Never in my wildest dreams did I think this would happen. Here’s my RR for the Mark Twain 100.

I left work at 12:30 on Friday since I couldn’t take it anymore. I drove down to my section of the Ozark Trail and did trail maintenance.  My buddy George had rented a cabin at Huzzah Valley Resort so we had a comfortable place to crash.  We went to the pre-race dinner/meeting at Huzzah.  At the dinner, I asked John (Mark Twain 100 course record holder, USA 24 hour team member & overall bad ass trail runner) if he had any advice for me.  He essentially said that he guaranteed that no matter how bad it hurt (barring injury) that I could still run.  He energetically said more than that but that was the gist of it.  That night, as I lied in bed, I contemplated what John said.  I had already planned to run late in a race when it hurts, which is something I haven’t been able to do in the other two 100s I’ve done. But I hadn’t truly 100% committed to it but right then and there I did.  I told myself that no matter what, no matter how bad it hurts, I was going to run the entire race.  So going into the race I had that mentality.  I knew it was going to hurt but I knew that I could & would run.

I think I got a solid 7 hours of sleep the night before.  I woke up at 4am wide awake and finally got out of bed at 4:30am.  Every night during the week, I made it a priority to get a good night’s rest (at least 8 hours of sleep).  So race morning – I felt confident in my training (more on that later), well rested and planned on running the entire race.  3 things that have never happened on race morning.

The race starts at 6am and I think we got there 20 mins prior.  Checked in, dropped off my drop bags, bs’d a little, re-adjusted my socks and before you know it, it was GO TIME.  I started up towards the front.  The course is 4 26 mile loops of sweet singletrack through the MO Ozarks. Each loop has 2500’ of elevation gain so 10k’ total. The hills aren’t very steep. The trail is somewhat technical in places due to rocks/roots. There’s an AS about every 5 miles which was great. I had planned to start towards the front so I wouldn’t have to run slower on the downs since I really dislike having to hit the brakes. I feel that downhill running is my strength and I told my friends that it was going to make & break me. We immediately funnel to single track trail.  It’s dark.  We are running slow. The downs are slower than I like but I don’t fret. I’m with the lead pack which consists of about 8 or 10 runners (some doing the 50 miler).  I stick with the lead pack, wondering why everyone is going so slow. After about an hour, it gets light enough to turn the lights off and the faster folks finally start running faster and we start spreading out a little. At the 1^st AS (about mile 5.7), I ditch my flashlight & headlamp by a tree to pick back up on loop 3. There’s a nice downhill after this AS that I could finally run unencumbered. I end up running the next 10ish miles off & on with Dana from TX. He sounds like he knows what he’s doing so I stick with him. He would pretty much run everything including the uphills whereas I would run faster on the downs and then hike some of the uphills wherever I felt like.  I was feeling good and ended up pulling away from Dana just after the 3^rd AS (mile 15).  I passed another 100 miler after the 4^th AS (mile 20) and cruised into the start/finish area.  I started the 2^nd loop at 4:38 according to my Garmin.  Faster than I had planned but it was nice & cool and I know that I didn’t push it at all.  In fact, I thought the first hour in the dark was too slow. We lucked out on the weather. The day before the high was 90. The forecast today was a high of 75 and a low of 52. I was SUPER efficient at the AS’s on the first loop which I had planned. I was told that the 1^st place 100 miler had just left as I was coming in. I was surprised I was in 2^nd but didn’t care to know about placing at that point actually. I was just going not worry about placing and run my race. Besides, we were only ¼ of the way done and a lot can happen during a 100. Note that 41 people from 19 different states had signed up for the 100 but 36 had started.  So it’s a small race even for 100s. I just kept doing what I was doing – letting gravity do the work on the downs (free speed), cruising the flats and hiking the ups wherever I felt. I made it to the 1^st AS (mile 30) in good time and they told me I was just behind the 1^st place 100 miler. I told them I had ditched my lights there and to remind me on the next loop (they even wrote it down).  About halfway to the 2^nd AS, I passed the 1^st place guy. It was starting to get a little warm and he said he wasn’t feeling that great. After I passed him, I thought holy shit, I’m in friggin 1^st place! I mean how can I be in 1^st place?!?! ‘Don’t think, just run’. So that’s what I did. I tried to be really quick at the 2^nd AS (mile 35) but he ended up seeing me.  There’s a long uphill out of this AS. He was a tall, lanky guy (looks like a runner, unlike me) and was hiking faster than me. I struck up a conversation. He just answered my questions and was kind of short with his responses. I thought maybe he wasn’t feeling good or maybe he’s a jerk or maybe both. Typically on trail races people are a lot friendlier. I pull over to let him pass. “Good job” I say. ‘Don’t think, just run, just run your race’ I tell myself. So that’s what I did. I knew there was still a LONG way to go. After a while, Peter (he told me his name) ends up pulling away and I don’t see him anymore which I liked. The next miles are uneventful really. I get to the start/finish area around 9:40 (so 4:40 & 5 hours for loops 1 & 2).  Is it good or bad to set a new 50 mile PR by about 1.5 hours on a 100 mile race? I get to pick up my pacer, Ryan, here and I was excited about that. He had my pack all ready like I told him to. I had just been using a handheld and I decided to just stick with the handheld since everything was going awesome. I probably spent a little more time here than I should have. Tommy, the co-RD, comes over and says if I leave I’ll be in 1^st place.  I was like WHAT?!?! Peter was still there. That lit a fire under my arse and Ryan & I got out of there.  I’ve ran countless miles with Ryan during training. He paced me last year at RRR100 and I paced him in May at Kettle. “Best Pacer Ever”. We got to the 1^st AS (mile 55) in good time. They informed me I was in 1^st and they reminded me about my lights. I didn’t forget as I had reminded myself countless times during the run. Someone asked who was in 2^nd and I said Peter. She said “you better watch out for him. He’s a great runner”.  So we left and I told Ryan – “watch out for Peter? He needs to watch out for me!” That comment motivated me actually. So at this point I was running scared since I was in 1st. I had no idea how far back Peter was. I tried not to dwell on it; just kept doing my thing.  It definitely made me run a little faster though. We made good time to the 2^nd AS (mile 60). It was starting to get dark and I wanted to squeeze in as many miles as possible before it got dark which inevitably slows you down somewhat.  We made it all the way to the 3^rd AS (mile 65) before we had to bust out the lights.  We came into the start/finish area (mile 75).  This loop was 5:31 but that doesn’t include my start/finish stop time which took a little longer than planned. 3 loops down, only 1 loop to go! I knew I had blisters but didn’t want to take the time to address them so I just threw a pair of socks in my pack. I also grabbed my pack & poles and tied my jacket around my waist for this last loop.  John gave me more great advice here. He told me to make sure I took in enough calories so I have energy if I need to “race” it in to the finish. He told me he made that mistake before and ended up getting 2nd. Again, I’m running scared. I have no idea how far back the 2^nd place guy is. I keep on cruising doing the best I can. At the 2^nd AS (mile 85), they tell me I had a “good lead” at the start/finish area. I was in & out pretty quick while Ryan stayed back to eat some more. When he caught up to me, I said ‘I wish I knew what they meant by “good lead”’.  He said ‘do you really want to know’.  “HELL YEAH I WANNA KNOW!” I replied.  “You have a 45 min lead”. Quick math in my head and I said ‘that’s almost a 2min/mile lead. I think I’m going to win this. Holy sh!t I’m actually going to win a 100 mile race.’ So I started to hike a little more after finding out this little tidbit of information. The next 10 miles are uneventful really. I ran some, hiked some. Ryan talked and it was going in one ear and out the other. I was having a low. In hindsight, I probably needed more calories I busted out the tunes and that helped. So we had been passing quite a few people who were on their 3^rd loop. I think the 1^st was before the 2^nd AS. We were hiking up a hill, I was hurting, done, just ready to get this over with when I look back and out of nowhere I see a headlamp gaining on us. “who’s that?” I say. “I don’t know”.  “LET’S GO!” I took off like a bat out of hell and the pain had all melted away somehow. I guess adrenaline kicked in. I WAS NOT losing this race. I just filled up my bottle with Tailwind at the 4^th AS and was out. I ran the last 6 miles faster than on any of the other loops. I only walked to catch my breath for a bit and if the hills got somewhat steep. I was running up most of them. Finally, I see the lights at the FINISH.  WOO HOO! Ryan screams so loud I think he woke up everyone in the campground. I cross the line in 21:41 and WIN a 100 mile endurance run!!!  I kept saying ‘I can’t believe it’. Ryan & I hug and high five. Tim gets me a chair (Ryan woke him up). 1 minute later I can barely walk. How can I go from running so well to being barely able to walk? I wait for that light, the 2^nd place guy…..quite a while goes by and it ends up being a  guy on his 3^rd loop. 2^nd place ended up being my buddy Ben and his wife got 1^st place female.  Ben passed Peter around mile 65ish and Peter ended up dropping. Ben got 2^nd in 23:23 and his wife Amber was 1^st place female! Both friends and coworkers. George also finished his first 100!

Prior to this race, my 100 mile PR was 29:04. I bested it by 7:23! Going into this race my A goal was sub-24, my B goal was a PR and C goal was to finish. This race is 4 26 mile loops (26 per Ozark trails website) so 104 miles.  That’s a 12.5 min/mile average.  I still can’t believe I did that.  It was awesome seeing familiar faces at the AS’s. I knew this course well as I have run another race in the spring a few times (it’s just in the reverse direction). Nothing went wrong during the race, everything went right, the stars just aligned and everything went perfect.

Congratulations on your win!  And it was great to read a RR about a new (to me) and smaller race.

Congratulations, and thanks for the RR.  Being chased can be mentally challenging but at the same time can take away from feeling the physical pain. Sounds like that's exactly what it did for you.

With your friends, it was a nice group win.

Thanks for posting and congrats on the win.  Interesting that you used P90X when so many runners eschew cross training.  I see that Peter ended up taking a DNF.

Very well done, congratulations. That Tailwind works well. I hope I can shave off about 7 hours on my 100 mile PR next month. Whoa!! I get nauseated just thinking about that. We'll see what happens.

i gotta get me one of those pinhoti buckles one of these years.

Highly recommend Pinhoti, a really great low-key run.  Not a place for a PR though.

Best of luck next month LB2. Look forward to reading about your PR.

 

i gotta get me one of those pinhoti buckles one of these years.

Thank you. I agree with Sandy; it is not a place to do a PR, at least not for me. I would compare it to the Ozark Trail 100. I haven't run Ozark, but I have run in the Ozarks. The terrain is very similar. I plan to run Pinhoti again next year, but I am signed up for a new race this year in north Florida, the Cottonmouth 100. It is basically an out and back; if the weather is decent and I move intelligently, I should be able to have a pretty decent run at it. But, you never know what is going to happen in these things. Anyway, I love the Pinhoti belt buckle, and the course is really nice. And if you decide to run it, I can talk for hours about it, which you probably don't want to endure, but I'm just sayin'... And if there is a premium bourbon that you haven't ever tried, you can probably find it at an aid station at Pinhoti.

Congrats, man! I can't believe I put off reading this, though as a result I got your epilogue as well. That's a well told story... just excellent, and great bit of suspense toward the end.