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| Barkley Marathons Selfie (Photo: Eric Fritz) |
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Loop 2, Top of Rat Jaw with Brandon and Husky (Photo: Kendra Miller)
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| The whole world holds it's breath after Laz only counts 12 of 13 pages! (Photo: Karen Jackson) |
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| Finished the Fun Run... AGAIN! YES! (Photo: Billy Simpson) |
Quick Summary of Failures
This past weekend was the 31st
edition of the Barkley Marathons held at Frozen Head State Park in
Tennessee. This race is considered one
of the most difficult 100 mile races on the planet. The five loop race has 67,000 feet of climb
(and 67,000 feet of descent) which is more than any other 100 mile race. Since 1986 only 15 runners out of just over
1000 have finished within the 60 hour cutoff.
The loop is unmarked, brutally steep, and is almost entirely off-trail;
the only provided aid are a couple of water caches (gallon jugs of water); no GPSs,
pacers, or cell phones, and only the race provided wrist-watch could be
worn. To prove you’ve completed the loop
correctly, runners must locate several books spread around the loop (typically
at the high and low points of mountains) and remove a particular page and turn
them in at the completion of the loop.
I trained harder than ever for
this year’s race, lots of hill climbing and long, solo hikes and runs. My goal was to finish all five loops under
the cutoff. Unfortunately some early
navigational issues during the first loop in the dark and heavy fog slowed just
about everybody down including myself. I
ended up a couple hours slower than expected on the first loop. However, the second loop (opposite direction)
went much better with only a few navigational issues, but the reverse loop is a
lot more tricky and the climbs much steeper which makes it a slower loop
anyhow. By the third loop I was still
feeling very good but was well outside the time frame needed to be allowed to
start a fourth loop (runners must start 4th loop within 36 hours),
however I still had time to finish the loop under the cutoff for a “Fun Run”
finish (3 loops under 40 hours). I
finished the Fun Run in 39:03 and was just 1 of 6 runners (40 starters) who
managed 3 loops or more; most quit after the first loop. Two runners made it to the fifth and final
loop but only one managed to complete the course correctly and under the final
time limit; he was just the 15th finisher! This was my 8th start and second
Fun Run finish; only 34 people have finished Fun Run (or further) 2 times or
more in the history of the race.
*** Quick WARNING: this is a long, mostly stream-of-consciousness account, I don't do this to embellish, I do this so I can look back, years from now when I read it and hopefully remember these events in a more clear way. Also this is for my friends and family to read and hopefully appreciate, at least in some small way, what it's like to be Out There. ***
You've been warned! :)
Preface
I first learned about the
Barkley Marathons from David Horton many, many years ago back in March of 1997
while participating in one of his infamous “Barkley Training Run” events. David and I spent 23 hours together on the
Appalachian Trail in Virginia covering the 89.4 miles between Black Horse Gap
and the Tye River. We were the sole finishers of this run out of I believe 14
starters including some names like Mike Morton, Courtney Campbell and oh,
Andrew Thompson! At the time this was
the most difficult run I’d ever done. Very minimal support and many long,
difficult miles; but the conversations were great and after half way it was
just me and David. I know we talked
about the Barkley Marathons at some point and I became convinced I needed to
give them a go one day.
However, I was still very young,
naïve and really just didn’t “get it.”
My first five visits to Frozen Head State Park were miserable failures.
Here is a quick summary of my previous performances at the Barkley Marathons:
1999 – 1 Loop in 8:55 then
quit. Ran way too hard in the heat, ran out of water at bottom of Zip Line and
drank from the stream; two weeks later I had some serious intestinal issues!
2000 – 1 Loop in 9:07 then
quit. Ran way too hard again… didn’t really have the “head” for it.
2003 – Quit after Book 1
(Phillips Creek) on Loop 2 in 15:00 (Snow!). Ascended Jury Ridge after Book 1
then decided to drop out; very cold and trail impossible to navigate in 4
inches of snow; continued up Jury Ridge (off trail) to Bird Mtn. Tr. and
returned to camp. Had a better head for it this time around but the cold and
lack of course confidence did me in…
2004 – 1 Loop in 8:45 then
quit. Ran way too hard (as always) with Hal Koerner and company; just really
didn’t want to be Out There, perhaps I need a break?
Seven year Hiatus…
2011 – Quit after Book 6 on
Loop 2 in 21:47. Thought I had the head for it this time around, really did;
but course confidence was lacking; so many changes in the past 7 years! Didn’t train right either; not enough quad
beating work outs.
2012 – Finished the Fun Run in
35:36. Had less than 24 minutes to get
back out on the course for loop 4, however I was so overcome with making it
this far after so many failures that I refused to continue and was tapped out
right there at the gate.
2015 – Quit at the fire tower
(Book 5 on Reverse Loop) on Loop 3 and limped back to camp in 34:35. Monstrous navigational issues early in Loop 1
led to panicked second half of the loop that ultimately left me so spent that
Loop 2 was nothing but one lucid, stumbling nightmare. Managed to make it back into camp with 13
minutes minutes to leave on Loop 3 before the cutoff; I just made it by 5
seconds! Unfortunately, I had no water
and only heavily used headlamp batteries.
Being so cold out and facing a cold night ahead where I’d probably have
to bivouac until sunrise (and finish loop over the cutoff) I decided to drop at
the fire tower.
2016 – Injured myself in
training in February before the race; severe MCL strain forced me to take off
too much time to get back into any real fitness before race day so I gave up my
slot.
Training
My approach this time around
was a bit different than year’s past. In
the past I focused exclusively on vertical training, basically getting in as
much climbing as I could in training with specific weekly targets and I pretty
much was just hiking everything. This
year I wanted to not only increase those weekly vertical targets but also still
try and maintain some good leg turnover speed as well as fit in several long
runs over 30 miles; after all to be successful at the Barkley you have to be
able to run when you can and let’s remember five loops is in the neighborhood
of 130 miles now!
So, from the second week in
January through my peak training two weeks out I amassed over 170k’ of climbing
(average of 17k a week) which was about 30k more than 2015 and 50k more than
2012 (my last successful Fun Run). I had
a peak week of over 40k including a non-stop, 20k trek that lasted from sunrise
to sunset. I also had several single
outings of over 10k of climb each. But
still, looking back now, it wasn’t nearly enough to have a real shot at five
loops. I really need to amass more
mileage along with the climbing via some more two-a-days and I needed to really
practice trying to run more of the climbing mileage and not just speed-hike
it. Lessons learned.
Loop 1 : 10h 41m, Dark Till Bobcat Rock
The conch blew (signally 1 hr
until race start) at 12:42 a.m. EST.
Luckily I believed rumors of a night start and so had all my gear packed
and ready to go before I went to bed. After
the conch I slowly got dressed inside our rented cargo van (yet another new
thing I did this year) and remarked how warm it was for that time of
night. I headed to the yellow gate along
with my crew, Kathy and Fritz about 10 minutes before the start to retrieve my
“official” wrist watch. New this year,
runners could only wear a wristwatch provided by the race as there were to be
no questions if a runner’s own watch had GPS or other navigational
capabilities. The interesting quirk of
THESE watches was that the clock was set such that it would read 00:00:00 when
Laz (the race director) lit his cigarette indicating the start of the
race. This ended up being quite handy as
it was always good to know how long we’d been Out There and how much time we
had left before the cutoff at a single glance (but more on that later). What I and many other runners didn’t count on
was that the watches were still packaged and zip-tied; locked down! Even in the last minute, runners were
frantically trying to tear the watches out of the cases! Fritz used his Jaws teeth to bite through my
zip-tied watch!
So, taps is played in
remembrance of all those Barkers who’ve passed and then the cigarette is lit
and away we go! I start out at a pretty
good running pace, feels like 10km pace, just to get up with the quickly
separating lead group. My plan is to try
and stick with the leaders through at least half the loop so I can learn some
of the line choices for the newer (to me) book locations. After that I figured I’d need to back off the
pace a bit and I was comfortable navigating the rest of the loop solo if need
be.
Off the road and onto the
first section of switch backing trail I find myself running in a group of
probably 10 runners who are quickly moving up the mountain and away from the
rest of the starters. Even by the next
couple of switch backs their head lamps look quite distant. Why?
Because we were quite literally running up the mountain like I’ve never
done before; typically I speed-hike up this hill but we were running a lot more
of it than I expected. Phew! I could tell it was John Kelly in the lead
with Gary Robbins right behind. I
believe Scott Breeden was up there along with Sean Ranney, Johan Steene, Benoit
Laval, Mikael Heerman, Michael Versteeg, Jamil Coury, Brandon Stapanowich and
who knows who else (Michael Wardian?); a lot of speedsters.
We reach the top of Bird
Mountain in around thirty minutes and back our way towards the Fangorn Forest
and the slightly modified Book 1 location.
One thing we notice instantly on peaking out is that there is FOG; thick
FOG! Ugh! We start down through Fangorn Forest
navigating okay but it’s a mad, cross-country dash; everybody trying to keep up
with John and Gary. After a short ways
something doesn’t feel right to me and I pull out my compass to check our
heading. Sure enough we’re heading too
far West; actually more like due West instead of almost due North. I try to yell this to the group but nobody
says anything and keep following John and Gary.
I should have known better and gone on my own then but I kept following
as well. Soon we find ourselves on the
correct bench but, again, my compass is showing a very WEST heading. I tell this to John but he’s convinced we’re
on the Eastern side of the mountain and we need to head West to correct. I tell him I disagree and that I made this
exact same mistake two years ago (in the daylight), I also told him that I had
us on a very West heading BEFORE we reached the bench so there was no way we
could be on the Eastern side. So we all
back track along the bench, through many vines and some briars until we soon
arrive at the right location only to discover the chase pack has already
arrived at Book 1. What transpires next
is best left undescribed but picture a scene from Hunger Games or a Mosh Pit. At any rate, by the time I get my book page
I’m all alone the lead group having jetted away into the London like fog.
I’m a bit bummed but I’m not
going to panic and try and race after them.
Instead I carefully make my way over to the top of Checkmate Hill. But before I can get there I see a gaggle of
headlamps heading back towards me on the bench; it’s the lead group again. Ha! So
together we all start down the insanely slippery and steep slopes of Checkmate
Hill. It’s a wonder to behold. There I am, it’s just about 3 a.m. and there
is a parade of lights in the darkness all around me; some far in the distance,
others far up behind me, all making their way down this ugly slope; slipping
and sliding and falling and cursing. I’m
having a great amount of difficulty keeping up now as our group is passing
right through a few other groups and you can’t tell who is who; instead all you
can do is concentrate on the next foot step or tree to grab onto to to arrest
your controlled fall down the hill. I
slip and land flat on my back in the mud more than once moving too
quickly. I finally realize I’m redlining
my heart rate and risking injuring myself I’m falling so much so I make the
conscience decision to back off and stop trying to keep up with the lead
pack. Honestly, I’m pretty pissed with
myself at that moment. Genuinely
upset. All this training and I can’t
even keep up for an hour! But I keep
moving forward and soon emerge at Phillips Creek and begin making my way up to the
next ridge line; I can already see many lights way up on the higher switch
backs. Damn!
In a bad mood already I power
hike up and up the trail. I believe this
is where I caught up to the two lead women, Megan Farrell and Kathleen Cusick. I was hiking right behind another runner but
am not sure now who that was, Dale Holdaway perhaps? Anyhow I just trying to get back into the
zone but honestly I’m already beginning to think quitting thoughts and this is
not healthy thinking! I’m still thinking
dark thoughts as I reach high ridge and begin down Hiram’s Vertical Smile
towards Book 2. This book I had trouble
with two years ago so this time around I did a bit more map work and talking
with some of the other vets so I thought I had a pretty good set of bearings to
work with. Turns out I did pretty good,
stuck with my own plan despite seeing other runners not exactly along my
heading and arrived at the confluence and Book 2 almost spot on! Boom! Nailed it!
I arrived in a huge gaggle trying to find the book, I confidently walked
right up to it and retrieved my page.
So now it was time to climb
the Hillpocolypse. One of the longer and
steep hills on the course. But at least
now the navigation was quite simple.
Just climb. When in doubt, just
head up! This was not the first time
that the trekking poles came in real handy.
You could get in a good rhythm using the click of the poles like a
metronome. Anyhow there was a sizeable
group heading up with me, mostly still including Megan and Kathleen. At the end of the steepest grades we arrived
at a cliffed out section that you can either climb directly or work your way
around the side. The group just ahead
decide to work their way around but Megan, Kathleen and I opt to climb straight
up which though a bit tricky and dangerous was actually quite easy; plenty of
hand and foot holds. Past the cliff we
continue climbing and soon arrive back to the candy ass trail and
make our way towards Bald Knob in the thickening fog. There is no sign of any other group but I’m
confident on our route now (at least I think so) and only after a slight overshoot,
make our way to Book 3 and find it relatively easily. However on our descent back to the candy ass
trail we end up on some double-track which I quickly realize is Quitter
Road. Whoops, in the dark and fog we’d
somehow turned a bit too South instead of East.
We quickly correct and back on the NBT encounter a group asking if we’d
found Book 3 as they hadn’t, we tell them where to go and continue on making
towards S.O.B. ditch and the coal ponds.
Many downhill switchbacks latter we arrive at the ditch and all of a
sudden there is a swarm of runners around us again. Yes, it was the lead group once AGAIN! Ha!
They explain they nailed the confluence at Book 2 spot on but thought
they were still too high and dropped further downstream! Doh! I
sort of start to go with them then quickly think again. I’m doing all I can do; best to keep
navigating steadily and make up time later.
As we traverse through the
coal ponds I realize Scott Breeden has lingered behind with us saying he was
getting tired of all the extra work!
Ha! So my group has grown to four
now as we angle up from the coal ponds back towards, we think, the Cumberland
Trail. Looking back now I think we
passed the correct turn up the mountain and instead traversed too far
East. In the thick fog it’s easy to get
turned around. We actually thought, at
the time, we’d turned too early but we never saw the trail? Anyhow we knew the Garden Spot was above us
so headed, steeply, up that way all the time trying to keep a look out for
trail blazes. Nothing. Soon we emerged onto an old road which looked
familiar. Now, this next bit I have no
idea where we went. Based on the
boundary markers we were seeing and some compass bearing magic we eventually
found the corner of the park and then began to look for Book 4. By now the fog was so thick you could barely
see your own feet! So our group of four
began to spread out looking for the book, following a heading we thought would
get us there based on the fact that we’d also run into the cliffs that are near
the corner boundary. We continued to
wander around the flat ground for a while finding exactly nothing. So frustrating. All of a sudden another couple of groups
emerge out of the fog. Yes, it was the
leaders again but also I believe Heather Anderson and Henry Wakley and god only
knows who else it the fog was so thick and the darkness so complete. And just like that, magically Book 4 appeared
quite literally right in front of our collective groups! Amazing!
We’d probably stumbled by this exact spot several times over the past 15
minutes!
Our pages collected we
carefully made our way out of the area back towards the Garden Spot and back
out to the jeep road; though even that simple task was confounded by the fog. But
soon enough we were back on the jeep road and my bearings and faith in humanity
were restored; I now knew exactly where I was and where we had to go next despite
the fog.
We now headed over along the
flanks of Stallion Mountain and made our way towards the Gnarly Mouth Branch
generally heading towards Book 5 at Leonards Butt Slide. We nailed the cross-country navigation
perfectly and arrived at Bobcat Rock just as it began to get twilight. I believe we picked up Henry in this stretch
as I recall discussing different line choices as he was stopped somewhere along
the way pondering. Anyhow as we headed
down the steep coal-rich slaggy slopes we encountered another group that I
think included Erik Storheim among others.
I think they had some difficulty finding the Book but we quickly found
it and it was mess. Apparently some
animal had torn open the plastic bag that was protecting it and the thin pages
were soaked! It was a real exercise in
patience trying to carefully remove ONLY your page; sort of like a Smithsonian
conservationist working tediously to tease apart separate layers of some
ancient papyrus scroll. We were all
impatient to be on our way as day was breaking, but we took our turn at
splitting hairs and were headed back up the coal slag slopes to Bobcat Rock.
Back up at the jeep road we
continued up through Bobcat Rock and steeply up the Foolish Stu Trail to Fykes
Peak passing by Hiram’s Pool & Spa along the way reaching Book 6 in no
time. Now it was time to descend
Stallion Mountain down to the New River and the new book location near Testicle
Spectacle. I knew this line really well
and so we had no trouble making our way down to the river and on across the
Highway where there was a film crew of some sort there filming our way out of
and back into the woods; exciting footage for sure!
Book 7 was at a new location
this year on a ridge I’ll call Butter.
Yes, Butter Ridge because it was quite possibly the smoothest way I’ve
seen yet up to Ass Hole Pass; much easier than past routes. Smooth as butter I tell you! No briars and not overly steep; just some
Mountain Laurel to deal with along the way but nothing major. We collected our pages along the buttery
route and emerged at the pass in no time.
From there we headed towards Raw Dog Falls along a familiar ridgeline
descent that gradually got steeper and steeper as we went and soon we found
ourselves butt sliding down the thick, dead leaf covered slope down to the
falls. We actually emerged right at Raw
Dog Falls and across from where an old book location used to be; that could
have been important in the past, but not this year. Still, nailed it! On to Book 8 in a rusted out barrel and then
up Mount Trashmore to the highway once again and then the climb up Pighead
Trail.
I like my line up Pighead
Trail, it only gets crazy steep for a little bit to reach the old mining
trail. Not too bad. Onto the old mining trail we make short work up
the rest of the steep trail to one of many old mining roads that take us to the
base of Upper Rat Jaw. We arrive at
Upper Rat just in time to see I believe Benoit heading down; we saw no others
on this out and back section of Upper Rat!
So we head up Upper Rat and I quickly find myself pulling ahead of
Megan, Henry and Kathleen but Scott is still close behind and I can just see
another group back there catching up.
Anyhow we clear the three steep sections going up and make good time the
rest of the way to the top of Frozen Head Mountain and the fire tower where we
pick up our next page and quickly re-fill our hydration bladders. Surprisingly there is only a modest amount of
spectators this early in the morning; the fog was so thick that we couldn’t see
anybody up there until we’d almost emerged onto the last bit of jeep road to
the top of mountain off of Rat Jaw.
Anyhow, Scott and I quickly
descend Rat Jaw to the Prison with Megan and the rest not too far behind. At the outskirts of the main prison wall we
enter the drainage tunnel that runs underneath the complex. It is a cool, wet, but spooky 1/8 mile upstream
traverse that’s impossible to stay dry.
There is a beveled concrete divider that runs down the middle of the
spillway but in the darkness that’s more of a liability than an asset. As my feet have long been soaking wet I don’t
hesitate and marched right through the stream to the far end of the tunnel;
actually cutting on my headlamp for a bit more underfoot confidence. Was a good thing I used the light as there
were some large rocks along the floor of the tunnel that I could easily have
literally stumbled upon. I bypass the
air vent chimney climb in lieu of a deeper water but easier exit from the
stream and stroll over to collect my 10th book page.
Now it’s time for The Bad
Thing. A very steep climb out of the
hollow up to Indian Knob. Steep is an
understatement, but we throw ourselves into the climb and soon make the correct
traversal to Razor Ridge and continue to slog ever upwards. After what seemed like forever we can see
more sky line above us than mountain indicating we’re near the top. Sure enough I can see the many cap stones
that line the ridge and begin a long, gradual traversal over to the correct cap
stone where the Eye of the Needle is and Book 11. Next it’s time to for the
last technical, cross-country downhill of the loop: Zipline.
This descent is tough to botch
too bad but you can definitely choose lines that are worse than others. What seems like a good line at first can
quickly turn into a slippery boulder hopping fiasco or you can be lured towards
the sounds of water falls only to find yourself cliffed out in a beautiful
area. I think we ended up taking a
pretty good line down towards the stream confluence which was our target and
end up with a minimal of rock hopping and cliffs. Just as the way levels out at the bottom of
the drainage Erik Storheim comes blowing by us; I guess he found an even better
descent line than we did! However, we
all arrive at the Beech Tree book at the same time and begin the final climb of
the loop: Big Hell.
Easily the longest climb on
the course, but the navigation is easy: just go up! It’s a long ways up a relentlessly steep
slope but me, Scott and Erik are climbing well and make it to the cap stones of
Chimney Top relatively quickly to collect our final book page of the loop. From there it’s an easy (mostly downhill) jog
down some candy ass trails back to camp.
As we’re heading down the trail we begin to wonder when we’ll see the
first runners making their way back uphill towards us on Loop 2. We’re sort of surprised we haven’t seen them
by the time we reach the lower slopes of Rough Ridge. However, just as we’re in sight of the gap
there is John Kelly looking pretty fresh still and he asks us to tell Gary to
speed up and catch him. We don’t see
Gary right away but soon after we reach the gap and start heading downhill
again there he is; probably no more than five minutes behind. Anyhow, we make short work of the rest of the
loop and the three of us touch the Yellow Gate in 10:41 and after having my
pages counted by Laz and confirmed I make haste with my crew to our campsite to
quickly re-supply.
Loop 2 : 14h 05m, (25h 5m 56s
Total) Light Until Yellow Indian
I spent around 19 minutes in
camp and left right at 11 hours elapsed race time; all re-loaded, re-caloried,
and re-hydrated. I had supplies to get
me through another loop; this time in the counter-clockwise direction;
something new this year. As I jogged
down the road leaving the camp ground I saw Scott still sitting in camp looking
very uninterested in continuing on. I
don’t blame him, he’d taken a hard fall (or more) early in the first loop in
the darkness and fog and didn’t want to risk further aggravation. He’s a fast dude so I totally get it. I also passed by Erik’s campsite (right next
to my own) and see he’s about ready to head out into the next loop. I tell him to catch up as I’ll largely be
hiking fairly slow because of a full belly back up to Chimney Top.
The really cool thing about
Loop 2 being in the opposite direction this early in the race is that you get
to see the other runners finishing up their first loop. So as I make my way back up the mountain I
spot a lot of friends and fellow Barkers (some more bloody and beaten up than
others) on their way down. By the time I
reach the end of the real switchbacks and gain the high, shouldering ridge of
Chimney Top, Erik has indeed caught back up and together we climb up the much
steeper ridgeline trail and then head out to collect our first book page for
the loop.
Then we’re onto the now long
descent of Big Hell. In this direction
the line isn’t quite so simple. Not for
the first time (nor the last) I dial in the appropriate compass heading and
keep checking it regularly as we shuffle through the deep leaves downhill. When I first learned that each loop this year
would be opposite the direction of the previous I thought that would come in
handy on the Big Hell descent which is notorious for botched navigational
errors. I figured we’d be able to spot
runners coming up from the Beech Tree and so be able to use them to guide us on
the right line. No such luck this time
around.
Climbing up, navigation is
easy as all lines of ascent converge; the opposite is true downhill where a
slight error in heading can put you way off your intended goal. Luckily we were joined by Jamil Coury,
Brandon Stapanowich, and Michael Versteeg as we started the descent. Having more eyes on target the better. However, both Jamil and Michael were
descending much more rapidly than I dared and quickly were far ahead and below
us. I just kept checking my compass
bearing and adjusting my heading accordingly.
As we’d just passed through this area (in the opposite direction) it was
all fairly familiar. I believe we got on
a line that was a bit too far to the left but that’s the safe way to navigate
to this book because you can use a stream as a navigational “hand rail”. I knew we were getting close when I saw the familiar
Mountain Laurel. I believe this is about
where we ran into Mikael Heerman from Finland.
We’d seen him earlier starting his second loop as we were finishing our
first. He’d been wandering around trying
to find the Beech Tree for quite some time.
Together with Jamil and Erik we located the correct book location after
overshooting by just a small bit downhill.
Unfortunately, during the descent Michael had sped away out of ear shot
of the yells for him to stop! He ended
up dropping right out of the valley and hitch hiking back to camp!
After collecting our pages we
all big the technical climb up Zipline. Not
long into the ascent and still among the various streams in the lower levels we
come across “Iron Mike” Wardian with a couple other runners. He’s all smiles and fist-bumps. Pretty cool to see him completing a loop with
all his pages even if it will be officially over time.
Our ascent line up Zipline
wasn’t too bad. I knew from prior
experience to stay out of any stream bed or drainage as most of them trend away
from Indian Knob too far to the South. I
made that mistake two years ago and ended up somewhere way South on Kelly
Mountain (yes, it’s actually named after the ancestors of The John
Kelly!). But not today, I kept us on a
line firmly wedged between known cliffed out areas and the other drainages and
after much effort arrived not far from the Needles Eye to collect our next book
page. Now I was in comfortable
navigational territory. We make another
gradual traverse to get to the upper slopes of Razor Ridge and nail the descent
popping out right at the water towers by the prison. Boom!
By now it’s afternoon and getting a bit warm out but nothing like it was
in 2012. Still, the cool air and water
underfoot is much appreciated in the tunnel; too bad I couldn’t bottle it up
and take it with me for the long warm climb ahead.
The climb from the prison to
the top of Frozen Head Mountain, Gunnysack Hill a.k.a. UberRat, is by far, the
longest on the course. This climb was also
featured in the Barkley Fall Classic this past September. It’s 2000’ of vertical in less than two miles
of steep power-line cut. It’s very
exposed but thankfully ended up not being nearly as hot as expected; I think we
had a nice cool breeze to assist us.
Erik, Jamil, Brandon and I all make great time on this ascent and arrive
at the top to a sizeable amount of spectators and a husky that greets me by
licking my face as I reach the fire road! Ha!
Kathy and Fritz are there as well which was pretty cool. The four of us hike up the last bit of road
to get to the water cache and collect our pages.
Now we head back down the upper
section of Rat Jaw and, just like that, Jamil goes flying by us on a
mission. It’s like somebody flipped a
switch. Soon he was already out of
sight! So then it was down to me, Erik
and Brandon. Down Pigtrail is so much
easier than going up! We’re near the
bottom very quickly and have a nice butt slide exit of the trail right before
the highway (much easier and safer than trying to “ski” down it). It’s around this time we start hearing gun
shots; probably from target shooting but it’s coming from our next section of
travel. I wonder if they might have
spotted Jamil and thought he was a deer as fast as he was running! Thankfully the shooting stops as we descent
Mt. Trashmore to collect our page at the rusted barrel. The navigation back up and over the next
climb and descent was uneventful though the climb from Raw Dog falls was
brutal; this was my first time climbing this section and it generally was
pretty awful. As difficult as that climb
was it was all made up for on the descent of Butter Ridge. Nice and smooth! Soon we’d arrived back at the New River and another
wet crossing. I didn’t mind, the cold
water felt great on my aching feet!
So began our ascent of
Stallion Mountain; a notoriously tricky section filled with all sorts of
navigational pitfalls due to seemingly parallel universes of old mining roads,
slag piles, briar thickets that all look the same. Luckily we’d be tackling this section in the
daylight which would really help our chances of success. Again it’s a trick of
using the right compass headings at the right locations to keep you on the
right ascent line. Not too bad
really. In fact we nail the navigation
and are soon at the vicinity of Fykes Peak and quickly collect our page. The sun is getting low in the sky and shadows
quite long. Already the woods are
getting dark and deep. I’d like to clear
the Stallion Mountain section completely before dark so we zoom down Foolish
Stu to Bobcat Rock and pause briefly for Brandon to tend to his feet and
shins. Looking west was quite a sight
seeing the dark silhouette of a rolling ridgeline framed in front of a setting
sun. Was quite a spectacular setting for
a sunset. Anyhow, we’re on the move
again soon enough and retrieve our Leonard’s Butt Slide page and are making our
way towards the Gnarly Mouth. It’s
twilight but still light enough to see as we climb up the Gnarly Mouth to an old
mining road above it. At the road it’s
almost time for lights but not quite yet.
It’s here where I make a
semi-costly navigational error. Instead
of walking along the road for a little ways and then leave the road to make a
shallow, cross-contour ascent to another mining road as a higher elevation
bench; we leave the road too soon and climb too steeply and gain too much
elevation. We emerge into an area that,
at first, seemed entirely unfamiliar to me.
We’d arrived at near the very top of Stallion Mountain north of Fykes
Peak. It’s all darkening sky around us
and the song of toads or frogs among the thickets and small ponds. It’s then that I realize that we’re on a part
of the course we did in 2012 and so we shouldn’t be too far from the Yellow
Indian. In 2012 I finished the Fun Run
so had passed through this area quite a bit.
In fact I then realized we were basically on that old trail! Now that I had a point of reference I knew if
we made our way North to the Yellow Indian we could traverse around the West
side to get back to old mining road we’d missed. So, Brandon and Erik received an impromptu
tour of the Yellow Indian as we arrived just in time and in the right place to
see the Indian profile in the rock face and the overhanging yellowish tree that
resembled feathers from his headdress. Pretty cool and wonderful timing. Wish I had a quality camera and knew how to
use it; would have made for a great photograph from our unique perspective.
So, after a costly detour we
returned to the correct old mining road and quickly made our way past the turn
off for Coffin Springs and headed down to the water cache for one more
re-supply. It’s definitely dark by now
and I’m getting a bit chilled so while the others re-fill I quickly don my wool
layer and jacket; it gets a bit breezy up at these elevations on the North side
of the park.
We have considerably less trouble finding the Garden Spot book this time around. I now realize I didn’t read the description correctly before the race and didn’t realize that this book location had changed significantly; no wonder I probably wasn’t as much help finding the book in the dark and fog of the first loop! Sorry guys! Anyhow it’s still a bit tricky in the dark but having more reference points this time make it short work.
We have considerably less trouble finding the Garden Spot book this time around. I now realize I didn’t read the description correctly before the race and didn’t realize that this book location had changed significantly; no wonder I probably wasn’t as much help finding the book in the dark and fog of the first loop! Sorry guys! Anyhow it’s still a bit tricky in the dark but having more reference points this time make it short work.
We make pretty good time back
through the coal ponds, SOB ditch and the climb over Bald Knob. Next is a new section for me in this
direction; the descent to book 2 down Hillpocolypse. The climb, while difficult is a no-brainer;
descending though care must be taken to get an accurate line. We selected the appropriate bearing and
followed it religiously all the way down the steep cross-country descent. The only tricky part was getting down the
cliffed out bluff in the dark.
Thankfully we found a safe way down and continued. In retrospect I think at this point we should
have adjusted our heading a bit to the North but at the time it still seemed
like we were descending correctly.
However, after a short bit later when we started to hear the water from
a roaring stream below us the terrain seemed a bit different to me. Never the less we kept dropping down to the
stream and when we arrived I immediately knew we were too far to the East;
still upstream of the intended confluence.
No big deal, we followed the stream down hill towards the confluence but
unfortunately the way was not easy among the many boulders and heavy vegetation. But on the balance not a whole lot of time
was lost as we found the confluence after a short traverse.
Now began one of the worst
climbs I’ve ever been on; another first for me; up Hiram’s Vertical Smile. Ugh! I
selected the appropriate bearing and off we went literally straight up a near
100% grade slope! Unbelievable; reminded
me of the steep parts up Check Mate Hill, another bad climb that I did have
some experience with from 5 years ago.
It was a slow effort getting up that initial grade. But even bad things come to an end and
eventually we emerged onto the high ridge and the slope began to lesson just a
bit. A bit further and it was
practically flat; a bit more and we were back on candy ass trail heading down
to Phillips Creek. It was at this time
that Brandon asked me if the current trail, if he stuck to it, would take him
back to camp. I told him that yes it did
and good luck. And with that Eric and I
continued down the many switchbacks to the bottom of the climb. By now we’d eaten up a lot of time in this
loop. I knew before we even started that
we were well behind to finish the Fun Run under 36 hours; or time enough to
start a 4th loop. I was okay
with that. But now, even though we had
been making good time for the most part, a few costly navigational errors had
really eaten into our buffer on having time to finish the Fun Run (3 loops)
within the final 40 hour time limit. I
explained this to Erik and he agreed it was time to hustle.
So we quickly made our way down
the many switch backs toward Phillips Creek.
If I recall correctly we ran into John and Gary somewhere on one of
these switchbacks above Phillips Creek.
They still looked pretty good and were moving well. At Phillips Creek we left the trail again and
headed on up Check Mate Hill. Honestly,
compared to what we’d just been through up Vertical Smile; Check Mate didn’t
seem quite so bad? Then again, last time
I did this climb it was during Loop 3 and perhaps I was a touch more
exhausted? Anyhow we motor up the hill
pretty well but it’s still a much longer climb than I remember but soon we’re
nearing the top nearly right at the very point of England Mountain. Unfortunately in so navigating we emerged
right into the walls of some very tall and sheer cliffs! I did the same thing climbing up here in
2012. That time I traversed to the left
until I found a lower part in the escarpment to scramble up a large tree that
had toppled against the cliff. This time
around, Erik led the way to investigate a gap in the cliff face just ahead of
us. Luckily it looked like a good way to
get up the cliff band and it was. Took a
bit of finesse but the holds were good and so up we went to the top of the
bluff. We weren’t done climbing yet
though so kept on the compass bearing and soon we arrived at the well-known old
mining bench. Only problem was that, in
the darkness, we couldn’t tell where we were on it. I felt like we were very near the very point
of the ridge and proposed to hike one direction and see how our compass
bearings changed. Starting out we were
going East and very quickly the old road turned and we swung to the South. That told me we could only be in one place;
right at the north end of the triangle.
We quickly back tracked and then found the roughed up flat ground that I
suspect wild boar had been through; I recalled this area from Loop 1. Erik felt like he could find the Book1 by the
pond by simply listening for the toads or frogs. We became extremely quiet and sure enough we
could hear them. So while he wandered
off the bench towards the suspected book location, I wanted to be sure so
hunted around for the old Book 1 location wanting to find the large flat
rock. I found it quick enough and then
used it as a reference point as I too marched off the bench and back
downhill. Immediately I saw Erik at the
book. Boom!
We retrieved our last page for
the loop and headed up and over England Mountain and made quick work of the
candy ass Bird Mountain Trail back down camp.
On the way we passed by Johan Steene and Sean Ranney heading back out on
their third loop; all things considered they were not too far ahead of us; we
also over took another Barker heading downhill who turned out to be
Brandon! He had kept to the NBT all the
way home; bypassing Book 1 in the process.
Too bad. Anyhow, exiting the
trail onto the old fire road heading towards the well-lit yellow gate, we
agreed to meet back at the gate at exactly 26 hours on our watch; that meant we
had slightly less than an hour to resupply and regroup. At the gate there was still a sizeable group
awaiting our arrival; both our crews and several others. We turned in our loop pages to Laz who
quickly confirmed we both had all 13.
Then we were off to our respective camps for some quick food and
resupply.
Loop 3 : 13h 03m, (39h 3m 26s
Total) Dark Until Bald Knob
During my 54 minute break I
eat several grilled cheese sandwiches and other goodies, changed socks and clothes
and even got to lie down with my eyes closed for 10 minutes. But my crew’s watch alarm went off and so
back up to the Yellow Gate I went to collect my new race bib (the number of the
bib indicating what page I had to collect from the books). Erik wasn’t quite ready to go but he said he’d
catch up. So right at 26 hours (just 40
minutes before the cutoff to start Loop 3) I grabbed my new bib, tucked it
away, and begin climbing yet again with a full stomach! It was a very nice feeling actually; to be
out on loop 3; most likely my final loop for this year as, at best, we could
still finish in time for an official Fun Run finish (under 40 hours). However, we couldn’t afford many mistakes and
we’d definitely have to run when we could and minimize breaks. Make no mistake, it was going to be close!
I climbed fairly easily trying
to let my food settle in my stomach and by the top of Bird Mountain, Erik had
caught up once again. Book 1 was an easy
find this time around and while we didn’t take the best line down Check Mate it
wasn’t fatal; in fact it was probably a bit better than the last time
down. Still a lot of slick places where
I ended up on my rear end quite a bit but eventually the slope began to
decrease and we found ourselves at the Phillips Creek. Erik was definitely moving much quicker on
the off-trail downhills than I was. The
lugs in my light-weight boots just didn’t have quite enough bite; something to
improve next time. So I was a bit more
tentative with my steps having been slipping and sliding my way around for over
two loops!
Book 2 went much better than
expected. We largely were able to
reverse the hellish route we’d just been on mere hours earlier; amazing how
much easier it was sliding downhill! On
Hillpocolypse, Erik showed me a bit different uphill line than I was used to
and it was a good one; definitely one to keep in my bag of tricks for next
time. It was definitely starting to get
light out by the time we emerged back on the NBT and made our way over to Bald
Knob once again. So far we were making
pretty good time and hadn’t made any navigational mistakes. I felt good about our progress so we took a
short break at the top of Bald Knob to enjoy the sunrise from an amazing
panoramic view! Far below to the North
and South-West there was some very low lying fog along a river or other stream
that made it look like a massive lake.
Beautiful.
We sped through SOB Ditch, the
Coal ponds and had no trouble reconnecting with the CT this time around and
Garden Spot book was so easy I’m still having trouble figuring out what we did
during Loop 1! Wow, the fog and night
changes everything! Anyways, it was
light out now and still cool, but I knew we had a long way to go and a short
time to get there (run Bandit run!) and it was forecast to get quite warm that
afternoon. Ugh! So I resolved to press
hard now to hopefully build a little more time cushion on the cutoff. We nailed the navigation down Gnarly Mouth
Branch and on to Bobcat Rock trying to run as much as we could. The Leonard’s Butt Slide book was easy
pickings; much less drama this time around compared to two years ago when I had
all sorts of trouble! Then something strange
happened. After the book at Fyke’s Peak
I had a mind blank. We stayed on the ATV
track a bit too long I realize now and ended up in a completely unfamiliar area
to me; basically in my mind I was expecting to see something completely
different and it made no sense at all.
So I did have a moment of panic as I was nervously looking at my watch repeatedly
and doing the math about how far we had to go and what I could remember of how
long it took during the first loop. It wasn’t
good. Erik was great, he calmed me down
and we simply retraced our steps back towards the previous book then turned
around and sure enough, I finally recognized what I’d missed, the start of the
ridgeline descending to the New River.
Game On!
The rest of the way down to
the New River and on across the Highway and up Butter Ridge were a blur of
flawless navigation and a growing sense of urgency. This would be no coasting Fun Run finish. We’d really have to keep working!
Then another weird thing
happened. I think the 3rd
loop mental fog was starting to kick in.
After all we’d both been awake now for two nights and most of two days;
except for a couple hours of sleep on Friday night I think I’d been awake at this
point for well over 48 hours! Anyhow, we
took the Long Cut to avoid Danger Dave’s Climbing wall and, for some reason, I
chose to cross the ATV path right then and descend into a little drainage that
I mistakenly thought was the correct one that led to the rusted barrel and
Mount Trashmore beyond. Wrong! Dumb!
It looked right at first but then, all of a sudden, nothing looked
right. Erik and stayed behind and had
gone the correct way and shouted down to me he was on route. Damn!
I was tired! So I backtracked and
soon joined him just past the old yellow gate and together we entered the
correct drainage, retrieved our page and motored up Trashmore and Pig Head
Trail beyond.
I really began to climb hard
at this point. In my mind I honestly
thought we were behind schedule that we NEEDED to be already at the top of Rat
Jaw in order to have enough time to finish.
At this point we still had some significant distance and a lot of
vertical to get there though. So I
powered hiked with a purpose and soon crested Pig Head Trail all by myself and
ran every bit of the flat Prison Mine Road over to Rat Jaw. Erik was not in sight behind me. That was a shame. I honestly wasn’t trying to scrape him, I was
just worried we weren’t moving quickly enough and need to set the pace. However, by the second steep pitch of Rat Jaw
I spotted Erik down below on the first pitch; not scraped after all; not by a
long shot!
By the gentler uppermost
slopes of Rat Jaw, Erik had caught up. I
apologized for pulling ahead but reiterated the sense of urgency we should be
having. I asked him if he recalled how
long it had taken him to get from here to the finish on Loop 1. He gave a number and I checked my watch. Phew!
Even taking into account our overall slower pace on Loop 3 we still
should have about an hour of buffer on the final Fun Run cutoff of 40
hours. Even still, an hour isn’t much if
we made a costly navigational mistake or had a bad fall; all things still
highly likely with the balance of the course left to cover.
Working in our favor were the
very dry and warm conditions. Yes, it
had gotten quite warm by this point but unpleasant. The abundant sunlight had helped dry the
muddy Rat Jaw slopes so we were able to safely run all the way down to the
Prison without worrying overly much about footing. Through the cool tunnel one last time I
savored the cold air and the nice ice bath my aching feet were receiving. At the far end I decided to attempt to climb
up the ventilation shaft to the surface rather than take the traditional way
out via deeper water. It is one of the
few areas on the course where, in the course description, you are given a
choice of route. Erik opted for the
longer way around but I’m convinced it’s easier. I had difficulty finding good holds on the
climb out and nearly fell back into the tunnel a couple times before I managed
to drag my tired body to the surface. Ugh! Well, I’ve been through this tunnel a bunch
of times but this was the first time I’d gone that way. Believe me, once was enough!
We collected our last Prison
page and headed up The Bad Thing on a slightly different line than I’m used to
but thankfully, the steep ridge we’d taken soon joined Razor Ridge and we found
ourselves ascending on familiar ground.
But the mental fatigue was taking its toll. I felt pretty good for the most part, definitely
far better than my previous Fun Run, but even though I knew we were on the
correct ridge there were times it seemed unfamiliar. Like the little cliff band you have to ascend
or bypass on the way up; totally don’t recall it from either of the previous
loops… Anyhow, didn’t matter, just
needed to keep climbing until we could spot the ridgeline capstones and then
adjust our route to the correct one to hit the Eye of the Needle one last time.
We did just that and arrived
at almost the same time as John and Gary emerged from the other side of the
Needle! Ha! First thing John said after consulting his
watch was that we had ample time to get in for a Fun Run finish. It was awesome to hear his vote of
confidence; we’d certainly worked very hard this loop to regain that
buffer! John and Gary looked pretty good
and were soon on their way down to the Prison, well into Loop 4.
Descending Zipline one last
time I sort of let Erik lead the way. It
really seemed like he wanted to set the line so I followed. However, I should have made more of an effort
to correct him sooner because I felt like we were drifting too far towards the
beautiful but cliffed out waterfalls.
Sure enough, we found ourselves doing a lot of boulder hopping but
thankfully everything was dry so the footing was okay. As I’d made this navigational mistake before
I jumped out of the gully we were in well upstream of the cliffs and traversed
back to the left to find the little finger of ridgeline that drops right down
to merge with some old trail near the bottom of the drainage. So, no real time lost just a bit of extra
work. It was all good. The views from the set of cascades is
actually worth the extra effort to get to especially as we avoided getting
cliffed out. (I’d actually ended up
cliffed out in this area, in the dark of a botched Loop 1 two years ago so I
was acutely aware of trying to avoid what I’d gone through then to escape!)
We reached the Beech Tree and
our penultimate page easily and began one last, arduous climb up Big Hell. This time around I chose an old familiar line
that I recall Blake Wood and I used many years ago; perhaps during my first
Barkley? The route largely ends up on a
nice, narrow, finger-like ridge that avoids a lot of briars and small
cliffs. Judging by the divots along the
way, it was well trafficked which was a good sign.
Then, one last weird thing
happened. As we were ascending Big Hell
coming from a bit more left to right than the more straight line ascents of the
past, we reached the top at an angle that looked very strange to me. For a moment I thought perhaps we’d somehow
tracked too far to the left and had hit the ridgeline below Chimney top off the
candy ass trail. But I didn’t recall
there being any capstones along that ridge.
But everything looked wrong! When
we finally did reach the capstones, I was convinced that Chimney top was
further to the right along the capstones.
However, we also found ourselves on a well tracked trail that did look familiar. Erik suggested we back track along this trail
out around the end of the capstone just to be sure before we plowed ahead into
the unknown. Good he was thinking! Because all we did was follow the trail back
to the end of the capstone and arrived right at the last book! Thinking about it now I think what happened
was that on ascending that different line I thought incorrectly we’d be too far
to the left on the climb so we began a traverse back to the right to get more in
line with what I thought was the normal line.
In fact, we were already in line (remember how different ascending lines
converge?) so now we were in a line that was too far to the right and thus why
the capstones looked different when we got there as I wasn’t used to seeing
them from that perspective! Weird!
Anyhow, we collected our final
page, but didn’t pause to contemplate the moment; we had no time to spare! One last traversal back to the candy ass
trail and then we sped down it at a comfortable pace. We had plenty of time it seemed but I was
taking nothing to chance at this point. It
was also getting quite warm the more we descended. We kept running and running downhill and soon
crossed a small stream and began one last brief ascent of Rough Ridge that
seemed like a much bigger climb this time around!
We kept the good running pace
up all down the final downhill though it seemed like it was a lot further than
I remembered. Did we have enough time
after all? Damn! Our fears were finally put to rest once I
could spot the park office and very familiar trail signs. We’d done it!
Erik was going to finish his First Fun Run and I was going to finish my
Second! Woot! We were both super excited and a bit incredulous
actually. We’d given up a lot of time to
some costly navigational mistakes but still eked back just enough time by
pushing hard when it mattered the most to buy us enough buffer for a Fun Run
finish. Definitely was a team
effort. While I had had some very dark
thoughts early in Loop 1, I’d rallied largely due the constant company I’d kept
the remainder of the way; a first for me Out There. Having a good partner at the Barkley
Marathons is priceless! It’s good to
have an extra set of eyes and, hopefully collectively we’d be functioning with
the equivalent of one brain! Still, partnering
up has its risks as I’ve learned about from past failures where negative
thoughts can spread like a virus from runner to runner; even the strong willed
and unwaveringly motived are often susceptible!
Thank you so much Erik! What a
ride!
With that, we made our way
slowly out to the final trail head then lazily jogged along the Flat Fork Creek
trail back to the Big Cove Campground. While
we could’ve run up the hill to the gate, we opted to instead savor the moment
with a leisurely walk! The camp was
abuzz but noticeably a bit less populated than Friday night. Still, my crew spotted us coming up the road
and joined us at a distance on our last hike up to the Yellow Gate and an awaiting
Laz. There was one last moment of
drama. I turned in my pages and as Laz
counted them I began chatting to some of the others in the small crowd. I minute later Laz spoke up and said that he’d
counted my pages twice and only got 12. What!
It suddenly got very quiet. I
looked at the small, waterproof bag in which I’d been keeping my pages and
couldn’t see anything at first except for my bib folded up in there. But then Fritz said there was something else
in there (it was a clear bag). Sure
enough there was a page all folded up hiding behind my bib! Phew!
Everybody let out a collective sigh, or I might have been imagining
that. I handed over my 13th
page and I was done! Erik’s pages were
similarly counted correctly and then Taps was played twice; once for each of
us. That bugle never sounded so sweet!
Epilogue
Once again I want to thank
some folks who made this all possible.
First I’d like to thank Eric
Fritz (and his family!) for giving up two days of work and a long weekend to come
out and crew and support me. I’ll pay back
in full, no worries! I have a feeling that
Fritz will be spending some serious time Out There in the future!
Once again, thank you to David
Horton for starting me down this path. I
still have a hand written letter (can you imagine?!) from him dated back to
1995 when I contacted him for ultrarunning advice while I was attending the
Virginia Military Institute. That advice
became part of my early approach to the sport and still plays a large role in
how I train today.
Thank you to Laz for providing
this very opportunity and experience to truly test out if I was tough enough or
had enough grit! Perhaps I can buy you a
beer at a honky-tonk of your choice one day; as long as we’re both wearing
straw hats and long sleeve cotton dress shirts!
Thank you to DeWayne
Satterfield. You’ve been one of the
local few that I’m around that “gets it”. It was your Fun Run finish several years ago
that finally forced me to get serious about training right for the Barkley
Marathons!
I have to personally thank Kurt Stockbridge and Kathie Townsend of the Skechers Performance Division for their many years of support and keeping me in shoes. The Team did an awesome job building a "one-off", light-weight "running boot" for me this year. I wore them during loops 2 & 3. This was an idea I had last year to try at the Barkley Marathons after experiencing a lot of ankle pinching pain and tendonitis from all the steep grades and often cross-camber traverses. Unfortunately I got injured last year and couldn't further test the idea of having a shoe with a lot more ankle support but still have good traction, stability and most of all be light enough to be viable. This year they built something that was amazing; a variant of the GoTrail mid-top that used the GoTrail Ultra midsole-outsole for better underfoot cushioning but still had the wonderful, high heel collar for superior ankle support. I'm happy to report that my feet and lower legs never felt better after such abuse! Thank you so much!
I have to personally thank Kurt Stockbridge and Kathie Townsend of the Skechers Performance Division for their many years of support and keeping me in shoes. The Team did an awesome job building a "one-off", light-weight "running boot" for me this year. I wore them during loops 2 & 3. This was an idea I had last year to try at the Barkley Marathons after experiencing a lot of ankle pinching pain and tendonitis from all the steep grades and often cross-camber traverses. Unfortunately I got injured last year and couldn't further test the idea of having a shoe with a lot more ankle support but still have good traction, stability and most of all be light enough to be viable. This year they built something that was amazing; a variant of the GoTrail mid-top that used the GoTrail Ultra midsole-outsole for better underfoot cushioning but still had the wonderful, high heel collar for superior ankle support. I'm happy to report that my feet and lower legs never felt better after such abuse! Thank you so much!
I'd also like to thank the people at Sword for making an incredible endurance sports drink. I've been running for over 26 years, ultras for over 20, and have tried A LOT of sports drinks. I've enjoyed Sword like no other. There is just something about the simple and few ingredients, and the right balance of maltodextrin and simple cane sugar and light taste that makes it enjoyable with every sip. It's saying a lot that after 39 hours of continuous movement and drinking nothing but Ginger Citrus mix I was still enjoying every sip! I've never experienced that before. Typically drinks get too sweet for me and I end up just switching to water after half a day of effort. Not so with Sword. Amazing stuff! Thank you so much for making your product!
But the biggest thanks go to my
better looking half and partner in crime, my wife Kathy and my dogs Tracks and Sparta for putting up
with my rigid training schedule that, by its very nature, had me gone all day
on long solo runs and climbs (for some reason nobody wants to spend all day
hiking up and down power lines!). Kathy,
I still think you’ve got a Fun Run in you given the right navigator (hint
hint); you’re worlds tougher mentally and physical than I am! After all remember that Laz said after 2012 that it was your
turn!
