I’m not going to give a full race report for this one. Other
than to quote my new friend Stephen Moore who summed it up this way:
“Loop 1: cold, wet, rocks, hills, mud.
Loop 2: repeat but colder, wetter, and more sloppy mud.”
And Ben Martinez, who gave this description about Loop 2:
“This...[last]1/2 marathon was a suffer fest. The mud. The
water. The climbs. I'd had enough of it by this point and just wanted to
finish. The last 3 climbs, Lucky Peak, Cairn's Climb and Boyle's Bump were
brutal. It hurt as much going up as it did going down.”
I agree with both of them. The conditions were horrible for
my first 100K (62 mile) race. The bleak forecast came true except it didn’t
rain like was expected. We had sleet, a snowflake or two, mist, drizzle,
freezing drizzle, and freezing temps all day and night. It was funny to see
sotol cactus with ice covering the serrated blades. At some point during the
night, there was also a bit of fog.
Some interesting things I learned about a cold, freezing,
precipitation-filled race:
1. Ice melts slightly above 32 degrees. Where does the water
go? Right into the trail.
2. Wet dirt creates mud. Mud can be super sticky and cling to your shoes for added weight…or it can be slick. The course at Bandera had both.
3. More water added to slick mud creates slop. Slop is super
runny, thick mud…with water puddles on it.
4. At Hill Country State Natural Area, slop is slippery. How
slippery? Think about dumping a 3 inch thick layer of lard onto a twisty,
turny, up and down cart path…and then try to run through it without slipping. (Impossible)
5. There are muscles in the legs that have rarely been
used…until you try to walk through slop. Those muscles get tired really fast.
6. It is possible to slip and spin 360 degrees without
falling.
7. Enough mud on the
trail can and does cover rocks really well…well enough to hide such rocks.
7b. Treacherous rocks above the mud still have mud on top of them. Muddy rock=slippery rock.
8. Exhaling through the mouth at 31 degrees creates a small
cloud that blocks the vision…every time you exhale.
9. Headlamp batteries, although fresh, die much more quickly
in the cold nighttime air.
10. It is generally NOT a good idea to try and take off wet
layers of shirts and put on dry ones when you’re standing out there in the cold
air and your fingers don’t work so well.
10b. overstaying your welcome at an aid station makes you lose your body heat really fast. Shivering and teeth chattering sucks.
10. It is possible to walk nearly 31 miles through slop and
not have your legs fall off.
11. Playing
slip-n-slide in the slop is much more fun with the company of close friends
than by yourself.
12. It is ok to yell f*ck! Or sh*t! everytime you slip on
the brink of falling….every 10th step or so.
13. Ramen and mashed potato soup in a cup is gourmet food.
14. High, steep hills don’t look too bad when you can’t see
them. The one pleasant thing about having to continually look down where you
step at night. the downside of continually staring down to look where you step? keeping the eyes open for so many hours without realizing that you are not blinking burns the hell out of your eyes.
15. Aid station volunteers are really the most bad-ass
people on the planet. Period.
Oh and 16. You gotta be insane to run 100K in the freezing,
muddy conditions for 20 hours for a buckle. But I gotta admit… it is a cool
one!
