C’mon, David, I Was Serious About the Coffee

By Keith Dunn

Going into any race these days I can think of a million ways in which things are not going my way: inadequate time to train, nagging little injuries, and so forth.  However, at the beginning of this race on the way up that first gravel road section I overhead a conversation that let me know how much worse it could be:

Young Attractive Runner (to equally young attractive runner friend): “I forgot to wear my watch.  Now we won’t know all day where we are; I mean, how much time we have.  I can’t believe this.  I’ve done everything wrong so far.  We’ve just started, I forgot my watch, and I already have to pee.  I thought David would at least pray before we began.”

A pause, and then the kicker:

“I can’t stop thinking about Hall and Oates.”

Wow.

The good news for me is that no matter how much I tried to do wrong, I had friends there to save me from myself.  Frank helped me find my group at the camp site after it got dark Friday evening; Jeanne had instant coffee and a mug, both of which I forgot to bring despite my obsession with having coffee in the morning (and knowing there would not be any, my note in last year’s race report notwithstanding); Tom was there at Sunset Fields to encourage me and tell me what to discard and what to keep for the rest of the race; and Gena made sure I had my post-race recovery cookies.  Even Dr. Wortley, who provided such wonderful companionship during the race last year, was there at key turns to encourage me and make sure all the runners went the right way.

Friday evening we had a nice pre-race dinner at the Sedalia Center, a cool little place out in the country that seems to be a sort of multipurpose facility.  Among the people I met that evening was Scott Jurek who, like many of the top finishers, remained at the finish to cheer on the back of the packers as we came in.  Funny how you only see that in ultras; never in marathons or other road races. 

Have I mentioned how much I love this race?  The first two and a half miles, which is “run” up a gravel road, normally would bother me, but at 5:30 in the morning having a path that wide (and a wonderful full moon!) eliminates the need for flashlights.  I hit the trail well after the sun started coming up and by the time I reached the top of the first climb, the sunrise was a beautiful thing to see.  You run up, and then down . . . then a little up, and then a somewhat technical down.  And then you are at the bottom!  And the entire time, you are looking forward to that final climb, which is the most technical portion of the course, seems to go straight up, and never ends, but which features such a wonderful waterfall that you do not care.  This year I did stop for a moment at the waterfall and just looked around, taking it all in, wondering why I do not spend more time in the mountains when I am not trying to get to the next aid station before the cutoff.  Finishing the climb, I paused again at Sunset Fields before heading out for the last five miles.  I did not remember from last year an uphill on that last portion, but I was fine with it, and was able to run the downs a lot better than I was able to do last year.  Despite some nagging aches that bothered me most of the day I finished within three minutes of my last year’s time.

It appeared to me that most of the runners had a great day.  Clark Zealand, who owns this race, spanked the course, obliterating his own course record by almost 40 minutes.  In fact, eight runners this year finished with faster times than Clark’s last year.  VHTRC newbie Bryon Powell served notice in his first ultra, finishing tenth in a very strong field.  The results overall were quite impressive, leading one to wonder how tough really is this course . . .

The volunteers, who gave up their day just so we runners could have fun, were wonderful and handled my repeated requests for beer good naturedly.  The course was well marked, and key turns were staffed so we went the correct way.  The finisher’s award was a beautiful silk weight Patagonia capilene shirt which will be perfect for running Laurel Highlands.  The post race meal really hit the spot.  To all involved with the race, thank you so much for being there.

And I will see you all next year.

But . . . seriously . . . next time I want coffee at the start.

Peace,