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| Staging area in a valley on the campus of Montreat College |
Having run my first timed race at the Freedom Park 24-hour Ultra this past New Year's Eve, I quickly discovered that running for time, rather than distance, was very appealing. With that experience in mind, my friend, Steve Grace, found a 24-hour race in nearby Black Mountain just this side of Asheville, NC that we decided to try. It's the 5th year this race has been run, and third at this location on Black Mountain. I rounded up a few other friends to participate including, Anji Paumier-Nussbaumer, fellow One2Tri Racing teammate, Mo Campbell and her fiancé Jeff. There was also a 12-hour option for the race, which Mo and Jeff elected to do as this was their first attempt at an ultra. We were all watching the weather forecast closely throughout the week because we were suffering through an early heat wave in Charlotte and were concerned about the projected 90 degree temps and high humidity. A weak cold front came through on Friday morning which spelled some relief for us and made for fairly nice conditions on Saturday: high temps in the mid to high 80's with lower humidity. Still pretty hot for running a long way, but much better than it could have been. One of the appeals to this race was a 10:00 am start time on Saturday, meaning we could drive up Saturday morning and only be gone for 1 night.
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| With fellow O2T Racer, Mo Campbell |
I picked up my friend, Anji Paumier-Nussbaumer, and we drove up to Black Mountain together, arriving around 8:15 am. The staging area is on the campus of Montreat College, which is a very small and very beautiful old college. Many of the buildings are historic landmarks. After checking in at registration and donating our canned food (the race's subtitle is "Race for Awsomeness"- it benefits the MANNA charity and encourages donations for needy families) we schlepped our supplies down to a small valley which would be our new neighborhood for the next 24 hours. Fellow One2Tri Racing teammate, Mo and Jeff, arrived shortly thereafter. Anji and I picked a spot for our tents, set up shop and proceeded to get organized. My usual ultra running partner, Steve Grace, had run a 5K that morning with his wife, Leah (who, unfortunately, could not join us due to a family trip) and would not be arriving until 10:30 am or so. Steve was strictly coming to have fun, run a little and support us, so his day would be much more casual than ours.
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| My tent set-up |
At 9:50, bathed in brilliant sunshine as we would be for the entire day, the RD lined us up at the start/finish line for a pre-race briefing. My main recollection of this was that he said the course was "relatively flat." I remember that because the course was NOT relatively flat (or relative to what I'm not sure). The course was, in fact, very hilly! Regardless, it was a beautiful course. It was measured as a 5K loop with a large aid station at the start/finish line and a smaller, unattended one at the 1/2 way point. So we mentally divided the loop into the 1st half and the 2nd half. The first half started out flat on some very cushy wood chips; excellent for running and probably good for sleeping. It ran along a creek and was fully covered. After a few hundred meters, it makes a hairpin turn - there were many of those - and heads uphill. A few more zig-zags up and you reach the first downhill section, again with a few switchbacks, before you start climbing again. You then come into a beautiful section covered with chips and pine needles framed by towering pines on either side. Very pretty. You then exit onto what would become our least favorite part of the course, which was a stretch alongside an athletic field and baseball diamond before making a U-turn and returning on the only paved section of the course (you could run on the shoulder if you wished to avoid the asphalt). You quickly encounter a very steep, short downhill, which was virtually unrunnable. A short distance later, you make a hard right turn and enter the first section of single track. Very beautiful and runnable. Upon exiting onto a fire road, you soon encounter the 1/2 way point aid station, which was stocked with water, Gatorade, bananas, oranges, and a Porto-potty. The second half quickly puts you on some more single track with a few more roots, but nothing technical. You briefly come out on a fire road before encountering a short hill that puts you back on a nice section of downhill single track. We would run this section most of the race. You then are out in the open for awhile and we really felt the sun and heat on this section. Fortunately, there wasn't too much of that, but it did take its toll on me. You then encounter our least favorite section of the back half, which is a gradual incline before culminating in an even steeper incline just before you crest the hill. We always walked this section. At the top, you come back onto more single track with a series of little moguls before hitting a nice downhill section that leads to the last bit of single track we ended up referring to as "Poison Ivy Alley" as it was a very narrow path and lined with poison ivy on both sides. Anji and I wished we had known about this stretch beforehand because we either would have applied a poison ivy pre-wash or worn higher socks; the poison ivy was unavoidable. Oh, well - all part of trail running. It was still a great section of trail. You come out on a fire road before entering an open field, which was good and bad: bad because we had full-on sun for the most of the day there; good because you could quickly see "Tent City" and knew we were close to finishing another lap. But not before one more very short, but steep hill before checking in at the scorer's table to make sure we got our bib number recorded.
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| With Anji, after running a few laps |
Just beyond the scorer's table was the larger aid station. I hesitate to call it fully-stocked because it wasn't. This was the only real drawback to the race for me. I have become accustom to aid stations at ultras having a pretty decent selection of food - at a minimum: PB&J's, cookies, pretzels, baked potatoes, fruit, sweets. And many have soup, coffee, a larger variety of sandwiches, etc. Here, the items were limited to water (always cold - which was wonderful), Gatorade, fruit (oranges, bananas, watermelon, and pineapple), and bags of nuts. Other than a rather large pizza delivery at 7 pm which lasted for a few hours, that was it. We had brought plenty of gels and electrolytes, but had we known, we certainly would have brought much more with us (I burn between 10,000 - 15,000 calories during a 24-hour race). We ended up calling a friend of ours, and fellow One2Tri Racing teammate, Michael Beacham, who had said he may come up to spend part of the race with us, and asking him, if he did, to please make a food run for us. Fortunately, he and another friend of ours, Steven Petrea, showed up with bread, peanut butter, jelly, cheese, turkey, and a few other items - which absolutely saved the day for us. In fact, it was most of what we ate for the last 12 hours. I don't know where our calories would have come from otherwise. Now, I would be remiss if I didn't add that the 24-hour race only cost $50 (the 12-hour was $30), which is ridiculously cheap for an ultra. Plus, we got a nice long-sleeve Brooks tech shirt, so obviously they saved money on the food. Which is fine, but we just wish we had a better understanding of that beforehand.
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Steve "Pizza Man" Grace -
"Will Run for Pizza" |
Anji and I ran together most of the time as Mo and Jeff were going at a faster pace and Steve, arriving later, was enjoying the day at generally a more leisurely pace. She and I both felt good, but quickly realized we would need to be very conservative with the daytime sun and heat. Despite a slower pace, I was still sweating like I was going all out. I was drinking close to 40 oz. of fluids every lap. Our first lap was 35 minutes, 2nd was 40 minutes, and our 3rd was 45 minutes. We felt a good strategy was to never be over 1 hour per lap, including break time. Our tents and gear were right on the trail after the start/finish line, so it was very easy to check in, hit the aid station and plop down in a chair for a quick break. I have to say it was a delight to run with Anji. We've run before (New River 50K, Freedom Park 24-hour Ultra, and some training runs), but I had never run for this extended a period of time with her - or maybe anyone. My tendency is to run with a variety of different people for shorter periods of time and run by myself for extended period of times. But I never once got tired of running with her; we talked most of the time, and we never ran out of things to talk about. It certainly made the run a lot more fun for me (she may have an entirely different opinion!)
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After 22 1/2 hours: swollen feet and legs covered with dirt,
poison ivy, bugs, insect repellant, sweat, and sunscreen |
Physically, I felt very good for the first 7 hours or so. After wolfing down a turkey and cheese sandwich, my stomach began feeling a little sour. Prior to that, I had been relying on electrolyte tablets (Gu Brew and Elixir), gels, S-caps, nuts, and fruit. In retrospect, I think I may have eaten too much in one sitting. Plus, I had altered my diet in May to eliminate any cheese and bread and this was the first of either I had eaten in over a month. Whatever the reason, varying degrees of queasiness would persist for most of the race. Three times, I lay down in the tent while Anji completed another lap (once, I completed a lap while Anji got a little rest). I had gone into this race thinking 75 miles was a realistic goal while anything over 80 would be gravy. But I also knew the weather would probably complicate things, which I think it ultimately did for me. I ended up running 65.1 miles, which I am perfectly fine with. Anji's stretch goal was to go over 70 miles, which be a PR for her. I realized early on I would not make my goal, but Anji was feeling great and doing great. It was fantastic to be with her as she accomplished everything she set out to do. She ended up with 71.3 miles. Steve also came up huge by sticking around and supporting us long after he decided to stop running. He easily could have hopped in his car and gone home - which is what most people would have done at that hour - but gave us moral support, didn't mind when we ate his last Taco Bell tacos out of desperation in the early morning hours, and broke camp for us so when we finished running we could literally throw everything in our car and leave.
And Mo and Jeff also had a great race. They had set a goal of 40 miles - 14 miles longer than either has ever run before - and both ended up running 50 miles. Mo even placed 4th among 12-hour female finishers. She's a natural. And Jeff hung right with her the whole way. They're an adorable couple in many, many ways.
All and all, another great weekend of trail running with good friends!
Well, I never thought I would really do another triathlon, but here I am. Latta was a team event for One2Tri Racing, so I committed to participate along with my other teammates. I know what you're thinking: "You're on the One2Tri Racing Team and don't do triathlons??! What on Earth did you think the 'TRI' part stood for??" Well, there are actually a few of us non-tri types on the team who either just run or do adventure races - and I'm one of the runners. But I'll try anything twice! I've actually been doing more biking anyway, so it was just a matter of seeing what I could do in the water. I'm very comfortable in the water - I could spend all day in the water at the beach - and I know how to swim, I just don't do it well. OK, that's being charitable. I'm terrible.
