29 people registered for the marathon, 25 started. Of the 25, 6 did-not-finish for a total of 19 finishers.
Men's and overall winner finished the marathon in 3:31:15.
I finished 12th overall, 9th male.
As an added note, Chia was 1 of only 5 females to finish the full marathon.
Monday, June 14, 2010
Indian-Celina Challenge
My wife Chia and I ran the Indian-Celina Challenge trail (ultra) marathon on June 12, 2010 in the Hoosier National Forest, just north of Tell City, IN. The course was quite challenging and the weather a big factor later in the day. Here's how I saw it.
We got to the Hoosier National Forest on Friday evening about 7:00 pm and were greeted at the guard shack by the camp host. I had reserved a camping spot on line several weeks prior. The campground had numerous pit toilets similar to the ones at Berryman (I'm going to do a lot of comparing to Berryman here, so stand by for that) but also pea-graveled campsites, electric services and a central shower room with running water, flush toilets and shower rooms. Quite nice actually. We set up the tent in between thunderstorm cells and settled in with a beer to get set up for the next day. There was also a fishing tournament going on at the park that weekend so we had some different neighbors at the campground than we usually have the night before a trail run but everyone was reasonably well behaved and when I woke up at 11:15pm to make a trip to the outhouse all was dead quiet.
We awoke the next morning at 04:00 to rain and I immediately pictured another day of Berryman-like running in ankle-deep water but the rain stopped quickly and the rain from the day/night before had mostly soaked in. It would not do more than sprinkle intermittently the rest of the day.
We made a pot of coffee on our Primus Classic Trail stove (I LOVE that thing) and set about our morning routine. We drove down to the park entrance to get our "race pack" which included only a thin magazine about the trail series, a pamphlet on the park and the nice Brooks technical shirt. This race does not use paper numbers, which I really like. They just write your number on both forearms with a Sharpie.
We drove back to our campsite and finished preparations. We jogged the .75 miles or so from our campsite to the start (thus making the day's event an "ultra"!!!) and set off a little after the published start time of 06:30. There is an 8-mile, 1/2-marathon and marathon option so the first 1 to 2 miles were pretty crowded. After that it thinned out quickly and at the first aid station the 8-mile runners split off. I passed or was passed no more than 10 times the whole day and the last 13 miles I was almost totally alone.
The aid stations were a little spartan by ultrarunner standards and were manned by high school students mostly and runner from the Tell City community. Water, sports drink, trail mix and M & M's were pretty much it. I wore my Ultimate Direction Wasp with a Camelback bladder was very, very thankful I did later in the day. I would characterize the volunteers as helpful and cheerful but it was clearly not the same as seeing familiar and encouraging SLUG faces there!
The course was is pretty good shape despite all the rain. There were numerous muddy areas but almost all were complete navigatable and not really that lengthy. On the second loop it was a little sloppier in places and I did get a shoe sucked off once. There are 4 or 5 stream crossing, the deepest and widest one very similar to Brazil Creek and had to waded. The others you could mostly pick your way around/across with minimal soaking. The course itself is not particularly technical and there is very little rock or root dodging necessary. Long stretches of it are wide and soft with pine needles or dirt and there is not much in the way of switchbacks. What the course does have though is hills. Long, semi-steep, and did I mention, long. Most of the hills were exposed to the sun and grassy and necessitated walking even on the first loop, at least by me. Which brings me to my run.
I started off slow and let the 8-milers and 1/2 marathoners as well as the over-ambitious newbies go fast for the first couple of miles, and the packs quickly thinned out. It was hot and humid even at the 6:30 start, probably 80 degrees, so I had planned to take it easy on the first loop and really concentrate on taking fluids at the aid stations and supplementing with the water from my Camelback in between. As far as food goes I use Honey Stinger Gold gel and planned to take my first one at the 2-hour mark. I snuck trail mix or M&Ms at each aid station also. I felt a little low on sugar by the time I took that first gel at 2-hours but felt pretty good, although really hot already, by the time I finished the first loop at 2:38 (by my watch). I had a back injury a couple of months ago doing Crossfit in my garage and this had aggravated my hip problems which in turn seem to due to my flat feet, but I digress. What I mean to say is that the problems I was having with hip pain and quadratus tightness that led to my decision to drop at 25-miles at Berryman were not an issue at Indian-Celina. I think the arch supports and the chiropractic manipulations have really helped in that regard. Anyway, I was a little slower on the first loop than I hoped but still though I might be able to finish around 5-hours.
The second loop did not turn out so great, to say the least. The increased heat and occasional sun caused me to slow and I seemed to spend more time at the aid stations pouring water on my head in an attempt to cool down. I took a second gel at 3:30-mark and increased my water intake from my Camelback as well as at the aid stations. Unfortunately I had made a huge mistake and forgot to put S-caps in my pack. I had a big, brand new bottle in my duffel back in the trunk of my car, back at the campsite, but none with me. The aid stations had no potatoes and salt or even salty potato chips that I usually eat at ultras, and although I didn't specifically ask, I didn't see any S-caps at any of the aid stations or really have any reason to suspect the aid station workers had any. Subsequently I began to really struggle with hydration. My hands were getting puffy and my pee darker and less frequent as the second loop went on. I had not used all the original fill of water in my Camelback until about half way through the second loop, but then I refilled and drank it all with an hour after that, yet I was still crumping. I walked A LOT more of the slight hills than on the first loop and between the aid stations at 22.1 and 24.1 I drained a my full Camelback again. I began to have serious doubts about being able to finish and was actually passed by one of full marathon female runners whom I had not even previously seen behind me. I pulled out my iPod, which I rarely use, especially on trails, and began to mentally hunker down, trying to just make it to that 24.1 mile aid station. My water was gone and I was really feeling like crap as I walked hill after hill, hoping the aid station was around the bend at the top of each one, as I had remembered it from the first loop. I had no ideas how far I had gone or how far to go since my pace was so off and I really wasn't sure what time I had left the last aid station or precisely what mile maker the hilltop aid station was at.
I finally crested a hill to see find the last aid station which was manned by a couple of high school guys who were obviously bored and ready to be done for the day! I asked if they had soda since I had not seen any the whole day and they said they had 2 cans of Coke left in the cooler. Oh MAN, what a lifesaver!!! I downed one of those and took in as much trail mix as I could. I spent a few extra minutes savoring the last half of the Coke, obviously leaving the other can for the next poor soul, and refilled my Camelback for the last 2-miles or so to go. I headed out of the aid station feeling a little better, and within about 10-15 minutes felt a lot better. I kept hitting my Camelback but my hands were getting puffier and puffier so I was surely losing all my intravascular fluids now. I came upon another runner with about 1/2 mile to go, sitting on top of a large rock at the top of the last real hill of the day. He looked even worse than I had felt 20 minute prior. I stopped and offered him water from my Camelback which he readily accepted. There was still a lot in there and we were close to the end so I encouraged him to take as much as he wanted. I goaded him into walking with me a little ways then tried to get him to run but he was not having it. He assured me he was alright and I know the road was only about 50 meters ahead so I took off at a pretty good clip and broke onto the road at about 5:58/5:59. I knew there was no way I could break 6:00 and really didn't even care so I strode over the finish line at a reasonable pace to finish about 6:01. My splits were about 2:38 and 3:23.
I was about the 11th or so overall finisher and 8th or so male, and I learned there were a half- dozen or so people behind me still on the course and that a lot of people had DNFd or dropped down to the 1/2 marathon. The guy who took some of my water finished about a minute after me and the RD went out to sweep the course for the last hour or so of the official race. Of the 6 or so left, 4 or 5 dropped, one crossed about 1/2 hour after the course closed and one was still running when we left to head back to the campsite. I had two burgers and some more water and perked up a lot, but as I mentioned previously I was really, really dehydrated and had a lot of extravascular fluid on board. Some salty chili and burger at Wendy's did the trick and by the time we got back to my parents' house in central Illinois my hands were back to normal.
I made some big mistakes on that run, learned a lot, and did some really, really good mental suffering. It was a valuable training run and overall a good day for me, despite my crappy time and splits.
I would definitely recommend the race and the campground, and may do it again next year depending on timing.
Oh man, I forgot to mention the bugs! How could I forget?!? The horseflies and fly-flies were horrible all day! Ten times worse than I have ever, ever seen at Berryman. Just terrible. I guess the rest of my struggle sucked so much I nearly blocked that out, but they were really bad. I bathed in OFF! at every aid station and had reasonable luck keeping them away early on, but eventually I guess I sweated it off or they just became immune and I just accepted they were part of the deal, but they sucked.
I don't have anything planned until Howl at the Moon but I'm going to try to get up to McNaugton or over to Clinton Lake trails on the weekends I can't make it down to St. Louis and keep refining my strategy and building my endurance going into the summer and fall and hopefully I will have learned enough and built enough of a base to tackle the Ozark Trail 100 come November.
We got to the Hoosier National Forest on Friday evening about 7:00 pm and were greeted at the guard shack by the camp host. I had reserved a camping spot on line several weeks prior. The campground had numerous pit toilets similar to the ones at Berryman (I'm going to do a lot of comparing to Berryman here, so stand by for that) but also pea-graveled campsites, electric services and a central shower room with running water, flush toilets and shower rooms. Quite nice actually. We set up the tent in between thunderstorm cells and settled in with a beer to get set up for the next day. There was also a fishing tournament going on at the park that weekend so we had some different neighbors at the campground than we usually have the night before a trail run but everyone was reasonably well behaved and when I woke up at 11:15pm to make a trip to the outhouse all was dead quiet.
We awoke the next morning at 04:00 to rain and I immediately pictured another day of Berryman-like running in ankle-deep water but the rain stopped quickly and the rain from the day/night before had mostly soaked in. It would not do more than sprinkle intermittently the rest of the day.
We made a pot of coffee on our Primus Classic Trail stove (I LOVE that thing) and set about our morning routine. We drove down to the park entrance to get our "race pack" which included only a thin magazine about the trail series, a pamphlet on the park and the nice Brooks technical shirt. This race does not use paper numbers, which I really like. They just write your number on both forearms with a Sharpie.
We drove back to our campsite and finished preparations. We jogged the .75 miles or so from our campsite to the start (thus making the day's event an "ultra"!!!) and set off a little after the published start time of 06:30. There is an 8-mile, 1/2-marathon and marathon option so the first 1 to 2 miles were pretty crowded. After that it thinned out quickly and at the first aid station the 8-mile runners split off. I passed or was passed no more than 10 times the whole day and the last 13 miles I was almost totally alone.
The aid stations were a little spartan by ultrarunner standards and were manned by high school students mostly and runner from the Tell City community. Water, sports drink, trail mix and M & M's were pretty much it. I wore my Ultimate Direction Wasp with a Camelback bladder was very, very thankful I did later in the day. I would characterize the volunteers as helpful and cheerful but it was clearly not the same as seeing familiar and encouraging SLUG faces there!
The course was is pretty good shape despite all the rain. There were numerous muddy areas but almost all were complete navigatable and not really that lengthy. On the second loop it was a little sloppier in places and I did get a shoe sucked off once. There are 4 or 5 stream crossing, the deepest and widest one very similar to Brazil Creek and had to waded. The others you could mostly pick your way around/across with minimal soaking. The course itself is not particularly technical and there is very little rock or root dodging necessary. Long stretches of it are wide and soft with pine needles or dirt and there is not much in the way of switchbacks. What the course does have though is hills. Long, semi-steep, and did I mention, long. Most of the hills were exposed to the sun and grassy and necessitated walking even on the first loop, at least by me. Which brings me to my run.
I started off slow and let the 8-milers and 1/2 marathoners as well as the over-ambitious newbies go fast for the first couple of miles, and the packs quickly thinned out. It was hot and humid even at the 6:30 start, probably 80 degrees, so I had planned to take it easy on the first loop and really concentrate on taking fluids at the aid stations and supplementing with the water from my Camelback in between. As far as food goes I use Honey Stinger Gold gel and planned to take my first one at the 2-hour mark. I snuck trail mix or M&Ms at each aid station also. I felt a little low on sugar by the time I took that first gel at 2-hours but felt pretty good, although really hot already, by the time I finished the first loop at 2:38 (by my watch). I had a back injury a couple of months ago doing Crossfit in my garage and this had aggravated my hip problems which in turn seem to due to my flat feet, but I digress. What I mean to say is that the problems I was having with hip pain and quadratus tightness that led to my decision to drop at 25-miles at Berryman were not an issue at Indian-Celina. I think the arch supports and the chiropractic manipulations have really helped in that regard. Anyway, I was a little slower on the first loop than I hoped but still though I might be able to finish around 5-hours.
The second loop did not turn out so great, to say the least. The increased heat and occasional sun caused me to slow and I seemed to spend more time at the aid stations pouring water on my head in an attempt to cool down. I took a second gel at 3:30-mark and increased my water intake from my Camelback as well as at the aid stations. Unfortunately I had made a huge mistake and forgot to put S-caps in my pack. I had a big, brand new bottle in my duffel back in the trunk of my car, back at the campsite, but none with me. The aid stations had no potatoes and salt or even salty potato chips that I usually eat at ultras, and although I didn't specifically ask, I didn't see any S-caps at any of the aid stations or really have any reason to suspect the aid station workers had any. Subsequently I began to really struggle with hydration. My hands were getting puffy and my pee darker and less frequent as the second loop went on. I had not used all the original fill of water in my Camelback until about half way through the second loop, but then I refilled and drank it all with an hour after that, yet I was still crumping. I walked A LOT more of the slight hills than on the first loop and between the aid stations at 22.1 and 24.1 I drained a my full Camelback again. I began to have serious doubts about being able to finish and was actually passed by one of full marathon female runners whom I had not even previously seen behind me. I pulled out my iPod, which I rarely use, especially on trails, and began to mentally hunker down, trying to just make it to that 24.1 mile aid station. My water was gone and I was really feeling like crap as I walked hill after hill, hoping the aid station was around the bend at the top of each one, as I had remembered it from the first loop. I had no ideas how far I had gone or how far to go since my pace was so off and I really wasn't sure what time I had left the last aid station or precisely what mile maker the hilltop aid station was at.
I finally crested a hill to see find the last aid station which was manned by a couple of high school guys who were obviously bored and ready to be done for the day! I asked if they had soda since I had not seen any the whole day and they said they had 2 cans of Coke left in the cooler. Oh MAN, what a lifesaver!!! I downed one of those and took in as much trail mix as I could. I spent a few extra minutes savoring the last half of the Coke, obviously leaving the other can for the next poor soul, and refilled my Camelback for the last 2-miles or so to go. I headed out of the aid station feeling a little better, and within about 10-15 minutes felt a lot better. I kept hitting my Camelback but my hands were getting puffier and puffier so I was surely losing all my intravascular fluids now. I came upon another runner with about 1/2 mile to go, sitting on top of a large rock at the top of the last real hill of the day. He looked even worse than I had felt 20 minute prior. I stopped and offered him water from my Camelback which he readily accepted. There was still a lot in there and we were close to the end so I encouraged him to take as much as he wanted. I goaded him into walking with me a little ways then tried to get him to run but he was not having it. He assured me he was alright and I know the road was only about 50 meters ahead so I took off at a pretty good clip and broke onto the road at about 5:58/5:59. I knew there was no way I could break 6:00 and really didn't even care so I strode over the finish line at a reasonable pace to finish about 6:01. My splits were about 2:38 and 3:23.
I was about the 11th or so overall finisher and 8th or so male, and I learned there were a half- dozen or so people behind me still on the course and that a lot of people had DNFd or dropped down to the 1/2 marathon. The guy who took some of my water finished about a minute after me and the RD went out to sweep the course for the last hour or so of the official race. Of the 6 or so left, 4 or 5 dropped, one crossed about 1/2 hour after the course closed and one was still running when we left to head back to the campsite. I had two burgers and some more water and perked up a lot, but as I mentioned previously I was really, really dehydrated and had a lot of extravascular fluid on board. Some salty chili and burger at Wendy's did the trick and by the time we got back to my parents' house in central Illinois my hands were back to normal.
I made some big mistakes on that run, learned a lot, and did some really, really good mental suffering. It was a valuable training run and overall a good day for me, despite my crappy time and splits.
I would definitely recommend the race and the campground, and may do it again next year depending on timing.
Oh man, I forgot to mention the bugs! How could I forget?!? The horseflies and fly-flies were horrible all day! Ten times worse than I have ever, ever seen at Berryman. Just terrible. I guess the rest of my struggle sucked so much I nearly blocked that out, but they were really bad. I bathed in OFF! at every aid station and had reasonable luck keeping them away early on, but eventually I guess I sweated it off or they just became immune and I just accepted they were part of the deal, but they sucked.
I don't have anything planned until Howl at the Moon but I'm going to try to get up to McNaugton or over to Clinton Lake trails on the weekends I can't make it down to St. Louis and keep refining my strategy and building my endurance going into the summer and fall and hopefully I will have learned enough and built enough of a base to tackle the Ozark Trail 100 come November.
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