Holiday Lake 50k++

-Jordan Chang

 So… since Holiday Lake was my first ultra, and all the newbies were encouraged to write about their experiences, I’ll give this a shot.

            Like most all of the students at Virginia Tech who have ended up running ultra marathons, I was approached by Michael Stratton earlier in the school year.  As a member of the triathlon team, I got to know many people who have followed Stratton’s lead into running Ultras.  This meant that along with Stratton’s urgings, came encouragement from students like Steven Baker and Brian Mayer to run Holiday Lake.  Eventually, after having all of winter break to think about it, I signed up during the first week of classes in January.

            Before we get to the race however, let’s get a little background information. This is my freshman year at Virginia Tech and I hail from Baltimore, Maryland.  I have been running competitively since my freshman year in high school.  Ever since, running has become a huge part in my life.  Once I got to VT, I joined the Triathlon team and have been training and racing with them ever since.  I ran the Richmond Marathon in the fall and until Holiday Lake, that was the farthest distance I had ever run. Now onto the race.

            The week leading up to the race was a pretty stressful on for me.  I had four exams spanning three days.  This meant that I was looking forward to the race as a great way to relieve some stress and pent up energy.  When we got to the race site, I began to feel pretty anxious because this type of race was totally new to me. It seemed as if everyone knew everybody else, and I was one of the “new guys.”  Later on though, after signing in, having dinner and listening to Dave’s many instructions about the next day’s race, I began to feel a little more comfortable. I cannot begin to express how awesome it was to have experienced team mates like Steven Baker and Michael Stratton at the race.  They could answer every question I threw at them.  So off to bed we went.  Since we were in the cabins, it was a little chilly, but still not bad at all.  As we had planned earlier, alarms rang at 2:00 AM, so we would be able to eat a hearty breakfast at the “perfect” time in conjunction with the race start.  After filling ourselves full of bagels, energy drinks and other foods, we headed back to sleep until the infamous wakeup call did its job.  The hour or so before the race was a blur of getting mentally prepared and trying to get some “good bowel movements” as was mentioned the night before.  I was a little late in getting to the line and was still fiddling with some pieces of clothing when the race was started.  Yeah, it was my first time starting a race at 6:30 in the morning and in the dark, can you tell?  So we were off.  I immediately found Dan Villarreal, one of my fellow Hokies and followed him while we stayed in the middle of the pack.  We stayed in that position until the trail opened up wider.  At that point, I decided to pick up the pace a little in order to see who was up in front of me.  You know… just out of curiosity….haha.  Eventually, when the sky started to brighten, I found a pack of runners that contained Steven Baker, Michael Stratton, two of Baker’s friends and fellow 18 year old Jonathan Bryant.  I stayed with them for a couple miles until we were caught by Jenn Shelton, who was really rolling at this point.  I decided (unwisely I realize now) to run with her for awhile.  That got me going at a fast pace which I ended up keeping for the rest of the first loop.  The rest of the first loop seemed really relaxing.  I was running at a fast clip, catching people left and right.  By the time I got to the turnaround, I was sitting pretty right behind the 3^rd place runner.  I passed him after the turnaround, where several people from VT were there cheering.  I hit the halfway point at 2:08.  That really didn’t mean anything to me since I didn’t really know what a fast time was.  I was feeling great and running fast. I was on top of the world at that point.  Little did I know that within a few miles, this feeling would disappear.  Once I passed aid station 4 on the second loop, I began to slow down.  I didn’t know why.  It just happened.  After I splashed clumsily through the third creek crossing, it really hit me.  I guess you could say I hit the “wall.”  Before the race I knew I would get really tired and probably hit a wall at some point, but I could never have imagined this feeling.  My legs could not recover from the cold water and my turnover slowed to a near standstill.  Soon after, Baker and Brett Carson along with Michelle Lindsay came up and passed me, all looking very strong. This was really discouraging but Michelle encouraged me to keep them in sight.  I did just that… for about 500 meters. Then I was all alone.  But this was different than being alone and in charge of my race.  I was mentally being beat at this point. Then I made a big mistake that led to many other people to follow the same mistake.  I missed a turn while up in the “Pine Gove.”  I went straight rather than turning right.  I didn’t realize my mistake until running about 800 meters without seeing any other footprints or white flags.  That was probably the lowest point in my race.  I had no idea how far off course I had gone.  It could have been several miles, or it could have been a few hundred meters.  If I could have given up at that point and went home I probably would have, but since I was in the middle of a state park that really wasn’t an option.  After I backtracking for about 800 hundred meters I was lucky to find Michael Stratton making the right turn that I had missed.  It was great to run with him for awhile, but then my huge meltdown continued.  I did not know that while I was lost, three people had passed me.  I fell off of Michael after a mile or two and really began to struggle just to keep from walking long stretches.  After being passed by the eventual second place lady, I had resigned myself that this race would end in disaster. Then from behind me came Dan Villarreal, the teammate whom I had started the race off with.  He pretty much saved my race.  He forced me to run with him, pushing me both figuratively and literally at times.  I believe I told him I wanted to die at least 20 times….yeah… I was in pain.  Over the last few miles I sort of got my second wind after much encouragement from Dan and began to run again rather than drag myself along.  We caught up to Stratton and ran with him the last mile or two. One of the things Dan said that I will never forget was when he first caught up to me and saw that I was really struggling.  He said, “Lets go get our Patagonia,” referring to the top 10 prizes.  To make a long story short, we ran the rest of the way as a team, pushing each other and finishing in 8^th,  9^th and 10^th  place for guys. The greatest part about this race was being able to be there with a team who would always push me to my limits. So thanks Stratton and Baker for making me do this race, thanks Dave for putting on such a great race, thanks to all the VT people who came to cheer and thanks to my teammates who were there to push me on when things were pretty rough. Holiday Lake 50k++ 2006… sure I’ll remember the rain, snow, the getting lost and all the pain, but most of all I’ll just remember it as my first Ultra Marathon. And boy was it an amazing experience. 

P.S.  GO HOKIES!!!