2024 Texas Switchback Marathon

The Background

I enjoy attending UHD's commencement.  I feel blessed and honored to be there as a faculty member, and it is inspiring to see the students accomplish their goals. However, the spring commencement ended at 6pm. Getting to bed at 8:30pm, I would get 4 hours of sleep before getting up at 1am to drive to the Texas Switchback.  I was really sleepy the first hour of the drive, but it got a bit better.

The Race  

The two-loop-course features some rocky trails, climbs, some smooth, runnable sections, and a really cool section two miles in where you run under a rock wall and through a short tunnel.  

I headed out at a conservative pace, but by half marathon I was tired.  By mile 16, I was feeling, woozy/dizzy/sleepy, like at a 100-miler.  I hiked a bit at this point, telling myself I just needed to survive.  I rallied, running what was runnable from 19 to 21. Again, my vision blurred and I slowed. 

Hitting an aid station at 22, I drank some coke, which revived me.  For a while, I just hiked, wanting to keep in good condition.  At mile 24, I saw a runner ahead, motivating me to run and compete.  I passed 3 folks along this stretch.  I saw another guy ahead running, and chased him down, but he turned out to be a volunteer! I finished 30th out of 35.

Reflections

The beginning of this season has been one of adversity!  First Hachie Marathon cancelled midway due to storms, storms on the way to Wildflower plus 3 extra miles, now a battle with fatigue at Texas Switchback.

Just finishing the race was a victory, given the lack of sleep, early wakeup, and long drive.  I needed marathon #99, so I'm glad I did it.

Also, I fought a bit harder at this race than at Wildflower, running more in the last third.  Even if I'm having a challenging race, I can still compete.

I will try to avoid the logistics of this race in the future.

Well, 99 marathons/ultras done.  Next up is #100 with Mohican Marathon! 

2024 Wildflower Marathon

The Background

I was devastated after the DNF at Rocky Raccoon.  After a great season, to end on a let down was tough.  I took time off - 5 weeks no running and mentally avoiding thinking about races.  By spring break, I started running again.

The first race of the season was to be the Hachie Marathon. Terri and I drove up to the race in a storm.  I kept a sub-5 hour pace to mile 17, then the race organizers stopped the race.

Well, I had Wildflower Marathon scheduled anyway for two weeks later, and I tried to view the miles at Hachie as a good training run.

Terri and I got up early and drove to Bastrop, again in a storm.  I suggested we turn back since I didn't want us to be stranded, but Terri (thankfully) said we should try to press on.  Luckily, the weather cleared up by the time we got there, and we didn't get rained on.

The Race

The race started with a long loop to the lake, 2 medium loops, and 1 short loop.

I kept a 10 or 11-minute pace through mile 12.  Feeling a bit low, I hiked to half marathon, then ran to 15.5.  

At that point, I was on the second loop, and there was sign "2.5 miles to finish."  Doing the math, I realized the course would be long, probably 29 miles.  Checking with other runners confirmed it wasn't just my GPS; the course was long.

My motivation plummeted. I wasn't mentally prepared for 29 miles.  I switched over to powerhiking for the rest of the race, telling myself it was training for the Arkansas Traveller 100. Doing some calculations, I knew I would have to move to beat the 8-hour cutoff.  I knocked out some 17-minute miles, finishing in 7:34.  Weather was a bit hot at the end.

Reflections

If I had kept my cool and kept running, I would have finished in the top half of the field.  I am grateful just for the finish, though.

Well, the advantage of starting off the season with a very slow marathon is there is room for improvement!  I signed up for the Texas Switchback marathon the following weekend to make up for the Hachie Marathon, as I am trying to reach 100 marathons/ultras by the Mohican Marathon in June.

2024 Bandera 100k

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.

At 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.

Sky Island

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.

Along the Course

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.  

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Climbing Lucky's Peak

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!

   

2024 Texas Marathon - Kingwood

The Background

9 days before, I had run the Texas Double Day 1, finishing in 4:29.  Originally, I was going to run Texas Marathon - Kingwood at an easy pace, as the main goal was to train for Bandera.  However, as I was running relatively fast for my abilities, I figured why not try to run a good time.

I like Texas Marathon - Kingwood because it is close, it is on a day I am off work, and it is good to start off the year with a marathon.  I used to worry it was too close to Bandera, but it seems like it works out.  After all, I ran Trailway 50k a week before running a good time at Arkansas Traveller 100 Mile.

The race starts at 8am. Since it is New Years Day morning, I told Terri to sleep in and had my kids arrive at the house around 10am.  That way they could maybe see my start the final of 4 loops but not have to get up early.

The Race

I wasn't sure of my game plan going into the race:  go out at sub-9-minute miles like at Texas Double, and try to hold on best I can, or go out slower and hope not to fade as much?

I ended up doing a bit of both.  I did start off the first 3 or 4 miles at a sub-9-minute pace.  But, deciding I did not want to endure such a rough second half as in the Texas Double, I slowed down to 9 or 10-minute miles in the first half.  

I reached half marathon in 2:04, but had to use the restroom which cost me another minute.  This was 6  minutes slower than the Texas Double.  

The second half I did slow to 10 or 11-minute miles, but the split was 2:25, as opposed to 2:31 at Texas Double.  My watch was malfunctioning, so I could not time the miles very well. I fought the temptation to walk.  Seeing Terri, James, and Paloma cheering for me as I started the final loop definitely helped. I ran every step of the race, and was not in as much pain for the second half as Texas Double.

Reflections

The slower first half and faster second half evened out, and I finished in 4:29 like at Texas Double, albeit a few seconds faster.  I definitely appreciated a little less pain.  I finished 26th out of 132 finishers (top 20%).

It was great that my family could be there.

Well, 2024 has begun, so what are some goals?

• Get a Western States qualifier.
• Finish a sub-30-hour 100 miler.
• Finish Mohican 100 mile.
• Get my 500k jacket at Bandera.
• Finish a marathon under 4:29.

We'll see if any of the above happens, God willing. Thanks to God, Terri, my kids, my friends, the race organization, and the volunteers for the support!