2010 Holiday Lake was going to be my first ultra since 2003 when Dr. Horton convinced me to run Promise Land 50k. 2010 Holiday Lake was not ordinary. The whole east coast had been hammered with snow that winter and because of that, Dr. Horton raised the cutoff from 8hrs to 9hrs. This was the first time he had ever done this. I prepared myself as well as I could mentally for what I knew would be an extremely difficult race. I finished in 6:15, probably about an hour slower than if the trail wasn’t covered in snow.
Fast forward to 2011. I had a solid year of running in 2010 under my belt and was looking forward to running Holiday Lake again. When I checked the weather for the weekend of the race, I saw that it was going to be beautiful. Thankfully, they did not have any snow on the trail so I knew the conditions were going to be much better than last year.
Holiday Lake 50k++ is the first race in the Beast Series and is also the flattest and easiest. The (++) designates that it is generally two miles longer than a true 50k (31.1 miles). It started at the Holiday Lake 4-H Camp in Appomattox, VA. The camp plays host for all the runners the night before providing us with a nice pasta dinner Friday night and lunches after the race. Runners are also allowed to stay in one of the many cabins the night before to avoid a long drive from town the morning of the race. Because the race starts at 6:30am, I have always taken advantage of staying in the cabins, even if I have to share them with 20 strangers. The course is a double loop consisting of primarily single track and fire roads. It is relatively flat with only a few short steep climbs.
Thursday night, before the race, I got a message from former Davidson College cross country stud, Lance Harden, wanting to know if we could carpool up to the race because he had some car trouble. I told him that would be fine but wanted to know if he had an idea of how long it was going to take for him to finish. I wanted to know because I wanted to get back home pretty early to take my wife out to dinner Saturday night. He had told me that it was his first ultra but he wanted to finish in between 4:30hrs-5:30hrs. That is about the same pace as me but because it was his first 50k I was a little skeptical that he would be able to complete it in that time frame. More on that later on.
I am not sure what the temperature was Saturday morning, but it was cold. I knew it was going to warm up fast so I didn’t wear too many layers. After a beautiful rendition of the National Anthem, with all the words, and a prayer by Horton, we were off into the darkness at 6:30am sharp. For the past month, whenever I would run past 12 miles, my right IT band would really flare up and force me to stop. I was very concerned going into the race that I would even be able to finish simply because of how my last few long runs had gone before the race. The week prior to the race I did not run at all and really concentrated on my biomechanics and the alignment of my lower body. My boss Bryan, at Fitness Together is a magician at helping me nip any possible injuries in the bud by focusing on the alignment of all load bearing joints. Perfect posture says that your ankles, knees, hips and shoulders should all stack, vertically and horizontally. Anytime there is a dysfunction in that rule, we are more likely to become injured. When I first started working for Bryan, I was a little hesitant to believe that the alignment of the body would make that much of a difference but after a solid year of running and no injuries, I am a believer now. I will do post more on that another time. (www.Egoscue.com)
The first loop went very well. I skipped the first aid station and only stopped to fill up my bottle at the second and third. Holiday Lake has two creek crossings, and because the course is a double loop, you run through the creeks twice. The first creek is very small and you can usually jump over it. The second creek crossing is quite a bit larger. As I approached the second one, Horton and Clark Zealand happened to be there taking pictures and ridiculing those who tried to go across on rocks, hoping that they would fall and get totally soaked. I decided to avoid the ridicule and just trudge right through. Last year, because of all the snow, this creek was quite a bit wider and deeper, so it was not nearly as bad this year. From aid station 3 to the turnaround is primarily single track so it gets quite tricky trying to run as all the people ahead of you are already on their way on the second loop. As I got close to the turnaround I started to count the leaders just to get an idea of where I was at placement wise. I started counting leaders as they went by and when I got to number 5, low and behold it was Lance. I was amazed. Running 5th place in his first ultra-marathon?! As I was headed into the turnaround I decided that I would grab my iPod for the second loop. This turned out to be a great decision because I did not get passed nor did I see anybody ahead of me for the majority of the second lap.
After running almost the whole first loop, the second consisted of more conservative run the flats and downhill and walk the uphill’s. Over the last few months I have run a number of 50k’s, but they were all pancake flat and on compact gravel trails, so my legs were more tired than I thought they would be. Amazingly, my IT band had not bothered me at all the whole race. I took two ibuprofen about 8 miles in as a precaution and going into the last aid station I still had zero pain. With four miles left to go in the race, I decided to really try to kick up my pace since I was still feeling pretty good. I came across the 1 mile to go marker on the trail and really opened it up. I finally came to the last .60 of a mile road section and opened up my stride. As soon as I did, my right calf really started to cramp so I eased back off and coasted into the finish with a time of 4:40.00, good for 36th place (one under Horton’s seed of 37 for me, he’s pretty good!)
After I got my Horton handshake and a hug from my son Gavin, Lance came up to me wearing his nice Patagonia Top 10 Finisher’s jacket. He then told me he held onto 5th place with a blazing time of 3:57. Unbelievable! I told him that I think he has found his calling. I would love to see what this guy can do if he actually trained for one of these races. I really felt dumb thinking that I was going to be waiting around for him after I finished. He showed me. Congrats Lance!!
Another fabulous race put on by Dr. Horton. Thank you to all the aid station volunteers. You guys did an amazing job. The weather was absolutely perfect. I could not have asked for a better weekend. One thing I learned from this race is that I need to push harder and get tougher mentally. Sunday morning my legs felt good enough to go for a run. That tells me that I could have pushed harder. I also need to get off the roads and actually train on more trails. One down and five to go! I am looking forward to Terrapin Mountain 50k on March 26th.
Thank you for all your support so far. A total of $300 has been raised for the American Cancer Society through one race. Awesome!
