Experience of a first time Ultra runner
Warning: Long post.
I originally wrote this back in 2003 after I ran the StumpJump 50K that year but I never put this story online. Since the race is this weekend, I decided to post it here after finding the story again on my computer.
To some, running a marathon (26.2 miles) seems impossible. To many, running the marathon is the pinnacle of their athletic achievement. Running the marathon takes months of hard work, patience, injury prevention, and a little bit of luck. To most everyone, running anything longer than a marathon qualifies you as mentally insane. This weekend I decided to join the “crazies” and see what ultrarunning is all about.
Rising at 6:15 AM on October 11th, 2003, was hard enough in and of itself. What I was about to attempt however, gave me more than the morning jitters. At 8:00 AM in Signal Mountain, TN, about 80 runners set off in the second annual Stump Jumper 50K. I was included in the field.
The race course was similar to a lollipop. The first and last two miles were on double wide gravel trails before entering the main trail system. From there the race would be on mostly single track trails. Around mile 10, at aid station #3, you left the stick of the lollipop and proceeded for about another 10 miles around the loop of the lollipop. You returned to the aid station and ran the first 10 miles again.
As the race started, all the nervousness seemed to ease out of my body. Finally, all the worrying about pace, eating, drinking, etc was out of mind and the only thing left to do was run the race. My training for the last two months was strictly focused on running a marathon. Only about 5 weeks before the race did I switch to the Ultra. I visited South Lake Tahoe for two weeks prior to the race and that limited my longest run to 22 miles. On that run I tweaked my knee. I rested it a lot the final two weeks before this Ultra. I hoped it would stand up to the pounding it was about to take.
The first few miles I ran by myself and then with a friend’s wife. About mile 3 we went over a suspension bride that rocked back and forth with every step. With 5+ people on the bridge, it was quite a fun time bouncing up and down as I crossed the 50m bridge. Upon exiting the bridge, the first major hill stared you in the face.
At this point in the race with the adrenaline flowing, you want to run up the hill. Knowing that I had another 28 miles left, I joined everyone else in a fast power hike. I passed a few people going up the hills. The trail passed between two boulders about 15 feet high. This was going to be a cool trail.
Around mile 5, the trail crossed a road and began about 50 feet up the road. This was aid station #2. I filled my bottle, grabbed a few pretzels, took an electrolyte pill and started moving again. I left within one minute. I would repeat this process at every aid station.
I met Craig about a half mile after rejoining the trail from the road. We ran together for a while when Craig asked if I had seen any trail markers. I said I hadn’t but this sure did look like the correct way. About a minute later we met Randy and Howard coming towards us. They asked if we had seen any trail markers because they hadn’t. Oops, we were going the wrong way. To make matters worse, the way back was uphill. Within 10 minutes we found the trail and heard the mass of people that passed us. It was time to speed up and retake our positions.
Running as a pack of four, we slowly began to retake those that had passed us. A few here, a couple more there, we were determined. Somewhere around mile 8 I had to make the first “pit stop”. As I left the trail, Craig went on ahead of me. Randy and Howard soon passed and I hopped back on the trail to run with them.
The miles passed as did the aid stations. About mile 13 we came to a dead end. Looks like we lost the trail again! After a LONG uphill climb back to the correct trail, Randy, Howard, and I began to wonder if we would even make the race cutoff times. With 30+ minutes gone to off trail travel, we were reaching the realization that we may just barely make the cutoffs. Before we knew it the aid station, and cutoff was in front of us and we had made the cutoff easily.
Around mile 15 the knee I injured in training began to act up. Ironically I believe this is at the same point that we received some horrible tasting water from an aid station. It tasted like the container had mold in it. I drank it, but I certainly didn’t like it! I took in the scenery and tried to ignore the tweak in my knee that was starting to annoy me. At mile 17 we had a nice surprise. The area was called the rock garden. For about a half mile we bounced from rock to rock. Huge boulders the size of basketballs, softballs, footballs, balance balls, and every size you could imagine. The area was well marked and we had no trouble through the garden.
At aid station # 6, with only 10 miles to go, Randy took off ahead of Howard and I. He wanted to see if he could catch a friend before he finished. The friend was about 5-10 minutes ahead of us. This was the home stretch!
All I could think about the last 10 miles was the pizza and coke I was going to eat at the end. There were times when Howard would trek and I wanted to run. There were times when Howard ran and I wanted to trek. It’s nice to have someone there to push you. With 6 miles to go, we almost missed the trail that we had lost earlier in the day. We were observant and didn’t see the markers and looked around for about 30 seconds before finding the correct trail.
The majority of the last 5 miles were uphill (much to my delight…kidding). With two miles to go my knee was ready to finish. As we crossed the finish line Howard and I held up our hands and finished together. He seemed really excited that I had just finished my first Ultra. The funny thing about finishing the Ultra; I didn’t notice my time. I had been so wrapped up in finishing; I didn’t care about my time. As it turns out, it took seven hours, thirty-four minutes, and forty-nine seconds. Considering we lost over thirty minutes to off trail travel, I’m very happy. Except for the fact that all the pizza was gone and all that was left was Diet Coke. Who wants a diet drink after running 31 miles?