July
23
It
is the latter half of July, and I am in LaGrange, Georgia to run an ultra. Unsurprisingly, the temperature is warm and
the air is thick with humidity. For
weather aficionados, the temperature at the start is 75 degrees, and the dew
point is 73 degrees. It is supposed to
warm up to 90 or so, but for the first couple of hours, it is supposed to stay
overcast thus limiting the temperatures for the morning. What am I thinking? Well, this is a little different race. This race is a race with no definitive
ending; the race continues until all but one runner has called it quits. The rules are simple: we run a 5k loop each hour. The loop must be completed within the hour so
that at the top of the next hour, all remaining runners start the next 5k
loop. Under ideal conditions, I can run
a 5k in a little over 20 minutes or so.
But, for this event, speed is not the goal; avoiding attrition is the
goal. My goal is to walk as much of the
first few loops as I can stand. There
are 13 of us in the Last Man Standing event, but we start with the 17 runners
attempting the 50k.
Lap
1: 54:06
The
race director says go, and all of the 50k runners and about half of us last
runners start running. James and I and a
few other last runners start walking.
The first couple hundred yards is a flat, wide grassy road and could be
easily run. However, we want to find out
how slow we can go. After the grassy
road, there is about a mile of single-track trail before a road crossing and
then another section of single-track trail to the halfway point. Then we loop around on a road section before
rejoining the first mile section of single-track trail. James and I jog the road section, but walked
all of the trail section on this first lap.
Before getting all the way back to the grassy road section, the course
makes a hard left turn that takes us up a hill, through a parking lot, around
the corner on a road and back to the start/finish pavilion. This time might be a little slower than I
wanted, but we definitely didn’t go out too fast. I sit down in my bag chair, pour myself a cup
of water, and fill up my handheld bottle.
I decide not to eat anything this first lap. Before getting up to walk down the steps to
the starting line for the second loop, I take my shirt off. It feels almost cool when I do as it is still
overcast.
Lap
2: 52:21
The
start of lap number two has still 13 of us ready to go. The race director says go, and we start
off. For this lap there are more walkers
with me and James. There is the guy in
the yellow shirt and the older guy in a gray shirt. There is also the lady in the jean tights
that is in the vicinity. We continue to
walk the first half under the paved road that marks the halfway point of the
loop. We learn along the way that the
guy in the yellow shirt is a scout in the Army.
He mentions that he will have to call his unit if he is still in the
race when we get to Sunday evening. He
doesn’t look like he is quite that fit, but I have learned not to judge a book
by its cover, especially when it comes to ultramarathon runners. We made a little better time on this loop by
running sooner over the last quarter of a mile on pavement. I sit down, refill my water bottle, pour a
cup of water, and eat a couple of small blueberry muffins. I also drink a little bit of chocolate milk.
Lap
3: 51:58
We
start lap number three with 13 runners again.
The number of walkers with us stays about the same at five or so. The other half of the runners look like they
are running easy, but they are definitely running more than us. A few of our fellow walkers have already
talked so much that James and I look forward to the paved road portion when we
will run a little and get ahead of the rest of the walkers. I have my split times marked in my mind
already. It is 25 minutes to the halfway
point. Enter back on the single-track trail
at 30 minutes. Emerge from the woods
after the sharp left-hand turn at 45 minutes.
We stroll into the finish feeling good, but the clouds are leaving us,
and it is warming up quickly now. I
stick with my routine of refilling my water bottle, pouring a cup of water, and
putting an ice towel around the back of my neck. I have decided I will try to only eat every other
lap so that I don’t eat too much.
Lap
4: 48:56
Thirteen
runners begin the fourth lap. James is
calling that the start of lap five will see the first runner drop. I think it will be lap six before we see our
first runner drop. We are starting to
trot a little on the downhill portions of the single-track trail. And, when James and I enter the trail again
after the road portion, he is in the lead and is walking and shuffling quickly. I note this to James at one point, but he
doesn’t slow down until we emerge from the trail after the hard left-hand
turn. We reach this point in less than
42 minutes, so James says, “well we can just walk through the parking
lot.” So we do, managing to coast into
the finish area not as quickly as we would have otherwise. Halfway through this loop, I consume my first
salt tablet. It stirs my hunger so I am
ready to eat when we get to the finish.
I refill my bottle, pour a cup of water, and then make a PB&J
sandwich. I thought I would just eat
half of a sandwich, but without thinking about it, I made a whole
sandwich. So, then I think, I will just
eat half of it. As I am about
three-quarters of the way through the sandwich, I realize this and decide to
eat the whole thing because it tastes pretty good.
Lap
5: 50:31
Surprisingly
to James, all 13 runners line up for the start of the fifth lap—well sort
of. One runner is hurrying down the
steps as the race director is counting down the last few seconds before the top
of the hour. For this lap, James
concedes that it might be better for me to lead and set the pace. When we hit halfway right at 25 minutes, he
says that I am the pace master. We
emerge from the woods at 44 minutes and then shuffle into the finish line six
minutes later. I refill my bottle, pour
a cup of water, and relax with an ice towel around my neck.
Lap
6: 49:25
All
13 runners are lined up and ready to go this time. James and I continue our very conservative
pace by walking most of the trail sections.
On this lap, we notice that one of the older runners is looking rather
haggard. James and I both figure that he
can’t last too many more laps. We pass
him, along with a few other runners, after the halfway point as we are running
the road. The heat of the day is now
upon us, and it is critical that we maintain an even pace so that we don’t get
too hot. At the aid station, I drink
another cup of water, refill my water bottle, and then grab a hot dog from the
aid station. They had them out last lap,
but I decided to stick to my plan and only eat substantial food after the even
laps.
Lap
7: 50:09
The
older gentlemen that looked poor last lap is right with us for the first half
of this lap. James is wearing a blue and
yellow cap, and the guy asks if that is for Ukraine. Apparently, the guy is Ukrainian, but he
lives in Marietta, Georgia. He seems to
be doing well despite the fact that he is bent over quite a bit. I continue to set a steady pace so James is
mostly content to let me lead the way.
Lap
8: 49:07
This
lap finally finds the first drop. The
rest of us line up and head out for our 8th lap. The interesting thing is that James and I
were both off by several laps on our prediction for the first drop. It seems like everyone is ready for the
challenge, but there are definitely signs that some runners are starting to
hurt a little. One Army guy, who has
been running out of the gate, decides to walk with us for the start of this
lap. We learn that he ran a 50k about 10
years ago and decided to train for this race to lose some weight and get back
into shape. His patience doesn’t last
long as about 10 minutes into the lap he starts running on the trail and leaves
us behind. We continue our consistent
pace with me leading most of the way. I
follow my usual routine of drinking water and refilling my water bottle. I probably should have made myself another
PB&J, but instead, I eat a small blueberry muffin and four chocolate chip
cookies.
Lap
9: 48:24
Another
runner drops out, so we are down to 11 now.
The rest is rather monotonous at this point. I lead a pack of walkers that includes me and
James and only one or two others. The
Army guy that annoyed us early on has dropped out and the rest of the runners
are not annoying. I am a little quicker
on this lap, but still about where we want to be. I pour myself a cup of water, refill my water
bottle, and proceed with eating potato chips.
Lap
10: 50:54
Two
more runners drop out, and the field is now down to nine. I am able to scale back the pace a little to
keep us from going too fast at this point.
I continue to set the pace for me and James, and I think we have it
dialed in pretty well. The decrease in
the field of runners is interesting. We
waited all that time for the first runner to drop and now they are dropping
steadily. It seems weird to me as this lap
feels the same as the last few. I am on
autopilot, and I think James is as well.
The one difference this lap is that I consume my second salt tablet. This only my second of the race, and I
probably should have taken my second one sooner. We stroll into the aid station, sit down,
pour a cup of water, refill the water bottle, and then I go to the aid station
to see if they have any more hot dogs.
They do, so I fix one with some mustard and suck it down before I get
back to sit down for a few minutes before it is time to get up, walk down the
steps, and start the next lap.
Lap
11: 49:55
Another
runner bites the dust, I mean drops out, and we are only eight runners
left. About this time, we learn that the
winner of the 50k finished in 6:23. Both
James and I have the same thought: we
could have run the 50k that quickly!
Actually, James could have run it a lot faster than that, and I probably
could have gone a little faster. The
pace is dialed in and on autopilot, so the routine continues. Jog into the aid station, sit down, pour a
cup of water, refill the water bottle, drape the ice towel over the back of my
neck (I did this every lap, even if I didn’t mention it every time), and then
decide what (if anything) I want to eat.
For this lap, I take in another blueberry muffin and some potato chips.
Lap
12: 50:45
The
runners are falling steady now as two more toss in the towel to put us at
six. One of the six stays with me the
whole lap. This is his first
ultra-event, and he is well pleased with his effort. However, he tells me this will be his last
lap. James is pushing ahead a little,
but is running with the lady in the orange shorts. It is nice relating to this new ultra-runner
some of my experiences. I hope he finds
them interesting and maybe even motivating.
I stay on my set pace, but James is getting a little quick. As I approach the halfway mark for this loop,
I see James on the road heading back, several minutes ahead of me. I yell at him to tell him that he is going
too fast. I stay with the other runner
on my set pace assuming that I won’t see James until the aid station, but then
just before the hard left turn there is James.
He says he didn’t realize he was going so fast until I yelled at him, so
then he slowed way down.
Lap
13: 51:28
We
are down to just five runners—me, James, Andrew, the lady in orange shorts, and
John. It is now twilight, but not dark
yet, so we press on without headlamps. I
consume another salt tablet to make it three so far in the race. Too many salt tablets will give me heartburn,
but so far that is not a problem. With
the longer shadows, I think my perfect pace slowed slightly. Regardless, the pace is still solid, and we
jog into the aid station having hit our marks within a minute on each one. I pour another cup of water, refill my water
bottle, and then contemplate what I should eat.
At this point, I should probably eat something, but I am not sure
what. So, I grab some chips and eat a
couple of cookies.
Lap
14: 52:08
Night
is now upon us, and all of us have our headlamps ready for this 14th
lap. There are still five of us for this
lap, but John is indicating that this might be his last lap. The lady with the orange shorts apparently
didn’t hear this, but I will talk about this more next lap. With the darkness, I let James take the lead
on the trail portion. He is walking very
quickly, but I am figuring that we need to pick up the effort in order to
maintain the same pace in the darkness.
We hit halfway in 26 minutes, which tells me we aren’t going too fast
and need to maintain our effort. I stick
with James through this lap, and we make it into the aid station in good shape,
albeit a minute or two slower than we have been averaging. James’ dad is now keeping the generator
running all of the time to keep the lights on for the pop-up tent. I pour a cup of water, refill my water
bottle, and eat another muffin and some potato chips.
Lap
15: 52:38
John
decides to call it quits after 14 laps, so there are only four of us that start
lap 15. The lady in the orange shorts is
very disappointed that John is quitting.
She says something about him running one more with her and then they can
both drop out tied for 4th place.
Well, that isn’t going to happen, and I tell her that she can have 4th
place all to herself. At the same time I
am telling her this, I am thinking that tied for 3rd with her
wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world.
I mean how many more of these laps do I care to do given it has been a
long, hot day? James and the lady press
on ahead of me at the start of the trail section. It isn’t that they are running; it is just
that I am not walking as fast as they are.
After a few minutes of deciding how motivated I really want to be, I
decide that I want to definitely finish this last lap in less than 60 minutes,
so I start running. I quickly pass the
lady, but never catch up with James.
When I get to the parking lot, I run hard enough while trying to see if
the lady is going to put any push in to try to catch me. She doesn’t, so I am able to finish this 15th
lap jogging comfortably into the aid station.
3rd
out of 13 starters
This was an
interesting race format, and one that I had not done before. Now that I have done it, I am not sure I need
to do it again. I wasn’t trying to see
how far I could go, and I wasn’t really out to win it. And, I think this would be true if I did a
race like this in the future.
I am slightly
nauseous when I am done running. James’
dad helps me pack up my stuff in my car, and then I drive back to my hotel room
for a quick shower and a long night’s sleep.
I now have four weeks until the Twisted Branch 100k on August 20th. James ended up running 18 laps, and he will
be joining me for the Twisted Branch race.
This will be another new race for me, and it is in the finger lake area
of New York. Until then…
Never stop
running,
Darin
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