Short version because I am typing on my phone. It was very muggy from the beginning. Nevertheless, things were going well. The number of runners bottle necking on the trail was worse than normal. Got to first AS behind schedule. And I never was able to get a good pace going on the climbs, which seemed to have increased in number since I finished in ‘14. My heart rate was alarmingly high on the climbs, but I scaled it back and felt like I had it under control. Lots of water crossings this year. I did have some issues with that; feet never dried. They were wet with water and sweat. In ‘14, it took 13:30 to get to mile 60. This year it took 17 hours. Then, I broke one of their chair. I made it to mile 65.44 about 15 minutes before cutoff. I thought I had missed the cutoff. I knew there was a horrendous climb up to Porter’s Gap, so I tried to fix my feet but did not have time. So, I turned in my bib when time expired.
I genuinely enjoyed the event, though. I keep digging into my brain to find some disappointment somewhere, but I cannot find it. I just ran and walked based on how I felt, and this past weekend it just was not fast enough. The only time I really had a bad spot was climbing up to the top of Mt. Cheaha. They had a photographer who wanted me to pose for a picture. I told him, “No. I do not want a picture!” I was hungry at the time. Outside of that one thing, I had a positive attitude the whole time, despite having a complete understanding that I was probably not going to be able to beat the cutoffs. I just kept moving until I was no longer allowed to do so. I will probably run Red Dirt in February. Hopefully, it will be cooler.
LB2
Tim
Sorry things didn't do as planned. As John M always said DNF can also mean Did Nothing Fatal / Foolish.
Looks like the DNS / DNF rate was pretty high. Is that unusual for this event.?
“Paralysis-to-50k” training plan is underway!
Refurbished Hip
Yikes, that sounds like bad conditions, LB. I'm sorry to hear you didn't finish, but it sounds like you gutted it out for a long time and that's worthy of feeling good about yourself.
Running is dumb.
Le professeur de trail
Ugh - humidity is the worst!
My favorite day of the week is RUNday
I was hoping that the weather was going to be a little nicer for you. Unfortunately it didn't cooperate.
Sorry things didn't do as planned. As John M always said DNF can also mean Did Nothing Fatal / Foolish. Looks like the DNS / DNF rate was pretty high. Is that unusual for this event.?
It was high.
Bummer about those tropical conditions. It does look like the DNS/DNF percentages where high this year because of it.
How were the leaves? Any twisted ankles?
Go get that Red Dirt in Feb !!!!
2/17/24 - Forgotten Florida 100 Mile, Christmas, FL
Sue
Nice job Burke...65 miles is no small feat.
05/13/23 Traverse City Trail Festival 25K
08/19/23 Marquette 50 dns 🙄
Feet or feat?
Bummer about those tropical conditions. It does look like the DNS/DNF percentages where high this year because of it. How were the leaves? Any twisted ankles? Go get that Red Dirt in Feb !!!!
We had a good number of leaves, and there were a lot more roots and rocks than I remembered. Between AS1 and AS2, a guy fell and dislocated something. They had to bring an ambulance in to get him out.
I think 137 people finished. I think about 245 started, and close to 50 registrants did not start. I don't know how many got out of the truck and said, "Nope, too muggy for me."
It is highly likely that I will go ahead and register for Red Dirt. I don't like multi-loop courses, but I can do anything 3 times without going crazy.
Thanks everyone.
I did forget to mention one thing in that report, actually several, but only one that might be of interest:
I had my first true hallucination while running (assuming the beaver Sandy and I saw at Rocky was, in fact, a beaver). From mile 55 to 65, there is a pretty good bit of jeep road. I was feeling fine but moving slow. I saw two runners up ahead of me, and they were crossing an old time suspension type bridge. I remember thinking, "I don't remember a suspension bridge being on this gravel road." The runners shuffled around bend, and I got to the bridge. But there was no bridge. In my mind, that bridge was there just as sure as I am typing this. I would have argued anyone down that there was bridge there. I was pretty dehydrated at that point, so I guess that was why I was seeing bridges that were not there.
I didn't think a looped course would be good at all but at OC100 last year I ran the 100k - 2 loops. Due to the time of day I was running each loop, they felt and looked different. I think it would be the same for a third loop mostly in the dark (in the 100 miler). So bigger loops would be better than say (5) 20 mile loops - IMO.
I say go for it!
Sorry LB2 that things did not go as planned, but congrats on the hallucinations. Typically mine are the simple one like sticks turning into snakes and large odd looking tree stumps turning into bears. Odd about you being so far behind previous year's time. That was one of my quit point rationalizations this year at Mohican. I was a few hours behind previous year at about the same point, and while in danger of missing cutoffs it made me lose interest. Not that happened to you, just my similar perspective. Seems you were in pretty good shape and ready for this one. Do you think you did enough hills or was it just the weather that set you back? Anyways, sorry, I can relate and no damage done at least.
In dog beers, I've only had one.
I probably should have done more hills, but I think the biggest factor was the humidity. I am generally a good climber. Also, knowing I was so far behind this year, I probably did lose some interest. I just remember thinking at mile 60 that I got there 3 hours earlier in 2014 and felt like I had put forth very little effort. This year, I felt like I had given all I had, and then some. However, I feel very good about things going forward. I will get a few more 6+ hour runs and maybe one more 10 hour run in the months leading up to that run on February 3rd, so I have a good 2.5 months to get that done.
Faster Than Your Couch!
Sorry that things did not work out as anticipated, but 65 miles and 17 hours is quite respectable, too. Even more in high humidity. Maybe again next year?
I still remember the hallucinations that I had at the Massanutten. I had never had them before, and they seemed so real. My friends still get a good laugh out of my beekeeper on the course.
Sounds like a tough course, with all the climbs. Humidity can ruin those, and on the course, you never know why things are just not coming together. But, on the bright side, you did not destroy yourself, so you might take another chance at that at Red Dirt?
Run for fun.