Wow, I never expected this race to be such an amazing experience.  The Reader’s Digest version of the race is simply that I went from nearly dropping out to finishing much better than I had expected.  Now for the longer version of the morning’s events.

Actually, let me start the night before.  It’s 9:30 p.m. and I have to get up at 6:00 a.m., so off to bed I went.  After an hour of staring at the ceiling, I opened my netbook computer and did a little web surfing.  Tried again to sleep and finally around 2:00 a.m. I was successful.

Up at 6:00, gathered my gear, checked the weather (36 degrees on the mountain, woke my wife who would join me for the race and headed out the door.  I felt good and ready to run.  The race didn’t start until 8:00 a.m., but I like to be early.

When we arrived, the cold convinced us to spend another 15 minutes in the truck before heading to the starting line.  There was a fire near the start, but no way to get close enough to feel the warmth.  At 7:30 a.m. the 50 Mile race started.  Seven hours and 23 minutes later Johnny Clemons crossed the finish line.

With 15 minutes before the start of the 10k race, I started to do a few short sprints to get warmed up.  But after only a few steps I nearly fell when a sharp pain hit the back of my right knee.  It was the injury I had been nursing for the last few days.  Even last night I had a heating pad on it most of the evening.  I tried again to jog and the pain was intense.

I walked back to Shelley (my wife) with the thought that I would have to seriously consider not running.  I couldn’t run if the pain was this bad, and if I run I risk causing further injury.  The smart thing to do was not run.  Since my wife is a nurse, I didn’t ask her opinion because I expected to hear what I didn’t want to accept.

Five minutes before the race I tried one last time to run.  This time the pain was less.  It seemed better in a very short amount of time.  I’m not sure if it was the excitement of the race or something else, but I felt like I could at least give it a try.  I figured at worse I would drop out of the race if the pain became too bad.

When the race started we headed down the road and turned left onto the trail.  Only 5 minutes into the race and I couldn’t really feel any pain.  Another five minutes and the cold wasn’t much of an issue anymore either.  I was near the end of the runners, but passing a few of the slowest runners in the rear.

The first two miles of the race where on a trail about 4-5 feet wide without any obstacles or dramatic elevation changes.  It was like the trail runs I did to prepare for the race.  I took my walking break for one minute every 10 minutes.  I felt really good and had no doubt about finishing.  I couldn’t believe I had almost decided not to run.

After a couple miles the trail left the wide, comfortable path and became a single track route down to, and along side of a small creek.  Actually, along side really means meandering in and out of the creek with patches of thick mud.  For the first time I realized just how important my new trail shoes were for running in such conditions.  I had no problem with the mud and was able to stay on my feet the entire race.  That wasn’t the case for a handful of others I was running with.

The other challenge of the new trail was the inability to pass runners ahead of me.  In order to pass, a runner would need to step off of the track and allow me to run by.  I was only running a bit slower than I wanted at this point, so I decided to simply focus on not slipping and keeping a good pace.  After a while the runner ahead of me nearly fell and hurt her arm while grabbing a tree on the way down.  After checking to see that she was okay, I ran ahead.

A portion of the run followed a back country “road” that could only be navigated by a four wheel-drive.  We scrambled down the road, hopping from rock to rock and over washed out ditches.  At some point a runner along side of me stopped in front of a six foot wide creek crossing the road.  I decided there was no easy way around the creek and plodded on through the frigid water.

Another 100 yards and we passed a path on our left.  With no runners in sight ahead of us, the other runner asked if we were headed in the right direction.  I saw no indication that the other path was the correct route and suggested we go over the hill to see if we found other runners.  We did.

But unfortunately the dozen or so other runners we saw were headed our direction…walking.  It wasn’t a good sign.  As they got closer I asked if this was the wrong direction and they confirmed our fear.  Somewhere we had taken the wrong path.  We headed back.

A couple runners thought we should have turned off on the other path we had passed.  It still didn’t seem right when someone mentioned seeing markers down by the creek we had crossed.  And sure enough, the markers were turning us up the hill to our left.  It seems that we were too focused on our creek crossing and missed the obvious marking taking us up the hill. It was a 4-5 minute detour that frustrated the nearly 20 of us.

Other than the flags, the trail was not easily identified.  Heading up the hill, we were running with the creek and for some length we were running IN the creek.  The nearly two inches of rain the day before had ensured a very wet run.  Several times we were scrambling over rocks, through trees and pulling ourselves up with low hanging branches.  This was more challenging than I had expected, but it turned out to be my favorite part of the run.

The remaining mile was mainly uphill.  I was feeling pain in my right calf that I figured was due to compensating for the knee.  It wasn’t so bad that it slowed me down, but I knew it would be sore for some time after the race.  (Writing this two days later, I am still in a good deal of pain whenever I walk.)

After climbing 300 feet in the last 3/4 miles, I was exhausted.  Even walking portions of the uphills, my heart rate was the same as if I was running at a brisk pace.  With less than a 1/2 mile to go, we could hear the announcer at the finish line.  I exited the woods and turned toward the voice.  There directly in front of me was a steep uphill climb to the finish line.  It was a 100 foot climb in about a 1/8 mile.

At the top of the hill we were about 500 yards from the finish line.  I did my best to sprint to the end, but I’m sure it looked more like a limping jog.  Just before crossing the finish line, I noticed the time was just over 1 hour 15 minutes.  I was thrilled.  I had hoped to finish in under 1:20, and with the 4-5 minute detour for getting lost, I had run much faster than I had expected.  Additionally, the run was much more challenging that I had planned or trained for.

Here are the race results. I finished 194 out of 233 finishers. They said nearly 270 were registered, but it looks like several either dropped out or did not show up. I also finished 21 of 24 in the men’s master’s age group (45-54). Considering this was my first trail race ever, I’m very pleased. I really just didn’t want to finish last.

BTW, I should also mention that the Rock Creek and Wild Trails gang did an awesome job in organizing and running this race.  Below is their video promoting the 50 Miler portion of the event.  Our 10k is kinda the shortened version of this much more intense race.  Check it out.

Rock/Creek Lookout 50 Mile Trail Race from Rock/Creek on Vimeo.

Okay, now it’s two days later and I’m sitting on the couch with a sore leg.  I really don’t mind.  If I hadn’t run, I would have been disappointed for the entire weekend.  I had to see how I would do, and I did better than I’d expected.  In a few days I should be able to start running again.  In the meantime, I can enjoy the company of family and the Christmas season.

Thanks for reading my blog and following my effort to finish a marathon.  With just 130 more days of training, I’m feeling more and more confident.  I’m exciting about reaching this lifetime goal and raising money for St Jude Children’s Hospital at the same time.  If you’d like to support and encourage me in this effort, please do so by making a donation to St Jude.