The main goal of this summer's running training was to make an attempt at the unsupported fastest known time (FKT) on the Tahoe Rim Trail (TRT). Lots of training miles on big hills with a pack on. As I was getting set for the final few weeks of training for the TRT, there was some rumblings about how it felt strange to do only one actual race this year (Cruel Jewel in May). Alicia suggested that I can do a 100 three weeks after the TRT trip - I would already be trained and can just coast for those 3 weeks. She found that Georgia Jewel (+/- 16.5 K ft elevation gain loss and several significanntly rocky sections) fit the bill quite well - plus no travel required. So, yeah, Georgia Jewel was an afterthought to the main event of the year - TRT.
As things went, the TRT FKT attempt was a bust. I bailed out a bit less than halfway (total is 173 miles) because of the slow going - whether due to the cold, altitude, or over-training without sufficient recovery. After about 84 miles (in 30 hours), I realized that I was going to be way off the FKT pace. And, had no interest in destroying my legs further just to finish the loop. With that, a 84 mile run at altitude became my last long training run for Georgia Jewel. Yes, there are substantial mountains in GA, but altitude is not ever an issue. Overkill, anyone? Oh well.
Closer to the race, when I looked up the entrants list, it occurred to me that I could actually place pretty high. Still, this race being an afterthought, I never felt too excited. Then, three days before the race, I got a weird tweak in my right knee. Even the evening before the race, that knee remained a bit bothersome. I trucked over to Walgreens and bought a knee pad. When I later tried that pad, I found that a size S/M is not quite made for my legs. That did not stop me from using it during the race. To use a rock climbing terminology, it was my psycho pro - one that I had to pull up an adjust every 5 miles. Yes, it was that kind of race at the start for me. And, it started at 5 am (ughh).
The first 2 miles of the race are on pavement going uphill, and that allowed the field to thin out quite a bit. After that, a very rocky single track for several miles (aptly named "rock garden"). The trail eased up a bit after that till the first full aid station (mile 10). From that AS to the next - Snake Creek Gap (mile 17), I ran a fair bit with another runner, Richard. We got to mile Snake Creek Gap at about 8:30 AM. Between that and the next full AS (John's Mountain - mile 25), I felt quite good and pulled ahead of Richard. For the last half of this section, I ran into several 35 mile racers coming the other way. The resultant constant stream of mutual cheering meant that I arrived at Johns Mountain AS in good spirits, despite a gnarly half mile section of rough rock steps towards the end of this section.
Things went well for most of the next section. Well, except for a bit on gravel road with roughly strewn golf ball sized gravel. It was here that I started running into the 50 milers coming the other way, and learned that I was in the 3rd place. I hadn't really thought about the place till then, and just figured that the first two people must be quite a bit ahead of me. Although I was maintaining a steady pace, I didn't think I was going particularly fast. In fact, I was beginning to feel that my legs were not fully ready for this race so soon after getting beaten up on the TRT. Accordingly, the thought of speeding up to try to catch up with the leaders didn't sound very exciting.
A couple of miles before the next full AS (Manning Rd - mile 34), my legs started to complain (my knee was still doing okay). I had already decided before the race that two aleves are all I am allowed. Hmm - I am a third way done. There goes the first one. These two miles and the next 3-4 miles after the AS were the low points, It took a lot of mental effort to keep moving, but the thought of losing the 3rd place kept me trudging along. That, and the thought of pumpkin pie waiting at the Narrows AS (mile 40). The final few miles to that AS are on the road and utterly horrible. If it were not for the aleve kicking in at the right time, it might have been very tough to continue.
Anyway, the aleve kicked in and I got to the Narrows in reasonable spirits. It was good to see Molly, and even better to have the pumpkin pie. Oh wait, did I just mention my mental ordering out loud? At that aid station they told me that I was now in the second place (one of the leaders had dropped out), and was only 10 minutes behind the first guy. That did it - I was going to race from that point onwards. I had never been so close to the leader in any ultra I had done. I settled into a routine - power walk uphills, run downhills, and alternate between power walking and running on flats. It was going well till I got within 1.5 miles of the halfway (turnaround - since it is an out-and-back course). Power lines, dang it! Fairly brutal.
About a tenth of a mile before the turnaround, I saw the first guy coming the other way. I had indeed closed the gap by a few minutes! When I got to the turnaround - Alicia! She quickly refilled my water, and I took off after drinking some coke at the aid station and grabbing a rather large slice of pizza to take with. The section from the turnaround to the Narrows aid station (mile 60) went smoothly. Not too far after the return trip over power lines, I ran into the 3rd guy coming the other way. He seemed to have made up some time over me. That pushed me further and I increased the running time to walking time ratio on flats a bit.
Then, at about mile 58, I took the lead in an ultra for the first time in my running career! At that point, of course, I did not know if I will be able to keep the lead for too long, but that was pretty exciting. Also, as I was catching up with the other guy, I noticed that I was a bit faster on uphills and he was doing downhills somewhat better. That knowledge could come in handy later, I thought. I got to the Narrows AS about half an hour later, and Alicia and Molly quickly refilled my water as I munched on some food. They were excited to see me get there in the lead. However, I wasn't quite the model guest who would stay and exchange pleasantries - I left almost immediately. I wanted to leave before the other guy got to the AS and, maybe, gain some psychological edge.
I thought I was doing well between the Narrows and the Manning AS, but he caught up with me at the latter AS (mile 67). Then ensued a back and forth tussle for the lead for about a mile. Here, the knowledge that I was a bit faster on uphills gave me a mental boost - most of the section from the Narrows AS to Johns Mountain (mile 75) is uphill! Soon, I stopped seeing his headlamp behind me. Despite the uphill, I made it to Johns Mountain in a reasonable time. I did not have a watch, so I asked one of the AS volunteers the time. It was 11 PM. My original desire of under 24 hours was very unlikely at this point - with 26 miles remaining in 6 hours, when I had taken 5:15 for the reverse segment at the beginning of the race. The main goal, now, was to keep my lead.
With that goal in mind, I changed my headlamp batteries, changed my socks the third time (a few stream crossings on the course), surveyed my long list of blisters (at least two on each foot), grabbed a grilled cheese sandwich from the AS, popped my second aleve and set off. Despite the rocky steps, the first downhill section went fairly quickly, and soon I was into the rolling section for a few miles before the climb up to Horn Mountain. The descent from Horn Mountain to Snake Creek Gap was pretty fun - with a fairly smooth trail and the aleve kicking in. I made it to Snake Creek Gap about 1:10 AM. There, I learned that the second place guy was 20 minutes behind me at Johns Creek. Although it felt good to gain some time on him, the race was far from being over with more than 17 miles still remaining. One bad segment for a few miles and he could easily catch up with me. However, I sat down on a chair at the AS for a few minutes - for the first time in the race - while Alicia fed me my elixir (a cold starbucks bottled frappe). 200 calories of pure joy (read, sugar) and 200 mg of caffeine. I had only had a couple of small cups of coke till then in hopes of an extra kick at this aid station.
By 1:15 I was on way. Alicia was going up the first mountain with me. She was pretty excited about my lead and thought I probably had the race in the bag. I was getting cautiously excited. The first climb went pretty fast, then Alicia had to go back. I chugged along at what I thought was an okay pace for a bit, before slowing down. There was a fair bit of pain at this stage - especially with the blisters bursting left and right and starting to bug me a lot. When I got to the next aid station (mile 91), I had taken 1:45 to do the last 7 miles. I asked the volunteers at the aid station if they had heard anything about when the second guy left the last AS. One of them said that two guys have left the last aid station after me.
"Do you know how long ago they left the aid station?" I asked.
"Not that long ago. Maybe an hour and a half ago."
Uh-oh. If I left 1:45 ago, and the second guy left about 1:30 (meaning 1:25 to 1:35, maybe), then I may just have a 10 minutes lead now! I better get my act together! For the next several miles, I was running whenever the rocky sections would allow me and sometimes even run on the rocky sections with not much regard for ankle twists or anything. Once in a while I would look back to see if there was a headlamp behind me. A couple of times, as I looked back, my headlamp would reflect on the trail blazes and I would panic thinking that it was a headlamp. Power walk, run, run some more, power walk up the hill, barrel downhill, and don't even think about stopping to pee. When I got to the rock garden, I could only walk for a while and I started having the mental image of the second guy blazing by me. Oh well, try to run again. After what seemed like an eternity, I emerged from the singletrack and onto the dirt, followed by the paved road. These last 1.5 miles were pretty horrible - downhill on hard pavement, with my bothersome knee acting up a bit and the burst blisters. I could not slow down - I had no idea how far behind the second guy was! Finally, I saw the finish area about a couple of hundred yard ahead, and looked back one more time. I saw no headlamp, and was now fairly sure that I will win the race. Later, the results showed that I won by about 2 hours.
So yeah, 24 hours and 29 minutes after starting, I got to the finish. Any remnant disappointment at spending the whole summer training hard for the TRT with nothing to show for it disappeared. I realize that 2015 was not the most competitive year for Georgia Jewel, but screw that - I won my first 100 mile race!
As things went, the TRT FKT attempt was a bust. I bailed out a bit less than halfway (total is 173 miles) because of the slow going - whether due to the cold, altitude, or over-training without sufficient recovery. After about 84 miles (in 30 hours), I realized that I was going to be way off the FKT pace. And, had no interest in destroying my legs further just to finish the loop. With that, a 84 mile run at altitude became my last long training run for Georgia Jewel. Yes, there are substantial mountains in GA, but altitude is not ever an issue. Overkill, anyone? Oh well.
Closer to the race, when I looked up the entrants list, it occurred to me that I could actually place pretty high. Still, this race being an afterthought, I never felt too excited. Then, three days before the race, I got a weird tweak in my right knee. Even the evening before the race, that knee remained a bit bothersome. I trucked over to Walgreens and bought a knee pad. When I later tried that pad, I found that a size S/M is not quite made for my legs. That did not stop me from using it during the race. To use a rock climbing terminology, it was my psycho pro - one that I had to pull up an adjust every 5 miles. Yes, it was that kind of race at the start for me. And, it started at 5 am (ughh).
The first 2 miles of the race are on pavement going uphill, and that allowed the field to thin out quite a bit. After that, a very rocky single track for several miles (aptly named "rock garden"). The trail eased up a bit after that till the first full aid station (mile 10). From that AS to the next - Snake Creek Gap (mile 17), I ran a fair bit with another runner, Richard. We got to mile Snake Creek Gap at about 8:30 AM. Between that and the next full AS (John's Mountain - mile 25), I felt quite good and pulled ahead of Richard. For the last half of this section, I ran into several 35 mile racers coming the other way. The resultant constant stream of mutual cheering meant that I arrived at Johns Mountain AS in good spirits, despite a gnarly half mile section of rough rock steps towards the end of this section.
Things went well for most of the next section. Well, except for a bit on gravel road with roughly strewn golf ball sized gravel. It was here that I started running into the 50 milers coming the other way, and learned that I was in the 3rd place. I hadn't really thought about the place till then, and just figured that the first two people must be quite a bit ahead of me. Although I was maintaining a steady pace, I didn't think I was going particularly fast. In fact, I was beginning to feel that my legs were not fully ready for this race so soon after getting beaten up on the TRT. Accordingly, the thought of speeding up to try to catch up with the leaders didn't sound very exciting.
A couple of miles before the next full AS (Manning Rd - mile 34), my legs started to complain (my knee was still doing okay). I had already decided before the race that two aleves are all I am allowed. Hmm - I am a third way done. There goes the first one. These two miles and the next 3-4 miles after the AS were the low points, It took a lot of mental effort to keep moving, but the thought of losing the 3rd place kept me trudging along. That, and the thought of pumpkin pie waiting at the Narrows AS (mile 40). The final few miles to that AS are on the road and utterly horrible. If it were not for the aleve kicking in at the right time, it might have been very tough to continue.
Anyway, the aleve kicked in and I got to the Narrows in reasonable spirits. It was good to see Molly, and even better to have the pumpkin pie. Oh wait, did I just mention my mental ordering out loud? At that aid station they told me that I was now in the second place (one of the leaders had dropped out), and was only 10 minutes behind the first guy. That did it - I was going to race from that point onwards. I had never been so close to the leader in any ultra I had done. I settled into a routine - power walk uphills, run downhills, and alternate between power walking and running on flats. It was going well till I got within 1.5 miles of the halfway (turnaround - since it is an out-and-back course). Power lines, dang it! Fairly brutal.
About a tenth of a mile before the turnaround, I saw the first guy coming the other way. I had indeed closed the gap by a few minutes! When I got to the turnaround - Alicia! She quickly refilled my water, and I took off after drinking some coke at the aid station and grabbing a rather large slice of pizza to take with. The section from the turnaround to the Narrows aid station (mile 60) went smoothly. Not too far after the return trip over power lines, I ran into the 3rd guy coming the other way. He seemed to have made up some time over me. That pushed me further and I increased the running time to walking time ratio on flats a bit.
Then, at about mile 58, I took the lead in an ultra for the first time in my running career! At that point, of course, I did not know if I will be able to keep the lead for too long, but that was pretty exciting. Also, as I was catching up with the other guy, I noticed that I was a bit faster on uphills and he was doing downhills somewhat better. That knowledge could come in handy later, I thought. I got to the Narrows AS about half an hour later, and Alicia and Molly quickly refilled my water as I munched on some food. They were excited to see me get there in the lead. However, I wasn't quite the model guest who would stay and exchange pleasantries - I left almost immediately. I wanted to leave before the other guy got to the AS and, maybe, gain some psychological edge.
I thought I was doing well between the Narrows and the Manning AS, but he caught up with me at the latter AS (mile 67). Then ensued a back and forth tussle for the lead for about a mile. Here, the knowledge that I was a bit faster on uphills gave me a mental boost - most of the section from the Narrows AS to Johns Mountain (mile 75) is uphill! Soon, I stopped seeing his headlamp behind me. Despite the uphill, I made it to Johns Mountain in a reasonable time. I did not have a watch, so I asked one of the AS volunteers the time. It was 11 PM. My original desire of under 24 hours was very unlikely at this point - with 26 miles remaining in 6 hours, when I had taken 5:15 for the reverse segment at the beginning of the race. The main goal, now, was to keep my lead.
With that goal in mind, I changed my headlamp batteries, changed my socks the third time (a few stream crossings on the course), surveyed my long list of blisters (at least two on each foot), grabbed a grilled cheese sandwich from the AS, popped my second aleve and set off. Despite the rocky steps, the first downhill section went fairly quickly, and soon I was into the rolling section for a few miles before the climb up to Horn Mountain. The descent from Horn Mountain to Snake Creek Gap was pretty fun - with a fairly smooth trail and the aleve kicking in. I made it to Snake Creek Gap about 1:10 AM. There, I learned that the second place guy was 20 minutes behind me at Johns Creek. Although it felt good to gain some time on him, the race was far from being over with more than 17 miles still remaining. One bad segment for a few miles and he could easily catch up with me. However, I sat down on a chair at the AS for a few minutes - for the first time in the race - while Alicia fed me my elixir (a cold starbucks bottled frappe). 200 calories of pure joy (read, sugar) and 200 mg of caffeine. I had only had a couple of small cups of coke till then in hopes of an extra kick at this aid station.
By 1:15 I was on way. Alicia was going up the first mountain with me. She was pretty excited about my lead and thought I probably had the race in the bag. I was getting cautiously excited. The first climb went pretty fast, then Alicia had to go back. I chugged along at what I thought was an okay pace for a bit, before slowing down. There was a fair bit of pain at this stage - especially with the blisters bursting left and right and starting to bug me a lot. When I got to the next aid station (mile 91), I had taken 1:45 to do the last 7 miles. I asked the volunteers at the aid station if they had heard anything about when the second guy left the last AS. One of them said that two guys have left the last aid station after me.
"Do you know how long ago they left the aid station?" I asked.
"Not that long ago. Maybe an hour and a half ago."
Uh-oh. If I left 1:45 ago, and the second guy left about 1:30 (meaning 1:25 to 1:35, maybe), then I may just have a 10 minutes lead now! I better get my act together! For the next several miles, I was running whenever the rocky sections would allow me and sometimes even run on the rocky sections with not much regard for ankle twists or anything. Once in a while I would look back to see if there was a headlamp behind me. A couple of times, as I looked back, my headlamp would reflect on the trail blazes and I would panic thinking that it was a headlamp. Power walk, run, run some more, power walk up the hill, barrel downhill, and don't even think about stopping to pee. When I got to the rock garden, I could only walk for a while and I started having the mental image of the second guy blazing by me. Oh well, try to run again. After what seemed like an eternity, I emerged from the singletrack and onto the dirt, followed by the paved road. These last 1.5 miles were pretty horrible - downhill on hard pavement, with my bothersome knee acting up a bit and the burst blisters. I could not slow down - I had no idea how far behind the second guy was! Finally, I saw the finish area about a couple of hundred yard ahead, and looked back one more time. I saw no headlamp, and was now fairly sure that I will win the race. Later, the results showed that I won by about 2 hours.
So yeah, 24 hours and 29 minutes after starting, I got to the finish. Any remnant disappointment at spending the whole summer training hard for the TRT with nothing to show for it disappeared. I realize that 2015 was not the most competitive year for Georgia Jewel, but screw that - I won my first 100 mile race!
