As we made the turn up the four mile hill to the entrance of Highland Grayson State Park in VA we saw our first set of runners coming down leg 1 and it became very real that the day had finally come. We pulled in and parked next to the Chick Maggots, a female ultra team from Asheville made up of many of our running friends. Together, we "dec'd" ourselves out. Our team gelling up our Mohawks (those that had hair) and them adding glitter to their arms. The masters ultra team from Asheville, "Norms Maggots" also showed up soon after so it was good to have some Asheville love before we all took off. It was a beautiful day for a run. We did our final prep, taking pics, and organizing our van, which would be our home, recovery room, and transportation for the next 24 hours. Not sure why we bothered organizing things, within two legs of the race it was a disaster anyway, but it's the thought that counts.
Our lineup for the day would be as follows: Joel, Craig, Kaj, Me, Ryan, and Ning. We were arranged by our strengths and the leg summaries (distance and elevation). Craig had the best base of training and distance so we gave him the longest stuff. Joel had run his legs in prior races before so he knew how to run those legs, same with Kaj, and Kaj was probably slowest, so gave him the fewest miles. I had a better base than Ryan and like the hills, so I took the longer leg with more gain. Ning was our fastest and loves downhills so that's what he got. He also got "the glory leg", the last leg, 6.8 miles of downhill to the finish.
We knew we had 2 other teams to compete with today, Kickin' Up Asphalt, from Charlotte; and Runnin' on E, from Virginia. It would be a battle all day, but we felt good about things. We really wanted to win.
The Ultra Chick Maggots took off at 11 and then our team lined up to take off at 11:30. Teams were started by estimated pace, with faster teams starting later in the day so teams would be more bunched together during the night for safety reasons. We were part of the last group of ultras to go off, which meant we were seeded with the two other teams as the fastest.
Joel got lined up and took off down leg one. The journey began now! He knew this first 4 mile leg was a quad killer that most people can hurt themselves on early as its a steep downhill grade the whole way. If they aren't smart, they can fly down it, sacrificing their legs for later in the day. He played it smart and came in just behind Charlotte's team but ahead of Virginia and handed off to Craig. It was exciting to see him come in, but also weired since we knew this same excitement would be taking place 35 more times!
Craig had 7.5 miles with a lot of downhill as well. As we passed him in the van 400m in, he was already passing Charlotte! We were in the lead, but we had to keep ourselves realistic that it's a 208 mile race and ANYTHING could happen throughout the day/night. Even though, it was a thrill to see us out in front.
Craig came in and handed off to Kaj and we were still in the lead. Kaj had 5.2 miles that had about a 1 mile hill in the front half, but was then downhill to the end. It had a lot of dirt road and it was dusty due to the vans going by, but he ran strong and when he came in to the exchange with me, we were still in the lead.
Taking the bracelet (what was used like a baton for each team) really got me pumped. Usually you think of taking a baton like an Olympic track event, taking off like hell and sprinting after the exchange, not taking off for one of six separate races of ~6-8 miles each. No matter, it was my turn now and I had a 6.9 hard leg. Short hill in the beginning, then at mile 2, a sizable hill until mile 5.5, then a down/up to the end. I wasn't thrilled with my pace, but seeing it was my first leg, I chalked it up to my legs getting acclimated and wasn't too concerned. After all, we were still leading. As I came in, I just glad to get the anxiety of leg one over with as I handed off to Ryan.
As we passed Ryan, he looked like a beast. Back straight, arms pumping; we joked that he looked as if he would drop and start doing push ups at any moment just to make it harder. It was a good sight, but again, long day ahead. Poor Ryan had to run through a small town with about what seemed like 100 different directions, but he navigated his way through the twists, turns and traffic and came in seemingly un-phased.
When he handed off to Ning we started timing our gap ahead of the next team. We wanted to have some idea of where we were at, just as a guiding light for the day. I'm pretty sure we were a couple minutes up when we made the exchange. The sun was starting to really heat up and most of the next legs were in direct sun. It was just one of the many different elements we'd have to battle for the next 20 hours.
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| Light-NING! I wish we could have come up with that nickname earlier in the day! |
Ning had a tough 4.9 miles with some nice downhill, but a gnarly uphill that was both steep and long. When we passed him, we were all impressed with his form and how light he looked on is feet. None of us but Kaj had run with him prior to today, we just knew he was fast, but seeing it in person helped. After Ning came in and we started round 2, we were about 4-5 Minutes ahead of Charlotte.
The view at one of the exchanges before it got dark out.
Joel getting warmed up at one of the earlier exchanges.
Joel and Ryan discussing strategy the way any good team does.....with a sweet 'stache and a Mohawk. Craig creepily looking up towards the exchange.....or looking for a port-o-potty.
The night runs were starting, which we were all happy about. The cooler temps made for better times. It also made for some interesting running experiences. We were required to wear reflective vests, blinkers and headlamps. Each exchange zone looked like something out of a sci-fi movie. Hundreds of runners, bouncing around, will all the blinkers flashing, the decorated vans, and the hootin' and hollerin'. Plus, at one point, we were on top of a mountain with a clear view full of stars. I was worried we could be abducted at any moment. A shooting star whizzed by, and got the whole crowd fired up.....I wished for a win!
The timing of the start times had started to work out so at the exchange zones we were around a lot of the other Asheville teams by now. It was great to see them, share stories and strategy and offer up encouragement to each other. Asheville was well represented today. At one point, I think 4-5 teams were all at the same exchange, it was like our weekly track workout, I knew Norm would be proud.
Each of us would have 3 runs at night. The strategy here was basically "stay sane" which was harder than it might sound. You're running in the pitch black, along mostly two lane roads in no-where's-ville Virginia with nothing around you but the sound of your breathing and footsteps. I think Joel summed it up best by saying "at one point I'm just wondering what if some crazy redneck sees me running by his property with all these blinking lights on me and shoots me. No one would find me!"
Granted weren't always totally alone. We had blinkies to chase! Other runners ahead of us, all you could see were these blinking lights, and you tried to slowly chase them down. It was a game to keep us mentally in check. We'd get in the van and brag about how many "kills" we had, or as I liked to think of it, it was like playing "Pac-Man" and each blinking runner was one of the big dots which gave you strength. This was all that kept me going at one point. My 5th leg had a super steep up hill towards the end, which somehow I was able to power up at a good pace. When I got in, I heard we were up about 13 minutes on Virginia. Hell yeah!! After two crappy runs, I had a great confidence booster to get my head back in the game.
I think one memory to insert here that sums up the night running experience is this: I'm sitting shotgun in the van at the next exchange, waiting for Kaj to hand off to me. I'm eating a cliff-bar, and sipping on a Gatorade by cell phone light while Joel sleeps in the driver seat, legs somehow draped over the steering wheel, and Ning, Ryan, and Craig each sleep in a fetal position in the remaining van seats. A few other dark vans full of sleeping runners nearby. There's no "warming up" at this point. Your legs are already pretty trashed and tired, you just loosen up a little before hand and do the rest of your warming up on the go. I was just happy that our guys were getting some rest as we were gonna need them coming into the daylight runs.
Lil' Ning, sleeping away in the van....still wearing his singlet
During my last night run, a 7.4 miler, I was alone 90% of the time, in the middle of no where, with a slow up hill grade that ground my legs to seizing with cramps at the exchange. I fell instantly after handing off and needed salt tabs, Gatorade, and a massage stick to get me up and mobile again before moving on to the next exchange. I felt good knowing we were still up 15 minutes or more, we weren't waiting until they handed off anymore, just waited until 15 min or so and took off. I was a little worried about cramping up later on, but I only had 4.4 miles left and I wasn't gonna let anything stop me now.
I've never been so gross in my life. I packed like I'd be changing clothes at each exchange and here I was, 5:44am and laying down on a sweat soaked van seat, using a duffel bag as a pillow, a sweaty towel to pad it with, and another sweaty towel as a blanket. And I couldn't be happier....I was laying down. It didn't matter to me that I was still in the same shorts, socks, singlet, and reflective vest as the last 10 hours....my shoes were off only because my feet were cramping with them on. All I cared about now was rest and trying to take solace knowing I had one leg left and we had a healthy lead.
I did care about food though, and there was a pancake breakfast at the exchange before leg 31. A local church hosted breakfast for the runners. I can't tell you the last time I'd been so excited for pancakes, processed sausage, and mediocre coffee. Carbs + Sugar = Strong legs, right? A few of scarfed down our meals and as we were leaving we saw the Virginia team. We were a meal ahead of them now.
The last rotation is where things got really interesting. We went in with about an 18-20 minute lead on Virginia and our team strategy was "don't do anything stupid, don't blow yourself up, run smart". We never spoke it verbally, but I'm sure we were all thinking we had things pretty wrapped up. We were hurting, but surely they were too.
Joel starting things off with a 6.5 leg called "The Mountain Goat" which was 6.5 miles long that climbs 1200 feet!! It switched back and forth forever and as we drove it, we felt so bad for him, but he looked good as we were going by, and the guy from VA looked like he was struggling from the start. The fact that I just had hot pancakes were part of the guilt, not gonna lie.
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| I can't figure out how to rotate this, but this is the elevation profile and map of Joels last leg. Imagine it rotated 90 degrees to counterclockwise. Notice all the red? That's a big ass hill. See the zig-zag on the map? That hurts! We lived and died by our binder of leg summaries. Studying them like a text book during the day. Not surprisingly I wanted to burn it like a finished college text book after the day was done. |
When Joel came up, he handed off to Craig and immediately fell into a folding chair, expressed his desire to die, and put his head in his hands. Someone handed him a Gatorade and he pounded it in one gulp, and as he spoke he was spitting/drooling. He was a broken man. While we were happy with his time, he told us he puked twice coming up the hill, which made us quite proud. He left everything, including his chili covered baked potato, on the course for his last leg!! This is how a Mohawks rolls! And he got to immediately change into his U of M football jersey.......real clothes.....what a reward!
We didn't stay to time our lead, we wanted to get to the bottom of Craigs 9.5 mile, 2,000ft decent so we could chill for a bit. We assumed we were still way out in front.....which might have been a mistake.
We got to the bottom and within a few minutes, the Virginia van pulled in. That was weird; for the last several legs they were almost pulling in as we were getting ready to leave. Could they have really gained on us that much? I tried to ask one of their runners how things were going without seeming worried and he said "we're doing all right, I think we're 8 min back". I nearly shit a chicken. That meant they gained almost 10 minutes on the last leg. We're they exaggerating to get us worried? We're they cheating? How could a guy, that seemed to be hurting when we passed at mile 1, have gained 10 minutes on Joel? All questions we contemplated while waiting for Craig. It was OK though, we still had a 8+ min lead, with 4 runners to go. 2 would probably lose time, 2 would probably gain time. We're still in good shape, but we didn't think we'd have to be contemplating our own demise this late in the race.
Craig came into view and we were stoked! He handed off to Kaj and we started the clock.....and then we stopped it. The Virginia runner was only 1 minute or so behind him!!!!! What? How? No!! They gained 16 minutes or so on us in 16 miles? We couldn't show our "pissed-off-ness" we just speed walked to the van and took off. W.....T......F?
As we got into the van, we were on the brink of devastation. We had been in the lead for 185+ miles, and 20+ hours. How could this happen? We worked so hard, and even though we weren't expecting a win at the beginning, we had all but allow ourselves to accept it as a reality until this point. What do we do now? It was a very quiet ride to the next exchange.
We had 5.2 miles to figure it out. Kaj was out on "the nipple" for his last leg and had no idea what situation we were in. This was a leg with one monster hill in the middle that was 1 mile up at a 13% grade, then down a mile at the same grade. Brutal for any runner, let alone someone that was on their last leg of a 20+ mile relay, no sleep, and now had the pressure of keeping the lead we'd had all day!! We passed him and decided not to tell him the guy from Virginia was within a few hundred yards of him. We just cheered him on. Let him run his race, and decide how to handle things if he sees the guy gaining.
We fully expected Kaj to lose ground to this guy and then it'd be up to me to do SOMETHING and we'd rely on Ryan and Ning to get us back into contention. Quite the opposite. As I'm warming up (standing around rubbing gallons of Bio-Freeze on my legs so I can't feel any pain) I see KAJ, not the Virginia guy, come into view first! I was relieved, but also scared to death. Kaj had given us the gift of a lead still kept, and I better not lose it. We handed off and I took off down the hill. I had 2.5 miles down a hill, then 2 up a hill. My strategy was to run at a good clip down, but leave enough to beast up the last hills. I was holding low 6 min/miles when a fellow Avl team van told me I was 2 min up on VA so that was helpful to know. I stayed the plan. I looked back a few times, saw no one. I kept going down, every foot down was a foot I wasn't going up, so that was motivating. I almost got hit by two cars, surprised I didn't roll an ankle jumping out of the way!! Just as I was ready to start dipping into my last gear on the uphill stretch, I felt it.......my right quad cramp was back. I was terrified. All I could think about was my Charlevoix marathon when a cramp stopped me and I could barely walk. That would kill us right now. I made a tough decision to just keep my pace where it was, which was not fast, and was probably losing time, but I couldn't risk pushing too far and locking up, but I also couldn't slow down, changing my stride and potentially inducing things that way either. Just focus I told myself.
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| Me trying like hell to power up the last hill to my final exchange |
I toughed it out for two miles and was relieved as I came into the exchange and handed off to Ryan. I kept us in the lead, but 30 seconds later, there was Virginia, so I lost us ~1min. Not a good spot to be in, but with Ryan and Ning there, we were alive.
Ryans last leg started with a 1.8 mile hill that would put most runners to a walk, but not him, not now. We waited for him at the top, and he had already put another 30 seconds on Virginia, and the last 3 miles were a gradual downhill. We hoped for the best and raced to the bottom to the exchange. When we got there, Virginia's team was there as well. To be honest, at this point, it was a moment of acceptance at either result to the day. We came here to race, and after 202 miles, with one leg left, this is what we were gonna get. A race to the finish line, on our home turf. We were living our own ESPN documentary, but how would it end?
Ryan came down like a bat out of hell. I'm shocked his legs were even attached he was moving so fast. Virginia admitted they were afraid of Ning, and they should have been, he'd been a freak all day and showed no signs this leg would be any different.
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| See, I told you, a bat out of hell. He's so fast, he's blurry!!!! |
We were 90 seconds in the lead when we left, and we let Ning know it as we passed. The Virginia runner looked beaten, but we weren't gonna let that fool us again. That's how the guy looked earlier and gained on us later.
We got downtown and parked near the finish....and waited...and waited.....our better halves were all there, friends too. They were such a relief to see but we could hardly enjoy them given the circumstances. We didn't know if our next view would be of Ning, the other guy, or BOTH sprinting to the end. The anxiety of the unknown was almost too much to take, especially considering our physical and mental condition.
"THERE HE IS!!" Ning was coming into view and about 400yds away. We were ecstatic but held our breath for a moment just to see if we could see the runner from Virginia. We couldn't. The lead at this point was nothing they could overcome. We did it. We cheered him on as loud as we could. At 200yds from the finish line we ran out to the street to greet him and together we ran with him across the finish line as a team. Nothing can describe that feeling of crossing as a true TEAM and hearing "Our first place ultra team from Asheville, the Ultra Mohawks!!" (Insert crowd cheering here)
We had started this journey 208 miles and 24 hours ago. We'd built a monster lead, gave it all back and somehow found it within ourselves to grind out a victory. It didn't get any sweeter than this. We crossed in 24hrs and 3min. We took some victory pics, bro-hugged, and finally shared a stress-free embrace from our friends and loved ones. Our smiles below say it all. After we gathered ourselves, we walked down to the corner and waited for the Virginia runner, John, who was about 5 min back. Everyone that finished this race deserved to be celebrated, especially ones that made us fight like we did. I don't know what it would have felt like to win without the drama, but damn it at the time I would have given anything to not have had to worry like we were those last few miles.......
Beers and stories were abundant at the finish line. We'd heard the Avl Masters Team had taken 2nd, the 12 person Open team had taken 3rd, and the Ultra Chick Maggots were headed towards a new course record. Actually, all the Asheville teams did awesome! What a day to be an Asheville Runner!!! It was truly an amazing experience and was shared with some fantastic people. Some known prior to the day, others now friends because of the day. All I wanted at the beginning was a good time, and at the end I got an experience and some friends that will last a life time.
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| This is the face of a man that just ran 36 miles in 4hours and 18minutes (7:10 pace) on zero sleep. Still updating Facebook though :) |
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