The Background
After running the Texas Double - Day 1 Marathon and the Texas Marathon - Kingwood, I was as well trained as possible for the Bandera 100k. I did one more 9-mile run with Jamie. I was going to pick up my son James to take him shopping at an outlet mall afterwards, and since he needed more time at the gym, I added a 6-mile hike to the end of that.
I had gained a bit of weight overeating during the holidays, and dieted to get back to racing weight.
I had to work a half day, then drove to Bandera to meet Jamie and family at the RV. We had to scrape ice off my windshield as we drove to the start.
Our goal was to finish, but best case would be in under 17 hours to earn Western States qualifiers.
The Race
The first 5-mile section to Boyles aids station features the big climbs up Cairns Climb and Boyles Bump. I always love running atop the plateaus. We finished this section in 1:08.
From Boyles to Equestrian is 4 miles and change; the major climb is Sky Island with the little lollipop loop atop it. Still moving well, we finished the section in 55 minutes, 2:05 elapsed.
At each of the above aid stations, Jamie's wife Carrie and sons Wyatt and Owen cheered for us, which lifted our spirits. There was no parking at Nachos, so we would not see them again until Chapas. The times from this report were taken from Carrie's notes (thanks!), so I will update the time when next she saw us.
From Equestrian to Nachos is 7 miles, and we passed through the Three Sisters and Ice Cream Hill. Around mile 12, we started to feel beat and decided to hike for a while, trying to stay alive for the second loop.
After Nachos, most of the course is relatively flat, except for Lucky's Peak in the last section. The split to Chapas is a little under 5 miles. We made it to from Equestrian to Chapas, a total of about 12 miles, in 3 hours, so we were still maintaining about 15-minute miles overall. By this point, we were 20 miles in with 5:07 elapsed.
Making use of the flats, we ran more of the 5 miles and change to the YaYa aid station. There's a big field loop in this section which we ran, helping the time.
We hiked a bit more on the final 4-mile section back to the Lodge. Once you go up and down the steep Lucky's Peak, there's about a mile to go.
\This year they had multicolor Hoka inflatables lining the two-way section back to the start, and a blue Hoka chute leading up the the finish line. I loved it! We made the 10 miles from Chapas to the Lodge in 2:44.
The first loop took 7:21. This was pretty good, as we had hit 50k at Wild Hare in just under 7 hours, and Bandera has rocks and hills. We did learn later that the course measured about 1.5k short.
With the 17-hour goal still in reach, we headed out on the second loop. We took the hills slower this time to Boyles, finishing the section in 1:28, 8:52 elapsed.
It took 1:20 to make it to Equestrian, arriving at 10:13 elapsed. As the sun soon would set, Carrie brought my hoodie, gloves, and hat.
Around mile 40, we both started to feel a mini low, probably from not enough calories. I wasn't staggering or anything, but just felt a little weak. I questioned whether the 17-hour goal was slipping away. After a while, we started running to shake ourselves out of it.
After we made it to Nachos, around 46 miles in, we were in survival mode, so it was mostly hiking from this point on. However, we kept knocking out 16-minute miles. I calculated that 20-minute miles would get us to the 17-hour goal, and mile after mile we were ahead of that pace. We made covered the 12 miles from Equestrian to Chapas in 3:27, making it to mile 50ish in 13:40 elapsed.
With 10 miles to go, we could smell the barn and aggressively powerhiked. As one point, our hiking pace kept us up with someone running. Jamie and I both called out the miles and the mile splits from our watches. The only time we slowed a bit was the last two miles over Lucky's Peak, but at this point we knew we had the Western States qualifiers.
I said to Jamie, "Well, there's 17 minutes left in this day. Let's see if we can get it done before midnight." Seeing the Hoka inflatables, we ran it in and beat the clock.
We covered the last 10 miles in 2:44, and finished the race in 16:23.
Reflections
This race went about as well as we could have hoped, reaching our 17-hour goal. It's great to have another year of a Western States qualifier. I'll have two tickets in the raffle this year.
I earned my Bandera 500k fleece. This was my 4th Bandera 100k finish. Tejas Trails counts dropdowns to 50k as total lifetime miles, so 3 of those bring my total to 550k. I will definitely go for 1000k!
As always, I was super impressed by Jamie. He faced the Bandera hills and rocks and showed once again how tough he is.
Thanks to God, Chris, the race organization, the volunteers, Luke, Cesar, Terri, my kids, Carrie, Wyatt, and Owen for all the support!
