Gnaw Bone 50K

Note to self, 2.8 hours of sleep before a trail race is sub-optimal.

We were headed down to the Dances With Dirt Gnaw Bone trail race down in Indiana for my wife to run, so I decided to throw in on the race and take it as an aided long run to get another 31 miles down. 

I'm at a point where I'm running out of PTO at work for travel, so we left work Friday night and drove into the dark, by the time we grabbed dinner and got to the hotel it was after 130AM when we finally got into bed.  Start time for the 50k was 630 AM and we needed to pick up packets early, so I set my alarm for 430 to get breakfast on board and do my pre race routine.

Fast forward to the race. 

630, Mikes Dance Barn, the sun is starting to rise, we left a cool and crisp weather system in Wisconsin (mid 50's), the humidity is high and I already realize it's going to be a warm one, yeah, the forecast calls for 80's, but how easily my mind forgets what that means when you're under a lush green canopy in the Midwest.  It's tick season and god knows how buggy this will be, so I lather up in deet and prepare for battle. 

Here's where I should interject, I decided to pack my bag super light, took out most of my "emergency" gear and unnecessary items, so besides water & calories, I didn't carry much, this also meant I left my electrolyte powder out, which turned out to be almost my downfall for the day. 

Anyhoot, a mildly anticlimactic start and we're off.  50 milers and 50K runners all started at once, I think we collectively numbered around 150 humans, so off we go into the sunrise.  A little path, a little road, and immediately we began the climb.  Now I am supposed to know what I'm doing, or, at least I'm supposed to know how to prepare for a race, but I didn't respect the race enough and didn't plan very well (for me).  So I wasn't truly prepared for the mud and terrain, and it beat me up appropriately. 

If you're looking at the DWD Gnaw Bone race, I can attest, there is mud, plenty of it.  At times it was massively wet. At other times, super sticky and mucky and trying to pull your shoes off.  Besides water and dirt, there's horse sh*t and who knows what else mixed in, so if you're not down for it all, be warned. 

So back to that climb, we're talking mile 1-2.  The crowd is thick, the path is narrow, and the mud is taking it's toll.  I tried to pass where I could, also tried to preserve some energy, the day is still early.  By mile 4 we've hit our first aid station and gotten to some open road, so the pack has thinned nicely.  Starting to level out my heart rate and sweat output is starting to normalize, grab a few gels on my way through and carry on. The sun is still low and the campers are barely waking, some are outside cheering us on, I'm not sure if they were there for runners or just happen to decide to root for us, but it's always nice to get a little motivation. 

Here we dive back into the forest and I should mention that, just I would say for the 50K, at least 90% of the course is trail, and most of that is true single track minus a few miles of double track.  Well, not including the sections that were straight bushwascking through the hillsides with no trail in place, just some pink flags to find and track. 

I was feeling great, going plenty fast, and while I was going a little quicker than I was supposed to, I wasn't going fast enough to burn myself out.  It's now after mile 10, I've mentally staged myself to run the race in 3 major sections, first being the restricted warm up, and getting ready to pick up the pace in the middle section to try and push my pace. 

Remember how I said it's all single track?  Well yeah, I was pulling a Ben and just looking around under the wonderfully green canopy and the hilly terrain, just taking it all in, and that's the moment in which mother nature decided to take me to the ground.  I'm not sure if it was root or rock or stick or even just my own foot, but I went down, hard.  Naturally I rolled to one side, but failed to actually roll, so I landed on my right hip (probably bounced), but otherwise I just stuck the landing. 

No one was around to applaud my landing, so I assume it wasn't very graceful, so I got up and kept shuffling down the track, immediately aware that it was hurting a bit and was already impacting my gait.  So I slowed down a little bit, walked, and processed things.  

Ok, my leg hurts, but it's not a broken feeling.  The less I moved, the more it felt like it would lock up and stop working, so I decided some movement and motion and self generated muscle heat was the better option, so I carried on.  Don't get me wrong, for the next 8 miles my pace was a little slower.  Going up hills hurt. 

Going down hills really hurt. 

I couldn't pick up my leg fully without stopping, so stepping over down logs was a chore. 

And I continued to stumble. Which sucked even more, since the muscles that would normally catch me and stabilize me were on fire. 

So I went down, again and again. Frustratingly, at best I stumble once per race, so to hit the deck so many times was taking it's toll both mentally and physically. 

Fast forward to somewhere around mile 18, I thought I was feeling better, talking to a nice dude from Michigan, and we're making our way up a steep hillside trying to maintain some sort of track based on the pink flags, I step over a down tree and dame near game over, the ground hit me head on as I hear fabric rip. 

I realize I'm on the ground, my shoe is speared by a tree branch, and it's in my shoe so I have to back up to release my foot, so I do and tell the runner to take off on his own. 

So a stub on the down tree hooked in the toebox of my shoe, ripped a 2" hole, and in doing so took my forward momentum and converted it to downward motion. 

I was fine, I mean, my shoe had a giant hole, but it didn't hurt me otherwise, so I dusted off and kept moving.  I did use this as an opportunity to have a happy snack, I had grabbed a Rice Krispy Treat from an aid table earlier, and decided to eat it now, I needed that little boost to pull my head out of it's place. 

Suck it up buttercup. 

The trail continued, the 50 milers had their own race, and I found myself trudging along more time alone (which I'm ok with).  I was getting fatigued, so that means true to form, the trail started to make me emotional. 

I was mad at the mud (especially with a hole in my shoe)

I was frustrated at making my own path through hills so deep you had to dig in with your hands for traction. 

I was pissed that plants and trees were smacking into me. 

But I kept at it. 

I kept pushing. 

I didn't obsess on my watch or my paces, but I continued to push my effort. 

By now I see my total elevation is not going to be the 6000 feet claimed, but instead closer to 3000, so I see this race, like others, list total elevation change, not just climb.  That's ok, because I was pretty shocked if they were going to get us 6000' of gain in Indiana. 

I tried my best to be friendly to anyone and everyone I saw, ran/walked with a few runners, some had chosen this as their first trail 50k, which is a hell of a choice. 

Alright, so here I am, I finally get out of the last primary trail, I know i have about 7 miles to finish, a lot of which is park road and back down the initial climb, so I plop on the road and clean out the mass of gravel and mud that has accumulated in my open shoe.  I can't say enough about proper socks, smartwool, darn tough, good socks do so much in keeping my feet happy in spite of the hell I put them through, but this time with as much gunk as I had in my shoes, I'm super happy with how they did. 

I pushed myself, hell why not, I'm on a road, and it's flat(ish), these are the easy miles you train for, this is where you gain your time.   By the time I hit the final aid station at mile 27, it's hot. mid 80's, humid, there are multiple races going on so I no longer have any idea how I'm standing in my own race.  (they have a 50 mile, 50k, marathon, half marathon, and relay, possibly even more). 

So I keep stoking my fire. Push when I can, walk as I need to.  In an effort to keep my foot clean and my hip protected, I did walk most of the mud areas to choose my footing better, but most of that early mud has been beat up and mixed up, and is now just a sticky tacky grossly slippery surface, so stability was hard, but it wasn't quite as eager to get in my open toe. 

The final descent presented itself, and even though my watch lost some time/distance/gps signal, I knew I was getting close to the end, so I pushed myself, I tried, I didn't know if the next guy/gal was right behind me, so I threw what I had in the fire and dug in. 

The final stretch was the first time I was fully in the sun, which by now is high in the sky and it's damn hot, but now I know the finish line is within range so I continue. 

That final surge clocked in as a 6:30 pace which is damn fast for me, so it's no surprise that I didn't have my typical dumb smile as I crossed the finish line :D

So how did I do? 

Well my hip was doing better, but sore as hell. 

I didn't pack my electrolytes (Nuun or Tailwind), and only had mixed Gatorade on course, so I was freaking thirsty as hell for something good. 

I did practice putting a gel in every 45 minutes regardless of everything else. 

Every aid station I was drawn to salty foods (potato & salt plus a few pringles for the road)

My shoes did well and my gaiters worked flawlessly (until I tore them). 

I drank enough water (carried 2L+ in my bladder plus my 600ml bottle up front). 

But I did immediately want electrolytes and ibuprofen, so that was the first order of business. 

(next was a swig of whiskey) 

But how did I do otherwise, well, I finished in around 6:19, which for that terrain is pretty damn good. 

Garmin Activity

And apparently that's good enough to have earned me 1st in my age group, and 12th overall (out of 107 finishers). 

2019 Gnaw Bone 50K results

Woot woot!  Definitely felt good to place with such an effort. 

And I didn't take a ton of photos, but here's the link for what we did get:  Flickr Gnaw Bone 50K

And I can't leave out the wifey, who did pretty damn great in her race, she's well on her way to longer races where I'll get to support her perhaps as she does me. 

 A week later, my muscles feel better, but I have developed a wonderful green bruise on my right hip, but I did also just run 10 miles yesterday, so doesn't hurt that bad, right?

I'm less mad about the course, it was a hell of a route. 

Shockingly, no ticks or rashes from the wildlife, I was sure I'd have poison ivy or something, but besides some scrapes, I came out pretty ok. 

For a "training run" between bigger races, I feel I did great, but I realize I did injure myself slightly and that could impact my bigger race plans, but as so many times in my life, I'm lucky and made it out ok.  

So, t-minus 4 weeks until my next bigger race (Marys Peak 50M, Oregon), let's recharge and ramp up!