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| Photo courtesy of Jason Green |
My goal for this year’s Sweet H2O 50K was to enjoy a happy run on the trails without worrying about my finish time or even worrying about finishing at all. After I reached the Mile 75 aid station of the Pinhoti 100 race behind the time cutoffs in early November and suffered running burnout in the subsequent months due to an extended recovery period and holiday weight gain, I realized that my shortcomings as an ultrarunner centered around my propensity to gain weight after big races. In February, I started following a Paleo diet lifestyle that eschews grains, dairy, and processed foods in favor of meats, fruits, vegetables, and nuts. Over the past two and half months, I have lost 32 pounds and am now down to my lowest weight since I started running ultramarathons in 2009. I no longer crave sugary foods and unhealthy carbs, I feel energetic throughout the day, and my running ability has noticeably improved over normal training runs of ten miles or less. Because endurance events that last longer than two hours can deplete the body’s glycogen stores, however, Cordain and Friel’s book, The Paleo Diet for Athletes, recommends tweaking the diet plan by increasing carbohydrate intake in the days before a long-distance race and consuming standard sports drinks, sugars, or gels during such races. When my first attempt to balance endurance running and weight loss resulted in a less-than-stellar outcome in March with my slowest road marathon time to date at the Publix Georgia Marathon, I settled on a simple solution and decided to stop trying to balance the two tasks altogether. I decided that I would concentrate solely on weight loss for the first half of 2012 while using my scheduled ultra races in the spring and early summer to enjoy social time with running friends and to experiment with different race nutrition strategies without pressure to achieve any specific finish time goals.
Since I was approaching Sweet H2O 50K with a “Whatever happens will happen.” attitude anyway, I decided to test my recent success at metabolizing fat with the Paleo diet by initially replacing running gels with almond butter during the race. In previous weeks, I had improved my speed at non-stop 10-mile runs without any nutrition sources at all, so I was curious to find out if I could hold off on high-carbohydrate sources for a longer period of time. I realized that my experiment of attempting an ultramarathon on a food source heavy with fat calories could blow up in my face, so I also included some Accel Gels into my Camelbak compartments along with the Barney Almond Butter squeeze packs just in case I needed to fall back on my standard ultrarunning nutrition strategies after the first few hours.
My decision to take the finish time pressure off myself was made even easier by the fact that the race course for Sweet H2O 50K is never exactly the same from year to year. The traditional water crossings over the rocks and rapids of Sweetwater Creek had returned this year after being canceled in 2011 due to high flood waters, and a few of the approach trails to aid stations had been slightly altered. Even if my nutrition strategy failed, I would not have to compare this year’s race with previous finishes.
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| Photo courtesy of Cindy Strickland Ralston |
As I left the pavement for the single-track trail, I was greeted by three runners, Randy, Chip, and Faith, who had traveled from Albany to run this race as their first ultra and had recognized me from my blog reports of my previous Sweet H2O 50K races. I enjoyed the company as we emerged from the short stretch of woods onto the first notable obstacle of the race, a spillway where we had to use ropes to climb down and back up the cement banks. The water level was lower on the spillway this year, so I accepted this as a blessing that the water crossings to come would be merciful.
Rob, a friend and accomplished ultrarunner who has completed well over 600 ultramarathons, joined me as I resumed running on the single-track trails after the spillway and began a rather harrowing descent down a bank covered with large boulders that moved under each step. We continued running a pleasant trail alongside Sweetwater Creek and passed the first aid station, where I waved to another friend, Christian, who cheered the runners from the sidelines while he was recovering from a terrifying amoeba parasite infection that had left him hospitalized for a couple of weeks. The encounter brought a smile on my face, but also reminded me not to take my running ability for granted during this event.
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| Photo courtesy of Graham Gallemore |
Since my energy was already starting to wane after seven miles, I ate a handful of sliced orange sections at the second aid station to take advantage of a natural sugar source without realizing that this first sugar fix was too little and too late after an hour and half of technical trail running. Rob and I joined a few other friends as we left the aid station and ran through an easy, but mildly annoying stretch of tall grassy reeds that brushed our faces at almost every step. This long straightaway section through the reeds encouraged non-stop running, since I knew that plenty of walk breaks loomed ahead on the series of brutal gas line hills leading to the Top Of The World section that provided a view of the Atlanta skyline from a high point of the race. We reached the end of the straightaway and climbed a gravel road away from the reeds before turning a corner and seeing the awesome view of one massive hill after another, with the yellow gas line markers atop each hill crest.
After a couple of mild inclines, we veered off the gas line stretch to descend a hill of large granite boulders and loose rocks that demanded sure footing. A creek crossing at the bottom of the ravine soaked my feet in cold water before I began the most brutal climb of the race up a steep leaf-covered path that obscured unstable rocks and eroded trenches. My energy was eroding in turn, and I soon became light-headed as I topped the hill only to return to the gas line stretch and see the endless succession of other climbs before me.
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| Photo courtesy of Graham Gallemore |
I reached the third aid station and was greeted by a handful of friends who were volunteering for the day. When I told them that I was running out of energy, one asked me, “Is it because of that Paleo diet thing that you've been posting about on Facebook? There's another guy here on Paleo who is over there in the chair with bad cramps.” Muscle cramps were thankfully not a problem, but my light-headed exhaustion needed to be remedied. I drank three cups of Gatorade while a volunteer replenished the water in my Camelbak, then took a big handful of orange slices to eat as I walked out of the station. As I walked away and ate one orange slice after another, Graham passed me in the opposite direction on his way to the aid station and commented, “I expected you to be a few miles ahead of me by now.” I laughed and assured Graham that I would do my best to stay ahead of him on the course.
A short time later, as I reached the end of the out-and-back Top Of The World section and began to climb a series of hills along some power lines that ran adjacent to the gas line hills from earlier in the race, I looked over my shoulder to see Graham behind me in the distance. I was once again in the company of my new friends from Albany whom I had met at the beginning of the race, but they took off at a faster pace when they also noticed Graham approaching. I climbed the shorter power line hills with little trouble, but my progress on the dangerous descents that were cluttered with loose rocks was quite slow. Since Graham is superb at running technical downhill trails at a fast speed, he was starting to catch up with me. When I finally reached Sweetwater Creek again at the end of the power line hills, Graham was less than 100 yards behind me. Now that I was on flat ground once again, I picked up speed with a modest running pace as I jumped over a few fallen tree obstacles along the creekside trail.
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| Photo courtesy of Jennifer Lee Sutton |
The sight of several friends at the aid station atop Jack's Hill made me smile, and I drank three more cups of Gatorade while taking more sliced orange sections to eat as I walked away. Graham was nowhere in sight as I looked behind me down the hill, but I had no doubt that he would catch me over the next couple of miles before the water crossing.
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| Photo courtesy of Cindy Strickland Ralston |
I reached the water crossing in four and half hours with no sweeper in sight behind me. As a crowd of onlookers cheered from the shore, I grabbed a rope and carefully stepped across slippery rocks amidst the water rapids at an unsettled pace. The rope that stretched across the creek was the only thing that kept me from falling on my face in the creek several times over, and I held on with both hands as the freezing water cooled my tired legs.
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| Photo courtesy of Graham Gallemore |
After I took care of the shoe problem, I enjoyed one of the most fun non-stop runs of the entire race as I took off down the yellow trail descent on the way back to the creek for the second water crossing. Now that I had returned to my conventional race nutrition strategy of eating a gel every half hour, I was riding high on the energy and I felt confident about my running ability. As I ran down the yellow-blazed trail, I realized that I was going to finish my third Sweet H2O 50K race after all. The only question was whether or not I would be able to finish my second loop faster than I had finished the first.
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| Photo courtesy of Christian Griffith |
I passed a handful of other runners over the next few miles as I ran the relatively flat trail alongside the creek and climbed up a few technical rocky sections above the rapids. I was surprised at how abruptly my running energy had improved, and I was determined to make the most of it by picking off as many runners as I could before reaching the hilly trails of the Top Of The World section again. I was careful to conserve energy by power-walking most of the inclines, but I also enjoyed more non-stop running stretches with a greater degree of comfort. I was noticing the positive effects of my recent weight loss, especially on the hill climbs.
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| Photo courtesy of Christian Griffith |
My second pass up and down the gas line hills was faster this time around, and I no longer suffered any light-headed tiredness, but the climbs took their toll on me just the same. I passed three other runners on the steep climbs and took comfort in the fact that I was definitely not the only person struggling on this part of the final loop. I was worse for wear when I finally crested the final gas line hill and started the Top Of The World out-and-back. When two friends, Jason and Bobby, passed by me in the opposite direction on their way to the finish and asked me how I was doing, I smiled weakly and mumbled a word that is decidedly unsuitable for repeating in this race report.
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| Photo courtesy of Dawn Nicholson Woodrow |
I reached the final aid station to discover a few faster runners taking a well-earned break on some camp chairs. I reassured the volunteers that I was feeling much better on my second loop now that I was eating proper running fuel, and, suddenly wanting to recreate a hare-and-tortoise scenario, I left the aid station while the faster runners were still resting in the camp chairs. Although I was temporarily reduced to a fast walk, my spirits were given additional momentum as I gave well-wishes to several friends who were struggling in the opposite direction on their way to the aid station that I had just left.
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| Photo courtesy of Dawn Nicholson Woodrow |
As I downed my last three cups of Gatorade and ice and grabbed a handful of Gummi Bears, I thanked the volunteers of the final aid station profusely and then continued along for the final two and half miles of the race. I was well on my way to achieving a negative split for this race where my second loop of the course would be faster than my first loop, despite the noticeably warmer afternoon temperatures and the compounding fatigue from earlier miles.
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| Photo courtesy of Cindy Strickland Ralston |
I chanted to myself, “The faster you run, the faster you're done. The faster you run, the faster you're done.”, as I ran through fatigue on the final stretch up a paved hill, climbed some wooden steps, and broke out into a sprint through the finish line chute. I put my hands on my knees and doubled over with everything left behind me on the course as a volunteer removed my name tag from my race number for official finish records. I had finished my third Sweet H2O 50K in 8:44:43. My finish time was mere seconds slower than my previous year's time, but I had completed the race on a warmer day than last year on a tougher course route and overcome the bad fueling decisions that had plagued me during the first half of the event. I had passed every single runner whom I encountered on the second loop (over 30 runners), achieved a negative split for the first time at this event, and earned my best Sweet H2O 50K placement yet at 152 out of 194 finishers.
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| Photo courtesy of Cindy Strickland Ralston |
Thanks to Johnny Buice, the Douglas County Rogue Runners, all of the volunteers, and running friends old and new for another challenging, but fun Sweet H2O 50K. I am fortunate to live so close to a true extreme event with so many daunting obstacles where friendly faces are there to push me through each one.
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| Photo courtesy of Danny Smith |
See you on the trails.
Jason
