Brazos Bend 100 Mile

Brazos Bend State Park, Texas, December 9, 2017

Devan signed up to run this as her first foray into the 100 mile distance, plus she had a free entry so why not?  Since she crewed for me and then paced me for 50 miles at my Arkansas Traveler 100 miler in October, I asked her if she’d want company for the whole thing.  Yup, I offered to run a hundred miles, just because.  She said “sure, let’s do this.”  So after we were all set to go, Devan then remembered that she promised she’d accompany her DBF to his company holiday party, and since he was being flown up to it and she had already committed, she needed to go.  Now what to do?  Of course I’d carry on and do the thing. After all she would be back in time to pace me a little at the end.

BB100 is run on extremely flat trails within Brazos Bend State Park located a bit SW of Houston, TX.  We’re talking as flat as a tortilla.  The trails are very walker friendly crushed granite, or dirt park roads that I guess are used for park maintenance.  The run consists of six 16.67 mile loops.  Yes six loops!!! Six chances to run by your supplies/tent/car/etc. to test your resolve.

As luck would have it, since the trail is so flat, the east Texas weather would make it a little tougher by giving us a little arctic blast. I decided to sleep in a tent in the park the night before the run so the nighttime and starting temp of 29 degrees made for some chilly conditions.

In the morning I made my way to the start area and set up my “pile of stuff” that would be my personal resupply at the start/finish of each loop. I had six plastic bags labeled with the loop numbers set up with the “stuff” I need for each loop, gels, cookies, lights, spare batteries, etc depending on the anticipated time of day I’d be heading out on each loop.  Plus a supply of clothes to change into since the temps would be ranging from below freezing, to a high of 65 deg and then plunge back down to below freezing during the course of the run.

Dawn on Loop 1.

After my stuff was dropped off I headed over to the 6am start, with a full 90 seconds to spare.  Timing is everything. So off we went. I decided to go easy, but then again quick enough to stay warm.  The first loop was going well, following the headlamps in front of me, I just had my small handheld which was plenty of light for this trail. I was a little familiar with the loop since I paced Devan for a loop of her 50 mile at the same park the year before.  But before long I heard a little a few grumblings from runners around me, I guess they were a lot more familiar with the loop than I was.  The grumblings got a little more “colorful” when we were running though deep, and cold, puddles and cruddy shoe sucking mud that made your shoes feel like they were 10 pounds each.  It wasn’t until a friendly runner said something like “I guess we are going to cut something in the back half of the loop to make up for the extra mile we just did” that I knew the swampy area we just did wasn’t part of the real loop. Turns out they forgot to set up a saw horse that was to be the turnaround for an out-n-back section so the whole field did a bonus mile, they fixed it before we got back on the second loop so at least we didn’t have to do the mud-run section again.

But my misadventures weren’t quite over yet. On the back half of the first loop there was a confusing intersection that had you doing a little loopy-loop on the way out but you skipped it on the way back. I got a little turned around and started doing the loopy-loop on the way back too, took me a few minutes to realize it, but round trip it was an extra mile for me.  I later heard a few other runners had done the same thing.  Oooops.  It was sort of well-marked, but easy to mess up, fortunately something I felt only compelled to do just once.

Loop 1, done in 3:15:17, 18.7 miles total.

Loop 2 was pretty much the same, daylight this time, it was still a little chilly but I dropped the outer long sleeve shirt but kept the gloves. Still too cold to see any alligators.

Loop 2, done in 3:26:12, 6:42:29 and 35.3 miles total.

The shoot at the end of Loop 2.

Loop 3, wash-rinse-repeat.  To break up the monotony for the first time ever in a race I strapped on the iPod shuffle, I have to admit it was kinda nice having tunes.  This was the warmest loop and I saw 4 or 5 alligators.  Most of them were out in the water and only showing their eyes and noses in an attempt to keep warm, but I did see a cute little 2 foot guy laying on top of some grass, and then a big one near the spillway.  The big guy was getting lots of attention from runners and photogs alike.

Loop 3, done in 3:46:58, 10:28:27 and 52 miles total.

Between the lakes on Loop 3.

Friendly spectator.

Loop 4, ok if it’s tiring to read about the loops, guess how it might feel running them. The big thing that happened on loop 4 is that I grabbed a little charger for my GPS watch and also my handheld light because it was going to get dark during loop 4. Pretty exciting stuff I know. I also kept the iPod.  I was a running tech fool.  It was also getting cold again so another long sleeve shirt was in order.

I was more or less where I was planning to be time-wise, I little fast but I had an “A Goal” of trying to beat my best 100 mile time (22:35), plus there is a goal to get a slightly larger and nicer finisher buckle if you can manage to dip under 22 hours.  So I was sort of going for it.  Flat trail, great conditions, why not?  Well I sort of gathered while out on loop 4 that I would be starting to hit the “big slow down” and I felt the legs getting a little sluggish.  Plus I was seeing some of the people I was running with starting to drift away up in front of me. I’ll also add here that I was running with a lot of nice people all day, we’d introduce ourselves and run miles together.  It was fun.  I ran quite a few miles with a guy named Johnathan who would later go off up ahead.  But anyway I was still trying to “keep busy” and get in and out of the aid stations where I only was refilling my water bottle and grabbing animal crackers as quickly as possible.

I’ll add my fueling strategy here… I have found that for me the best thing is to set my watch to chime every hour and twenty minutes and do a Gel and an S-cap whenever it chimes.  The steady drip of Gels is really good for me and I supplement it with bland cookies such as animal crackers, ginger snaps or fig newtons to add a little solid stuff. Yes, I took in about 18 or 19 Gels during the run.

Loop 4, done in 4:17:45, 14:46:12 and 68.7 miles total.

Loopy GPS track, 10 mile splits.

So now we’re up to loop 5, I dropped the charger and the music and added a headlamp to supplement my handheld light. I also added a light fleece pullover to the running attire as it was getting to be bone-chilling time again. I’ll add that when it’s cold in Texas it’s still humid, so the temps feel especially cold, bone-chilling.  But the biggest boost was that Devan was there waiting for me and ready to run with me.  It was really great that she was there to distract me as much as she could.  She told me about the party and other very very exciting stuff about Oklahoma City. I told her about the mishaps on loop 1 and that we saw some alligators on loop 3!!!  Unlike Arkansas there were no bugs to keep us otherwise occupied.  But am afraid that as much as Devan was pushing and prodding and trying to keep me otherwise distracted, she couldn’t get me to go any faster. I could tell that time was slipping away.

With the sameness of the flat miles under my legs and the dropping temps, my ITBs were really starting to stiffen up. It was a slow pang of agony at times, then loosen up, then jolting twanging outer knee pain again. I kept running whenever I could, but it wasn’t pretty. I did pass some of the folks that had drifted up ahead earlier though, and when we saw Johnathan again we tried to get him to stay with us.  Unfortunately I later found out that he dropped.

Oh yeah, that A Goal, it sort of shifted to my B Goal which was to simply finish.  There were some bravado thoughts in there about going under 24 hours, but I knew that with the big slowdown it wasn’t gonna happen either, plus there is no sub-24 buckle at this race so… what can I say, you can make some pretty interesting rationalizations or deals with yourself during the later miles of a 100 miler.

Near the end of the loop I convinced Devan that I’d be fine to do the last loop without her.  I could tell she was freezing going so slowly with me.  Plus she offered that while I was out on loop 6 she’d pack up the tent and get us ready to leave.  We also planned that we’d sleep a bit in the car (with the heater on) after I finished.  It was a deal, and something to look forward to.

Loop 5, done in 4:56:31, 19:42:43 and 85.4 miles total.

Thank all that is good, Loop 6 has finally arrived!!!  In order to get a little warmer and perhaps loosen up the ITBs I put on a pair of running tights for loop 6. I wasn’t that cold since I was moving, my upper body was fine, but the ITBs were in need of something.  And it did help when I set out on the final loop, but it wasn’t too long before I was doing the ultra shuffle through ITB hell again. Anyway I just kept up the moving trail shuffle as much as I could. It helped knowing I was on the “victory lap” as one runner put it. I thanked all the aid station folks as I was passing through the last time, they were all so nice.

As I was about half way through the loop I was keeping the mental game going, trying to see if I could finish before the second sunrise of the run.  Thankfully the winter nights are very long and the sunrise was later in the morning!!!  Plus, no sub-24, but I really needed to get done in sub-25.  Yup, those mind games again.

Coming down the finish shoot.

Devan and I at the finish.

I did a few trail calls coming in to the finish just to see if Devan was awake.  Sure enough she was there at the finish to greet me, saying something about it being too freaking cold to sleep anyway and that she had heard me making a racket.

Loop 6, done in 5:00:55, 24:43:38 and 102 miles total.

So that’s it, finished in 24:43:38 in 40^th place overall.  I think the freezing temps had a large effect on the race stats; 352 entered, 155 DNS, 112 DNF, 85 finishers.

The Buckle.

The totally flat course wouldn't really have bothered me but with temps that low I'd probably have been a DNS.  Did it ever get up to 65 degrees?

That's a nice buckle.

Nice job finishing...loops, flat, open...sounds like hell!!!

Congratulations Sandy! And nice read.

"Accidental hundred."  LOL.  Nice job, Sandy.  A little nutty, but hey, that's what we do, right?

So what's Devan's punishment for bailing on you??

DC: Thanks, it’s tough to write about a loop course.

MM: Yeah, as they say “how hard can it be…”.  No punishment, I think she was a little sad seeing the runners finishing a race that she had to DNS.  But her real punishment will be Rocky Raccoon in February.

mt: Thanks, I have to admit I was very surprised to see so many backed out seemingly from the low temps. Coming from Montana you might have been tempted to take a swim, although the Alligator Caution signs may have kept you away.

Nice job sticking it out.  I have fun w ITB too.  The only real relief besides stopping /walking is if something else painful like blisters starts up for me.

wcrunner – Thanks. I don’t know about deceptively difficult. Just two things to consider, it is so flat that people may go out too fast to get a PR (sounds familiar), and lots of opportunities to pack-it-in as you run near your car at the S/F. Plus this year is was cold.

Trai Hound – Thanks. Yes!! Nothing like something else hurting to take your mind of the original problem.

Jamie – Thanks. Sometime ya just gotta say WTF.  The park was pretty much back to normal from the hurricane thanks to a lot of work by the maintenance folks, they even said that this time most of the alligators stayed put.