30 October 2010

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It was redemption time. I had had a couple of "bad" short distance races over the last couple of months and I really wanted to erase those bad memories as soon as possible. It would be a nice confidence builder anyway right before my big race next weekend. Last Fall and Summer I had been very close to breaking the 20 minute time for the 5K and I had fallen behind a little on those time goals. It's probably largely due to the fact that I had not done any speed training in the last few months, instead I had focussed on longer runs in preparation for my ultras. I had already promised myself to get back to speed trainign as soon as I completed my attempt at the 100 mile distance, but when I toe the line of a race, I always end up pushing for a PR. In short, I came pretty close today, finishing the 5K distance in 20:14 or so after having to "fight" my way through a field of 50 or so runners that had lined up in front of me. Usually I try to line up in the second or third row, but I somehow ended up more in the middle this morning. Anyway, that required me to really play catch up for much of the first half mile and my heart rate showed it. After I hit the 1 mile split, I was able to settle down in a consistent pace. Unfortunately, I settled at too slow a pace to go for a PR. Once I saw my 2 mile split, I picked up the pace again just a little to keep myself in the running. However, I pushed a little too late to break the 20 minute mark, instead finishing 38th overall out of a field of over 600 runners and third in my age group. No PR but a top three finish and I am quite happy. I am finally back closing in on my PR. Once I get back into speed training, I am sure the 20 minute mark will be broken. And now I get to mostly rest for a whole week before my 100 mile attempt.

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Just over a week to go before the Pinhoti 100. Richard and I met after work to do some trail running, getting in some hill work and night running at the same time. This was going to be our last effort training run before the big race, but we focussed on staying relaxed. The temps went down rather quickly as soon as the sun went down. We added a couple of new sections to our usual Ranger Station Out & Back adding sections of the Sinks Trail and Cold Springs Trail to our usual route. We ended up running a little over 10 miles in just over 2 hours. This run gave us another change to run very technical trails in complete darkness, just like we expect to encounter during the Pinhoti trail run. I ended up not taking a water bottle and I had no hydration or fatigue issues whatsoever during the run. However, my achilles tendons were pretty tender after the run, not sure where that came from. I have never had issues with that before. The only thing left before our big race is a little "tempo run" on Saturday morning, the Spooktacular 5K in downtown Huntsville. After that, we will only go for one more 6 miler Monday morning and a nice casual 5 mile jog/walk Wednesday morning to keep the legs loose. It's all about rest now.

26 October 2010

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The plan was to go up Monte Sano to the ranger station for a nice 10 mile out & back. However, Richard's legs were shot (probably still after effects of the 50 miler last week) and we ended up cutting the run in half, which was perfectly finew with me. We still got some hill workout in and we are not killing ourselves in the process. With Pinhoti  barely two weeks away, tapering is the word of the day, every day, anyway. We'll try for another easy jog tomorrow just to keep the legs turning over. The weather was unseasonably warm this morning, in the mid 70s. And that after a serious thunderstorm yesterday and another one on the horizon for later today. I ended up running in my second pair of Montrail Mountain Masochists that I bought last week. I am trying to break them in before Pinhoti, so I can use them in my drop bag at mile 50 together with a new pair of socks. That should help minimize foot problems as well. The small blister problem I had after North Face has all but dissappeared. I cut away the skin layer on top to eliminate any friction during my training runs and that has worked. I am sure the area will toughen up just in time for the 100 miler.

25 October 2010

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One word: taper. Two weeks until the Pinhoti 100 and I am getting excited and nervous all at the same time. I know I am in way over my head, but I want to give it a shot. I promised myself that if I can just finish the race somehow within the 30 hour cutoff during my first attept, I will do whatever it takes to actually push for pace in my next event. I am still learning to handle the miles on my legs. I feel once I have managed to run these distances, I can then start to focus on getting faster. Anyway, today was day one of the final two weeks of taper. I went for a short and easy 4 1/2 miler with my fiancee Anya, who just so happens to prepare for her first half marathon in January. It had rained all night, so the temps were nice and cool, perfect for running. We chose the usual UAH loop. I am still feeling the effects of the 50 miler from a week ago, but I feel that I am recovering and tapering nicely. Two more weeks to heal up, rest up, to taper and stay loose. I plan to start itemizing my drop bags and their content over the next few nights.

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After resting most of the week with only a short run on Monday, I decided to plan for a run while at a soccer tournament in Memphis, TN for the weekend. Turns out they have a great little trail system in the heart of Memphis and its suburbs including paved and unpaved trails along the Wolf River as well as multipler park systems connecting different greenways throughout Memphis. I opted to run a trail section along the Wolf River, aptly called the Wolf River Trail. I chose to go for a 10 mile out & back run at 7AM and there were hardlty any folks out running on these trails aside from a couple of other cars parked at the trailhead. The unpaved trails run along the North side of the river and the paved trails run along the South side of the river. Not having run here before, I was getting nervous every so often when I came upon a trail crossing. However, I just decided to always turn towards the river which should keep me right on track, and it did. This trail was really perfect for a run, it had a few very slight inclines and dips, just enough to keep you honest. Some trail sections must have previosuly been washed out as there were a number of what I would call sandboxes (trail areas filled in with soft beach like sand). These areas felt like you were running in quick sand, a great workout for sure. With the exception of a couple of powerline cuts the entire 5 mile section of trails that I ran was covered by a tree canopy. You were barely ever exposed to the sun while running alongside the river. Overall, it was a great trail run. I even managed to pass a couple of mountain bikers which was a weird feeling. They were struggling up a hill as I was "flying" past them;-) They wouldn't catch up to me for at least a quarter mile. I definitely made me pick up my pace for a time as I did not want to look like an idiot passing them on the uphill only to be immediately passed by them again. However, after a quarter mile, I slowed my pace and let them pass once they caught up to me. Hey, it was fun while it lasted. Once I made it to my 5 mile turnaround point, I started to come across a lot more runners that before. I guess these were the 8 AM runners finally hitting the trails for their morning runs. Lots more runner traffic than I usually witness on our local Monte Sano trails. I kept my pace above 9:30 minutes per mile, just the right pace for a recovery trail run during a taper week. Two more weeks of tapering before the big event, the Pinhoti 100 Endurance Run, my first attempt at a 100 mile race.

18 October 2010

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One word describes today's training run at lunch: recovery. I ended up running 4.5 miles with Richard and it felt much better than expected. We went at a very slow pace just trying to loosen up our legs from Saturday's 50 miler. The weather was a mild 70 degrees. We spent most of the run talking about the Pinhoti 100 in three weeks and whether we have a chance in hell to finish it and if we should even try. I felt that we should while Rich was hesitant to commit. However, a text I received just 15 minutes ago confirms that he is in, too. I'm sure that's the 50 mile victory beer talking that he enjoyed after work;-)

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Not only was this my longest trail race to date, it most definitely had the longest name of any race I've ever run, too. Part of the North Face Endurance Challenge series, this particular race was run for the first time as a replacement event for a race that had originally been scheduled for the Seattle, Washington area earlier this year, but which had to be cancelled for logistical reasons related to the permit process. Well, one region's loss is another region's gain. I would be able to use this race as a final tune up and measuring stick for my upcoming first time attempt at the 100 mile distance at the Pinhoti 100 Endurance Run in  Alabama in early November.


Race Packet Pick-up
Richard and I left Huntsville around 1:30 PM Friday afternoon, thinking that we would arrive in about 4 hours, just enough time to pick up our bibs and swag and listen to Dean Karnazes and other North Face sponsored athletes talk about racing. Well, because I forgot all about time zones (CST vs. EST, duh!) and because neither my Garmin GPS nor Richard's highly touted iPhone were able to direct us to the appropriate location of the host hotel, we ended up running late getting our packets. As a result, we listened to about 5 minutes of the panel discussion before heading to the hotel registration desk and to our rooms before getting dinner and heading to bed. We ended up seeing Candy Findley (from the GUTS posse) at the pre-race pasta dinner, who we had met at a couple of ultras earlier this year and who was attempting her first 50 miler this weekend. After a quick pasta and salad dinner, Richard and I headed for our room in hope of getting much needed sleep before the race. However, our "overhydrated" bodies had different ideas and I ended up sleeping about 5 hours in 45-60 minute intervalls.

Race Day
My alarm went off at 3:15 AM. I had my almost ceremonial cup of coffee before we headed out. We had to leave the hotel by 4 AM to head to the shuttle pick-up and drop off location, where we would ned to leave my car to catch the ride to the race start/finish area at F.D. Roosevelt State Park. After a very short ride we arrived at the trail head and race festival location. I was still pitch black outside and the only light and warmth came from the spot lights and portable heaters the event staff had placed at the race festival area around the start/finish line (blow-up North Face arch). It whole area looked like a little tent village in the shape of a horse shoe. Although I hate corny lines, here is one for you: "Excitement was in the air!" Runners were buzzing about, dropping off bags and engaging in their own personal pre-race rituals. Richard and I took the time to actually take a picture. As you can see, we didn't look too nervous about what might lay ahead of us.


Our training had been less than stellar for the last 4-6 weeks due to injury and other commitments and I wasn't even sure if I could finish this thing. Richard on the other hand was quite confident that finishing wasn't even an issue. After all, the final cut off time was 14 hours. Fast forward about 90 minutes and that confidence was gone, completely gone.

We started the race pretty close to 5AM and Richard and I lined up in the back of the pack of about 150 runners. This was definitely not a race distance were I was eager to be in the front or even middle of the pack. It would be a long day with plenty of opportunities to blow up and I figured I'd delay that as long as I could. After a very brief 150 yard run across a grassy field, traffic stopped completely as runners tried to turn into signle file to enter the single track trail. I think I spent more time waiting to enter the trail at this point than I did at any aid station during the race;-) Pretty soon after we entere the single track trail, we (or rather Richard) are officially introduced to the race. He twisted his ankle, just very lightly the first time, a little more severe a mile later, and almost race ending another mile and a half down the trail. Having hurt his ankle a few months earlier in a desert ultra, Richard continued to struggle with that particular ankle when it came to running in the dark. At this point, we still had another hour of running in total darkness ahead of us and I was pretty certain Richard would drop out of the race at the first or second aid station.

Aid Station #1 - Country Store
I normally do not use numbered aid stations or their names as paragraph headers in my race reports, but this time, they had a purpose. Rather than break down the race and counting doen miles as we went, I opted to only use aid stations as my progress indicator, one down eight to go...you get the idea. And it worked perfectly. I jsut had to make sure to tune out Richard, who kept counting down the miles every time he heard my 310XT signal another mile split;-) The first five miles of the race up to this point were dominated by Richards ankle problems. As a result, our pace was comfortably slow, which was probably a good thing anyway. I usually have the tendency to speed up as soon as someone passes me and it was just too early in the race to do that, so Richard's injury was probably a blessing in disguise at this point...sorry Rich.

Aid Station #2 - Fox Den
11.2 miles into the race, two down, seven to go. Again, we tried to keep a steady pace, Richard was still trying to find his rhythm, avoiding to roll his ankle for the fourth or fifth time. Instead, he twisted that tender ankle a couple more times and once daybreak hit, he slowly but surely found his stride...thank god! While the pace felt pretty slow, Richard and I ralized that we actually felt pretty good at this point, thanks in large part to the slow pace, I'm sure. But maybe, just maybe, our bodies really needed some rest and our lackluster training regimen over the last few weeks was actually a good thing. The entire length of the course was peppered with climbs between 200-300 feet at a time. Taking it easy on the pace early on would pay off later.

Aid Station #3 - Mollyhugger
16.1 miles into the race and Richard and I are following our food and supplement intake schedules pretty closely. We started taking one SCap each every hour after we had been running for about two hours. I would also consume one gel every hour as well as finish one bottle of Gu electrolyte drink between each aid station. At each aid station, I would eat a piece of banana and some pretzles, nothing more nothing less. Three down, six to go.

Aid Station #4 - Rocky Point
23.1 miles into the race and my food and supplement strategy had worked perfectly. Well almost perfect, with the exception of this section of the course, which happened to be a 7 mile stretch through arguably the toughest section of the entire race course, both in distance and terrain. Not only would we climb to the highest point of this race, we also ran through a section that had been hit by a recent fire. This part of the course looked more like a trail I would expect to see running in Arizona, very desert like in certain areas, but in a very pretty kind of way. Not sure if that makes sense, but that's what it looked like to me. My only concern was the fact that I ran out of liquids with about 3 miles still to go to Rocky Point. It wasn't really that I needed the liquids, it just felt wrong not to have any readily available to drink. While I was still feeling pretty good during this section, Richard had hit a major wall at this stage, both physically and mentally. He later said that he was ready to drop out of the race at this aid station, if it hadn't been for the magic of Coca-Cola. He drank about three cups of Coke in addition to other liquids and shortly after we left this aid station, he was a new man...or should I say runner? Four down, five to go.

Aid station #5 - Tower
28 miles in and Richard was still leading our small group of runners. Miguel Perez, a first time ultra runner, had joined our little group at around mile ten and he was sticking with us and looking strong. We were finally past the half way point of the race and while I experienced a short phase of sluggishness during this section, I was feeling pretty good considering that we had already covered close to a marathon at this point. This section of the course also covered a ton of creeks and small waterfalls and while running these sections was nearly impossible at times, it certainly made up for it in beauty. Richard was still feeling it and he continued to lead us out of this aid station as well. We had gotten into a pretty good rhythm concerning getting in and out of the aid stations quickly. I don't think we ever spent more than 1-2 minutes tops at each stop. Five down, four to go. Mentally, the counting of aid stations really worked for me.

Aid station #6 - Dowdell Knob
32.2 miles down and more than a 50K done. Half way between this and the previous aid stations, I took over to lead the group around mile marker 30. Richard had left the group for the last 10 miles and while providing some assistance to a runner on the side of the trail, I continued at a walking pace to let Richard rejoin our group as soon as he made sure that we could leave the runner. We decided to notify the next aid station of the runner in distress but didn't have to as emergency crew was already making its way to the runner before we reached the next station. Thankfully, the runner is question turned out to be ok. While she did not appear to have been able to finish the race, we saw her later on in the race festival area walking around on her own. Once Richard caught up to us, I started to run again. I was feeling good, probably catching a second wind myself at this point. Before I realized it, we had reached Dowdell Knob, six down, three to go.

Aid station #7 - Fox Den
37.5 miles are in the books and I am still feeling great. Once we reached this aid station, all I wanted to do it wash the sticky Gu past off my hands as well as clean the salt residue off my sweaty face. After identifying cups of Gu electrolytes and Coke I went for a couple of cups I assumeed to be water, proceeding to pour it over my hands and face to clean off the sticky mess. While doing so I noticed a nice refreshing scent coming off the water. That just didn't make sense, why would the water smell like fruit? I got my explanation when I asked for confirmation. The clear liquid I assumed to be water was in fact Nuun, another electrolyte drink that did not use any food coloring for this particular drink and as a result looked like water. Hey, at least I didn't eat any lube thinking that it was engery gel. When I finally got my hands on some "real" water, I was able to wash all of that mess of my hands and face. Seven down and just two to go.

Aid station #8 - Mollyhugger Hill
42.4 miles are complete and I am confident that I am going to finish the race. Even if I walked the remainder of the race, I would still finish with time to spare. Instead of walking, however, I decided at around mile 40 that I was going to push the pace a little bit, at least as much as I could at that point. Richard and Miguel started to fade just ever so slightly and I felt I could try and push for a sub 12 hour finish, which was all I had hoped for at the half way point of the race, anyway. I just couldn't believe that I actually felt good 40 miles into a trail race. My goal was to maintain pace and to pick it up on the downhills whenever I could. The volunteers at this aid station were once again first class. They helped me refocus, replenish and get ready for the final stretch. Eight down, final aid station to go.

Aid station #9 - Buzzards Roost
47.8 miles are logged and I can smell the BBQ at the finish line. Well, not really, but I was looking forward to that hot meal promised in the participants' guide. During the section preceeding this aid station, I really cranked it up a notch. I must have passed between 10-15 runners during this section, some of them marathoners using the same course, some of them 50 milers. Either way, I was passing runners and it felt good...nope, it felt great. Instead of running out of gas, I was running the uphills, even if just slowly. I was running nonetheless. Every runner I passed gave me new energy. Nine aid stations down, just the finish line ahead.

The Finish at 50.4 Miles
This race provided an elevation change of around 8000 feet, which isn't too shabby. The final 2.6 miles felt the hardest, just because they seemed to take forever. Physically, I felt fine and mentally, I was exstatic. After 12 hours and 9 minutes, I crossed the finish line, happy to have completed an awesome ultra and physically feeling good. The icing on the cake for me personally was the fact that I finished 43rd out of 125 or so starters. I am competitive, after all.

Final comments
Everyone I ran with today finished the race, Richard, Miguel and Candy. Congratulations to all of you for a great personal accomplishment, especially considering that the race only had 95 official finishers out of 150 or so registrants. Congrats also to Geoff Roes, who smoked the course in less than eight hours. And a very special thank you to all the volunteers at this event, who made this race absolutely fantastic. I always try to thank them as our paths cross during a race as I am sure they have better things to do than to read my birong race reports, but that does not keep me from thanking them again in writing every now and then;-)

14 October 2010

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Richard and I met for a short 4.5 mile barefoot walk after work today to loosen up our joints and muscles. No need to risk any real injuries a day before the North Face Endurance Challenge Gore-Tex 50 Miler this weekend. Almost managed to get a blister anyway. We'll be leaving for Pine Mountain near Atlanta, Georgia tomorrow at noon, so we can participate in the pre-race talk given by Dean Karnazes and other North Face sponsored athletes. Should be interesting. My training hasn't been what I need it to be to to run 50 milers, but this race will give us a clear indication for the Pinhoti 100 in November. I am excited and scared at the same time. My next blog entry will provide the answer.

13 October 2010

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Thankfully, the weather man was wrong again. Barely any rain fell last night, which allowed us to go on our trail run as scheduled. I met up with Richard at his house at 5:30 AM. James was on a business trip and Mike wussed out on us for being tired. Since when is that an acceptable excuse;-) Anyway, we had decided to run up the trails to the Monte Sano state park ranger station for a nice 10 mile out & back. The weather was actually perfect, a nice 50 degrees or so and barely any wind. We didn't even need to bring water with us, since we were going to take advantage of the water fountain at the ranger station. I kept my heart rate at a very comfortable level the entire time, never exceeding 170 bpm. We ended up running just under a 12 minute per mile pace, which should be our target pace for the North Face Endurance Challenge GoreTex 50 Miler we have coming up this weekend in Pine Mountain, Georgia, about an hour south of Atlanta at the Franklin D. Roosevelt State Park. I am slowly starting to get excited and worried at the same time. Since this is the first running of this particular race, there wasn't much info other than the participant's guide I found online. I might have to crunch some numbers tonight to figure out the elevation gain based on the elevation profile provided in the guide.

09 October 2010

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The day started well enough. I got up at 6:30 AM and fixed myself my mandatory pre-race cup of coffee followed by a half a bottle of water. I left the house at 7:15 AM and headed for the mountain. The picnic area at the state parkwasalready buzzing with lots of runners, temperatures were mild. In all, conditions were perfect for a solid race. However, it wasn't to be. I decided to start at my target pace of 7:00 per mile. However, two miles into the race I realized that my lack of training due to injury and other scheduling reasons was finally catching up with me...big time. My pace dropped of consistently, from 7:00 to 7:15 to 7:30 and so on. By mile 7, I was holding on to sub 8 minute pace. A 10 day layoff from running due to my left heel bruising combined with a lack of speed training have cost me significant pace. I decided just to finish and not to worry about any PRs, as they were out of reach on this day anyway. And even though I kept my heart rate in check at an average of below 180, I did max out at a new high of 196. Kind of crazy, since my highest rate to date had been 192 or 193. Not sure what this means in regards tomy health and training.It is clearly way way beyond the average max heart rate for my age. Not a top three age group finish, but 59th out of over 400 racers is still not too bad.

08 October 2010

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Richard and I decided to go for a short 4 1/2 miler this morning. Temperatures were much milder than the last couple of days and I only wore a long sleeve tech shirt with shorts. My legs were a little tired today, no pain, really, just tired. So rather than push the pace on a short run, we took it real easy and shuffled along for an easy run. I've got the Monte Sano 15K on the calendar for tomorrow morning, but I will only be running it as a training run. I have no intention of pusinh the pace for a PR. But who know what happens once I toe the starting line;-)

07 October 2010

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Richard met me at my house at 5:30 PM this evening for a nice 11 miler. We urgently needed to ramp up our mileage for our upcoming races. We opted to run downtown, follow the Cotton Row Run 10K course and return back to my house. We ran a pretty consistent 9:15 minutes per mile pace for the entire run with a couple of slow downs on the uphills. I started feeling the combined mileage for the day after about 9 miles. The temps were pretty warm and the one bottle of water I brought didn't make it back to my house, but it was sufficient. The weather has been chaning hourly this week, from very cold to very warm. I wonder if we actually get a fall this year.

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I met up with Mike at his office at 5:30 AM this morning for a short 6 miler. The weather has been significantly colder this week than last. Temps in the upper 30s and low 40s have been forcing me to bundle up in a long sleeve fleece top, hat and gloves. We kept an easy pace around 9 minutes per mile. Both of us had not really been training hard the last few weeks. Again, no aches or pains. Tonight calls for a 10-12 miler with Richard. Should be fun.

05 October 2010

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Richard and I met at my house at 5AM this morning, determined to get in a decent run. The goal is 50 miles for the week and today's ten miler put us on track. The environment for running has changed again. We went from temps in the 90s for the last 6 months straight to temperatures in the upper 30s. Man, it was cold. We had to bundle up for the first time in a while, wearing shorts and tech shirt under a long sleeve running fleece, hat and gloves. We opted to run without water and that was not a problem. I was feeling pretty good, but Richard was on his third day of straight training and was starting to feel it. We had taken it easiy over the last couple of weeks and it shows in the way I am feeling right now. No twitches or pains other than the usual lower ab strain, but even that is miniscule and only manifests itself late in my runs. Heels, muscles, joints, check! At least that's promising even if I'm scared sh!tless thinking about the upcoming North Face 50 miler in Atlanta, Georgia next weekend. If Rich and I can't hack it there, we will drop out of the Pinhoti 100 Mile Endurance run this November. Hacking it in ATL means running the 50 in 10 hours at best, 11 hours at worst. At the end of the day, I will take an official finish any way I can get it, but the goal is to see if we are ready for the 100.

04 October 2010

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In Short
First, let me start by saying that this is not my usual race report. Usually, it is about me, myself, and I and my experiences in ultra running and running in general. However, this time, I entered an event as a team member. My fiancee Anya joined me for what would be our very first adventure race ever. While I have done endurance events before, duh, this was my fiancee's first ever endurance race. And let me tell you, she did great. What initially looked like a "fun little family friendly event with a little bit of running, biking and kayaking" turned out to be a grueling 6 hour endurance challenge, at least for us. However, once we finished this race, there was definitely a feeling of relief, relief to have been able to finish this race. But above all, there were feelings of elation and accomplishment. Anya had only done one 10k race and a few 5k races until this point and to be able to keep going for 6 hours was just an amazing feat and I counldn't be prouder to call her my team mate. Especially considering the personal challenges she had to deal with during this race.

Getting Our Bibs
We arrived at Coosa River Adventures, the host of the race, shortly before 4pm Friday afternoon. Race registration, bib number pick-up, bike and kayak drop off were to take place between 4-8pm. When we finally figured out were to fo, we were actually second in line to pick up our race packet. After receiving a nice technical shirt with the event logo on the back, we proceeded to mark our mountain bikes with our team number. Afterwards, we loaded them up onto one of two U-Haul trucks that were going to deliver the bikes to the transition area the next morning. Since we didn't bring our own kayak or canoe, we were supposed to just grab whatever was left at the boat dock at the day of the race, once we got to that section of the race. Well, it really didn't matter since neither one of us had ever canoed or kayaked before. I wonder if it was a good idea not to practice this prior to the race. Well, the same goes for the mountain biking. While we did hit the local trails a couple of times together, we really didn't "prepare" properly for this section either. Considering all of the other challenges spread throughout the race, which I will describe later, we really only were properly prepared for the trail running section, which was the shortest leg (3.5 miles) at the beginning of the race.

After loading our bikes onto the truck, we decided to hang out for the pre-race dinner and briefing that was to follow, providing a brief compass clinic for the orientiering portion of the race and explaining the race course and the undisclosed challenges the race directors and their team had come up with for this year's edition. Since this was the largest crowd ever for this event and since the tried a new registration process, the dinner and pre-race birefing started later than originally expected, so that Anya and I did not head back to the hotel until after 8PM. However, we did not leave until we did get the scoop on what's to be expected for the race from the hosts and previous participants. We did make one final change in our gear planning. While we had brought our own brand new and shiny PFDs, we quickly opted to go with the rental versions we had paid for as part of our kayak rental after the infamous "mud pit" challenge was revealed. Apparently, racers are required to submerge themselves in a mud pit while crawling through various tubes, but more (or less) about that later. Since we did stick around for almost 4 hours, we did manage to meet up with everyone else from "Team Huntsville". In all, there were three male teams, one female team and one co-ed team (us), and almost all of us were new to this type of racing. Finally, to keep with the spirit of "just having fun", Anya and I did enjoy one ice cold beer from the keg that the hosts generously provided. While I am usually looking for a beer at the finish of a race, I certainly won't turn it down at a pre-race event either;-)

The Morning Of
Anya and I had set our alarm for 6AM to grab a light breakfast in the hotel lobby. The breakfast area was already buzzing with other race participants trying to fuel up before the race. Even thought he race wasn't scheduled to start between 8:30-9:00AM, we needed to be at the race finish for the pre-race briefing and the bus shuttle to the race start (see picture below).



After trying to listen to the briefing (my mind was already on the trails) all 250 or so adventure racers boarded the school buses that were going to take us to the race start at the Swayback Bridge Trailhead. After a short 20 minute ride, we arrived at our destination. Anya and I quickly located our bikes and placed our drop/transition bags next to them. We had placed our helmets and bike gloves (for MTB leg of the race), 2 bottles each of Gatorade (for transitions), hat and sunglasses (for kayaking and other challenges) inside the bags. In addition, I took on the role of team mule, picking up a 2 liter hydration pack as well as some gels, salt tablets, Ibuprofen, bike repair kit and the all important compass before we transitioned to the mountain biking leg of the race. I figured we wouldn't need any gear for the 3.5 mile trail running leg and the rope challenge we would encounter during this leg. Before the actual start of the race, we still did find the time to get everyone from "Team Huntsville" together for a quick photo op (see picture below, Anya and I are the two kneeling in the center of the picture).



The Race Start
Unlike the previous years, the race organizers had decided that it would be "fun" to reverse the order in which individual racers and teams would start. Instead of the usual format of starting the first wave of the race with the fastest runners, race organizers asked All Female teams to start first, followed by Individual Females and Co-ed teams, followed by All Male teams and lastly Individual Males. Basically, the race started in 4 waves with the supposedly slowest group taking of first. That would result in lots of passing on the mostly single track trails during the running and mountain biking section as well as lead to a massive bottleneck at the rappelling section of the race. It didn't really matter to me, we were just here to have fun. Around 9AM, the first wave of runners took off, followed by the other groups in 10 minute intervalls.

Trail Running (First Leg)
Anya and I took off with the second wave of runners and we settled in a rather quick pace, Anya taking the lead as team pacer and me following. At one point during the race, we were actually in second place in the Co-ed division, fighting for first and keeping the third placed team behind us...ok, only during the start of the race (see picture below), but hey, it sounded good.



The first two miles went by rather quickly as we were running single track trails mostly flat or downhill. During the last 1.5 miles of the run, the increase in hills started to take a toll on our team and we paid the price for a pace slightly faster than planned. Well, we never really planned our pace, but we were going too fast. As a result, we started dropping back a "few" spots. We backed off our pace to regain our composure and to ready ourselves for the next leg of the race. I didn't want us to be completely spent before we started the Mountain Biking leg of the race as that would also require leg strength, even if slightly different than the running portion of the race. With about a half mile to go in the trail run, we encountered the "rope challenge", were one team member (me, selected by Anya's luck of the draw) had to cross a single rope bridge while holding on to and pulling yourself across on a rope above your head. This was a welcome break for Anya and a rather easy challenge for myself. After completing this challenge, we received our first zip tie. Zip ties would be collected at the finish line to confirm that all challenges were compelted successfully. Failure to prsent any zip ties would result in different types of penalties, depending on the difficulty of the challenge, ranging from 15-45 minutes. We still averaged about a 12 minute per mile pace, which wasn't bad at all, given that this was truly Anya's first ever trail race. We arrived back at the transition area after about 43 minutes. We both grabbed a Gatorade and drank a few big gulps before putting on our helmets and gloves for the mountain biking leg of the race. I put on the hydration pack and off we went.

Mountain Biking (Second Leg)
This was by far the toughest leg of the race for our team. While I had been mountain biking a few times in my day, Anya only had done this about a couple of times since her early childhood. She also had had a serious biking accident at that time, which made her completion of this race all the more impressive and an accomplishment to be very proud of. Of course, she hadn't told me about this until after the race, but that's another story;-) Once we entered the single track trail, the difficulty of this leg of the race became clear very quickly as well. I believe Anya had her first crash about half a mile into the course. To make things worse, we started having to pull over to the side of this single track trail about every 2 minutes, no exaggeration. This passing problem required us to pull over at the worst sections of the trail, trying not to hold up any competitor during their quest for glory. As a result, we literally must have pulled over well over a hundred times. While the time was meaningless to us at this point and it was all about finishing this thing, it was quite disheartening and disruptive to any rhythm or momentum we were trying to build. And when we did get some momentum, a tree or root or rock would be in Anya's way, trying to take her down once more. This made this section not only physically challenging, but also mentally draining, especially for Anya. But even though the trail tried its hardest to beat Anya and make her quit by beating her down with various crashes, she persevered and finished this part of the race as well, banged up, bruised, scratched and bloody. We both stopped counting her crashes after 8 or 9, but I'm sure it was many more. Yet, Anya continued and never gave up. She more than paid her dues on these trails. Just when we though we were done, we got to the "Over and Under" challenge, where both the rider and the bike had to first get over a wooden structure, then carry the bikes across a plank followed by pushing the bike under a wooden structure and crawling under after it. Luckily, teams were allowed to assist each other and that made it a little easier to get our heavy bikes across the wall. When we got back to the transition area, we dropped of our helmets and gloves, grabbed our hats and sun glasses and another Gatorade and continued down the road to our next section and challenge of the race.

Orientiering And Rock Jumble (Third Leg)
After leaving the TA, we headed down a dirt road towards Jordan Dam. This section of the race included an orientiering challenge among other things. Half way down towards Jordan Dam, we entered a check point at which we received compass coordinates to find our next check point in the woods. After a short scramble through the woods and some brier patches, we found our next check point, collected our zip ties and used the new coordinates given to reach the next point. Soon after, we arrived at Jordan Dam, where we had to do the "Rock Jumble" challenge to get to the next major challenge and transition spot. The rock jumble was basically a section of bouldering along the river shore line across large sheets of rock until we reached the boat ramp, where another compass challenge awaited us.We had to provide the compass readings for two land marks and write them down before proceeding to put on our life preservers and continuing on a steep quarter mile trail hike up to the next challenge. While only one team member had to complete the next task, both team members had to climb up the trail for the "poker chip draw" which would determine who had to do the most exciting challenge, yet. Anya had to draw a poker chip and her and I both were hoping that I had to do it. She was tired and I was excited and couldn't wait to do it. We both got lucky.

Rappelling and Canoeing (Fourth Leg)
When I reached the top of the cliff and the start of the next challenge, the line was backed up significantly. However, at this point, I did not care. Thirty minutes later, I was strapped in the harness and ready to rappel down a cliff for the first time in my life. It was cool. Once I reached the bottom of the cliff, Anya was waiting about 50 yards away in the water in her PFD, bobbing around like a buoy along with other racers. We now had to swim 250 yards or so back to the boat ramp to continue on down the river to our next challenge. Since we were in the back of the pack, we had to take whatever boat was left, so instead of a kayak, we had to take a canoe. We knew our next challenge would be on Dead Beaver Island. After about an hour orso, we started to worry. We had lost sight of other racers that we previously spotted ahead of us and were approaching our first major rapid. As we were going through the rapids, I spotted other racers to the far right of us on the river. that made me wonder as they were way ahead of us before. It slowly dawned on us that we had taken a wrong turn somewhere, but we didn't know where. Come to find out we misinterpreted one of the racer markers along the river and stayed to the right of the river rather than keeping the river on our right,as indicated my the marker. As a result, we completely missed the Dead Beaver Island challenge and the subsequent challenge as well. As soon as we exited the rapids, I was determined to get us back to the island somehow. After struggling to paddle upstream for about 10 minutes without any progress, I actually got out of the canoe to try to pull us upstream (not until first checking the river depth, of course). Like I said,I was determined....and stupid.

Of course, Anya freaked out and words like "I don't want you to drown" did cross her lips. I thought it was actually kind of funny and I realized that I must have looked pretty darn stupid, trying to pull a canoe not only upriver but through a rapid as well. Once I realized how stupid this was, I reentered the boat and we had to make the decision to cut our losses and just soldier on. Yeah, like we really needed another hour added for missing these two challenges, but what can you do. I'll just have to come back next year to do the infamous "mud pit" and "goose sluice" challenges.

The next challenge would be class 3 rapid at Moccasin Gap Island,which we mastered without any problems. After exiting the rapid, we continued on to Corn Creek Park, where we had to beach the canoe before proceeding to our next challenge, the "fishing" challenge. I used that opportunity to tip over the canoe to empty out all of the water that had collected in the canoe. By the time we had reached this point, the rapids and a near capsizing after one of the rapids had created a nice pool of water in the back of the canoe and I was sitting right in the middle of it. After a short trail run, we reached the "fishing challenge", where I had to cast a weight on a fishing pole into a hoola hop about 15-20 yards away. I hit the target with the second cast and we collected our next zip tie before continuing on Corn Creek Park trail loop back to the canoe.

Canoeing (Final Leg)
Once we got back onto the water, we knew we were getting closeto the finish line. However, we were worn out and it seemed like forever until we reached the final challenge across from the finish line. We had to paddle through an old decomissioned lock, beach our boat on a small river bank, reenter the water with our paddles and swim to the bottom of a 15 foot concrete wall, where a staircase led us up to the top. As a final challenge, we had to jump into the river from the top of the wall, swim back to our boats and cross the river for a final sprint to the finish line. This was a big challenge for Anya with her fear of heights. Amazingly, she didn't take but a few seconds to take the plunge. I am sure it was largely due to the fact that she could see the finish line ahead.

The Finish Line
Either way, she conquered her fears and we finished strong, sprinting to the finish line in just over 7 hours (penalty time for missing challenge included). It was an amazing experience and I am so glad I got to do this with my future wife. Hey, she didn't ask to break off our engagement after being my team mate in this race for seven hours. If that's not amazing, I don't know what is. We finished and we have the results to prove it;-)

03 October 2010

/

I headed out for a short training run with Richard this morning, so I could loosen up my legs before the adventure race this weekend. We went at a slow pace and I had no pains in any area. It has been a while since that has happened...no pain, nice. The temps were just perfect, not too cold, not too hot. This is now the perfect running conditions. I am starting to worry about the North Face Endurance Challenge 50 Miler coming up in two weeks and my rtaining has been lagging due to various injuries and time constraints. However, I willdefinitely run the 50 Miler to make a decision about the Pinhoti 100 Endurance Run in November. I want to be ready for my first 100 Miler or I will not toe the starting line.

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RACE CALENDAR

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