Jeremy Hanson

3/28/2013

Nttr.org Grasslands 50 mile trail run review

Houston Area Trail Runners at Grasslands 50 Mile race

I’ve been feeling kind of… weird since our race on Saturday. I didn’t really know what I was feeling until I read Pete’s status update about his take on our race. He said that he is “consumed by this deep sense of calm that’s indescribable.” That’s what I’ve been feeling; I just didn’t know how to describe it obviously. When I finished my 1st marathon just 14 months ago, I was on cloud 9 after the race. I had an “I just finished my 1st marathon grin” on my face for weeks. But after my first 50K last month and after the 50 miler this past weekend, I had a different feeling afterwards. Everything seems a little quieter. Everything seems like it’s slowed down a little bit. I was voluntarily out there on Saturday for 13 hours and 18 minutes running, jogging, walking, and hobbling the 50.4 miles of our race course. To put yourself through something like that and to come out on the other side victorious is… pretty much… indescribable. The longer distances that I run and the more that I push myself, the more things that I thought were a big deal or difficult, soon seem… trivial. Having a tough long day at work? No biggie. I’ve voluntarily put myself through worse… and survived. Dealing with annoying people, a traffic jam, or a flat tire? No big deal. I would bet money that race lowered my blood pressure and resting heart rate. It’s a weird feeling. People that haven’t been through something like what we did might think that we sound like we were out there smoking doobies for 13+ hours but I can assure that we weren’t. It really was an incredible, life changing experience.

A couple of days before the race Rob asked if I thought I should opt for the early start for the race. The only time limit on the race was that you had to start the last lap by 5pm, which is at the 41.5 mile mark and 10 hours after the start of the race. If you wanted, you could start an hour early, to give yourself more time. I was worried about making it so I e-mailed the race director and asked him to move me up. Luckily Rob mentioned it, because I would have missed the cut-off by 25 minutes if I hadn’t and wouldn’t have been able to finish the race. There were about 16 of us out of the 75 fifty milers that chose the early start.

That morning we get up and I eat a cup of yogurt and a piece of toast and that was plenty for me. I was done eating, I wanted to get running. We get to the race site around 5:20 Saturday morning for my 6am start. We have our little pre-race meeting with the race director, take a few pictures, and then get out in the rain for the start of the race. Rob, Jose, and Pete chose to stay with the regular start time because they actually took their training seriously. It is dark and we have our headlamps on. Of the 16 early starters, no one wants to step up to the starting line. No one wants to lead the pack and get lost, so I step to take the lead. Whatever, I was happy to lead a race for once.

6 o’clock comes and we take off, with yours truly leading the race. I get at a comfortable pace and lead the group off into the darkness. We find our way just fine and everyone settles in behind me. I kept waiting for someone to want to take over once we figured out that we were going the right way, but they just settled in and let me do the leading. There were about 8 of us that broke away from the other 8 all in a single file line. Our first loop was just a 4.8 mile out and back. We get 2.4 miles out there, make the turn, and then come on back. Everyone seemed comfortable at my pace, so I just kept going with it. I really wanted to lead the whole first loop because I NEVER lead in any race. I pick up the pace just a tad around the 3 mile mark to make sure that I stay in front. One guy stayed on my heels and I soon hear the others start to fade into the distance, but they’re not too far back. After about 4 ½ miles the guy on my heels starts to fall back a little, but I still catch glimpses of his headlamp behind me. I cruise back into camp and cross the mat just before the regular start begins. Rob, Jose, and Pete yell out to me when they see that it’s me leading the group, and then I get to my bag to get something to drink and a snack to eat, and the regular starters take off.

This course is mainly sand, dirt, and clay, not real technical, but the soft sand made a lot of the course difficult to run in. It was raining from the start, not too windy, and we did get some hail. After a couple of hours of rain, the dirt turned into mud that would stick to your shoes and the clay turned slick. I started the race in my Brooks street shoes because they were lighter by a few ounces over my trail shoes, and I wanted every advantage that I could get. I swapped shoes after 31 miles because it just got way to slick, so I put my Salomon trail shoes on so I could get some traction. The different shoes also just felt good on my feet.

A little confusion took place as we started our second loop and we end up going out backwards on the loop… we think. I want it to be noted that I was not leading the group at this time, but it was a group decision to keep going. We find something that kind of looks like our loop, but it’s dark, and none of us had ever run this course before. We’re checking the map and course markings and think that we might be on the right course… but we’re not. We keep running and after about an hour, we decided that we’re on a loop that we’re supposed to do later, so we commit to doing it and then doing the 2nd loop as our 3rd. About an hour after that we run into the blue loop which is where we’re really supposed to be, so we decide to take it back in. We think we’re going in the right direction but we’re not. We start running into oncoming runners and have to explain a hundred times that they’re going right and we are just doing the loop backwards. We finally get back to camp and realize that we’re only at 16 miles instead of 18.3 like we should be, so we make the group decision to do the right thing and go out 1.15 miles and then come back to make our mileage right. It sucked thinking that we were done with that loop and having to go back, but it was the right thing to do.

We finish up that loop and get started on the next. It is a 12.8 mile loop that will take us past the marathon mileage and finish up at 31.1 miles which is just a tad over the distance for a 50K. The sun was well up by this loop so there was no getting lost. It was fairly uneventful. I had slowed down by this time. I only missed running my fastest trail marathon by 13 minutes but I beat my only trail 50K time by 45 minutes. I was really slow in my 1st 50K due to dehydration, so it wasn’t that hard to beat that time, but I still beat it. I finished up that loop, and felt not that bad, but I was tiring quick

The best thing about the way this course was set up was that each loop is shorter than the one before it, which really helps get you through the race mentally. There is the out and back which was 4.8 miles and then the full loops are 13.5 miles, 12.8 miles, 10.4 miles, and then the last loop is 8.9 miles.

I start out on the 3rd full loop which would get me from 31.1 miles to 41.5. I slowed down even more but I was still moving forward. I hadn’t been eating as much as I should, or drinking as much as I should, but I was still sweating, still moving, and still peeing semi-clear, and that’s all you can ask for in a race like this. I knew all I “had” to do was to get started on the last loop and I would figure out how to get to the finish. I just needed to get started on that last loop. I finish up that next-to-last loop and happily see Jose and Rob there cheering me on. They’re happy to see me still running. Of course, I didn’t start running towards them until I could see the tent at the start finish line and figured they could see me, but they didn’t know that. I get some salt, water, Fig Newtons, and Gatorade. The salt, food, seeing them there, and knowing that I was about to start my last loop gave me a little pep in my step.

Rob asked if I needed him to pace me, but I was feeling go so I declined and just took off. I started that last loop in a blaze of glory, running from the aid station with Rob and Jose watching me go. I was actually getting my run on after 10 ½ hours, which was crazy to me, but I was doing it. I could hear Rob say to Jose that I “looked strong” leaving the aid station. I didn’t hear Jose’s response but he later confirmed what I already knew. He knew that I was going to start walking again once I got out of sight… and I did. I jogged a little bit trying to catch up with Pete, but I knew I still had 8.9 miles to go and I wasn’t about to mess up my chances at finishing this thing, so I took it easy.

Once I passed the marathon mark of the race at 26.2 miles, I swore to myself that I was never doing anything like this ever again. Once I passed about 36 miles, I swore that I was never running again. After about mile 47, I was hurting so bad that I didn’t know what to do. But I was in the middle of nowhere, walking by myself, and couldn’t just sit down and quit. I had to figure out how to get myself out of that sand-pit of a hell hole. My back, feet, legs, and shoulders were all hurting severely. My left hand and lower left arm were swollen from swaying back and forth down by my side for hours upon hours to where I had to loosen up my watch twice and try to walk with my hand over my head. I was supposed to eat something every hour but couldn’t stand the thought of eating anything for the last 2 ½ hours of the race, so I was out of energy but sick and tired of eating. I was tired of drinking, tired of eating, tired of walking, tired of… everything. I kept looking at my watch, trying to figure out the miles left by my slower than snails in peanut butter pace, but it seemed like I was walking in slow motion. The soft sand became a blessing. Walking on the hard compacted dirt became brutal on my feet, so I would switch off and walk on the soft sand. It gave me some kind of relief. And when the soft sand became hard on my legs, I’d switch back to the hard ground until my feet couldn’t take it anymore and I’d switch back.

I was walking for what seemed like forever and then I heard someone scream my name. I look up and it’s Rob coming out to walk in with me. I yell to him, “How far is it?” He said, “Don’t worry about it. Just come on!” I yell back, “Seriously how far is it?” He tells me that I’m less than a mile to the finish. I warn him that there is no hurry-up left in me and the speed that he sees is what we get, and it had slowed considerably. I have to stop a few times to bend over and stretch out my lower back a little bit. I’m still holding my swollen left hand above my head to try and get the swelling down. We come to a little climb that looks very familiar and I breathe a huge sigh of relief. We walk a little farther and he said, “Here we go” and I could feel that the finish line was right around the bushes. That red tent was the most beautiful thing that I’ve ever seen. He tells me to get running and he yells to get everyone’s attention and I take off. Not fast mind you, but as fast as my tired little twigs would carry me. Everyone starts yelling, and right before the finish line, I stop and tell them that I quit, that I can’t make it the last 10 yards, but I was too tired to play it off any more than that, so I cross that stupid finish for the last time of the day. I throw my water bottle on the ground, reach down and get my timing chip off my ankle, and GLADLY accept my finisher’s belt buckle. I get hugs and congratulations from everyone and look around for a place to sit. I didn’t want water, food, help, or anything other than a place to sit.

It took me 2 hours and 51 minutes to finish the last 8.9 miles and 13 hours and 18 minutes to finish the whole race. There has been a sore spot with me ever since I quit the Cactus Rose 50 miler in October after 8 hours of running. I knew that I could have finished that race and NOTHING was going to stop me from finishing this one. Thanks to little baby Jesus and my friends that were there on Saturday it happened. I had a little bit to do with it too but I couldn’t have done it on my own. I get up and wobble my way to the car and check my phone. I had 25 notifications on Facebook and several text messages that all brought a smile to my heart. Saturday was a good day. I finished a 50 miler that day.

Jeremy “Handsome” Hanson

3/28/2013