Georgia Death Race, short version (maybe longer version later)
This race was somewhat brutal but I'm glad I did it, it was also humbling, beautiful and maybe a few other things.
72ish mile race in north Georgia mountains from Vogel State Park to Amicalola Falls. Finish time of 23:09 at 7:09 just as it was getting light out.
Original goal time was between 18-21 hours, new goal was to finish under 24 hour cut off and earn the spike. The first 26 miles were a series of soul crushing up hills and steep technical downhills. It took me just over 3 hours to do the first 10 miles. At that point, some quick math in my head (3 hours times 7 ten mile sections equals 21 hours plus the extra 2 miles it would be tight). The next ten miles were slower and were really starting to beat me down. I started thinking that this was not the race I had trained for - I had trained and put in miles including some good long runs but had not hit the hills and spent not nearly enough time on trails.
Surprise magical weapon to snap me out of my low point at mile 21 was a shot of pickle juice.
Felt better after mile 28 with still 44 miles to go. The next 13 miles were the best miles of the race where my pace was faster than what I needed to average but I was also out of daylight. When I got to the mile 41 aid station my garmin said 28.3 miles and I thought I was in real danger of not making the cut off time. Fortunately I was about an hour ahead.
Met some really great people along the way. I would run into the same group several times - a guy named Tim (early 40's), a woman named Nancy from Texas, Megan from Michigan, and a guy in his 60's named Thomas. I ran some miles with them, would get ahead for a while and they'd somehow catch up again.
Miles 41 - 47 were pretty good. The mile 47 aid station was where I tried to recharge my garmin without interrupting it, but it didn't quite work out. I had some really awesome hot soup (last one to get it because they had to shutdown the camp stove because the propane was leaking and catching fire). I changed into my thermal top and got moving. Tim and company caught up with me so I decided to just stick with them at least until the next aid station (mile 54). They seemed to know what they were doing and it was easy to just fall in behind them, mostly fast walking with some running.
At the mile 54 aid station had a really great grilled cheese sandwich. While waiting for the others I started to shiver from standing around so I set out on my own. Next aid station was 9 miles away and at the end of a 1300 foot climb.
The next 9 miles were mainly by myself, passed several runners here and there and took it one mile at a time.
Night time temperatures dipped into the low 30's with a steady chilling wind. Got a little worried about hypothermia but was ok as long as I kept moving. Grateful for the mandatory gear list, the warm hat, thermal top and rain jacket kept me just warm enough.
Finally made it to mile 63, tried not to stay too long and got going again. My headlamp started to die so I stopped to put in new batteries. About a mile or so out of the aid station, Tim and company caught up to me again - but no Thomas. I then heard Tim say he was going back for Thomas.
The last three miles were kind of a blur. There was a section with 600 steps (175, then another set of 425). I had dreaded the stairs but it turned out they weren't so bad (compared to some of the early miles). After the stair climb there was downhill but through a pretty windy and rooty path. And finally, just before the finish line, the course crossed the river right next to a bridge that we were not allowed to use.
Crossed the finish line, turned in the old railroad spike I had to carry for the whole race and was given a nice engraved one.
So, why the spike? The race director went out of his way to design a course that was so hard you need to be "tough as nails" to finish it. The concept behind the death race is you feel most alive when closest to death, the idea was born when the race director Sean Blanton lay near death at a Mt Everest base camp suffering from high altitude pulmonary edema and his race to descend to a lower altitude so he could survive.
I lost most of my Garmin data (partially through poor planning - I had a partial plan where I'd recharge my garmin with a portable usb charger once the battery got low, but I had meant to practice doing this but never got around to it. When the low battery warning came up, it immediately shut off and once it turned on all the original data was lost and I could also not use it until I unhooked the charger. I had thought I could use it and charge it at the same time).
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