I narrowly squeezed in the George Washington Birthday
Marathon the day before Connor was born.
A newborn is not exactly conducive to running ultras, but I stumbled
across the OSS CIA 50. It was local and
only 40 minutes away in Prince William Forest.
With a 7pm start it wouldn’t exactly cut into much family time. I wasn’t particularly well trained and
figured it might kill me, but why not give it a shot?
There were about 100 people signed up with some opting for
the 6pm early start and some starting at 7pm.
Despite the cool spring a massive heat wave rolled through just in time,
and it was over 90 degrees at the start.
It never cooled down very much and was hot and humid with temps above 80
most of the night. With a night start
and the crazy weather, it was a monster of a race. This was definitely another one to chalk up
in the character building category.
We set off into the heat and made our way down to the South
Valley Trail. I settled into fourth or fifth
place and fought the urge to join the lead pack. I kept the effort well in check and just
cruised along. The first 10-11 were
beautiful single track rolling trail along the stream. The sun was still shining, and I was having a
good time on a beautiful run through the forest.
I blew through the mile 7.4 water drop stopping only to say
hi to the one and only Gary Knipling. He
was out volunteering on course, and it was awesome to see him. I was in third at this point and briefly
caught up with Erin, who was running in second place. He took off before the next aid station and
was out of sight from there and held on for a strong second place finish.
I moved fast (probably too fast) through Oak Ridge aid
station for the Farm to Forest loop. This
was allegedly 1.8 miles, but was at least half a mile longer than that. Unfortunately, I was already starting to show
some wear and tear here. Uh-oh. My headlamp also stopped working almost as
soon as I had turned it on despite having fresh batteries. Fortunately I also had my trusty, badass
flashlight. Then I spent some time
changing out the headlamp batteries back at the aid station, which was time
well spent.
I hopped on a few more miles of single track trail, and from
there we had about 5 miles of fire road.
I was really starting to feel it on this section. My stomach wasn’t so hot, and I realized I
was really overheating. The temps just
weren’t going down and I couldn’t get my body temp under control. After a few more miles of hilly single track,
I was falling apart. I was coming up to
mile 23 and felt wrecked. I’d been
running in 3rd for a while with a good lead but saw 4th
and 5th coming up fast beyond me as my pace slowed.
I knew this was the make or break point of the race. In 3+ miles I would come back through the
Start / Finish at 26 miles (it was a two loop course). I could limp in from here, pull the plug, and
get some sleep. Or I could suck it up,
fix my problems, and get this thing done.
I’m apparently not very smart, so I opted for the latter.
I doused myself in cold water at the mile 23 water
drop. I needed to spend way more time
for the rest of race cooling myself down.
You think about this a lot when it is daytime and sunny, but throwing cold
water over your head in the middle of the night seems more like hazing than a
good idea for self-preservation! I upped
the S-cap intake as I was definitely behind on electrolytes. I got down some solid food. I threw all of my time goals out of the
window. I had figured mid 8 hours should
be doable with a really good race and mid 9 hours if things didn’t go well. Clearly neither were happening. Mostly important I vowed that when I got to
mile 26 I would take whatever time I needed there but would get the hell out of
that aid station no matter what. Coming
into the race I knew the crux would be getting out of mile 26 and the finish
area. If I could do that, I’d have a
good shot at finishing.
I was still holding on to 3rd when I got to the
Start / Finish. I doused myself in more
cold water, ate food, restocked my pack, got my iPhone for podcasts / tunes to
entertain me, and stuffed my hat full of ice.
I spent almost 10 minutes in the aid station (unheard of for me in a
50), but it was time very well spent.
3-4 more people came into the aid station while I was there. It was game on though, and soon I was off
into the hot night.
I started off conservative but made good time. I kept on fueling and continued to gradually
feel better and better. The podcasts
were a good distraction (thanks This American Life!), and I was having fun
again. The crescent moon was beautiful in
the night sky. This whole 11 mile
stretch was a chorus of frogs from the stream.
In fact they were all over the trail so avoiding stepping on them was a
good way to stay awake! Fortunately I succeeded.
I came to mile 36 and the Oak Ridge aid station. They said I looked good, and I felt good. On
the farm to forest loop I switched from podcast to music. From here on out it was trashy pop and 80s
music. I took off and was hauling ass on
this loop. After dropping a few fast
miles it was back to reality, but I came back to Oak Ridge moving really well.
But as I passed 40 miles the going got tough. I was still running smart but was just
getting to the edge of my fitness. I
cooled down at each water stop and kept focusing on food and hydration. My legs were shot and I was paying a price
for running in the Salomon S-Labs, which weren’t enough shoe for me. But the miles ticked off, and I knew I was
going to finish.
I really wanted to hold on to third place, and we came up to
a .75 mile out and back that was 7 miles from the finish. When I didn’t see anyone on the out and back,
I knew 3rd place was in the bag.
I was wrecked and hurting, but I kept on pushing. I was getting blisters on my feet (unusual
for me), my legs were shot, and I was ready to be done.
Dawn was just coming as I finished the last few miles. It was cool to finish right as the sun was
coming up. In previous overnight runs I’ve
always felt super tired at least once and like I was going to fall asleep on my
feet, but that never happened this time.
In the last mile I turned it up a few notches and ran hard to the
finish. It was quiet at the finish area
but I had some good cheers as I came up to the finish line.
I finished in 3rd place in 10h33min. 29 people finished out of the roughly 100
starters. It was an incredibly tough run
but I was thrilled and very glad I did it.
Athletic Equation really put on a fantastic race, and I look forward to
doing more of their races in the future.
The breakfast spread was awesome, the aid stations / volunteers were
stellar, and I took home a sweet beer stein for my efforts.
After cleaning up I napped for maybe 30
minutes in the car and then cheered in some of the other finishers. I drove home, quickly showered, and then went
with the boys to a birthday party at the fire station. Totally exhausting but I wouldn’t have it any
other way!
I will strongly consider doing this race again in the future
and would encourage others to do the same.
But I will caution that it was much harder than I expected and should be
given some serious respect. A few
takeaways:
- Fixing problems early is key. If you wait too long, it is really hard to come back.
- Time goals in ultras are pretty meaningless. Getting your heart set on a certain time is a recipe for a DNF.
- Go into the race knowing what the hardest part will be and mentally prepare yourself for it. I knew that getting out of the 26 mile start / finish area was make or break. For Trail Verbier I studied the course in detail and knew getting past the first 20 miles was crucial given that stretch was much harder than the rest of the course. This is essential for the mental game.
- Running at night is difficult and slows you down (wow, big shocker there, Will)
- Navigation was a huge part of this course. Many struggle with it and get lost. I brought a map with me and spent a lot of time studying the course. It also helps that I have run quite a bit in Prince William Forest. I’d recommend anyone doing this race to do their homework beforehand. Course markings are sparse but are sufficient if you know what you are doing.
Now I am trying to get fully recovered, but I look forward
to the next adventure!
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