[Race Report] Black Mountain Monster 24H Ultramarathon
Holy cow. First off, I want to thank all of the amazing Redditors who have been posting words of encouragement and support for myself and the group of us doing BMM - it means so much and is greatly appreciated.
TL;DR: Everyone is awesome. Sorry this is a doozy of a long report... I just tried to make some edits and cut out stuff that I wrote more for myself to remember. Whomp.
Race was Black Mountain Monster 24 hour ultramarathon. The race also had 12 and 6 hour time options. This race has been about 8 or 9 months in the making, with 14 of us running (2 for the 6hr, 4 for the 12hr, 8 for the 24hr) and 2 awesome crew members.
Background This is my 5th ultra (3 50k's and a 12H under my belt). I love endurance races and definitely prefer this kind of challenge over trying to get a speed PR. Training for this was pretty lax since a timed race is a little lower pressure and I didn't have any super solid goals since it was so far off what I've done before. Key training runs: marathon mid-March in 4:52, volunteered at a 100M in early April and walked 25mi with the runner I was paired with starting at 3am, followed by my 12H in mid-April where I did about 41mi in 11:30 (2.9mi loop, partial laps not allowed at the end so I was stopped after finishing that last one). Those were all great for getting in time spent running and walking slowly on my feet, experience with running and walking at weird hours, and doing a small loop course. Other than that, usually spent about 5-6 days per week running with a 30-35mpw average, one day of intervals, one long run. As far as ultra training goes, I'm definitely on the lower end of training volume. In the month or two before the race, our group coordinated supplies that were up for sharing and had a few group videochats so we could put usernames with real names and faces, and get comfortable with each other before actually meeting in person. A LOT of effort from a lot of people was required to organize a group this big, and all the planning was worth it. I'll admit, I was SO worried about getting murdered by internet strangers... meeting up like this is totally not something I would have ever expected myself to do, but I decided to make a push out of my comfort zone for this. Spoiler Alert: worth it!!
Pre-Race Packed up enough clothing, gear, and fuel to survive for about a week and then hit the road. We all got there on Friday and met up in person at Tent City, the big field by the course where we could all set up tents and canopies. It was oddly not awkward! We got some stuff set up and a few of us went to packet pick-up around the same time and chitchatted about some topical things and warmed up to each other. I bonded with u/craigster38 and u/mrscraigster38 over our love of Harry Potter World and my jealousy that they're doing the Dopey Challenge at Disney next January. We left and I quickly checked into my motel since I wasn't planning to stay at the house (couldn't make myself go that far out of my comfort zone), and then went to the house for fooooood. Dinnertime meant demolishing a 40-inch pizza (1/4 cheese, 1/4 pepperoni, 1/4 veggie, and 1/4 something with olives, EW OLIVES!), a dozen gourmet donuts (as u/c0me_at_me_br0 says, they were diabolically and diabetically delicious), and 2lbs of fudge (/u/sacamato is a pro). u/brwalkernc handed out our team shirts, u/zazzera passed out the super awesome frames he made, and u/despoena showed off the prizes we could win and surprised us with awesome stickers with our team logo on them! We sat around and chatted and hydrated (some with water, some with cider, some with beer) and dove right into random little side conversations, silly stories, and total panic about what to expect the next day. Got to the site (last, of course) the next morning and started setting my stuff up, added some things to our communal fuel/supplies table, and laced up. Sat around since the start was delayed half an hour, watched u/c0me_at_me_br0 pre-game with a few beers, ate my feelings in the form of chocolate covered espresso beans and some peanut butter pretzels nuggets, and eventually it was time to go to the line!
Laps 1 to 9 Starting gear: plain black singlet, magenta Nike pro double up shorts, Brooks Cascadia shoes with gaiters on top to prevent mud and crap from getting in. Spibelt to hold my phone, Nathan handheld with 20oz of half Tailwind, half water to dilute it, and a gel and fig newtons as backup fuel. Ran the first couple of laps a little speedy with splits between 35min and 39min. Ran with u/mrscraigster38 for a bit until she left me in the dust to speed towards her 6H goal. Started getting familiar with the course and learning the notable markers to expect on later laps, like a mud pit I had to dodge until the awesome RD and his crew filled it in with mulch. Took a little towel out with me to wipe sweat off my face and out of my eyes. It also started raining, which was nice and cooled me down a bit, so I threw on a hat and embraced the weather - at least it was masking the fact that I was soaked in sweat! At some point, I swapped from my trail shoes over to some Brooks Ravennas and put on fresh socks. I think that was probably on lap 9? I wanna say it was before I hit the 50k mark. Felt like a new person. Every time I came to the aid station, LadyShoes and u/craigster38 were immediately asking me what I needed, what they could do, how I felt. They were also keeping me posted on how everyone else was doing out on the course. What a freaking awesome crew! I had my phone on airplane mode through the race to save battery, but at some point around here I turned it on while I was walking hills so I could tell my mom I was still alive… I’m not sure if she was more concerned about danger from excessive physical exertion or about stranger danger! I had sent her the link to the reddit thread so she was able to follow along with u/craigster38’s updates and the official race live tracking, and that eased her nerves a bit. She now knows my username and said that she knew it was me as soon as she saw the list of usernames… and apparently the way I write is similar to the way I talk. HI MOM. I told her that our team was incredible and that they were all looking out for me (rather, we were all looking out for each other!) so I was definitely not going it alone, despite arriving solo. She also told me to be careful, listen to my body, not to overdo it, and find a buddy for nighttime. Typical mom stuff.
Laps 10 to 18 Around 6 hours into an ultra is when the fun starts - felt settled in from the adrenaline of the start wearing off and realized just how much more time there was until the end of this thing. The 6H folks were off the course, leaving just the 12H and 24H out there. Was seeing other InCrustWeTrust team members intermittently and shouting words of encouragement, and chatted with a few other strangers whenever we'd end up side by side. Had a nice convo with some 12H lady about how awesome the race atmosphere at trail races and ultras is, and that it seems to draw a really laid back crowd compared to a lot of road races. Eventually it got dark and it was time to bust out the headlamp. It was not very effective, so when I returned from the first darkness lap, I fueled up while u/craigster38 kindly changed the batteries in my headlamp, and u/despoena grabbed me her headlamp to check it out, and u/denovisibi came around the bend and passed off her headlamp. At this point, it seemed like the battery replacement was exactly what was needed, so I headed out on yet another lap with a much more functional headlamp and a just-in-case spare. Kept chugging along, loving the glowsticks that were now placed out with the flags to mark the course in the dark. Around midnight, it was gonna start cooling down a bit. Paired with the sweat drying, I swapped outfits for warmth - time to rock the moose ARTC singlet and my t-rex tights! Posed for some fabulously goofy (and unflattering) pictures taken by u/craigster38 and hit the loop again. Got lots of compliments and giggles at the dino leggings, which added entertainment. Food was getting difficult at this point - my mouth was kinda dry and making it hard to chew, nothing was appetizing, I couldn't decide what I wanted to attempt to shove down. LadyShoes, u/craigster38, and the 12H folks who were hanging at the tents and not passed out yet (/u/linkynet is a smarty and got a hotel room so they could shower and nap and then return to cheer) were checking in with me to make sure I was feeling good. The RD and volunteers were awesome - I'd usually grab stuff from our InCrustWeTrust table before heading to the official aid station, and when I got there they'd always ask what I wanted and what they could get me. Somewhere in here, u/YourShoesUntied was miserable and asked me how the heck I was so positive and energetic after one of my laps. I FEED OFF THE TIREDNESS OF MY COMPETITORS. Just kidding…….. maybe……..
Lap 19 and on At the end of lap 18, I switched into Hoka Constants. Fatigue was really kicking in, physically and mentally. I was getting creeped out in the dark... my headlamp moving around was casting shadows and I kept thinking I was seeing a big black tail of a creature off to the side of the path, but realized it was just the way the light and shadows were hitting the plants. My head was on a swivel just waiting for a bear to jump out at me. Somewhere I spotted u/zazzera and u/barnaby_mcfoo trekking along the course together - we almost didn't recognize each other because of our clothing changes and darkness! Another lap passed, and when I got to the tent, u/DAHarlow offered to join me on a lap. He is a freaking rockstar! He did the 6H, paced u/despoena for a lap, paced u/c0me_at_me_br0 for 3, and then joined me for two (at this point... more to come!). His company was so needed, and he kept me at my goal pace and chatted to keep me awake, and nudged me along whenever I needed words of encouragement (or gentle scolding) to pick it up a bit. I was slightly delirious and didn’t realize until later, but he was drinking beer all through our laps together! Got back from lap 21 realizing that I had enough of a buffer to keep me a lap ahead of anyone who called it a night at 100k, I was in 1st place female, and was hurting sooooooo much. I decided to take a nap - I was very satisfied with how I did, even if my placing fell back, and I would rather end uninjured than keep pushing too much because I'm stubborn. I was absolutely frozen and couldn't stop shivering, but luckily I had brought those warm-up thingies that heat up when you take them out of their packet. I grabbed my blanket and went into the vacant tent that the Craigster's had to curl up in a ball and nap. Two hours later, I woke up and found out that a few women passed me, flew into a competitive rage, and set out with my superhero cape (or, ya know, a very colorful striped blanket wrapped around me for warmth) to try for some redemption mileage. Once again, u/DAHarlow joined me as a pacer and was a trooper. He kept a few paces ahead of me, chatted occasionally while I apologized for being boring and quiet because I was totally not functional at that point and all I could do was keep moving. Got back and decided to set out for one final lap. The two of us walked with u/brwalkernc for a while, realizing he was about to pull a W and hit 108 miles with the completion of that lap. I caught a glimpse at the 3rd place female, and realizing that she was only about 0.3 miles in front of me with about 1.5mi to go for the lap, I started to pick up the pace - u/DAHarlow came along and we said bye to u/brwalkernc since he didn't have that extra gear to speed up with us (uh, DUH. I don't know how he was still moving at all!!!). I saw her and her pacer up ahead and started jogging to catch her. u/DAHarlow kept me moving and didn't let up, we got past them and kept going for about a quarter mile to the 3mi sign, and then we passed by the portapotties and canopies and I ran (shuffled?) across the line and timing mats. STILL 4TH?!?!?!? GAHHHH. Hadn't realized she had a lap on me. WHATEVS. There was 25 minutes left and they were counting partial laps, so I headed out solo to reach the Mile 1 marker. u/brwalkernc's doppleganger passed me with about a quarter mile to the sign, along with some of his pacers and the RD, who shouted at me that they were stopping at the Mile 1 marker and would wait for me there and hang until the clock ran out, and then we'd all walk back together. Made it to the sign with 5 minutes to spare, got high fives and some awesome comments on the tights. We then hobbled back to the start, talking about the race and stuff. The whole In Crust We Trust crew (ALL OF WHOM PR’D, YAY!) was there at the finish waiting for me and cheering. They are freaking incredible people and so caring and asked me what I needed and wanted and told me I was awesome and I told them they were awesome, too, and it was just a big ol' lovefest, filled with joy and exhaustion on everyone's parts.
Overall Race & Up Next I kept my GPS off but had my watch running so I could keep track of my splits... looks like the first three were 34min, 38min, 37min, and then looking at "moving time" for the rest of my laps so that I can exclude stopping at the tent for food, shoe swap, or clothing changes, they were pretty consistently between 46 and 54 minutes. I was doing a lot more walking at the end, but the running spurts were faster. In the end, I did 23 laps plus 1 mile, since they allowed partial laps at the end provided you made it to one of the mile markers where they were stationed by the cutoff time. That got me 72.46 miles total, 10th place overall, 4th place woman. Distance PR of about 50k and time PR of 12:30 (previous was 41mi in 11:30, from a 12H race in April that didn't allow partial laps). Next up is a big break before Uncle Pete tells me to get moving to redeem myself at Philly in the fall. Time to redeem myself from MCM (where I PR'd and cried about it) and drop that 4:03:59 to a sub-4. Before that, also planning to bring lifting, bodyweight exercises, and swimming back into the workout routine.
I LOVE EVERYONE I am super freaking proud of myself on so many levels, and the running, itself, is only a minor part of that. I pushed outrageously far out of my comfort zone to meet up with a bunch of random people from the internet - I legitimately was more nervous about the people than the race. I went into this weekend ready to put on a fake smiling face to cover my awkwardness with strangers. u/craigster38 and other folks photographing at the race caught a bunch of shots of me looking giddy and in good spirits, and we joked around that I was always smiling in the pictures – I really don’t think that a genuine smile came off my face the entire time… except maybe in that one photo he got at the finish line, but that’s excusable! I left the weekend totally at ease with a group of incredible people who I can now consider friends, or even family. It was a privilege to rock out on the course with them and I am so happy this whole thing worked out, and I hope to run with them again in the future. From the very first second, it was all laughter and jokes and support, and I can't imagine a better group to share this weekend with. WHAT A BLAST.
Other team member reports:
Posted May 31, 2016, 11:54 AM UTC · edited
You are such a freaking rockstar, Dino! Many congrats! And of course a very entertaining read. :-D (I would expect nothing less! LOL) Love the t-rex leggings too of course.
I swear that running has an incredibly unique thing that instantly bonds people - what a great way to embrace that! So cool that ya'll pulled everyone together.
Thanks lady!! Haha I was trying to brain-dump as much as I possibly could so I could remember it later, and those are all the things that stuck out other than running, running, and more running!!! Glad you enjoyed reading it, and the leggings :)
It really is so interesting, and to share that experience with others is even cooler.