munisano

Chief Ladiga - Silver Comet 100 Mile Unicycle Epic

2011-11-08T17:24:00.000-06:00

This past weekend I checked off another item on my "bucket list." Read on.

Racing Outside The Box: My Badwater Ultramarathon Experience

2011-09-08T19:27:00.000-05:00

Long over due, but here is brief (for me) account of my 2011 Badwater Ultramarathon experience. Enjoy.

My Tale Of Failure: 2011 Barkley Marathons

2011-04-06T21:22:00.001-05:00

Not All Pain Is Gain

Snow Day and the Brahma Bull

2011-01-25T18:24:00.002-06:00

My story of the 2011 Mountain Mist 50km

What possessed me to focus my training on the Mountain Mist 50km this year? I can’t really pin my reason on any one thing. I think that regularly training with several like minded folks really helped make my decision easy though. Late last summer I began to join the guys at work for their Tuesday Lunchtime Track Beat Down. I struggled mightily at first as I hadn’t done any structured speed work in years, let alone set foot on a track since my collegiate track running days. But I couldn’t resist, I was feeling burned out of my routine and wanted to do something different, train with some other folks, work to improve my speed. So after taking on the 335 Pinhoti Trail last May and half-heartily scrapping by the Lean Horse 100 Mile in September I went back to basics. Cut my weekly mileage back significantly, cut down the length of my long run and began to do more speed work and tempo runs.

Over the weeks that followed I saw my short distance speed coming back and even raced some of my fastest 5 kilometer races in years! What really capped off my decision to train seriously for Mountain Mist came after I set a personal record (my first personal record in over a decade!) in the half marathon in November. I was now really confident that I’d gotten my speed back now it was time to incorporate a little more distance and start getting my trail legs back.

Thus began the semi-weekly ritual of Track Tuesdays and Thursday Trail Tempo runs. My workouts on the track and trail steadily improved. On the weekends during the Mountain Mist course training runs I’d focus on pushing the main down and uphill sections at race pace or faster; just to build confidence. So by the time January 22nd rolled around I was ready to go!

My pre-race goal was to prove that I could get back to the sub 4:20 performances which I’d run four times previously. That was it. My personal best at Mountain Mist is 4:11:13 (2002) and I’d run 4:16-4:17 three times. I knew that today’s Mountain Mist 50km course has changed significantly* since 2002 and that a sub 4:20 would be on par with my previous bests.

Race Day

With the crack of a rifle shot, 308 runners began their journey of 50 kilometers from the Monte Sano Lodge. As we surged forward in the chill January air, I felt a huge release; it was as if a huge weight was lifted from my shoulders. Weeks of hard training and nightmares were now past; it was now go time, a wonderful opportunity to see what I could do. This year the trail conditions were optimal (in my opinion). There was about an inch of grippy snow on the ground (in most places) that provided pretty good traction and, most importantly, the normally muddy ground was frozen solid which made for a very hard and fast course. At any rate, for the lead pack this was going to be a road race today!

Thirteen years ago when I first ran this race there were 132 finishers and the race field wasn’t nearly as competitive. As a result, back then, the first mile on the road was typically an easy warm up jog before we’d get down to work once we hit the trail head. So much has changed. This year, that first mile on the road I felt like I was running a 10km and I was in a huge pack of runners! I knew I didn’t want to be caught behind a bunch of folks when we hit the narrow, single track, trail so I went along with the craziness and tried to stay near the front of the pack.

Once entering the woods onto the snowy single track it became clear that the pace wasn’t going to let up any. Ahead, the top three runners, David Riddle, Josh Wheeler and Hal Koerner were already almost out of sight. There were a couple of unidentified runners following hot on their heels and then a large chase pack of mostly my local training buddies: Eric Charette, DeWayne Satterfield, Blake Thompson, Tim Vincent… On the icy decent down Walnut Hill (Cold Springs Trail) I took the middle line while most took the typical right line and so I ended up briefly ahead of our group, with Eric still out a bit ahead of us. Across the closed road the chase pack had thinned somewhat, ahead I could just catch a glimpse of the 5th or 6th runner, then Eric and I believe David Rindt.

The steady climb up the Mountain Mist trail seemed to pass by very quickly, I felt pretty good (far better than I did at this point last year when I was woefully out of race shape) as we emerged back on top of Monte Sano. The next couple of miles are perhaps my least favorite part of the course as we follow flat, mountain bike trails along the top of the mountain; initially heading away from the first aid station and then, after a hair-pin turn, heading right back to it. On the other hand, this is a good place to pick up the pace as this is some of the easiest mileage we’ll see all day!

I passed through the first aid station at O’Shaughnessy Point (6.72 miles) right at 47:30 (7:04 min/mile) along with seven other runners. Without even stopping at the aid station, I began the treacherous decent down Warpath Ridge where I’d fallen a year ago during the race and sliced open my knee!   I had no such issues this year as I made pretty good time dancing down the steep, rocky incline; moving ahead of Eric, Tim and David in the process. DeWayne, Blake, and others were not far behind as we cruised down the easier part of the beautiful ridge line trail heading towards the Power Lines part of the course. As we continued the gradual, rocky descent, Eric and I talked about how his foot was mysteriously numb and chuckled at how a group of local runners had gotten lost in this section a few weeks ago at a trick, upcoming, intersection. I obviously jinxed myself because all of a sudden I looked up to see orange tape in front of me indicating, that yes, I too had led our small group off course and onto the Red Lizard Trail!!! Doh! Luckily we caught the error immediately, but not before an amused DeWayne blasted by us; laughing. (Unknown to us at this point, but strongly surmised as I write this, two of the runners that were ahead of us are believed to have made this same wrong turn and continued downhill on this trail. Looking back at the race splits, we observed these two runners checking into the previous aid station a minute or so ahead of us and then checking in to the next aid station behind us; we never passed anybody. The second fact was all the side trails had orange tape strung across the trail. To take a wrong turn you had to physically pass through the tape; the tape I saw on that side trail was indeed broken!)

Finally back on course, now in the back of our thin pack, we emerged onto the dreaded Power Line section of the course. Historically this has been one of the muddiest sections of the course. Normal mud is bad, but this is red Alabama clay and when you mix in all the grass along the path you can end up with adobe bricks on your feet by the time you reach the turn off of the Power Lines! Thankfully the ground was frozen solid and we made very quick time through this section.

Off the Power Lines and into the woods once again the trail begins to roll up and down leading to Goat Hill (a.k.a. “KT” or “9 mile hill”). David surges ahead on the climb with me and Eric trying to follow in his wake; just behind us DeWayne, Blake and Tim. This is first really challenging, extended climb on the course and I’m surprised to feel pretty good all the way up. I don’t try to push it, or surge, just stay steady and by the time we top out and make the turn on to Goat Trail we’ve gained a bit of ground on David and Eric and I have separated a little from the rest, though we’re all within a minute of each other a this point.

Goat Trail is a nice, gradually level to downhill section that is normally quite rocky and often times a bit tricky. Today with the added snow it seems faster and less technical. At any rate, we make good time here and I begin to really warm up. I started the race wearing two long sleeve layers: a light weight first layer and a thicker, mid weight, outer. Eric suggests I can probably remove the outer layer now and give it to his girlfriend, Ann, at the next aid station. Great advice, I didn’t realize how much I was sweating until I finally, struggling, got my outer layer off. I immediately felt a lot cooler, but that was a good thing. While I was trying to get my outer layer off, Eric had surged ahead, David Rindt just ahead of Eric. A short time later I arrived at the Three Benches aid station (11.94 miles) at 1:28:48 (7:26 min/mile). The last 5.22 mile section took 40:44 (7:48 min/mile) and felt pretty good, not too fast, not too slow; just right (I still had a long way to go!) I see Ann at the aid station and hand her my outer layer (a bit sweaty, sorry Ann!) and quickly speed out of the aid station and onto the circuitous Keith Trail.

As I work my way along the trail that circles around the back side of Golan Heights and Panther Knob, I gradually close the distance on David; Eric is still well ahead but not out of site completely. Not far behind me now is DeWayne, and just in earshot behind him are Blake and Tim. So we’re still a loose group at this point. After a mile or so out of the aid station I catch up to David and decide not to go around him. I was really chomping on the bit to go by, but I knew how far we had to go still and knew my best bet was to bide my time until the next aid station. So I throttled back a bit and just enjoyed the company as DeWayne closed the gap as well and Blake and Tim drew closer; Eric was almost out of site ahead of us.

Soon we were past where the Keith trail turns into the Logan point trail and in no time we were making the turn, uphill, to the Stone Cuts. David pushed up the hill which I was thankful of as I really felt a bit too slow at this point; Tim and Blake had caught back up to us. We topped out on the climb and began the traverse over to the Stone Cuts. I noticed the pace began to pick up once again as David led the way. We turned into the Stone Cuts and carefully worked our way through the narrow rock passage ways and tunnels; there were quite a few icy spots that had to be traversed. As we exited the last tunnel and turned to go up a short steep hill to leave the Stone Cuts I spotted Eric at the top of the climb. We all pushed up the hill and over the ridge line and began down the steep rocky Stone Cuts trail that would take us down near the Three Benches aid station, thus completing the circuit. Shortly down the hill there is a blow down across the trail. I decided to use this situation to my advantage and so when David zigged to the left to go around the blow down I hurdled the tree and made my pass. I accelerated down the rest of the hill, gradually gaining ground on Eric. David and company were just a short distance behind me.

We cruised through the Sinks Trail and back up to the Mountain Mist trail at a pretty good clip. Eric was just ahead now and the rest of the gang was right behind me in talking distance. We crossed the closed, barricade road and began the climb up the Cold Springs trail to the third aid station, Fearn Avenue (17.27 miles). On the last pitch up to the aid station we passed by a couple of friends, Jennifer Carter and Kim Susor, taking photos of us. It was nice to see some familiar faces! Eric was now just ahead as we all entered the aid station at roughly the same time, 2:12:23 (7:40 min/mile). The last 5.31 miles took 44:10 (8:19 min/mile), looking back now I was right in feeling that this section was a bit “slow.” But no matter, the Mountain Mist veterans all know that the race starts after Fearn so everything you did up until this point is simply “window dressing.” The hard work was about to begin! Anyhow I had my first fault of the day, as I tried to open a zip-lock baggy containing my First Endurance E.F.S. powder (to refill my bottle with) I tore the baggy open and the powder went exploding everywhere! Doh! Oh well, I managed to get some powder in my bottle, refill with water quickly, grab a GU and I was off; just in time to witness DeWayne climbing over the orange gate at the road for his 17th time!

I knew what was coming next, but knowing didn’t make it any easier. Like a switch being thrown, DeWayne tore off down Tollgate trail with Tim following close behind; Eric was just ahead of them at this point. I knew this was decision time, to I go after them or do I maintain pace. I knew to run a really fast time on this course one has to take chances, to risk it. As Turnus shouted in Virgil’s “Aeneid”, “Fortes fortuna adiuvat” or “Fortune favors the bold”, I shouted inwardly and decided to roll the dice!

Our pleasant 7:40 min/mile pace suddenly turned into sub 7:00 min/mile pace as we charged, recklessly, down the old rocky, rail road bed alignment. It was now DeWayne ahead with Eric just behind followed by Tim and then me (now recovered from my aid station mishap). I believe David and Blake were just behind me but I’m not exactly sure how far back. As we turned off of Toll Gate Trail onto High Trail, Tim pulled over to let me by. I thanked him and wished him luck (for all I knew I’d be seeing him again shortly if I imploded!). Just a quarter mile along the gradually descending High Trail, I caught and passed Eric. Eric passed on some encouragement as I went by: “Go get him!” I just kept my head down and tried to keep the legs spinning, trying to keep the gap between me and DeWayne from growing. As we neared the end of High Trail I realized I was closing a bit and as we turned off onto Bluff Line Trail we were together. DeWayne nodded and we, together, hammered down Bluff Line Trail, still at a blistering speed (it sure seemed like it to me!). The steep, technical trail suddenly leveled out and we relaxed slightly, even chatted some, as we cruised the remaining mile into the fourth aid station at the Land Trust Parking Lot (21.01 miles) in 2:42:21 (7:43 min/mile). The last, mostly downhill section (3.74 miles) was covered in 29:58 (8:00 min/mile) which isn’t bad considering how technical most of the route is, and on tired legs.

At the aid station I grabbed another GU (for later) and kept on, with DeWayne following right behind; nobody else was in sight behind us. We’d broken contact and aimed to keep it that way, so we pushed once again along the rugged Rail-Road Bed Trail (like running on a rocky creek bed!) for the next mile. The first part of this trail doubles back along the trail we’d just come off of (Bluff Line) and I glimpsed Eric passing by, above us. Shortly after we saw Eric, we were hammering along and I tripped on a rock and crashed face down onto the trail! I wasn’t hurt at all as the bottle in my left hand took most of the impact. Unfortunately for me, the valve in my bottle was opened and a freezing jet of watered down E.F.S. jetted into my face! Ha! I yelped in surprise and scared DeWayne. He asked if I’d hurt my knee and I said no that I’d got my face soaked by my bottle squirting in my face! We both busted out laughing and got back to running along the technical path.

It was eerily quiet as we cruised along the rest of Rail-Road Bed and into Alm’s House Trail. I truly didn’t even feel like we were in a race at this point. We were just two good friends running along at a good clip on yet another long training run. That was pretty cool and calming for me as I knew what was in store for us just ahead! All too soon the calm was over and storm began as we made the sharp left turn onto the infamous Water Line Trail. DeWayne pulled over to the side and encouraged me on saying that had rather have me go ahead at this point that he just wanted to survive the climb (that DeWayne, always making excuses! ;) ). I think he just hoped I would burn out on the climb so he could pass me a bit later! Regardless, I was still feeling pretty good so shuffled steadily up the easier, initial incline. I pulled a little bit ahead of DeWayne on the lower part of Waterline and increased the gap a bit more as the runnable trail suddenly turned into a Class 3 scramble uphill! This is the reason they say nobody runs all of Waterline trail! I was red-lining; my heart beat a wicked time in my chest as I scampered slowly up the steep, slick ascent. I felt like I was barely moving, legs moving through molasses, but I was getting close to the “top” now and just kept pushing, up, up, UP! At last I made the turn off of Waterline, but all the veterans know that the climb isn’t over; it’s just not as steep! I don’t dare risk a look back as I slowly shuffle up the remaining hill (actually the end of Bluffline Trail).

The night before the race, at the pre-race dinner and briefing at the Monte Sano Lodge, DeWayne gave all those in attendance a very heartfelt, motivational speech; a pep talk. In DeWayne’s speech he compared running the Mountain Mist 50km to hiking to a nearby pond to fish as a youth. That the trip to the pond filled him with joy and promise just as the early miles of the race would hold for us all. However, on the route back from the pond DeWayne had to cross a fenced field that held a Brahma bull. He knew he’d have to be quick on his feet to avoid being gored by the bull. This danger symbolized the struggle and pain associated with the back half of the Mountain Mist course, that you’d better leave “some in the tank” to make it through unscathed and to the finish (home). Don’t pace yourself properly, you might end up gored by that Brahma bull!

So it was with DeWayne’s motivational speech whirling around in my head as I approached the fifth aid station at Monte Sano Boulevard (25.04 miles); the Brahma bull just out of sight behind me!
I rolled into the aid station right at 3:19:20 (7:57 min/mile), the last section (4.03 miles) took 37:00 (9:11 min/mile) which wasn’t bad considering that killer climb up Waterline! As I entered the aid station a couple of friends informed me that I was in 4th place! What? I’d passed nobody but the people in my group since the beginning of the race when there were 5 runners ahead of us before the first aid station. I thought I was in 6th place, at best! What’s more, that Hal was “only” 5-6 minutes ahead! Well, I knew of Hal, his reputation as a very strong ultrarunner, so I doubted I’d be catching him… All I could worry about was bull behind me and of achieving my pre-race goal of breaking 4:20. So for only the second time today I refilled my Camelback water bottle. This time I was more careful dumping my First Endurance E.F.S. into the bottle and topped it off with water. With 3:20 and change on my watch I was out of the aid station and onto the Natural Well trail heading for the finish!

I’d been keeping up with my calorie intact fairly well up to this point, but knew I needed a little kick so I dug around in my short’s pocket for the GU I’d previously grabbed. As I fumbled around, I had to slow up a bit. As I did so I risked a look back and was shocked to see (well, not really J ) that the Brahma bull was in sight and charging my way! I finally found the gel and forced down the gross Strawberry & Banana flavored GU (faintly remembering that I’ve had bad acid reflux issues while consuming bananas while running) and kept on running.

I still had a minute’s gap, or so, on the Brahma bull as I began the dangerous descent into McKay Hollow known by the locals as “Suicide Drop”. This trail, even in the best of conditions, read: dry, is a steep, rocky, rooty, narrow strip of trail where a miss step could potentially throw you into the rocks ahead of you (if you’re lucky) or off the side into oblivion (if you’re not so lucky). Unfortunately I was feeling the irresistible urge to relieve myself just as I began the descent; hardly a good time when you’ve got a raging bull at your heels! As quick I could I stopped and relieved myself, all the time looking back up the trail for the beast! My business done I turned to continue my descent but not before I caught a glimpse of the bull! No time to think about it, I charged down the trail at a somewhat reckless, though comfortable pace. This was the last downhill on the course so I tried to make it count. Surprisingly it really wasn’t that slick on the rocks, what snow there was provided pretty good traction, plus my Inov-8 X-Talon 212s provided superior traction everywhere else (best trail shoe I’ve ever worn in my 20 years of running). (*Ok, full disclaimer, I do get a pro-deal on Inov-8s but that’s only recently, I’ve been a Inov-8 user for several years now.*)

Alas even all good down hills must come to an end and soon Suicide Drop was behind me.   I crossed McKay Creek and headed up stream, up out of McKay Hollow on the remaining section of Natural Well trail. I didn’t dare look behind me, but I didn’t have to; I could hear the bull grunting, and making noises behind me; he was close! I pushed up the slick incline to the intersection with McKay Hollow Trail as best I could. I was now on a fairly runnable part of the course and decided to take advantage of it. Despite being called “Slush Mile” this section is not quite a mile and today, thankfully, it was not slushy. Normally this section is a muddy mess, but with the sub freezing temperatures, the ground was still fairly solid though things had begun to thaw out a bit in the late morning sun. As I sped on, I looked across the hollow towards where I’d just come from and sure enough the Brahma bull was, less than a minute back and moving quite well! I resisted the urge to really take off as I knew I had one last bear of a climb ahead, the infamous “Rest Shelter Hill”.

The relatively flat “Slush Mile” was soon over and the trail turned to the left and UP! I half heartily shuffled up the lower, steeper section of Rest Shelter Hill. After the first steep switch-back I began to walk a bit. Mistake. The Brahma bull was closely quickly, just a switch back behind me now! I tried to remain calm and just looked up ahead and focused on getting to “Kathy’s Bench.” Some of us call the bench that is about a 1/3 of the way up Rest Shelter Hill “Kathy’s Bench” because it is my better half’s rule that whenever she’s coming up the hill that it’s okay to walk until the bench, but after that you MUST RUN the rest of the way up! I’d conquered this evil hill again and again during training, but this was race day and I already had 29 miles in my legs! Didn’t matter, I knew what I had to do. My only shot of holding off the Brahma bull was to be able to run from Kathy’s Bench to the top of Rest Shelter Hill!

After the 3rd switch back the trail is a bit less steep, but no less rough and washed out. I did attempt to shuffle and soon I arrived at Kathy’s Bench, marking the 4th switch back. I could still hear the grunts and groans from the bull behind but I tried to put that out of my head as I began to run from the bench and up the trail. I kept running and kept climbing, surprisingly I didn’t feel too bad; the relentless training perhaps was paying off!   With every uphill step, the grunts and groans of the Brahma bull grew less and less and soon I couldn’t hear the beast; still, I dare not look back! After what seemed like forever I could finally see the Shelter at the top of the trail. I was close to the end now. I passed right on through the last aid station (29.49 miles) at 4:01 and change (on my watch) without even stopping. I only had 1.6 miles left to go and the remaining distance was mostly flat, easy double and single track trail.

I began to run as hard as I could from the last aid station, it was tough! My legs were a bit tight, but soon I was back up to a speed somewhat resembling a run. I hoped what leg speed I had left would be enough to hold off the bull. As I approached “The Horse Shoe” section of the South Plateau Trail (where the trail does an oxbow bending away and back against itself) I was shocked to see somebody running just across the bend from me! It’s Hal! No way! I was also quite mad as I felt already beaten up enough and now I had to try and catch him!

I dug deep and accelerated somewhat, but I was rapidly running out of race! Once on the other side of The Horse Shoe, I risked a look back along the course and thankfully I couldn’t see that Brahma bull! I now turned my attention to the runner ahead, out of site at the moment. I continued to run and run. I passed by the old 30 mile marker and knew I only had less than a mile to go (the finish line is closer than it used to be) so if I was going to make the pass I’d better do it soon! Now I’m crossing over the bridges on the trail which indicate I’m getting closer and closer to the end of the trail. Where is he? Around another bend in the trail and there he is, but it’s not Hal, it’s young Josh Wheeler. We’re maybe half a mile from the finish now! I can actually see the Monte Sano Lodge and finish line at this point just across the bluff. I really pour it on now and make the pass just before we split off the South Plateau Trail onto the connector trail to the North Plateau Trail and finish. He doesn’t even put up a fight when I run by but instead tell me good job, I try to encourage him on as well saying that we’re almost done now. I make the final turn onto the North Plateau Trail and down and up one last dip in the trail and then there is the Lodge and finish line right ahead! I’ll admit I got a bit emotional as I sped the remaining distance to the finish; probably even whooped out loud in excitement!
Amid the cheers from my friends at the finish, I crossed the line for the 13th time, arms out stretched over my head, in 4:13:57 (8:10 min/mile). The last section (6.06 miles) took me 54:38 (9:00 min/mile) and I was spent! I sat down on the low rock wall just past the finish line to catch my breath. Josh finished just 29 seconds later.

But what of the Brahma bull? A scant two and a half minutes after I finished, the Brahma bull, hard charging as ever, grunting and groaning flew across the finish line! Whew that was close!

But what of the loose group I’d been running with the first half of the race? Twelve minutes later, the next finisher emerged; it was anybody’s guess who it could be. It was Eric, but David was hot on his heels along with Tim and wait there’s Carl Laniak? And what? Erik Debolt and James Falcon? Where did they come from? All finished within a minute and a half! Wow! My good buddy Blake finished just seven minutes later, a huge improvement on his best time at Mountain Mist.

But what of my better half? Not even 28 minutes later, Kathy raced across the finish line in 4:56:58 to win the women’s race! This was her 4th victory among her 13 finishes!

Epilogue

I’m extremely pleased with my performance this year. To me this was my finest Mountain Mist race ever; not technically a personal best, nor my highest placing, but still a much more satisfying race than any of my past (yes, even the two Doubles I’ve done don’t compare). It is a wonderful feeling when all of your hard work pays off, you have perfect race day conditions and everything just “clicks” during the race execution, physically and mentally. So what’s next? My solid performance this year has restored my confidence in my ability to race this course fast. I honestly feel that I am capable of posting even faster times at Mountain Mist given proper training (which I know how to do), satisfactory race day conditions (a crap shoot), and proper race execution (less of a crap shoot). My real Achilles heel is mustering up the proper motivation; I’ve simply got to want to endure the rigors I know that are required for success at this (or any) race. I’ll find the motivation, if nothing else some motivation might be the fact that I’ve earned two bronzes and two silvers at Mountain Mist and it sure would be nice to earn some gold before I get too old and slow!

*How the course had changed since 1998 (when it was measured with a wheel to high accuracy):

Alright, if you’re still reading at this point and really want to learn how the course has changed significantly then read on (don’t say I didn’t warn you, i.e. this is a bit of a rant!) Okay, if you’re still reading you might want to whip out your trusty Monte Sano / Land Trust trail map to be able to follow along a good resource is:
http://www.briartech.com/msonesht.pdf
This map at least shows how some of the trails USED to be to illustrate some of my points. Another good map is at:
http://www.sorbahuntsville.org/images/MSanoColor11x13.pdf
This map is a bit more up to date (including the completed Family Bike Trail).

Okay, now to the significant changes to the Mountain Mist 50km course that I can think of since I first ran it in 1998 (in order of mileage point on the course):

1.    The first significant course change since 2002 came in 2005, about a year after the Monte Sano Lodge was rebuilt. Before 2005 the race started and finished at the main pavilion in the picnic area. Since 2005, the race has started in front of the Lodge and finished behind it making the starting line a bit shorter to the initial trail head and shorter to the finish from the last aid station. To compensate for this change, at the start runners run out the gravel road towards the picnic area parking lot before turning back on the park road and head for the initial trail head. This compensation alone, I believe, covers the change in venue for the start and finish. Okay so no net gain yet.

2.    The next significant course change occurs at the end of the Mountain Mist trail. In 2002, after the second switch back up the final climb on the trail, the trail turned straight up and achieved the South Plateau Trail very rapidly. Today the trail has been re-routed to follow a more gradual route out towards O’Shaughnessy Point before it arrives at South Plateau Trail, this change alone probably added almost 2/10 of a mile. You can see on the map that the end of the Mountain Mist trail cuts up to the South Plateau Trail quite a distance from O’Shaughnessy Point. Anybody who’s been out there lately knows that the Mountain Mist Trail goes almost all the way to O’Shaughnessy Point.

3.    Okay, now we’re getting really warmed up! Next significant change is the route from the end of the Mountain Mist trail to the 1st aid station at O’Shaughnessy Point. The route in 2002 had us follow the South Plateau Trail (CCW) to the intersection of the Bog Trail, Bog Trail to Fire Tower Trail, then South Plateau Trail (CCW) all the way to the aid station. Today the first part is the same but instead of running on Bog Trail we immediately take a hard u-turn onto Family Bike Trail and follow this trail to the Fire Tower Trail, right on FTT then left back onto FBT out to the aid station. This change was put in place largely because of the fact that the West side of South Plateau Trail that runners run on the way to aid station #1 is also the same section runners run the opposite direction from the last aid station to the finish. So there was a hassle of having to re-mark that section of trail after the runners past through the first time. Now anybody who’s run on the FBT knows how swooping, back and forth, that trail is, it’s never direct. The old route was much more direct so I’d argue that the new route is probably longer though I’ll admit probably by not a whole lot, but still, definitely longer.

4.    This next course change I may not count as a significant difference between 2002 and 2011 until I get some more clarification because this change may have come before 2002. Okay from O’Shaughnessy Point through most of the Goat Trail I believe the course is largely the same. Sure the exact route through the Power Lines has changed from time to time but over all that’s a wash. The biggest difference is the change in the location of aid station #2. The old route had us on the Goat Trail until perhaps a ¼ mile from the Three Benches when we took a sharp right off of Goat trail onto a connector trail to Keith Trail. At the intersection of the connector trail and Keith Trail was the site of aid station #2. It was decided that it was too difficult to get the aid station back in there as it all had to be hiked in, thus the aid station location was changed to Three Benches. Well that single change right there added A LOT of distance. Just look at the map. That connector trail cuts off quite a bit!

5.    Next change comes at the end of Keith Trail where, really, the trail just changes names to Logan Point Trail. Anyways, in the past at the “intersection” you continued straight ahead and the trail cut very straight and steeply downhill on a well washed out section of trail, the trail followed a natural fall line so it was pretty beaten up from erosion. Several years ago the local mountain bike club (SORBA Huntsville) rerouted Logan Point Trail off the fall line to follow a more gentle, switch backing descent to the East that eventually reconnects to the old route. This bypass made the trail significantly longer, perhaps by at least 1/10 of a mile (though I’d bet it’s more).

6.    Okay, to be honest, not ALL the course changes have made the route longer, in fact there is one I can think of that has shortened the course. This change involves the location of aid station #5 at Monte Sano Blvd. The South Monte Sano Trailhead and parking lot is a very new addition, perhaps only in the last few years. The old aid station was across the street from where it is now right where runners come out of the woods on the West side of Monte Sano Blvd, from there runners proceeded down Monte Sano Blvd and entered the woods at the gate marking the end of the Natural Well Trail. Today the aid station is in the parking lot across the street and runners drop down on a connector trail (Trough Springs Trail?) onto Natural Well Trail and continue. Tough to be sure, but I’d say the new route is a touch shorter than the old route, but perhaps not more than 1/10 of a mile.

So, as you can see, there have been some significant changes to the Mountain Mist 50km course since 2002; I’d say enough to add perhaps 3/10 – 6/10 of a mile on the course (depending on when #4 occurred).
So what is the solution? What am I trying to say? Well, first off I don’t really care if the current course is longer than in the past as long as the current course length is closer to 50km. However, this course was wheeled in the past and largely agreed upon that the 1998 course was accurate, not certified but definitely pretty darn close i.e. within 1/10 of a mile or less. So these changes have obviously then made the course longer than 50km. The solution then is simple, first let’s actually quantify the actual length of the course and if it’s long, shorten it.

Possible ways to shorten the course:

1.    The easiest change would be to cut out running to the picnic area parking lot and back on the park road like we do now. Just start the course straight out to the park road and take a right! I think that simple change would restore the balance quite effectively. The downside is that the road section is needed to help spread the field before the inevitable bottleneck once runners reach the trailhead. However, there is quite a log jam at the trail head already and I doubt cutting out that section of road would really make it any worse.

2.    Ways to shorten the course aren’t quite so easy because the ways the course has changed involve physical changes to the trails we run. About the only place possible to effect any course shortening, without changing the character of Mountain Mist, would be to shorten the route from the end of Mountain Mist Trail to the first aid station (this assumes that option #1 is not exercised). I bet we don’t need to run all the way to Bog Trail, we could run to the start of the Gravel Road and take a left on the end of the Fire Tower trail and pick up the existing route from there, or use the other side of FBT from there (which snakes around a bit more and is longer) to get to O’Shaughnessy. This change would shorten the course and still avoid running on the West side of the South Plateau Trail (to avoid the issue of having to re-mark that part of the course).

Pinhoti Trail Adventure Run: Epilogue

2010-05-23T20:20:00.002-05:00

First off, if you're still reading all this... THANK YOU! I tried to get down into text as much as I could remember over my seven days on the trail; it is impossible to capture exactly how I felt, what was going through my head; what I learned about myself... Anyhow thanks for reading.

Now that the Pinhoti Trail Adventure Run has been put to bed so to speak, I ask myself, “What next?” Right now I honestly don’t have a clue. I do know that this whole experience really opened my eyes to my potential to be a pretty decent multi-day trail runner. I was surprised that my body held up as well as it did. Three Hundred Thirty Five miles in less than six and a half days would take its toll on anybody and about all I have to complain about is some tendinitis in my left ankle and some poison ivy rashes and bug bites. Averaging almost 53 miles a day on rough terrain, battling poison ivy, ticks and spider webs and frequent navigational issues (i.e. unmarked or poorly marked trail) in the hot and humid South is no easy feat. I definitely could not have done it without my able crew. Thank you very much to my crew chief Josh Kennedy. His knowledge of the Alabama Pinhoti trail system and recon approach to the unfamiliar Georgia sections proved to be a huge asset in ensuring frequent aid access. I still don’t know how was able to find me out there off some of these small, random seeming back roads! Wow! Josh worked tirelessly from even before the journey began, planning, exploring, etc… all to ensure everything would go off with minimal hitches.

Equally important are all my good friends who sacrificed work and their precious time to make the long trip out to find Eric and me and to either spend some time on the trail with us, or to lend support in other ways. THANK YOU! This list includes (in order of appearance) Mathew Kennedy, John Nevels, Kathy Youngren, Blake Thompson, Sara Tei, David Riddle, Eric Fritz, Scott Brockmeier, Liz Walker, DeWayne Satterfield, Dink Taylor, Laura Charette, and Joey Butler. I also want to express my gratitude to everybody who sent me their well wishes and positive vibes on Facebook throughout my journey. Special thanks to Fleet Feet Huntsville, especially Dink & Suzanne Taylor who provided the volunteer t-shirts and my race team sponsorship that helped provide my road running shoes; Nike Free 5.0 and Nike Lunaracer. I've also got to thank my Wasatch Speed Goat Mountain Racing Team sponsors who helped to furnish quite a bit of my electrolyte drinks in the form of First Endurance E.F.S. and NUUN and some of my trail shoes; La Sportiva Fireblades.Special thanks to Laura Charette who had a custom Pinhoti Trail Adventure Run buckle made for me! I’ll definitely cherish it! THANK YOU!

Last, but not least, special thanks to Eric Charette who truly was the catalyst that finally brought this dream of mine to life! Thank you very much Eric!

Pinhoti Trail Adventure Run: Day Seven: The End Of The Trail

2010-05-21T16:00:00.002-05:00

Baker Branch Trailhead (FS 3A) to Northern Terminus (Benton MacKaye Trail), 30.7 miles, ~8 ½ h

   This is it; my last day on the Pinhoti Trail! I can hardly believe it! I was awake even earlier than usual because I was so anxious to get going; also it was a pretty involved drive to get back to where we’d left off the evening before (remember that long climb up into the Chattahoochee National Forest?). We made good time and only started a short bit after 6:00 a.m. Today my company included Kathy, Joey and Fritz once more. Meanwhile Eric Charette would be shuttling Fritz’s mini-van closer to the far end of the day’s route (Josh would pick him up after getting us started) and would later be joining us on the trail.

   Right off the bat I realize I’m going to be a bit slower today. My left ankle is flaring and my feet are swollen. Thank goodness I packed some larger trail shoes to fit my super-sized feet! This first bit of old 4x4 road is a bit of a blur right now, I think I was focusing more on the pain in my ankle than anything else! I remember at one point hiking up the old road, up Tatum Mountain, and hearing a large number of dogs barking, perhaps a dog kennel? Who could say, we never did see any dogs but there were a whole lot of them making all kinds of racket! Eventually we left the jeep road onto a pretty nice bit of single track trail that gradually descended to Highway 2 near the Cohutta Overlook. We expected to see Josh and Eric here, but nope. Nobody! Rather than stop and wait, Kathy and Joey stayed behind on the road to wait for the rest of the crew to arrive while Fritz and I continued on. The guys really missed out, this next section towards Mulberry Gap Road was, again, some of the best single track I’d seen along the entire Pinhoti Trail. It was apparent that this is a popular mountain bike trail because there were many tracks and the trail itself was a bit wider, and had bermed switch backs (for the mountain bikes to take the turns at high speed). While I couldn’t do the berms justice with my slow pace, I still had fun plodding along this trail section. The route seemed to contour in and out of several different creek watersheds until finally it began to ascend a bit, climbing up Turkey Mountain, just a couple miles from Mulberry Gap. We’d just started downhill again when we saw Eric, Joey and Kathy all coming up the trail to greet us! Apparently we hadn’t missed our crew by very much back near the Cohutta Overlook, we’d just been a bit quicker than they anticipated! I kind of like it when that happens. Fortunately we didn’t have that much further to go before we’d see our crew again so it was no big deal continuing on when we did; it was still cool and the route was fairly easy to follow; terrain not overly difficult. Now we had a huge gaggle of runners on the trail. Just like old times really; we could have been out for a typical weekend long run. It was a pretty nice feeling; everybody joking and cutting up; normal. Soon later we arrived at Mulberry Gap and Josh was there waiting for us.

   Joey and Kathy decided to stop at this point, so Eric, Fritz and I continued on. Just as we were about to leave, I experienced my second drunken woman on this adventure (my how we’ve gone full circle!). This lady approaches us from down the road asking to use our cell phone (she has one in her hand by the way). She complains in a slurred speech that she has such and such service provider but doesn’t have any signal and she needs to make a call to so and so. Josh tells her that she’s out of luck that we all have the same service provider and have no signal as well! She doesn’t seem to comprehend that it’s not the phone that’s the issue; she still wants to try our phones! Well I don’t stick around and get out of there quick and not long later the rest of the crew is driving by! Crazy! Anyhow from here we have just a short five mile stretch, a longer 11 mile stretch and then the final 3 miles to the northern terminus of the Pinhoti Trail. Hard to believe I was almost there!

   From Mulberry Gap to Holly Creek Gap the route is un-eventful. My ankle hurts but it’s manageable; what choice do I have? This section is also a blur, just more trail, more old wilderness roads and eventually we arrive at Holly Creek Gap and the start of the last long section of trail. It has warmed up today, but cruising through the deep woods it’s not an unbearable heat. Josh is adamant that I carry my hydration pack for this 11 mile section. I simply refused; I didn’t want carry the extra weight; didn’t want to add any additional stress to my bum ankle. I also wasn’t drinking a whole lot by then so I knew I could make 11 miles on two large hand bottles. No problem. Even if I did run dry I’d be close to the end of the section and then I’d only have 3 miles to go to the finish (yeah, I’d have to also hike out 3 miles, but we’ll get to that in a minute). My typical strategy was to try and pound some fluids before I left the crew stop, that had the effect of cutting down how much fluid I’d need on the next section. This was probably (that I can remember) the only time I got a little flippant because I told Josh, “If you make me carry that pack into the woods, it isn’t coming out!” I was implying that I’d rather dump the pack in the woods (or at least empty the hydration chamber) than have to carry that ball and chain one more step! Sorry Josh for being flippant; I just know my body well enough to know what I need and the last thing I wanted at that time was to carry a heavy pack!

   So, with just my two hand bottles and small waist pack, me, Eric and Fritz embarked on the last long trail section of the Pinhoti. This last section did not disappoint! In my humble opinion this section was probably the most beautiful of the entire Pinhoti Trail! These were some very long miles true, but we descended into (and climbed out of) three separate water sheds on some very nice mountain bike trail. Every time the trail bottomed out, deep into a canyon, we’d have many, ice cold and refreshing creek crossings amid the wild rhododendrons and other unusual vegetation. Simply spectacular. This is one area I need to go back and revisit given more time and a more relaxed itinerary. It was a relief to have all the creek crossings, because my left ankle was really throbbing and so I’d take time at most of the creeks we crossed to ice it down a bit.
The route got a little complicated when we intersected the Beark Creek Loop trail; sometimes it wasn’t readily obvious which way to go as this was a high traffic area with many off shooting, unmarked trails and campgrounds that complicated matters. Still, the map and description were invaluable so we made our way through without any mistakes; just made for even slower going as we had to frequently check the map. One of the highlights of this entire section was passing by the Gennett Poplar tree about half way through. Let me tell you, this is one humungous tree! It was eerily reminiscent of the “Big Tree” in the Sipsey Wilderness Area back home, except I think this one is bigger? Wouldn’t you know it, nobody thought to bring a camera on this section? This was probably the most beautiful section and not a single photo? Ha! Well another reason to come back and visit right? Anyhow we were well into the third watershed; all filled with may creek crossings, when Kathy and Joey appeared ahead of us! This meant we shouldn’t have too much further to go. They gave us the bad news a minute later; the climb out of this last watershed was probably going to be a real bear (they’d come down it), very steep in places. Oh boy, no gradual climb out of here I guess. No matter, we bent our backs to the task and soon we’d climbed out of the final water shed of the section and arrived at Buddy Cove Gap; the last crew stop!

This was it, only 5km of trail stood between me and the northern terminus of the Pinhoti Trail. Totally boggled my mind to think how far I’d come! I wanted to get going quickly, but we’d just covered a long trail section and I was really thirsty. I hadn’t run out of fluids, but I had been rationing what I had so I drank a bunch as I prepared what I wanted to take to the finish. The others were packing away their cameras, I stuffed my red “Sub 7” Strolling Jim shirt into my pocket and then we were off, heading down an old wilderness road towards the South Fork of the Jacks River. Most of my crew sped along ahead of me as they sensed that I’d prefer to cover this last bit by myself. I wanted reflect back on my journey, to try to make sense of what I’d seen, heard, felt; experienced. I’ll be honest; it was very difficult for me to hold back the tears. This was a huge goal for me that I was accomplishing; I’d started a whole new chapter in my ultra running career; an area I’ve thirsted to explore for a long time. While this current adventure was rapidly coming to an end; I knew that this was just the beginning of the rest of my life. Who knows what adventures I’ll still have? I’m just extremely happy I had this opportunity to do this; and to share it with my close friends.
I snapped out of my internal ruminations as I approached the last water crossing on the Pinhoti. Josh snapped one last photo of me and then disappeared up the trail to the terminus. I was now totally alone. I slowly waded across the river (really just a wide stream here and now) and walked up the last bit of trail. Not even a quarter of a mile to go and I broke back into a jog. I could hardly hold my head up as I was getting very emotional. At last I turn a corner and there are all my friends snapping photos. And there it is, the trail sign marking the northern terminus of the Pinhoti Trail. The end of the trail. Holy cow! I can’t believe it! I raise my arms in a “V” for victory then I’m crying! I drop my water bottles on the ground and just stand in front of the sign not believing what I’m seeing. Incredible! I touch the sign and bow my head. I am done. After 152 hours and 48 minutes I am done. I’d averaged 52.6 miles a day over the last 6 1/3 days to get to this spot of ground. I believe my total “trail time” is a bit north of 91 hours, so as you can see, I spend most of the last week OUT THERE. Phew!

Just in front of the sign is a stump that I collapse onto. It is difficult to hold the tears back now, but I’m so happy and sad all at once. I manage to thank everybody there and unroll the red Strolling Jim t-shirt; I dedicated my Pinhoti Trail Adventure Run to the late Phillip Parker; an ultra running giant of his time in the Southeast. He was also a friend and mentor; he also played a large part in influencing me to take on bigger ultra running challenges like this one. Thank you Phillip!

As quickly as the tears came, they were gone, I was suddenly filled with joy as if a huge burden were removed from my back! My Big, Hairy, Audacious Goal (BHAG) was a success! Now it was time to celebrate life, my friends, everything! Eric Charette hands me a buckle that he’d carried with him. I turn it over and see that it has the PTAR logo that I designed on there. He explains it was Laura’s idea. Wow what a surprise! Thank you Laura! Totally unexpected and unnecessary but I love it! Next we are all taking photos of each other in front of the trail sign.   Soon though, all the pictures and video are taken and all that is left is the long climb back out!

I ask to be by myself for one last moment at the trail terminus. The others retreat back to the Jacks River to cool off (it is rather warm out now). I sit for a moment in silence, close my eyes and try and envision all the miles I’ve covered to get here; it’s impossible to do so. I can still remember all the highs and lows along the way and for me that’s enough. I take one last deep breath, one last look at the trail sign and then I’m walking back down the Pinhoti Trail to my awaiting friends.

The End… for now.

For more information about the Pinhoti Trail Adventure Run click here.

Pinhoti Trail Adventure Run: Day Six: Hot Cross-Country Day

2010-05-20T16:00:00.001-05:00

Day Six: Snake Creek Gap to Baker Branch Trailhead (FS 3A), 46.9 miles, ~12 ¼ h

   Alright, second to last day on the Pinhoti trail. I was now over the “hump”, I’d come a long way; some 257 miles over the past five days and still many miles to go but, never the less, the goal was in sight; I could see the light at the end of the tunnel. I was up early again, especially because of the long drive back to Snake Creek Gap from Dalton and the fact that today’s forecast promised temperatures would soar into the low 90s (Fahrenheit)! Sure thankful of my sauna heat training now! I devoured a waffle and several glasses of juice at the hotel breakfast and then we were speeding our way to the trailhead. Soon we’d arrived and were itching to go. Today Eric Fritz would attempt to join me for the whole day’s worth of mileage. As we had full crew support, this was a great opportunity for him to get some high quality long distance training in; he could stop at about any time if he had to.

   Of all the Pinhoti Trail through Georgia, this next section I had really eagerly anticipated.   The Snake Creek Gap to Dug Gap trail section is rated by the International Mountain Bicycle Association as an “epic route.” In short, any trail that gets a rating like that is truly exceptional and as an avid mountain unicyclist (and former mountain biker) I was itching to explore this area with eyes for a future return trip. The trail did not disappoint. Beautiful single track greeted us right from the trail head as we began a fairly gentle ascent of Mill Creek Mountain. In the cool morning air we attempted to run all that we could. Soon we’d reached the summit and began a long ridge run. Wow this is some great single track! Very mild grade, non-technical, we made great time and soon were descending off the ridge to the first of several Swamp Creek crossings. Basically impossible to keep the feet dry so we didn’t bother; besides after this trail section I’d be switching to road shoes for the long road run to finish up the day’s mileage. After the last creek crossing we began to climb an old 4x4 road that had a fairly gentle uphill grade (I was envisioning riding this on my unicycle) when not too long later Fritz and I starting hearing music ahead of us. There was Josh awaiting our arrival at a small intersection where the route veered off back onto single track along the ridge. We refilled and continued on, beginning a long series of ridge running. This next 7 miles was some of the most spectacular single track I’d yet seen on the Pinhoti; definitely a place to come revisit in the future! No significant climbing here, just wonderful single track trail along ridgelines with spectacular morning views of the surrounding valleys. Wow! Speechless! As we make a large bend onto Hurricane Mountain the trail gets a big more technical, more like our own famed Mountain Mist trail back on Monte Sano Mountain back in Huntsville. Honestly at times I thought we were running along the very same trail. Spooky. We kept on and on and were not far past another bend that brought us onto Rocky Face Mountain when we spotted Joey in the trail ahead. He’d come back from Dug Gap to find us and run some with us. The trail begins to ascend a bit steeper now, the running a bit less easy, but it’s still fairly cool out so we attempt to run what we can; only walking the steepest bits. Soon enough we arrive at the summit; adjacent to some radio towers. From the summit my long road run of the day has essentially begun; farewell to the gorgeous single track and hello pavement! As we head down the tower road to the main road (Dug Gap Battle Road) I spot my wife Kathy ahead! Yippee! I hadn’t seen Kathy in days and now she’d arrived to be here for me my last two days on the trail. I was very excited and gave her a nice sweaty hug and kiss! Ha! I decided to keep my trail shoes on until I got into Dalton so we press on down the mountain road, across the bustling I-75 Interstate and into town. Seeing so much vehicular traffic after so much time on the trail was a bit numbing at first. Hard to believe I was following the Pinhoti Trail!

   Quite frankly, the next 25 miles or so were not very fun at all. I stopped to change into my road shoes and then Fritz and I continued on along the sidewalk. I just bent my head to it and plodded on through the busy streets of Dalton. Worse yet, it really started to get warm and with the reflections off the hot concrete I started to bake! The heat was all still tolerable to me; I just kept putting ice into my wide brimmed hat and kept the cold fluids going. Thank you sauna training! Eventually we had passed through the thick of Dalton and were heading back into the country. Most of the next many miles were a blur of road after road, busy intersection after busy intersection as the Pinhoti Trail seemed to try to follow every busy road around Dalton! I will say that as confusing as this route was to me, it was very well signed; and I don’t mean just with the typically turkey blaze diamonds. No, the Georgia Pinhoti folks went all out. Every turn was signed with a large metal road sign! Very cool! It was impossible to go off route here. The route left something to be desired as every road seemed to be a major highway to me (very active and busy) but at least it was very will marked! Eventually I somehow ended up at the Chief Vann House “trail head”; really just a busy cross roads with a lot of historical signs in the area and what was obviously THE Chief Vann House, a plantation house, just up the hill and, unfortunately not along the route I’d be running. Had this been a cooler, less busy day, I’d have liked to pop in for a visit; instead I settled for some photos by the signs and kept going. The heat was really thick and powerful now; somewhere along this way my crew brought me an ice cold Slushy. Wow that really hit the spot! Simply wonderful! Eventually even these hellacious roads were behind us and we were a bit further out in the country, away from Dalton and things began to settle down. When I got the chance to look around (not having to look out for my life) there was some spectacular country scenery about. I saw rolling farm land, tall grass and flowers; cattle and horses grazing.   Time had seemed to have just flown by yet again. It was now getting to be late afternoon and I felt pretty cooked. This was possibly one of my biggest low moments of the adventure. I believe we’d just past through the tiny town of Ramhurst (after nearly getting run over by a tractor trailer!) when I just suddenly felt very hot and needed to sit down, luckily Eric Charette and the gang were close by and so I sat down on the van bumper and had a gallon of water dumped over my head. Ahhh! Refreshing! The toughest part about these long road sections is the complete lack of accessible cooling points i.e. streams and creeks and the total exposure to the sun; shade was hard to come by along these country roads. At this point I had less than ten miles to go for the day (yeah a relatively short day!) and plenty of time to be done in the day light. Wow, to not be finishing in the dark! Luxurious!

   Finally I got my butt off the van bumper and kept plodding on, Kathy and Fritz in tow. I’m a bit confused right now as to who was running with me when and where so I apologize for any mistakes. Like I said, I was pretty baked by the sun at this point. The sauna training had helped, mainly with my ability to cool down given the opportunity to cool. So after the dunking, more ice in my hat, I was back to normal and back running.   A little bit later I was getting very close to finally being off the pavement for good! Up head were Eric and Joey. Suddenly Eric is swinging his arm and a ball comes rolling towards us down the middle of the road. For an instant I think about running up to it and kicking it, thankfully I don’t as I realize that Eric has rolled a beaten up bowling ball at us! If I’d have kicked that ball like I’d been planning on kicking a soccer ball (that’s what it initially looked like to me) I’d probably have broken my foot! Note to crew: don’t ever roll heavy bowling balls down the road that look like soccer balls towards tired runners! Whew! I cringe a little bit when I realize the ball is indeed a bowling ball and what I had been about to do! Dodged that bullet! I could see the story now: Runner covers nearly 300 miles of the Pinhoti Trail only to be taken out by breaking his foot kicking a bowling ball!

   At last we’re off the pavement and begin a long winding gravel road climb towards the Baker Branch Trailhead. We’ve crossed back into the Chattahoochee National Forest and would now remain in the forest the rest of the way to the Benton Mackaye Trail. It’s now just Josh crewing me and Fritz as we slowly ascend the mountain road. Even with working harder having to climb up the steep road, it’s still so much cooler now as we’re largely in the shade; almost pleasant. Somewhere along this stretch Josh stops ahead and gets out with the camera. Apparently I’ve just passed 300 miles on my journey; doesn’t really mean a whole lot to me; hard to fathom. It’s all sort of a blur really. I can’t believe I’ve come so far on foot in such a relatively short period of time. This is all uncharted territory for me so it’s difficult to comprehend. Instead we just snap a few photos and keep on climbing up the steep road.

   Every now and then there is a short downhill section and we’re able to run. For the first time I start to notice that my left ankle is giving me trouble. I’ve got this pain at the front of my left ankle that just kills when I attempt to straighten or point my foot. Ouch! I think I’m developing some sort of overuse tendonitis; go figure! I’m just really surprised that I’ve gone this far without any major issues! So these down hills are a bit of a challenge for me to run; ironically my ankle doesn’t hurt when we’re climbing! Too bad I don’t have the energy to run uphill very fast as at least my ankle doesn’t seem to hurt! After several more miles of climbing; broken up by the occasional short downhill, we’ve arrived at the Baker Branch Trailhead (really just a fork in the road where we decide to stop for the day. We are now only a solid 30 miles away from the goal of my quest. While we’d considered taking a short break and continuing on, through the night to the finish, I really didn’t plan to do this run that way. It meant much more to me to “see” the entire route in the day light, to keep the night running to a minimum. Still, the ultra runner in me was sort of chomping on the bit to just finish up. However this was all very unfamiliar territory for both myself and crew; too easy to get lost at night! Not worth it; and at this point, doing some rough calculations, even going slow through the night would perhaps only buy us a few hours off the final end-to-end time; not enough to put me under 6 days for the adventure.

   Fritz and I sat in the lonely mountain road for a bit to unwind and then we quickly changed clothes and headed back to Dalton with Josh. Just one more, short, day on the trail and then I’d have to get back to my “real life.” I was honestly quite sad at the moment more than elated to be almost finished! I know it’s difficult to imagine, but it’s true. Fast hiking the Pinhoti Trail had been a goal of mine for many years; how was I going to fill the void that would come with closing of this adventure?

To be continued…

For more information about the Pinhoti Trail Adventure Run click here.

Pinhoti Trail Adventure Run: Day Five: Last Long Push

2010-05-19T16:00:00.004-05:00

Midpoint of Simms Mountain Trail to Snake Creek Gap, 51.8 miles, ~14 ½ h

   Up and at it early again! Why not? It was a cool morning, but it was shaping up to be another very hot day and I had another long, epic day planned; the last truly long epic of the journey so it was go time! The first ten miles or so of today’s route was basically totally flat so this was a good time to go fast. So run relatively fast I did; probably a bit faster than Josh expected as I missed him at the first couple of road crossings! I saw him flash by going the opposite way on the highway; obviously expecting me further back on the rail-trail. At the next road crossing, I built a rock arrow on the road for him to see (there was virtually no other traffic this time of day) and then another a little bit further along when I crossed another road. It must have worked because by the next crossing there he was snapping pictures as I emerged out of the woods into this incredible open field in the little community of Holland (sorry, no windmills here). He apologized but I just waved him off, I felt fine and didn’t require any aid anyhow; it was still very cool out, but that sun was coming up quick! I changed out bottles and kept on going making my way to the High Point Trailhead (the Georgia version, yes I’d also passed through a High Point Trailhead in Alabama on the previous day!). I was nearing the end of the Simms Mountain Trail and one could tell, it was now a tall grass covered piece of double track trail right next to the road. The grass was wet with dew and soon so was I; wet shoes again! Oh well. The final section of flat ground was on a recently constructed extension linking the High Point Trail head to the Simms Mountain Trail directly. The old Pinhoti route had you leaving the trail for a short jog along the paved road before the trail head; this new extension bypassed the road and heads right for the trail head. It was very obvious that this was very recently cut as there were still all kinds of little stumps, branches and vines near the ground trying to trip me up. It’s definitely passable, but hopefully they’ll back fill the path in with some nice gravel before they’re done. Otherwise this was a nice new little trail; much better than being on the road! It was still a bit aggravating, constantly bumping into little stumps or getting near trip-lined in vines so I just decided to take it easy and walk the rest of the way to the trail head; it wasn’t very far now.

   I arrived at the trailhead and, again, no Josh! What’s up with that? I just sat down on a nearby picnic bench and waited; studying my trail map. He pulled up not long later; I guess he got worried after not seeing me and decided to drive back and look for me. I told him about the condition of the new trail and that I just decided to walk it in. No matter, I refilled my bottle and once again, re-entered the woods. I was now ascending to Taylor Ridge and entering into the Chattahoochee National Forest. This is a popular mountain biking destination and I could tell. The trail surface was very even, wide and largely rock free. Also, the gradient was much more gentle; even though I was climbing it was a fairly easy, steady, switch backing climb; a totally different character than most of the Alabama Pinhoti trail. I soon reached the summit and began a nice run along an old 4x4 road towards Jenkins Gap. There was some good running in here, so I took advantage of it and soon there was Josh waiting at the gap. I’m still pretty amazed at how he was able to find all the random trail crossings along this route. I don’t know how he did it?

   The next section was a bit more familiar as I was now running on the high ridgeline above Sloppy Floyd State Park, home of the Twisted Ankle Trail Marathon held every year in May. As a matter of fact I think the race was coming up very soon! I stopped to take a photo of me in front of one of the park signs; a little self-documentation, and continued on even as the photo was uploading to Facebook. Why not? I’d forgotten how long a ridge run this was; seemed to go on and on until finally I passed by the familiar radio towers and dropped down an steep gravel road to Mac White Gap (I’ve got another, more hilarious name for this Gap, but I won’t repeat it here), passing by a police cruiser heading up the road along the way. Josh was there in the shade and I joined him. He told me that DeWayne was well on his way up, that Eric was ending his Pinhoti Trail Adventure Run at the state line and he and the rest of the crew would be then heading our way soon. Wow what friends I have! Lunatics!

   I crossed the busy Highway 27 and headed back into the woods and up an ancient gravel road, not much more than a double track trail at this point. Soon later I emerged onto a slightly better old gravel road and saw a trail sign pointing me to the right. My spidey sense said that couldn’t be right. I pulled out my map and description and sure enough, I was supposed to go left. What’s the deal? The trail sign was broken off at the base and someone had leaned it back up against a tree, pointing the wrong way! Yikes! I corrected the situation and then headed to the left down the gravel road. It soon became clear I was going the correct way as I passed by several marked landmarks. Phew! The sun was really starting to cook me now as this entire stretch would be on this old gravel road, totally exposed to the merciless sun. I just kept on trucking, running when I could, but more often just hiking as quickly as I could up hill. Next came the second most shocking moment I had on the trail (the first being that turkey encounter a couple days ago). I was perhaps a half mile beyond a locked gate which was clearly signed NO HUNTING: VIOLATERS WILL BE PROSECUTED. When I glanced up to see a poacher (no bright orange vest here!) with his rifle pointed right at me! My heart began to beat super fast and I mouthed “Oh **it!” to myself but then as quickly as I’d seen that the poacher had swung the rifle back over his shoulder as if nothing fatal had almost happened! Damn! What could I do? He was the guy with the gun and I was in the middle of nowhere. I wasn’t exactly in the position to argue now was I? Instead I just ran by the guy as fast as my fatigued legs would carry me without a word or glance in his direction. Wow! My heartbeat finally came back under control as I began to descend to towards a running stream. This was a great opportunity to cool off and I took advantage, soaking my shirt and hat. All too brief, I had to keep going; today was going to be a long day; definitely finishing in headlamps again! Back uphill and another long walking break in the growing heat of the day. Finally I arrived at a fork in the road. Straight ahead the road looked almost non-existent, covered in tall grass and multiple blown down trees. I consulted my map and description again and sure enough I was to exit to the left though there were no blazes to indicate the turn. Rooting around a bit I discovered and old Pinhoti trail sign, broken and lying on the ground; useless to me. Vandalism; a big shame. I continued on running along yet another sun exposed, ancient 4x4 road that was hardly blazed. There really wasn’t any other way to go, but it would be nice if there were some more blazes. That was one thing I didn’t understand, why are there two different colored blazes between Alabama and Georgia? It’s all the Pinhoti trail so there needs to be consistency. I’d choose blue as this is an Appalachian trail connector; and blue is so much easier to spot than white in the woods. I’d often think I was seeing a white blaze when all it was just a trick of the sunlight on the tree bark. I was going along, lost in my heat baked thoughts when all of a sudden an apparition appeared on the trail ahead of me. Holy cow, it was DeWayne! I looked up to see me and I jokingly turned around and started back the way I’d come. You should have seen the look on his face; I think he honestly thought I was out of my mind! Ha! Rich! Too bad I didn’t spot him earlier or I’d have given him a good scare! Darn!

   We greeted each other and then continued to plod along. This was beginning to be a long section, but it was better now with some company. DeWayne and I swapped stories and he took the liberty to snap a few photos. This was beginning to get fun again! Soon we were dumped off onto a better looking 4x4 road after I impressed DeWayne by locating a trail marker buried in grass and weeds indicating we were still on trail. Just up the road was Josh at Hammond Gap. We didn’t stay long, just downed some more fluids and calories and we were off. Easier running now on a recently reconstructed gravel road; looks like there had been a major washout sometime recently. The footing was still very puffy and light like it had just been resurfaced with dirt. The dirt road quickly turned into pavement and we were once again back into the open sun heading towards the West Armuchee trailhead. This was a paved road, but very pot holed and beaten up, and nobody around though it looked like there might be some expensive houses out this way judging by some nice looking brick mailboxes and smooth cement driveways going off the road into the woods to the left. My suspicion gained further credence as we arrived at the bridge over Ruff Creek (this was also the trailhead). You could tell a lot of work had gone into building this nice bridge and even more work done to terrace the overhanging hillside before it. A lot of money went into that and the bridge was only a couple years old. Seemed like fairly high end work for not much going on out this way? But I digress, it was just something we were discussing at this time that I remember. With this section complete I was now 235.8 miles in and now, finally, down to double digit miles to go! Amazing to me that I’d come so far and had less than 100 miles left to go. I was very excited, so much so that I decided to celebrate by changing my socks, adding ice to my hat and continuing on as soon as I could. Yeah, it was just a small milestone, I knew I had a lot more work left to do and it was time to get back to business.

   We finally rolled out of West Armuchee and crossed the new bridge over Ruff creek; we could see its ancient predecessor down below; it become clear why that one lane bridge was replaced. Wow it was old and looked heavily undermined! Anyhow, we left the road once again and began to ascend Strawberry Mountain. Most of this early part is kind of a blur now as DeWayne and I were discussing a whole variety of subjects and the time just seemed to pass. Before we knew it we’d arrived at a small gravel road and parking area where Josh was going to meet us. Josh wasn’t there and so we decided to keep going as it wasn’t all that much further to the East Armuchee trail head. We’d just crossed behind the locked swing arm gate leading us up hill on another ancient 4x4 road when Josh came flying up into the parking area in a cloud of dust. We were already well up the hill and I didn’t want to down climb; no need. Out of Josh’s vehicle Dink Taylor emerged! Another surprise! Dink is a good friend of mine fron early in my ultra running days. Now owner of the Fleet Feet Huntsville running store, I owe Dink and his wife Suzanne a huge thank you for providing me and Eric and our volunteers with some cool technical shirts to wear for the adventure. You guys rock! Josh yelled and asked if we needed any aid; we declined and said we’d just see him at the next trailhead which was only a couple miles or so away. As Dink was still getting ready, DeWayne and I continued away, up the hill and out of sight. Yep, you guessed it, time to hide and scare Dink when he came by. DeWayne and I hid well off the trail and waited for Dink to come by. A short time later Dink ran by and we jumped out and scared him. I’m not sure if he was startled or not; didn’t seem like a flinched! Darn! Well we had to try! This section was a blur as well as they talked about their recent Strolling Jim 40 mile race and I answered some questions about my current epic. I remember navigation was a bit funny through here as there were a lot of blow downs and tall grass that helped hide some of the almost non-existent white blazes. Still, we basically just stayed on the same old 4x4 road so you really couldn’t get lost. Soon we’d cleared most of the difficulty and began running downhill towards the trail head at West Armuchee Creek. We round a bend in the road and all of a sudden there are a ton of my friends soaking in the creek ahead! Sweet! It was really cool to see everybody there! Eric, Joey, Eric Fritz, Laura were all wading in the fairly deep creek crossing which was actually part of the road! There were some cement pylons along the bottom of the creek which allowed vehicles to cross safely; at present they made a nice place to sit and cool off. I took a minute to dunk myself in the creek; chat a bit with my friends and then I was across to the other side of the creek . I still had a long way to go today and needed to keep pressing. I thanked everybody for coming out to see me; congratulated on Eric’s valiant effort to make it to the state line on the Pinhoti; completing the Alabama portion of the Pinhoti trail and then we were out of there; now with Eric Fritz in tow along with DeWayne and Dink. The next short mileage was on a couple different roads leading to the approach to Johns Mountain. It was odd having three people run with me and several crew vehicles following after running largely by myself for days and with only a single crew vehicle. Almost surreal; I felt like a rock star! Well we got to the next crew area before and we paused briefly to say farewell to Dink who had to get back to Huntsville to put out some more fires! His and Suzanne’s work with Fleet Feet never ends and the runners in the Tennessee Valley are very so much better off because of their efforts!

   It didn’t take too long into the Johns Mountain section to have our first navigational difficulty. At least we were always prepared since we all had copies of the route map and description; just a small matter of sorting things out. The real difficulty is in the lack of trail markings or blazing. We’d come to a “T” intersection and really had the option to go left or right. No markings. After consulting the map, we turned to the left and soon confirmed this was the correct route by looking back along the route we’d just come to spot a couple of very old white blazes. This “looking back” method became a common way to check if we were on route by searching out blazes marking the route going the opposite direction! Sure enough, just like the description, we found ourselves wading across Armuchee Creek and continuing on the long contour taking us around the northern head of Johns Mountain. I believe we had a fairly easy time finding the rest of the route though I know we’d encountered a few other questionable areas but with three pair of eyes we were able to make short work of any difficulties. Before long we’d arrived at the next crew location at CR 724. It is here where there is another discrepancy in the route map and official Pinhoti Trail description. For the Pinhoti Trail Adventure Run, our goal is to follow the official route description (as of May 1st, 2010). So we take a right o CR 724 and follow the gravel road uphill to Johns Mountain Overlook. Joey has previously scouted out this route to make sure it is indeed blazed; thank Joey! Joey leads us up the road along with Fritz and DeWayne. The route is actually blazed this way as well so it’s pretty obvious to go this way. I’m so happy the route goes this way because, as we top out there is a wonderful overlook looking towards the west. From here we can see quite a bit of the route I’d already covered that day plus further to the west we could see Lookout Mountain! We take a short break here to take some photos and just bask in the late afternoon, low sun. Marvelous! Soon we have to move on, but what a spectacular trail section awaits as Joey leads us down the route towards Keown Falls. Wow! After a short way on single track we emerge at yet another overlook, this time overlooking the top of Keown Falls. Some more quick photos and we’re heading down this spectacular switch backing trail that seems as if it was carved into the side of the gorge wall. A huge amount of work must have gone into constructing this trail; beautiful. It is starting to get dark, once again, in the woods as we snake down the Keown Falls trail heading for the main parking area. This last bit of trail is, rock lined and has a smooth gravel bed, probably the best trail surface I’ve seen yet along the entire Pinhoti trail. But it too comes to an end as we empty out into the parking area.

   We now have just 7 miles and change to go to Snake Creek Gap; today’s mileage goal. As we have just a short ½ mile jog down the road to the Pilcher’s Pond Trailhead we wait to there to make our last crew stop. This is a beautiful looking park area, but it all is strangely silent and abandoned. We’ve got it all to ourselves this evening. At the trailhead we grab additional gear including headlamps and press on trying to get as far as we can before we lose the daylight. We quickly arrive at Pilcher’s Pond and here the route sort of disappears. We make our way counter-clockwise around the pond which seems to be the correct way to go because we pass by an old informational kiosk at a picnic area that is adorned with a turkey blaze. I remembered that this is a popular mountain biking area and so we follow the obvious mountain bike tracks. There is a lone fisherman along the far bank of the pond as we once again re-enter the woods and began a fairly comfortable, switch backing ascent of Horn Mountain. Blazes are far and in between until we arrive at a signed intersection and there is Josh waiting on us. Apparently there is still some discrepancy between the actual Pinhoti route and something called the Alternative Pinhoti route. Whatever, we’re just following the route description even though there is still some obvious signage marking a couple different ways. Josh wanted to make sure we made it to this intersection alright so he’d hiked in along the alternate route. He seemed relieved to see us; but now the way was much more heavily blazed so it was clear we were on route. We continued to climb, the single track trail wide and nicely surfaced; well packed in from abundant mountain bike traffic.

   We make short work of the climb up Horn Mountain and soon we’re running along the ridgeline in the growing dusk. It still is light enough out to run without lights but we’re still tripping over loose rocks along the ridge. This is a difficult time of day to be running on any sort of technical terrain as it’s dark out, but not really dark enough yet that a light is handy. We press on and by the time we reach the northern head of the ridge and begin to switch back down the east side of Horn Mountain, it is dark enough to finally cut on our lights. In the dark, we began a long series of downhill switchbacks toward Snake Creek Gap. I’m getting pretty tired now; it’s been a very long day and the gap never seems to get any closer! This last section is very aggravating because we can hear traffic along the highway below us, so we know we’re close, but the trail keeps bending away from the road; taking us deeper in the woods (seemingly). Finally I have enough and really open the throttle up and start to run basically about as fast as I can down the pitch black trail. I’ve got my head lamp on, but I’m still kicking rocks (looking back now I realize that it’s probably in this last mile of the day that I re-aggravated my left ankle and set off the tendonitis) and rolling my ankles; but no matter we’re almost there and I can hear our crew yelling for us (they can obviously see our lights bobbing along through the woods). At last we break into the open and cross Highway 134 to arrive at the Snake Creek Gap parking area. Wow what a fantastic last push of the day; I’m proud of how well I held up today. It had been very hot this day and those were some difficult miles to cover. However this was my last long trail day; the end of my journey was now becoming a reality. I had mixed feelings; on the one hand I was ecstatic that I was so close now to accomplishing my goal yet on the other hand this awesome experience would soon be over and I’d have to return to my “real life.” Therein lies the true irony of adventure: when you’re in the thick of it, you can’t wait for it to be over; when your past it you can’t wait to be back in the middle of it!

   So after checking for ticks (we all had several crawling on us) we said our farewells to DeWayne (he was heading back to Huntsville). Special thanks to DeWayne for coming out and running some long miles with me. It was so cool to spend time with you and just chat; it’s been too long! Soon we’d loaded up and began a fairly long, circuitous route to Dalton (but that’s another long story). Yes, another long day in the books and now just a relatively short way to go. I honestly didn’t know whether to be happy or sad?

To be continued…

For more information about the Pinhoti Trail Adventure Run click here.

Pinhoti Trail Adventure Run: Day Four: Half Way Home And A New State

2010-05-18T16:00:00.001-05:00

Maxwell Gap (CR-70) to Midpoint of Simms Mountain Trail, 50.5 miles, ~14 ¼ h

    This morning I was awake before my alarm and ready to go. I think I was now “living the lifestyle” as DeWayne Satterfield described his various cross Tennessee running experiences. He told me that after a couple of days or so you begin to solidify, to harden to the task ahead, to live the lifestyle of a multi-day runner. That’s just what you do, your whole purpose and existence is to just keep moving forward until you’re done. His words rang very true to me; I could fully appreciate what he meant now. I had no concern about work, or school; not anything for applying myself to the task at hand.

    On the way to Maxwell Gap I devoured two McDonalds Egg & Cheese biscuits and a sweet tea. Breakfast of Champions! All tanked up and firing to go I was off before 6 a.m. this morning; climbing on a full stomach to Augusta Mine Ridge. This was a very unique section as the route takes you in and around an old mine site; almost like walking through a maze. There was a light fog surrounding the area and with the sunlight trying to beam through gave the area a very Stonehenge like feel. I can’t really describe it that well. Supernatural perhaps? Anyhow I was soon through old mining area and descending to Lanie Gap and on down into Lanie Hollow and creek. I really didn’t want to get my feet wet this early in the day so at the Lanie Creek crossing I found, just a bit up stream, a nice log crossing. It was a bit sketchy as it was above the creek 4-5 feet and any miss step would send be plunging into the very creek I was trying to avoid! Piece of cake, across and I ran the remaining short way out of the Hollow to the High Point Trailhead. No Josh. Doh! He said he might be running a bit late as he had to coordinate with Eric’s crew to help shuttle vehicles around to make their life a bit easier in aiding him. All I’d heard was that Eric was planning on making it as far as the state line and then deciding on what to do after that; to continue or to stop. I sure hoped he would decide on the former, but I couldn’t blame if he chose to stop. I’d seen his feet the night before and they were pretty mangled! Apparently he’d ended up making it to the Burns Trailhead by early evening the night before, often not able to walk faster than 2 miles an hour the whole way. Humbling. I was proud that he kept going yesterday and that he was continuing on today. Good for him.

    Anyhow, no Josh for about 5-6 minutes, not that I was too worried; finally he arrived out of the heavy ground fog. He apologized profusely but I didn’t really bother me; it’s all good. I’m extremely thankful to have such motivated crew for this adventure! I restocked and headed up the highway for the next half mile. This turned out to be one of the scariest and dangerous sections I’d end up traversing. This road had no shoulder and dropped steeply off either side; I was in a heavy fog, wearing white clothing and these huge tractor trailers were just flying down the road! I immediately realized that they could not see me! So I’d sort of turn my back and crouch as far off the road as I could as they swept past then I’d get up and sprint up the road until I had to repeat the process with the next oncoming semi. I made pretty good time; fight or flight right? Off the highway thankfully and on up the trail to Davis Mountain. This was a very interesting area; I could tell there had been a recent burn here as a lot of the undergrowth was gone and the trees much more sparse. Yet the grass was very high and in the morning dew I was soon soaked; feet and all; oh well! The trail was actually a bit more difficult to follow here since I was basically out in the open, wading through tall grass and with few trees around there were not many markers to follow up Davis Mountain. Conditions approved after I passed by the David Mountain Shelter. Beautiful structure and a wonderful panoramic view! Another place I need to come back and visit! Some of this route down the mountain was a bit aggravating in the tall grass; you’d cross this nice dirt road, back into the tall grass, run along parallel to the nice dirt road then have to cross it back just a few hundred feet later! No matter, I kept on going and now passed several signs now marking the Pinhoti Trail route; nice handmade signs! Eventually the trail dumped me out onto some sort of logging road as it was a bit wide and had some large tire tracks.   Back into the woods one last bit and then I was at the next crew location at Salem Church road. But before I got there, there was Josh taking my picture crossing a very new pedestrian bridge across Hurricane Creek.

    I quickly refilled my bottle, grabbed a second and headed out on the last of the Alabama Pinhoti! Woot! Just a quarter mile or so in, the trail descends a wooden ladder into Hawkins Hollow which is just a huge swimming hole! Yep, you guessed it, another place to come and visit again! No time for a dip now, I had many more miles to go this day! I continued on up the mountain, making my way along the ridgeline. After another couple of miles of nice ridgeline running I arrived at Flagpole Mountain. It was now only a mile to the state line! This is a nice scenic spot, there are some artist benches and chairs lying about, a fire ring; pretty nice place to camp. As I was leaving the little glen I noticed something I hadn’t seen in the past 170 miles of the Pinhoti; another human being besides my crew! The person turned out to be a fellow Pinhoti thru-hiker. We talked for a bit and then I wished him good luck on the rest of his journey, he wished me the same and I was off, heading down the mountain. I was charged and amped up as I flew down the trail. And just like that there is Josh ahead of me standing by the state line marker. The marker is adorned with an Alabama and Georgia state flag. I pause to reflect; I’m now over half way done and through with the Alabama section! Yeah! I turn on my phone and call Kathy. As I’m sitting on a rock talking to Kathy, the thru hiker sidles up! Perfect timing! He takes our picture and we take his and then I’m on my way again down the mountain. Josh is taking a bit more time, coordinating things with crew over the phone and is packing away some gear so I tell him I’m going to walk ahead. I get a pretty good ways away when I hear him coming down the trail. Now’s my chance! I duck off the trail and crouch behind a tree as best I can and wait. His footsteps get louder and louder and then his about to pass by. BOOO! I yell as I jump out from behind the tree. He jumps up and away as well as he yells! Ha! Got him! We both burst into laughter as we continue running down the trail. Never pass up the chance to scare someone in the woods I always say! We run the rest of the way down the mountain, chatting and laughing and then we’re at the Old Jackson Chapel Road trailhead.

    It is starting to get quite warm now, so I take the liberty to soak in a creek close by. Nice! I was about to begin a 30 mile plus, mostly paved road run. Yuck! Still this is the way the Pinhoti Trail goes so it’s the way I must go to. Just as I’m putting my shoes back on after dunking in the creek, my friend Scott Brockmeier pulls up! He lives in Rome, Georgia (my destination for the day) and has volunteered to come out and run 20 miles with me! Cool! So I take off down the old road (gravel) as Josh and Scott figure out car shuttling logistics. I’m now wearing my full sun hat as the rest of the day is going to be very exposed to the sun. It’s pretty hot out, but I’m coping well. In the weeks prior to this trip I did followed a heat training regimen used by Badwater athletes. We’d installed a sauna in my basement several years ago for just such training circumstances. Kathy used the sauna very effectively for her successful Badwater 135 race last summer and so I was hoping I’d glean similar effects. Basically I built up to enduring several 45 minute plus sessions in the sauna at 170 degrees Fahrenheit. Once we’d set the May 1st start date I knew from past experience that it could get very hot this time of year so I knew I better be ready for it. Well I’m happy to say I think the sauna training really worked as the heat never really got to me all that bad compared to what it usually does (I typically hate running in hot weather). Anyhow, a few miles later as I’m about to emerge off of the old dirt road, Scott and Josh are waiting for me. I run by and continue on, Scott in tow. We enter the highway briefly and then turn off onto Santa Claus Road (I kid you not!). Old Santa must be spending too much time in the North Pole because this road is very beaten up and rough! It is gravel too, but of the large grain variety and tough to run on. Scott and I discuss all sorts of things along the way; our schooling, running, life, etc… It was a real pleasure to spend a few hours with him on a week day no less! Thanks for all your help Scott! Scott would even later take a big bag of stinky laundry and wash it for me. What a guy! He even brought back an egg salad sandwich sometime later that night that I believe Liz Walker had made. Unfortunately I think it got lost in the shuffle and I never got to try it! Damn, so sorry! Next time! Anyways, after a mile or two of Santa Claus Road we’d seen enough and were approaching another paved road, the beginning of a whole lot of pavement ahead! I took this opportunity to change into some road shoes (Nike Frees) and then we were on the move once more. Moving down the road. Step by step. This was actually not too bad of a road section into Cave Spring. The road was very Strolling Jim like; rolling hills, beautiful countryside and all together not too much traffic. I will say that, overall, Georgia drivers are much more courteous to pedestrians in the road than Alabama drivers. By far. Almost every driver we encountered attempted to get half a lane or often a full lane over when passing! When they couldn’t, because of oncoming traffic, they’d at least slow down and pass at a more reasonable speed. Thanks Georgia drivers! There were exceptions of course, but on the whole, much better than Alabama.

    At last we strolled into the little town of Cave Spring. The Pinhoti is actually marked through a neat little shaded park and then sort of doubles back and heads through the little downtown area. I couldn’t believe how well the road section was marked. There were Pinhoti turkey markers on every other utility pole it seemed complete with double offset markers indicating all the turns. Great job, need more of this on the Alabama side. Entering the little Cave Spring park, Josh was waiting with an ice-cream sandwich! Boy that was good! We were into the real heat of the day now but I still felt pretty good. I stuffed some more ice into my hat and we were off again, through the park and then through the quaint little downtown before heading back out into the country on a lonely little road. Now I was making my push for Rome, I tried to keep running as much as I could, taking breaks every so often; typically on the uphills and soon Scott’s 20 miles were up. I was sad to see him go, but very thankful he’d take the time to come out and run with me and to do some laundry! So Josh left with Scott, returning him back to his car while I continued on. I’d grabbed a bunch of calories before Josh left so I spent the next half mile or so just walking, trying to let stuff digest. Soon I was back running again, the worst of the heat was past now as the sun was getting low in the West. I really tried to push now as the road was a bit gentler (not rolling) and I was all by myself for the next little while. I’d gotten a few more miles down the road when Josh suddenly appeared, boy that didn’t take long! We were just outside Rome now and the end of the day was rapidly approaching. The day really seemed to pass fairly quickly. I guess that’s a good thing. Getting close to Rome, there was a fair amount of traffic, especially after I turned onto the main five lane highway that passed in front of several factories. This was a long stretch I don’t mind saying. This was a pretty crappy area to run, no sidewalk and the shoulder was just high grass in front of a myriad of businesses. Lame. To make it worse, I was starting to tire and ache and was just ready to be done. Still, only a handful of miles left and I’d have 50 miles for the day. I just tucked my head and muscled through. Finally I made the turn off the busy highway onto Huffaker Road. Josh met me to give me my head lamp as it was getting dark. He said he was going to drive ahead to Simms Mountain Trail head and run back so he could run a bit with me. He actually ran some right then with me until running back to get his car to drive ahead. In this first short stretch with Josh we passed by a fire hydrant lying on its side, affixed to nothing. Just lying there. Odd! I told Josh that I wanted that fire hydrant as totem and that he should go back and get it. At first he thought I was serious and gave me this considering look. Then I started laughing and we kept on going. What would I do with a fire hydrant anyhow? Might make a pretty cool mailbox though I think the fire department might not like it!

    Soon I was alone again, Josh was driving ahead and going to run back; this was a very peaceful time along the road. The low sunlight coming through the trees was just magical, this is my favorite time of day when the possibilities just seem endless! It is a very thoughtful time. Josh appeared from up the road and now we were just a half mile or so to the trail head. Now at the trailhead I had to decide what to do. It was still barely light and I’d accomplished my Day Four goal by making it to this location. Since I was finally off of the road (for a long time to come) and on a nice and easy gravel rail-to-trail, I decided to continue on a bit further. I was achy and tired so I didn’t want to do too much as I knew tomorrow was going to be another epic day much like the previous day; important to not overdo it tonight.

    So I continued on the first part of Simms Mountain Trail crossing a pretty cool old rail-road trestle in the gathering gloom and shuffled onward. After a mile it got dark enough to turn on my headlamp and that’s when I decided to just do one more mile for a total of 50 for the day. Josh appeared out of the blackness ahead and told me he was about a mile out. Perfect. So we jogged along, often having to maneuver around the occasional puddle or muddy spot, until at last we were once again at the crew vehicle. I was done for the day! Phew! That was a long day in the sun and I was thankful to be finished with the roads for the time being. I quickly toweled off, grabbed a beverage for the road and we were off to the hotel for some much deserved food, ice bath and sleep!

To be continued…

For more information about the Pinhoti Trail Adventure Run click here.

Pinhoti Trail Adventure Run: Day Three: The Crux

2010-05-17T16:00:00.002-05:00

I-20 crossing to Maxwell Gap (CR-70), 54 miles, ~14 ½ h

    Little did I know waking up this morning that today would be the defining moment for me for this entire adventure. Today I’d set the tone for the rest of the journey. Yesterday was a long day, followed by even less rest. We did have a wonderful Mellow Mushroom pizza for dinner in bed from my fantastic crew (thanks Blake, Kathy and Sara for going way out of the way to get it!). But starting out this morning in a light rain and some of the coolest temperatures we’d seen so far, it was very difficult to get going. I knew from studying the route that the first 36 miles or so of today’s trail would be some of the most runnable sections of trail we’d likely see on the entire Pinhoti. I also knew that today had some of the more difficult sections of the Pinhoti trail coming in the final 18 miles of today’s goal. That meant that I really needed to take full advantage of the first 36 miles in order to give me enough time to get through the very difficult last 18 miles with as little night running as possible. It was a tall order, but I really had no choice. If I had to stop short of my planned mileage quota for Day Three then that left me quite a bit of catching up to do on the subsequent days if I had any hope of achieving my Sub Seven day goal. It was make or break time.

    All the same, it was still a rough start. Luckily we had some friends in tow this morning with Blake and David coming along for the ride. We still made quick work of Horseblock Mountain (where severe tornado damage was still evident by the huge open spaces and downed trees everywhere, bit thank you to everybody involved in re-opening the trail through this area, I know it must have been a Herculean effort!) and soon found our rhythm by the time we hit the US 78 crossing some 6 or so miles later. Our crew was waiting for us there with some Hardies Egg & Cheese biscuits! Wonderful! So good and really hit the spot! Now all greased up we continued on across a rail-road crossing and began the slight ascent of Brymer Mountain. Sure enough, just a few minutes up the trail we could hear a train coming along the tracks we’d just crossed! Talk about timing!

    While I was warming up and starting to really hit my stride, I realized that Eric was still struggling a bit. He was complaining about some blisters on his feet; I could tell his gait looked a bit off as if he were compensating. Somewhere in this stretch, perhaps a mile or so out from our next crew access point at USFS 523 crossing (I think) Eric suddenly sprinted ahead of us saying that he was going to attempt to get his feet worked on and try not to hold us up when we arrived. So Eric and David disappeared ahead; Blake and I plodded on making steady progress, running the downs and flats and attacking the ups aggressively. Before too long we arrived at the road crossing and saw Josh and the rest of the crew tending to Eric’s feet. I was a bit antsy to keep going, but I decided to give Eric a chance to get patched up. I wandered around the crew area, eating a bit of this and that and sipped from my water bottle. After about 10 minutes or so, Eric was patched up enough to continue, though I could see in his face that he was hurting; bad!

    We all shuffled out of there, but it soon became clear that Eric was struggling to keep up with the more aggressive pace I was setting. It was perhaps a bit quick, but, like I said, this was the time to be aggressive; it was very cool out, this was some gorgeous and gentle single track we were running and we had to make great time to leave us enough time to negotiate the final, brutal, 18 miles of the day.
So it didn’t come as a complete shock when we dropped Eric all together after another mile or so. Blake and I kept looking back but no Eric and soon later we approached the next crew location at USFS 531. Kathy and Sara had come back to see us. They asked where Eric was and I just shook my head. What could I say? A quarter mile later we emerged onto the road crossing and I told Josh that Eric was still having trouble. What could I do?

Luckily, Eric and I had agreed upon a simple protocol should an occurrence like this arise. At anytime, the stronger runner could choose to separate from the other runner and continue on; that was the purpose of having essentially two crews on hand. The stronger runner would set the bar for the day’s mileage (hopefully meet the day’s quota) and the other runner would have to also match that mileage even if it took extra time to get that far. I’d been warned by long trail running legend David Horton (who’s advice I sought before taking on this endeavor) that a team effort for something like this could create all kinds of problems as it is difficult to always be on the same page in terms of each runner’s highs and lows; that separation not could be, but would be inevitable. That was why I insisted on having enough crew people and vehicles on hand to be able to split up when and if necessary. More likely than not, even the stronger runner would struggle at some point, the other runner would rebound and all would be reunited at some point. Who knows? The other part of our pact was that, should worse come to worse and one of us refuse to continue, that they would stay on as part of the crew and support the other.

So with a heavy heart, I told Josh and my crew that I was invoking our agreed upon protocol and continuing on alone. What happened behind the scenes after I left USFS 531 I may never know, perhaps Eric will provide some more insight on his own personal account. All I know is, I received very little information about Eric’s status throughout the rest of this day, though I repeatedly asked Josh (the only crew person I had the rest of this day) to let me know. Anyhow, there was no time to feel guilty or regretful; I still had a big day ahead that would truly test my resolve. So I put my head forward and kept going.

I wasn’t a mile and a half out when, sure enough, fleet footed David had caught up to me! I just couldn’t lose this guy! Ha! We were now entering the Choccolocco Wildlife Management Area; some of best single track I’ve ever run on in Alabama. Awesome! I think David really appreciated the quicker pace this morning as he was actually able to do more of a running stride and not have to walk. David is such a fast, long striding runner that he had trouble yesterday with our pace as it was right between a walk and run for him. He said he was surprisingly sore afterwards! Anyhow, we continued on the never ending, winding single track until we popped out into the Pine Glen Campground, site of the start of the Pinhoti 100 Mile Trail Run (this 100 mile race basically follows the reverse of the route we’d taken to this point, bypassing the Cheaha Wilderness Area and exiting the Talladega National Forest at Bulls Gap to run on a series of gravel/paved roads to finish in Sylacauga). I didn’t stop too long at Pine Glen, just topped off my water bottle, grabbed some frozen black berries that Josh has sitting out and blasted out of there. The next 3 mile section was possibly the flattest section of trail on the entire Pinhoti (accept for the road sections of course). The route follows the bank of Shoal Creek towards Sweetwater Lake and it is indeed very flat, though flooded in a few spots. David and I made great time through here and soon popped out into a large meadow with a breathtaking view of Sweetwater Lake. Wow! We arrived shore side and it was here that David, wisely, decided to call it a day. Thanks for the companionship David! Standing there, drinking and munching it suddenly seemed like the ground was moving. I stopped and just stared at a single spot and realized the ground wasn’t moving, but thousands of tiny toads (frogs?) where hopping around! You had to pick your steps carefully not to step on any of the little buggers! I said good bye to David and headed out once again.

I’d done a pretty good job with keeping my feet dry most of the day (23 miles so far) but just around the bend of the contouring trail that followed the bank of Sweetwater Lake, I came to a creek crossing that was extremely flooded. Doh! No way across without getting waist deep (way above my peter line). So despite getting my feet wet, the cool water felt very invigorating! Sometime later, still moving at perhaps 5 mph or better (my splits seem to confirm this) I arrived at the next crew spot near Coleman Lake and a Woodpecker farm (restoration area?). Along the way I passed the famed Shoal Creek Church, one of the oldest in Alabama; pretty cool, to bad I didn’t have time to check it out more. It did indeed look very old. I quickly swapped bottled, downed some calories, put on some sunscreen, the sun was out and baking now, and sped on. This area of long leaf pines, the most common tree I one sees throughout the Talladega National Forest looked a bit more sparse like a burn and been through here recently. I think this was another Woodpecker area and they like the open spaces? Anyhow, I ascended Rattlesnake Mountain (luckily no snakes were spotted) and continued on some wonderful singletrack all the way to the next crew spot at USFS 540. I reloaded, grabbed an additional bottle as this next stretch was to be a bit longer and more technical. I was 30 miles in and after this next 6 mile section I’d be starting into the rough final miles of the day.

Leaving USFS 540 I began to drop, drop, drop down into a deep watershed and began following the Twenty Feet Creek. This was a very narrow area with frequent stream crossings. I was dreading wet feet earlier, but no longer. It was hot out and I took full advantage of every crossing by dipping my hat in the water and splashing my bearded face.

Did I mention I was sick and tired of cobwebs? Occuring so frequently that I don’t even bring it up in my report was the constant battle I had with getting spider and catepiller webs all over me! It seemed like I couldn’t go more than a minute without running through a web of some sort! Awful! I’m sure some of the bumps on me at the end of the day were spider bites! Second to the webs, but only just so, were the frequency of ticks I had to pick off me. So every 10 to 15 minutes or so I’d remind myself to stop where I was and check myself for ticks. I’d always be able to pick of 3 or 4 and that is no joke! Blah! Anyhow, I digress, but that is an important theme to keep in mind of the sort of constant that remained throughout the entire Alabama section of the Pinhoti trail (ironically the Georgia side was much better, but more on that later).

Deep into a canyon along Twenty Feet Creek I came across a narrow section that was completely blocked by a tree that had blown over from high on the steep embankment; its branches blocking the path like a fence. The only way around the blockade was to scramble up the embankment and crawl over some more branches and then drop steeply back down to the trail. The single track trail continued to amaze as I approached the Choccolocco Creek Watershed (basically an earthen dam blocking the creek to create a small reservoir). So quiet and serene; this is one place that I want to revisit. I strode alone along the path across the earthen dam, which was buried in high grass, deep in thought and feeling truly blessed to have the opportunity to do things like this. Wow! I re-entered the woods and soon began a long downhill to the CR 55 road crossing near Burns Trailhead. I’d covered the previous 36 miles in right around 9 hours which wasn’t bad considering all the punishment I’d endured from the 100 miles of brutal trail the previous two days. I now had to, once again, don my Nathan Hydration Pack (Synergy) as the next 9 mile section would not be nearly as runnable as what I’d seen today.

So, loaded up to the gills, I crossed the road and hiked back into the woods and began a long steady climb up the eastern flank of Red Mountain. The real challenge lay past this approach with the upcoming Dugger Mountain. The ascent wasn’t so bad as I was deep into the heavily shaded woods so it was relatively cool. I cleared the small gap and began a gradual descent to Jones Branch Road (not much more than a wide, double track through the wilderness). I crossed the road and began to immediately climb, in earnest now, up to Dugger Gap. It was quite a bit steeper going, but I was feeling my oats once again and continued to push hard. Soon I’d arrived at Dugger Gap, but the climbing continued to attain the main ridgeline of Dugger Mountain. The trail here was very overgrown in spots with a huge sea of poison ivy often spilling over into the trail. I tried to pick and choose my way through, but at some point it’s just impossible to avoid; takes too much energy. Well, this wouldn’t be the first (nor last) time I’d have legs covered in poison ivy rashes! Ha! I’d finally arrived at the Dugger Mountain ridgeline and began the long, snaking ridgeline walk. This section seemed to go on forever! It was extremely beautiful, and I could imagine the views would be sublime during the winter with less foliage on the trees. This was yet another place on my list to revisit in the future. Finally, though I’d reached the far end of the mountain and began a pretty steep descent down into the North Dugger Flats. In this final stretch out to USFS 600, one crosses this stream multiple times and each crossing was quite deep and refreshing! All the same, I pushed hard this final bit trying to run as much of it as I could as the previous miles were not very runnable. The road comes into view and there is Josh and his Xterra. I’m faster than he expected here as I’ve still averaged almost 4 mph in this last stretch, not bad considering the rougher terrain. I reload my pack, grab my head lamp as it will be a close call whether or not I can clear the next rough 9 mile section without a light, and continue on; back into the woods once again.

This first stretch isn’t so bad, and eerily reminiscent of the Choccolocco Creek Watershed I’d previously passed through earlier that day. This time it’s the Terripin Creek Watershed am crossing into and soon I arrive at a similar looking earthen dam crossing; grown up high with grass, serene and quiet and I’m all alone. Beautiful; the sun is now low in the western sky, the shadows everywhere are getting long; the heat of the day is starting to bleed away. All too soon I’m back into the woods, back into the cool darkness. After a couple of creek crossings, it becomes evident that this trail means business! Without any warning the trail turns steeply uphill following a clear fall line right uphill! Thankfully there are a couple switchbacks here, but boy is it steep! I pause for a rest at a minor gap, sitting for a minute or two. I’m beginning to get tired, and I still have the real meat of the climb up the dreaded Oakey Mountain to come! Whew! I regain my feet and plod on up the trail, beginning the very long, steep incline wedge up to the Oakey Mountain Crossing (a gap on the knife edge ridge). Up and up it goes without any break in the steep grade. A tough way to end the day! Soon I’m climbing with my hands on my knees, all bent forward into the hill; gasping for air. For over a mile this continued until suddenly it was over. I found myself on the narrow ridgeline. I immediately sat down on a likely looking rock and took a minute to collect myself. All this way up to this ridge and now the trail horseshoes around and simply heads just as steeply back down the other side of the ridge! This climb has really slowed me down and the sun is sinking fast. It’s become a personal goal of mine to clear this section and make it to the Chief Ladiga Rail Trail before I dare turn on my headlamp. Therefore I’m now almost sprinting down the mountain with near reckless abandon as it gets darker and darker. Where is that rail trail I say to myself? Surprisingly I don’t trip or stumble in this descent; I’m in the zone and soon enough I pop out of the woods yet again but onto the paved rail trail. I turn to the right and start to run along the path; the surface is strangely flat and solid after miles of rough, rocky terrain. Dimly head I can see some lights in the dusk, it must be Josh (who else would be out here this late on a Monday night?). I still haven’t bothered to turn my headlamp on as it’s an easy, flat surface to run on so I think I may have surprised him coming out of the darkness; again ahead of schedule. I averaged right at 4mph for this section, which is quite shocking to me considering how beaten I was climbing up Oakey Mountain. I think I strongly influenced that average by bombing down the mountain to the rail trail. Technically I’d met the mileage quota for the day at this point (CR-94 crossing), but as the next access point was only 1.6 miles (and a steep climb) away I decided to keep going one last section.

There was no question now that I needed my headlamp on. It was fully dark out now as I left Josh and began to climb up Wilson Ridge; headlamp ablaze. This turned out to be a longer and tougher climb than I expected. Boy! I also started to go into cool down mode as this was bonus mileage and I’d worked really hard over the previous 52+ miles. So I just took my time climbing up to the ridge, not pressing at all; trying to drink and eat as much as I could stomach. I finally gained the ridge and began down the other side towards Maxwell Gap. I was deep in thought, just in cruise control really; only paying enough attention to keep spotting the light blue blazes and turkey markers in the dark. All of a sudden there was an explosion above my head! Perhaps 3-4 feet above me a wild turkey was sleeping and became startled as I past underneath. He erupted into an unsteady flight, crashing through branches and disappeared into the night! It scared me back awake, the adrenaline pumping once again and I was now flying down the trail to the gap. Time to get done! Not long later I broke out of the woods at full stride. I was finally done for the day and extremely proud of myself. This was a make or break day in my book; toughest day by far (highest mileage and longest time on the trail) but one that had to be endured to keep on schedule. Tomorrow would mark my next milestone; crossing the state line into Georgia and passing through halfway in my long journey to the Benton MacKaye trail. But for now it was off to Subway for a glorious tuna fish sandwich, a quick ice bath then to bed and blissful unconsciousness!

To be continued…

For more information about the Pinhoti Trail Adventure Run click here.

Pinhoti Trail Adventure Run: Day Two : It All Gets Real

2010-05-16T16:00:00.001-05:00

Porters Gap to I-20 crossing, 48.7 miles, ~14 ¼ h

Bright and early, Eric and I were back at it. Just before we were about to leave our friend John Nevels arrived. John was going to join us for the bulk of our mileage on this day, but first he and Josh and to shuttle his vehicle further on down the route. So after some quick greetings, were off. Leaving Porters Gap we re-entered the woods and quickly ascended Talladega Mountain and were back down the other side before we knew it. The skies were still overcast and threatening rain, much like the previous day, but still no rain to speak of. As we crossed the train tracks and bridge across Talladega Creek, Josh pulled up with John in tow, they’d had just enough time to shuttle John’s truck to Adams Gap (some 12 miles or so away by trail) and make it back to meet us before we went into the woods again.

So, with John now in tow, we continued on towards Adams Gap, our next milestone. I won’t lie, I was really struggling on this 12 mile stretch. The trail generally climbs to Adams Gap with a few short down hills to mix things up; but the bulk certainly felt like it was uphill and often on some pretty rough, rocky trail. As if the trail wasn’t difficult enough, it was very hot and muggy out, even though it was still early in the day. I was already quite soaked through with sweat and pretty miserable as I just couldn’t get into a rhythm, couldn’t get cool; the air stagnant and threatening. We finally arrived at Adams Gap (after seeing our crew briefly at Clairmont Gap along the way) some 4 hours later and I was still feeling pretty ragged. I was keeping my composure, but I was letting the heat and the enormity of what still lay ahead dominate me. Now it was time to don our packs again as we had a long 12 mile section ahead of us without any crew access.
Refueled and reloaded we made our way into the Cheaha Wilderness Area. Next up was the infamous “Stairway to Heaven”; a very steep, boulder climbing ascent to the top of Talladega Mountain (yes, once again). This section climbs nearly 600 feet in less than 3/10 of a mile; and did I mention it was hot? By the time we reached the top of the ridge we all needed a short break. Luckily there were several slabs of rock available for us to sit or collapse onto. I started to perk up a bit at this point, I think I just needed a lot more calories and I’d just really crammed a bunch down at Adams Gap and they were starting to kick in. Plus there was a cool breeze coming over the ridge that just felt magnificent! After a five minute break we continued on, northward, along the ridgeline of Talladega Mountain heading deeper into the Cheaha Wilderness Area. These were some fun miles as, for the most part, it was much more runnable than the section from Porters Gap to Adams Gap. We made pretty good time, chatting and swapping stories until we emerged into a little break in the woods to see a large boulder with a bronze placard. This was the Pinhoti Trail dedication monument, signifying the official opening of the Pinhoti trail in 2008. It was pretty cool to see something like this several miles into the woods and still quite far from any road. Amazing. We took several photos and were on our way. With just a couple of miles to go before crossing US-281 (our next crew location) Eric rediscovered a large heart shaped rock he’d found on a previous run this year. (Eric has a hobby of collecting heart shaped rocks to give to his wife Laura) This rock (read boulder) must have weighed at least 10 pounds or more! It was huge! All of a sudden he was running down and up the trail with this huge rock in his hands and I was doing all I could do just to keep up! Eric was on fire! John and I just exchanged dumbfounded glances and tried to keep up! At last we could see signs that indicated we were close to the road now, i.e. more trail litter, the sound of traffic, etc… And all at once we rounded a bend and there was my wife Kathy, Blake Thompson, Sara Tei and David Riddle standing in the trail before us. It was so great to see them, such a boost! We kept going, the whole gang in tow until a short distance later where the trail split. The crew descended the trail to the right that led to a parking area while we continued on the main Pinhoti Trail to where it crossed the main road as we didn’t want any extra mileage by dropping down to the parking lot and coming back up to this very point (adding about half a mile at least). I still don’t understand why the Pinhoti is routed like this, it would make better sense to take us through the large parking area and then cut back up to rejoin the rest of the route? Instead, where the actual trail crosses the road, the shoulders are very narrow and steeply slanted. Oh well.
Just a short time later we pop out onto the road and a short time after that Josh arrived followed immediately by Kathy and the rest of the gang. The sun is really baring down on us now, it is hot and we’re at pretty high elevation for Alabama (almost 2,500 feet, yeah, yeah don’t laugh too hard now!). I sit in a camp chair while Kathy pours a jug of water over my head; glorious! It had taken us over 8 hours to cover the previous 27 miles and we still had another 21 miles planned for the day! No question, we had to get moving and pick up our pace. Most likely we’d be finishing in headlamps tonight! Doh! We refilled our packs and stock up again as it’s another 12 mile+ section to the next crew access. Luckily this time the miles should be easier (based on my prior experience with this entire day’s running route (ran this route in April of ’05)). Leaving Cheaha State Park we added another trail companion as David, an elite runner in his own right, having won the 2009 Rocket City Marathon in 2:26:23, Mountain Mist 50km in 3:58:30 and other countless 5 and 10km races throughout the south-east. Suffice it say it was a honor and a privilege to share some miles with David though I’m sure it was a real challenge for him to have to travel so slow compared to the pace he’s used to! At any rate, we were soon beginning the nice, gradual descent off of Talladega Mountain and out of Cheaha State Park on some pretty awesome, winding switchback trail. This was some of the best trail we’d seen in two days; narrow, mostly rock free and pine needle covered. Simply superb. I was really starting to feel my oats in this section. The sun was less intense, there was a nice breeze and we were mostly running downhill. I decided to open up my stride a bit in this stretch and soon we were moving fairly quick down the trail. All downhills come to an end and sadly so did this section. Still the overall terrain wasn’t too bad and we continued to make pretty good time. Soon we arrived at Hillabee Creek, a rather deep creek crossing. We took the opportunity to get a five minute soak in the creek before continuing on. Very refreshing. The next several miles took us from one watershed to the next along a rather narrow canyon. The pace was swift as I was finally feeling good. I was trying to push the pace because I knew now that we’d be finishing in the dark and so I wanted to limit the extent we went into the night. Our mileage quota had us getting to the I-20 crossing for 48.7 tough miles today and we still had more than 12 miles to go and it was getting to be late afternoon! I just kept my head down and pressed and soon we emerged onto Cleburn County Road 24 where Josh and the rest of the gang were waiting for us.
I shoveled down some more calories, restocked my pack and sped off back into the woods ahead of the rest. I was making the point that we needed to hustle, the time for messing around was over; we had some work to do still just to make our minimum quota for the day. It wasn’t long before David caught up to me (no problem for him!) and soon I could hear John and Eric behind as well. I wasn’t intended to break contact so it was good everybody had caught up once again. Again I set the pace, probably a bit aggressive, but the sun was getting low and it was getting a bit dark in the woods. I’m pretty sure we were doing 9 minute miles (if not faster) on some of the easier, old 4x4 road we ran on in pieces. Whew! It was tough to keep a steady pace however as there were several short but very steep uphill sections to slow the whole train down. Still, the aggressive approach paid off because we popped out near US-431 with less than 5 miles to go for the day. It was here that John called it a day, so we thanked him and bade him farewell as we headed out to and across the highway, reloaded and refueled for the last time of the day. Headlamps donned (but turned off), we sped along the trail trying to eke out the last rays of sunlight on the trail. It’s amazing how far you can get into the twilight without a light if you just let your eyes naturally adapt to the dark. Running up front I suddenly jerked to a stop, the others nearly crashing into me, lying across the trail a few feet in front of me was a huge rat snake. No big deal, I grabbed a stick and carefully scooted him off the trail and we continued on. Ok, time to turn on the headlamps I guess! Much better now! The remaining miles were a bit slower as we had to carefully pick our way along the trail, ever cognizant of finding the trail blazes in the dark (no mean feat I might add). With many trail splits and false trails, navigation became more of a challenge than in daylight. Still it wasn’t long before we started hearing the roar of traffic on the interstate and then we were out of the woods and running down a short bit of AL-281 as it crosses I-20; the glow of our awaiting crew vehicle a beacon in the night drawing us to the end of Day Two.

To be continued…

For more information about the Pinhoti Trail Adventure Run click here.

Pinhoti Trail Adventure Run: Day One : The Long Journey Begins

2010-05-15T18:00:00.000-05:00

Flagg Mountain to Porters Gap, 52.3 miles, 12h 48m

With butterflies in my stomach, Eric Charette and I began our journey northward on the Pinhoti trail and precisely 6:00 a.m. (central time) on Josh Kennedy’s watch from the top of Flagg Mountain. The pre-dawn morning got off to an inauspicious start when, on the drive to the start, we witnessed a drunk driver veer off the highway (at a very low speed!) and into the gas pump protector guard rail at a gas station. I just so happens that this was very close to where we’d be running just a couple of hours from now! More on that later…

   Heading down Flagg Mountain I felt like I was running down Madkin Mountain on Redstone Arsenal (one of my favorite training runs) as the gravel road wound its way, cork-screw like, down the mountain and eventually we popped out onto the start of long pavement section that would take us to the foot of Rebecca Mountain some 20 miles hence.

   At least for now the highway was largely vacant, except for two fools running down the road and some crazy guy in a Nissan Xterra shooting back and forth down the road yelling at us from time to time, often stopping to share some liquids and foods with us. Oh wait, that was us and our crew! Anyhow this road section was largely uneventful as we passed through the tiny community of Weogufka where they were about to celebrate Mule Day that day (there were signs everywhere). Sure enough we started to see large trucks pulling trailers of mules into town; never saw anybody actually riding a mule into town, though I’m sure somebody must have… Remember that drunk driver? Well we’d just cleared a long bend in the road and were now very close to where we’d seen the drunk driver earlier that morning when we saw a large commotion in the road ahead. Fire trucks and police cars were on the scene along with several power company utility trucks. Lots of flashing lights. When we got closer we could see that a utility pole had been knocked over into the road and the lines were everywhere! Eric, explained that the group of lines across the road did not include a power line, just phone and cable lines. Whew! We gingerly stepped over the cables under the watchful eye of several police and fireman and continued on. Josh gathered from the police officers, and told us later, that the same drunk driver we’d seen had sped out of gas station and run into that utility pole! They were okay but had passed out in the ditch when police had arrived (apparently people had already phoned the police about the drunk driver even before we’d first seen them!). Crazy!

   After many more road miles, the later dozen a bit more pleasant as we were onto less frequently travelled roads, we finally set foot on gravel again as we neared the base of Rebecca Mountain. We quickly changed into trail shoes and after a briefing from Josh (who had just recently checked out this very new section of the Pinhoti Trail) set off into the woods for the first time! Yeah! The current (at this time) route description had us staying on roads another 12 miles to Bulls Gap, however we’d learned that this new trail section was recently signed and blazed (though some of the actual trail still needed to be cut in and established) so it was a no brainer to take the trail over the roads; even if the new route was still a bit “rough.” Rough is right. Just starting out in the woods the route was difficult to follow as no foot path had formally been cut, however it was well marked with blue blazes so we just ran blaze to blaze like we were following an orienteering route. A few miles later we popped out of the woods after crisscrossing several ancient 4x4 roads and some more established forest service roads to find Josh and his son Matt offering us orange slices and water. As we pressed on Eric commented that Josh was now our soccer team Mom! Ha! Now we began to climb in earnest, the previous cross-country like bushwhacking around the contours of Rebecca Mountain were replaces by a steady climb on a well constructed trail. A few switch backs later we gained the ridgeline of the mountain and pressed northward on a bit rougher, overgrown double track “road.” Soon we passed by the first of two communication towers; and dropped down a steep concrete road off the back side. By now it was getting pretty hot and muggy out. While the threat for heavy rain seemed imminent, not a drop was felt thus far. Truth be told I wouldn’t have minded a few short deluges as it would have cooled things off immensely! After the first tower it was some more beautiful ridgeline running until we finally arrived, after what seemed like too long, at the second communication tower. This time we had to climb UP a concrete service road to the tower. This is perhaps the steepest road I’ve ever climbed! We were both pretty gassed by the time we reached the top so we took five and sat on the ground to take a break. Break time was up all too quickly and we continued northward on the Pinhoti trail. We were now close to leaving Rebecca Mountain to drop down toward the distance “V” that marked the location of our next crew location at Bulls Gap (about 34 miles in). We came across several rock cairns that directed us off the ridgeline and soon were flying down the trail toward the gap. Josh was there waiting as we strolled up to the Xterra. This next section was going to be a long one; potentially 18 miles without any aid. There was a chance that Josh could meet us somewhere along the way, but we had to plan for the worst and so we loaded up our packs with all we could carry and set off back into the woods to begin our ascent of Horn Mountain.

   Immediately I regretted packing so much weight. I felt sluggish and slow; much more like a backpacker and less like a runner. Though I’d trained with a pack, this felt like a bit too much, so a few miles in I took a gamble that we’d see Josh sometime before the end of this 18 mile section and dumped out one of my two water bottles. Perhaps psychosomatic, but I felt instantly lighter. My real mistake was that I packed the bottles instead of taking the carrying straps and just carrying them in my hands. Oh well, lesson learned. For anybody who’s been on Horn Mountain, they know how aggravating this section of trail (at least until you get to the Pinnacles) can be. You’re up on this wide ridgeline and the trail continuously snakes back and forth as you go; to the west side sometimes and to the east side later, back and forth and the footing is not very conducive to running. The trail is often off camber and rubble strewn or has numerous up and down blips that are just enough to force to walk. Worst of all is that there is a perfectly nice 4x4 road that parallels this trail along the whole way! You see it from time to time and cross it a few times; very tempting to just break out of the woods and run on the easy road rather than go back into the woods for some more insanity! Don’t get me wrong, I love technical trail running, but it was getting late in the day and I was getting tired and I just felt so slow! After a while of meandering along Horn Mountain, we popped over a minor hilltop and suddenly heard some load rock music just ahead. What was going on? Sure enough as we got closer we discovered the Pinhoti trail ran very close to the 4x4 road (yet again) and right there was Josh! Yes!   We were perhaps half way through this section when we cut out of the woods to the crew vehicle. Josh was surprised to see us as head just arrived! Talk about timing! We quickly refueled as he explained that he could see us in another 3 miles or so and from there it would be an easier 6 miles (mostly down) to the day’s finish at Porters Gap. That meant we could ditch our packs and just two bottle it from there. Eric and I both absent mindedly started to head away from the crew vehicle on our road when Josh yelled at us to reverse our route back onto the trail from whence we’d original come. We both groaned and cursed him (light heartedly of course) and back tracked to where we’d come out of the woods. Doh! So much easier running now, still I was feeling a bit gassed and so tried to put some more calories in. The trail began to circle around the end of the ridge and often it seemed like we were running back the way we’d just come. At one point we emerged onto an old 4x4 road and while chatting walked right by some pretty obvious blazes taking us back into the woods. We ended up at a dead end in the road as it curved away back to the South (or first indication that we’d gone wrong), we retraced our steps and soon found the trail again. This next bit was somewhat downhill and we made good time for when we again emerged onto a 4x4 road at the Pinnacles we approached the crew vehicle with no crew present! We yelled and soon Josh came barreling down a hill and out of the woods; he and Matt had been up on the cap stoned ridgeline (hence the name Pinnacles) exploring. He wasn’t expecting us quite that soon, but no matter, we quickly refilled our bottles and began a long, switch backing downhill off of Horn Mountain. It had been a long day and after a brief discussion, Eric and I decided that we’d call it a day at Porters Gap. A highlight for the day was a brief dip in a creek near Scott Lake (a couple of miles out of Porters Gap). This was a very beautiful place, a sandy bottomed creek with a nice cascade beyond. Alas the break was all too short as we re-donned our shoes and gear and ran the remaining miles to the day’s end. According to my original schedule Porters Gap was the quota for the first day and anything else was simply bonus. (Looking back now, I do regret not pushing that 3.4 more miles to Chandler Springs. However I promised myself, a priori, to just get the quota the first day as it would be too easy on fresh legs to overdo it and leave yourself wasted on the subsequent day. Still this would be one of the shorter days time wise of the whole epic, but we did have a fair drive back to Sylacauga so in the end I believe it was the correct call) So soon we arrived at Porters Gap as the sun slowly sank in the West. Our shadows were very long as we popped out of the woods for the final time this day to cross a highway to the final crew stop of the day. We quickly changed clothes and headed for town, with visions of pizza, ice baths and comfy beds dancing in our heads!

To be continued…

For more information about the Pinhoti Trail Adventure Run click here.

Pinhoti Trail Adventure Run: Day Zero: A Long Walk to the Gallows

2010-05-14T17:13:00.000-05:00

Today marks exactly two weeks since I began the long drive down to the start of the my Pinhoti Trail Adventure Run; and a week since I finished. To commemorate my experience I'm going to be publishing my day to day run reports; one each day over the next week. Enjoy!

In the final days before the PTAR I was truly not a fun person to be around (I want to apologize right now to my wife Kathy). I was full of nervous apprehension about the hugeness (for me) of the quest ahead. The reality that I was about to embark on a Three Hundred Thirty Five mile journey on foot was finally hitting me. What began as a pipe dream over ten years ago when I first moved to Alabama (circa late 1998) was now coming to fruition. It was going to happen and there was no turning back now! My fascination with the Pinhoti trail began when I was living in Birmingham and first heard about the trail through other people’s stories and experiences. Back then there wasn’t as much information on the Web and all one could really do is order what maps were available (yes, by mailing a check in an envelope to somebody! Imagine such primitive means!). I ordered those maps and I was shocked by what I received. Multiple, HUGE trail maps split into several trail segments (five in all). End to end (matching up the trailheads marked on the maps) the series of maps stretched some fifteen feet across my living room floor! I actually glued all the maps to poster boards and I still have this huge roll somewhere if anybody would like to see it, perhaps I’ll post a photo sometime! Anyhow, back in 1999 these were the only maps available and the Pinhoti trail started at Porter’s Gap and terminated at (I believe) Maxwell Gap so it was “only” some 100 miles of trail. So being a veteran 100 mile runner (even back then) the wheels started turning in my head about attempting to run the Pinhoti trail, end-to-end. That’s how the idea about PTAR was born.
Later that year, September 25th, 1999 to be exact, Kathy and I began scouting out the Pinhoti trail by running an out-and-back training run from Porters Gap to Adams Gap and back. I remember it being blistering hot and the trail was very difficult to follow and totally overgrown in many places. It took us over 8 hours to complete the 30 mile+ route and I was deeply humbled. If the whole 100 mile+ trail was this wild, boy it would be a surreal challenge! Well, then life got in the way. We moved back to Huntsville, get interested in other events and the Pinhoti thru-run dream got put on the back burner. In retrospect I’m glad I waited, for though the dream was on hold, I continued to monitor the status of the Pinhoti trail over the years. Even back in 1999 there were rumors that new sections were planned to be built, were being built and then I learned that the Georgia folks where beginning to add sections of trail themselves with the hope of connecting the Pinhoti to the Appalachian Trail (AT) via the Benton MacKaye Trail. So the Pinhoti was growing, developing, changing and I was preoccupied with other things so I decided to wait until this newest AT feeder trail would be open.
Then in 2005, April 2nd to be exact, myself, Dink Taylor, Tom Possert and John Dove plan and attempt the first PTAR. At this time the southern terminus of the Pinhoti was still Porters gap, but new trail had been flagged/cut southward over Horn Mountain. To the north, the Pinhoti now extended to the Alabama/Georgia state line bringing the total trail length to nearly 120 miles (officially). Since not much was known about the new Horn Mountain section, we decided to start at Porters Gap and run, fully supported, to the state line on the Pinhoti. Again, at this time not much was known about the state of the Pinhoti trail in Georgia, so an Alabama Pinhoti Trail run was the goal. Unfortunately for me, I just didn’t have it in me to spend the night in the woods and so Dink and I stopped at the I-20 crossing some 48.7 miles (11h 41m) later while John and Tom continued through the night and made it to CR-94 just off the Chief Ladiga trail for a solid 100 mile run. Nobody made it through the planned PTAR. Although I failed, through this experience I resolved that one day when I did decide to take on the Pinhoti trail again, I’d do it as a fast hiker, that is, try to keep the night running to a minimum with the goal of seeing the entire route in the day time (day to day).
Now we fast forward to 2008, the Pinhoti Trail is officially opened as a AT connector and the trail is in as stable a condition as it’s probably going to be for a long time to come. On the Alabama side, the Pinhoti now stretches the entire length of the Talladega National Forest, southward adding Horn Mountain and Rebecca Mountain and finally terminating (after a 22 mile road walk) on top of Flagg Mountain which earns it’s distinction as the last of the 1000’+ peaks in the Appalachian chain (just outside of Weogufka, Alabama). To the north, Davis Mountain and Flag Pole Mountain were added that stretches all the way and into Georgia. On the Georgia side, the trail starts with a long road walk into Rome where it picks up trails again to the West of Rome into the Chattahoochee National Forest and snakes its way through there, briefly passing through the Johns Mountain Wildlife Management Area and into Dalton. Another road walk across the valley to Ramhurst where it again enters the Chattahoochee National Forest and finally crosses into the Cohutta Wildlife Management Area to finish at its northern terminus at the Benton MacKaye Trail (approximately 70 miles from Springer Mountain and the beginning of the AT). So, in a nutshell, the Pinhoti trail is set and the time is right to give it a go.
It’s now late summer of 2009 and a group of us are on a long training run in the Wheeler Wildlife Refuge. With Eric Charette and Josh Kennedy among the group, eventually the conversation turns to the Pinhoti trail. I mention that it’s been my dream to one day do the entire trail. That leads to more discussion and soon we’re hashing out ideas to run the Alabama Pinhoti trail to the state line. Well I got to thinking that if we’re going to do the Pinhoti, we need to do it all. For me it was all or nothing. So after that brain storming session on the run things began to happen quickly and before I knew it here I was sitting in my office with just a couple of hours to go before I’d leave to drive south to Sylacauga to begin my long trail journey the next morning!
So with a deep sense of foreboding I met Eric at my house and we crammed my vehicle full of our gear and headed south. The weather forecast didn’t look to promising with threats of 2-4” of rain all weekend long and expected temperatures to soar into the upper 80s to low 90s throughout the weekend and into the following week! Wonderful!

To be continued…

Innovation: La Sportiva "MountainLite"

2010-03-30T09:38:00.000-05:00

Inspired by fellow Wasatch Speed Goat Steve Pero's recent modification of his La Sportiva CrossLites (he removed the lace "corset" to allow easier access to the laces), I decided to experiment and make a few modifications of my own to correct some of the shortcomings I had with this shoe.

Before I go any further, let me say that the CrossLite is an excellent shoe; it is a great transitional shoe for those desiring to go more minimalist and are used to a more beefy, heavy and cushioned trail running shoe. The CrossLite scores high on being a more streamlined, lighter and more lower profile shoe. However, since I had already made the transition to very minimalist trail and road running shoes over the past 3 years (Inov-8 Roclite and Nike Lunaracer/ Free 5.0 respectively), the CrossLite simply is not minimalist enough. A true mark of a minimalist trail running shoe, IMHO, is a shoe that is extremely flexible and thus very responsive on any trail surface encountered. I want to be able to "feel" the trail to a certain extent. The CrossLite's flexibility is extremely compromised by the torsional stability shank embedded in the shoe. So I thought why not experiment with them to see if I can make them more minimal by removing this shank and in the process perhaps help develop a shoe that La Sportiva might consider marketing in the future? Thus, the "MountainLite" experiment.

So, armed with a razor blade and a box cutter I went to work. First, with the razor blade, I removed the lace corset as I prefer to see my shoe laces, and this would give me more room to work on the bed of the shoe.

With the corset removed, I removed the laces and folded back the shoe tongue. I knew from a cut-away view of the CrossLite that the nylon-plastic shank shouldn't be too far below the surface of the foot bed. The first shoe was a bit of trial and error, hacking away with the box cutter, but soon I found the edges of the shank and then a corner and after that it was pretty easy to pry under it and pull the whole shank out. Not too difficult really, my main obstacle was the dull box cutter I was using! The second shoe went much easier as I now knew the boundaries of the nylon-plastic shank.

First Impressions:

Having completed surgery on the first shoe I was able to compare the pair of CrossLites side by side. The pre-surgery shoe was very stiff and difficult to flex; the post-surgery shoe flexed very easily, like any of the Inov-8 line of shoes. Nice!

Laced to my feet they were indeed like slippers, much more flexible and responsive just walking around the house. They are also a bit lighter and slightly lower profile now that I removed the corsets and several grams worth of nylon-plastic shank and a couple millimeters of foot bed.

First Runs:

For the first few tests runs, I took what I call the "MountainLite" shoes for a few 7 Mile wet/muddy trail runs then for the grand test finally, I ran a 25 mile cross-country route that involved just about every terrain imaginable; dry trails to wet, muddy boggy messes; 100% off trail bushwacking, gravel roads and pavement; powerlines and drainage ditches... All I can say is wow what a different shoe! Much more responsive and flexible. I could run much more naturally now that the shoe can more or less flex right along with my foot. Traction in the mud, dirt was pretty good, not much difference there. On the slick rocks, everybody I was running with was slipping, but I do think I was slipping less than before as the shoe seemed to be able to make better contact with the irregular surfaces. Without the nylon-plastic shank, the shoe seemed to be able to twist and deform onto these irregular surfaces a bit better which meant more traction. If more sticky rubber compound could be placed on the sole of the shoe, perhaps in the midfoot area that would help enormously with wet surface traction. At the end of it all I must say these shoes performed flawlessly and were very effective on all these surfaces encountered. The only short coming had to do with the mesh uppers beginning to really fray right at the metatarsal flex point (a typical shoe upper wear area), despite very few total miles run.

Overall:

I really like what I've done with the CrossLite and plan to train some more in this modified version. I believe some Inov-8 fans would really like this modified version. To me it is very much like the Inov-8 Roclite shoe line without the sticky rubber compound and with significantly more toe and overall foot protection (slightly beefier). All around the "MountainLite" is a much more minimalist, highly responsive and flexible shoe now; La Sportiva would gain a lot by having at least one really minimalist trail running shoe in their arsenal.

2010 Antarctica Marathon

2010-03-17T21:08:00.000-05:00

Synopsis

Finished 1st overall in 3:50:02 and was closely followed by my better half, Kathy, who finished 1st woman and 2nd overall in 3:58:59; Kathy became the only woman to go under 4 hours in the 11 editions of the Antarctica Marathon. The course consisted of a series of 4 x 1/4 marathon out-and-backs. It was a 100% non-paved, very hilly and extremely muddy route that really benefited those with trail running experience (i.e. me and Kathy). Temperatures never got out of the mid 30's, however there was a constant wind that grew to over 30 knots that created a chilly out bound head wind but wonderful in bound tailwind. Not the toughest race I've ever run, nor my best personal performance, but I'm elated to have had the opportunity to run in such a forbidding and very difficult place to get to!

Pre-Race: Racing under a microscope and a tough journey…

This was perhaps the most stressful race I’ve ever run, bar none. There are races that stress you out because you or others have high expectations for performance. There are races that stress you out because of the perceived or known difficulty of the course and conditions. While I did have some high expectations for myself for this event (my goal was always to win) and I prepared myself to expect the unexpected when it comes to running a race in a very foreign, faraway and unpredictable place as Antarctica; I was not overly stressed in these matters. No, I was stressed out over the over abundant rules and regulations we had to follow to complete this race in order to avoid disqualification.

Because of past “probable” transgressions of the Antarctic Treaty, U.S. EPA and other rules and regulations derived between several countries, this year’s Antarctica Marathon was under very tight scrutiny. In short,according to the race director, Thom Gilligan, our conduct could determine not only the future of The Last Marathon but possibly the fate of all future recreational and tourist activities in Antarctica!

In summary, at previous Antarctica Marathon events trash was left and the Antarctica Treaty specified 100 person maximum landing party was violated when the marathon was contested on the same course with dual start and finish lines with parties of a 100 runners landing at two different locations (read: 200 runners on the course). There were other issues as well, but basically it boils down to some serious politics and some saber rattling by several countries who had research stations on King George Island. Long story short, the 2010 Antarctica Marathon runners were being held under a very obvious double-standard of rules and regulations in order allow this event to be held at all! All things considered, Thom Gilligan (the race director) and all those involved in getting this race to even go this year, deserve a whole lot of credit for pulling it off. All the same, in order for this event to be a success, runners had to endure some severe rules and limitations.

The biggest rules we had to adhere to or else face immediate disqualification were:

1.       Absolutely no food allowed on the island with the exception of “Power Bars and Gels”. However, wrappers were forbidden which means you could have a Power Bar or Gel but the bar had to be removed from the wrapper and the gel put into a flask or other container. This also meant that we could only have water or pre-mixed energy drinks on the island, so no bringing the race drink mixes in powder/liquid form to mix while on the island. These fluid containers had to be clearly marked and left and specific locations along the course

2.       No urination or excreting on the course except in approved containers. No big deal here really, but if had to go you went into one of several tents along the course and did your business into 5 gallon water cooler!

3.       No stepping on the moss. King George Island is a very stark and forbidding place to be, let alone run through. The only thing that grows here is moss, but as the island is protected under the Antarctic Treaty we had to limit our impact on the island which includes not harming the very delicate moss. To assist runners in avoiding stepping on moss, the entire route was marked with orange surveyor flags, on either side of the road, and the runner had to keep between the markers to be “ok.”

At any rate, it was a very stressful situation we all found ourselves in, and nobody wanted to risk disqualification after traveling thousands of miles and spending thousands of dollars to get here! So now it is better understood why I was more stressed about this race than any other. I truly had to watch my conduct, more than ever before, all while trying to compete and run my own race. Just another challenge!
Added to the stress of running under a microscope was the stress brought on by the arduous journey just to get to King George Island and the start at Bellingshausen Station. Buenos Aires, Argentina was a 10 hour flight from Atlanta, Georgia and on to Ushuia, Argentina (Tierra de Fuego) was another 3 ½ hours. From there it took 2 ½ days by ship to cross the treacherous high seas known as the Drake Passage. The third day on the ship we were supposed to land at the Polish research station, Arctowski Station, at King George Island (South Shetland Islands, Antarctica) to stretch our legs on solid ground while the marathon staff landed at Bellingshausen Station to layout and mark the marathon course. Bad weather (high winds and limited visibility) prevented us from landing at Arctowski Station so our first chance to set foot on solid ground in four days would be race day!

Unique race rules, unfathomably long journey for a marathon race. All part of what makes this place, Antarctica such a special and so difficult an environment to race in.

Race Day: The Start through 1st quarter marathon

The Antarctica Marathon, The Last Marathon, starts from Bellingshausen Station which is on King George Island (South Shetland Islands, Antarctica). This is a very gray and alien looking world where very little grows other than moss, and very few creatures lurk other than some penguins and a several varieties of birds. A lunar landscape populated by numerous scientific research stations from various countries including China, Chile, Russia and Uruguay (among others).

In years past, the Antarctica Marathon looped among the research stations as the course did a double out and back, the highlight being an ascent and descent of Collins Glacier each series. This year Collins Glacier was out and the course would not pass through any research station (due to a variety of political and other reasons). The race route this year would follow the first two miles of the original course that would take us from Bellingshausen Station out towards the Uruguian research station. Instead of passing through the Uruguian base and then climbing up Collins Glacier, we stayed on the main road and climbed into the interior of the island to get the additional mile and a quarter (1/8 marathon total). After 1/8 marathon outbound we’d turnaround and retrace our steps back to Bellingshausen Station to complete the ¼ marathon route. Repeat four times.

At about 9:27 local time, amid a shadowless gray overcast and blustery backdrop, we were off! From the start I was out ahead and tucked right in behind the race director (Thom Gilligan) on his ATV. The first 100 yards of the race course would soon prove to be the only true flat ground we’d see in the entire ¼ marathon “loop.” Though it was a flat start, it wasn’t a dry one. Right away we were into ankle deep mud that we’d grow to hate over the next hours. Fortunately it wasn’t clay mud and so it was just a bit slippery and very sandy and didn’t accumulate on your shoe. Boy was it was icy cold!

After the short flat start the route immediately veered into a muddy quagmire and started up a very steep, icy hill; right up the fall line! The ATV labored to stay just ahead of me, this was the first of many times I’d catch up to or even pass the lead vehicle! I tucked my head and concentrated on my footing (careful not to step on any moss! ;) ) on up the steep, rude, hill and once I crested the ATV accelerated further ahead to give me more of a cushion. I didn’t dare look behind me to see where the other runners were, but I got a sense that I was already very alone.

Running along that first mile, I continued to push into the steady, icy, headwind (perhaps about 10-15mph at this point) and tried to get my body to warm up after standing around forever it seemed at the starting line. This was also the first time ashore in over 3 days so I still had some sea-legs to shake off! I felt pretty frozen and was convinced that I’d under dressed, especially as it seemed much windier here than the start. No looking back now, all I could do was continue forward and into the wind. However, I was loving it. Any mud loving trail runner would adore this course. So, like a slalom skier, I focused on staying in between course markers, which was often difficult as the route would veer from side to side on the “road” and often it seemed the route would take us off the “road” entirely.

I kept between the zigzagging course markers that often led right through enormous standing ponds of water, or ankle to calf deep mud; I enjoyed every minute of it! I could tell the lead ATV was having more issues with the mud than I did as I’d often catch right up and almost overtake the slipping vehicle.
Up and down the course rolled, very much like running on a cross-country skiing course; lot’s of short and steep ups and downs. It was just me and the lead ATV and all of a sudden a couple of aggressive Skuas began to dive bomb towards my head. I swear I could feel the bird’s wings just miss my head a couple of times! I couldn’t tell for sure how close there were, but Thom would look back at me a couple of times and just laugh! Thanks Thom!

Soon the Skuas left me alone, I guess I was the token guinea pig this day as nobody else reported any Skua interactions. I kept on and slowly began to warm up a bit as I passed over a succession of snow bridges and passed through the first mile on an uphill through tunnel cut through a tall snow drift! What a tough first mile! Just about all uphill and slick and of course, into the wind!

The next mile was a bit easier as it was rolling, but at least there were a few down hills to loosen the legs up. Still, the ever present mud and confusedly zigzagging course route and constant head wind and the steady engine hum of the lead ATV. Around me it was a wildly bleak landscape. Full of browns and grays with no vegetation except for the ever present moss (and even that was difficult to see in the dim light!). While I’ve never run on the moon (nor most likely will never), it was difficult not to make the comparison that I was indeed running along a lunar landscape. So stark yet at the same time so beautiful! This land is considered a desert as very little precipitation falls here annually; a cold desert.

As I approached the second mile marker, I passed around “Lago Uruguay” near the turn off for the Uruguian research base. Here there was a pipe line running from a pump house to the base, presumably the base’s fresh water supply line. At the intersection, and second mile marker, a group of heavily dressed Uruguian scientists had gathered to watch and cheer on the 100 fools out running. They had gathered behind the shelter of a small shed to keep out of the wind. They all waved or clapped or snapped photos as I passed by. I waved back and kept on, into the wind, one mile closer to the turn- around marker.

The third mile, again was mostly uphill, though there were still a few rollers to get the legs moving and now more snow covered sections to negotiate. The route was much easier to follow in the section as we’d become more hemmed in by the surrounding hill side. At a large creek crossing the course veered left onto some thick ice to cross over the creek on a thin ribbon of water cutting through the ice. A quick hop over the water and back onto the ice back to the right and re-joining the main “road”. The “ice sheet” as I’d call it, would become a focal point later on as it was about half a mile (or so) from the turn-around point and a good place to gauge my competition.

Over the last half mile to the turn-around the course climbed steeply once again via a succession of ever taller rolling hills and endless mud. The third mile marker was in an unassuming place on the side of the road, held flat on the ground by numerous small rocks. Around another bend in the road and between some obscuring hills I approached another large snow patch. Across this snow patch and around another, last, sinuous bend in the road and I’d arrived at the turn-around at last. Not a moment too soon as my face felt numb from the wind and my fingers still a bit cold despite double layer of wind glove and mitten.

At the turn-around the ATV stopped to drop off Neal as the turn-around sentry. I passed around the turn marker Alley-Oop fashion and began the long trek back towards the start-finish area. I was now all alone, the ATV was no longer leading me. Sweet silence, save for the never ending wind!
Wow, what a difference now. I now had a terrific tail wind, there was no longer the endless hum of wind in my ears and I really started to warm up! The air temperature itself was very comfortable being in the mid 30’s; but that wind was just ferocious; much like the wind I described in my Heartland 100 Mile run but much more sustained and without break. In fact I’d say the weather conditions were perhaps nearly identical to those we’d had at the Heartland 100 Mile this past October, except today we'd have occasional smattering of light drizzle (so much for being a desert!).

The first mile on the return leg was perhaps the “fastest” on the course as it was mostly downhill and, for the most part, not overly technical in terms of zigzagging, mud and ice. I didn’t take any mile splits, but I’d suspect this mile plus (to the two mile marker) was probably most people’s fastest mile on the course. The tail-wind definitely helped! Anyhow, heading back along the course this was my first indication of how much of lead I had and who my competition actually was.

I think I was nearly back to the 3 mile marker when Peter Barbera (race #4) popped around a bend in the road. I had about a five minute lead at this point so not too shabby after an 1/8th of a marathon. Next up, and not far behind was my better half! Kathy was indeed running in 3rd at this point perhaps no more than a couple of minutes behind Peter. Both of them where past the far side of the ice sheet.

I crossed back over the ice sheet and was heading uphill along one of the few places the road contoured along the hill to a narrow pass between hills. Running in 4th at the moment was Andrew from Alaska (who we just called “Alaska” most of the time). After him a little ways back was the true “peloton” containing (to the best of my memory) the Prince of the Netherlands, Pieter-ChristianVan Oranje-Massau, his good friend Olav Bekker from the Netherlands, Cedric Plachot from France and several others who I missed. Right now it was still anybodies race as we all still had many more miles to go.

Over the next two miles I passed through the rest of the marathon and half-marathon race field. Everybody was very encouraging and I returned the encouragement in kind. Despite the long, wearying journey here and strict race rules, it was so fun to be out here, at last, doing this race; something over a couple of years in the making. What was once a distant idea; an occasional e-mail from the Marathon Tours staff, was now very real and it was like living inside a dream that you don’t want to wake up from! Glorious!

The Uruguians were still out by the 2 mile marker and cheered and waved as I passed by. I started to actually feel a bit over-heated by now running with the wind! I had to unzip my shirt and race bib a bit to cool down and soon even removed my outer mittens! The second return mile was again rolling and very muddy, not as fast as the first return mile, but still a net downhill I’d venture as we were heading back to sea level after all. The beginning of this second return mile is quite striking as we pass by that Lake Uruguay which had a mini glacier that showed signs of calving as evidenced by huge cracks and crevasses and some small icebergs in the lake itself.

Soon this rolling mile ended as the course turned steeply downhill into the snow tunnel that marked the mile marker. This was one of my favorite sections of the course as the route went steeply downhill through a bulldozed route through a snow bank and onward past a couple of snow bridges. While most people would tip-toe cautiously through this area, I let gravity do it’s think and just flew down the hill with reckless abandon, confident in my footing and trail running abilities. What a rush!

The last inbound mile contained a rather wide and “flatish” section than is just a huge muddy mess with no really good way through. I don’t think I every quite chose the same line often having to veer around two-way traffic. Passed the muddy bog I began the first of several “false summits” that led the final plunge down to the start finish area and end of the first quarter of the marathon. I was well into this final series of rollers when a spotted a number of red suited figures up along the hillside. This turned out to be a bunch of Chinese scientists from the China research station coming out to spectate. They all waved and snapped some photos as I ran by in the mud.

Finally I topped the last hill (or the first hill of the course) and dropped steeply down to the start finish area to finish my first “loop” in 51:28 (7:51/mile pace). That last downhill was as equally challenging running down as up as it was very steep and slick, but lots of fun!

Race Day: The 2nd 1/4 marathon

Starting the second quarter of the race I once again got to see what kind of time gap I had. This time it seemed my lead had grown to over 6 minutes now, however it appeared that Kathy and closed the gap quite a bit on Peter. Alaska looked to have slipped a bit further back and the gap he held over the chase back had shrunk considerably.

I kept on just focusing on putting one foot in front of the other and trying to stay between the flags and avoiding the moss! The headwind seemed to be even worse this time around and this was confirmed when I saw small white capped waves on Lake Uruguay when I passed by that 2 mile marker once again. I was getting chilled to bone, but I was generating just enough internal body heat to just stay warm enough as long as I kept pushing.

Passing by the Uruguian spectators this time, one of them asked if I was the lead runner. I said I was and he began to ham it up by running alongside me while his compatriots laughed out loud and took several photos! I moved on and after another agonizing battle into the wind I’d arrived at the far turnaround for the second time, frozen but still moving.

Heading back, riding a wonderful tail wind I soon was well warmed up and had to once again zip down my shirt to cool off! Incredible! I’d expected that my lead might have grown somewhat but I was very surprised that I was nearly back to the ice sheet before I saw Peter again, followed very closely by Kathy! So now my lead had grown to almost a mile without any real taxing effort. It was at this point that I did come to realize that I was probably going to win this race if I didn’t do something really stupid.

But I wanted to get in a strong first half and see where I stood, so I kept on a comfortable but strong pace through half way in 1:47:14 (8:11/mile pace overall, 55:46 for lap 2, 8:30/mile pace).

The Rest of the Way

Starting the 3rd quarter of the marathon I saw that Kathy had indeed overtaken Peter for 2nd place overall! Wow she was having a great day! I continued to cruise along and over the second half of the race I worked to stabilize my lead at right around a mile. I was now in race management mode. Just keep going and don’t screw it up! This wasn’t going to be a PR run, rather this was a 100% tactical race so why do anything dumb that could jeopardize all I’d worked for? So I did slow some as I figured most of the rest of the field would be doing much the same as we were all facing the same brutal race course and wicked head winds.

My third lap was a bit slower at just under 59 minutes (58:59, 9:00/mile pace; 2:46:13 for ¾ marathon, 8:28/mile pace overall), but then again the winds did continue to strengthen and, admittedly, I really didn't feel 100% this day having been battling some serious sinus issues over the past few days. No excuses, but I was working hard and digging deep.

So now I was on my last lap, the bell lap, and this was indeed my favorite lap of them all because this was it! I puttered along, now walking some of the steeper last bits on the tougher of the hills (though often I’d try and do it when nobody was around to witness! Ha!). I was comfortable with the lead I had and knew that if push came to shove I could dig down and really go to the well effort wise if I was forced. Luckily I didn’t have to worry as Kathy was keeping a safe distance back (still right around a mile) though I could tell she had the fire in her eyes and was pushing hard! It didn’t occur to me until I saw her for the last time, on the ice sheet, that she was on track to break four hours if she hustled. And she was indeed hustling! Good for her! She was definitely aiming for a stronger finish than me!

At last I was into the final mile. I admit I did kind of tear up a bit when I truly accepted that I was going to win the 11th Antarctica Marathon, The Last Marathon! I was pretty excited and tried to look good finishing up by picking up the pace and trying to finish strong. I thanked the various volunteers along the course and soon I was bombing down the last downhill riding a gravity wave of emotion!

In as good a sprint as I could manage I whooped and yelled as I crossed the finish line; my arms flung in the air over my head!

My final time was 3:50:02 (8:47 / mile overall, last lap 1:02:44, 9:35 / mile)

I’d just changed into heavier clothing including my water proof boots and rain gear (in preparation for riding the zodiac back to the ship) when I could see a pink shirted figure approaching the finish line; Kathy! I quickly retrieved my camera and was on hand whooping as she crossed the finish line in 3:58:59!

Spectacular! Another Youngren sweep (yeah it’s happened before)! A win for Fleet Feet Racing and the Wasatch Speed Goat Mountain Racing Team!

Rounding out the top three overall finishers Peter Christian van Oranje pulled of a gutsy and speedy last lap to overtake Peter Barbera just a 100 yards or so from the finish to earn the 3rd podium spot in 4:22:55! What a finish!

Although I did get the victory the performance of the day if not one of the finest performances of all time at the Antarctica Marathon must go to my lovely wife Kathy. Her sub four hour performance was the first in race history by a woman and she darn near won the race out right! Believe me, I was looking over my shoulder quite a bit on that last leg! We are husband and wife, but on this day we were definitely competitors!

Aftermath

To put a little context into this year's marathon, I got to looking at what past race results I could find just for comparison I added the following table found at MarathonGuide.com:

Year    Winning Time    Median Time    Standard Deviation
2010    3:50    5:50    ~58 minutes? Not sure.
2009    3:04    5:27    56:01
2008    3:09    5:43    58:27
2007    3:51    5:57    1:01:18
2005    3:49    5:58    56:35
2002    4:09    5:58    57:35

So it seems this year’s running was not the slowest in terms of median finish time, winning time nor standard deviation of finish times, but it probably was one of the more difficult in terms of the weather and actual course conditions. The other caveat is that this was the first time this particular course has been run. In years past the course had a central starting / finish area and runners basically did loop to the south then and out and back to the north for half a marathon and then repeated. This year’s course ran on the first 2 miles of the old course (considered the most difficult part of the old course) FOUR TIMES rather than two times. The third outbound mile went inland and largely climbed (like I described) the old route took that turn into the Uruguian research station, dropped down to sea level (probably around 200 feet) , ran along the shore line and then climbed up Collin’s Glacier for a quarter mile or so before turning around… The old southern loop is considered very flat and on a better maintained “road” through the Russian, Chilean and Chinese research stations. Also, in a lot of previous years the course was either dry or frozen over, either way the footing was much faster… Anyhow, who knows and who cares right?

A Dozen Mists Completed (an introspective)...

2010-01-27T20:23:00.000-06:00

Last Saturday marked my twelfth Mountain Mist 50km finish. Located in Huntsville, Alabama, "The Mist", as it's known among the locals (including myself), is a deceptively difficult race course in the best of conditions because of the endless miles of rooty and rocky single-track. In the worst of conditions the dirt track becomes a slippery, muddy quagmire and you often find yourself running in what seems like a stream bed! The 16th running of The Mist was contested in some of the worse trail conditions I've seen (though not the worst IMHO).

Long story short: I finished 8th O.A. (6th under-39) in 4:47:32, not bad considering my fitness was supremely lacking and I took a hard fall early on that really shook my confidence the rest of way.

Longer story: I had the best of intentions this past Fall to really buckle down and train for The Mist for once and so I began doing weekly 8 mile trail tempo runs that really helped sharpen my trail speed and technical running skills. Then after running the Huntsville Recovery From The Holidays 50km on New Years Eve, I just kind of felt burned out and lost the flame. So, while I still kept my base mileage up, I stopped really focusing on The Mist as a goal race.

Why? Well I'm the kind of runner that feels like if I ever "get all I'm going to get" out of a race in terms of performance then that is good enough for me and I not only don't need to prove myself over, and over again but, more importantly, have a tough time even trying to do so. I know, it's a "head thing" for sure but I can't really help it. So a summary of my past results might be a bit more illuminating:

1998: Placed 6th in 4:37:51 of 132 finishers. This was my first experience with The Mist, and my favorite because it was so new and fresh! At this time all I knew about the race was from word of mouth and the few articles I found in Ultrarunning magazine from past races. I wore a cotton "The Prodigy" t-shirt, cotton gloves and cotton hat, and carried a bottle whose strap I'd made out of an old piece of web belt.

1999: Placed 2nd in 4:17:18 of 157 finishers. This was the year that the race course was flooded after heavy thunderstorms the night before (read Tornado sirens), it was also very warm, probably one of the warmest races on record with temperatures near the 70s. If you can dig up a the April 1999 issue of Ultrarunning magazine, I'm on the cover; crossing one of many rain swollen streams (there's a bridge there now).

2000: Finished 20th in 5:22:22 of 125 finishers. I came into the race with a bum knee so just wanted to finish. This was generally known as "The Ice Year" because of the ice storm that hit race day morning and caused some controversies that are (to this day) not resolved. I remember staying at my in-laws residence in neighboring Decatur when I was awoken to sleet striking the window early in the morning. Kathy and I left out of there pre-dawn to get to the race start because we knew there would be trouble with the roads if we waited.

2001: Placed 2nd in 4:16:37 of 140 finishers. A good weather year if I remember right, sort of ho hum; but a personal best for me.

2002: Placed 3rd in 4:11:13 of 157 finishers. My best performance so far. I remember the course conditions being very similar to those this year (2010) but it was quite a bit warmer; this was also the best performances yet by DeWayne Satterfield (4:03:47 1st O.A. and course record ) and my wife Kathy (4:43:28 1st woman and 8th O.A. and course record). So sometimes it's just about being fit and ready to run, despite the course conditions. This year marked the epic battle between DeWayne Satterfield and Courtney Campbell up front. Courtney and DeWayne are both strong downhill runners so this was quite a show down. In the end, DeWayne proved to be the better climber, pulling away on the final climb (Shelter Hill) for the win.

Now we'll see what I'm talking about when I say that I've "gotten all I'm going to get."

2003: Finished 204th in 7:57:13 of 205 finishers (Kathy was last a year after setting the female course record!). Ok, ok we were training for the Susitna 100 Mile and volunteered to sweep the Mist this year... geez...

2004: Finished 6th in 4:16:44 of 265 finishers. Another ho hum year but memorable as the first year of any serious trail maintenance. The term "Kysered" comes to mind in honor of local Dizzy Fifties race director Jeff Kyser who, in his zest for improving the local trail system, helped chain-saw and clear some of the oldest trail obstructions that had become landmarks over the years. Those of you who remember resting on the double blow-down near the top of Shelter Hill know what I'm talking about. This was also the year that both course records were broken (perhaps because of the faster, blow down free course? Who can say?). Ian Torrence ran a stellar 4:01:58 and Michelle Richardson a 4:39:53. Ian's performance, in my mind, remains one of the best performances ever on The Mist course because it was his debut having never run/seen any of the course. Amazing. (David Mackey's 3:46:19 (current course record) is mind boggling, but it was his second attempt after cratering his first time out) Same goes for Michelle's still standing record. Equally amazing. Ok, I still ran pretty fast yes, but I remember topping out on Shelter Hill and just spying local Todd White just ahead of me and just letting him go. Granted he'd probably have beaten me hands down anyways, but I remember thinking, "Well I'm not going to beat my best time, so why bother; I'll just coast in..."

2005: Finished 64th in 5:51:41 of 224 finishers. Notable as the first year I gave up after the start of the race. Went out fast and then just couldn't get my head into it so I turned it off before the O'Shaughnessy and let Kathy catch up. We ran and finished together on a cold and blustery day.

2006: Finished 135th in 6:25:40 of 267 finishers. Didn't give up during the race this year, but before. Rather than have to race it, I decided at the last minute to be the first to complete a Mountain Mist Double. So, starting at midnight the night before the race start, I ran the entire Mist course finishing in time to grab a quick shower, some food and hustle back to the starting line. This was a warm year if I remember right; in fact I ran that night in shorts and just a light long-sleeve shirt. I've never experienced so much wildlife in my years as I did that night. The highlight had to have been chasing a lost Pomeranian that turned out to be skunk; darn amber lensed glasses!

2007: Finished 10th in 4:27:04 of 263 finishers. This was also my "Jacket Year" or my 10th Mist finish. I really did try and race this year, and did fairly good considering that I'd just run a Boston Qualifying time less than two weeks before and was still feeling the effects of a hard road marathon effort.

2008: Took a break, no Mist.

2009: Finished 132nd in 6:29:09 of 258 finishers. Yep, you guessed it, another race avoidance tactic. This time I roped in friends Josh Kennedy and John Nevels to join me in running the first Reverse Double Mountain Mist. Like my Double Mist in 2006, we started at midnight, however this time we ran the entire Mountain Mist course the opposite direction in which it is raced; yes we went down Waterline in the dark. That was an odd night. I remember that a cold front was due to be coming in so I'd packed an extra layer or two of clothing; yet it was so warm, almost hot for the first 10 miles or so. However, by the time we'd crossed Fearn ave. it had gotten downright chilly, and by the Powerlines it was cold and raining heavily! Most memorable was getting run over by a coyote on with about 2 1/2 miles left to run on the Reverse. Freaked me out and woke me up! Pretty cool actually. Ran with Kathy and good friend Blake during the race.

So that brings us up to date and shines a little light on my past history at The Mist. If you're still reading this, God bless you. As you can see, I've run all over the map at the Mist; the only thing that is consistent is my inconsistency! I just can't help it, I cruise to the beat of a different drummer.

2010: Really didn't have the fitness going into the Mist this year to have a chance at some fast times, though my head was at least in it enough to want to try and compete. Started out fairly fast, perhaps too quick given my lack of conditioning, so by the time we ascended to O'Shaughnessy point, it was clear that it was going to be a long day. On the wide open trail sections on top of the mountain, the the main trail running peloton surged ahead of me and so I was left on my own to figure out how I was going to race this day.

I passed through the first aid station with just a wave and began down the nasty Warpath Ridge descent. This downhill is treacherous in the best of conditions since it is so steep and rocky. Today it was just as steep and rocky, but also slick as hell! I began my normal goat hopping dance down the steep trail that I'm normally good at, but somehow I felt off, perhaps because I'd been redlining since the race start! At any rate I zigged instead of zagged or else my shoe slipped on some muck, I'm still not quite sure, all I know is one second I was up and flying down the trail, the next I was sliding on my right side, head first, down the trail; my forearms buried in the thick Alabama read clay! Doh!

I'd gone down hard and was out of breath for several seconds, in fact I just lied there for a breath or two then slowly came to my feet. The first thing I noticed was that my right knee was quite bloody and covered in mud, decomposed leaves and other niceties. Did I mention I had mud from finger tip to forearm on both my arms? One of those hands held a water bottle in it, and yes it was covered in mud! Arggh! But no time to waste, I started shuffling, slowly and quite a bit more cautious, but still steady. Soon later I found a reasonable looking puddle that I used to at least get the most of the mud off my hands, bottle and arms; I left my gnarly looking right knee alone, for who knows if nothing else I might have a shot at "Best Blood."

I popped out onto the power lines section, amazingly nobody else had caught up to me yet, and yes it was very sticky mud (what else could one expect from this course?). I ambled on and caught my last sight of the peloton just before the course takes a short detour back into the woods for a brief stretch. I was now totally on my own (again). Gotta finish, that's all that matters.

Heading up the hill at 9 miles (a.k.a. "KT", "Goat Hill" or simply "9 mile hill") I felt less than strong; while normally hill climbing in my strength, it just wasn't to be today. Still I just stayed steady but I did have to walk some of the steeper sections because I was still redlining. Nearing the top of this 1st "major" climb I spotted David Purinton and Zach Koch and a third runner (probably Eric Gilbertson?) closing in. Onto the Goat trail proper I let David by then tucked in behind him, at this point in the race I really just needed a shoulder to latch onto. For me, I hate the first half of this course, hate it to the point of totally avoiding training on this section pre-Mist. So with the Dave train steaming ahead, I began to feel a bit better all the way through the next aid station at Three Benches and on around through Stone Cut. On the climb up to Stone Cut, Zach surged ahead and began to pull away with David in tow. I did my best to just keep up, but I just couldn't get in gear. I did manage to catch back up some on the downhill after Stone Cut but by the time we'd exited the Sinks section both Zach and David were nearly out of site. Crossing the baracade road it was all I could do to not make a left turn and head home (my house is only a mile away from here!) but I soldiered on even as I was passed by Eric Gilbertson on the Cold Spring trail.

At last to the Fearn Ave. aid-station! While it's the ~17 mile point, it is considered half-way in terms of time; in fact very few runners will run faster in this next 14 mile stretch than in the first 17 miles. Even though I'd run a negative split from here before (several times in fact) it was not to be today. Today was just about getting it done and making it to Duffy's (the location of the post race party!). Still, I didn't waste any time at the aid-station, simply refilled my bottle and I was gone. While I'd passed David in the aid-station, we both ran together for the next mile or so until I pulled ahead on the downhill Tollgate trail. Yet, about as soon as we'd turned onto High Trail, David had overtaken me (again) and quickly disappeared. I just could not get into a good rythme! Oh well, I just pulled my visor down lower and kept trucking, steady as she goes. I made good time down Bluffline trail and arrived at the Landtrust aid station (mile 21) to be greated by several friends of mine who were either working the aid-station, crewing or merely spectating. They all gawked at my bloody knee (which looked far worse than it actually was) and asked if I was ok. I assured them it was fine and after refilling my bottle I was onto my favorite 10 miles of the course.

The next couple sections of trail were the driest of the day, Rail Road bed and Alms House, so I imagine I made decent time here as nobody else had yet passed me, to my utter amazement. Oh, did I mention I wasn't wearing a watch? I had no clue how long I'd been out there, and it was kind of a surreal experience. I've raced this way several times and the consensus is that I feel much slower than I actually am. Anyhow as I turned onto Waterline I totally felt out of gas. And right at this time, Kevin Boucher blew by me and up the initial gentle Waterline grade. He passed at a good time as I'd just before decided to stop fighting and just walk all the way up Waterline. I'd figured I was already so slow, and feeling so bad that there was no way I was even going to break 5 hours today. But now I had a shoulder to chase once again, sort of, as Kevin was clearly pulling away but yet I attempted to keep him in sight for as long as possible, which meant I had to keep running. Finally the easy part of Waterline is over and it just becomes an Alpine climb. So I kept on climbing, trying to control my rate of ascent to avoid totally redlining again. To my amazement I felt ok as I topped out and was able to run the rest of the way up and over to the Monte Sano aid-station (mile 25+).

Into the aid-station I saw some of the same gaggle of friends I'd seen at the previous aid-station, though now they looked more concerned. I guess I must have really looked bad! Maybe as bad as I felt! Anyhow I topped my bottle off and I caved and asked a volunteer what the race time was, "3 hours 40 minutes" was the answer. That meant I had an hour and twenty minutes to break 5 hours from here; no mean feat given how I felt. So I left the aid-station in a run, but honestly my head still wasn't right because I thought that I still wasn't going to be able to run fast enough. Yes it's only 6 miles to go, but that 6 miles includes some of the nastiest terrain in the Monte Sano State Park. This section begins with a steady rise for about a mile or so then plummits into McKay Hollow (a canyon for all you folks out West) crosses a rushing stream at the bottom and then begins a long ascent up the other side leaving a short flat run back on top of the mountain to the finish.

Even on the steady incline I was reduced to walking several times as I was redlining, once again, but finally as the trail turned down I was rolling once more, albeit no where near as fast as I'm capable (remember that fall I took earlier?). Steady is the name of the game in this race and so down, down I went, negotiating the slippery, steep, rocky and narrow path. I finally bottomed out and felt refreshed crossing the stream and began the long, final ascent. Approaching third crossing of the same stream (further up the mountain) I spotted David ahead of me, still some ways off, but at least in sight. So now I had a target to track and that got me re-energized (sorry David) and I finally felt like my old self on what we like to call Slush Mile; the sloppy (in the best of times) mile stretch before the ultimate climb back up the other side of McKay Hollow. Today Sluch Mile truly was over the top. It was nothing but a wet, muddy mess all the way to the base of Shelter Hill. Despite the difficulties I'd crept closer to David and saw him just heading up Shelter Hill as I approached the base. Well, it had been a rough day, but I still had the chance to finish strong, so I dug down and continued to run up the hill. Granted it probably looked like I was crawling, but I felt steady and I wasn't redlining (for a change) and just felt glad that I was almost done with this race. Nearing the final part of the climb, that my wife calls the Three Sisters because of three small humps along the final long switch back to THE Shelter at the top of the hill, I spied David just ahead and, to my surprise, another runner!

Well I was doing all I could do anyhow, I didn't dare redlining again, so I just stayed steady the rest of the way to the top. Coming into the final aid-station with just 1.6 miles to go (yes I know it says 1.8 but that's not right, it was 1.8 miles to the old finish line), my friend Grady Edwards (the aid-station captain) just waved me through and said, "Go catch those guys!" I didn't argue but passed right on through only asking what the race time was, "4 hours 34 minutes" was the answer. Alright, plenty of time to get in under 5 hours.

While it would have been nice to just coast on in to the finish, I couldn't do that with two runners just ahead of me. This is a race afterall and even though I wasn't sure at the time I thought I might still have a chance at finishing in the top ten. I tried to get the legs going again for it wouldn't be any small effort to pass these guys, especially if they decided to fight. I quickly caught up David, who was noticably limping (not that I looked any better mind you), and encouraged him to go with me to catch this other guy, who turned out to be one of the early peloton members; Vince Molosky. I kept going and ended up catching Vince at the Horse Shoe section of the White trail. I know from the past that there are always several folks gunning to break five hours, so it was no time to slack, because I could be sure there were other folks close behind hammering!

After a quarter mile more I risked a look back and could not see David, though I thought I could still see Vince. Little did I know, but I'd passed Kevin Boucher at the Monte Sano aid station and now he was rallying back! Anyways I was finally in the last mile when I heard some voices closing in behind me. "Oh @#@#!!!" I thought but it was only my friend Grace and her friend on mountain bikes. She encouraged me on and then it was a quick left, across a final bridge and up and into the finish area at the Monte Sano Lodge. I ran as hard as I could manage the short distance remaining and crossed the line spent.

Not long later Kevin, David and Vince all came in close together. It was a tough day and I was happy to be done; and very thankful for just having the opportunity to do these sorts of things. Wow the crazy things we do!

Epilogue:

It's been a few days now and I've had some time to think. I've been asking myself what kind of future do I have with the Mist? I'm not sure. I'd like to think I can still run some fast times on this course, but I don't know if I can ever get my head back into it. I may also be assuming more responsibilities with helping organize the Mist in the future, so my chances to race and or run the Mist may be limited. However, given the opporunity I'll continue to run it. What I've been thinking quite a bit about lately, sadistically, was the words said to me by Tom Possert after I'd finished my first Double Mist. "So when are you going to do a Triple?" Mountain Mist 100 Mile? Hmmmm.....??? No why did he have to go and put that idea in my head!

2010-01-23T17:47:00.001-06:00

4:47 Mountain Mist 50k, mud, mud, bloody knee and more mud; thank God its over for another year! Next up: Antarctica Marathon!

2010-01-18T20:00:00.001-06:00

Happy Belated New Year! Lots of fun adventures planned for 2010. Stay tuned!

Gear Review: La Sportiva Skylite

2009-12-29T13:56:00.000-06:00

Going into the Heartland 100 I was still on-the-fence about which shoe to wear. I knew that the race course was all gravel roads, covering wide range in quality, gravel size etc… I almost went with a pure road shoe but after getting a bit more course beta from race veterans I decided to go with my fairly new pair of La Sportiva Skylites.

As a minimalist runner who is quite comfortable in the Inov-8 line of trail running shoes, the Skylite fits right in as it is very lightweight at just 9.46 oz (268 g) and has a very low profile and awesome grip. Those familiar with the La Sportiva brand have probably seen the Crosslite which looks virtually identical to the Skylite but with a bit more aggressive (thicker) outsole and weighs a little more at 12.35 oz (346 g). I will admit that right out of the box and on my first couple of short runs I was a bit skeptical of this shoe. The shoe is quite a bit more stiff than anything in the Inov-8 line as it contains an embedded nylon molded shank (for what reason I do not know). It took a bit of getting used to this additional stiffness, but after flexing the shoe fully by hand back and forth a few times before and after each run I grew to really like this shoe. Another nice feature of this shoe is the laces are protected by a flexible mesh that keeps small debris from creeping in from around the tongue of the shoe. However, the biggest asset the Skylite has to offer, at least with respect to the Heartland 100 is the FriXion® outsole that protected my feet from even the largest of gravel chunks and rocks that I encountered. This last was very crucial as I aimed to run the tangents on these gravel roads as much as I could which meant that sometimes I was running over some large gauge rocks more frequently.

Like any shoe the La Sportiva Skylite does have its detractors. As already mentioned the Skylite has an embedded nylon shank that makes the shoe very stiff compared to other minimalist shoes on the market. Also the yellow “La Sportiva” lettering that is glued/stitched to the mesh upper started peeling way on my first run! I’d have expected the lettering to stand up a bit better than it has so far; a bit disappointing.

Addendum: Since the Heartland 100, I have put in many more miles in these shoes so now I can give a definitive judgment. For dry trails this is an excellent shoe; and training in these shoes through the Heartland 100, that was the only review I could give for this shoe. However, since my 100 miler I've had the chance to run in some wet conditions and suffice it to say that I was very disappointed at how much the shoe slips when taking on wet and mossy limestone rocky trails and slick mud (the norm for around my area). Every step onto wet rock and deep mud, my feet would slip almost as much as if I was wearing a road shoe on the trails; there simply was no grip!

Overall this is a pretty good shoe, light, responsive though very stiff at first if you're used to wearing minimalist type trail shoes. On dry trails this is a very good shoe, but when the going gets wet and slick I'd select a different shoe.

Improvements? 1. The tread pattern itself is pretty good, just deepen it some more. 2. Also, remove the internal nylon shank, it is not needed and unusual for a minimalist shoe. 3. Cosmetically it would be nice if the "La Sportiva" lettering held up a bit better, perhaps a different bonding agent could be used?

The Dizzy Donut Challenge; a race within a race

2009-12-29T13:44:00.000-06:00

When I first learned about the Krispy Kreme Challenge and that an inaugural running of this event in Huntsville was going to be taking place in late November I was fairly excited. The “Challenge” is very straight forward: Run two miles to Krispy Kreme, eat a dozen glazed donuts, run two miles back to the finish; all in less than an hour. The Challenge originally started in Raleigh, North Carolina to benefit NC Children’s Hospital; in Huntsville the Challenge benefits the United Cerebral Palsy foundation. In 2004 the Raleigh event hosted only 12 participants; last year had over 5500 runners!

Unfortunately it turned out that the Dizzy Fifties 50km was to be held on the same morning as the Challenge! So for a short moment I thought that I wouldn’t be able to do the Krispy Kreme Challenge but then I got to looking at the possibility of running both events somehow. As fate would have it, the Dizzy Fifties was to start at 6:30 a.m. (to maximize the amount of available sunlight this late in the year) and the Challenge to start at 8:00 a.m. As the Dizzy Fifties 50km course consists of a short 2.3 mile “Little Loop”, followed by three repeats of the North (4 miles) and South (5.59 miles) Loops there was opportunity to run some of the early sections of the course and then go do the Challenge and then return and finish up what was left.

So, the “Dizzy Donut Challenge” was set: run the first 6.3 miles of the Dizzy Fifties 50km course, jump in a car and drive to the start of the Krispy Kreme Challenge, complete the Challenge and then drive back to the Dizzy Fifties race site and finish up our remaining mileage for a total of 35 miles.

Long story short, Kathy and I completed the Dizzy Donut Challenge. My cumulative time was around 7h 43m and Kathy finished a bit later in 8h 13m. I was rather surprised at how quickly I got through a dozen donuts. The first 5-6 were very easy but then I felt full and it was tough to get the remaining donuts down. Taking a page from the professional eaters, I started smashing and dunking my donuts in cups of water. While disgusting, it was much easier to get the donuts down as there really was no chewing involved! Yuck! Running 2 miles on a very full stomach wasn’t too bad and after a quarter mile of easy running, just to be sure I wasn’t going to toss my donuts, I was back running around a sub seven minute per mile pace to the finish. Once I returned back to the Dizzy Fifties race site, I had a good next 15 miles running with Dana Overton while Kathy had a bit more trouble. So in this stretch I got ahead of Kathy and really felt pretty good. However, it started to get a bit warm out and I hadn’t had anything to drink during that entire 15 mile stretch. I made a huge tactical error by downing a full bottle of water! That really started my stomach sloshing and it was all I could do to just keep moving forward and not throw up! So that next North loop took me forever as I had to gingerly walk every step. Any bouncing would about set me off! Ughhhh! By the time I started my final South loop I felt a bit better (I’d learned to just take small sips from my bottle) and I was able to shuffle along some and finished the Dizzy Donut Challenge. Kathy ran the final North and South loops very strong and made up almost twenty minutes on the lead I had on her with ten miles to go.

All in all it was a fun experience. I mean, how many opportunities does one have to run a race within a race? While I don’t think I’ll be doing the Dizzy Donut Challenge ever again, I do think I’d like to give the Krispy Kreme Challenge another go now that I know a little more about what’s involved.

2009-11-18T19:34:00.000-06:00

Just a short film I put together from a recent ride at Raccoon Mountain, Tennessee. Thanks to Paul Foster for shooting all the video and stills. Enjoy!

Raccoon Mountain Unicycle Epic Video

My next B.H.A.G.

2009-11-15T17:53:00.000-06:00

I've been in a real rut lately; trying to figure out where to take my passion for trail ultra-running. I've finished over 125 ultra-marathons over the past 14 years and have acquired plenty of 100 mile buckles. Now it's time for something completely different; time to explore new avenues; time, as David Horton coined, to truly have a Big, Hairy, Audacious Goal (B.H.A.G.)!!

It just so happens that there is a 325 mile long trail right in my neck of the woods called the Pinhoti Trail. While there is already a trail 100 mile race there, I'm more interested in covering the entire trail system which extends from Flagg Mountain in Alabama to the Benton MacKaye Trail in Georgia in as fast a time as possible. I originally entertained the thought of covering the entire trail back in 1999 when I first moved to Alabama (of course back then the entire Pinhoti trail was only just over 100 miles!) I'm calling this quest the Pinhoti Trail Adventure Run. Plans have just been hatched so stay tuned.

2009 Heartland 100 Mile Run

2009-10-15T19:38:00.000-05:00

The Short Version:

Even by Kansas standards race day was unseasonably cold and windy with near gale force winds out of the north east and a high that barely reached 40 degrees. Thus wind chills were deep into the 30s all day long and remained about the same overnight as the wind eased somewhat but the temperatures plummeted to freezing. The race course is a 50 mile out and back and so most of the out bound leg was either directly or indirectly into the wind! Fighting the wind was extremely demoralizing and I could not wait to hit the turnaround. The return leg was much easier having mostly a strong tail wind to guide me home. I ran the first 25 miles , to the Teterville Road aid station, with my wife Kathy, who would end up going on to win the women’s race in the 50 mile event, in around 4 ½ hours. After Kathy turned around to finish up her race, I continued on and ran right around 4h 55m to get to half way (9h 25m for 50 miles). I had a slower go over the next 25 miles as night had fallen over one of the more difficult sections of the race course. It took me nearly 5h 35m to cover those 25 miles. However I began to “feel my oats” so to speak and sped up over the remaining 25 miles covering this ground in around 5h 22m to finish 11th of 61 starters and 41 finishers in 20 hours 21 minutes and 33 seconds.

The Longer Version (***warning it is long, read at your own peril!***):

Prelude:

Last February, after learning that Kathy (my wife) didn’t get selected into the 2009 Badwater 135 , we began to look around for another goal race for her to run. The trick was finding a 100 mile event that fit into our busy work and school schedule, didn’t involve competing at altitude or cost too much to travel to. We quickly settled on traveling out to Cassoday, Kansas in October for the Heartland 100 Mile Cross Country Run . So we went ahead and made all our travel arrangements (why not?) and went on with our lives. Then around April, Kathy was contacted by the Badwater 135 staff and offered entry into the event! How could she pass that up; this was a dream race for her! So then we decided, rather than cancel our Kansas travel plans, to both run the 50 mile option. Kathy and I are trying to collect an ultramarathon in every state so this would be perfect as we’d yet to run a race in Kansas. In July I dropped out of the Hardrock 100 and so, desperate for a little 100 mile redemption, I upgraded my Heartland 50 entry to the full 100. Big thank you to race director Randy Albrecht who put up with having to change our entries around for his race several times!

After recovering from that whirlwind week in July that encompassed travelling to both the Hardrock 100 in Silverton, Colorado then immediately out to Las Vegas, Nevada and beyond to support my wife at the Badwater 135, I began to train in earnest. On paper at least, the Heartland 100 would be the “easiest” 100 mile course I’ve ever attempted; sporting a mere 6,000 feet of climb and run entirely on dirt and gravel roads. Of course everybody knows there is nothing “easy” about running a 100 miles, anywhere!

When most people think of Kansas (including myself) they picture a very flat country side and perhaps a lot of wind blowing through the tall prairie grass. I can attest to the fact that, at least this part of Kansas, is NOT FLAT as the course winds its way all through the famed Flint Hills . I can also confirm that, yes, it is windy in Kansas and it is that element that really challenges runners. In fact, what makes this particular course tough is the amount of exposure. While having frequent panoramic views over the ocean of amber tall grass is truly awe inspiring and humbling the down side is that there is hardly a shade tree on the route which makes you very susceptible to whatever Mother Nature throws out you. In years past it has been extremely hot, with cloudless skies and intense sun coupled with convection oven like breezes. This year Mother Nature took a different tact and bombarded us with near gale force winds and day time temperatures not much above freezing! But I’m getting ahead of myself.

Kathy and I flew into Wichita a couple days before the race amid a huge storm system rolling through. Soaking rains and wind hammered the area as we drove to our hotel in El Dorado (the ‘a’ is pronounced, for some baffling reason, like the ‘a’ in ‘acorn’). Thank goodness we weren’t running the race today!

The next afternoon we drove out to Cassoday, site of the start and finish of the races on a perfect Fall day; blue skies, some large puffy clouds and temperatures in the mid 50s with just a light wind. Too bad the race didn’t start today all the runners agreed at the race packet pickup and briefing.

Twelve hours later we awoke to temperatures in the high 30s to low 40s with an increasing wind out of the north east. Still, we were optimistic that the weather would hold out and that the chance of rain later in the day wouldn’t pan out. Surely we can handle a little wind right? So in the pre-dawn darkness 105 bundled up runners (61 in the 100 mile and 44 in the 50 mile) embarked on their respective adventures; headlights and flashlights bobbing.

Pre-race I’d prepared two pace “guidelines” (I don’t like to use the word “schedule”): one for a sub 20 hour and the other for sub 24 hour finish time. The 20 hour guide basically was to hit half way in 9 hours and come back in 11 hours; the 24 hour had an out-bound split of 11 hours, in-bound in 13 hours. The presumed assumption, from past experience, is that I could expect a 2 hour slow down between the first and second 50 miles (works for me).

Cassoday to Teterville Road (Mile 0 to 25):

Starting out from Cassoday I was a bit anxious about what the day (and night) would hold as the weather was very unpredictable. I put those fears behind me though as it was great to finally be embarking on this adventure. As Kathy’s 50 mile goal pace was basically the same as my 20 hour guide, we decided to run the first 25 miles together to the turnaround aid-station at Teterville Road. I’m very happy that we chose to run together because I feared that I’d get out too fast and then really suffer on the return leg. Instead we passed the time largely running by ourselves. The beauty of a small race field is that it gets really spread out quickly and you end up on your own which is exactly what I love about ultra-running; the lack of crowds. So, by the time we reached the first manned aid-station at Battle Creek (8.2 miles) only a few runners were in sight both ahead and behind; and that is saying a lot as there are frequent places where one can see several miles ahead or behind on the course!

Somewhere in that first section we were treated to a very deep blood red sunrise; the sun was a gigantic, fat orb hidden behind low streaming clouds. With the sun came the wind and the gentle breeze soon ramped up to near gale force strength out of the north east. Unfortunately the general direction the out-bound leg takes is to the north east so runners would experience a wicked head wind throughout at least half of their races.

Kathy and I ran along, only walking some of the steeper sections of the hills. I worried that I was still getting out too fast as I was even well ahead of my 20 hour guide! We really couldn’t help it because we’d both under-dressed a bit for the conditions. We were able to stay just warm enough as long as we kept running and didn’t stop too long at the aid stations. I started out in my green Golite Wasatch Speed Goat Mountain Racing Team short sleeve shirt with my Moeben sleeves and my bright orange Golite team jacket over the top. I ran in my Patagonia shorts and wore Injinji socks inside my La Sportiva Skylite shoes. For the other extremities I wore my trusty pair of 180s gloves (the kind that have a one-way valve on the top that allow you to blow warm air into the glove; genius!), on my head my favorite khaki colored Patagonia trucker cap. So the jacket was just enough to block the wind, but I could have used a slightly warmer layer underneath as the temperatures were barely, if at all, above 40 degrees.

At any rate, that glowing orb, managed to peek out of the thick clouds for a short while which helped warm things up enough to be just comfortable. However, the wind was even more biting if that was possible, enough so that Kathy and I really couldn’t even talk to one another! Talking meant shouting and we just didn’t have the energy for it; so we plodded along, each in our own howling worlds yet just feet apart.

From Battle Creek to the Lapland aid station we were treated with one of the hillier sections of the entire course. Roller after roller greeted us, like an amusement park ride we’d slowly shuffle up one rise and then go roaring down the other side, on and on. We had to be careful to actually walk some as these early miles we felt pretty good and the running was fairly easy, even on the gradual uphills. As we ran along we caught frequent sites of cows and horses grazing, run down and derelict looking structures that ranged from abandoned homesteads to dilapidated barb wire fences and gates leading to nowhere. Often times I felt I was passing through a scene or two from a Stephen King novel. We were in the heart of the Wastelands for sure! An ominous sign and sure indication of my train of thought came just past the unmanned Thrall aid-station at around 21 miles when we ran right by a frayed noose hanging from the lonely remains of a ranch gate. The noose swayed in the wind like a ghostly hand beckoning us to come pay it a visit… Kathy and I looked at one another with looks of supreme surprise and sped on, that next mile was probably our fastest of the day!

Before we knew it 4 ½ hours had gone by and we’d arrived at the Teterville Road aid-station, 25 miles in. Kathy and I exchanged a hug and a kiss and then we went our respective ways. We’d only seen four runners coming back along the 50 mile course and no women as we approached Teterville Road. Kathy waved good bye and wished me luck. She’d go on to run a very negative split on the way back running the last 25 miles in just over 4 hours to finish in 8 hours 38 minutes and 38 seconds, 4th overall and 1st woman. As far as we can tell this was also a female course record by about 18 minutes!

Teterville Road to Lone Tree (Mile 25 to 50):

Alas I was truly on my own now. I left Teterville Road with just a couple other runners, a large pack Kathy and I had come in with were all 50 milers and they had all turned for home. I still had 25 more miles to go before I’d make my own turn for home! After a good mile of running out of the wind, sure enough, the course turned into the north once more right into the teeth of the wind! This section of road was also one in the worst condition of any other place on the course. The road looked as if it had gotten really soaked and muddy, then driven over by some heavy equipment. There were deep ruts and wash-outs and even a creek crossing of sorts where a rain swollen creek was flowing over a low concrete bridge.

Cattle guards. I can’t believe I forgot to talk about the cattle guards. I already alluded that the theme of the day was COLD and WIND and WASTELAND but I forgot to add CATTLE GUARDS. These ingenious inventions that are great at keeping cattle from escaping from their respective ranch lands, forced runners to pay close attention when crossing them. They were constructed from a variety of materials. There were basically three different types I came across. The first utilized several horizontally placed, parallel metal pipes; this was the most dangerous to cross because of the rounded surface and the sections of pipe were often spaced fairly wide apart. The second type was the easiest to cross, these were constructed with fully boxed metal beams and were most often placed close enough together that you didn’t even have to think about where you stepped and the surface was totally flat. The third type was the most ingenious as it used old and short sections of rail road track; some were more dangerous than others; it just depended on how widely spaced was each section of track. I lost track of how many cattle guards I crossed throughout that 100 mile run, I just know that it hardly seemed like one could run a mile without coming upon one. COLD, WIND, WASTELAND, CATTLE GUARDS.

So after crossing over that concrete bridge, and getting my feet thoroughly soaked I continued on that torn up ranch road. I began to ascend in earnest to reach what is known as the Ridgeline area. A true ridgeline it is as the next 10 miles are all along this winding gravel road that is one of the highest areas around and has full 360 degree views of the surrounding countryside. If one knew where to look I’m sure the entire 100 mile course could be made out from here; thankfully I was blissfully unaware of where I was! Sometimes ignorance is bliss!

The route to Texaco Hill (50km), once the ridgeline was attained, was relatively flat and, thank fully, not directly into the wind. This was quite possibly my favorite section of the course with the sun peaking through the clouds, turning the tall prairie grass gold and rippling like waves in the ocean; the clouds streaming by. Wow this is a beautiful country! I arrived at Texaco Hill, grabbed some homemade cookies, refilled my lone bottle and continued on. Just up the road from the Texaco Hill aid-station was an ancient looking pumpjack a.k.a. “nodding donkey” that looked to be on its last leg; it made an awful grinding noise as I approached, passed and receded away from it.

To help get into a rhythm with my running, I started to employ a 10:2 run-walk strategy shortly after I left Teterville Road. As truly just about everything was runnable on this course, I needed to work in an effective walking strategy. So I had my watch set with two repeating count-down timers; I’d run for 10 minutes (regardless of terrain) my watch would chime and then I’d walk for 2 minutes and then my watch would chime again. This seemed to be a pretty good strategy for me in the past (Delano 12 hour) and so I hoped it would work well this time around. So I ran and walked a bit, ran and walked a bit, on and on. Finally the Ridgeline stretch was behind me as I pulled into THE Ridgeline aid-station (several cattle guards later I might add). I was now 36 ½ miles in and feeling great. For the first time I asked about my position and was told I was the 13th through this point. No worries, I was just on cruise control for this run. I refilled my bottle, grabbed some pretzels and boiled potatoes and kept trucking.

My next destination was Matfield Green at mile 42 ½. In this stretch I had my closest encounter with cattle thus far. Just a couple miles out from the Ridgeline aid-station I crossed yet another cattle guard and sitting right next to the road were several large black cows; behind them were a few dozen or more idly grazing. They all stopped and stared at me, chewing their cud, as I rolled by; how cool! Just past the lounging cows I saw some ranch hands loading some horses into a trailer. As I got closer I realized that that they were all women! Cowgirls don’t cry! More on them later. I kept going, cycling endlessly through my run-walk cycles until finally I could hear the cars on the near-by toll road. I knew I was getting close to Matfield Green now. I passed by another dilapidated old ranch house, though this one’s grassy yard looked like it had been recently freshly cut; so perhaps it is still looked over somewhat? A bit further and I could now see the toll road and the concrete overpass ahead. Ever wonder about those overpasses you see when you’re driving way out from any nearby city? This was one of those places! There wasn’t a toll exit anywhere close to here! Over the concrete bridge, cars zipping by without a clue, and I was into the aid-station. However I wasn’t alone. I’d just grabbed some noodles to go, and refilled my bottle when another runner came bounding into the aid-station. Where had they, uhh she come from? I’d been looking forward and backward frequently, not out of any care about my position, but just to see if I could see anybody? She’d come up on me pretty quick!

I walked on out of Matfield Green, trying to let all the food I’d just stuffed down settle. Next stop was the 50 mile turnaround point at the Lone Tree aid-station. Susan Lance, the runner who’d caught me, sped right on by as I groped in my waist pack for some vitamin I (Ibuprofen). I popped a couple Ibuprofen and settled back into my run-walk cycle. It is hard to describe, you kind of have to experience it to understand, but it was very comforting to have this 10-2 cycle to stick to. A hundred miles is so far that it can fry your brain if you start to think about how far you have left to go. It is much better to just worry about the next 10 minutes of running or 2 minutes of walking and let the rest of it go. You’ve got to break up a race this long somehow and this is one of the ways I can cope with it. It is a monster.

Cruising out to the turnaround at Lone Tree, the route passes right by a couple of really tall electronic towers (cellular? T.V. ?). The funny thing is that, like every distant object in this land, they appear to be a lot closer than they really are. Perspective and distance are all messed up when you have so much line of sight. Anyhow I just focused on my run-walk strategy and found that, for this section at least, Susan was doing roughly the same thing as after her initial surge by me we largely kept the same distance apart. As we closed in on the towers I expected to see the 100 mile race leaders come back by us anytime. Sure enough with just about a mile to go before the towers (about 3 ½ miles out from the turnaround) I saw some black dots coming down the very straight road. Wow it was still anybody’s race as the top three were all within ten minutes of each other! Passing the towers I topped off my water bottle at an unmanned aid-station i.e. a couple of water containers and a box of various food items, and kept going. Down the last section to the turnaround, more runners on the in-bound leg passed by me. Most motivational was the lead woman, Amy Palmiero-Winters, who is a below the knee amputee! She would go on to win this race in 18 hours 54 minutes and 13 seconds, a record for an amputee and the 2nd fastest women’s time on this course! Amazing, truly amazing! I counted a total of twelve before I could finally spot the Lone Tree aid station, so I really was 14th (Susan was just ahead of me). At the aid station I arrived in around 9 hours and 25 minutes (about 4 hours and 55 minutes for this 25 mile section). I was 25 minutes over my 20 hour guideline, but I felt that was pretty good considering the wind tunnel I had to run through to get to this point! Susan introduced herself as one of my friend Janice Anderson’s friends; part of that G.U.T.S. group (Georgia Ultrarunning & Trailrunning Society). I thought I’d heard her name before. With that she launched back up the hill we’d run down to get to Lone Tree. I hammered down another Boost and retrieved my Patagonia cool-weather top from my drop-bag and tied it around my waist. And with that I was now an in-bound runner as I bounded back up the road and into a wonderful tail-wind!

Back to Teterville Road:

The stretch back to Matfield Green seemed to just fly by. It was so good to not have the wind whipping across my ears any longer! I passed by many runners still on their out-bound legs including fellow Huntsvillian, Christie Scott who was tackling her first 100 mile race! Christie would have a late race melt-down but still rally and perceiver to finish the race in 29 hours 30 minutes and 39 seconds. Way to go Christie! Back into the out skirts of the Matfield Green aid-station I was shocked to see my wife Kathy! Yes! She told me about her amazing 50 mile finish and that since she had plenty of time to meet me out here she did! Thank you! As we walked into and out of the aid-station she quickly told me about her race. How motivating for me! So, with a kiss and a hug I chugged on, light hearted and feeling pretty good even with over 57 miles in my legs.

Susan was nowhere in sight, she was gone! I would learn later that she finished 2nd woman in 19 hours 17 minutes and 21 seconds; the next finisher ahead of me! Talk about a gap! Anyhow I soon passed another runner with his pacer not far out of Matfield Green so now I was back in the ominous 13th position. Running along the Prairie Creek Road I recognized the landmarks I’d passed only hours before. I was making pretty good time. Soon was I passing close to where I’d seen those cowgirls earlier in the day. Coming over a rise in the road I saw them drive a flat bed truck with a large hay bale into a field with 100s of cattle. As I ran towards the scene I heard them begin to blow a whistle and all of a sudden there was a sea of mooing black cows converging on the parked truck! What an awesome sight to behold! I soon passed behind a hillock and the scene disappeared behind me. I was now totally alone on the road, nobody ahead or behind in sight. I’d passed by the last of the out-bounders a while ago. Returning by the spot where the relaxing cows were by the road, the cows were nowhere to be seen. I kept going and soon I’d made the turn off that long Prairie Creek Road and ran up a short hill into the Ridgeline aid-station at mile 63.4. Kathy was there to greet me and as my water bottle was being refilled, I retrieved my dropbag and quickly downed two cans of Boost (this is great stuff!). I decided to that I’d had enough clothing to get me to Teterville (mile 75) as it was “only” about 12 miles away. I still felt fairly warm and had perhaps another hour or so of sunlight left. So I began to leave the aid-station only to cross a cattle guard and remember that I didn’t have my headlamp! Uff! As I turned quickly around to get back to the aid-station, I saw that Kathy had already started to turn the car around to head back down the road! I began to frantically wave my hands and yell, at the same time an aid-station worker began to do the same thing; at first independently of me, but when he noticed I was doing the same thing he re-doubled his efforts and ran to the car to stop her! Phew! It turns out that an out-bound runner had dropped out her and was awaiting a ride back to Cassoday. The aid-station worker had initially flagged down Kathy to see if she’d give him a ride, but seeing me in a frantic really stepped up his efforts! Thank you to that guy, he probably saved my race! As I sped over to her car to get my light, it seemed like I just got really cold all of a sudden as well! So while Kathy fished around for my light, I began to layer up top and put my wind pants on for good measure. Now, finally with my light and with plenty of warm clothes on I left the aid-station for the second time!

It took me a good mile of running to finally warm back up, but I did and was glad to have grabbed the extra layers when I did; it could have been ugly trying to get to Teterville had I not added more clothing! An hour later the sunlight faded and with the heavy cloud cover there was no spectacular sunset, just a gradual graying of the light into black. I managed to get to the Texaco Hill aid-station (mile 68.7) without needing my light. There was just enough contrast between the scraped dirt road and the surrounding prairie that it was very easy to stay on the road without a light. I knew I was close to Texaco Hill when I heard the laboring pumpjack grinding and groaning in the dark. Over on last hillock and I saw the lights of the Texaco Hill aid-station. I only stopped long enough to grab a hot cup of potato soup and I was out of there. I did manage to congratulate Phil Sheridan, who’d won the 50 mile event and was now out there manning that aid station all night! I remember running with Phil during 1998 at Old Dominion and Leadville when I was doing the Grand Slam of Ultrarunning. He remembered my purple (red) hair at Old Dominion and green hair at Leadville. It’s funny that is how I’m remembered! Better than being forgotten I suppose!

Now I was just a 10km away from Teterville, on some of the nastiest terrain of the course, in the dark no less. It really wasn’t so bad, I was still making fairly good progress and largely sticking to my 10-2 run-walk plan. If I had one low-point it was just after making the tricky 180 degree turn off the main dirt road and onto a much less frequently maintained side road. The first part of this side road is tucked between a few large hills and is one of the very few places where there is no wind. As I’d been dressed for the cold and wind I got very hot in this section and had to stop and strip off my wind pants and a layer up top. I was bursting with heat and felt sick! I’d made it another mile down this road when the wind returned with earnest and now the pendulum had swung back and I was freezing again! So I had stop once again and put all those layers back on! After that I had my first indication that my brain was getting a bit tired. Peering ahead of me I saw a green road sign fluoresce in my headlamp light. Getting closer to the sign I was stunned to watch as that supposed road sign transform in to a green glow-stick, attached to a holder and stuck horizontally in the ground! Woah! I was losing it just a bit! It is weird how your brain interprets things without enough information to fill in the pieces. It was just so dark out there that all you could see was the bit of dirt road ahead of you and just this pitch black nothingness all around. I was just in a bubble of light, surrounded by the night. Further on I passed a well lit ranch and then some signs of civilization (if you can call it that) as I could see my turn ahead onto the last bit of road into Teterville. The only way I could tell that was I could see some vehicular traffic (just points of light to me) heading perpendicular to my direction. Who else would be out here this late, but the dedicated crews? A glowing red point resolved into a stop sign ahead and soon I’d made the turn as arrived in Teterville after a short jog up one of the nicest surfaced dirt roads on this course. Kathy was there once again as I rolled in just a few minutes before 9:00 p.m., about 15 hours in and about 5 hours 35 minutes for this last 25 miles; not bad at all considering. It was pretty cold out so I didn’t stop long, just enough to eat some soup and refill my bottle. I hugged Kathy and left the aid-station. Just 25 miles to go!

The home stretch:

Leaving Teterville I was cold once again; you stop for even just a little bit and you get cold! With the sun down it was barely above freezing and the wind was still blowing, albeit a bit less strongly than it had been during the day. I ran the next mile a bit upbeat as it was largely downhill. I was finally warm again soon enough. Looking behind me I was stunned to see a headlamp bobbing down the road perhaps a quarter mile behind me! I hadn’t seen any other runner for hours now. Well, not that it really meant anything, but I refused to let this runner pass me. Besides, trying to hold this guy off would be something to do to pass the time over the remaining miles. So I began to pick up the pace more during my 10 minute running blocks. I passed by Thrall, some decrepit buildings and the ghostly noose and was past the unmanned aid-station. I cut my light off and tried to determine when the chasing runner made the hard turn to the right onto the road I was currently running down. He finally did and it appeared that I was still maintaining the same quarter mile gap. I cut my light back on, before I stumbled off the road trying to run with no light and looking back over my shoulder! This next section had some good rollers so I made good use of them running up all the hills and trying to hammer the downs as best I could. I didn’t skimp on my walk break, but often delayed it if it occurred mid downhill. It wasn’t long before I thought I could see the Lapland aid-station (mile 83.1), a glowing red light at this distance. It was impossible to tell how far away it was, it just looked like another point of light in the distance; like a star in the sky! I was onto a pretty sustained downhill and the red light vanished from in front of me. I knew I was close because I was running through a thin copse of woods, which was why the lights of the aid-station disappeared (I remembered this section from the way out). I really let my legs roll down this part and started a little when a black shape sped across the road not 20 feet ahead of me; a skunk! Luckily he was making a bee-line for the woods and had no interest in tangling with the head-lamped Cyclopes barreling out of the night! Out of the woods the red aid-station light was now a large tent covered with Christmas lights and before I knew it I was on the final gradual uphill pitch into the Lapland. Kathy was the only crew at the aid-station so I knew there must be a large gap ahead and behind me (except for the chaser of course). I grabbed some more soup and crackers and a few caffeinated gels and kept going. This was the last time I’d see Kathy until the finish so I told her to expect me in around 4 hours.

Heading down the road out of Lapland I could see that the chaser had closed to perhaps a couple hundred yards! I guess I delayed longer than I thought at the aid-station? Anyhow I didn’t let it bother me and instead focused on trying to finish strong. I was getting tired now and so shifted to a 9-3 run-walk plan. The caveat was that I’d really try to run strong during that 9 minute stretch but really try and relax on the 3 minute walk. I think this was a good strategy shift as this section to Battle Creek had a number of rolling hills which really allowed me to play to my hill climbing strengths. I quickly lost sight of the chaser in the roller-coaster like hills but would occasionally catch a glimpse of his headlamp from one of the peaks. It seemed like I was keeping a peak ahead so that was good, he wasn’t gaining on me anymore. Roller after roller I ran and walked, ran and walked until finally I pulled into the Battle Creek aid-station at mile 91.7 almost unexpectedly as this aid-station is buried in some woods and can only be seen from a short ways out. A couple of aid-station workers came running up the road to me. The grabbed my water bottle and sped back to the aid-station. They wanted to keep me going without stopping; now that is service! So I barely paused and was gone up a short but steep climb out of the little valley where the Battle Creek aid-station was hidden.

I was feeling very good; I was now onto the true home-stretch, some of the easiest running on the entire course. After the climb out of Battle Creek it was largely flat all the way back to Cassoday. Just a couple of miles out of Battle Creek, my headlamp began to blink! Uh Oh! That means my batteries were running low! Yikes, to lose my light this close to the finish! Fortunately my headlamp has different lighting levels so I shifted down to the minimal setting; didn’t really need much light on this last bit of well groomed dirt road. I also still had my backup light that I’d used in the opening miles of the race just in case. In the distance I thought I could see the lights from the turnpike toll station at the out skirts of Cassoday. That meant I was really getting close. All of a sudden I saw what looked like a Carnival cruise ship lit up for the night drifting by ahead of me! I could hear the grumbling of a diesel engine but couldn’t make out what the heck it was. Then it was passing me. It was a large diesel truck pulling two large horse trailers (all of which was lit up). Weird what your brain does without enough input? Just past a couple of well lit homesteads and I arrived at the last aid-station. This was an unmanned aid-station on the out-bound leg, but now there were a couple of bundled up folks there to check on the tired, finishing runners. I downed a cup of hot apple cider and kept going, just less than 5 miles to go! I couldn’t see the chaser behind me but kept tricking myself as I’d look behind me I kept thinking that lit up homestead was a runner’s headlamp just behind me! Freaky! I was getting tired and needed to finish thing before I really started hallucinating!

This last stretch was just a blur, after a few more miles I could see the lights of Cassoday ahead now and a bare shimmer on the unlit Cassoday water-tower. I also could hear the kennel dogs barking that I remembered hearing at the starting line. I was in shouting distance now! The finish area looked pretty dead. Unfortunately this section of the course is bisected from the town of Cassoday by a very active railway. Rather than risk tired runners from getting run over by trains in the middle of the night, the event staff wisely moved the start/finish area just past the railway crossing at an old school and site of the town’s water supply. It was this now resolved water-tower that I set my sights on as my feet emerged onto pavement, just a half mile to go! I tucked my head into the wind, one last insult by the weather gods, and ran for all I was worth for the finish. I was greeted at the finish, a chalk line drawn next to a folding chair, by race director Randy Albrecht, ringing a cow bell, and Kathy, clapping her mittened hands. After 20 hours 21 minutes and 33 seconds I was done! I’d finished 11th overall and put over an hour on the chaser in the process! This last 25 miles took me about 5 hours 21 minutes, so it was a bit faster than my 3rd 25 mile leg (and not my slowest leg at all). In the end I was only off my "ideal" schedule by 21 minutes; not too bad given the conditions!

Aftermath:

It was a great relief to be done, but I was getting cold, Kathy was cold. She’d tried to get some sleep in the car waiting for me, but kept getting too cold! We talked with the Randy for a few minutes, I enjoyed a large bowl of hot potato soap and then were back on the road to El Dorado (remember the ‘a’ is pronounced, for some baffling reason, like the ‘a’ in ‘acorn’) and our warm hotel room.

Big thanks to Randy and all the other volunteers that made the Heartland races possible. I really had an enjoyable time running in the Flint Hills of Kansas; a lot more than I thought I would. The course photos I came across before the race don’t do it justice. You really have to go and experience it for yourself; I promise you won’t be disappointed! What a truly a beautiful place to pass your day (and night). I'm already looking forward to returning to this special part of the U.S.A. one day.

2009 Asheville Mountain Unicycle Festival

2009-09-29T19:43:00.000-05:00

(Hand made banner for the Asheville Mountain Unicycle Festival)

Friday Afternoon

Until a few days ago I’ve only ever ridden with two other unicyclists (and never both at the same time). On Friday, September 25th that all changed shortly after I drove not the Lake Powhatan Recreation Area a.k.a. Bent Creek Campground. I’d arranged to split a camp site with Ben King who’d I’d chatted with some on Unicyclist.com but had never actually met in person. To our mutual surprise we ended up arriving at the campsite registration building at nearly the same time! He had come from Louisville, KY and me from Huntsville, AL so it was fairly miraculous timing!

After setting up camp, Ben and I strolled down to the festival head quarters which were just a few camp sites down the road. Arriving in the early afternoon like we did, we’d missed the first group ride of the day (I didn’t want to leave any earlier), but that was okay because we would get our fill of riding in shortly (more on that in a bit). We hadn’t been hanging out long at the festival site when all of a sudden unicyclists emerged out of the woods like some rare exotic creatures! One, two, three, four… I quickly lost count! This was completely mind blowing for me to see so many padded up, mountain unicyclists at one time in one place. I saw 29”, 24” and 20” wheels; all sorts of configurations… Cool! I quickly made the rounds trying to introduce myself to everybody coming in. I met the event organizers and local riders, Ben Richardson, Jeff Ray, Bill Spears and Jack Igelman. Everyone was so friendly! Wow!

As the next group ride wasn’t for a couple of hours, Ben and I decided to get in a short ride for ourselves just to loosen up the car legs.

(Getting ready for first group ride)

(Ben King preparing to ride)

So a few minutes later we were off, he on his KH29 and me on my KH24 Guni. We learned a couple of tips about where to go so we quickly found a trail head and started UP! I hadn’t ridden any true single-track in quite a while and it showed! Just 50 feet up the trail I had a pretty good Un-Planned Dismount (UPD) and jammed one of my fingers! Ouch! But, after that the cobwebs were shaken and Ben and I continued through the Pine Loop, just a short 3 mile or so exploration ride. I had a few more UPDs, but the muscle memory was coming back; most important of all I was having fun!

Once back at camp, we got re-hydrated and met up with some of the riders we’d been introduced to earlier.

(A break in the rain, before my first group ride: L-R, me, Bill Spears, Jeff, John, Robbie, Ben K., Cody, Ben R.)

It was about time to head out for the afternoon group ride. The weather changed quite drastically, that is, it began to rain and heavily! This was just fore-shadowing of things to come. So in a bit of a break from the rain, a whole pack of us headed out and UP and UP our goal being the highest point in Bent Creek and then a fun, fast descent down the Greenslick trail.

(Elevation profile of Greenslick group ride)

The climb started out on a series of gravel roads which had a fairly easy climbing grade. However the grade got much steeper and slicker when we finally turned off the gravel road and onto single track. One by one we cheered each other on up the trail and out of site, urging everybody to climb as far as they could without a stop. I made it up a descent way but soon red lined and came off! This became the pattern over the next few miles of climb, climb as far as you can, UPD/PD, take a few breaths and repeat! This group definitely had the climbers as all were very, very good! Despite the wet, slippery at times trail we all finally made up to Five Points (I could only count 4 ways to leave this spot ;) ). This spot was extremely muddy from recent heavy machinery work and the heavy rain; there was an excavator at hand that Ben Richardson, one of the event organizers, decided to do a still stand on! After hamming it up we proceeded to climb some more creek bed like single track, because of the rain, the trail was a creek!

It was very interesting to ride with other unicyclists as I often wondered how the on trail dynamics would fall out. As a trail runner I’m used to running in a group, chatting and taking walking breaks on hills, but over all we tend to stay close enough together to keep up conversations. Unicycling on trails with other riders was a bit different and way more humbling. We’d typically get going one by one, follow the leader, and then, sooner or later somebody would UPD and then if you were behind you were now ahead (unless that UPD caused you to UPD!) but lest you feel too smug about cleaning a line that the guy ahead of didn’t, soon enough you’ll UPD and somebody behind you will pass you! So it really never mattered if you started out in the lead or bringing up the rear, there was constant turn over! But this all made it quite fun and entertaining to watch people clean a line you just missed, or have witnesses (or be a witness) to some spectacular UPDs.

Anyhow, we continued to climb and climb until we, at last, reached the Greenslick trail head (at the highest point in the Bent Creek trail system). This downhill trail started out with some huge bermed corners and a few purpose built “mountain bike speed bumps” to keep trail speeds down (apparently there had been a lot of injuries on this trail in the past!). These added trail obstacles were just a whole lot of rolling trials type fun for us unicyclists! We just kept dropping and dropping, it was raining steadily but this kept us cool so it was okay. The light was beginning to go by the time Ben King, John (a fellow KH/Schlumpf hub owner out of Tampa) and I exited the trail onto a nice downhill gravel road. Schlumpf time! John took off down the road in high gear on his 24” Ben followed behind and soon I managed to shift into over-drive as well. Within seconds I was flying down the road at over 15 mph and quickly passed Ben and nearly caught up with John before he came to a stop at a trail crossing about ½ mile down the road. We three had separated from the rest of the group and so decided to stop here and figure out where to go next. There was some survey flags at hand that were being used to mark tomorrow’s race so we thought maybe we ought to go that way. I thought we’d be better off going down the road and so back to camp (I thought). None of us knew are way around the trail system so finally Ben came to the rescue by producing a soggy trail map. We’d just determined where we were and how to get back to camp quickest (did I mention the light was fading fast!) when the rest of the group showed up. We ended up proceeding further down the road, to John and my delight as we got to put our Schlumpf’d 24ers to the test by quickly out pacing the rest of the group in the 29ers! (About the only time we’d get ahead of them for very long!) We finally finished up a wet and sloshy ride and quickly dried off, got changed and headed into Asheville for some fine Mexican food and some camaraderie.

Saturday Morning

Friday night it started to rain, and rain, and rain, right on into the next morning as riders prepared for the 12 mile mountain unicycle race. About 10 minutes before the start, most of the motley group had assembled. We all chatted and half-heartedly listened to Jeff (the race course designer and marker) explain about the markings and in particular how to pay close attention to the first part of the course as it was easy to get lost because of a mixture of markings because there would be an intersection where the 12 mile loop and a shorter 4 ½ mile loop would be coming together. I wish I’d paid more attention because this was about to come back and haunt me shortly!

I’d prepared all my gear the night before but was shocked when I arrived at the start only to find my hydration bladder was nearly empty! I think my pack had been leaning on the bite valve and most of the water mix had drained out! Luckily it didn’t look like I had a leak and also it seemed like we were going to start a little late anyhow, so I quickly found a water spout and re-mixed my hydration concoction for the race.

(The starting field)

Standing in the rain we all posed for a pre-race photo and then we were off.

(And their off! Now I ask you, does that white shirted unicyclist's (Ben R.) tire look flat in the picture above? )

(Look at me, already in last place!)

As expected, Ben Richardson and Jeff flashed out to the front, followed by the rest of us out-of-towners. There were 24”, 29” and even several 20” unicycles in the field. Amazing! We’d only gone a quarter mile perhaps when I noticed Ben was hopping up and down on his 29er and his tire was totally flat! I heard him yell and then Jeff, the obvious pre-race favorite, stopped to render assistance. The last I saw of Jeff was taking off his large pack and rooting around for tools and a spare tube perhaps… At any rate, all of the out-of-towners surged ahead and I now found myself in the lead along with Ben King (my camp-mate) and John from Tampa, two other very strong riders who were in definite contention for the race title. We arrived at an intersection in the road, saw some orange flags to the right and so followed them, though something felt a bit wrong about that. We crossed a bridge and started to climb. Problem was I thought I heard something about not crossing a bridge and that the climb should be on a trail? So I began to slow and climb less enthusiastically and the rest of the group caught up, yes I lead almost the entire race field of course! Between the pack of us, each of us had heard various parts of the pre-race meeting and so we were able to reconstruct that briefing; we realized we were off course and quickly turned around and headed back down the hill. Once back at the bridge we went back to the right and then, clear as day, saw another set of markers (the ones we were supposed to follow in the first place) and got back on course! All in all I think we lost about 10 minutes on this diversion. We were unaware of the fact that, during our off course excursion, Jeff and a couple other riders had taken the lead (all unaware that a large group had gone the wrong way!).

Now climbing up a narrow single-track trail I could see several fresh tire marks so I knew some folks had taken the correct route, including Jeff! Very quickly, things sorted themselves out and it was clear that Ben King and I would be battling one another throughout this race. He was on his 29”, I on my 24”. While I could keep pace and gain at times on the climbs, he’d surge ahead on the downhills. The route wasn’t technical enough to slow him much so I was being beaten purely based his larger roll-out distance per crank revolution. So that was the theme that played out over the next 10 miles. I would sort of catch up to him on the climbs, perhaps just catch a glimpse and then he’d be out of sight again on the next downhill or level stretch. I continued to look behind me, but there was nobody in sight. As there was no telling how far Jeff was ahead, my race came down to just trying to keep up with Ben.

The first five miles or so of the course (the correct one) climbed and climbed and climbed, much like yesterday’s ride on some gorgeous single-track. I honestly couldn’t believe I was able to climb as much as I did. About the only times I couldn’t stay in the saddle was when the grade was too steep and slick; I think if it had been dry I could have climbed a bit more. One a particular uphill stretch of trail I passed by a couple of race photographers who told me Ben was just a minute and a half ahead and that I was second place! That’s when my heart really sunk because if they’d only seen two unicyclists that meant that Jeff was lost (highly unlikely since he was a local and marked the course) or he had a huge lead (which he did)! It didn’t matter to me, I was really just trying to take in the whole experience and live in the moment. In my mind I really wasn’t racing but trying my best to clean all the lines that I encountered. Near Five Points I caught another glimpse of Ben as he rocketed off again up the trail on the final bit of the main climb in the race. Then all of a sudden I came around a bend in the trail and saw a couple mountain bikers coming up the trail. One of them warned me, “Look out there’s a dead deer lying across the trail!” I was thinking, yeah right when sure enough there was a freshly dead deer right across the path! I know it’s morbid but I did entertain the thought of trying to side hop over it, but only just briefly! I dismounted and stepped over it and continued on my way, Ben just disappearing around the next bend in the trail. I remember thinking that Jeff must have been going so fast through here that caught and hit that deer totally unaware! Sure didn’t seem to faze him though!

At last I’d topped out at the highest point on the race course and began a real bomber of a descent, perfect for my 24” wheel it was just technical enough that I thought perhaps I might catch up to Ben on this section of trail. No luck there, but I continued to drop and drop and drop now in a real down pouring rain! Unlike back home in Huntsville, Alabama where the trail surface is either limestone or good old Alabama Red Clay that gets respectively very slick or very sticky, this Bent Creek trail system seemed to drain very well and very few sections of trail were slick or slippery. In addition it also really didn’t seem like I was harming the trail by trenching as the trail surface was very hard-packed dirt and sand, even with all the rain that had been falling over the last 24 hours!

After descending quite a bit on that lovely trail it finally emptied out onto that very same gravel road I had fun riding in high-gear down the night before. Yes! Here was my chance to try and catch up to Ben. I shifted into high-gear and soon I was flying down the gravel road as fast as I could spin; I wouldn’t doubt I topped 20 mph on this short stretch of road. Coming into a long straight-away I spotted Bill Spears and another guy taking photos. They cheered me on as I flew by in over-drive! Wow what fun! Bill yelled that I was 3rd place and that 2nd had just gone by. That confirmed what I’d thought, Jeff way out in front with me and Ben trying to pick up the pieces after our off course adventure. Just up ahead was that same flagged intersection we’d spotted the night before. Today this was part of the race route and as I was approaching the intersection, still about a 100 yards or so away I spotted Ben just turning onto the trail. Yes! I kept it in high-gear (mainly because I’m still very lame at down-shifting on the fly) as far as I could on up the next trail section. I finally came off trying to cross a rain swollen creek and just like that I had caught right back up with Ben, who was also hiking up the next short steep section of trail!

For the next mile or so, Ben and I fought. I’d slowly catch up on the up hills, he’d get ahead again on the downhills, but now I was starting to hold my own on the flats. However I was getting pretty tired myself, I was UPDing far more frequently, the trail was getting a bit more slick and even mounting was no longer 100% I saw Ben was struggling as well, UPDing just as frequently; probably as a result of constantly looking over his shoulder! So with just a few miles to go, I caught up to Ben and proposed a truce. I said that we’re probably a good ways ahead of the rest of the field and probably have no chance of catching Jeff so let’s just stop battling and finish this thing together. He happily agreed and so the intensity eased a bit as we rode and chatting along the remaining miles of trail.

Finally I could see Lake Powhatan so I knew we were very close to the finish. We rode along the trail that was parallel to the spill-way and soon emerged at the very intersection where we’d gotten lost earlier that morning. This time there was no doubt where to go and just a few minutes later, and after two hours and four minutes of riding, Ben and I, together, rolled over the 2x4 that marked the finish line of the 12 mile mountain unicycle race. Phew!

(Elevation profile of 12 mile mountain unicycle race)

We learned that Jeff had finished the race in one hour and forty eight minutes, some sixteen minutes faster than us! Apparently hitting that deer (and generously leaving it lying across the trail) didn't faze him one bit! So if we hadn’t gotten lost it might have been a closer race after all? I think it was because of this ambiguity that the race officials declared the race a three-way tie between Jeff, Ben and me. I still think Jeff deserves the overall win, after all there is only one Asheville Muni Fest Champion T-shirt and I think he’d definitely have beaten me this day. Ben, on the other hand, I think would have given Jeff a run for his money; he is one strong rider. So with both Jeff and Ben on 29ers I was the first 24er to finish for which I’m proud. As Ben and I shared the same camp-site we also won the camp-site team competition hands down! Look for us to defend in 2010!

Saturday Afternoon

After getting cleaned up, warm and eating a wonderful lunch prepared by the event organizers, I joined a rag tag group to do some trials riding. I thought I wouldn’t want to ride any more this day after that wearying race, but after a little down-time I was ready to go again. So me, a young chap named Daniel (who is a very impressive rider with only 6-months experience), Robbie, his daughter and young Jarrett from Tampa spent the next hour or so messing around on some near-by rocks, stair-sets, skinnies and just practicing some flat-land skills. At one point Jarrett’s unicycle ended up in the Lake (I still can’t figure out how) so I had to fix it out! The high point came on particularly tricky cement, curb, skinny that had a few left and right kinks in it. Daniel proposed a $1 ante and winner take all to whoever cleaned it first. After several tries I gave up and practiced some other lines. Robbie and Daniel both got close until Daniel attempted the same line from the opposite direction and cleaned it on his first attempt! Ha! What a hustler!

Once back at the festival camp site, the rain had stopped, temporarily, and a ton of eager unicyclists were hanging out and sessioning on various unicycles available. People were learning to ride five foot giraffes, impossible wheels, 36ers, Schumpf’d 24ers, etc… There was even a tiny 12 incher that a few of managed to ride! It was so much fun to just hang out and watch people riding all this various equipment, it was a regular unicyclist traffic jam!

(Giraffing!)

Saturday Evening

Eventually the sessioning climaxed with Ben Richardson proposing another, short, trail ride. So a few hardy souls once again strapped on wet gear and prepared to head back out into the woods. Just as we were departing the rain began to fall in buckets, again. We decided to ride the 4 ½ mile race course, most of which was the last bit of the 12 mile course. This was an opportunity to go ride and to pick up any leftover course markings (Ben Richardson had already swept the 12 mile course after fixing his flat earlier that day). As we had a mix of ability levels on this ride, and because of a complete lack of wanting to push too hard, we ended up spending time sessioning fun elements on the sides of the trail as we waited for others in our party to catch up. I had fun riding across slick rocks and ledges and other wise just soaking in the moment (figuratively and literally, it was raining hard!). Still all things come to an end and soon this Muni session was over as we chased the fading light back to our respective campsites to change clothes and get warm.

Regrouping under the large festival tarp, we managed to build a campfire while Bill Spears and company began cooking a whole heaping pile of fresh corn and rainbow trout! The rain came down harder and more and more people began to gather under the tarp; attracted to the warmth of the camp-fire and the wonderful smells emanating from the large boiling pots of food! I was quite content a while later, eating mounds of battered rainbow trout fried in peanut oil and munching on a huge piece of corn on the cob! Wow, thank you chefs! Later on, at the end of the evening, Ben Richardson came forward to present several awards in categories such as “Best Fall”, “Best Wheel Walk”, “Best Socks” and many others. It was a huge laugh and a lot of fun. The rain had finally let up as we parted ways back to our respective camp-sites to rest our weary bodies, our stomachs full of fish…

Sunday Morning

“Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more…” William Shakespeare, “King Henry V”

(Heart Break Ridge Riders: L-R, Jeff, Ben K., Jack, Ben R., Josh from Unicycle.com, Aleks, Daniel and myself)

So there we were, the last ride of the Asheville Mountain Unicycle Festival 2009, donning wet gear once more. This morning just a few hardy folks remained to tackle the Heart Break Ridge Trail ride. This route would sport almost 4,000 feet of descent in about 8 ½ miles! A true epic descent was in store! Unfortunately, most folks were either too worn out over the past couple of days of riding (I don’t blame them) or had to depart early to get back to their “real lives” (that’s life); that was too bad as this was probably the best ride of the weekend! I so wished Robbie and John could have made it for this ride; they would have totally loved it. I think this ride should be THE staple EPIC RIDE for all future Asheville Muni Fests! We all awoke early and were shuttled, still bleary eyed and sore, up the Blue Ridge Parkway to just in site of Mount Mitchell. At 6,684 feet, Mount Mitchell is the highest peak of the Appalachian Mountains and the highest peak east of the Mississippi River. The riders on this last day of riding were, Josh from Unicycle.com on his custom neon green Nimbus 29er, Ben R., Ben K., Jeff, Jack, Aleks and Daniel (his first time on a 24” Muni). It was a cool 48 degrees when we started this ride amid clearing clouds and hints of sunshine; a perfect morning for a ride! At around 5,500 feet elevation we quickly climbed up a gradually sloped old rock and gravel toll road for about a half mile until we reached the intersection with the Heart Break Ridge Trail.

The tame riding came to end as we all “dropped in” the Heart Break Ridge Trail! The first quarter of a mile or so was an absolute blast; a technical riders dream. The trail was steep, narrow and littered with rock pile after rock pile; you had to choose your line very carefully and keep your speed under control. Absolute concentration was a must and I was so focused that after a short break I realized that I was way out ahead of everybody else! I totally dig this type of riding as this stuff is more like what I’m used to riding back home at Monte Sano State park. My home, staple ride is very similar to this section of trail. Monte Sano is essentially a large plateau with easier, flatter trails up top and very steep, rough, technical, rocky, rooty single track descents off the top onto a bit less technical but no less challenging single track trail system that circumvents the entire mountain. I love it, but for me it is no place for a 29er that is why I’ve grown use to riding a 24er everywhere, and why a geared 24er is almost ideal for me.

I finally paused after clearing the rocky, technical stretch for a breather and to let the other riders catch back up. After a short bit I could hear Ben Richardson’s characteristic whoops and hollers as he was the next to emerge from that treacherous section of single-track. Not long later everybody had re-assembled and was accounted for. Jeff remarked that I must have found an easy short-cut around that last section of trail to have gotten so far ahead so fast!

As we were about to roll off again, Daniel discovered his seat-post was precariously loose so Jeff began to render assistance (it was, after all his unicycle that Daniel was borrowing). The seat-post clamp was a Salsa Flip-Lock type (quick release) and as Jeff applied tension to lock the clamp the bolt parted near the barrel nut! We were a long ways from the end of the ride and trying to ride a unicycle without a secured seat post would be very difficult, if not impossible, even for a seasoned rider! We had a quick brainstorming session. I initially suggested perhaps using some tree bark, or rhododendron leaves to try and use a shim and then wedge the seat post in. Then I produced my Leatherman tool and Josh pulled a MacGyver and used the metal file to cut a notch in the bit of broken bolt protruding from the barrel nut and then unscrewed the broken bolt. Luckily the barrel nut could be moved in its housing enough and there was just enough bolt left that, we just barely got the seat-post clamp to close thus securing the seat-post. Phew! As an aside and for a future idea, I was looking at all the KH’s on this ride with the double bolt seat-post clamps. I realized that there is a pretty good slit around most of the seat-clamp between the bolts. In a jam, and with a metal file like I had, one could cut that seat-clamp in half thus producing two single bolt seat-clamps….

So we were finally underway again, but we’d lost a lot of time dealing with the seat-post clamp issue. We were a bit under a time crunch as we had to finish the ride and be shuttled back to Bent Creek in enough time to break camp and leave our sites by 2:00 p.m. or else possibly have to pay for an extra day! Perhaps the pace became a bit too aggressive because Daniel began to suffer a bit and it became very clear he was getting exhausted. This was a huge ride for him being so new a rider! We tried letting him take the point and going his pace, but as I already detailed earlier, there was quite a bit of lead turn over and soon we’d all gotten back ahead of Daniel. We tried to get him to relax and not force the pace, you could tell he was trying his best to move as fast as he could but all it did was cause him to rush, UPD and get even more exhausted! Poor guy. After a mile or so of this, Ben Richardson made an executive decision to split into two groups. Jeff and Aleks would stay back with Daniel and the rest of us would go ahead to pick up point, still many miles away and a few thousand feet below.

After the group split, we continued on at a bit of a faster clip to make up for our generally slow progress up to this point. We all really pressed and exchanged moments in the lead only to UPD (sometimes spectacularly) and be over taken. This continued for a few miles more along the Heart Break Ridge Line. This part of the trail was very narrow with an often very steep drop off mere inches away. Several times one or more of us would come too close to the edge and auger right off the trail! Luckily most of this section was well covered with vegetation so you or your unicycle didn’t go tumbling into oblivion! Soon it was time leave the main ridgeline and drop to the valley bellow.

This last section of Heart Break Ridge Trail was just spectacular. While the last few miles were mostly a gradual descent this last bit was much steeper, more technical with many sharp switch-backs, and pedal striking roots and rocks. It was somewhere in this section where I had my hardest fall of the weekend. Perhaps it was fatigue or the fact that I was staring off at the panoramic view and not concentrating enough on the trail, but whatever the reason all of a sudden I found myself flying through space and landing hard on my left side! I think I landed right on a rock and Charlie horsed my left quad muscles fairly good! OUCH! It literally knocked the wind out of me enough to just lie there on the side of the trail for a few moments. Ben R. came rolling by soon thereafter and asked if I was okay. I said I was. He then asked what the heck caused my fall as this particular section wasn’t very technical or steep! Ha! Trail unicycling is just like trail running in this respect. I almost never take a hard fall on rough, technical sections of trail because I’m really focused and concentrating, while I might UPD while riding this stuff it usually isn’t too spectacular. No, when I do take a hard fall, running or riding, it is usually on a relatively benign section of trail where I’m not concentrating fully and have relaxed a bit too much. In these cases something as simple as a twig or small rock can cause me to trip and fall! Anyhow, after scraping myself off the ground, wiping the mud off my body and catching my breath, I collected my unicycle (which had tumbled off the edge of the trail some distance) and raced to catch back up to the rest of the group.

Switch back after switch back we descended, I managed to clean most of them often taken more of a trials approach for some of the steeper more difficult turns. Sometime after I lost track of how many switch backs I’d covered I approached the last gasp of the Heart Break Ridge Trail. This last bit was very steep, narrow and full of slippery rocks and roots. I applied my hydraulic brake and gave it my best attempt. I cleaned about ¾ of it until I went a bit squirrely on a steeply off camber, slippery rock and went crashing off the side of the trail into some low hanging branches! So close! (Not really!) Josh was the first to bottom out and he crashed somewhat like I’d just done. We waited as Ben K. gave it the old college try but came up a bit short. Ben R. was next, he chose a bit of a different line but wasn’t any more successful. It was just a bit too steep and slick this time around. Last up was Jack, the smart one, who wisely had shouldered his unicycle and hiked the last bit of trail down!

All that remained was an easy spin down an old fire road, across a wide (and deep) stream crossing, that Josh successfully hopped his way across (often in very deep water!), over an active rail-road line and just like that we were at the pickup location. All things come to an end, but I was quite sad our ride was over. I was very tired and sore (read Charlie horse) but I knew I had a decent drive ahead of me. Luckily in our haste to get off the trail we’d made very good time and were only slightly late. In the end we made it back to the camp area with an hour to spare. I helped the others take down and clean up what was left of the festival camp site and then I bade everybody farewell and headed on down the long road back to Huntsvegas!

I want to personally thank all the Asheville Mountain Unicycle Festival organizers and sponsors and everybody who made my first experience of riding with multiple like minded unicyclists a truly special one. We need to plan to all ride together again really soon. If anybody gets a wild hair and wants to see what kind of riding Alabama has to offer, I’ll play host and I promise you’ll be surprised by the quality of riding there is to be found around here. Until next year…

(Good times on Heart Break Ridge)

If you've read this far, congratulations! I apologize if I left out any crucial details or messed up peoples names and place, so feel free to point anything out to me in the comments and I'll fix it right up! Thanks!

Product Review: Nathan Synergy Hydration Pack

2009-09-16T20:30:00.000-05:00

I've been a fan of Nathan products for a while now, however my experience has been limited to the hand held bottles and light weight waist packs. I recently acquired the Nathan Synergy Hydration Pack.

I chose this particular model because of it has a fairly large capacity (750 cubic inches) which I like for long distance runs in the mountains as it allows you more than enough room to pack an extra layer, food and equipment etc... Even better, it has pockets in the front for quick access to gels and electrolyte pills. Another nice feature is the two large side mesh pockets which allow you even more quick storage for gloves and maps or ditch the hydration bladder and just carry a couple of water bottles in these pockets! Lastly I ditched the waist packs a long time ago because I just don't like that constant pressure around my midsection (too each their own) and what is great about the Nathan Synergy Hydration Pack is that it is actually a vest. No waist strap; you put it on like you would a vest and it has several adjustment points on either side and in the middle of the front. I thought it might bounce around quite a bit on steep, technical downhills; I was wrong! It fits very well and doesn't bounce a bit! Now this particular model comes with the unique dual chamber Synergy bladder that allows you to carry two different fluids at the same time and included is a potency dial that allows you to manually adjust the blending of the liquids before they reach the end of the tube (and your mouth :) ). This is pretty ingenious technology, but with all the tubes and parts it is a bit complicated. I personally prefer a much simpler bladder. However this pack is great and a welcome addition; my new favorite pack!

2009-08-25T20:51:00.000-05:00

I recently rode my mountain unicycle (MUni) down the Mount Elbert East Ridge Trail. At 14,433', Mount Elbert is the second tallest peak in the lower 48 (Whitney is the tallest). Very Short Video Clip. The Trip Write Up.

Dirt, Sweat and Gears 12 Hour

2009-05-11T19:37:00.000-05:00

This past Saturday I competed in the Dirt, Sweat and Gears 12 Hour just up the road in Fayetteville, Tennessee. This would be the 2nd 12 hour mountain bike event I'd participated in on my off-road unicycle! Unfortunately the weather over the past two weeks had been mostly rain, rain and more rain. I think it was truly wishful thinking to expect the course would be "dry" but we all hoped it would be at least rideable. Boy we sure were in for a surprise!

First the good news: I finished 12th* of 17 in my divison (solo single speed amateur male), 47th* of 78 solo riders and 92nd* of 175 overall (including all the relays). * means that this is of those starters who actually finished at least one 10.6 mile loop (there were many who didn't even complete one lap). But more on that in a minute.

Now the bad news: I only completed two loops (21.2 miles) and it took me 8h 20m to do so! And there was very little riding involved!

So what happened? As we all feared, the heavy rains we've had in this area (over 30 inches over the past two weeks) made a complete mess of the trail system the race course covers. And unlike nice, slippery mud, that is still rideable albeit very carefully; we had the peanut-butter <-> cemet consistency type "clay" soil to contend with for the majority of the 12 hour event! Ironically I did a little pre-riding of the course the afternoon before (Friday) and probably rode more in that warmup that I did during the race! So I ended up placing fairly well simply because it was far easier to carry/push a unicycle around the course than it was to do the same with a bicycle. It was pure chaos. We all started out right as it started to rain. If the rain had held out, the course was dry enough to have been tricky but still rideable that day. But luck wasn't on our side and within a few miles most everybody but the fast starting pros were left alternatively pushing their bikes or else stopped on the side of the trail trying to clear out enough mud with a stick to let the tires roll for another 100 yards! It was very bad! The mud was so binding that you couldn't push any type of wheel through the muck! At one point I just held my unicycle by the seat handle and just dragged the whole stupid thing through the mud as my wheel wouldn't even turn! Finally I sobered up the situation and realized my riding was over so I stopped and cleaned as much mud off the tire as I could and then just shouldered the beast and began to hike for the next 7 hours or so!! At the earliest opportunity, around 4-5 miles, a large number of racers abandoned the course and cut back to the start finish area. Of those who toughed it out one loop, most didn't even start, let alone complete a second loop (this includes relays!). It was quite possibly the worst case scenario. I think the only reason this event was even held was because it is on private property and the owner is a mountain biker himself who built all the trails and this is the only event (or only time to even get to ride these trails) all year. The lack of riding didn't seem to dampen most people's spirits as most folks were well along in their imbibing by the time I finished my first loop; and totally tossed by the time I came around again. Thank heavens the race director, after seeing what lap times people were churning out, decided to not allow anybody back OUT THERE with just 3 hours left in the event. I technically could have started a third, but the fact that my second loop took roughly 4 1/2 hours there was no way I'd finish in time as all loops had to be completed UNDER the 12 hour cutoff. No worries I really didn't want to go back OUT THERE! I actually did get to ride some... The following photo is about the only rideable part of the course; just before the finish!

So it's pretty lame that I didn't get to ride, but I think I still won a lot of respect for sticking out two loops when most didn't. I think I even aggravated a few folks because I got a lot of remarks like, "Well it's a lot EASIER to carry THAT around than this &*(*#!!! bike!!!" HA! Who would have predicted a unicycle would have an unfair advantage at a mountain bike race! Well my reply to all that, which I used several times was, "Well that's why you always need to carry a unicycle around in your trunk; you'll never know when it might just come in handy!"

Here are the obligatory "before" and "after" photos. You can judge for yourself the conditions!

Hurricane Creek Park

2009-03-20T20:03:00.000-05:00

Just got back from a local free-ride / downhill / cross - country mountain biking and hiking park. Can't believe I have never visited; it's only 45 minutes away! I'll definitely be going back as I know I missed some elements; however I did manage to ride most of the trail system after messing around on "The Beast" (shown above).

Read more!

La Sportiva FireBlade Review...

2009-03-17T19:10:00.000-05:00

As a long time Montrail Vitesse user I must say I was saddened when I learned that this shoe was no longer going to be made. The Vitesse was Montrail's flagship, and for many years only, trailrunning shoe. I'd worn the Vitesse since before Montrail was Montrail, back when they were still OneSport (anybody remember that?). Anyhow being invited to join the Wasatch Speed Goat Mountain Racing Team I was excited to learn that La Sportiva was one of our sponsors. I was excited because I knew that Karl Meltzer wasa big fan of the La Sportiva FireBlade and he too was once a die-hard Montrail Vitesse fan. So I figured what's good for Karl might be good for the rest of us Vitesse fanatics! Still I had to stay objective about this so I recently recieved my pair of FireBlades just days before the Delano 12 Hour race (that turned out to be a real mud fest). With my hectic school/work schedule I was only able to get in a few miles in the FireBlades before the Saturday race, but I already could tell these shoes were a winner in my book. I've learned that any shoe that you can wear right out of the box without any issues is a keeper and the La Sportiva FireBlade is one of those shoes. Like the old Vittesse the FireBlade has
the sockfit upper but better than the Vitesse, the FireBlade is lighter only 359g and the traction is far superior to the Vitesse (most people's #1 complaint with the Vitesse I'd guess). The FireBlade's FriXion® rubber soles are about the stickiest material I've ever experienced and along with the widely spaced, low profile lugs I had no traction issues at all at the Delano 12 Hour; even in deep mud! Any fan of the Vitesse should give these shoes a chance, I'm glad I did. At the same time I believe trail runner out there that desires a more "minimal" shoe but with a bit more underfoot and forefoot protection will really like this shoe.

It was a Dark and Stormy night...and Day!

2009-03-17T18:36:00.000-05:00

What can I say? The forecast looked pretty grim even days before the March 14th race. Yes the 2009 Delano Park 12 Hour was, once again, going to prove to be a true test of man versus the elements. The weather prognosticator's maps showed nothing but green (rain) for the next couple of days (an early homage to St. Patricks Day perhaps?). And sure enough the rain came down steadily on the way to the pre-race meal, on the way home later and it was still coming down on the way to the start! The certified one mile loop was absolutely flooded; the out and back spur on grass would soon become the "field of lost shoes" as the grass turned into shoe sucking mud. For those thinking that this isn't a real "trail" race, let me assure you I've never experienced more mud, standing water and lousy weather for any "real trail" race of this length; period!

I started off fairly conservatively, in my brand new La Sportiva FireBlades in an absolute downpour! I've only been averaging mid 30 miles per week this year and felt woefully under-trained. Therefore the odds were pretty good that I wouldn't be having a real banner day. Still I had to give it a go. The Delano event has become a staple in kicking off my Spring training for a Summer 100 miler. There is just something about this event that keeps me (and many other folks) coming back every year. While my true love is the mountain trails, this event is so different that it is intriguing. I can't explain it. Perhaps it is the fact that everyone's effort out there is fully exposed, naked before the rest of their compatriots. You can see the struggling, the limping, the funny gait walking the pure effort to get in just one more lap! Yes, no hiding in the woods here!

Anyhow I won't go into to much detail, but the first six hours were a real struggle for me as I battled to settle into my "ultra-shuffle" pace and to figure out my fueling strategy. Meanwhile the front runners just kept pounding away, getting further and further ahead. I'm such a second half runner it is ridiculous. Though the first half of this event seemed to just crawl by, the second half seemed to fly by as I'd finally woken up and the circuits just became easier and easier, my pace gradually increased. I found that I was walking less, running more and I realized I had a real shot at hitting 70 miles, a six mile personal best. I was even more inspired when those early front runners started to come back to me.

Lap by lap their leads dwindled into nothing as a lot of folks stopped at 50 miles and who could blame them? They'd had enough of the elements. So finally with just a few hours to go I realized I still had a real chance for a podium finish, after barely hanging on in the top ten for the first half of this race. So I kept grinding out laps and tried to keep fueling my fire; my engine. And in the end I did indeed end up with 70 miles, 3rd place overall (2nd male) (after some official recording issues were ironed out) and just 5m 28s ahead of my best buddy Blake Thompson who at one point had over a 3 loop advantage on me! I remember early on as he kept lapping me that he might indeed beat me this day, but I was going to make him work for it! Congratulations Blake! Still this was an outstanding effort by this young dude!

First overall with 78 miles (setting the women's course record and tying the overall course record) was Jamie Donaldson of Badwater and National 24 Hour team fame as well as a whole host of 100 mile victories. On paper it was her race to lose! Second was Matthew Kahrs a young rookie who'd never run over a 50km before and this just 8 months into ultra running. Matthew ended up with 75 miles and I know he'll indeed be a force to be reckoned with in the future!

I want to thank all the volunteers who made this event possible. I know it couldn't have been fun standing around in the rain for 12 hours (it wasn't fun running around in it either). Also to the Jon Elmore and his father (among others) who worked tirelessly to help drain the numerous standing pools of water, great work! To Eric Schotz, thanks for a wonderful event I really appreciate all the effort that you put in. I know there were a lot of issues with the new chip timing system but it is an improvement and I know the bugs will be worked out for next year. Sorry if I seemed a little "short" with you late in the race, I was a bit fatigued and still in race mode.

At the inaugural event we faced gail force winds, last year it was snow and frigid temperatures, this year it was to be mud, standing water and torrential rain! I can't wait to see what race directors Schotz and Elmore have in store for us next year!

Two Sport Athlete...

2009-03-17T16:41:00.000-05:00

I'm happy to announce that I just got picked up by SIXSIXONE® for my mountain unicycling ability.

For those not in the know, SIXSIXONE® makes the best body protection gear
in the business; for motorcycling, bicycling and snow sports. I've been wearing their products since I started unicycling (well after the first time I wracked my shins with my pedals!). In particular I love the 4x4 Knee/Shin Guards. I use these all the time when I do off-road and trials riding where the possibility of a sudden unplanned dismount are high! The EVA foam padding with nylon inserts are plenty of protection to stop wizzing pedals and rocks! At the same time they stay cool enough as the internals are constructed of Coolmax® that wick away moisture keeping me cool. I wore them during my 12 hour race in May of 2007 and despite the heat and humidity of that Georgia Spring day I stayed very comfortable. In addition to the 4x4 Knee/Shin Guards, I also use the Dirt Lid which is a very lightweight skate style helmet made by SIXSIXONE®. I mainly use the Dirt Lid when I'm practicing trials i.e. when there is a real possiblity of falling off backwards and thus the need for more side and back of the head protection. The Dirt Lid is indeed very light and I hardly know it's on and that is a good thing. It even stays fairly cool wearing it, even on hot summer afternoons! It comes with several different internal padding inserts that allow the user to custom fit the helmet to their unique cranium. Anyhow I'm really excited about riding for SIXSIXONE® and hope that it is a long lasting relationship as I plan to keep using their products into the future as I embark on bigger and badder mountain unicycle epics! Stay tuned...

Unwinding the Hardrock 100 (2005 Finish)

2009-02-02T21:19:00.001-06:00

38 hours before the start: Barely over a day and a half before the start of the 2005 Hardrock 100 Mile Trail Endurance Run, I arrived at Silverton (elevation 9300 feet), the race start, from Huntsville, Alabama, a mere 600 feet above sea-level, just in time for the 3 hour “Long Trail Brief.” As I sat in the back of the 1930’s era theatre listening to the turn by turn description of the course (along with plenty of accompanying photographs) the realization that conditions were not good “OUT THERE” hit me and the rest of the hardy and brave soles listening attentively, some taking notes. Most (if not all) of those runners in attendance already knew the conditions because they had spent the last several days marking the course and had been acclimating for at least a week or more. No such luxury for me, I had to hope my high vo2 and running way below my potential would get me through again like it had back in 1997 when I finished in just under 38 hours under excellent conditions and running the course in the opposite direction. At an average elevation of over 11,000 feet, the course is run in opposite directions each year; basically a long mountainous loop connecting the old mining towns of Silverton, Lake City, Ouray and Telluride; starting and finishing in Silverton; and traversing 13 passes or peaks over 12,000 feet for a cumulative elevation gain and loss of 33,000 feet. It is for this reason and the possibility of rough conditions that the Hardrock 100 is considered the most difficult, and most beautiful, 100 mile race in the world. My goal was to simply finish this year’s counter-clockwise course giving me, along with my previous clockwise finish, a complete set of finishes: clockwise and counter-clockwise, thus leaving me fully “unwound.”

Assembling around the Hardrock:

Shortly before 6 a.m. on Friday the 8^th of July I nervously paced around the starting line of the Hardrock 100. The starting and finish “line” is a massive 4 by 4 foot by 5 foot tall solid chunk of granite that is placed before the Silverton Gymnasium every year before the start. On one side is painted the official Hardrock logo featuring a Ram’s head inside a banner reading “Hardrock Endurance Run 100 Mile: Wild & Tough.” This side is always placed such that runner’s finishing will see it. The anticipation was killing me, I hate all the pre-race jitters and hoopla, I simply can’t wait to get “OUT THERE” and in the mix; at least then I know where I stand and what my options are. With just a couple of minutes left on the counting down race clock, I reset my watch so that my time of day matched the official race start and time zero of 6 a.m. I would just be going by time of day since my stop watch stops at 24 hours and they would be getting all of our “splits” at each checkpoint anyhow. What does a split mean in an event of this magnitude anyhow?

Silverton to Sherman (miles 0 thru 28):

After singing “Happy Birthday” to the race director’s wife the capacity field of 125 headed east out of town. On my feet I wore my Smart Wool socks and Montrail Vitesse. They have been my trail of shoe of choice since it’s inception. On my back I carried the Ultimate Direction’s Spee-Demon with a 64oz bladder filled with Extran and other goodies. I carried an extra layer of clothing and gloves just incase of foul weather. In the first 7 miles we would climb to over 13,000 foot Dives-Little Giant pass. I felt pretty good along this stretch. The early cool miles fast hiking up into the mountains invigorated me; I felt pretty confident about a sub 40 hour finish. (Running under 40 hours pretty much means that you’ll finish not long after your second sunset) Over the top of the pass there was some snow but it was easily skirted.
I remember thinking that maybe they over-rated the difficult trail conditions… After a 2500 foot decent to Cunningham aid station (mile 9) I stocked up with Boost Plus and Red Bull and prepared for the difficult stretch to come to the next aid station at Maggie Gulch, some 6 miles and several thousands of feet of climb and decent away. I moved along pretty strongly in this section, able to sustain over 30 vertical feet/minute climbing. Into Maggie Gulch the wheels began to fall off as the sun really began to beat down from the cloudless sky. Now above tree-line (11,800 feet) and fully exposed for the next 13 miles and plodded along passing over the Continental Divide in this section. The air temperature was not hot, but just he solar loading on my body was enough to cause me to become overheated and nauseous whenever I tried to run for more than short stretches. However the frequent stream crossings helped me to cool externally as I continually soaked my hat and neck bandanna whenever I had the opportunity. Even still, by the time I started heading down, down, down into the Sherman aid station I was pretty well cooked and contemplated dropping out; sub 40 hours seemed out of the question. However, dropping out at Sherman is a very bad thing to do; especially you don’t have a crew there to support you. Sherman is about the furthest drive away from Silverton as you can get because you either must negotiate a very technical 4x4 track up over various mountain passes to get back else must drive over a 100 miles out of the way to skirt around the mountains! For this reason and the fact that the aid station personnel at Sherman were very wonderful (they saw I was cracking and they fixed me up good!) I decided to continue on, at least to Grouse Gulch (mile 42) where it is an easy drive back to Silverton. So with the clouds rolling in and a popsicle in my hand I headed up the road to Handies Peak. At over 14,000 feet this would be the highest point on the course.

Sherman to Ouray (miles 28 thru 57):

Late afternoon, in the San Juan Mountains, clouds starting to obscure the punishing sun; what could be finer? Just a couple miles of fast hiking up the Burrows Park road I started to feel better (another Boost Plus and Red Bull transfusion) and actual began to run up the fairly easy grade; dodging the occasional confused looking 4x4 enthusiast. From Burrows Park it would be a steady and steep 3500 foot climb in little over 3 miles to the top of Handies Peak. This would be my best climbing of the run as I hammered up at a steady mid 30’s vertical feet/minute. I topped out at around 6 pm. Thirty Six miles down in 12 hours; at this point the prospect of a sub 40 hour run seemed again doable. So after snapping a few pictures and an unfruitful attempt to locate and sign the summit register, I headed down into American Basin. In American Basin I was to experience a little foreshadowing of things to come. Snow. From Handies Peak we drop about 1500 feet into American Basin only to ascend another 600 to American-Grouse Pass. Not too difficult under normal conditions but throw in some slick snow fields on fairly steep terrain and it is not difficult to imagine that the scene becomes a lot more dangerous. However I was still clear thinking and the sun was still up so I traversed the various snow fields without much trouble or worry. Heading down to Grouse Gulch as the sun slowly sank below the mountains was a beautiful sight. Marmots lay about on rock outcroppings or in the middle of the trail itself enjoying the last rays of the day. In Grouse Gulch, my spirits again high thinking I can finish and complete my goal of finishing Hardrock in both directions, I performed another Boost Plus/Red Bull injection and loaded up my night gear including a very bright Petzl Duo 14 LED light which also has a halogen lamp to help find the stubbornly hidden course markers. Reloaded I began a nice fast hike up to Engineer Pass (mile 46) some 2000 feet of climb distant but on a nice 4x4 road. There were a few runners either ahead or behind me, but all of us, refused to cut on our head lamps. It is almost a game to see who breaks first and has to turn on a light. With the last vestiges of light slowly slipping away with the very thin, non light giving, moon, we continued to climb; in the dark. When it seemed there was more sky above me than mountains I finally succumbed and turned my very bright headlamp on. The first thing I saw was a course marking leading me off the left and off of the main 4x4 road I had been on! Talk about timing! A few hundred feet later I was over Engineer Pass and heading 2 miles and 1000 feet down to the Engineer aid station (mile 48). There was quite a bit of snow in this section and the footing was tricky and steep. However it was at a good point in the night as the snow was so loose that one would post-hole through it and neither was it frozen so solid that you would skate along and end up on your butt; rather it was firm yet somehow treacherous if one wasn’t too careful. Engineer aid station had a nice warm fire going but I didn’t stay long as I topped off my water bladder and pushed on into the night. It was oddly warm and I needed no jacket or gloves as I continued down, down, down, dropping 4000 feet to Ouray (mile 56). Along this stretch is some fairly runnable trail except for in the last few miles the trail has been literally blasted out of the side of the mountain leaving 3 foot wide path with nothing but a 300 foot or more drop off to the left and a wall of rock to the right! So skirting this section at night calls for caution and so I ran very little of this stretch; listening to the crashing water far below… Entering Ouray runners cross over the highway connecting Silverton and Ouray and then typically must ford the Uncompahgre River. This year, because of the high amounts of snow and the accompanying high melt/runoff rate we were to alter the usual route to cross a newly constructed pedestrian bridge across the river. This was a hastily added route that was announced at the last second and so possibly the marking could have been a bit more obvious. At any rate, descending a freshly cut trail we emerged onto what looked like a river access road and seeing a course marker on the other side of the dirt road and too our right as we came off the trail we naturally thought that we should turn right on the road and continue down it. We’ll after nearly ¾ of a mile we emerged again onto the highway! So we turned back around and headed back the way we’d already come. Sure enough when we arrived back and saw that marker on the other side of the dirt road, it was one of many dropping off the road down to the river! Apparently we were to come off the trail, cross the road and continue down the trail! I grabbed some sticks and arranged them to point down the trail hoping nobody else would repeat our mistake. So that was the first time I got lost. The second time I got lost was a little later. The route the Ouray was supposed to be a thin loop where there would be an inbound and an outbound leg to the and from the aid station with some overlap of the inbound and outbound route. Following markers as we saw them we apparently came in the outbound leg and missed the small foot bridge we would have to cross to get to the aid station at the far end of Ouray. So as we started to walk right out of town we realized this was wrong and began to retrace our steps. Finally we same a runner emerge on the outbound leg and sure enough, tucked in the very back of a construction area, behind several dump trucks and bull dozers was the bridge; no course marking was in sight! But what can one expect coming in the wrong way? If the Sherman aid station had an evil twin that aid station would be Ouray. Out of fluids and energy gels (from getting lost and using up my budgeted amount) I had to search out and locate my own drop bag (no big deal) and had to find a water source and some food to consume. I understand it was after 2 in the morning but the teenagers who were running it seemed unconcerned with the carnage of runners lying strewn about the open field; chattering away about teenage things. After another round of Boost Plus and Red Bull I left that teenage waste land (apologies to The Who) and headed for Telluride!

Ouray to Telluride (miles 57 thru 72):

The long road climb from Ouray to Governor Basin (mile 64) is not difficult physically. But hiking along that constant grade in the middle of the night with no end in sight and knowing you have still to run all through the next day (at least) can be quite demoralizing. It was a lonely ascent with only the roar of Canyon Creek to help keep me awake. Just as dawn started to hint of the possibility of light, and after much cursing and false hopes, I arrived at Governor Basin aid station. I thought about waiting until first light to continue up to the first technical climb of the course: Virginius Pass. But after a few minutes my friend Mike Burr arrived and we both headed up together. We climb 2000 feet in about 3 miles in this stretch. On the way, both of us pretty sleepy pop a caffeine pill to take the edge off because we know we need to be fully awake for the top of this climb. After a couple miles winding our way up, up, up we break off the mine road and begin to ascend the first of 3 steep snow slides. The first pitch was the worst as the slope was nearly a 100% grade and hung over a cliff that dropped hundreds of feet below the mine road! Mike handed me a plastic tent stake to use to steady me on the way up like using an ice axe; it could also be used to self-arrest myself if I were to slip and start to slide down the mountain… So, alpinists from the east and south-east we began to scurry up the first pitch. The snow was frozen solid meaning we couldn’t kick fresh hold for our feet and had to rely on those already there. Luckily the tent stakes were sharp enough to drive them through the hard snow so at least we had good hand holds with each pair of vertical ascent steps. We made are way up to a patch of snow free ground and rested. No snow to climb here, but still very loose dirt and gravel like ball bearings. Cautiously we made it through like a pair of Spidermen and rested at the top of the first pitch. After crossing a snow filled bowl we ascended the second, easier, snow slide. A mistake here meant you just wasted energy by sliding back into the bowl to try again. So we made quick time through here. The last pitch and final push to Virginius Pass was another snow slide ascent from a bowl. Here we had two options, head straight up like we had been doing and grab a rope that hung about half we down the pass, or traverse from right to left along some steps that others had already cut in the snow? Easy, we did the traverse without any trouble, though a slip here could mean a long, quick slide down into the bowl. We arrived at the Virginius Pass aid station just in time for a café mocha and ginger biscotti which was unusual because this aid station perched in a narrow 10 by 10 foot pass (steep drops off each side) had a whole Mexican theme. Mariachi music played from a small boom box, a piñata hung from over head and the aid station workers all wore sombreros and colorful ponchos. The offered us tequila shots but I declined. It was a fascinating place to be at over 13,000 feet! Re-tanked we headed out the other side and along Mendota Ridge before we began a very steep 3500 foot decent into Telluride (mile 72). As the sun slowly began to rise yet again in this run I could already tell it was going to be another warm day. Just great! Though it was all downhill into town it was very difficult to run because it was so steep and rocky. So we just took our time and talked about races of times past. At last the town of Telluride popped into view and in no time we found ourselves under the giant pavilion tent at the far East end of town. I will admit I was feeling pretty low when I pulled into Telluride aid station but I knew all I needed was another Boost Plus/Red Bull shot to get me going. That taken care of I decided to unburden myself of most of my night clothing and lighting. I also decided to take the risk and change my socks! My feet had been wet, off and on, for the past 72 miles and nearly 27 hours! They hurt. As I peeled off my wet Smart Wool socks I found my feet were massively wrinkled and smelled of trench foot. Ughh! I dried them off as best I could and applied a fresh pair of Smart Wool socks and gingerly put my shoes back on (Montrail Vitesse). The operation completed I was then approached by a young man about my age who wanted to know if I needed a pacer. I normally don’t use a pacer but after I heard that he was in training for a future Hardrock himself how could I deny him a chance to see the last 28 miles of the course? Apparently he was going to accompany the guy I ran into Ouray with (yes we both got lost twice, together!). So, Mike and I fixed up, we headed out of Telluride with Will Vaughn my pacer who would become a fast friend and angel when I needed him later on.

Telluride to Chapman Gulch (miles 72 thru 82):

What can I say about this next section other than it is a long, unforgiving climb, over 4000 feet followed by a punishing, steep 3000 foot decent in only 3 miles. From Telluride to the finish we had 28 miles and over 10,000 feet of climb to go. It takes even the leaders over 10 hours to get home from here. It would take me nearly 17 hours but I get ahead of myself… The first 3 miles of the climb are on a nice wide public path where we saw quite a few hikers and runners out for a morning stroll. At mile 75 we veer off the path onto the Wasatch Trail to continue climbing ever upward to Oscar’s Pass at 78 miles. Only 3 miles but very steeply upward Will and I ascended. Mike was having trouble keeping up our rate of climb and backed off. He couldn’t believe Will and I were climbing away from him and talking animatedly at the same time! Not much later we hit the snow in a big way. As we continued to climb ever skyward we had to negotiate difficult conditions as the trail was buried under deep snow and course marking was a bit thin. So the last summit push was slowed by navigational issues and several long sections of post-holing through the snow. What seemed like forever later we finally reached Oscar’s Pass and started down the very steep, bolder strewn 4x4 road into Chapman Gulch (mile 82). Totally exposed, the sun just seemed to melt me so I had to take it easy going down, plus the footing was so treacherous that trying to run was very suicidal, at least on the steeper early switch-backs. There had been a massive avalanche that had torn straight down the mountain last winter, bisecting the road in several places. So the decent started with a traversal over a remnant of the snow slide which completely blocked the road. And a switch back later we had to traverse along the last edge of the slide. Later switch backs brought no snow but did bring huge boulders we had to negotiate like hiking through a field of talus. However, half way down the surface of the road improves and becomes less steep. It was here that a switch was flipped and I seemed to no longer feel the baking heat and so I ran, hard the rest of the way down into the aid station. Even a fresh Will was having a difficult time keeping up! Into Chapman Gulch the destruction of the avalanche was very apparent by the fields of clear cut aspen trees, uprooted by the awesome force. Other aspens head mealy been bent over on there sides, permanently stuck in a gale force blow pose. Chapman Gulch was a quick turnaround, I tanked up yet again on Boost Plus and Red Bull but also packed some emergency night clothes and lighting as this was the last drop bag I had on the course and if I was going to be out here and night again at all I would need this gear. At this point the slow down out of Telluride meant that I wouldn’t finish before dark but that I still had a shot at cresting the last pass around sunset. It would turn out to be a pipe dream.

Chapman Gulch to Kamm Traverse (miles 82 thru 89):

Leaving Chapman Gulch I was once again fat on Boost Plus and Red Bull so I had to walk pretty slow for a bit. I new this next pass would be very difficult, even more technical than the pitches of Virginius Pass. I’d given my tent stake back to Mike and as Mike was well behind us now I told Will that we had to find some appropriately shaped pieces of wood to help us in the final push up and over the dreaded Grant-Swamp Pass. Discussing I don’t remember we some how missed our turn off this 4x4 road and onto the trail up to Grant-Swamp Pass. Only after the road dead-ended into a swamp a half mile later did we realize that something was amiss. So we retraced our steps and found the turn marked, clear as day. So upward we climbed to the final bench that sat just above tree line that we would use to traverse over to the final 1000 feet of ascent up a massive snow field into a small bowl and a final 300 foot 100 % grade push up to the top and Grant-Swamp Pass. Approaching the end of the bench we hit the first of the snow. The nearby peaks that loomed overhead had already eclipsed the descending sun causing massive shadows in the remaining part of our climb. The good part was that in this shadow it was now much cooler. The far worse part was now the good pliable snow was hardening and becoming slicker. It was also around this time that we saw the last of the course markers for this section. I knew where we had to get to as I’ve twice run down from Grant-Swamp Pass in previous Hardrock’s. Let’s recap my present condition, at this point I had been on the go for almost 36 hours covering about 84 miles, experienced two full days of wilting heat, endless miles of post-holing and slippery snow, trench feet, sun burned lips, no sleep and that doesn’t even cover how mentally tired I was from having to cover this course from marker to marker as I was never confident I was always on course and could just let it roll. So you could say I was pretty well fried by this point, undoubtedly deficient in my fluid and energy intake as well. So beginning the snowy alpine ascent along and up the snow field I saw tracks taking the route diagonally across the snowfield and switch backing upward up to the left side of the upper bowl. The problem with that, as I saw it was first the condition of the snow and second below the path that had been cut the snow field continued downward perhaps another 500 feet until it plunged over the side of a massive 1000 foot plus cliff, from which I could here a roaring waterfall creating by the rapidly melting snow! In my goofy state I just didn’t trust going the well trodden path. In stead, about mid way along the first traversal was a massive, snow-less, rock pile that I saw could be ascended, albeit steeply, up to a safer and more gradual traverse up to the upper bowl. So we started along the first traversal aiming for the rock pile. Without incident we got to the rock pile and it was at this point that I did something very foolish and risky. I quickly scrambled straight up the rock pile without any thought of the best line only hoping to get to a more level spot as quickly as possible. Well I guess my mind just snapped because I had acted irrationally and now I found my self on a very steep and unstable region of the rock-pile and my worst fear came true; the rock-pile began to move from under me! In a panic and shot of adrenaline I yelled to Will below to get the hell out of the way and I moved like Carl Lewis up the rest of the pile to a more stable, flatter, region and collapsed in a heap. And there I lay for several minutes trying to get my breath back; going anaerobic at 13,000 feet is never a good thing! I indeed started to panic, my pulse raced, I was hyperventilating and realized what had just happened got me shaking to my core. I could very easily have brought a mass of rocks down onto Will and possibly onto some of the runners that were below. I couldn’t trust my mind to take the proper action, I was acting recklessly and foolishly, how was I going to make it in with still hours and miles to go? But I began to calm back down when I saw Will emerge from the far side of the rock-pile and give a thumbs up. Once I recovered and drank a sip or two of the Extran drink I’d been using from the start in my hydration system, I saw a lone set of Montrail Vitessse foot prints leading away up to the right side of the upper bowl. I could see this route maximized the use of snow-less space and so I was sold; the route was also less steep as I could see compared to the route more traveled off to the left. Also a spill here meant a slide back to this rock-pile rather than a plummet off into infinity with a slip off the route more traveled. So there I was, panic stricken already and still stuck on this side of the pass. Should I just turn around and go back to the last aid station. I could be back before dark and not have to risk my life once again up the final pitch of Grant-Swamp Pass. This realization saddened me greatly, especially when I learned later that several runners who made it this exact spot did exactly what I didn’t do; turn around and head back rather than risk life and limb. Everyone likes a finisher but at the risk of injury or death? I thought about my wife Kathy, her family, and my two dogs. Would they really want me to do something this risky, just to finish some stupid race? Of course not. But no, I realized that I was a selfish and egocentric person at heart and that to quit now so close to the end was dumb, to heck with the risk. Writing this now I am not proud that I decided to go on. But go on I did never the less… The shadows grew deeper and longer as I followed the lone pair of prints up to the upper bowl. Never looking behind and below me I stayed focused on step by step, ever up ward and closer to nice, firm dirt sections. Then back on the snow, up, up, up finally I crested up into the upper bowl. Whew! At least now any slip off the final pitch would just rocket me into the nearby bare ground that sat at the base of the last snowy pitch up to the top. So I probably wouldn’t be killed if I slipped and slide down, only maimed and cut up and probably have to wait overnight until a rescue party could air lift me out! So stick in hand I walked to the base of the final 300 foot 100% grade climb to the pass. At this point I just turned my mind off and became a machine, for the next 10 minutes I was an alpinist robot; kick, step, plant, kick, step, plant. Rather than trust the existing steps I punched fresh steps in despite the snow becoming rock hard; I guess that explains why I’m losing all my toe nails and all the bones in my feet are still throbbing days later as I write this. I was inhuman driving my feet all the way to the ankle into the hard snow; kick, step, plant, kick, step, plant, up, up, up until finally, never looking down I reached a more level place and emerged onto bare ground mere feet from the pass. I panicked again for in a rush to out of the snow I scrambled a bit too quickly up the still steep and slippery bare ground and nearly slid back over the edge of the precipice from which I’d emerged! Arresting my backward slide with my stick thrust with both hands into the soft dirt I stopped my fall in time! Then, slowly but methodically I made my way up the final 20 feet to the pass and collapsed next to the Joel Zucker memorial. Sitting there, waiting for Will to take is turn up the last pitch I just went out of my head, that is the only way I can describe it now. I just lost it; I started to shake in a panic, I was in shock, I began to weep like a child thinking what I had just done, it was so very dangerous and stupid. By the time Will arrived I was full blown sobbing. He asked what was wrong and I told him, he tried to consol me but I was already too far gone. Looking back now it was really just the product of present condition made worse because I probably had really totally depleted myself from my sprint up the rock field and robot-like final ascent. Don’t get me wrong I still feel what I did was foolish, for even if I was fresh it still would have been a hairy ascent but at least I would have had more wits about me. And at this point I was witless! So after a short pause to regroup we scampered down the other side of the pass hardly taking in the awesome frozen aqua-marine beauty of Island Lake as the sun finally passed behind the distant towering mountains. On the descent to the Kamm Traverse (KT) that would take us to the aid station bearing the same name (mile 89), I spilled my guts to an attentive Will who kept trying to take my mind off the situation by reiterating that that was the last bad climb and that we only had one climb to go and that we were so close to the finish now we had it. Even still I told him I was concerned about my post race situation. The house Montrail had rented for us to stay in had to be vacated by 11:00 am the next morning and, as it looked like now I would be done till well into the wee hours of the morning leaving me with like no sleep before the award ceremony at 10:00 am. And then I had to drive to Albuquerque for my flight out on Monday. How was I supposed to do this after missing two nights of sleep? But Will offered a plan and that made me feel better, he would drive me and my rental car to Durango where he lived and I could crash at his place leaving me only 4 hours do go the next day to make my flight at 11:00 am. So I felt at least a little better but like I said I had popped my top and I was still venting all the way to the KT aid station. Even with these assurances I was determined to drop out at KT because in my mind this was the only way I could get a full night’s sleep and not have to inconvenience Will. Not only that but I thought there was no way I could handle another night OUT THERE I would be a hazard to not only myself, but to others as well because I’d probably do something stupid, get hypothermic and have to have the Colorado Search & Rescue come helicopter my lifeless body out of these mountains. With dark cloudy thoughts of dropping filling my mind we arrived at the KT aid station. It was at this aid stop that the full force of my insanity transpired. I sat down and immediately started shivering uncontrollably and continued to mutter about how scared I had gotten on Grant-Swamp Pass and how bad I felt about those poor people who would have to go through what I did, but at night! I unloaded about my post race dilemma and the need to crash some where to get some sleep; of travel plans going awry… The aid station personnel, especially Lisa Richardson took it all in stride but continued to point out how close to the end I finally was. Just one last 2400 foot climb a shallow traverse to the final pass and then a long 7 miles or so all down hill to the finish back in Silverton. Eleven more miles, it might has well have been eleven hundred, I was spent; and what was worse was that I couldn’t stop shivering and crying about what in my mind was a fairly traumatic experience as well as the fear that future such experiences were in store for me if I continued on and didn’t just stop right now. I was shivering so much that I put on all the clothing I had and was wrapped in additional blankets. And there I sat trying to eat some macaroni, soup and even a banana. However with the calories starting to kick in and the arrival of Mike Burr I started to maybe think I could finish, but I would need to hang in a group to do it. Mike quickly agreed and while he reloaded his pack I began to mentally prepare for one last charge into the fray. And with the final rays of sunlight highlighting the top of our final climb, we slowly ambled painfully out of KT and into yet another sunset…

Kamm Traverse to Silverton (miles 89 thru 100):

Shortly out of KT we quickly descended off the main 4x4 road to a very swollen stream crossing. Mike had gotten a little ahead at this point and decided to cross the creek on his own. I yelled for him to wait for Will, myself and this other guy who had two hiking poles so we could all chain up and cross safely together. He was other oblivious or thick headed or just didn’t hear us and crossed anyway. With every sliding and slipping step he took I cringed, but somehow he made it across, albeit a bit further downstream! The rest of us all stood side by side with Will, the strongest at this point, furthest upstream we all grabbed onto a hiking pole set horizontally in front of us. Cautiously we slowly inched across the angry, knee deep creek. Will acted as a blocker creating a comfortably eddy for the rest of us to traverse through and in turn acting as support for Will. In this fashion we made it across in just a few minutes and quickly caught up to Mike. Still fully clothed because of my previous shiverfest we began to climb away from that creek to begin our 2400 foot push to the last pass of the run. Quickly enough I warmed back up and like a light switch had been thrown I was myself again. I announced, “Rob’s back!” And indeed I guess the root cause of my temporary insanity was total caloric depletion, probably caused by my mad scramble up the shifting rock-pile. With a new found energy and excitement coursing through my veins I quickly stripped back down to my trust shirt and shorts yet kept my jacket and cold weather top close at hand around my waist for the eventual cool down of night. I began to climb faster and soon had to part ways with Mike. I wished him luck and told him I’d see him at the finish. With that Will and I made good time until we found ourselves in total darkness in the middle of climbing through what seemed like a tilted swamp; for every step was in mushy, muddy, grassy goo yet onward we had to climb. The trail markers became very difficult to find and it was impossible to anticipate where the markers were trying to take us. I seemed like we were going in circles quite a few times but eventually we emerged out of the slanted swamp to a false yet still gooey summit. We could see the lights of other runners ahead of us on top of the actual summit, Cataract-Porcupine Pass and so we started to dead reckon in that direction, still hoping to find the next trail marker. Slowly but surely we began to leave the muddy tundra behind; before we knew it we had topped out on the second to last pass of the run. Directly ahead and across what I remembered was a large open bowl was our goal, Putnam-Cataract Ridge, the last pass of the run! So we began one last dip and climb to get there, crossing what we found to be a frozen bowl of firm and icy snow and surprise, surprise, very few course markers. We caught up to another runner and pacer in this stretch who explained they were going slow to try and fix the course markers as they went. I thought this was a great idea since I no longer cared about my time since I knew I was going to finish. So Will and I kept going explaining that we’d try and fix the markers we found as we went across the large open bowl on up to the last pass. Crossing the bowl was not treacherous, because it was so flat, but still was very slow because after successfully finding a trail marker we’d sweep out lights around, sometimes with my LED but mostly with my powerful Halogen beam, in order to locate the next marker that had typically fallen over in the wind or simply had been heated up sufficiently by the sun to melt through the snow in which it was planted! So slowly by surely we continued this pattern all the way up and over the last pass and down into the snow choked valley on the other side until finally we at last left the last of the snow behind and emerged on a well marked and easy to run trail. So with my head bent and arms pumping we began to run for the first time in hours. It felt so good to be running, to be through climbing, to be heading to the finish knowing I was about to accomplish my goal of finishing Hardrock in both directions despite all the problems and miscues I’d had. The bottom line was that I never gave up, central to my core we to not quit and despite everything else that happened somehow that one kernel of motivation never eroded away despite my best efforts. Somewhere along this last long downhill we passed quickly through the last aid station, Putnam Basin (mile 94) leaving us a long and gradual 4 miles down to the outskirts of Silverton. After a loonng time we finally approached the roaring South Mineral Creek. I remember from the long trail brief that the flow at this crossing was supposed to peak sometime after midnight. Well what do you know we arrived at the crossing sometime after midnight, I guess a bit after one a.m. And they were right, the creek (really a river to me) was cresting all right and the banks were flooded. Luckily there was a rope tied securely to either side of the 100 foot wide crossing. All the same when my headlamp first peered down into that boiling and bubbling current I wasn’t sure we could make it safely across! One couldn’t tell how deep it was but it was obvious that the flow was really truckin’. I said what the heck and grabbing the rope firmly with both hands began to make my way across. I soon found myself in over waist deep water, the current trying to pull me fiercely from the rope. The rope kinked sharply as I was pulled quite a bit downstream in the force of the late night flow; and it was COLD! I inched along, hand-over-hand until at last I gained the shallower and calmer far side. Will was along shortly and together we hiked up the flooded embankment to the highway crossing. As we emerged onto the first pavement I’d seen in a long time a head lamped figure approached us. The voice said, “Who’s there?” in a thick New England accent. It was my friend Steve Pero from New Hampshire who along with his wife have been to many a Hardrock, I guess today wasn’t there day if there were out here now. But it was extremely brutal out there and I can’t fault anybody who didn’t make it, I just had more guts than brains I guess. Anyhow I replied, “STEVE!” to which he replied, “Steve?” I responded, “No you’re Steve and I’m Rob Youngren!” Relieved he said, “That you Rob? Outstanding!” We traded some further conversation while Steve told me he was going to be the official “greeter” meeting those guys still left out there when they come across the swollen creek. Will and I said good-bye and raced on along that fairly level and runnable last 2 – 2 ½ mile stretch to the finish. Along that final trail I profusely thanked Will for putting up with me and helping through some rough patches. I simply could not believe I was finding myself in the town of Silverton, I could not understand how the heck I’d made it back alive out of those beautiful yet deadly mountains. I was so happy to be back into the comfort of relative “civilization” that I almost wept when at last we made one last turn and the full night lit glory that was Silverton emerged bellow. I don’t think even the Las Vegas strip and night was any more breath taking than seeing the quiet and sleepy lights of Silverton as we breached the last bit of climb and prepared for our final decent into town. With a last push I emerged off of the last bit of trail onto the gravel streets of town and traversed a short couple of blocks before a last right turn and straight away to the finish. Rounding the final turn The Hardrock was in sight, spot lit and glorious, shimmering almost like a huge chunk of gold. Drawn like a the Hardrock Miners of old to their precious ore I sped the remaining 100 yards and collapsed against the massive granite block. The race clock continued to run until I bent over and kissed the multi ton block right square on the painted ram’s snout. The clock read: 43:43:26…. I had finished 35^th of 71 finishers out of 125 starters; nearly the same position as I had back in 1999 when I ran 37:50!! Six hours slower yet I finish in roughly the same respective position; a true testament of the brutality of the conditions of the race this year. I began to cry with relief when I finally realized what I’d been through, all the trials and tribulations, the self doubt and worry. My body was trashed, I was exhausted, depleted, dehydrated and I was wheezing with ever breath; but I was finished, I had made it and now all I wanted to do was sit down…

Post Race:

At the time, lying in bed for the remaining short hours before we had to vacate the rented house I remember swearing that I would never do Hardrock in the counter-clockwise direction ever again, especially if conditions were predicted to be similar to this year. Just too dangerous. But looking back now a few days and a few thousand miles removed I realize that my state of mind late in the race had more to do with the fact that this was the hardest and longest I’ve ever had to work to finish a race than the true level of danger that existed. Don’t get me wrong, there were some scary spots out there that probably would freak me out even being fresh. However, my only truly low period was when I lost my mind on Grant-Swamp Pass and that could have been avoided with a good pair of crampons and my double shot of Boost Plus and Red Bull! So what’s next? You had better believe I intend to be toeing the line at the 2006 Hardrock 100!

Another Night Spent In The Woods…

2009-01-26T19:55:00.000-06:00

I heard the bushes rustle just off the trail to my left. I turned to see what it was; expecting to see yet another spooked deer. All of sudden there was this black and white blur coming right at me! I had just enough time to crouch and cover my face when WHAM I was struck in my left calf and nearly knocked down! I uncovered my face and turned to my right to see a coyote go somersaulting off the side of the trail, flipping and flipping. It finally came to rest, got up and glanced briefly at me and then he was gone in flash; crashing through the woods…

Sometime around mid afternoon on Friday the 23rd of January, 2009 I received a phone call from my good friend Josh Kennedy another local ultra-runner. He’d gotten wind of my plan to start at midnight that night and run the entire Mountain Mist 50km course over night and then gather myself and start with the other 300 folks to run the actual race for a total of 100km of running. He called to wish me luck but I sensed a slight hesitation on his part; as if he wanted to ask me something. I gambled and asked him, “So you want to go too?” He didn’t even hesitate when he said he did! Okay so now I’d have some company. Then it got real strange, just a couple hours later I receive an e-mail from another good friend going to school down in Auburn, John Nevels. He was wishing me luck and wanted to know when I was getting started. I thought hmmmm? So I e-mailed him back and told him my plans and then, as a lark, invited him to join Josh and me. Within minutes I get an e-mail back confirming my suspicion. He’s in too! Alright so now I won’t be going it alone like last time I did this. I didn’t really need the company but heck why not?

In 2006 I completed the first Double Mountain Mist. This time around I wanted to do it a little differently so I decided for the first “Loop” we’d run the entire Mountain Mist 50Km course (http://www.huntsvilletrackclub.org/index2.htm) the opposite direction in which the race course follows; the so called “Reverse Mountain Mist”. Thus I dubbed this adventure the “Reverse Double Mountain Mist.” So promptly at Midnight on Friday the 23rd of January, 2009 we were off. Blake Thompson (close friend and confidant), a last minute addition, joined the three of us so we were four strong as we headed out into the moonless night.

It was unseasonably warm as we started down the McKay Hollow trail (the locals call this last climb Shelter Hill) and I was second guessing the weather report which called for a cold front and rain to be coming through sometime that night. Just in case I packed an extra thermal layer and a light rain/wind jacket. Still it seemed like over-kill as I was already sweating pretty well! Our first wildlife encounter took place as we neared the bottom of our first descent. Leading this pack of crazy runners I swept my head-lamp to my left and down the bluff below me. I was slightly shocked to see at least 30 pairs of glowing amber eyes staring right back at me! It was a huge group of deer all settled down for the night. Strangely they didn’t get spooked and run; no they just sat there and followed us with their eyes as we descended past them. They must be used to odd bi-pedal creatures with lights emanating from their foreheads coming by in the middle of the night. Not long later on the relatively flat mile that followed this descent we came across a big, fat skunk fleeing down the trail ahead of us! The silly thing just kept right on going down the trail until finally it cut to the right at headed into the woods. Good thing he didn’t decide to turn around and skunk us! It felt like a summer night’s run as we made our way deep into McKay Hollow and up, up, up the Natural well trail in the stagnant air. Still as we topped out and made our way towards Monte Sano Boulevard the wind started to pick up a bit which was supremely refreshing! I’d made out a schedule to try and keep us on pace to cover the first Loop in around 6 ½ hours but we were already a bit slow to this first waypoint. No problem; the schedule is just guidelines but I didn’t want to be finishing up the first loop with no time to regroup before the 8:00 a.m. race start!

So we crossed Monte Sano Blvd. and approached the most difficult section on this course; the infamous Waterline trail. This extremely steep, all fours type climbing trail comes after 24 miles of hard race running, but tonight we were going to have to down climb it, in the dark! What a surreal experience to cast your lights out and down and not have the inky black void pushed back one iota! Carefully we descended the more treacherous first quarter mile. No major problems here we continued on down the more gradually sloped but equally rocky trail. A while later we lost contact with Josh as he made a pit-stop. He said he’d catch back up so the rest of us decided to walk until he caught back up. Well we kept walking and walking the next mile or so and no Josh. Well what to do what to do? Josh is a tough Army dude, WestPoint Grad and veteran combat helicopter pilot; he’d be alright. So the rest of us decide to start running again. We were already falling well behind schedule and I didn’t want to slip anymore. We kept on, covering the rest of the Land Trust trail system at a fairly decent pace. We could tell the weather was starting to change because the wind had really picked up and we started to experience some slight drizzle. As we turned up the Toll Gate trail (part of a former rail-road that once brought tourists to the top of Monte Sano Mountain) Blake told me he was going to cut out at Fearn Avenue (the halfway point) and get some rest before the race. He seriously doubted that he’d be able to finish the race if he didn’t get some shut-eye. I didn’t blame him so John and I said our fair-wells to Blake after we re-supplied ourselves at the Fearn Ave. crossing. Blake headed back up the road and to my house to crash on my couch.

So now it was just John and me. Who knows were Josh was, but we suspected he’d tough it out but we weren’t going to wait around to see. The next 8 miles or so went by without comment. John and I talked about our work and school (it seems we had a lot in common between my work and his studies at Auburn), talking about anything but running! What a relief! We had just started along the Goat trail when I spotted a light from across the hollow, it was Josh! He was too far behind to wait for but we whooped and hollered back and forth to each other just to let each other know we were doing alright. John and I cruised on and then sometime around 4 a.m. the wind kicked up again and the bottom fell out of the sky and it began to sleet and rain a bit more heavily (it kind of drizzled most of the night). Mercifully it wasn’t very cold out (as long as we kept moving) and the precipitation was never very intense. I was now glad I brought some more clothing! The only navigational uncertainty we had came as we negotiated the Powerlines section of the course. A confused meandering of double track power-line utility and ATV trails, the Powerlines can be confusing enough to follow in the daylight but it was even more tricky at night and running the opposite way this route is normally run. Still we didn’t get lost but our frame of reference was off and we just had to take it extra slow; going from marker to marker until we got through. As we entered the Warpath Ridge trail (leaving the Powerlines) I stopped at pointed my light up to the top of a group of trees right on the edge of the woods. I pointed out to John a large step-ladder that dangled from the top of one tree; this was debris from a killer tornado that ripped through Huntsville many years ago.

After this pause we headed up the long ridge line trail, headed back up to the Monte Sano plateau. It was still raining off and on but not very heavily, the wind was brutal however so we just tried to run up this trail to keep warm. Soon we topped out at O’Shaughnessy point, the site of the 1st checkpoint and aid-station for the race. Strangely nobody was here at 5 a.m. so we continued on covering the boring “mileage filling” route on top of the plateau before, thankfully, dropping off the plateau once again on the race’s name-sake Mountain Mist Trail. The rain turned heavy again and was mixed with a fair amount of sleet. Still we were keeping warm enough and we only had a few miles to go before finished Loop number one. Somewhere in this stretch, just as the sky started to lighten up (no spectacular sunrise this morning) I pulled a bit ahead of John, who was dealing with his own personal demons. I was going along minding my own business when…

I heard the bushes rustle just off the trail to my left. I turned to see what it was; expecting to see yet another spooked deer. All of sudden there was this black and white blur coming right at me! I had just enough time to crouch and cover my face when WHAM I was struck in my left calf and nearly knocked down! I uncovered my face and turned to my right to see a coyote go somersaulting off the side of the trail, flipping and flipping. It finally came to rest, got up and glanced briefly at me and then he was gone in flash; crashing through the woods…

Wow! My heart was crashing, the adrenaline was pumping and I just whooped and hollered to John who had just missed witnessing this encounter! However just a few minutes later another coyote sprang out by John (not tackling him thankfully) so he became a believer! Rather anti-climatically we crossed the Mountain Mist starting line at around 6:50 a.m. amid confused looking racers who had just arrived for the big race. Not bad, after getting further behind my 6 ½ hour schedule than I’d have liked, John and I covered the last 17 miles a bit quicker to only finish 20 minutes behind schedule. We didn’t stick around the starting area but quickly walked the quarter mile back to my house to refresh. About 20 minutes after we’d gotten back to my house Josh came rolling in. I apologized for leaving him behind and he proceeded to explain what happened to him down on Alms House trail. Apparently after completing “his business” he somehow tripped and fell pretty hard; enough to send his head lamp flying into the woods and knocking the batteries everywhere! In his own words he said he “…had his bell rung.” So it took him some moments to collect himself in the dark before he realized he had another, still operational, flashlight in his hand! So he spent some time collecting his smashed head-lamp and locating the scattered batteries before he finally got going again. Of course by the time he got rolling we were long gone. Sorry Josh!

So the 8:00 a.m. race time was drawing near as Josh scrambled to re-load and re-dress. We weren’t about to just leave him again! Still with plenty of time to go we sauntered back over to the race headquarters at the Monte Sano Lodge. One Lap down, one to go…

This time around I would be running with my wife Kathy and a little bit rested Blake. We were all chatting away with fellow friends when there was a collective “Oh –hit!” when a gunshot unexpectedly announced the official race start! The herd of nearly 300 runners started to mosey on (the elite guys were already long gone); Kathy, Blake and I soon lost sight of Josh and John behind us. Josh was pretty tired but supremely motivated to finish; John on the other hand was convinced he was going to just get to the first aid-station at O’Shaughnessy and drop out! We all tried to encourage him before the start but the ultimate decision would be his to make. At any rate the early miles literally just kind of crept by; this was a fairly new experience for me starting this race so far in the back. Can you say conga line! Boy I hated that, I didn’t want to run fast but I didn’t want to run in a long line either. Still there wasn’t much I could do so we just kind of dealt with it and passed people when we could until finally we had a little more breathing room by the time we got back around to the first aid-station. Leaving O’Shaughnessy Point and heading down Warpath Ridge we quickly caught up to more of our local running friends. It was so much fun to cruise along in the morning sun, joking and carrying on (probably really annoyed some of the other runners around us, sorry). We even all did “the wave” as another friend got our picture.

Doing the wave! (I started it but I'm behind the guy in the front center!) photo: Steve Carter

Wow what fun! The rain had gone, and the sun was out (almost the total opposite of the weather forecast!) and everything was going great! Not much else interesting occurred; the rest of the run was pretty much a mental blur. It wasn’t so much the physical challenge as it was the sleep deprivation angle. By the 8:00 a.m. race start, Josh, John and I had all been awake for 26+ hours! So this was the mental effort of a 100 miler but with far fewer miles to cover! Kind of surreal to feel so tired after running much less mileage! So finally, after a few down-spells, including an accidental self-induced stomach volcano brought on by the mixture of fizzy Coca-Cola and a large dose of table salt, I finally finished; some 14 ½ hours after I’d started. Whew! I was glad to be done but ecstatic that I got to share this adventure with so many good friends. Both Josh and John struggled a bit more than I but never the less they persevered and finished about an hour and a half later just getting in under the 8 hour rule . So now I’ve done this thing twice; what’s next? I’ve already run a traditional Double and now the Reverse Double so what else is there? Well in the words of some wise guy after I’d finished the Double back in 2006, “So when are you going to do a Triple?”

My best buddies: Blake and my wife Kathy. At the finish! photo: Dink Taylor

Fellow Reverse-Double finisher, Josh Kennedy and myself (I couldn't find John Nevels, I think he might have already passed out somewhere! ;) ) photo: Dink Taylor

i As the first person to do a Double Mountain Mist I felt it was my right to establish a few “ground rules” for all future Doubles :

1. Each “Loop” of t he Double had to be run in a time no longer than the race cut-off time. This has been agreed upon as being 8 hours.

2. A true Double consists of running the course, in its entirety (in either direction), before the actual race; a double consisting of running the race and then running the entire course again DOES NOT COUNT.

3. The attempt may not start any earlier than Midnight the night before the race.

4. No matter how fast one runs the first Loop it will be an 8 hour Loop since the race starts at 8:00 a.m. Therefore total finish time is 8 hours plus your official race finish time. For example if I started at midnight and it took me 6 hours to finish the first Loop and then I ran 7 hours in the race my finish time would be 15 hours. Therefore it is in your best interest to not just blow through the first loop since it only counts as 8 hours no matter what.

Monarch Crest Muni Adventure (August 2007)

2009-01-17T20:19:00.000-06:00

Yeah it's been a while since I completed this adventure, but I was recently re-inspired by a journey these guys just completed. So I figured I should post a few pictures from my much smaller scaled mountain-unicycle epic I completed back in August of 2007. I decided that I wanted to ride the famed Monarch Crest Trail starting at Monarch Pass, Colorado at 11,312 feet above sea-level. This is a true Colorado Epic and a must ride (or run) for anybody who ever is lucky enough to be in the area. The route I took was point to point from Monarch Pass to the Shirley Site some 19+ miles away.

The route tops out and almost 12,000 feet above sea-level and spends the first 12 miles to Marshall Pass over 11,000 feet! The route to Marshall Pass is panoramic view after panoramic view as the trail largely stays on an extended ridge-line and has a net downhill. After Marshall Pass I opted for the "short" route by dropping down the Poncha Creek 4x4 road as I didn't want to keep my wife Kathy and dog Cairo waiting for me too long! The descent from Marshall Pass kept going and going. All in all I dropped almost 3,500 feet over 19 miles and gained maybe a quarter of that! I can't wait to do this route again one day and cover the full 50km+ route all the way into Poncha Springs...

The start, Monarch Pass at the ski lift...
Typical piece of single-track between Monarch Pass and Marshall Pass.
My Kris Holm 24" mountain-unicycle taking a break to pose for the camera. Again up high at almost 12,000 feet above sea-level (between Monarch Pass and Marshall Pass).

Taking a breather at the intersection of the Monarch Crest and Colorado Trail intersection.

Chatting with some of the two-wheelers at Marshall Pass.

Just one of many awesome Aspen groves along Poncha Creek 4x4 road on the descent to Shirley Site.

Finished at last and all just under 4 hours trail-head to trail-head. Not bad for one wheel, fixed-gear and no brakes!

Offroad One Wheeled Action!

2009-01-08T21:41:00.000-06:00

Here are some photos of me at the "12 Hours of Fort Yargo", a mountain bike race I competed in in May of '07 (almost ancient history!) on ONE WHEEL! I ended up accomplishing my goal of covering 50 miles on rolling single track without a free wheel and no coasting; the ultimate fixed gear! You'll be quick to notice that it looks like I'm grabbing my crotch as I ride, well I'm NOT! Every try to ride a mountain bike off-road w/o a handle bar? Well that's what unicycling off-road would be like save for the fact that the seat on my unicycle has a small handle on the front that I'm grabbing. It's essentially a handle-bar for a unicycle! Without it you'd be bumped right off when you start going over the rocks and roots...

Climbing the dreaded "Pipe Line" Hill.

Passing through the Start/Finish area (Starting yet another Lap)