I went into the 2018 Muleshoe Bend 60k on a roll. Training for the Bear 100 had been going
well, no major injuries, and I finished Pedernales Falls 60k with strength and
excitement.
Preparing for the elevation of the Bear, I started focusing
on stair repeats, summiting the 9 floors of a local parking garage over and
over. My long run between Pedernales and
Muleshoe consisted of around 8 miles of road running (to and from the garage) and
40 repeats of the 9 flights of stairs.
I was energized about a chance to finish Muleshoe for a third
time (2013, 2016) and continuing the quest of the Capt’n Karl’s series.
Wanting to live a little, I drove out early with Terri to
visit the Austin's Blanton Museum before heading to the park. We packed sandwiches and I loved Teresita
Fernandez’s Stacked Waters and
Ellsworth Kelly’s Austin.
Stacked Waters
Austin
The Course
Muleshoe is pretty similar to Perdernales as there are no
climbs with only a bit of rocky terrain on an otherwise runnable course.
Muleshoe is four loops with aid stations 3.2, 3.5, and 2.5 miles apart.
The Race
Loop 1
Loop 1 was pretty uneventful. It was hot and humid but training in Houston
made this barely noticeable. I started
off at an even pace, not too fast, and finished in 2:01. I got a bit tired at the end of Loop 1.
Loop 2
The wheels fell off at the beginning of Loop 2. All of the sudden I felt a wave of fatigue
and sleep deprivation. I think it was a
combination of (1) waking up at 6:30 am (2) perhaps needing some calories and
(3) my headlamp being low. The latter
might have been the strongest factor, as the darkness made my body and mind
want to sleep!
Whatever the cause, I hit a major low. I’ve suffered sleep deprivation at both my
100 mile finishes and a couple Capt’n Karl’s, and these have been my most
painful race experiences. Dizzy, weak,
staggering down the trail: not fun. As
some of my sleep deprivation episodes have lasted all night, I began to despair
that a good race experience was not in the cards. Thinking seriously of dropping, I limped down
the trail, tons of folks passing me and asking if I were OK. At this pace I would be fighting the
cutoffs. Not even halfway through the
race, I just wanted to curl up in a ball and fall asleep.
But I knew the days of regret that followed a DNF. I knew I’d be forfeiting my shot at the Capt’n
Karl’s buckle. I’d missed that buckle by
18 miles at Pedernales 5 years ago.
Then I thought of some advice I had heard from an Andy Jones-Wilkins video or podcast about dealing with race adversity, which went something like, “Ok, this is happening to me. This is not good. What can I do?” I told myself I could walk to the next aid station, eat some calories, and maybe things would get better.
Which is what I did and what happened. I chugged some ginger ale at the aid, hoping
for a little caffeine, ate some cookies, and asked the kindly volunteer to change
my headlamp batteries (I hadn’t done this before because on the trail changing
the batteries would mean lights out!) I
started to feel better almost immediately.
The next aid station had coffee so between that and Coke I tried to keep
the caffeine intake up to forestall another sleep-deprivation episode.
On Loop 1, it had taken me 45 minutes to get to the first
aid; Loop 2 took me 1:22. So I lost 30+
minutes from this low point. I picked up
the pace and worked steadily through Loop 2 in 2:48.
Loop 3
I felt good on Loop 3.
My GPS watch only has about a 4-5 hour battery life, so I switched it on at the halfway point and tracked the miles. I like to play a
game of whittling down a mile at a time.
You start off and you’re at .2 miles before you know it … then you reach
a little milestone every 15 -20 minutes at least.
I ran everything runnable and jogged at a manageable pace.
My legs were a bit sore but strong. Loop
3 was 2:24.
Loop 4
On loop 4, I hunted headlamps. After saving energy on the
first three laps, I ran briskly on smooth sections of the trail, telling myself,
“This stretch is good to make some time.” I passed several runners, some of whom had
probably overtaken me in my low point. I
bumped into a runner I knew at the second to last aid station. After hellos some friendly competitiveness ensued, in my mind anyway, as I headed out of the aid quickly. I heard his voice at one point behind me on
the trail which motivated me to speed up.
In the last mile or so I passed three folks hiking together, which
looking at the results later probably bumped me up to the top half of the
finishers.
With strong legs, I remember thinking, as I did at Pedernales,
“This is cool. It’s fun that I’m able to
do this.” As I approached the Christmas-light chute to the finish, I sprinted a bit.
Loop 4 took 2:20, so I managed to steadily pick up the pace
after the low.
I finished 17th out of 37 finishers (top 46%) and
73 starters (top 23%).
Reflections
I like racing these days.
I had reached a point of burn-out and unhealthy living where I was
limping through races, just for the sake of a finish. Now I feel strong and energized. It’s fun to
compete and feel the peace of a finish.
That being said, any ultra finish is about the journey and not
the final standings. If I were only able
to finish dead last, that would be okay as long as I raced to my potential or
just kept running and adventures in my life.
I’m very proud I did not drop. I avoided a DNF and that depression and saved
the Capt’n Karl’s series. Further, I reminded myself that lows in races are
temporary and can be fixed. Dealing
successfully with this episode of sleep deprivation is especially helpful because
that is my number 1 fear for 100 milers.
I’m going to find some source of caffeine, like chocolate covered coffee
beans or something, and always put in fresh batteries for races with nighttime running
from this point on.
After the race, I napped off and on between watching
episodes of Anthony Bourdain’s Parts
Unknown. I utilized the bottle
opener of the medal for some Virgil’s root beer with pizza!
I’m very happy with this performance and excited about
Colorado Bend in three weeks. Thanks to
Brad, Tejas Trails, the volunteers, and Terri for the support. Onward!
