Good Sandwiches Bad

Guess it is time to get this recent race recollection post out of the way. In my ultra career I have definitely had my ups and my downs. Some races have just been a struggle to make it to the starting lines and others just seemed to go smoothly from start to finish. This is likely the nature of the beast so to speak as this is one of those hobbies that takes a significant amount of commitment long before the race actually begins and that is just the event elements, throw in the rest of life and things get tricky. My recent 50 mile ultra run at Farmdale falls into the struggle category and one riddled with bad luck.

For the summary, I’ve said two things went right the entire race. One is I managed to get up on time (5:00am start time) and secondly, I did manage to successfully cross the finish line – everything else in between was a study in suffering and Murphy’s Law. If you really want the details, feel free to hit the jump. Note, if you are considering getting into ultra-running, I’d recommend not letting yourself be tainted by this particular experience ha.

Just to add some backstory to my conditioning, I train a LOT. Prep starts in January and proceeds pretty solid until about a week out when the taper begins for each race. This year I was also able to get runs in during our long trips which allowed me to hit my annual goal of 1200 miles a couple of weeks before this race – earliest achieved milestone in my running career. I mention this just to put emphasis on the fact the lungs were ready to go. I was also mentally ready to redeem myself from my heat catastrophe at the 30 miler earlier in the year (link here).

There is one contingency that comes with this late fall race and that is the annual Haunted Trail event that occurs two weeks prior. My training has to slow during this period due to all the physical work it takes to put the trail together and my taper really becomes the tear down as I do my best not to get injured – if you recall, last year I blew my back out lifting heavy tubs and could barely stand at the start of the race (link here). Good news is my back made it through that without issue…the bad news is I blew my left ankle while clearing the trail. The Haunted Trail waits for no recovery so the ankle continued to nag for the following two weeks of build and then the week of tear down. In the 5 days leading up to the race I was able to finally give a rest and even resorted to hitting my chiro so it could be “un-jammed”. Just too much to ask of the ankle and it remained sore at race time. I was able to bear weight for the most part, so lather it up with Bio-Freeze and make an extra effort to avoid the roots – good plan Bri.

I was wounded, but standing and that is all I needed to start a race. The alarm clock rang out at 3:45 AM, made it up and got ready exactly as planned. A good start at least, although the weather was suspect. It was mid 60s and forecasts indicated it was going to rise to mid 80s by afternoon. This is NOT what I wanted to see, especially based on the damage the CMAR race had done to my internal temperature regulator. For perspective in previous years it has been down in the 30’s and even the week leading up to this race it fell into the low 40s. I was going to have to keep an eye on it, for now the 60s would be fine.

Said my goodbyes to Linda, made my way to the start and commenced the run…err.. shuffle as the starter set us off – if you haven’t seen an ultra start, it isn’t the blast off you see in road races, there are a lot of miles to go and taking off in the darkness like a bat of hell tells everyone you are a noob hehehe. Things were going quite well, everything working correctly and managing to avoid all the nubs and roots now mentally etched during the training runs. A mere 2.2 miles into the race catastrophe hit. Coming off the fire road back onto the trail I slipped off a rock hidden under the dead leaves with my bad ankle. One of those where you are basically still upright yet your ankle is flush to the ground accompanied by that sickening tearing sound – SHIT! The one thing I did not want to happen occurred with 48 miles to go.

Over the years I have learned the golden rule when it comes to ankles sprains mid run – if you can still put weight on it, keep running and do no take your shoe off. Disclaimer, I am not a doctor and you should never take my advice on anything medical related (but I did stay at a Motel 6 once). This new developed completely changed my foot management plan as I would not be able to stay in dry socks and swap out new shoes over the five 10 mile loops.

The remaining 8 miles of that first loop was not the most enjoyable, but crossing the loop finish mat gave me some confidence I could keep the ankle complaints at bay. From a time perspective, I was 30 minutes over my projection completely due to slowing down at the more technical areas to avoid more mishaps that early in the race. Refilled the hydration flask and opted to only have half a bagel as I was feeling fine nutrition wise at the moment. Linda wished me luck and I headed back out for loop 2.

In previous years, I had opted for solo loops – me against nature, mano to rooto. Not sure how the ankle was going to respond, I had asked my running partner (Ryan) if he would like to pace a loop. It would give him the chance to get a bit of experience with ultras (he has been working up to one) and would definitely keep my mind off any complaining from annoyed body parts. Besides, his “old guy” jokes he peppers me with are hilarious. With the 30 minutes lost from the first loop, I needed to make up some time to back at the planned time. With the sun coming up, the trail hazards were a lot more visible and the ankle felt like it wasn’t getting any worse. Kicked it up a notch and was feeling really good until mile 15 when a bastard Ground Wasp/Hornet viciously stabbed me in the right leg directly on the tendon on the back side of the knee. Went so deep I couldn’t get it brushed off and likely squeezed more venom in as I pressed on it to pull it off. WTF! My body tends to have an allergic reaction to Bee stings an immediate concerns went to what was going to happen with this puncture. Soon it was swelling up to the size of a quarter and likely due to the placement, I was losing feeling in my lower leg. Luckily, the aid station was just a mile away (atop a nasty hill). Once there, I asked if anyone happened to have Benadryl or something similar. A search of the medical supplies came up empty. Thanked them for looking, grabbed a few M&Ms and headed out for the final 4 miles of the loop – now with BOTH legs highly agitated. Now I was really looking forward to Ryan’s banter.

Managed to make it through the rest of the loop, making up the lost 30 minutes from the first loop bringing me back within minutes of the original plan. However, new problems were starting to arise. I have no idea if this was a result of the sting or some other contributing factors, but my stomach was turning sour. I have always had M&Ms on my runs, so would not suspect that – something was not right and I didn’t want to risk compounding it by adding more into the mix. Opted to skip the planned significant amount of food intact, reloaded the hydration and headed out with Ryan for the third loop.

Ryan was a godsend. I need to change my earlier summary, at least THREE things went right during that race, now adding the decision to add a pacer. As expected, he kept me laughing with his jokes and pokes at my age. So much that I forgot about the Wasp/Hornet nest and didn’t realize until making it to the midpoint aid station that I had been stung AGAIN on the right thigh. The volunteers also informed me I wasn’t the only one those flying asses were tagging – several of the runners were getting stung in that very same section. Now I had two venom doses in me – a bad day getting worse.

Along with all this, the temps were climbing fast. We were already in the 80s and sometime during the next loop it was going to peak. Ryan was starting to see the wear and tear and suggested I take the next loop very easy and give the sun a chance to drop for the final loop. That sounded like sound advice. I still couldn’t feel my lower right leg and now with 30 miles on the same socks and shoes, the bottoms of the feet were getting tender. Forced down several bites before the stomach notified the brain that it had had enough….and that included anymore flavored electrolytes. Tried switching up the flavor as a last ditch effort, but putting anything sweet tasting in the mouth was met with firm resistance. Limited food and refusal of electrolytes…a recipe for disaster with 20 miles still to go. Dumped all the electrolytes out and filled with straight water. I would not be able to push it for the final laps, it was now just a goal to finish vertical. Gave a heartfelt to thanks to Ryan and headed off for loop four.

On Ryan’s advice, took it really easy. Careful foot plants, made sure heart rate didn’t shoot up and gave more than one stern lecture to the stomach to stop whining and fall in line. I got to the nest point and stopped several yards back. My plan to take a wide berth was thwarted by a series of downed trees blocking both of those directions. Only one option – blast through and hope my blistering speed would leave the little devils in wonderment. Might have worked had I had ANY speed left at that point. Suspect it looked like one of those slow motion 6 Million Dollar Man clips with the funky mechanical theme music… except the video was really going in real time. I was stung for the third time – this time in my left calf. Now I am just pissed. Alerted the volunteer (who I know) that I had been stabbed for the third time. His response “Yeah, the park ranger says it is probably a Ground Wasp nest near that dead log as everyone is getting stung that passes through there”. Ever have one of those surreal moments where you immediately come up with a bevy of response, but you are so bewildered that the only thing that comes out is some form of a pre-civilization grunt…My brain said “Then can you tell him to get his ass out there and take care of it so minimally those running the 10 loop event won’t get stung anymore!!!”…what came out was more like “GAHHUUGM”. Clearly the body was letting go hehehe.

I made it through the rest of the loop, physically drained. Stomach soured, but accepting water, stung up, but still breathing okay so no lung reaction (may be causing the stomach issues, don’t know), ankle holding, but balls of my feet blistered up. One loop to go, no way bailing this close. So ya wanna run an ultra eh!?!

Broke down and changed out the socks. I couldn’t handle the feet sloshing around in the shoes anymore and wanted to prevent more blistering if possible. Added a coating of Bio-Freeze to keep the ankle from getting too comfortable with being out of the shoe constraint. Shoved the foot back into the shoe and did a quick test… it should hold. It was still hot and the sun still had a good amount of time before retreating. Since the day’s motto had changed to “Simply Finish” decided to hang out a bit and see what energy I could recover. Even had Linda cook me up some breakfast sausages. My stomach was going to take it and like it as there is nothing that tastes better than salty sausage after 40 miles of grind. Talked to the guy camping next to us and asked him how his day was going – “I AM DONE! Made it to the aid station at mile 36 and decided I had enough”. That must have been the individual I saw being driven back in the aid station ATV. He wasn’t the only one that had thrown in the towel by then.

Wait, just occurred to me there were FOUR things that went right that day. The latest add is Linda. I can tell you with certainty, she is not a fan of me competing in these races. She has seen me at some pretty low moments and had to accompany me more than once to the emergency room. Through this entire day, that was clearly going south from early on, she continued to be supportive. Having my food and hydration ready to go, taking care of other logistics and listening to my choice words berating whatever body part was aggravating me at the moment. Never once mentioning quitting, although I am sure that was what she was hoping. Nice to know she always have my back…well, at least during the race, she tends to let me know the fool of my ways once I’ve recovered.

I always say, “One should run ultras in order to learn their limits”. That last loop took me to my edge. The lack of food and electrolytes had taken its toll. At this point water had to be forced down and as much as I enjoyed the taste of the sausage, there was an epic internal battle underway. It didn’t help that the last 20 miles was spent basically alone beyond the volunteers at the aid stations. Imagine looking forward and behind looking for some sign of life – at least a headlight bouncing up and down on the horizon would tell me there was civilization close. Nope, just me, the darkness and an occasional Deer or critter getting a rise out of scaring me along the fringes of the trail. At mile 47 I noticed three headlights ahead of me. That got me excited and charged up to hunt them down. Took at least a half of mile to get close to them – figured I’d catch them at the bottom of a huge hill – just about there and then they STOPPED. They all looked exhausted and wished me luck going forward. I was completely devastated. Chasing them had kept my spirits up now they were pulling up, possibly indefinitely. They gave encouraging words and recommended I go ahead of them. I responded with “I was so excited to actually see someone, you were keeping me going!” Unlike my experience with road races, ultra runners embrace community and never pass up an opportunity to offer up assistance or minimally encouraging words regardless of placement or personal goals. These are the type of people you want to surround yourself with in life. Complete strangers bonded immediately in the dead of night all with a common goal to breach the limits.

The tired group quickly asked me if I would like to join them. I had to resist hugging them (and I am NOT a hugger ha). Politely accepted and off we went to tackle the 2.5 or so miles to the finisher belt buckle. Turns out they were family – two brothers and a sister up from Tennessee. Two were actually pacers helping their brother complete his first 50 miler. All the nags and exhaustion seemed to flow out as we talked about our hometown, various races they had done, new races they were planning to do (the competing brother had a his goals all laid out including a 240 miler a few years off as a celebration of turning 40 – I like how he thinks) and since they were from Tennessee, we definitely talked about the Barclay Marathon (link here). The miles melted off and soon we were within a half mile from the finish. I backed off a bit and fell in behind to let them celebrate their finish together.

Looking back, not one of my best finisher races as a whole. They say ultras are not so much a race as a long drawn out problem to solve and that day (and night) absolutely fit that comparison. Painful, yes, struggle, yes, frustrating, yes, leading to days of recovery, yes, will I do it again…do you really need to ask. I shall add the new lessons to the book and start training for next year as soon as the recovery is complete.

A big thanks to Linda, Ryan, the race volunteers and my fellow runners, especially the siblings from Tennessee who were gracious enough to let me join their family.

Ultra Life – Expand Your Limits

Addendum 10/28./2024: I forgot to mention the there was some bad prior to the alarm going off I forgot to mention. We got to the course and got the RV all situated and out of the way early in the afternoon. This was going to be basecamp for the race and wanted it to be in a good spot that I could get what I needed and get back on the course after each loop. There were a few other RVs spaced out around us and a tent on the side closest to the trail. At around 10 or 11pm a rental RV backs in between us and the RV closest to us – basically right on us to the point we were not sure we could get our awning out when the sun came up. Too tired to do anything about it, got everything situated for the morning, turned the lights out and went to bed. Soon after we hear their jet of a genset fire up. Now the kicker…their exhaust came out from underneath their camper and went right into our RV door. This was very concerning and downright rude (noting again it was a rental). Definitely didn’t want to inhale that all night so we had to get up, pull the slide in, pull the stabilizers up and move over closer to the tent …and pull in to put our door on the other side. We could hear it all night, but now at least we wouldn’t be dead in the morning.