Thursday, January 15, 2009

Bandera 100K


I’ve had several days to reflect on this race since last Saturday. I believe it was one of the best personal performances of my running career. Everything went well for me – the weather, the course seemed to play to my strengths, and I had a first class crew.

Friday morning, Virginia and I dropped off the kids at school and with camper in tow hit the road for Bandera, TX. It was a really pretty drive as we stayed off the main highways and took the back way to the race. My wonderful mother volunteered to watch the kids all weekend, so it was just Virginia and I for a nice long weekend.

We arrived at our campsite at race headquarters, set up the camper, and then watched the 1 mile kids trail race. My friends (Matt and Buddy) children were entered in race and all ran well. It was so cool to see the little trail runners out there - especially Matt’s youngest who is 4 and ran the entire mile very hard. You should have seen him huffing and puffing all the way to the finish! Next year, we may have my children’s trail racing debut at Bandera!




getting the feet ready!

The 100K race started at 7:30am on Saturday – a very decent hour to start (thank you, Joe Prusaitis) as the sun was coming up over the hills. I said a quick good bye and good luck to Virginia and we were off. The race started uphill, so it was very slow going at first. But that kept the runners bunched up for awhile which I kind of like during the first part of a race. Everyone is excited and very chatty during those first few miles. I got to talk to Dave Billman for many miles who was attempting this race for the third time. Dave is a strong runner and with a 100 mile finish to his credit, but for some reason he had DNF’d his other Bandera attempts and was determined to finish today. I could tell by his attitude that today would be his day. I found out later that he finished strong! I also got to run for many miles with fellow beer lover, Dan Hamilton who was stopping to take some gorgeous pictures of the course.


Matt and I at the start

And we are off! I've got a sweet walk going!

The first 10 miles flew by – I was running very well. In fact, maybe too well for I caught up to several runners who are stronger than me. I ran many miles either in front of or right behind Fred Thompson and Barbara Hitzfield who are both very talented runners. And that had me really worried. I usually can’t hold a candle to these guys and for some reason I was really close to them. But I kept pressing on at the same pace. I thought I would run hard all day because I knew that my pace would naturally drop off during the night hours when I could not see as well.

Much as been written about the Bandera course. I found it very beautiful and very rugged. The hills were not too bad (except for one where you went straight up, it seemed), but there were a ton of them. There were softball sized rocks everywhere in one section which I did not like at all. I found the first 5 miles to be the toughest part of the course for me. It was very technical and hard to really get going. If your mind drifted for a moment, you had a real possibility of falling and getting seriously hurt on the rocks.

On a personal note, I went into this race with a very heavy heart. In fact, I almost decided not to do it the day before. My company had layoffs the Thursday before the race and one of my good friends was let go. I know this is happening all over the country, but it really hits you when it is one of your friends who you have worked with for many years. I’d gone into many battles with her and I’ll really miss her. Her leaving coupled with another friend’s job loss really had me feeling low. On top of that, my buddy Josh was supposed to be running Bandera as well (his first ultra) but he had a bad back injury and was forced to miss the race. All of these things were weighing on me. I had decided that I would give myself a few hours to think about these things during the race before fully concentrating on the business at hand. However, I had to concentrate on the race just about every step of the way. If I let my mind wander, I would have ended up flat on my face! I did say many prayers for my friends while I was out there.

At the end of the first loop (31 miles) I was feeling terrific! I made the turn and headed back out for my final loop. In fact, I looked so good and was doing so well that Virginia headed into town to grab a 6 pack of Shiner for me to celebrate later that night. I guess she has more confidence in me than I do! However, around mile 40 I started to feel really strange. I had been eating 2 gels an hour for my fuel and only drinking water. I was taking 1 salt pill per hour for my electrolytes. I hit an aid station where Virginia and Matt’s wife, Julie were waiting. V could tell that something was wrong. I quickly drank a Red Bull as I felt kind of sleepy and V and Julie asked me a ton of questions to get me back on track. It was determined that I was not taking enough electrolytes – once I started taking 2 an hour I started feeling like myself again.


coming into Crossroads Aid Station

The rest of the race I was feeling no pain and running hard. I was just trying to hold my pace. My original goal for the race was 16 hours. I knew that I had that in the bag and the new goal became 15 hours. After awhile I knew that was in the bag as well. Around that point Jesse Wilson and I were leap frogging each other for miles. He mentioned that he was trying to break 14 hours. He is a stronger runner than I am and I thought he’d have no problem doing it. At that point I was content with a 15 hour finish. But for some reason, I stayed with him during those last miles. He shot ahead of me with about 3 miles to go and was running a pace that I could not manage in the dark. I wished him well and continued on.

I was actually sort of taking it easy after I thought that there was no way for me to finish under 14 hours. I was humming along to myself really not wanting the race to end (sick of me, I know) when I ran into two runners running a little slower than me. I heard one of them say to the other – “I think we are almost there. It’s only a quarter of a mile to the finish.” What? Are you serious? I yelled back to them, “are you sure?” They confirmed that we were almost home. I looked at my watch and saw that I had 2 minutes left to break 14 hours! I started running in a dead sprint for the finish line. I got to about 100 yards from the finish where I found my buddy Matt waiting for me - shivering in the dark and cold – he had finished two hours before me. I yelled to him to follow me as I was going to break 14 hours! I sprinted across the finish line in 13 hours 59 minutes and 37 seconds! I was so happy!

Joe Prusaitis congratulated me and handed me my finishers buckle. Virginia came over and wrapped a warm blanket around me and directed me to the finisher’s tent. I ate a bowl of Julie’s soup and stared at the Shiner which I had no interest in drinking anymore. It’s funny how something sounds so good to you all day and then you finish and want nothing to do with it.

There is no way I would have been able to finish under 14 hours without the help of my beautiful wife, Virginia. She acted as a one man crew and had me turned around incredibly fast at each aid station. I know I saved a ton of time at the aid stations because of her. The longest I stopped at an aid station was 2 minutes and that was to do a complete clothes change and fuel refill. All other stops lasted about 30 seconds at the longest. She asked me questions, grabbed what I needed, stuffed it in my pack, patted me on the butt, and sent me back out there for more. That is exactly what you need in a race like this and she did a tremendous job.

Bandera was tough but a ton of fun. As always, Joe Prusaitis puts on a first class race. I was able to spend 14 hours in nature with many friends. During the last miles I didn’t want it to end. I was able to challenge myself physically and mentally on a tough course and I still had gas left in the tank. And I was able to work through some of the sadness that I had in me from all of the events from the past few days of my personal life. All in all it was a great day. Next up – Rocky Raccoon 100 in 3 weeks! Now talk about a challenge! I hope I feel as good after Rocky!

Very happy at the finish!

1 comment:

Amy said...

Mike, I love reading your race recaps. It's almost like we get to be part of your crew -- except without all of that work! :)

I love the way you attribute your success to a team effort. While surely your physical training is the primary factor in your strong finish, it is such a great story to hear about how much you appreciate your crew. If I ever decided to run as much as a mile, I would want to do it with Virginia. She's a keeper.

Congratulations on a great race. It's so awesome to see your strength and endurance continuing to improve with each race, especially as you figure out your physical needs along the way. I can't wait to hear about the next race!