Read about it here:

Part I

Part II

Part III

Last year, Run at the Rock was a total mud-fest.  This year, it was a bit chilly, with the starting temp around 35F, though that isn’t nearly as cold as last year’s Little River Run which was 16F.  I opted for my CW-X 3/4 tights, and an icebreaker 200 body-fit top (non-zip — I like the zipper kind better).   I’ve only run short distances in the CW-X’s, and then only when leaving directly  from home.  This time, I put them on, and then drove into town to meet Bridget and Kent, before driving the 45 minutes to the park.  When we got there and I got out of the car, my feet felt a little tingly.   I was really cold so I decided to go back to the car for a few minutes and crank the heat.  I even took my shoes off to rub my feet to try to get them to come to life.  I could not figure out why they were tingling!

Eventually I had to go back to the start, where I hung out with a few people chatting away.  Somehow I ended up on the 2nd row, and with both a 7 mile loop and 14 mile loop, with nearly 100 in the 14 and nearly 300 in the 7, I was in front of a lot of people.  Too many people!

Shannon, as always, carried her camera and got a ton of shots.  Here is one of me at the start.  Not a very flattering photo, but at least I look happy.  🙂

And an even funnier one…  #700 in blue right at the front — he ends up winning the race.  That face right behind him – -that’s me.  What am I doing up there?

My plan was to run hard for the 1st 1/2 mile or so, which is on paved road and then an open field, before you hit the single track.  By hard I mean sub 7 pace, so I could get some distance and separation and not be held up on the single track.  I wanted the 1st mile to be in the 7:30 pace range.  I managed both of those goals, though I may have been closer to 6:30 pace in the beginning, but I reached the 1 mile mark in 7:27.

My feet had gone from tingly to numb, and between miles 3 and 4 I was seriously considering dropping out after the 1st 7 mile loop.  I don’t think it is a good idea to run when you can’t feel your feet!  Talk about lack of ground feel, feed back, and proprioception!!   I backed off the pace a little more and just took it easy.  Over the next  10 minutes, my feet came back to me, and I settled into a comfortable groove, and even picked it up a bit.

Looking back, I am not sure why my feet got so numb, but my current theory is that the CW-X tights are the culprit.  Wearing them for a couple hours, including about an hour of drive time, where my legs were bent, may have done it.  The CW-X’s have “targeted support” bands that line the quads.  I think those bands may have cut circulation a little.  But I’m really not sure.  I do know my shoes were not too tight, as I loosened them a couple times, and when I took them off and rubbed my feet, nothing changed.

Anyway, back to the race…  As you near the end of the 1st loop, you can typically tell the 7 milers vs. the 14ers, as the 7 milers really speed up.  I was in a group of about 5 or 6 ladies spread out over 20 meters, but the only one that sped up kept going on the 14 mile course!  Odd.  I passed the 7 mile finish in 57:0x or so, or 6 minutes faster than last year.  However, the Garmin showed 6.5 miles not 7, so it appears the course was short, and later most runners agreed.  I also later found that Bridget was about 20 seconds behind me, coming in 2nd place in the female masters.

Not much to report on the 2nd loop.   One lady flew by in the 1st mile.  I later spoke to her and she is training for Uhwarrie 40 and wanted to negative split, which she did by over 5 minutes!   I found a good groove and settled in.  Between miles 10-12, my legs really started to wobble on the climbs.  And the climbs are really pretty small compared to what’s coming (Uhwarrie).   You can see the elevation profile below, and there’s never more than a 100 foot climb!

When I saw the mile 6 marker and knew I was almost done, then I got some energy back and began to cruise again.  The lady who had taken off at the end of the 1st loop — we had been passing each other every mile or so since then.  I had a good 20 second lead on her when my shoe came untied.  I was tempted to run the last mile with it untied, but felt that was a little too far.  So I stopped, took off the gloves, tied the shoes, put the gloves back on….  She of course passed me, and I never could catch her coming in to the finish.

I crossed the line in about 1:55:xx, though the clock said 1:56:39.  Everyone agreed the race clock was about a minute off, and that the distance was off by about 1/2 mile per loop.  So 13 miles in 1:55 — not too bad all things considered.  That put me in 29th out of 96 overall, but 5th in the 40 age group.  

I hung out at the end with Bridget, Shannon, and Anthony, as well as a few others, waiting for Kent to come in.  When he did, we headed over to the tent, which was warm, and had hot soup.  The soup smelled terrible, but tasted good.  Strange.

I used the inov8 f-lite 195’s with a metatarsal pad in place on the left foot and was happy with them for the most part.  Last year was a mud fest and I used the go-lite sun dragons, which are very luggy, and they were awesome.  It has been dry here, so I decided against the x-talon 190’s which are almost a cleat, and other than one or two muddy spots, that was a good choice.

There was an official race photographer, but the photos have yet to be posted.  I may update this post when they come in….

Raven Rock is one of my favorite parks within an hour driving or so of home.  Along with Uhwarrie Sate Park, it has some of the best trails and scenery around!  I always try to go to the once-a-year orienteering event that Backwoods Orienteering Club puts on there, and last year at the Bushwhack 24 hour adventure race, there was a long orienteering section as well.  So when I heard about the Raven Rock Rumble 5 and 10 mile race, I had to sign up!

I had checked with the PBO running group to see if anyone else was racing, in order to car pool, but no one else was.  Then the day before the race I got an email from my friend Randy saying he was going, and would I like to car pool.  I didn’t even know Randy was a runner, but this is his 3rd year running the 5 miler!  We had a good drive down, getting there at 8:30 right when the posted packet pick up cut-off was.    We had about a 3/4 mile jog to the registration tent, where there was still a line of 15-20 people in front of us, so we were good.

The 5 miler started 5 minutes before the 10 miler, and about 100 meters ahead, so I wished Randy well, and walked to my start line.

Shoe choice was really a tough decision.  I am using a metatarsal pad right now, which sits just behind the ball of the foot, which in theory spreads the load better.  This is an attempt to alleviate that weird popping thing I’ve had in my left ball of foot since Half-scar back in June.  I’ve only had the pads about 10 days, so I’m still figuring out which shoes they work in and which they don’t.    The meta-pad feels great in my new Kinvara’s, but I definitely didn’t want to wear that shoe on the trails.  It is definitely a shoe more suited to roads.  So on Friday afternoon, the day before the run, I tried the metatarsal pad in my Inov8 F-lite 195’s, Saloman XA Comps and the Go-lite Sun Dragons I had so much success with last year (but which are, unfortunately falling apart).  Both of those are a lot more shoe than I’ve been wearing recently.  At first, I did not like the feel in the 195’s, but after going back and forth between all the shoes, finally felt like that would be the best choice.  I opted to not use a pad in the right shoe.  The 195’s really have almost zero cushioning, so you can feel the pad, and on the right foot, it was uncomfortable, but on the left, it felt pretty good.  I opted not to use the luggy inov-8 x-talon 190, as it has been relatively dry and I didn’t think I would need that kind of grip.

The race started at 9:05 a.m., and my plan, as in most trail runs, was to go out pretty hard in order to not get stuck in a log-jam of runners once the course hits the single track.  So, I started up front and was with the top 15 runners about 250 meters in, just before we hit the trails.  I heard two ladies talking about 5:45 being a little too fast.  🙂  I am pretty sure it was more like 6:15 – 6:30, but I wasn’t about to look at my watch at that point!   The course was a fairly gradual down hill for the 1st couple miles, and while there was a little jockeying for position, the strategy of going hard was good because I was certainly in the top 15 – 20 at that point.

Around mile two I looked at my watch to see I was still going a bit fast — 7:35 pace.  But then again, it had been mostly down hill. That pace would slowly creep up over the next 8 miles, but there was also a lot of climbing to come!  Around mile 2.5 I settled into a more comfortable pace and a few people passed me, but I had my eyes on them and thought I’d bring many of them back in.  Especially the 14 year old!  (I didn’t know how hold he was at  the time, but looked on the results later!  🙂  )  He still did awesome, finishing just 3 minutes behind me.  Wow!

Around mile 3.5 we went down an out-and-back section that was all down hill, including a long section of stairs where it was pretty steep.  The front runners were coming back up, and almost all of them were walking.   As soon as you turn around at the bottom, you start the long climb… I switched to power hiking and passed a couple walkers and a couple of folks that were attempting to run.

Around mile 4.5, we passed the finish line, and headed out onto the 5 mile course.  It was a long half mile down, where many of the 5 milers were struggling up.  I decided this would be good information to remember – I wanted to save a little in the tank going into the last mile!  It was on this section were I started picking off a couple of the folks who had passed me earlier, but  by now there was a big spread between most runners.  I ended up running mile 7-9 with a grey haired gentleman, and I reminded him about the hill at the finish.  He passed me on one steep little climb, and I let him go, thinking I would catch him on the BIG climb.  We finally got to there, and I ran some sections and power hiked others.  He just kept plodding along, and I could never close the gap, though at least we passed two more racers who were walking.  At the top, I thought my power hiking strategy would give me a bit more energy and I could over take the guy, but he sped up and actually gained a little.  The results show he was 50 years old — so kudos to him! I hope I am running that well in 10 years.  🙂

Update:  Someone caught a picture of me at the finish so I’ll add it here:

Randy and I both had to get home very quickly, so as soon as I was done we walked over, grabbed some water and a banana, and headed back to the cars.  I felt remarkably good the rest of the day, and on Sunday only had a little soreness in the calves.  The foot popping was barely noticeable and not really any better or worse than it has been — but I have not run 10 hard miles in a while so that is a good sign.  I actually saw my PT on Monday and he poked and prodded my left foot, and the area where the popping occurs was not sore at all, but the head, or just below the head, really, was a bit more sore than it has been.  In the past when he poked and prodded, that area was not that sore.  So the theory right now is that soreness is inflaming the tendon, and the tendon is what I feel popping when I walk over hard surfaces — it comes out of the grove and gets between the bone and the ground.    It still isn’t slowing me down, and doesn’t really hurt per se, but I am monitoring it closely, and hopefully the meta-pad will help it out.

As far as the 195, they performed really well.  The course covers various types of trail, much of it single track, with rocks and roots covered by leaves.  The few times I hit a rock or root head on, the 195 provided ample protection.  I will say that by the end of the 10 miles, my feet were getting tired, though, so this may be close to my limit in this shoe right now.  In two weeks I have a 14 mile trail race, so I’ll have to make a decision.  I am pretty sure I will go with the 195 again, unless it is as muddy as last year, in which case I’ll go with the 190.

Here’s a GPS map from my Garmin showing the course…  The out and back to the river was from mile 3.5 to 5 or so, which includes a long decent down “stairs” and then, as soon as you turn around, the long ascent back up.

Here’s an elevation vs. speed graph, which really shows the two brutal hills — the 1st from mile 4 – 5 and the 2nd the last 1/2 mile of the race.  In reality, the last tenth or two tenths was flat to the finish, so I’m not sure why the Garmin doesn’t show it that way.   The course actually went down the same hill nea

I did not wear the heart rate monitor, so no stats there…

The results were posted late Saturday and showed me 23rd out of 110 with an average pace of 8:34.  On those trails, and those hills, I’m pretty happy with that pace!

I haven’t run a road running race in something lke 8-10 years, but I got back from Europe Friday afternoon and said if I woke up in time and didn’t feel jet lagged, I’d head out to a small local race. I woke up early and made it out, registered, etc.

I warmed up in huaraches… I had not decided what to wear yet, and brought 4mm vibram huaraches and my new f-lite 195’s to the race. The run was to be in a neighborhood that I’ve never run before, so barefoot was out… I had no idea exactly what kind of asphalt there might be, and didn’t want to hit chip seal at “high speed” unexpectedly. I hadn’t worn the huaraches that much for running since April or May, so I wasn’t sure how they would feel, but they felt quite good and I opted for them over the f-lites.

Even during the warm up, the huaraches were getting a lot of questions and looks — even causing one lady to trip and fall (I think)! 😦 She was ok, which made me feel a lot better!

Local races here are maybe 100 competitors, so I had secretly hoped for a top 10 finish. But as we stood at the starting line, 3 “ringers” from the big city were there, looking awfully fit and fast. The 1st 1/2 mile was a very slight down hill, and I was cruising in the top 10 – 15. The 2nd half mile was a gradual up to a turn around, and then a gradual down back into the neighborhood. There were no mile markers, but the Garmin showed 1.0 miles in 6:20, about 15 seconds faster than I should have been going, but I was feeling good. 🙂

With just 100 runners, we spread out quickly, but I could hear some comments on the shoes. And with the out and backs mixed in, I could see a lot of the runners looking at my feet. 🙂

The run was pretty flat, but the slight downhills bothered me. I couldn’t really open up and let gravity take over like I wanted to — I’ve always found that downhill in huaraches is a bit tough.

The last 3/8 of a mile was on a small park asphalt path, but it was so twisty and turny…. Again, the huaraches limited me a bit as they were a bit wet from my sweat, but even in shoes, that kind of trail would be hard to get any speed up. I looked in front and realized I would not be able to catch the guy in front, and checked in back and realized I was safe in my position.

I still went as fast as I could, though. I crossed the line in 21:40, or a 6:50 pace, probably a minute faster than I thought I would run in huaraches, so I was pleased. I do think I could have taken 30-45 seconds off that pace if I’d had shoes on, so I am slowly getting back the speed I had 8-9 years ago before all the knee problems.

I couldn’t stick around for the awards and breakfast, as I had to be somewhere, but before I left I checked in and found I was 11th overall. I also had several people come up and ask about my choice of footwear, so I got to evangelize a bit.

I later found I won 1st in my age group (40 – 49 — turning 40 recently has its benefits!), so I have a mug and a $5 gift certificate to the hop shop waiting for me. Not quite enough for a growler, but pretty close. 🙂

All in all a good huarache run, and I got the locals talking about minimalism. 🙂

See part I for how I got involved in the MR 340, and part II for a fairly (somewhat) brief account of the race itself. Now here in part III, I’ll include some miscellaneous photos and anecdotes from the race that I did not include in the race report.

Fish Hook
As was the case at most of the check points, I always tried to jump out of the boat and, with the pretense of “holding the boat steady” so it would not float away and that it would be easier for others to get in and out of the boat (while in reality relieving myself in the relative comfort and obscurity of the water), I did that about 24 hours into the race, which would have been Jefferson City. I really have no idea what check point it was — from the water and not being familiar with the river and the area, while they each looked a little different, I really had no clue what the names were. But based on timing, I’m pretty sure it was Jefferson City…

At this particular check point, while holding the boat, all of a sudden I felt like something was biting my foot — there was a piercing/stabbing shot of pain on the left ball of foot… I had my Vibram Five Finger KSO’s on, which while not the best shoe for this kind of race, is about the only shoe I have right now that was a decent choice. How could something be biting me through 4mm of vibram material??!! I pulled my foot out of the water and saw a treble fish hook sticking through the material. Luckily only one hook had penetrated, but it was in deep enough that I could not pull it out without taking the shoe off, but it was also in deep enough that I could not get the shoe off easily without hurting my foot more. With the help of one of the crew members, I finally got the shoe off and we were able to get the hook out of the shoe. But I’d feel the pain in my foot the rest of the race and for a couple of days after. Luckily it was a clean, non-rusted hook, and the wound healed up rather nicely.

“Brawny”
At some point the 1st afternoon, when we had worked our way up to the top 5 or 6 boats, we got to know several of the boats around us. The top two boats were pretty far head, but boats 3-8 or so we traded places with until about 28 hours into the race (when we settled firmly into 3rd), so we did get to converse with them fairly often. I started hearing our crew call one of these paddlers “Ronnie,” though it turned out they were saying “Brawny.” I’m not sure where that came from, but my guess would be Redfern. They said he looked like the man on the Brawny paper towel packaging because of his beard. At one point, when we were told who was in front of us, I heard “Andy…” and there was no Brawny or Ronnie, so I finally figured out Brawny was Andy. (BTW, Brawny liked his nickname — he took it as a compliment!)

Brawny got pretty far ahead of us at one point, running comfortably in 3rd. We finally were able to catch him, and it was then that he told us the barge that had just gone by had caused waves which made him capsize. After “swimming for 20 minutes,” and getting all his gear together, he jumped off the river bank and got in behind us in order to draft. A few of us in the back were trying to devise a strategy in how to drop him so that it would not come down to a sprint finish for 3rd at the end, but he dropped off the back after about 15 minutes of drafting and we never had to implement our strategy. Which basically would have been to paddle faster. 🙂

We were never to see him again, but after we had finished we heard he had dropped. But then about 20 hours after we had finished the race, and gone back to the finish line to get the dragon boat out of the water, we saw him come in! I was quite happy to see that, as typically the front runners of a race, if they have a bad day, will just drop. Not many persevere to the end. I walked over, shook his hand, and congratulated him on sticking it out, and he said that is why he was there. We later found that he had gotten pretty sick after he dropped off our tail, and had pulled over to rest. Eventually he made it to the next CP, where he refueled and tried to go out again, but capsized twice within a minute of going out. At that point he went back ashore, went to a hotel, showered, slept, etc., and, 19 hours later, went out to finish the race.

On Friday before the awards ceremony Brawny came to lunch with us and we got to chat for a while over a beer. (I had the Missouri Mud, which was appropriate, since the river is quite muddy.) He seemed like a good guy and I was glad to have been able to share some of the MR 340 experience with him. Plus, he’s raced the Texas Water Safari, which I hope to do some day as well. 🙂

Here’s a photo of Brawny:

Breaking the World Record
The prior dragon boat distance world record was just 82 miles, so we beat that fairly early in the race. Dragon boats are normally raced in sprints — 500 meters or 1000 meters, and not typically raced in distance races — especially a race of 340 miles! In fact, there were some that thought we wouldn’t even finish, or if we did, we would slow considerably as the race progressed and we suffered attrition. But we never lost a paddler and, while we had one slow section the second day, I blame that a bit more on slow water. 🙂

Here is a photo taken from the boat when we passed the 82 mile mark… Not a very exciting shot, but at least we got it on record!

Sunset and Crab Moon
The 1st day was overcast all day, which was great, as it kept the heat down and the sun off. Right before it got dark, it started to clear, and we were treated to a fantastic sunset:

Just after this, it clouded up a bit more, and then we saw some bright white glowing clouds glowing in the shape of an erie, evil crab. Unfortunately, I don’t have a picture of that. It was just the moon shining through some of the thinner cloud layers, brightening up the sky.

Boat Position Changes
While all the paddlers got to change sides every 30 – 40 minutes, only a few of us got to change positions (rows). The 1st half of the race I was in row 9, and the 3 steer-ers would rotate through that row. It was good that we had row 10 with only one paddler — we had one person drop from the team the week before the race — but it would have been extremely tight if row 10 had two paddlers in it when we needed to switch steer-ers. The 2nd half of the race, I moved up to row two, which allowed me to meet some of the other paddlers. Even tough we were all in the same boat, at 41 feet we were spread out front to back pretty far, and there really is a sub-culture built around those you can easily talk with (the row immediately in front of you and behind you) and those you can somewhat talk with (two rows up and two rows back). Beyond that, not a lot of chatting occurs.

Nutrition
I have my long race nutrition pretty dialed in these days, and had no problems whatsoever. While one of my teammates had two 1 gallon igloo jugs for water for me for the race, they seemed excessively large and I was able to borrow someone else’s half gallon jugs. We used two, so that one was in the boat, and one could be filled by our ground crew. If it had been really hot, I could see a half gallon being a touch small on the really long legs during the day, but we did not have that problem.

Beyond water, I used my normal Perpetuem (Hammer Nutrition), and has been my recent want, mixed in a TB or two of chia seeds. I typically shoot for 500-600 calories of Perp/chia mix per sports bottle, and use that as anywhere from 60-90% of my fuel, depending on the intensity of the event. Then I mix in some gels, energy bars, and cliff shot blocks. For real food, almond/peanut butter and honey, salt and vinegar chips, famous amos cookies, etc. It all worked out fine in this race, where I was definitely closer to the 60% range on the perp/chia, and maybe even as low as 50%, since the intensity was lower than something like an ultra-run.

Boat that got sucked into a strainer
After we finished, we heard rumors of various problems people had along the course… One person supposedly lost their boat in the fog and had to sit on the rocks, nearly hypothermic, for hours until they could be rescued. Another boat had gotten crushed on a bridge pylon, etc. I’m not sure which ones are true and which stories had grown in the short time since they had first been told, but at least one boater did have a scare, and they posted about it on the RiverMiles forum, so I’ll just post a link here. It is worth a read — it shows how dangerous the river can be! (But there is a happy ending — and an MR340 finish! Woohoo on the perseverance!)

http://rivermiles.com/forum/YaBB.pl?num=1283050380

NetCam
After we had finished the race, and recovered with sleep, it was fun to head over to the RiverMiles forum and read what had happened along the river while we were on the water, and to read about what had occurred since we got off the water. One funny thing was that Val, who was supposed to be on the team but could not make it once the race was postponed, was posting about us, and hoping to catch us on one of the river netcams. Well, she caught us, and the photo is below. Supposedly the netcam takes a shot every 12 seconds, but we only showed up in this one… Maybe were were going too fast! 🙂

Miscellaneous Photos
I did not carry a camera, but I have a bunch of photo’s from teammates, a bunch have been passed around on Facebook and email, etc. There are a couple pro photo sites out there, and I’m either in the process of talking to the photographers about permission to use the photos and/or purchase some. But if any of the photos that have been passed around via email and Facebook are copyrighted, I apologize! Just let me know and I’ll fix it.

The two pro photo sites are:
http://cindyhilesphotography.com/-/cindyhilesphotography/galleryindex.asp?c=20285

http://www.pbase.com/johnnie_bling/mr340_2010

John Niebling also has a site here: http://www.hipsnapcreative.com.

And here are a bunch of shots:

I bet this was a familiar sight:

Everyone is pretty content, and there Redfern is yelling his head off. 🙂

June 15th, 2010

I was just ten days past my Half SCAR Plus run, recovering nicely, trying hard not to think about what might be next, though the thought of a Fall 50 miler (running) kept creeping into my mind, when I received an email from my old Florida teammate Will, from team “Are We There Yet,” that simply read:

“I am on a team that is paddling a dragon boat in the Missouri River 340 at the end of July. If we finish it will be the world record for longest race in a dragon boat. We lost a person. There are some folks in line to take the spot, but there is probably a chance for another opening. Are you interested?”

Do you know what my response back was? “I don’t even know what a Dragon Boat is!”

To which he responded:

“It is, for our purposes (even though not technically accurate), a big, ceremonial canoe that, in its most common form in the US, seats 20 paddlers in 10 rows of 2, with a drummer in the front who helps with timing, motivation and communication, and a steersperson in the back who steers with an oar through a lock on a steering arm. So it would be like canoeing with a lot of teammates, except that you only paddle on one side at a time. We will be switching sides periodically.”

My first response was “No!” I have enough experience in 2 – 3 day adventure races with 1 to 3 other teammates to understand how difficult team dynamics can be with that few number of people – who could imagine what it would be like with 20? I also like the aspect of adventure racing that allows you to change sports, from running to biking, or paddling to running, etc. Doing one sport for 48 hours (plus or minus), did not sound fun at all. I also thought about the utter chaos we would have at check points — trying to re-supply 21 people in a short amount of time seemed to be an impossible task.  And I hate wasting time at check points!

But, the two words “World Record” kept coming back to me. So a couple of days later, I let Will know, who in turn let the team captain, Christina (later named the Imperial Commandress), know, and a couple of days after that, a spot opened and I was on the team.

And best of all, we’d be raising money for the Shriners Hospital of St. Louis.  Please consider donating here to this cause here.

Here is the logo from this year’s shirt, which shows the map of the course.  We’d be paddling from Kaw Point in Kansas City, all the way to St. Charles.  The other points on the map would be the check points where we’d have to check in with race staff, and where we could stop and refuel.  We were also allowed to “fly by” these as long as our ground crew made visual contact with us to check in for us.

And another:

Training
Wow, here I am entering an extremely long paddling race, with what appeared to be a serious paddling crew, and I’m thinking, “I’ve only paddled once this year, and that was to take the kids out on the canoe for an hour!” Hmm, how to get in shape in less than 5 weeks! Well, I had a good aerobic base from the ultra run, and I had been keeping my strength training up so I felt like I had a decent strength base as well. What was left? Paddle, paddle, paddle! And paddle some more!

Looking back at my training log, it looks like I was able to get in 8 rowing specific workouts, with canoe paddling as long as 3 hours on Jordan Lake, though most were in the 90 – 120 minute range. I had to get up at 5 a.m. a few times to fit in these kind of time commitments around work and personal life schedules. That is not a whole lot of paddling!

Here is a photo of the dragon boat in action… Our team was able to get in a couple of training runs on it, though getting 16 – 20 paddlers together is tough schedule wise!

Postponement
About a week before the race, we got a clue from the race director that the race would likely be postponed. The Missouri River was at or above flood levels, and many of the check points would be inaccessible. And the river could be dangerous. And then it happened. The race was put off until 8/24.

There was a mad dash scrambling to put the pieces of a team back together. Many members had commitments in August such as school, work, etc., but a core group remained, and we eventually were able to secure a team with 20 people on it — leaving one seat empty.  (We later found that one empty seat was essential to allow the 3 steers the ability to rotate on the fly in a safe fashion. If that back row and been completely full, it would have been much tougher to make changes!)

You would think that would be a good thing for someone like me, who had very little paddle specific training in place. But I had an extremely busy time right around then, with a couple of trips planned, and I was only able to get in three more paddling workouts in!

Travel
It came time to travel west to Kansas City. I took an early morning flight to DFW, where I hooked up with Will and Ryan. I had not seen Will in several years, and was introduced to Ryan. Our DFW to KC flight was delayed about 40 minutes, as a seat belt was broken. On a half empty flight, that should not have caused any problems since you can just move someone to a new seat — but the broken seat belt was the pilot’s! That delay was a bit concerning as we were supposed to meet the team at the race start and take the boat out for a quick practice, before the mandatory safety meeting, and now we were cutting in to that time. But we got picked up and went straight to the start, where we quickly changed clothes, where introduced to everyone, and jumped in the boat.

Practice
We paddled the boat as a full team for the 1st time for about 45 minutes. (Actually, I think we were missing one or two people…) At this time, I hate to admit it, but my realistic side was kicking in… Or, perhaps more accurately, it was pessimistic side! Our paddling was awful — we were not synchronized in any way, and there were several in the boat that had paddling strokes that left a lot to be desired. One of the team mates in front of me happened to be a very accomplished adventure racer, ultra-runner, and paddler, and we started talking about attrition rates. We both guessed as high as 20-25%, which would be 4-5 paddlers. A boat as big as that would be difficult to move quickly if we dropped that low. And while we never openly discussed the particular people that we individually thought would not make it, I’m sure we were both thinking about it. This turned out to be a great lesson in “Don’t Judge a Book by its Cover,” because I was dead wrong. The entire crew made it to the finish, and some that I thought would be weak, turned out to be strong.

Dinner
Doug, one of the paddlers, who lived a couple of miles from the race start, had opened up his place to several of us, which was very generous considering he didn’t know most of us at all. I rode to his place with Christina, and then the three of us, as well as Doug’s wife, went to a casino buffet dinner, where we (well, me, at least) stuffed ourselves silly. 🙂 Apparently, river boats were awarded the right to offer gambling a long time ago, and the law was written such that as long as there is a little water between the land and the casino, that’s legal. So the “boat” we were on was a building with a little bridge over a 5′ span of water.

Pre-race safety meeting
We headed to the safety meeting, checked in, and were briefed by the race director on what to expect, the rules, etc. We heard “high fast water” about 100 times during the safety video — while the water had certainly dropped since the postponement in July, it was still very high. And fast. “Drink!” (He had suggested making a drinking game out of the video… 🙂 )

Final Preparations
After the meeting, I went to the grocery store with Eric and Michael for some last minute food grabs — for me that included famous amos cookies, some mixed nuts, etc. Then we headed over to Doug’s, where the 5 racers and 1 support crew member made our final preparations. There were a lot of zip lock bags and food flying around. We finally got to bed around 10:30 or 11. I used my buff to cover my eyes since not everyone was quite ready to turn out the lights when I was — is there no end to the uses of a classic buff? 🙂 I love mine!

Wake-up call
I woke up about 5 a.m., before the alarm went off, and started to get ready. It had not been a great night of sleep, but certainly wasn’t terrible. Just like the night before most races, I’m always anxious and wake up a few times during the night, only to check the clock and realize there is plenty of time. Doug’s wife walked Michael and me to a nearby cafe, only to find it was closed. 😦 I really wanted needed my coffee. Then she drove us a bit further to a very nice grocery store that had a large breakfast buffet. And coffee. Now I was ready!

We had to make two trips to the start with all the paddlers, crew, and gear, but we were there in plenty of time to put everything together for the start…

(to be continued…)

After my “Half Scar Plus” 42 mile run on 6/5, my plan was to take it easy for a few weeks, and not plan any more runs or races immediately.  Of course, it was difficult not to think about what might be next, and I already had ideas about a 50 miler in the Fall, such as the Vermont 50 on 9/26.  But I was being good and not getting too serious about anything, when out of the blue I received an email from Will, a former team mate of mine from my Florida Adventure Racing days.  The email said:

I am on a team that is paddling a dragon boat in the Missouri River 340 at the end of July.  If we finish it will be the world record for longest race in a dragon boat.  We lost a person.  There are some folks in line to take the spot, but there is probably a chance for another opening.  Are you interested?

My first response was:  “I don’t even know what a dragon boat is!”  Will responded that while not exactly technically accurate, a dragon boat is a large ceremonial canoe that typically seats 20 paddlers, has a drummer in front to keep strokes in sync, and an oarsman in back to steer.  At first I really had no interested in racing with 20 other people!  While I had been trying to get Will to race the Texas Water Safari, a 260 mile paddling race, with me for years, the thought of racing with 20 other people, instead of just one, scared me.  An adventure race of 2-3 days with just 3 other teammates can be tough enough in terms of team dynamics and chemistry, yet here was a race with 17 more people to throw into the mix.  I couldn’t even imagine it!

But over a few days, my sense of adventure started to get the better me.  Then there was definitely a spot for me.  And the thought of having my name on a world record was intriguing, as well.  🙂  Finally, the race would start just a couple of days after my 40th birthday!   Looking at the calendar, it was a bit tight logistically to fit into my work and personal life, but there was just enough window to make it happen.  And when both my wife and my boss gave me the green light (Thanks K and D!), I decided to go for it!

So here is a picture of the boat that has been custom built for this adventure:

On top of the chance to paddle 340 miles in a couple of days with 20 other adventurers, and the chance to go for a world record, we are also doing this for the Shriners Hospital for Children in St. Louis.  I encourage you to take a look at our team web page, Beauties and Barnacles, and consider making a donation to the Shriners Hospital for Children in St. Louis.

Introduction

The SCAR run has long been on my mind, when I first heard about it from my old adventure racing teammates Charlie and Ernie.  At the time,  I thought they were pretty crazy, and their first attempt was downright frightful — caught in crazy weather of snow, rain, wind, etc.  You can read Charlie’s account of their second, successful attempt here. I didn’t really think I’d ever attempt it at the time, but then the idea began to grow on me.  And as my knee has been doing better and better the past year or so, and I’ve been running stronger and stronger, including an 8 hour finish at Uhwarrie (38 miles this year on a slightly shortened course), I figured now was as good a time as ever.  When my friends April and Mike said they were interested in helping out, I jumped at the chance.

I did not carry a camera as I didn’t want the added weight or the temptation to stop.  There were many amazing sites that will only live in my head.  So hopefully this post is not too boring!  I do have some photo’s at the camp site where Mike and April were waiting for me and I did take a couple with my phone at clingman’s when I got it out to send a quick update to my wife that I was still alive and well…

The Plan

I had planned to run the full SCAR, all 72 miles, all along.  But the weeks leading up to it led me to believe that was not a wise choice.  First I got some pretty bad blisters on both feet on a barefoot run — I almost never blister!  What gives?  I had some callouses growing, which are no good for distance running, and normally a mile or two on pavement acts like a pumice stone and they are gone.  For some reason, this time I blistered under the callouses and they eventually came off.  So I lost about a week there.  Then I got pretty sick, and lost a week trying to figure out what it was.  The 1st day was really bad, but then I thought I was getting better, only to plateau and then get worse.  A second week down the drain.  When it got worse and I noticed a swollen lymph node, I went to the doctor.  Turns out I had had Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, and subsequently a bacterial infection from the same bite!   I started antibiotics right away, but recovery was slow and I never really got back to good training.  I had lost about 6 – 8 lbs, which for me is significant since I only weigh about 145, and had trouble putting it back on. Finally, 6 days before my scheduled SCAR date, I got a two hour run in, but it was not strong.  At that point I decided for sure that 1/2 SCAR would be plenty.

Because Clingman’s Dome road and Mt Collins shelter are closed, the former due to re-paving and the latter due to bear activity, doing a 1/2 SCAR was tough logistically.  I didn’t want to meet April and Mike at US 441/Newfound Gap, as I was not sure when I would be there and did not want to  leave them waiting too long.  We settled on camp site 53, a five mile run down a side trail away from the AT.  Fork Ridge trail hits the AT at just about  the exact half way point for a full SCAR.

Here is an elevation profile and map… About 3 miles past Clingman’s dome, I would hit the Mt. Collins shelter trail head, and just past find the trail head for Fork Ridge down to the camp site.  I had spoken to a runner who had done the full SCAR just a few days prior and he said there was a sign on the AT for Fork Ridge, but my map did not show that, so I was not sure that would be the case.  But I was hopeful, and if not, Clingman’s Dome road was right next to the AT just past the Mt. Collins shelter split, so I knew I could find it from there.

And a part trail map…  Start at the bottom left at Fontana Dam, run the AT, the green dotted trail all the way to Mt. Collins at the top right, then head down Fork Ridge, the purple trail, to site 53:

Getting There

I picked up April and Mike around 10:30 a.m. and we headed west.  Any trip on I-40 near lunch time warrants a stop at My Father’s pizza in Black Mountain, one of the best pizza joints in the world, so we hit that where I ate a salad, an entire pizza, and had a last beer to wash it all down.   April wondered if I was having a “last meal.”    She also introduced me to an excellent little chocolate shop a well.  We grabbed 50′ of 3mm cord for a bear rope as I wasn’t sure if the camp site we had agreed to meet at would have cables or not, and we were on our way to Fontana Dam.  We arrived there around 5:30, walked down to the shelter which only had 2 hikers in it, and then walked around the dam, visitor center, across the dam and up the road that leads to the trail head.  We turned back, cooked dinner, chatted with the hikers, went over the meeting place one final time, and I went to sleep as soon as it was dark (about 9:30).

Wake-up Call

I of course tossed and turned.  I normally don’t sleep that well the 1st night out on a back packing trip, and the night before a big race or event is also always difficult.  So I tossed and turned.  And tossed.  And turned.  I looked at my watch many times and it seemed like time was moving in slow motion.  Finally at 4 a.m. I decided I might as well just get up and go rather than wait any longer.  I grabbed my pack, bag, and pad as quietly as I could and walked the 100 meters up to the Fontana Shelter bathroom.  There were some tent campers on top of the hill with a HUGE blazing fire.  At 4 a.m.!  Weird.   Anyway, there I put my sleeping bag and pad in their respective packs, filled my hydration bladder and two hand held bottles, and walked the 200 meters to the car.  There I quickly got a cup of coffee brewing, got dressed, and put my final gear in order.  I opted here to skip my oatmeal breakfast — there was no way I could eat anything right now, so I decided to stuff another bar in my pack and head out.  I hit the restroom at the visitor center, climbed the stairs back to the dam, and started running at 4:38 a.m.  Officially that means I ran an extra 1/2 mile or so since SCAR starts at the border of the GSMNP.  I was cool with that.  🙂

The Climb out of Fontana

After the nice flat run across the dam, the road up to the trail head was gradual and fairly easy.  But as soon as I hit the trail, I knew I was in for quite a climb. I already knew that, at least in theory, from having looked at the elevation profile (see above!).  But wow was this tough… Not much running here.  Every once in a while I’d see the lights of the dam below, getting farther and farther a way.  This was literally a 4 mile climb of 1500 feet before it plateaus just a little, and then continues climbing for 4 more miles before you finally get a down hill.  I tried to run as much as I could, but again, it was tough.

Bear Encounter

About 2 and a half hours in, my first handheld bottle of perpetuem and chia mix was just about empty.  (See below for my fueling strategy.)   I squeezed it into my mouth, and the bottle of course made a squishing empty bottle sound.  I heard a response off to my left — it sounded like a wild pig snorting in the woods maybe 20 meters a way.   A few minutes later I heard what sounded like a very large pig digging for truffles off to my left, and then I thought to myself that it was moving awfully quick.  The next thing I knew, the biggest pig I had ever seen ran across the trail maybe 15 – 20 meters in front of me.  It took all of 3 seconds to realize it was not a pig but a bear — albeit a somewhat skinny bear!  My 1st live/wild bear sighting!  🙂

About 30 minutes later, I saw my 1st hikers of the day.  They asked where I had come from and were surprised when I told them Fontana, which was a good 10 miles away since it was not even 8 a.m. yet!   About 20 minutes later I came up on Mollies Ridge shelter, which kind of has its back to the trail the way I was headed.  I could see a couple people on the far side doing normal morning things like gathering gear and brushing teeth.  It turned out it was a father and daughter (about 13 yrs old I would guess).  Apparently I had given her quite the fright as all she saw was me in my black shorts and shirt, and she thought it was a bear running at them!  I just stopped to say good morning and then kept on running.

First Water stop:  Russell Field Shelter

My 1st planned water stop was Russell Field Shelter, about 15 miles into  the run.  I got there and there were a lot of hikers eating breakfast and the like.  I’m not sure if they all had slept in the shelter the night before, but that would have been packed like sardines if that was the case!  I asked where the water was, and ran down about .2 miles to it.  It was not a piped spring, which was a bummer.  I poured the good water from my bladder into my hand held bottle, then filled the bladder and 2nd bottle.  I was not happy to see all the floaties, but figured I’d not really notice them later!  I put my water treatment pills in, filled the handhelds with my perpetuem chia mix, and headed back up to the shelter.  There I stopped for a minute or two to fix my socks and re-tie my shoes, and chatted with a couple of the hikers.  Then it was back to the trail for more running.  I had my pace down to about 17:15 per mile at this point, but by the time I left after getting water and all, it was up to 17:45!

Thunderhead

From Russell field I passed Eagle Creek trail to Spence Field shelter, Rocky Top, and on up to Thunderhead, which is quite a steep little climb.   Near Rocky top I passed a crew of trail volunteers maintaing the trail, and I thanked them all.  This section of trail was getting quite over grown, and where they had cleared was great, but beyond that, it became difficult to run as the grass was covering all the dangers of the trail like the rocks and roots and washouts.  After Thunderhead, I expected to see two SCAR runners that were supposed to have started at Davenport, the opposite end of where I had started, at midnight.  Based on what I thought their expected time would be, I should have seen them, but I did not… So I kept looking and kept looking….  My pace had slowed into the high 18’s by this point, as this was difficult trail!

Derrick Knob Shelter

I reached Derrick Knob probably around 7.5 hours.  I wanted to get more water here — hopefully for the last time.  This looked to be a really nice shelter, so I’m storing that away in case I ever backpack this section!  The water was just down the hill and was a nice piped spring — the kind I am tempted to not filter or treat.  But I had tablets so I used them.  Once I was back up the hill at the shelter I spent a quick minute re-organizing the gear before I was back at it.

26.2

I hit the marathon point just after 8 hours.  Wow!  I finished Uhwarrie this year, which was 38 miles, in just under 8 hours.  Here I was 12 miles behind that pace.  I had not felt that my sickness leading up to this race was slowing me down that much, and while it may have a little, it just proved to me how tough this trail really is.

It was here that I finally put on the ipod — one ear only as always on the trail so I can hear what is going on around me!  I had originally figured maybe a few hours of no ipod, but I never really needed or wanted it until this point. And then right at 26.2 I just felt like it was time for a little music.  🙂

About 15 minutes later, I finally saw someone that appeared to be a runner not a back packer — he had just a waist belt on with two bottles in it and one hand held.  Since this is such a remote location — we were probably a good 15 miles from the road at Newfound gap — it had to be a runner.   I asked him if he was a SCAR runner and at first he didn’t understand and just said he was running from Davenport to Fontana.  I said “yeah, that is SCAR,” and he said “oh yeah — it’s been a rough night.”  They had left at midnight as planned, but the 1st 12 miles were pretty tough, and his co-runner had gotten sick.  So he tended to him and got him to their support crew, and then continued solo.  His final words stayed with me for a while — “I’m just in survival mode now!”   At this point he had done about 45 miles to my 27 or 28…

Clingman’s Dome

From Derrick’s Knob to Clingman’s is about 10 miles and 2000 feet of climbing.  Would the ascent never end?  It was gradual, but there was so little flat ground to gain some speed!  One thing about the AT is that there are often long sections with very little mountain vistas and views, especially in the summer when the trees are full.

At Double Spring Gap I decided to stop and do some quick foot work.  I felt the blister from 5 weeks earlier on my left BOF start to come back — at this point my feet had been wet most of the day and they turn that white pruney cadaver look, and the old blister lines were splitting a touch.  So I took the time to duct tape that area and put on dry injinji socks for the rest of the run.

Once I passed Double Spring Gap shelter around mile 31, the trail opened up and there were mountains all around!  It was sad to see so many dying hemlocks, but it was nice to finally see something.  When I finally reached Clingman’s Dome, I had to run up the ramp to the watch tower, even though it was a little off trail.  With the road closed, it was deserted up there — much different than last time when it was crawling with tourists!  I had carried my phone on the off-chance there was service here, but had yet to take it out of my bag.  I pulled it out and there was AT&T E!  I sent a couple quick text messages to Kelly updating here on where I was and decided to snap a couple quick pictures.  For some reason, April and Mike’s phone number was missing, so I could not send them anything.  I doubt they would have received any messages from me as they would have been hiking down into the valley by now.

The ramp:

Mountain vista:

Me, not looking too bad after 34 miles!  🙂

Mt Collins

From Clingman’s I had to descend down the AT to the trail towards Mt. Collins, about 3.5 miles away.  This section of trail was very tough — it was steep and muddy and rocky, and it started to sprinkle.  And then it started to pour.  I finally had to break out the black trashbag I had brought… I brought it instead of a rain jacket to save space and weight, and the trash bags can be useful in many ways.  I quickly poked a hole in it for my head, put it on, put my buff around my neck to keep water from dripping down, and put my hat on.  Now it was raining so hard the trail was literally a stream bed…  After a while I thought for sure I should have come to the Mt Collins split, but it was nowhere to be found.  I really had hoped I had not passed it.

And then I met Gandalf.  Well, he reminded me of Gandalf.  All of a sudden, there he was.  A man in a yellow 3/4 length poncho with the hood on, and a large staff in his left hand.  At first I thought it was Mike, and I was impressed that he had hiked nearly 8 miles to find me! Then I realized it wasn’t Mike.  I asked Gandalf if he had passed the trail to Mt Collins.  “I don’t know,” was his response.    I said either I passed it or you did.  And he said “Maybe it is 20 minutes beyond for you.”  Ok, thanks for the info, and I head out.  He was thoughtful enough to yell “Stay Dry!”  Right, this was like the Biblical Flood happening and I have a black trash bag as a rain jacket.  Stay dry!  I thought of lots of responses but in the end just ran off.  I was more worried about staying warm at this point!  Cold rain at 6000+ can be chilly!

Two minutes later, I hit the trail split!  I guess he must have been out of it to have not noticed.  The beautiful thing here was a sign for Fork Ridge trail 0.2 miles further along the AT!  Here I was at the 1/2 way point of SCAR, just about at 20:00 pace which is a 24 hour run if you do all 72 miles.  I had really slowed on the climb up and down Clingman’s!  From here, though, the rest of SCAR is mostly downhill.  Should have been easy to maintain that pace or even speed up a little, right?!  Except night would hit in about 4 hours, so I’d have a good 7 or 8 hours in the dark.  Anyway, the plan today was for Half SCAR, so maybe next time!

Fork Ridge Trail

I reached the sign for Fork Ridge Trail 0.2 miles later just as the sign at Mt Collins had said.  Only here was a problem.  There was now another sign that said Fork Ridge was closed due to the road construction on Clingman’s.  Now I had a dilemma.   If it was closed where Mike and April were to park and hike down on Deer Creek Trail, would they be at the bottom?  My choice was to run 4.6 miles on the AT to US 441 and head down that road to the trailhead they should have been parked at which would have been maybe 3 or 4 miles more on the road.  If the car was there, I’d run down the trail and meet them.  That would be about 12 more miles of running.  Or I run down the closed trail 5 miles, and if they are there, I am done, and if not, I have 4 miles to run up to the road and hopefully find some clue to where they might be.

I decided to stick to the original plan and run down Fork Ridge.  If they were not there, it was less running for me.  If they were there, it was a lot less running for me.  I went from the AT another 20 meters to Clingman’s Dome Road, crossed, and went to the trail head for Fork Ridge.  Here another sign slightly caught my attention — it said the bridge at Deer Creak was out and not usable.  Hmm… It’s a creek, right?  I can cross a creek without a bridge…  That thought stuck with me much of the way down this trail.

So, the bad thing about a trail being closed is that it is not maintained.  Well, this trail turned out to be  bushwhacking adventure in some places, there were so many down trees.  And there were a couple of washouts where there was not a whole lot of trail left.  But when the trail was open, it was good.  5 miles down with nearly 3000 feet of descent.  It was here that my knees finally let me know that they  were getting a little tired of all the pounding!  Overall they had held up really well, though, so not much to complain about….

As I got closer and closer to end, I kept wondering what would happen if April and Mike were not there… Or if the bridge was out and the creek was more than I bargained for.  And the sound of water kept getting louder and louder.  And LOUDER.  So now I had some serious concerns about creek crossing with no bridge.

When I finally got to the bottom and came to the creek — there April and Mike were!!  Woohoo!  13.5 hours and 42 miles later, it was so good to see them, and it was awesome to see they had set up my tent!  🙂

Me at the finish, still smiling!

After taking off my shoes, I had to eat before anything else!  🙂

Here is the stream we camped beside… it was crossable!  and Very very cold.  After I ate, I used my buff to rinse off the days sweat and grime.  April even had soap which was a nice surprise and treat.  I had packed a camp towel in the backpack April had carried down, so I dried off with that and got dressed in clean clothes.  I have to give a big thanks here to April and Mike.  They carried all my back packing gear — more food, fresh clean clothes, my tent, sleeping bag, sleeping pad, etc., as well as the gear they needed, all the way down for me.  Awesome!

Garmin Data

Here is the map from Garmin…  Too bad wordpress.com won’t let me embed it here.  Oh well, a picture works too I suppose!

And the elevation profile:

Garmin says I did nearly 14,000 feet of elevation, which I think is about right for this run.   That much climbing and descending made running tough.

Hiking out

After a decent nights sleep, we had breakfast, packed everything up, and hiked out the 4 miles to the car.  Yes, I wore the huaraches out!  🙂  I also carried my backpacking pack and all my gear, as well as my running pack and running shoes.  I just strapped them on to my pack and hiked out.  Overall, my legs felt good, other than my right hip.

Wildlife

Besides the bear encounter described above, I saw the following:

Turkeys — one sitting on a log about eye level just  10-12 feet away.  We stared at each other until I finally said something to him like “Good Morning,” when he proceeded to jump off the log and fly away.  Yes, turkey’s can fly, at least a limited distance!   Then a few hours later I came across two more… One jumped off the trail fairly quickly, the other ran the trail in front of me for a good 30 seconds before it realized it should just get out of the way.  Or maybe he was pacing me.

Fox or coyote — I caught a glimpse of a sandy small dog shaped animal running the trail in front of me, though I could not tell exactly what it was.

Whippoorwill — I didn’t see it, but it kept me company as I climbed out of Fontana in the dark… Reminded me of home, though our Whippoorwill is about 50 db louder than this one!

Toads – many toads on the trail, especially in the morning — one the size of a softball!  I swear!

Gear selection and thoughts

I always like to re-cap my gear and nutrition to help me on future events.

Nutrition

I again used a strong/thick mix of perpetuem — about 500 calories per bottle.  This time I mixed in a couple tablespoons of chia seeds.   I dilute this with water from my hydration bladder as I run, and this allows me to get in a lot of calories with relatively little weight.  This was my main fuel.  Beyond that I had two or three bars, two or three packs of cliff shots, 4 hammer gels, and combos.  If I went longer I would have liked to have something like a PB&J or almond butter and honey.

Gear

• Ultimate Direction Wasp  — great little pack, rides nice and high, love the vest in front with 4 pockets to give quick access to food and other items…  a touch small if I wanted to do the full SCAR unsupported, but for half SCAR it was fine…  And if I do a full SCAR with support at US 441, it would work fine.  I kept one hand held bottle in reserve in the pack.  The pack did give me a small rash on my back where the bottom of the pack must have been rubbing… I was pretty much wet all day so I am sure that had something to do with it!
• 64 oz hydration bladder — just for water
• 2 x 22 oz sport bottles — to carry my perpetuem/chia mix… one in the pack and one in the hand held…
• Nathan Hand Held — used this to hold one hand held bottle… it also has a small pocket to keep something like a pack of cliff shots and bar or gel.  I would clip this on to a loop on the pack’s shoulder strap now and then when I needed two hands to work with gear, or to use on my legs as I climbed the steep stuff.  Clipping the bottle like this to the pack does not work well when the bottle is full and you are running — there is too much bounce.  But when you are hiking up or down the steep inclines, it works fine.  And if the bottle is empty or close to empty, it is also not too bad.
• Icebreaker shirt – never leave home without Icebreaker!
• running shorts & under armor 7″ compression shorts — the compression shorts really helped eliminate chafing.  I was worried about the seams but they rarely bothered me
• ekko tekko socks – used these for about 30 miles
• injinji socks – after I taped my left foot, I switched to these for the remainder of the run.  I often use these as a “liner” when the feet start feeling hot spots, but this time I used them alone.
• NB 790’s – I was worried this might not be quite enough shoe, as it is a trail racing flat, but overall I was pretty happy with them.  There were a few times I would feel the jolt of a rock or root through the bottom, and early on my left ball of foot felt slightly bruised so I switched to a mid foot strike instead of forefoot when the terrain allowed it
• Pettzl Tikka and Fenix P3D – nice and light yet bright head lamp… the P3D is 120 lumens and helps me find my way quickly if things get tough with the tikka.
• black plastic trash bag — these have many uses, but on this run, when it started to pour, it became my rain poncho
• emergency blanket — just in case… I have carried this same blanket on many events and have yet to use it, but some day I know it will come in handy
• Leatherman skeletool CX — I always carry a leatherman, even though they are heavy.   This one is only 5 oz. so not too bad.  9 times out of 10 I only use the knife, which I did this run for cutting the water treatment tablets.  But having a couple of the other tools, especially the pliers, is a nice safety in my opinion
• Buff — another item I rarely do long events without.  I mostly used it to wipe the sweat off my face, but it can also be used as a pre-filter for water, as a head covering if you get cold, and around the neck to keep water from dripping down through the trash bag poncho I made.

Final Thoughts

I’m now about 2 days post run, and my muscular soreness is just about gone.  My right hip is still a bit sore, but much better than yesterday.  I have some kind of weird feeling in my left ball of foot — like a metatarsal is popping when I walk barefoot, but it also seems to be getting better.  Overall I am happy with how I felt post-run.  While my knees had started to get sore the last 5 miles or so from all the pounding, they were fine the next day for the hike out and have given me no troubles since then.

I had planned to take at least a week off from running, and I am definitely going to do that, and maybe run just once a week for 2 or 3 miles for a week or two after that.  I still plan to lift more for the next month or so, to try to regain some of the lost muscle from rocky mountain spotted fever.

I am finding it hard not to think of the next big event, and a 50 mile race in the fall sounds tempting.  At the same time, I had said I would take some time off before deciding what to do next, so I need to stick to it.  I could not help but ask Sultan to compare SCAR with some of the ultra’s he has done, and he responded that a full SCAR is more difficult than most 100 mile races.  So that makes me feel better, because Half SCAR was one of the toughest things I have done.

I loved every minute of it, and can’t wait to attempt the full course in the not too distant future!

Thanks for reading!

This article was shared on the Google Minimalist list, and I thought I’d share it here.  It brought back memories, and my Zola story:

In 1986, when I was a sophomore, my high school started a soccer program for the 1st time in school history.  Rather than hire a soccer coach, they sent over the fitness coach of the football team to be our coach.  We were the fittest team in the county!  But we sucked at soccer.  We lost 17-0 once, though that was to one of the top team in the state.  They were probably taking it easy on us.

Anyway, we had two hour practices, with about an hour of fitness stuff to start, then a little soccer.  (The worst was the dreaded Indian run, were all 20 of us lined up 10 yards a part, jogging slowly, and the person in back had to sprint to the front…  Man those hurt!)  Anyway, we always ended up at the track after practice where we had to run two miles.  I hated running in cleats, and always forgot “sneakers,” so one day I just dropped the cleats and ran barefoot just inside the clay track on the grass.  I did that every day for the rest of that year and subsequent years — which was less often as we eventually got a coach who wasn’t quite so into fitness.

Well, the 1st day I dropped the shoes, one of my teammates started calling me Zola, and it stuck — all through high school and my 1st year of college when I still played indoor on the 18 and under team we had.  I didn’t even recognize the name until someone reminded me of the collision between Zola Budd and Mary Decker in the 1984 Olympics.

You can watch the video of the 1984 Olympic 3000 meter run here, where Decker and Budd collide.

So, other than running barefoot as all kids do, that was the start of my barefoot career.  Granted I got away from it for many years, only to come back about 7 or 8 years ago when I started having knee issues — but only for 5 or 10 minutes on a treadmill or beach every now and then.  I’m glad to be back much more “full time” these days (though I definitely still wear the right shoe for the trail!).