2013 Medoc Trail Marathon Race Report

Flight of the Stumble Bee

 The 2013 Medoc Trail Marathon was the highlight of my race season this year. The Medoc Trail Races – both the marathon and 10 miler – have a lot going for them: dedicated race directors, amazing volunteers, challenging venue, excellent swag and cool trail names. If you like trail races you need to put one of these on your calendar. Last year I hiked the 10 mile race with my daughter. This year I tackled the marathon with my best friend, Frank. My trail name this year: Stumble Bee. Frank went with Earth Rocker.

Both the marathon and the 10 miler start out with an out-and-back on the park road and then share the same loop course over park trails. The marathon starts at 8:00 am and consists of three loops. The 10 mile starts at 8:30 am and is one loop. Either way it’s a challenging course. In addition to the roots and rocks that are right there on the trail marathon label, there are a couple of tough hills. Between mile 2 and 3, there is a not quite perpendicular, rocky climb followed by a less steep but longer incline. Then around mile 7, there are those blankly-blank stairs. Of course there are a few ups and downs sprinkled in throughout to keep it interesting, along with some nice flat stretches along the creeks.

Gauging Goals

As my regular readers know I like to set several goals for each race. It’s like a buffer for reality. The goals you achieve help take the sting out of the ones that you just can’t quite pull off this time. In the immortal words of Meatloaf: “two out of three ain’t bad.” I always like to acknowledge making it to the start line as the first goal. If the race is a marathon that’s a pretty big achievement in itself. My next goal was simple survival: I wanted to finish the race running or at least finish doing my planned 5/1 run/walk. At my first trail marathon two years ago, I had to speed hike the last four miles because I just couldn’t run another step. It stung a mite.

My plan was to try to maintain a 15 minute per mile pace on the first loop, 16 minute per mile on the second loop and whatever pace I could manage on the third loop. Marathoners have 7.5 hours (7:30:00) to complete the race. Given that my first trail marathon took 7:50:07, I would have to PR to make it. Oddly enough I really didn’t have a finishing time in mind. I just wanted to beat the 20-mile cutoff of 5:30:00 and make it to the finish line.

Loop 1: A Self Guided Tour

So the horn sounds at 8:00 on the dot and we run the short segment on the park road, across the big field and into the trees. Here Frank and I part company. He wants to push the pace and try for 14 minute miles or faster. About two miles into the race I realize that I’m running alone. The runners ahead of me are out of sight. I honestly have no idea if there are any runners behind me. At times like this I really wish I was faster.

I come to the big hills and walk up them. My theory is that if I can’t run a hill faster than I can walk it then I should walk it. Here the trail turns into a rolling double track. I pick up my pace and breeze through the first aid station. I notice that they have two portajohns this year: no waiting. They also have water, Gatorade, gels, M&Ms, and a signature treat: boiled potatoes. The volunteers cheer me on.

At about 57 minutes the lead runner in the 10 mile race blows past. He is really hauling it. I wonder if I could run that fast for a half mile. A full eight minutes pass before the next 10 mile runner goes by. Then the rest of the 10 mile runners begin to slide by me. Just a few at first then the main body of runners. So for the rest of the loop I have the company of these guys. It helps psychologically. I’m no longer running alone. My average pace for the first loop: 14:53 per mile.

Loop 2: Hope at Halfway

Completing the first loop brought me back to the start area, where I find that my wife has filled my spare water bottle saving me valuable seconds. Never underestimate the importance of an awesome support team. More importantly she hands me my double interval timer. I had left it in the van and had to guess about my run walk intervals for the first lap. The timer serves two purposes. It reminds me to take walk breaks which are essential to my race strategy, and it carves the marathon into manageable chunks. I run for five minutes: the timer buzzes. I walk for one minute: the timer buzzes. Rinse, lather, repeat.

Soon I’m back at the two mile marker. Mile markers at Medoc are unique. The left side gives distance for the 10 mile runners, in this case two miles. The right side has three distances one for each lap for the marathon runners, in this case 1.1, 9.7 and 18.2 miles. This is the second loop so I’m at 9.7 miles and wondering what kind of shape I’ll be in at 18.2 miles on the next loop.

Right around the 13 mile mark I pass another marathoner. She jokes that she is beginning to think the 10 miler might have been a better idea. I tell her that I think that at every mile marker. Between this point and the big bridge, I reel in two more runners. Mentally this changes everything. I feel like I’m racing now.

I run alongside Little Fishing Creek and pass the second aid station without refilling my water bottle. A decision I will regret shortly. I come to the stairs on Bluff Loop Trail and walk up them with another marathoner. I surmise that he is a lap ahead of me and just a couple miles from finishing. He is breathing hard and his footsteps make a lot more noise than mine as we climb.

Just as I come to the second set of stairs, these go downhill, I run into Frank. He runs best in the cold and the warmer and more humid conditions (50º – 70º degrees F and overcast) have slowed him down. He falls in with me, and we complete loop 2. My average pace for the second loop: 15:39 per mile.

 

Loop 3: The Grind

So back at the start area, once more my wife hands me a fresh water bottle and I’m across the big field, through the treeline and back on the trail. I notice that Frank is still with me. Looks like we’ll run the last loop together, just like old times at the Triple Lakes Trail marathon in 2011.

We run/walk until we get to the big hills and walk up those. As we top out we see a very fit young man walking the trail. At first I thought he was race volunteer checking the course. As we get closer, I notice that he is limping and that a car is driving down the trail. It pulls up next to him, and a window rolls down. One of the race volunteers leans out and asks the man, “How’s it going?” The man replys, “not so good.” The race volunteer says, “get in.” The man smiles and climbs in the car. They drive past us, turn around and then pass us again going back toward the first aid station. I look at Frank and he looks at me. I think we are both surprised that neither of us asked for a ride.

We continue running and come to the first aid station for the final time. We fill our water bottles, and I pause for a few seconds here to stare at the M&Ms. I am trying a pretty specific nutrition plan, and resist the temptation. We hit the 20 mile mark at 5:11:21. We are 18 minutes and change ahead of the cut off. I feel a tremendous sense of relief. I did not know how strict the Medoc race officials were about the cutoff, and I was glad not to find out.

At this point, we are both experiencing a hitch in our giddy-up. Our pace is slowing. My legs are tired and sore. It feels like they are tied together with a big bungee cord. I just can’t seem to get a full length stride. Frank is cooked and running with his shirt off. We make down the long winding downhill, cross the big bridge, run along the creek and come to the second aid station. We both fill our water bottles again.

The mile markers seem to be further and further apart. It takes forever to get from one to another. Finally we come to the stairs and start climbing. I’m doing better than the guy I climbed them with last loop. It’s a small victory considering he is probably already home and showered. We come to the downhill stairs, run along the creek and then crest a hill. We can see a park road that parallels the trail. We are nearing the finish.

Every few minutes one of us will pass the other. I go by running. Frank power walks past me on the walk breaks. We are not really competing with each other as much as we are just trying to finish this race before it finishes us.

Finally we are in the last mile, and pick up the pace. For most of loop 3 we have been averaging about 18 minutes per mile. Our pace for the last mile is 15:44. We are only walking the hills now. We can hear the music from the finish line getting louder. Time for the final push. We make it up the last hill, run over about 100 yards of paved road, reenter the woods, then break through into the field. I’m in the lead crossing the field and heading for the final turn to the finish line. As I round the turn, I can see the finish line and the clock. It reads seven hours and a few seconds. Is this even possible? Did I just cut more than 40 minutes off my PR? I sprint to the finish line for a chip time of 7:00:58. About a minute later Frank crosses the line. Volunteers gave us our awesome Medoc Marathon finisher medals and a bottle of water. We were done. We had family present. We were sitting down. There was Diet Coke. Life was good. Despite all odds, stumble on.

Hydration & Nutrition

A quick aside about hydration and nutrition. When I did my first trail marathon two years ago, I followed conventional advice. I got up early and ate quite a bit of high carb food. I drank constantly from waking until an hour before the race. During the race I downed a gel every hour. I drained my two-liter hydration vest twice. Drank Gatorade at every aid station. It seemed like too much.

I’ve read quite a lot about hydration and nutrition since that race. My views on fueling have changed, and Medoc gave me an opportunity to test out a more minimalist plan. Much of what I learned came from the book: Waterlogged: The Serious Problem of Overhydration in Endurance Sports by Timothy Noakes. I recommend you read it.

For Medoc I got up at 5:30 am, ate a plain bagel with peanut butter and a banana. I drank a 20 ounce bottle of water. That was it for my pre-race nutrition. During the race I ate two or three mission figs (12 – 16 total) every hour and a Stinger Honey waffle at the end of loop 1 and loop 2. I drank a 20 ounce bottle of water during loop 1, another during loop 2 and about 2.5 bottles during loop 3. I felt fine and exceeded my performance expectations. As my long time readers know, your mileage will vary.