JDoes.. Bealuh 963 (9-Hour Trail Race)

     Many of you may already know that I like to challenge myself physically and mentally. It's something I really started to get into a couple years ago. The first time I tried something REALLY hard was on my 27th birthday. With almost no training, I went out and attempted 27 miles in one day. I failed. The worse part about it was the next day, I was sore, but nothing was broken or torn. The thing that hurt the most was mental. It was the fact I quit. 

A few months later, on December 26th, I went out to a local trail with my wife (and Crew Chief) and ran 27 miles. My wife met me every 3 miles with a granola bar and water. Around mile 20, I was mentally done and tried to quit. Knowing me better than me, my wife lovingly told me, "You're not getting in the fucking car," and sent me back out on the trail. That's all I needed to hear to get it finished.

Fast forward a few more months, and I ran my first official marathon. I say official because this time, it was an organized event. 

One month after that, my wife and I flew to Utah. This guy was completing a total distance triathlon every day for 100 days. I wanted to be a part of that. So with the help of my wife and cousin, I was able to complete 2 marathons back to back. My wife and cousin even joined me for the last 6 miles on both days. It was AWESOME. 

For my 28th birthday, I had the same goal of going out and running 28 miles. I failed. I had taken so much time off and hadn't been consistent enough in training to do the 28 miles. I had a 4-mile loop mapped out, and all I needed was 2. More. Loops. I was complacent. I thought that my past accomplishes would carry me. I was wrong. The scary thing was, I was alright with the fact I quit. I talked myself into being okay with not finishing the job. 

I let myself get some much-needed rest for pretty much the rest of the year. I gained a handful of pounds and thoroughly enjoyed the holiday season. 

Then I signed up for a 9-hour endurance challenge. At the time I signed up, I weighed almost 240 pounds. I was not in the shape I needed to run 9 hours straight. Did I mention the race was all trail? Meaning it wouldn't be flat. It also takes place in February. One of the coldest months of the year. To top it off, the race starts at 3pm and goes on until midnight. So you run most of it in the pitch black with a headlamp.

My wife and I started a challenge called 75 Hard on the first day of the year. Essentially the first day, I decided to start this 9-hour trail run training. 

On race day, I was down almost 20 pounds. 

To give some more background on this event; It is not a popular event. It's not like your local 5k, where you have tons of volunteers and one-thousand other participants cheering you on. You are out there on the trail alone, in the pitch-black, freezing your gonads off for 9 hours. Every now and then, another runner will catch up to you, or maybe you'll pass someone else. 

The route itself is a 4.3-mile loop. The start and end of that loop are where you keep all of your food and your drop bag (filled with spare clothes, gloves, batteries). 

I brought a small cooler filled with light snacks like bananas, apples, Gu, Waffle Stingers, Cliff Bars, and Nuun. I also had a Hydration pack filled with water.

The first loop went by incredibly fast. I started the race a few minutes late, so I didn't catch up to anyone on the first lap.

The second lap was where it started to get interesting. I began to have stomach issues. There are only two options when you have stomach issues in the middle of the woods, there are only 2 options. The first option is to pray that you can wait until you get back to the checkpoint and use the outhouse. The second option is to pray that no one is around when duty calls. Unfortunately, option 2 was forced on me, and I had to find the nearest tree to pop a squat (I am trying to keep this as clean as possible). Without sharing too many details, the shituation was less than ideal and not pretty. 

I eventually caught up to my brother, who was also running. Walked with him for a bit and finished up lap 2.

Lap 3: It went smoothly, but it started to get dark, and I didn't have my headlamp on me, so it caused me to slow down.

Lap 4: I had my headlamp, but the batteries started to die, so I could barely see anything. Which wouldn't be an issue if the trail was flat and dry. The path we were running was only about 2 feet wide, icy, and if you weren't careful, you could easily fall down the steep hill to your right. The trail also had things like roots, rocks, and more ice. So every other step, I'd hit my foot on what felt like every single rock on the trail. A couple of times, I'd snag my toe on a root and almost face plant into a boulder or trip downhill. Another thing worth noting is I had my hydration pack, but the tube where you suck the water from was completely FROZEN. So I couldn't drink any water.

Lap 5: I had a fresh pack of batteries in my headlamp and immediately noticed the difference. I also swapped my hydration pack for a small water bottle. For most of lap 5, I was able to run and made up some time. 

My goal going into the event was to complete 7 laps. Which would total around 30 miles. I was worried most about the 11pm deadline that is set. You aren't allowed to start another lap past 11pm. 

Lap 6 is when everything started to go downhill for me. My left leg was in pain. Every single step felt like someone was taking a knife and shoving it into the side of my leg. So it caused me to slow down and forced me to walk the whole lap. I finished each lap for most of the event in just over an hour. Lap 6 took me almost an hour and a half. Luckily I finished lap 6 at around 10:40pm, which meant I had an hour and twenty minutes to finish my last lap. Midnight was the cut-off for the event.

Lap 7: Pretty much an hour and a half of straight pain. Temperatures were in the teens to single digits, and my body temperature was cooling down because I slowed down. Any sweat I had on my body was beginning to freeze, and I could hardly feel my hands. At this point, any of the food I had brought with me was almost frozen. Which made it very difficult to eat. 

With 10 minutes left on the event clock, I finished lap 7. I had done it. I completed my goal. While completing the 7 laps was a considerable accomplishment, I checked a couple of other things off of my list. One was the 28 miles that haunted me since my birthday. Oddly enough, this event took place on my half birthday. Kind of crazy how things work out. 

I also accomplished my first ultra-marathon. An ultra-marathon is any distance over the traditional marathon distance of 26.2 miles. Technically the 27 miles I did on my birthday counts, but no real ultra runner would count that. Getting to 31 miles counts as an official ultra marathon in my book. 

The ride home was enjoyable. I started to thaw out and noticed everything that was going on with my body. My whole face felt chapped from the wind. It almost felt like I had 3rd-degree burns on my face and hands. 

When that went away, my legs started to cramp, and it became very uncomfortable to sit down. 

I pulled up to my house, walked through the front door, and began to shake uncontrollably. I was shivering harder than I could even begin to explain. My wife was awake and waiting on me, excited to hear about my race. When she saw how bad I was shaking, she started a hot shower and made me a cup of hot tea. I love that woman.

The shakes stopped about 5 minutes into the shower, and I started to feel slightly better. The hot water felt good until it found the chaffed areas on my body that I didn't even realize were capable of chaffing. 

I am now a week and a half out from that race, and I am still struggling with my leg. I'm back in the gym getting ready for my next challenge, which will be coming up here in a couple of weeks.

I am still struggling mentally. I feel unsatisfied. I thought going into this race that if I got 31 miles, I would have a sense of accomplishment and be proud of myself. I feel the opposite. I feel like I have so much more in my tank. I am almost scared to see just how much my body can go through. I think I am afraid that I am stupid enough to find out just how far I can push my body. The Bealuh 963 was just the start. 

Love,

JD