2025 Art Loeb Trail Adventure Run (ALTAR)

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2025 is the 25th annual solstice run of the Art Loeb, though last year was the 1st time I participated. Davidson River Campground is closed for renovations, so Matt (fool on the hill) reserved White Pines Group Camp site up the street, which would add a roughly 1.5 mile road section to get to the Art Loeb Trail Head (though there are some trails on either side of the road if you are crafty).

My plan all along was a single ALTAR, but then talk of a double (DALTAR) really picked up the last day. And just before I left my home in Pittsboro, I opted to charge my lights “just in case:”

And “just in case” of course meant I was going to go for the double!

I had an uneventful drive over, stopped at the Ingles just past the Asheville airport, and grabbed a few last minute groceries. I arrived to the camp site around 6 p.m. where we hung out for bit catching up.

Charlie also brought emergency pies:

Charlie, Matt, and Kevin were talking of starting at 9 p.m., and as I’m slower, I thought I’d start at 8. I hadn’t really packed gear, so went back to the van, made a big cup of coffee, got dressed, and packed the gear and food I would need.

I left the camp site just about 8 p.m. Not many photos since it was dark and I was solo, but later I saw this awesome shot that Kevin took:

I did turn my headlight off on top of both Pilot Mountain, and Black Balsam, and the stars were incredible. Right up there with the Haiti night sky and the top of Powerline way back in 2013 when I ran Leadville.

The run was fairly uneventful on the outbound, for the most part. Water wasn’t quite as good as I would have hoped, but I filled up at streams just before Butter Gap shelter as well as the middle shelter near Deep Gap. The climb up Pilot, as always, was tough, and that’s when my pace started to slow. Also, the section of trail that the Art Loeb and Mountains to Sea share, was difficult. A bit icy, and to be honest, the trail is just a little hard to follow there in the day time, let alone night.

As I was climbing Black Balsam, I decided I’d turn back rather than run the last 7 miles down the Daniel Boone Camp, but I thought I’d wait to the guys catch me. Finally around 4 a.m., 8 hours in, as I was starting to head down, I figured I’d turn around even though I hadn’t been caught. But within 15 minutes, Matt and Kevin came up. I later found Charlie had dropped at Glouster due to some foot pain. I caught up with Matt and Kevin for just a minute before we headed on our separate ways. They would later bail on the double at Daniel Boone, after a 30 mile single ALTAR.

The trek back was long and I had a few navigational issues. Looking at the GPS track now, I see better what happened. First, after a side trip into the woods for a bathroom break, I came back and continued on the trail. Just a few minutes later I could see on my watch I was no longer on the Art Loeb, and opted to bushwhack back over. That was a mistake — thick rhododendrons and down trees made me have to do quite a loop. I finally got back to where I had been, but didn’t realize I had already been on the MST for a bit! It took a little running in the wrong direction before I headed back and corrected course. This photo shows the bushwhack loop and you can see I was already on the MST.

I’d note that MST junction is the SAME PLACE that Art Loeb Run Gone Bad occurred all the way back in 2012! I don’t think it’s super well marked here — and I don’t even recall a sign from 13 years ago. But the sign in the middle of the night wasn’t obvious. I remember looking at it a couple times, but thinking the Art Loeb was super steep as soon as you hit that junction. And looking at the topo above it is — but at night and at the actual junction, the steepness begins just around the corner from the junction!

Next, just after crossing the Blue Ridge Parkway, I came upon a tree fall area which I remembered being tough on the outbound. But this time, after 3 tries, I could not find the trail on the other side. I opted to head all the way back to the BRP and try again, and this time I didn’t find the tree fall! Had I been hallucinating?? :-). No, just bad luck. This photo shows how I was looking for the trail on the wrong side of the downfall. I would not it was 5 a.m. and there was no light yet. 🙂

Without those two mishaps, I would have made Pilot Mountain for sunrise. As it was, I did see it coming up around Deep Gap and it was gorgeous.

Here’s me up on top of Pilot:

There’s not much more to write. It was a long ways back, and I suffered, and I hiked a lot more than I ran. My feet were getting pretty tired and beat up, but that’s due to not enough run volume on single track.

I got back to the camp site around 1:30 or 2:00. No one was there (they had gone into town), so I took an hour nap or so. We then hung around camp, Charlie got Pizza, and I was in bed by 8 p.m. Next morning we at at the Pisgah Bakery before we headed our separate ways.

Next day and my body has minimal soreness, but I am pretty tired. I think it’s harder to skip a night’s sleep completely now that I’m 55.

TMB Day 3: Les Chapiuex to Courmayeur

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We had an early shuttle from Bourg St Maurice back to the trail at Les Chapiuex, because we had a big day in front of us to get all the way to Courmayeur – 19-20 miles and 5500’ of climb! We grabbed some breakfast on the way to the shuttle from a local cafe, but I found later my chocolate croissant was missing! 😦

I grabbed a quick coffee in Les Chapiuex, as well as a chocolate croissant to replace the missing one, while the others started out. But after I finished, I jogged to catch Kelly and Kelly and we hiked the 1st few miles together.

Some photos on the road and trail up to Refuge des Mottets, where we’d start our 1st big climb.

The climb to Col de la Segne, the border between France and Italy, had amazing mountain views the entire way. On the way down to the valley, I couldn’t find the water source — in hindsight it must have been up the side trail to a Refugio a bit. But I kept on going, which would later come back to hurt me a bit.

Our friend Jase was going to be in Courmayeur to run the GrandTrail Courmayeur 100k that night, and I started seeing these flags on the 2nd big climb… So I texted Jase to see if we were on his race course and we were!

I also caught up with Scott at the top, so we did the rest of the hike together… down a big drop to a Refugio which thankfully had some water – I had been low for far too long! I Ddrank a lot of water here, and then headed down down down. The ladies would end up taking the chairlift and gondola down from here, as it was an extremely steep 2-3 miles without any views.

We had a couple miles to hike through town to get to our bead and breakfast – Maison La Saxe, which was very nice, though not so easy to find! (All those little streets were a maze and google maps was not very helpful.)

After we all cleaned up, we headed into town, quite hungry (hangry?), and we found an amazing pizza place, Ristorante Pizzeria du Tunnel.

And of course, good gelato. Mine was dark chocolate (darkest ever) and coffee:

After that, we met Jase and his son Cade near the race start at 10 pm:

Then we headed back to the bead and breakfast to crash — we were all so tired!

TMB day 2: Les Contamines to Les Chapieux

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(I’ll try not to go 2 months between TMB posts, or I’ll forget too many details!)

After breakfast at the Refugio, we opted to head in to town to buy some lunch for the day. We ended up w/ salami/sausage and cheese, not just cheese, due to a language barrier, but eventually got some very nice cheese only. That and baguettes and we were good to go. I wanted to hit the rest room before we left, and this is what I found at a public one in town:

After a short flat trek, we came to Notre-Dame-de-La-Gorge:

And then it was a big climb…. And this is where it started to feel pretty crowded! I passed a lot of people, and it was all beautiful.

After the pass on the way down, I ran into this!:

And the did block the trail!:

Scott and I had a couple hours in Les Chapeaux, and we had very little cell coverage with Kelly and Kelly, even if I got on the local wifi. We were supposed to take a taxi in to Bourg St. Maurice, and found there were vans running every so often. But several were booked, and Scott and I didn’t know when the ladies would arrive. We ended up just getting 4 tickets for the last shuttle, which was a lot cheaper (and safer!) than trying to get a taxi. Safer just because we weren’t sure how long taxi drivers were going to be around!

We had a nice hotel in Bourg St. Maurice and a good dinner right there too. We had a big day the next day, so booked an early shuttle back to the TMB the next day.

TMB Day 1: Les Houches to Les Contamines

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I should rewind a bit after the prelude, and talk about the logistics of the trip. I would guess upwards of 75-80% of people who hike the TMB use tour guide companies to at least help with accommodations, though a quick check with Grok and it might be less. Either way, self booking can be pretty complicated. There is a site that ties most/all of the Refugios together, but if you want to mix it up and use some hotels and some Refugios, it gets harder. That combined with having a distance range in mind per day, trying to secure lodging when different places open reservations on different days, etc, and it can be quite difficult and time consuming. All that said, KellyE took it on to manage all of that, and KellyB and I are incredibly grateful! From securing lodging, buses, breakfast/dinner/lunches, and luggage transport, KellyE had it all planned and documented for us!

Wednesday, July 9th, we woke up in Chamonix, had breakfast at our hotel “Plan B,” and jumped on an early bus to Les Houches. We were getting a little nervous that maybe we were at the wrong place as our bus was late, but there were other folks there that were obviously going out for long hikes. We later found that the buses in the area are often several minutes late. Our bus eventually arrived, we boarded and had a good 10-15 stops before Les Houches. At each stop, more and more people got on. It was soon quite crowded! But we made it to the bus stop right across from the Arch that is considered the start of the TMB.

And we were off! (After we watched everyone else get photos, and we took a few of our own.)

We had about a mile or two on flat ground before we started climbing! Scott and I got ahead of the ladies, and I quickly saw that navigation was not always going to be obvious. There weren’t always signs at road/trail junctions, or if there were, I thought they could be a little confusing. I was using Far Out and could see where I needed to go, but I was worried KellyB might not have been as familiar navigating with that. So I jogged back down to Kelly and Kelly, got KellyB set up with Far Out and the TMB maps, and started back up. KellyE always had paper maps as well as the book descriptions of what to look for. We really needed all of those sources over the course of the trip!

I reached a water stop and bathroom, and opted to run back a little to the ladies so we could enjoy some of this section together:

There were some huge slugs!

It was near the water stop when I overhead a group of runners talking about pin holes in their bladders, and I asked if they had tried to patch, but the one had just received a replacement from Salomon.. I told them that I had several pin holes right before “a big event,” and the patches didn’t help, so just had to order a new bladder rather than try to get a warranty replacement. One of the ladies asked what the big event was, and I was like “uh, Barkley.” I hadn’t really planned to say the event name, but she asked directly! They were all quite surprised! Normally I don’t really talk about that event much, and this was the only time all week it came up with anyone outside of those I was with.

Eventually I took off from the ladies to run the last bit. This was when there started to be some discrepancies between Scott’s GPX files and the Far Out app. And even the street signs weren’t always that helpful. One example:

The red line is supposed to be the main route, and the purple is an alternate. I ran up to the red, but it was just a paved road, while the purple was a trail along the river. So I opted for the latter which looked much nicer. This would become a theme the rest of the trip… Debating between Scott’s GPX files, the Far Out app, and what was actually there in real life! Scott’s was nice because it actually took us right to our lodging locations when they weren’t on the trail, so I just used a combo.

I got to the Refugio and it wasn’t open yet, but Scott and I sat on the deck for a while. Eventually the owner came and let us in, and I got cleaned up and had enough time to wash and then dry my clothes in the sun. We had a nice dinner and the four of us were in a private room, with a shared bathroom (with a bunch of ladies from Norway)!

Elevation profile and map:

Screenshot
Screenshot

TMB prelude from Little River to Chamonix

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Originally had “Day 1” vs. “prelude” and had “day 1” in quotes because this was far more than a day…

I first saw a warning about tropical storm Chantal on Friday, just as a high pressure weather system hanging on off the coast of NC/SC. Didn’t really think much about it at 1st.

By Saturday it was a real concern, as we were supposed to get Grampy’s boat from Little River to north of Holden Beach — on the water! — Sunday morning. We opted to get the jet skis out of the water Saturday afternoon and this was what Reece saw, sharing with the family with the caption “Grampy going out for a joy ride.”

And what I saw the other direction…

Over (Saturday) night, there was a ton of wind and rain keeping both Kelly and I awake, as the rain beat on the windows of the condo and the wind howled. This was probably just before that time:

Kelly woke up with a plan B: to get Grampy’s trailer by driving and hour north and then back, get the boat off the water locally, and get out of town – in cars rather than on the water. So Grampy and I drove up and grabbed the trailer, then Grampy drove the boat the couple miles on the water to the boat ramp, and I dropped Reece off to help Grampy load the boat. I had to get on the road quickly to get home to PBO and then quickly get to the airport.

I later learned that Reece and Grampy had quite the time getting the boat onto the trailer in the wind and rain and river current, which was running high due to all the over night rain. Additionally, they had a flat tire on the trailer on the way home. Reece was our ride to the airport, so things were getting tight!

I got home with the skis and Kelly came in right behind me. We had both driven through “flood waters” in the Fort Bragg area (I’d say 8-10” of water on the road in some places) and had less than an hour turn around to get ready to go to RDU. We had of course already packed, but that didn’t mean there wasn’t last minute things we had to do.

We were ready about the time Reece pulled in and we quickly loaded our bags, picked up the Evenson’s, and made it to RDU. It took a little while to check in (had to check a gear bag) and I think our rep was trying to help with the 10 hour LHR lay over, but no luck. We ended up with at least 45 minutes, maybe an hour in the lounge, before it was time to board.

Amazingly, even with the tropical storm and flooding, our flight took off on time, we landed in London on time, and now had 10 hours to kill. Somehow Kelly’s boarding pass showed “emerald” — I’m going to credit our rep that checked us in, which allowed us to get the Evensons into the BA lounge in Heathrow terminal 5, which is quite nice.

10 hours in LHR — that’s a long time. We took advantage of the lounge — Kelly showered, I think we all ate 3 meals, some of us slept.

No photos of the ladies sleeping — they found some nicer, more comfortable chairs…

There was also a point where I saw power outages in Pittsboro via some of the home automation apps (HVAC and cameras offline), so I messaged Reece. He said there was some weird beeping in the basement, and my 1st thought was “oh no!” That’s probably the water sensing alarm. I had him go down, and yep, that’s what it was. I had hoped it was just the condensation pump over flowing or the HVAC dripping, but nope, this was more than that.

About 20 years ago, the house drain pipe had been clogged by a bob cat driving near it and pushing Chatham County clay about 6 inches in. So I had Reece go find it, and sure enough, somehow it was clogged again. 😦 Reece cleared it out, and then had to deal with the water in the basement. Luckily it was caught early, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t a lot of work. Towels and shop vacs and fans and some help from Grampy, and all was well.

After LHR it was on to Geneva, where we took a bus to a hotel not too far from the airport. A quick sleep, a good breakfast, a bus back to the airport, and then it was just over an hour bus ride to Chamonix, where someone got another nap in:

Our hotel:

A few shots around Chamonix:

We had crepes for lunch!

Where the UTMB race starts and finishes:

And TACOs for dinner, on TACO Tuesday!

And then it was back to the hotel and time to get some sleep before we’d start our big adventure in the morning! That would be Wednesday July 9th after leaving NC on Sunday July 6th… Sunday night in the air, Monday in LHR, Tuesday Geneva to Chamonix and an afternoon there…

Stay tuned for TMB day 2, 3, 4, 5….

The Barkley Marathons

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I thought I might write a more in-depth race report, but instead I’ll share what I posted to social media immediately following the race, and then supplement it with a bit of info on gear and nutrition, as well as more photos.

What I wrote a day after is raw and emotional and I want to share that feeling here:

I’m having trouble putting into words the emotions I feel having participated in the 2025 Barkley Marathons, to me the pinnacle of the “do hard things” ethos my endurance pursuits have gravitated towards over the years.  I have paddled a boat for 38 hours / 340 miles on the Missouri River, run 100 miles at altitude or in near freezing rain — the list could go on.   

But the Barkley has been the hardest event out there — with just 20 finishers in 38 years.   To toe the line after years of dreaming about it, after years of trying to get in, was somewhat overwhelming.  I had imposter syndrome leading up to it, and as I summited the very first hill as the last runner out of the 40 starters, it was hitting hard.   I have no idea why I couldn’t climb that 1st hill, but once I summited and started the descent, I started catching others, found the 1st book, and was on to the next climb, where I was able to hang with those I was now around.  

I’ll write a much more in depth report on the 2sparrows blog soon, so won’t go into much more detail here.  But from the 2nd climb on, I felt better, and after a few hours found myself in a group of five — John, Matt, Kenny, Nathan, and myself, two veterans and three virgins — all with the same goal — get all the books on loop one no matter how much time it took.  Thankfully Laz had given permission at the start to be out there beyond the cut off, and we took that to heart.   We did quite well other than book 9 — where we spent at least 5 hours, attacking and re-attacking, but all to no avail.   

We finally had to abandon it, but we were not defeated, we were determined to continue.  Matt did decide to head back to camp at the Fire Tower, while the rest of us continued.  I had been thinking in my mind we’d have to send one of us back, just to let everyone know the rest of us were still alive, uninjured, and determined to continue.  We had yet to see an elite runner pass us on their loop two, and literally had seen no one else for over 15 hours, so no one in camp knew we were ok or that we were together.   

The remaining 4 of us trudged on, down Rat Jaw, up and down a couple more mountains (where we lost John on the last climb who told three of us to go on), and on to camp and the famous yellow gate.  24 hours and 30 minutes on an incomplete loop one.  But I never felt defeated — this was clearly the hardest Barkley yet — three time five loop finisher John Kelly was barely able to eek out the only fun run (3 loops) of the event, with less than 10 minutes to spare before the 40 hour cut off.  And that included two 15 hour loops!   It was incredibly challenging, incredibly humbling, but at the same time incredibly validating – even though I didn’t complete loop 1 in time or with all the books, I belonged.

I estimate we covered 30-35 miles and 14,000-15,000 feet of vertical, 90% off trail.   (More than one loop should be, but re-attacking book 9 three different times added a lot of distance and vert!)

So incredibly thankful for my wife and crew Kelly Allenbaugh Butler who had no idea where I was for 20+ hours… And stayed up into the wee hours waiting…

Nutrition

Below are the day and night bags I had made. Not shown in the day bag is that I put 4-500 calories of Tailwind in both of my bottles. These equate to about 2500-3000 calories each and about 4-500 mg of caffeine in the night bag. With the late start time and me thinking a single loop could be well over 13 hours, I ended up carrying a day bag distributed in my pack and belt as then threw in a night bag in the back of the pack – just in case. This saved me, as when we finally reached the fire tower about 18 hours in, I had to calorie count what I had left to ensure I could make it, otherwise I would have had to head back to camp from there.

All the food was good — the only time I had trouble was with how dry the SIS Go Energy Bakes can be. I would of course had some real food on an inter-loopal if I had gotten that far.

Gear

Not shown are a few items like a naked running belt etc. The pack was a Salomon Adv Skin 12 which was borderline too small — if the weather had looked bad I might have had to carry a larger pack. I did need my belt to hold a few things — some nutrition and the course description.

I wore both a wrist compass and had a plate compass for bearings, but I almost never used the plate compass. Mainly because the runners I was with had already written down bearings and were faster checking/taking them in the field. But I would certainly carry both again.

The light set up was great. While the runners I was with all had to change batteries a couple times or pull out a 2nd/spare light, both the flash light and headlight I had never needed battery changes. They both take 18650’s and I had purchased Orbtronics 3600mAh batteries, larger than the 3400mAh Fenix offers. Flashlight is Fenix PD35 v2 which has a max lumens of 1600 (I see they now have a v3 which goes to 1700!), which we used extensively as we approached books or searched the distance for land features such as a spur or draw. None of the other guys had a bright handheld, but all of them said they would definitely carry one in the future! I have used this set up extensively for Rogaining and it really is key to have a bright handheld as you approach controls or to get a lay of the land. The headlight is the Fenix HMR65R-T v2.0 which I kept on the 2nd lowest setting all night — never needed the brighter settings since I had my handheld.

Clothing/shoes

I definitely had trench foot after 24 hours… I had slid into a stream at hour 3 or 4, so my feet were wet early and stayed that way. I had injinji toe socks with an over sock. I would go with a thinner injinji next time. The La Sportiva Cyclan was great, even though it’s advertised as a mid-distance shoe. The traction is really good on the crazy steep terrain we covered.

I also used XOSkin liners and had no chaffing (liberal amounts of Squirrels Nut Butter!!). A Stio Eddie short sleeve was fine — bright so everyone knew who I was. Arm warmers, a buff for a hat. (I had forgotten a real hat, but the buff was fine in this weather. I thought I didn’t have any gloves so my fingers got cold in the deep night up on the ridges in the wind, but found gloves the next day when I emptied the pack. 😦 )

All in all happy with all the gear choices!

Video

I also want to share this great video from the single track podcast which has both Kelly and me in it in a few places — didn’t hurt that we shared a camp site with Ron the filmmaker…

A few miscellaneous photos:

I’m still on cloud 9 a week after having been “out there” — such a long time dream for me that finally came true. It was a great event with a great group of people and I hope I’m allowed to participate again in the future.

2024 training and racing year in review

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2024 was a little light on racing, with just Heartbreaker and BFC, though I should count Iron Dad:

Hearbreaker

BFC

IronDad

That’s not to say it was a bad year, two ultras and an (unsupported) ironman isn’t bad. :-). And I finally, after years of trying, climbed over 365,000′ in a year (walking, hiking, running, virtual running, biking, and virtual biking).

I think that’s the 1st time since 2018 that I’ve run over 1000 miles. Yep, just checked:

(2019 I took off 5 or 6 months to see if the sacrum would heal…)

Anyway, all good. Three big events, but there was a time in August leading up to IronDad I felt like I was training like a professional, hitting several 15 hour weeks.

Art Loeb Adventure Run (ALTAR)

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Remember Art Loeb: Run Gone Bad?

Well, that was a long long time ago, and I’d wanted to go back and get the full Art Loeb Trail run done since, it just never worked out. There’s been a group that has run it on or near the Winter Solstice for years, including my old AR teammate Charlie. And one of the other OG’s Matt Kirk (fool on the hill) have been talking about some adventures in 2025, so when I could make it on this year’s solstice run, I jumped at the chance. The other runner was Kevin Lane (Lane in the Woods) and Carl Laniak camped with us and drove us to the start, and then went for a hike.

I drove the van and picked up Matt in High Point, and we made our way over to Davidson River Campground in Brevard. It was quite cold and Matt would be in his tent (with Kevin), while Charlie had his conversion van, and Carl slept in his mini van. There was a lot of bantering about DALTAR — a double ALTAR, but in the end, no one was up for it. Brad Keyes started Friday night with thoughts of a double, but ended up doing a single.

We left camp early, and on the drive up and over the pass to get to the start, hit some pretty good snow coming down. The mini van made it, and we were running by 7:30. The other guys were faster so I ended up spending most of the day alone. There was another (large) group of runners, with a full support crew and aid station at the bottom of Pilot, and they were kind enough to offer me food, drink, and water, but I just took them up on the latter which meant I never had to filter water all day!

31 miles, 8000′ of climb, in a little under 10 hours:

I did see Brad as he was nearing the finish, about 1-2 miles in for me (he had run all night with a couple friends):

Lot of snow and rime ice up on Black Balsam:

I don’t know if this will become an annual run — timing so close to the holidays may not always be easy — but I would definitely do it again.

Barkley Fall Classic 2024

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Here’s what I wrote on social media immediately following the race:

Hardest Barkley Fall Classic yet, both in terms of course difficulty but also in how I felt. 24% finishing rate for the 50k. Heat was brutal. Chimney Top at the start and having to do it a 2nd time at the decision point (marathon vs. 50k) was really tough. I had a bunch of issues all day like feeling way over heated even early in the morning when it wasn’t that hot, cramping, and wanting to quit all day. My quads locked about an hour into the 50k loop, so I sat down and was thinking I should turn back. Then I projectile vomited — 1st time ever — and that was it — I was going back. But I needed time before I could move. About 5 minutes later I was feeling better. Going back for a sure DNF vs going forward for a likely DNF (cut off was getting closer and closer) — what to do? I finally decided if I was going to DNF either way, I was going to go out trying. I had an hour climb in front of me, maybe 90 minutes, and then less than an hour to get down the mountain to the finish. I somehow eeked it out and am now 6 for 6 on 60k finishes. Very proud of that.

But I’d like to include a little more detail, here.

First, this year, Kelly was able to drive over with me Thursday, and coincidentally enough, Ben and Karrie from CO where in Asheville for the day, so we were able to meet them at Salsa’s for a late lunch.

Next, we kept driving towards Knoxville and Frozen Head, and there were still some BFC folks at the Beer Barn in Oliver Springs just outside the park, so we headed over there for a little while, before going to Frozen Head.

Friday was the normal routine — I rode my bike down to the start/finish, to help Laz and crew set up the barricades and flags, then over to packet pick up at noon, on to The Wardens Table for lunch and map study, then Starbucks to work a little. And this year, Carey had invited 20 or so runners over for dinner, so we did that. Then it was back the park for final gear prep and an early bed time.

Next morning we were up early, and I again opted to ride the bike down to the start instead of driving and parking the van. Jenny, the race photographer, captured these photos as she said “oh the bike people are back!”

The course looked to be difficult, starting on Chimney, and then having a 2nd Chimney after the decision point to get the full 50k. Chimney at the start was especially interesting and challenging as the single track starts just .6 miles in, long before the 400+ runners would really spread out. Do you go just a touch faster to not get stuck in long conga lines, or do you take it chill know it’s a long day? My best racing has always been when I start slow and build…. So i tried to find a balance of moderate to moderate+, but not too hard. Not sure it worked as the rest of the day was not great!

Here’s a bulleted list of what went wrong early:

  • Within the 1st 30 minutes, my feet started tingling and getting numb. In the past, this has only happened during cold runs, never warm. This would last about an hour, until we had summited Chimney and started to run vs. all the power hiking on the way up.
  • I felt extremely hot, even a bit clammy, while summiting Chimney. And there was a slight cool breeze up there, so I should not have felt so hot. This feeling would come back multiple times during the day, always while climbing. Though not while climbing the out of park sections Rat Jaw, Meth, and TS. Those sections were just so brutally hot and exposed, I felt the normal effects of heat there, not the clamminess.
  • I also started cramping early, maybe 2-3 hours in? First in the feet, and later quads and adductors. Not as bad as my first year at BFC when I cramped all the way up to the fingers!

So all in all, a real suffer fest early and throughout the day and worst at the end, which I’m getting to.

A few photos – all of which capture me smiling, which is not at all how I felt! But it helps to know roughly where the photographers are and put on a good face, no matter how bad you are suffering.

Climbing Meth
Top of Rat Jaw
Summiting Rat

I did see Kelly at the top of Rat, just before the Fire Tower climb. She was out backpack training and had climbed Chimney, after the racers had gone through. I told her how bad I was feeling and that I was worried about being able to finish.

From Chimney, it was back down to the park, then up Bird to Ross Gap, and down to the decision point. I had wanted at least a 4 hour buffer (1 hour to the decision point before the cut off), and that had shrunk a lot due to how I felt. However, that last section was my strongest part of the race and according to the intermediary timing results, I had worked my way up from 150th at aid one to 64th at the decision point.

I reached Laz and he asked me which way I was going. I told him of course 50k, even though I thought it would be tight, and he said I had plenty of time, and that I looked great. Now that I see the photos I would agree I looked pretty good, but it was all a facade ready to crumble — I felt terrible!

I knew a 2nd chimney climb was going to be tough and take a long time, and I only felt worse and worse. Chimney has an initial climb before you drop down some to tackle the big climb (see profile below). I sat at the top of that initial climb for a few minutes thinking I should probably go back, but opted to keep going forward.

At the very beginning of the 2nd climb, both upper quads locked, and I had to sit. Within a minute of sitting, I projectile vomited – something I’ve never done! This lasted 2-3 minutes, and I lost all hydration and nutrition for the last hour or so. And I should rewind just a minute — when we started up Chimney there was an aid station, and I tried to eat one bite of a bar, but it didn’t go down well. And either just before or after that, I think before, I had tried to slurp a bit of gel, and that almost came back up.

So here I am with limited hydration and nutrition, not able to eat, barely able to sip water, with a huge climb in front of me. Probably an hour or more back for a definite DNF, or a 2.5 hours forward for a likely DNF. I had decided to go back, but several other runners urged me on. And after sitting for 5 minutes with an empty stomach, I felt better. So I opted to go forward.

Here’s an elevation profile of chimney from a training run I had done in the past, showing where I sat cramping and vomiting, trying to decide if I should go back for an definite DNF vs. go forward for a likley DNF. And to remove any doubt, here is the Strava link to that training run (since GPS is not allowed at BFC): https://www.strava.com/activities/6712489089

It was a long climb up chimney, with lots of stopping. But I kept thinking, if I can make it to the top, it’s only ~3 miles down to the finish, and I’ll have shot. Moving downhill wasn’t nearly as bad as trying to climb.

And that is what happened… I made it to the top, and shuffling down was ok. I reached the finish line with 21 minutes to spare – my closest BFC finish yet.

But I’m 6 for 6 on 50k finishes, and I’m really proud of that.

Here are the splits and ranks:

Screenshot

On the one hand, it feels like a real set back to have had such a rough go this year, and really, to be honest, last year wasn’t much better (though there I had a better 2nd half after climbing out of the emotional whirlwind I was suffering due to my Dad’s sudden passing just a couple of weeks prior).

But on the other hand, the grit I had to have to overcome wanting to quit most of the day, and being so close to turning back after the projectile vomiting bit, shows I can still dig deep and get hard things done.

It’s hard to not feel a bit of imposter syndrome in wanting to do bigger/harder things, but I also have to consider that training was not geared specifically for this kind of event, since I also wanted to complete IronDad in memory of my Dad just three weeks later. I.e. I had a very hybrid training approach to do both of these events so close together, and perhaps if I had only focused on BFC, the day would have gone much better. Of course, it could have just been a bad day — I never figured out why I felt so hot and clammy even early in the day when it was cool.

IronDad

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My Dad passed away on September 4, 2023, as I wrote a little bit about in last year’s BFC post. But sometime after that, earlier in 2024 I suppose, I started thinking that I would do an Ironman to honor and commemorate his life. He was an Ironman, with over 20 IM finishes all over the world. In fact, I was able to watch him race in Lake Placid, Western Australia, and in Kona in 2012, where the photo above was taken.

When I was 12 years old I watched Julie Moss crawl across the finish line and told myself someday I’d do an Ironman. And while I did a few triathlons in the mid 90s and even early 2000’s, I soon discovered Adventure Racing, and drifted away from the sport. And eventually found Ultra Running, and never made my way back to triathlons.

But this was my chance to do it one time — in my own way. I first searched around for off road Iron Distance events, and only found one, but the location and timing of that didn’t work out. So I started thinking about doing my own solo / unsupported / non-event Ironman, and I came up with a plan… We’ve spent the last couple Labor Days at Lake Tillery, and I was able to work it out with the support of my brother-in-law and father-in-law to go a day early, to have them support me in the boat.

I was up around 5:30 – 6:00 and we were in the boat heading up river around 6:45 for a 7:00 am start. No one was on the water, and it was beautiful.

I figured I’d be in the water around 80-90 minutes, and that’s exactly what it was. I had hoped for a little current in the river or draft of the boat to speed me up, but no luck!

A change of clothes and some food, and it was off on the bike. I had a roughly 50-52 mile loop to start, so that I could come back to the house and eat and resupply food and water. The 2nd loop got really really hot (93F!) and I finally called Kelly who was driving over for the weekend, and asked her to bring a couple bottles of ice water so I could dump them over me and try to bring my body temp down. After that, I met Kelly a few miles away to ride about 10 miles of gravel — while I had originally thought to do a lot of the “event” on gravel, in the end I opted for a lot more pavement so I wouldn’t be out there 24 hours or more!

(I blame the RD on the slightly short distance — but in reality the addition of the gravel ride as well as some looping back and forth, and I’m guessing I was less than 2 miles off!)

On to the run. I had plotted a course from the house up into Uwharrie where I’d hit the same trail I’ve run the 40 mile race on ten times. This would have been difficult on a few fronts — water was so low that filtering would have been difficult, so I would have needed water support twice, and I was trying not to be a burden on the family. I still set out with that plan in mind, but then a crazy rain, wind, and lightening storm hit about 2 miles in to the run! Normally I wouldn’t be too bothered by that, but the trees bending over the road and the lightening finally forced me to seek shelter. Luckily, there as a “strip mall” style church I was near, though just a single building:

I sat on that bench for maybe 10 minutes before I thought “with this awning, I can probably go back and forth.” And each length, the GPS picked up 0.01 miles! And you better believe I took advantage of that — for about 40 minutes while waiting for the storm to settle down, I went back and forth and covered nearly 2 miles:

Once the storm calmed down, it was getting dark, and River Road was pretty busy with people coming in for the weekend. And visibility was bad with it still raining and foggy. I’d have to go a couple more miles on that road with all the traffic, and then need water support. So I opted to go back to the neighborhood which is relatively small, but I thought I could get a 2-3 mile loop in. That worked just a couple times before I got blocked out of the neighborhood by an aggressive dog! I did another mile back and forth just in the beginning of the neighborhood before I finally pulled out my mace, found a big stick, and started yelling at the dog. With the rain it was foggy and misty and I couldn’t really see it, but the barking backed off and I was eventually able to get by. But now I had 10 more miles to go and was down to running 1/3 mile on 3 different roads, going back to the house every 2.5 miles to get water and/or fuel.

Thank goodness Kelly and Riley came out for the last two hours, or I might not have finished. But I persevered and did finally get it done!

Here’s that 3 way intersection I hit oh so many times!! Oh, and by the way, this is a very hilly area as you can see – 2500′ of climb!

Again I blame the RD here for showing 25.2 miles. But in reality with the amount of turning back and forth, this is another time I’m gong to say the GPS would likely be short. 🙂

I finished up around mid-night. I estimate I spent at least an hour “in transition” (if not 90 minutes!) making my own food and filling my own bottles, etc. And it was never really about time, it was wanting to do something my Dad had done so many times.

Next morning I was able to put on his Kona finishers hoodie:

I’m pretty sure I’m one and done for Iron Distance events, though I do love to swim, and have come to enjoy the gravel bike. Not so much on pavement with traffic, though… And while I was training, YouTube some how figured it out and kept showing me all kinds of documentaries about extreme events like the NorseMan… So you never know!

But for me, doing this event in honor of my Dad’s life was important to me, and I’m glad I was able to get it done.