The Promise Land 50k - Hamilton Tyler

 The Promise Land 50k was held on April 26, 2008.  The day before I left Annapolis, Maryland by noon and made it to the Promise Land campground by 5:00 p.m.  The Promise Land youth camp which serves as the start/finish area is located north of Lynchburg, Virginia about halfway between Bedford and Big Island.  Because there were not any hotels within the general vicinity, I decided to join the many others who camp at Promise Land the night before the start.  Another important reason to be near the start is the 5:30 a.m. start.

I had never camped the night before a race, so I was a little apprehensive about getting enough sleep.  I had driven my big vehicle (at great gas expense) so that I could sleep in it in the event of bad weather.  The vehicle seemed like a good alternative as I struggled to get my tent up quickly as the sky turned black and the thunderstorms and showers moved in. 

Race Director David Horton ordered more than enough pizzas this year to feed everyone on Friday night.  Due to the rain everyone congregated under the covered pavilion to dine and listen to the pre-race briefing.  I saw many of the same folks I have run with in prior ultras.  There are also a fair contingent of David’s students from Liberty University in attendance.

When I got ready to turn in it was still raining pretty hard.  The rain finally let up around 10:00 p.m. and the tent never did leak.  Once the rain stopped I could hear the stream right behind my tent which put me to sleep.

I got up 5 minutes before my 4:30 a.m. alarm went off, grabbed a quick breakfast and got dressed.  It promised to be a hot day, so not a lot of question about what to wear.  It was a little chilly standing around before the start, but dry.  The large field was now full of cars as those who did not camp overnight were streaming in.

It was still dark when the 5:30 a.m. start went off.  I carried a flashlight but probably did not need it because the first 3 miles were on Overstreet Creek Road, a gravel road up the mountain and enough other runners had flashlights. I shot the breeze with others as I jogged and powerwalked up the mountain.  This initial climb was somewhere around 1,300 feet in just under 3 miles which took me 39 minutes. 

It was light enough to drop the light at the aid station and refill one water bottle as I headed into a trail section which was mainly a horse trail that ascended Onion Mountain.  I walked the steep portions and ran the rest although the field was still not real spread out as there were 268 runners who started the race.  Once at the top of the mountain the terrain changed to a rolling grassy road that traveled around the sides of several mountains with no real big ups or downs.  It was a strange road as most sections had steep slopes above and below the road.  It made for some very pleasant running with great views although I had some lower abdomen pain that began to bother me.  This pain, which was not stomach related, had bothered me a month earlier at the HAT 50k as well.  The pain was worse when running downhill.  The abdomen pain slowed me during this long section. 

The temperatures were rising and I had drained both bottles of Clif Shot electrolyte drink before I reached the second aid station at Reed Creek.  According to David’s “Horton miles” I had covered 8.55 miles in just under 2 hours.  “Horton miles” tend to be a little longer than regular miles and I thought I was moving faster than the 14 minute pace indicated. 

The next section was the climb up to the highest point on the course at just over 4,000 feet of elevation.  Not a real steep section, but I still power walked a great deal of it.  I finally reached the Blue Ridge Parkway which was the high point and headed down an access road to the next aid station at Sunset Fields which was a little further down the Blue Ridge Parkway.  I reached this aid station which was at about 12 miles in 2 hours and 47 minutes, a pace of 13 minutes and 50 second for this section.

The Sunset Fields aid station had a great variety of food so I ate some PBJs and potato chips in addition to filling the bottles again.  There were a lot of runners’ families at this aid station as it was the only aid station where crew has access to their runners.  Runners would return to this aid station at the 27 mile mark.

The next section was mostly steep downhill on predominantly single track trail with a few rocks thrown in for good measure.  I had chosen to wear Montrail Odyssey trail shoes which was probably the perfect shoe for me for this course as there were not a lot of rocks and it is a lighter shoe.  The few rocks I did hit could be felt through the shoe.  This was probably the worst section for me as the pain in my abdomen slowed me up a lot.  I was passed by a bunch of people flying down the trail, some of them Liberty students.  When I heard someone coming I would move aside and let them by. The polite Liberty students moved past with a “thank you sir” that made me feel older than my 44 years.

The 4 mile trail section down the mountain dropped well over 2000 feet in just over 4 miles.  I reached the Cornelius Creek aid station at mile 16 in 3 hours and 37 minutes, taking about 50 minutes to cover the 4 miles.  It was about 9:00 am and the temperature was creeping above 70.  I was hoping for a 6 hour 30 minute finish, but that was now out the window as I was about halfway done and was not going to run a 30 minute negative split in rising temperatures with a very long climb ahead.

The next section was fairly civilized with more downhill on a road to the low point of the course at an altitude of 1,130 feet.  I covered just over 3 miles in about 34 minutes to reach the aid station at mile 19 in 4 hours and 12 minutes.  The next 5 miles are a mixture of single track trail and grassy roads, altogether pretty pleasant running/walking although it was pretty warm.  I fell in with Quattro who I had run with before and we solved many of the world’s problems.  If he hadn’t started picking up the few pieces of trash on the trail and correcting wayward trail markers I think we would have had the Iraq crisis and world hunger pretty much solved.

I reached the aid station at mile 24 in 5 hours and 17 minutes.  I had been warned about the upcoming climb back up to the Blue Ridge Parkway so I took in as many calories as I could handle in solid food.  The next 3 miles consisted of single track trail that climbed about 2000 feet along the Apple Orchard Falls.  The lower portion was not that bad, but as I started to reach the falls the trail steepened.  The views of the falls were excellent. I had never been in this area and the falls were very picturesque, made even better by the rain the night before.  I passed a lot of runners during this section who were having difficulty with the climb.  A few were sitting on the side of the trail.  I gave one runner who had lost their salt pills some of mine.  The others said they just needed a break.  The area around the falls was set up for tourist viewing so there were a lot of wooden steps which made up the trail.  The very repetitive motion of going up stairs started to cause some twinges of cramps in my quads.  After the stair section and there was another mile or so of single track trail to the top.

I finally reached the Sunset Fields aid station at the Blue Ridge Parkway after 1 hour and 5 minutes of climbing almost 3 miles. My total time at mile 27 was 6 hours and 22 minutes.  The good part was that except for one small climb, it was literally all downhill for the last 5 miles.  I fueled up with some food and crossed the Blue Ridge Parkway on a dirt road which lead to the horse trails.  I only saw one other runner in the 2.5 miles back to the road which I covered in 29 minutes for a total time of 6 hours 51 minutes at the top of the road which was the 29 mile mark.

I blew through the last aid station at the top of the road without stopping for any more water.  It was almost 3 miles on road straight downhill to the finish.  My stomach pain was feeling a little better, perhaps due to the liberal use of motrin.  I started to pick up some speed and there was a long line of runners in front of me as incentive.  A couple of runners passed me as I started to speed up, but I kept picking up speed downhill and started to pick them back up one by one.  I reached the mark signifying one mile to go and let loose. Downhill momentum was carrying me as well as the pent-up frustration at not running as fast as I thought I could have over the rest of the course due to the stomach issues.

I covered the last mile in 6 minutes and 30 seconds and the last downhill section in 21 minutes.  I crossed the finish line in 7 hours and 12 minutes in 92^nd place out of 256 finishers, a middle of the pack finish.  This was my slowest 50k, even counting a couple of meltdowns.  This race has approximately 8,000 feet of climb over its stated distance of 31.75 miles.  My overall pace was 13 minutes and 36 seconds.  Rumor has it that the race may be closer to 33 miles or so.  The Promise Land course is by far the most scenic race I have run with the combination of the views and the waterfalls.  I wouldn’t have minded another mile or two! 

Post race activities were in full swing.  I got some fluids and lunch, then went and sat in the very cool stream for about 30 minutes which felt great on the legs.  As I was packing up my tent the day’s round of afternoon thunderstorms moved in so the weekend ended the way it had started, albeit with considerably sorer legs.