Iron Mountain Ultra

You'd think with me not working in the summer that I would have time to write up some race reports. My races this summer were pretty bad though so I just didn't feel like writing about all my misery. In a nutshell.......

Chattooga 50K was a huge suffer fest with high heat/humidity/dehydration problems but I finished......with a personal worst 50K time. Many of my southern ultra friends were at this one so it's always nice to see familiar faces on the trail. Grandfather Mountain wasn't too bad. It was my 3rd time running it and I logged my slowest time yet and was denied the victory lap around the track at the Highland games. No biggie. I enjoyed running and chatting with a number of maniacs throughout the race. Got into Hot to Trot 8 Hour at the last minute so had to shuffle some prior plans. It was Molly's birthday so I was on a strict time table to get home in time to take her and a bunch of BFF's out to Chang's for dinner. I could only run for 6.5 hours and then drive the 4 hours home like a maniac! Managed to knock out 29.5 miles on a very runnable course. Georgia in August is no picnic but I managed my hydration well and ran/walked the 1.18 mile loop at a pretty steady pace. Spent too much time at the aid station each loop but the food was so good! Who could resist?

I had originally planned on running Woods Ferry 24 hour Labor Day weekend but decided running through the night was not a good fit for my clumsy feet. Switched to Iron Mountain trail races instead. This event took place in Damascus,VA and offered 3 distances...16/30/50 miles. There was no way I would be able to manage 50 miles over that terrain so opted for 30. I was a bit concerned with the cut-offs in the 30 mile event but felt pretty rested with a 4 week break.

On the road by 3:30 for the 2.5 hour drive up to VA. The race start/finish was at a gazebo in a park next to the Virginia Creeper Trail. Very easy to locate and check in was quick. I was opting for my Nathan Hydration pack vs. handheld this race as there were only 3 aid stations at 5, 9, and 16 miles. You passed back through the 2nd aid station at 23 miles and then mile 27 was just water. Or in my case...nothing. All the water containers were empty when I went back through:-( I was in a dilema about my shoes. I had switched to Brooks Cascadias earlier in the summer but was having some problems with PF and achilles pain on my right leg. I almost decided to wear my road shoes (Kayano's) but knew they wouldn't provide enough support. So, it was Cascadias by default.

Temps were already in low 70's with blanket like humidity at the start. With predicted highs in the upper 80's I knew I would have to very diligent about not falling behind in my hydration. About 150 runners total in all 3 races. We had race numbers that started with our distance. I was 311. I noticed as I took my usual spot near the back that I was in with mostly numbers starting with 1. I hoped this was not a bad omen that I would be turning around with the 16 milers.

The first 5 miles were on the flattish Viginia Creeper Trail. Very pretty with lots of trestle and bridge crossings over the Whitetop Laurel Creek. The crushed gravel surface made for easy running but I could feel the gradual uphill incline. The first aid staion was water only so I tanked back up and hurried out. I had only made it into this station with 5 minutes to spare on the unofficial cut-off time. I knew after this aid station the rest of the race to the turnaround was mainly single track and mostly an uphill climb. I was not disappointed. The next 4 mile section was challenging. Lots of long uphill climbs and very rocky. I'm not fast but I was getting stuck behind groups of 16 milers walking. Very irritating and making me quite anxious about the cut-off time. Was so happy to arrive at the 9 mile aid station and see them turning around. The aid station was impressive. Tons of ultra food and choices of beverages. Very enthusiastic volunteers. I had made it with 10 minutes to spare so couldn't hang out too long. Refilled my Nathan, grabbed a few goodies and hustled out. I had an hour and 45 minutes to travel 7 miles. Aid station 3 had a firm cut-off time at Skull's Gap because they had to reposition the station for the 50 milers.

Once out of the 2nd aid station I was pretty much alone the rest of the way up until returning 30 milers started coming back at me. We were on the Iron Mountain trail at that point and it was very rocky with lots of challenging climbs and descents. There was some easier ridge running too so I tried to use those to cut some time off but the rocks were killing me! My feet were hurting so badly. I was getting extremely anxious about the cut off time when I wasn't able to run for long stretches of trail.

I passed a couple guys at one point and asked them what their Garmen's were saying. They had 16 miles already. I looked at my watch and saw that I had 23 minutes left. Surely we were almost there? Shortly after that I asked a returning runner how much further to the aid station and he says....about a half hour!!!!! Seriously?? I was not making it this far to be stopped. I picked up the pace and fortunately alot of the remaining distance to the aid station was downhill. Everyone I met along the way kept saying..."you're almost there and you better hurry, you're close to 11:00." I was sprinting (ok, running faster than 12 min. miles) and managed to hit the aid station with 5 minutes to spare. If it hadn't been downhill, I never would have made it.

I felt so much more at ease now that the cut-off clock wasn't ticking. Spent a few minutes in the aid station eating and drinking. Topped my Nathan back off and trudged off to go back up that long downhill stretch. There were still runners coming in to the aid station, some 10-15 minutes over the cut off. I was wondering if they let them continue. The return trip back to aid station 2/4 seemed to go much faster (it actually didn't, took me 15 minutes longer, go figure). More downhills and I picked up a running buddy (Anita Finkle) so we chatted the miles away. It probably seemed easier because I wasn't pushing as hard and I was taking more time with my footing.

The aid station had a huge cooler of ice so I put a bunch in my nathan plus under my hat and down my shirt. The heat was making it's presence known and with only one more water stop I made sure my tank was full before heading out. I ran out of water at Chattooga and did not want to suffer like that ever again. (Turned out to be a good thing as the last water stop was empty). Really enjoyed the next 4 miles back. It was mostly downhill and not as rocky so we were able to run pretty easily. As I mentioned earlier, we hit the last water stop and it was empty so we soldiered on. The next couple miles remained on the Iron Mountain trail instead of going back down the Virginia Creeper. It was along this stretch that we were passed by the first returning 50 miler. I would guess that he finished in around 7.5 hours. The last couple miles were a very steep downhill but you really couldn't get any speed going. The footing was treacherous, it looked like a washed out river bed with gazillions of rocks. There were many wet stream crossings along here also but I managed to haul my aching footed self across them safely.

We finally broke out of the woods and had to run through a very sketchy housing area. Kinda creepy. It was nice downhill stretch though and it felt great to be able to run without fear of falling after so many hours. Eventually the course took us back to the Creeper trail, over the bridge and back to the park/finish area. Since I was carrying no watch I was pleasantly surprised at my 7:42 finish time over a very difficult course on a hot day.

Lots of delicious after race food including grilled hamburgers/hot dogs, ice cream, watermelon, salad, and cookies. We were given the option of fresh bread or homemade jam for a finisher's award. I picked sourdough bread. Yum!


There was one other Marathon Maniac at this race that I know of...Rich McNeil. He also ran the 30 mile option. Here we are celebrating our finish of this tough course :-)