Before I even toed the start line of the Javalina Jangover, I had amassed a slew of excuses as to why I wouldn’t do well:
· Race day breakfast – one apple
· Race day lunch – ¾ of a pizza + a heavily frosted cupcake (nephew’s birthday)
· Spent the entire race day at a water park in the 103 degree Phoenix sun, running up stairs and treading water to keep up with my daughters
· Race start temps plummeted down to 99 degrees!
· I forgot my Garmin watch, so I would have nothing to pace myself with or track my progress
Additionally:
· Severe I developed stomach issues during the 3rd quarter of the race, necessitating a couple of pit stops
· My headlamp died with 3 miles to go
None of the runners
doing the 50K wanted to get too close to the start line, so I ended up right
near the front – 4th place in the first ¼ mile. After a little more settling in over the
first mile, I was somewhere in the top 10 and taking it pretty easily, at least
I think I was taking it pretty easily, without the Garmin, I had no real way of
telling. Surprisingly, the pace felt
quite comfortable, despite the temperature – must have been the “dry”
heat. I wasn’t sweating much and kept my
breathing under control.
The sun was
setting just as we set out at 6:00 PM, and we were able to save the headlamps
for the first ½ hour. The trail started
out as sandy but soon climbed and became rockier. About 4 miles in, I heard footsteps slowly
catching up to me. A guy named Daryl passed, but since I was feeling pretty
comfortable, I thought I’d try to keep up with him. Shortly thereafter, another runner a little
ways in front called out to warn us of the first wildlife encounter of the
night, a snake. It’s true what they say –
the desert really comes alive at night.
The
headlamps were soon flicked on and I quickly realized that my light, though a
bit bulky, was considerably brighter than any of the others and illuminated a
nice large area. Having only done short
spurts of running in the dark, at an early race start or the end of a late
training run, I expected it to be much more difficult and fatiguing. It really wasn’t bad at all. I had to make an effort to look up ahead,
just like day running, and not get mesmerized by the ground right under my
feet, but once I gained confidence in my feet, it really was just like running
in the daylight.
I used up my
2 gels early on and was ready for more calories by the time I hit the first aid
station. I filled up on ice water (yes,
they had ice!) but discovered they had no gels or other snacks that were easily
runnable. Not wanting to lose Daryl, I
grabbed a handful of dates and sped off after him. My hands got a bit sticky and the dates were not
pitted, but they tasted good and seemed to be OK with my stomach.
As we
continued on, we slowly started to catch some of the 75 and 100K runners who
had started out earlier. We were keeping
up a pretty good pace, but I was feeling fine. After taking a quick break to water a cactus,
I was even able to catch back up with Daryl within a couple of hundred
yards. I was tempted to keep up the
accelerated pace and sprint by, but I knew that we weren’t even half way done
yet. As we got closer to the
start/finish/halfway point, we caught up to more of the long distance runners
and a few returning runners – Aravaipa set up the race via a 25K loop, with 50,
75, and 100K runners reversing the loop each time. This turned out to be brilliant, as I wasn’t
really alone until the last ¼ of the race.
I stayed
right on Daryl’s heels for over 11 miles, right until we got to the
turn-a-round. I glanced up into the
bright lights and was elated to see the clock at 2:12:23, well below my
original goal of 2:30. While the
volunteers loaded my bottles with ice, I swallowed about 4 heaping spoonful’s
of M&M’s and a couple of cookies – I wanted to keep the calorie intake up.
I tried to
make the stop brief and soon took off, expecting Daryl to follow on my
heels. I kept looking back, but there
was no headlamp to be seen. I kept a
decent pace, even though the trail was climbing again and soon, my stomach
started to rebel. I don’t know if it was
due to the excessive chocolate M&M’s or if overindulging in birthday pizza
at lunch was finally catching up. I kept
hoping it would pass, but it only got worse and I had to make a couple of quick,
but careful, detours into the cacti.
This 3rd
quarter of the race was the most “social” as I came across oncoming runners
every minute or less. The strings of
headlamps were pretty cool and clearly delineated the trail before me. They all had encouraging words for me, but
given my gastrointestinal issues, I didn’t reciprocate as I normally would
have.
I motored
on, and by the time I hit the outer aid station again, the oncoming runners had
ceased, but so had my stomach problems.
More ice, a couple of cookies, and I was off again. This last quarter of the race was by far the
most solitary, but it didn’t bother me at all.
I enjoyed the quiet darkness and tried to maintain a decent pace though
I was starting to tire. At one point, I
looked up and saw the brightest meteor I have ever seen in my entire life! It lasted for at least 3 seconds.
I had
intended to swap headlamp batteries at the last aid station, but the light was
still bright and I didn’t want to waste any time. Now, the light was clearly dimming, but I
still didn’t want to lose time stopping.
The terrain got a little rockier and with about 3 miles to go, I decide
that I could push a little faster with a fresh battery. I should have known there was a problem and quit
when I clicked the switch and the light didn’t turn off, but I figured that
removing the battery would simply reset the circuitry. Wrong!
I put the fresh battery in, clicked the switch, clicked it again, and
again, and again. Nothing. The damn thing wouldn’t turn on. Now, instead of a dimmed light, I had none at
all. There were no runners to be seen
behind me, so waiting around would do no good.
Luckily, the moon was only a couple of days past full and there were
very few clouds in the sky. The trail
was still rocky, but I jogged my way along while my eyes slowly adjusted to the
low light. Pretty soon, I felt
comfortable running at full speed, or at least what felt like full speed after
more than a marathon in the desert. The
only sketchy parts that were the cacti and shrubs which cast shadows across the
trail that were difficult to discern from rocks and holes. I also kept telling myself that the wildlife
had retired for the night. Up until my
light died, I had jumped over 2 snakes (neither were rattlers) and 5
tarantulas.
Surprisingly,
I never tripped, nor was bitten by any stalking critters and as the lights of
the distant finish came into view, I stepped it up for a final push. I broke into camp, into the blinding light,
and crossed the line in 4:31:05, almost half an hour faster than my goal time
of 5 hours and less than a minute off of my 50K PR! Even better, the race director congratulated
me on finishing 3rd! Another
podium finish, and out of 60, that was awesome.
I hung
around for a bit and drank up at least a liter of Ginger Ale, one Dixie cup at
a time. There was plenty of food at the
finish, but I just wasn’t ready to eat.
I stretched, loosened up, and cheered on other finishers for a
while. When I got back to the car, the
panel showed that the temperature had dropped another 10 degrees since the
start, to a comfortable 89. Normally, I
suffer when the mercury rises above 70 and here I was almost shivering when a
slight breeze came along.
Araviapa put
on an awesome race! I’ll be running
their McDowell Mountain Frenzy 50 miler in December, and I can’t wait to do
another one of their night runs.