12.55@20:53
Georgia Death Race DNF - exceeded cutoff time
My second DNF this year but first ever getting pulled from course "Sorry Dude, can't let you go on"
Boarded start line bus at 2:30, left at 2:45, got to Reece Farm just after 4:00, was starting to feel a little sick on the twisty road but ride was over by the time it had just started getting bad. Had a fire in the open air pavillion, was kind of cold. Would warm up a little while going half way up the big climb before temp dropped again.
This is a tough race and when I did it in 2016 I was surprised how hard it was. This time I knew what I was getting into. The day before the race, RD Sean advised runners to take it easy starting out. I guess I took it a little too easy. Plan was to get up and over that first big climb and slowly make up the time.
Out of the gate, people took off pretty fast (for an Ultra), but it does start out on a paved road going downhill slightly. I was quickly way behind the big pack with just a few runners behind me. First two miles 11:42, 13:30. Then in the third mile started the big climb, and had 17:26 for that mile. It was dark (5:00 am) but I had good lighting. Miles 4, 5, 6,and 7 were between 23:00 and 27:10.
At 7.5 miles was the first aid station, my pace had already picked up a little bit and including the quick stop at the aid station that mile was 21:38.
I knew I couldn't afford many more over 21:00 minute miles. I knew the minimum pace was somewhere under 21:00 minutes but did not know the exact number (I should have, that was a huge mistake).
Next aid station was only 5 miles. I couldn't remeber the exact cutoff time.
Miles 9-12 : 20:53, 23:51, 23:08, 19:25
Those two miles at 23 were probably the nail in the coffin. It was more the downhills on the technical sections that were slowing me down than the uphills, although I wasn't exactly crushing the uphills. In that final mile and a half I caught a glimpse of a guy ahead of me but then lost him.
That guy made it to the aid station in time. My official time there was 4:21:25. My last half mile pace was about 19:30. There were actually two guys there that had made the cut but were calling it quits.
There was someone way a few minutes behind me and someone way behind me that the Sweeper was running with, so that's why I never saw the sweeper.
I felt really dumb. There were a few times at the top of the mountain that I started to get out my phone for a picture, stunning sunrise view, shouldn't miss those, right?
Looking at the results, not a single runner that took more than 4 hours to get to 12.5 miles completed the race. There was someone I think in the 3:50ish range that finished. I think the DFL came through in mid 3:30's
Since they were breaking down the aid station and people were leaving I didn't have to wait forever for a ride (big warning for this race is DNF means you might have to wait hours for a ride home). So, luckily I did not have to wait. Got a ride back with a volunteer driving an old VW Golf wagon with over 300k miles, but to me it felt like a limo and he even drove me to the top of the hill where the hotel was instead of the bottom near the finish line and where we got the buses.
Checked out of hotel a day early and stayed with my friend Joe at his house on the lake near Milledgeville.
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