My First Ultra: Table Rock 54 Mile Ultra

Well I decided to make a blog after finishing my first ultra marathon!  Does this mean I will finally become the hippy vegan natural barefoot runner that I always dreamed of.., maybe not, but it will allow me share my experiences before I forget all the good details and replace them with fun engineering equations(stupid finals)...

Anyways back to the ultra, I decided for my first ultra, given enough training should be a 50k and as luck should have it I found one in Bandera, Texas over winter break. But wait I thought this was about Table Rock? Ahh yes, you see the thing is, when I was on a training run for the Mountain Masochist in October a man I just met named David Horton (who I hope is well after this weekend!) tried to entice me to enter the race in a couple of weeks. After a couple of days I decided to not enter as I would probably injure myself without training enough for the race. So I did the next logical step, find the next ultra close enough that was 50 miles ASAP! So in my flurry of signing up for wait lists because everything was booked I found Table Rock which being its second year of the event and on the same date as Hellgate (props to VT Ultra!) had plenty of spots left, so I signed up and waited for December 8th.

Now I was planning on just going to the race the night before, sleeping in my car, finishing the race (hopefully), and driving home after the race, like the hippy vegan natural barefoot runner I can only dream to become. However I soon found out that Leah also signed up (yay!) but she wanted to stay in a hotel (thus dashing any dreams I had of being a frugal natural barefoot vegan runner :( ). And we got Ivan to crew for us (Big shout out to Ivan for coming in the clutch for Leah and I). So we set off late Friday evening to Morganton, NC and the start of my first Ultra.

The weeks and days leading up to Table Rock I had no fear what so ever of doing 54 miles, I was just eager to finally get to run my first ultra. So I lined up at the front and took off with the leaders until the first aid station at mile 4. I wanted to see how long I could comfortably run with them then back off to a comfortable pace once the elevation started to change.

Excited to start the race!

Lining up at the front

The first section of trails we hit were really nice, easy jeep/gravel trail that had some steep climbs but most was runnable and had some great views too. Ivan kept stopping about every 5 miles down the road to see if I needed anything, but I was fine, in fact I didn't stop until aid station 3. I am glad that he got pictures of me and the great views we had on that section though. Through this section I got passed a couple of times but I was just out there running my own race and knowing not to try and push myself early and death march to the finish. 

Running through the fog

Awesome View

Feelin Good! High Five!

What the views looked like for the first trail section!

So I finally got up to Wiseman's View but my knee had been hurting me for the last couple of miles so I took some Advil in my baggy in my pack got some Gatorade and water and headed back down the road. Soon enough the pain came back, I figured it must be because I was using more of a heel mid-foot strike than I usually do going downhill, so in an effort to reduce the pain I oddly went faster my using a forefoot strike that I normally do on downhills. This seemed to work well and soon enough I was off the trail and on to some pavement.

Turning around at Wisemans

This middle road section in the race seemed to go on forever at certain points, all I hoped for was that I was going the right way and didn't get lost out there. I was mainly running by myself out here so I had to keep a lookout to see where the course markers were at which as it turns out were pretty easy to find. After some steep roads I came to the next gravel section around mile 26, from there it was mainly downhill to the start of the ascent up table rock.

I came into the 7th aid station just passing an early starter where I saw Ivan again, nothing I needed here just took some salt tablets and Advil and got some food. I was about to leave when the aid station worker told me I was about 5 minutes from taking 3 spots. Just like that my competitive mode turned on like a switch. Knowing there was about 4 or so miles downhill to table rock I figured I could gain some ground here, and man did I! I stepped up my pace a little bit here and looked at my watch as I was running at around 7:00 pace. I normally would have slowed but it felt comfortable and I could see two people in front of me. I passed them quite quickly and built a solid gap onto Old Table Rock road. The road climbed some here but not too much so I ran some but walked most considering I had a size able gap from the last person I passed. He caught me as I reached the next aid station however as he ran the whole time and I was just trying to conserve my energy.

So we started up to table rock and I swear I have never seen a road soo steep. We hiked it the entire way at about 17-18 min pace, good thing it was only about 1.5 miles. But then, even more fun as we get to go up the trail to the summit which was just as steep. I out hiked my companion on the road but he gained a couple seconds going up the trail, once we got to the top I realized there was about four people ahead of me that were on the summit. Competitive mode turned back on and I flew down the trail passing all four in about a tenth or so of a mile and then building my lead all the way down to the first aid station. Elated I told Ivan I was in 6th(I was really in 7th but didn't know). I didn’t think about it but running downhill that fast had a bad effect on my stomach.

In about 4 miles i had to get to the top! Soo steep!!

About a minute before puking coming back down Table Rock

At the aid station I knew I needed to eat more food so I got some PB&J and other snacks, some soda and took some salt tablets and Advil again. The aid station worked told me not to take too many Advil because it might cause my kidneys to fail (definitely did not want that to happen!). Right before I left I ate a PB&J square thingy and immediately felt bad. A couple hundred feet later I puked, not once but three times, completely getting rid of all of the food I just ate, but hey! at least my kidneys wouldn't fail! Still being in my competitive mode I set off(I really should have gone back to the aid station and ate more food).

In the next stretch of trail I felt horrible the entire time, walking all of the uphills and even some of the downhill sections. I thought I was lost because there was a second path at the start of this section that while being the wrong way, was clear of grass and brush. This had me second guessing myself for about 2 miles but I figured the way I went was the only logical way for the race. 

 I came into the aid station at mile with pretty much empty bottles and no gels left. Ate some food hoping I would feel better and refilling my bottles and setting off once again. Between this aid station and the one at mile 46 I was pretty delirious, it didn't help that the sun was in my eyes either. I could barely run and had to walk after about a minute or two of running. Luckily Ivan came by about a mile down the road, I told him I felt like death and didn't really know what was going on. All I knew was that my feet hurt so he helped me change my shoes and I told him to meet me at the next aid station. 

I got passed by three people by the time I got to the next aid station, trying to keep up with each of them as they passed me. I came into the aid station with the third person to pass me and was wondering what to get that would make me feel better. I saw some ramen soup and remembered hearing that it works great so I got some and so did the guy I was with. Sure enough it did the trick and I was feeling great again and could run!!  I can’t say the same for the guy who I was running with as he fell back with cramps. I also learned that if you put coke in your water bottle don’t fill it all the way up (I got sprayed in the face, not cool).

Surprisingly I ran the entire time into the last aid station and was catching up to 8th place. I got some water and was going to drink soda but my body was rejecting sweet food at this time so I just put it down and left for the finish. I was catching up to 8th and with about 3 miles to go he picked up his pace, I was pretty drained so I decided not to chase him. The last 2 miles were extremely frustrating because of the twisty road we came down I kept thinking the finish was around the corner only to be greeted with some more road. Finally!! I saw the lake house and was extremely relieved to finish the race.

Finishing Strong!!

After the race I went down to the lake to stick my feet in the nice cold lake water and relax for a bit. After about 30 minutes Ivan and I decided to go help Leah out, turns out she got lost and had pain in her back but she finished (way to go!!!). Ivan ran with her the last 8 miles (major props!!).

So my first ultra was quite an adventure and I learned a lot about pacing and aid station strategy. It was a lot of fun and can’t wait for my next ultra in January in Bandera Texas!!