would have minor tripping episodes that would put a little "stinger" in my hip and left hamstring on those Wednesday trail runs. Then I would be so sore the next few days, I didn't want to, or couldn't run. But I did not want to stop going. I love being on trails. I didn't want to totally lose "trail legs". It seemed that the tripping would set my muscle recovery in my injured hip backward though, so I just didn't know what to do for awhile.
Finally time came for the VA 10 & 4 miler races. I had registered Aaron and myself to run as an assisted athlete team. He loves to race in his big push chair, and I didn't want to disappoint him any more. We have not been doing very many races lately, and he misses it. Anyway, we ran the Four Miler race on the Ten Miler course and did ok. My hip actually felt better at the end than at the start. This past week I got in a little over 37 miles in training, including a 17 mile run in the mountains. I feel pretty good, and hope that continues. I am registered for the Mountain Masochist 50 mile Trail Race the first Saturday in November, we will see how that goes. I have a month to continue training and get in a taper week. The tight cutoffs on the second half of this course might get me. This will be the first trail ultra for me since Promise Land in April of 2016, and longest race since the Erie Marathon in September 2016. This weekend (October 6,7,8, 2017) I was supposed to run a flat marathon. I know I won't be close to a Boston Qualifier time, so I am not doing that. Instead, I will be helping the Dowell's Draft aid station on the Grindstone 100 mile course, and hoping I can get a little mountain trail running in myself. Since this station is at mile 20 outbound and mile 80 inbound on this out and back course, I should have a nice gap between the last runner outbound, and the first runner inbound to get a run in.
Keeping my fingers crossed for no injuries, continued improvement in the way my hip is doing, and longer runs in preparation for Mountain Masochist 50 mile Trail Race November 4, 2017.
Sunday, May 1, 2016
Promise Land 50k ++ report 2016
After a 5 week layoff from training in December and January (and gaining 10 pounds) I sort of let myself get sucked into doing this Southwest Virginia Triple Crown series of three 50 k races that I was not planning on doing. I was thinking I would do 2 of those races, The Smith Mountain Lake Dam 50 k, and Promise Land 50k, but not the Holiday Lake 50k. Then this series became available. Amazing what we runners will put ourselves through for a Tee shirt! Anyway, doing Holiday Lake in February with little training was probably not a good thing for all these nagging pains I get that prevent me from training as hard as I want to. A month and a half later I finished the Dam 50k which included a good bit of road running which is good for my summer road marathon plans.
So, 4 weeks after the Dam 50k, now at Promise Land, the day started off with about 300 trail runners slogging uphill on the first ascent by headlamp in the rainy mist for the first 4 miles and I realized I was hiking uphill pretty good and was feeling ok. One never knows about how you will feel come race time until you are actually underway and moving along. As we started our rolling descents and ascents on the grassy horse trail road toward aid station 2 at Upper Reed Creek, I kept an ongoing check on how I felt, trying not to go too fast on the gravity aided down slopes and trying not to lose too much time on the short climbs. Alissa Kieth and I kept passing each other and tagging along together for a good bit all the way through aid station 3 at Sunset Field on the Blue Ridge Parkway, and then on the descent down the upper part of Apple Orchard trail. I was checking my time to that point and it seemed I might be on pace for a PR (Personal Record) or close to it. Once we got on the grassy forest road headed toward Cornelius Creek trail, Alissa pulled ahead and I let her go. I had to stop for about 4 or 5 minutes along there to fertilize the trees. On down the Cornelius Creek trail I again was trying to be careful not to go too fast. The slight downhill road section between aid station 4 at Cornelius Creek and where the course turns onto Whitetail Trail, I know I ran too fast, like I always do, but I usually recover pretty quickly with a little hiking on the single track section there. That would not be the case on this day. I had blown up, I was shot, out of gas, bonked, or whatever you want to call that "out of energy / legs will not co-operate" feeling that happens when you burn the wick just a little too bright on the front end of a race. I think I was way too optimistic with how good I felt early in this race and it greatly affected my speed, or rather lack thereof, on the "dark side". The "dark side" is what Promise Land runners, and especially us local runners in the Lynchburg area, have come to call the part of the course that is to the west of the Blue Ridge Parkway. I think I first heard that "dark side" descriptor from David Horton on a training run on that section back in 2008 when he was still running. That is about from mile 13 to about mile 29 in this 34 mile race, and includes a three mile steep climb up Apple Orchard Falls trail...after you have already done a marathon distance...on trails...in the mountains!
After reaching Sunset Field the second time, I glanced at my watch and realized I might have just run the fastest time I had ever done during this race from the start to Sunset Field the first time, and the slowest time I had ever done the segment from there back to Sunset Field the second time. So much for a PR. Not going to happen. I would be hard pressed to finish an hour slower than my PR on this course of 6 hrs 49 min. I tried to make the most of the down hill from there to the finish but had to be careful not to hammer the down hill too hard while still on the single track section, as I could feel my legs were on the verge of muscle cramps. I have cramped baaaddd in that section before and sure did not want to now. Finally, back on the gravel of Overstreet Creek road, that will take me back to Promise Land Camp, I let gravity work and ease off the brakes. The last mile my watch says I ran in 7 min. 25 sec. and at some point had reached a 6:34 pace for a few seconds. After I crossed the finish line I forgot to stop my watch for a few minutes, so I will have to wait for the official results to be posted. I was somewhere close to 7 hrs 40 min.
One of my slower overall times on this course, but it hasn't discouraged me. My training the past few weeks has been gearing up for a down hill road marathon I plan to do in June. I have not been focusing on the monster climbs these mountain races have. I did well for about 19 or 20 miles. I completed the Southwest Virginia Triple Crown and got the tee shirt! I got a nice pair of Patagonia Nine Trails running shorts with zippered pockets as the finish award for the Promise Land race! I am not injured. I am going into the heart of my road marathon training with a good base. Hopefully I will be able to get a Boston Marathon Qualifying time. Looking forward to Track Tuesdays and a few downhill runs on Thunder Ridge in the near future! If you want to join in, hit me on face book.
So, 4 weeks after the Dam 50k, now at Promise Land, the day started off with about 300 trail runners slogging uphill on the first ascent by headlamp in the rainy mist for the first 4 miles and I realized I was hiking uphill pretty good and was feeling ok. One never knows about how you will feel come race time until you are actually underway and moving along. As we started our rolling descents and ascents on the grassy horse trail road toward aid station 2 at Upper Reed Creek, I kept an ongoing check on how I felt, trying not to go too fast on the gravity aided down slopes and trying not to lose too much time on the short climbs. Alissa Kieth and I kept passing each other and tagging along together for a good bit all the way through aid station 3 at Sunset Field on the Blue Ridge Parkway, and then on the descent down the upper part of Apple Orchard trail. I was checking my time to that point and it seemed I might be on pace for a PR (Personal Record) or close to it. Once we got on the grassy forest road headed toward Cornelius Creek trail, Alissa pulled ahead and I let her go. I had to stop for about 4 or 5 minutes along there to fertilize the trees. On down the Cornelius Creek trail I again was trying to be careful not to go too fast. The slight downhill road section between aid station 4 at Cornelius Creek and where the course turns onto Whitetail Trail, I know I ran too fast, like I always do, but I usually recover pretty quickly with a little hiking on the single track section there. That would not be the case on this day. I had blown up, I was shot, out of gas, bonked, or whatever you want to call that "out of energy / legs will not co-operate" feeling that happens when you burn the wick just a little too bright on the front end of a race. I think I was way too optimistic with how good I felt early in this race and it greatly affected my speed, or rather lack thereof, on the "dark side". The "dark side" is what Promise Land runners, and especially us local runners in the Lynchburg area, have come to call the part of the course that is to the west of the Blue Ridge Parkway. I think I first heard that "dark side" descriptor from David Horton on a training run on that section back in 2008 when he was still running. That is about from mile 13 to about mile 29 in this 34 mile race, and includes a three mile steep climb up Apple Orchard Falls trail...after you have already done a marathon distance...on trails...in the mountains!
After reaching Sunset Field the second time, I glanced at my watch and realized I might have just run the fastest time I had ever done during this race from the start to Sunset Field the first time, and the slowest time I had ever done the segment from there back to Sunset Field the second time. So much for a PR. Not going to happen. I would be hard pressed to finish an hour slower than my PR on this course of 6 hrs 49 min. I tried to make the most of the down hill from there to the finish but had to be careful not to hammer the down hill too hard while still on the single track section, as I could feel my legs were on the verge of muscle cramps. I have cramped baaaddd in that section before and sure did not want to now. Finally, back on the gravel of Overstreet Creek road, that will take me back to Promise Land Camp, I let gravity work and ease off the brakes. The last mile my watch says I ran in 7 min. 25 sec. and at some point had reached a 6:34 pace for a few seconds. After I crossed the finish line I forgot to stop my watch for a few minutes, so I will have to wait for the official results to be posted. I was somewhere close to 7 hrs 40 min.
One of my slower overall times on this course, but it hasn't discouraged me. My training the past few weeks has been gearing up for a down hill road marathon I plan to do in June. I have not been focusing on the monster climbs these mountain races have. I did well for about 19 or 20 miles. I completed the Southwest Virginia Triple Crown and got the tee shirt! I got a nice pair of Patagonia Nine Trails running shorts with zippered pockets as the finish award for the Promise Land race! I am not injured. I am going into the heart of my road marathon training with a good base. Hopefully I will be able to get a Boston Marathon Qualifying time. Looking forward to Track Tuesdays and a few downhill runs on Thunder Ridge in the near future! If you want to join in, hit me on face book.
Friday, January 1, 2016
A new year, adjusting focus.
2016 is here. Hope for a better year from a running viewpoint. 2015 was not very good to me running and injury wise. I scaled back on training early in 2015 to recover from the beating my legs and feet took from training for, and running the Beast Series in 2014, and only had a few ultra marathon races targeted. I didn't do any local road races in 2015 except for the Peaks Christmas 5k this December in Bedford, VA. I managed to participate in the Promise Land 50k ++ in April. I "won" the 24 hour solo division at the Hat Creek Trail Races in May by just staying on the course after the heat had blown everyone else up. I ran two marathons in other states, one in Wisconsin that was a combined paved trail and dirt singletrack with a unique twist...a lookout tower to climb halfway through the course, and one in Maryland with very nice shoreline scenery. In early June I ran the Carvin's Cove Trail Marathon, then later in June and July I had to deal with some injuries that started from work and home project related things happening to me, not running injuries. But those injuries translated into not being able to train and then ramping up training probably too quickly during the recovery phase. I was able to do the 30 mile event at Iron Mountain in September, then just barely finish the Grindstone 100 miler in October. By December I was finally back in half decent trail ultra shape, but not as good as I was in 2014, looking back. I did manage to finish the 2015 Hellgate 100k ++ race in very warm weather an hour slower than I did in 2014. I have neglected core strength work and am currently recovering from a lower back injury that I somehow managed to inflict on myself over the Christmas Holiday weekend. I will need to make some adjustments this year to my training to regain core strength. When I look back on my most successful and injury free time periods of running I realize those were periods when I maintained good core strength training while staying focused on good training for running.
I will turn 60 in June this year. I age up into the 60-64 age group as far as running goes. The Boston Marathon qualification time is 3 hours 55 minutes for this age group. I have run several road marathons with a finish time of 3:45 to 3:55 over the past few years, but none in the past two years. I will be focusing on training to run a Boston qualifying time in a road marathon that is certified as a Boston qualifier course by the USA Track and Field organization. I know right now I am not in condition to run a road marathon at that speed mostly due to training primarily for long trail ultras in the mountains over the past two years. Those runs are much slower paced and are run primarily by effort not pace. Long uphill pulls from 2 to as much as 7 miles on rough rock strewn, root covered trails means power hiking up mostly. Then long downhill bombing runs over those same rooty, rocky trails at fast-as-you-dare speeds. That kind of racing and training just isn't conducive to running a road marathon at an even pace for 26 miles. It is vastly different training and vastly different running. I have tried to combine the two types of training and racing over several years but that has not allowed me to reach my goal of qualifying for Boston. My time for qualifying in the men's 55-59 age group was 3:40. The Boston Athletic Association has changed the qualification times over the years to kind of limit the field to faster runners as well as the fact that the course can only accommodate so many people. Anyway, I have a 3:45 at Richmond in 2007, a 3:46 at Rehoboth Beach I believe that was 2011 , and a 3:47 at Myrtle Beach in 2012. I would have been about 5 minutes faster at Myrtle Beach if not for a porta pot stop at mile 6. Too much food the night before. I ran real even splits of around 8:24 per mile until the last 4 miles, when I couldn't hold that pace and slowed to about a 9:00 minute per mile pace, but that was probably my best overall effort and even paced road marathon.
In June of 2016, Grattan Garbee and myself plan to chase a BQ run at a marathon near Denver, Colorado that will have a little over 4,000 feet of elevation decline over the 26.2 mile course. I have six months to get in condition to run that distance downhill. I plan to do quite a bit of training on the Blue Ridge Parkway, namely Thunder Ridge. It is exactly 13 miles from the Radar Ball driveway on Apple Orchard Mountain down Thunder Ridge to the James River Visitors Center. The elevation profile will be roughly descending from 4,000 feet above sea level to 650 feet above sea level. So about 3, 350 feet of descent in 13 miles. I will probably do some runs on Tobacco Row Mountain and Fleming Mountain as well. I will still be out on "Wild Wednesdays" for our runs on Candler's, but I will be doing less trail running, and more road running this spring and summer. Not that I will leave the trails all together. I love trail running too much for that. I will likely register for the Dam 50k to be held April 2nd, just to get the shirt and say I ran that Dam 50k (snickering).
So training will be a little different. Mixing in some core strength. Some faster cruise intervals and track intervals. Some flatter tempo runs. Some long downhill runs. Less in the way of long trail runs in the mountains and more road running. Oh, yeah one more thing...I will be training my new supervisor at my job, which should go pretty well, I hope. My former supervisor got promoted within the Fire Department from Logistics Captain to the position of Training Division Battalion Chief, so the new Logistics Captain will be taking his position as the shop supervisor. These guys are "good at heart" public servants who have the desire to help their fellow man. However their career has not been in the repair and maintenance of heavy trucks and automotive vehicles, so lots of times there are communications that have to take place about things that need to be done that takes more explanation than I would like...coming from my viewpoint of working under supervision, up till the last four years, that already understands this information from a whole career of repairing vehicles. So a few changes are in the making for me. Hopefully I will be able to make those changes work well. The world in general is changing around me, mostly not to my liking, but there is little I can do about that. I will be happy to just stick with the things I have some control of and effect those changes. As I raise my coffee cup...here is to change!
I will turn 60 in June this year. I age up into the 60-64 age group as far as running goes. The Boston Marathon qualification time is 3 hours 55 minutes for this age group. I have run several road marathons with a finish time of 3:45 to 3:55 over the past few years, but none in the past two years. I will be focusing on training to run a Boston qualifying time in a road marathon that is certified as a Boston qualifier course by the USA Track and Field organization. I know right now I am not in condition to run a road marathon at that speed mostly due to training primarily for long trail ultras in the mountains over the past two years. Those runs are much slower paced and are run primarily by effort not pace. Long uphill pulls from 2 to as much as 7 miles on rough rock strewn, root covered trails means power hiking up mostly. Then long downhill bombing runs over those same rooty, rocky trails at fast-as-you-dare speeds. That kind of racing and training just isn't conducive to running a road marathon at an even pace for 26 miles. It is vastly different training and vastly different running. I have tried to combine the two types of training and racing over several years but that has not allowed me to reach my goal of qualifying for Boston. My time for qualifying in the men's 55-59 age group was 3:40. The Boston Athletic Association has changed the qualification times over the years to kind of limit the field to faster runners as well as the fact that the course can only accommodate so many people. Anyway, I have a 3:45 at Richmond in 2007, a 3:46 at Rehoboth Beach I believe that was 2011 , and a 3:47 at Myrtle Beach in 2012. I would have been about 5 minutes faster at Myrtle Beach if not for a porta pot stop at mile 6. Too much food the night before. I ran real even splits of around 8:24 per mile until the last 4 miles, when I couldn't hold that pace and slowed to about a 9:00 minute per mile pace, but that was probably my best overall effort and even paced road marathon.
In June of 2016, Grattan Garbee and myself plan to chase a BQ run at a marathon near Denver, Colorado that will have a little over 4,000 feet of elevation decline over the 26.2 mile course. I have six months to get in condition to run that distance downhill. I plan to do quite a bit of training on the Blue Ridge Parkway, namely Thunder Ridge. It is exactly 13 miles from the Radar Ball driveway on Apple Orchard Mountain down Thunder Ridge to the James River Visitors Center. The elevation profile will be roughly descending from 4,000 feet above sea level to 650 feet above sea level. So about 3, 350 feet of descent in 13 miles. I will probably do some runs on Tobacco Row Mountain and Fleming Mountain as well. I will still be out on "Wild Wednesdays" for our runs on Candler's, but I will be doing less trail running, and more road running this spring and summer. Not that I will leave the trails all together. I love trail running too much for that. I will likely register for the Dam 50k to be held April 2nd, just to get the shirt and say I ran that Dam 50k (snickering).
So training will be a little different. Mixing in some core strength. Some faster cruise intervals and track intervals. Some flatter tempo runs. Some long downhill runs. Less in the way of long trail runs in the mountains and more road running. Oh, yeah one more thing...I will be training my new supervisor at my job, which should go pretty well, I hope. My former supervisor got promoted within the Fire Department from Logistics Captain to the position of Training Division Battalion Chief, so the new Logistics Captain will be taking his position as the shop supervisor. These guys are "good at heart" public servants who have the desire to help their fellow man. However their career has not been in the repair and maintenance of heavy trucks and automotive vehicles, so lots of times there are communications that have to take place about things that need to be done that takes more explanation than I would like...coming from my viewpoint of working under supervision, up till the last four years, that already understands this information from a whole career of repairing vehicles. So a few changes are in the making for me. Hopefully I will be able to make those changes work well. The world in general is changing around me, mostly not to my liking, but there is little I can do about that. I will be happy to just stick with the things I have some control of and effect those changes. As I raise my coffee cup...here is to change!
Saturday, December 19, 2015
Race report for the (Hotter Than) Hellgate 2015 100k ++
Continuing a theme I have seen in comments about this year's warm temperature during the day for Hellgate, I chose to insert the "Hotter Than" into my Hellgate race report. The weather is normally not as warm and humid the second weekend in December as we had this year with highs in the mid 70's. However I am glad we did not have to deal with ice or deep snow! It certainly made the aid station workers and crews jobs easier! I never thought I would want ice in my hydration pack in an ultra marathon in mid December in the mountains of Virginia, but I was glad there was ice at several of the last aid stations on the course! Thanks workers!
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."
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."
Sunday, October 25, 2015
2015 Grindstone race report (from the back of the pack)
Back in June of 2015 I was slowly starting to gear up my training for my second 100 mile race. I had contemplated all the facets and had sent my entry registration in for the Grindstone 100 mile Endurance Run for the second time, having run it in October of 2014, and taking stock of the beat down it gave me, yet wanting to attempt to improve my time of 34 hours, 46 minutes from last year, serious training had to get underway. By serious training, I mean long runs of 20 to 30 miles ( and maybe longer) in the mountains on weekends, at least on Saturday and several back to back that would take up both Saturday and Sunday, and getting in another 20 to 30 miles during the week. I remembered the time in the mountains on weekends with friends last summer, and the weekly mileage I had hit in July and August especially, along with a couple 50 mile races and a road marathon I did, so I was getting ready to make that same kind of time commitment again to 70 and 80 mile weeks, along with family, work and volunteer duties with Scouts.
I had taken the colder months of January and February to recover from the long race season I had put in during 2014, having completed the "Beast Series" along with the training load that goes along with those extra long races. I knew if I volunteered at the Holiday Lake race in February and volunteered at the Terrapin Mountain race in March I would not be pulled into wanting to do the "Beast" series again this year. I did not want to lose too much fitness though and I did want to make a little progress on my desire to complete a marathon in all 50 states, so I put a marathon on the calendar for late March in Maryland. Colder weather and late snows around the end of February and the first of March gave me further issues with getting back into "racing shape" than I wanted. I completed the marathon in Maryland but was pretty slow due to the lack of proper training. In April I had a surprise opportunity to take some work related training in Wisconsin, and while there I notched a marathon in that state, slow again, but now had my eyes on running the Promise Land 50k plus mountain race. After a cold night sleeping in my van with a small propane heater which I think may have given me some carbon monoxide poisoning I "participated" in Promise Land...about an hour slower than the previous year. All this to say that by the end of April I was tired of racing marathons and ultras way slower than I should be, and was itching to get my training back on track.
May was upon us and looming ahead was the Hat Creek Trail races. I was entered in the 24 hour solo division, and was treating it as a training run for Grindstone based on the premise that I would be running tired into the darkness, all night long. I was surprised at the short list of folks registered in that division. Most everyone was part of one of the relay teams or running the 12 or 6 hour solo divisions. I was wondering if I might be able to get close to 100 miles on the relatively flat 5 mile loop course in 24 hours. Race day came and the heat was on...95 degrees and very high humidity. After the first lap I realized this was going to be a run of terrible attrition and people were going too fast for the heat...they were going to blow up, crash and burn. I backed my pace way off, ate and drank like there was a party going on and managed to stay out on the course after everyone else in the 24 hour solo division had stopped. I managed to get 80 miles in 23 hours and 37 minutes I think it was, and I actually won the division! Not due to speed or real ability (at the age of one month short of 59 at the time, all my speed and ability was pretty much in the past), but just due to being too stubborn to quit. This brought me to the place where I was getting more confident that training was progressing in the direction I wanted.
June progressed well with long runs and midweek faster runs, a highlight was getting out on the Appalachian Trail to meet up with Scott Jurek and cover 38.5 miles with him and other members of the Blue Ridge Trail Runners. The week of June 28 through July 4 I had 51 miles in training...progressing toward 60 and 70 mile weeks I had hoped would take place in July and 80 mile weeks I was hoping for in August. July 5th saw me doing a 23 mile strong solo run, finishing in a thunderstorm on Candler's Mountain trails. Monday, July 6th, late in the after noon at work, after putting new front tires on two Ambulances, I was moving mounted tires and wheels to get ready for the next day when disaster struck. One of those mounted tire and wheel assemblies fell on my left foot and the pain was so severe I was totally speechless for a few minutes. I knew I had just wrecked my running for the rest of the summer! I would be lucky if nothing was broke. I knew at the very least I had a severe bruise to my whole foot! I could barely walk let alone run. I went for x-rays and they said they couldn't see anything broken, but there was severe soft tissue bruising and trauma. I couldn't run at all for three weeks. After that let pain be my guide. I swam to try to maintain some cardio conditioning. I swam an open water mile in the lake at Scout Camp, but swimming isn't running.
After 3 weeks of zero running...losing fitness...losing leg strength, I got back to easy slow running. The next three weeks saw my mileage at 24, 26, and 30 miles, more flat pavement than rough trail, gingerly, easy, slow, not the 60, 70, 80 miles with strong mountain weekends hiking hard uphills and bombing fast downhills...the middle of August and I was way off track to be considering going 100 miles on foot by the first of October, let alone trying to improve my time. The weekend for trail work and training runs on the Grindstone course was coming up and I told myself if I could finish those runs without quitting early I would stay registered for the race. If I could not complete those training runs, which were roughly 30 miles on Saturday August 22nd, and 21 miles Sunday August 23rd, I would withdraw from the race. I finished both. Not without some pain mind you, and pretty slow, close to or maybe right at dead last the second day. I kept my name in the hat. The next two weeks saw me getting in close to 60 miles each week including 30 miles at the Iron Mountain Trail races. I did drop down from the 50 miler to the 30 mile distance at Iron Mountain because at this point my foot was still hurting, my fitness level for mountain ultras was not great, and I knew 50 miles in one fell swoop would be much more difficult to recover from one month out from my 100 miler.
Of course the twists and turns were not all done yet. Torrential rain the weekend before the race, and even more rain and extreme winds were predicted for race weekend, and the National Forest Rangers cancelled the permits for the event. Much scrambling on Clark Zealand's part got the race re- scheduled for the second weekend in October, which although it screwed up the taper plans, it provided one more valuable week for my foot to heal before getting trashed again by that tough technical course. I went to bed early on Thursday, October 8 and by 5:30 am I found myself awake contemplating how much my training was lacking, how my foot was doing, and preparing to drive up to Camp Shenandoah to pick up my race packet and set up my tent. I got there early...like the third person to check in, and got settled and tried to relax, making last minute adjustments with my hydration pack and drop bags. Others drifted in. Blue Ridge Trail Runners present and accounted for. Oh no! The shoes I had planned to start with are at home! Grattan is still in Lynchburg, and bringing Erin to help crew Alexis... so phone call to Grattan and arrangements made to get my shoes up to Camp Shenandoah with him...phew! They got there a few minutes before the start! I had other shoes but not the ones I wanted, so minor crisis averted.
Before the race started I must have had a troubled look on my face, because Todd Thomas said something to me in effect like "cheer up and look happy...you look like you are going to a very dark place". Well, he was right, literally and figuratively. I knew my fitness for this level of event was minimal. I was wondering if my foot would hold up under the relentless pounding it was about to receive. And of course since the race starts at 6:00 pm and it was cloudy, and there was no moon anyway, it would be very dark out on those mountain trails...I would be getting tired and the going would get tough...even tougher the second night. I had thought if training went well and I was healthy I could finish around 30 hours. I knew that was out the window now, but I was still hopeful for 32 hours, and even had an aid station split spread sheet in my pocket for a 31:35 finish time.
A few pictures at the start, the National Anthem, and we were off. Around the lake...bottleneck going into the single track right away...fairly smooth trail running back through the camp past the shower house, then the climb out and...thunder in the distance!
Rain...well it just fits the tough profile this course gives you. Get all wet and try to regulate temperature right off the bat, with the steep climbs, the windy ridge lines, and the slick, mossy, wet leaf covered, wobbly rock strewn descents...and then fog. Similar to last year, but at least I had a better idea of where I was going and what terrain was next. I had not been on the course at all until race time last year, and I made a couple wrong turns that cost me time and made me run a couple extra miles in the 2014 race. I would not repeat those mistakes this year. In fact I was able to prevent a few others from one of those mistakes where the course turns right off the fire road to go to the first aid station. Some people had blown on past the turn as I did last year on that downhill section of gravel road. As I saw the turn and realized the people in front of me had gone past it I yelled "WHOA! RIGHT TURN!" The first aid station at 5ish miles is more of a courtesy than a necessity for runners on the way out. As the last station on the way in, it definitely is a necessity then. I saw Clark greeting runners there but moved on trying to measure my effort and not spend too much energy too early. The Falls Hollow Creek was pretty full and the course crosses the creek a few times getting to where you start the real climb up to Elliot's Knob. I don't think my feet got under water last year. Different story this time. Wading thru the crossings got my feet soaked. The hike up the steep gravel road to the top of Elliot's told me I lacked the strong uphill hiking I normally can do. Just not enough training and climbing in the preceding weeks. Nice to see some of my friends on the short out and back at the summit. Now to get across the long ridge and then down the other side to the Dry Branch Aid Station. Lots of rocks impeding progress. Letting people pass me. Trying to eat and run and stay hydrated. Don't want to get into any calorie deficits or dehydration issues this early. More people passing me.
Dry Branch aid station. Topped my hydration pack, had some good food. Rebekah Trittipoe was making fluffernutter soft tortilla log rolls and they were great! And, she had little snack bags to go so you could eat as you hiked up the next climb! Thumbs up Rebekah! I checked my split sheet and at this point I was about 20 minutes ahead of schedule, even though I felt like I slowed down a lot after the climb up Elliot's. I hiked well on this climb, and got across the top of Crawford Mountain quicker than I thought I would. The descent down the back of Crawford is so tricky at night with the rocks and wet leaves. I was glad to get into Chimney Hollow and run a little on the flat. I caught a few people on there that had passed me earlier which put me in a better mood. The rocks were taking a toll on my left foot though, and the shoes I had wanted so much were staging a low traction act on the wet rocks. I guess it had been so dry on all my training runs with them, I never got a chance to test them in the rain on rocks. Well, no time to worry about that.
Dowell's Draft and my first drop bag. Grattan, Blake and Clifton were there and helped me with hot coffee and soup and getting my Tailwind into my hydration pack and topping it with water, and sending me on my way up to Lookout Mountain. Nothing in this section sticks out as particularly more tough than any of the rest of the course, just kind of keep moving. Lookout aid station was a welcome sight though with warm food and another cup of coffee. Pushing on through the night to see if I can get to North River Gap on schedule. At some point on the descent into North River I began to really feel the effort I had been putting out, and realized not only was I red lining out on my fitness from lack of enough training volume, my left foot was really hurting, and I was compensating some with my stride and my left hip flexors were now complaining. I began to take serious stock of how I felt and decided I might have to halt my effort at North River even though I actually was on schedule with my aid station time sheet at North River. Grattan, Clifton, Sam, Blake, Joe Wilson and Chelsie were there filling me with food and helping me with my hydration pack and Tailwind again. I sat for a few minutes while they all encouraged me to continue. I knew the toughest part was about to happen.
The nearly 8 miles of trail to Little Bald aid station is about 6.5 miles of uphill grind in the wee hours of the morning, when the normal human body just wants some sleep. I changed socks and felt a little better. I determined I could press on, but I was not very excited about what I knew lie ahead for the next 6 miles. The first part of this climb goes over the mountain the race takes it's name from, Grindstone Mountain. Then a short downhill then back up and you roll through a couple more short flat and downs then a good solid climb up Little Bald for about four miles. I saw the leaders coming back on their return trip as I neared the top. Just before I got to the top here comes Todd! He told me to get my butt in gear and move it! All my get up and go had already got up and gone at that point. I yelled back at him that he was about 12th or 13th and Josh Gilbert was just ahead of him maybe a minute or two. I passed a couple young ladies near the top, and as we broke out of the single track onto the slightly downhill fire road one of them sounded kind of distraught when she asked me where the aid station was. She had her pack off and was looking at a map or mileage chart. I said it is about a mile and a half mostly down hill on this fire road as I pointed northward. She almost wailed "I can't understand why it is so far away! I can't believe I just spent 3 hours and only went 6 miles!" I told her the tough part was over till it gets dark again. Keep moving. They have to put the aid station where they can drive to it. You can't really drive to right here unless you have a very modified four wheel drive or a military type humvee or something like that.
Little Bald aid station and familiar faces! Shane and Dave and Steve were helping runners with hot food, coffee and soup and doing a good job of it. I sat. Changed socks and shoes. Changed shirts. Ate. Ate some more. Sat some more and ate even more. Finally about 30 minutes later I moved on. Somewhere along here I encountered the rest of the BRTR gang and gave them fist bumps and high fives. They all looked pretty good. A lot better than I felt. I was a bit surprised that Alexis was not right with Kevin or Brenton or Mike P. at this point. I guess I had seen them so close together at Elliot's I assumed they were all together. By this time they had gotten a little strung out on that long fire road that stretches past Little Bald aid toward Reddish Knob. This section is much flatter (not to say that it is flat) than most of the previous parts of the course, and has much better footing, so I was moving pretty good to Reddish. There is a couple miles of asphalt out there past Reddish going to Briery Branch with a good bit of downhill on the way out so I made good use of that as well. Along here I kept leap frogging a guy and a girl. The girl was wanting to drop out at Little Bald. No good. The aid station workers are not leaving any time soon. Might as well keep going to the road at Briery Branch where your crew is. So she did. After she dropped there I was talking some with the guy who was Joe Galioto. We ran together for awhile chit chatting, then separated again before getting back to Little Bald.
The descent back into North River Gap was welcome. Down, down, down. The day was warming up a little and the mountain bikers were out in full force. I saw guys flying down that trail so fast I don't know how they survived. I saw them later, down near the foot bridge and said something to that effect to them. They said "we don't understand how you are still running". Honestly, I don't understand either. As bad as I felt the first time I came into North River...I was seriously thinking of a DNF...and now I knew I would finish barring any other unforseen issues and was still moving pretty good. I knew the ultimate slowdown would happen, just not when, but as long as I could walk, I could finish at this point. Back through Lookout in the evening and on the way down to Dowell's it got dark the second time. I still had a mountain trail marathon distance to go with two looonngg climbs, in the dark, extremely tired, facing me. As I started back through Chimney Hollow I kept trying to will myself to run, but every slight incline just forced me to hike. This was not good. If I had to finish the whole rest of the way like this it was going to be a long night. The climb up the back of Crawford and the climb up the back of Eliot's absolutely slowed me to a crawl. I was dizzy and felt like I could not keep my balance. I felt like the slightest trip would send me hurtling over the edge of the cliff to my right on both climbs. I actually went fair stretches where I was one stepping, moving one foot forward and dragging the rear foot up behind me, instead of stepping forward with each foot in turn.
At last, the top of the ridge going back across Elliot's. I started moving better but my head light was fading. I stopped to change batteries. I dropped one battery, fumbling around finally getting it right. Frustrated at my slow pace, I moved on. About half way across the top I saw some green eyes reflecting back at me off to my left. I tried to make out what those eyes were attached to but it was out of reach of my headlight. They were wider spaced than a human set of eyes would be. They were about 3 to 4 feet off the ground I would say. Not a deer. I have seen plenty of deer at night. Usually they reflect light blue or almost white and they will move their head somewhat. I have seen a few bears in the woods and usually they will leave and go the other way when a human is around. Whatever this was just stayed still, watching me as I moved along the trail. At least it didn't follow me. I have seen video of Mountain Lions at night...exact same green reflection. The Wildlife folks will say there are no Mountain Lions left in the Appalachians. I'm not so sure now. There have been many claims for Mountain Lion sightings in the Appalachian Mountains. Maybe this was what I saw. Maybe not. It seemed higher off the ground and wider eye set than a large Bobcat. I have seen very large Bobcats...this was bigger. Might have been a juvenile Sasquatch!
Down the gravel road off Elliot's, I got a nice view of the lights from Staunton. Down the creek drainage in Falls Hollow, I zig zagged across a flat rock in the creek and fell, basically doing a split. I didn't fall in the water but I did mess up a muscle or something right above my right knee and pulled something in my left glute, still feeling that over two weeks later. Falls Hollow aid station and hot soup and coffee...oh what a welcome relief. I saw Rick Gray here and he said he had been having a rough time. Digestive issues. I left trailing right behind him and his crew, but I could not maintain their uphill climb pace. Finally coming back into the back of the Scout Camp, I felt like the trail was much rougher coming back in than it was going out. As I got closer to the lake, the sun was coming up and I no longer needed my headlight. As I crossed the dam, there was Blake waiting for me to show up. Todd and Alexis were at the finish area, bundled up and trying to nap, while congratulating all the finishers. Clark was standing at the finish line. I gave him a big old hug, signed the cardboard totem, although my hand was not really working enough to write very legibly, and hugged the wooden totem pole. A shower, breakfast with the BRTR gang. Then the toughest part...driving home!
I had taken the colder months of January and February to recover from the long race season I had put in during 2014, having completed the "Beast Series" along with the training load that goes along with those extra long races. I knew if I volunteered at the Holiday Lake race in February and volunteered at the Terrapin Mountain race in March I would not be pulled into wanting to do the "Beast" series again this year. I did not want to lose too much fitness though and I did want to make a little progress on my desire to complete a marathon in all 50 states, so I put a marathon on the calendar for late March in Maryland. Colder weather and late snows around the end of February and the first of March gave me further issues with getting back into "racing shape" than I wanted. I completed the marathon in Maryland but was pretty slow due to the lack of proper training. In April I had a surprise opportunity to take some work related training in Wisconsin, and while there I notched a marathon in that state, slow again, but now had my eyes on running the Promise Land 50k plus mountain race. After a cold night sleeping in my van with a small propane heater which I think may have given me some carbon monoxide poisoning I "participated" in Promise Land...about an hour slower than the previous year. All this to say that by the end of April I was tired of racing marathons and ultras way slower than I should be, and was itching to get my training back on track.
May was upon us and looming ahead was the Hat Creek Trail races. I was entered in the 24 hour solo division, and was treating it as a training run for Grindstone based on the premise that I would be running tired into the darkness, all night long. I was surprised at the short list of folks registered in that division. Most everyone was part of one of the relay teams or running the 12 or 6 hour solo divisions. I was wondering if I might be able to get close to 100 miles on the relatively flat 5 mile loop course in 24 hours. Race day came and the heat was on...95 degrees and very high humidity. After the first lap I realized this was going to be a run of terrible attrition and people were going too fast for the heat...they were going to blow up, crash and burn. I backed my pace way off, ate and drank like there was a party going on and managed to stay out on the course after everyone else in the 24 hour solo division had stopped. I managed to get 80 miles in 23 hours and 37 minutes I think it was, and I actually won the division! Not due to speed or real ability (at the age of one month short of 59 at the time, all my speed and ability was pretty much in the past), but just due to being too stubborn to quit. This brought me to the place where I was getting more confident that training was progressing in the direction I wanted.
June progressed well with long runs and midweek faster runs, a highlight was getting out on the Appalachian Trail to meet up with Scott Jurek and cover 38.5 miles with him and other members of the Blue Ridge Trail Runners. The week of June 28 through July 4 I had 51 miles in training...progressing toward 60 and 70 mile weeks I had hoped would take place in July and 80 mile weeks I was hoping for in August. July 5th saw me doing a 23 mile strong solo run, finishing in a thunderstorm on Candler's Mountain trails. Monday, July 6th, late in the after noon at work, after putting new front tires on two Ambulances, I was moving mounted tires and wheels to get ready for the next day when disaster struck. One of those mounted tire and wheel assemblies fell on my left foot and the pain was so severe I was totally speechless for a few minutes. I knew I had just wrecked my running for the rest of the summer! I would be lucky if nothing was broke. I knew at the very least I had a severe bruise to my whole foot! I could barely walk let alone run. I went for x-rays and they said they couldn't see anything broken, but there was severe soft tissue bruising and trauma. I couldn't run at all for three weeks. After that let pain be my guide. I swam to try to maintain some cardio conditioning. I swam an open water mile in the lake at Scout Camp, but swimming isn't running.
After 3 weeks of zero running...losing fitness...losing leg strength, I got back to easy slow running. The next three weeks saw my mileage at 24, 26, and 30 miles, more flat pavement than rough trail, gingerly, easy, slow, not the 60, 70, 80 miles with strong mountain weekends hiking hard uphills and bombing fast downhills...the middle of August and I was way off track to be considering going 100 miles on foot by the first of October, let alone trying to improve my time. The weekend for trail work and training runs on the Grindstone course was coming up and I told myself if I could finish those runs without quitting early I would stay registered for the race. If I could not complete those training runs, which were roughly 30 miles on Saturday August 22nd, and 21 miles Sunday August 23rd, I would withdraw from the race. I finished both. Not without some pain mind you, and pretty slow, close to or maybe right at dead last the second day. I kept my name in the hat. The next two weeks saw me getting in close to 60 miles each week including 30 miles at the Iron Mountain Trail races. I did drop down from the 50 miler to the 30 mile distance at Iron Mountain because at this point my foot was still hurting, my fitness level for mountain ultras was not great, and I knew 50 miles in one fell swoop would be much more difficult to recover from one month out from my 100 miler.
Of course the twists and turns were not all done yet. Torrential rain the weekend before the race, and even more rain and extreme winds were predicted for race weekend, and the National Forest Rangers cancelled the permits for the event. Much scrambling on Clark Zealand's part got the race re- scheduled for the second weekend in October, which although it screwed up the taper plans, it provided one more valuable week for my foot to heal before getting trashed again by that tough technical course. I went to bed early on Thursday, October 8 and by 5:30 am I found myself awake contemplating how much my training was lacking, how my foot was doing, and preparing to drive up to Camp Shenandoah to pick up my race packet and set up my tent. I got there early...like the third person to check in, and got settled and tried to relax, making last minute adjustments with my hydration pack and drop bags. Others drifted in. Blue Ridge Trail Runners present and accounted for. Oh no! The shoes I had planned to start with are at home! Grattan is still in Lynchburg, and bringing Erin to help crew Alexis... so phone call to Grattan and arrangements made to get my shoes up to Camp Shenandoah with him...phew! They got there a few minutes before the start! I had other shoes but not the ones I wanted, so minor crisis averted.
Before the race started I must have had a troubled look on my face, because Todd Thomas said something to me in effect like "cheer up and look happy...you look like you are going to a very dark place". Well, he was right, literally and figuratively. I knew my fitness for this level of event was minimal. I was wondering if my foot would hold up under the relentless pounding it was about to receive. And of course since the race starts at 6:00 pm and it was cloudy, and there was no moon anyway, it would be very dark out on those mountain trails...I would be getting tired and the going would get tough...even tougher the second night. I had thought if training went well and I was healthy I could finish around 30 hours. I knew that was out the window now, but I was still hopeful for 32 hours, and even had an aid station split spread sheet in my pocket for a 31:35 finish time.
A few pictures at the start, the National Anthem, and we were off. Around the lake...bottleneck going into the single track right away...fairly smooth trail running back through the camp past the shower house, then the climb out and...thunder in the distance!
Rain...well it just fits the tough profile this course gives you. Get all wet and try to regulate temperature right off the bat, with the steep climbs, the windy ridge lines, and the slick, mossy, wet leaf covered, wobbly rock strewn descents...and then fog. Similar to last year, but at least I had a better idea of where I was going and what terrain was next. I had not been on the course at all until race time last year, and I made a couple wrong turns that cost me time and made me run a couple extra miles in the 2014 race. I would not repeat those mistakes this year. In fact I was able to prevent a few others from one of those mistakes where the course turns right off the fire road to go to the first aid station. Some people had blown on past the turn as I did last year on that downhill section of gravel road. As I saw the turn and realized the people in front of me had gone past it I yelled "WHOA! RIGHT TURN!" The first aid station at 5ish miles is more of a courtesy than a necessity for runners on the way out. As the last station on the way in, it definitely is a necessity then. I saw Clark greeting runners there but moved on trying to measure my effort and not spend too much energy too early. The Falls Hollow Creek was pretty full and the course crosses the creek a few times getting to where you start the real climb up to Elliot's Knob. I don't think my feet got under water last year. Different story this time. Wading thru the crossings got my feet soaked. The hike up the steep gravel road to the top of Elliot's told me I lacked the strong uphill hiking I normally can do. Just not enough training and climbing in the preceding weeks. Nice to see some of my friends on the short out and back at the summit. Now to get across the long ridge and then down the other side to the Dry Branch Aid Station. Lots of rocks impeding progress. Letting people pass me. Trying to eat and run and stay hydrated. Don't want to get into any calorie deficits or dehydration issues this early. More people passing me.
Dry Branch aid station. Topped my hydration pack, had some good food. Rebekah Trittipoe was making fluffernutter soft tortilla log rolls and they were great! And, she had little snack bags to go so you could eat as you hiked up the next climb! Thumbs up Rebekah! I checked my split sheet and at this point I was about 20 minutes ahead of schedule, even though I felt like I slowed down a lot after the climb up Elliot's. I hiked well on this climb, and got across the top of Crawford Mountain quicker than I thought I would. The descent down the back of Crawford is so tricky at night with the rocks and wet leaves. I was glad to get into Chimney Hollow and run a little on the flat. I caught a few people on there that had passed me earlier which put me in a better mood. The rocks were taking a toll on my left foot though, and the shoes I had wanted so much were staging a low traction act on the wet rocks. I guess it had been so dry on all my training runs with them, I never got a chance to test them in the rain on rocks. Well, no time to worry about that.
Dowell's Draft and my first drop bag. Grattan, Blake and Clifton were there and helped me with hot coffee and soup and getting my Tailwind into my hydration pack and topping it with water, and sending me on my way up to Lookout Mountain. Nothing in this section sticks out as particularly more tough than any of the rest of the course, just kind of keep moving. Lookout aid station was a welcome sight though with warm food and another cup of coffee. Pushing on through the night to see if I can get to North River Gap on schedule. At some point on the descent into North River I began to really feel the effort I had been putting out, and realized not only was I red lining out on my fitness from lack of enough training volume, my left foot was really hurting, and I was compensating some with my stride and my left hip flexors were now complaining. I began to take serious stock of how I felt and decided I might have to halt my effort at North River even though I actually was on schedule with my aid station time sheet at North River. Grattan, Clifton, Sam, Blake, Joe Wilson and Chelsie were there filling me with food and helping me with my hydration pack and Tailwind again. I sat for a few minutes while they all encouraged me to continue. I knew the toughest part was about to happen.
The nearly 8 miles of trail to Little Bald aid station is about 6.5 miles of uphill grind in the wee hours of the morning, when the normal human body just wants some sleep. I changed socks and felt a little better. I determined I could press on, but I was not very excited about what I knew lie ahead for the next 6 miles. The first part of this climb goes over the mountain the race takes it's name from, Grindstone Mountain. Then a short downhill then back up and you roll through a couple more short flat and downs then a good solid climb up Little Bald for about four miles. I saw the leaders coming back on their return trip as I neared the top. Just before I got to the top here comes Todd! He told me to get my butt in gear and move it! All my get up and go had already got up and gone at that point. I yelled back at him that he was about 12th or 13th and Josh Gilbert was just ahead of him maybe a minute or two. I passed a couple young ladies near the top, and as we broke out of the single track onto the slightly downhill fire road one of them sounded kind of distraught when she asked me where the aid station was. She had her pack off and was looking at a map or mileage chart. I said it is about a mile and a half mostly down hill on this fire road as I pointed northward. She almost wailed "I can't understand why it is so far away! I can't believe I just spent 3 hours and only went 6 miles!" I told her the tough part was over till it gets dark again. Keep moving. They have to put the aid station where they can drive to it. You can't really drive to right here unless you have a very modified four wheel drive or a military type humvee or something like that.
Little Bald aid station and familiar faces! Shane and Dave and Steve were helping runners with hot food, coffee and soup and doing a good job of it. I sat. Changed socks and shoes. Changed shirts. Ate. Ate some more. Sat some more and ate even more. Finally about 30 minutes later I moved on. Somewhere along here I encountered the rest of the BRTR gang and gave them fist bumps and high fives. They all looked pretty good. A lot better than I felt. I was a bit surprised that Alexis was not right with Kevin or Brenton or Mike P. at this point. I guess I had seen them so close together at Elliot's I assumed they were all together. By this time they had gotten a little strung out on that long fire road that stretches past Little Bald aid toward Reddish Knob. This section is much flatter (not to say that it is flat) than most of the previous parts of the course, and has much better footing, so I was moving pretty good to Reddish. There is a couple miles of asphalt out there past Reddish going to Briery Branch with a good bit of downhill on the way out so I made good use of that as well. Along here I kept leap frogging a guy and a girl. The girl was wanting to drop out at Little Bald. No good. The aid station workers are not leaving any time soon. Might as well keep going to the road at Briery Branch where your crew is. So she did. After she dropped there I was talking some with the guy who was Joe Galioto. We ran together for awhile chit chatting, then separated again before getting back to Little Bald.
The descent back into North River Gap was welcome. Down, down, down. The day was warming up a little and the mountain bikers were out in full force. I saw guys flying down that trail so fast I don't know how they survived. I saw them later, down near the foot bridge and said something to that effect to them. They said "we don't understand how you are still running". Honestly, I don't understand either. As bad as I felt the first time I came into North River...I was seriously thinking of a DNF...and now I knew I would finish barring any other unforseen issues and was still moving pretty good. I knew the ultimate slowdown would happen, just not when, but as long as I could walk, I could finish at this point. Back through Lookout in the evening and on the way down to Dowell's it got dark the second time. I still had a mountain trail marathon distance to go with two looonngg climbs, in the dark, extremely tired, facing me. As I started back through Chimney Hollow I kept trying to will myself to run, but every slight incline just forced me to hike. This was not good. If I had to finish the whole rest of the way like this it was going to be a long night. The climb up the back of Crawford and the climb up the back of Eliot's absolutely slowed me to a crawl. I was dizzy and felt like I could not keep my balance. I felt like the slightest trip would send me hurtling over the edge of the cliff to my right on both climbs. I actually went fair stretches where I was one stepping, moving one foot forward and dragging the rear foot up behind me, instead of stepping forward with each foot in turn.
At last, the top of the ridge going back across Elliot's. I started moving better but my head light was fading. I stopped to change batteries. I dropped one battery, fumbling around finally getting it right. Frustrated at my slow pace, I moved on. About half way across the top I saw some green eyes reflecting back at me off to my left. I tried to make out what those eyes were attached to but it was out of reach of my headlight. They were wider spaced than a human set of eyes would be. They were about 3 to 4 feet off the ground I would say. Not a deer. I have seen plenty of deer at night. Usually they reflect light blue or almost white and they will move their head somewhat. I have seen a few bears in the woods and usually they will leave and go the other way when a human is around. Whatever this was just stayed still, watching me as I moved along the trail. At least it didn't follow me. I have seen video of Mountain Lions at night...exact same green reflection. The Wildlife folks will say there are no Mountain Lions left in the Appalachians. I'm not so sure now. There have been many claims for Mountain Lion sightings in the Appalachian Mountains. Maybe this was what I saw. Maybe not. It seemed higher off the ground and wider eye set than a large Bobcat. I have seen very large Bobcats...this was bigger. Might have been a juvenile Sasquatch!
Down the gravel road off Elliot's, I got a nice view of the lights from Staunton. Down the creek drainage in Falls Hollow, I zig zagged across a flat rock in the creek and fell, basically doing a split. I didn't fall in the water but I did mess up a muscle or something right above my right knee and pulled something in my left glute, still feeling that over two weeks later. Falls Hollow aid station and hot soup and coffee...oh what a welcome relief. I saw Rick Gray here and he said he had been having a rough time. Digestive issues. I left trailing right behind him and his crew, but I could not maintain their uphill climb pace. Finally coming back into the back of the Scout Camp, I felt like the trail was much rougher coming back in than it was going out. As I got closer to the lake, the sun was coming up and I no longer needed my headlight. As I crossed the dam, there was Blake waiting for me to show up. Todd and Alexis were at the finish area, bundled up and trying to nap, while congratulating all the finishers. Clark was standing at the finish line. I gave him a big old hug, signed the cardboard totem, although my hand was not really working enough to write very legibly, and hugged the wooden totem pole. A shower, breakfast with the BRTR gang. Then the toughest part...driving home!
Monday, May 18, 2015
Hat Creek Trail Races 24 Hour Division Race Report
In the leading up weeks going into this event, I was attempting to gain a little better running fitness, as I had kind of let go of serious training during the first couple months of this year. I really needed a break from the last three races of last year and how beat up my body was. I had volunteered at aid stations and swept the courses at both Holiday Lake and Terrapin Mountain 50 k races, so was not training for them. I had run a couple of road marathons in March, but was not very fast since I was not training too hard. Mostly just an opportunity to check off two more states on my 50 states marathon quest, and have something on the calendar race wise that would force me to at least train a little. By the beginning of April I went ahead and registered for the 24 hour solo division at Hat Creek and thought I would just use that as a personal challenge to see how close I could get to 100 miles in 24 hours on that 5 mile loop course. The only gauge I had going in was Todd Thomas' 105 miles at Hat Creek in 2014, and the 55 miles I got tag teaming the course in one of the relay divisions last year.
I knew I would not be as fast as Todd (he is after all about 18 years younger than me). I did not have time on weekends to do any real serious long runs. It seemed like my Scout Troop had something going on about every other weekend I was involved with, or some other activity was tying me up to where I just did not have the time needed for those extra long runs (like 20 or more trail miles...always takes longer than road miles). I did get in an 18 mile run in the mountains the week before the Promise Land 50 k ++, then ran the Promise Land race (34 miles, but 48 minutes slower than last year) just three weeks before Hat Creek. Those were my longest runs other than the two road marathons in March. I had a couple of 12 to 15 mile runs on Candler's Mountain and some shorter, faster road runs, since the PL 50 k, but no defining progress as to where I really stood with a long endurance event like this 24 hour event now staring me down. To make matters even more doubtful, I have chronic issues with my right knee that get re-inflamed when I do things like try to keep up with younger, faster runners (it is doggone hard to just shake competitive mindset), that I managed to re-aggravate a couple weeks before the event. There always seems to be something to rattle confidence. I started with an elastic knee brace on, but took it off after about 25 miles or so, as it was restricting blood flow and my knee actually was doing ok.
About a week or so before Hat Creek, I started to realize from looking at the list of registrants that I might have some small chance at something here...this got me to strategizing a bit on lap times, and trying to remember what my lap times were from last year in the relay. I began to think that if I could average around an hour per lap during the daylight and somewhere around an hour and a half at night I could be close to 100 miles, depending on how much time I take resting at the start / finish area eating, re-hydrating, etcetera, which I did not give much thought process to... future reference...plan on about 5 minutes, maybe 6 or 7 minutes as you get more mileage and no sleep, to turn yourself around after each lap, even with crew help. Prepare mentally for the push you will need to kick yourself back out on the course. "Beware of the chair", as Dave Horton has said.
Saturday, May 16, 2015, high noon and we are off on our first lap. Trying not to go too fast downhill on a wide grassy section, I hear Clark Zealand commenting to Micah Jackson I think, about pace and something to the effect that it feels so easy but it seems hard to believe we are going as fast as we are until you check in with your GPS watch...something like that, anyway, I remember looking at my pace on my watch and it showed 7:43 per mile, whoa, way too fast! Trying to slow down, yet not wanting to get bunched up behind folks as we come to single track, knowing that was downhill and sometimes you can put more effort into slowing down than just letting gravity take over, I gave up arguing with myself on pace. It was plenty hot, around 90 degrees, but I felt good and my knee was not complaining so I concentrated on where I was stepping and just kept moving, trying to stay hydrated. At some point I was able to pick out Carlton McFaden who was also in the 24 hour solo, and stayed right behind him for awhile. He began to pull a lead and I let him go realizing that he might be faster and maybe would finish the 24 hour solo ahead of me. I knew Shane Glass was right nearby and was also in the 24 hour solo, so I kind of had to keep tabs on him. Sam Price was in the hunt also and had run some good training runs on some of our Blue Ridge Trail Runners Wednesday evening runs on Liberty University's Candler's Mountain Trail System, so I was hoping to do ok in this event with these younger, and possibly more fit guys. You never know how an event like this might turn out. Lots of stuff can make the wheels come off at any time. Shane and I did the first several loops within sight, or at most a minute or two of each other. It seemed like we were leap frogging at the start / finish area frequently. Anyway, at the end of the first loop after running it in 53 minutes, with the continuing hot, humid afternoon and evening ahead, and more than 23 hours left, I knew I had probably just caused some as yet to be determined problem / slowdown, and / or crisis that would sabotage my run. Well, can't dwell on that. Get my hand held replenished with GU electrolyte drink and back on course...as I'm leaving Jeremy Ramsey says to me " Hey, take it easy, it's hot!" I determined right then that I did indeed need to take it easy or risk blowing up in the heat of the day, so I made backing off the pace I had been going a real priority, now that the crowd was thinned out along the course it would be easier.
The end of lap two and several friends, some with their spouses, are at the start / finish to run their legs of the relay divisions, or just cheer us on, or to volunteer on the course. They all came to my aid helping with refilling my bottle with whatever I asked, pouring coffee, soup, getting me food, handling a myriad of chores that are difficult to think about sometimes, and getting me back on course each lap through out the whole weekend. On top of that, I did not even ask any of them to do that, they just jumped in and helped! Amazing! Alexis Thomas and Chelsie Viar did a stand out job as crew along with Todd Thomas, Kevin Corell, Joe Alderson, Bethany Williams, Blake Edmundson, and Grattan Garbee. Several of these folks are parents, and at times I felt like they were taking care of me just like I was one of their own kids, even though I am old enough to be their parent! Thanks, big time!
As the night wore on, I did get slower, gradually getting to where I was dead on my feet and straying off the path a little with "micro naps". How in the world can the human body fall asleep while running and hiking? Todd Thomas kept encouraging me to get back out on the course when he thought I was spending too much time in the chair with my make shift crew. He kept telling me "You got a goal...100 miles... get moving! You know you aren't going to go faster on the second half! You need at least 50 miles by midnight!" At one point I woke up tripping around in the bushes and not sure which way the path was or which way to go when I found it! I think I had a couple loops in the 2 hour range where I hiked about 80 percent of the loop. Knowing I did not have 50 miles before midnight I began to adjust my goal to 80 miles, considering the heat and humidity, and just hoping my digestive system would not shut down. I had already seen plenty of attrition from the heat dehydrating people to the point they could not keep anything on their stomach. Once that happens your body will protect the vital organs and the brain by shutting down your muscle function. I feel helpless to try to aid someone who is in that condition, and I certainly did not want to wind up that way myself. Speaking of things that can "happen"...one of the times I stopped at the "outback" aid station, 2 and a half miles out on the course, I grabbed some M&M's and shoved them in my mouth and started chewing. Within seconds I realized something was not right. I spit out the mouthful and realized I had split a molar and half of it was on the ground with the M&M's! Fortunately, it did not cause any real pain as the tooth had been filled long ago and only the outer enamel had cracked off the inside of the tooth. Just some minor irritation to my tongue now. And... I fell pretty hard on one loop in the wee hours of the morning. Tripped on one of those little 1 inch diameter tree stump nubs that sticks up about an inch or so above the ground. I rolled and slid on my back and caught another little stump on my right hip from the belt line down about 4 or 5 inches. That stung pretty good for awhile with salty sweat getting on it. One of the things that happens to me when I trip and land hard is every muscle in my body tenses up to absorb the impact. If I have already gone 20 miles or more, it is pretty much guaranteed to lock up at least one leg, or sometimes both with rock hard muscle cramps and spasms. It must be comic to watch me get back up off the ground when that happens. No humans witnessed that, but maybe it provided comic relief for the snakes and mice and possums and raccoons and deer (and lions and tigers and bears, oh my)! I finally got enough caffeine in me to wake up enough to run a lap in an hour and twenty minutes, then another one in an hour and 11 minutes, then finally daybreak.
After it got light enough to run with out a headlamp I think I had one more lap under 1:15. All the rest were up around an hour and a half. At some point in the dark early morning hours, Carlton had got off the course and laid down in his tent. I was in the lead now, but Shane was right behind me. I put a lap on Carlton but did not know if he would get back on course, rejuvenated from a nap, and maybe run me down with a couple 45 minute laps...who can know about these things? I found out later Carlton was not able to come back on the course due to digestive issues from the heat. Later in the morning Shane went to his car and took a nap. I knew I had to make good use of the time remaining if I wanted to get to 80 miles, so I just kept on rolling. A little after 10:00 am Sunday morning I set out on what I knew would be my last lap. It was already getting hot again. I was noticing I was a little jittery from too much caffeine so I stopped intake of that. My taste buds were not happy with all the sugary sweet stuff I had run through my mouth in the preceding 22 hours. My stomach felt bloated and swelled up, and I felt like I had gained 10 pounds. I have never eaten so much and taken in so much hydration as I did while attempting to cover as much ground as rapidly as possible in these conditions. I took just plain water back out with me and my Endurolyte capsules. I had a GU energy gel with me but I was loathe to the thought of trying to eat anything sweet. I trotted out most of the first couple miles to the bottom of the steep hill that goes up from the creek bottom to the camp ropes course with the climbing wall. I don't recall running much at all after that, just hike it in and get back before noon and you will have 80 miles I told myself. As I was coming back toward the main part of camp around the lakes, both Sam Price and Shane Glass had rested and now were back out on the course for a final lap.and had caught up to me there, although I had multiple laps on them. It was good to see them back out. I think Shane finished with 65 miles and Sam finished with 40, so congrats to them for getting back out there!
I finished around 11:37 am, so in 23 hours and 37 minutes I had covered 80 miles in some real hot, humid conditions. Not to brag too much, because we all know that pride goes before a fall, but I will be 59 in four weeks. I know there are some younger people out there that can do a lot better than that, and some masters and older folks too! Hope to see you on the trails in the near future. I feel kind of like one of those NASCAR guys that maybe wasn't the fastest, but managed to some how stay clear of the big wrecks, and finish in the lead on the last lap. I have heard more than once, " you only have to lead at the end of the last lap"! Some how I won the men's 24 hour solo division of the 2015 Hat Creek Trail Races!!! Thank you once again to all those who helped, volunteered and worked to make this event possible. Thanks to Race Director Jeremy Ramsey for his effort as director , and thanks to Patrick Henry Boys and Girls Homes, who operate Camp Hat Creek, for letting us use their property for this event.
I knew I would not be as fast as Todd (he is after all about 18 years younger than me). I did not have time on weekends to do any real serious long runs. It seemed like my Scout Troop had something going on about every other weekend I was involved with, or some other activity was tying me up to where I just did not have the time needed for those extra long runs (like 20 or more trail miles...always takes longer than road miles). I did get in an 18 mile run in the mountains the week before the Promise Land 50 k ++, then ran the Promise Land race (34 miles, but 48 minutes slower than last year) just three weeks before Hat Creek. Those were my longest runs other than the two road marathons in March. I had a couple of 12 to 15 mile runs on Candler's Mountain and some shorter, faster road runs, since the PL 50 k, but no defining progress as to where I really stood with a long endurance event like this 24 hour event now staring me down. To make matters even more doubtful, I have chronic issues with my right knee that get re-inflamed when I do things like try to keep up with younger, faster runners (it is doggone hard to just shake competitive mindset), that I managed to re-aggravate a couple weeks before the event. There always seems to be something to rattle confidence. I started with an elastic knee brace on, but took it off after about 25 miles or so, as it was restricting blood flow and my knee actually was doing ok.
About a week or so before Hat Creek, I started to realize from looking at the list of registrants that I might have some small chance at something here...this got me to strategizing a bit on lap times, and trying to remember what my lap times were from last year in the relay. I began to think that if I could average around an hour per lap during the daylight and somewhere around an hour and a half at night I could be close to 100 miles, depending on how much time I take resting at the start / finish area eating, re-hydrating, etcetera, which I did not give much thought process to... future reference...plan on about 5 minutes, maybe 6 or 7 minutes as you get more mileage and no sleep, to turn yourself around after each lap, even with crew help. Prepare mentally for the push you will need to kick yourself back out on the course. "Beware of the chair", as Dave Horton has said.
Saturday, May 16, 2015, high noon and we are off on our first lap. Trying not to go too fast downhill on a wide grassy section, I hear Clark Zealand commenting to Micah Jackson I think, about pace and something to the effect that it feels so easy but it seems hard to believe we are going as fast as we are until you check in with your GPS watch...something like that, anyway, I remember looking at my pace on my watch and it showed 7:43 per mile, whoa, way too fast! Trying to slow down, yet not wanting to get bunched up behind folks as we come to single track, knowing that was downhill and sometimes you can put more effort into slowing down than just letting gravity take over, I gave up arguing with myself on pace. It was plenty hot, around 90 degrees, but I felt good and my knee was not complaining so I concentrated on where I was stepping and just kept moving, trying to stay hydrated. At some point I was able to pick out Carlton McFaden who was also in the 24 hour solo, and stayed right behind him for awhile. He began to pull a lead and I let him go realizing that he might be faster and maybe would finish the 24 hour solo ahead of me. I knew Shane Glass was right nearby and was also in the 24 hour solo, so I kind of had to keep tabs on him. Sam Price was in the hunt also and had run some good training runs on some of our Blue Ridge Trail Runners Wednesday evening runs on Liberty University's Candler's Mountain Trail System, so I was hoping to do ok in this event with these younger, and possibly more fit guys. You never know how an event like this might turn out. Lots of stuff can make the wheels come off at any time. Shane and I did the first several loops within sight, or at most a minute or two of each other. It seemed like we were leap frogging at the start / finish area frequently. Anyway, at the end of the first loop after running it in 53 minutes, with the continuing hot, humid afternoon and evening ahead, and more than 23 hours left, I knew I had probably just caused some as yet to be determined problem / slowdown, and / or crisis that would sabotage my run. Well, can't dwell on that. Get my hand held replenished with GU electrolyte drink and back on course...as I'm leaving Jeremy Ramsey says to me " Hey, take it easy, it's hot!" I determined right then that I did indeed need to take it easy or risk blowing up in the heat of the day, so I made backing off the pace I had been going a real priority, now that the crowd was thinned out along the course it would be easier.
The end of lap two and several friends, some with their spouses, are at the start / finish to run their legs of the relay divisions, or just cheer us on, or to volunteer on the course. They all came to my aid helping with refilling my bottle with whatever I asked, pouring coffee, soup, getting me food, handling a myriad of chores that are difficult to think about sometimes, and getting me back on course each lap through out the whole weekend. On top of that, I did not even ask any of them to do that, they just jumped in and helped! Amazing! Alexis Thomas and Chelsie Viar did a stand out job as crew along with Todd Thomas, Kevin Corell, Joe Alderson, Bethany Williams, Blake Edmundson, and Grattan Garbee. Several of these folks are parents, and at times I felt like they were taking care of me just like I was one of their own kids, even though I am old enough to be their parent! Thanks, big time!
As the night wore on, I did get slower, gradually getting to where I was dead on my feet and straying off the path a little with "micro naps". How in the world can the human body fall asleep while running and hiking? Todd Thomas kept encouraging me to get back out on the course when he thought I was spending too much time in the chair with my make shift crew. He kept telling me "You got a goal...100 miles... get moving! You know you aren't going to go faster on the second half! You need at least 50 miles by midnight!" At one point I woke up tripping around in the bushes and not sure which way the path was or which way to go when I found it! I think I had a couple loops in the 2 hour range where I hiked about 80 percent of the loop. Knowing I did not have 50 miles before midnight I began to adjust my goal to 80 miles, considering the heat and humidity, and just hoping my digestive system would not shut down. I had already seen plenty of attrition from the heat dehydrating people to the point they could not keep anything on their stomach. Once that happens your body will protect the vital organs and the brain by shutting down your muscle function. I feel helpless to try to aid someone who is in that condition, and I certainly did not want to wind up that way myself. Speaking of things that can "happen"...one of the times I stopped at the "outback" aid station, 2 and a half miles out on the course, I grabbed some M&M's and shoved them in my mouth and started chewing. Within seconds I realized something was not right. I spit out the mouthful and realized I had split a molar and half of it was on the ground with the M&M's! Fortunately, it did not cause any real pain as the tooth had been filled long ago and only the outer enamel had cracked off the inside of the tooth. Just some minor irritation to my tongue now. And... I fell pretty hard on one loop in the wee hours of the morning. Tripped on one of those little 1 inch diameter tree stump nubs that sticks up about an inch or so above the ground. I rolled and slid on my back and caught another little stump on my right hip from the belt line down about 4 or 5 inches. That stung pretty good for awhile with salty sweat getting on it. One of the things that happens to me when I trip and land hard is every muscle in my body tenses up to absorb the impact. If I have already gone 20 miles or more, it is pretty much guaranteed to lock up at least one leg, or sometimes both with rock hard muscle cramps and spasms. It must be comic to watch me get back up off the ground when that happens. No humans witnessed that, but maybe it provided comic relief for the snakes and mice and possums and raccoons and deer (and lions and tigers and bears, oh my)! I finally got enough caffeine in me to wake up enough to run a lap in an hour and twenty minutes, then another one in an hour and 11 minutes, then finally daybreak.
After it got light enough to run with out a headlamp I think I had one more lap under 1:15. All the rest were up around an hour and a half. At some point in the dark early morning hours, Carlton had got off the course and laid down in his tent. I was in the lead now, but Shane was right behind me. I put a lap on Carlton but did not know if he would get back on course, rejuvenated from a nap, and maybe run me down with a couple 45 minute laps...who can know about these things? I found out later Carlton was not able to come back on the course due to digestive issues from the heat. Later in the morning Shane went to his car and took a nap. I knew I had to make good use of the time remaining if I wanted to get to 80 miles, so I just kept on rolling. A little after 10:00 am Sunday morning I set out on what I knew would be my last lap. It was already getting hot again. I was noticing I was a little jittery from too much caffeine so I stopped intake of that. My taste buds were not happy with all the sugary sweet stuff I had run through my mouth in the preceding 22 hours. My stomach felt bloated and swelled up, and I felt like I had gained 10 pounds. I have never eaten so much and taken in so much hydration as I did while attempting to cover as much ground as rapidly as possible in these conditions. I took just plain water back out with me and my Endurolyte capsules. I had a GU energy gel with me but I was loathe to the thought of trying to eat anything sweet. I trotted out most of the first couple miles to the bottom of the steep hill that goes up from the creek bottom to the camp ropes course with the climbing wall. I don't recall running much at all after that, just hike it in and get back before noon and you will have 80 miles I told myself. As I was coming back toward the main part of camp around the lakes, both Sam Price and Shane Glass had rested and now were back out on the course for a final lap.and had caught up to me there, although I had multiple laps on them. It was good to see them back out. I think Shane finished with 65 miles and Sam finished with 40, so congrats to them for getting back out there!
I finished around 11:37 am, so in 23 hours and 37 minutes I had covered 80 miles in some real hot, humid conditions. Not to brag too much, because we all know that pride goes before a fall, but I will be 59 in four weeks. I know there are some younger people out there that can do a lot better than that, and some masters and older folks too! Hope to see you on the trails in the near future. I feel kind of like one of those NASCAR guys that maybe wasn't the fastest, but managed to some how stay clear of the big wrecks, and finish in the lead on the last lap. I have heard more than once, " you only have to lead at the end of the last lap"! Some how I won the men's 24 hour solo division of the 2015 Hat Creek Trail Races!!! Thank you once again to all those who helped, volunteered and worked to make this event possible. Thanks to Race Director Jeremy Ramsey for his effort as director , and thanks to Patrick Henry Boys and Girls Homes, who operate Camp Hat Creek, for letting us use their property for this event.
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