Rocky Raccoon 100

Back in October as I was running the Arkansas Traveller 100, I kept asking myself what the hell I was doing.  I didn’t have to pick a 100 miler to qualify for Western States.  I could have taken the “easy way out” and picked a 50 miler or a 100k.  I whined to myself for a while and then just got my ass in gear and finished the race in a personal best time, dropping my PR from 23:50 (Antelope Island) to 23:37.  I told myself that I was going to lay off the 100’s for a while and do 50’s until I qualified and was drawn for Western States.  Yeah, that lasted all of about a couple of days.  Shortly thereafter, I developed kidney stones and had to have surgery to remove them which shut down my running for a few weeks.  I then got to run a bit during the last week of November, and knowing that I would be able to train well in December with a good portion of the miles being back home in Boise on awesome trails, I decided to register for the Bandera 100k. After a very solid month of training in December, I felt very confident about racing Bandera but during the week of the race I got bronchitis.  It took a lot of self- restraint to bow out of the race, but I am sure it was the right decision.  After Bandera was over, as I sat on the couch pissing and moaning about missing the race I came across a post by Joe Prusaitis on Facebook discussing the possibility of re-opening the registration for Rocky Raccoon which had been filled for quite some time.  Without thinking, I sent an email to Joe requesting the opportunity to register.  After a short while, I came to my senses and thought, “what the hell did I just do?”  I then basically thought that I wouldn’t get in anyway, so no harm no foul.  I was definitely wrong about this.  Joe sent me a special invite link the next morning and again without thinking, I signed up.  This happened 19 days prior to the race.  Taking on a 100 miler with little more than 2 weeks’ notice, after being sick, run down from work and no runs in the 20+ mile range in over a month?  What did I get myself into?

I typically set three goals for each race that I sign up for.  Each goal is a threshold for the next.  If one is achievable, move on to the harder one.  And then on to the next hardest one, and so forth.  For this race, my goals came in this order:

  1.)   Finish the damn race

2      2.)    Continue my streak of sub 24 hour finishes at this distance

3      3.)    Break my PR

I didn’t want to set my goals too high, considering how undertrained I felt.  I’m happy with my choice for this race.  Knowing that Rocky Raccoon is classified as one of the easier 100 mile courses gave me some additional confidence about finishing, but not that much.

Loop 1: Mile 0-20

I lined up at the starting line with far more people than any of my previous 100’s.  Antelope Island had 34 finishers (Not sure how many started) and Arkansas Traveller had 101 starters of which 80 finished.  I didn’t worry about placement in the group, and I still don’t know if I wish I did or not.  The first 5 miles were so congested that I was worried about stepping on others and also being stepped on by them.  As the pack thinned out I began breaking into a comfortable pace without paying any attention to my garmin.  I ran for a while with a guy named Juan who said he used to be a pretty serious 100 miler, having run Western States, Leadville, and a few others.  He was just getting back in to running this distance again and seemed to be moving along pretty well.  It was really good conversation but we parted ways I think around mile 8 or so.  I continued running down the trail getting a little more gutsy as the sun rose and I could negotiate the rooted trails with little concern.  At some point probably around mile 14, I met up with another runner named Cory who was running his first 100.  He had been a pretty accomplished athlete completing several Ironman triathlons in all distances.  At one point after about 3 miles, he said “holy shit, we have been doing 9 minute pace!  I am going to hammer back a bit and save what I can for later”.  I then saw that my average pace for the loop was right around 10 minutes per mile which didn’t seem too out of the ordinary so I wished Cory well and kept on down the trail clicking off miles until I finished loop 1 in 3:11:45.  I felt like it was too risky for me to run this pace so I decided that I would take the next loop much easier.  I took my time at the main aid station going through my drop bag for supplies before heading out for my next loop.  I got to talk to Christy for a few minutes which was a nice boost and then I took off, back out on the trail for more looptastic fun.  (I hate loop courses)

Loop 2: Miles 21-40

It was a little after 9am when this loop started and it felt like the temperature had risen a lot already.  I had changed from a long sleeve to a short sleeve at the start which was definitely the right choice.  The first few miles were pretty uneventful, aside from dodging oncoming runners who were on their way in to finish their first loop.  As with pretty much all of my ultras to date, I began to feel like death right around the marathon point at 26 miles.  Knowing that I could expect this, I planned to eat extra food the next aid station to try and avoid the worst of it.  I kept pushing forward, clicking off mile by mile and listening to some Skrillex on my mp3 player.  This helped break me out of my funk until around mile 33.  At this point, I began hating everything about what I was doing.  I began looking for excuses to bail on the race.  No matter what I did, I could not manage to shake the negative shit that was going on inside my head.  Needless to say, the next 4 miles were some of the worst for me during this race.  At about mile 37, I bumped in to Christy on the trail which was a nice boost for me.  We didn’t get to talk long, but it was nice.  Around the same time, I caught up to a runner that I had been playing leapfrog with for most of the loop.  His name was Alex.  He had seemed strong all morning, but at this point was hobbling gingerly down the trail.  I asked him how he was doing and he said he was struggling with some pain in his hips and groin, apparently an injury he had been dealing with for the last few months or so.  I tried to give him words of encouragement, especially when he told me that he had already made up his mind to drop at mile 40.  This helped to turn things around for me.  I decided that I would keep pushing and I had no intention of my first DNF being on an “easy” course like Rocky.  I finished loop 2 with a split of 4:05:54, which was much more in line with what I felt was much more sustainable for me.  I feel bad for Alex dropping at mile 40, but he certainly helped motivate me to keep going so for that I thank him.

Loop 3: Miles 41-60

When I left for loop 3, I had intentions of pushing really hard to get to the 50 mile mark in a PR time.  I reached the 50 mile point at AI in around 10:45.  I further improved this time at AT, in about 10:17.  I felt like I should be able to break 10 hours without doing anything too stupid.  My legs were feeling strong.  Actually, a lot stronger than I expected them to feel.  What was lacking was the desire to utilize how strong they felt.  I tried switching songs, singing, yelling and so on to try and snap me out of my funk.  Nothing seemed to help until I latched on to a runner (didn’t catch his name) who seemed to be cruising along really well.  His pace was quicker than I had been running, but not so quick that it was impossible to keep up.  Leeching off his pace, I finished the first 50 miles in about 9:35.  This is a bit of an adjustment actually, as my garmin fritzed out a bit cutting 2 miles off the first loop.  Whatever, I finished the first 50 in sub 10 which was a victory for me.  I tried to piggy back off of this success for the next several miles, but I started to realize that my feet were really starting to hurt.  This was the longest continuous run for me in minimalist shoes (MT110) and my feet were letting me know that I was an idiot.  I decided to forget about it until I got to mile 60 and could change into something with a little more cushion, like my Brooks Pure Grit.  The remainder of the loop was pretty uneventful really. I walked a bit more to take it easy on my sore feet and also to not risk injury by tripping over the many tree roots on the course.  I think this was a wise choice.  I ended up finishing the loop in 4:30:16 which seemed pretty damned respectable.  I looked for Christy, but she was nowhere to be found at the start/finish line.  I continued to replace my supplies for a few extra minutes after I changed my shoes and was off for more fun.  Except fun was (unbeknownst to me) a long way off.

Loop 4: Miles 61-80

I was able to run only the first couple of miles without having to turn on my headlamp.  Once the sun went down, so did my mood.  I really felt like I struggled with this loop.  Every single person that I encountered running toward me was a hated individual in my eyes.  In my head, all I could think was that they were about to finish and I was stuck out here doing 2 more damn loops.  I guess this lasted until I ended up at Dam Nation.  Very few words were spoken at the aid station 3 miles in, but the folks at Dam Nation had so much positive energy that it was infectious.  Early on in the race, I think it was Juan who told me that Dam Nation was like an oasis.  He wasn’t kidding.  My attitude slowly improved although my pace slowed.  I didn’t really care a great deal about my pace at this point since I was still in for several more hours.  That is unless I could get myself to drop for the first time in my (short) running career.  I found myself searching for excuses and justifications to drop.  Issues with my kidney, the odd knee pain that I hadn’t ever had to deal with but had started and was worsening each step, blah blah blah.  Reasons that could be realistic, but altogether nothing bad enough to get me to do so.  I hate the idea of giving up and failing at anything.  My feet were feeling better after the shoe change and I adjusted my approach for the remaining miles.  I decided that I would walk all the uphills regardless of how steep and that I would run the downhills and flats no matter how bad it hurt.  The only exception would be the areas that were very rooted. I would walk these sections carefully.  I wanted to lessen the chance of injury so I would make no exceptions for these rules during loop 4.  I wasted a fair bit of time at the aid stations eating and sitting.  There is not much more to say about this loop except for the fact that I finished in 4:55:37.

Loop 5: Miles 81-100

I took my time putting on tights, which I hoped would help shut down the knee pain that I was feeling.  I was hoping that I would bump into Christy since I hadn’t seen her since mile 37 or so.  I filled my bottle, stuffed the remaining gels I would need into my vest and I was off.  I knew that I was in good shape to finish and achieve all of my goals, but I would likely slow quite a bit and get drowsy.  I decided that I was going to have to stick to the same rules that I did in loop 4, except for hike the uphills harder, run the downhills and flats harder and spend only enough time at the aid stations to fill my bottle and grab food to eat as I walked out.  My legs were holding up ok, but getting heavier and heavier which would cause me to trip over the rocks and roots on the trail.  Just before I tripped for really the first time in the race at mile 89, I was thinking that I just might get through a 100 miler without losing the toe nail that had just grown back in.  Then I jammed my right big toe on a tree root…..HARD.  I stumbled, caught myself and kept moving forward.  I was generating some pretty impressive strings of curses that would have made even my Grandpa proud.  It was also right about this time that I dropped the handheld light I was carrying to supplement my headlamp and it broke.  Fortunately, a couple of runners helped light the way as I salvaged the batteries and exchanged them for the dying batteries in my headlamp.  It was just enough to light my way for the next 10 miles.  As I moved along the trail, I suddenly realized that this was not only about to be my 3^rd 100 mile finish, but my 3^rd finish in less than 12 months.  I felt a sudden rush of adrenaline and I began running as hard as I could.  I refused to look at my watch and only listened for the beep that reminded me that I had clicked off another mile.  I ran harder and harder.  During the last couple of miles, I passed several runners who cheered me on as I did the same for them in return.  My lungs burned but my legs no longer hurt.  As I came into the final straightaway leading to the finish chute, I screamed as loud as I could.  I got closer and closer to the finish and saw that I was going to finish in less than 22 hours.   I heard the beep as I crossed the timing mat in 21:46:16, a personal best by nearly 2 hours.  I was so happy and relieved that I was laughing out loud and nearly crying at the same time.  I received my buckle, handed in my timing chip and called my day complete.

Post- Race Thoughts:

I am still quite surprised at how this race shaped up.  I am really pleased with my pacing, except for going out too fast on the first loop.  I guess I have no way of knowing if it was more of a benefit to bank the time in the first loop, or if I could have made up the time over the course of the remaining loops.  I am disappointed in myself that I sat down frequently at Dam Nation during loops 3 and 4.  If I had not done this, I might have been able to finish closer to or even less than 21 hours flat.  I am still having some knee pain that doesn’t feel like residual soreness.  I hope something isn’t torn. Aside from that, I have recovered really fast.  The race was organized incredibly well which is no surprise considering the other races Joe has put on.  Course markings were very clear as well.  Very good food offering at the aid stations. I really enjoyed the course, though this likely isn't a race that I will seek out doing again.  Flat loop courses definitely aren't my preference.  I do need to figure out my race schedule for the rest of the year though.  I would really like to get 2 more 100's in this year.  Possibly one in May or June, followed by one in October or November.  Gotta heal up first though.

Happy Running!