BTMR race report

I took it easy Saturday night after doing it up right for my birthday on Friday night. Drank plenty of water all day, not even one beer, and ate generous portions of rice and refried beans with a chicken breast on the side.

I rolled out of the rack at 5am on Sunday morning and threw on my clothes, downed a peanut butter and honey sandwich, and headed to Manitou. I parked down at Memorial Park, ran the backroads over to Soda Springs and then started the walk up Ruxton. Right as I left the park I ran into GZ and chatted with him for a minute. Had a nice chat with another guy on the way up and got to the depot at about 6:40. I stretched for a few minutes, chatted with Bucky, and then seeded myself at the back of the pack.

When the gun went off I started up the hill. I was conscious of the first climb and didn't even bother to get into a run before having to back off to a crawl up that first hill. About halfway up, I ran into McD and pulled him up through the W's. It didn't take long even at my slow pace for my HR to get into the red zone. I tried to recover on the few flats in the W's but it would quickly jump back over 170 at the slightest incline. Made it to the top of the W's in 38:45. McD indicated that we were about a minute slow of finisher's pace.

As we started towards No Name, McD came around and led for a bit. It wasn't long before he opened a gap on me and I didn't see him again until Barr Camp. I felt OK on the traverse over to No Name and the ice water at the aid station there was refreshing. I popped a gel on my way out and started up towards the flats. It wasn't long before MC came flying down around a switchback. Once I got to the flats, I was able to run some decent stretches but never could get my HR to go down. At that point, any slowing to recover would put me behind the 8-ball with respect to getting back down in 3:30. Luckily, the section from Bob's to Lightning Point is one of the widest on the trail so there was no issue dealing with the return traffic. As I crossed the bridge to make the climb to Barr Camp, I was all alone in the uphill direction and the stream of downhill runners was getting sparse too. I started wondering if I was going to get back down the hill in time.

I finally hit Barr at 2:03 and grabbed a Gatorade as I walked through the aid station. There was a rock step on the way to the actual turnaround loop and as I planted my right leg on it, my calf knotted itself up. I stretched it for a few seconds and came back through the aid grabbing more Gatorade. Once headed downhill I felt pretty good for the first mile or so. However, the uphills on the return immediately bothered my cramped calf. I continued down to Bob's Road in hopes they would have some sort of salt to fight off the cramps. No such luck, however. I'm not sure what time it was when I got to Bob's but I shuffled through drinking two cups of Gatorade and filling my water bottle.

The descent to No Name was pretty uneventful. I could still hear them cheering runners coming through when I was a couple of switchbacks away so I thought I was still within reach. Again I went through and grabbed Gatorade and moved out quickly. My memory is a little sketchy at this point about how much time I had left but I think it was around 45 minutes. I was trying to do the math in my head but quickly abandoned that effort to just keep moving. The heat really picked up once I hit the top of the W's and I was doing all I could to keep my feet up from tripping over the rocks in the trail.

At the Incline AS, I grabbed more Gatorade, topped off my bottle, and kept moving. At this point, it was something like 25ish minutes to go and just under two miles. Shit!... it's gonna be close. I almost took a digger on the second to last switchback but was able to catch myself. At the spur, the course volunteer told me I had 8ish minutes to get down the last 3/4 of a mile. I wanted so badly to stop at Ruxton Creek and take a dip or at least dump my hat in there to cool off but time wouldn't allow it. I finally hit the pavement on Ruxton and as I came around the slight curve saw Bucky waiting for me. He said I really had to move to make the cutoff. I told him something to the effect of "I can get down this hill, but my calves are locked up and I don't know if I can get up Hydro." "You have to do it. Let's go!"

I opened up my stride for the last 20 yards or so downhill and let the momentum carry me up the first few steps of Hydro. About 5 steps in my calves and feet had completely locked up and it was all I had to climb the last 30 yards up to the turnout. The crowd watching let me know that I had "plenty of time" but I threw my water bottle to the ground and dug deep to get to the line. I crossed at 3:29:23. My tag was ripped off my bib and as soon as I cleared the lane, I fell to the ground. My AWESOME wife quickly came over and threw a wet towel on my head and started handing me glasses of water. I rolled around on the ground for a few minutes before finally getting up to take off my shoes, throw on my flip flops, and try to waddle down to the Cog station. We took up residence on a curb by the power plant and it didn't take long before the worst case of cramps I have ever had attacked my calves, the fronts of my shins, and my feet. I attempted to knead them out and stretch but they were locked up tight. I've never felt a cramp like that before. They started loosening up and the guy sitting with us waiting for his wife produced a couple of Endurolytes and I took those down.

My parents finally made their way up to the Cog and shuttled my wife and I back down the hill. I took one bite of a slice of pizza at Soda Springs Park and handed it over to my wife. I was surprised their wasn't water or gatorade available down there. All I knew was I needed to get out of the sun. We made our way across the street to The Loop for lunch where I nibbled on a fajita and drank about 50 oz of water. I finally started feeling a little better after that.

Things done right:
Finished!

Things done wrong:
Not enough time on the mountain
Cramped real bad due to lack of electrolytes (two bottles of S!Caps ordered today)
Hot spots on my heels due to new shoes (stupid)

At least I know what I've got to work on in the next few weeks before the Ascent.