Subject: Rocky Racoon 2001 Race Report Date: Tue, 06 Feb 2001 16:44:25 -0700 From: Dale Perry Where do I begin? I originally signed up for this race in the hopes for my first sub-24 hour 100 mile trail run. Everyone said this event was a good one for setting PR's, and being relatively easy, I figured why not? Not that any 100 miler is an easy do, but achievable nonetheless. A bit of preliminaries are in order: I had a bad year running 100's this past year (Leadville DNF at 86.5 miles due to a lot of various things but not limited to mashing the front of my big toe and a severe case of edema in the hands and feet) and a finish at Arkansas despite remashing the toe I mangled at Led and a return of edema. I was concerned with the edema issue, and wanted to find out the cause. I had a pretty good mileage base going into Rocky: Leadville and Arkansas. Kept up with the mileage afterward and put in a lot of long runs, nothing over 40 miles, and a few back-to-back long runs thrown in. I was ready. After talking with several people about the edema thing, I had boiled it down to two causes: too much stress on the body from running very hard at Leadville and little recovery from Arkansas, or to little sodium during the events. I tend to have a high salt diet, and the fact that I gained 10 pounds at both Led and Arkansas and constantly had to pee suggested a low-sodium problem. Or it could be a combination of the two. Or neither. So, Rocky became an experiment for me. I revised my goal of a sub-24 hour finish to a PR, planning on running a slow, consistent pace the first two to three loops and see what happens. After that, I would gage my progress and condition and either go for the PR or try for a sub-24. Drove down to the Huntsville area with my friend Bob Rayburn and his son Robert, who was also running. Being only 17, he is a unique ultrarunner out on the course and his second finish at Rocky in 23:33. Bob turned out an impressive 25:57. Since the course is fairly mellow, hill-wise, with excellant footing, going out easy was going to be tough. No big hills to slam you into reality to go slow. In fact, Mickey warned everyone at the pre-race brief to go out easy as it will suck you in early for fast times and later DNF's. The big challenge for the event are the five 20 mile loops. I hate loop runs, but they lend themselves for easy aid and course progress. I knew the fourth loop was going to be tough, and hoped I had enough in me to finish the last loop strong. I wanted a fairly consistent first 50 miles. There were several out and back sections on the course. One took you to the first aid station at 3.7 miles at the top of a gently climbing, soft-packed dirt road. The other out and back was a nasty 5.3 mile section of mostly up outbound, and a nice inbound downhill (with the obligatory short uphills thrown in to make you slow down a bit). By the fourth loop, this section really seemed long. I kidded Mickey at the start-finish turn- around about his moving the turnaround farther and farther down the trail with each passing loop. At night, this section seemed to go forever and always uphill!! With a course like this, you meet a lot of the same people either coming in or going out and getting passed. Each time I met up with Robert, he would mention Monty Python's Lumberjack song as a joke. I have a history of getting silly little song's in my head during these things, and I ended up wrestling with this song for 20+ hours of Rocky. I got to KNOW the song. I never wanted to do this job in the first place! I... I wanted to be... A LUMBERJACK! Leaping from tree to tree! As they float down the mighty rivers of British Columbia! With my best girl by my side! The Larch! The Pine! The Giant Redwood tree! The Sequoia! The Little Whopping Rule Tree! We'd sing! Sing! Sing! Oh, I'm a lumberjack, and I'm okay, I sleep all night and I work all day. I did the first loop in 3:38. Took it easy and was feeling really well. I saw some bloating in my hands, so I was concerned about the weigh in. I also was peeing a lot, so I know this was the start of my edema. Got weighed and gained 5 pounds. Okay. I ran easy and relaxed. So I'll start supplementing my sodium intake (I add salt to my drink mix) with a salt cap an hour and see what happens. It wasn't hot yet, but it was worth a shot. On the second loop, my peeing slowed down quite a bit, and ran the second loop in 4:04. Weighed in just 2 pounds over this time! Ah ha!! I was now convinced that my problem is more than likely a low sodium intake. It was starting to get warmer now (in the 60's) so maintaining sodium will be critical for the next loop. I cut down trees, I eat my lunch, I go to the lava-try. On Wednesdays I go shoppin' And have buttered scones for tea. The third loop was fairly relaxed, joined up with some fellow SLUGs from St Louis (Jan Ryerse and Tom Reich), and ran a fairly moderate pace. Reached the 50 mile mark in 9:47. Not a PR, but I was happy nonetheless with such a good time and feeling pretty good. Did the loop in 4:32, weighed in 3 pounds over my base. Still looking good. By this time, it was around 6 PM, and getting dark. Went to the car and changed into warmer clothes for the cold night ahead (expected low's in the low 30's). In my haste to get going, I forgot to replenish my sodium caps. I ran out two hours into the loop, and had to scrounge for whatever salt I could at the aid stations. There was a heavenly angel at aid station 1 who offered to roll my legs with a rolling pin. Ahhh. I cut down trees, I skip and jump, I like to press wild flowers. I put on women's clothing, And hang around in bars. The fourth loop lived up to my expectations: slow, feeling like crud, and peeing up a storm. I did the fourth loop in 6:02, since I fell into my perverbial 75 mile slump and walked about a 2 mile section at about the pace of the Bataan Death March. Funny how the little hills that I ran so effortlessly earlier now seemed like Hope Pass. This particular section wasn't really my favorite anyway (between the dam and the swamp) since there are no recognizable landmarks to chart your progress. The roots here were also particularly nasty. Once I got to the boardwalks at the swamp, I started feeling better and ran a bit. I got weighed in at 10 pounds over my base! Ouch!! I shouldn't have forgotten the salt!! Went back to the car and got more salt caps. I looked at my watch and saw that I had less than 6 hours to get a sub-24 in. I felt it was doable, but I was going to have to run a lot of the loop and not waste time at aid stations. As I started to run, I actually felt pretty good, so running was not a big effort. I ran fairly comfortably given the early morning dark and knowing this was the last loop. I saw fellow SLUG Mark Williams flying in for his finish as I was heading out for the fifth loop. He ended up finishing in 18:20 something for 7th overall. I chop down trees, I wear high heels, Suspendies and a bra. I wish I'd been a girlie Just like my dear papa. I started feeling like running, and ran most of the loop. It was still a long way to the finish, but I kept at it section by section. I really started to hammer it (or so it seemed to me. For all I know, I looked like a snail out there) at the boardwalks and ran the last 3.5 miles fairly hard. I didn't stop at the 174 aid station yelling out my number as I whished on by the aid station volunteers like a snail on molasses. Once I got to the Interpretive Center, I know I had about a mile to go and really floored it. I looked at my watch, and saw I had only minutes to go. I knew at that point I wasn't going to make the 24 hour cutoff, but decided to go for it anyway and see how close I can get. I got through the finish in 24:05:32, and weighed in at 6 pounds over my base. So my experiment was a success, I figured out what's going on with the bloating, and now I know I can come up with a management plan prior to this year's Western States, where heat is going to be a big problem and keeping the sodium in will be a big challenge (those that know me can attest to the profuse amounts of salt loss when I run). What's this? Wants to be a *girlie*? Oh, My! And I thought you were so rugged! Poofter! The aid stations were just great. Lots of soup, and the hotdogs at 174 were great at each loop. The volunteers were fabulous and took my pre-mixed baggies of drink mix and mixed up my bottles while I strolled though the table stuffing my gob with whatever I could find. I probably looked like John Belushi in Animal House before he did his zit sketch. Food Fight!! Saw two armadillos on the trail, heard rummaging in the leaves throughout the day (raccoons or dillos) and heard the cries of coyotes halfway through my fifth loop. During the night, I only had on a pair of running pants, a poly- pro longsleeve and another longsleeve shirt on top of that, gloves and a ball hat. I never felt cold through the night. I kept the same shoes on during the whole run. Unfortunately, this will probably be the last year for this race at Huntsville State Park, as Mickey is retiring this summer and will hold the race at Bandera Tx next year. He has raised the cutoff from 30 hours to 32 hours, so it looks like it will be a bit more challenging for that sub-24 hour finish. Hopefully, the aid stations and volunteers will still be top notch and supportive like they were this year. Thanks Mickey and all the volunteers for putting on a great race!! Dale