My "Ultra" World: CFE-Based Training, Competing, and Always Learning: G2G 2014 Race Report/Reflections (Part 2 - Sunday September 21, 2014

Because I tend to sleep light the night before a race, I pretty much woke up on my own and was out of the tent by about 5:30, maybe even the first out walking around with a headlamp. Luckily, the volunteers had already started working on boiling the water, which I would use for my oatmeal, honey, peanut butter, and dried fruit concoction. As I proceeded to eat my breakfast on a camp chair outside my tent, as promised by the organizers, at 6 am sharp, the official wake-up call came through. To (I think) everyone’s displeasure, the wake-up call was to the sound of a really bad speaker (i.e., it couldn’t handle the bass they were trying to pump through it) playing “I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles)” by the Proclaimers. They were really trying to blast it, which was fine because I was awake and most people were all in a light sleep at that point, but it sounded awful.

As people started to roll out of the tents, the muffled speaker continued to blast, playing songs like “It’s Raining Men” by the Weather Girls, “We Will Rock You” by Queen, “Happy” by Pharrell, “Ring of Fire” by Johnny Cash, an AC/DC song, and a couple others I can’t recall.*

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*SIDE NOTE: I think it is worth noting at this point that the wake-up call for every morning of this race came in the form of the SAME 6-7 songs playing on repeat. And each morning, everyone complained about how random the songs were, how bad the speaker was, and wondered how anyone could have an IPAD with so few songs on it. There even came a point on around Stage 3 when Andy was thinking of offering to buy them a new speaker system after the event just so future competitors would not be subjected to the same noise pollution. Each morning, the noise also spurred discussions around camp about how many alternatives there were to playing the SAME 5 songs (e.g., solicit 1 song from each competitor before the event, play Pandora – provided there is a phone signal of course, plug someone’s phone into the speaker….etc.).

Finally, after the second day, Garth got up and went and turned down the music. As I later learned, apparently, there were set playlists for the wake-up call, the start line, and the finish line that for some reason just remained the same for the whole event; I’m still confused by this. There was also one exception to the complaining: every morning when the AC/DC song would finally come on, even after having previously turned down the music, Garth would say the same thing: “now they are playing something good, let’s turn that up!” Haha. It was like déjà vu every morning.

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After finishing my breakfast, it was time to get ready for Stage 1: repack my stuff into my 30L pack; drink a Hyper Skratch (with 1750mg of sodium) – yes, basically salt water but my complete solution to any cramping problems I might have had a year ago during races; a quick bathroom stop; and then make my way to the starting line. Vanessa also quickly stopped by to wish me luck before heading to check point 4 (CP 4), where she would be stationed to aid and cheer on runners during each stage of the race. At the same time, the other competitors seemed to all be following similar pre-race procedures.

As I made my way to, and finally arrived at, the start line, there was an abundance of picture taking going on. Similar to the Gobi, the apparent thing to do was to have all competitors from the same country get together for a picture. Of course, the U.S. contingent was very large, while some countries had only one person (e.g., Phelim was the only Irishman, and there was one guy from China – Chris Mak aka “China”). Once the pictures concluded, including some pictures taken by the drone hovering overhead, Colin and Tess gave a final overview of the stage and a weather report.

Depending on your pace, the weather was going to be pleasant for the day (i.e., cool in the morning rising to maybe the mid-80’s in the afternoon, there was no chance of catching the storm ahead of us, and there should be no rain from the storm behind us if you could stay ahead it). There was the warning, however, that if you were out on the course late into the afternoon, you might get caught in some rain showers. Moreover, concerning the course, because of the short rain the night before, the dirt roads should be packed down making for a fast course with little to no dust. Still, a warning was given that about half way between CP 3 to CP 4 (~23 miles) we would turn off trail for the remainder of the stage, at which time we needed to be especially cautious of small cacti scattered everywhere and sometimes hidden under other brush/plants.

During the course of this final briefing, I had made my way to the front of the pack to get out quick. I was standing to the far right side of the start line just behind Phelim, with whom I was chatting. As I briefly turned to my left, there was China. China simultaneously turned and his ruck sack, with mattress pad tied to the top, batted me in the head. China had boxed me out!!! I looked at Phelim and we both laughed. Upon further inspection of China’s get up, Phelim and I were awed, as Phelim says something along the lines of “we are going to have to sit down and discuss this one later.” It truly was a remarkable sight; one that never stopped amazing me throughout the week every time I saw him, and one that still makes me think “what were you thinking.”

China was covered from head-to-toe, except for his face: long pants, long sleeves, silk gaiters up to his knees, a hat with a neck cover, and what appear to be regular white gardening gloves (he wore all of this from the beginning of the race until the very end, regardless of the temperature). But this was just the beginning. He was also carrying what looked like a traditional military-style purple ruck sack to which had had attached homemade bottle holders with rubber bands and plastic strips. The ruck sack appeared way overloaded: so much for trying to keep the weight down. Hahaha!! He also had an enormous mattress pad attached to the top of the ruck sack. Finally, we noticed that he was also carrying at least a couple empty Poland Springs (or the like) water bottles in the pockets of the ruck sack. Despite what seemed to be an awful load to carry throughout the week, Chris was all smiles the entire competition and never had any complaints. And as a spoiler, I am thrilled and happy to say that he did in fact finish the race. Nevertheless, because of my intrigue, I will still have some more Chris stories throughout these recaps.

Finally, the music subsided and the countdown to start began with Tess still dancing in front of the start line: “10, 9, 8….Go!”. Phelim and I made our way to the front as best we could to get out of the likely traffic jam building behind us. Then it was just a matter of settling into a good pace. I ran with Phelim all the way to CP1 (~6 miles) on what was the same dirt road we drove in on the day before and was the cause of the speeding van injuries.

Feeling good at this point, I quickly had my card punched, refilled my water bottle and proceeded on to the next 6 miles. I think Phelim was starting to feel the effects of running at higher elevations, which I later learned he had never run at, and he slowed a bit as he entered the aid station; I would not see him again until the finish. It’s worth noting that in these types of races, how fast you get in and out of checkpoints can greatly impact your time. I try to keep my stop time as minimal as possible, very rarely take my pack off before I am across the finish line, and never sit down/rest.

The terrain continued to provide for fast running, and at this point, for the first time, I found myself running with Ken, my tent mate. Little did I know I would spend much of the week running with Ken. As we ran, we at some point also passed Garth, our other tent mate who we would spend a significant amount of time running with, as he was stopping to get some rocks out of his shoe (I think that was the issue). As we passed, Ken says “Garth you’re a beast!”, as we were both impressed by his early pace. It turned out that Ken and I ran and chatted all the way through CP2 and part way to CP3, until I had to quickly stop for a bathroom break. As such, I came into CP3 on my own (~18 miles down and still feeling pretty good).

The sun was now just starting to crack, and it was heating up a bit. But at least I was well enough ahead of the storm that I shouldn’t encounter any rain. The next 4 miles were also run friendly until we hit a water drop half way to CP 4. However, during this stretch, I started to feel a slight burn on my lower back. As I reached back, I noticed that the duct tape I had added to the bottom of my pack had rolled a bit. As a result, the chafing had begun. Even though it would eventually get painful, there was no time to stop and mess with it. I would just deal with it at Camp 2 before tomorrow.

At the water drop, I filled my bottles and, as was promised, we headed off the main trail. This is where the going slowed drastically. We were going over rolling hills, there was brush, and there were the dreaded cacti! It was tough to navigate and I really had to watch my step to avoid getting nasty thorns in my shoes. This terrain continued all the way through CP4 and to the finish. We even had to climb over a barbed wire fence at two points, which is always fun on legs that have just run 25 miles.

I avoided any major cacti encounters, but I did get stabbed in the foot once as I went to step, realized a cactus was underneath me, and unsuccessfully tried to shift my weight at the last second to avoid stepping on it. What I soon learned was that even though I thought the thorn was a clean in and out, it had actually broken off in the side of my shoe and continued to poke me whenever my foot landed a certain way. Nonetheless, it didn’t hurt enough for me to contemplate stopping before the finish line.

I came into CP4 at the same time as Sarah, a competitor that participated in the inaugural G2G in 2012 and is a writer for Trail Runner Magazine. I later learned that Sarah’s main goal of the week was to beat her time from 2012, which she did in the end. As we approached CP4, Vanessa was cheering and yelling. We quickly filled our bottles, Sarah asked where we currently stood in the standings (11^th and 12^th was the response), and because my back was really starting to burn, I had vanessa rip off the duct tape and I globbed some Trail Toes onto my lower back to reduce the friction. And off we went for the final ~4.5 miles.

I was ready to be done at this point so I went ahead of Sarah and ran whenever I could through the cacti mine field. A few things happened through this section: (1) we could see the camp off in the distance, but we were following a fence line, so instead of heading directly for it, we zigzagged up and down across this field, which made the 4.5 miles seem a lot further than it was; (2) about a mile from the finish, when we seemed to be getting really close, the course turned up a mountain that we had to climb for about ¼ mile at about a 35% grade. It was like a big “you thought you were done, well f#$^ you….”; (3) there was guy ahead of me (I later learned this was Carl), that kept a distance of about 100m in front of me and kept looking back at me every 20-30 seconds. I didn’t care, but I started to wonder if he was really that concerned about me catching him.

After all the zigzagging and climbing, the trail finally opened up again for the last ½ mile and I was able to run in to the finish. Stage 1 was done and it was only 2 pm; I had finished in 11^th and I was feeling good! Not a bad day. Now it was time to get out of the sun, throw on my recovery pants, drink my recovery drink (Endurox), and put down a freeze dried meal.

The remainder of the day involved hanging out around the tents chatting with other competitors and cheering as others started to filter in. I was especially cheering when my tent mates arrived and made every attempt to greet each of them as they came through the finish, especially since some of them (Andy and Nick) were on the course when the storm came through. I am not certain what it was like, but I am pretty sure they got hailed on at some point. While they both made it in alright, as it was his first stage race, Nick did require some coaching on nutrition/electrolytes before Stage 2 the next day. But this was an easy fix, and after a little chatting on the topic, we got him sorted with what was ultimately a successful plan for the rest of the week.

Two other notable mentions coming in to the Stage 1 finish were Phelim and China. First, as mentioned above, Phelim unfortunately succumbed to problems with elevation. He still made it in good time, but when he headed back to his all French-speaking tent (which included Laurence, who had won the MDS 3 times), he was bombarded as his tent mates dumped his bag on the ground and started throwing out stuff they said was unnecessary: “You don’t need this, you don’t need that, why do you even have this? you already have a whistle on you bag. Get rid of this, get rid of that. And from now on you will start eating your desserts for breakfast and your breakfasts while you run to eliminate the heavy weight before you start!.” It was quite a crash course on what one needs and doesn’t need. And because his tent mates were so concerned about him, he even got tucked in to his sleeping bag that night when he couldn’t get it zipped. So much for being uncomfortable in an all French speaking tent, I guess!

As for China, he came into the finish as the last competitor of the day. As we all went to congratulate him, and as I gave him a high-five he said to me “I promise I will not take this long again!”, and the funny thing was that it really was the only day that he came in as the last competitor; every other day he sped it up, big purple ruck sack and all.

Finally, we did unfortunately lose one of our tent mates who had to drop out with a knee injury (Greg – the older gentleman (60’s?) that got traded to us the day before). So we were down to 6 in our tent. Greg was originally going to exit camp that day, but it turned out that they couldn’t get him a ride back to Kanab, which turned out to be really great because I got a chance to talk with him over the next 18 hours before Stage 2 started. It turned out that Greg, a big hiker (apparently he had hiked the entire Pacific Coast Trail just a few years earlier) was just beginning to explore CrossFit. So when we started talking about it, he was really interested in knowing about my lifts, etc. I guess this discussion really inspired him, as he said that what I was doing really motivated him to get back and start doing some lifting, etc. I gave him some suggestions about what he should focus on, and he seemed to really appreciate the advice. Hopefully, I can find a way to follow up with Greg and see how he is doing post-race.

These discussions, along with Garth giving our tent a crash course on pre-taping hotspots/wounds/etc (especially for Nick) and my own re-taping my feet, and now lower back, for Stage 2 pretty much brought my day to an end. Luckily, I was in a tent that shared similar sleeping habits as we all made our way to bed around 8:30, and because Stage 1 was complete, it was much easier to doze off quickly.

-To Be Continued-

US Competitors: