Article written by Faun Ramey, exclusively for Ultra Running News.
I’m going to start my race report from the very beginning of the weekend. I drove down to Chattanooga from Athens, TN on Friday night. I had made reservations at the Sheraton Read House. I could have found a couple of hotels a bit cheaper, but I highly recommend spending the extra money on a nicer hotel the night before a big race. It makes relaxing a whole lot easier. Better sleep on more comfortable bedding and just a more pleasant experience all around. Of course it doesn’t make getting up and leaving the hotel room easy at 6 AM on Saturday morning.
I made it to the race start and got my packet (I don’t like picking up race packets the day of the race for big events, but it couldn’t be helped in this case and I got there early enough that it wasn’t an issue.) It was about 50 degrees while I waited the 45 minutes before the race start. Cool just standing around, but it would be perfect running temperature once the gun went off.
The 8:00 start time finally came and we lined up on the start line. I lined up toward the back knowing I would not challenge the leaders this day. Right before the gun went off, I noticed that Dean Karnazes was taking off his sweats. He jumped into the crowd just in front of me. It was kind of cool having an ultrarunning legend right in front of me.
The gun sounded and we were off. The first bit was on the road as the crowd thinned a bit. We then hit a gravel portion of trail. It went on for about 2 miles and the pace was around 8:30 or so. At one point during this stretch I was actually ahead of Dean! It didn’t last long though, as he roared past me on a downhill section and I never saw him again.
With all thoughts of staying ahead of Dean Karnazes to the finish gone, I settled into a rythym. We left the gravel trail and hit dirt but the trail stayed pretty smooth and wide enough for everyone as the runners were still concentrated a bit. It wasn’t long before we left this smooth and wide section for narrower single track that was uneven and mostly downhill over rocks and boulders. I remember sarcastically making the comment to anyone who could hear that, “I can’t wait to come back up this!” It was extremely steep downhill navigating that was impossible to run.
Eventually, though, we managed the first checkpoint at mile 6.1. My time to this point was 1:04, which was a good average pace considering the difficulty of the last 2 miles going into the cp. I refilled my bottle (I was carrying a single 22 oz. Nathan handheld) and got started again. So far so good.
The next 4.5 mile section started out going uphill. Actually, most of this section was uphill. I walked much more of this portion than I really wanted to this early in the race. But, as it was, I came into the 10.6 mile cp feeling good and on pace (at least comparable to the difficulty I found the course to be). I spent 2 1/2 minutes drinking some coke (I don’t eat well while I’m racing, which is going to be a constant struggle during ultras) and refilling the Nathan. Then off again on the next 3 mile section.
I started off on this section with high hopes. I had gone through 1/3 of the race and other than the difficulty of the terrain, it was going about the way I had hoped. But about 100 feet later I started to cramp in my quads! The climbing had taken a toll on them. Even though most of this section was flat, relative to the previous section, I ended up walking most of it to the 14 mile cp. I took some electrolyte capsules at this aid station in an attempt to alleviate the cramping. Then off again on the 2.5 mile next section.
This next section was mostly through the woods, much like the 3rd section. I tried to run portions of this section as the cramping had eased. That or I was still moving so slowing that I wasn’t using my quads in my running. This section proved to be painfully slow. I stumbled into the 16.5 mile cp over an hour later! It had taken me almost as long to go the last 6 miles as it had to go the first 10.5! But that is ultrarunning, you go through highs and lows throughout the race. Unfortunately for me this day, the remainder of the race was going to be pretty much low.
I left the 16.5 mile cp on the 2.5 mile section to the 19 mile drop bag cp. This section was the “1/2 way” point for me. At least, I had planned on it being this way. The plan was to make mile 19 in about 3.5 hours and complete the last 13 miles in no worse than the same time. Obviously, that plan was out the window, but I was still real excited about getting to the cp at mile 19.
So I left out from cp 4 moving slowly but with renewed determination to make mile 19 as quickly as possible. This next section proved to be the toughest terrain of the race. I knew going in that there was a section that had to be navigated over some boulders, but I had hoped the earlier part over boulders had been that part. It hadn’t.
The middle part of section 5 was about 3/4 mile (felt much longer) of traversing large boulders. Absolutely no trail whatsoever. Mentally, it took everything I had to complete this section. About an hour later, I finally rolled into the 19 mile cp. It had taken me about 1.5 hours longer than planned. I’m not sure how much of the extra time was slow moving because of more difficult terrain or slow moving because of cramps (and at this point just pain in general). I would guess about 50/50.
I set out from the 19 mile cp feeling very low. I really wanted to quit at this point. Luckily, the next cp was only 0.7 miles away. I felt I could make it. Which of course I did and then the volunteers at the next cp told me that the 4 miles down to the 24-25 mile cp was all downhill. Downhill sounds good, right? Wrong!
At this point the downhills were hurting more than the uphills. My big toes were bruised and my legs didn’t feel very steady on the mostly rocky downhill section. This section was the worst. A couple of times I thought I was lost and was not looking forward to the uphill backtracking for an hour that I thought I might have to do. Fortunately, I got passed by a group of about 6 that I tried in vain to stay with. At least I knew I was on the right trail.
An hour and 48 minutes after cp mile 19, out of Heed for some time, I staggered into cp mile 25 thoroughly whipped. The volunteers at this cp were great though and after about 5 minutes of regrouping I mustered up the strength to get going again.
I knew this next 2 mile section was going to be the part that I had sarcastically commented about looking forward to climbing back up at the beginning of the race. I had made contact with some other racers and my spirits were a bit higher, though. I took the uphill sections slow (I guess everything at this point was slow) but methodically. After some time, I finally made the last cp at mile 27. Four more miles to go. At least these last four were going to be on the packed/gravel wide trails we started on with rollers but nothing steep.
Unfortunately, I had again lost contact with everyone and several times during this last stretch I thought I was lost again. But eventually, I got to the road. About 1/2 mile to go. I ran as fast as I could but everything hurt at this point: joints, toes, muscles, places that had rubbed for the last 8 hours, everything.
I can’t even describe the feeling I had upon seeing the finish line. Happy and sad at the same time. More happy than sad, of course. Anyway, I ran across the finish line and received my finisher’s medal. I had missed a podium spot by a mere 4.5 hours! There’s always next year.
