A few weeks ago, as I was preparing for my first 50 miler
(actually 54) and the 10th race at marathon distance (26.2 miles),
there was a lot of information being released that leads some to believe running extreme
endurance events is bad for you.
Basically the study shows that the strain on the body from marathon running
can increase a person’s risk of having a stroke and the risk can shorten one’s
lifespan. My opinion both during and
after the race is that even though this is supposed to kill me, it makes me
feel more alive than I have ever been.
It is kind of ironic that I began running to lose weight and increase
not only my quality of life but the quantity of my lifespan. I have been up as much as 270lbs and
incapable of enjoying some of the things that I currently do on a daily
basis. I have already heard enough
lectures and excuses about how running will ruin my knees and give me arthritis
along with this new study to give even more lectures and excuses not to
run. A short life filled with real
living is, in my opinion, better than a long life of just existing. Running is not everyone’s picture of fun and
I do understand that but for me it doesn’t get any better than seeing and
experiencing what this hobby has allowed.
A few points before I talk about this amazing race. I am not going to gripe about how painful and
difficult it was. Yes, it hurt a lot and
yes it was very difficult. I have a few
pictures from the race and the elevation profile attached but showing numbers,
statistics and words to describe the course would exceed the limitations of my
vocabulary. Also to describe the pain
and fatigue is not an easy task either unless you have done something similar,
for example; if I describe the feeling from a burn or broken bone, it is easy
to empathize since these are common yet different feelings of pain that most of
us have experienced. Running an
ultramarathon is in a different category and difficult to describe so I won’t
make this sound whiny since it is something I willingly placed upon myself. As of right now it still feels like I’m
telling a lie when I tell that I ran a 54 mile race, folks look at me like some
sort of escapee from the mental hospital.
I agree that it is not a task that someone can wake up tomorrow and do
without a long period of training and preparation. I would typically not recommend trying
something like this without having ran at least one marathon or at least built
up to a couple of 30+ mile training runs.
There was one exception to the rule for this race. My friend, Brad Farmer, is one individual
that I ran with during this race who had never ran a race of any distance ever
before this. Let me state that again, he
never even competed in so much as a 5k before this race. That is VERY exceptional and still is
unbelievable to me. He fell in love with
running about 3 years ago and has been racking up insane mileage, not for sake
of competition but for the mere enjoyment of running. I had been pestering him for a while to run a
race with me and was stunned when he agreed to run this one. I must say that I am extremely proud of him
for completing this challenge side by side with me and not only that, but also
finishing in the top 15 especially when a quarter of the runners did not even
finish.
On race day the first thing I noticed is that most
ultra-runners don’t really care about formalities, they just like to run. All of us were gathered around in the parking
lot of Lake James State Park waiting on some instruction as to where the
starting line was, when the race director gave us some instruction and then
said “go”. The start line was wherever
we were standing. A race starting this
way was something that I had never experienced before. Another example was the fact that this was
listed as a 50 miler but the distance was actually 54 miles. What is 4 extra miles amongst friends? We started out with a conservative pace as
many bolted out to the early lead as I silently knew we would see them again.
The first 20 miles of the race is all hills, primarily on
the up side. Each hill that ended in a
blind turn revealed yet another hill to conquer. Brad and I had originally decided to do a 5
minute run followed by a 1 minute walk to try and conserve energy. Due to the amount of upward climbing that
took place, we found it more efficient just to speed walk most of the hills
since they were too steep to really run with any type of efficiency. We saw other participants trying to run the
hills without making much more progress than us and at this point in the game
it was all about conserving energy for the end.
Once the majority of the climbing was finished we were blessed with some
amazing views of the mountains in the distance with fog still in the valleys
below. We reached our first set of drop
bags at mile 15 where I had a few electrolyte tablets and a fresh bottle of
Pedialyte along with some body glide for chaffing and extra nipple bandages
just in case the ones I had fell off.
There was also a hot cup of Ramen soup waiting at the aid station for
those who wanted it. Food at this point
was not appetizing in any aspect but to stay strong you have to eat as much as
possible to replenish the lost fuel along the course to keep from hitting the
wall. I can honestly say that one of the
toughest parts about running an ultra marathon is nutrition. Most races at marathon distance or below only
requires a few sips of Gatorade and a gel every once in a while but to run
longer is impossible without a larger variety of calories.
After the aid station we noticed a gorgeous mountain in the
distance that had a giant rock face at the top of it and I jokingly told Brad
that it would suck if we had to run up that mountain. As it turns out, that mountain is Table Rock,
hence the name of the race “Table Rock Ultra Marathon”. The mountain comes later in the race, for the
moment we were content running down the gravel road along the top ridge of a
couple mountains and enjoying nature.
The weather was great at the start in the upper 40’s with everything
feeling great. As the run progressed so
did the temperatures as the weather climbed to a sunny 70 degrees. This is typically not bad except as a rule of
thumb, they say to dress for a race as if it is 20 degrees warmer and to dress
accordingly. The race course continued
to alternate between gravel roads that led to paved ones and back to gravel
through the NC countryside. The scenery
was not lacking at all and the views helped to take the mind off of the pain
that began from tired muscles and would continue to progress for the next
several hours until the finish line. At
the 50k mark, I was happy to see an aid station but also was a bit confused
since we were supposed to have our second drop bags at the 35 mile mark. We were told that there was another aid
station only 3 miles away which seemed even more of a quandary. This reasoning became clear as the next 3
miles were all steep uphill climbs on a road filled with endless
switchbacks. This point was where I hit
a milestone into uncharted territory.
The longest I had ever ran at one time in my life was 31 miles. I have never ran any further and did not have
a clue what it would feel like and new that I was jumping into the deep
end. We could see the summit of Table
Rock in the distance and still did not believe that we would actually have to
climb up it until at mile 34 the road ended into a parking lot with an aid
station waiting at the entrance to a rough and rocky trail leading up to the
summit of the mountain. This was a very
difficult and technical trail with a very steep climb to the top. We reached the top of the mountain just long
enough to get a quick glance at the view to soak it in before turning around to
go back down the mountain and grab our last set of drop bags at the aid station
before the long downhill run.
Most people would think it is a relief to run downhill but when your legs are already shot from the long set of climbs it becomes very difficult for your legs to absorb the shock that a downhill run brings on. I felt like I was walking a fine line hoping that my legs would not buckle from fatigue because a run on this steep of a hill would be extremely disastrous. Finally the last of the downhill descent ended at around mile 40 when things relatively flattened out to rolling hills instead of dramatic ups and downs. We were told at the last aid station that we were inside of the top 30 and were doing good. We both decided to go for broke during the last half marathon portion of the course and it started to pay off as we began to pass multiple runners along our path. Most of these were the folks at the beginning of the race that went out too fast, pushed too hard and were paying for it dramatically in the last few miles. It appears that our conservative strategy paid off. We hit the 50 mile mark and had already received a feeling of gratification. How many people can say that they ran 50 miles? Not only that but I was feeling very good even though the last 4 seemed to take forever. About 3 miles out, before the race entered the park where the race started earlier, I could see my wife and daughter waiting patiently and waving to us as we came into view. They started to run beside us but we were feeling good and still pushing a pace that was difficult for them to keep stride, luckily they parked the car only a mile down the path that we were running and hoped in to drive over to the finish to wait for us there. When the finish line clock came into view, we saw that it read 9:59:10 and we had decided that we wanted to be under the 10 hour mark so we began to sprint. That is a weird feeling after running 54 miles to try and finish of in a dead sprint for the finish line but we did it anyway. We made it under our time barrier and were glad to have finished up and receive our black hooded sweatshirt as a finishers prize. I must say this is the toughest shirt I have ever had to earn and will wear it with pride. The race was filled with such amazing views that I had to take my wife and daughter back the next day to show them what Table Rock Mountain looked like. It is a shame that most people will never get to see that view, yet another reason to love running because without it neither would have I.
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