Playing 6-Months of Catch-up

         Alrighty, well even though I've said it a million times on here. Its been  far too long and this has been weighing on my mind far too long. Time to play catch-up.

10 Miles in and sweating like a dog.

    Since before my last blog was even written (I was trying to stick to three "events" per post) I had a very harsh DNF at Barkley Fall Classic 50K in September. I felt like I trained well for it. Was regularly doing power hike - climb sessions on the treadmill at 15%, Hill-repeats, and in the previous months had completed a few hard hikes as well as the Pikes Peak Ultra. So walking in I felt pretty confident. Less than two hours later I would feel very, very different about the situation. Having to make the trek from Kansas City to Wartburg, TN area in car ensured I wouldn't drink enough water (who likes to stop every couple hours to have to take a leak?). Hindsight: I should've been chugging water and stopping whenever I damn well needed to. Because the next kink in the chain came with the wild humidity. I don't do well with humidity on the best of days. Throw in some Old Mac mountain climbs, reasonable heat, slight dehydration coming into the race, and no heart rate monitoring and you have the makings for a Darrow disaster. Which is exactly what happened. My legs felt great, relatively speaking, but every climb made me feel like my stomach was coming to pop right out of my throat and I was just never able to recover. Coupled with the tight time cut-off's and I had to take a DNF on probably my biggest excitement of the year. #doesntfeelgoodbro

One of these things does not feel like the other.

    After that, my racing season was over for the year. Now it was time for me to help my twin as well as my girlfriend. First up, Trent and I had the Dana Peak 100K in October. Which was supposed to just be a solid training run for Trent to prep for his first attempt at a 100 miler at Dinosaur Valley. Having completed the 50K (his first ultra) the year prior he really wanted to shoot for the 100 the following year. But, I digress. Dana Peak. Its a course he knows really well, and I knew reasonably well having run there a handful of times with him. It was supposed to be a close-to-home, comfortable race. Turns out it was still hot as shit in Texas. Something we didn't necessarily anticipate dealing with. The course was essentially two large 50K loops, with some of it venturing out into parts of the trail we hadn't really ventured to much. The first 50K went about as well as it could, with things starting to visibly deteriorate as we started the second loop. I may or may not have imbibed a tasty hoppy beverage at the end of the first 50K as I was still feeling pretty good and it just sounded refreshing as hell. Normally I'm not one to drink while running, but with the slower pace, me still feeling good, I figured it wouldn't harm anything. And while I don't think it did, had I been running the race at my pace, it definitely would not be something I would've done. But, again, second loop. Things started slowly going south as we hit the first aid station, it was an unmanned water drop. The Jugs were near empty and what was left in the jugs was about 90F, and this would also be our "second aid station" to hit after making out loop on the west side of the course. Everyone who we saw come to this station felt just as disheartened as we did upon realizing it was basically empty. So we trekked on. And this is about the point where things started going south. Fast and Hard. With Trent really feeling the dehydration and the heat of the day, he got to enjoy "Radio Travis" for about half an hour while I tried to sing and rap our way to the next aid station with songs I could only half remember, because I was starting to feel the toll of the last two aid stations, or lack thereof. By the time we hit the aid station at about mile 50, Trent was probably in the worst shape I've ever seen him in, in an ultra. And to add insult to injury the aid station was about half shut down by the time we got there. The volunteer, while trying to be helpful, made a few comments and suggestions that I could tell were starting to get to him, so I tried to just let him take a couple salt tablets and rest a moment to let "things come back to normal." And thankfully, he got enough life to decide to continue. The last dozen miles or so were generally a death march, and Trent may have had a heat flash- yak attack 20 minutes after leaving. But we got it done.

Nothing like the first time. Way to crush it Jess!

    Following this I had a Half-Marathon with Jess. Which I somewhat conned her into since I did a OCR with her a few months prior. But, she put in the work to get the miles she needed to train for it, and suddenly the day came. It was freezing rain followed by wind and snow as well when we arrived. Just to get to the start line was a .5-1.0 mile walk in the freezing weather we absolutely did not expect. I honestly wouldn't have blamed Jess for not wanting to do it that day. The weather had been pretty nice the weeks leading up to it and this was not expected at all. But, like a champ, she pressed on. And good thing, because shortly after starting the snow stopped, the freezing rain had turned into a light sprinkle/mist and honestly it turned out to be a decent day weather-wise. We stuck pretty well to our pace schedule, had a few run-walk intervals to get us to the end. And unfortunately (but as a sadomasochistic ultra runner, I jokingly say fortunately (you wouldn't want to rob someone of experience right?!)) Jess ran into the worst of runner problems: needing to hit a bathroom, bad. Which is where I love ultras, it is not uncommon or even looked at twice to see a fellow runner squatting in the woods doing their business. Unfortunately this race was not like that, and by the time we found a porta-john along the way... well... if you've ever hit a beacon-of-light a couple hours into a race I don't even need to describe the internals of that thing. Needless to say, it wasn't used by her and we were forced to trek on, hurry up and finish, and find a porcelain throne for her. But, once again, she did great! we got it done and she had finished her first Half-Marathon! Big props to her for that one. 

See you next year you beautiful bitch.

    So, now its November. Dinosaur Valley time. Having done the 50K the year prior with Trent we were both pretty comfortable with the course, we knew the aid stations would be top-notch (Active Joe, you guys always do a great job, keep it up, we'll see you again this fall), and the loops were nice and digestible ten milers. And, electrolytes aside, Trent did do pretty well at Dana Peak 100K about 6 weeks prior so we were feeling good. Once again, stuck to the pacing and heart rate we needed him to be at. and aside from a couple moments when I just needed to stretch my legs a bit and run ahead, I stuck with him. The year prior the weather had been just about perfect, if not slightly warm if I get to complain. This year would be the opposite. Starting out at about 40F, only rising to about 50F in the daytime, and dropping as low as 25F the following night we knew it would play out a bit different, in our favor we were hoping. And this is where the falsehood started. As the night came and temps started dropping, it became very evident that Trent did not pack or bring enough clothes to stay warm and dry overnight. Each loop ending with a small jack-hammering session inside our little makeshift aid station beach tent. Eventually we came to the point in the miles and loops where a decision had to be made: take the 5 mile loop and end it at 100K or finish out the ten mile loop and continue. And with me honestly being in a much more comfortable spot, I wasn't going to make any decisions for him on whether or not we should continue. Oh, and the final caveat that had messed things up a bit was that Trent would be going on vacation with his wife the following Monday, with a 7am flight. So the thought of finishing with only enough time to make the 3 hour drive home, try to get clean, pack and wake back up at about 3am to drive to Austin to make some flights was also in the backs our minds which might have also contributed to the decision to drop-down to the 100K on our final loop and call it a night. Better planning and I might have been a bit more apt to push him to continue at least another lap. Because once you have 70, you might as well go to 80. And once you have 80, well, you see where this goes. But between him getting colder and colder each lap, the drive home yet, and him leaving the following day I was not going to argue with him about whether or not to stay. After all, family time is important. And what goods a vacation if you cant walk for half of it. So 100K it was, but Fall 2023, we'll be back.

Birthday fun runs are 50K or less from now on.

    So now its 2023, Trent and I have a 100K "Birthday fun run" scheduled. Figured with his previous training for the 100 attempt we'd be fine. So, another Blaze Trails race: Running the Rose. Having never done this one before it would be new to the both of us which can be a bit of fun, even if it is harder to mindlessly tick away miles. Again, this race would consist of multiple loops to get us to the 100K mark. While it was a slightly more hilly course than originally planned, it wasn't bad. Just enough to add a bit of fun. But, unfortunately Trent started getting some twingy knee issues within the first few laps. Which may have been my fault honestly, I was kind of forcing him to push pace slightly so we could pass a few large groups of runners that felt it necessary to walk every. single. hill, no matter the height. Which would lead to an accordion of people on the single track, meaning we ended up having to walk a lot of downhills because of the tight grouping. So, may have pushed him a bit hard to get past the people, but being stuck behind large groups on a single track was starting to get on my nerves with all the weird pacing intervals. So we pushed. But, again, possibly to his detriment. Because when he mentioned that his knee felt similar to Dinosaur Valley 50K from 2021 I knew this one wasn't going to be in the books for us, and with him leaving for Warrant Officer Candidate School shortly after we didn't want to risk him coming in injured and possibly messing with his military career, after all this was just supposed to be a Birthday fun run. So at the 50K mark we called it and took the DNF home with us to "celebrate" our birthday. We've also come to the conclusion that we should keep fun runs to 50K as they can be done in essentially a working day and we can be headed home in daylight. Lesson learned.

I gave everything to this course and couldn't be happier. Can't you tell?

    Some time passed and I had a 100K of my own coming up, The Crazy Desert Trail Race in San Angelo, TX. Again, a completely new course for me, but from what I could discern off the .gpx file I was able to find, it was the makings of a relatively fast and flat course. Which I was very happy about because I was just coming off of a two-week sickness/allergy beatdown on my system. The night before, I was still fighting the migraines the allergies were causing me. So I just focused on doing everything I could to try to set me up to just finish the damn thing. The morning of the race, I fell a little behind on everything I was trying to get done and knew that I would be cutting it close to the start when I got there. Unfortunately I was still in my car when the race started. So I ran up to try to get some ones attention and find the start, which took a moment because I'm sure they were just as confused as I was about what was going on. But, eventually got some ones attention and they basically just said: "Go!", so that's what I did. There was another runner that had a late start as well so we joked as we made our way up to the back of the pack, but before too long we had caught up and I needed to start making some passes. And I had a good laugh running behind a couple of fellows that were discussing the "hills" on this course and the bad ones. All I could think was "must be roadies". Because sure enough, the first small hill we encountered they began walking, so I passed. The weather was nice and cool and I was able to make good time on the first loop somehow, ending up around 5th place at the end of the first lap. By the second lap it had started to heat up a little but, but between being mostly covered from the sun and keeping my bandana and arm sleeves wet and cool I honestly felt pretty decent. So just kept chugging along at a decent pace. Until I got a text from Trent telling me the place I was in at the end of the first 50K, which did light a fire under my ass to push a bit more, while still staying "comfortable". Somewhere around the second half of the second loop I was running with a guy that was pushing a very similar pace and walk/run interval as me so stayed with him and chit-chatted for a while, also discovering that the 5th place person had fallen behind us and we were now 3rd and 4th. I honestly didn't figure I had much gas left in me to push any harder, but at about the 50 mile mark I started pushing it a more often and by the time I hit 55 I was in a full push to end it, having left the guy I was running with at the 50 mile mark I knew unless something went wrong, or he got an intense second wind, I would be placing. So Straight until the end I pushed with everything. Obviously I didn't necessarily need to as the 2nd place person had quite a lead on me as well as the 1st. But I wanted to finish strong, knowing I gave everything I had to give to that race. And sure enough, scored just over a 12 hour 100K with a 3rd place finish. My second podium spot. And I couldn't be more stoked about it. There was a slight bit of miscommunication caused by another runner that was quickly and very politely cleared up by the race director, and again, I cant thank him enough for being understanding of the situation. Don't know if I'll be back for this one next year, but I would highly suggest it to anyone wanting to do a 100K or lower on a beautiful, fast and flat course.

If only my body and race were as neatly laid out as my gear.

    And Lastly, we have my most recent disappointment. The Toughest 'N Texas 50K. And yeah, it was tough. I was not able to track down a .gpx file for this course so was coming in blind aside from a few comments that I ultimately disregarded because they were "roadies" and any course will more than 20ft/mi of climbing can be considered hilly. I should've asked about it sooner and heeded their advice. Obviously being Texas, weather wasn't ideal for me. Quite humid in the morning from the rain the night prior and decently warm to start and only to warm up to a high of about 90F during the day. Turns out most of the course is either up or down. Which was a lot of fun, but I had been training for speed  for the most part the month or so prior thinking that's what I would need for this course. Having looked at the previous years finishing times, I was pretty confident I could place decently well. So I focused on speed. Which was not the best call. Thankfully, I do enjoy hills and like a good, challenging, hilly course. But, it wasn't what I had been training for and coupled with the humidity, I was just draining sweat the entire time. And about halfway through the second loop (of three) I started to come down with a bit of electrolyte depletion nausea and was starting to have my doubts about placing, knowing that the third loop could very, very easily turn into a 10 mile death march, taking me from the top 5 to who knows where. So, with a racing mindset that day, I decided to drop, thinking it would be best to not go that electrolyte depleted. I didn't want to deal with the multiple-day headaches, the shortness of breath, the crampy sleep. Though, upon trying to drop down, the time keepers and I realized I would have come in Second place for the 20 miler (the guy ahead of me that I had run a good chunk of lap 2 with dropped to the 20 as well and was already holding the 1st place trophy). I decided I didn't want to take a podium spot from another runner who actually signed up for the 20 miler and told him to just DNF me instead. The RD ultimately decided that he shouldn't have the 1st place trophy either for the same reasons (or they just weren't allowing drop-downs and the time keepers didn't know). But when I decided to head on home, he was still holding onto that trophy and honestly I don't know if he kept it or not. I have my reservations about that, but to each their own. Leaving, I definitely felt defeated and instantly felt that I had made the wrong decision and honestly it probably ate away at me more than it should have, because I knew (and know) that in my heart I could've finished, it just wouldn't have been the time or race that I wanted it to be. And considering I didn't have any sound plans for a following race, I should have just finished it out and dealt with the aftermath so I don't have to go back next year. Which makes it sound bad, but with so many Ultras out there and only so much time in a year to fit them in I try to do a race once to experience it and move on to others. But, with a DNF in hand, I'll be back next year.

    If you've made it this far, I can't thank you enough for the support and for taking the time to read the ultra rantings of a mad man. I think the plan from here on out, in order to effectively update this blog I'm going to start making updates for every race, or intermittently at the least so that it doesn't seem like such a burden after three races have come and gone. So, thank you all. Here's to you **