Many local runners put in outstanding performances despite the mentally-tough conditions. Eric Charette went 2d OA in the 50mi race, enroute to a full weekend of training prep for the upcoming Pinhoti FKT adventure. Eric Fritz cranked out 67mi enroute to winning the Masters division (he's probably freaking out a little bit just to realize he's actually in that category now!). Marcus Farris, former Grissom HS standout and current Auburn student and ROTC cadet, goes 3d OA and sets an age-group state record for 50miles while he's at it. Watching that young man smoothly crank out miles through the midday was both maddening and inspiring! Several other from the Fleet Fleet Huntsville Racing team had solid days, plus relay teams. But perhaps the story of the weekend was crazy John Nevels in his 24 Hours of Delano, starting at 6pm on Friday evening, and running for pledges in support of National Tay-Sachs and Allied Diseases where he raised about $1000 for the group. John put down 62mi (100km) overnight before the official race start in the morning, finishing with an even 100mi in 19hr40min (a personal best for him).
The weather here is always interesting (2009 was torrential rains all morning, 2008 started in a snow storm), and this year did not disappoint. It drizzled and rained in steady 15-20min increments throughout the morning, clearing off and kicking up the wind for a 1/2 hour and promising hope, only to bring more showers (even hail) just about the time you were drying out!
We got going at 6am, armed with chip timing to ease the hassle of counting laps. The was water on the dirt/gravel/cinder path most of the day, creating some slushy and mushy spots along the route. I ran many of the early miles with Blake, Eric Fritz, and Joey Butler, getting lapped with Eric Charette more than I care to admit! Despite the loop course where I thought I would go nuts, I actually began to enjoy the rhythm and the no-guessing aspect of understanding how to deal with every curve, corner, climb/descent (such as they were), etc. I cranked through the first 50k in around 5hr30min, faster than I wanted but OK.
My general goal for the 12-hr event was to move steady all day, ran as well in the afternoon as the morning, then save some juice to crank it up in the final hour. I only sat down twice all day, and that was 5min each at 10am and 2pm to change my socks. Big lesson learned from all my previous ultra and 100s is to never lose momentum in the chair; I sat on a bench to change socks!
The middle of the day was a tough period for me, from the 50k point until about 3pm. We would go from dry and cool to wet-cold as rain storms passed through, a little maddening to watch the black clouds roll in and know what was about to happen. But that is a great aspect of this event, as it provides another opportunity for mental toughness, both in dealing with the weather as well as the seeming-monotony of the loop course; you cannot let your mind wander about too much, but rather force yourself to concentrate and keep rolling, keep drinking, keep fueling, and keep concentrating on your body and what it is telling you.
Blake had a resurgence in the afternoon, which I was glad to see. He's still hurting a bit after a great run at the recent Rocky Raccoon 100 in Texas, and he was not looking real keen through the morning. But we cranked some miles starting around 1:30pm, remarking we were due for one more wave of rain soon. And since Mother Nature probably laughed at our half-assed weather prognosticating skills, she promptly sent a darn hail storm on us around 2:15pm! Yes, that sucked, so I had to take a deep breath, force a smile, and keep moving steadily through it.
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Around 4pm the daylight began to wane under the cloud cover, but the course was also drying out in places. By 5pm the Cafe Latte Perpetuem from Hammer Nutrition was kicking in (same stuff that fueled my final hours at the AT100), and I cranked up the pace some. Doing the course math in my head, I figured I could squeeze in 4mi in the final hour to make an even 60mi for the day. But as the adrenaline started to flow and the end of the day came into view, I was able to take mile times down from ~13min (including the forced walk breaks) down to 9min (no walk breaks). So the plan worked as I pushed hard through the last hours, actually conserving enough time to crank out a 61st mile. I crossed the timing mats on final time at 11hr54min and called it day from there; no way I was going to make another loop. Hand shakes and congrats all around with the die-hards who had stuck it out all day long.
I got over to the XTerra and poured a jug of water over my legs to wash the mud off (there was plenty), and started to shiver pretty bad despite still riding high on an adrenaline surge. Then my teeth started to clatter as I dried off and tried to get a jacket on; holy cow that was an interesting few minutes. We had a very nice post-race meal at the nearby Westminster Presbyterian Church and watched the awards ceremony. I made my way home by 8pm, took a shower, and read books with the boys for a while (Dr. Seuss never fails). Then it was time for minor surgery on the nasty blisters that had developed on both pinky toes; I'll spare you the photos of that!
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