JVP's Blog

I made it down to the condo where we were staying without any problems, although it was beginning to snow a bit. When I got there, Chris and his friend Wayne Ricketts were already starting a pasta dinner. Wayne had come down to pace Chris on his last lap, and he ended up really helping me out the next day too (more on that later). After eating, we drove into Grand Rivers to pick up our packets. We came back, got all the gear ready for the morning, and turned in for an early bedtime, although nerves kept me awake until about 10:30.

Chris and Wayne cooking our pasta dinner

Chris's massive pile of energy gels--he said he would probably eat all of these during his run, in addition to other calories. Wow!

The alarm woke me the next morning at 3:45. Because of the distance, ultramarathons start early, today we'd be crossing the starting line at 6:00 AM. I looked outside, and there was about 3-4" of new snow on the ground. The vehicles were covered, and it looked frigid and forbidding outside. My bed looked warm and inviting. I started to doubt whether I could actually finish a 14-mile trail run in the snow, and the thought "what in the world am I doing here?" actually crossed my mind. I stood wavering in the dark for a couple of minutes before moving on, not wanting to get back in bed but also not wanting to start my morning routine, which would signify that yes, in fact, I was going to do this thing.

Not your typical pre-race activity!

We left about 50 minutes before the start, giving ourselves what seemed like plenty of time to travel a handful of miles to Grand Rivers. It was a three-vehicle caravan, with Chris in front in his truck, my van, and finally Wayne. He was going with us to the start, and then heading back to the condo (or so he thought) for a while, until it was time to meet up with Chris for the last lap. The roads were in pretty good shape considering the early hour and the amount of snow that had fallen, although after turning onto a main road, I noticed my van's steering wheel was hard to turn. I thought maybe there was snow built up behind the tire (in fact, my power steering had gone out). Down the road a bit, my interior panel lights started to dim, and then went off completely. Chris, who was in front of me, told me later that my headlights got really dim. I was able to signal Chris and we dumped the van at a truck stop by I-24. I jumped into Wayne's truck and we continued on. Wayne graciously insisted that he would stick around at the race course until I finished the 23K and give me a lift back to my van. He ended up doing more than that after my race--following me all the way to an auto parts store in Eddyville before I sent him back to the condo. Thanks Wayne! The van did eventually get fixed, but that took a jump start, a roadside engine stall, an axle tow, a "good old boy" repair shop, a couple of hours, and $10 (enough of that--it's worth its own blog post sometime).

But back to the race. I tried to collect my thoughts as Wayne was driving us closer to the starting line. All of my gear had been laid out neatly in the van. When I changed vehicles, I had to scoop it all up and rush into Wayne's truck. So I was trying now to make sure I had everything. Gloves, spare socks, gels. I temporarily lost my digital camera, although I knew it was in my bag somewhere. Then before I knew it, we were at the start, and it was 20 minutes until race time.

I had one more technical glitch left for the morning. I couldn't get my Forerunner 305 training device to turn on. This is an excellent combination GPS / heart-rate monitor unit that I've been using during all my training. I was counting on it to know my mileage on the course, and to help me maintain a steady pace. I had charged it the night before, now it was unresponsive. It felt like a gut punch. Nothing I did helped, so I sadly gave it to Wayne to return to the car. One good thing was that I also happened to have my normal watch with me, so at least I could keep track of time. And the miles ended up being marked on the course, which was helpful. I didn't discover until a few days later (when it happened again) that the Forerunner sometimes locks up like this after charging, and there's a special keypress combination to reset it.

Now 10 minutes to the start. All the runners were down at the starting line and it was cold. We were warmed up a little bit by body heat from the mob of people, but mostly we just wanted to get moving. 400 people had signed up for the races, but there definitely weren't 400 people at the start. The race director later said there were 300--around 260 ended up finishing one of the distances. Someone gave some instructions, but no one except for the first 3 rows of runners could hear them. Then they said they were about to start the race. I was waiting for something, maybe an air horn or a starting pistol. Instead I just noticed the people in front of me were running, so I started my watch and joined them.

The first 1.7 miles were on a paved road, which allowed us to spread out before entering the trail system, where passing would be harder. I ran next to Chris, who was setting an easy pace--about 9:30 according to his Forerunner. We intentionally hung back and let people pass us--that way we wouldn't be getting passed on the trail, and Chris said there's a great psychological boost when you can pass other people who have gone out too fast and have to slow down.

Me on the trail, near mile 7

The trail by Lake Barkley (look closely to see the runners)

We entered the Canal Loop trail and began to run it clockwise. This took us by Lake Barkley first, then across the Trace to Kentucky Lake before looping back to the start. I felt great for a few miles, we were running at about an 11:00 pace and running had never felt better. The trail was flat, we were enjoying beautiful views of Lake Barkley, and the snow wasn't much of a problem. I slipped a couple of times during the day, falling to one knee both times, but not hard enough that I hurt afterwards.

Around mile 7, Chris (who had been right in front of me the whole time), passed a couple of runners and I didn't. I eventually passed them too, but it was too late to catch up with him. I saw him ahead of me a few times, but that would be the last time I would see him all day.

This was also where the race started getting hard. After crossing the Trace (main road that goes North-South through LBL) at mile 8, the trail quickly changed from basically flat to hilly, and the wind was really picking up. I was already getting tired and this wore me out. I slowed down to around 13:00 miles, walking the uphills and just wanting to finish. It seemed like the time between miles 8 and 10 was an eternity, but making it to 10 miles gave me hope that I would indeed be able to finish the race, and miles 10-12 were bearable, if rather long.

As I passed mile 12, I started thinking that the trail section should be ending, because the total distance was 14.3 miles and I still had to run back up the road we had started on. I was trying to do math in my head and kept thinking that I should be hitting the end of the trail section any minute. It turned out that didn't happen until nearly a mile later, so this last mile on the trail was really tough. I was exhausted, walking even the slight uphills, and struggling to just keep running on the level sections.

After what seemed like an eternity, I got to the end of the loop, with about 1.4 miles left on pavement to the finish. Wayne was at the trail exit aid station, and walked up a hill to the road with me. I ran-walked to the finish, fighting cramping in my quadriceps. My goal for the race had been a 12-minute pace, which would have been 2:51:48. I finished in 2:50:17, under my goal by about 90 seconds.

Finish at last!

Chris would go on to finish the 50 mile race in 10:10:01--very close to his goal of 10 hours. He said the trail got really bad as the day wore on, turning into mud and water.

Despite the challenges, I had a lot of fun. I have told people I had the advantage of this being my first trail race, so I have nothing to compare it to. It was great hanging out with Chris and Wayne, and trying to soak up some of their vast knowledge about running long and running well (and why potato chips are a great running food).I want to do the LBL race again next year, hopefully in better conditions. Between the heat at the half marathon and the cold and snow at this race, I've definitely experienced the extremes of race weather. I'm loving it!

View the photo set for this entry.