Bandera 100k
In my short 2 years of trail racing, I’ve really enjoyed racing in the Texas Hill country against the local competition, which is always tough. With some work, lots of help and a little luck, I’ve had some successes in these races.
I’ve had so much fun with our San Antonio club, the Rockhoppers, and the extended Texas trail racing family, that I don’t really pay attention to ultra-running outside of Texas. I could probably only name 3 or 4 of the country’s top ultra runners, mostly because Julie tells me about them. But here I am, at the starting line of the Bandera 100k. The race is right in San Antonio’s backyard and is both the USA Track & Field 100k trail national championship, and a Western States “Golden Ticket” race (just google what that last thing means, if you care to).
So it's a ‘who’s who’ of these elite runners all lined up, but only one of whom I actually recognized: Camille Herron - she has several world records in ultras but I recognized her because she is from Oklahoma and would win every single major race when I was living there. Once, she destroyed me and everyone else at the Route 66 Marathon in Tulsa... while wearing a full-body spider-woman costume (that was also a world record).
Anyway, given the field and the national competition, my goal was to get Top 10. When the gun went off, 25-30 people sprinted out ahead of me; I looked at my watch after a couple minutes of running, and my own pace was averaging 6:30s, with that mass of humanity still up ahead. Thus ended my Be Aggressive Plan (which lasted 0.3 miles), and began my Relax and Wait For Carnage Plan. Chris Russell was a course marshal again - his plan was to let me know what place I was in each of the 2 loops, but he was stationed only 1.5 miles after the starting line. He lost count of all the men by the time I finally strolled up, so instead, he told me I was the 5th female. Super helpful, Chris!
The mass of humanity was stubborn, but I finally started picking them off around mile 6 or 7. There was a bunch of men I passed, but I only counted females since that’s what I had to go on. Finally after YaYa aid station (mile 22 - an awesome Rockhopper-run bastion of help), I passed another lady so that I was now 2nd female (just go with it). But I couldn’t shake the feeling I was still way behind all the guys; my stride/energy seemed fine, I’d just rattled off a few 7:30s on the way to YaYa, and I was under 9-hour pace. Where was everyone?
“Everyone” was just fast. Like, way faster than me. That’s one of the main reasons I wanted to run this thing, to see where I stood when you add in the other 49 states (I just didn’t like the answer). Finally I caught up to #1 lady Camille Herron around mile 27 and it took me a few minutes to build up the confidence to pass her (it did not feel like a smart thing to do), but I convinced myself she was probably taking it easy since she had the Golden Ticket in the bag, so I hopped past and did my standard out-of-control careening down Boyle’s all the way to the start/finish. Halfway in 4:25.
I saw Tyler Mathews at the lodge and he offered to pace me right there out of the blue, as his runner Anthony had to DNF with an injury. It gets pretty lonely out there, so I was very excited to have him along. I was in good spirits as we saw Chris the course marshal again - this time he told me I was 11th or 12th male. Awesome! Just needed to pick off a little more carnage, 2 more guys.
Then all the climbing started and I began to wither. I know no one likes going uphill, but I’m really, really bad at it when tired. Tyler did a great job of talking me through this low point and convincing me my horrible pace would not hurt me this early into the lap. 2 dudes passed me before Nachos so my goal was getting away from me. But I knew I had all those wonderful flats coming up. I got one guy back at the aid station and put some distance on him. Finally, I blitzed through Chapas aid station (mile 47) and we saw the Altra guy who’d passed me. After he'd passed us, Tyler had all but guaranteed we’d see him again later, but I was so grouchy and whiny back there I didn’t really believe it. Poor Tyler suffered through 18 miles with me, and he was a significant reason I recovered from that funk and turned it around. I ran Altra dude down quickly and then tried to put the “hammer” down (pretty much a baby toy hammer after 7 hours of running) all the way to YaYa (mile 53). A red shirt off in the distance was getting closer.
Right after getting a nice adrenaline boost from the Rockhoppers at YaYa, I took off to run the red guy down but first, we both passed a 100k’er that was barely moving - more carnage from the crazy fast start! It took another 2 miles to catch up to Red shirt guy (John K., from D.C. - met him after the race) and he told me we were now the last 2 guys in top 10! I stayed ahead of him by a few minutes to get 9th overall, 7th in the Championship.
In the past, my best race finishes have won me amazing prizes such as: a jar of gumballs, a coupon for $10 off a RoadID, rusty cat sculptures, etc, but I thought it’d be pretty cool to snag one of those Top 10 USATF awards...and it was - it's the little things.
Julie had already run a solid 50k towards getting her fitness back on track and was there to greet me and take care of me, as usual! Next up is a 102k race in New Zealand in February - the Tarawera Ultra. Probably our last vacation for a while (like, for real this time), but we can. not. wait.
 |
| The day before the race, I picked up 2 new Texas-shaped things from the 2017 Fall season |
I’ve had so much fun with our San Antonio club, the Rockhoppers, and the extended Texas trail racing family, that I don’t really pay attention to ultra-running outside of Texas. I could probably only name 3 or 4 of the country’s top ultra runners, mostly because Julie tells me about them. But here I am, at the starting line of the Bandera 100k. The race is right in San Antonio’s backyard and is both the USA Track & Field 100k trail national championship, and a Western States “Golden Ticket” race (just google what that last thing means, if you care to).
 |
| The start (see me?) PC: Myke Hermsmeyer |
So it's a ‘who’s who’ of these elite runners all lined up, but only one of whom I actually recognized: Camille Herron - she has several world records in ultras but I recognized her because she is from Oklahoma and would win every single major race when I was living there. Once, she destroyed me and everyone else at the Route 66 Marathon in Tulsa... while wearing a full-body spider-woman costume (that was also a world record).
Anyway, given the field and the national competition, my goal was to get Top 10. When the gun went off, 25-30 people sprinted out ahead of me; I looked at my watch after a couple minutes of running, and my own pace was averaging 6:30s, with that mass of humanity still up ahead. Thus ended my Be Aggressive Plan (which lasted 0.3 miles), and began my Relax and Wait For Carnage Plan. Chris Russell was a course marshal again - his plan was to let me know what place I was in each of the 2 loops, but he was stationed only 1.5 miles after the starting line. He lost count of all the men by the time I finally strolled up, so instead, he told me I was the 5th female. Super helpful, Chris!
The mass of humanity was stubborn, but I finally started picking them off around mile 6 or 7. There was a bunch of men I passed, but I only counted females since that’s what I had to go on. Finally after YaYa aid station (mile 22 - an awesome Rockhopper-run bastion of help), I passed another lady so that I was now 2nd female (just go with it). But I couldn’t shake the feeling I was still way behind all the guys; my stride/energy seemed fine, I’d just rattled off a few 7:30s on the way to YaYa, and I was under 9-hour pace. Where was everyone?
 |
| Moving well, but way behind. PC: Myke Hermsmeyer |
“Everyone” was just fast. Like, way faster than me. That’s one of the main reasons I wanted to run this thing, to see where I stood when you add in the other 49 states (I just didn’t like the answer). Finally I caught up to #1 lady Camille Herron around mile 27 and it took me a few minutes to build up the confidence to pass her (it did not feel like a smart thing to do), but I convinced myself she was probably taking it easy since she had the Golden Ticket in the bag, so I hopped past and did my standard out-of-control careening down Boyle’s all the way to the start/finish. Halfway in 4:25.
I saw Tyler Mathews at the lodge and he offered to pace me right there out of the blue, as his runner Anthony had to DNF with an injury. It gets pretty lonely out there, so I was very excited to have him along. I was in good spirits as we saw Chris the course marshal again - this time he told me I was 11th or 12th male. Awesome! Just needed to pick off a little more carnage, 2 more guys.
Then all the climbing started and I began to wither. I know no one likes going uphill, but I’m really, really bad at it when tired. Tyler did a great job of talking me through this low point and convincing me my horrible pace would not hurt me this early into the lap. 2 dudes passed me before Nachos so my goal was getting away from me. But I knew I had all those wonderful flats coming up. I got one guy back at the aid station and put some distance on him. Finally, I blitzed through Chapas aid station (mile 47) and we saw the Altra guy who’d passed me. After he'd passed us, Tyler had all but guaranteed we’d see him again later, but I was so grouchy and whiny back there I didn’t really believe it. Poor Tyler suffered through 18 miles with me, and he was a significant reason I recovered from that funk and turned it around. I ran Altra dude down quickly and then tried to put the “hammer” down (pretty much a baby toy hammer after 7 hours of running) all the way to YaYa (mile 53). A red shirt off in the distance was getting closer.
Right after getting a nice adrenaline boost from the Rockhoppers at YaYa, I took off to run the red guy down but first, we both passed a 100k’er that was barely moving - more carnage from the crazy fast start! It took another 2 miles to catch up to Red shirt guy (John K., from D.C. - met him after the race) and he told me we were now the last 2 guys in top 10! I stayed ahead of him by a few minutes to get 9th overall, 7th in the Championship.
In the past, my best race finishes have won me amazing prizes such as: a jar of gumballs, a coupon for $10 off a RoadID, rusty cat sculptures, etc, but I thought it’d be pretty cool to snag one of those Top 10 USATF awards...and it was - it's the little things.
 |
| 9+ hours of pain for this - TOTALLY WORTH IT |
Julie had already run a solid 50k towards getting her fitness back on track and was there to greet me and take care of me, as usual! Next up is a 102k race in New Zealand in February - the Tarawera Ultra. Probably our last vacation for a while (like, for real this time), but we can. not. wait.
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