Grindstone 100 - 2022 Race Report

 

Grindstone 100

        Where do I begin..... Lets start with the eloquent words describing the course from the Eco-x official website. "Grit, endurance, temporary loss of sanity. You might need all of these if you want to attempt Grindstone. If you want to finish, well, just keep in mind this is, without a doubt, the hardest 100 miler east of the 100th meridian". These words rang out so true during my first ever running of the Grindstone 100 in 2022.

Pre- Race

        My day began at 0800 on September 16th. This was race day, the day I had been preparing for for months. I had attempted to sleep in as much as physically possible because of the impending sleep deprivation that was going to be in my near future. I woke up in my comfy Marriott hotel bed, made my way downstairs to grab some breakfast then headed back up to my room. It was early in the day and the first mandatory event for the day was a 2:00 PM race briefing so I had time to kill. Wanting to be as rested as possible and staying off my feet I kicked back in the bed and watched some Netflix trying to pass the time without focusing or worrying about the pain in my near future.      

        I left my hotel around 12:00 to head to the Boy Scouts of America Camp Shenandoah campsite. This was to be the race headquarters and start line for the event. It was only about a 30 minute drive from my hotel and I grabbed a Subway sandwich on my way out there. When I arrived I started setting up my literal camp. Tents, RV's, camper vans, etc. littered the fields surrounding the camp site. I knew after the race I would crash out in my tent so I tired to prepare it the best I could. I laid everything out from food, hydration, and sleeping bag. I knew once I finished the race I would not have the energy to deal with any of this so while I had time to kill I tried to get it all set up. 

        When I made it to the 2:00 PM mandatory race briefing I realized it was not so mandatory. There was not any pertinent information put out at the meeting, very little referencing the course at all. It was mainly an event to just get everyone together and stoke the excitement in everyone about running. Some runners there had ran this race 4+ times already and at least 8+ people had ran 20 or more 100 mile races in their running careers. I always feel vastly under prepared and experienced when I am around such seasoned runners. The briefing was over by 2:30 PM and the race did not begin till 6:00 PM so I had several hours to kill. I went back to my tent to attempt to lay down and rest before the race but it was at least 85 degrees outside and in the tent with no airflow I was to hot. I was sweating a ton and not comfortable at all. I felt ridiculous sitting there sweating knowing I am about to start a 100 mile race. I gave up on the tent and just hopped into my car, cranked the A/C on and tried to get comfy. I had several hours to kill and my next time was 5:30 PM for a runner check in before the race. 

        At 5:15 PM I changed into my running shorts, shirt, shoes. I did some last minute gear checks to make sure I had everything I needed and walked over to the start line. Runner check in went quickly and there was a lot of energy in the air. There were around 300 runners, many had pacers and/or family and crews out to support them so there were several hundred people around all excited that the event was about to begin. 10 minutes before the race began we started to get corralled into the starting area. People were getting their watches ready, taking last minute pictures, and all about to undertake a massive challenge. The anticipation and energy in the air was electric. As the final seconds were counted down an adventure of lifetime was beginning. At 6:00 PM exactly we started the race. 

The Beginning 

        GO! And we were off! Except there were so many people it was a walk right off the bat as everyone got going. The walk turned into a very slow jog as we ran around the campsite headed towards the trails. The trail looped around the lake on the campsite and headed into the woods. It was immediately narrow single track trails that did not afford the option to pass anyone. At first this was a bit frustrating because we were going incredibly slow but it is a long race and I knew I should preserve my energy early on so I took the slow pace as a blessing. I knew it would not be long till it began to get dark and I would have to click on my headlamp. My goal was to take advantage of the last light as much as I could. The first aide station was around mile 5.4. I had not drank much of my water at this point and I do not think I had eaten anything either. I grabbed a quarter section of a PB&J sandwich and kept moving forward. This is where we hit a pretty steep incline. Luckily it was on a gravel road it was just extremely steep (over 15% incline) and it seemed like it went forever. It was still early on and things were going as smooth as I had hopped for. 

        It was legitimate 5 miles uphill from the first aide station to a tower on top of the mountain. In the past they had a hole punch of some sort at the mountain that you punched your bib with to prove you had peaked the mountain before turning back and heading down. This year there was no punch, or sign, or anything really. They had used pink steamers to mark the trail and the only indicator was a pink steamer tied to the fence. I was pretty confused and was looking around for the next steamer to see which way I was supposed to be running. As I wandered around confused another runner yelled out your good man, head back down the mountain. I guess that was it, just peak it and turn around and come back down. This was about 2 hours into the race and it had started getting dark and headlamps were on. From here the next 12 hours I would be running in the dark only able to see the little circle of light in front of my feet. 

        Because of it being night time and running in the dark the next 30 miles were relatively unremarkable. I could not see much around me, it was getting late and I just kept running. Coming down the mountain from the tower I do remember getting in with a line of runners (probably 10 of us) going pretty quick down the mountain. I remember thinking I was moving at an unsustainable pace and would need to drop out of this group when able but the track was so narrow it was hard to step out of the way so I just kept with them to the next aide station. This brings us to the aide station around mile 14 or so. It was a smaller aide station but I grabbed some more quick food and water and started the next climb. Like I said this was mostly a blur, I do not even recall this descent, the next big climb, or the following descent. It was just a matter of moving forward regardless of pace, time, elevation, terrain etc. Just putting one foot in front of the other in the dark going up in down mountains through the forest. Not that I remember it but I know from the map that this is the section that connects to what is called The Wild Oak Trail ( the same section of trail I had ran previously during the Martha Moats Baker 60k). I did recognize a few sections of it, specifically a turn that I had never taken before that led up the mountain.

        Somewhere around mile 40 the trails connected to a dirt road that eventually turned to a paved road as it neared the top of the mountain. In this section I had a runner running towards me. As in he had already reached the halfway turn around point and was coming back to the finish. I was at mile 40 so I guess that means he was at mile 60 and he was running fast through the trails. It was really impressive that someone could be that far ahead of me and moving so easily through the trails. This was also back to a section I recognized and had climbed during the MMB 60k. This led to the top of Reddish Knob that was another of those spots that used to have a whole punch for your race bib to indicate that you had peaked the mountain that no longer had a punch. So i peaked the mountain, looked around and realized yup I guess this is where I turn around and headed back down the mountain. From here to the turn around was all paved which was much relief to me. I ran quite a bit of it and felt good coming into the halfway point. There is something about and out and back course. When your headed out you know you are only getting farther away from your finish line but once your on your way back every single step is bringing you closer to your destination. It is motivating to hit the halfway point and head back. It was beginning to become light enough I did not need the headlamp anymore and that was sweet relief.      

        The combination of being able to see more than a foot in front of my feet under headlamp and reaching the halfway point was motivating and I was excited to keep going. I caught up with a guy in front of me named Bart. He was from the Netherlands and had traveled to America specifically to run this race. That kind of motivation is inspiring. I lived only 3.5 hours from the race start. He had to jump through many more hoops to make running this race a reality like flying across the world, hotels, rental cars, passports, etc. The sheer amount of effort put in to make a race a reality is inspiring for those that travel great distances. We chatted for a while as we worked our way back down the mountains we had climbed. I had a stronger hiking/ uphill pace than he did but he was faster on the descents than I was. We leap leapfrogged each other several times till we hit a long technical downhill and he just barreled down it was i gingerly took each step trying to preserve my feet, knees, and muscles. 

        The downhills hurt me pretty badly. I am from Virginia Beach and am a flat land runner. 100% of my runs are on flat paved ground and I go fast and steady across easy surfaces. To help prepare for Grindstone I had worked many miles on my treadmill at a 10% incline and walked/hiked for miles uphill. I think I was fairly prepared for the climbing but I had nothing to prepare me for the downhills or the technicality of the trails. They were extremely steep, rocky, and unforgiving trails. I was not prepared for them at all. I would have much rather to climbed a mountain than to go down it at this point. From miles 55-80 there was 3,634ft of elevation gained and 5,831 feet of descent. That is a ton of downhill technical running for a flat land runner that never trains on this type of environment. My legs were shot at this point and I had 2 major climbs left. I was 24 hours into the race at mile 84 and working my way up a climb. I knew it would not be long till I needed my headlamp again as the sun was setting for the second time during my run. It was somewhere in this region I ran into my only wildlife I saw the entire race. There were two guys not far in front of me that had stopped and said there was a rattlesnake on the trail. It was getting dim outside and it took me a second to spot it even with them pointing at it. One of the guys asked me if I knew what to do as if I was a snake whisper or something and I said "yeah, leave it the hell alone". One of the guys had started working his way through some bushes to go around the snake when I showed up. I just held out my trekking pole towards the snake so if it lunged at anything it would be poles and not me and walked past it. I was within the length of my poles to it so probably like 3 feet but it did not move. It just stayed coiled up rattling its tail. I did not even care, I was on a mission. One foot in front of the other till I got to the finish line and nothing was going to slow me down. Not that I was going fast at this point but I was determined to keep moving.

        The first climb was steep and technical with an equally steep and technical downhill but nothing to notable besides it seemed like it took forever to cover any distance at all. For me to travel 1 miles seemed an eternity and it about 4 miles of climbing. In reality it took about 1 hour and 45 minutes to go the 4 miles and that is terribly slow. Not only was the climb steep but super rocky and technical. Then I had a small section of downhill before climbing again. This second climb is where things got weird. I had been running for over 24 hours at this point and awake for at least 34 hours and 85 miles into a race. The climb was never ending and only getting slower as I both tired and the darkness requiring the headlamp again slowed progress. As I eventually peaked the mountain it was completely dark at this point, I was smoked, and mentally I was losing cognitive ability. 

        I believe what actually happened was the sleep deprivation caught up to me. Yes, I was physically tired from running so much but I have never done an endurance event that kept me awake this long either. It was uncharted territory for me and my mind started drifting. It was not as thought it was drifting anywhere in particular rather my brain checked out for the night. I remember I kept thinking the terrain would have to become easier at the top of the mountain. Less rocks, would mean faster pace, which means getting this thing over with. As I peaked the mountain it was less steep but just as rocky. As mentioned I started losing the ability to focus on anything and kind of just drifted off mentally. I kept running although I did not know the pace, distances, last time I had eaten or drank. I was mentally checked out but physically still stumbling my way through it. I kept waiting for the rocks to get out of the trail and to find something more runable thinking it had to happen eventually but it never seemed to happen. I ran was seemed like in circles for an eternity on top of that mountain without knowing if I was actually going anywhere or if I was literally running circles. I did not see any other runners, I had no concept of how much time had passed or the distance I had covered, I just kept going. 

        Although I did not see any other runners I did see a lot of things although most of them were not actually there.  The rocky mountain side had a ton of moss growing on the rocks. The rocks are a bit darker color and the moss was lighter so when I would look ahead under headlamp the moss would pop brightly from my light shining on it. In my delirious state the moss kept looking like people, crowds of people, random shapes and patterns, man made structures, and all sorts of vague weird stuff. None of it was real detailed or specific but also none of it was real. It was my mind playing tricks on me in my sleep deprived,exhausted state. I knew it was not real but it did not matter, it did not make it go away. Every time as i got closer whatever I was seeing would melt into what it actually was which was typically just moss or a few trees clustered together that make a weird shape from far off. 

        Eventually I broke out of this purgatory of never ending torture to find myself once again on the very steep dirt road I had climbed early on in the race. Except this time I was many more miles into the race and going down the hill instead of up. And this was painful. Every step going downhill hurt terribly, it was to steep to run and even walking I kept sliding as the dirt and gravel shifted under my feet. I kept thinking I was going to fall any second now as I gingerly worked my way down this steep dirt road. I knew I was nearing the end of the race but I was not done yet either. The terribly steep dirt road eventually turned to trails again. I kept trying to run but was barley able to get my legs moving fast enough to run. I made it the final aide station around mile 95. 

        There were a few guys at this aide station that I guess got there before me. They were talking and referenced running the last bit to make it in a sub 30 hour finish time. I had not had any specific goals during the race besides finishing but upon hearing their goals I thought well I might as well shoot for that as well.  I headed out on the final 5 miles excited that I was almost done and might even get sub 30 hour finish. Well this excitement was very short lived. Fresh and on flat land 5 miles would only take me like 35 minutes but this final 5 miles took my 1 hour and 41 minutes to complete. I realized early on that 5 miles at this point seems like 50 miles. It was just never ending. I was running on trails that I did not remember or recognize even though I ran out on these same trails 29 hours ago. A few guys got real motivated near the end and passed me going quicker than I could move. I would guess at least 10 people passed me in this final 10 mile stretch. I was demoralizing to see them pass me this close to the end but they clearly had more energy left in the tank than I did and there was no way I was going to be able to keep up with them. I have a really bad habit of doing this on all my runs. I have a pretty good pace and placement overall and I let it slip at the end as I just can not seem to go fast enough and I always get passed by quite a few people at the end. 

        Although getting passed was demoralizing the thought of being done was keeping me moving. In this last 5 mile section I had a guy running right behind me that I asked him to pass me because his headlamp was so much brighter than mine that it was casting the shadow of my body in front of me rendering my headlamp useless. I ran behind him for a bit which was not to bad till I eventually had to stop and drop my pack to pull by backup headlamp out. The one I had one was dying and was barley illuminating anything at this point. After swapping headlamps I kept running on unfamiliar trails even though I had ran out on the same trails. There was a decent climb that I did not recall coming down on at all. And then the trails seemed to zig-zag a bit through the woods and if you had asked me I would have sworn we were coming in on a different trail than the way we left because I did not remember any of it. I eventually broke out of the woods onto some familiar ground. It was called the perimeter trail that went around the lake and back into the camp. From here it was probably half a mile or so to the finish and I saw several headlamps coming from behind me. I am not sure how I made my legs work but I started running and was not going to let those last few guys pass me before I crossed the finish line. I felt like I was really moving at this point and think my pace was around 12 minute/mile pace which is slow but felt quick at this point. I finally crossed the finish line at 30 hours and 2 minutes. I had just missed the sub 30 hour goal but did not care at all. I had done it, I was finished and could stop running. 

        Clark Zealand, the race director, was at the finish line giving out the finisher awards and handed me my buckle and congratulated me. I hung around for just a few minutes as the few guys behind me finished up just mere minutes behind me. It was a big accomplishment but I was so tired both physically and mentally I could not even celebrate or be happy as the only thought on my mind was I need to shower so I can go to sleep. I stumbled my way to my car which was parked right next to my tent. It was probably a quarter mile away from the main camp parking lot and from there it was another 0.1 miles or so to the showers. I drove my car over to the main lot getting as close to the showers as I could and stumbled my way into the shower. It felt good to was the grim and dirt from myself and become human again. After showering I brushed my teeth and make the incredibly painful walk back to my car to drive back to the tent. I crawled into my tent around 1:00AM or so and got a few hours of sleep. I had been up since 8:00 AM on Friday and it was now 1:00 AM on Sunday. That puts me being awake around 41 hours straight and running 100 miles up and down technical terrain and mountains in that time. I was so tired. 

        I was in my tent for about 5 hours but only slept for about 3 hours of it. I was very restless and uncomfortable even though I was tired. I was in pain and couldn't get comfortable enough to get good sleep. I then woke to break down my camp site and head to the celebration breakfast. I thought this was going to be a more formal event, maybe presenting the winners with their awards and giving them their recognition but it was literally just a breakfast. No ceremony, no speech, etc. When I had completed Old Dominion earlier this year it was a formal celebration awards breakfast after the race and I thought this would be something similar but it was not. I ate my food, chatted with a guy that had sat at my table then stumbled back to my car to make the 3.5 hour drive home. I had done it, I completed what is considered to be the hardest 100 mile race on the east coast.

Post Race Thoughts/ Reflections

        Sleep deprivation is a bitch. I do not think at any point in my life I had been so tired. There were times in the race I had convinced myself I needed a trail nap, just 5 minutes to lay to the side to clear my mind from the haze I was experiencing. I never did take a nap and I wonder if it would have helped as much as I have heard its helped others. I was more excited to finish the race to go to sleep than I was to get my belt buckle. I have ran 100 miles before but the last time I did it I was only awake for about 26 hours or so and the sleep deprivation did not have as much of an effect on me. The way this race is structured with a 6 PM race start means you've probably been up for many hours already before the race even begins. 

        For food on this race I ate any and all solid food I could get at aide stations. I ate at least 2 peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, tons of quesadillas, pancakes, bacon, sausages, perogies, salted watermelon, M&M's, and a ton of coke. I never drink soda but I knew I needed caffeine to help with mental clarity so at each aide station I would drink coke for the caffeine. All this was in conjunction with my sports supplements like LMNT electrolytes, GU gels, Stinger waffles, etc. If I could go back I would have added caffeine pills to my running gear to have a readily available source of caffeine. I think the high calorie intake kept me from ever hitting a real low low from being calorie deficient as I experienced in Old Dominion. I kept a steady stream of calories coming in and the only low I felt from from mental exhaustion from sleep deprivation.

        My training was very sub-optimal for this race. I had ran Old Dominion 100 earlier this year and trained similar for it. I did well at OD but that course is also about 85% paved or dirt roads. I have heard many people use road marathon training plans to prepare for OD because it is not real technical and this seemed to prepare me quite well for it. This same style of training did not adequately prepare me for Grindstone. Grindstone had very little road or easily runable surfaces, it was all technical trails and climbing/ descending mountains. My flat, fast, paved running I had done before the race did not prepare me for this. I could fake my way through OD with this style of training but not Grindstone.

        For gear I just used a single pair of shoes/ sock combo for the entire race. I did dump my shoes out several times but in hindsight I should have done the same to my socks as well. I guess dirt got into my socks and I just kept running on it and smashed it into my feet. The bottoms of my feet and pieces of dirt stuck into the skin I had to dig out post race. This made my feet quite tender and painful to walk on. I have a decent blister on my right heel and my left big toe is blackened due to continual kicking and stumbling over rocks with it. Other than those two spots my fee are in relatively good shape. They are swollen and walking hurts but do not seem to have suffered to much injuries. My legs obviously hurt, to include my knees but I I think in a few days it will work out and I will be back to normal. I think all the pain I feel is from use and nothing is injured or broken which is a relief. 

        For my next race I already have a 50 miler on my schedule in two weeks. I have not decided at this point if I will actually do it or not. It really all depends on how fast I can recover from this race if I will be ready to do another 50 in 14 days.