The Bluffs - 30km Trail "race". report

Phew. That was nasty, rough, and tough. Just like I like it. Definitely my type of trail as it suits my weight and ability to stay light on my feet.

It was pretty hot out there too.. my car saying 93 when I left at 11:15am.

My running as you've read has been pretty sparse, or low in distance in the last 3 weeks. In addition, my trail running has not exceeded 10-12 miles since back in JANUARY, so 18 miles today was for me, just a training run where I'd give it a good fight if the legs were willing to cooperate.

My strategy today (since I'd seen the course from helpding weed-eat-it and kept it secret all week) was to go out conservative and let the course beat up the people in front of me, then let the sun finish them off. Pretty quickly there were what seemed like 30 runners pulling away. I settled in with a couple of others at a more conservative pace and just ran. Had a nice conversation with Cindy H for a while, then pulled away from her on a rocky climb. My friend Dan eventually popped up right behind me and we worked together for the 2nd half of the first loop. I told him I knew the course, and it would be suicide to push the pace. We ran together till the end of the first loop where he told me he'd be pulling off to retie his shoes as they were entirely too LOOSE. felt like he was swmming in them and too dangerous on the quite slanted course. I opted to wait as it's more enjoyable to run with a colleague (strength in numbers). I timed us spending a little over 2 minutes but I didn't really care since I wasn't planning on going all out anyway. 58mins total time for loop 1 includng about a 2 minute stop.

Loop 2 was more of the same... hot single track trails in dunlight, very rocky and loose rock dry creek beds, untouched rock climbs to get over and onto flatter grounds and tons and tons of REALLY rocky, untouched, unrun, technical trails with loose rocks, 3 foot drops, rock stepping etc. Not really sure how to describe it other than it was rough and tons of it had to be walked either due to steepness of short climbs, or the fact that we had to walk over boulders, or from boulder to boulder. Dan and I didn't see a soul ahead of us for the entire 2nd loop. Sure there were plenty of walkers or 10km runners we passed, but our true competitors ahead of us, were just that... well ahead of us.

I slowly pulled away putting about 30 yards on Dan with about a mile to go on the long and hot jeep trail that led to the finish. This time i only stopped for about 4 seconds, just enough to swap water bottles (thanks Kamran for refilling my other one!) and take off. The only bummer on Loop #2, is that giant clouds showed up and kept the loop relatively cool. I know this sounds stupid, but when part of your strategy is to have people ahead of you die of heat stroke and simply outlast them by better hydration/salt strategy, cloudy and breezy extends their power.

I kept the pace easy knowing i had plenty of energy draining climbing, stepping and nasty Sh*t to deal with, and also hoped Dan would catch up from the 50 yard lead I now had. Unfortunately he never did. I ran solo, passing slower traffic (30km runners on their 2nd loop) from time to time. And then the sun burned away the clouds and the heat came! woohoo! In this last 10km(6.2mile loop), I caught a runner at about 2.5 miles in. He had set up his chair right next to mine before the race and I was happy to pass and beat his ass. moooahahahah. I then caught another one, and another, on the really rocky nasty area leading to the mid point water station. A quick water bottle refill with plenty Ice (thanks Henry!) and I made it a point to power walk up the steep hill up and over to get out of their site. I'd never see then again. I'm now running along and not a soul is within site (excluding slower traffic). I'm a little demoralized since i'm not seeing any more death marchers, and I rally hoped I'd pass plenty. stupid loop 2 clouds!.

with about a mile to a mile and a half left, I caught and passed a tall dude in black clothes, then once i got on the long jeep road that led to the finish I passed two more, both walkers at this point. (sun and course victims!) I tried to get both to run in with me, but one bitched about his cramping legs and the other just plain had no gas left in the tank. I switched my cadence and running for to as smooth and track speedwork like as i could and pateintly waited for the final turn to the finish.

I finished a few seconds under 2 hours and 55 minutes, with a last loop of 1 hour and 3 seconds. Definitely slowed down in the last loop, which wasn't in my plan as I wanted a fastest thrid loop, but my strategy somewhat worked as I managed to pass 5 pour souls in the last loop. Dan finished behind me by about 90 seconds or so and also passed all those guys. We later congratulated each other on good strategy.

So to my surprise I ended up 14th overall, and if you don't count the double dippers* (masters - 40+ runners), I'm in at 9th in the under 40s.

Not too shabby for someone that's in the offseason, put no pressure on himself and hadn't done much preparation! My loose goal was to finish top 30, and I figured I could maybe go under top 20 if I got lucky with the heat as the very rough course definitely plays in the favor of light runners.

14th! Woohoo!

can't wait to go out there in november when it's cool out and run 5 or 6 laps as a training run for Bandera!

Congrats to Ken who got 3 Masters and 9th overall!!! WHAT A STUD!

*Double Dippers... while driving home I realized Masters runners have it good, and are essentially double-dippers. (my new term). I totally agree that they should have a masters category as age does take it's toll on humans and competing against young bucks is ridiculous. But I do find it amusing that a masters runner can get top 5 overall and get rewarded there, and then, they still go take an additional 3 masters runners to hand out masters runners prizes. If I were king for a day, I'd say... "if you're a masters runner that is top 5 overall, say 3rd for example, you can choose either 3rd overall OR 1st Masters. However, this automaticall eliminates 1 spot in the masters top 3 awards. If he chooses #1 masters, then 6th OA gets bumped down to 5th award. If he chooses 3rd OA, then only 2nd and 3rd masters are given out anyway. Then again, who cares. But that's just what I was thinking on the long and boring drive home that seemed to never end! So that's my idea. what do you think?! (Then again, I probably will hate the idea in a few yerars, when I get all old and crabby and qualify for senior citizen awards too) heh heh j/k