Full disclosure: I started this post in Aug-2015 and never finished it. Now in 2018 upon the resurrection of this blog I found this report & have decided to fill in what I remember & post it. -Tim
I went into this race with the hopes of 100 miles in sub-24 but settled with a learning 100k. Nothing went terribly wrong and I was able to work through some issues while battling heat and a midnight start. Amazing 1st time event, great venue & Better people.
Pre-Race
Work 1/2 Day.
Worked until 12:PM then went home & loaded up the Ultra-Van with the car topper for everyone’s stuff and the club essentials. Shortly after I got all my stuff ready the others showed up. We got all the gear loaded and hit the road. 4+ hours we finally arrived in Bristol, TN.
We drove the campground and picked out a spot to setup our base camp. The 10X10 & folding camp chairs came out and we were set on go……. time to EAT!
Lucky for us the brewery (Holston River Brewing Co) had arranged for a food truck to be onsite that night. We hung out & listened to some live music, had some drinks & feasted on the best food-truck food I have ever had.
As the night went on we wrapped it up at the Brewery and decided to go back to the van to get ready for the race, remember it started at midnight. I was tired so I changed into my shorts, singlet and proceeded to climb in the back of the van with my USB Fan & to take a nap. Before I knew it Shaw & Pat were in a panic trying to wake me up…. I had crashed and the race was about 5Min from starting. I rolled out of the van, put on my shoes & socks and made my way to the start. GO !!!
Race
About the course …. Dr. Enff …. Best stuff in the world ! Heat….. dang it was hot. So hot the RD made a special trip to the store and got everyone popcicles & walked to the course in the reverse direction to make sure that everyone who wanted one got one. Resting .. this was funny. since the race started so late we were VERY tired come mid afternoon. I convinced Shawn to stop for a little bit and rest. He said he refused to sleep, however I caught him sound asleep sitting straight up.
Shawn Mad … after we woke up from our little nap,it really wasn’t but 5 min or so, Shawn was so angry with me that I slept for 1-2 hours before the race that he refused to speak or run with me for the rest of the race. Pat continuing …. once I threw in the towel to get some sleep Pat & Lauri kept going. Pat was moving really slow & Laurie’s feet hurt so bad she ended up do somewhere around 30+ miles in flip-flops.
I came, I ran, I puked, I walked, I slept, I puked, I ate, I puked…….and I finished. My longest 50k ever.
That, in one sentence was my latest 50K experience! Wow, what an deceptively hard race Bad Marsh 50k was!
Since I DNFed this race last year I was not going to try it again this year however finding out that this was the last running of this race I felt like I had to go back and try to redeem myself.
As race day came upon me I was quite calm about the whole thing knowing that I had been heat training and putting in some good miles; I felt confident that this year was going to be different however it year was going to turn out to be more brutal than the previous year!
On race day I decided to sleep in a little bit and just enjoy the morning. When I finally got up I had some work to finish on the van so I rode up to the auto parts store to get the fuse I needed to put the radio back together and apparently in the whole repair operation I lost track of time and It was about 12:15 when I finished up. Beauford, SC is about 4.5 hours away and I wanted to leave before 12 so I could spend some time hanging out with people whom I have not seen in quite a while. So I very quickly showered threw my gear in the van and off I was. The drive was long but uneventful.
Arriving at the race 15 min after it started all i could do is pick up my packet, change and get to running, 30 min late…..UGH!
Bad Marsh has always been a hot race but this year it was going to throw something different at us. That morning there was a heat advisory issued and 45 min before the race started the temps were at 97 degrees! Wow, with the humidity that pushed the heat-index to a blistering 108! But the race will go on 🙂
Lap1
My main focus for the 1st 3 laps was to maintain a very moderate pace around 9:45 – 10:00 min miles. Hopefully this was going to keep my stomach open and absorbing liquid so I would not become dehydrated like has been the results of the previous couple of races.
However this race I made the decision to try a new hydration product that is promising big things. It was recommended that I pre-hydrate an hour before I started running and then the box instructed me to drink 1 every 1-2 hours until hydrated so I took another bottle of it with me on this loop.
The course was exactly like I remembered, very flat and grassy with that 1 darn hill that every race seems to have, and was absolutely enjoying it. I was alone but had my music and was just chugging along at my predetermined pace…feeling good. Shortly after I started the front-runners started passing me and let me tell you how HARD it was to not speed up and pace with them, but I stayed the set pace.
Lap2
Just about like lap one, very consistent pace and I was happy with where I was. I was passing lots of people at this point , which made me happy, but It did not alter my plan. Keep it slow!
This lap I carried plain water and drank about ¾ of my bottle still feeling good but was getting hot.
Lap3
At this point I decided to switch back over to my electrolyte to try and prevent my typical muscle spasms. I have been very conscious of my pace, heart-race & fluid intake. Towards the end of the lap I noticed that my mouth was really dry from all the salt in the electrolyte and I was REALLY thirsty so I did not finish the whole bottle. However I was still feeling good with no stomach or muscle issues.
Lap4
Back on water for this lap and I had noticed that I was absolutely drenched from head to toe and my shoes had been squishing for about ½ of the previous lap and were really bad now. I figured with all this fluid loss now would be a good time to slow down and walk a lap. Towards the end of the lap I started having the swimmy feeling in my head. I Still super thirsty ,drank all of my water and ran out when I was still about a 1 ½ miles from the s/f line, not good I thought.
Lap5
Now feeling really bad I decided to take a “Short” break and try and cool down in the van. I chugged 1/2 bottle of water, turned on the van, got the A/C cranking and ended up falling asleep…….ya for an hour and ½….THIS WAS NOT IN THE PLAN !! Dang-it but on the good side I woke up feeling lots better…..So I thought
About ½ mile into this loop the vomiting started. Same ole story I ejected what I would approximate about ¾ gal of fluid however the one thing that was different from the previous races was I did not have any muscle spasms. Feeling better I picked up my walking pace to about a 13 min mile and figured I would be ok if I just walked it out. I was wrong, things quickly went from bad to worse as it would seem my body was overheating. I was the hottest I think I had EVER been. My heart was racing, and I was not sweating very much at all….just not well.
Lap6
Starting this lap I asked the RD how much time we had left in the race, to my surprise they told me 1.5 hours left. That means that I had to do 45 min loops to finish within the time limit of the race. There was no way this was ever going to happen! So we discussed it and they encouraged me to go out and do another loop and as long as I started the final loop before the race was over it would be ok and my time would still count. So out I went, BRUTAL is all I have to say. Walk-stop…..repeat for the entire 4.5 mile loop…..ugh……so tired, so hot!
Lap7
This is the final lap and had to stop and talk to the RD about what to do. The previous loop took me 1:15 min! Oh my gosh!!! The race directors had to talk it over and finally agreed to let me go out with the knowledge that the S/F line would be broke down and there would be nothing when I finished. That was ok to me, I had come this far and have fought through the sickness, tiredness and heat that I really NEEDED to do these last 4.5 miles and conquer this race. So back out I went….I would go a couple of miles and would have to stop. Then I would go a little bit more and dry heave go some more and would have to rest. It was awful but I was going to finish! At one point I took a wrong turn but quickly figured it out, back tracked and got back on course. I was so happy to see the spot where I had been using as my last rest stop ,about 1.5 miles from the finish. At this point I knew I had this race locked down and was going to finally finish. I pushed on around the final turn just in time to see some brake lights turn the corner leaving the race HQ. Right before the S/F line someone asked me if I was running the race I told her that this was my finish!!! She sounded so sad for me and told me that they had just left, but her and the people that were with her cheered for me. Very thankful for them!!!!!
I went directly to the hose that the race was using to fill the coolers and doused myself for 3-4 min just trying to get my core temp down.
Finally I made my way to the van, dried off and crashed! I had done it, I finished this race. The 2nd race I had EVER DNFed, my nemesis had been defeated.
OH MY Gosh !!
What went right
I think the new electrolyte is really going to help. With some tweaking on how much and when to take it I think this is going to be a winner.
I’m not sure that the low carb eating plan is doing me any good so thinking about mixing that up. I do not think I will ever go back to a “regular” diet with wheat and grains but I am considering slowly adding back in some select Fruit & Vegetable carbs.
Glad I started at a slow pace, I’m sure that’s what allowed me to finish.
What went wrong
Still facing the stomach / absorption problem. I have to get this figured out.
Not mentioned in the report above but I tried a new nutrition (uCann) product. Nothing wrong with it but I think I should have eaten more and more often.
Heat, nothing I can do about that.
Notes: ate the meat from 5 arby’s jr roastbeef sandwiches + 2 packs of may about 2 hours from arrival
Drank water on the way down
Drank 1 16 oz btl of Drip Drop about 1 hour from start of race.
Full disclosure: I started this post in Feb-2014 and never finished it. Now in 2018 upon the resurrection of this blog I found this report & have decided to fill in what I remember & post it. -Tim
Race Name: Weymouth Woods 100K
Distance/Type: 100 K
Race Location: Weymouth Woods Nature Preserve, S. Pines
Climate Data: 44 during the day, 34 at night
Race Date: January 18, 2014
Finish Time: 12:48:29.15
Finish Place (Age Division & Overall): 13th out of 76 starters
Race Stats: Garmin
Race in 1 paragraph: Finally, a fantastic event! The day was beautiful, the course was in great shape and the body felt good. I ran solid & finished with a huge P.R.
Pre-Race I decided that I wanted to get there early this year to secure a spot on the sidewalk, right next to the course so I convinced my friend to meet early at my house and we would ride together. Since the gates opened at 6:AM we left the house at 5:15 and arrived early enough to be the 2nd person inline. We drove in and secured the exact spot I was hoping for, it was shaping up to be a good day.
Next we went to packet pickup only to meet a familiar face, the RD Marie Lewis. While getting our packets together she asked my name, looked at me twice and said “I have something special for you” and then pulled out a shirt from last year’s race. You see I had my destroyed in an incident at my house and we could never finalize the details to get me another one……Score #2!
We went back to the truck and prepped all of our racing stuff on the back of the truck and just hung out for a while until it was time to walk to the starting line.
The staring line was cold but full of excitement, I got to spend a little time with my friend Dan talking about the cold and how we were going to run today and just tried to stay warm. Then the count down 3….2….1…..GO! and we were off, like a herd of turtles!
Race Lap 1 I got to spend some time with my buddy Shawn, he and I crused down the course just chit-chatting about how running is dumb and how it is too early to be doing dumb stuff like this, just enjoying life.
Late this evening a friend and I decided to go and run Governor’s Creek, a local Mountain Bike Trail. We had a good time and just cruised along. The run was uneventful except for the one spill he had. This time out was the shortest run I have done out there. Somehow it seems that i always run a different way…EVERY TIME! Don’t quite understand it but always makes for an adventure. Anyhow, 4.27 Miles in 50:10. No speed records being broken but a good time.
The Short Story:
Completed the race in 14:49:45.15, qualified for WSER and got my tail handed to me. Could WOULD not have completed this without the support of my friends, crew and pacers! Finished 31st out of 77
Leading up to this event I was a little nervous, not about making the distance I thought I had that in the bag but was nervous about the goals I had rolling around in my head. At some point in the week prior to this race I got the silly Idea that maybe I could do this race at a 12 Min / Mile pace. Yes, even though I had gone down to Weymouth 2 weeks previous…Man was I in for a surprise!
Night Before:
The night before the wife and I met with several of the runners at the Mellow Mushroom in S. Pines, We enjoyed each other’s company, swapped stories & made new friends. This would be the 1st time that my wife would get to meet other ultra-runners but I will have to save that for another post, :-). Once we finished dinner we all went our separate ways to start getting ready for the task at hand. I personally had not done any packing so it was off to put all my gear together and get in the bed….It’s going to be a long day tomorrow.
Race Day:
Pre-race – Got up nice and early loaded my gear into the truck and off I went with little fanfare. Arrived at Weymouth Woods Nature Preserve around 6:30 to find my friend Rachel and Paul had already set up base camp & Rachel’s own personal aid station. As planned from the night before I tossed my gear box next to their table, mulled around for a little while then headed inside for the pre-race meeting.
Meeting-Inside the nature preserve’s auditorium was very warm and with 75-100 people packed in there for the race meeting it was getting even warmer. Marie proceeded to tell us some information about the race and how the timing would be done. Then her husband spoke and the both emphasized that there are plenty of medical personal available if someone needed attending. They wished us a great race, directed us to the starting line and requested that we be there in about 10 min.
Race:
Lap 1:
Lap Time Pace Distance Total Time
Lap 1 43:05.40 9:38/M 4.470 43:05.40
Will and I went out and just enjoyed the trail. We were mindful of our speed but not really concerned about out. I was dressed very warmly and by the end was VERY happy to take of a couple of layers. The trail was in great condition and today looked like it was going to be a FAST day. We go back to our personal aid station, removed some clothing, I grabbed my Nathan’s race vest and off we went.
Laps 2-9
Lap 2 47:36.45 10:39/M 8.940 1:30:41.85
Lap 3 47:43.85 10:40/M 13.410 2:18:25.70
Lap 4 52:16.30 11:42/M 17.880 3:10:42.00
Lap 5 55:58.40 12:31/M 22.350 4:06:40.40
Lap 6 1:00:03.05 13:26/M 26.820 5:06:43.45
Lap 7 1:04:33.30 14:26/M 31.290 6:11:16.75
Lap 8 59:11.30 13:14/M 35.760 7:10:28.05
Lap 9 55:12.60 12:21/M 40.230 8:05:40.65
On the start of lap 2 we were feeling great and on top of the world. We ran this lap and I kept telling Will that it was a little too fast and I needed to slow down. Thankfully we slowed some. The next couple of laps Will fell into a little bit of a funk and through encouraging each other we pushed on through. We were keeping up with our food and hydration and felt really good. Not much changed through laps other than me getting worn out. At some point around miles 40 & 50 I had to stop and use a bathroom (#2) break and that put us quite a bit behind.
At the start of lap 9 my wife showed up to crew me for the rest of the race. She teamed up with Rachel’s husband & her pacer to help figure out what I needed. It was wonderful to have here there and I am so very thankful for all the help everyone gave her!
Lap 10-11
Lap 10 59:03.35 13:13/M 44.700 9:04:44.00
Lap 11 1:05:13.20 14:35/M 49.170 10:09:57.20
Here’s where things started to break down. My pacer Shawn showed up at the start of lap 10. Not feeling so great and quite tired we still took off down the trail head like rockets. Shawn proclaimed that we were running a whole lot stronger & faster than he expected us to be running by now. I told him I would like to keep a sub 12 Min pace while running be we are walking ALL the ups. LOL, even the flats looked like ups at this point. The more we continued on the worse I felt. Somewhere around lap 12 I gave in and had to sit down. At this point Will had come out of his funk and was looking pretty good. I figured that there was no reason for both our times to suffer for me not feeling well so, since I had Shawn, I sent Will on his way. Glad I did he ended up having a GREAT Race, Way to go man!! After that initial sit down it was like I was doomed. I felt like I was in and out of consciousness and was without a doubt walking / hiking with my eyes closes. I tried to eat, and everyone keep telling me that I need to drink but I just couldn’t bring myself to do it…. At each of the aid stations I would try to eat something, Grits, Saltine Crackers, Ginger Snaps. The last time around at the main aid station I asked Shanda to get a cup of soup cool off for me so I could down it when I came in before Lap 12.
Lap 12-13
Lap 12 1:41:48.80 22:46/M 53.640 11:51:46.00
Lap 13 1:41:42.25 22:45/M 58.110 13:33:28.25
As I came into the station I was in ROUGH shape, I was sick to my stomach, dehydrated and was death marching…..It was not a good scene. As requested Shanda had my soup and some other food stuffs for me. I barely managed to get the soup down and started off to the 12th lap. All through the lap I would tell Shawn..”I have to sit down for 5 min”. He would agree, then the next think I knew he was saying, “Ok, get up, time’s up”…little did I know that the 5 min. I requested he actually only gave me about 2. Good for him, that was just what I needed!! About 9/10th of the way through the lap it happened. Explosive / projectile vomiting! UGH, I hate pukeing. Never mind puking in front of people AND in the middle of the race on the race course. After that I felt much better and we proceeded to finish the rest of laps 12 & 13.
Lap 14
Lap 14 1:16:16.90 17:04/M 62.580 14:49:45.15 Final lap: As I sat at Rachel’s personal aid station trying to get down some vitamin water that Paul had suggested I couldn’t help but thinking I’m not going to make it. Starting to really crash again my wife knelt down in front of me and told me how proud she was of me and that I could do this. Well that must have been just what I needed, I gathered Shawn and off we went. Shawn was on a mission to get me finished under the 15 hour mark as we power hiked the course. All along the way he would ask “You ok back there”, my response “NO!” , in return he would say “GOOD, Tough Love…Let’s keep going”. There would be no resting on this lap. Nothing but the power hiking and sipping on some NUUNS. We proceeded down the last hill to the really rooty section and I knew I was done. As soon as we cleared the roots I did what I thought was a run to the finish (all 100ft or so)……and I was done! YAY I did it. Not what I expected but I finished and I qualified. On my heels the whole time was Rachel, as soon as I heard them chanting and screaming from the woods on their preparation to the finish I would start yelling for her to run. Very excitedly she finished under the 15 hour time mark; we all hugged, told each other how great we did. I gathered my finisher’s pottery bowl and poured myself into my truck and the wife drove me home.
Well it’s here, Weymouth Woods 100k is tomorrow. I think I have done everything right. I have stretched, I have Carb Loaded and I have rested. I think I have settled on a secondary goal of 12 hours for the race with the primary goal of finishing under the 15 hour time limit to qualify for Western States 100 lottery. I know that is a large difference in time and I’m not sure why I chose 12 hours. Maybe because last year’s top 10 were all inside of 12 1/2 hours. WOW, what would it be like to be in the top 10 of this race! Anyhow, off to bed I go with dreams of the perfect day ahead of me. At dinner tonight with a bunch of friends that are also racing tomorrow they were telling us how the trails were in great condition after last nights wash-out / torrential down pour. Still, the only thing that is giving me any trouble are the bridges. They are going to be wicked slippery.
Race report to come soon…..I hope. Sleep well friends !
2 Days out from my 1st Western States Qualifying run for the year and the weather is throwing everything thing it can at us. Today it has rained all day long…..ALL DAY !! To make matters worse, tonight the rain is foretasted to turn into Snow, UGH…really. Now I do have to say that Sat’s forecast does look beautiful however the rain and snow are going to make for less than ideal conditions for the trail. Last weekend I ran the trails and the one thing, other than the roots, was all the bridges. These bridges were VERY slippery and I think they are only going to get worse.
So in light of all that is happening I have taken the liberty of outfitting a pair of my old shoes with my new friend’s Goat Head Gear Sole Spikes. These are small spikes that you screw into the bottom of your shoes that provide excellent traction in a variety of conditions. This will be my first outing with them but I have nothing but confidence! Hopefully I will be able to provide a full review on these after the race.
Fantastic Christmas day run. 2 Guys 3 Dogs and the Trails of Jordan Lake. I Met with J
imbo today for a little Jordan Lake – New Hope Overlook Blue Trail Run. This trail features all the “Objects” that a trail runner should like. Roots, massive leaf cover (Providing the “Hidden” Root feature), switch backs, ups, downs and of course you can’t miss the downed logs that you have to jump OR the downed tress that you have to DUCK! The trail was quaint in that if you were not paying attention it would have been quite easy to venture off of it. Running this trail at night might be difficult, but sounds like fun. Jim was telling me that this trail is a good representation of the Weymouth Woods 100K Trail Race that I will be participating in January.
I think I will be spending a little more time out here.
December 1, 2012 Reindeer Fun Run Guest Post & Guest Runner Shawn Sheffield.
The Reindeer Fun Run in Aberdeen NC was probably my first and I am assuming everyone else’s first 12K race. It was bitterly cold that morning leaving Sanford my thermometer was hovering around 38 degrees the whole way down to Aberdeen. By the time I got there the sun was beaming and the temp was rising and proving to be a perfect day to race. I have never run in Aberdeen nor have I ever run a 12K, so there were a few unknowns. I never even checked to see where or even if there were water stations, although I was running with my hand held it was bone dry because I neglected to get water before the race started.
The first hundred yards were relatively flat, then I got my first taste of what was to come over the course of this 12K run; Hills! The course was littered with nothing but rolling hills with maybe a total of 1 mile that felt flat, but I am pleased to note that they had water stations almost every mile of the race. Between mile one and two there was a band playing Christmas music to get everyone in the spirit. After mile 3 the temp was getting uncomfortably warm for a hat and gloves so it was either ditch them or carry them and I opted that I liked my hat to much too just ditch it. Once we hit mile 5 the course looped back in with the people running/walking the 5K. This was not the most ideal situation due to the fact that the walkers/stroller moms/and pets were pretty much all over the place causing anyone running for time to weave in and out of the 5K traffic jam. The last 0.5 mile was all downhill and gave me a chance to stretch my legs out and sprint to the finish line. At the finish they had bands playing, people cheering, fake snow blowing and of course the reason why we all run most of these things, a pretty sweet finisher metal for my effort.
When it is all said and done this was a great race and very much worth the money and effort. The only minor annoyances were the hills and the people who don’t know what, “On your left” means.
Well in the spirit of keeping the blog updated I guess I better say something today. In typical fashion I would like to write about all the awesome trail miles I put in along with all the road miles I am running with Weymouth Woods bearing down on me (Jan 19, 2013) hahah…..but that is not going to be the case this week, again! I will share that I have put in about 20 miles on the elliptical last week, does that even count?
Anyhow, last week I completed my bone scan now it’s time to wait for the radiologist to read and write a report on it then send it to my Dr for my appointment on Thursday. Hopefully only good news will come out of this but we will see. I am already committed to run the Army Ten Miler in late October so I hope I will get cleared for that. If not I guess the wife and I will just have to go up there and enjoy the city without running since I have already booked and paid for our lodging.
Today’s workout included Lunch Dumbbells Flat – 55#, 65#, 75# Dumbbells Incline – 55#, 60#, 65# Close Grip (EZ Bar) Press – Bar + 35#, 45#, 35#
Afternoon 60 Min on the Elliptical Level 10 of 20 Random Program Single Arm (R) ISO Bench Press 45# X 3 Sets of 15 Single Arm (R) ISO Incline Bench 45# X 3 Sets of 10
I hope everyone has a good and Safe running week. Until next time!
I came, I ran, I puked, I walked, I slept, I puked, I ate, I puked…….and I finished. My longest 50k ever.
different at us. That morning there was a heat advisory issued and 45 min before the race started the temps were at 97 degrees! Wow, with the humidity that pushed the heat-index to a blistering 108! But the race will go on 🙂
Lap2
Late this evening a friend and I decided to go and run Governor’s Creek, a local Mountain Bike Trail. We had a good time and just cruised along. The run was uneventful except for the one spill he had. This time out was the shortest run I have done out there. Somehow it seems that i always run a different way…EVERY TIME! Don’t quite understand it but always makes for an adventure. Anyhow, 4.27 Miles in 50:10. No speed records being broken but a good time.
