Pre-Race Thoughts
I
plan on having a huge breakfast really early before making the 3 hour
drive to the race start. This will start my out pretty good on calories
and right before the race I will have the Ucan energy bar and a packet
of LMNT electrolytes. My aid bags each have a stinger energy chews, a
stinger waffle, a GU, LMNT drink mix. The middle aid bag has Cliff
Energy blocks (with caffeine) and a cliff bar in case I am wanting
something a little most substantial. The little white pills are salt
tabs to keep electrolytes up. I have no set time or methodology on
taking them, rather if its hot and/or I am sweating a lot from climbing I
will take some. I will likely not eat/use all of what I am bringing but
I also always bring extra. Also pictured is my Nathan 2L hydration
vest. I will start the run with the first stack of waffles, GU's, chews
in my vest and the other 3 stacks are aid bags along the way. This
course has minimal aid and you pretty much bring what you want/need
during the race. I remember last year there was water, Gatorade,
someone made cookies, a few bags of chips, and oranges. That was about
the extent of the available supplies. This is a free event so I do not
expect much and cant complain. The aid stations are also quite a ways
apart. The first aide station is at mile 13.4 after some massive climbs
and I will estimate slow mileage (15min/mile pace) so about 4mile/hour.
This means it will take me around 3 hours to get to the first aide bag. I
remember last year even with a full 2L bladder by the time I made it to
the first aide station I had drank it all so I must be cautious here
again. Each aid station is round about 10 miles from the previous (give
or take a mile or 2) so I will have to carry what I need for about 2-3
hours between stations. I also will wear the Saucony TR15 shoes for the
whole race. This year I will bring along some trekking poles. I learned
last year that poles are almost required for this race and will be more
prepared this year. I will have poles although I have never physically
used this set of poles before so they may not work out the best, only
time will tell. My last poles broke during the Old Dominion 100 and this
is all I have at the moment. And lastly baby wipes. You never know when
your going to need baby wipes during a 8+ hour run in the middle of
nowhere. This wraps up today's log, tomorrow I will run the Martha Moats
Baker race and create a separate detailed race report for the event.
Early Morning Start
Race day is upon me. It is August 13th, 2022, at 2:00 AM when my alarm begins to sound. I am used to waking early but this is early even when compared to my standard 4:00 AM wake up time. I had slept for 4 hours and 53 minutes. This would have to do. I shaved, brushed my teeth, and got dress quickly before heading downstairs to do my final packing for the race. I had to warm up my breakfast that I had precooked the day before for expediency, pour some cold brew coffee, and fill up my bladder for my hydration vest. I quickly packed the car with all my supplies and headed out. I was on the road by 2:30 AM to make the 3.5-hour drive to the race start. As I began the drive, I was eating my breakfast, drinking some electrolytes, and mentally preparing for the race. I knew I was going to push a bit harder on the race this year than last year to test my fitness level but not quite give it 100% effort either. I have a 100-mile race I am doing in a month and don’t want to injure myself here.
As I rolled into the race parking lot it was already full. I had arrived around 6:30 AM and the start time was 7:00 AM. I did my last-minute checks on my gear, laced up my running shoes and headed to the race director to drop off my supplies and pick up my race bib. As the race director was giving his quick overview of the course he casually finished with “well guys it’s about 7AM so go ahead and start”. There was no official line up at the start line, countdown, everyone starts at once. We went from being crowded around the race director in a semi-circle to let’s go ahead and start this very casually. I started my watch and took off running very conservatively.
The First Aid Station
The race starts on a very short segment of road that’s about 200 yards before turning right on to a trail and heading up the mountain. Now I remember this mountain because of how bad it messed me up the previous year. I was not prepared for the elevation or challenge previously and by the time I had peaked it I was wrecked. I knew what was coming this year and hoped that my year of training (although almost strictly flat land) had better prepare me for the challenge this year. I started off in second place right off the bat, but I had zero intentions of trying to hold that place by any means. The first 7 miles are uphill with about 500ft of elevation gained per mile. My goal was to maintain a good pace but not to wreck myself either. I had a few guys pass me (probably about 4) and I just let them go. It was way to early to push hard and I knew if I pushed to hard, I wouldn’t have the legs to be able to efficiently run the downhills and I wanted to make up some ground there. Over the first 7 miles I averaged between 10:50-14:50 min/mile on the climbs and my watch does pace adjustment to compensate for the hills and it calculated that to 8:37-9:51 min/ mile when factoring in the elevation climbed.
During the climb I quickly pulled away from most of the other races behind me but kept my distance behind the runner in front of me. I didn’t want to let him out of my sight which is difficult in a mountain race with a lot of turns, elevation, and vegetation. He could be 200-300 yards in front of me and I would be unable to see him. I tailed him for quite some time even though his pace was probably just a bit faster than I would have like to of run. I eventually caught up to him and we shared the next 7 miles or so together. We chatted about running, work, the mental side of running, intra race nutrition planning, etc. It was nice to get to talk to someone and have a partner for a bit. After we peaked the mountain there was some runnable downhills around miles 8-10 and we kept around an 8:30 pace as we went. Miles 11-13 was uphill again, and the first aid station was right at mile 13 (12.8 I believe). We grabbed some water, pulled aid from our drop bags, and began the descent.
I remember this first section in my previous running of the race had beaten me up pretty good. I remember I ran out of water, overexerted, and blew out my hamstrings, was cramping pretty good and it had taken me 3 hours and 14 minutes to make it to the first aid station. This year I still had water left, was in good spirits, and it only took me 2 hours and 36 minutes. I expected to do better this year with better overall fitness but covering the same distance and elevation in almost an hour faster and still feeling good about it felt great.The Second Aid Station
Leaving the aid station and heading back down the other side of the mountain we came into some pretty technical and rocky terrain. It was difficult to run it even though it was downhill. A few miles into the downhill my running buddy had pulled off to pee and I got a bit ahead of him. I decided to do the same and he caught back up with me but pulled ahead. I ran another mile or so tailing him but then decided it best to take 20 seconds to sit, untie my shoes, dump them out, clean socks out, and lace back up. I tried to be really time efficient about it but once I began running again, I never saw my running buddy again. He had been pushing my pace a bit and I figured it was for the best for me to run my own race.
While I was running with him, I had been pushing the pace, so it was difficult to get calories in. I wanted to try to eat something every hour to keep up on my nutrition. I recently listed to some podcast that recommended 200-300 calories and hour and I was going to give that a shot. I had not realized that getting calories in when pushing the pace and being a bit more competitive is pretty hard to do. During the climbs my heart rate would get elevated, and I had trekking poles in my hands powering up the mountain so that was not an ideal time to eat. But likewise on the descents I was running quicker and had to watch my every step as I made my way down the mountains and could not afford to eat then either. In the end there was never a good time to eat to I just tried to be as efficient as I could with calories trying to not let it slow my down much.
This section of the course was primarily downhill but rather technical in many places. I still have not figured out how to efficiently run downhill when it is steeper and more technical. I know I lost a bit of time here due to know being a real efficient downhill mountain runner. I liked using my poles because it game me more points of contact which helped me feel stable and if I tripped up on some rocks, I could catch myself with the poles. But I also know the poles were slowing me down on the descents, so I kept transitioning back and forth between running with them and without. In this section I averaged and 11:30-12:00 pace through the rocky terrain.
I did completely run out of water on this section of the race but luckily, I was within 1 mile of the aid station and got filled up there. The aid station was at mile 22.7. Here was the first bit of substantive “food” I had. It was only a cliff bar but even that was more calorie dense than the sports nutrition chews/gu’s I had been taking previously. While I was gathering stuff from my aid bag and refilling my water, I asked the aid station workers what the next section looked like and was told it was rolling hills that I would enjoy. I quickly gathered my stuff and headed out.
This is where the course deviated a bit from the previous years so direct comparison to my old times becomes difficult. According to the race website “two new sections have been added to the course, on either side of the new aid station #2”. I would like to say I was probably still running about an hour faster than my previous years’ time but am uncertain on the specifics with the course changes.
The Third Aid Station
These supposed rolling hills in the next section were rolling but with a general upward trend. Over the next several miles I averaged 200-300 ft of elevation gain per mile. This was not as steep as the big climb at the beginning of the race and less technical but uphill regardless. I was averaging between 12:36-15:15 pace on the climbs. It was here that I tried to catch up a bit on my calories. I at the cliff bar, took some salt tabs, at some energy chews trying to catch up on what I had burned. The course was also only rolling because of the mass amount of mountain bikers. There was so many ups and downs used primarily by the many mountain bikers that was flying down the mountain as I was climbing. I kept having to step out of the way for fear of being run over by a biker flying down the mountain. And when the aid station worker said I would enjoy the rolling hills I genuinely believed him, but I did not enjoy this section. I did have 1 runner pass me in this section and he pasted me quickly. He was running uphill and didn’t miss a beat. I hadn’t even heard him he came up behind me so fast and as quickly as he had caught up, he was gone and out of sight. I was pretty impressed with his ability to run uphill at this point in the race. I hadn’t seen anyone else for miles.
After climbing for about 3 miles, it turned relatively flat at the peak then came the descents on the back of this mountain. This downhill was more runnable (again primarily used by bikers so relatively smooth although hilly) and I was maintaining around a 10:00 minute pace per mile at this point. The hilly bike path eventually worked its way down to a legitimate dirt road that I followed for about 1 mile before getting to the next aide station. I was beginning to get tired here (30.2 miles in) but I also was motivated to hurry and get it over with.
The Home Stretch
While at the final aid station I asked what the next section looked like and was told it was the same as last years. There was some initial shock and despair as last year I had completely fallen apart on this section. It is very steep, technical, and after you have been running for miles and are exhausted. Once again, I re-shouldered my pack and headed out knowing this next section was going to be rough. Within the first mile I had already climbed 784ft of elevation. I started getting really hot in the section. Not only was my body heating up from the climb, but it was a bit past 12:00 and getting hot outside. I could hear and feel the blood pounding in my head as I climbed. I reflected on the previous year how I was unable to continue and had to sit several times and take breaks just to get up the mountain. I was determined this year but even then, it is a big hill. Someone had stacked some nice rocks against a tree making a bench on the hillside that was just to inviting to pass up. I took a seat but only sat for literal seconds before I was up again. I was not going to let this mountain defeat me again.
As I continued up there was a peak with a really nice view. I pulled out my phone to take a picture and as I was putting it up, I took a step forward and heard something. It only took a split second to realize I heard the rattle of a rattle snake and instantly started back peddling. I had not even seen it yet but hearing that warning when I walked forward was all I needed to know. It was telling me don’t come this direction or I am going to have to bite you and I listened to the warning. As I back peddled, I stumbled around a bit on the rocky terrain. Once I gathered my footing and could stand still at a safe distance, I started looking for the snake. I had to continue the trail, but I had to find it to safely navigate around it. As I spotted it in a rock crevice just mere feet in front of me it rattled again. At least I saw it was out of striking distance. I quickly worked my way around it as I continued the trail.
The scenic spot I decided to take a picture at was a peak of a mountain and I thought that meant I had peaked it……but this was just a smaller peak on my way up the bigger mountain. I continued grinding upward ever so slowly till I reached another peak. I thought this must be it as it was leveling out. I started jogging again just to run to another climb. It felt like no matter how many peaks I reached it was never the actual top of the mountain and I would have to continue climbing. The aid station worker had told me it was about 3 miles up then a 4-mile run down to the finish. It ended up being over 3.5 miles up to the final peak of the mountain before I began the descent. At this point I was hot and tired. I had been drinking amply from my camel-back to ensure I stayed hydrated during the heat of the day and the long climbs.
From the peak it was supposedly 4 miles of runnable downhill to the finish (according to the previous aid station volunteer). Runnable is a relative term and means the same thing to different people. When I think of a runnable surface, I picture something similar to the flat, paved running of a coastal city like where I live. I can deal with a few bumps, rocks, hills, but when the terrain gets rocky and technical, I slow down quite a bit on the descents. I find it I guess less runnable than other runners who are literally running it. Before I began the descents there was some relatively flat running across the top of the mountain first. This was runnable in the fact that it wasn’t to technical footing but very overgrown and bushy. While running both shoulders are brushing past trees constantly, that’s how narrow the trail was. In many places the smaller trees and bushes had overgrown to the point were you just lowered your head and pushed through them. I could see the trail if I looked down but looking straight ahead was just a tangled mess of overgrown brush I would have to run through. After running through a bit of brush I started to actually descent the mountain.
At first it was a little runnable but the longer I went the less I was running, and the terrain seemed to grow worse (or maybe I was just getting more tired). I went to pull a sip from my hydration vest bladder and sucked rubber. It was empty and I still had about 3-4 more miles to go and was sweating quite profusely from climbing the mountain. This was going to be an issue. The terrain was not the most conducive to running and with no water left I did not want to push the pace to hard on the last few miles. The last thing I needed was to hurt myself going to fast downhill or push to hard without water and risk dehydration and passing out. I was only going downhill at around a 13:00 min/mile pace due to the terrain but felt like I was moving decently. I got curious at one point as to how much running was left so I pulled out my phone that I had the GPX file on and saw to much dismay that I had missed a turn, or so I thought. I had the blue line showing the course I should be on and my blue dot (my current location) to the right of that line. I had not seen any turns and had been going downhill as described by the aid station volunteers. I was not too far off, but my location dot looked to be paralleling the trail I should have been on. I turned back (which unfortunately meant I had to go back uphill) to try and correct my mistake. As I turned back and watch my location indicator get closer to the trail, I did not see a turn or alternative trail so I started second guessing my GPS. I though maybe it was just a bit off and I was actually on the trail and the maps were off. I started back down the trail I just came from a second time. I kept an eye on my phone and realized again that this was most definitely not where I should be. I turned back and went up hill once again to try to correct my mistake. This time I went even further up the hill and as I approached where my turn should have been I saw two runners coming at me. About the same time, I saw the turn I had missed. I warned the runners to not go where I had come from and instead that the correct turn towards the finish. They seemed to be moving faster than I was and motivated to finish while I had just made the same wrong turn twice, was out of water and quickly dehydrating, and quite demoralized by my mistakes. I let them take the lead and did not even try to catch them.
The Finish Line
I had been pushing kind of hard the last 5 miles or so. Not hard in the sense that I was running fast but as the finish line was approaching, I started slacking off on my calories and I had no water so eating without drinking anything would be difficult. My thought process was all I have left is a few miles and I can push through without having to eat, I will just eat when I am done. No point in slowing to eat with just a few miles to go. After making the correct turn and letting the two guys pass me, I was at a low point probably nutritionally, in hydration, and mentally. I just had a hard time pushing the last few miles in the shape I was in, so I slowed even more. My tongue was dry, it was impossible to swallow, and I still had at least 2 miles to go on some rocky terrain. I tired just nose breathing and keeping my mouth closed to preserve any single bit of moisture I had in my mouth. I was crawling down the mountain at the 16:30 min/mile pace at this point. I just wanted to get the damn race over with so I could get a drink. I kept thinking as soon as I finish there will be water available, and I can start rehydrating.
Finally, the finish line came into sight. By finish line (there was no official line) I mean a few guys sitting in camping chairs drinking beer out in the woods. The important part was there were coolers of water and Gatorade as well. As I finished the race director took a picture of me and I haven’t seen it yet, but I bet I looked pretty disgruntled. One of the beer drinking onlookers said “your supposed to smile” and I tried to tell him I would if I could but my mouth was so dry I couldn’t form words. I had to get a cup first and get something to wet my mouth before attempting to talk. The sweet, cold, Gatorade in my cup was amazing. After getting a drink down I was able to talk. I was offered a variety of beers and whisky to drink as I settled down into a camping chair (not sure whose chair it was). As dehydrated as I was the last thing on my mind was alcohol. I needed actual hydrating fluids. I sat for about 5-10 minutes and chatted with the guy I had ran half the race with and a few others. I gave my thanks to the race director for putting the race on, shook his hand and headed to my car.
There were no awards, finisher items, ceremony, etc. Just a few other finishers drinking beer, hanging out in the woods. When I got to my car, I stripped off my shoes, socks, and all my clothes. There were no facilities around, but I was in middle of the woods and did not care. I changed into a fresh set of clothes and sat down to drive home. It was going to be another 3.5-hour drive home and I just wanted to get home as quickly as possible.
Post-Race Reflections
I did
it, again. Last year it took me 9 hours and 43 minutes to go approximately 33.81
miles covering 7,362ft of elevation at an average pace of 17:13/mile. This year
it took me 8 hours and 27 minutes to cover 37.94 miles with 8,169ft of elevation
at an average pace of 13:23/mile. Essentially, I covered about 4 more miles,
700ft more of elevation and still came in 1 hour and 16 minutes faster than my
previous running of the race. That is the improvement I had hoped to see in my
1 year of progress since I really started running. Part of the progression is
physical. I am definitely in better shape at this point in my life than the
previous year. Trekking poles this year also gave me an advantage I did not
have last year. I love my poles for climbing and will use them in any mountain
race that allows me to. I would also say that a lot of the improvement was mentally
as well. Knowing I am more experienced, I have completed bigger harder
challenges (100-mile race) and that I am capable of so much more really helps
fuel me through the race. I hate that I had a low point about 3 miles from the
finish because I almost made it through the whole race feeling good. The
majority of the run was a positive experience in which I kept my wits about me
and kept moving forward at a pretty good pace. If I am still living in this
area next year, I will try the run again and hopefully improve even more than
this year.Nutrition
I tired to eat every hour and kept to it mostly till around hour 6.5 or 7 when I gave up on eating to just push through and finish the race. I will attempt to list out the food/supplements used throughout the race as I remember them.
8-10 salt tabs
2 GU’s
2 GU energy chew packs
2 Stinger waffles
1 Cliff bar
3 packets of LMT electrolytes
½ pack of Cliff energy chew bloks
Training Impacts/Changes
I am training for the Grindstone 100-mile race in about a month. Running the MMBT 60k showed me that I need more elevation training. Living in flat lands this is terribly hard to do without driving 2-3+ hours away from coastal lands to get to some mountains. I think I will start walking on my treadmill at home for probably 1 mile or so at a pretty steep incline 6-10% every night after dinner. I also think I will incorporate 1 day of training every week that is dedicated to climbing elevation. I will use a 20-35lbs ruck and hike on the treadmills at work at in incline for a more extended duration to simulate hiking mountains. Granted this does not factor in the rough terrain and footing that is encountered during mountain races or the descents (that I know I need to work on) but hopefully doing this in conjunction with my other running will better prepare me for Grindstone. It in only 32 days till Grindstone and I am still recovering from the MMBT 60k but ready to get back to training to fully prepare for Grindstone.
