Putting Together A Rock Puzzle

My Cactus Rose 51 Mile Trail Race, October 29, 2011

HCSNA Park near Bandera TX,
Cactus Rose Trail Race 2011

Running a long ultra is sort of like putting together a jigsaw puzzle. It involves lots of pieces that some times come together quickly, smoothly; and other times, not so much. Attempting to run one in a place as enigmatic as the HCSNA park near Bandera simply multiplies the intrigue, the complexity, the beauty. How is it that these rocky trails and hills can deliver so much pain and happiness at the same time? ...appear so desolate yet come alive with so much energy from fellow running friends? ...present you with an impossible task yet gradually reveal how the pieces fit together as you persist? All of the good ingredients were present this past Saturday; the cool weather, the awesome people, my butt at the starting line. I put the pieces together and had my best trail racing performance to date!

Having Fun Going Out Too Fast

It doesn't matter the distance. I go out too fast (relative to me, of course). It's what I do. I don't even fight it any more. I figure I'll have to recover 10 miles up the trail anyways, whether I ran slow or not (Note: some times it makes me wonder how fast a 10 miler I could run?). So I have fun with it, take the opportunity to chat with friends that are way faster than me and they inevitably pull away mid-topic, etc. Cactus Rose's first 10 miles accommodates this habit nicely, with a flat, smooth first 10 miles which couldn't be more opposite from the majority of the rest of the course. I had a blast chatting with friends; Sue Levitan, Cris Strong, John Kuss, Lindsey Waddell, JoAnna and many others during those dark morning hours; tripping over a root and laughing about it with the guy behind me who proceeded to trip over the same damn root even after watching me do it, trying to set a PR for going #2 in the woods at mile 9, etc. You know, regular trail running stuff. The cool, 30 - 40 degree morning was exhilarating. I don't think I added any water to my bottle until Nachos (mile 10). I was wondering when my training buddy, asst Tejas coach, idol, and friend John Kuss would pass me. He did earlier than I expected, at ~ mile 8, clearly going out too fast himself.

This 50 Mile Run Really Starts At Mile 25

Even though during long runs you should be prepared for anything to happen, and adapt, you can also tell early on how things will be shaping up later, small problems can become big, etc. In my case, everything was awesome! Stomach was fine, fuel choices working. My downhill running was working. I was able to hang and chat with Chris Russell for a few minutes until his 35 foot walking stride inevitably pulled him away. Yeah, I could tell; this race would really begin for me at the halfway point; The Lodge (Note: a surprise to me because, I originally thought the critical point might be Boyles at miles 20 & 30). How I recovered at The Lodge would really determine my final outcome. The other interesting puzzle piece about this course is that it reverses direction each loop, as well as placing the two biggest hills in the park, Boyle's and Cairn's, at the end of loop 1 + beginning of loop 2; ...thus, 10 - 15 miles of hills right smack in the middle of the 50 mile course. But, this is where I was again surprised... as long as I walked up, these hills had large runnable sections on top and were very runnable down. These climbs weren't the hamstring burners that I found The Three Sisters and Ice Cream to be later that afternoon. Rather than focus on saving energy, I made good time over Boyle's and Cairn's. Started yo-yo'ing with my good friend and awesome 100 miler runner, Brian Kuhn, on the way into The Lodge; something we would continue to do for the rest of my day. I love that this race reverses directions. I saw many good friends and even got a couple of hugs up and over Boyle's and Cairn's.
(Note to self: I was doing 2 to 3 Honey Stinger or Roctane gels about every 1.5 hrs supplemented by a banana at the 5 mile aid stations, apples later in the day when it got warmer, bites of wafers & PBJ bites & salted-oiled nu potatoes at the aid stations later, a ton of S-Caps that afternoon).

When A Wrong Turn Turns Into The Best Turn

I got into The Lodge at just under 6 hrs. Probably a little too fast (for me). Didn't change my shoes, but, a change of socks felt great. I was a little tired and in a little bit of denial about it. So, I headed out of The Lodge kind of zoned-out. *MISTAKE* (the reason for the "51 Miler" in the title of this race report). About a half mile up the dirt road from The Lodge is a Y intersection, where the Last Chance aid station is located during the Bandera sister race in January. It is the frickin' most obvious, blatantly marked intersection on the entire course. A blind man would not miss this intersection. Yet, in my negligent, auto-pilot, zoned-out state, what did I do? Yep, I kept on going right rather than reversing the loop 2 direction. It wasn't like I was lost because, when I finally woke up about a half mile down the dirt road, realizing to myself "boy, it sure is quiet"... I knew EXACTLY where I was and what I had done. The thing is it's not like I was going to see any wrong-way signs or absence of trail markers; yep, it could have been a lot worse. I yelled some choice curse words and then, extraordinarily, sprinted back to the Y like I had just started the race all over again. I was a new man! A new, pissed-off, embarrassed, elated-with-my-new-found-source-of-energy, pissed-off, mostly embarrassed man. Joe Prusaitis tells a story when he lost his wedding ring during a 100 mile, got pissed-off, and it lit a fire under his butt that made him fly through the rest of his race. This wrong turn was my "wedding ring." I ran past another runner named Andreas as I headed back to the Y who was in the process of making the same mistake as I was. He thought I was coming in from my Loop 1. I tried to convince him we was going the wrong way, and then kept on trucking. This new reservoir of pissed-off energy got me back over Cairn's and Boyle's like they weren't even there (I would pay for this later, of course). I was now obsessed with racing "shadow David" in my mind; a separate version of myself who existed in an alternative timeline where he actually made the correct turn at the Y. I caught Brian Kuhn at the Boyle's aid station and started a long debate with him during our upcoming yoyo'ing; he said "you should be like a mile in front of me." I explained to him that, no, he was running awesomely and most assuredly would have passed "shadow David." And Brian also spends about 2 seconds in aid stations. I contended that this version of David, in our current timeline, actually caught up to Brian where "shadow David" would not have. Brian was doubtful. I got further evidence backing up my theory when I passed a runner in the next few miles that I recognized passed me out of The Lodge *before* I made The Mistake. Also, I was very pleased to hear someone behind me, coming down Boyle's, telling me "thank you" repeatedly. It was Andreas who obviously thought there was a reason I was yelling at him back on the The Lodge road, and reversed his direction (whew!). I saw Wade (Dalton Wilson) laying down at Boyle's. He wasn't having the best of days. My heart wanted to lift him off the ground and give him a piggy-back ride because he helped me when I was in a particularly awful place at The Grand Canyon early this year. Next time my friend.

It's Nice and Cool Outside, Why Am I Cramping?!

The Loop 2 stretch from Boyle's back to Equestrian, ~ miles 30 to 35.something, was the stretch I was most concerned about before the race. It is the longest between aid stations, almost 6 miles, with some serious, rocky climbs in it (Big Nasty, Three Sisters), mostly exposed. I was mostly correct although, I found the next Loop 2 stretch from Equestrian to Nachos difficult as well. I started feeling cramps creeping up in my hamstrings while climbing Big Nasty, or up to The Saddle... I forget. I knew this was due to a lack of electrolytes / salts and started consuming more S-Caps more frequently. This helped the cramps to subside. But, WTF?! I just finished training through the most brutally hot summer in Texas history. My core temp was fine, with a nice breeze bouncing off my chest the whole day. Why? Well, the body doesn't care what the actual reason is behind sweat / electrolyte loss, be it heat, effort, stress, etc. It's muscles will cramp up with an electrolyte shortage, period. As Brian and I head out of Equestrian, yoyo'ing our way to Nacho's (mile 40), he forgets to fill up his water bottles, an easy thing to do at this self-supported race, and heads back to Equestrian aid station a quarter mile out (oops, I told him I wouldn't mention it to anyone, sorry Brian). He stops giving me a hard time about "shadow David." But, the not so funny thing I found is that my little bone-headed mistake back at The Lodge kind of shook my trail navigating confidence a little bit. This section of the course goes along a road for a while and course markers are rather sparse. The race is spread out and I see hardly any other runners. A little voice would creep up in my mind and say "David, are you *sure* you didn't miss some turn back there. Because, I wouldn't put it past you, dumbass! You zoned-out at The Lodge, how do you know you didn't just zone-out back there a ways?" I would stubbornly yell at this newly emergent "devil David," "shut up! shut up! SHUT UP!" and continue forward until I saw the next God-must-have-placed-it-there-himself trail marker; or, saw Brian's bright orange top on a hill behind me (because he is immensely smarter than I and most assuredly would not miss a turn).

Racing The Sun

A few people asked me before the race if I had a time goal. I did not, maybe I should have. I just wanted to test myself, see how much I had improved (I knew that I had) by running more in the later 30 - 45 mile range as opposed to walking so much. But, I secretly wanted to beat one entity; The Sun. I wanted to cross the finish line before sundown / nightfall. But, I didn't want to admit it out loud, nor even start to race it until I had a 35 - 40 mile head start because, I'm convinced, if I would have tipped it off, it would have cheated by causing the Earth to rotate faster and setting minutes before my victory. The Sun cheats you know. My stomach was giving me a hard time now, but, not because of nausea. I had painful gas that refused to exit on demand, just kept building up. Very distracting. Brian said he didn't want to be behind me when it blew. I wondered out loud if BeanO would work during an ultra run on this kind of gas, and then we contemplated what kind of chemical was in BeanO. I walked more than I wanted to from Boyle's to Equestrian (~ miles 40 to 45). At this point, I knew the finish was in the bag, it was now just between The Sun and I. I got into Olga's Station (aka Equestrian) and was on my best behavior. Those who have met Olga learn to behave themselves around her. Earlier in the day, when she was giving my friend Brian a hard time, I told her "I still love you Olga." She said "I know you do. You have to." Even though this race is officially a self-supported ultra, I was amazed at how many helpful volunteers filled up my water bottles for me, etc. Olga lovingly told me not to eat anything, I only had 4.something miles left, and to get the hell out of her aid station. It was fun and energy-charging seeing friends like Larry King, Bridget Clark, Gordo (Gordon Montgomery), etc. at Equestrian. As Brian and I *walked* out of Equestrian on my last stretch (Brian just about halfway through with his 100 miler), something occurred that only ultra runners would understand. Brian was about 20 feet in front of me as we were *walking* out, friends yelled "congrats!" and "good luck!"... and I yelled back "Thanks! I have to catch Brian!" I heard laughter and Ben Phenix yelled "pace yourself David!"

The last stretch through the peaceful woods and up and over Lucky's was wonderful. I realized I had forgotten to grab a headlamp back at Equestrian, then I looked up at the Sun and saw that it was clearly intimidated by that. I saw amazing friends heading out on the 3rd loop of their 100 miler during this stretch. Diana Heynen congratulated me as I descended Lucky's. I sprinted it in across the much too familiar Lodge road and beat The Sun. It didn't stand a chance. ;-)

Time: ~ 12 hrs 58 min
Distance: 51 miles :-)
GPS Route

Other Things That Worked For Me

• Awesome, light-weight, not-too-big, not-too-small Coolers
• Bananas in the AM, Apples in the warmer afternoon
• Running belt with two hand-held water bottles
• Changing socks halfway (not for typical mud reason, but for new clean, cushy feeling)
• Downhill running technique (saved time and injury. This is a topic in itself)
• One wrong turn

Thank you

Thank you Tejas Trails, Joe Prusaitis, Henry Hobbs, Olga and Larry King, and many other volunteers for organizing this incredible race. Although it is officially self-supported, some people do not realize much work it takes to organize, setup, and take down a race like this. It's what makes life-changing events possible.

Post Race Fun and Inspiration

It was amazing watching HCTR prez and ever-so-humble Steven Moore break his 100 mile course record. He finished his 3rd loop, 75 miles, shortly after I finished my 50 miles! I hung out under the heater with friends at the start / finish and watched Chris "Flash" Haley grow increasingly impatient to start his 25 mile relay leg (I apologize Chris, I was cracking-up inside watching you get really silent and pissed-off). I suspected he would take off like a bat out of hell when his team-mate came in. He did and ran one of the top 5 fastest loops; ~ 4 hrs 20 min!

I decided before the race to sleep both Friday and Saturday night in my van at the park because, if I attempted to drive back to Austin after my run, I probably would have ended up in a ditch somewhere. But, I find it difficult to sleep after these long runs. I woke up in my van at ~ 2 AM, fruitlessly able to go back to sleep, and headed over to the start / finish line. I was promptly recruited by John Sharp to grill cheese sandwiches and make ramen soup. These items, while normally unimpressive, were like gourmet food to the 100 milers coming in from their 3rd loop, starting their 4th and final in the middle of the night.

It was a huge inspiration to see my friends Brian Kuhn and David Land finish the 100 mile that morning. And, of course, my good friends Tania and Justin Lincoln completed their first 100 miler. They are all superheroes to me.

Cactus Rose 50 Miler,
29 October 2011