tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17590823776741088132024-03-19T08:27:35.713-04:00OneAverageRunnerThis site is built and dedicated to the pursuit of fitness and endurance in terms of hours and days as opposed to just minutes; to a lifetime in pursuit of health, overall fitness, and all the benefits therein.I am just One Average Runner but my main fitness venue and sport of choice is distance running, mostly because I like to cross a distant finish line. What is yours?Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1759082377674108813.post-54654749244808657232010-12-19T20:15:00.003-05:002010-12-19T20:48:28.501-05:001033 Minutes at the 2010 Hellgate 100KSaturday 11 December 2010<br />
<br />
<br />
1033 Minutes at the Hellgate 100K Race<br />
<br />
Event website: www.extremeultrarunning.com<br />
<br />
This is one average runner's tale at Dr. David Horton's epic trail race through a significant section of the Blue Ridge Mountains in the Jefferson National Forest in western Virginia. This event started at1201AM in the dark woodline at Hellgate Creek in Natural Bridge Station, and traveled all of 66.6 miles to the finish line at Camp Bethel in Bethel. Every racer had an 18 hour time limit equating to a 6PM deadline. It took me 17 hours, 13 minutes, and 14 seconds to reach that end-zone. <br />
<br />
It’s difficult to use the term “epic” in relation to any ultra-marathon under one hundred miles. The sport is growing so rapidly that there are over eighty 100-mile trail races held annually in the United States. However, the online World English Dictionary defines epic thus: “an episode in the lives of men (and women in this instance) in which heroic deeds are performed or attempted; a long narrative or larger-than-life saga.” The Hellgate 100K certainly rises to that definition in every aspect of the event, starting with legendary Race Director Dr. David Horton, the point-to-point trail course that includes 13,500 feet of climb and descent back and forth over the Blue Ridge Mountains, and group of some of the best long-distance runners in the country who came to challenge themselves against this venue. Karl Meltzer was on hand, as was David Goggins, Andrew Thompson, Rebekah Trittipoe, Keith Knipling, Kerry Owens, and Aaron Schwartzbard, to name just a few. <br />
<br />
TOP THREE MALES TOP THREE FEMALES <br />
<br />
Name Age- Time Name Age-Time<br />
<br />
JEREMY RAMSEY 34-11:24:20 HELEN LAVIN 33- 4:05:24 <br />
(22nd overall) <br />
<br />
CHRIS REED 38- 11:48:50 SHERYL WHEELER 47-15:18:15 <br />
(41ST overall)<br />
<br />
PATRICK GARCIA 25- 12:02:18 ZSUZANNA CARLSON 37-15:27:41 <br />
(47th overall)<br />
<br />
VITAL RACE STATISTICS:<br />
<br />
66.6 or 62.5 mileage published as overall distance of event; the <br />
bumper sticker claims 66.6<br />
126 Runners started the race at 12:01 AM<br />
111 Official number of finishers; largest amount and <br />
percentage (88%) in 8 year history of event <br />
96 Male finishers- 86%; 15 Female finishers-13.5%<br />
24 Approximate temperature at start of race at midnight<br />
28 Approximate temperature at 1200PM <br />
13,500 Total elevation in feet climbed and descended <br />
according to event website <br />
9 Total number of aid stations<br />
10 Largest mileage total between aid stations<br />
4 Smallest distance in miles between aid stations<br />
7 About the average mileage between aid stations<br />
64 Age of Bob Anderson, oldest finisher, in 16:56:46<br />
53 Age Rebekah Trittipoe, oldest female finisher, in 15:40:31<br />
21 Age of Robert Rives, youngest male finisher, in 16:06:25<br />
33 Age of Helen Lavin, youngest female finisher, and overall<br />
female winner, in 14:05:24<br />
34 Number of male finishers between 40-49, the largest group<br />
31 Number of male finishers between 30-39<br />
18 Number of male finishers between 20-29<br />
9 Number of male finishers from 50-59<br />
3 Number of finishers from 60-69(64)<br />
7 Number of female finishers from 30-39<br />
7 Number of female finishers from 40-49 <br />
1 Number of female finishers 50 and older <br />
0 Number of female finishers under 30, an odd statistic <br />
19 Number of States represented 2 Countries represented;<br />
USA and Canada <br />
2,636 longest miles by Google distance traveled by any runner; <br />
Dave Goggins, San Diego, CA <br />
6 Number of runners who have completed all 8 runnings <br />
of the Hellgate 100K: Darin Dunham, Jeffrey Garstecki, <br />
Ryan Henry, Dan Lehmann, Aaron Schartzbard, Jerry Turk<br />
<br />
VITAL PERSONAL STATICS (AUTHOR)<br />
<br />
14 Hellgate was my 14th marathon or ultra-marathon event in 2010 <br />
32 Total number of marathon or ultra-marathon events completed<br />
1194 Number of consecutive streak days run since 12 DEC 2007 <br />
through 11 DEC 2010 <br />
21 Number of days from last major event (JFK 50; 20 NOV)<br />
7 Major Event since Labor day <br />
17:13:14 Hellgate finish time (1033:14) <br />
2 2nd attempt at Hellgate (2007) 1st finish <br />
91 My overall finish place of the 111 finishers <br />
81 My overall finish place among all males <br />
11 Females finished ahead of me <br />
36 My finishing place of males 40-64; <br />
5 of 9 males from 50-59 finished ahead of me; <br />
all three 60-64 aged males finished ahead of me <br />
43 My finishing place among all runners 40 and older <br />
3 Where I finished among the 3 active duty military participants: <br />
Dave Goggins- US Navy, 14:48:33; Mosi Smith-USMC, 15:50:43; <br />
me-Army, 17:13:14 <br />
4 Blisters <br />
2 Toenails lost <br />
0 I ran “solo” without any crew <br />
47.79 The mileage on my Forerunner 305 when it died shortly <br />
after Bearwallow Gap <br />
15:32 My average overall pace per mile for the duration of the event<br />
<br />
<strong><u>THE COURSE</u></strong><br />
<br />
The following graphics are available on the event website under the multimedia story link and were published in a Roanoke newspaper story in 2007. I think these also give the best overall perspective of the course and event of any that I have seen online: <br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMDQrwr107eRmo_wjLNLrvsRx6lxnrBCm9QBLXImoHlMw75-mKEJrLgryfmjoUDI606pcl6cwc8Ii284t_lsiW1r2BvqMi2UpnsGE0Oh30rn8WMizsDBAGowwbKJhSmPN_L69WJWaXoI24/s1600/HG1.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="209" n4="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMDQrwr107eRmo_wjLNLrvsRx6lxnrBCm9QBLXImoHlMw75-mKEJrLgryfmjoUDI606pcl6cwc8Ii284t_lsiW1r2BvqMi2UpnsGE0Oh30rn8WMizsDBAGowwbKJhSmPN_L69WJWaXoI24/s320/HG1.png" width="320" /></a></div> The route of the course including the start, the nine aid stations, and the finish at Camp Bethel. Hellgate starts in Rockbridge County and finishes in Botetourt County, and crosses over the Blue Ridge range four times.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjB-Qk3iXKGUrH9WmhbDFEM80XY2zfQtuXUYhEakTDd2bwkZZ6m8gZxjyCx2jCiMwRPwkZGpPFCraE3ZMKWxmuHkvFoFVdETwognLcdSXUbXqHSSuZkz1UgQTY5ruediOV5FQEodHRwsKpN/s1600/HG2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="197" n4="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjB-Qk3iXKGUrH9WmhbDFEM80XY2zfQtuXUYhEakTDd2bwkZZ6m8gZxjyCx2jCiMwRPwkZGpPFCraE3ZMKWxmuHkvFoFVdETwognLcdSXUbXqHSSuZkz1UgQTY5ruediOV5FQEodHRwsKpN/s320/HG2.png" width="320" /></a></div> This graphic gives the best idea of the challenging vertical aspects of the course of any depiction I’ve seen of the course. It’s fair to say that Hellgate racers are almost always moving either uphill or downhill for the duration of the race. This scale also lends credence to Dr. Horton’s point during his pre-race brief that any runner that gets through the first third of this race and clears Aid Station 4 at Headforemost Mountain, has the hardest third of the course behind them.<br />
<br />
<strong><u>LOGISTICS AND PRE-RACE</u></strong> <br />
<br />
Team Horton Logistics runs a smoothly calibrated event at Hellgate. Camp Bethel doubles as the staging area and the finish line. Runners and their crew can sleep for free in the bunkhouse as early as the Thursday night prior to the event and into the morning on post-race Sunday in an open bay format replete with bunk beds. Even though I finished work early Friday afternoon, I burned between 75-90 minutes just escaping the gravitational pull of the beltway in Arlington, VA. This lengthy departure resulted in a loss of any planned, pre-race knap time as I walked into the bulk house right about the point where Dr. Horton started holding forth with his pre-race brief. We discussed everything from the race route, the weather, finisher prizes, crew directions, and matched every runner needing a ride to the starting line with an identified vehicle and crew member. Dr. Horton also gave every race director the opportunity to mention his or her race, and asked Karl Meltzer to describe how he was literally chased by a moose at the Bighorn 100 into the aid state at the 50-mile turn-around point a year ago in June 2009. I did not take that opportunity to mention that I ran almost directly into a black bear that must have weighed between 150-180s pounds, last June up road at the Old Dominion 100. Dr. Horton identified Andrew Thompson, the current record holder for the fastest recorded through-hike on the Appalachian Trail. He also identified Dave Goggins and mentioned how successfully he’s pursued ultra-running and Mr. Goggins’ immediate response was “everyone” could reach most of the goals he has. I met several people who subscribe to the Ultra-List including Julian Jameson, down from Massachusetts, and Mosi Smith from Annapolis, both of whom I have traded email with periodically over the past 12 to 24 months but had never met in person prior to Friday evening. <br />
<br />
The remaining three hours prior to the start of the race were filled with preparations and travel to Hellgate Creek. Racers were allowed one drop bag that would be at Aid Station 4 when they arrived and the bag would then be jumped forward to Aid Station 7. The weather was as good as it possibly could have been for an event that started at midnight on the second Saturday of December in the Blue Ridge Mountains. That did not alleviate racers, especially solo races as I always am, from hoping for the best and planning for the worst in terms of stuffing everything you might possibly need into your little drop bag. I had extra Injinji socks, a back-up pair of running shoes in case mine got socked. An extra headlamp and batteries, extra Clif-shot blocks and trail mix, heavier gloves than the lightweights I wore, an extra polypro cap and neck-up. I made sure I took a long, hard look at the Finish Line chute leading right up to the Camp Bethel bunk house before we all departed for the starting line.<br />
<br />
It was 24 degrees at the start of the event but it was a very clear night. I made the final decision to run in shorts and inserted my sweat pants into my drop bag as well. I ran in a lightweight, lined nylon jacket and my short-sleeve Arrowhead t-shirt I’ve worn in penance at almost every event this year. I wore shorts, shoe-top length Injini socks, and my Asolo trail shoes that have at least 1000 miles on them at this point. I had my Nathan Hydration pack with 70 ounces of water, my Sony Walkman, a standard Petzl headlamp, 3 extra AAA batteries, my cell phone, my Olympus camera, and twelve S-Caps and Ibuprofen each, two packs of Clif-shot blocks in a zip-lock and some home-made trail mix. I also had a miniature zip-lock bag full of coffee beans to munch on when the going was sure to get rough at 0400. <br />
<br />
Dr. Horton took attendance one more time; we turned our drop bags over to Charlie and his logistics team van and moved into the woods to the trail head. We had a benediction, sang the National Anthem and then started off at 12:01AM into the long dark trip over Headforemost Mountain. We were 7 hours from daylight. My plan was pretty simple in that I had mentally broken the event into the three major sections; Start to Aid Station 4 at Headforemost Mountain; Headforemost to Aid Station 7 at Bear Wallow Gap, and then from Bear Wallow into the Finish line. <br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvLLeuZewarZJUR2y9yrA03ErybuT6GyqlJCNtgjC78L9hODIdcx1xcmXvbnhMWYFZLQhc6MErbHOYHbUWAkZojBlM-o-4nDzveYKpIIvNI0uVeIice7cy3vvjEedsyFayGyKSka4-C4VP/s1600/Dr.+Horton.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" n4="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvLLeuZewarZJUR2y9yrA03ErybuT6GyqlJCNtgjC78L9hODIdcx1xcmXvbnhMWYFZLQhc6MErbHOYHbUWAkZojBlM-o-4nDzveYKpIIvNI0uVeIice7cy3vvjEedsyFayGyKSka4-C4VP/s320/Dr.+Horton.JPG" width="320" /></a></div> Dr. Horton and the group singing the National Anthem at the Start<br />
<br />
<strong><u>RACE EXECUTION</u></strong><br />
<br />
<strong>Section I. Start to Aid Station 4 at Headforemost Mountain</strong>. I was very confident that I was going to successful complete Hellgate coming into the event based on all the racing and training that I’ve done over the course of 2010, thirteen other races with the latest a personal best 50-miler at the JFK 50 three weeks prior. Regardless of these facts, the first third of the Hellgate course filled me with a lot of trepidation as I had failed to make it through Headforemost Aid Station three years earlier in my only other attempt at this event. That was the first time I had ever failed in any endurance event in any format, and I had set my sites on redeeming myself at Hellgate from that point forward. So, there was some basic apprehension as I started the race at the very back of the pack at 1201, but there was mostly a sense of relief that I’d finally gotten back to Hellgate and I was much more ready for the event this time than I was three years ago.<br />
<br />
Running in winter conditions is a little more challenging than any other time of year for the obvious reasons. You never want to be over-dressed as you’re guaranteed to start sweating and over-heating shortly after warming up. It is hard to find the right balance, and the right balance always leads to being really cold at the starting line as I was. Once the race was underway, I warmed up quickly and felt very confident that even though I was traveling “light” in terms of uniform, I had the right gear on. The first four miles were mostly all wide or narrow single-track trail with a little up and down grade. The runners all settled in at their own pace and the headlamps all started to space out. <br />
<br />
Trail running at night is always a singularly interesting experience and Hellgate was no exception. Even running with an evenly spaced group of 125 other participants, my perceptions were packed in by the limits of my headlamp. The woods just closed in as I was tightly focused on the trail in front of me rather than on the runners just ahead. Somewhere just over the two-and-a-half mile point we could see the occasional suburb light through the woods off to the east; I could continually and progressively hear at least one dog barking, also to the east even after clearing the 1st aid station at 4 miles. You’d cover a half mile of trail; one dog’s barking would fade out back to the east behind you to be replaced by another off ahead of you to the southeast. We eventually flowed downhill through some switchbacks to the first creek-crossing right at 3.5 miles. That crossing was a non-event that almost turned into a big event as my last big leap nearly resulted into a slip into a deeper pool; risk was rewarded as I adjusted in mid-slip and landed awkwardly on the trail on the far side. I was still smugly relieved with myself for making it across without wet feet as I cruised through Aid Station 1.<br />
<br />
The race really started climbing shortly out of Aid Station 1 and followed firebreak road right through and eventually beyond Petites Gap at around the 10 mile point in the route. It was nice traveling on the dirt road and the runners started separating themselves even more as the ongoing incline steepened, leveled off and steeped again for the first couple miles of the section. After a while, I spent time moving with my headlamp off. The dirt road surface was in excellent shape and it was a clear night. Running without the headlamp actually lent a wider perspective to the event; the sky was completely clear overhead and it was interesting to watch the runner’s headlamps 100 yards ahead shape the road to those lamps’ minimum distance as the road disappeared in front of those beams as well. With my light off it was also easy to see runners’ headlamps way up ahead of us climbing the firebreak as it swooped its way along the shoulder of the ridgeline; headlamps always climbing upwards in little single-file groups of two, three, or four. <br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhp1s70RZiofSIiEqk61P7WugYpSoq_A8uTjlCpGoRjptBLcgNM_FFv92C1xwX6yyrrysShyphenhyphenRIBIqodUn8z-4Ct0h0a1RbsiXJlAJ-xul9eCwZfJg9mvXNzz1xGJ8LYQ4nGzxgPchUrOxiE/s1600/Climb+to+Petite+Gap+%25282%2529.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" n4="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhp1s70RZiofSIiEqk61P7WugYpSoq_A8uTjlCpGoRjptBLcgNM_FFv92C1xwX6yyrrysShyphenhyphenRIBIqodUn8z-4Ct0h0a1RbsiXJlAJ-xul9eCwZfJg9mvXNzz1xGJ8LYQ4nGzxgPchUrOxiE/s320/Climb+to+Petite+Gap+%25282%2529.JPG" width="320" /></a></div> On the climb to AS 2 at Petite's Gap <br />
<br />
Somewhere just past mile 6 or 7, the road really started climbing in earnest to the point where running became more limited for me than power-hiking as hard as I could up the road. The road had doubled back in a tight U-turn and then in a hard climb up to the left. Now, I could see headlamps well above and well below me as well. This made me think of the scene from Butch Cassiday and the Sundance Kid where they’re being pursued through the wilderness at night by a posse with a lantern and Butch keeps asking “Who are those guys?” The headlamps cresting the ridge well ahead made me wonder how anyone could move that far that fast over that kind of dark terrain; the lights coming up behind kept seemed like they were gaining (and they were in a lot of cases) and I wondered who belonged to those lights. I do know Kerry Owens cruised past me at some point on the way to Station 2. She has the same type of running motion that I observed for a while running in a group with Monica Scholz at an event early last summer; very economical and fluid. She seemed like she was hardly exerting effort or even really moving but I couldn’t keep up with her or catch up to her again. <br />
<br />
The Petites Gap aid station was situated on the uphill slope on a turn and I could hear it before I even started seeing the lights. AS 2 was manned by several stalwart Liberty University students as all the aid stations were. My Forerunner 305 told me I had covered over 10 miles although most published course depictions say AS 2 is between 9 and 9.5 miles into the race. I was happy with the realization that my Garmin was telling me I was already making up some of the difference in the Horton miles on the course. It was around 0140 in the morning. After burning my tongue on some excellent chicken soup, I grabbed a slice of peanut butter and jelly and headed out. I was pretty cold leaving AS 2 as I crossed over the Blue Ridge Parkway and entered a significant section of single track trail. The steep, 1200 foot climb into Petite had forced me to walk large sections of the route, exposed to some chilly breeze. While I was the right uniform to run in 25 degree temperatures, I was in the wrong clothes to hike on an open dirt road, albeit hiking as fast as I could. I would continue to fight with this winter reality for the duration of the race. <br />
<br />
I started warming up again at an easy lope on the single track. The trail was tricky; there was an inch or two of snow on top of a thick bed of leaves covering up all the little trail hazards. I moved carefully through this section but as fast as I could. The trail flowed into a wider, more open, grassy trail that was almost a road after some switchbacks and descents. I lost track of time and space for a while as I forced myself to quit looking at my Garmin and thinking so hard about the distances between aid stations. It was dark. Eventually the grassy road spilled back out onto a hardened dirt rood and I followed that uphill for a little over 2.5 miles, maybe closer to 3, into AS 3 at Camping Gap. I knew that I was moving slowly; it was already after 0320 when I hit the aid station. I don’t do my best trail work from 0300-0600 either, but I was feeling pretty good as I drank a couple cups of coke, ate some peanut butter and jelly and reflected on the odd fact that the only time I ever eat PB&J is during ultras. I headed out for AS 4, the longest section of the course between stations.<br />
<br />
I struggled through a large segment of the route on the way to Headforemost. The lack of sleep really started catching up to me around 0400AM; several runners passed me as I traversed a lot of almost-treacherous up and then downhill single track loaded with switchbacks. I picked up my pace to stay close to the last group of three that came past me, stepped on a log buried in the snow with my uphill foot, went down in the snow and immediately woke up for a while. There was a lot of very runnable downhill grassy road in this section as well between the 18 to 20 mile point according Garmin. That could not have come at a better point for me as I was pretty tired when I got to it. A curious thing happened just about 0500. I started “waking up” just about at the same time I do every day. Granted, it was without the benefit of a decent night’s sleep and I’d been moving all night, but my biological clock just started to slowly activate. I decided that was as good a time as any to fire up my Walkman, and it became a whole new race for the next twenty miles. <br />
<br />
We re-entered a short section of single trail and followed a bunch of switchbacks downhill again. This trail spilled out into a dirt road on the shoulder of a U-turn that headed uphill to the south. This was the point where Team Horton usually set up Headforemost AS 4 because I remembered calling Hellgate an event at that exact point 3 years ago. I made the turn and kept climbing among the group of three or four other runners I’d been running adjacent to for the last couple of miles. It was just after 0540 when I trotted into AS 4; my Forerunner told me I’d covered over 24 miles thus far in the race. I pulled another block of Clif-Shots out of my drop bag, but made no other adjustments other than to fill my water blivet and determined that I needed to be drinking a lot more water between stations. This was my longest aid station stop of the entire day, about 5 minutes, except for another solid 5 minutes at AS 7 later on. I had some more soup that Scott and a couple of the other Liberty students were advertising along with some more coke. I extracted some route info from one of my current racing peers; I never caught his name (as awful as that sounds) but would continue to see him throughout the rest of the day’s race. I was pleased to hear that the AS 4 to 5 section was mostly downhill, and headed on my way. <br />
<br />
<strong>Section II. Headforemost Mountain to Bear Wallow Gap</strong>. This 21 mile third of the race was my favorite part of the course. Things went very well on the downhill towards Aid Station 5. The route entered a longer section of single track immediately out of Aid Station 4, and it was mostly downhill interspersed with some short up-hills here and there, but nothing dramatically long. A great thing happened while I was on this section; the sun started coming up. Slowly, gradually, the level of ambient light slowly increased and darkness transitioned to that early morning, gray daybreak. The trail was pretty technical with heavy leaves and some snow hiding a lot of rocks, but I turned my headlamp off for good around 0630 with some interesting results. There were a couple of lights following me down through the myriad of switchbacks about a ¼ mile back and a couple ahead of me. All I could see of those entities at those distances were the lamp. I picked up the pace, because, I was feeling a pretty solid surge in energy. As it turns out, I’m pretty sure I’m solar powered. About two minutes after picking up the pace I was moving pretty rapidly downhill when I caught a branch pretty solidly with my back foot and went down pretty hard into a forward face-plant. I suffered no ill effects in what was my last and worse fall of the entire race, and laughed at myself a little, but still didn’t pull my light back out. I was moving downhill pretty well, notwithstanding the tumble, and ended up passing a couple guys before the single track flowing into a wide, double-track grassy road for the final switches and last 2 miles or so into Aid Station 5 at Jennings Creek. As I remember it, it seems like there were more females than males when I rolled into AS 5. The sun was fully aloft now and I felt great considering my Forerunner reported that I’d already moved 30 miles, but my overall pace had been pretty slow so I felt like I had a lot of energy left as I started the climb out of Jennings Creek to AS 6 on Little Cove Mountain. <br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqTvrErDFqXDeRI7MkMLFupDQ5jocJD7RtKt4l1I5Vhf6kCAkBSdbmemz2mYuXbPPey6z43VIHz-vsagT6zEKSs4RTyMeBDCCwQxRCostiNMPX-4kd29PBdMoAIcZ0Bi2uoUQUxIpHQiVr/s1600/Climbing+to+Aid+Station+6.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" n4="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqTvrErDFqXDeRI7MkMLFupDQ5jocJD7RtKt4l1I5Vhf6kCAkBSdbmemz2mYuXbPPey6z43VIHz-vsagT6zEKSs4RTyMeBDCCwQxRCostiNMPX-4kd29PBdMoAIcZ0Bi2uoUQUxIpHQiVr/s320/Climbing+to+Aid+Station+6.JPG" width="320" /></a></div> On the Climb to Aid Station 6 <br />
<br />
I caught up with Carrie Gallagher from Middletown, CT, on the climb and we chatted for a while before I resumed trotting uphill. As it turned out, a lot of the participants I met at Hellgate were from the Northeast. I had met Julian Jamison, caught a ride to the start with Ryan O’Dell, and his crew chief, Jill, from Liverpool New York. Now I had met Carrie, who lives 20 minutes from my parents. The race results show a lot of other New Englanders as well. Carrie would eventually pass me again somewhere around AS 6 and finish under 16 hours. The seven miles to Little Cove stretched through two long climbs up a long firebreak dirt road that seemed to keep winding up and to the left while it provided dramatic panoramas of the Blue Ridge behind us to the east. Several vehicles passed me coming downhill after their occupants had provided some crew support, I assumed, at AS 6. After cresting the ridge and loping slowly through some downhill, I continued to follow the road uphill for a seemingly long way before I finally rounded several more turns and loped into Little Cove aid station. Garmin said 37 miles. A couple of young ladies passed out snacks and drinks, and warned us to stock up because the next 8 miles into Bear Wallow were really long and hard. I took their advice and ate some more soup and sandwich stuff as I was already working through a stick point; several runners passed me going into or leaving Little Cove.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmUNQso-5ezhH-tC0B94oRpNQ-hdyBojrCWzYHqV-qnIyUAcoOkFL-fSlpM5LADNuaUccBcKL6ZuHuHwwpk5FlRe5H3-0yvY3837e5DmipY5kwRAhy5iFTSPWbC5U6-_I_DNZt6TmJf0b2/s1600/Northeast+from+below+Little+Cove.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" n4="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmUNQso-5ezhH-tC0B94oRpNQ-hdyBojrCWzYHqV-qnIyUAcoOkFL-fSlpM5LADNuaUccBcKL6ZuHuHwwpk5FlRe5H3-0yvY3837e5DmipY5kwRAhy5iFTSPWbC5U6-_I_DNZt6TmJf0b2/s320/Northeast+from+below+Little+Cove.JPG" width="320" /></a></div> Northeast from below Little Cove <br />
<br />
I took the opportunity while I was still spanning along the shoulder at the top of the ridgeline to call Lisa at home and report my progress and let her know I was fine. That was the length of my cell phone use during the race, and it’s hard to justify carrying it in that regard, but you just never know when you need commo. The girls in AS 7 were good to their word as was Dr. Horton’s race brief. It was a long eight miles from Little Cove to Bear Wallow. I eventually got to Aid Station 7 at Bear Wallow Gap in a pretty worn out state at approximately 1130 AM with a lot of good running behind me. There was nothing about the eight mile traverse between Cove and Bear Wallow that was particularly difficult in a singular regard; there was a lot of gradual uphill firebreak, followed by a long, long section of steep downhill switchbacks with a lot of hidden rocks and thick leaves that terminated in a creek crossing and another long climb out of that valley that eventually surrendered to the aid station entry. Really, this would have been very runnable terrain if I had driven up to Little Cove Mountain and taken my dogs for a run. <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwyV9S39GZmRgPAPFzWr5gAbIQUyO1ATWFocaMFICUwxO6wMIUZQE0PhH5QkM1wOL1PH_z7PC6IrqUm0x9MZB-FtyrY3iFsQfirpQSMFMeCiAgbsLEkDsgY_A95I4eETYmiPUWSk90BUVj/s1600/To+Bear+Wallow+Gap.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" n4="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwyV9S39GZmRgPAPFzWr5gAbIQUyO1ATWFocaMFICUwxO6wMIUZQE0PhH5QkM1wOL1PH_z7PC6IrqUm0x9MZB-FtyrY3iFsQfirpQSMFMeCiAgbsLEkDsgY_A95I4eETYmiPUWSk90BUVj/s320/To+Bear+Wallow+Gap.JPG" width="320" /></a></div> On some nice single-track trail to Bear Wallow Gap <br />
<br />
Bear Wallow was open, breezy and cold; I ate more soap and surrendered to the urge to pull my sweatpants out of my drop back and wear them for the duration of the race. I also pulled my neck-up out and my heavier polypro cap. My Garmin reported that I had already covered 45.5 miles of the event as opposed to the 42 advertised for the race. My optimistic thought was that I had already covered most of the embedded Horton miles and certainly had no more than twenty-one miles to the finish with six and a half hours to complete the event. <br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWjgOaexbrooT9wMuJu4pMVMdeQj5DbV88BkptnB_oifv9xmnOdWtm8gMGPE6lpiBg8RbE-dJm8hzJTByx1IJS5WfOSf4nN8dulvENqQ7sSayQGaduEzOr1HN3CyEuoFOxQRXEBN3fSj9v/s1600/North+above+Bear+Wallow.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" n4="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWjgOaexbrooT9wMuJu4pMVMdeQj5DbV88BkptnB_oifv9xmnOdWtm8gMGPE6lpiBg8RbE-dJm8hzJTByx1IJS5WfOSf4nN8dulvENqQ7sSayQGaduEzOr1HN3CyEuoFOxQRXEBN3fSj9v/s320/North+above+Bear+Wallow.JPG" width="320" /></a></div> Another Vista from the Trail to Bear Wallow<br />
<br />
<strong>Section III. Bear Wallow Gap to the Camp Bethel Finish Line</strong>. This was the toughest section for me, although I think it was tougher from a mental than purely physical perspective. I was definitely physically worn out, and the trail out of Bear Wallow went steadily uphill until, eventually, that beautiful single track trail followed the crest of the Blue Ridge for a few kilometers . <br />
<br />
The battery in my Garmin finally quit after 47.75 miles and over 12 hours of continuous operation. I am conflicted to have to report that losing the locational information provided by my Garmin left me almost, but not quite, as emotional distraught as Tom Hanks in “Castaway” when he lost Wilson at sea. I forged bravely ahead through my self-pity, following the two guys up ahead of me as we traversed along the high shoulder of the Blue Ridge on a wide, wide trail. I ran the down hills, and most of the flat, and walked all the uphills as hard as I could. We followed the long, sweeping contours of the ridgeline for miles as we kept moving slowly towards Bobblets Gap AS 8. I had to adjust tactics and gauge my progress against time versus satellite GPS information and that was a dramatic change. I had hoped and pushed to make AS 8 by 1330 hours but finally rolled in around 1345 after following long switchbacks down of the ridgeline, across a creek bed and then climbing for another mile. Aid Station 8 was anchored right against the Blue Ridge parkway and manned by the intrepid Liberty University students. Information signs and the guys in the station told me I had 13 miles to the finish and seven to the final aid station. <br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvYNjxhtY0uWnSbjBZuviCzPv7dQIFr7Wk_WlmPXUo_1fYgvMg6zKPmQPgd2DoRjgeY9BKrK81WIgNPDrTpmBlXdvx6YvvifNptBab6Y3lZJZBIJkygFBYO4BmO7nYah1kALaUHpRZwGH0/s1600/Trail+to+Bobblet%2527s+Gap.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" n4="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvYNjxhtY0uWnSbjBZuviCzPv7dQIFr7Wk_WlmPXUo_1fYgvMg6zKPmQPgd2DoRjgeY9BKrK81WIgNPDrTpmBlXdvx6YvvifNptBab6Y3lZJZBIJkygFBYO4BmO7nYah1kALaUHpRZwGH0/s320/Trail+to+Bobblet%2527s+Gap.JPG" width="320" /></a></div> More Single-Track; Headed for Bobblet's Gap <br />
<br />
The first two and a half to three miles out of AS 8 were good as the volunteers’ words; a long downhill traverse that followed the shoulder of the ridgeline and continually winded downhill. I ran down as much of the gravel road as I could in the largest sections I was able until more sore feet would force me to walk for a few feet. Runners were moving slowly ahead of me and I passed a couple of folks that were walking. Kimani Long and I continued to switch positions as we had been prior to Bear Wallow Gap, and would do so for the remainder of the race. I meant to ask him if he thought his poles were making a difference. They must have been or I assume he would have turned them over to his wife who was crewing him. I found out later that Kiwami was in the final stages of completing the Horton Beast series when he crossed the finish line, and that’s one impressive accomplishment as the hardest three of the events are the final three, Grindstone 100, Mountain Masochist 50 and Hellgate. <br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOTYE2dWf43D-YkxmSaBjOJPkvvZ0QYRpPVl6dYibQSxbZCQIOI9vZDQwfL9xJ-ddYPB-4cXIq_uIbAeW20mklHdUtyA63UFOdXrwL9cEYzWv9qYEabVVUkY2eNxRtCftwySTmxgM2F2qH/s1600/Firebrake+to+AS+8.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" n4="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOTYE2dWf43D-YkxmSaBjOJPkvvZ0QYRpPVl6dYibQSxbZCQIOI9vZDQwfL9xJ-ddYPB-4cXIq_uIbAeW20mklHdUtyA63UFOdXrwL9cEYzWv9qYEabVVUkY2eNxRtCftwySTmxgM2F2qH/s320/Firebrake+to+AS+8.JPG" width="320" /></a></div> Back-View of the Firebreak Towards Bobblet's Gap an Hour Back <br />
<br />
The route left the gravel road for more of that splendid single track after I ran downhill for about thirty-five minutes. I spent most of the next eighty to ninety minutes pushing along a series of short up and downhill switchbacks, constantly in trepidation that the course would shoot straight up over the ridgeline crest several hundred feet above us. That didn’t prove to be the case and around 340 PM I was trotting down a spur away from the ridge when the trail emptied onto a wide grassy trail. It flattened out and I kept moving at a trot around a couple of turns when a good-looking young kid popped around the turn running towards me; he reported I was less than half a mile from the aid station. <br />
<br />
I was drinking Sprite and eyeballing the final ridge directly up and to the west of the Day Creek Aid Station, when Christine Bone asked me if I was excited to have just one more climb left. She and Bruce Tweedie were just about to push out of the station. The young Liberty worker had just pointed out the gap atop the ridge and said three miles to there, and three miles down and you’re done. I admitted that I was going to be a lot more excited in about 45:00 when I finally crested the ridgeline; Christine laughed and she and Bruce got moving. I was relieved though. The traverse from station eight to nine had been long and I was afraid that I was fighting time and might not have enough of that asset left to make the 1800 time line. That was no longer the case. I had a 10K left, albeit it 3 miles of really heavy climbing. I grabbed some twizzlers and followed Christine and Bruce out of the station grimly determined to see if I could beat a 17 hour finish. <br />
<br />
Christine and Bruce moved away up towards Blackhorse Gap, and I steadily lost ground to them as the dirt road continued to climb and zig zag back in forth in long, curving swaths up the ridgeline. The road kept climbing and I kept going. I was moving slowly, and while I had regretted donning my sweat pants six minutes out of Bear Wallow as I sweated my way through section seven to eight and then to nine, the climb to Blackhorse Gap was long and slow and things were cooling off. By the time I crested the Blue Ridge and crossed over parkway for the final time, I had my neck-up on, my cap on tightly and my hands were in my pockets. It was 1645, and starting to turn dark.<br />
<br />
There was a guy sitting in a sedan when I crossed the asphalt and started towards the final downhill. I asked maybe the dumbest question I asked all day: “Do you need my number?” He replied “No, you seem to have it put right where I can see it” as he checked me off on his list. I kept moving while I laughed at myself. I plugged my “yurbuds” ear phones back in as I had stopped listening to my Walkman about three hours prior. It was time to start my final kick, if there is such a thing for a back-of-the-packer trying to beat a 17 hour finish at Hellgate. I pulled up my favorite running rip Robert J. Martinez had put together for me eighteen months prior and fired up some classic rock started running downhill.<br />
<br />
The final stretch from AS 9 to Camp Bethel was definitely all of 6.3 miles. My feet hurt with every stride as I had blisters on both heels from all the up and down hill of the previous seventeen hours. I kept rolling because the downhill gears were still all working. I passed three or four people as I moved at about my standard, calibrated 8:30 pace. The firebreak turned abruptly downhill and to the right on three occasions and then would follow a long gentle traverse along the ridgeline back to the west and towards Camp Bethel. After about a solid two to two and a quarter miles the firebreak spilled onto a gravel road, and then in another half mile onto the asphalt road leading downhill to the left turn into Camp Bethel. It was almost dark as I turned up the driveway and ran the quarter mile to the finish line, amazed that the last 3 miles only took me twenty-five minutes when the previous twenty miles seemed to go on forever. Dr. Horton greeted me at the Finish Line as he does with every finisher, with some very positive words I was grateful to hear. Every finisher received a really nice long sleeve shirt identifying him or her as a 2010 Hellgate 100K. I think I wore mine for a week straight except while asleep on Wednesday. <br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiimRrhNnvK6MaDoQkbrqLuGsqF0BvnXbwEGVKhHYrNPLo2rO0QgLY1KnCD1yC2TIx1qW9e_CXO4aRWydSn7OKn68SZHaPbILBBTPqHAYs_UpPv_6xWDwUpgSrkxR1PAvR5Hcm97n22aG5h/s1600/Finish+Line.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" n4="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiimRrhNnvK6MaDoQkbrqLuGsqF0BvnXbwEGVKhHYrNPLo2rO0QgLY1KnCD1yC2TIx1qW9e_CXO4aRWydSn7OKn68SZHaPbILBBTPqHAYs_UpPv_6xWDwUpgSrkxR1PAvR5Hcm97n22aG5h/s320/Finish+Line.JPG" width="320" /></a></div> Best View on the Course: Finish Line <br />
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<strong><u>EPILOGUE and LESSONS LEARNED</u></strong><br />
<br />
Hellgate is very challenging and identified several gaps in my training. As I sat in a semi-daze chatting with several finishers and their crew-mates, no less than three runners reported that they had completed the Grindstone 100 in October and thought Hellgate was harder. I don’t have a viable comparison for that until at least next October and my thought on that is 100 miles is 100 miles versus 66. But the vying point from all three was that there was a much more intense concentration of climbing and descending versus the extra 34 miles of the course at Grindstone. And that’s a viable point. There is just a lot of climbing in Hellgate right off the bat and it forces you to start thinking in terms of surviving and reaching the finish line as opposed to trying to produce a very strong personal performance that puts you at risk of completing the event. I felt that I expended at least twice the effort that I had to reasonably complete a 50 mile event three weeks prior. Maybe more than twice the effort. <br />
<br />
My lessons learned were the same ones I’ve learned the hard way at several events this year. I’m not doing enough intense hill workouts in my weekly training and I have to drink a lot more water on the course. Large sections of Hellgate are run-able, as a lot of the steeper sections are on firebreak roads. Trail running at night must be part of the training program too, with as much reverse cycle training as a runner’s schedule allows if he or she wants to run strongly in this event. I promised myself I would do a better job of running without GPS information but I also already went out and picked up a really small plug-in USB charger I’ll have in my next long event. I also figured out that if I’m going to get better at this sport, it’s time for me to start crewing better runners than me at the earliest opportunity as well as spending time volunteering in aid stations. This will give me the chance to support an event as I should be doing anyway, and give me the opportunity to check out what the elite runners do and how they function as they progress through a race. Lastly, I have doing a lot of all-around TRX as part of my PT program and that made a large, positive difference in the entire event; that needs to increase. <br />
<br />
Tim Hardy<br />
Arlington, VA<br />
19 DEC 2010Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1759082377674108813.post-14631464261086800012010-11-10T01:58:00.000-05:002010-11-10T01:58:22.746-05:00227 Minutes (Exactly) At the 2010 Marine Corps MarathonSUNDAY, OCTOBER 31 2010<br />
<br />
227 Minutes (exactly) at the Marine Corps Marathon<br />
<br />
http://www.marinemarathon.com/<br />
<br />
This is one average runner’s experience at the 35th running of the United States Marine Corps Marathon. Bottom Line Up Front, the USMC 26.2 is a “must-do” event for American marathoners for many different reasons. This incredibly well-organized event is the 4th largest in the USA in terms of overall numbers of runners and the 8th worldwide. When you couple those numbers with a route that flows through our Nation’s Capitol packed with thousands of cheering people lining the streets, supporting that endless stream of thousands of runners, this race is a tremendous spectacle that’s just a complete pleasure and honor to participate in.<br />
<br />
This was the second time I had the opportunity and good fortune to run 26.2+ miles through the Nation’s Capitol under the organizational auspices USMC. My brother, Greg, invited me to run this signature event with him in 1999. He was adamant that we should run that year’s marathon together because that was going to be the only time he ran a 26.2, and so far, Greg’s been good to his word on that.<br />
<br />
Frankly, I don’t remember a lot from the 1999 event. I recall that Greg just dropped me like a bad habit around the Nation’s Capital building somewhere on the Mall between 16 to 18 miles. That 1999 USMC marathon was my slowest marathon showing for a lot of reasons, headlined mostly a non-existent training plan. I was pretty much vanquished by the course by the time I hit the RTE 1/395 bridge over the Potomac headed back into Virginia around mile 21. <br />
<br />
I approached this 2010 version with the intent to see just how fast I could reach the finish line for a couple of reasons. My standing Personal Record for a marathon coming into Sunday has long stood at an under-whelming 3:48:30 since the Frankfurt-ETA Marathon in October 1998. At least under-whelming in terms of qualifying for Boston. I wanted to improve on that, with the intent to finally see if running a sub 3:30 would be viable this year in order to finally qualify for the Boston Marathon at some point in the next 6 to 8 months. That was my mindset after finally procuring a bib and getting into the event, and, there was bad news and good news. I was still smoked crossing the RTE 1 Bridge at 21 miles and traversing the long off-ramp into the course labyrinth through Crystal City; but I got there a lot sooner this year. <br />
<br />
TOP THREE MALES TOP THREE FEMALES <br />
<br />
Name Age Time Name Age Time<br />
<br />
JACOB BRADOSKY 23 2:23:30 JANET CHEROBAN 32 2:39:19<br />
<br />
RONALD KURUT 28 2:23:41 GINA SLABY 29 2:46:58<br />
<br />
SEAN BARRETT 25 2:24:08 TEZATA DESALGN 29 2:48:35<br />
<br />
The male division was incredibly close. Eleven seconds separated first from second place; the difference between first and third was thirty-eight seconds. Fourth and fifth places finished forty-six seconds and 3:34 behind young Mr. Bradosky respectively. <br />
<br />
VITAL RACE STATISTICS<br />
<br />
30,000 Registered runners<br />
<br />
48 Approximate temperature at start of race at 0800.<br />
<br />
55 Approximate temperature at 1200.<br />
<br />
21,972 Runners finished the event; 13,257 males, 8715 females.<br />
<br />
39.6% Of all finishers were female.<br />
<br />
81 Age of Bob Dolphin, Reston, WA; 21,972nd finisher in 8:05:02.<br />
<br />
13 Age of Lucas Salisbury, Easton, MD; youngest overall male finisher in 6:12:16.<br />
<br />
14 Age of Julia Mayer, Fairbanks, AK, 4:28:29; 1 of 2 14-year-old female finishers.<br />
<br />
14 Age of Alejandra Benavides, Springfield, VA, 5:22:51; 1 of 2 14-year-old female finishers.<br />
<br />
7 Number of female finishers aged 70-74; all finished the marathon between 6:11 to 6:50.<br />
<br />
73 Age of Diana Wallach, West Hills, CA; oldest female finisher in 6:32:29.<br />
<br />
15 Number of male finishers between the ages of 75-84; from 4:12:11 (Jim Keck, 75, Burlington, NC) to 8:05:02.<br />
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4:12:11 I’ve never met Jim Keck, but that has to be one of the most remarkable stories in this event if he ran 26.2 in 4:12 at the age of 75.<br />
<br />
84 Age of Domenick Irrera, Jacksonville, NC; oldest male finisher in 6:54:10.<br />
<br />
152 Total number of male finishers between the ages of 14-19; 2:35:02 to 6:44:39.<br />
<br />
80 Total number of female finishers between the ages of 14-19; 3:16:27 to 6:50:08.<br />
<br />
4 “Groundpounders;” 4 males that have completed all 35 Marine Corps Marathons.<br />
<br />
http://www.marinemarathon.com/mcm_community/History/ground_pounders.htm<br />
<br />
140 Total number of Marine Marathons run by the 4 “Groundpounders.”<br />
<br />
50 Number of States with runner representation.<br />
<br />
40 Number of Countries with runner representation.<br />
<br />
4:44:49 Average finish time for all 21,973 runners.<br />
<br />
4:36:22 Average finish time for all 13,257 males.<br />
<br />
4:57:29 Average finish time for all 8715 females.<br />
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VITAL PERSONAL STATICS (AUTHOR)<br />
<br />
12 The Marine Corps Marathon was my 12th marathon or ultra-marathon event in 2010 since FEB.<br />
<br />
30 Total number of marathon or ultra-marathon events completed by author.<br />
<br />
1153 Number of consecutive streak days run since 12 DEC 2007 through 31 OCT 2010.<br />
<br />
3 Marathon or ultra events in OCT 2010; 5th since Labor day.<br />
<br />
3:47 Marine Corps Marathon time (to the exact second).<br />
<br />
2 This marathon is only the 2nd of 30 events I’ve run where I finished to the exact minute; ironically, the previous was the Marine Marathon at Camp Lejeune 2000: 4:00 hours exactly.<br />
<br />
2776 My overall finish place of the 21,972 finishers (12.6%).<br />
<br />
2257 My overall place among all males<br />
<br />
519 Females finished ahead of me.<br />
<br />
259 My finishing place of 1646 total males in 45-49 age group;<br />
<br />
39 Number of age-group females that finished ahead of me<br />
<br />
299 My finish by age group<br />
<br />
0 Blisters<br />
<br />
1 Toenails lost<br />
<br />
3 Total number of Port-o-Let pit-stops during the race at a cost of almost 5 minutes.<br />
<br />
3 On foot mileage from my apartment through the logistics pit and to the start<br />
<br />
26.79 The mileage on my Forerunner 305 when I crossed the finish line.<br />
<br />
Overall Logistics. The logistics for this for this race were terrific from an individual and an event perspective. Living during the work week about 2 miles west on the Pentagon enabled me (for the first time in 30 events) to get up at a normal time, get ready at home without any sacrifice of sleep the night prior or that morning for travel. This alone made for an exceptional event without even including the viable considerations in hygiene, latrine, eating and pre-race preparation normally conducted on site.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTHDCX6fTr_9yKNxBFZRrQtk8vm_7Sv8CGB6K034IbNUTMpYWDfTluOYjnA5z0_v3_52iJxE4DPWuzcH1BJbtoKAfeQafl6iCfDTDqBBNjL-CSgWvJOKMUxzCttI4169PPHVcmtn55n2B7/s1600/1NOV+2010+031.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" px="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTHDCX6fTr_9yKNxBFZRrQtk8vm_7Sv8CGB6K034IbNUTMpYWDfTluOYjnA5z0_v3_52iJxE4DPWuzcH1BJbtoKAfeQafl6iCfDTDqBBNjL-CSgWvJOKMUxzCttI4169PPHVcmtn55n2B7/s320/1NOV+2010+031.JPG" width="320" /></a></div> Daybreak on foot; headed down to the race from Henderson Hall<br />
<br />
It was just getting light as I trotted the 3 miles to the MM start line from home. The shot above is from Henderson Hall just above the Navy Annex rolling downhill towards the Pentagon. The weather was very encouraging race morning; chilly temperatures and a clear sky. The best aspect to this route was that it was mostly downhill to the starting line. My gear was light; shorts, short-sleeve shirt, New Balance 993s and Injinji socks (NFI), my walkman, sunglasses, my Garmin 305, 4 S-caps, 4 Ibuprofen and 6 Cliff shots tucked into the hip pocket of my Ouachita 50(K) I was wearing. My intent was to travel as lightly and quickly as possible and survive aid station to aid station as necessary. I had a long sleeved shirt, my cell phone, camera and a couple of finisher cigars in my empty NH 2.0 backpack that I dropped in my assigned UPS truck to pick up at the finish line.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1S_mVOYU64PRnMxrmWc7rWakX7jFQWRdAR0PXaooLW310giNwi8ChUFYY15uJqf0lFz8cXLWvvVqWsSxDD679oJdB5GQQ2CSr46wRcqH754lym7RS37Ufq5oKALe3za0y4YKk3TfZXhlg/s1600/1NOV+2010+033.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" px="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1S_mVOYU64PRnMxrmWc7rWakX7jFQWRdAR0PXaooLW310giNwi8ChUFYY15uJqf0lFz8cXLWvvVqWsSxDD679oJdB5GQQ2CSr46wRcqH754lym7RS37Ufq5oKALe3za0y4YKk3TfZXhlg/s320/1NOV+2010+033.JPG" width="320" /></a></div> The Logistics Pit in the Pentagon North Parking Lot<br />
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The Logistics Pit in the north Pentagon parking lot at about 25:00 prior to the start of the race, with the starting line half a mile to the north. It’s hard to see in this picture but about 20,000 runners are in the parking lot along with the 30 UPS vans laid on to transport bags to the finish festival. There were also what had to by 100 port-o-lets with significant lines at each. The course held seven water points but you ran past #7 entering and leaving Crystal City at miles 22 and 24. There were also 2 “food-only” points located on the course. Every aid station was literally packed with race supporters, civilians and replete with Marines in digital desert camouflage uniforms. Every aid station was set up in the same format. The Marines had tall “Water Station” signs in large red block lettering you could see from a significant distance as you approached. Almost every aid station was approximately 100 yards long with tables lining both sides of the road; Gatorade tables always took up the front half of the station with water on the back half; Gatorade was served in block cups with water in white. It only took me about 3 aid stations to figure that out; “run all the way past the Gatorade, get your water.” Runners never had to reach, strain, or wait for a drink; you could almost catch your fluid of choice. There were eight individual first aid stations on the course too, according to the map. I didn’t really notice these.<br />
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The Race Itself. The race went very well for me all in all. Early on in September and even into October, I was waffling between running this event and a 1st time running of a single-track trail 50K in western Maryland. Ultimately, I obviously opted for the USMC 26.2, in large part because I wanted to experience the entire spectacle of a large marathon the winds through some of the more hallowed and modern symbols of man-made architecture in western civilization. It had been 10 years since I ran in a large race and the 2010 MM 26.2 didn’t disappoint in that regard. We heard the speaker announcement around 0730 that everyone needed to start moving towards the starting line, and 25,000 to 30,000 people started moving from the north parking lot up the road to their respective time corrals. I was midway to the starting point when the National Anthem kicked in.<br />
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I usually start every race completely to the rear of the formation but I squeezed my way forward until I was located in the 3:40-4:00 pace group. It was chilly enough to see your breath. A young lady and I discussed the upcoming JFK 50 as we passed the waning ten minutes prior to the start. All of us consistently crept forward and packed the massive group of runners in closer to the starting line arches, perhaps motivated by the Race Announcer’s booming epithets over the loudspeaker: “15:00 until you start the Marine Corps Marathon and change your life forever.” “Every runner here embodies the Spirit and Honor of the United States Marine Corps.” I thought a couple of the pronouncements were a little melodramatic, but the Announcer was caught up in the event; we all were. Fortunately, I checked my Forerunner 305 and saw that it was still on from when I left my apartment and was at exactly 3:00 miles since setting out. I would have been pretty disappointed had I not re-set that prior to race launch.<br />
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The starting howitzer fired and we all moved forward at a lurch. It took over two minutes to cross the starting line and that was about the point where I was able to ease into a slow trot. It reminded me of how cars all compress and slow down to a crawl on the highway until they pass the State Trooper issuing the ticket. I felt pretty good right from the start; light on my feet, rested, and confident I could run the distance without stop. But how fast? We’d see… I just tried to flow along with the thick crowd ambling north through Arlington-Rosselyn. The route actually passes below the Iwo Jima Memorial in the first mile; I eyeballed that, looking forward to the finish line I hoped to cross within 3:45 to 4:00. I was also apparently well hydrated as I had to step over the guardrail and visit the deeper piece of the wood-line before we entered the downtown section. As it turns out, there were plenty of port-o-lets along the route, but I didn’t know that at that early point. Neither did the guy who just stepped over the railing and urinated into the bushes with about 17,000 runners passing along behind him as close as six feet away.<br />
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Spectators lined the route the entire way starting right in Rosselyn and that was encouraging as the route mostly climbs, albeit it gently, for the first three miles or so. This was the most crowded piece of the route, as the first few miles are in any long distance event I’ve run in. There was almost always room to slide around runners headed up the first long hill going west through Rosselyn. I maintained about a 9:00 pace, just warming up through the first three miles until the course turned east and started heading downhill towards the Key Bridge Potomac crossing. The early hills had thinned the crowd out a little and I just let my pace go at that point with the intent to run every downhill as fast as I could, without breaking or slowing, but still running steadily without gasping for breath. There was a long, long stretch of significant downhill that flowed right to the Key Bridge, up and over, and then downhill again all the way to mile 7.5 or so.<br />
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That’s pretty much how the first sixteen to twenty miles went for me; I ran hard downhill, somewhere between a 6:45 to7:00 pace, leveled off around 7:30 to 7:45 on the flats, and worked hard to stay sub 8:30 when we hit hills. I knew I was running hard as opposed to a more comfortable stride when I developed a deep side stitch around mile 6. I ran through that in northern Georgetown for a couple of miles including the up the second and, last, really significant hill on the course at mile 7.5. That’s one of the reasons a large percentage of Boston Qualifiers come out of the Marine Marathon; the hills are gone early. I just sucked it up and ran through the stitch. When I finally fired up my Walkman at around Mile 5, it was a whole new race for a while, as it is every time I start my Walkman at some point into an event.<br />
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The route runs north on RTE 29 once over and away to the north from the Key Bridge. The outbound piece of the course splits to the left at the 5 mile point and stays on the Potomac and loops back around the reservoir, runs up hill to the northeast, and then flows down MacArthur Boulevard back into Georgetown leaving most of the uphill behind you on the course. MacArthur flows back into RTE 29 where you originally split off at Mile 5 after adding another 3 miles. I was just hitting the 5 mile split to the left when the two race leaders came flowing down MacArthur and merged now running south on RTE 29 at a dead run; they were running hip to hip with thousands of runners cheering them as we headed out around the reservoir. The 3rd place runner was striding smoothly about 75 yards behind 1 & 2. It was really something to witness.<br />
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When I finally re-entered RTE 29 at Mile 8 with the still-outbound runners, I really got a sense of the amount runners in the race as thousands were still flowing towards the reservoir loop. There were still hundreds of runners coming across the Key Bridge when I passed that headed south about a half mile later.<br />
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To Infinity and Beyond. As discussed, Washington D.C. is certainly an entertaining venue to run through, as was the cast of characters in the race. With a race date of 31 October, we were assured of sharing the course with a full spectrum of costumed runners. I passed SuperGirl somewhere around mile 4. She was young, maybe nineteen, and had a great stride and I think stayed somewhere close behind me throughout the course. I say this because her SuperMom kept landing ahead of me at strategic points on the course to view her daughter. My final sighting of SuperMom was crossing the RTE 1 bridge back into Crystal City.<br />
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I passed Buzz Lightyear around mile 4. At about 5’10”, he was taller than I imagined. Woody was nowhere in sight. As every distance event inevitably stretches out by race pace, you tend to consistently notice the same runners maintaining the same pace you are. I kept passing a guy that I think was dressed as William Wallace; He was about 5”8”, ripped and very wide. I say this because he was wearing only a plaid green and black kilt, dark running shoes and what I think was a dark red and brown shoulder-length wig. He had a dark complexion and was a little shorter than me but looked twice as wide. We kept trading positions but I don’t remember seeing him once I turned toward the National Mall. I think I saw Elvis viewing the race at three different locations on the course, but one of those was in Chrystal City, so they may have been the original one from Memphis at that point.<br />
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There was another dude, about 5’6”, with a bright yellow shirt, a ball cap, blue shorts, and yellow running shoes cruising on a giant set of legs. Lisa says I have big legs but this dude’s were bigger than mine and imminently noticeable because they were incredibly ripped, shaved clean and quite a shade of bright white. I also kept roughly the same pace at least through 18 miles with a younger African-American woman who maintained an elegant, graceful stride that looked singularly effortless. She just kept eating up pavement while she seemed to run with a fluidity I was envious of. It seemed like every time I came through after a water station after mile 14 or 15, she was up ahead of me.<br />
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My Forerunner 305 gained about ¼ of mile ahead of the mile markers at one point early in the first third of the course and another ¼ somewhere around the halfway point, but maintained that through the finish line. Garmin told me I ran 26.79 miles when I reached the Iwo Jima Memorial. However, I really wasn’t checking my distance on the course to any immediate extent, and was avoiding that to the best of my ability. If I found myself thinking about a finish time or checking my GPS, I immediately shifted out of that mode by consciously picking up my pace and tightening and cleaning up my stride at the same time. It think it was due to those efforts that I experienced that rare but very satisfactory racing experience where I was reaching mile markers sooner than I thought I was. For example, I was thinking that I was closing in on 13.1 miles when I hit 14. The mile markers just kept coming up a little ahead of schedule all the way to mile 20, and didn’t even seem too far apart when I struggled through Crystal City later on.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDu7LNKgFMzQAiSxMAyjv1sT-z4gE16DU3x6195HI9ZrHOpwJ3Ba3ESgq08WZPagCbokjTW-BjEYZ8rgkTYdBvwzW0dq8n2hMaIYOsNwRJY_Id1Tyl41nDmVRE1cZqtZHAi1hVLoq9k4bw/s1600/1NOV+2010+032.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" px="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDu7LNKgFMzQAiSxMAyjv1sT-z4gE16DU3x6195HI9ZrHOpwJ3Ba3ESgq08WZPagCbokjTW-BjEYZ8rgkTYdBvwzW0dq8n2hMaIYOsNwRJY_Id1Tyl41nDmVRE1cZqtZHAi1hVLoq9k4bw/s320/1NOV+2010+032.JPG" width="320" /></a></div> The Washington Monument from somewhere adjacent to the starting line<br />
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I honestly don’t think you can consider yourself an American patriot and not experience a little shiver or some goose-bumps the first time you lay eyes on either the Washington Monument or Lincoln Memorial. The MM 26.2 route runs past most of the major sites in Washington DC as it wends its way around the National Mall. The supporting crowd was enormous all over the course; I gave every kid that stuck his or her hand out a low five at every opportunity like some famous runner. I must have received about 100 across the entire course. The kids really seemed to get a charge out of it, or maybe they were bored. I got a kick out of it.<br />
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The crowds and accompanying street musicians were so loud in Georgetown, at mile 19 on the Mall and again in Chrystal City, that they literally drowned out my walkman. In all three instances it seemed like I entered an overwhelming wall of sound that just took up all the space around us and then after running for 100 yards, the sound would start to fade and I’d hear my walkman again. That was no mean feat either, as I had my YurBuds in. Yurbuds (www.YurBuds.com) are tight little rubber extensions you attach to your headphones. They were ridiculously overpriced for two little pieces of rubber, or seemed to be at the Expo on Friday, but these things almost completely lock your earphones into place and the music seems almost wired to your brain. Mine didn’t shift once for the entire 20 miles of the race after I fired up my Walkman around mile 5. Yurbuds are now my favorite piece of non-critical but essential gear.<br />
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It’s always quite an experience running the National Mall. You’ve got the Washington Monument in the strategic center, with the White House to the north, Congress to the east, the Lincoln Memorial to the west, and the Jefferson Memorial to the south. After the course hugs the Potomac running all the way to the southern point of Potomac Park, we ran back through miles 14, 15, and 16, and looped around the Lincoln Memorial for a clockwise lap around the Mall. I completely enjoyed that lap last Sunday. I also marveled that I had no recollection of almost any of this from the 1999 race, except for the point where my brother Greg faded into the distance ahead of me. I wondered if that was a normal while enjoying the sites. I hit Mile 19 after clearing Congress and entering the south side of the Mall; that was at the 2:50 minute point and I recall that I passed a guy running completely barefoot as I crossed over mile 19. Barefoot, all asphalt. Pretty tough.<br />
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The demon of despair lurked ahead in Crystal City. My legs were feeling pretty heavy by mile 20 as we exited the Mall; I’d only hit one water station to that point and could tell that I was going to be regretting that course of action shortly as I could feel an odd, tightening twinge in my left hamstring. I started hitting water stations. I’d run further with little to no water before but not at an 8:00-8:30 pace. I was happy to see the Jefferson Memorial on the right, but had a sense of dread approaching that damned RTE 1 bridge. I’d run over that several times this fall and actually remembered it from 1999. There was little difference this time; I trudged up over the bridge at about a 9:45-10:00 pace and had to walk for a several yards above the off-ramp into Chrystal City as my left hamstring cramped and involuntarily vibrated.<br />
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Chrystal City encompasses very little of the Marathon course in retrospect; miles 21.5 to 24 but seemed a little more significant than that on Halloween. Runners hit a water station entering and exiting this little maze. I almost always hit “the wall” at any event around Mile 22 and today was no exception. Both left and right quads and hamstrings were cramped and flexing as they saw fit while I followed a serious of left turns to the 23 mile point where the course looped clockwise around the square and headed for the Pentagon and home. I kept working and pushing through that hamstring that seemed cased in lead Chrystal; it really felt like it was improving as I came around the square but that was short lived. I don’t actually think you could see my swollen left hamstring on satellite imagery as I spilled off the square towards the left curb, but I really think the helicopters overhead could see it. I had to stop and stretch for about 30 seconds while it seemed that about 10,000 runners blew by me. I walked a ways and then trotted into the water station down the road at mile 24. I think I accepted a cup of water from all 26 Marines passing out white cups as I drank my way through the water point.<br />
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I kept trotting at a 10:00 pace out around the Pentagon parking lot and tried to loosen up a bit as we ran slightly downward on the western side of that big star. I finally started to feel recovered as we looped around down into the Pentagon parking lot, hit mile 25, routed under the overpass, and headed for the finish line. I actually cruised to an 8:00 minute pace for most of the last mile and was pleased with that little fact. <br />
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The crowds started to telescope the long stream of runners into a single or double file. Looking at runners seeming to disappear ahead of me into the crowds of milling spectators lining both sides of the road and out onto the course, I had an embarrassingly fleeting, foolish hope that maybe the finish line was no longer at the on the hilltop with the Iwo Jima Memorial but now down on the road…..and then we hung the left through crowds of people and headed up the short steep hill, turned right, ran past the giant statue, and crossed the finish line 125 yards further up past the right side of the Memorial. I picked up the pace and threaded my way through some runners and felt like I was really flying, but watching finish-line film on the website later didn’t really show me flying so much as still trotting. Perception… My Garmin and my watch said 3:49:25ish<br />
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Several race photographers were available to shoot your picture with your medal in front of the 32-foot Iwo Jima Memorial. A Marine handed me a food packet with a bagel, fruit, lots of stuff; I carried that and my space blanket through the throngs down the hill towards Rosselyn center. Slowly.<br />
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Everything was still highly organized; there were lots of vendor tents. I was able to hit a results booth where a nice young lady looked up my results online, ten minutes after the fact. She informed me that my actual time on the course was 3:47 exactly. I had forgotten about the chip, the start line the 2+ minutes to get to the start; I was generally worn out and I felt great at the same time. Purged. I had a new PR but couldn’t officially tie my name to it. Progress comes in ironically strange spurts sometimes. <br />
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I found all the UPS trucks were lined up in order. I was in luck; my bag was in truck 5 and that was the closer end of the line of trucks. As I limped toward the Michelob corral where I hoped to link up with two members of my section that also ran the event and were, as yet, unseen, I was able to hit a video booth and record a :30 tape for my family. I thought that was just another neat feature of the hundreds of neat features tied to this race. I never did link up with LTC Kelley (he had crossed the finish line 5 minutes ahead of me after apparently passing me in Chrystal City), or Major Kent who finished just about exactly when I did.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWq8vaieBbMJcSwT173oQ_TgI79WisqLiI1mdiS7ldAZ8tphvNg5-33qqf_0rVUZFUw5zKgUL9Wt7I9ny41b6l0duRSaJOZsg4pSYAYxP-XBC9cGtXfCZ76DEc2d4i6nyONmAJlFBcUc8t/s1600/1NOV+2010+035.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" px="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWq8vaieBbMJcSwT173oQ_TgI79WisqLiI1mdiS7ldAZ8tphvNg5-33qqf_0rVUZFUw5zKgUL9Wt7I9ny41b6l0duRSaJOZsg4pSYAYxP-XBC9cGtXfCZ76DEc2d4i6nyONmAJlFBcUc8t/s320/1NOV+2010+035.JPG" width="320" /></a></div> The view from the Michelob Corral; the Finish line is 1/2 a mile up that hill<br />
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I donned my Marine Marathon shirt from my pre-positioned bag, and enjoyed the sites from the beer corral for about an hour. That included what turned out to be the best costume of the day, an incredibly real-looking version of the St. Pauli Girl serving Michelob Ultra, all the while chatting with a dentist from Syracuse, New York. I cooled off and tightened up at the same time and reflected on how lucky I was to be able to enjoy a race like the Marine Corps Marathon again. Just a great event. I dog-trotted the 3 miles home from there.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAChcNQmq2awyjKjpDmibpEIMEVtGLH57EipSPdW3v3omPkM49BJRfNNHO-1-HtUmaUEGdKghFjiVAXCWz7k62d46_YYMGNxxG-Z5J7Imqv37D_-r4faM4tlBDIIoruXkHzpXpRErRskAS/s1600/1NOV+2010+036.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" px="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAChcNQmq2awyjKjpDmibpEIMEVtGLH57EipSPdW3v3omPkM49BJRfNNHO-1-HtUmaUEGdKghFjiVAXCWz7k62d46_YYMGNxxG-Z5J7Imqv37D_-r4faM4tlBDIIoruXkHzpXpRErRskAS/s320/1NOV+2010+036.JPG" width="320" /></a></div> The Marine Marathon is exceptional to include their Finisher Medals and Shirts<br />
10 NOV 2010Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1759082377674108813.post-7324321042197824622010-05-04T00:38:00.001-04:002010-05-04T00:54:39.478-04:00412 Minutes at the Strolling Jim 40 Mile Run6:52:10 at the Strolling Jim 40 Mile Run <br />
1 May 2010 Wartrace, TN <br />
http://www.tynesweb.com/sj40/<br />
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This is one average runner’s experience at the 32d annual Strolling Jim 40 mile race. I highly recommend Strolling Jim for anyone who is even remotely thinking about running in this event at their earliest opportunity for a lot of different reasons. I found out in early January this year that I had to attend an Army course on Fort Gordon, GA from March to June. Based on research and race reports from the previous two years, I knew that if I only ran in one event, I wanted to run the Strolling Jim, and the event was better than I hoped it would be and hopefully that’s conveyed in this report.<br />
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I have had a significant amount of time to race since my arrival to the northeast Georgia in mid-March, mostly due to the fact that I’m here and my family is home in New York while I attend school. Strolling Jim is the third ultra-marathon I’ve run since 4 April and the fourth overall since February, counting coming up short at the Arrowhead 135. <br />
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After a pretty busy running calendar in April to include the Ouachita 50K on the 17th, I assessed some lessons learned and started war-gaming my plan of action for the Strolling Jim course. I usually don’t over-think a course or a race. My standard plan, or non-plan, is to hit the course, set a solid pace, or at least a solid pace for the mid-to-back-of-the-pack runner that I am, and hold that for as long as I can. But, I also knew from reading about Strolling Jim the previous two years that “The Jim” had finisher categories that most other races do not have, including specific t-shirts for runners finishing in less than 5, 6 and 7-hour timelines. Realistically, given most of my finish times in every other event I’ve run, I had no reason to be optimistic about finishing under 7 hours, but I felt that I made some good progress at SweetH20 and at Ouachita, so I set a personal, albeit it humble goal, to give myself a chance to break the 7 hour standard. Several of the key factors at Strolling Jim worked in my favor and I made it in over the line in 6:52:10. <br />
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One of the key factors for me for a faster time at Strolling Jim is that the entire race is run on asphalt country roads. This was only the 3rd event of the last 15 I’ve run in that’s been completely on asphalt. That really made for a big difference in my time. I completed the 2 trail 50ks in April at an average time 423 minutes for 31 miles. While I really enjoy running trails, I’m obviously a lot slower on trails. I plan on looking for road events in the future.<br />
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Strolling Jim is one of the oldest and most well-established ultra marathons in the country, and so extremely well-organized that it is hard to believe that this was the first year Mike Melton directed the race. Runners received a detailed information packet, a t-shirt and a finisher’s medal. Racers received 5 or 6 email-based updates prior to the race; it was almost like being an new observer at a Homecoming of sorts as everyone seemed to know each other. This was all validated by the fact that there were runners in the race for the 20th to 24th or 25th time, as well as a lot of long standing members of the ultra community. Very humbling and motivating as well. <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwroEdpYXrIzpaCqy_wvQDm6Yss0_OvwBdlW36JqCgVB20zBQ4HUCOQtA75YakPbzWc55mGkEVcKJX2zn4O2WyIywh9vHHFvqtf6k_-YA24f0Wuc6B05LShGTCE4PVKtXKQWWrQ3SaTh2p/s1600/RDMikeMelton.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwroEdpYXrIzpaCqy_wvQDm6Yss0_OvwBdlW36JqCgVB20zBQ4HUCOQtA75YakPbzWc55mGkEVcKJX2zn4O2WyIywh9vHHFvqtf6k_-YA24f0Wuc6B05LShGTCE4PVKtXKQWWrQ3SaTh2p/s320/RDMikeMelton.JPG" tt="true" /></a></div> RD Mike Melton Briefs the Strolling Jim racers<br />
Wartrace, and the Bedford county area of Tennessee is just a beautiful setting for a race; rolling hill after rolling hill. So, while you have to climb some pretty large hills, there are also a lot of smooth down-hill and down grade sections of the course runners can really make some time on. I arrived to Wartrace late in the afternoon Friday with enough time to pull out the course map and thoroughly recon the whole course. That made a huge difference for me on Saturday as I knew where I was on the course the entire time and had a good idea of what was immediately in front of me. I also knew that the last 5 to 6 miles were mostly flat. This was the only time I’ve ever been able to recon a course prior to running it, and that really paid off. The road format also lends itself to completely accessible crew-support for any racers employing a crew. I ran constantly among a set of 3 or 4 crews that continued to bound forward in support of their runners. I have never had a crew in any event and Strolling Jim had about 4 aid stations and probably 10 individual water stops. I do not know the exact amount, but there were so many water points with 15-20 gallons of water in place, I assumed risk a couple of times completely confident that I could run through the current water drop and reach the next. <br />
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Race Results: These are not officially posted to the SJ website as of yet but has made the Ultralist. <br />
Men top three: Valmir Nunes, age 46 of Santos, Brazil finished first in 4:44. (That’s a 7:00 per mile pace). Owen Bradley, 30, of Birmingham, AL, finished 2nd in 5:08:57 and Dwayne Satterfield, 45, of Huntsville, AL, finished 3rd in 5:22:01. Dink Taylor, 46, Hampton Cove, AL, finished first in the Masters Male category in 6:09:35.<br />
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Women top three: Kathy Youngren, 35, Huntsville, AL, finished 1st in 6:09:34. Carissa Skrivanek, 26, Augusta, GA, 2nd at 6:40:49 and Cyndi Graves, 46, Plano, TX, finished 3rd female overall, and first Masters Female in 6:42;23.<br />
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109 Starters; 100 finishers; 77 males; 23 females; I ended up 35th overall, and 21st overall over the age of 40th.<br />
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The course read out at 40.5 total miles on my Garmin 305 Forerunner.<br />
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16 different states were represented including California, New Mexico, Colorado and New York. Ontario and Brazil comprised the international runners. <br />
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I knew that to break 7:00 hours on the course, I had to average a 10:00-minute mile pace or better. I had yet to do that in any ultra event but started the race with that overall intent. Basically, I wanted to reach the 20 mile mark in 3:00 and the half-way point in 3:10 in order to at least allow myself a shot a sub-7 finish. I knew from my RECON that Mr. Cantrell had the course well marked at every 5 mile stage, the half and full marathon points and had helpful, motivational messages all over the course as well. <br />
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We started promptly at 0700 and the course flowed southeast out of Wartrace over a long, unending series of mostly run-able rolling hills to mile 8.75 at a little hamlet named Normandy. The course turned abruptly west and encountered the first very steep hill I was forced to walk on that finally ended around 9.75 miles. The reward for Hill #1, that topped out around 1100 feet, was a terrific mostly downhill stretch that flowed all the way to the half-marathon point, and brought runners and crews across Highway 41 and into the section of the course that became both the “out” and “back” section of the course<br />
<br />
I met Gary Cantrell, (and a lot of other ultra runners for the first time at this event), and Mr. Cantrell told me that he lives in the Bedford County area because it’s a beautiful place to run. The entire course validated that; terrific, quiet countryside; for every hill we lost time climbing, the reward was heading down the backside of the hill. I was very pleased when I reached the 20 mile mark, almost exactly at the top of the hill of Bottle Hollow road. That turned out to be the second point I had to walk on the S.J. course, but certainly not the last. I was very pleased to reach 20 miles in 3:03 and the 21.5 mile point at 3:12. I knew at that point with 20 miles left and 3:45 minutes to clear 7:00s, I had a real chance at a red shirt and pushed accordingly. <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5NNtiL9WSNYiUi4_KaSNeyLKptdEHkVZikrnNegxH6aLPxlI1_Z8FIU2Hb9xGkqp3XhIsHAgyy6f7zpDckWf_xRfm9ZxJ3hS6OvLtiRTIKTsQkR3P1B3VwYdBjL8z1NRNnmvwBAnHwMUk/s1600/UpHill%232to20miles.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5NNtiL9WSNYiUi4_KaSNeyLKptdEHkVZikrnNegxH6aLPxlI1_Z8FIU2Hb9xGkqp3XhIsHAgyy6f7zpDckWf_xRfm9ZxJ3hS6OvLtiRTIKTsQkR3P1B3VwYdBjL8z1NRNnmvwBAnHwMUk/s320/UpHill%232to20miles.JPG" tt="true" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Up "Hill #2;" 20 miles at the top</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">(This hill runs steeper than it looks)</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIMYs3vggIKKXbiVUJezE0jqMNyVQsI5C16ZDV6oKrh0ZtEJtIMnj4p3rWOt9AbpGiFYF1giCj4iqwZ2EZDMrtc1n2Dks4hT04tTb4FEEhI0WNJpA84m6g4UCwHBhnI5PEzdBxiBj-rAxM/s1600/Climbing.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIMYs3vggIKKXbiVUJezE0jqMNyVQsI5C16ZDV6oKrh0ZtEJtIMnj4p3rWOt9AbpGiFYF1giCj4iqwZ2EZDMrtc1n2Dks4hT04tTb4FEEhI0WNJpA84m6g4UCwHBhnI5PEzdBxiBj-rAxM/s320/Climbing.JPG" tt="true" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Looking back down one of many climbs</div><br />
Miles 22 to 32 were the most challenging of the course for me. I subsisted over the entire course almost solely on water from my Nathan 2.0 backpack, S-Caps and 8 or 9 GU Vanilla Bean Gel packs. I will admit that was poor planning. Hilltop Road clears the highest point of the course at mile 23.75 at just under 1200 feet above sea level. By the time I hit the 26.2 marathon mark in 4:06, I was starving. When I came through the second to last aid station just past the little village Raus, (somewhere between the marathon point and hitting “the Walls” section of the course around 30 miles), one very nice lady saved my life with two handful of pretzels and Fig Newtons. <br />
<br />
The “Walls” section of the course could possibly be perceived as pessimistically choreographed at that particular point in the race to test any runner. At least I felt a little pessimistic working through that series of abrupt and seemingly unending, steep little hills coupled with switch-backs heading back out to Highway 41. I had worked through a pretty major cramp in my left hamstring that kept attempting to fold my left leg in half from about mile 28 to the point where I reached the first hill in “the Walls.” While “the Walls” were not high, I think you could tie your shoes without bending over at several points.<br />
<br />
Once runners cleared the Walls and took the right turn back out onto Whiteside Hill road, all the significant hills in the course were behind. I had a sense of renewed optimism approaching and crossing Highway 41 as there was some good downhill all the way to the 35 mile point, finally east of Route 41 again, and to the final left turn north onto Three Forks Bridge Road and cardinal direction at Wartrace. As I passed through the last aid station I didn’t stop as I had plenty of water left for the final stretch. There were several people moving through the aid station and a young guy called over that we only had 6 miles to go. That was at the 5:45 point of the race for me. I mentally broke the last 6 miles of the course into two 3-mile sections and pushed forward to reach the 37 mile point that I knew was clearly marked at Cannon Road. I was able to run up “Wimps Hill,” which was clearly marked “Wimps Run up this Hill” by the race administration, but that was the last hill I ran up. Somewhere around mile 36 I was moving forward with my head down when I spotted 2 gummi bears on the road. I had a fleeting thought of picking them up and eating them, but they were yellow. If the gummies were red, who knows? <br />
<br />
I hit the Mile 37 point at 6:19, and read the painted advice on the road to “Kick Now” but did not have a lot of kick left. I pushed through the flat and downhill sections at a 9-10:00 trotting pace and had to march the hills at that point. Cannon Road spilled out onto the final right turn onto Route 64 with 2 miles remaining to the finish line. Fortunately, at least half of the last 2 miles was downgrade, and I could clearly see the Walking Horse Hotel from about ½ mile out; I found some kick at that point. <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNBzaMkY1pU5KlR0jw9uAhuSBUBp7GGYfwoqHOW3-5AQ6KBkT8Dr6QiMWR4IoE78kAsOVf-iYGG5H_US_PaRq3TiKn_BeNplAKJeuEyxpXZM3LhcX2TYBtzQ4MhlW7HTW7Ufbf19IRjHnw/s1600/Finish.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNBzaMkY1pU5KlR0jw9uAhuSBUBp7GGYfwoqHOW3-5AQ6KBkT8Dr6QiMWR4IoE78kAsOVf-iYGG5H_US_PaRq3TiKn_BeNplAKJeuEyxpXZM3LhcX2TYBtzQ4MhlW7HTW7Ufbf19IRjHnw/s320/Finish.JPG" tt="true" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Here's what the finsh looked like once complete</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcr4796P5v_DHtXHaw7NaRXgtr-tUyFpYc8letz6kHhsNNCRT0hPbhGjIBummyzN90mGCOZs-j2LtIPZ2tGsuOdbhdZUyaL_xzCdGrEMxaYp7ARXHV3LSJxejrY9MKlVKMkHsCPKYvYY45/s1600/The+Walking+Horse+Hotel.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcr4796P5v_DHtXHaw7NaRXgtr-tUyFpYc8letz6kHhsNNCRT0hPbhGjIBummyzN90mGCOZs-j2LtIPZ2tGsuOdbhdZUyaL_xzCdGrEMxaYp7ARXHV3LSJxejrY9MKlVKMkHsCPKYvYY45/s320/The+Walking+Horse+Hotel.JPG" tt="true" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">The Walking Horse Hotel</div><br />
The weather conditions were heavily overcast all morning with a light rain from 10-11 AM, but the conditions were not bad until about an hour after I finished running. Big thunder storms rolled in with heavy, heavy rain from about 1530 on, so I was feeling pretty fortunate to have already showered at the Wartrace volunteer Fire Department and to be sitting under the big tent finishing up my chicken and potato salad when the heavy weather kicked in. <br />
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I met a lot of great people, more from the Ultralist than in any other event I’ve been in, and too many to mention at the risk of omitting anyone. I will say that I did stay at the Red Rooster Bed and Breakfast in Beechgrove, TN, 10 minutes for Wartrace. I met Christian Griffith and Sean O in person for the first time as they were already at the Rooster when I arrived. Joanne and Bill Hollingsworth were great hosts while we stayed at the terrific Inn:<br />
<a href="http://www.redroosterbeechgrove.com/">http://www.redroosterbeechgrove.com/</a><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhvM3pK3tIi64tpUWsl5XMPjXORMiAyZAWp1bWH_x1XF0YAv8qRx7zGLYkG96mdra4WfE6cCE_iCEsNJrwUmIMLSFdSZb6F8D9jkH1x5Qnzf5OfNMdEFN16ZXUBOWcdNYsld9kDPxak1xW/s1600/RedRooster.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhvM3pK3tIi64tpUWsl5XMPjXORMiAyZAWp1bWH_x1XF0YAv8qRx7zGLYkG96mdra4WfE6cCE_iCEsNJrwUmIMLSFdSZb6F8D9jkH1x5Qnzf5OfNMdEFN16ZXUBOWcdNYsld9kDPxak1xW/s320/RedRooster.JPG" tt="true" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">The Red Rooster B&B; Beechgrove, TN</div><br />
I am looking forward to another chance to run the Strolling Jim 40 and highly recommend this event to any runner who has yet to experience everything this great race and beautiful area has to offer.<br />
<br />
Tim Hardy<br />
3 May 2010Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1759082377674108813.post-1789722456869952442010-04-25T16:49:00.002-04:002010-04-25T17:05:50.814-04:00407 Minutes at the Ouachita 50KMThe Ouachita Trail 50KM<br />
http://www.runarkansas.com/OT50.htm<br />
( Wikipedia-pronounced: WOSH-i-taw or WAW-shi-taw)<br />
<br />
This is one average runner’s experience at the Ouachita 50KM on Saturday, 17 April. The race is an Out-and Back format that started and finished at Maumelle Park, just outside and southwest of Little Rock, Arkansas. I finished the 50K course in 6:47:19, equal to 407 minutes and 19 seconds. I thoroughly enjoyed this event and highly recommend Ouachita for several reasons.<br />
<br />
The course is a very challenging route, as most trail ultra events seem to be. This route, though, runs up and over Pinnacle Mountain, and then down the backside of that terrain feature. Runners meet Pinnacle at about the 4.75 mile point of the course and are basically climbing almost hand over hand up the boulder-strewn trail until they reach the top at about 1100 feet. The inherent uniqueness in this part of the overall event, and the 360-degree view from atop Pinnacle makes the Ouachita 50 worth running. That said, I’d also say that the Pinnacle mountain portion of the event will almost ensure that Ouachita does not lend itself as a source for Personal Bests as far as 50K or 50 mile events; Pinnacle is steep and challenging and time intensive in terms of overall distance covered.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_1yhW0_7aNY4NnvmIb7RoJO6WgwQi8Kz611uWHHBccQFCYmMiBQZ8p-uTljttDLfQNtPGbubsCSFbJhsUlMmc_b98NNuJrA9k8VrBfITbv0mfMB-2-U8rlldHqe3AfqIxFCtJ-u92Q7Wu/s1600/Pinnacle+from+Afar.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_1yhW0_7aNY4NnvmIb7RoJO6WgwQi8Kz611uWHHBccQFCYmMiBQZ8p-uTljttDLfQNtPGbubsCSFbJhsUlMmc_b98NNuJrA9k8VrBfITbv0mfMB-2-U8rlldHqe3AfqIxFCtJ-u92Q7Wu/s320/Pinnacle+from+Afar.JPG" tt="true" /></a></div> Pinnacle at a distance<br />
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This was the Ouachita Trail 50’s 20th straight year, so this is a proven, time-tested event executed over a demanding and challenging course. 2010 marked the 10th year under the Race Director team of Chrissy and Stan Ferguson and all that experience really resulted in a cohesive, extremely well-run event. There is a well-developed core group of runners and volunteers that seemed to lend an annual, reunion type of camaraderie across the course and to the events at the start-finish line. Every aid station was thoroughly stocked with anything runners could have wanted to drink or eat, and every aid station had signs with exact information; where you were on the course in terms of mileage, distance to the next aid station and exact distance to the finish line on the return portion of the route. The aid station volunteers also voiced these critical statistics while you were in the aid station.<br />
Race finishers all receive a very unique ceramic finisher’s medal. RD Chrissy Ferguson makes these medals herself; they are white, with the Ouachita Trail 50 emblem from the website emboldened on the front and are very cool. I also picked up a terrific Ouachita Trail 50 wind-shirt that has a shoulder and waist pocket. These were available at the finish line. Black Dog photography was also on-hand providing low cost, printed pictures of each runner reaching the Pinnacle Mountain zenith much earlier in the race. <br />
The Ouachita Ultra has both a 50 kilometer and 50 mile option. Runners who register for the 50 mile option can re-evaluate and opt for the 50KM route during the course of the event, as late as the moment of truth where the two courses deviate. <br />
Race Results: As of 25 April: http://www.runarkansas.com/OT50res2010.htm <br />
50 Mile:<br />
1 Tom Brennan M 38 Poteau OK 7:56:41! (New 50M course record)<br />
2 Stan Ferguson M 46 Conway AR 8:40:35<br />
3 David Murphy M 37 Wasola MO 8:47:07<br />
<br />
1 Natalie Sims F 36 Signal Mountain TN 9:57:52(9th overall)<br />
2 Karen Martin F 38 Jonesboro AR 10:37:31(13th overall)<br />
3 Jenny Weatter F 29 Maumelle AR 11:24:38(20th overall)<br />
<br />
50 KM:<br />
1 Matt Sims M 38 Signal Mountain TN 4:41:02<br />
2 PoDog Vogler M 43 Russellville AR 4:58:51<br />
3 Jake Anderson M 28 Jonesboro AR 5:45:00<br />
<br />
1 Shirley Hyman F 42 Fort Smith AR 6:38:18(16th overall)<br />
2 Carrie Tracy F 36 Richardson TX 6:38:39(17th overall)<br />
3 Hillary Looney F 36 Little Rock AR 6:40:45(22nd overall)<br />
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<br />
<strong>VITAL STATISTICS</strong>:<br />
179 total runners started the combined 50M-50KM event<br />
166 total combined finishers for both events<br />
111 finishers in the 50K; 75 Males, 36 Females<br />
55 finishers in the 50M; 43 Males, 12 Females<br />
7:56:41: The new 50 mile course record by Tom Brennan Saturday!<br />
29.6: Exact mileage showing on my Forerunner 305 at end of the 50K<br />
68: Age of oldest 50 mile finisher<br />
23: Age of youngest 50 mile finisher: Rich Easter, Memphis, TN <br />
79: Age of oldest 50K finisher<br />
19: Age of youngest 50K finisher: Caleb Manis, Cabot, AR; 5:56; 5th overall<br />
15 different states with runner representation including California, Colorado, New York and New Mexico<br />
5.1 miles: Runners are only 5.1 miles in the course atop Pinnacle and 5.3 at the bottom. <br />
12 Aid stations on the 50K course counting the Start-Finish Line Pavilion<br />
10 Aid stations on the 50M course counting the Start-Finish Line Pavilion<br />
16.75 miles; runners hit the North-shore aid station turnaround point and start back<br />
Personal 50K Statistics:<br />
407 minutes on the course<br />
26th overall place <br />
21 Males finished ahead of me <br />
5 Females finished ahead of me <br />
14: number of 40 and older finishers ahead of me<br />
<br />
<strong>RACE OBSERVATIONS AND PERSONAL LESSONS LEARNED</strong><br />
It was still dark when RD Chrissy Ferguson gave a pointedly thorough and interesting pre-race briefing at 0545 before the start of the race. The conditions really could not have been better; it was about 60 degrees, not too humid, and a little overcast. I wore my Nathan Hydration 2.0 system with 1.5 liters of water for a second straight ultra, had my walkman on and my Garmin Forerunner 305. I started with 10 S-caps, some Ibuprofen and 4 vanilla GU gel packs and my small digital camera balanced across the two front shoulder pockets. I decided to assume risk by bringing the Olympus Camera because it’s small, and ultimately, I wanted to record some digital memories of the event.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGHAZGSEBOaQCgCjzFs8CuvGUL9DKPfHfCuwUDrgnjR0bKFZPk8-7WghDZNPoZN_i4dLVT-RTe45MaIQkUC_GDy9yzYmVKXczw63TD63AmLj2GzsmzKhRH1n4o4TDjcUxIr7iLZxWzycwo/s1600/From+Pinnacle-1.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGHAZGSEBOaQCgCjzFs8CuvGUL9DKPfHfCuwUDrgnjR0bKFZPk8-7WghDZNPoZN_i4dLVT-RTe45MaIQkUC_GDy9yzYmVKXczw63TD63AmLj2GzsmzKhRH1n4o4TDjcUxIr7iLZxWzycwo/s320/From+Pinnacle-1.JPG" tt="true" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">View from Pinnacle to North-Northwest</div><br />
The Ouachita 50 proved to be the 22nd race I’ve completed of either marathon or ultra marathon distance, with a breakdown of 9 marathons and 13 ultras at this point in my cumulative distance portfolio. It’s pretty easy to say that I’ve developed some good lessons learned in every event to date, but Ouachita really felt like a true progression point for me in terms of applying some previous and critical lessons learned against some decent training base. I ran in the Sweet H20 50K on 4 April, so Ouachita was my 2nd major event in 2 weeks, and third ultra in 2010 going back to 1 February. The main point I re-learned, and feel like I finally applied at Ouachita for the first time I think, is that a runner has to be prepared to take what the trail gives them when the trail dictates. Every trail event is obviously different, even in terms of running an out and back on the same trail. Runners, especially non-elite runners, are only going to be able to move fast and capitalize on certain areas of every trail and are going to have to slow down on the trickier, more challenging technical areas no matter where these areas manifest themselves. <br />
Plainly speaking, the front half of the 50K portion was much more difficult than the back half at Ouachita. At least it seemed that way to me. The race started promptly on the Lake Maumelle access road in front of Pavilion 8 at 0600. I started exactly in the very back of the entire group of runners as I do in every event; for some murky un-defined personal reason, I just like to start every race at the very rear of the formation and then try to work my way forward as the event unfolds. The day started breaking as we covered the first 2.75 miles of access roads into the park, to the point where it was full daylight when I personally hit the Ouachita Trail at the 2.75-mile point of the event. This is one of the main reasons I really enjoy using my Forerunner 305. I understand all the counter-points a lot of runners seems to make about exact GPS accuracy; GPS are not exact. But, for my purposes, my Forerunner is plenty close enough for what I want out of it, and in this example, I knew when I eventually came back off the trail, I would have 2.75 miless of smooth, mostly down-hill asphalt between me and the finish line. <br />
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Ouachita Trail reminded me off a couple other ultra events in New York, the Wakely Dam and the Escarpment Trail Run (ETR). Granted, ETR is not an ultra, as it is “only” 30 kilometers, but more to follow on that. Ouachita reminded me of Wakely specifically because Wakely runs almost exclusively on the Norville-Placid Trail (NPT) in the Adirondacks. While the 32-mile Wakely stretch of the NPT does not have any of the giant up and down that Pinnacle Mountain provided, NPT is just really hard to run on because it is so full of rocks, roots, and generally is up and down. Ouachita was like that all the way out to the North-Shore Aid Station turnaround point. As soon as you enter at the Trail access point, the first 10 to 12 miles out towards North-Shore, except for the stretch right along the edge of Lake Maumelle, require you to run up and down small ridge lines made up mostly by rocks that you want to run through, but you have to be more than just a little cautious in. <br />
Pinnacle Mountain really reminded me of Escarpment Trail. That’s a point to point 30K where you cross 6 peaks in the Catskills above 3000 feet. Runners are forced to start climbing Pinnacle Mountain at around 4.75 miles and in less than a quarter of a mile, you hit the boulder field and are pretty much reduced to pulling yourself hand to foot to the top of Pinnacle. That was very reminiscent of Blackhead and Stoppel Mountains in the ETR. While Pinnacle was not as high, the trail piece was very steep, even coming down the backside. All in all, it probably took me longer to come down than ascend. The view from atop Pinnacle was outstanding in every direction; coupled with a nice cool breeze up there, it was pretty refreshing. It was also a little mentally and physically sobering to have expended what felt like so much effort once I reached the trailhead parking lot again at only 5.5 miles into the race. <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtC5OoBSkc4UY1UmwIWjnMhFjcH2QBDBarkKhkXeBGmEGH8lE6-NGIobkVuizUs8PqUFJApDzvp4AUCX4eiykySgt8FAJumYfw2yHz2WR_vtf5B997rJv9z_5p-40M-TO3WW3A0ZBembS8/s1600/Starting+up+Pinnacle.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtC5OoBSkc4UY1UmwIWjnMhFjcH2QBDBarkKhkXeBGmEGH8lE6-NGIobkVuizUs8PqUFJApDzvp4AUCX4eiykySgt8FAJumYfw2yHz2WR_vtf5B997rJv9z_5p-40M-TO3WW3A0ZBembS8/s320/Starting+up+Pinnacle.JPG" tt="true" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Starting the Pinnacle Ascent</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrKD-1MpUy5g1YeK56m2i-fVHV2Uv8_8KuRkHWpdwdW-3Jun5P8GnWy4LBZDwIEGhxU50H_gehg7f1GfscYeyGbV4coRQsKuvWuClMhiPXlzaRNbirzBBrTg01Y6qHoUWXS_SvT85fBQ_o/s1600/The+Boulder+Field.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrKD-1MpUy5g1YeK56m2i-fVHV2Uv8_8KuRkHWpdwdW-3Jun5P8GnWy4LBZDwIEGhxU50H_gehg7f1GfscYeyGbV4coRQsKuvWuClMhiPXlzaRNbirzBBrTg01Y6qHoUWXS_SvT85fBQ_o/s320/The+Boulder+Field.JPG" tt="true" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Downward view of Pinnacle Boulder-Field</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcJbdZD1MgKgyU9BuNUFrkAL4rh43WFRiswk3VftvmQJ6UNUDE-Iy3s5CHR2BaZV2T4UeBJ8sDLCHh_cXc0vN5ybU6gNoxkQeCgDG2kj84dmNm35qUkYx5tYrzpBakqYnTVSXGRoVHR3Hu/s1600/Down+Pinnacle.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcJbdZD1MgKgyU9BuNUFrkAL4rh43WFRiswk3VftvmQJ6UNUDE-Iy3s5CHR2BaZV2T4UeBJ8sDLCHh_cXc0vN5ybU6gNoxkQeCgDG2kj84dmNm35qUkYx5tYrzpBakqYnTVSXGRoVHR3Hu/s320/Down+Pinnacle.JPG" tt="true" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Heading down the bckside of Pinnacle; slow going</div><br />
Once off of Pinnacle, we re-entered the Trail for a short section before we came out of the wood-line, crossed Route 113 and ran on that for just about a mile or so before re-acquiring the trail again on the west side of the highway. There was a very flat, run-able, single-track 1.5 to 2 mile stretch of trail right along the near edge of Lake Maumelle, until we edged into the woods away from the lake. The Trail was mostly technical though, from the point where we crossed the highway and re-entered the trail, until at least the aid station at the 15 mile point. Most of the time, runners were either moving uphill or downhill, up one small ridgeline, down the backside and through the bottom of the draw and then back up another gradual or steep ridge. And, on the “out” portion of the run, I swear it felt to me like when we were moving uphill, the trail was nice and smooth, albeit uphill, and on the downside once I would crest a ridge and headed downhill, rocks, rocks and more rocks. I never fell, but really almost rolled both ankles a couple times and started to really work at maintaining a slow steady pace. My reasoning was that since the down-hills all just looked like rocks to me I was more tired than I thought I was coming off of Pinnacle that early in the event. <br />
I hit the aid station somewhere one mile shy of the separation point of the 50K and 50M courses and the whole event started to take a strangely foreign, albeit good turn for me. I had already decided that I was not running the 50 miler, so I moved through that aid station, read the information sign and knew I was less than 2 miles to North Station and turning around for the Finish line. The trail really flattened and smoothed out leaving that aid station and continued in that manner at the 50K-50M fork and through the winding turns that lead into the North Shore aid station. There were some hills and there were some rocks but all in all a very run-able section of the course. I hit North-Shore, right at 17 miles into the course at a pretty slow point in time, maybe right at 4 hours into the event. That seemed a little discouraging upon first, but after some reflection over a cup of coke, I developed some positive thoughts. I did not have to go back over Pinnacle, and therefore, North-Shore was well over the half-way point. While I was slow getting to that main turnaround, I felt pretty good, especially from the point of clearing the previous aid station forward. I decided that I would push as hard as I possibly could at every point, rocks or no rocks, in an attempt to reach the finish line under 7 hours. <br />
Things really picked up and went smoothly from North-Shore, and really, the aid station before North Shore for me throughout the back half of the course. That’s the “strange” or “foreign” point of this whole event for me. I always try to get to every finish line as hard or fast as I possibly can, and I did that in this event from the start as well. Usually, I finish every event struggling from point to point over the final 10 miles; I’ll run as far as I can, and be reduced to walking, pick up the running, then walk some more until I can run again. I’ve even “built” in “run 5 minutes, walk 1 minute” game plans and other course of actions to get through the last 25% of most events. I’ve improved in every event, but that’s generally the way things tend to work. That’s exactly how SweetH20 had gone two weeks prior to Ouachita; I ran a much stronger first half than second. Gravity just seemed a lot stronger from Mile 20 forward.<br />
I literally was able to run the entire second half of the Ouachita course from the point where I cleared the aid station around Mile 15, except for the hills that were just too steep for me to run. It was awesome.<br />
My best description, again, this is a strange and unknown area for me, is that the whole second half just went great. For whatever reason, the Trail’s technical construction was just a lot easier to run moving towards the finish line; the really rocky portions headed back were almost all on the uphill sides of ridgelines, or at least it seemed that way to me. I was really able to get some real downhill running into the course on the way back without tripping and falling all over myself, as it seemed headed out. Every aid station was manned by wonderful people, fully stocked, and exactly where the team in the last station said they were. I did not linger in any station; I’d drink a cup of coke, make sure my Nathan had at least 1 liter of water, thank the team and move out with a peanut butter & jelly triangle. <br />
I made what felt like a conscious effort to push the trail the whole way as opposed to previous events where the trail pretty much dictated terms. I would push through the tough uphill sections until gravity started working for me and then just consciously pick up the pace again. This worked pretty well and I caught a bunch of racers, or it seemed like I did. I did have a couple of challenging points. I hit a tough point somewhere around Mile 25. I had been moving pretty well along the near trail edge to Lake Maumelle and had crossed back over Route 113 for that 1 mile stretch. I was really sucking wind once I picked the Trail back up into the wood-line and started heading up the steep ridgeline between 113 and Pinnacle Mountain. One young lady, #90-Melanie Baden I believe, went past me going up that hill like I was standing still, like she had only just started running and I had been running for 6 hours. Come to think of it, I might have been standing still….I forced myself to drink a lot of water, consumed my last gel pack and an S-cap or two and pushed forward until I recovered shortly.<br />
I was moving pretty well again, when I made a boneheaded navigational error, or more specifically a non-error that cost me about 10 minutes worth of time in my estimation. I broke over the ridge and cleared the woods around the side of Pinnacle, and skirted the Pinnacle access parking lot, and one of two last sections of woods prior to the 2.75 miles of asphalt access road. I knew there was about three quarters of a mile of woods, followed by a hardball road the trail would cross, followed by a last steep ridge trail that spilled onto the access road. I worked through the single trail piece, and hit the firebreak trail and literally ran a beautiful stretch of wide smooth 1/2 to 3/4-mile firebreak trail as hard as I could run it downhill all the way to the asphalt road, which was great. Except when I discovered I had missed the right turn in the woods.<br />
While running down the firebreak, I missed the point of the trail where I was supposed to turn off the firebreak, turn up hill, and follow the steep single trail where it crossed the asphalt road and ran up through the woods to Access road. When I mistakenly hit the asphalt road, I didn’t even know if I was uphill or downhill in terms of directions from the trail; I just knew I missed the turn, so I turned around, ran back the way I’d just come, uphill this time, nice, and found the little tiny turn-off I slept through five minutes earlier. <br />
I hit the access road about 8 minutes after correcting my navigation error, and it was just as I remembered; 2.7 miles of smooth, mostly downhill asphalt. I was able to maintain somewhere around an 8 to 8:30 pace over that last stretch and caught up to some folks that had passed me when I missed the turn and had to re-acquire the trail in the woods. The access road seemed longer, of course, than it had 7 hours earlier but there were several runners on the road ahead of me; trying to catch them made the last couple miles go by faster. <br />
Ouachita was a great, fun event, filled with local runners that all have a history together around this event. A big group of them all set up camp chairs right at the finish line, opened a beverage or two and greeted every runner as they came into the Pavilion 8 finish line. There was a lot of great food, family members and children, and even a llama (or maybe a large alpaca) in a paddock across the road watching the event. I heartily recommend Ouachita Trail 50 as a “must do” event to anyone that can build this race into their schedule. As mentioned, I re-learned a lot about tactical patience and execution attending this race, and spent some significant travel effort getting there from Augusta, Georgia and it was well worth the effort. <br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicZUGfM-5NFc4h04soanKpgCHis6akchVniMq4X3Ee5Z9weLzexgNfv5gsQa1PUZfvicuPCXfFu0DBbHIaQSY0KgiyLFQBFXR9XXjxAzom4-vDtyh4xFb_LG2AlprImEIagSesDeQ-f0Ab/s1600/Finish+line.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicZUGfM-5NFc4h04soanKpgCHis6akchVniMq4X3Ee5Z9weLzexgNfv5gsQa1PUZfvicuPCXfFu0DBbHIaQSY0KgiyLFQBFXR9XXjxAzom4-vDtyh4xFb_LG2AlprImEIagSesDeQ-f0Ab/s320/Finish+line.JPG" tt="true" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Ouachita Trail 50 Finish Line</div><br />
Tim Hardy <br />
25 April 2010<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNeGJOOEeb9f7GrGsm_E97Z3Qy1_2EQ7kwyQtVlwj3RwaJtL1Xq1gz44G7Q0Sf1yGuadeDjYffKD5Gp4yl7BsZf2oVzpWy9kBRpEIGCNfye8WYD1qv_RVg6jmj109dfz4L9EDigf_G4aF_/s1600/P4180359.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNeGJOOEeb9f7GrGsm_E97Z3Qy1_2EQ7kwyQtVlwj3RwaJtL1Xq1gz44G7Q0Sf1yGuadeDjYffKD5Gp4yl7BsZf2oVzpWy9kBRpEIGCNfye8WYD1qv_RVg6jmj109dfz4L9EDigf_G4aF_/s320/P4180359.JPG" tt="true" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Neighboring Spectators</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZ9Tt9tkssZqXcZ55LFvLyiRt1S9QVWySyrOo6mzxv8hbzpRx3F4R252kJvG6IFiuMqJbRmTasK8uWj2Po_ZIvi_TIzZknIaac2dS-NZ4LQ2q9-ItLW3ofUc0IfwvaJIdlVf2AcNeniTJB/s1600/Made+Pinnacle.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZ9Tt9tkssZqXcZ55LFvLyiRt1S9QVWySyrOo6mzxv8hbzpRx3F4R252kJvG6IFiuMqJbRmTasK8uWj2Po_ZIvi_TIzZknIaac2dS-NZ4LQ2q9-ItLW3ofUc0IfwvaJIdlVf2AcNeniTJB/s320/Made+Pinnacle.JPG" tt="true" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Made Pinnacle!</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguFib0wDOzLkK5doM4ladwkby6GQWP4fdLFH5Im_Eg9HgbwAWgyq9E_uFNbSL8KcjLJwv-QpAlI4uVEHbqKdOJ2qRw0WKf6h6-PnYAP_RCV6Hh9wm5WVCNyZ__bu_CDKcukaLFGDpTe-H7/s1600/West+of+Pinnacle.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguFib0wDOzLkK5doM4ladwkby6GQWP4fdLFH5Im_Eg9HgbwAWgyq9E_uFNbSL8KcjLJwv-QpAlI4uVEHbqKdOJ2qRw0WKf6h6-PnYAP_RCV6Hh9wm5WVCNyZ__bu_CDKcukaLFGDpTe-H7/s320/West+of+Pinnacle.JPG" tt="true" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">View West from MT Pinnacle</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1759082377674108813.post-64805926595560532212010-04-05T14:28:00.007-04:002010-04-25T10:51:37.812-04:00440 Minutes at the SweetH20 50KM Trail Race440 Minutes at the SweetH20 50KM Trail Race<br />
Saturday April 4, 2010<br />
http://www.sweeth20races.com/<br />
This is one average runner’s experience at the SweetH20 50KM trail race on Saturday, 3 April, in Sweetwater Creek State Park, west of Atlanta, Georgia. Simply put, Race Director John Buice and his team put on a great event that I highly recommend to any looking for a real challenge at the 50 Kilometer distance. <br />
<br />
“EPIC.” That was my thought as I crossed the finished line at the 7:20:21 mark, 440 minutes after the 0730 start. This was only my seventh 50KM and eleventh or twelfth ultra-marathon event; I’ll readily admit that in terms of ultra-marathons, the 50KM distance might not be readily or best described in terms of “EPIC.” Let’s face it, we’re talking about a sport with event distances of 50K, 50-100 miles and longer. But, that said, if a 50K race can be “epic” event, SweetH20 fits that handle. <br />
Don’t be fooled by the “Sweet” part of the title, it’s the H20 and all the water on the 2-lap format course that makes this event extra challenging. You run through the spillway at the end of the lake twice; you rope down in, run through the water for 60+ feet, and then climb a rope back out; you cross two or three smaller creeks two times on the course, and then you have the actual rope bridge crossing of Sweetwater Creek itself at mile 17.25 on the course. You grab a rope bridge and pull yourself across at least 150 feet of fast moving river, run a 2.5 mile loop on the far side, and comeback across the rope bridge a second time. I’m an average 5’9” dude and the water hit waist high for me in at least 3 places. You also run on almost every type of surface; some asphalt road, two-lane trail, firebreak roads and some really technical, single track trail all over the course that included everything from beach sand, rock surface, roots, everything you could want to run off-road on. Lastly, The Top of the World, (TOTW) and the route into and off of TOTW pushes this 50K, in my humble estimation to the extremely challenging 50K category. <br />
<br />
VITAL STATISTICS. These are just based on my review of the website, information received at the course, and intuitive, dynamic insight:<br />
Temperature: I heard it hit 88 degrees on the course; I believe that.<br />
Distance: 32Miles+/-. I wore my Garmin Forerunner 305 the entire way. I had almost exactly 32 miles when I crossed the finish line. I compared notes with almost everyone that I saw after the Race wearing some type of GPS and everyone had 32+ miles to 33 on their GPS; most were closer to 33KM. Bottom line is that every runner got their full 50K’s worth of distance in this event. Mr. Buice was pleased to hear that. <br />
200 Runners signed up; I believe that was the statistic I heard. <br />
Top Finishers: Males<br />
1 JAMES BICKELHAUPT SMYRNA, GA M 39 5:18:38.<br />
2 DAVID KIRBY RALEIGH, NC M 22 5:24:49<br />
3 MARCUS FARRIS AUBURN, AL M 19 5:36:16<br />
Females:<br />
1. JENN RINDERLE ATLANTA, GA F 36 5:51:33 7th Overall<br />
2. FRANCESCA CONTE CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA F 37 5:54:31 8th Overall<br />
3. SALLY BROOKING MARIETTA, GA F 53 6:07:13 16th Overall<br />
<br />
155. Total Finishers; 124 Males; 31 Females<br />
17. Age- Youngest Finisher: Mr. Alex Thomas Ryan. I spoke to young Mr. <br />
Ryan and his father after the Event and basically told them how <br />
impressed I was that he finished that event, his 1st ultra, at the <br />
age of seventeen. I spent some time on the trail with him and he <br />
showed a lot of heart out there.<br />
67. Age of oldest finisher.<br />
12. Number of different states represented at the finish line, with <br />
the further being South Dakota, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and <br />
New York <br />
37-40? Average age for all finishers looks to be in the high 30s to early <br />
40s; I’m not going to do that math though….<br />
7! Number of major hill climbs to the best of my recollection in <br />
route to and off of the Top of the World per lap. Nice.<br />
26.2. By my Garmin, I was right around 26.2 miles into the event when I <br />
finally reached the TOTW for the second time on lap 2. <br />
17.25. Mileage at the 1st Sweetwater creek rope bridge crossing. <br />
20. Mileage coming back across the rope bridge at Sweetwater Creek<br />
8. Outstanding aid stations on the course. I still am constantly <br />
amazed at the volunteers in every ultra I’ve participated in and <br />
SweetH20 was no exception. Not only were the aid stations full of <br />
great people volunteering their time, these were well stocked with <br />
everything from Gatorade to Water to soda in some; snacks of all <br />
sorts and even S-Caps in multiple stations. <br />
64. I finished 64th overall. 51 males and 12 females finished ahead <br />
of me; 10 people my age or older finished ahead of me.<br />
440. Total number of minutes I was on this very tough course. That’s <br />
the longest I’ve taken to finish any 50K except the Wakely Damn <br />
50K which is a point to point, unsupported in the Adirondack <br />
Forest. <br />
3. Total number of times I filled and finished my 1.5 liter Nathan <br />
2.0 water blivet I had on my back. <br />
9. Total number of S-Caps consumed during the race<br />
1. Total number of falls I had on the course. Ironically, I was 20 <br />
feet from finishing my second crossing on the rope bridge across <br />
the creek. Slipped and went in up to my neck in the same spot I <br />
watched the guy crossing in front of me fall; nice and refreshing. <br />
<br />
EXECUTION NOTES: The race started promptly at 0730 on the main road in the Sweet Creek State Park with the firing of a Civil War-era cannon by some Civil War Re-Enactment specialists, which I thought was a nice, unique touch. <br />
<br />
The 2-lap course follows an almost figure-8 format that flows out around the northern perimeter of the park along the entry road for almost 2 miles and then ties into the park’s single-track trail system. Once you cross the spillway around mile 3.5 or so, you run along some terrific single track on the edge of Sweet Creek to the south end of the park. <br />
<br />
Sweet Water Creek, really, is an impressively scenic river with a lot of rock formation and shore line availability that makes it worth a trip just to visit for any reason. There were a lot of non-racers out there but it was not packed. <br />
<br />
Once you reach the bottom edge of the trail system, you run a long some wider, built and lined trails for a couple miles until you leave the park’s edge. You tie into a firebreak road system that eventually takes you to the Top of the World after traveling a combination of firebreaks and trail for two to two-and-a-half miles along a power line. This is a series of pretty significant up and down, very steep hill terrain. You’re right around 8 miles into the first lap of the race when you hit this, and finally hit the TOTW plateau for the first time around mile 10-10.5. You can clearly see Atlanta behind you to the east-northeast as you move across the plateau on to the firebreak Aid Station 4/7. You travel about 1 mile of an out and back from TOTW, to AS 4/7 as a check point, and then turn around and head back into the park. <br />
<br />
Leaving TOTW, you route back out through a shorter section of the same ridgelines, down, up, down, up, down, until you re-intersect the trail along the Creek. You re-trace your steps to a water station, where you end up forking to the left back towards the heart of the park, 5 miles hence. I ran the entire first lap, which showed right at 15 miles on my Foreunner, in 2:50. So, by the completion of the first lap, I knew I was slow and that the entire course was going to be around 33miles, because lap 2 holds the water crossing with another 2.5 mile lap on the far side of the creek. I mentally prepared myself for running that extra distance, and that’s a point having the Garmin really helped me as far as having an overall predicted knowledge for the course without having to think too hard about it. <br />
<br />
The second and final lap was very challenging. I was not over-trained for this event by any stretch, and TOTW on lap 1 took a lot out of me just to start with. Crossing the river at mile 17 and again at mile 20 provided a little refreshment and some lessons learned. The water was moving pretty strongly, and you really couldn’t see any footing; this caused a lot of tripping for almost everyone involved, yours truly included even though I was very focused on the guy ahead of me. I fell where he fell. My Forerunner survived the dunking and I was happy with that after I went in completely on my right side; fortunately, my Walkman was on my left upper arm and only my upper left side remained out of the water. My legs felt slow and heavy leaving the water on both sides of the creek. <br />
<br />
It was significant emotional moment when I reached the TOTW plateau for a second time at about 6 hours into the event after 26+ miles of travel; I finally worked my way down to Aid Station 7 which proved to be my longest stop for the entire Ultra as I was at 7 a solid five minutes. <br />
One of my lessons re-learned was that I still have stick points I have to work through no matter what the event is, around Miles, 18-19, again at 23-24, 27-28, etc. In other words, out past 3 hours, I move through good points and tough points and try to make do as best I can during the tougher parts. I’m still learning what the best course of action is for me personally to re-fuel during the race. I used a lot of S-Caps, several Gel packs and a lot of water during this race with some improved effects from my last two events. More to develop on this.<br />
<br />
I broke the cardinal ultramarathon rule of never doing anything for a 1st time at SweetH20. I picked up a Nathan Hydration 2.0 hydration system and some Injinji socks a Big Peach Running store on the way out to Lithina Springs on Friday night. Although I've trained a lot using Camelbaks. I'd never worn the Nathan or Injinji socks before the start of the Race Saturday. I was quite pleased with both.<br />
<br />
Great post race dinner. These are always good, but this one seemed to exceed the standard. The race finishes uphill, yes uphill, and each runner comes through the finish line to where those already finished are all directly assembled, and hanging together as a group. There was a lot of camaraderie assembled there, especially among those who have finished this race a couple times now. It was nice to be a part of that even if it took 440 minutes to get there….<br />
<br />
Racers all receive a micro-fiber t-shirt as part of their packet. Race finishers received a cool high-tech SweetH20 50K which I really thought was terrific. I’m now a ball-cap guy. <br />
<br />
Again, thanks to Mr. Buice (hope I’m spelling that correctly) and his team for putting on a challenging, extremely well-planned and executed event. I highly recommend this 50K to anyone thinking about running a spring 50K anywhere in the southeastern United States.<br />
<br />
Tim Hardy <br />
5 April 2-10Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1759082377674108813.post-52337834156133666532010-04-05T14:25:00.001-04:002010-04-05T14:27:41.521-04:00Lost ArrowheadLost Arrowhead<br />www.arrowheadultra.com<br />On Wednesday, 3 February, at approximately 0100, I withdrew from the Arrowhead 135 Ultra. I was just shy of mile 102 on the course, 31 to 33 miles from the finish line, and 11 miles from the third and final Checkpoint, Wakemup Tipi, at mile 112. I’d been on the course for the previous 42 hours to include time spent at Checkpoints 1 and 2. Here’s my race report and some analysis from just one average runner’s perspective on the 2010 Arrowhead 135.<br />I. PLANNING AND LOGISITICS<br />The Arrowhead 135 Winter Ultra is a point-to-point event originating for the first time this year inside International Falls city limits at the Blue Ox Trailhead outside the Kerry Arena. The course is contained almost exclusively on Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) state snowmobile trails. After running south out of International Falls for approximately 9.5 miles on the Blue Ox Trail, racers acquire and maintain the Arrowhead Trail route east-southeast and then south through the Voyage National Forest all the way to Fortune Bay Casino in Tower, Minnesota. The entire race covers 133 miles. Pierre and Cheryl Ostor, husband and wife Race Director Team, put together and extremely well organized and maintained event especially considering the distance and extreme-weather aspects of the race and environment. From the pre-race equipment weigh-in, pre-race brief and dinner and throughout the length of the event, it seemed to this participant that there was good command and control throughout, from availability of snowmobile teams running the route and the volunteers at the 3 checkpoints out on the course. Arrowhead 135 has 3 distinct racer categories; Bike, Cross- Country skiing and Foot. All racers have 60 hours to reach Fortune Bay casino and complete the course. The only existing cut off that I’m aware of was that all Foot division runners have to leave MelGeorges Resort at Mile 72 no later than 1500/ 3PM on Day 2, or there simply is not enough time remaining to complete the remaining 60 miles of the course prior to 1900/7PM, Hour 60. <br />Travel. It took me three days of significant driving in order to travel the 1500 or so miles from Carthage, NY to International Falls, MN by vehicle. 3 days to return as well. <br />Pre-Race Equipment Check. All racers are required to carry a minimum of 15 lbs of survival equipment with them at all times on the course, and herein lies the true challenge in this event, sustaining oneself against the elements for 130+ miles without overheating, while having the necessary extra gear with you to react to the changes in the weather and environment. I spent a lot of time at the Pre-race check in gleaning all the course information I could, checking out other racers’ gear, just trying to become smarter about the event. Anton Oveson, Pierre and some veteran winter racers at the gear check were great sources of information about the overall event and area and seemed willing to spend as much time talking to an event newbie like me for as long as I wanted to talk to them. I also met Ed Bouffard at the Pre-race check as he was on hand with some Ed’s Wilderness Systems company equipment set up. It was good to met him in person after ordering my sled from him online and this is where I found out 17 different racers were starting Arrowhead with Ed’s Wilderness System sleds. <br />Here is the mandatory equipment (as stated directly on the Arrowhead website) : Minus-20F degrees sleeping bag or colder rating; Insulated sleeping pad; Bivy sack or tent (space blankets do not count); Firestarter (matches or lighter); Stove to heat water; 8 fl. oz. fuel at ALL times (either white gas, alcohol or 2 canisters of propane/butane 100 g. each or 12 Esbit tablets); Pot (min. volume is 1 pint); 2-qt (64 fl. oz.) or just under 2 liters, insulated water container (the weight of water is not counted in the minimum weight); Headlamp or flashlight; 3 Flashing red LED lights, both on front and back of sled or bike (or on backpack if skier). Also, the DNR requires that everyone have at least 10 square inches of reflective material on front and back of the person for this race. Whistle on string around neck to call for help. 1-day of food at ALL times (3000 calories) (tip: a pound of butter or jar of peanut bar is about 3200 calories); 15 lbs of gear at ALL times. Additionally, I started the race with pliers, a multi-screwdriver, extra matches, and second headlamp; 12-15 feet of 550 cord, duct tape, hygiene equipment, 4 pairs of extra socks; stowed extra cold-weather gear including heavy snowmobile gloves, a heavy hooded sweatshirt; long john pants and shirt; my Forerunner 305 charger; my camera; 5 lbs of trail mix; 1 jar of peanut butter; 1 MRE and of course, my Camelbak with a 64 ounce blivet. My mandatory gear weighed 23 lbs at the weight in. Altogether, my sled weighed, conservatively in my estimation, at least 36 lbs, up to 40. Too much, but I just didn’t know what I was going to need over the duration of two nights on the trail. <br />Uniform. My intent was to wear as a little as possible to avoid sweating and overheating. I’ve spent the last 3 years in northern New York on FT Drum and there’s always a tendency to wear too much clothes because you’re just plain cold prior to running. Then, you almost immediately start sweating too much and realize you’ve got too much on. I wanted to avoid that without freezing at the same time. I wore heavy, lined nylon running pants, with thick shorts underneath; just 1 long pair of wool socks, my Asolo Reactor trail shoes, a long-sleeve light-weight Polar-Tec shirt, long sleeve t-shirt and a lightweight but lined nylon hooded windbreaker, some great thinsulate gloves that I picked up at ACE Hardware and was quite pleased with throughout; a poly-pro watch-cap along with a polypro head-neck balaclava. I also carried a thin pair of gloves and a neck-up to don against increasing cold; my Walkman, the first time I’ve used a Walkman of any sort in 20 ultra or marathon events; I had my new Yaktrax on directly over my Asolos. I didn’t train with the Yaktrax too much as I only had them for a couple weeks but after making some adjustments during the race, I really like the Yaktrax. My ski-snowshoe poles pretty much rounded out my ensemble. <br />II. EXECUTION. My individual intent was the same as in every event I’ve entered: get to the finish line in the shortest possible time. Overall, given the terrain and distance, I planned to maintain 20 minute-miles, or better for the entire distance of the event. Coupling that with 4-6 hours of total rest, I felt I could complete the entire event within 54-56 hours if I could maintain 3-3.5 miles per hour while taking in enough sustenance and re-hydration to keep moving forward. Ultimately, I just failed to Re-Set myself enough during the race. <br />International Falls to Check Point 1 at Gateway Store, Mile 36. Ultimately, over the history of the 6 years that Arrowhead Ultra, the 2010 iteration enjoyed probably the best weather in comparison to the previous 5 years of the event. I asked Pierre if he thought that was true on Wednesday morning and he felt that was the case. That said, the ambient air temperature hovered close to -20 degrees around 0615 on 1 FEB for the start of the event at 0700, and remained below zero until later in the morning once the sun was finally up. All racers checked in, inside, at Kerry Arena, got their final gear preparations completed and tried to stay warm until we all started as a group at 0700. It was too dark and too cold for any group pictures; someone quietly said go and we all just trailed out in a long line that extended from the start line into the Kerry Arena parking lot, and headed south on the Blue Ox Trail. The defacto order of march started mostly in a bikes, skier, foot break-down of groups. A total of 102 racers started; 52 on mountain bikes, 45 on foot, and 5 of skis. <br />After all the training, planning, traveling, and race-related anxieties, it was a relief to finally be underway, just as it seems to be every time I participate in an ultra or marathon of any sort. I had spent as much time as I could training with my sled from the point where I re-deployed in mid-December until the race, but even coupled with all the physical training and training while deployed, it was just a relief to finally be moving. The Blue Ox trail ran for just about exactly 9.5 miles south until it intersected the Arrowhead Trail’s easterly inception and I spent those 3 hours or so really getting comfortable moving with the sled at 15-16 minute per mile road-march pace. The sled didn’t provide as much drag as I initially thought it was going to, or as much as it seemed to when I was training with it on cross-country skis in December and January; but it was still too heavy to run comfortably with for any distance at better than a 14 minute per mile pace unless I was going strictly downhill or down-grade. That didn’t overly concern me at the time. 60 hours is a long time and the 15-16-17 minute mile pace was more than comfortable enough throughout the morning and into the afternoon as we all moved toward Gateway Store at Mile 36. Basically, most of the entire 1st leg was mostly flat with long straight stretches of trail until at least somewhere around mile 28 or so where you start to encounter some more hilly terrain.<br />Arrowhead is truly an epic event. As part of the Badwater World Cup, Arrowhead is also the biggest, longest event I’ve entered, both in terms of distance and time required spent in pursuit of the finish line, and each leg between checkpoints truly represents the overall length of the course. It’s 36 miles to Checkpoint 1, Gateway Store; from there, it’s another 35-36 mile leg to Checkpoint 2 at MelGeorges Resort on Elephant Lake which places you at just about mile 72 in the race. Leg 3 to Checkpoint 3 at the Wakemup Tipi is 41 miles, placed at Mile 112 in overall duration. From Wakemup Tipi, racers have approximately 21 miles or so to the finish line at Fortune Bay Casino. <br />Given the overall length between checkpoints and duration of the event, I purposely forced myself not to focus too much on times on hard goals to Checkpoint 1, checkpoint 2, etc. Moving over 50 kilometers between checkpoints or aid stations is a long way to travel, and I have an individual tendency during ultras to “over-think” times and distances and end up spending a huge portion of any event worrying about overall finish time and things of that nature. It’s kind of like the old UNICEF television commercials, “A mind is a terrible thing to waste” shortened to “A mind is a terrible thing” when your mind is spending most of its time crunching time and distance numbers during time out on the course. I really wanted to avoid that throughout Arrowhead and I spent the first leg just shutting those types of thoughts off with the focus that my mind was too little to be out wandering around on its own during an event as big as Arrowhead. That seemed to work pretty well for me, coupled with the fact I had my Forerunner 305 as well. So that’s how the first leg went to Gateway store. I settled into a pretty comfortable pace, around 15 to 16 miles per hour and just kept moving. I had started with my poles but stowed them in my sled around mile 15 or so. Everyone had their own pace and plan, and coupled with the fairly flat terrain we seemed to pass each other as one racer or another would stop for adjustments, food, etc , I would then catch up and then they would pass me as I stopped for a couple minutes for whatever reason. Anton showed up at several points of the course on Leg one on his snowmobile at the Blue Ox-Arrowhead intersection, just prior to crossing RTE 53 around mile 17 and again at the shelter at mile 24 at the junction where Arrowhead turns abruptly south. The trail was enormous, well-marked, and easy to follow and I never had issues or questions or any doubts about the direction of the course, but it was good through Day 1 to see Anton out there. <br />My biggest challenge that manifested itself during the first leg was re-hydration. As stated, we had outstanding conditions, but even with the constant sunshine and little wind, I don’t think the temperature ever exceeded 8-10 degrees on Day 1, and it took a long time for me to get my Camelback operational just due to the fact that it kept freezing up. Apparently, everyone with a Camelbak experienced this no matter what techniques or tactics they used to keep their Camelbak line from freezing. There was one guy on foot that had an extremely thick piece of foam-looking insulation around his line, and apparently that froze up too. (I forget the gentlemen’s name.) I finally resolved my situation be tucking my line in all the way inside my jacket between the Camelback and against my last t-shirt layer, but that wasn’t enough either. The line itself quit freezing but I had to actually thaw out the line juncture at the base of the Camelbak as that had frozen completely even with the Camelback under my jacket for the duration. I resolved that by extracting the 64-ounce blivet, and spinning that around so the cover, line junction and line were facing into my back and that technique finally enabled me to have a clear, un-frozen Camelbak for the rest of the event. I had enough layers on so the juncture didn’t cause too much discomfort, but this went on for most of the daylight hours on Day 1.The Camelbak was frozen and I basically moved until Mile 24 without any water until I resolved the whole situation. It wasn’t that big a deal though as I wasn’t sweating, and once unfrozen, I drank both liters of water before arriving at Gateway which was my plan anyway.<br /> I also had 50 ounces or so of Gatorade in my sled as I like it and train with it, and because I had hoped the higher salt content would keep those from freezing as well. Not so much; both froze solid for the duration of the event and really only maintained any use as something solid to throw in the event of a wolf encounter. In a “be careful what you wish for” scenario, I actually hoped to see a wolf as I’ve never seen one in the wild before. Apparently several of the supporting snowmobilers did, but I did not. I heard wolves, I assume, yipping in the woods on both nights on the course at a couple points when I stopped moving. Your sled accompanies you with a constant, consisting shushing noise that kind of drowns out most other peripheral sounds, but stopping a couple times on night 1 and night 2 enabled me to hear what I was sure were younger wolves yipping in the wood-line at a distance. I know dogs and these weren’t dogs and we weren’t even remotely close to any roads or vestiges of civilization in either instance. I didn’t hope to see any wolves at night either. I had a running joke with my wife though, that if I did see any wolves I was going to bring a male and female pup back with me and re-introduce them into the wild in northern New York. Stray dogs tend to find me; that’s why we have six. No wolves though. Probably a good thing… <br />A few miles out from Gateway, the trail started to take on a more hilly constitution in a pre-cursor of things to come That added some time and work in closing out the final 4-5 miles getting to Gateway Store; it was still light but getting dark when I arrived around 1800 or so, and the temperature was really starting to drop. You have to follow a connector trail about a quarter mile down from Arrowhead through the woods to check in at Gateway, and as I arrived there were already 12-15 different sleds of multiple varieties, all with the red-flashing lights welcoming me into the checkpoint. It was just nice to see after 36 initial miles on the trail. There was one gentleman volunteer outside that checked racers into Gateway and back onto the course. I never caught his name, but was yet again amazed by the volunteers, as I have been in each of the 10-12 ultras I’ve entered in the past 2-3 years, and Arrowhead is no exception. In fact, just the extreme elements at Arrowhead underline the fact that the volunteers there are really special people committed to providing the race and racers with the necessary mechanics and chemistry needed to make the event work. Arrowhead is just really cold; I’ve lived and worked (when not deployed) at FT Drum, NY, two hours north of Syracuse, NY and in the same conditions, so I’m no stranger to the cold. It was already below zero again when I arrived at Gateway, and here’s this guy checking me into the store, outside, efficiently, asking me how I’m doing, if I need anything, just like Anton had done three times out on the course. I remember that Anton was calmly running in a circle to stay warm at the intersection of Blue Ox and Arrowhead with his sled off to the slide of the trail as he made sure each racer made the left turn onto Arrowhead at Mile 9.5 early on Day 1. <br />Gateway Store. Gateway Store is now my favorite country convenience store anywhere in the world and I relayed that sentiment to the owner-operators before I left. There were a lot of racers already inside when I arrived. I maintained my SOP for all aid station visits in any ultra and ate everything I could get my hands on. I bought soup, 2 hot dogs, chips, a coke, 2 large coffees and a few other things as well. The owners offered to dry whatever part of your racing gear you wanted and I took advantage of that, drying my jacket and a shirt. I also recharged my Forerunner 305 which probably led me to stay at Gateway longer than I planned after arriving between 530 to 6PM. I really prefer to have an operational GPS as that removes almost all doubt of distances on the course and all inherent psychological guess work. I didn’t make a lot of adjustments, just a couple smaller, important ones. I added my heavy hooded sweatshirt under my jacket but over my Camelbak. That helped keep me warm and too maintain the C-Bak as well. My feet were very sore by the time I hit Gateway, but not due to blisters. My YakTrax, were great as far as providing traction, but were making my feet very sore. Using a technique I found on the Arrowhead website, I pulled an ankle sock over the outside forefoot of each trail shoe and then held them in place with the Yaktrax. This worked great. Not only did the external sock provide some layered cushioning and alleviate the direct pressure points on the bottom of my foot due to the Yaktrax, I now also had another layer of insulation against the weather on my feet. The last thing that happened at Gateway was that a fellow racer, Blair Anderson, and I decided to buddy-team from Gateway to MelGeorges. He and I had been leap-frogging each other all day during Leg 1 as we were basically moving at around the same pace, and Blair’s suggestion just made a lot of sense. It was completely dark as we checked out and started moving around 730PM. <br />Checkpoint 1 at Gateway Store, (Mile 36) to Checkpoint 2 at MelGeorges Resort (Mile 72). The terrain coupled as an all-night movement made the 36 miles to MelGeorges a pretty challenging leg. I was glad that Blair had made the suggestion to execute together throughout the entire duration. As we chatted and got to know each other a little over the first few miles leaving Gateway, the terrain changed from mostly flat to mostly small hills and ridges, just as Anton had briefed in the Pre-race briefing and at the Equipment check in on Sunday. There were only a couple of ridgelines of ½ to ¾ mile ascents that we climbed up over; it was mostly small, steep hill after small, steep hill after small steep hill. We’d haul our sled uphill for about 3-5 minutes and then outrun the sled down the backside of the hill time after time after time. It turns out that I used my dominate foot, my right foot, for most of my downhill breaking and I surmise that this led to the only blister I developed in the whole event; just a surface blister that pretty much covered a 1.5 to 3 inch wide area on the ball of my foot. I also rolled my right ankle running downhill at one point around 3AM and again around 6AM. <br />As predicted in weather reports, the temperature really dropped between 0200 and 0300, probably somewhere close to -20. I had called my wife at home much earlier during Leg 2 when I had cell coverage; when we made a quick stop around 0330 just past Shelter 5, it was just a lot colder as I was futzing around in my sled without a glove on than it was a 1030 when I had taken my glove off to call Lisa. That was one of the main reasons Blair and I made very little stops. We passed several racers off the trail at shelter 4 around the fire about 9.5 miles out from Gateway and several more in sleeping bags at Shelter 5 about 10 miles out from MelGeorges, but we just kept moving on. We were making good, consistent time at around a 17 minute pace, and just wanted to get to Checkpoint 2. The trek really started to stretch out after about 0300, and I was indeed fortunate to be moving with Blair, because he kept up a consistent pace the whole length into Elephant Lake. I did my level best just to draft along behind him. We only saw a couple other racers after 0330 until we finally reached the cabin at Checkpoint 2. <br />It was still dark when we hit the east end of Elephant Lake around 0645 but it was starting to get light out. Psychologically, the two-plus miles of movement across to the west end of Elephant Lake and MelGeorges Resort seemed to be the longest part of the trip and it was broad daylight when we finally pulled in at about 0730. All in all, I had hoped to make MelGeorges in 24 hours by 0700, so I was both pretty pleased and a little surprised to be there at 0730, but I was completely smoked at that point. That was just 71.75 miles into the race according to Garmin.<br />Checkpoint 2 at MelGeorges Resort. The cabin checkpoint contained about 10-12 other racers when we checked in, with a couple of young lady volunteers offering to make breakfast and offering other food. I was pretty tired of this point. One of the girls asked me if I would like eggs and bacon, or pizza or several other options and my best answer was “yes.” I immediately dozed off in a chair and the arrival of some bacon and eggs awoke me. We took advantage of a pre-race offer from the Navy Academy team, led by two-time finisher Luke Finney, to crash for a couple hours in the team’s cabin next door. I slept for about a total of ninety minutes. All in all, we were back on the trail after some much needed food, short rest and gear adjustments that included another Forerunner 305 re-charge, and back on the connector trail at 1030 AM. <br />Checkpoint 2 at MelGeorges Resort (Mile 71+) to Individual ENDEX. As we moved out of MelGeorges Resort on the connector trail leading away from the west end of Elephant Lake and back onto the Arrowhead, Day 2 was already shaping up to be a beautiful day. Based against how wiped out I felt pulling into Checkpoint 2 at 0730, I was both pleased and encouraged by how much better I felt and my overall level of recovery after 3 hours or so at MelGeorges once we got back on the trail. I had finished my 64-ounce Camelbak on Leg 1 and again on Leg 2, and had consumed a lot of fluids at both Checkpoints and I didn’t feel dehydrated at all. I’d been steadily consuming the 5 lbs of trail mix and cashews I started the race with and seemingly had plenty to eat at both Checkpoints. <br />The longest distance I had accomplished in any event prior to Arrowhead had been 73 miles at the Iroquois 100 in September of 2008. Basically, 2 miles beyond MelGeorges was all new territory for me, so to speak. That was motivating and very encouraging setting out from Checkpoint 2.<br />Once away from the lake itself out off the connector trail and back on Arrowhead, the route immediately resumed the up and down characteristics of almost all of Leg 1 for the first ten kilometers until we crossed the MelGeorges Resort access road. One hill in particular at mile 74+ was distinctly worth mentioning. It resembled a ski slope as it very steeply climbed for over 1/3 of a mile and then leveled out as it climbed for a ways more. <br />Once across the access road, Arrowhead ran pretty much on a mostly level plane for what seemed like 5-6 miles before the trail starting encountering ridge after ridge again. The weather for all intensive purposes on Day 2 was terrific. The sun came out periodically and the temperature probably hit the high teens to maybe even 20 degrees. I even stowed my windbreaker for a couple hours and trekked in long sleeves. We continued to move along in that leap-frogging pattern as racers would surge past and then pass those same racers again a couple miles up the trail as they paused for whatever purpose. I moved at a slower pace all through Day 2, between 18 to 19 minutes per hour as opposed to 16 or 17 on Day 1, at least until I started to really struggle later that night.<br />It started getting dark again just after 5PM or so and the temperature continued to drop. I again noticed an interesting weather effect once it was completely dark and the temperature had to be below -10. The moisture in the air crystallized into what looked like miniature snowflakes; on Night 1 when this happened I thought it was snowing at first, but the sky was completely clear. It was just the moisture in the air freezing into miniature ice follicles. I’d never actually seen that effect before. This left a light layer of frost over our outer clothes and equipment as we moved along. <br />Somewhere after the 92 mile point I really started to struggle; it was probably after 2100 and the overall event had worn me out almost completely at that point. I knew I was true when I rolled my right ankle again for about a 3rd time overall running downhill ahead of the sled when I stepped into a rut. It seemed like almost immediately when I then rolled the left ankle in the same venue. The ankle piece wasn’t a medical consideration factor; I just knew I was pretty tired at that point. Around midnight, I kept having to working to negotiate hills without backsliding and was having just about the same troubles moving downhill. I’d steadily been consuming trail mix, water and even peanut butter straight from the jar but felt like I wasn’t gaining anything back. I took breaks around 98 miles and again at 100 miles but it was so cold it was painful to stop as well. I was sure leaving Checkpoint 2 at MelGeorges that if I could stretch myself and my limits to Checkpoint 3, the Wakemup Tipi, I’d be able to recover from there after some rest and Re-Set, warm up a little and finish the last 23 miles or so over the flat terrain to Fortune Bay. That, at least was my planned intent, but by 100, it was pretty obvious I didn’t have enough left to make it to Checkpoint 3 at Mile 112. At 102 miles, I pulled out my sleeping bag in order to get some sleep, and then keep moving, but after 30 minutes of rest, it was too hard to get moving again. <br />Sled EXFIL. The support teams on snowmobiles were constantly moving back and forth over the course along with their compatriot who was moving amongst the racers on foot as well. When I made the final decision to drop, a big guy named Craig, I believe, gave me a lift out on a huge snowmobile to include a trailer to carry my sled. Fortunately, he had an extra, heavy duty jacket he lent to me or I would have been a frozen block of ice adhered to the passenger seat in the sled; we were traveling that fast headed out to Tipi. That 11 mile sled trip seemed like a combination of an Olympic downhill loge and Space Mountain at Disney world. That said, I wanted to go faster to get done and off the sled. Dropping was a painful decision, but as we passed several racers still in the course in that 11 mile stretch to Tipi, it was also painfully obvious how far back I had dropped behind several racers I had been moving among earlier, and how challenging most of the terrain still was until just a couple miles out from Tipi. I was even more smoked when we got to Checkpoint; Jim Bodah was still there as I believe he had set up there taking pictures of racers coming through the Checkpoint. Jim gave me a ride into Fortune Bay from Tipi in his van. <br />Post-Race Notes and Lessons Leaned.<br />- 102 total racers toed the start line, with 61 finishing the event. 19 of 45 foot division participants completed the course, with Zach Gingerich setting a new course record of 37:59 hours. Eric Johnson came in 2nd this year to go along with his win from last year. 4 of 5 skiers completed the event with Jim Reed coming in first in 52:47. 38 of 52 mountain bikers led by Jeff Oatley in 16:17. Janice Tower of Alaska set a new female bike completion record by finishing in 26:46. <br />- Pierre and Cheryl are working very hard to grow the Arrowhead Ultra with some good support from International Falls and the Minnesota DNR. The Arrowhead Ultra definitely conforms to the description “Epic” even in a day and age where we tend to lend lofty descriptions to more average undertakings. 131 miles through the National forests in NE Minnesota in the dead of winter; I was amazed by the efforts and physical and mental ability and toughness exhibited by everyone out there. <br />- I did get to spend some significant time with Pierre Ostor. Pierre gave me a lot of free input and excellent advice on a lot of the challenges and finer points that are necessary in putting together Arrowhead; I was very grateful for that as I intend to RD an Ultra in northern New York after I retire from the Army, and just getting any information from the Race Director of such a challenging and successful event was terrific. <br />- I met a lot of new people participating in and supporting the race. I had traded email through the Ultralist with both Jim Bodah, from Florida, and Rodrigo Cerqueira, a member of the team from Brazil. As mentioned earlier, Jim had traveled all the way from Florida to volunteer in the event, and it was also impressive to meet people from as far away as Brazil, Alaska and even South Africa running in the event. I also met Ms. Shawn Mason, International Falls Mayor, at the Pre-Race dinner in support of the event.<br />- The Navy contingent. Pierre relayed to me how difficult it is for 1st timers to complete this event. I met a team of cadets from the Navy Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, put together by Cadet Luke Finney, a senior this year at Annapolis. Luke set a record last year as the youngest person, as yet to finish Arrowhead on foot, and he finished again for the second straight time this year. That’s a tremendously impressive feat well worth noting as very few people have accomplished it regardless of age or ultra experience. <br />- Training. Ultimately, Arrowhead is still on my “To Do” list, although I think I swore I’d never attempt it again while leaving the course. I still have a lot of weaknesses in Re-Setting and re-sustaining myself during an event longer the 50 miles and that did me in here. I have to continue to develop that. As far as physical training for Arrowhead, I think the following training points will definitely improve anyone’s chances on foot on the Arrowhead Trail: Obviously, lots of running, but also significant amounts of long distance rucking or hiking with a 40lb backpack, especially if you live in an environment where pulling a sled isn’t viable for many months of the year. Rucking is a very viable substitute. In fact, I can’t imagine completely Arrowhead without significant rucking-backpacking training. Weight-room and callisthenic work in major compound movements like lunges, squats and lots of upper-body training will help prevent sled induced breakdown and improve chances. Hill work. Racers cannot do enough hill-type training to be ready for Arrowhead either. <br /><br />Tim Hardy, Carthage, NY<br />1 March 2010Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1