The Beginning
Ten months ago I had yet to attempt to run a marathon. I was signed up for and ultimately finished the Kiawah Island marathon in an ok but nothing to brag about 3:48. I am not a gifted runner, but enjoy chipping away at my times and seeing improvement. The original idea, was get a marathon off my 40 year old bucket list and move on. However, shortly before that race, I watched the Netflix documentary about the Barkley Marathon. I was smitten. Smitten with the idea of lots of pain? Not so much. It was a fascinating race, put on by, and entered by people I couldn’t get enough of. I think the moment where I was truly struck with the desire to *think* and work towards possibly doing this one day, was when John Fegyveresi talked about living his life. Live your life. He’d lost his father recently…something I could, unfortunately, relate to. Something just wasn’t doing it for me. I am not unique…most people are looking for their *thing. This is how ultra trail running became a thing I have come to love. Anyway, thanks John. And Laz. And Jared. All of you. I’m going to go ahead and say this documentary saved me.
The Buildup
So Kiawah came and went. It was hard considering the most I had run up to that point was the standard 20 mile peak. In February, I then ran the Uwharrie 40 mile. It too was hard considering the longest run I had done was the Kiawah 26.2 back in December. I range a slightly better than 50th percentile, 9 hours 25 minutes. I couldn’t walk the next day for busted quads…good god I had a ton to learn the hard way…but I had finished. Yay. Next up was the Grandfather Mountain marathon in July. I was sort of in 100 mile training already, which included stairs and attacking hills instead of dreading them. I finished this in a proud 3:51 (it had 3700 feet of gain +-) and I had finished 43 of about 300. Top 15%!. Next up, Iron Mountain 30 miler in September. This was the dress rehearsal for No Business 100. I managed to hack though this course in 5 hours, 30 minutes almost on the dot. A full 30 minutes faster than my predicted time. 21st out of 102 entered. I was feeling good about my progress as a runner overall.
No Business Race Report
A grand total of 34 of 76 who started (85 registered) finished the inaugural No Business 100. It did not have a qualifier race, so perhaps a lot of people signed up who might not otherwise have tried this race, I mean…I was one of those objectively speaking.But I felt ready. Anyway here is the play-by-play…
Through Mile 15 I was running a sub 24 hour pace and was hanging with the top 15 or so runners. I felt great. (24 hours is sort of a benchmark for slightly above average runners and many of us aim for this who are between the two extremes of ‘could win it’ and ‘just trying to finish’.) The sun came up shortly after mile 15.
Through mile 25, I was still on track for a 24 hour finish. But the heat was starting to get to me. I had run out of water when I reached the mile 25 aid station at Duncan Hollow (I had water, and topped off at the previous 4 stations).
I reached the mile 32 aid station at the head of the Grand Gap Loop, again out of water but my crew was there to pick my spirits up. Not being especially tired, but just thirsty, I gulped down some coffee (will explain coffee need later) and extra water and felt the whole game was still within reach as I was still on 24 hour pace.
Mile 32 was followed by the 6 mile ‘side loop’ of Grand Gap. It was out on an exposed ledge with wonderful views, but in the direct sun. Also this was the southeast corner of the 100 mile loop the most exposed part of the course and hottest part of the day converged here…I ran this loop between 12:30PM and 2 PM. As I approached the Mile 38 aid station (again at Grand Gap’s trailhead) I felt noticeably hot and fatigued. I learned later it was around 85 degrees at this time, several degrees hotter than I had planned for.
At mile 44 aid station at Bandy Creek an elite ultra marathoner was there volunteering helping the other volunteers assess people’s needs. He frowned at me, asked some questions about how i felt and said to immediately drink 32 ounces of electrolyte fluid plus eat all the salty food I could stomach. I did, and bounded out feeling much better after about a 7-8 minute total break. I was off my 24 hour goal but still thinking 25-26 hours was within reach.
That uplifted feeling lasted about 3 miles as the heat continued to wear us all down. The next stretch did take me through three ice cold river crossings which were very welcome at the time but later would be my final undoing…
Mile 50’s aid station ended with a 1000 foot climb we all later called ‘endless hill’. I saw a guy there I met back in April (Greg White…he operates Charit Creek Lodge…I highly recommend staying there if you like being deep in the woods, plus Greg is a one of a kind top notch guy), and his kind spirit and concern helped me get going again though my running pace was slowing significantly.
Out of Charit you climb to the majestic Twin Arches. This was close to dusk and we were running west now so the sunset was beautiful at the top of the arches. I put on some music and enjoyed a nice downhill run from the arches feeling like I could still do this.
Mile 55, Sawmill aid station, I was still running decently. The aid station was run by a family whose little girls enthusiastically filled water bottles and husband and wife fed and tended to us. They were so nice. Also the husband had run (and completed) one of the hardest 100 milers on the planet called Western States out in northern California and his expertise is crewing was apparent as he ran is station. I am tired, but spirit was unbroken.
So to this point I had been dealing with two big miscalculations on my part. One obviously was the heat. The other was I spent the week up to race time, trying to adjust my sleep schedule to get ready for the 3 am wake up time (5 am start). All I did was exhaust myself waking up at 5:30-6-00 all week but still not falling asleep until too late…this is not new info to people who know me…I am not a morning person, but I was trying to adjust for a known shortcoming of mine. Race night I slept 4 hours to go with my less than 6 a night all week leading up to the race. So on top of these two things, somewhere between mile 55 and 62 I started to feel blisters. Those 3 cold river crossing followed by the 1000 foot climb had blistered my feet. I had never had blisters of this caliber before and therefore had no experience dealing with them, or mentally understanding how to cope with them.
When I got to aid station mile 62 at Pickett State Park Tennessee I took off my shoes and saw quarter size blisters on the ball of each foot. I popped them, put mole skin on them and hoped for the best. When I stood up though, It felt like knives being stuck in my feet and I unleashed a barrage of 4 letter words in front of about 30 aid volunteers and other runner’s crews. I walked off into the night.
For the next 4 miles, to aid station mile 66 called Powerline,I could only walk. When I got there I drank some chicken broth, started shivering because I hadn’t been moving fast enough to stay warm (we all carry space blankets in case we’re actually stuck in the woods in the cold), and after 20 minutes of watching a couple other runners stumble in behind me decided to call it quits. Walking for 35 miles on those feet seemed like a terrible idea in that moment.
So I was undone by sleep, heat and feet (as were many others). On the bright side my often nauseous stomach was in great shape, and my body as a whole feels very good still…only slightly sore..so 6 months of training did what it was supposed to do. Also 65 miles is my longest distance in one single go.
The last week or so, I have gradually digested the entire experience and can say it is among the most fun things I have ever participated in. I met so many nice people. People I respect. People I enjoy sharing the trail with and a beer when the opportunity arises. I am in the best shape of my life. I never really thought this would become a *thing for me, but it has. So I plan to be out there, again struggling in the night with a headlamp and not enough sleep, with the handful of others roughly my pace, trading self deprecating remarks, and kindnesses, and mundane trail banter, quite happy, to be happy.
Cheers