The first order of business with any race should be to thank all of the volunteers and the race director/staff for letting us punish and put ourselves through a great deal of suffering, all the while generously giving of their time to lavish us with great support. The good people of the Rocky Mountain Double Marathon of course exceeded my wildest expectations and were fantastic in helping take care of us as we limped along throughout the course of the day; my sincerest thanks and gratitude to all of you.
With the passage of time, the exact memory and impressions of an event lessen, letting us forget in a good way exactly how much we suffered during a particular race, etc. However, my first impression is that a double marathon is harder on the body than a full distance triathlon. Funny thing is that a full distance triathlon takes me longer to complete, but the abuse to the lower body is just not comparable.
With that out of the way; the race was just great. A modest crowd, I don’t know the exact numbers, gathered near the Lincoln Memorial at exit 323 on Interstate 80 in 30-ish degree temperatures with a light breeze (by Wyoming standards) for the start of the race.
After a few words of prayer, the race director announced in the most casual fashion that we could start.From looking at the elevation gain/loss profile of the course on the race website, I was unimpressed with just how steep and hilly the course really is. OK, maybe I am just not the best at soaking up and interpreting that kind of information, but this course is a beast. Overall the course is pretty hilly, but the start/finish is a very steep. So, we began by running downhill
, down a very steep hill at first, and then downhill some more for the first 4 miles or so to the 1st aid station. The first part of the race descends through a very pretty valley with a small stream and some beaver ponds; the kind of country it would be great to go camping in. The aid station was pretty modest, consisting of self serve water and Gatorade powder, potato chips, M&M’s, and a small assortment of cereal bars kind of things. I made a point of grabbing a handful of chips and a few M&M’s at each aid station. Got to keep the calories coming in. Somewhere in first 4 miles, I also managed to munch on a quarter of the peanut butter sandwich I had stashed in my pocket. I had another one in the hydration pack I was carrying, intending to eat 4 of them over the course of the race, but I think I only managed about 1 ½ sandwiches total throughout the day.
After the downhill, the inevitable uphill section followed. It felt good, like a guilty pleasure, to be walking the uphill section. Walking uphill is a nice part of the strategy of doing an ultra; at least for the slower crowd that I hang out with. The hill is pretty steep and sustained, but maybe not quite as much as the start/finish. It seemed to last until just over 7 miles where the dirt road ended and we got on pavement for the first time.
The race website says that 77% of the marathon course is on dirt roads; let’s see that is just over 6 miles of pavement for the marathon, and well, you do the math for the double; something that I didn’t do beforehand. So, I was a little surprised at how long the pavement seemed to last. I gave it a nickname; Forever Rd
. Actually, it was the service road that stretches along the south side of I-80. It was pleasant enough and rolling just a little, so you got to run most of it without any real excuse to stop and walk, except for just plain being whipped later on in the race. As we finally got to the next exit on I-80, we ducked down beneath the highway again and got onto Vedauwoo Road, where we encountered the 2nd aid station. My guess is this somewhere around mile 9, but then again I never rock a GPS watch, so that’s just a guess.After just a bit more pavement, it was back on dirt roads again, this time in the picturesque Vedauwoo rock climbing area, home to some of the most sand-bagged, err challenging, crack and offwidth climbing to be found anywhere. Too bad it is also a great place for rednecks to come and cruise around in their big pick-up trucks, on ATV’s, and motorcycles while raising clouds of dust racing back and forth on the dirt road between emergency camp-site visits. I figure there must have been an emergency somewhere, otherwise why go tearing down the road raising so much dust? Once particularly impressive truck had “Honk if you think my truck is sexy” boldly scrawled across its back window, at least that is what I think it said through the clouds of dust.
Also, as soon as we got on the dirt road I had to hit the tree-line in order to relieve my first bout of GI distress; something that was going to dog me throughout the day. Don’t know what it is about long distance running and an irritable bowel, but they sure seem to go hand in hand with me. Once I got done and started running again, it was only a couple of miles downhill to the turn-around point for the marathon.
At the turn-around point there was the 3rd aid station
. A nice volunteer signed our numbers, to prove we had made it so far, and then we were directed to turn-around and head back to the start/finish. What goes down must come back up. According to the course profile, we had been heading downhill most of the way outbound, and uphill was going to be the mantra for the way back.Not much to describe what is different for the inbound leg of an out and back race. Well, you get to see who is in the lead, and you also get to see who is behind you. I usually try to be like Lot and not like his wife in a race and never look back. I ran into the leader of the race when we first hit the dirt road at Vedauwoo. I was a little surprised to see how many folks were behind me because I move so slowly. Leave it to say that the leader of the race was a good 4 miles ahead of me at less than half way into the race.
On the way back; Forever Rd seem to take, well you know… It was nice to run downhill for a good ways when we got back on the dirt road again after 3 more miles of pavement. After going through the first aid station again, it was uphill for a long ways to the start/finish. The group I was with did a run/walk for most of the uphill section
; all of us being reduced to a walk at the last mile or so to get to the start/finish… hmmm I mean turn around point for us double marathoners. I sure had a case of serious envy when I was directed away from the finisher’s chute and told simply to turn around and start all over again.Before I got started on the second lap I made sure to change socks, get something to eat, and to refill my hydration pack. I carry a 1.5-liter bladder in my pack, and had finished almost all of it on the first lap. Once I started running downhill again, it wasn’t too long before I had to hit the tree-line again for a little more GI distress.
What kind of impressions do I have from the second lap that are different from the first? Well, pain for starters; then throw in a little bit of exhaustion too. A book about ultra running I read, can’t remember which one, said that one attribute about the sport is learning about how to deal with the beast named exhaustion when it shows up. That part I think I can handle OK
. The pain is what I get worried about; will it shut me down? Today was OK, so far nothing serious like IT band syndrome had shown up. Going downhill from the start/finish a pretty good pressure sore started to form on the top of my right foot. Later, some mild pain started to show up in my left hip. Knees seemed to hang in there all day. I thanked God for how good I felt compared to how badly I knew I could be feeling. A final bout of GI distress decided to show up just after passing through the second aid station. Somewhere around the marathon turn-around; let’s see that would be some 39 miles into the race, a blister started to form on my right ring toe. Forever Rd. seemed to take longer than forever as I was inbound back to the start/finish. I had to run/walk on the downhill sections by this time, both from exhaustion and to make sure that I didn’t further exacerbate any injuries that were just lurking in the background. That last uphill to the start/finish went on and on… There comes a point in a long race when I can let my guard down just a bit, because I know that my finish is pretty inevitable, even though it might still be a ways off. All that separates me from crossing the finish line is just a little more suffering, which by this time I have gotten pretty used to enduring. I was pretty happy with thought of finishing my first ultra and looking forward to getting the finisher’s belt buckle. However, I was also a little disturbed by just how plain whipped I was. This race was only 52 miles. Later in the summer I am going to try the Leadville Trail 100. How am I going to do it?
I would like to tell myself that this distance might be like a half marathon is to a full marathon or a half Ironman is to a full Ironman triathlon. Psychologically these (half) distance races are pretty hard when you think about doubling the distance. However, in an ultra there are some physiological demands on the body, which I am sure will be different, in that going twice as far as 50 miles on foot will be a lot more physical and not just mental. Am I making any sense? I don’t know; I’ll get back to you on that one in late August.
At last I was heading uphill on the final stretch to the finish line. I summoned enough strength to actually run across the finish line itself and get my results from the race director; 11 hours, 30 minutes, and 55 seconds. After receiving my buckle
, I hung around long enough to cheer the next finisher across the line. I wanted to stay for more, but I was too whipped, and slowly started to limp my way back to the car. Even in the short period of time I had hung out at the start/finish my body had already started to seize up, and a hobbling limp was all I could manage for the ¼ mile walk back down to where I had parked at the Lincoln Memorial rest area.After texting a few friends with the results, I spent some time on the phone with my wife as I drove back to the Little America hotel in Cheyenne. We spent some time laughing about the GI distress I had that day; OK after 25 years of marriage we can enjoy a little potty humor with each other. I wasn’t going to try driving back to Colorado Springs that evening in my exhausted state. However I didn’t really enjoy a good rest that night either in the hotel room. Maybe I was just too tired even though the bed was nice; I ended up tossing and turning for most of the night.
There is a great group of folks that I regularly run with on Tuesday and Thursday mornings; the Attack Pack. I love all the folks that are in the group, as we have all helped each other push ourselves to new limits and make each other stronger than we would be individually. As I write this (on Monday), tomorrow morning seems way too soon for how I physically feel now. Maybe I will just show up and cheer them on. I can take some time to walk around Garden of the Gods and take some pictures instead.
Upcoming races are the Garden of the Gods run in 2 weeks; then I am entering the Mt. Evans run on the following weekend. The Mt. Evans run should be an interesting race; starting at just over 10,000’ and finishing up at over 14,000’ in just over 14.5 miles of road, all going uphill. After that I begin my quest for the Leadman 2010 with the Leadville Trail Marathon on July 3rd. It’s going to be a hard summer…
