A First Anniversary Celebration (Chattooga River 50k race report)

To celebrate our 1 year anniversary this past weekend, Jordan and I ran the Chattooga 50k put on by Terri Hayes. Supposedly, this was my idea. Right now, I’m still too tired and sore to claim the inspiration, but I’ll admit to growing more and more curious about ultra marathons as I supported Jordan through her races in the last few years. The opportunity to mark the first year of our marriage with a run seemed too appropriate to pass up; I mean, we spent much of our first week together running! So yeah, I guess it was my idea…

Jordan has blogged about Terri’s races before, and this one lived up to all our expectations for scenery and challenging trails. A large portion of the race was on the Foothills Trail near Oconee State Park, an area where I spent a lot of time hiking as a Boy Scout. I remember the Foothills Trail being quite challenging; it seemed like the trail builders were never content to let the trail remain level, it always climbed up and down ever little hill and rise that they could find. Sixteen years later, the trail hasn’t changed; it is still very strenuous, even treacherous in places where trees have fallen across it or rains have washed it out. It is also just as scenic as I remember; the section of trail we ran follows the Chattooga river, which offered us secluded picturesque views to briefly distract us from what we were doing.

The race start/finish was at the Cherry Hill Recreation Area, west of Walhalla, Seneca, and Clemson. We stayed with Jordan’s parents in Greenville the night before (who fed us massive amounts of pasta), which cut down on our travel time the morning of the race. We got there just as the sun was coming up, pleasantly surprised (nay, ecstatic!) at the low humidity and low temperature. After enduring a few pre-race stomach jitters (in my experience, an upset stomach on race morning is actually a precursor to a good race), we were ready to run.

The race started right on time; Terri is quite an efficient race director. We were a little late getting ready (I’m slow in the mornings), so we missed the race briefing, but hoped we’d have people in view to follow when the trail turned. The first section was a seven mile out and back, from the start to the first aid station. We quickly discovered it consisted of one long descent that of course we would have to climb on the way back. I also discovered just how well-known Jordan is in these races. Compared to larger footraces, ultras are more like a family affair; this race was limited to 74 starters, and I’m convinced everyone knew someone else that was running. After the first aid station, we caught up with Mike Riggins, with whom Jordan had run a good portion of an ultra earlier this year. He was quite familiar with the trails we were running, and guided us onto the next section of trails, a ten mile section on the Foothills trails between aid stations.

It was this ten mile section that made up the majority of the race, and contained its most challenging parts. As I said before, the Foothills trail is never content to remain on level ground, and this section is no exception. We set an easy pace with Mike and Mark, tried to conserve water (we both carried two 21 ounce water bottles), enjoyed views of the river, and chatted as the miles passed by. At this point I was still feeling good, happy to be spending a day in the woods with my wonderful wife, our legs comfortably eating up the trail. We arrived at the second aid station at 17 miles and were greeted by Viktor, a volunteer who seemed to have been waiting just for us as he said, “You’re here! Eat something, drink something!” I discovered later that he is a good friend of Terri’s, and though only having run for a year, he is already an accomplished ultra-runner. I got some Coke and potato chips from the aid station (the Shot Bloks we took with us left me craving salt), and we started off on the next section, another out and back that took us downhill for two miles, then right back up the way we came and back to the aid station. Since I’d been rationing my two water bottles on the previous ten mile section, I made a point to drink both bottles during the next four miles to catch up on hydration. We made it down to the little bridge that was the turn-around point, and went back up the hill, passing runners and warning them not to go any farther than the bridge, lest they add to their mileage for the day.

We took a few minutes at the aid station (this time greeted with, “You’re here again!”) to stock up on water and food, as this was the last chance we had before the finish. There was a large crowd of runners there, so we slipped out on to the trail to try to stay ahead. We estimated that we would finish in about 2.5 hours (it would be closer to 3), so I set my watch timer to try and ration my water accordingly. This was the part of the race that had me the most worried, but also the most curious. The farthest I’d ever run was a marathon (Marine Corps back in ’08), and I’d only managed a broken up 24 miles during training for this race, so I didn’t know how I would react as the miles added up. We decided to walk the up-hills and run everything else, taking frequent walking breaks, stubbornly pushing forward. That worked until I landed wrong on a root and tweaked my left knee; a slight injury, but it made running downhill very painful, so now we were reduced to running the flats (rare on the Foothills trail), and walking everything else. Jordan has spoken of having ‘dark times’ during a race, and I definitely had one, arguing with the trail and with my knee with every step. I found my way out of it when we stopped to dunk our visors in the river, and Jordan gently reminded me to eat. For the rest of the race, she led me through the woods, setting intermediate goals (“let’s run to that tree, and then we’ll take a walking break”) and relentlessly pushing us forward. My water rationing plan worked almost perfectly; I think I ran out about 12 minutes from the finish. We crossed the line hand in hand, and with a kiss, to much applause from the volunteers and earlier finishers. We finished in 8:12:46, a time that Jordan says tells more about how challenging the trail was than how fast we ran.

Having crewed for a number of Jordan’s races, I thought I knew the ultra community pretty well, but it is a different experience to participate. I was surprised at how friendly and uniformly supportive everyone is; racers and volunteers alike. I also noted the variety of individual approaches concerning gear and race strategy; everyone has their tried and true method of eating, drinking, and racing. For my race, I carried two 21 ounce Nathan water bottles (yes, that is the brand name). I drank 9 of them during the race, so 189 ounces; not near enough, but that was all I could get. I ate 4 packs of Shot Bloks, a couple handfuls of potato chips, two boiled potato wedges (just for the experience; they’re a staple of ultras), a third of a banana, and one M&M (a treat!). I came away with a good bit of muscle soreness (to be expected) and 2 blisters, but feel I faired pretty well for my first ultra. I’m already being tempted by Terri’s FATS 50K that happens to fall on my 30th birthday. Running my age (plus) might just be an opportunity too appropriate to pass up.