Where's Critchlery? Oh, There You Are...Yeti review and What's Next

Well shit, haven't sat down to tap out a recap of anything for quite some time.  Where to start?  Well, between work and family commitments, my running has been inconsistent as hell, and my race schedule has been adjusted accordingly since the Yeti 100.  More on that in a bit.  It's mid-October and it still feels like we're in the death throes of an extended Summer, and I've not had the motivation to get out after work most days.  But whatever, it's no pity party and the running I've been doing has been very nice, very scenic, and quite fun.

Highlights:

September 3rd I did a 25-miler at Bluff Point with Faith and Beth, which was awesome!  Multiple loops around Haley Farm and Bluff Point, getting Faith ready for her 100-miler (oh, and me for mine?).  Great day, honest pace, and I didn't feel like it was forced at all.

After that, it was all shorter, cruisy runs in the woods...

YETI 100, Damascus VA.

Soooo...the Yeti 100.  Hmmm...where to start?  In the middle sounds good.  I DNF'd at 34 miles with a jacked-up heel that I couldn't put weight on.  But the beginning and end?  Pretty awesome experience.

I'll start with this:  I met my partner in crime Eric along 95, and we slowly (like, real slow) made our way through shitty CT traffic into NY, then PA, and somehow exceeded the speed limit for hundreds of miles in several states to make it to the race HQ in VA for a mandatory meeting and packet pickup.  Our timing was so close we even texted the RD to let him know we'd be 10 minutes late!

So we get there, I made a last-second decision to change my drop bag and conveniently left a number of things out.  Nice.  Now I'd have to carry all that shit the first 17 miles to the drop bag area.  We rush into the place where the mandatory meeting was happening, just in time for RD Jason Green to take the stage, tell us to "have a great fucking race, can't wait to give you all a hug at the finish!" then basically drop the mic and stroll out like a rockstar.  Classic.  Our race packet was epic, and the best race packet I've ever seen:  bib was inside a vinyl album, printed with Smiths/Sex Pistols classics (I have both albums) on either side.  Trucker hat, shirt, etc...outside I finally met Brian R. and Andy O., our other CT runners.  Brian was in for the 100 and Andy was crewing/pacing for him.  Brian kicked ass, more about that later...

Registration madness!

At the "meeting" I finally meet face-to-face my FB buddy Brian Burk, badass ultra-dude and writer of "Running to Leadville," a running-centric novel that's pretty damned good.  Nice!

We checked into our cottage up the street from the race midpoint in Damascus, and went out to grab a quick bite to eat.  We landed at a bar/restaurant downtown, which, with the influx of runners and crew for the race, was pretty jammed up.  The 20-somethings (think: cast of Scooby-Doo) running the show were swamped, and in spite of some slow service, the beer was good and the pizza we ordered was very good!  Got to bed by 10:30 for a 4 a.m. wakeup.

MY BED WAS LIKE CONCRETE, WRAPPED IN WRINKLY PLASTIC.  No bueno.  Otherwise the accomodations were good.  Oh, and zero cell service and no internet, which would cause problems all weekend.

So here's my race:

We were up way too fucking early, got our shit together and made it to the shuttles at 5:45 for Mr. Toad's Wild Ride to White Top, the mountain we'd start at.  I sat down next to another runner, and as we were chatting, I find out that he has already done a couple of hundred-milers, and that he used to weigh over 400 lbs. and lost over half of it!  Wow!!!  And now he's doing ultramarathons.  Awesome.  After we arrived at White Top, which was quite cold, everyone huddled around until a short speech from our RD, and we were off and running.  Very early on, I ended up running with Brian, as he was doing a 10/2 interval schedule.  In fact, most of the runners seemed to be doing some variation of intervals.  We'd pass people walking, then we'd walk and they'd pass us, and on.  Eric shot past us, and after an hour or so I let Brian pull away.  I caught up to Eric, and we stayed together for the next 20 miles or so, all the way through Damascus, the main aid station, and on to Alvarado.  It was around this time that my right heel started to hurt.  Like really hurt, and every step sent shooting pains up my leg.  I tried running, but it wasn't happening, and I basically limped 9-ish miles to Abingdon, the 34-mile mark, turnaround and first third of the race.  I knew I wasn't gonna be able to run, had zero chance of making the next time cutoff, and dropped out of the race.  The volunteers gave me a bag of ice for my foot, I chilled for a while, then collected my stuff and tenderly made my way to my truck.

Creeper Trail

But wait!  Eric's still running, and I can still crew for him!  It took a while to figure out where he was, but I gassed up my truck, got oriented on where I could catch him, and finally caught up to him at Damascus.  We got him fed, watered, changed up and I agreed to haul his drop bag up to the next aid station.  He was gonna go for it.  I stopped at a Dunkin' Donuts and grabbed him a large iced tea and an iced coffee for myself, and cruised on up to the next waypoint.  After some time, Eric arrived, chugged the iced tea and after some gear changes (it was getting chilly), he set out for Green Cove, 9 miles away...

Here's where my GPS totally screwed me: I couldn't get shit for a signal, so I drove into town and finally snagged a wireless signal, and my GPS was giving me a route up the other side of the trail.  I set out, and found myself on a rutted dirt mountain road, all switchbacks, deep ditch on one side and death drop into the trees on the other.  Great!  I don't get scared, but I was white-knuckling this one.  After what seemed like several miles of this, I finally hit pavement again.  Whew.  I arrived at Green Cove, where a sizeable group was quietly waiting to crew their runners.  By the time Eric made it to me, it was after midnight, quite cold, and I'd seen enough to know that I'll be thinking long and hard before I attempt this distance again.  I just wasn't feeling it.  Eric had been fighting a chest cold before we made the trip, and it had finally caught up to him at roughly 62 miles.  I pulled him off the course, got him into a warm vehicle, and we drove down to Damascus to drop him out of the race.

As for Brian?   Andy paced him for 33 miles, and he ended up finishing in 19 hours, good for 5th place overall at his first 100.  Incredible!

The next day we rested, cruised around Damascus, and did a bit of shopping.  Drove home on Sunday. 

The Appalachian Trail runs through downtown Damascus!

More Creeper Trail

So there's my Yeti recap.  Didn't go well for me.  I took a few days off, then tentatively started running again.  I have to see an orthopedic doc for my heel, and I can manage the little nagging issues that are popping up here and there until then.  As for my race schedule?

I'd entered the lottery for the Georgia Death Race before the Yeti, and got in.  WTF.  When I got back from Virginia, my family let me know that they had really missed me, and asked that I not go away for 4-5 days for races, which I sort of understand.  So I pulled the plug on GDR.  That's life.

Meantime, I have the RI 6hr (version 2.0) coming up this weekend. and was feeling fresh enough to enter and finish the Bimbler's Bluff 50k this past Sunday (recap forthcoming).  After that?  Local trail races until 2018...and then we'll see!