So the race was 5 months ago I guess it is about time to make a blog post about it.
The weather on race day was great, a little on the cool side but no rain, snow, or wind to speak of so I considered conditions pretty perfect for this time of year. My training leading up to this race had been good in some areas and not in others. My day to day runs and speedwork seemed to be in pretty good form, however I had not really had a successful long run in this training set. My two longest runs were 20 and 25 miles and in both runs I had fallen short on my nutrition and had a rough finish although otherwise they were solid runs. Even still I had pretty high expectations for the race.
Once the race was under way I settled in just behind a few guys and really intended to stay put until about 5 miles into the race. But about a mile in I felt myself putting a little distance on the pack with very minimal effort and it even felt a little better to not be stumbling over my feet trying to go out extra easy. So going into the first aid station I was already running alone with no way of knowing where anyone else was. Heading into the first of many big climbs(Coosa Bald), I just settled into a conservative pace and pressed on. At this point I was feeling great. At the top of the climb I was still in good shape physically and mentally and really feeling good about the way this was unfolding. After the second aid station my stomach began to be a little queasy, which is what I think was the thread that I pulled that resulted in the unraveling of my DRT50.
When my stomach started feeling off I put a few extra minutes between gel and water and those minutes became more and more minutes and before I knew it I was way behind on eating and drinking. At the turnaround I was still feeling okay but could see the writing on the wall of what was to come, but for some reason did not start pounding the water yet. I left the turn-around station at 2:50 on the watch and started counting to see what the lead was. It turned out to be a 10min lead. Which should have been plenty to get me to the finish before anyone else. But coming out of the Mulkey Gap aid station on the way back it hit me, and I walked a little slower up the climb. By the top of the climb I couldn't even start back running the downhill. I was cold and throwing up and ready to drop out. The only reason I continued moving was that I knew I couldn't just stop and quit there. I would at least have to go on to the next aid station. So I started to walk with every intention of dropping at Whiteoak Stomp aid station. I worked on my water bottle as I could and even ate a gel just trying to feel better. About a mile before the aid station the 2nd and 3rd place runners came by and I knew that my hopes of winning were gone for good then. I walked for about an hour total with no running at all and just before the aid station a few more guys came by and one of them was my buddy Mitch Pless. He gave me some encouraging words and convinced me to try to run on in to the aid station with him. I tried running but still just didn't have it. Nothing was firing quite right in my legs.
At last I rolled into the Whiteoak Stomp aid station where I was planning to drop, but I just couldn't do it. I have never dropped out of a race and for some reason I felt the need to finish this no matter how bad I thought my ultra-signup ranking was going to drop. The aid workers gave me some food and some kind of electrolyte drink along with an s cap which I had never taken before but at this point I figured it couldn't get much worse so bring it on. Mitch gave me some more much needed encouragement, then he and the others headed on out ahead of me. I waited until all the guys had gone on since I didn't want to slow anyone still racing down. Once they were all out of the aid station I began the 2 mile climb back to the top of Coosa bald in 8th place. A few minutes out of the aid station I caught two of the guys putting me into 6th place. Another few minutes and another runner came into view and I quickly passed him. With each pass I was begining to get more motivation to not only finish but get back as many places as I could. By the top of the climb I had the next two guys in sight. As I crested the top and began the long descent I was feeling pretty good and caught those two guys quickly. One of them was my buddy Mitch who yelled for me to go on after the next guy. I really hoped he would tuck in behind me and roll on down but as it turned out he was going through a bit of a rough patch and had to let me go. About half way down the 3 mile descent I caught the 3rd place runner and passed him putting me back up to third which is as high as I would climb on this day.
In the end it was a bittersweet finish. I hated losing a big lead and the race but was happy I didn't drop out and was able to battle back to third. I am usually not one to repeat races but I want to go back to DRT and do it right.
Here is my garmin data from the race. The elevation profile only shows the second half for some reason, but all the splits are there.
