On Saturday I got home from My 50k Trail Race at Sulphur Springs and spent the next little while cleaning mud out of my shoes and drying them out. Packed most of my gear for the morning and relaxed with my favourite pre-race dinner, wieners & beans.
Made it to bed at a reasonable time and got a good 5.5hrs sleep. Had a more normal pre-race breakfast of oatmeal. Packed my cooler and hit the road for the 45min drive to the Epic 6hr race. Hit the coffee shop for coffee and bagel on the way and got to the race site with an hour to spare.
The Epic 6hr race was a RunningFree sponsored event , consisting of 16 teams doing a 4k loop relay and 9 hardy individuals doing a 6.4k loop solo race. Can you guess what event I was doing?
This was a first time event and with most of the regular crowd running at Sulphur Springs, I was the only RunningFree team member there.
The group running this race normally does mountain bike races. In fact they did one the day before on this same course. So this was a no frills event. One aid station, in the middle of the 4k loop, with water and e-load. And a water e-load station, where you could refill your own bottles, at the start/finish.
Timing was different than I was used to too. Instead of a chip, a card with a magnetic disk you swiped over a scanner as you finished each loop. The relay teams would then pass off the card to their next teammate. I would have to carry it the entire race. At the last minute, I decided to pin it to my water belt, so ran back to my car and grabbed an extra safety pin and almost made it back to the start on time. I started dead last and a few seconds behind.
The race had a later start, at 10am and it was already getting a little warm, 63F. Only a degree cooler than Saturday’s race finished at. So right off the bat I went out in RunningFree singlet, compression shorts and water belt.
For the first 700m both groups run together, and then the solo runners head out onto a 2.4k loop on their own. Except for the first 500m starting out and the last 400m heading in, which is access road, the trail is about half single track mountain bike trail with interspersed double track sections.
This was a tough course. My ankle wasn’t too bad, my quads were pretty tight from the day before, and my knee, well rub some dirt on it and suck it up. Yeah you can probably guess, I tripped on a root and went down on the knee. Fortunately a soft spot, so no harm done.
Not a lot of runners to pace off of in the 2.4k loop and after we met up with the relay runners just after our 3k point, you couldn’t pace off them as they were just blowing by you. Lots of good motivation from them as they went by though, as they recognized us as solo runners.
As I passed through the aid station at the start/finish they would call out our names and offer out encouragement. As well we would get cheers and encouragement from the relay runners waiting their turns.
As I passed through I would swap out water bottles with fresh ones from my cooler, grab some e-caps or fig newtons depending on how I felt and carry on to the next loop.
I would also down some gels or beans at an uphill at 4k.
The first loop was in 46:45, but the hills were trashing my quads so I cut the pace a little and did the next two loops in 50:08 each. Earning the comment of having settled into my pace as I completed the third loop. At the start of the 4th loop I had my fig newtons and it slowed me up a little, finishing that loop in 52:06. It was during this loop that one of the aid workers out on the course noticed my knee and commented about hurting myself. I told them it happened at the race the day before. The word made it back to the start/finish, and after that whenever they announced me coming through they included the fact that I had done a 50k the day before.
Loop 5 the heat was starting to get to me, it was about 86F by this time, the problem with the later start and I finished in 56:36. Loop 6 was done in 55:59. As I swiped through, I yelled out “one more time” and gave whatever I had left and finished loop 7 in 50:22.
Total distance covered 44.8k in 6:02:04.
Finished 4th in the mens solo, 20 min behind 3rd, 24 min behind second, both completing 44.8k. 1st place finished with 51.2k in 6:19.
A friend was doing the solo female and finished 44.8k in just under 6:22. A great effort as she was originally going to run the relay, but her teammates wouldn’t commit, so she decided to go solo. So this was her first ultra with her longest previous race being a half marathon. I spent a good part of the next hour answering her questions on how to recover.
A tough no frills race. No shirt, no medals, but the top teams in each category and the top three male and female in the solo got plaques and trees. As well the top finisher in each category received a RunningFree gift card. Trees were also being planted on behalf of every participant
I had a great day and was glad to represent RunningFree, but Monday my quads were not on speaking terms with me.
Time for a little break. Until the next time.
