I did, however, suffer an injury. All the rain and miles had washed away my Slather by Skin Strong (which worked wonderfully on my feet). Throughout the day I stayed on top of hydrating and fueling and had no GI issues. Through the next several miles everything continued to stay steady. "Don't be scared to keep at it, do not slow down, yeah my feet kinda hurt but so what? Don't be a p*$$y." I condensed that down to simply, "Don't be scared." Despite sore feet and a hamstring getting sketchy all I needed to do to was pick 'em up and put 'em down. I ended up reminding myself repeatedly to not be scared. The question was how quickly? By now my mantra was in high gear. And I was headed into uncharted territory as my longest run to date had been 33 miles.
As I headed out for the final loop I knew breaking 10 hours would require some work. Getting a pair of clean socks and dry shoes felt great. As I passed Ryan I asked him to get the shoes and a change of socks ready. The second loop went much like the first and I came back to Dogwood at about 6 hours and 17 minutes. I told myself to focus on the task at hand and not to worry about the shoes or my feet. My feet were just starting to feel the miles but no way was I going to turn back. I started in Brooks Pure Grit and had the Saucony Peregrine as a back up. Shortly into it I realized that I should have changed shoes. After refilling my bottles I made the turn and headed back out for the second of three loops. My wish list was a Vespa, a Stinger waffle, 4 Gu gels and a few S! caps.
As promised, Ryan Holler was at Dogwood ready to pass out my goodies. I came back in at Dogwood in just over 3 hours for the roughly 16.5 mile loop.
On the first loop I planned on being very chill and simply wanted to get a good look at the course, identify any potential obstacles and stay relaxed. For us NWA GOATS this course is paradise. It's wide single and double track stuff, mostly a sandy dirt mix, a few roots here and there, little elevation and only a handful of rocks. The course is quite different from what I am used to up here in the Ozarks. Once I found my happy place I quickly settled in got comfortable. I thought about having simply finishing as a goal at one point but decided, as Stuart Smalley would say, that is stinkin' thinkin'. Finish in under 12 hours, finish in under 10 hours and see how far I could push myself. My strategy was to keep as even a pace as possible, that's what works for me. It took a couple of miles before I could pick my way through and things got strung out enough to have some room. Especially when some folks found it necessary to keep their shoes dry by slowing down and tip toeing around puddles. Trying to keep pace among about 400 runners on a trail, in the rain, in low light conditions can be tricky. Once it started we all scampered across the mat and headed out into the woods. And there were lots of trash bags being worn. I saw some a guy in sandals ready to toe the line. I saw runners decked out as if it were below 30 degrees and snowing. "Hey, we're going 50, what's one more?" Still raining we found refuge in a little corner of one of the tents. So we got to do a mile warm up jog down the park road. We arrived about 30 minutes prior to the start and ended up parking a mile from Dogwood. When David asked the as yet unknown runner what his goal was for the 100 miles and the guy replied "about 13 hours" the gig was up.Īs we rolled into Huntsville State Park it had been raining for hours and there were no signs of it letting up. Thought he was just another runner and started chatting him up. He didn't recognize Hal due to that boss of a beard he was sporting. Later that night another in our group accidentally met Hal Koerner in our hotel lobby. At my last road marathon the elite runners were more or less quarantined from us regular folks, hauled around in private vehicles, had handlers and so forth. There was a line of folks that he worked his way through, taking time to shake hands and share words with each. At the race briefing on Friday afternoon I had a chance, thanks to a running buddy, to meet Karl Meltzer. Like many, I have heard about how approachable these elite athletes can be. This was also the first time that I have been in a race that featured world class ultra runners. In that regard I feel fortunate to have been a part of it.
Rocky Raccoon was 20 years old this time around and for the first time registration was closed. I must also disclose that this was by far the largest trail race I have participated in to date. However, for the uninitiated, what this means is that the conditions made this scamper exponentially more difficult to many a racer this weekend. To start off it must be mentioned that course conditions were less than ideal.