The road to hell is paved with mud.

Just in case you were wondering. ;)

What a great race! I want to die now.

My wife had put “Go Daddy Go!” signs all over the house last night while I was sleeping. She and my son weren’t going to be able to go to the race so she wanted to wish me luck. I took them with me in the truck when I left. :) I got there about 7:15 AM and it was still dark enough that you would call it night. I totally missed one of my turns on the directions and never saw the sign pointing to Hell.

When I finally found my way, there were guys with flashlights pointing the way into Hell’s Creek Ranch and directing folks to parking spots. The directions said the start was 1 mile from the parking area but it turned out to be right at the same spot. I parked my truck about 50 yards from the start. Very convenient. They had tents and tables with the chips and numbers. And the T-shirt of course. They also had a DJ playing some very cool tunes. Can’t for the life of me remember any of them except there was alot of Billy Joel. I tried to take pictures earlier but it was just too dark.

It had warmed up to 55F, so I decided to go with just my long sleeve shirt and no gloves. My hands were a little cold, but I think it ended up being the best decision.

I’d estimate there were about 250 people in the 1/2 Marathon. Alot more in the 10K. Not too many people in costume, but the best were a couple dressed as pirates. They looked great and ran in full costume. There was also a “skeleton crew” where they all had on black lycra with a skeleton drawn on the front and back. A guy dressed as a random super hero. And 4 people with matching pumkin hats. Oh, and I also saw a Raggety Ann and Andy couple. I think they were in the 10K.

We started right at 8:15 AM, as it was starting to get light. Out of the parking lot and onto the dirt roads. Yes, the dirt roads that had been rained on all day yesterday. Now they were mud roads. Not so deep that you sink in but you definately got splattered and your shoes needed cleaning afterwards. Along the side of the road in one section there was a very deep gully dug by car tires where someone had gotten stuck in the muck.

Mile 1 pace: 8:51
Mile 2 pace: 8:56

I started out a little fast, caught up in the excitement. :)

As we got onto the roads, that’s when I realized I had made two big errors in my training.

1. All asphalt running
2. No hill workouts

All that running on asphalt made me lazy, and now that I was on dirt, I didn’t get the “spring back” from the harder surface. The mud roads through Hell have an amazing amount of roll to them. Up and down, long ups, and sharp downs. I think one of the few flat parts was the trail run for about 2 miles. Almost everything else was hills. I was dying because my long runs had only 1 sharp hill. If I had run my entire long runs by going back and forth, up and down that one hill, then I would have been prepared for this.

The shins on the outside of my legs were aching after the third mile. By the fourth mile, I wanted to die. Oddly enough, the shins on the inside had almost no complaints at all. I guess that the pain from my rapidly cramping outside shins was drowning them out.

Mile 3 pace: 9:10
Mile 4 pace: 8:58

I tried to run relaxed and let my legs relax a bit, to take out the cramping. But the downhills just killed me. I tried to let my self just float down the hill, but the faster I went, the more it hurt. Every footstrike was a hard breaking action. It hurt my outer shins and my hips.

The flat running path was a nice break from the hills during mile 5 and 6. The thing that made me laugh was that song “Save a horse, ride a cowboy” came on the radio just as I narrowly missed stepping in a giant pile of horse poop! The horses had left alot of hoof marks in the path that made it a little bumpy, but I liked it better than the hills. I found a woman running that had a good pace and shadowed her for a while until she slowed, but then when I passed her, she followed me! It kept us at a very good pace.

Mile 5 pace: 9:07
Mile 6 pace: 9:04

Back to the mud. After leaving the path, my pacer passed me and I tried to hold her but she pulled away when she came to a cheering crowd of her friends. I never caught back up to her again. At mile 7 I pulled out one of my gels and scarfed it down as I saw a water station approaching. Turns out they were handing out Gu anyway, so I put theirs in my pocket. I was dead tired so I was walking through all the stations by now.

Mile 7 pace: 9:16
Mile 8 pace: 8:56

At mile 8, a woman running with her dog passed me. The damn dog had his own number. I hope he didn’t have a chip too because that would definately push down my ranking. The owner took his number off at the end but you can see the medal around his neck.

Another woman came up behind me and I paced behind her now for a long way. She was a toe runner and seemed to have a very relaxed step and form, and a giant pony tail. During mile 9, an older man passed me saying “This is f#(%ing crazy!”. I hear ya, bud.

Mile 9 pace: 9:11
Mile 10 pace: 9:27

I lost my pony-tailed pace girl during mile 10 somewhere, just before the big turnaround. We came to a big open field and I wished I had brought the spycam to take a picture. We had about 0.5 miles of flat road here, and with the turnaround halfway, it made for about the flattest mile ever. As the other runners were coming back already, I began counting how many were in front of me and how many I passed once I headed back. I lost count but it seemed to me that there were more in front that there were behind me.

I was pretty much alone on the road now. Folks behind me and alot in front, but I’d say I had about 0.1 miles in each direction without anyone near.

Only three miles now and they were the worst for me pain wise. I spied a woman far ahead and set her as my next pace person, if I could just catch her. Another aid station during mile 11, I think, and I got another gel, but the thought of eating it made me sick. My throat was dry, even after the water and my legs were just on fire. I missed the mile marker for mile 12 so I had a combined time for the next two miles.

Mile 11, 12 pace: 9:24

I started thinking about the RBF. Someone told me (and i need to go look who said it) that I would not be running alone, that everyone else would be right there with me. I almost started to cry, I swear. Then I started to swear. Good thing that I was alone. I remembered Chris saying “f-you, cold”, and I started saying “f-you, hill!”. Then alot of self talk and encouragement. I’m not sure which helped more.

I was catching up to my new pace woman, she was slowing a little. I was checking my Forerunner. I wanted to beat 2 hours. Did I mention this goal? Oh well. Doing calculations in my head was so hard being in so much pain. My sides had been aching for the past 5 miles, and I just wanted to scream every time I went down a hill. Concentrate, Jon. Let’s see, 1.3 miles, 11 minutes to go (I think that’s what it was). Crap. I’m going so slow, I have to go faster or I won’t make it. More hills ahead too.

I’m not sure where it came from but I pushed and pushed hard. I was closing on my pacing woman fast and as I went by her I told her “We’re gonna make 2 hours! Run!” and she said “I hope so!”. My form was totally gone and I was a flailing mass of legs and arms running through the mud of hell. Down the f-ing hill and up around the bend into the long drive.

Mile 13 pace: 8:34

Where’s the damn finish!? More driveway and red cones and people cheering. I want to die. My face is burning as I come up over the f-ing hill. There it is! 1:59 ticks on the clock. Shit! Run! I’m booking like I never ran before. Down the last f-ing hill and along the gravel drive. Over the mats, beep, beep, beep! Whoa! Slow down before you die. Gimme my medal, uh, “Thanks…” I walked in a complete daze, my face was burning, couldn’t stop to bend over and take off my chip. I just walked.

According to Forerunner, the pace for the last .158 miles was 7:10.

Final time 1:59:28. I did it. I want to die.

Thanks so much for all the encouragement from you people. There’s no way I would have made it without you.

This entry was posted on Sunday, October 24th, 2004 at 3:40 pm and is filed under Races, Running. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.