Bandera II

I've been to Bandera several times now, but I only consider two of them as battles. The first was a draw, I finished the 50 miles I set out to do, but I could hardly call it a victory. I was happy to be alive in the end, and knew I'd be back for a rematch. Yesterday was the rematch.

For awhile now I've been planning on going out for the unoffical Cactus Rose 100M, where I would run less than 100M, but still get my rematch with the park. On Thursday morning, with work piling up and other things stressing me out, I decided not to go. Then, not more than 10 minutes later I got an email from Joe (the coordinator) asking if I'd be going. "Screw it" I told myself, my wife is out of town, its a long weekend, I might as well go. So I dropped my dog off at a friends house and drove out there Friday afternoon. Got there just before dark, set up my tent, and pretty much crashed, my run would start at 5am.

I set out to do 25 miles, with the intention that if I felt good I would continue on for more. It was not a formal event, and I could pretty much run whatever I wanted. Well, at 5am I felt great. At 11am I still felt pretty good having completed 25 miles. I had not brought any electrolytes, only 64 oz of gatorade, and a bunch of water. Only planning on 25 miles, I figured I could do iut with nothing but a watr bottle. My only food was some potato chips. Unfortunately I decided to go out for more, partially because I felt OK and partially because I was running with a guy who intended to do the full 100M and felt silly stopping at 25. Well, it was a stupid mistake. This was not a fully supported race, Joe did an awesome job setting it up with water and tents, but still we were on our own for food and supplements, and I had brought none. It was nearly 100 degrees, I had lost over 10 pounds in water weight, and I had nothing to consume. After 35 miles, I had almost decided to call it a day. It was more than I had intended to do, yet I kind of wanted to continue. The previous 5 miles had taken 2.5 hours. Yeah, thats right, I was barely walking, yet delirious enough to think I should continue. Later, I met a woman who apparently had seen me from a distance, and told me I didn't look so good. That might explain why, when I hit the 35 mile aid station, the guys at the aid station pretty much told me that I shouldn't go back out. I'll admit, I wasn't planning on going back out anyways, so there was no battle. I didn't feel bad about stopping, I only ever planned on 25 miles. But, with that said, I still have to say that Bandera won. The standings are now Bandera 1, TJ 0, with one draw. I'll be back in the fall, without the hot weather, for another rematch. Then, in January, I'll run the official 100K, where I plan to kick Bandera's ass.

Pike's Peak Nonreport

I apologize to my few loyal readers, but I have been too busy to write about Pike's Peak, and I wasn't really sure what to write anyways. I don't have a report to share. Here's the short story.

Colorado Springs and Manitou Springs are very cool towns, places I wouldn't mind living some day. There are some seriously good athletes out there, and the mountains are beautiful. But, I have to say, the race itself was a little anti-climactic. I was expecting struggle, pain, nausea, etc. Instead, I had a very easy race. Upon everyone's advice, I took the base of the mountain very conservatively. As I got higher and higher, I felt relaxed and strong and passed people the entire way up. At the top I saw my wife and friend, and they gave me some donuts, which I had requested in advance. I was way ahead of people I am never in front of. I also saw JT near the toip who went on to finish around 50th place I think. I'm expecting a top 20 finish next year, unless he's running Leadville 100 that weekend instead.

The run downhill went very quickly (~2 hours) and then it was over. I've been training for this race by running 12+ hour runs in extreme heat, and this race was over in under 6 hours without a hitch. I guess I just found it a little anti-climactic. That is not to take anything away from the race, it was fun and I was glad I did it. I think I just enjoy longer distances more than anything.

I'm thinking of going back up to CO and/or NM this fall. I have some vacation time and it seems like a fun roadtrip to drive up there and run some of the tough courses out there. We'll see.