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.