Yes, I did it. I did the whole thing. And it was hard. As advertised. I wonder in horror what it would have been like if it wasn’t a dry year. My shoes were muddy on every leg.
I was doing this with two friends, and we started out together, but we eventually separated. I did see one of them at almost every relay point, but the other one took off faster than either of us.
Leg one was the easiest. Nineteen kilometers that I barely noticed. It rained a bit, but that just kept you cool.
Leg two was the hardest. There were two mountain peaks, and in between them was the Slugfest, a muddy, vegetation filled tripping hazard. It didn’t help that a kilometer in, my left foot started to hurt. Did I tie my shoe too tight? I thought I had broken this pair in, but they were still fairly new trail runners. I ignored it, but it hurt for the entire leg. Fortunately it seemed to go away when I changed shoes at other legs, but the pain was still there, just not as sharp.
On Mount Flood, the top was cold and rainy. After I left it apparently started to sleet. Unfortunately, I needed to stop to eat up there. It didn’t seem right to eat while you are still climbing; That would upset the stomach. My backpack also broke. Nothing irreparable, but the jury rig that a volunteer helped me with made getting stuff from it a lot harder. It was easier to ask someone else to get something out of it.
I forgot that I do not require glasses to see, so I never took off my sunglasses. With the rain making them opaque, I’m surprised I didn’t fall down more than the once. I twisted my right ankle, but like a good runner, I walked it off. Then there was the mudslide down to Washy Creek and up to Grande Mountain. Then there was the plummet down the side, back to town. The poles really helped so my knees aren’t totally shot. And the trail runners also kept my feet alive.
Leg three was actually rather pleasant. It is the easiest leg. New shoes also helped. Going downhill mostly (which I knew I would have to pay back later) made it quick. And 45 minutes into it there was a sign saying I had reached the halfway point. It lied. An hour later I realized that that would have been one of my fastest runs ever if it was true.
I did have to take a break when I ran into a bear and her cub. It took a few moments for my mind to register what I was seeing. That was no large dog, but a big black bear running across that clearing. And a cub coming down the tree. I stopped, called out to others that there was a bear, and slowly backed away. Eventually it wandered into the woods, and I joined someone else continuing on the trail. Fortunately it headed in the opposite direction of the bear.
Leg four is often considered the hardest because it has the tallest mountain and it is the longest. But it wasn’t that bad. The climb up was steady, if a bit muddy, but by this time I wasn’t in a rush. I had made the important cutoff with an hour to spare, and I could probably walk the rest of the way to the end. And I don’t think it rained at all for this leg.
Once I got above the tree-line and was going on the switchback, the biggest problem was the sun in my eyes; I had abandoned my sunglasses at the start of the leg. The view was fantastic, but I didn’t have the energy or time to enjoy it. After the top, it was actually pleasant running downhill. I tried to rush it as much as possible because the sun was setting. Once it was down, I was totally dependent on my headlamp. And I didn’t want to run when I could only see a small patch of light. I hadn’t trained with it and it took me awhile to figure out that when I was seeing a black thing scurrying towards my feet, it was only the shadow of a leaf. I hooked up with a girl who was part of a relay team and we stuck together. Safety in numbers. She had taken the Death Race training course so could give me pointers. She was also cuter than my friend who eventually caught up with me, so I let him go on without me. We did walk most of the way until we hit beaver dam road. It was a gravel road downhill and we made good time, but we should have taken some breaks because my legs were aching by the time we hit bottom.
Leg five was a walk. I tried to run at the start, but it was through a lot of vegetation with rocks and roots. My legs were so tired by this point that I was tripping a lot. Several people passed me. Surprisingly I eventually caught up with both of my friends. It took me awhile to realize this. I was not mentally prepared to catch up. We stuck together for the rest of the run. Well, walk.
The Smoky River crossing supposedly had a fantastic view of a rock formation. I wonder what it looked like. There, we were told that we only had twelve kilometers to go. We continued on, climbing steep hills. I was desperately trying to remember what the course profile looked like to figure out how many of them we would have to deal with. It was worse in my head.
A few kilometers later we came across a course volunteer. (We saw his dog first, but only its glowing eyes staring back at us.) He said we only had eight kilometers to go. One of my running partners said we had roads for the last seven kilometers, so we had something to look forward to. We continued on to a part called the “Root Route”. That was not a place you want to run in the dark.
Sometime later we came across a sign saying we had nine kilometers to go.
With the sun rising, you could start seeing shadows, and under those conditions a lot of things look like a road coming up. Afterwards we discovered that there is only road for the last three kilometers. One of the last signs we did see was one saying there were hamburgers in five kilometers. We hoped that meant the end, and wasn’t just saying the location of the nearest McDonalds.
Then we came out of the woods. It was bright enough to turn off the headlamps. And we all crossed the finish line together. We had done it under twenty two and a half hours.
My left foot hurt the most after I rested. It had swollen up a bit, and any pressure I put on it, hurt a lot. I eventually figured out that it was better if I put a tight shoe on. The next day my right ankle started swelling. And of course, I am now walking like a penguin. I have got to see a masseuse and get these muscles working again.
And, since the award ceremony, I have the official Death Race coin that comes in a nice box with my name engraved in it and an incorrect time.