Arkansas Traveler 100 Race Report 2014
Assess – Adapt – Move On
After 2 training cycles
over 24 months it was time to see what this 100 mile race thing was all about.
Having injured and
vigorously rehabbing my left shin, I was totally befuddled as to any sense of
what was to unfold in the race. My wife Cathey (also my crew) and I had made
plans to spend Tuesday – Thursday exploring Arkansas Arkansas
Wednesday morning I ran on
an amazing trail “Round Top” Mountain.
I ran a little over an
hour, every thing felt good, I still was questioning my fitness, or lack
thereof, but it was a great trail run and my final training run until the race.
Thursday we made our way
to Little Rock REI for a chaise lounger.
Note- I used about 30% of what U see here
I laid everything out to
ensure we had all we needed before we headed out to the mountains, it would be
embellishing to call them remote, since they are only about 35 miles out of Little Rock Hot Springs Little Rock
We checked in to our
Trailer RV at the Harris Brake Lake Resort in Perryville, began unpacking and
headed to packet pick up, weigh in, race briefing and spaghetti dinner.
After the dinner, we
returned to our redneck palace on wheels, I laid out my start line gear and had
a large glass of cheap red wine. 4:15AM is a little earlier than I usually get up for long runs, and it came
around very fast. It took longer than I expected to dress, load & get away.
We had a semi-stressful drive to the start- more stressful for Cathey than me.
She dropped me off near the start line and I went inside to keep warm. I had consumed
my normal pre-race breakfast, a regular size Snickers bar and around 24-32 oz
of iced tea.
My race plan was to run
the first 50 miles at around a 28 hour pace, (16:48 Average) keeping my HR in
check at around 142 BPM and then do what ever I could the last half of the
race. I would walk every elevation from the start, and otherwise run 10/5
intervals. I’d planned an extended 20 min stop at Power Line and get my feet
up, check for blisters and completely change clothes and shoes and massage my
legs with “the stick”. I would fuel with the food at the aid stations, I would
drink water and take salt sticks as needed and ibuprofen in scheduled doses to
maximize their effect and lessen the stress on my liver, since I planned on
taking close to 2500mg over 20 hours. 350 calories per hour food I felt confident it was a sound race plan if
my shin had healed and would get me to finish line in one piece.
The start was in the dark.
I was the last person to start, crossing the start line at a slow jog, I slowly
made my way through the field. My 10/5 run/walk intervals kept me toward the
back of the pack until after daybreak. When we hit the technical single track
trail, I started moving through the back of the pack. I was watching my
HR…staying efficient on the climbs and down hills and adhering to the 10/5 on
the down hills as well. I was hopeful that everyone I was passing would finish,
but whenever I passed someone laboring, I couldn’t help but think “that can’t
be good this early in the race”.
I had to stop to pee twice
during the first 15 miles. I usually don’t stop until at least 2-3 hrs in. I
made the decision to cut back on the fluids since it was cool and I was flowing
a little too freely. I didn’t take in much at the first 3 aid stations. I keyed
the walkie talkie to let Cathey know I was approaching Lake Sylvia
Somewhere between the
Pumpkin Patch aid station (mile22.1) and Electronic Tower
I got first aid at Rocky
Gap (28.6 miles) finger clean up, band aid and a ziplock of Ice, grabbed some
food & topped off the water bottles. Back to executing my warm up run…
that’s what I mentally considered the first 50 miles of the race. Miles 50-75
were the pre-race and the last 25 was THE RACE . I went to 20 minute electrolyte intake and pushed
the fluids since I hadn’t peed in over 3 hours. I felt stupid that I’d over
compensated and gone mindless after that, but I felt good that I was able to
figure out what was wrong and fix the problem before it really jacked me up. My
punishment was the throbbing of my digit and a sore shoulder. The Ice got to be
too cold, but soon melted.
I poured it out and kept
the ziplock. I was able to communicate with Cathey before I got to Lake Winona 1:20PM (Red Zone time 1:50P) when I told her what all I’d eaten, she quickly
figured out I was extremely short on calories as well as in hydration deficit.
750 calories consumed since 9:46AM I was over 600 calories short along with
being dehydrated (<50 oz in 3.5 hrs) I’d taken 800 mg Ibuprofen (planned)
which worked out to help the finger and shoulder pain. I had a luncheon smorgasbord at the aid
station- Ham & Cheese sandwich, chips, pickle, Fig Newtons and some banana.
I would make this my minimum take away for the next 3 stops in hopes of
catching up on calories without jacking my stomach up. I left the aid station, saw
Cathey briefly down the road and returned to my warm up run. I hadn’t pee’d
since somewhere around mile 12-15
I started making up time
from that point… maybe it was proper fueling, I can’t really put my finger on
why I sped up, but I was maintaining my effort level by monitoring my HR and as
the Garmin metrics show- I stayed dead on. Pigtrail (36.1) and then Club
Flamingo (39.4) went uneventful except that I almost took off on the wrong road
from the Drop bag area at Club Flamingo. There was no crowd of runners to
follow – the volunteers got me headed properly
and on I went to Bahama Mama (43.2) food, fuel
up the trail and now I’m on the toughest mountain climb of the race, Smith Mountain
I’m glad it’s still day light,
the surface is a rough trail with some of the most scenic vistas on the course.
I started seeing the front runners and that meant they were over 20 miles ahead
of me… I didn’t think anything of it at the time, to me, it’s like everyone
else is running a different race. I suppose if I’m ever in a race where I’m in
the top 10, I may consider competitive strategy, but so far it’s just been
Steve vs. the distance, and no body else running really matters, other than
socially.
At the top of the mountain
is the Powerline aid station (48 miles) made contact w/ Cathey and she said
something about my chair being near the aid station, but I didn’t really
understand. She had to park a mile or so away and I needed something and she
was going to get it. I had planned to stop down and change clothes and shoes
there and rest for about 20 minutes. I went on past the aid station, thinking I
would pass Cathey, but she was on another road, not on the race path. I stopped
down at a pickup when I realized we weren’t on intersecting paths. A nice lady
who was crewing for her husband offered me her tailgate to rest on and some
chicken wings which I accepted and cleaned to the bone while waiting for
Cathey. I waited for what seemed like an eternity, and Cathey found me- good
thing we had walkie talkies or this could have been a complete disaster of a
stop. My drop bag was back up the road, the race box was somewhere else, Cathey
had to be exhausted from the treks with my gear. I decided we should regroup,
do the change over at the next aid station which I felt sure she could make
well before I got there. The lady told us about a bear she spotted not far off
the race course and showed Cathey the photo after I left. I took off toward Copperhead Road Copper Head Road
When I got to Copperhead Road
(7:50 Red Zone), Cathey had set up everything perfectly.
She checked my feet, no
blisters, I changed into dry clothes, and put on Hokas rolled my quads and
calves and rested for a few minutes. The stop took about 32 minutes… longer
than I had wanted, but well worth it for the recovery and freshness I took
away. I had made up more time from Power Line so we were in pretty good shape
time wise… it was near dark. Cathey was worried that she had stuck the
Challenger in the bar ditch. I suggested that she go ask any of the guys
wearing a camo hunting cap and they would be able to drive it out, or would
know someone with a pickup that could pull it out if needed. I had faith the
Mellinium Falcon would be able to make it, and if not, an Arkansas
I had been taking too much
time at the aid stations because I couldn’t make up my mind on what to eat
quick enough… something I’ll work on for the next race. I fueled up, took 200mg
Ibuprofen and off I went.
It got dark shortly after leaving Copper Head
and I was enjoying running without a light on. The road was easy enough to
trust my feelings and I was running fast enough to keep good clearance. I was
starting to see more runners that had made the turn around. The Turn Around aid
station (57.9 miles) was uneventful, I had some hot food, grabbed some food,
fueled and headed back to Copper Head. I
had Cathey head on back to Power Line so she’d have plenty of time to get set
up and it turned out she needed the time. I stopped at Copperhead Road
This section was the walk
I had made 5 weeks earlier on my injured shin.
I was glad it was dark, the roads looked totally different in the dark,
but I recognized many spots, since this was my 4th time to cover
this road. I made it to the Power Line return (67.9 miles@11:20PM – Red Zone
time-12:55/ cut off 2:00AM) Cathey checked off the list: calories- good…
bananas/salt sticks-good… sweat- 0… feet ok… glide not needed… massage not
needed… h20 consumption good – so far on paper everything was looking good. I
wouldn’t see Cathey for another 5 hours, I went to the aid station, where I saw
a friendly face at the aid station- Heather Bush who I met at the training run
Labor Day weekend. Heather tried to find a pacer for me, but the pot luck
pacers had all hooked up apparently I was a little too slow. It didn’t really
matter to me at the time, since I’d planned on running alone. I grabbed to go
and hit the trail again.
This section would begin
some of the most interesting running I’ve experienced… the extremely rough
mountain terrain in the dark.
Along this stretch, I had a few astoundingly
clear hallucinations I’ve never had before… I would see what appeared to be
large billboards, colorful and very detailed from about ¼ mile away that
remained constant in position and then faded away to become trees when I got within
30-40 yards of them. This happened a few
times – all on the right side of the trail. Then on the left side of the trail,
two bright eyes appeared. I’m sure these were a real critter, but the eyes
reminded me of something out of Star Wars… golden in color that cut through the
darkness like a laser beam, staring right at me, not moving. It seemed like it
was about 150-200 yards ahead and down off the road 10-15 feet lower than the
roadbed. It was visible for about 20 seconds but it seemed like a lot longer.
It never occurred to me that it could be a danger, it was just too cool and I
hoped for more, but that was it for the eyes in the dark. I was running well on
the run segments down hill, but I was starting to feel a little cramping in my
stomach. I realized it was time for bathroom break… (#2) – I would hold out in
hopes of something at the next aid station.
Kim Fischer and friends at
Smith Mountain (Bahama Mama) 72.6 miles were one the highest levels of aid for
me during the race…. They had set up a hunter’s latrine that was exactly what I
needed. I was getting stiff legs now and a squat to the ground would have been
near impossible, the toilet seat over the hole in the ground was just what I
needed. I covered up my business with the camp shovel, cleaned my hands w/
sanitizer and picked up my filled bottles, grabbed some food and ran into the
night.
Now the race was on… less
than a marathon to go. I met a couple of guys that had run this race multiple
times, Randy from Mississippi Alabama
We didn’t talk a lot, I
seem to recall listening mostly at first as I passed them, then I’d hang with
them a little longer each time I caught up to them.
This was Isaac’s 6th
time to run The Traveler, and I remember him saying they don’t get any easier.
I ran on ahead. I had to stop down for quick bathroom break (#1) and I took the
opportunity to archive how it was going:
Then I proceeded back the
wrong way on the road until I came upon two guys… Isaac & Randy – luckily I
had only run about 1/2 mile before they turned me back around. I was too tired to
feel stupid, I was just thankful I got headed toward the finish line before I’d
tacked on extra miles.
Cathey was set up on the
road ahead of the aid station. Her notes show I wasn’t sweating, I didn’t need
glide, I didn’t want anything massaged and I refused to let her look at my feet
for blisters. The balls of my feet had been hurting some, but I knew with less
than 18 miles to go, I would make it and I didn’t want to spend any more dead
time than absolutely needed. I went on to the aid station where I sat while
they refilled my bottles, I had something hot to eat and some Sweet Tea, which
was a first for me on the trail and will be a given on long races from now on.
I like the taste, it has caffeine and sugar – the perfect endurance drink for
late in a Hundy. The guys made their stop a lot quicker, and were ahead of me
again. I felt ok, but after running about 3 minutes my stomach would start
cramping. I decided to cut my intervals down to 3/2 instead of 10/5. I’d eaten
some Tums I carried and I’d been drinking Ginger Ale and picking up Cin Gin
chews at every station since Club Flamingo (mile 76.4) It wasn’t long until I
caught up to them again. I was now falling asleep when I was walking or running
slow. After I passed them and put a little distance on them, running was the
only thing keeping me awake. The problem was I couldn’t run but 3 minutes at
time. Wobbling and dozing on the road, I decided to walk until they caught up.
Mental engagement helped to keep me awake, I remember acknowledging when we
were only 13 miles out. They encouraged me to go on ahead, they felt like I
could break 27 hours, since I still had some legs left and seemed strong. When
I felt new life…some time before sunrise, I took off back on the 3/2
intervals. Rock Gap 87.2 miles &
Electronic Tower 91.4 miles – I vaguely remember. I know I asked if they had
sweet tea and neither did. I don’t remember where I was when Sunrise
I then made the decision
to walk it in. I felt like I could run or interval, but I was afraid I might
cramp and lock up and have to crawl to the finish. I wasn’t about to do
anything to jeopardize my finish. My goal was right there and I was ok
finishing ugly. I felt like I could power walk around a 15 pace, which was
probably actually more like a 17-18
Pace. I actually passed a
runner in the final mile. He was hobbling at a slow shuffle. We talked for good
while, since it was a super slow motion walk race at that point. I jogged it in
down to cross the finish line, the 63rd finisher in 27 hours 11
minutes and 9 seconds. I can’t express the emotion that I felt. The completion
of a 2 year quest, I was so exhausted it sort of seemed surreal.
I had breakfast and then walked (barely) to
shower in a nearby cabin. The shower was one of the highlights of the race. I
knew I needed cold, but the HOT water
felt so good. I made my way back to the lodge, I had lunch and we stayed around
for the awards presentation at 12:30PM . I was fortunate to have made it with minimal injury… a chapped ass
(abrasion due to lack of lube late in the race) and my ring finger from the
fall early in the race. There were 3-5 folks on cots getting IV’s and being
attended to by the medical folks and there was a medical commotion during the
awards presentations adding drama that helped keep me awake.
I could barely get in and
out of the car. Cathey drove me back to
the trailer, where the 3 steps seemed like another mountain. The range of
motion in my legs was dropping to almost nothing. We both crashed in a dead
deep sleep for about 5-6 hours. When I woke up, I couldn’t get up with my legs unless
I had sturdy hand holds or furniture to grab, I had to have help to stand up.
We went into town to wash our week’s worth of clothes and the race mess and we
cleared out the trunk and repacked.
I walked about 60 yards to
a convenience store to get a pizza, but they had shut the pizza making down. 1
frozen burrito was all they had. We were burned out on Sonic, the only food in
town after 8PM , so we hauled it 15 miles to a Wendy’s for a late
night dinner.
The next morning, I
couldn’t reach my feet to put socks on and getting dressed was a struggle. I
had been pushing the Advil to the max, everything waist down hurt when I moved,
but it was ok. I was really glad I’d taken off 2 days to recover and get back
home. We checked out the next morning and made our way to Mount Magazine
We went to the Hot Tub and
talked with 3 cyclists from McKinney
Special thanks to my wife
Cathey who crewed spectacularly under duress, and to John and Debi Brosius and
Vishal Patel who were willing to crew and contributed significantly in the
process.
Stan & Chrissy
Furgeson put on a really nice race. The Aid Stations were fantastic, the course
challenging and beautiful and the people friendly. I’ll be back in 2015 to make
a run for it!
2014 Results – Race Splits
2014 Race Packet pdf
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