“The Journey is the Reward…”

It’s a little hard to write a race report about a 40 mile ultra that you’ve run the past few years, but of course I’ll try.

First, here are links to the last two years reports:

https://blog.2sparrows.org/2011/02/08/uhwarrie-40-mile-mountain-run/

https://blog.2sparrows.org/2010/02/08/uhwarrie-mountain-run/

Next, a photo of me… I thought this was around mile 32, but I don’t know why I’d be smiling so much that late in the game!

Next up is the obligatory elevation profile.  After running the race the past few years and hitting it in training a couple times in the past six or seven months, I’m pretty familiar with it.  I can tell you that on the way back in, the hills at 6 and 3 are terribly painful.  And I knew it and was not looking forward to it.     On the way out, Dennis Mountain at 16-17 seems like it is straight up.  Maybe because it is!  And while that little section from mile 18-19 looks pretty tame, it is nearly impossible to run — the trail is so narrow, tight, and twisty, you just can’t get any rhythm or speed going.

Second up, I’m stealing what my running friend Der Scott wrote about the trail — he has a way with words:

Uwharrie is different. He is like the older, harder, gristly uncle who thinks your father has been too soft on you. Uncle Uwharrie loves you, but thinks that pushing you to the limit will make you a stronger person. As you struggle through his challenges, even at your lowest points, he tells you in no uncertain terms to “Grow up!”. And then when you’ve made it through, he slaps your back and gives you your first beer. He’s the uncle you love and respect. And also fear.

Now, just some random thoughts:

• This year I talked my friend David H into running it, his 1st ultra.  I took him to Uhwarrie in September, long before registration opened, for a 25 mile run, so he knew what he was getting into.  We also went back in late December, hitting the other end of the course.   David did great, finishing in 8:23, while struggling with cramps and nutrition issues.  I told him ultra runs are eating contests with a little running thrown in, because if you can’t get your nutrition down, you can’t run well.
• I slept really well the night before, turning the lights off at 9:00 p.m. and only waking up around 12:30 and then about 5 minutes before my alarm was set to go off at 3:45 a.m..  I got up, got dressed, made coffee, etc. and was out the door to David’s house getting there about 4:30, where we took off for the church parking lot where the shuttle would take us to the start.  We arrived a few minutes before 6:00 a.m. and I was struck by how many cars there were already.  The past couple years I had arrived at about the same time, and was the 4th or 5th person there.  Turns out several 20 milers came to the wrong church, and they eventually had to turn the 40 milers away to the other shuttle area, which meant we had about a 20 minute delay.  Also, there were more runners allowed to run this year.
• At the start we quickly made our way through the registration line, and then went to hang out in front of the roaring fire.  I waited as long as possible to take off my warm outer layers, hang my backpack in a tree, and head to the start.  Where we had to wait about 20 minutes due to the parking snafu described above.    But I got to meet a few new people and chat with others, like Alan B who was running his 1st ultra.  He is a fast road runner coming in at low 19:xx in 5k’s and a 3:00:xx marathon, but the trail and the distance would be a new experience for him
• Shannon was there and as always taking pictures…

• Things seemed much busier and more crowded this year.  Now that the results have been posted, I see that the registration was capped near 150 runners instead of the normal 70-80 finishers that I recall in the past.
• The race starts with a bit of a road run and then a long double track climb, before it turns into a single track climb.  I went out in the top 30 or so, just to avoid any bottle necks.  The 1st hill felt so much better than last year!  Hopefully that was a sign of things to come.  I  didn’t see David and Earnest once “go” was yelled… I knew I was going faster than I probably should have been.
• About 4 or 5 miles in, Shannon and I ran together and talked.  We were talking about how we were going too fast, but I started rationalizing with myself that why should I bank effort/energy when I am banking time, and that this strategy paid off for me at Boston.  So I just decided to run with it… I wasn’t red lining and I felt good.  Yeah I was a good 30-60s faster per mile than I should be, at 10:30, but this was the easier part of the course and I knew I would slow from miles 15-25 where it gets hard, and slow due to fatigue on the way back in general.
• From mile 10-15 I ran with Jamaar, and we talked a lot, which was great.  It kept my mind off the running for a while.
• My pace slowed from 10:35 just before Dennis Mountain to 11:05 at the turn around.  I’m not sure exactly when I got to the 20 mile mark, but David said it was about 3:42.  Earnest had passed me around mile 19, and David came right in behind me.  I went into a bit of a rough patch around mile 17 or 18 that would last all the way until mile 26.  I quickly grabbed a couple of gels, my 2nd bottle of perpetuem, and took a couple ibuprofens, and was out, but David and Earnest had already gone.  I thought that would be the last time I would see either as they seemed to be pulling a way and I was struggling a bit, thinking about a long 20 miles back in.
• Just before the turn around, I saw Anthony, and he said hello, and the did a double take because I was probably a lot closer to the turn than he expected me.  🙂  On the way back out, I saw Charlie, Ernie, the Sock Dock, and many others…
• I pretty much struggled all the way to the aid station at 26.   At one point I tripped and felt my R calf start to lock as I caught myself.  This was the 2nd race where I had not carried endurolytes.  At the NF 50 in GA I just forgot.  For this race I had mixed 5 capsules into my perpetuem bottle, but that apparently was not enough.  At the aid station I asked if they had anything stronger than Heed, and they had Endurolyte capsules!  Woohoo!  I quickly took 3 and pocketed 3 for later.  As soon as I left that station, I felt like a new runner.  There’s no way the Endurolytes worked that fast, but now I finally felt good.
• I stubbed my toes a bunch again, but I can’t tell yet if I’m going to have any blue toenails like I did after the NF 50 in October.  I had never lost a toenail due to running until that race, but now I’ve lost three!  I tripped at least a good 4 or 5 times, but never went all the way down.  I was able to recover without a face plant on all of them!  On one, a slight downhill, the only reason I didn’t face plant was because I was able to catch a tree in my right hand.  Of course, then my shoulder felt like it had been ripped out of socket for a while.  
• Sometime in the next few miles I came up on David and Earnest, and David was hurting with both cramps and nutrition issues.  I ran with them for a bit, and then Earnest and I ran on, and after a few minutes I went on solo.  I still had thoughts of breaking 8:00, but it was going to be tight.   I was only a couple minutes ahead of that pace, but there was a long ways to go with 10 more miles of tough trail.
• I again ran with someone, though I never got his name, for quite a while.  We chatted a bit but on the 2nd to last big hill at mile 34 I told him to go on and I never saw him again.  The last mile or two is always so tough.   There is a lot of downhill, but it is very rocky — loose rocks — and steep.  You have to balance out your time goal with the value of your life.  Or at least not breaking anything.  I was careful on the worst sections but ran as much as I could, and the last half or so is a decent trail so I was going hard.  I ended up hitting the finish in 7:57 — 53 minutes faster than last year and I made my “super stretch” goal!  Woohoo!
• Shoes:  I saw a couple of people in 5 fingers, a couple of NB minmal shoes, and one pair of Hokas.  The guy in Hoka’s literally looked like he couldn’t keep his balance.  I know some people love them, but I’m afraid to even try them on.  I wore the Peregrine, pictured below, and while running warehouse lists the forefoot at 19mm, my forefeet were really beat up by mile 30 or so.  So much so, in fact, that I had to heel strike quite often to try to take advantage of the heel build up.    I guess I’m going to need a shoe with a rock plate or something at some point!

• Here’s a cool shot of David that Shannon took:

• This was actually the 1st year where the water was not so high that you couldn’t avoid crossing like David is above.  Just to the side of any crossing like this were always a couple of rock steps that you could attempt to use to cross without getting wet.  I was pretty successful at staying dry until mile 35 or so, when I slipped on the rocks and got both feet wet!  Granted, finding the bridges takes longer than running right through, but having dry feet for so long was nice compared to last year when my feet were frozen numb!
• As I said earlier I finished in 7:57… I had thought a sub 8:00 would be possible for me on a perfect day, and even with that rough patch of nearly 7 miles, I still made it!  That just shows how fast I ran the 1st 15 and how I was able to not degrade too much on the last 15.  🙂  Results are posted and I was 27 out of 148 finishers, which is much better than I ever expected.  All in all I had a pretty solid run.
• Now it’s time to take a week or two off, and then I’m going to focus on breaking 20:00 in a 5k.  I plan on doing a 12 week program built around that.
• Garmin data:  http://connect.garmin.com/activity/147283684
• I saw Sasquatch once.  But it was not a good view and when I turned back to get a better angle, he was gone.
• Here is a graph of my training miles — I know, not much!  But more than last year.

Rather than a typical race report, I think I’ll just go with some random observations..

• Organization:  When I arrived to the hotel that the participant guide said was the registration/packet pick up hotel, and was told it was a different hotel,  I was a little worried about the organization.  And then at packet pick up, when there was conflicting information about drop bags,  I was even more worried.  For instance, I was given the tags I needed to prep my bags there, but two people right next to me were not.  However, overall, the race was run quite well.  On Saturday there were 4 races:  50 miler, 50k, marathon, and marathon relay.  The courses were marked as well as they could be and there were marshalls at any intersection that could be confusing.  I did hear of a couple racers going off course, but if you really stopped to look at any intersections, there were always flags showing you, based on which race you were running, which way to go.  The only downside to so many races occurring at the same time is that there were one or two sections of single track trail with runners going both ways, but overall that was a very limited duration.  The other confusing part is when they sent the 50 milers on a ~5 mile loop twice, marking your bibs appropriately each time.  That loop got crowded with a couple of us in the 44-45 mile range and many more in the 37-38 mile range. I was explaining how I had just recently run this and some people thought I was crazy.
• Time:  Going in to the race, I didn’t really have a goal time in mind.  Finishing was the goal, though I was pretty confident, that unless something went drastically wrong, that would not be a problem.  So when people asked how long it would take, I said “ten to twelve hours.”  I finished in 11 hours 9 minutes, so I was close.  As the run started, in the early morning at 5 a.m., I looked down at my watch and saw a 9 hour pace, so for about 10 seconds I dreamed of that.  Then reality set in, and I thought about a 10 hour finish.  I hit the 25 mile mark in 5 hours 2 minutes and thought briefly about a negative split to break 10 hours, but then I slogged through miles 25 and 26, and my pace dropped from 12:05 per mile to 12:20 per mile.  In just two miles!!  Those were a bear to run, down by the creek, over and around boulders, under trees, a couple of big climbs…
• Results:  I’m quite happy with my results — 38th out of 200+ starters and 7th out of 47 in the 40-49 age group.  There were a lot of DNF’s due to what I thought were pretty aggressive cut-off times (basically a 14 hour pace)…
• It was war out there….  The course was pretty brutal on the feet..I stubbed my right toes at least 8 times in the 1st 15 miles, before the left foot started to catch up.    The rocks and roots were relentless — there was no time to just zone out.  You really had to be mentally engaged with the course 100% of the time, so that was tough.  I have 3 blue toenails to prove it… And I’ve never lost a toenail due to running, but I may this time.  Additionally, the Oak trees apparently did not like us out there.  They were launching (nearly) golf ball size acorn’s at us the whole time.  There were huge crashing sounds as these things came flying down at us.

• Shoe selection: I chose the Saucony Peregrine, which is by far the most non-minimal shoe I have left in my rotation, but I am sure glad I did.  See the above bullet on how tough the course was on the feet!  While I had my Inov8 195’s in the drop bag at mile 28, there was NO WAY I was going to change… I saw one Vibram wearer, and while he said his feet were ok, he didn’t run like they were ok.  But granted this was in the 35 mile range, and none of us looked that good at that point of the run!
• Sunrise:   I was so ready for the sun to rise.  We started at 5 a.m., and it was probably 7:30 before I could finally turn my head light off.  I was tired of the shadows, especially in the early stages were at least once someone with a super high powered light got behind me and threw more shadows that made my little light almost worthless.  So I just let them pass. Plus, sunrise is when I decided I would put on some music… (Just one ear!)
• Cramping?  I can remember cramping once in 20 years of endurance sports — an extremely hot Hi-Tec adventure race in Miami years ago.  Well, a root decided to grab my foot and pull me down — the one and only fall I had, which is not too bad considering how many near falls I had and how many times the roots caught my toes.  As I went down, the right calf locked, and I was really worried…  It was in the 28-30 mile range, I think.  The thought of 20 miles full of cramps was not a pleasant thought at all!   I had forgotten my endurolytes and was using the nuun drinks at the aid stations to get me through.  But I don’t think those were concentrated enough.  I did begin to supplement with potatoes and salt at the aid stations.  I had also found a pack of pills on the ground that looked like endurolytes.  I cracked one open to taste it, and I think it may have been salt tabs, not endurolytes, but I used a few of those on the last 20 miles.
• Nutrition:  I followed my normal plan on really long runs of a base of perpetuem with a few gels and cliff shots mixed in.  I’ve really come to like honey stingers as my gel of choice, and even though I had some hammer gel, I never used them.  I did migrate away from my own supplies and use more of the aid station supplies as the race went on.  Perpetuem lost its flavor after the 2nd bottle. Besides the aforementioned nuun and potatoes, I also ate bananas and oranges.  All that plus one lara bar and 7/8ths of a cliff shot block pack was it.  While the stomach wasn’t great in the 45-50 mile range, which was part of the reason for a “down time,” it did pretty well.  The 20 oz. of water I was carrying was border line not enough later in the when it got hot (80F or so), but the aid stations were so well spaced at mostly 5 miles, with one 7 miler, it was ok.
• GPS:  I have never had a GPS be so accurate — there is normally drift on single track, and more drift the longer you go.  But my Garmin was spot on the whole way.  I finished at 50.25 miles on the 50.4 mile course.  What’s up with that?
• Mollyhugger:  I wish I had some images to show the tornado damage around mollyhugger… Truly amazing.   While the trail has been re-established, it was difficult running.  And it just so happened to be the 7 mile between aid stations section!
• The Finish:  I happened to finish at the exact time Dean Karnazes finished the kids run, and the photographer captured these images:

• What’s next?  Some time off!  At least 1 week off completely from running, if not 2 or 3… The 4 weeks off from running after Boston sure felt good, but I’m not sure if I’ll go quite that long.  When I do come back I see as much barefoot running as possible, probably on the treadmill as it will be getting cold outside, and probably some very low HR running.  I’ll of course start to do something in the next 5 to 7 days — bike, paddle, crossfit, movnat, etc. But for now, I’m just going to rest.  I feel remarkably good — 95% just muscle soreness, which is expected.  The knees are great, but the right hip is a bit sore.  That’s the only thing left that really bothers me after really long runs, so I would like to figure that out and do some “pre-hab” type work…
• Run 100?  Well, it is my long term goal…. During mile 47-49, when I was having a pretty low moment, I was thinking that 100 was just a foolish idea….  Now, a couple days later, it seems less foolish.  Normally it takes longer for my mindset to change!  I do think I’d have to change my training — 15-20 miles a week would not be enough for 100!  But then again, my body seems to rebel when I get to that 30 mile per week threshold.  Listening to some of the best 100 milers in the world, most of them never go past 50 on a training run.  So the NF50 could be considered just that — a training run to get me to 100.  But I wouldn’t consider anything until next fall, and only then if I have a strong spring season with at least one 40-50 mile race thrown in.  I sure hope I get in to Uhwarrie again!
• Garmin Data:   http://connect.garmin.com/activity/122485002
• Elevation:

I was able to take part in a running research project, in which 20 runners from each of the following four groups are being analyzed:  barefoot/minimalist, traditional shod, Pose, and Chi.  Can you guess which group I’m in?  🙂  (I’ve actually read both the Pose and Chi books, and went to one Pose session with a local NC Pose coach, as well as practiced Pose drills a bit, but I would not say that I am a Pose runner in any way…)

I actually got to do the study twice.    A month ago I went, and felt extremely uncomfortable on the treadmill.  And it was not just because the treadmill has two belts, a left and right, with a 1/2″ gap between them.  Nor was it all the ace bandages wrapped around my legs and waist.  Something was just off… I had chosen to run in my Vivo Barefoot Ultras (with sock liner), which have tremendous ground feel.  And I could feel a slight indention on the left belt and a slight protrusion on the right.  These disturbances were enough to make my body react as if I were stepping on something dangerous…  After the 1st run and set of samples, I asked to run again because it just felt so off.  On the 2nd run, we quickly stopped the treadmill as it was obvious something was drastically wrong.  Turns out the right belt had completely come off track!

So I went back a month later when the treadmill had been fixed, and it felt much better and I was much more comfortable.  I could still feel a slight indention, now on both tracks, but I tried to not let that bother me much.  We stopped at “2.8” on speed which turns out to be about a 9.40 mile though it actually felt much more like an 8:30.  I hope that doesn’t skew my results too much and I’d love to see some of the data at a faster rate.  I can say that I stopped at 2.8 as it felt the most comfortable in this awkward running situation.  For comparison, I ran Boston this year in a 7:52 pace and my current 5k pace is about 6:50…

At some point during my 2-3 minutes of running on each belt, the researcher took video as well as sampled spatial and force data — I think five 3-second samples were taken.  The spatial data is something like 240 frames per second using reflector nodes that had been attached to me… The force plates were even higher sample rates at 1200 per second.

The researcher was kind enough to send me a few snippets which I’ll include below.

First is a composite of my ground reaction force across all the samples of data.  What is interesting to me and the researcher is that most barefoot/minimalist runners do not have an impact transient — but I do, albeit slight.  (For a quick summary of my barefoot history, see this post.)  Overall my peak ground reaction force is on the very low end at 2X body weight, whereas the normal range for most runners it 2-3X.  (This is one area where it would be nice to look at a faster run as I’m sure the GRF would go up at speed…)  The researcher did say I have the lowest “bounce” in any runner he’s seen yet…

Next I’ll show the actual video of me running from the side…  Unfortunately the lighting is not great and the feet are a bit blurred — this is not a high speed camera!  But I think it shows a pretty decent fore to mid-foot strike.  I think the VivoBarefoot Ultra’s almost force that…

And finally, I’ll show the “composite stick figure” video.  This is the five 3-second samples averaged out…  This appears to show more of a mid-foot strike than the video above, though that just may be due to the presentation…  The vertical bar is Fz that is the breaking or propulsive (depending on where you are in the stance phase) force you are seeing in the anterior/posterior direction. (I thought it showed the impact transient but that is NOT the case…)  It’s really hard to tell without the upper body being shown, but to me it looks like I might landing a bit far in front of my center of gravity and perhaps that could be part of the impact transient…  I wonder if this would be different at faster paces? When I did do the Pose session, the one thing the teacher wanted me to work on was the slight forward lean from the ankles, and maybe I’m still running to straight up…

What would be most interesting is to have this kind of data available very quickly and easily, so I could try a few different things and see what would happen.  But it is an expensive treadmill that is in high demand, for both research studies like this as well as rehabilitation of stroke victims and the like.  And it takes about 30 minutes to get all the measurement reflection nodes attached.

All in all a worthwhile experience and the data you can get back may be useful to you if you are in to analyzing your form.

I had to go to Denver for business, just a couple of days before the Tough Mudder in Beaver Creek, so my friend Ben talked me into racing.  Well, it didn’t take much convincing.  🙂  It looked like a fun event to run, and one that I would love to do closer to home in NC.  There’s one in VA in October, but I hope to run the NF 50miler at that time.

Once I got the go ahead from Kelly, I was all set.

My meetings were Wednesday, and when they were done, Ben picked me up.  That evening he and I met Harry at Highline Canal for an “easy” 5 mile run.  That “easy” run, while at an 8:30 pace, felt more like a sub 7:00 pace to me — where are my mountain lungs!!!  After that, Ben and I headed out to Deer Creek for another 5 mile run, this one with about 1500 feet of elevation change.  I was certainly trying to force myself to adapt!

On Thursday afternoon, Ben and I took off for Elk Meadow for a 10 mile run that got us close to 10,000 feet.  I would have loved to bag another 14-er, to add to my six, but it was not to be.  Most of them are still covered in snow, and while possible, it probably would have been a bit too much two days out from the Tough Mudder.

Friday was a rest day.  🙂

Saturday we left Highland’s Ranch around 7:45 a.m. and made the two+ hour drive to Beaver Creek.  We had to stand in a few lines to take the shuttle bus from the parking area to the base of the resort, check in, etc.  It was packed!  5000 runners over two days was pretty impressive to pull off as well as they did.

Our wave was set for 12:40 so we got to watch a couple other waves take off, hang out, get ready, etc.  About 12:00 we headed up the steep hill 100 meters or so to get ready for our wave.  I wish I had brought some water — it was hot and dry up there!

Here is a course map TM provided.  I’ll try to walk through each obstacle as best I can, but I’m not so sure this map matches up exactly.  For an interactive map, click here.

Here is an excellent video that shows a bunch of the obstacles live.  (It is not me — just some random posting to youtube!)

Also, I don’t have a lot of photos of Ben and me on the course, so let me just link to the photos TM has on their site.

Here we are right before we headed to the start.  As you can see, I chose the inov8 x-talon 190’s as my shoe – they have nice lugs that I thought would do well in the mud and snow, and I was right.  I saw a few Vibram Five Finger wearers, as well as several people in road shoes or shoes with no real traction — and they all struggled on the slippery stuff.

After about a 15 minute speech, telling us what to do, what not to do, what to expect, safety rules, etc., a recording of LeAnne Rimes singing the slowest version of the National Anthem I have ever heard, we were off!  We started on a very steep descent, maybe 30-40% grade, for 100 meters or so.  Ben and I had positioned ourselves in row two, and took off.  Well, he took off — he is much faster on the steep downs than me!  (Well, much faster than me everywhere these days — especially at 8000 feet!  🙂  )

After that short steep descent, we had an easy little run on a paved walking area, before we started a gradual climb.  The gradual climb took a hard left straight up the slopes, and then it got steep.  And steeper.  I was already red lining!  Not good.  But I switched to power hike mode and just made my way up as best I could.  Looking ahead, there were only 8-10 people in front of us, so I didn’t feel too bad.  (We quickly mingled with the waves in front of us, so we have no idea how we did relative to the rest of our wave, though I think top 10 is probably about right.)

The map above shows the 1st obstacle as “cliff hanger.”  I don’t really remember anything like that.  There was a muddy area from the snow sprayers misting us, which felt awesome, but that was it.  The 2nd obstacle were a couple sets of the “Berlin Walls,” which weren’t too hard.  If you use the leg stands on the side it’s very easy, but even without that, a quick step into someone’s hand up, grab the top and pull over.

After that we had some more slope climbing and a little single track running.  I ran whenever the grade allowed and power hiked the rest.  The 3rd obstacle was the Boa Constrictor, which was just two ~20 foot black pipes, perhaps two feet in diameter.  In between the two at the bottom was water, so you crawled down into a bit of water, then out.  Again these were not tough, but I was glad we were pretty close to the front of our wave so that we didn’t get backed up in a bottle neck.  After that we had some more single track running along a pretty level grade.  Here we started to pass people from the 12:20 wave.

The next obstacle on the map was the High Stepper, just walking across a net over something like water.  I don’t recall it right here on the course, but I do recall a couple similar obstacles.

Next up was the Kiss of Mud, a crawl through mud with barbed wire on top…  The bobbed wire was probably just 18″ above the mud, so you really had to belly crawl.  This cut my knees a bit, but other than that was not too bad.  We had started to stack up a bit with the next wave or two, so it was getting a bit crowded, but not terribly so.  We finally hit a water station, which was much needed!

Next was the Swamp Stomp, a walk through mud at about waist level.  There were a couple of hidden rocks in there, that many of us ran into, tripped over, or fell down on.    (Or perhaps that was one of the river crossings later??  They kind of blur together…..)

After a bit more running, we hit one of my most dreaded obstacles — the Underwater Uunnels.   Here’s a photo from the TM site — I just want you to see it.  This perspective makes the tunnels look a bit closer together than they really were!

We walked into freezing water — 36F — to about waist level, and then had to dive under each tunnel.  36F on your head is COLD!!!  I took a couple of deep breaths, went under, and came up. Ouch!  Brrr!   A couple of steps and it was tunnel #2.  A few more deep breaths — now starting to shiver — and I went under.  I opened my eyes and it was pitch black.  I came out the other side, and now the water was shoulder level — a couple more steps to the next tunnel, a few big breaths, and under again.  This time I came up and I could NOT TOUCH the bottom!  That was unexpected.    I had to swim the 20 feet or so to shore and I was not happy at this point.  It was very cold.  I got out and grabbed a couple of the emergency blankets to wrap myself.  I was ready to go but Ben was back at the water looking for me. I kept yelling but he could not hear, so I had to go back to get him.

We started running up a gradual slope, me still wrapped in the emergency blankets, towards the next obstacle, the log carry.  I dropped the blanket after a few minutes and then grabbed a log.  Ben and I ran up the hill carrying our logs, and now it was starting to get really crowded.  The log carry had us going through the woods on single track, and there were a couple of bottlenecks on bridges.  We snuck around the crowds as best we could, wrapped through the woods, back to where we dropped the logs.

From here it was a pretty long run down…. And down… Sometimes gradual, sometimes a bit steep, but nothing too bad.  Ben did take a roll at one point, but he was always in front of me.  We reached the Chernobyl Jacuzzi, which you climb up and jump into some bright colored FREEZING water… (They start the day with 200 bags of ice, and keep adding ice all day!)  We ended up in the bright green, but there was also blue and pink.  I should have cannon balled.  Once you jump in, you progress forward and reach a bar that you have to go under, so your head gets totally wet, freezing, and colored.  Climb up and out, and start running again, mostly down.

We next reached the Turd’s Nest, which was just netting across the river.  Some folks chose to roll down, while I just walked it.  We ran down from there to water station number two, where I forced down a gel and drank some water.

After that, we headed up.  Steep steep up.  40-50% grade maybe?  At some point, we reached the Devil’s Beard, just a net on the climb.  I tucked in behind someone tall and just followed.  After that, there was still more climbing.  This was a quite steep hill, and it took a while to get up.

The map shows the next obstacle as the mystery obstacle, though I don’t recall it at this point on the course.  I’m pretty sure it was later, but I’ll write about it here.  Anyway, it was a long windy tunnel made of plywood, with black plastic on the ground.  They had said it would be filled with smoke, but it was not, thankfully.  I was able to slide on the plastic using my arms for the most part, saving the knees, which were already cut up a bit.

The climb continued until we reached The Gauntlet, which  I don’t see on the map.  The Gauntlet was a 50 or 100 meter run up the hill, with some hay bales on the ground to slow you down a bit.  There were 4 high powered hoses on each side– think fire hoses — with folks manning them.  They would shoot you as you ran up.  They waited for me until I hit the 1st bales, and one went high and one went low — they were trying to take me down!!  I made it up as best I could, and I have to admit, this one took a bit out of me!  At the top, I was hurting.  And we had a long ways to climb still….

Just a minute or two later, we hit the Sweaty Yeti’s, which were large snow mounds with orange netting over one of them, that you had to go under.  Again, it was a bit crowded here, but we made it through…  Just to have more climbing.  And more climbing.

Next was the Mud Mile, which was a series of 5 or 6 deep mud pits, about waist level, that we had to trudge through. Then we hit aid station 3, which was totally packed!  I got a little water and had a honey stinger.  I wanted more water but it was too crowded to wait.

After that there was a bit of running to the log jam, just a series of logs that you had to go under or over.  It was pretty easy.  Now it was a long dirt/gravel road to run down, so we let gravity do its thing.  There were only a couple other runners — everyone else was walking.

The map shows the hay bales next, but I am pretty sure it was a series of 3 Berlin Walls.  Again it was getting very crowded so we had to wait in line a bit, but we helped a few teams over, and other teams helped us.

More down hill running on the the dirt road…  The Hay Bales came, but they were pretty torn up from the thousands of runners that had already gone before, so it was an easy jump up and through.  The hay on the other side was thick, and I did fall in a hole in a couple of places.

(The map shows a super G slalom, but I don’t think we ever did anything quite like that.)

After the hay within just 50 meters or so, was the Spider Web, just a high net wall that you had to climb over.  There were a bunch of people holding it down for us, so we held it for another round of other runners, and then it was back to running down, down, down.

We finally saw Allison and Isabella and she snapped this photo — still smiling after about 9 miles!

The map shows Mud Slide and Greased Lightening, but I only recall the big slip and slide… Greased Lightening.  There was a bit of a line to the left, but the right was wide open.  The volunteers were telling us to go left, as people were getting hurt on the right.  I choose to go right so I wouldn’t have to wait, but didn’t dive quite as fast as I would have due to the warnings, and ended up not having quite enough speed to make it to the bottom without a little bit of help from my arms pushing and pulling…

A bit more running down, and we made it to the Monkey Bars, where we had to wait a bit…  We took our gloves off, and used the dirt to dry our hands.  We both made it over pretty easily, though Ben had a bit of a longer time than I did.  The lady in front of him took a while.  🙂

Next up was Everest, a large, greased, half pipe you had to run up and over.  Most people take a few steps and dive for the top, pull them selves up, and keep going.   I watched Ben do that just fine, but I missed!  So I had to come down and try it again, and then someone grabbed my arm, though I had made it anyway.

A bit more running and we were at the final obstacle, the Electric Shock  Therapy.  I had dreaded this all day — I don’t like to get shocked!  There was a long line, but we again made our way up front.  I pulled my arm warmers up to protect my arms, crossed them in front of my face, and made a mad dash behind a group of other people.  I never got shocked! Woohoo!

There was a short sprint to the finish, where we saw 14:50 on the clock — we had finished in about 2 hours 10 minutes.  No official times are kept at Tough Mudders, though you can submit them later – if you are in the top 5% of any event you can get invited to the World’s Toughest Mudder, a 24 hour event in December.  I think we’ll be close, but I doubt either of us will run it.  Just not a good time of year for that kind of thing!  (Plus, it’s in New Jersey!)

It was super crowded in the finish chute as everyone was getting their head bands, their shirts, and their free beer.  Ben and I got separated, but we of course eventually found each other.  A bit of a clean up with the hoses, picked up our bags, changed, took the shuttle bus(s) to get back to the car, and we were off… Heading towards Idaho Springs for Pizza, though we got stuck in some pretty good traffic on the way.

All in all a great run.  I question the “Probably the Toughest Event…” on the shirt — if you are going to call it the toughest, don’t say “Probably.”  🙂  Ben and I both agreed we’ve done tougher races in our years of adventure racing and ultra runs, though I certainly see that an event like Tough Mudder is much more accessible to many people than those kinds of races.  So it is “probably” the toughest for many of the participants.

I found out later that a few people actually run the course two (or more?) times on their day, so I may consider that in the future.  Once to go fast and hard, and a 2nd time to run at a more leisurely pace where I can help out others more.

I’ve collected some of the race reports from Uhwarrie and thought I’d post them here in one place, for those of you that like to read those kinds of things.  There are reports from the front of the pack, middle of the pack, and back of the pack, which give different perspectives.  Though the theme of ruggedness, hilliness, and toughness all come out.  🙂  If I’m missing any, let me know and I’ll update the post.

40 miler

http://trailsandjubilation.blogspot.com/2011/02/uwharrie-mountain-run-report.html

http://brittanygoesrunning.blogspot.com/2011/02/uwharrie-mountain-run.html

http://randomactsofkristi.blogspot.com/2011/02/over-and-out.html

http://www.running-down.com/2011/02/2011-uwharrie-mountain-run.html

http://hurryslowlybuthurry.blogspot.com/2011/02/sasquatch-at-uwharrie.html

20 miler

http://www.trailheads.org/public_html/article.php?story=20090208173230778

I’m not going to write a typical race report… I ran this same race last year so the course details are in the 2010 post.  Instead, I’ll just give a brief summary and then some random musings.

Summary: My goals were to #1 have fun, #2 finish, #3 break 9 hours.  I’ll cut to the chase and say up front that I met all of my goals.  Woohoo! However, it was a very strange race for me in that, even though I ran a little faster than I expected (8:50), I never felt good.  I really suffered.  But I survived.  As early as mile 2 or 3, I had heavy legs, labored breathing, and was struggling to find a rhythm.  I’m typically a slow starter, at least in terms of getting into a comfortable groove, so I kept thinking, hoping, praying, that that would happen again.  But it never did.  Sometime around mile 20 I gave up on that hope and knew it was going to be a sufferfest.

(I should add that I had a secret stretch goal of 8:30, and know that is entirely possible.  Especially if I ever start running more than 15-20 miles per week.  🙂  I hit the turn in 4:05 having felt dead and tired all the way there.  And while I slowed considerably on the way back, I was only passed twice, while I passed three other runners.  So everyone slows.  Maybe even a sub 8:00 would be possible.)

Here is a photo that Shannon took of me about mile 19… She was already coming out of the turn around, looking strong and fresh, about 3-4 minutes behind the lead female.  Shannon went on to win, so congrats to her!  What is amazing is that she did it all while taking nearly 200 photos on the day!  As a side note, I met her last year on this course, running together from mile 4 – 9 or so, when she had a hard fall on a stream crossing — about 10 seconds after taking this photo of me.  She told me to go on a few times, and I did reluctantly.  She came into the turn around and left before I did looking strong, but I did pass her around mile 34 or 35, as the hurt from the fall caught up with her.  When I saw her the morning of the 2011 race I told her I thought she was running much stronger and faster this year, after seeing her at Run at the Rock and Little River.  Guess I was right!

Ok, back to this year’s race.  How about some random musings:

1.  I saw Anton Krupika write the following about his run at the Rocky Racoon 100, the same day as Uhwarrie.  And while I didn’t run 100 miles, I know exactly what he is talking about.  I dealt with the hand I was given on Saturday, and can’t complain about how I performed.  I sure would have loved to have felt better, normal even, but there’s nothing to do about that except go with it and do what you can on that particular day.

Ultra racing is mostly about doing the best one can with whatever hand one is dealt, even if that hand doesn’t necessarily hew to pre-formed, arbitrary expectations.  Some days–Western States and White River last year come to mind–the act of running on trails is beautifully and absurdly easy.  Other days–like Miwok last year and Rocky Raccoon this past weekend–it is mundanely, decidedly average.  Ever since some time during the middle of the first lap on Saturday–well before Ian had disappeared into the distance–I knew I wasn’t 100% on top of my game, but the reason I can still recover with a sufficient measure of peace is because I am 100% sure that I ran as fast as I could on that day.  Most race days I am able to find a groove where things are generally effortless (at least for a time) and the performance just comes to me; that never happened for me on Saturday.

2.  Here is a link to my Garmin data.

3. Another quote, this time from the irunfar.com blog about Uhwarrie:

It rained heavily the night before the race. While the storm broke before the 20 milers toed the line, it was still a raw run on a relentless course. Mountain Cup regular Rachel Cieslewicz commented after the race, “it was the wettest, coldest, crazy technical 20 mile trail run I’ve raced.” Others reported “the trail conditions were pretty gnarly” and “a couple people ate it.” Having run the 40 miler, I can assure you that the course is quite technical and unforgiving.

4. The banjo player out on the trail at mile 19 (and 21), was a great touch.  It made me run faster (because I heard banjo music).

5.  The four stream crossings in less than 5 minutes at mile 16 and 24 was really tough.  The water was mid thigh high on me, but worse than that, it was icy cold.  On the return, it took at least 20 – 25 minutes for the numbness in my toes and forefoot to go away.  In fact, I took my shoes off a couple of times in that stretch, thinking my socks had bunched up.  I actually think this was colder than my recent polar plunge!

6.  That climb at mile 16 is brutally steep.  It was about half way up that the two front runners in the 20 miler came flying by me.  Yes, they were running.  Running hard.  Granted, if I didn’t have 24 more miles to go, but just 4, maybe I would have been running too.  (But probably not!)

7.  Army rangers in full combat gear carrying assault rifles can be amazingly quiet and still.  We had been told they were out there and we may see them.  But it wasn’t until I was passing them on the trail, with a large group of them within 3′ of us, that I noticed them!

8.  I became a heel striker, at least for part of the run.  The super steep downhills on technical terrain almost necessitate it.  You need the braking power of the heel.  Additionally, having a numb ball of foot due to icy water also necessitates using the heel — at least if there is still feeling there!  Having some ground feel over none is well worth a little heel striking, in my opinion.  🙂

9.  The 1st mile or so has quite a steep climb on very technical terrain.  I was right behind Shannon and mentioned in passing that I ran all of this down last year, because I was really close to breaking 8:00 (shortened course), which I did.  When I came to it this year,  I was actually surprised I was able to run it last year.  It’s pretty tough!

10.  I was in a group behind Alicia Parr up until about mile 5.  I really had no business being with a group that was going to be in the neighborhood of 8:00, but I had already tried a few paces to see if anything was comfortable; but alas, no pace felt good.  However, it was about that time that I figured I better just slow down anyway.

11.  Around mile 10 I saw my lowest pace of the event:  11:53.  But over the next 30 miles, that dropped to something like a 13:18.    (The garmin data shoes two laps — I had no satellite sync for the 1st few minutes so I waited for that to hit the lap button.

12.  A scary thing happened on Monday morning.  I found myself googling “North Face Endurance 50 mile run.”  Normally it takes a few weeks to  start thinking about another long run….  At least that one is 8 months out.

13.  Kudos to the race directors!  They run an amazingly well organized event considering there are 8, 20, and 40 mile races, you have to shuttle runners in from remote parking areas to the start, shuttle back runners from the 8 and 20 mile finishes, drop bags to the 20 mile turn around and return those drop bags to the finish…  And probably 100 other things.  They do an excellent job and are always friendly and polite.

14.  While I may not be back next year — I really hope to get in to the Mount Mitchell Challenge someday, another 40 mile run in NC the same month as Uhwarrie — I do hope to go back and run it again.

15.  As always, the friendly conversations you have in an ultra are cherished.  I ran with Matt from mile 5 to 8 or so.  As we were talking, we discovered we both graduated from NC State.  He in 2009, me in 1993!    He ended up dropping before the turn around due to ITB issues.  He’s the one that was telling me how gorgeous the NF50 in GA is.  (Not sure if that is good or bad!)  I also ran with Allan for a bit through those 4 icy streams and at the start of the killer climb at 16.  Allan wears a Sport Kilt and was fun to chat with.  I saw Will Jorgensen as I was running into the turn around.  I’d never met him face to face, and have only seen one or two photos of him online.  He provided SCAR reconnaissance for me last year, as he ran the full 72 the week before I did “Half SCAR Plus.”  I yelled out “Are you Will” as we passed and he yelled “yes,” so I yelled “I’m Sean Butler” and that was it.  I thought there was a slight chance I might catch him on the return, but that was not to be.

16.  At the same time, an ultra like Uhwarrie can be a lonely run.  Once I hit the turn at 20, and passed all the 40 milers heading that way and the 20 milers heading to the finish, there were literally hours of time spent alone.  If not for the aid stations of 3 miles, I may have not seen more than 3 or 4 people for big chunk of time.  Even before the turn around, I spent long stretches all by myself.  I don’t have a problem with that, I’m just letting others know what you might expect.

Ok, I suppose that’s enough for now.  I’ll update this with results when they are posted.  I’m secretly hoping I was top 20, but I really lost count of the return runners as I was heading to the turn around, so it’s tough to say.

Update:

Official results posted:  30/88 in the 40 miler in 8:50:22

My first goal is to have fun.  My second goal is to finish.  My third goal is to run under 9 hours.

You would think a goal time of 9 hours, which equates to a 13:30 pace, would be easy, right?  In fact, 10 or 11 minute miles on trails, which is a 6 hr 40 min – 7 hour 20 min run, shouldn’t be out of reach, right?  I just run sub 9 minute miles on a 10 mile trail run at Little River.

Well, Uhwarrie is Uhwarrie:

And while those “hills” don’t amount to much, compared to certain other races, they certainly begin to take their toll.  Maybe it’s not the elevation overall, but the steepness.  That plus the ruggedness of the trail — the rocks, the stream crossing with no bridges, the mud, when it is wet, which it will be tomorrow, certainly add to the pace degrading qualities of the run!

Last year I ran 7 hours 57 minutes, on a course that was shortened to about 38 miles.  At mile 14, they sent us down 5 miles of gravel road instead of the 6 remaining miles of trail.  I distinctly recall my pace as shown on the Garmin going from something like a 12:30 to 11:40 over the 5 miles to the turn around.  So change the 5 miles of easy road running to 6 miles of hard trail running, and 9 hours may not have been out of reach last year, though it would have been close!

And now, on to the weather.  Here’s the forecast:

Certainly looks a little wet!  And chilly at the start.  (Though not this chilly!)  That much rain will make for a very muddy course, I’m sure.

Looking forward to it.  🙂

Uhwarrie is just a couple days away…  40 miles on a rugged, hilly trail.  Current weather conditions show rain and freezing rain on Friday, and rain on Saturday, with a low of 28F and a high of 52F.  So, time to make some gear decisions!

The 1st choice is in shoes.  I have been very happy with how my inov-8 195’s and 190’s have been performing all fall — right up until the point where my AT/soleus flared up unexpectedly.   That was a week before a 10 mile race, and after a week of treatment and running in my old Sun Dragons, the race went fine! I chose the sun dragon’s then because they have a higher heel lift than anything else I’m wearing right now, and that helped to alleviate the AT strain.  However, the Sun Dragon’s have large rips in the uppers on both shoes, so I’m a bit worried about them.  But I used some gorilla tape to hopefully hold them together, and that is what I plan on going with Saturday:

I took these out for an easy ~3 mile run, and it is obvious the tape won’t last 40 miles through Uhwarrie in the rain.  There are multiple stream crossings without bridges, rocks, mud, etc.  But if the tape holds the upper together just long enough, I’ll be happy.  Besides, I’ll have a spare pair of shoes at the 20 mile turn around in my drop bag.  Most likely that shoe will be a Solamon XA Comp.

Other gear will be a Nathan handheld bottle holder, though not with the Nathan bottle that came with it.  That bottle leaks like crazy!  I’ll also have a waist pack on that holds a bottle and a little fuel.

In addition to spare shoes in the drop bag, I’ll have additional fuel (see below), an extra pair of socks in case I need to change, and a head light.  Lights are required past a certain time, and I doubt I’ll need it.. But just in case.  I’d hate to get pulled from the course because I thought I’d be faster than I really am!  And even if I’m having a bad day, I’ll want to finish if at all possible.  I’ll have to decide at the turn around whether to grab the light or not.

As far as fuel, I’m going to follow the same strategy as last year and get 90% + calories from Perpetuem.  I’ll have four 20-24 oz sports bottles with 4 scoops each, or about 600 calories in each bottle of Perp ready to go.  Two will be in the drop bag to be picked up at 20 miles, and I’ll start with two.  One in the waist pack will be without water — I’ll fill it at one of the aid stations when I need it.  The one in the hand held will start full, and I’ll add water to it at each check point, slowly diluting it as I go.  I’ll carry a gel and a few cliff shots for each 20 miles.  I’ll have a bar or cookie in the drop bag, but I’m not sure I’ll eat it yet.  There’s also plenty of food along the route at the aid stations, but I typically stay away from all of it.

The last thing is clothing.  With conditions of 28-52F and rain, I still haven’t decided.  Anything above 40 and I’d rather go with under armor 7″ compression shorts underneath running shorts instead of my 3/4 merino wool tights, which I reserve for colder temps.  But with the rain, I’m not so sure.  This may be a game time decision.  If I go without the tights I’ll use the 2XU calf compression sleeves.  For a shirt, I’ll use a 200 weight icebreaker merino wool shirt.  Probably a long sleeve zip shirt, but maybe a short sleeve.  Or maybe the short sleeve under the long. Again, a game time decision.   It really depends on the rain.  I’ll bring a Marmot Precip Rain shell, but again, may or may not use it.  I’m going to keep this part flexible.  🙂  I’ll wear my traditional blue and yellow (Florida Coast to Coast) buff as a hat and some fleece gloves, at least at the start.

Oh, and body glide in all the right places.

And that’s it.  What else is needed for 40 miles?  If I’m missing anything, let me know.

Update 2: 18/69 in the 40-49 male category.  What’s up with nearly 25% of the race being in my division??  55/300 overall.

Update: Here is a photo taken of me by the race photographer:

I don’t have a lot of time to write a real race report, so let me just throw in the garmin data and what I sent to the google minimalist list for now…

And what I wrote to the email list:

Just a quick update that I ran the 10 miler and had NO achilles/soleus problems whatsoever. Well, for about two minutes around mile three I felt a little bit on the OTHER leg than the one that got so bad last Saturday and bothered me all week.

So what helped? I did a bunch of things so here goes:

1) Chiro on Monday (she did some ankle adjustments and deep tissue massage on knots and adhesions)
2) Deep tissue/structural integration massage on Wednesday
3) electro stim a couple of times (massage like setting)
4) lots of lower calf rolling with a foam roller like device
5) used topical ointments like mymed or biofreeze a couple of times a day
6) wore the go-lite sun dragon which is a 10-12mm heel lift shoe (this shoe has the added benefits of having cleat like lugs on the bottom, and it was snowy and icy. The inov8 195’s would have been a terrible choice. The 190’s would have been fine.)
7) 2xu calf compression socks… don’t know if these helped the AT but I really liked them. 🙂
8) 600mg ibuprofen two hours before the start

Another thought is that in a race situation, I really don’t have a lot of time to think about foot placement, so there is no real chance to force a particular foot strike. Thinking back to last week, besides the hard stair workout and hard pavement run, the long run on Saturday had a lot of flatter, gravel and old paved roads, and the inov8 195 does not perform well on that, in my opinion. So blame shoe choice a bit, though really it was a culmination of things that brought on the soreness.

Before I had the AT/soleus issue I had a stretch goal of 1:25:00, about 5 minutes faster than last year. I ended up with a 1:26:30, which I am extremely happy with considering how worried I was earlier in the week. For comparison, the course record was broken by 2+ minutes today, in 1:02:54.

I’ll add here that I went out fast — really fast.  My plan was about a 7:00 minute first mile to get some separation, and then back off.   I was in the low sixes at 1/2 mile and just under 7 at one, but then I didn’t back off soon enough..  Part of that is the adrenaline of the race, and part of it is that there is a lot of down the 1st couple miles…  You’ll see in the elevation chart a little climb, but not that much.  So miles 2.5 -5 or 6 were a bit of struggle to find the right zone.  My stretch goal of 1:25:00 would have been 8:30 pace, and I tried hard to hold that.  But I saw it steadily drop from 7:25, to 7:45, to 8:15, etc.  I knew the last half, and especially the last mile, were crazy tough to hold pace on because they are single track mtn bike trail with a lot of short ups and downs and tight turns.

Anyway, I’m quite happy with my time considering the AT/soleus issue earlier in the week.  Still 4 minutes better than last year!