Karl's Kanoe 60k Race Report

I was excited about this last race in this series, and what's more, I felt ready for it. My original goal was to finish this one, and I felt ready to rock it. I had never run at Inks Lake, and had never checked out the trails there, either, so this would be a new adventure for me. The drive out was beautiful, but took just slightly longer than I thought, but I still arrived in what I thought was ample time to park and get things ready before the event start.

At the last couple of event sites, there was ample parking very close to the start/finish, and I essentially had made my truck my aid station/drop bag, and just sat in the tailgate to refill/refuel and then take off, with everything inside the truck. The parking at this site was sparse and scattered all over the place. I could *not* find a place to park, I drove around in circles forever. I finally found a place that was about .5 mile from the start finish and had to park there. At this point, I began to wonder what in hell I was going to do because I did not have the drop things packed in a way that would make them easy to get to the start/finish, especially in a huge hurry. Argh. My stomach had also begun to feel bad, not nauseated, but like heartburn just as I was getting to the park. I had hoped this would be something that I just ran off in the first few miles.

Luckily, I had left a duffel bag in my truck, so I feverishly grabbed at things and stuffed them into it. Luckily it held pretty much what I needed and I grabbed my mini cooler and hoofed it to the start/finish. There was a little list of things I had wanted to do, like put ice in my bottles, get out my lamp & hit the porta potty, but when I got to the start/finish, I did so just in time to see the runners take off. Argh. I had not even gotten my chip yet. There wasn't going to be time for anything, I was just going to have to grab & go, which is what I did. Luckily, I was out within 4 mins or so. I was still really aggravated about the parking, and the lateness, and the not-being-able to do what I wanted/needed before I had to start. Within a few miles on this gorgeous trail, I had forgotten all about that.

My stomach was cramping, and I had to stop at the bathroom that was about 1.5 miles into the trail (yay that there was one, though!) By the time I got close to the 3 mile aid station, I had caught up to the back people in the group of runners, so I felt less panicky about being "behind." My stomach continued to be cranky, but I was so busy soaking up the gorgeous sites of this trail and also trying to commit what I could to memory so dark would be easier, that I was able to disconnect from how bad my stomach felt. About mile 4.5-ish, you climb up onto this granite dome, and the view is spectacular. The sunset was breathtaking and I got to stand up on the dome and soak it in. Wow. It also felt AMAZING outside, and it was only going to cool down as dark settled in. There were 2 more stops for my stomach on the way in, but I stayed determined, and just took my electrolytes and kept drinking. I turned my left ankle pretty badly on this loop, but luckily I kept going and it set fine. (that's the one I hurt so badly in January) I made better time that I expected to on lap 1, and still felt very strong, except for my cranky stomach.

I headed out for loop 2, and it went well. I felt like my time on that loop was okay, but this trail was considerably harder to run in the dark. I kept asking myself WHY this trail seemed so much harder. I run rocky places in the dark a lot, but this seemed so different so so much more difficult! It seemed so much easier to trip & fall in this place than any other I had run. The new thing for me was the granite domes/shelves. They were SO hard and so incredibly uneven, and my knees did not like them. They even hurt for me to walk on. The upside of these areas is they all had gorgeous views and were usually up high so you got this magnificent breeze on them. What was mind boggling for me is that I considered the MAJORITY of these trails to be fairly easy in terms of surface, but the sections that were rocky were brutal. This made for a particularly challenging run for me. It also slowed you down and seemed to take immensely more muscular effort than I remember using on any recent runs. Loop 2 was still replete with lovely stomach cramps and GI issues, but I continued on, reminding myself to constantly replenish. I was getting tired of *constantly* monitoring this, this course was challenge enough. When I fnished loop 2, I remember being relatively pleased at where I was in relation to the cutoff. if I was able to maintain this I could beat the cutoff by around an hour, which would ROCK. I still felt pretty strong after this loop, but I knew I needed to eat as much as I could stand at the aid station, my body was losing a lot with the GI stuff + running. I also slightly turned my right ankle on this loop, this place was easy to turn an ankle, I'd have to watch this!

Loop 3, my feet started to feel kinda beat up, which isn't unusual. They had no blisters, and were in good shape, they were just sore from the hard granite and a little tender, but nothing I could not continue on. My knees were "tired' feeling but not in any real pain, and my legs felt great! I could tell i was slowing down some on this loop, but I really enjoyed all of the critters on this loop. I saw a baby runny, and a baby racccoon, and 2 field mice and I heard a pack of coyotes gathering for a cry at the moon :) It was wonderful! It also felt amazing outside. I don't remember ever feeling "too hot" on this run. I was sweating lots, but I felt good temperature wise. Stomach wise, things were still not going well. I was starting to feel weak: the kind of weak you feel when you get the flu. I was not having muscle cramps, or nausea, or anything else, this was merely depletion from all that was going on. I did everything I could to stay on top of it, and it seemed constant. I was averaging 70-80 oz of water per loop, which is crazy amount of water on a cool night run like this for me. I was taking a dose of electrolytes for each bottle I drank, which was working out GREAT for electrolytes, they felt good this entire run. At the end of loop 3, I knew I needed to refuel again and try as hard as I could to catch up. My stomach felt okay, no nausea. It was all GI stuff pretty much. I had more fuel and had so much help from my friends and coaches. Everyone was being so encouraging and telling me how well I was doing and how strong I looked. I felt like I was turning inside out through my GI tract, but just hearing all of that gave me SUCH a boost. I headed back out on loop 4, feeling determined.

Loop 4, sadly, is when this run really fell apart for me. The stomach cramps were worse, the bathroom stops were more frequent and it was just SO hard to keep going with the stabbing pains in my gut. I even had to stop and sit on the rocks in a couple of places it hurt so badly. I was also feeling increasingly weak. I was drinking as much as I could and not run out of water between aid stations, and taking the fuel/electrolytes like I was supposed to. Stomach was fine, but GI was not fine and I just could not seem to catch up with what I was losing. I was tripping a lot on this lap and having a hard time with any pace, and I could tell my body was weak and almost like it just wanted to shut down. I was so frustrated with this. If I could just have stopped the GI stuff, everything would have been a-okay. My legs felt FINE. Two doses of Immodium in a few hours did nothing for this, so I decided not to take more. Toward the end of this loop, I bashed the hell ouf of my ankle on a rock. OUCH. The pain actually was kind of nice, it gave me a rush of endorphines and it totally distracted me from my stabbing GI cramps for a few moments. The last part of this loop was tough. I just felt so *weak*. I wanted to go, but there wasn't much energy, it was a feeling I had not experienced before during a run, and it was miserable. I realized that I needed to end this, before I went out and fell and busted my head open. I had made less-than-pleasing time on this lap. When I finished the lap, I decided I had to stop, and I removed my chip. I wasn't glad to have to do it, but I still believe it was the right thing to do.

The drive home was very depressing. I went through all of those stages: I was pissed at myself, then I was angry & upset for letting myself and everyone else down by dropping (I had SO much encouragement, help & support and I was SO grateful for every bit of it!), then I decided maybe I COULD have finished and I should just turn around and try (bhaha how dumb is that?), and finally I accepted that I had done it, that is was right for me to make that call, and that really I could not believe I had gone THAT far (just over 24 miles) with constant cramps and diarrhea. I can assure you I would NOT have made it the last 2 laps had it not been for the amazing encouragement I was receiving, but after that 4th lap, I just did not have 12 miles left in me at that point, encouragement or not.

This wasn't what I had planned on, but I realized WHY it happened, and I was 100% to blame. The night before this event, I decided to eat cake. Things made with white flour are the devil and make me sick in this way. I didn't even think about what it was going to do to my stomach the following night, and this stupid call set me up for difficulties. What makes me mad is how avoidable this was, but live & learn. :-D

Despite the adversity I faced during this run, I did take some lovely things away from it. This was a GORGEOUS trail, and I enjoyed the company of some wonderful folks. I was challenged in some very new ways, and learned a lot from these challenges: everything from intense physical discomfort; new & challenging types of technical terrain; and the power of encouragement from others. More importantly, it's always important to remember that the sum is the whole of its PARTS. The vast majority of this trail was terrain I would rate as "medium-easy", but the parts that were rocky or technical were brutal. So, while this rather un-hilly and sand/crushed gravel/dirt trail did not seem too menacing at first, it presented physical and mental challenges that rivaled trails I would rate far more difficult, like Bandera.

All-in-all, this was easily the most uncomfortable run I have ever done, but I still somehow managed to learn something and even have a little fun so I will not count it as a total loss :-) I covered a little over 24 miles of trail, most of it in the dark, in a little less than 7.5 hours. (with 14 bathroom stops..YIKES) Not bad considering.