Mountaineer Rumble 12 Hour Race Recap

Just a few hours have passed since I finished this race, and I am setting here linking my wounds. I had 3 hard falls last night. Two, I walked okay with just some bruises. However, the 3^rd fall left a nice scrap down the left side of my face. Seems that I am going to have scars on both my knees and my face.

Several ultra-runners recommended that I do a night time run in my prep for my 100 miler later this year. This race gave me this opportunity.

Having never run a timed event I had no idea what to expect.

The race started at 8 pm, and I would be for the most part running trails that I had never seen. Also, I had decided to go with just one head lamp vs. the normal two head lamps that I wear. This is my plan during my 100 miler. May be not my wisest decision given the technical nature of this trails.

I went through 22 miles in a little over 4 hours. I went through 30 miles under six hours. However, I was finding that as my fatigue grew, my ability pick up the subtle changes in the terrain was getting worse. This is when my first two falls happened. Then, I after the 3^rd fall, I just slowed the pace way down. This really helped. Then, I would only run aggressively on the smoothest sections. Of which, there were few.

This course had more than its fair share of roots, rocks, and creak crossings. I remember on the first lap. I was rounding a corner to a creak and found these 4 widely spaced stepping blocks. I think that it was 8 or 9 more laps later before I started to manage them easily.

Going in to this race, I wondered if I would be watching the clock since this was a time event. This turned out to be a non-factor. I was so focused on the trail and the runners around me that the time just seemed to fly by.

Looking back now, the best part of the race was the last 45 minutes. My entire night was spent looking through the telescopic view of my head lamp. I had no idea what was round me. Then, the sun came up, and I could see the world around me. Even better, I could turn off my head lamp and get back to running hard.  

Kudo to Chris for a well-run race. The course was well marked. He laid all the logistics out for us so all we had to was arrive, setup our stuff, and run.

On a personal note, I got my goal of 50 miles in 11:35:57, placing 3 overall, and 2^nd male. The men’s and women’s winners ended up running 1 more lap than I did. Big kudos to them for handling this course so well.

Kickin’ up the trail dust.

The Cool Down Runner