It's been six years since I've finished an ultra event. I've got a slew of Did Not Finish (DNF) in that time, had two knee surgeries, half a dozen knee injections. I kind of thought that this part of my life was over.
But then my running husband, Kurt, talked me into running the 100km at Woodstock this year. "I'll pace you the last two loops. It'll be great"
Our friend, Ruth, was supposed to run it with me, but she developed a stress fracture in her foot. She still came and crewed for me
The Woodstock races are run on the Poto trail in Pinkney/Gregory/Hell MI. I've run the trail system numerous times when I lived in MI. I finished the 50 mile and 100 mile races at Woodstock in previous years.
They moved the start/finish from Hell, MI to Gregory, MI since then.
The loop is ~16.67 miles. 100 milers run it six times. They cut off ~half of a mile for the 100km, and the loop is only run four times.
Another unique thing about Woodstock is that the 100M and 100km races start at 2pm on Friday.
I drove up to MI on Thursday, and stayed with Kurt and his family that night.
Friday morning we drove to the race, got a parking spot directly behind the aid station (AS) at the start/finish (S/F), and proceeded to set up the table with my snacks, and I unpacked my clothes onto the trunk of my car for easy access. I wasn't really nervous at all. The 100km and 100 mile races have 30 hours to finish. My best 100km time is 12 hours and some change, so I wasn't worried about getting timed out. I was looking at it as my last long run before Ghost Train 100.
Ruth arrived, start time came, so we headed up to the starting chute.
And we're off like a herd of turtles! I had settled into the mid-back of the runners. We ran along an access road for ~.75 miles, then entered the single track through the woods. The course is 95% single track. Those first 3-4 miles, everybody is pretty bunched up, with plenty of conga lines. I passed some people, bombed down all the down hills, and just kept hiking when that momentum ran out.
I passed the first AS (at mile 4 of the loop) without stopping. I had 2 .5L flasks of electrolyte mix on me, and hadn't finished either one yet.
It was beautiful out. A high of 82° with little humidity. A stark contrast from my training during the summer in Charlotte, NC.
The 2nd AS is around mile 9 of the loop. I stopped and refilled my flasks with electrolyte mix, grabbed a handful of pringles and pretzels and continued on my way. At some point, I kind of decided in my head that I was going to walk a lot of the race. The hills were really taking a toll on my legs. I hadn't run any kind of trail since 2019. All my training and DNF between then and now have been on pavement. I was definitely feeling the elevation gain/loss in my quads.
The 3rd AS is located round mile 13 of the loop. I topped of my flasks, grabbed a few oreos and M&Ms and carried on to see my crew at the S/F.
I finished the first loop in nearly exactly four hours, which was my goal for the first loop. Now that I was at my camp, with my crew, I changed my sweaty shirt for a fresh one. There are some sandy areas on the course, and I don't like to wear gaiters, so my socks and shoes had picked up some sand. It's always worth the time you take to tend to your feet. I cleaned off all the sand and dirt with a baby wipe, reapplied lubricant, and put some fresh socks on. I would repeat this process at the end of every loop.
I took 12 minutes there, refilled my flasks, grabbed my headlamp and flashlight (the sun would set during this loop), and was on my way to start the 2nd loop.
I had a major case of the sleepies when I started this loop. That was annoying. Thankfully that ended by the time I got to the first AS.
I was able to snap a decent photo of the sunset when I came to a stream crossing
This time I did stop at the first AS. I just wanted to sit down for a minute. I gave myself five minutes of sitting, talked up the volunteers, grabbed a few snacks, and got out of there.
The sun had set by now, and it was DARK. If you've ever been in the woods in the middle of the night, you'll know what I'm talking about. This wasn't anything new for me. I had my flashlight out and just kept moving along towards the 2nd AS.
When I reached it, I grabbed some snacks, refilled my flasks, and gave myself another 5 minutes of sitting. The AS captain was a friend of mine that I hadn't seen in years, so we caught up briefly. But I wanted to be done with this loop, so after my 5 minutes were up, I got up and got going.
I breezed by the 3rd AS this time without stopping. I wanted to be done with this loop so I could pick up Kurt for the last two loops.
I changed my shirt, bandana, undershorts, and socks after the 2nd loop. I finished my 2nd loop in almost exactly 5 hours. At that point, I stopped caring how long my loops lasted.
Then Kurt and I started loop three.
I told Kurt how cooked my quads were, and that I wouldn't be running. At all. I was 100% ok with hiking the last 50km. I had already hiked ~40 of the first 50km anyway.
Kurt and I have been running together since 2012. In fact, this race was our 14 year anniversary of our first official ultra finish. We ran the 50 mile race together at Woodstock in 2012. If you skim through my race reports, he's probably in most of them.
I knew he wouldn't be happy with the fact that we weren't running at all, but at that point I didn't care at all. This was my race, and I was going to do it the way I wanted to. Everything from my hips down to my feet hurt. Joints and muscles. But I was in a great place mentally. Every other ultra I've done that lasts through a night, I've experienced some deep psychological lows. I've always called those times "The Long, Dark Tea Times of the Soul" (all credit to Douglas Adams). That was not the case this time. I was feeling great in that regard. It was nice to know that I only had two more shortened loops to do, as opposed to 4 more full length ones if I was running the 100M.
The night time miles are kind of a blur. I remember sitting for five minutes at each AS, just to let my legs rest briefly.
I remember Kurt making me drink pickle juice (not a fan) at one of the AS on the 3rd loop caue he thought I needed electrolytes. I remember talking up all the volunteers.
It's hard to describe the feeling of an AS in the middle of the night. You've been moving along for however many miles, in the dark. When you come upon this bastion of light, hope, and awesomeness. All the volunteers want to do is to assist you. I almost always will chat up the volunteers. To have someone to talk to after being alone with your thoughts, in the dark, is incomparable.
When we finished the 3rd loop I changed my socks, tended to my feet, and we headed out on my last loop. I just wanted to be done. My entire lower body hurt. I was tired of hiking up and down the hills. I was tired of it being night. The sun rose before we hit the first AS on this loop thankfully.
I mentioned that the 100M and 100km start Friday 2pm. The 50M and 50km start Saturday 6am, the half and full marathon start at Saturday 7:30am. The 5 mile starts at 8am.
All of the races use the same loop for the first I don't know how many miles. So you have the 100M and 100km who have been out there for 16 - 17 hours, and all of a sudden there's a ton of people on the course that are running significantly shorter distances, and therefore running significantly faster. and it's single track
At first, Kurt and I played the trail etiquette game, and stepped aside into the brush to let them run by. During one of these forays into the brush, Kurt stepped into a briar plant. His shorts were 75% covered in burrs. After going less than a mile like that, he said "I can't wear these anymore the burrs are tearing my legs up." So he took them off, tied them to a tree branch, and finished the race in his undershorts
At this point we had had enough of these fast runners running their shorter distances. We would move to the side as much as we could, but keep on hiking. We left it to them to pass us.
When we reached that 2nd AS on the last loop, I sat down for my five minutes of rest. We had a blast with the volunteers at this AS. We ended up talking smack back and forth with one of them. I asked her if they had any hot food, and she gave me a breakfast burrito.
Burnt bacon, an unmelted slice of Kraft cheese, and some instant eggs. Tasted pretty damn good to me at that point though.
We paused for a few minutes at the 3rd AS, but we both wanted to be done with it, so we pushed on to the finish. There was Ruth by my car, I said "C'mon lady! Let's go!" As Kurt and I headed to the finish.
I crossed the timing mat. A volunteer gave me my finishers medal. Another volunteer gave me an ice cold bottle of water. Then a 3rd volunteer told me that I had finished second in my age group (AG), so I got a mini VW bus as an AG award. That made me laugh pretty hard, as my time was 21:09:31, which is an atrocious time for an AG award.
As it turns out, there were only 2 male finishers in the 45- 49 age group. And I was second. It's just funny.
They had an actual podium there at the finish. Ruth made me crawl up onto it
Lessons Learned
I learned that I'm as ready as I'll ever be for Ghost Train, which is in less than five weeks now (it will be on October 17 - 18, 2026). During my 2nd loop and 3rd loops, I was able to hike a low 15 minute pace for as long as I had level ground.
I learned that there doesn't always have to be a Long Dark Tea Time of the Soul. I think that's my biggest take away. Long ultras like this are a big mental game for large chunks of it. I feel like I know a cheat code now.
Monday, October 18, 2021
A Short DNF Report
I don't usually write DNF reports, but....
Prelude
In the weeks proceeding this event, I realized that I hadn't had a 100M finish in two years. I finished Vol State last year, but that was like 3, 100 milers.
I've been in a weird place in my ultrarunning since finishing LAVS.
Living in MI, the three things on my ultra list were
Now that I live in NC, that last one becomes more difficult to achieve. So that's shelved until the kids get a bit older.
Coming into this event, I had little to no motivation. I had completed the two things on my list that I could as of today. I already had a buckle from completing it in 2019.
So it was not that difficult to drop at mile 70.
The Event
As I mentioned, I completed this race in 2019. It's a 4 mile loop. At mile 2.5, there's a water drop that's manned at night. There's a 6, 12, and 24 hour option in addition to the 100 mile.
The course is all the trail I want. There's no single track, it's all just wide paths through the woods, with some dirt roads mixed in.
To finish within the 30 hour time limit for the 100, one has to average 72 minute loops.
It was a beautiful day. About 55 degrees at race start (8am Eastern). I took off my shirt halfway through the first loop cause it was getting warm.
I just cruised along with my music playing. I was running all the down hills, and power walking everything else. I knew that my pace for the first two loops was not sustainable, so I dialed it back a bit.
I met up with a guy, Erick, and a girl, Leslie, at the end of loop 5. They were doing the 24 hour race. They were going pretty slow. I stuck with them for loop 6, knowing that it would be too slow. At the end of that loop, I took off again by myself.
My goal had evolved into banking 100 minutes in the first 10 loops. That would an extra 6 2/3 minutes per loop in the last 15, which would be just over 1.5 minutes per mile.
I banked 113 minutes and 23 seconds in the first 10 loops. I rewarded myself by sitting down, putting my feet up, and eating a piece of pizza.
A brief pause about the shoes I was wearing.
I've had these pair of Altra Lone Peaks 2.0 for many, many years. I'm not a big trail runner, so they've lasted me. The've been a part of many of the buckles I've earned.
End pause.
At the end of loop 10, I felt a rock in my shoe. Not like you normally feel a rock in your shoe. I'm talking about a huge rock, caught between the sole of the shoe and the bottom of my foot. Apparently the shoes had finally given their all.
Where the stone was
Turns out the back of the other one was equally cooked
So I had to stop after loop 10 and change my shoes. I had put my shirt back on, and added a long sleeve tech shirt on top of that. Now that the sun had set, it was getting chilly.
Well these shoes had a tighter collar, which was causing some rubbing. So after loop 11, I had to retape my feet. I added a buff to go around my ears, and my gloves.
IMPORTANT NOTE
If you don't know, always take the time needed to fix your feet correctly. Taking that time may very well save your race.
END NOTE
So I took the time needed to retape my feet properly. But those three loops had stolen all of my momentum. That, added to the fact that it was now in the low - mid 40s and my legs were cramping up, was not making for a pleasant experience.
I was hoping to hold out until it started to get light ~7am, but at the water drop ~70, I asked the volunteer there if I could drop. It was just becoming too arduous to keep going.
Here's where that lack of motivation comes in. It wasn't a question of will power. If I wanted to, I could have picked up the pace a bit and coasted through until the sun came up. That would have given me enough push to finish.
This was my lowest total training mileage for any event I've ran. Here's the link to my training sheet. Maybe it wasn't enough. Maybe I missed too many long runs (three).
Those things may have been factors, but I think the main issue was the fact that there was no motivation for me to finish.
How to Lose 10 lbs in 7 Days Eating Only Gas Station Food
WARNING:
Vol State covers five states, and 314 miles. I covered that in 7 days, 8 hours, 24 minutes, and 32 seconds.
It will probably not take you that long to read this report. But it's gonna be a long-ass report.
As a side note, while it is long, there are lots and lots of pictures and video clips.
If you'd rather just watch/listen to me talk for ~55 minutes, the following is all of my video updates in one handy YouTube link
Preface
Vol State is a race that has less than 350 unique finishers (of which I am one), and has been on my bucket list for over a decade. For the majority of that time, we just couldn't afford it, financially. We are now in a place where we can, but have three young kids (aged 6, 4, and 2 years).
I started easing my wife into the idea of me doing it in 2020 back in the beginning of 2019. She finally agreed that it be 2020, or until at least some of the kids had left the house.
So 2020 it was.
As I mentioned above, LAVS covers 5 states. It technically starts in Dorena Landing, MO, where Lazarus Lake lights a cigarette to signal the start of the race. We then ride a ferry across the Mississippi River to Hickman, KY.
the ferry ride
From there it meanders south east across TN, dips into AL, and finishes in GA.
So it's a 500km (314 mile) long race, on roads, in TN, in the middle of July.
I've been doing ultras for long enough now that I knew better than to go into this with a concrete plan. When something goes wrong in your plan, it's horribly demoralizing.
So I made the vaguest of plans. Sub 7 days was my A goal. To do that, I wanted to do 62 miles in the first 24 hours, and 45 miles each subsequent 24 hour period.
I didn't look at the map and see where any of that would be.
I also planned on taking 2pm - 6pm to get out of the heat of the day. I wanted to do the majority of my moving at night, when it was coolest.
Logistics
There are two categories of runners in Vol State: crewed and screwed. Screwed (or un-crewed) runners have to rely on themselves, and other people not involved in the race (called road angels). They can only take aid from those people, and other screwed runners.
I was in the screwed category, so I had to make sure that I carried with me that which I would need.
Clockwise from the 12 o'clock position are:
extra bandana
blister kit (underneath bandana)
toothpaste/toothbrush
bag with one extra shirt and two extra pairs of socks
bag with knee and achilles strap next to that
waterproof case for my phone
cash to the right of that
driver's license and credit card to the right of that
2 L bladder
daily medication, silicon lubricant, chapstick
salt tabs
bag with usb cords and portable usb charger
emergency calories in the form of protein drink powders
handheld flashlight to the right of those
toilet paper
baby wipes (I ended up not bringing these, and saving myself .25 lbs)
This was what I wore:
bandana
prescription glasses (transitions)
long sleeved tech shirt
hydration vest
buff around my wrist (that only lasted a couple of days before I just put it in my pocket)
undershorts
shorts
knee strap
socks/shoes
inhaler in my pocket
Coros Pace GPS watch
Altra Olympus. Altra's version of the Hoka. They have a stack height of 1.4 inches.
This was my hat, worn when the sun was up
If I remember correctly, my pack weighed 7.5 lbs when the bladder was filled. I'm completely satisfied with that. I used everything that I brought, and did not regret not bringing anything.
Two quotes kept running through my head during the whole thing
you will find a new definition of pain and suffering - C-3PO
and
I've been down here before. All my bones and joints are sore - Finger 11
7 Jul 2020 - Race Day -2
I only live ~5.5 - 6 hours drive from the finish. Add in the fact that it's in CDT, and I live in EDT, I worked a full day on Tuesday, ate dinner with my family, then left for Kimball, TN. I had my two big kids, Iola and Ishmael, sign my arm before I left.
I arrived around 11pm, filled up my gas tank (so I didn't have to worry about it before I drove home), and found a parking lot where I slept in my car.
8 Jul 2020 - Race Day -1
I drove to the finish, Castle Rock, GA, in order to catch the bus to the start. I parked my car, and met up with my friend from MI, Ken Arble.
Mandatory masks on the bus ride
I've heard many Vol State vets state that rookies should pay attention on the bus ride. I did not. My thoughts were that there was no way I was going to remember anything we passed at that point in the race.
We arrived at our hotel sometime in the evening. After dropping my stuff in my room, I went to Ken's where we split some pizza, and just shot the breeze.
9 Jul 2020 - Race Day
I woke up, showered, brushed my teeth, filled up my bladder, and went to the hotel lobby for breakfast. My wife had bought a couple of Bang energy drinks for me before I left. I had brought the Birthday Cake flavored one for my breakfast. (While I love birthday cake flavor, it was kind of gross as a drink).
Breakfast of champions: waffle, oatmeal, energy drink
We all got onto the bus one last time for the ride to Hickman, KY. We got onto the ferry for the ride across the Mississippi River to Dorena Landing, MO. We all got off the ferry, and walked far enough inland that we crossed the state line.
We then waited for Laz to light his cigarette (his trademark start of race), after which we all filed back onto the ferry.
Pretty sure that the only reason for the ferry ride is so that the race will take place in five states.
The first city is Woodland Mills, at 11 miles. I remember nothing of this city.
Next is Union City, at 17 miles. Here's the video update:
We pulled into a Casey's, where I got a quart of soda diet Mountain Dew.
When arriving at a gas station in those first few cities, it looked like a M.A.S.H. unit. There would be many runners just sitting on the ground outside, in the shade.
I ate a few pieces of popcorn chicken that a fellow runner had left over, sat for some minutes, and moved on.
In less than a mile, I had to stop and address a few hot spots on my left foot.
Always immediately take the time necessary to address your feet. Don't wait, and take care of them. Your race depends on it.
This is what my left foot looked like at this point
Up until Union City, I was running like I did in training: run the downhills, power walk everything else.
I really started to fall apart a few miles out of the city. The unrelenting heat, no shade, and pavement just drained everything that I had.
We ran into a road angel station at mile 24, some kind of hunting/camping supply store:
Just sitting there, drinking ice cold water, was like heaven.
I left with Scott, and stuck with him for four miles, until I started to fall apart again. He kept soldiering on, while I started flagging. It got to the point where I would trudge up a hill, cross the road to where the shade was, and sit against a mailbox for five minutes. Lather, rinse, repeat every .25 - .5 miles (there is no flat land in TN apparently).
I was struggling into Martin, at mile 30, when two young ladies were offering water from their car. It was warm, and I slammed a bottle. I then carried on into Martin.
This was my first low point. And my first jerky. I ate half of a turkey sandwich (gross), a bag of chips, and a couple of these huge Slim Jims. I also drank a half gallon of diet Mountain Dew.
Quick explanation on the diet soda. We don't use sugar at home, so my body is pretty sensitive to it. It'll turn on the NO2, but the crash that soon follows is pretty bad. So I avoid sugar during races.
I sat there for about 1.75 hours. It was the first time Tim Hardy leap frogged me (we would leap frog each other for the next 200 miles).
I was so incredibly refreshed upon leaving Martin. It was incredible.
Coming into Dresden at mile 40
It's a farmer's market that is an aid station, for all intents and purposes. They had pretty much anything that you could imagine: sunscreen, bug spray, towels, all manner of sweets, Gatorade, water... everything except protein. I asked one of the volunteers, and she mentioned that while they had had some pizza, it was all gone now.
I spent one hour here, just sitting and resting. During that time, one of the volunteers returned with some jerky from a local company. The jerky tasting continues.
I spent a number of miles coming into Gleason at mile 48 with a cat named Jason.
Gleason volunteers had set up at the local fire station. There I had a couple of Diet Coke's, and 4-5 slices of pizza. They offered showers there, but I had no desire to put my filthy clothes on after getting all clean. They also had some small air mattresses, which Jason took advantage of to take a nap. I spent an hour resting, then moved on.
10 Jul 2020 - Race Day +1
Coming out of McKenzie, mile 56. The town was totally closed, because it was the middle of the night. Nothing says The South like livers & gizzards every Tuesday & Thursday.
I had traveled 63 miles in the first 24 hours. 1 mile further than my goal.
I pulled into Huntington, mile 66, around 8am (?), and started looking for a greasy spoon for some breakfast. I found AJ's All Start Cafe. I ate breakfast with Brandon and Scott. It was delicious! I was hoping to drink at least a half gallon of coffee, but the coffee was not very good. So I just had the one cup.
The three of us spent the next 60 miles together.
They had reserved a room at Parkers Crossroads, at mile 83, which they were willing to share with me.
We pulled into Parkers Crossroads at 330pm, exhausted and super hot. We hit a gas station that was across the road from the hotel. I bought a Powerade Zero, a bag of jerky, and a diet soda for when we woke up.
It was so fantastic to take a shower.
We slept about four hours, taped up our feet, brushed our teeth, and were on our way.
11 Jul 2020 - Race Day +2
Next town was Lexington, at mile 91
Traveling rural TN at night, everything is closed. At Darden, mile 102, a church had put up a canopy with snacks and drinks. I ate a bunch of chips, and drank some Gatorade. We all laid on the pavement and tried to sleep for an hour.
This was a reoccurring theme for me. When trying to get a couple of hours of sleep at night, I couldn't lie on my back because it hurt my right knee too much to have it extended like that. I couldn't lie on my side because my hip would dig into the concrete. It was a pretty shitty theme that I revisited every night
48 hour check in, Parsons, TN, mile 107
We stopped at a Subway that had just opened. I got a yummy 6 inch breakfast sub
And coated my lower legs in Desitin. They had developed quite the heat rash.
We crossed the Tennessee River at mile 112.5
On the other side of the bridge, we stopped at Fat Man's, a Vol State staple. (It's a gas station with a convenience store). I had a Philly steak, NesQuick chocolate milk, and Powerade Zero.
We then pushed through the heat, on the two lane road, to Linden. The Linden Community Center was open to Vol Staters.
Our first and only (thankfully) dog attack came during this stretch.
I was about 20 yards behind Brandon and Scott, when I saw something streak from this trailer towards them. I yelled, "DOG!!!!" real loud, and got my pepper spray out.
This dog was medium sized, and started nipping at Scott's ankles. He was dancing around, pointing his pepper spray at it, but reluctant to spray it.
Then we hear a "<dog's name>! Get in the house! Sorry!"
Sorry? I played that scenario out in my head. We spray the dog. The owner gets irate and pulls a gun on us.
Anyway, that was our scare for the day.
Brandon and Scott were having a real tough time during this stretch. At one point, they asked me what we were doing wrong, because we hadn't seen any other Vol Staters in a long time.
As a point of reference, Scott had never done a 100M race, and Brandon had done one.
I tried to explain to them that we were over 100 miles in, and that the field was quite spread out.
I tried to explain to them that they were just in a bad place in their head.
I have plenty of experience with that. The only thing that fixes it is having done it many times.
When we arrived, I started smashing food. I ate eight hard boiled eggs, a can of Pringles, many cheez-its, and six zucchini muffins.
Brandon was real close to dropping. Scott decided to get a room at the hotel across the street, and call it a race.
Brandon and I got 3-4 hours of sleep, then headed out into the night.
At this point, everything kind of blurs together in my head. The names of the towns, and all of that. It was just walking towards the finish. One night, there was a carport road angel station.
This place was like a shining bastion. A glorious vision of heaven.
Sleeping on a patio chaise lounge chair, with a moving blanket as a cover was divine! Waking up, we started walking again (Go Figure!). There was supposed to be some sever weather that day.
As we were approaching a gas station, it started to rain. That was the first time we ran in days!
We made it inside just as it started to pour buckets.
I had a sausage biscuit and a couple of large cups of coffee while we were waiting for the rain to die down.
While we were there, Tim Hardy and a couple of others rolled in, soaking wet.
I don't recall how long we were there; maybe an hour. We decided to roll out. The woman behind the counter was kind enough to give me a trash bag that I could use as a poncho.
What a trash bag it was!
I think the next town was Hohenwald (mile 144). We had to dip under a couple of buildings on our way in because it was still lighting pretty good.
We stopped at a Burger King for some lunch
and a Walmart for some dry socks
Leaving Hohenwald started a long ass, 31 mile stretch with nothing until we reached Columbia. There was one small town on the way. They might have had a stop light style small.
We reached it as the sun was setting.
We referred to it as 'The Porch Town'
We finally reached Columbia in the early morning hours of whatever the hell day it was. I had a fairly long lasting tantrum as we were approaching Columbia. It was further than it was supposed to be. Then, when we finally hit the first gas station, it was closed. That was the poop icing on the shit cake, as far as I was concerned.
But when we finally got to a gas station that was open, there was Bacon Jerky!
I remember Brandon calling the motel from city center, making sure that they had a room. When that was confirmed, he said to the guy, "Well, we're about 2 miles away. See you in about an hour". To which he responded that he'd see us much sooner than that.
Brandon said, "Nope. 2 miles. See you in about an hour".
We checked in to whatever motel it was, and I went about what had become my hotel ritual.
Shower
Wash what I was wearing
Eat some jerky
Take 600mg Ibuprofen
Sleep for 3 - 4 hours
Before we left, I finally (after over 100 miles) took the tape off of my left foot to expose this wonderful blister
Which I promptly surrounded with mole skin and KT tape the rest of the way.
I think we woke up between 12 - 1230pm.
We went to a gas station across the street from the motel, where I nice man bought us our lunch.
Shout out to Chris Cathey at Stan McNabb Chevrolet Cadillac of Columbia!
How I was rolling at this point in the race. All my laundry pinned to my pack to dry.
We felt so good, we even ran for a brief, shining moment.
The next landmark was the Bench of Despair, at mile 184. There are varying theories as to why it's named that. My favorite is the despair that one feels at having come so far, and still have 130 miles to go.
So Brandon and I saw a Dollar General up ahead, and we availed ourselves of some cold beverages. A quarter mile down the road, I asked Brandon how much further until the Bench. He looked at the map, and noticed that we had missed a turn.
This was our only extra, unintentional distance (one mile) of the course. But it ended up with a Dollar General stop, so it wasn't all bad.
After retracing our steps, and taking the correct turn, we came to the infamous Bench.
The Nutt house was three miles down the road, at mile 187.
Regarding my 'fuel the furnace' comment. That's what I had taken to calling the fact that whenever we stopped somewhere with free food, I was definitely not shy in eating my fill. 'Gotta fuel the furnace!'
My delicious chicken salad sandwich
The Nutts were a family that have been putting up a tent for many years now.
The spread that they put out is just incredible. Huge, shaded tent with fans and all sorts of food and drink.
Huge shaded tent with fans and cots, for sleeping. Huge tent with an outdoor shower and camp toilet.
Not sure how long we stayed there. Maybe an hour.
Next stop was Mooresville, which was another super small town. The only convenience store was closed when we got there. So we just sat on a bench outside. Something had come unhinged in Brandon's right shin. It was all he could do to continue forward at a 20 minute pace, and there had been no conversation between us for a while. I did get to enjoy my bacon jerky here, though.
Next up was Lewisburg, around mile 200. This was the lowest point for me. It was dark. I was tired. I still had over 100 miles to go.
We stopped at a gas station.
We did see some marvelous sights at the gas station though. I can only describe it as a Michigander: it was as if you take downtown Taylor, and combined it with downtown Detroit.
There was a young kid on a mini-bike with a woman old enough to be his mom on it. They were together.
There was an Escalade or something at a pump with a booming system.
The shit was just crazy. It was like I was in the twilight zone.
We finally decided to get a room at the motel on the way out of town. Alas, it was not to happen.
So we soldiered on. In however many hours (that felt like days) I spotted some kind of furniture(?) store on the right-hand side.
They Had Chairs in front of the store.
Granted, there was tape across them, as if they didn't want anyone to sit in them. So yeah, I ripped the tape off and sat down.
I covered myself with a space blanket, pulled my hat over my eyes, and fell asleep for an hour or two. When I woke up, I saw that Tim Hardy (and company) had caught up.
We gathered ourselves and moved on.
On the way to realizing my goal of 214 miles by 730am check in, we came across this HUGE field of sunflowers.
That was my pops' thing, sunflowers. I spent a minute or two just admiring them, and thinking of him.
We hit mile 214 around 720am
Now we had 100 miles to go.
We had covered 214 miles in 5 days.
All we needed was 33 1/3 miles for the next 3 days to come in at 8 days even.
I had already given up on a sub 7 day finish.
I was hopeful for a sub 8, but no chickens were counted: hatched or otherwise.
We pulled into Shelbyville (Springfield's arch-rival) a little later, and stopped at the first motel we saw.
It was super sketchy.
It smelled like curry, and was pretty damp. At least we didn't see any bed bugs or cockroaches, so we took it.
We ordered a pizza delivery as soon as we checked in, all took a shower, ate, and slept for some hours.
We pulled into Wartrace (properly pronounced War-Trace, but which I will eternally think of as Wart-race), mile 233, sometime at dark o'clock.
Of course, everything was closed.
There was an awfully comfy looking bench in front of a store. We all laid on the concrete in front of it, and put our feet up on the bench.
I ate one of the huge Slim Jims that I had in my pack
Around eight miles later, we stopped at a church to sleep for a few. This was probably my worst sleep of the event. I had been able to at least get an hour in on concrete prior to this, but this time my body just wasn't having it. Can't lay flat cause my right knee hurt when extended. Can't lay on my side cause my hips would dig into the concrete.
I probably managed ~an hour of broken, not very restful sleep.
We knew that there was some RV campground about 2 miles further down that people said was 'LEGIT', but none of us really wanted to slog 2 more miles.
Which is unfortunate, cause that campground was super legit
Brandon's shin wasn't getting any better. And Joseph kept doing, what was to me, stupid math. Something along the lines of the minimum number of miles that we'd have to do per day to get done by the 10 day time limit.
I had zero interest in being on the course one second longer than I had to. I wanted to get home to my wife and kids.
They were talking about how they wanted to get a hotel once we arrived in Manchester, mile 249. At that point, we'd have less than 100km (62 miles) left. I didn't want to stop there, especially seeing as we'd be arriving in the morning.
Somewhere before Manchester, I saw my first full Armadillo road kill
Arriving in Manchester, we ended up meeting the Chief of Police, with whom we had a nice long (too long) discussion.
I also noticed a sharp pain in the top of my left forefoot. My foot had swollen so much, that the laces were now too tight.
I tried to just loosen the laces as much as possible, but that didn't work.
I ended up completely re-lacing that shoe so that no laces crossed the painful portion of my foot.
We stopped at a Walgreen (maybe CVS) to restock on some Desitin (or something), then went to a Hardee's for breakfast.
Holy shit did we wait for freaking ever to order.
I got me their equivalent of a McD's Big Breakfast, plus an extra order of hash browns.
Here I said my goodbyes to Joseph and Brandon. It was especially hard with Brandon, cause we had been together for almost 200 miles.
But in the end, I had my own race to run.
I took off. Running all the downhills, power walking everything else. After 5 miles, I stopped underneath some shady trees for 5 minutes to just chill, then kept on.
I came to a Dollar General ~5 miles after that, where I ran into the gentleman I'd spend the rest of the race with, Tom.
I was feeling great! We didn't do much more running, but we did lots of power walking.
Not too far after that, we saw Tonya on the other side of the road, sitting in the shade, massaging her feet.
I first came across her many miles earlier, when she was at a Dollar General. She had bought some cheap flip-flops, and was cutting them down to fit in her shoes in order to use them as insoles.
Vol State, man. What can I say.
So we picked her up, and headed into Pelham, where Tess's restaurant awaited us.
I got chicken fingers, onion rings, and a side of mac & cheese. And many diet sodas.
Pelham is at the base of the first mountain climb.
At the top is Monteagle. We all planned on spending some hours in a hotel there.
I don't remember how many hours we actually slept, but we should've slept a couple more. Upon waking up, Tom informed that Tonya wasn't leaving with us because she wanted to give her feet more time to rest.
We started heading across the plateau that across the top of Monteagle.
We really should have slept some more
At some point that morning, we came into Jasper. I remember nothing about that at all.
All I know is that it was 4 miles from Jasper (mile 296) to Kimball. Kimball is 3 miles from South Pitsburg, which is right across the Tennessee River from the base of Sand Mountain.
We stopped at a convenience store in Kimball, where I got some jerky, chips, and Powerade Zero. We just chilled there for maybe 30 minutes.
After we exited the store, I looked back the way we came, and there was Tonya! She had rested for an extra hour or two in Monteagle, and caught up to us.
We finally had the Blue Bridge across the Tennessee in sight! Right at the base of the bridge was a Sonic, where Tom bought us all Cherry Limeades
Tim pulled up as we were chilling. He took this picture of us as we were headed towards the bridge
Then Sand Mountain.
We knew it was going to be a bitch. And there was a huge, grassy area off of the shoulder of one side. So we all laid down and tried to gather ourselves for the journey up this thing.
What has to be the stupidest mountain ever, on Earth. The grade is like 40% or more. It's really, really, really dumb. And there's no shoulder. Eventually, we took to switching sides of the road to whichever side had shade.
Not too far up this dumb, idiotic monstrosity, a State Trooper pulled over and asked us if we had seen anyone lying on the side of the road at the base of the mountain. I told him, "Well, all of us were lying there before we started up." To which he replied, "I told dispatch it had to be you Vol Staters. Be safe!"
At some point we reached the top, and proceeded with the ups and downs until we reached The Farm at Castle Rock, GA.
We crossed into Alabama for a bit.
Ups and downs
We got to the farm, and passed our parked cars. We all dropped our gear. It was then like another 2-3 miles to The Rock itself. Apparently it is only one mile. Feels like 2 - 3 though.
In a Lazarus Lake race, there are no ties. So if a group of people get to The Rock at the same time, they have to decide amongst themselves their finishing order.
We had decided in Kimball that Tonya would go first (ladies first). And that Tom and I would rock, paper, scissors (best 2 out of 3) for the next.
So we tied 12 times. After the 12th time, I just said, "go ahead, man. It's not that deep".
We arrived at The Rock. Carl called out our names and finishing times. We sat down.
And that was the end of our journey.
These shoes were practically brand new when I started the race. That's my left shoe, which took the brunt of the wear due to the camber of the road. Good thing I chose the Olympus.
Postlude
I've been following this race for over a decade. I always read people stating what a Zen-like experience it was for them.
I didn't really get that.
True, while I was out there, all that mattered was moving towards the finish. Other than that, I thought about my wife, and my kids. That's it.
I didn't worry about work, or bills, or anything like that.
But when I got home, there's life waiting to say 'hello'. Those things are still there.
The biggest thing that I'm going to take from this race is that it will make all other races seem like nothing at all. Even the VM 150 (which I hope to do next year) will seem like a piece of cake. Sure, there are plenty of stretches with 10+ miles between aid stations, but when I arrive there, there will be volunteers waiting to fill up my water, shove food down my throat, take off my shoes...
Kurt asked me as I was driving home, "What now?"
Now? Now I've completed my list. I still have the Mid West Super Slam on the list, but that will have to wait some years, until the kids are older.
Other than that, there's a few 100s I'd like to do:
Pistol Ultra
Javelina
Rocky Raccoon
Ghost Train
Lord willing, I'll be able to do one every year.
I have no desire to do Vol State again. Yes, there were good times. But not enough to want to put myself through that again.
I have no desire to start running timed events. Running around a one mile loop for 3 or 6 days sounds dreadful.
I have no desire to run any 200s. They're all in the mountains, and I hate elevation.
I'm totally peaceful and serene with where I'm at in my running career.
There are less than 350 unique people to have ever finished Vol State, and I'm one of them.
This article states that there were 127,000 ultra finishes in 2017. That's total finishes, not number of unique people that have finished.
For easy math, let's say the number of unique finishers in ultras that year was 100,000. That would put me in the 99.65 percentile. And that's just 2017. If you look at the number of unique ultra finishers all time that percentile get even higher.
That number is crazy to me. More people have finished Comrades, Spartathalon, Western States...
Some more numbers
Total money spent on the race: $1,024.44
$500 entry fee
$399.44 on the course (food and lodging)
$125 for the finishers jacket
66 people started, 50 finished for a finishing rate of 76%
After the 2nd night, it's only your feet that hurt. And your hips. And your knees. But your muscles don't really hurt anymore
The human mind is a crazy thing, man. I just noticed that I put in 48 miles in the 24 hours between days 6 and 7. That's my 2nd highest 24 hour total, next to the first day.
Rest and fuel can do wonders for the body. After the first day, the only times I actually ran were after sleep, or a rest that involved eating.
Heat and humidity are a real son of a bitch. I remember slogging up and down those hills during days 2 - 5... They just sap every bit of everything from you.
In the middle of some night, Brandon said some deep ass shit. At least it was at the time
I think this will prove Whatever I need to prove To whoever I need to prove it to
