Bandera 25km Trail Race - Race report

After getting up at 3:20am to let Karma out and get dressed, I was out the door at 3:48am headed to Kerry’s house to pick her up. Erin decided to come along for the day and was right on time to catch a ride too. Arrive at Kerry’s 3:59, right on time. We drive the 2 hour drive out to Bandera, Tx stopping twice for nature breaks, and got to the ranch/park site with an hour and change to spare. I was looking forward to running this, but had only done some minor preparation since we firmed up plans on Thursday to go out there and run. Thursday night Pasta, Friday lunch Pasta and Friday dinner pasta to carbo load along with some generous rations of water and electrolytes.

This is no joke of a course. Very rocky terrain, extremely technical rocky hills, with some pauses here and there of flatter, friendlier trails on which to speed up or recover. Granted, I only ran the 25km option instead of the 50km or 100km that some people are still runnin as I write this at 7pm, but still, the pace is obviously faster, and this course is not flat.

My goal is to have fun. I have no goal to run like crazy or to stress myself out, and I have no time goal other than, try and run under 2 hours and 45 minutes. Why 2:45? Well, because it sounds like a decent, and attainable time for a pleasure run. Another important goal is to not die in the last few miles like the last trail race I did in June at the 18 mile Belt, and as this run has considerably more mountain type hills to climb, I’m going to take it easy, walk the steep parts, run a comfortable pace on the flats, and have fun on the downs.


Per the map numbers above:
1- We take off and I slowly make my way around trains of slower people on this one man trail. I run on the tall grass, on the rockier sides, anything to get ahead of groups that are clearly not the pace I want to run. They weren’t going slow, but I wanted to go a tad faster. We quickly approach the first hill, a hill we’ll see again right before the finish. The surprise here is, the hills are steep. How any one runs these is beyond me, because there is no way to run up these hills. We all walk them. A brisk pace on this first one, but it’s a walk. It’s foggy so we can’t see down as we climb, but we have a good 100 yard visibility ahead of us. First descent… I’m going pretty fast, and so are the people around me, so I’m content. Not out of control fast, just a nice downhill pace. At the bottom, I continue to pass slower runners: “On your left”, “Passing on your left, Thank you!”, “On your left, thanks, have a good run!” We quickly reach the climb to the next mountain, and again, it’s steep as shit, so there’s no running. I’m walking, and I’m making sure I’m not killing myself climbing. Afterall, I’m honestly in no hurry at all.

2- I think I reach the top about 30 minutes in, and I still don’t feel warmed up. I think about taking a GU, but I only brought 4 and having taken one before the start, I only have 3, so it’s too early if I’m going to spread them out well. A steep descent were I get more comfortable with a good descent speed, and pass many runners. An almost immediate climb greets us, and I’m again climbing up the hill, walking as does everyone else. I then run along, and catch up to a lady who’s keeping a nice pace. I decide to run behind her, because she looks like she’s been out here before. When we reach the down hills, she’s flying down, and I’m right behind her. We’re a train that can’t be stopped. We pass some slower runners and as we go by, one comments to his friends: “I can’t even fall down this thing that fast!” Ha! We were flying, and a fall would have been painful! So I’m talking to her, but she’s not answering. I figure she’s stuck up, but then evenutally realize that she can’t hear me as she’s listening to music. I turn up my volume, and now she can hear me. Turns out she’s been out here many a time, and is a pleasant running partner.

3- At the bottom of the hill, she decides to let me by, and to my surprise, she eases up. I’m feeling good, having taken a GU at 45 mins in, and another at 1 hour 30. The next hill is a bitch as well. No hills were runnable. At least not for me, and now I’m alone. On the downhill, I’m flying. I’m jumping from rock to rock, analyzing the descent and I’m 3 or 4 footsteps ahed in my head just popping from footstep to footstep at a crazy fast speed. It’s fun! There’s no one in front of me, so I can “Let it rip!”.
I finally catch up to a guy that’s again, running a pace that feels good, so I decide to not pass him, and err on the side of caution and not blow up too early. His first words to me as I came up to him: “You over 40?”. Nope. “Ok”. I guess I was no longer a threat and could be his friend. He’s a nice guy, and at this point, we running along pretty flat areas and conversing about this race, marathons etc. Had I been 40 yrs or old (and in his Age Group, the story would probably have been different). We reach the last Aid Station, and I take my last GU at around 1hour 50 mins figuring I need it for the last hill more than I’ll need it for the last descent and finish sprint.

4- After a quick water stop to refill my bottle (I refilled my hand held water bottle at each station, except the first and last ones), he tells me he needs to take a leak, so I wish him luck and treck on, on my own. I'm now running along a couple of miles or so of mostly flat running on these flatlands (pictured) with no one ahead or behind me. I’m getting tired mentally, but quickly think to concentrate on my breathing.
I breathe louder: INNNN, out out, INNNN out out, INNNN out out. Very pronounced breathing, but this routine puts me into a nice running groove and pace, taking my mind out of the mental gutter. I’m now thinking… “You know, I think I’m doing pretty good here. I’m going to keep a good pace and give this a strong strong finish. Plus, i'm here to have fun, and this is fun! Let's give it our all!”.

5- I finally reach the last hill, and it’s the bitch of a hill I walked at the start. Except this time, the quads and calves are burning on my walk/climb and I’m thinking: “If someone wants to catch me, and pass me on this thing, more powre to them! I can’t go any faster.” I look back about half way up this beast but see no one. I continue climbing, and breathing loud but this time a much deeper INNNN and OUUUUUT breaths to slow down my heart rate. (Worked well in the prior hills as well to recover from the running). As I’m approaching the top, I see a person up there. He seems to be about my age.

6- I’m going to catch this guy if it kills me. I’ve gained on him on the climb, and within a few minutes I am 50 yards from him. I slow up a little, but still outpacing him to gain slowly. I’m now about 20 feet from him as we reach the big descent. I’m faster. I know I’m faster. He asks me: “Hey, is this the last hill?”. Thinking of the other guy that asked me if I was in his Age Group, and having determined this guy may very well be in mine as he certainly does not look over 40, I reply” I have no clue. It’s my first time out here, and I’ve been lost for a while. I think there’s more climbing but I have no idea.” (yeah I lied, I figured I’d demoralize him. When in war, you do what you can to beat the poor saps). But regardless, I’m clearly faster than him on this descent… I’m flying down the hill, and he’s being cautious. I know there’s only a mile and a half to go, and he might not know this. I put a good 30 feet on him, and as soon as I hit the flats, I take off. BAM! I think of the conversation I had had with Paul Terranova, trail runner extraordinaire during a morning warm up run to the track earlier the summer. The trail winds along a tree line, and I’m going to put distance so he can’t see me on the strightaways. If he can’t see me, he has no clue how far I am, so he can’t gain on me, or use me as a rabbit. (thanks Paul!). I’m killing this guy, and I’m now easily at a sub 6min30sec pace (faster than 5K pace) giving it all I got to the finish. The last mile feels really long, and I even dump out the rest of my water thinking it’ll make me light to not carry water. Ha! I finally see the barns and farm houses at the finish, and I give it all I got to the finish. A strong strong finish.

I ended up with a 2 hour 20 min time. (not sure of exact time as I didn’t start my watch at the start).
The final results weren’t posted by the time we left, and as the 100km race has a 24 hour deadline I won’t know exactly how I placed for a couple of days.
But, after the awards handout, I asked to take peek at the printout and saw my name as 10th overall.

I got 10th overall! That’s freaking fantastic!
I’m going to take a leisurely, pressure free approache to more races and decide on them 48 hours in advance more often! I'm supper excited as you can see by the long ass race report!
(I’ll post official results and times once the are posted online)

P.S. No cramps! Thanks, Mer!