Bandera 50K Ultramarathon

Saturday, January 10, 2009
7:30 AM, Bandera, Texas
results
photos

My Goal:

• Wanted: <>
• Did: 6:32:19
  

My Rankings:

• Overall: 48 / 125
  
• Division: 6 / 19

Finished my first ultra-marathon and it wore me out so much that I'm just now finding the energy to write up this report. Har! I have been uncharacteristically lazy since the race though. Running for six and a half hours in the gorgeous Bandera hill country was such an exciting adventure that it makes normal, everyday, life feel... well, a bit normal and routine. Towards the end of the race I was cursing every rock and praying to whatever god would listen that the next step I took would be across the finish line. For 2-3 days after the race it felt like someone had taken a baseball bat to my knees and I could barely walk, I was so stiff and sore. It's funny how despite all the pain and cursing all I really remember, when I look back on that day, are the high points and I wish I were out there racing again.

Since I've procrastinated so long in writing this race report, it's going to be a short one. Events from the race have begun to congeal together and what took me six and a half hours to accomplish now, upon remembering, only seems like about two hours. As I mentioned above, I'm left with only the good feelings of that day sprinkled with a dash of the negative thoughts that dominated my mind when I was out on the trail. I'll do my best to recap and share my thoughts from the race.

I slept great the night before the race despite some heartburn from the ginormous sour cream & cheese potato I ate (supposedly there were > 2300 calories in this bastard). On race morning it was cold enough to freeze a hairless caribou and windy enough to fly a one ton kite. Woke up around 5:30 ate a bit, froze, drank some water, froze, stretched, thawed out (just kidding, I froze) and ate some more. Still dressed in my "goddamn it's cold" clothing, I got in line at the toilet a little after 7:00 thinking I would have enough time to make it back to camp before the race started at 7:30. The line was long and people were moving slow and by the time I finished, I had barely walked out the door when the 50k race started. Being a little over half a mile away from the start line I sprinted back to camp, took off my winter clothes strapped on my garmin and dashed towards the starting line.

I was the last one in the pack at this point and by the time I caught up to the other runners, the trail had narrowed down to the point were everyone had to run in single-file. My brother, Ty, and friend, Matt, had made it through the potty lines earlier and had started at the front of the race. I was trying to catch up to them while dodging sotol, ankle twisting rocks and maneuvering around other runners on the narrow trail. In all, I think my late start extended my finishing time by about 10-15 minutes. The extra push I was taking to catch up to Matt and Ty surely didn't help the knee problems I would develop later in the race either.

Bandera is an incredibly rocky and harsh trail with very few flat sections and it is steep enough in many places to force anyone to walk or power hike. In fact all the real steep climbs are given names which include, Cairn's Climb, Boyle's Bump, Sky Island, Ice Cream Hill, Three Sisters and Lucky Peak. This way when the race is over you can curse these names and other runners will know full well what you're talking about. I don't remember the race well enough anymore to recall how I felt going up and down each of these hills so the safe bet is to just assume I was in pain!

By mile 10 my knees were already starting to hurt since I had not given them enough time to recover from my training runs and plus, I was taking the downhills too hard. At this point I slowed the pace down some and even began to walk the occasional steep downhill. Around mile 15 I came to the first aid station (Chappa's) and saw Matt! We talked for a moment but he was on his way out just as I was on my way in. I found my drop bag ate a cliff bar, downed some perpetuum and was on my way again. The next 5-6 miles went by really fast, my knees hurt but they weren't too bad and before I knew it, I was at the second aid station (X-Roads). Matt and I entered this aid station at about the same time and talked for a bit while we ate and drank something. He left the aid station before me and I headed out about three minutes later.

The next 5-6 miles didn't go by so fast. After about two miles on this section of trail, my knees began to hurt a lot more and the pain was all I could think about. Remembering some quote I read that went: "it's not the destination but the journey", I tried to simply enjoy being out on the trail and focus on the gorgeous scenery and great weather to distract myself. Almost as soon as I shifted my focus, I tripped on a root! A root! There were plenty of rocks to trip over but I tripped on, probably, the only exposed root in all 50 kilometers of trail! There was no one around to witness my fumble but I kind of wish there would have been. I fell so expertly that I missed all the rocks and rolled back up onto my feet! All those years of being a klutz finally paid off! Despite my skills at fall recovery I figured knee pain was better than the risk of a broken ankle so I decided to stay focused on my footing and push through the pain. Somewhere around mile 25 I came to the X-Roads aid station again and briefly talked to Matt as he was leaving. He was in much better shape than I was!

The last 6-7 miles seemed to drag on for eternity. I ran the first 2-3 miles but then my knee pain became so bad that I had no choice but to walk the rest of the way. The uphill climbs weren't so bad but on the downhills I could feel my knee bones grinding against other knee bones! Finally, after what seemed like forever, I knew I was getting close with probably about a half mile to go. I pooled together my last drops of determination and jogged the rest of the way to the finish line! After crossing the finish line, the magnitude of what I had accomplished that day didn't hit me right away, all I could think about was finding some place to sit down! Both Matt and Ty finished ahead of me. Matt finished 16 minutes ahead and Ty finished a whole hour and 18 minutes faster!

Here are the conclusions I've made after running my first ultra:

1. Ultra-marathons and trail running is just plain fun! I'm definitely going to do some more, maybe even work my way up to a 100 miler! o_O
   
2. I went way overboard in packing my drop bags. A bottle of perpetuum, one gu pack, socks and a blister kit is probably all I need in the bags, anything else I could find at the aid stations.
3. Ultra-marathoners are probably the happiest people you will ever meet! Which is weird because most of the time, there is very little to be happy for when running 31+ miles. Your legs hurt, bones ache and you're mentally fatigued. Yet despite this, people keep going and if you talk to people on the trail, no one sounds bitter or angry, everyone is very upbeat and positive. I was almost tempted to search through their drop bags to find the pain killers and whiskey I was sure would be there.
4. I'm not that happy of a person yet. When my knees really began to hurt, towards the end, I got fire breathing mad! People's upbeat comments, as they passed me on the trail, that were meant to cheer me up just annoyed and pissed me off even more. My anger, determination and pride are what got me to the finish line. Thinking and focusing more on the positive is something I really need to work on.