Texas Trail 50k Endurance Run

This wasn't a race I had really planned on doing. While I do want to complete the Texas Marathon Challenge this year, my primary focus is still on getting through another Goofy Challenge at Disney. After the problems at San Antonio with my hamstring cramping and then having it start tweaking during my 16-mile long run on the 4th, I was concerned that 50k on trails might not be the best thing to do. I ended up signing up anyway, mostly because I wanted to be able to say I did it and love running in the Huntsville state park, but also because I'd been talking about it with Devin, one of my online running buddies, for a few weeks and would feel bad if I didn't show up.

The night before the race, I decided to skip my usual pre-long run meal of pizza and head out for sushi instead. It worked really well at the Disneyland Half a few months ago, so I figured it would work here too. Throw in breaking some other superstitions about what not to do before a big event, and I had plenty of ready-made excuses in case things didn't go well. Thankfully, the dogs let me sleep most of the night without asking to go out, the alarm went off at 440am, and it was time to get moving. I hadn't driven to Huntsville for a year or so, but Heather told me it took her about an hour and twenty or thirty minutes to get there for her flyball tournaments. I normally leave for my In Flight group long runs at 5 anyway, so I didn't have to change that part of my routine any to get to the race in time to get my packet and relax a bit before the 730 start. As I sped through the darkness along Beltway 8, I still had nagging doubts in the back of my mind about going. I was having trouble getting comfortable with the notion that 50k is a good training run when it'd be just as beneficial to run 18 miles with my training group. I finally told myself "what the hell, it's only one run and if it goes badly, you've got a month to recover," and turned north on I-45.

I pulled into the park shortly after 6. Note to self: it only takes an hour to get to Huntsville before sunrise. I wasn't thrilled with the extra sleep I missed out on, but I had Devin beat. He thought the race started at 630 and was there at 530. Ouch. I wandered into the lodge to pick up my bib and other goodies. We received a nice tech shirt and a pair of plain white cotton gloves. Not sure the gloves were really necessary since it was already 55 degrees out, but they'll make good articles for tracking with Harlow. I spent the next hour resting in my car sipping on Powerade and tinkering with getting my bib pinned on straight. Yes, I'm one of those people who aren't happy unless it's centered and level. Besides, what else was I going to do to kill time? Right after I had the bib on my shirt just the way I like it, I realized that my fuel belt would cut right across the bottom of it once I put the belt on. I moved the bib to my shorts and only took a few tries to be happy with the placement. Progress! I grabbed my bag, stuffed with extra shoes and socks, Clif bars, goo, and sport beans, and wandered off to the start line. I found a tree not too far from the line to drop my bag and started trying to find Devin. We'd never met in person, but he wasn't hard to find. There weren't any other tall guys with Dynamo jerseys to be found. We chatted a bit, joined the other two hundred runners behind the line, and then we were off.

The 50k course is three loops in the park, the first just under 7 miles and the second two just over 12. Neither one of us really had a time goal for the run, so we settled on targeting 12 or 12:30 minutes per mile just to keep us moving along. We decided to go faster on the first loop and then take it easy for the two longer ones. Of course, being trail running, faster is open to interpretation. In this case faster meant about a 10:30 pace without much walking of the uphill sections. The first loop just flew by as we talked about soccer (we're both Dynamo season ticket holders), running Rocky (he's done the 50 several times and is training for the 100, I've done the 50), Goofy, and whatever else came to mind.

When we got back to the turnaround, I hit the porta-potty, stopped by my bag to grab my fuel belt and eat a goo at the aid station, and we set out for the first 12-mile loop. As we entered the woods again, Devin mentioned that he didn't grab a goo because he didn't want the caffeine. Uh oh. I had just eaten half a bag of chomps and hadn't noticed anything about caffeine. After getting the jitters for the last four miles of the 2005 Rock n Roll half in Virginia Beach, I avoid goo with caffeine at all costs. This is not what I needed with 24 miles left to go. After more than a few minutes of panic, I managed to read the bag carefully and find the words "No Caffeine." Whew! I also gave Devin one of my Clif shots since I know they're safe. Side note: that was the last goo I had until munching on some sport beans around mile 27. My body just can't handle that much sickly sweetness during a long trail run. I fueled up with chips, salted potatoes, and pretzels at every aid station instead. The fully stocked aid stations are one of the best things about trail runs. No pizza, soup, or meat loaf this time like we had at Rocky, but they had just about everything else - flat coke, chips, crackers, bananas, M&Ms, trail mix, mixed nuts, and plenty of cold water and sports drink. Plus, the volunteers will help fill your bottles while you eat.

Part way through this loop, we found ourselves leap frogging with Bob Botto and two of his friends Nancy and Lorraine. Bob's a very experienced ultra runner who recently retired from Exxon. He was the head of our corporate track & field team and also sends out really great race reports from all of his events. This was Nancy's first ultra and he was sticking to a pretty tight schedule of walk breaks to make sure she finished it strong. Since Bob tells great stories and because it's always fun to run with a group, we decided to run the rest of the race with them. We'd cruise along at a 10-minute pace until we felt the trail start to incline, at which point we'd walk and talk. And that's how it went for the rest of the day. Some shuffling, some trotting, some walking. Bob told us stories (his recent finish at Comrades and the guy who died during Rocky many years ago and can be seen at night during the 100-miler were two of the favorites), Nancy got excited about being able to call herself "Ultra Nancy," and Devin and I kept the pace up front. Our best accomplishment was getting out for our third loop and off the part of the trail where people were running in both directions without seeing or getting lapped by the leaders. Well, that's not quite true. Our best accomplishment was finishing, but that kind of goes without saying. The last mile went by faster than all the rest. We made the right-hand turn at the nature center, and before we knew it, we were turning left under the powerlines for the last few hundred yards to the finish. In a reflection of how much we enjoyed running together all day, we spread out five abreast as we ran across the line. Once done, we were handed our medals, chose our hoodies, and went off to change. I put on my slides and walked over to meet Bob and Devin behind the lodge where pizza and tortilla soup awaited us. Rather than just sit down on a bench, I decided to dangle my legs in the lake and take advantage of nature's own ice bath. Painfully cold, but definitely well worth it.

I'm always amazed at how effortless endurance running seems when you're doing it with a great group of people. The time and miles on the trails just flew by. I was having such a fun time chatting and joking with everyone that my worries about my hamstring never materialized. Even when I could feel it twitching a little, I never spent time dwelling on it and didn't mention it to the rest of the group. We were all running so strongly that I wasn't going to be the one to slow us all down. Plus, the mental energy I'd waste thinking about it was better spent telling stories, offering encouragement, and driving us all to the finish. The only real problem I had all day was when my Body Glide started to wear off. I noticed the onset of chafing when we had about eight miles left. Rather than stop, I decided to wait for the next aid station that I knew we'd get to in less than a mile. You can imagine my disappointment when they told me they didn't have any Vaseline. I didn't think the band-aids I had with me would do much good, but I lifted up my shirt and stuck them on anyway. I was too sweaty for them to stick well and am not sure how long they stayed in place. I did make it to the end without any bleeding, though, so I'll take that as a victory. Next time, I'll reapply the Body Glide after the second loop. I also was only bitten by one Texas Jumping Root. They're generally nocturnal creatures, but this one was active in the shade and shadows.

One interesting thing to note about my time. My Garmin, which stops counting whenever I stop moving, had my time at 6:13, while my official time is 6:35. That's a lot of time spent at aid stations and restocking from my bag after each of the first two loops.