“The Horse’s rear-end.”

by Don Pett 

8,000 feet up.  8,000 feet down.  50k++ in less than 10 hours to finish.  Its 5am and 268 runners

are checking their gear and hydrating for the Promise Land 50k near Bedford, VA.  As the 5:30am start nears I think back to how I got here.  January 2005 I felt out of shape and overweight.  Started running and biking.  Lost weight and got bored.  Saw a ½ iron in April and signed up.  Swam maybe 6 times for training.  Finished the race and was hooked on Tri’s.  Lots of sprint tri’s the last few years but my swim and run were terrible (It’s not ALL about the bike!).  Last November I decided if I was ever going to become a runner and really enjoy it I would have to put in the miles over the winter.  I started out well running 4 days per week and had my mileage up to around 25-30 weekly.  Then I started thinking of a marathon but they seem so boring running on streets and beating up your legs with the pounding asphalt.  By February I felt great and was continuing to actually enjoy my runs.  Did some trail runs in the Blue Ridge Mountains just to try something different.  I loved it.  There is just something peaceful and relaxing about running on trails when you can’t see or hear anything but nature.  I found a trail race link and something about the Promise Land race caught my eye.  I asked my friend who has done it numerous times and he thought I’d enjoy it.  My weekly mileage was around 40 now so I thought it was doable.  I read all the race reports and trained on the course several times.  One of these was the long half of the course and I managed to turn the 16 miles into about 20 after being lost a bit and had a good steady run of 4:09.  I felt great and it did wonders for my confidence.  The big climb on the end of this run is 3.2 miles and over 2000 ft of climb.  I managed this in 1:05.  Scott Jurek once held the record for this section in 41 minutes.  That was later brought to 40 minutes  a year later!  I had some shin pain 2 weeks out from the race and decided to rest and do nothing.  I had never tried this and personally don’t recommend it to anyone with a job and family.  Cranky and irritable with nervous energy and no outlet.

Race Day: 5:25am.  The race director is the legendary David Horton.  He says a prayer and all 268 of us sing the National Anthem.  Then he says go.  What a strange sight we must be.  A large group running up a mountain road in the dark with flashlights and headlamps.  We run for about a mile until the road gets too steep.  Horton says 2.64 miles to AS 1.  He is probably right on this one…just this one.  It also climbs over 2200 ft in the first 5 miles.  Reach the aid station and the volunteers fill my handheld bottle, I dump my flashlight and I’m off in 45 minutes.  This part heads up single-track, not too technical with some running and we top out at 3400 ft.  The next 6 miles is on grassy horse trail mostly down with some gentle rollers and a beautiful sunrise with views of the foggy valleys below.  I felt pretty good here but it started getting hot and I ran out of water before coming into AS 2.  Drank as much water as I could while volunteers filled my bottle.  The buffet featured orange slices, bananas, pretzels, potatoes, soda and any flavor of pain killer you wanted.  Every aid station had these which I thought was weird because I thought the point was to find a level of discomfort you could tolerate and stay there.  I avoided the pain relief all day because I wasn’t sure how they would affect me.  Left AS 2 at 2:45 on the clock for the 3 mile 1600 ft climb to Apple Orchard Mtn., the highest point of the course.  Tough climb without a lot of switchbacks.  Cross the Blue Ridge Parkway and head down a parallel service road for 3/4 miles to Sunset Fields, AS 3.  From here you can see the valley we are going to descend to.  Left AS 3 at 3:25 on the race clock.  At this point we are 12 “Horton” miles into the race and many thousands of vertical feet of climb and descent.  I was starting to get some tightening and cramping as it approached 80 degrees.  I continued to fill my stomach at each aid station and popped Ecaps every 30 minutes.  The next 4 miles drop almost 2200 feet.  Very technical single-track for much of it with some sections so steep it’s more like controlled falling.  The beating your quads take on the downhills makes you strangely hope for the uphills.  AS 4 was a welcomed sight and I drank and ate as much as my stomach could hold.  Not sure what time I left but think it was around 4:30 race time.  The next section was a hot gravel road for about 2 miles and then turn onto some nice shaded singletrack.  This was my first low point and the heat was really getting to me.  AS 5 was only 3 miles which helped.  They had ice cream!  Middle of nowhere on some fire road with temps in the 80’s and there’s ice cream.  I may have hallucinated the whole thing.  Don’t know when I left that oasis.  The next part is all grassy rolling fire roads but no shade.  4.5 miles to AS 6.  Got there at 6:35 on the race clock.  Sat and drank about eight cups of some pink stuff.  Ate some M&M’s as that’s all my stomach could handle.  Stayed there for about 10 minutes.  This is the 24 mile mark of the race.  Now comes the Apple Orchard Falls climb back up to the parkway.  This climb is 3.4 miles and over 2200 vertical feet.  Most of the vertical is in the second half.  My ears actually popped from the elevation change.  I completely fell apart on this climb and had to rest several times.  It took me an hour and forty-five minutes to get out of there.  AS 7 at 8:30 race time.  Stayed at the aid station about 15 minutes trying to rehydrate.  I figured I had an hour and fifteen minutes to go downhill 4.5 miles and finish under the 10 hour cutoff.  Jogged until I reached a 200 yard climb that I honestly wasn’t sure I’d see the top of.  My brain was telling my legs to do something they were not going to do.  The tightness and cramping were excruciating but somehow I thought it was funny that my body parts were fighting each other and I was a mere spectator.  Reached the singletrack trail I was coming up 9 hours earlier.  It really was all downhill from here.  I had to run to make the cutoff so tried to shuffle but it actually felt better to go faster.  A huge thunderstorm let loose just as I was reaching the gravel road and AS 8, the final station.  Filled my bottle and headed down the final 2.64 miles to the finish.  Tried to run the first part but it was very steep.  Walked a little and let someone catch me so I’d have some company.  We talked a little and did the math to the finish together.  It worked out well for both of us as we finally saw the Promise Land finish area and brought it home together.  It seemed like everyone from the race was still there cheering us in.  I think they were waiting to see if one of us would contend for the best blood prize.  Fortunately, no.  Greeted by Dr. Horton at the finish and he said I was the last “official” finisher otherwise known as the “horse’s rear end”.    I can’t explain my fascination with these things.  The limits on us are really self imposed.  I can’t say enough about the volunteers.  Very special people.