Bandera 100k

Bandera 100k                           12 January 2013

A relatively last second decision and I was going to be adding another ultra race to my yearly schedule. I had read about the Tejas 300 last year and thought it sounded cool, but for whatever reason, I didn’t sign up to complete it. The two 100-mile races that I do are put on by the same race director. He actually has a number of races that he manages (and quite well at that). But it’s been hard for me to want to do the shorter races as I see them as less than a challenge (instead of a different challenge). Perhaps this is why I didn’t do this last year. 

The Tejas 300 is a club, I guess, in which you have to complete Cactus Rose 100 in late October, then Bandera 100k in mid-January, and then Rocky Raccoon 100 in early February. 262 miles. Three races. Three months (plus a few days).  For completing it, you get bragging rights and less importantly, though much more pretty, a thick five-pound slab of polished granite in the shape of Texas.

I figured this year I’d see what all the hype was about. So I signed up for the race in December or so and saw that there’s quite the turnout for this race. Since 2011 (and through 2014) it’s been the US 100km Trail Championship race. Along with this race there is a 50k and 25k race. Thus the big turnout. Almost 1000 entrants among the three races. And when we all showed up in the minivan at the same field as two and a half months ago, I was shocked to see the place packed with cars. We parked in the camping area, set up our tent right next to the van, and got ready for bed. We of course had our super nutritious dinner (and later to become breakfast) Little Caesars pizza. When we returned from my last race, the boys saw that we had removed the chairs to sleep in the van. They wanted to do the same this time. “As long as you guys are dry, you can sleep in the van.” It was nice having the whole tent to ourselves (and Lena) and also not worrying about two boys that are not very quiet when they awake in the morning. 

Sleeping was not a problem this night. Since this race is so much shorter, its start time wasn’t until 7:30 a.m. It was enjoyable to sleep in ‘til 6:30. I proceeded to get dressed, check in, and have my pizza breakfast. The boys were of course awake (the first glimpse of the sun’s rays instantly removes any need of further sleep) and Amy brought Lena out a little after 7. It was cool, just 50 degrees. But it was very foggy, which meant there was a lot of water in the air. It was clear that I’d be needing some Vaseline to keep from chafing too much. It was going to be nice not having to start the race with a headlamp/flashlight as it was already bright enough to see all the rocks along the path. I was hoping to be able to finish the race without needing a light at the end (because I hate carrying anything with me and headlamps are not comfortable after a few hours). Which I figured would require me to finish in less than twelve hours. And that made sense to me. I did some math in my head: just under 24 hours to finish 100 miles; that means 11 or so to finish 50 at the same pace; but I wasn’t running 100, just 62. So my pace was going to be faster than 100-mile pace. Goal for this race: sub 12 hour finish for 100k (62 miles).

Each race had its own starting line and went in their own direction. The countdown ensued and we were off. I saw Amy and the kids off to the side and waved as we left the camping area and entered the hills. It seemed as though a number of people took off and I wondered why. I knew this was the US 100k championships and that a number of awesome ultra runners would be here to fly through the course, but it couldn’t be this many people. But I was here for myself and all I cared about was finishing under twelve hours.

This race was going to be a bit different. Not only was it much shorter, but there were only two loops instead of four or five. There were a few people that I ran with for awhile and enough to even exchange names. About 12 miles into the first loop, I happened upon a couple of runners that I ended up running with for 6 miles or so. Lorenzo (Sanchez) and Hannon (Didier), though I didn’t know last names at the time. Lorenzo had done a few of the same races as I, but Hannon hadn’t. But we were all going to be doing Rocky Raccoon 100 in three weeks, and it was Hannon’s first 100. So we talked about this and that and what to be ready for. (He’ll end up finishing it 34^th place in a time of 21:16:17.) My body told me it was time to move on. I said my goodbyes and left them. 

Alone again. As I continued, I was thrust back into the low clouds higher up on the hills. And that’s where the problem magnified itself. I was already shirtless as my top was drenched (between sweat and moisture from the air). I had wrapped it around my waist and tucked it into my shorts on the sides (something I learned in high school cross country). I couldn’t quite remember how the last 10 miles of the lap worked. I wasn’t worried about getting lost as Joe (race director) always marks his courses very well. So I just followed along. I got to an aid station called “Last Chance.” Its location was a mere half mile from the finish, but I quickly found out that the 100k’s had to turn and continue another five miles through the part of Cactus Rose that I hate the most. Great. And to make matters more fun, this part was a bit muddy and slick with all the moisture and light sprinkling during the previous day. Adding insult to injury, my Vaseline had more than worn off and the insides of my thighs were rubbing themselves raw to the point I just wanted to stop. Of course I didn’t, but it hurt so much. Everything under my shorts was raw and rubbing on wet shorts. I needed to finish this lap so I could change my shorts and slather that region with some much needed Vaseline. 

Ahhhhhh! Dry shorts and a layer of protection. That’s how you spell relief. I didn’t bother bringing a shirt with me as I was certain it would just end up around my waist again. Just 31 more miles. Or as I quickly thought, just one more lap. That made it sound much better. I finished my first lap in a little over five hours. Someone I was running with mentioned how nobody ever has negative splits on this course. Adding another half hour put me at eleven hours or so. I could handle that.

I left for my final loop with my thoughts to entertain me. I was running solo for almost the entire lap except when I passed people. One thought that kept running through my head was how much more I needed to run. I would compare it to loops that I usually do around town.  “It’s like I’m leaving my house and doing my Cypresswood/2920 loop (a 24-mile loop).” “Now it’s like I’m doing the Benders Landing loop (18 miles).” “Now I just have 10 miles. I do this just about every day (minus the hills of course).” At the second-to-last aid station, Amy and the kids were there waiting for me. “What time is it?” “45.” “What 45?” “5.” “I need my flashlight and headlamp. I’m not gonna make it 10 miles before it’s too dark to see and I’ll be on rocky hills at the time.” I didn’t want to have to use my lights as I hate carrying things. So I started going back to my not-so-very infallible calculations I made before the race. For some reason, I was thinking the sun wouldn’t go down ‘til after 7:30 (which is what happens in the spring). Maybe it’s because the weather had been so warm at the time. But as I thought about it, the sun was gonna be gone shortly after 6 p.m. And there was no way I was finishing 10 miles in an hour. Especially not after having run 50 miles. 

Once again I made it through the long forest and finally made it to the last aid station. The one that’s only a half mile from the finish. I wanted so badly to just go straight and not make the turn to do my last five miles. Then I’d finish in the light and not have to use my lights. But alas, I turned and made my way up over the first of two super fun hills. The sun made its way behind the hills and as I was going up the last hill, I had to turn on my lights. I was worried that this was gonna be bad because of the mud and slick rocks I experienced on my first time around. However, much to my delight, the mud was drier and the rocks were hardly slick at all. 

As I was coming up to the last of my uphill battles, I heard a couple of guys up ahead of me, but I didn’t see any lights. Weird. “Where’s your lights?” “Well, we kinda miscalculated our paces and didn’t bring any with us.” So I got to use my headlamp as my light in front of me and I held my flashlight straight down as I shared that light between me and one of the other two guys. But the guy in front of us seemed to not want to benefit from the light as he remained rather far in front of us. Continuing downhill, we finally came to the turn off the trails and into the field. Shouts of joy came from the three of us. Apparently the guy in front of us was using the light, but just the very edges of it. He had to slow down every now and then to keep in range of the light. We talked it up as we entered the field. Just a few hundred meters remained. As it was brighter from the various lights around, I took off for my typical finishing kick. I saw the kids up ahead and they saw me. “Daddy!” And they tried to run with me up to the finish line. But I passed them and was gone in a second. I crossed the line and it beeped at me saying ‘Congratulations!’ Final time: 11 hours, 23 minutes, 50 seconds. 22^nd place out of 186 finishers and 256 starters. My sub-12 hour goal was fulfilled. Race number two of three in the Tejas 300 completed.

2012 Cactus Rose 100 Race Report

Cactus Rose 100                                                             27-28 October 2012

Amy’s mom offered to fly in to town to watch the kids for the duration of the race. That sounded great. It offered Amy and me to have a whole weekend together with no kids. And Amy had a surprise for me (she had already told me): She was going to be my pacer for 20 miles of the last 25-mile loop. I guess you could say it was my birthday present for her (and who wouldn’t give a 20-mile run for a present?).

 We cleared out the back of the minivan including the seats as that was going to be our sleeping quarters. After four and half hours, we arrived in Bandera, TX (actually the state park just outside of Bandera). We had just bought our dinner/breakfast: two pizzas from Little Caesars. We found a spot in the huge field next to the starting line and rearranged the back so we could sleep (it was after 9:30 by the time we got there and we didn’t have any kids to get ready for bed.).

I couldn’t sleep for awhile. I tried to listen to music on my phone, but that didn’t help (Thanks a lot Garth!). My alarm woke me at 4:00 a.m. After finding some super nutritious race prep food (the leftover pizza), I walked over to check in and get my race number. Amy was awake and I double checked to make sure that my drop bags had the correct things in them. I got my race number on and was finishing some more pizza when I looked at my watch. 4:55! Ok, I have to really get over to the starting line ‘cause I have 5 minutes ‘til starting time. Amy came over with me and took my picture (the race had just started as I finished tying my shoes). You might think I’d be worried about not starting right when the gun went off (though there was no gun), but when you run 100 miles, two minutes of lost time translates to a 1-second time difference per mile by the end of the race. I had to sport my fire department shirt because the guys at the station said I needed to better represent them. And I figured that it’d be a good conversation piece as I met various other runners on the trail.

The weather was around 46 degrees and cloudy, which I was more than happy with. Since this race is nowhere near as popular as the other 100-mile race I do (2-300 people are on this course compared with 750 at Rocky Raccoon), the start was really smooth. There were no huge bunches of people that slow you down, though I never complain about them as they help keep me from starting too fast. It’s hard to make sure you go slowly enough so that your legs aren’t out of energy when mile 75 comes around. So I went at a pace that I felt was slow enough. I would be in a small pack for a bit and then leave them and find the next pack of runners until later in the morning I found myself basically alone for the rest of the race. Back in the morning, I came up on a runner whose light had died. So I shared my lights with her until we got to the next aid station (which was only at most a mile away).

As I got up to the top of one of the hills (mountain if you’re from Texas), I looked out across the valley below and thought how beautiful it looked. The sun was up, but it was cloudy, so it was still kinda dark. There was a guy up there at the top with a camera and he was taking pictures of everyone as they came by. I stopped, said “Hi,” smiled, and continued on my way.

Right after I started, Amy drove to the aid stations and left my drop bags for me and then went back to bed. I knew could do better than last year’s race (27 hours and 11 minutes) and felt that if I could run close to five-and-a-half-hour laps, then I would finish under 24 hours. That was my only goal: sub-24. I felt fine during my first lap (who doesn’t?) and came in around five hours. It was a little faster than I wanted, but oh well. What’s done is done and I’ll hope it doesn’t come back to haunt me later on in the day.

The second lap is backwards from the first lap. I like this because I quickly finish the 10 miles of the race that I hate the most. Amy met me at every aid station all day long starting with my second lap. It was great. She got my drinks ready and had food out of my bag for me and put it away to save me some time (which adds up after stopping at aid stations all day long). After those ten not-so-fun miles at the start of the second lap were completed, I had an “easy” fifteen miles ahead of me.

I was more or less by myself for this lap and for most of the rest of the day. And at some point (on my third lap) I decided to have a friend with me. I got my mp3 player and listened to Interview with a Vampire. People frequently ask me how I can run without listening to music (or at least something). I used to run with music, but after I drowned an mp3 player numerous times with sweat (to the point that it no longer worked), I decided to not run with music anymore. I was free to think about things I needed to get done, how I was going to accomplish them, what to get Amy for her birthday (or Christmas, Mother’s Day, etc.), random parts of various songs that continuously repeat (such as things from Backyardigans, other shows my kids watch, or a song I recently hear while driving), or just nothing at all. I found that I really enjoyed running headphone-free and have never thought twice about trying to find a way to make it work. The only time that I now run with headphones is during our “winter,” but only because I don’t sweat nearly as much. And I never listen to music; always audiobooks.

My second lap ended in roughly the same time as my first lap—another five hours. Fifty miles completed in ten hours. Way ahead of pace (by two hours) and still feeling great. But fifty miles is just that. Fifty miles. There were still fifty more and those are the miles to be scared about when doing long races. I never run very long when training for these 100-milers (18-24 miles are my usual long runs that I do every few weekends when it’s cooler out). So it’s hard to gauge what pace you should be running at to make sure your body can still have something in store when you’re 50 miles farther than any of your training runs. But that’s how I learn—trial and error. Just about everything I know about my so-called crazy running habit is stuff I discovered by trial and error. I don’t read running magazines/web sites to see which food to eat or which shoes to wear. I don’t run with a running club to know how I should best train for ultras. I don’t anything. I just go. If it works, great. If not, don’t do that again. I feel I’ve learned quite a bit in the little time I’ve spent running ultras. And when I’m 60 and still doing this, I know I’ll be closer to being an expert.

My third lap continued in the same direction as my first lap, so the first fifteen miles were “easy” again. When I completed this lap, Amy would be running miles 75-95 with me. I knew we’d be going a bit slower than I’d like, so I made sure to keep this pace going to leave less energy for my last lap. It didn’t really bother me that my time with Amy would be slower; I was excited to spend 4+ hours with Amy (on her birthday) and all the conversations that we could have while kid-free.

I was still feeling great as I finished my third lap. In fact, I didn’t need to use my headlamp/flashlight until well after I got passed this horribly steep (though short) hill. I did not want to “run” down it in the dark if I could help it and I was well passed it when night set in and I needed the lights on. I don’t know why I was feeling so good—maybe I drank more and ate more this year (compared to last year). I think that’s about the only difference between the two years. But I finished my third lap around 16 hours. 75 miles complete. Just one more lap. Amy was there waiting for me and we quickly headed out. “The first 10 miles we’ll just walk fast with a tiny bit of actually running as it’s rather hilly.” The sun was long gone and even though we both had headlamps and flashlights, Amy managed to kick a number of rocks (they’re all over the trails). And somehow she used the same toes each time to kick the rocks. Funny how that happens. We got to the second aid station on that loop and completed those awful ten miles. I think I zapped Amy’s energy though. She usually runs a couple times a week and only 2-3 miles at a time. So ten miles (though there was plenty of walking) kinda drained her. And we still had ten more miles to go. The paced slowed considerably, but I still enjoyed our time together. We don’t get much time alone anymore and we talked the whole time. Even on the flat parts we walked and I could tell she was ready to call it quits. But we were getting sorta close to the aid station at mile 95 and we continued on our way. I don’t think Amy could’ve been any happier when we got there. I got a quick bite to eat and a small drink, kissed Amy, and took off for my final five miles.

Amy jogged back to the start/finish (a mile and a half up the road) and I could see her light across the field that separated us. I yelled at her to keep talking with her, but she couldn’t hear me. Then I cut into the forest (These are the only pine trees in the area. Everything else is just mesquite trees, which are very short.). Every succeeding lap the forest grows longer and you’re sure that you made a wrong turn because it wasn’t this long last lap. I finally made it out and onto the last mountain. Just a couple more miles, literally. I was feeling wonderful still and pushed it, running as much as I could. Coming down the steep hill, there was just one more little steep part and then it was flat all the way in to the finish. Once again, I found the strength in me to really pick up the pace on that last mile. When I was in high school, I always figured that if you had enough energy left in you to have a super fast kick at the end of a race, you probably ran too slowly for the rest of the race. And maybe I’m still right but haven’t figured it out yet. In any case, I know I’m getting really close and the sheer joy of knowing that I’m almost done is really settling in. Just a quarter mile more and I’m flying. I cross the finish line and Amy’s there. I look at the timer—23 hours and 26 minutes. Hugs for everyone! I’m ecstatic. “I love you Amy!” The race director, Joe Prusaitis, and his wife are there for hugs as well. “Sub 24 on this course. Congratulations! That’s no easy feat.” “Thanks. That’s all I wanted to do today.” I received my belt buckle, though there’s not a sub-24 buckle for this race. No problem. I go and change into some dry clothes before Amy and I go crawl back into the back of the minivan to sleep. Amy got everything arranged and within a few minutes I was unconscious.

Year in review Nov-Dec 2012 andJan 2013

Look who thinks she is big enough to climb everywhere.

Painting Santa ornaments.

Iron man watching TV.

Someone loves her daddy.

Sporting their Spring Fire Department beanies.

Painting their shelves Matt was building for them.

It may be a couple days before Thanksgiving but still warm enough to play in the sprinkler.

Early Christmas with the Allens via skype.

Watching Christmas movies with a couple of the cats.

Why do you need a cape when you can just use your shirt.

Lena climbed in all on her own.

Drew was a little tired.

Lena loves her Tornado.

Lena let Amy do her hair for the second day in a row.

The coolest place to play.

One little monkey jumping on the couch.

Waiting for Santa to come by on the fire truck.

Amy's first artificial tree.  A $200 tree for only $20 on craigslist.

Silly girl loves to climb on and in everything.

All the kids Christmas art projects.

Santa came to our house.

The boys got 8 super hero masks each.

Grandma Allen made the boys super hero dolls just like them.

Lena got her first tutu and a princess doll from Grandma Allen.

The kids got lots of great books from both sets of Grandparents.

Tutu, princess doll, and a kitty.  Who can ask for more?

Santa made bow and arrows for the kids.

Lena got a princess crown for every Disney princess.

Stick horses for boys.

Lena got a purse.

The boys got super hero ornaments and Lena got princess ornaments.

Iron man

The flash

Spider man

More super hero stuff.

Went to Walgreen's for their after Christmas sale and got this $80 tree for $20.

The boys love their tree in their room.

Reading some of the books they got for Christmas.

Matt had a 100 K race just outside San Antonio.  The kids loved sleeping and playing in the back of the van.

Playing while waiting for Matt to get to the aid station.

Tuckered out from all the playing and running around.

Naked water bottles are the best toys.

Matt coming into a aid station. Yes it's January. Yes it's warm (high 60's). And it was also humid. Plus I wanted to show off my body.

Who wants to hold a flash light when you can wear a head lamp.

You would not think a pole could be so much fun.

Monster Jam.

Iron man was there.

Lena was getting tired.

Captain America was there also.

The boys stayed up late watching fireworks on New Years Eve.  They fell asleep in front of their window.

Baby flash

Little sisters are great toys.

Doing hand stands in the hall.

Lena climbs on everything.