Holiday Lake 50k++

Nick Whited

My first Holiday Lake 50k + + was truly an experience and another David Horton adventure.  I had wanted to do this race last year, but raced a 10k the weekend before and pulled a tendon in my foot when I foolishly attempted a kick at the finish.  This year I did the 10k once again, but held off from kicking; now I was ready to run at Holiday Lake.  Upon looking at the weather reports later in the week I realized it was probably going to snow; I had ran in the wind and sleetish conditions last week and now again, terrific.  As I drove to Lynchburg on Friday afternoon, I could not help but not enjoy how nice the weather was outside of my vehicle.  I arrived at Darrell Wargo’s place and we proceeded to drive to the Super 8 in Appomattox.  We went to the dinner, ate well, and came back to the room to retire pretty early.  We both woke up around 2:00 am and looked out the window, “No snow, yet.” we yelled to each other.  We proceeded to sleep in until around 4:45am and woke up to get ready for the race.  I turned the television on and realized that it was raining just east of us in Lynchburg; the inevitable was going to occur; it was going to be a muddy day.  We drove the race start, got everything in order and lined up on the starting line.  What amazed me were the people wearing shorts and no gloves.  Bethany Patterson was lined up behind us and made the comment that she left her gloves in the car and did not feel like going back to retrieve them; “Tough gal right there,” I thought to myself.  The race started and we were off up the hill and took a right into the woods.  Everyone proceeded for about 30 seconds and ended up off of the race course.  “Guys, where is the course.”  “Yo, I see a ribbon over here,” someone yelled.  I was worried about if someone put the hammer down and got away from us on that single trek section.  Finally, I saw that I was settled in the lead pack going up the stairs over the waterway.  I pushed a little bit and was passing people pretty fast on the rooty section.  Amazing how training on the AT lets you adapt to horrible running surfaces.  I hit a bridge and fell pretty hard right after passing a couple of guys.  I bounced up quickly but realized I’d better settle down.  We finally got into some open space and I dropped the hammer to keep the two leaders in sight.  We got the 1^st aid station where I threw my flashlight into a cardboard box and ended up sprinting hard down the gravel road and passed the leaders; bad idea.  Those guys were rolling, I held with them for about five minutes and decided that I had no right to be up there with them.  The race progressed as me staying in 3^rd – 5^th place most of the way until the turnaround; I downed some Spizz at the turnaround that I had placed on a post and was off.  I wanted to run under 4:20 and hit halfway in 2:08ish, perfect.  Shortly, after this area I hit a rough patch, I made it to the next aid station and David was there; he gave me some coke and someone filled my bottle up; he knew exactly what I needed probably by the horrid pale look on my face.  Just as I was leaving, the lead female runner, Jenn Shelton came blazing on by along with three VT students.  I managed to keep them in sight and felt better and passed them on the dirt road section, but there was no catching the female on this day.  She was hammering the pace hard.  I felt better and was able to run a good pace but was paying for those two surges from the first half.  Shortly after, Fred Gaston passed me and made it look easy; we ran together back and forth for 3 miles before he passed me strongly at the last aid station.   I had enjoyed his company but now it was a race to the finish, every man for himself.  I was running empty and had no fuel; my gel flask fell out of my holder somewhere on the course and I was running on empty.  I made it to the finish line and was happy to finish and get a hot shower.  The race was well organized and the 4-H center did a terrific job with hosting the event. David Horton is a super race director, he takes charge and even helps out at the aid stations, how great is that?  I was amazed at the VT crew.  Those guys ran hard and have a ton of potential in ultras if they keep at it. After running Hellgate in December and dropping out due to the ice, I welcomed the snow and mud, at least I could run on it without falling.  Maybe Promise Land will be sunny and have no snow.