MAY 2015

So I ended up getting my first DNF at the Georgia Death Race. It was pretty embarrassing since I had built this race up so much by telling everyone I knew and posting a lot about my training/race countdown on social media. Multiple reasons led me to this DNF, mostly just not wanting it bad enough on race day. Oh well, I’ll be back!

After GDR I was in a running rut as I had trained for this race for about 5-6 months and didn’t have any races in the near future. After scanning ultrasignup.com I saw the Run for the Kids 12hr over in Birmingham. I signed up.

Run for the Kids 12hr.(5/2/15)

Going into this race my training was very minimal. I tried to have a "normal" social life again after GDR, so lots of late nights. I ran a few 20 something mile weeks then two 30 something mile weeks with a 19 mile road long run the week prior to event. I was banking on my GDR training to carry me through this. For some reason I felt pretty confident I could get top 3 male. I knew I could run over 50 miles in 12hrs, but I wasn’t sure how the 3 mile looped course would play out.

A very well known local runner in the Birmingham area, Suman, was running miles to help raise money for the Nepal earthquake victims. Through Facebook we connected and I said I would donate $2 for every mile I ran. This was so cool. I have always had a deep love for Mount Everest and Nepal (still haven't gone, but it's #1 on my bucket list). I know the people in Nepal are some of the most kind in the entire world. I wish I could have done more, but it felt great being able to help as much as I could at the time.


It was surprisingly a little chilly at race start. This race was a combo 12hr, 50k, and 10k. I started near the back as I do with most ultras and slowly worked my way to the front. All day I had no idea how I was doing place wise. After about 18-20 miles I was pretty much by myself the remainder of the day. I felt great all day and the short loops were awesome so I never had to deal with lack of calories or water. Long story short I ended up running 50.9 (per ultrasignup) and placing 5^th overall and 3^rd male. Great race and I came away injury free! I love going to Birmingham for races. I've met many great friends there in my short time in this sport. Shot out to BUTS (Birmingham Ultra Trail Society), I just became a member this year (I live in MS at the moment).

                                                 Best way to celebrate an ultra finish:  

                                        First time placing in an ultra, super cool award:

Cruel Jewel  50 (5/16/15)

By far craziest/favorite race I’ve ever done so far. A local runner from Jackson that I saw at Run for the kids, John, joked about me signing up for Cruel Jewel 50 that was coming up in 2 wks. I just laughed and didn’t even consider this at the moment. The next day after a few brews I signed up on impulse without looking into it much. All I knew was that it was supposed to be CRAZY hard and that it went over the DRT (Duncan Ridge Trail). I wanted to get my revenge on the GA mountains from my GDR DNF.

My training going into this race was Run for the Kids 12hr…yep that’s about all I had. I had not vert. training as I’m a flatlander and didn’t really have time to train/recover much between these two races (2wks apart). This race is a point to point 56 miles with approx. 34k elevation change.

I camped out for this race, which was new to me. My campsite was pretty nice and was only about a half mile walk to the finish. I was to arrive at the finish to catch the shuttle to the start at about 430-5am ish. I absolutely love mountains as do most ultra runners. I was in awe during the drive over to the start, so many beautiful mountains in all directions. Loved it!

Few hours later race was off. Within about 5 miles or so I met my new running buddy, Kat. As in most races I usually pair up with someone and we end up running hours together and usually keep in touch after races. I’ve met many great friends at the few races I’ve done in the past year. Kat was awesome and pushed me when I wanted to take unnecessary breaks. Eventually the heat and constant climbing got to me so I took a nice long break and told her to keep going. She ended up finishing top 3 female, go Kat!

The climbs did not seem to be super hard on my legs, but my heart rate felt crazy high on the climbs. Pretty much every big climb I would stop halfway up just to let my heart rate slow down. I finally made it to the DRT and made it before dark! It was beautiful. I legit tried to drop from this race at mile 40, but Susan (whom many know in the Georgia area) pretty much talked me out of it. I sat at this aid station for a good 40 minutes. This was the AS right before the 15-17 mile “Dragon Spine”, and if I continued if would be all at night and alone..

After a few cups of soup/coke/whatever I could grab and some encouragement from Susan I was off into the night on the Dragon Spine. The rest of the race I only ran into 100 mile racers. Most of these guys were pretty trashed at this point as they were deep into the race (I secretly want to do the 100 next yr). Running through the night was very cool. We would run to the bottom of the mountain where it would be super hot/humid, then run to the top where it would be chilly/windy. I ended up finishing around 3:45am! It took me almost 19hrs to finish, but I did finish..which was my only goal. I will for sure be back for this one and encourage anyone else looking for a TOUGH 50 to as well. It has to be one of the top 3 toughest 50s out there.


                                           

                                         Start in Blue Ridge (turnaround point for 100 milers!):

                                          Me and Kat during the early miles:

                                          Swag:

Rogue Dusk til Dawn 12hr.(5/29/15)

Another running buddy of mine, Rebecca (whom a lot of people in the GA area know), was going to be RD for her first race. I wanted to be there to support and it was a night race so figured that would be cool. This one started on Friday night at 8 pm and finished at 8 am Saturday morning. I met one of my ultra runner Facebook friends, Aaron, for the first time. Super cool. We ended up running/competing most of the race. Going in this one I felt good physically, but mentally was feeling burned out from my other 2 races this month. After 18 miles I sat at the start/finish area for about an hour and just ate and talked to other runners. I finally got my butt up and ran 24 more miles (thanks to my ipod and coke) I ended up finishing in a 3 way tie for 2^nd place (Aaron and the 1^st place female). Great race, great people, great time.

May was a fun month for races. I’m very thankful that I came out of this injury free, got to hang out with some really cool people, and got in some great runs. This for sure built my confidence up going into my first 100 miler coming up in November (Pinhoti 100). I’m sure I’ll do some more 50ks and 50s this year, but my focus will be on finishing Pinhoti.

Happy trails, peace!

Mt. CHEAHA 50K

Not much of a write up, since my mind is focused on the Georgia Death Race I have coming up in 5 days! Awesome point to point race in Alabama. I'll for sure be back. 31 miles with about 7,500ft elevation gain! Great training run for the Georgia Death Race. Here's some pics I took:

 

CLOUDLAND CANYON 50

CLOUDLAND CANYON 50

Let’s just back track here. So back in October-ish I was scanning ultrasignup.com for races somewhat close (within 6hrs or so) that would be tough. I stumbled across this race called The Georgia Death Race. Instantly I was intrigued and wondered why in the world it was called this. So after some research (looking at the race website and reading some race reports) it was on my radar. The race is March 14, 2015. When I first found out about this crazy race it was nearly already sold out. One morning in October I spontaneously signed up!!

Brief summary on that race..it is labeled by the RD as the toughest race East of the Rockies, so yeah that’s what I’m dealing with. It’s 68-70 miles, point-to-point, and here’s the kicker over 40,000ft elevation change with hardly any switchbacks. I live in MS..so I wasn’t really sure how on earth I would possible come even close to successfully training for this thing.

So my strategy is pretty simple. I decided to just race a good bit leading up to this thing in places somewhat close that have some mountains/big hills. I ran Tranquility Lake 50k back in November to kick off my training, then Battle for Black Rock 24 miler in December, and then Cloudland Canyon 50 in January.

So now that the back story is out there we can get on with this RR. Coming into this race I didn’t really have a set training plan. Like mentioned above I was just kind of racing and running probably avg of 40-50mpw in between races. Leading up to this race I got in a 70+ mile week (a PR for me on weekly miles), and the next week I ran a road 50k on a 2 mile road..I pretty much just did hill repeats the entire 5+ hrs. So not much of a legit plan and so I knew not to expect anything big from this race. I just wanted to use this as a nice “easy” long run to start getting me ready for the Georgia Death Race (GDR). 

The race took place on Jan. 10, 2015. I rec’d lots of new running gear for Christmas from my family and myself and I know the worst thing to do is try new gear at a race, especially a 50 miler, but this is what I did. For the race I used new shoes (only had 10 miles on them), new watch, new tights, new jacket, new hydration vest, new headlamp, and a new nutrition plan. Surprisingly, NOTHING went wrong with any of this!

Coming up on race week the RD kept posting on Facebook how COLD it was going to be on race day so I was constantly checking the weather on race week. Skip forward to the day before the race and the temps were projected to be low in the mid teens and the high to be around 35 on race day. So the Friday before the race I packed up for some cold weather, hopped in the car and headed to the great state of Georgia (NW corner, 45 min. south of Chattanooga).

5.5 hrs later I was there! The race was right outside a small town called Rising Fawn with a “mountain”, where the race was, next to it. I actually stayed on the other side of this mountain in a town called Lafayette, GA. I did your typical cheap hotel and just slept on top of my sleeping bag on the bed. Friday night I went and picked up my race packet, nothing special here. The race started at 5AM so I grabbed some food and went to bed pretty early. This area is in a different time zone than me so I kept waking up thinking I was going to over sleep. I ended up waking up at 1AM and couldn’t go back to bed, so nice and early start for me! The first thing I do on race morning is chug some coffee to get the stomach emptied out, if you know what I mean..of course this hotel didn’t have coffee and none of the nearby gas stations were open yet. Skip forward to time to go and I had not emptied myself out yet (TMI sorry). I knew this was not good going into a 12+hr race. Thank goodness this never became an issue, but it sure did stress me out for about an hour. 

So I finally arrive at the start. It was SOO COLD. The temp was about 15 with a wind chill probably close to single digits. I met all the other runners in a building that had heat near the start. We all waited in there for the pre-race meeting and then we were off! 

This race had a 14hr cutoff. So my goal was to finish at least around 13hrs and to not get injured. I started at the very back and just took it super easy until the sun came out (2+hrs). As we approached the first aid station I quickly realized that wearing 2 pairs of gloves on each hand was going to be a pain every time I needed to grab nutrition or untwist my water bottles. As we approached the aid I got my bottles out and the volunteers filled them both up with water and handed them back to me. I was using the Salomon soft flask bottles (first time using them). Well as I was putting the top back on the first one I freaking squeezed the bottle which spilled almost all 15oz of water all over both of my gloves!! NOT GOOD in 15 degrees! So for the next hour I was pretty sure I was going to get frostbite and my fingers were going to have to be chopped off. My gloves were rock hard and my fingers were in so much pain.

In long races I tend to zone out and not pay much attention to details like when I come across certain miles and aid stations..so that’s probably not great for a race report. As I left the second aid station the sun was finally out, but it was still probably only in the 20s. Between the 1^st and 2^nd aid station I discovered a new problem that would be with me the entirety of the day..frozen tops on my bottles. These bad boys were rock solid frozen. The volunteers would have to hold my bottles up against campfires at aid stations just to get my tops off. This became a pain and very stressful throughout the day that I constantly feared I was not getting enough water. I later found out that pretty much everyone was having this problem and a few people were actually showing major signs of dehydration.

So maybe a few hundred feet past the 2^nd aid I saw a guy running back toward me! WHAT! It was first place! I was at about mile 15ish out on an out and back section. He was coming back to this aid which was also aid 4 at mile 26. So this dude was rolling. He ended up finishing in about 7:30 on a tough course in tough conditions. A few more miles down the trails I came up on a girl I met at my last race, Rebecca. We ran pretty much the whole Battle for Black Rock race together. I really liked her company during that race, she is one tough chick! We briefly said hey and chatted a tad then I continued past her. For the next few hours nothing real interesting happened. I’m pretty bad at wanting to give in to the temptation of quitting when I get this far in a race and everything seems to hurt and the motivation just isn’t there anymore. I start questioning why on earth I do this to myself…but it always seems to be worth it in the end!! The one thing that usually helps me the most is finding someone I can run with and chat with for hours. That’s what I did. About 5hrs into the race I met some awesome ladies from Birmingham, Sonia and Sunny!  I ran with them for a LONG time. Sunny took off at some point, but I probably ran close to 18+ miles with Sonia. Awesome lady! We talked a lot about races we’ve done and future races. She’s also doing the GDR and has already done it once so she gave me pointers on how to train for that thing.  

I guess I should mention my nutrition plan. The last few races I’ve done I’ve tried out Tailwind just because it has gotten so much hype. I like it, but I feel like I’m getting way too much salt when I use it. So for this race I decided to do my old strategy of gel ever 30 min and S-cap every 1-2hrs. It worked great and I’ll stick to this for future races!

So finally I arrived back at the start/finish which was at mile 38ish. I was way ahead of the cutoff…not sure the exact time but I knew I could walk the next 12 miles and still be okay. After this aid it was 3-4 road miles then back to trails. The trails on this section were pretty technical at a lot of points, but the scenery was so beautiful. Lots of gorgeous overlooks and FROZEN WATERFALLS! Plus being 40ish miles into a run made it seem even better. So once we got off the road I told Sonia I had to walk for a bit so she took off. I pretty much walked the rest of the race from here. This had to be 42 or so miles in and the last aid said I was probably in the top 20% of runners! Well I knew I couldn’t keep running at this point. Not so much from anything hurting I just wasn’t mentally ready to push myself coming into this race and really didn’t have any motivation being safe from the cutoff and injury free on my “long training run”..so I was content with walking it in at this point. Lots of people ended up passing me from here on..dang it!

This trail goes along a ridge then down into a canyon where the waterfalls were. Well the RD warned us about some stairs. OMG stairs there were! I’ve never seen so many in my life. The stairs went at least 1,000 ft down into the canyon. I was told this was another out and back part so of course we had to come back up these stairs at like mile 48ish….I finally wobbled my way to the final aid station on this out and back section. It was said to be about 5 miles from the finish. At this aid I got all kinds of stuff..Ramon noodles, brownies, M&Ms, Mountain Dew (lots of stuff I normally would never eat)! I headed back onto the trail just walking along stuffing my face with all this junk. I finally made it back to the stairs and once I started up I realized it really didn’t hurt badly at all like I expected. Going into this race I had been doing a lot of stair mill workouts at the gym. I guess a combo of that and walking the last few hours helped out! I actually caught up to 3 guys on the stairs that had run past me a few miles prior! At the top of the stairs the park ranger there said it was 1.1 miles to the finish! Long day almost over. I just kept on walking and enjoying the gorgeous views. 

Finally when I got a few hundred yards from the finish I heard people cheering and ringing cowbells, so I gave it a final push and ran it in! Race over!  Run Bum (RD’s nickname) gave me a high five and beer glass as a finisher award. I was so out of it after the race. I finally got to sit..it felt so good. I hung around for a bit, changed clothes and chatted with other runners. My plan was to try to drive back home to Jackson, MS (5.5hrs), but at least make it to Birmingham which was 2 hrs away and get a hotel if needed. I ended up making it the whole drive back and got back home around 10PM that night. I rewarded myself with a large order of French fries from McDonald’s and a beer! Funny story..the next day I realized that I left my BRAND NEW headlamp, Salomon water bottle, and beanie at the race..GREAT! So there goes $100 worth of gear..oh well, it’s just money..right?

My official time was 11:46:58. I got 38^th out of 75, with 116 starting. Not bad for a MS boy in the mountains with pretty average training coming into this! It was for sure an eye opener though approaching GDR I can’t afford to slack off in my training anymore. Time to get serious!

Thanks so much to Run Bum, all the park staff, and volunteers for putting on such an awesome event! I highly recommend everyone checking out this race next year or even just take a weekend trip out to that area, you won't regret it!

Gear:

Shoes: Hoka One One Challanger ATR

Pack: Salomon Advanced Skin S-labs 5 Hydration Pack

Socks: Swiftwick

Tights: GoLite

Base: Under Armour thermal compression top

Outer: Marmot Down jacket

Outer Alternate: Mizuno lightweight thermal top

Headlamp: Black Diamond Icon

Below are some pics. Most of these are from the race Facebook page that others posted after the race. I will try to remember to start bringing a small camera on future races.

MISSISSIPPI 50

ORIGINALLY POSTED ON A RUNNER'S WORLD FORUM ON 3/3/14

Mississippi Trail 50 (50 mile, 50k, and 20k)
Laurel, MS
http://ms50.com/2014/Results/MS50201450Mp.pdf

I've never done a race report, but figured I'd give it a shot since it was such a big achievement for me. So sorry if this drags on too much..I've been wanting to run a 50 miler since I ran my first marathon.. it just amazed me that people could run that far..still does.

This past weekend, 3/1, I completed my first 50 mile race!

I didn’t have a set training plan going into this. I came off a long layoff of running in December (about 4-5 months with very little running, no more than 20mpw). I signed up for a half-marathon the first week of December with very little training. That went well, so I signed up for a marathon second week of January. That went okay, so I signed up for the 50k for this race..giving me 8 wks to prepare. Well, about a month before the race I decided to go to the race trails to see if I could gut it out and run a 50k. Sure enough I did it (5:47), so that night I emailed the race director and asked if I could switch to the 50 miler. Boy, I did not realize what I was getting myself into..My training between the marathon and 50 miler consisted of mostly 50+mpw with a max of 68mpw, with lots of back to back long runs on Saturday and Sunday. Longest run before was a 50k. Luckily, I did not get any overuse injuries during this time. Leading up to the race I felt okay about my training. This race has a 12 hr cutoff, so that was my only goal..finish before 12hrs. I knew I’d be cutting it close.

Course:
Pretty flat for a trail ultra..the 50 mile course had about 1,500-2,000 ft elevation gain. Still more than I’m used to though. The 50 mile course consisted of three laps of a 12.5 mile loop and two laps of a 10k loop. Nothing technical at all, mostly fire roads, pine straw covered trails, fair share of muddy areas, and a good bit of water crossings. My strategy was to try to run each 12.5 mile loop in 2:30 and each 10k loop in 1:30. This would put me at about 10:30 finish time…but like I said my only intention was to finish before 12hrs. My thought was if I could keep to this strategy as long as possible, even if I completely bonked toward the end I could still walk and finish before cutoff.

Night before race:
I showed up to pick up my race packet/race dinner about 30 minutes before they closed up shop. I got a big plate of pasta and sat down to eat. A couple asked if they could sit next to me. We introduced ourselves and the husband started asking me a little of my running background, race strategy, nutrition plan etc. I wish I remembered his name. He was probably mid to late 50s from Louisiana. Him and his wife were working the only aid station on the 10k loop..his wife said, “we better see you twice tomorrow!” I’m terrible with names, but I came to find out later on from another runner that this guy is hardcore..he’s run Mont Blanc, Western States, and several other 100s. I already felt like a huge newb being there, this just added to it. It felt awesome being around runners like this, but I wasn’t sure if I belonged.

Race day:
Race started at 6am. Alarm was set for 4am, but of course I was up at 3am just watching the clock..scared of oversleeping. I went through my drop bag making sure I had everything (extra socks, shoes, gels, ginger candy, S caps, bodyglide, etc). Going into this race my plan was to run very slow, walk all the up hills, take a gel every 30 mins (as long as I could stomach it), take a S cap every hour, drink 22oz of water every 2-4 miles, eat solids early as much as possible at the aid stations. The forecast was high 73 low 52, mostly sunny. All my training had been done in 20 to 50 degree weather, so this made me a little nervous.
Lining up for the race I tried to get near the back. They had the 50 miler and 50k starting at 6am (20k started at 8am) so I knew the 50k runners would be going much faster than I needed. Sure enough as the race started, people were passing me going out fast. I slowly crept to the back. I was amazed at how friendly everyone was during the race. I met several people, probably 20 or so total during the race, most of which were from out of state..which is pretty cool. I ran the first 25 miles and felt great, no problems at all. My third 12.5 mile loop is when it started hurting. At this point in the race, there was no one really near me, maybe the occasional runner every 10 minutes. The 50k runners only had to run 2 big loops, so it was down to mostly 50 milers on the big loop..it was very spaced out at this point in the race. It was getting pretty hot at this point too. The crew chiefs at the aid stations were being very cautious checking on runners when they came through on this third lap. I found out after the race, two people were pulled off the course by an ambulance due to dehydration. I never felt any signs of dehydration. I just kept to my hydration plan, water, S caps, and heed.

At mile 35 I got a burst of energy out of nowhere. I felt pretty good from mile 35 until 37.5 when I got back to the start/finish line. At this point, I finally got to see my family for the first time. They drove down the day of the race, and got lost a few times on the way down. There were probably a hundred runners near the start/finish celebrating their 20k and 50k races. All eating red beans and rice, some drinking beer, laughing, just having a good ole time. I still had to run 12.5 more miles…

My first 10k loop started okay. The aid station on this loop was at mile 2, so you had little over 4 miles to run back to the start/finish. I started my first 10k loop. I ran the first mile, but I was running out of energy fast…I didn’t see one person this first mile. I walked/ran the second mile..the second mile was all pretty much a straight line. You could actually see the aid station from pretty far away. I could see 10 or so runners way out in front of me..all of them walking. So this made me feel a little better. When I got to the aid station, the couple from the night before was there cheering me on! They said I looked great and was making good time to finish before cutoff. I grabbed some oranges, heed, and water and got back to the trails. The next 4 miles were all walk 5 mins, run 5mins.

I finally got back to the start/finish. At this point I really could not imagine going another 6 miles..it just didn’t seem possible. My feet were numb, my calves felt like they had just ripped off of my bones, my shoulders felt like jello from carrying water bottles all day. I filled up my water bottles, grabbed some gummy bears, gave the family hugs, then hit the trails. I was determined to not let myself even think quitting was an option. I had already run 43.7 miles, what’s another 6..even if I had to walk. Well, that’s what I did. I walked the ENTIRE last lap. I literally did not have anything left to run. But I was doing more of a “power walk”, pumping arms and all. I was able to walk at about a 15min. pace. The entire loop I was crunching numbers in my head making sure I could finish before 12 hrs. I started the last lap at about 9:30 race time, so this gave me 2:30 hrs to go 10k. I just kept on walking. I did not let myself think about pain, instead I tried to focus on how big of an achievement this would be for me, on how hard I have worked to get to this point. I thought, “gosh, if I can do this..I can literally do anything I set my mind to.” This entire lap I did not see anyone besides the aid station crew, who was starting to take down the aid station.
I finally got the 2 mile left point, then the 1 mile left point. I tried to wobble/run a little. Then I finally got a glimpse of the finish line. I literally felt like crying, I had so many emotions going through my head at this point. I ran the last 100yrds or so! There were probably 20-30 people at the finish line at this point and they were all cheering my name!

My official finish time is 11:06:26. I got 47^th out of 79. There were 160 people signed up for the 50 miler, and only 79 finishers!

Loop 1: 2:18:12 (12.5 miles)
Loop 2: 2:38:48 (25 miles)
Loop 3: 3:00:10 (37.5 miles)
Loop 4: 1:31:06 (43.7 miles)
Loop 5: 1:38:09 (50 miles)

These are the only photos I have at the moment: