Stonecat Race Report — First 50 miler

(Reprinted from Facebook November 4, 2018)

Made it through my first 50 miler! It was quite an adventure.

The race started in the pouring rain, turning the whole course into mud. The mud was mid-calf deep in spots. Most of the time in the dark was walking since nobody could see and people kept falling. Everything was slick and wet. The rain continued for a good 4 hours.

50% of the trail was at least this deep

Somewhere near the end of the first lap at mile 11 I tripped on a rock going through the mud and went down hard. Hit my knee and both elbows on rocks and filled my water bottle with mud. I also realized about this time I had failed to apply glide to a critical location and had self induced bleeding and pain there. Going into the aid station at the end of the first loop I was covered head to toe in mud, blood running down my leg and arms, shirtless in the rain and limping. Only 38 miles to go from there!

At the aid station I changed to a dry shirt, reapplied glide, ate a pbj, drank some flat coke and kept moving. After 2 or 3 miles of limping along on the bruised knee the pain faded away and I could run somewhat normally again.

I don’t know why but for some reason the early miles from 12–18 are always the toughest for me. The initial adrenaline wears off, the realization of how many more miles sets in and somehow every part of my body starts reporting problems. For me these miles are harder than any others to tough through.

Lap 2 and 3 were fairly uneventful. The rain finally stopped, I ran and chatted with some new trail friends, ate as much food as I could stomach at every station. It’s not often another adult tells you “you should eat some more Oreos, they are good for you”.

Selfie at mile 34ish

At this point I was running but very slow. The mud and my legs made it hard to go faster than 12–13 minute miles. Coming up on the end of lap 3 I was starting to come close to the course cutoff time and needed to keep a good pace to not get sent home after running 37.5 miles! One of the miracles of endurance running is that you can really get a second wind after running for 8 hours. After a lot of doubt that I’d make it I picked up the pace and cleared the first cutoff 20 minutes early.

The “dried out” trail around mile 40.

The final 12.5 mile lap was all about making the cutoffs, not falling and just getting to the finish. It was still daylight and there were some patches of the course that had gotten a little less muddy so I ran those with whatever I had. I cleared the second cutoff at mile 43 by 15 minutes and knew from there I’d make it to the finish so long as my legs didn’t fall off.

Running in the mud and muck takes a huge toll on your ankles. I had trained on some technical trails but nothing prepared me for this. At this point in the race my ankles felt like basketballs and old stretched rubber bands.

Somewhere around mile 46 I started passing runners I had trailed all day. One guy commented on how he had seen me bloody and a wreck and never thought I’d make it. I was surprised I still had enough left to “run” instead of walk.

The final 3 miles got dark, which meant headlamps. I’m not a very good dark runner and the black mud in the dark was pretty treacherous for me. I ended up hiking in the last 3. I put on my best trot for the final 200 yards to the finish just for show. I never saw any of the people I had passed earlier so I’m guessing most people walked it in as well.

After the race came the hardest part — driving the hour home in my 6 speed Jeep. I really questioned if I could even press the clutch. With the help of my wife talking to me all the way home I finally made it home and shuffled in for a beer.

One of the most amazing parts was my shoes and feet at the end. The mud had so completely filled my shoes that I didn’t get a single blister, and the mud created a cast of my foot that stayed in place.