My first 100 miler was not easy, but then, is any 100 miler easy? I don’t think so.
I expected to be more nervous and sleepless on Friday night before the race, and especially at the start. Much to my surprise, I was actually totally relaxed. I can’t figure why because I’m usually a bit nervous before a race of any length, and I would have expected especially nervous before a race of 100 miles, which I’ve never done!
On paper, OT is a “fast” 100-mile course, but I think the technical aspects of the course (100 miles of single-track, NO fire roads) including 4” of oak leaves covering 80% of the course really ups the ante, if you know what I mean. Even the elite runners, and there were some really good ones in attendance, came in 1-2 hours slower than planned. While not tremendously hilly, it's highly technical (roots, rocks, etc.) - especially when you can't actually see the ground under the leaves!
I ran a good race, for about 70 miles at least. I basically hovered between 8th & 12th place the entire time I ran. I really didn’t expect to run that fast. I probably shouldn’t have run that fast because it really took a toll late in the race – but I’ll get to that later.
The race started super low key. It was 6am sharp when Paul Schoenlaub, the co-RD said, “Hey everyone, we’re going to count down from 5 and get going”. Which he did, and off we shuffled. I happened to be near the start line when this went down, so I just decided to run a pace that felt slow & comfortable. There were some good down hill sections early in the race and I took advantage of them, which kept me up in the top 10 or 15 runners to the 1st aid station.
As the sun came up, about 1 hour in to the run, I began getting to sections of the course that were in really bad shape. There had been a storm in early spring this year that knocked down literally 10’s of thousands of trees. Many of those were right on the trail. This left huge root ball holes, large logs, etc. all over the trail for the first 40 miles of the race. I have to say, though, it was VERY evident the Ozark Trail Association had done everything they could to keep the course open – and a fine job they did! It was a tough stretch, but it was manageable.
Mid-day the mercury rose and it got pretty hot – I’m guessing about 80+ degrees. It doesn’t sound too bad, but I think this contributed a lot to the more than 50% drop out rate in the race. Many people didn’t make it to the halfway point because of the heat. I’m glad that I managed it fairly well, and got myself to the half way point in less than 11 hours. However, as I mentioned, this was probably too fast for an inexperienced ultra runner running their 1st 100 miler.
I was met down course by my friend, Jen Mommens, at the 68 mile mark, Hazel Creek Aid-station. Jen was going to pace me to Berryman at mile 81.5, where I would pick up a new pacer (another friend), Wendie Wieler-Cummings. Not that it cost me the race, but I made a critical error at Hazel Creek. I was actually running really strong coming in and was still HOURS ahead of cut off time. The mistake, you may ask? I sat down for far too long to change shoes. I should have stood to do it. I was so stiff when I got back up that I think this was the beginning of the end for me.
Jen and I rolled out of Hazel Creek with 13 miles to go to Berryman, with one aid-station about half way in between. We made a brief stop at that aid-station so I could duct tape my feet, which had a couple of wicked blisters by then, but carried on otherwise. The problem here was that since mile 68 at Hazel Creek I had probably only run 10% of the mileage. It was slowing to a walk, and nearly a crawl. By the time we were within 1.4 miles of Berryman (crossing HWY 8) I couldn’t walk fast enough to keep my body temperature up in the cold valleys near the creeks. It was a very hard struggle up to Berryman and I was pretty sure I was done. Mentally, I was hanging in fine, but physically I just couldn’t walk anymore.
Wendy met Jen and me with GREAT enthusiasm at Berryman, and it was SO disappointing to have to tell her I didn’t think I could go any more. She and the aid-station workers tried to revive me, but resting and time only made matters worse – not better as we would have hoped. I decided to withdraw at 2:55am due to the fact that I couldn’t walk anymore. Seem like a valid reason to stop.
No real regrets here, because I know I didn’t leave anything in tank. I gave it 110%, which is all I can do. The fact is, I wasn’t trained well enough for 100 miles. Lesson learned and I’ll do better the next time J.
I can’t thank Jen & Wendie enough for coming down to OT to help me out. You ladies were a real spirit booster! Even more, I can’t thank my Step-Dad, Charlie, enough. Charlie was there from Thursday to the end and even gave my gimpy ass a ride home on Sunday morning! Charlie always has a knack for helping me out at every big race or run I do – Charlie, thanks buddy, you really are THE MAN!
The RD’s on this race, as well as help from the St. Louis Ultra runner’s Group were AMAZING. The aid stations were run perfectly too. You would have never known this was a first time event. GREAT job everyone!
Hopefully I’ll have more successful results to post on my next 100-mile attempt. It was a rich experience that I wouldn't trade anything for!
