Umstead Trail Marathon 2012 -Race Report

Umstead Trail Marathon 2012

(aka Umstead Swamp Fest)

It was with much anticipation that I awoke Saturday, March 3, 2012 at 6:00 am to the sound of rain tap-tap-tapping on my window sill.  “Surely Jon and Amber will not want to run in this crap”… was the first thought to pass through my clouded morning haze.  I looked at my phone.  A text from Jon said, “This is not good”.  Amber followed with a few…too much to type in response.  So I called.  The decision was made to AT LEAST go get our shirts…LOL.  Fear…and relief at the same time.

We debated the merits of running.  We debated the merits of not running.  I think we all knew we were going to run.  As soon as I saw another runner, I was sold.  The “buzz” of race day is so addictive.  The rain had stopped…for now.  The chaos of packet pick up is always interesting for a people-watcher like me.  Runners are an interesting group…but trail runners are the MOST interesting subset…colorful and geared up for battle against the best Mother Umstead can dish out…camel packs…water belts…trail shoes…ponchos…hats…I imagine Dr. Seuss’ Prom to look like the last 5 minutes before the start of a trail race.

I had not eaten my normal pre-race meal…only a granola bar.  I DID try a new hydration plan…taking 3 days to increase fluids (and I think it made the biggest impact on this race for me).  But the race was quickly sneaking up on us…15 minutes…10 minutes…OH @#$% I forgot to use Body Glide.  5 minutes…rain…26.2 miles ahead of me…no Body Glide?!?...Oh Well….Ready….Set….CHAFE!

It always feels great to start a race…no exception today…the mud was a fact and not to be avoided…smile and suck it up…maybe the single track won’t be THAT muddy….LOL…little did I know.

I settled into an easy pace…the pack slowly forged ahead of me…game on.  By the time 150+ runners made the trek through the singletrack portion of the course, it looked (and felt) like well-worn hog paths.   I was with several other “runners” for a large portion of this section.  Running for any kind of distance was not possible, especially after the downpour from miles 4-ish through 6-ish.

I am not sure of the exact distances, but I seem to think that I came out of the single track section at around mile 8-ish at around the 2 hour mark.  For some reason the fact that I had to cover 18+ miles in 4 hours loomed heavy over me given the conditions and the 6-hour cut off made it hard to relax and enjoy the race until I had covered the next few miles at a decent pace.  The bridle trails at Umstead are compacted and mostly dry.  So I settled into the run/walk that is serving me well these days.  The hills are AMPLE…but, that means the down-hills are long and a great chance to stretch out and get some miles covered.

I met some really super-nice runners…something about meeting someone on the trail…a very friendly bunch.  I decided to be a cheerleader for the last 12-15 miles and made sure to encourage EVERY runner I came into contact with.  Non-runners will never understand the power of a “good job, brother” when all you want to do is lie down and quit.  I did the back-and-forth with several runners over a dozen or more miles and we were all very encouraging and friendly.  It was great day to run.  My body was not rebelling…my head was in the game…my feet were holding up…my back was behaving.

About ½ way through, I heard a swishing sound growing louder and louder…I looked to my right and 6 deer were paralleling me.  As I approached a bend in the trail, they turned and crossed about 25 feet in front of me, so close, in fact, I can tell you that the last two, without having visible antlers, were males…LOL.  I could smell them.  I saw a wild turkey a few miles later.   The course is absolutely stunning and is a quite the surprise being in RALEIGH…I often felt like I was off in a very remote area and was pleased by the peace and scenery throughout the race.

Of the 3 marathons I have “run”, this was, by far, my favorite.  I “needed” this marathon after the week preceding it.  A dear friend lost his daughter, unexpectedly, the week before.  It had been a tough week watching a friend in pain, and, after the anxious feelings surrounding singing at her funeral, I was emotionally drained and in need of a re-charge.  Calling a marathon a “re-charge” sounds backward, but I think many of you understand.  Time running is all I have for JUST ME.  It is the only time I disconnect…time alone with the Lord and His creation…time to consider the important things with nowhere else to be for the next 5:44:15.  When I run, I laugh out loud at things no one else has a clue about…I cry about the things in my life that need to be mourned.  Umstead heard my laughter and felt my tears. 

There is no effective way for me to explain the feeling I get from running a marathon.  The physical BEATDOWN is obvious.  I wear it like a badge.  But the emotional cleansing is harder to explain.  The spiritual aspect is equally difficult to articulate.   I have to simply acknowledge that there is a spiritual/emotional “place” or state I can reach when I push myself past discomfort, where, despite the physical ridiculousness of 26.2 miles, my mind and spirit leave the body on autopilot and explore places I am otherwise too busy to allow myself to visit.

Then I hit mile 20. I think it was mile 20.  They had Oreos and Gummi Bears.  I “hoovered” 2 Oreos like a hostage…thus creating a very dry mouth…I headed down the trail with a cup of Gummi bears in hand…Cookies and Candy…5 more mile fueled by SUGAR…SIGN ME UP!...I ate a few Gummi Bears and suddenly I cannot breathe….I panic…no one behind me…no one ahead…what the?.....i balled my fist…pushed it into my sternum and flung myself into a tree.  I fell onto the trail as the Gummi Bear flew from my nose and mouth.  I laughed….then I kinda shook for a minute…that could have been bad…but the good Lord takes care of fools and children, and I am grown!  I decided that I would limit the next 5 miles to fluids…UNTIL I saw FRITOS!  WHAT?  BEST RACE FOOD EVER!  Fritos are as good as a ribeye at the Angus Barn at mile 24 of a marathon…with a Dixie cup of Coke…WHAT?...amazing what the body appreciates after too-many miles on-the-hoof.

I ran for a while with a nice lady who was running her 46^th marathon and 9^th Umstead…she went on ahead…she had a little more rocket sauce left at mile 25 than I did….but she was encouraging and described every turn left in the race…knowing I was starting to flounder…picturing the last few turns helped a lot.

The Garmin said I was close…just around the next turn…clock reads 5:4something????….gonna make the cut!…Brandie and kids drove up to see me finish…Ethan and Luc smiling and bouncing…I think they are proud of “old dad”…Grandpa Rusty (B’s dad) was there…he thinks I am insane for running these things, but was there for OBX and Umstead…I think he knows, at some point, he needs to be there to help me into the truck again…LOL.

It wasn’t all rainbows and unicorns….I HATE mud…I hate wet feet (and the blisters that accompany wet feet)…I, now, know I hate running with a poncho on (at least when I am already wet)….not a cool feeling…I hated to find out my runnin buddy didn’t make the cutoff.  But….

I love running without a shirt on…and did almost all day

I love the outdoors and this was some of the best scenery NC has to offer

I love the freakshow of colors at races…psychedelic Skittles in expensive shoes…LOL

I love the solitude….AND

I love meeting folks on-the-trail

I love the physical challenge of 26.2

I love the Shingletons…they make running a “family” activity…God Bless Jon and Amber!

I love seeing my wife and kids at the finish…hard to top that…period.

I love anything south of 5:59:59 at Umstead….

I love the feeling of being alive that comes from being keenly aware of aches and pains mere mortals don’t get to experience.

5:44:15…in the books…done!

Only 363 days til my next Umstead Trail Marathon…next year…I am shooting for 5:43:15…if I pass on the Gummi Bears, I should be able to hit the mark!

See you on the trail!  Next stop…The Flying Pig…2 down…4 to go for 2012…Peace!

Long overdo Race Report on Chucktown!

Marathon #2 in the books…4 weeks ago…time to think about it…ponder its lessons and celebrate my accomplishment.  So here we go…

Traveling with the Shingletons is always a good time.  Jon was nursing a bum ankle…so his marathon weekend was to be as a spectator…and running is not that interesting to the “crowd”…LOL.  I am quite sure he got plenty of reading done while Amber, Brandie and I ran around Charleston SC on a beautiful, albeit cold and windy, Saturday morning.

So lets go through what is left in my mind 4 weeks later…you know, the important stuff sticks with you…

First…it was COLD…very cold…waiting for the bus…riding the bus…waiting for the start…after the start…DAMN COLD!  To be clear, it was uncomfortably cold while waiting to start the race.  There was an extreme absence of warmth…LOL.

We ran into some of the usual suspects at the start…John Crestetto and Becca Mae…Nelson Long…they were cold, too, I am quite sure.  The sun started to peak over the surrounding buildings just as the race started…I ran about 25 feet and had to stop behind the mass of humanity…but once the race really “began” it was nice to start moving and quickly began to get the feeling back in my hands.  Charleston is a beautiful city, for the most part (details on that later).  It has a ton of really gorgeous old plantation style homes…the waterfront was pretty…the first part of the race was not at all unattractive. 

I MADE myself walk at the 1 mile mark for 1 minute.  I learned a lesson at OBX…walking is ok…better to save a little mojo for later…I am new to this and not quite in marathon shape yet…so I was smart and I walked. Amber ran past me as I walked asking if I was “ok”….Darn it!…see!…walking makes people think you are hurt...or weak…LOL. 

I remember thinking, as she took her long sleeve shirt off and discarded it, “it is mighty early and mighty cold to go with short sleeves”.  The punchline to that thought comes later, but remember this…she was wearing a beige long sleeve Tshirt…LOL.  I made myself walk at least a minute after each mile (later in the race those minutes were longer than 60 seconds…and more frequent than each mile…but everyone reading this has made those “bargains” with themselves while “in the race”…”I’ll just walk for a few seconds…just to the stop sign…until the next turn…over the hill…”…LOL.

A large portion of the race was through older, urban areas, but the volunteers and the residents made sure it never felt like you were running through “the ‘hood”.  There were residential stretches, commercial/industrial stretches, and a lot of running next to bridges.  The Charleston residents made the runners feel welcome and “wanted”.  The PA speakers announcing the hours/minutes/seconds that had elapsed were annoying as all hell…but I am sure they were useful to somebody.

The only real snags were: 1) the expo tent was on a dirt lot…and it was dusty and nasty inside the tent…and really made for unpleasant sinus issues later. 2) at miles 8-13ish…they had fluids at the water stops…but NO CUPS…they ran out….lucky for me I carry fluids…but I know it was an aggravation for a lot of runners…who had to drink out of pitchers…from discarded cups or not at all.

At the Half Marathon turn-off, I really wanted to cut my race short and call it a day…I just wasn’t feeling it.  I asked a volunteer if I could finish the Half…even though I was wearing a Full bib…he said, “sure”.  I explained that he was supposed to say “no” and be encouraging…it was a good laugh at a low point in the race…the wind throughout the entire day was gusty and exhausting…seems no matter which way I turned, I was in a headwind…very frustrating…and COLD…I never got into a comfortable “groove”.

I passed the turn-off for the Half and continued on….i ran, drank, gelled, question my sanity for ever listening to Michael Forrester…LOL…it was not really “fun” for a few miles…really kinda “ugh”…not quite miserable, but not fun.  Until, just a few yards ahead of me I see someone I recognize, but in a BLACK FLEECE jacket…(remember the beige tshirt?)…At some point she got COLD and was forced to resort to “shopping” for a jacket on the sidewalk…LOL…Necessity is the mother of invention, afterall…Amber had been just ahead of me…she is training for the Umstead 100 and this was just another training run for her, but I was SO glad to see a familiar face…my back was buggin me enough to cause pain…my head was not in the game…and I still had at least 11 miles to go…SOOOO glad to see Amber!

So we chatted for the rest of the race…we ran…we walked…I complained a lot.  I am not sure I would have finished if I had not run into her.  The Shingletons are my running guardian angels for sure. 

Then we hit mile 20.  The last 6 miles consisted of a 3 mile out-and-back in one of the least attractive, lumpy pavement, ugly, desolate, industrial, just plain frustrating road and scenery I have ever run…after 20 miles, it felt as if the planners had just given up.  I always feel like the last 6 of a marathon is the “second half” anyway…and to have the “second half” be ugly and funky (not in a good way) and boring was a real letdown.

Extreme nausea set in at mile 26…I encouraged Amber to run ahead…unless she wanted to see/hear me vomit…which somehow I avoided….and I gathered up enough energy to run in the last 2 tenths…nothing like hearing your name at the finish…ESPECIALLY when it is pronounced correctly…50/50 odds at best with a name like Ghiloni.

Good times...great friends...Fantastic meals...FRIED GREEN TOMATOES ON EGGS BENEDICT at Lost Dog Cafe....WHAT?  That JUST happened!

Marathon number 2 in the books…5:23:59.

Next stop, Umstead on March 3^rd!

See ya’ll on the flipside!

E