I apologize for this report being so long but hey, it was a 50+ mile race. There were good moments and bad and to get the full effect, you have to read it all.
To start my MMTR weekend, I traveled to the race with my friend Kenny and his wife Manon. We arrived at the Kirkley hotel in Lynchburg Va and was treated to a very nice pasta dinner. After the dinner the usual pre race talk was given with some acknowledgement given to some of the favorites for the race. The Iron Horse award was explained as well. This is an award given to the male and female that can bench a certain amount of weight the most number of times right after they finish the race.
Dinner ended fairly late and we were off to the room. I'm guessing we got to sleep around 10-11pm. I wore my ipod so I could listen to a podcast about ultra running so I could go to sleep. I went to sleep quickly and slept well until time to get up, 3:15am. I was up quickly, showered, and in my clothes. We were to leave at 4am. I ate two Clif Shot bars which are like a big oatmeal raisin cookie. After about a 45 minute car ride out in the country to the James River Visitor Center on the Blue Ridge Parkway, we were there. It was cold and dark! I'm guessing around 30F. I had on extra clothes to keep me warm but mainly I sat in the warm car while we waited for the 5:30am start. There were some huge spotlights running off of generators set up to sort of light up the area. Very soon it was time to get started.
The MMTR proved to me that running is about 70% mental and 30% physical. I ran almost 400 miles over the past 10 weeks with nearly 90% of it involving climbs and descents. I ran two runs over 30 miles that went fairly well. I felt I was very much ready. What I was not ready for was the pace of the MMTR. I started the race running along with Kenny. I had decided to run with him and take it easy at the start. I had been told by at least two MMTR veterans to take it easy in the beginning.
It was going to be a beautiful day. There we were about 266 runners, running on the Blue Ridge Parkway at 5:30am in the dark and cold. This road was very flat, I knew it would be the last flat spot I'd see for the day except for the finish line. I was just cruising along with Kenny and in a few miles almost all the runners except for a few were out of sight. I'm sure I was in the last 5 runners. I was not wearing a watch and I was saving the batteries in the GPS for later in the race. My overall pace to Cashaw Creek was 13:20 (261/266). That was pretty darn slow for 5.7 miles on a fairly flat road. I actually think it was about 7 miles. I really thought I was going faster.
I then hit the trail and started into the mountains. The trail was nice here and I kept running even up the hills. The running seemed easy. I could see runners in front of me and I may have passed a few. I was listening to my J Vernon McGee (a preacher) as he went over the book of James Chapter 2-4. I went quickly through the Peavine Mountain Aid Station 3 (AS 3) and began the steeper climb on up the mountain. I was still running well with no problems. The running was easy all the way to Aid Station 4 (11 miles). My overall pace was 13:34 (254/265). Not very good but I was still running very easily. Oh and if you notice as we go through this that the number of overall runners I'm quoting is changing that's because runners were being cut and dropping out all along the way.
At AS 4, this is where my race changed for the worse. This was the first aid station where crew could meet us. Kenny's wife Manon was there with a smiling face and said, "Where's my husband?" I said jokingly "Oh behind me somewhere." She then said "You've got to get a move on! You're only ten minutes from cutoff!" I said "What!? What time is it?" "8:05" she said. I said "No way!" She said "Yeah!" I didn't want to believe it. I grabbed a few snacks from my bag, filled my bottle with some water which just diluted the gatorade I had left in there. I took off up the trail.
I started running faster than before. I was starting to panic a little. "Only 10 minutes to cutoff" I kept thinking, "how am I going to overcome that in the next 40 miles of mountainous terrain?" I started asking other runners as I passed them, "Are we ok? Are we going to finish?" Some had not run the race before and some said, "Yeah we're ok, we just have to keep this pace up and not quit you will gain some time along the way as the cutoffs get easier." I started to calm down a little. At AS 5 (14.9 miles), I was 15 min ahead of cutoff and had dropped my overall pace to 13:13. I said Hello to Manon and grabbed a few things. This section includes some good runable trail and I was going along very well.
Then just before mile 17 the course threw a long steep uphill at us up a nice gravel road. This was a challenge to run on but I ran slowly up most of it. I was still doing ok but I was starting to feel that there were chinks in my armor. My stomach was not feeling the best. I felt kind of sloshy and like my stomach just wasn't "working" for me. It seemed it was working against me. I hit AS 6 (17 miles) and was back to 10 minutes from cutoff. I had really been looking forward to this spot because it marked the beginning of a long downhill that when finished would put me only about 5 miles from my family waiting for me at AS 10 (Mile 27). This is where my body decided to start giving me trouble.
I started down the long hill and should have been running fast and strong. I started cramping in both legs and my stomach felt like a blob of concrete. In all my training I never felt like this. I think now that it was my nerves. Remember the 70% mental statement I made earlier. I was so overwhelmed that I was so near cutoff. So far the course really had not been that hard. I think it was just the strain of the time and what I thought was coming in the last part of the course. I didn't see how I could make it.
About a mile or two before AS 8, I was running along the Lynchburg Reservoir and the running should have been easy but I felt really bad. I was altering my stride so I wouldn't cramp and my stomach was like mud. It's hard to describe how my stomach felt. It pretty much stayed that way all day. I didn't want to throw up but it just felt like anything I put in my stomach just sat there and did nothing. I would get energy from my stomach in small waves as I would later on find out.
I limped into AS 8 (22 Miles) and Manon gave me the news that Kenny wasn't doing well. I was bewildered. Here I was about 22 miles into the 50 mile race of my dreams and I felt like it was over. I was still only about 10 minutes or less ahead of cutoff and I was about to start a steep uphill climb. As I left that AS I felt woozy and almost and I mean almost turned around and went back to the AS for a minute to see if I would feel better. I decided though to push on. If I felt worse I could always just limp back downhill to this AS and drop out. I started out up a steep hill I had to make it to my family.
This was the beginning of the really big climb of the race. My family was less then 5 miles away. I started feeling slightly better as I climbed. It seemed for some reason that throughout the race walking the climbs would sometimes make me feel better and sometimes make me feel worse. I haven't said much about eating but I was eating a little bit here and there. Sometimes I would eat AS food sometimes some of my own GU and Clif Shot Bloks. I preferred my own food. The other food seemed to cause my stomach to feel poorly. As I walked up the steep, steep road, my nemesis appeared. The sun came out in full force. The temperature had been below about 55 to this point but now it was starting to climb and I was out in the sun. I got up to the flat portion just before AS 10 and even though I knew my family was close I was suffering. The road was flat and I should have been running but I was hot, queasy, and cramping.
Then I saw something that I didn't want to see. It was Kenny out in front of me standing in the road. He had been cut at AS 6 and had been brought to AS 10. He was standing there saying "You've got to get a move on buddy you're almost at cutoff!" I said "I know but I'm suffering from everything" I said. Cramps, bad stomach, and heat, I had it all. He told me my family was to the right at AS 10. I came into the AS and felt terrible. Here's the video of me arriving at AS 10.
I had so looked forward to this moment of meeting my family at this point. Here I was, I felt terrible and I was 10 minutes from cutoff. My family included my wife, sister-in-law, daughters, Mom and Dad. I had wanted to greet them all and say a few things to them but all I could do was moan and say what I wanted and what I didn't want. I wanted my sunglasses and the two-way radio and something to eat. I couldn't figure out what to try to eat though. I had told them I wanted real food. I didn't want anything my wife had made for me. She had blueberry bread, brownies, and chicken noodle soup. I wanted to eat it but I just felt like I couldn't. They finally got me to take a breakfast wrap from Burger King.
I was sort of out of it so I said "Dad, just take me to the start of the trail I can't even see where it starts for the parked cars". I was almost disoriented and delirious. Note I said almost. My dad walked me to the start of the trail and I started out up the steep Buck Mountain Road. I walked at a decent pace. I didn't want to let them down. If nothing else I'd make it to the next AS and get cut off. "At least I tried I thought." I started taking small nibbles of the BK wrap and kept walking all the while the road was too steep to run for the most part. Over the next mile or so, I ate most of the wrap and threw the last bit away. I may have eaten a GU or something else as well.
This is where my first uplifting moment of the race occurred. There was an older gentlemen obviously struggling up the trail in front of me, walking slower than me, which is really slow. As I passed him he said "We're out, you know", I said "What?". He said "We'll never make the next cutoff." I didn't want to hear it. I said "I don't know about that." He said "Yeah I left the last AS right at cutoff and I haven't been able to run at all." That's when I reached into my pocket and pulled out a piece of paper with the cutoff times for the Aid Stations. I looked up the cutoff time for Buck Mountain. It was less than 3 miles to the Buck Mountain AS and I knew we'd already covered about half of that. I looked at the paper. They had given us a whole hour to make that climb! We were doing fine! I said to the guy "We are still in this race, don't give up!”
All of the sudden I just up and started running up the steep road. It started to ease up a little and I kept running. Soon I heard music blaring from the AS on the ridgeline. I ran some more. I hit the AS and the guy said we had 16 minutes before cutoff! I couldn't believe it. I was back in this thing. My back was still to the wall but there was still a chance. I had to keep going. I looked down the trail and knew it was downhill all the way to the next AS. I took off at my fastest pace yet. I hollered over the radio to my family "I'm 16 minutes ahead of cutoff! Woooo hooooo!" Here I am at AS 12. I look slightly better.
I came rolling into AS 12 (229/244) and there was my family ready with my stuff (32.1 miles). At this point I was sassy! My wife asked, "Do you need anything else?" I said "Yeah I need you to get back in that car and get up the road cause I'm going to beat you to the next AS!" Alas, I was not. It was straight uphill, this was one of the steepest sections of the race and it did not let up for at least a mile or more. My Dad was in the car way ahead of me and he radioed back that the hill went up for a long ways. I didn't care. By this time, there was no hill too big. I walked this whole section until I got to the top where my family was parked. My girls had made posters for me that talked about "The Climb" and saying rocket man can do it. My triathlon wet suit has a rocket man on it so I got that nick name.
I decided to change shoes. I'm not sure if this was a good move or not. I lost valuable time but my feet felt better. I cramped up my right side all the way from my foot to my armpit when I tried to take my sock off at the car. After putting weight on that side, the cramp went away. You have to realize that at this point in the race my body was in such a state that any abnormal move resulted in pain. The act of walking was barely painful and running was mildly painful but any other movements were unbearable.
I got the socks and shoes on and they felt good but I lost time. I hit the next AS known as the beginning of "The Loop" (33.6) with about 9 min to spare. The AS worker said "You've only got about 9 min to cutoff" and I said "I've been hearing it all day" as I ran onto the 'loop' trail. The Loop is sort of an infamous part of this race. It’s a 5-mile rocky mountainous loop around one of the high peaks of the area. This trail was very nice at first and you could really run fast but I ran as best I could. Then the trail began to get rocky and turn up the hill. I had been munching on another one of those BK breakfast wraps and my energy was waning. This was a long tough climb. It was rocky and tricky, jumping from rock to rock. This was another low point in my race. I was near the highest point in the race elevation wise but mentally I was at a low. I just didn't see how I would pick through those rocks and get back to the AS in time. I thought once again the race was over for me.
My GPS had not worked much in the last 10 miles but it started working now. I told it to find the end of the loop and it did. It said I had less than a mile to go. I had less than 10 minutes to get there. I went by the AS and they said "You're 5 minutes from cutoff." I just went on. I told my family on the radio we'd have to be quick as I let them have my Camel Bak water pack and took my water bottle back. My dad was there to meet me with the bottle and take my pack. Audrey had some food ready and I was gone. I suppose that the breakfast wrap I just ate was starting to kick in and for some reason I was running well but I didn't feel all that great.
Then somewhere in this section leading up to the AS at 41.5 miles, I started to feel better and was passing a few other runners. One guy was struggling and asked if I had any GU. I had plenty so I told him to keep up with me and I'd give him one. I gave him one and he started dropping back. I kept up the running and was starting to panic a little about not making it to the next AS in time. The dirt road went downhill for a ways and then turned up. I couldn't get my family on the radio and I knew I only had a few tenths of a mile to go. Finally they answered and they said they just got there. Then I saw Kenny up ahead.
This was my moment of truth in the race. Kenny said "I don't know if they're going to let you through this AS, you're 3 minutes behind." I just kind of put my head down and ran a little harder up the hill. I actually was feeling really good all of a sudden. Ironically, it may have been the thought that it was over that relaxed me. There must be something to being relaxed while running. I got to the aid station and I went to Audrey as if nothing was happening. I had decided I was just going to go on and not let them pull me if I could, not even give them the chance. The AS worker came over and said, "You're past cutoff." He said "You can go on but they are really strict at the next AS." So I kind of gave this really disappointed look to everyone. That's when something happened that I can't explain. It was a moment of magic for me in the race. The AS worker said something like "Yea it's 1.5 miles to the next AS and it's all uphill and the cutoff there is about 15 minutes from now."
What went through my head next was incredible. I thought, I can do that! I could see the road I had to go up and it was steep and rough. I can do it I thought or I'll get cut trying. Kenny read my mind and said "Get rid of anything you don't need! Empty your pockets!" I threw off my radio, my ipod, most things in my pockets and I turned and sprinted like I was in a 100 yd dash to the road and started up it. I was running with such purpose it was incredible, it was steep and rocky but it didn't matter to me.
Within just a few minutes I passed one runner and he said "Wow Go get ‘em man". It was sort of like there was nothing to lose now, the pressure was off. I think I passed one or two more runners in the next few minutes and then I saw it. I saw the table of the AS (43 miles) on the right. I didn't want to look at the guy as I went by but he said out loud "Number 47, You're good". By the way, I was number 47. As I kept running into the woods I could not believe it, I had made it! I was still in this thing. I would later figure out this section had an average grade of almost 9%. Note that Sandstone Mountain on I-64 is about a 7% grade.
I hit the GPS for the point I had dubbed the "last mountain" I had to climb. It said I had less than a mile to go to that. I couldn't believe that either. I knew that once I got there it was mostly downhill to the finish. I also started to notice that as I was occasionally passing a runner here and there, I never saw them again. I was definitely at the spot where the cutting was happening. I worked my way up the steep trail that wound around and got to the top and looked out. I could see the valley below where I was headed. I headed out the ridge that lead down that way. A little later on, there was one more notable mountain I had forgot about known as Elk Pond Mountain and it discouraged me a little bit to be climbing again. I said to a few guys that were with me,” Where did this come from.?"
I finally made it up that mountain and from there on it was level to downhill running. I knew I could do it I just couldn't slow down. Slowing down at this point would put me past the cutoff at the final AS before the finish and that would be heartbreaking. I heard one of the runners say we had to be there at 4:45pm. Right now it was about 4:20pm and I heard him say, "We're going to be close." Well I wasn't going to let that happen so I passed them and went on. After an eternity, I saw the last AS (221/225) at 4:40pm. The guy there was very encouraging and said "You can make it in time to the finish if you just keep up a good pace and it's all downhill. It's 3.9 miles," he said. Well to be honest it was a lot of flat logging road that zigzagged down the mountain so it wasn't true downhill. I ran the first mile at an 11:30/mile pace. The second at an 11:00/mile pace.
Finally after what seemed like an eternity again, the road went on a dive downhill. It was so hard to hold back and not keep falling forward. Every step hurt as I bounded down the hill. I ran this mile at about a 10:00/mile pace. If you're keeping track that's about 32 minutes gone from the 50-minute cushion I had to get to the finish. Soon I saw what I was looking for, not the finish line but the line on the road, the magical line on the road that I knew would be there. The line that said 1 mile to go! I ran a little more and saw my Dad sitting in his car on the hard top road. As I ran by he said "about a mile or so to go and you got 15 minutes." I said, "no it's less than a mile!" This is when I knew, sigh, I knew I had done it. I knew unless there was some huge time difference between the race clock and my GPS I had it in the bag. It was level to downhill pavement running.
Soon I saw Kenny and Manon. They had come out to meet me and started running with me. They had stuck with me through the whole race. This is when the feeling really started to set in. I was going to make it. It was close. This huge, huge smile came over my face. It was an uncontrollable smile.
I ran past Kenny and Manon, my Dad started running with me and he said "I thought I'd run a little bit with you". I laughed and sped up until he stopped running with me. I was now at the finish line. I crossed; shook Clark Zealand's hand (race director) and this huge wave of relaxation followed by intense pain came over me. I was excruciatingly exhausted. I wobbled around and tried to keep walking. I couldn't hold a straight line. My official time was 11:52:50. A pace of 14:15/mile if you say it is a 50-mile race. It's actually a little longer so my pace was a little faster than that. I was 221st out of 226 official finishers. There were roughly 270 starters.
My family brought me clothes, soup, food, and a chair. I drank 2 cans of soup in less than 5 minutes. I was starving. I sat down but then when it was time to get up I was woozy. I had my Dad hold onto me while I stood there. I felt really rough. My leg muscles were a burning cramping mess. As I ate and drank I started to get a little better but I really couldn't respond to anyone real coherently. After about almost an hour of eating and drinking, by now I was in the car heading home, I started to feel better. It would take 4 days to get over the soreness. This was a forced smile.
I feel as though I trained very well for the race. Next time however, I will train at a slightly faster pace. The most important thing I need to do next though is start the race faster! Not a lot faster but faster. I will attempt to run the first half of the race faster. The first half is not all that bad and I can recover on the long steep walks in the second half of the race. This will keep me from getting so nervous about getting cut and keep my stomach in good shape. I realize if I go to fast I could fall apart but I think this is what I need to do.
If you are interested, here is the "flyover" of the race course. It takes about 5 minutes to watch.
http://therunscout.com/2009/08/mountain-masochist/
To conclude I'd like to say that foremost the Lord was responsible for my ability to train and finish this race. My wife was incredible with her support and baking skills. The rest of my family being there meant so much. Even though I never said much and when I did it was grouchy, I really appreciated them being there. I also would not have finished I think without them there. It was partly smart planning on my part to not have them show up until halfway. That forced me to keep going. Also, their help was critical in me finishing in time. I was able to restock more quickly by having them and the two-way radios to tell them what I wanted. This was an amazing experience and I encourage anyone that has finished a couple road marathons and maybe a trail 50k to consider it. You have to love running in the mountains and be prepared for hill after hill both up and down. For me, it was all about that mile and a half up that steep rocky road. It was about knowing that even after 41.5 miles, I realized I had the kick left in me to make the climb.
3 comments:
Congrats again. You tell the story very well.
I'm so proud of you! Love you!
Love, Audrey
Mark,
I'm proud of you man! It was an honor to run the BRR with you. You are a stud. I just finished my 2nd marathon Nov. 8th. Also ran a 5k on Thanksgiving and won my age class. Let me know when you need a pacer for your 100m run!
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