Grinding My Stones at the Grindstone 100

What an awesome (and tough) race! I am finally getting some time to write a report on my experience at Grindstone three weeks ago! It was a wonderful event although I suffered mightily. However, despite the race not going as planned/hoped, in the end I still learned some valuable lessons and got my fourth 100 mile finish.

Grindstone is relatively new with the 2010 running being only the third year. The race is somewhat unique in that it begins on Friday evening, ensuring every runner gets at least one night in the mountains. While initially I viewed this as an advantage since it would make you go out slow, upon running the race I think, at least for me, it makes it harder. You see, one is not really fresh when the race begins. Even if you "sleep in" as I did, you are still up and around for the better part of the day up until showtime. For me, I will need to better plan for this in future years. In addition, being an out-and-back course has some advantages and disadvantages. Having never run an out-and-back 100 before, I wasn't sure what to expect. In the end, I like the out-and-back set up because it makes drop bags and aid station strategy much easier (at least at this race). Lastly, Grindstone climbs a lot (over 23,000 feet) and the terrain is varied between gentle trail to gnarly rocky single track. Many sections are too steep to run down efficiently so your strategy is ever evolving throughout the race. As I have thought about Grindstone the last couple of weeks, there really isn't a lot to tel but here is an account anyway.

The weather was perfect at the start and promised to be great throughout the entire weekend. A slight chance of rain never materialized and the skies were clear illuminating many stars in the evenings. The first couple of sections went really well (don't they always) and I got to run with several folks including Jay Finkle, Liz Bauer and Scott Brockmeier. I often run with Jay some at races and it was good to catch up with what has been going on with him. He has run Grindstone before and shared some very helpful tips with me early on. Liz really helped me on my climbs. Being a nurse, she advised that I keep cranking to avoid a heart rate spike. Good advice and I also enjoyed hearing about Hardrock and other races she has run in. She was having a great race and after we summited Elliot Knob, she was gone on the downhill. I was enjoying the night time running and doing a good job of keeping my heart rate down below 140. Several runners I came across were having stomach problems and seeing them puke all over the trail was motivation to keep things slow and steady.

Soon, I was at about the 14 mile aid station and I filled up on calories and got ready for the brutal "five pillars of death" tiered climb in the next section. The quickest way to get it over with was to get moving. The next check point would be a crew access and I would get a long sleeve shirt and restock with gels there. I stumbled a bit on this section as the switchbacks were tough to run in the dark but still made good time. I was starting to get a little cold so I was thrilled to get to Dowells Draft and see John to resupply and get some hot soup in me. I stayed here for about 10 minutes to recover a bit. I was shocked to see a couple of runners already dropping. One of them was having a low point and I encouraged him to leave with me and see if he could get things back on track. He declined and I am not sure what happened to him. I made my way out of there and headed to Lookout Mountain. This was a long 8+ mile section but I made pretty good time. It was weird, I was in this section completely alone almost he whole time until I met up with Scott Brockmeier. I felt sleepiness start to come a bit and found running behind him helped me stay motivated to run. I have never had sleepiness problems in races before but was battling it big time. I bid Scott goodbye and ended up stopping at the base of a suspension bridge for a quick 20 minute nap. This really helped refresh me. However, turns out I was only half a mile from the aid station so I decided to make the stop at North River Gap quick. This was a crew access point but I missed John due to my nap.

Next up was a tough 7+ mile climb up The Wild Oak Trail to Little Bald Knob. This would prove to be a tremendously difficult section for me as the sleep bug got me twice in this section alone. I started out making good progress up the steep climb. Once the grade got a little easier, I was able to mix in some running. I had just drank a Red Bull at the aid station so my energy level was good so I did my best to try and make good time. Man, it was tough going. I was eating a gel every 30 minutes to try and keep it together. Finally, I fell and realized that I was falling asleep while power hiking. So, I stopped, set my watch and slept for about 30 minutes. I got up in a panic when my watch went off but did feel better. I knew I was behind where I wanted to be but I was pushing as good as I could manage. I took one more 20 minute nap on the way and eventually started to see the top. Near the top of the climb, the front runners met me on their return trip. The leader and eventual winner, Brian Schmidt looked fresh as a daisy. Finally, I topped out and now had a nice downhill to run to the aid station. The upside of being slow was I got a glorious sunrise up on Little Bald Knob (would have been much better at Reddish Knob). When I got to the aid station, I ate a breakfast burrito, drank a Red Bull and took some soup to go. I also dropped my waist pack and it felt great to run without it for a stretch.

The energy was starting to come back and I made great time to Reddish Knob and passed three or four folks. The view was incredible and hard not to stick around and enjoy. The sun was up, you could hear the birds and it was a beautiful morning in the mountains of Virginia. Soon I was on the downhill road towards the turnaround and knew I would have my pacer (John) soon. I also saw my friend and team mate, Steve Pero who was going to pace a friend on his. Coming off an impressive run at The Bear 100 the weekend before, this was an amazing feat. Steve helped his runner post a 27 hour time! So, John and I moseyed down to Gnashing Knob where I ate some more soup and then we got on our way. We made great time on the road, running all the downhills and power walking the climbs. I was feeling much better and having John was a nice motivator. We pushed through Reddish Knob again and made our way back to Little Bald. John noticed I was limping a bit and I told him that my left knee was a little stiff. I was still able to make decent time.

We stayed at Little Bald too long but I wanted to really fuel up because I knew the next section, though downhill this time, would take a while. We got to work and really made great time climbing back up to the junction with The Wild Oak Trail. John cracked the whip and we began to run down the trail. we would run for good stretched and then walk a bit to let me recover some. I was still keeping my heart rate down but also focusing on maintaining a good pace. I got lazy in some spots but John was good about getting me to push. We passed a couple of folks and I avoided a complete bonk as we arrived at the aid station. I was pretty tired so took some time to eat and drink a lot. My knee was getting tighter and tighter but I was still able to run the downhills. We were about 2/3 through and started the next section towards Lookout Mountain. On the way, I showed John my napping spot near the bridge. We moved as best we could but I could tell I was getting really tired. Heck, I was almost 70 miles in. We met with some other runners and eventually made the Lookout Mountain aid station. They had fantastic barbecue sandwiches and I ate three of them. I sat for a bit here to try and stretch out my knee. We needed to make sure we got to Dowells Draft before dark since John's headlamp was there.

We got going and I was really struggling here. I was able to maintain a decent pace but knew that an epic struggle was brewing. We caught and passed a couple of folks here who were struggling as well. I had a couple of good stretched where I was able to run really well but would then struggle to recover. Oh well. We finally got to Dowell's and I wanted to just get what I needed and then move on. Chafing was bothering me a bit so I took a container of Vaseline with me. We had 20 miles left and one of the hardest sections staring us in the face. This was where the race really began to come apart for me. I noticed that downhills were becoming more painful to run with my knee. I was still able to do it but at a miserable pace. I also was fighting the sleepiness again and was stumbling all over the place. Soon, we got to the top of the ridge and it was really cold. John did not have any gloves and had to run to stay warm. I tried to run but was stumbling everywhere so it was hard to make any sort of decent pace. We finally got to the aid station and I was exhausted, cold and hungry. We stayed over an hour! I took a 20 minute nap by the fire, drank about 6 cups of soup and about 7 or 8 cups of Mountain Dew. I was hoping this would give me a lift for the final 14 or so miles. It didn't.

We left the aid station and I could feel the energy leaving me as we moved away. I knew that it was going to be slow but that I would make the cutoff if I just kept moving. I was a little dejected as I had hoped to be close to finishing at this point. I figured the struggle would be a good lesson so I lumbered on. The trail was very rocky once we started the 4 mile climb. I must have kicked every rock on the trail and almost fell a dozen times. I was longing for the gravel road so that I could run the downhill. Well, we got there and it was too steep for me to run. It just hurt. This course was sinister! We got to the trail and made decent progress to the last jeep road/trail to the final aid station.

This last stretch went on forever. John and I both had changed batteries in our headlamps and mine was flashing again. I was hoping that I would make the aid station before it died. We finally got to the aid station and I was able to change the batteries and warm up a bit by the fire. We fueled up and then headed out. I thought the last section went on forever. It was nothing compared to this one. I walked/limped every step. I thought how appropriate the race name was since I was really "grinding my stones" to get this finish. I never got too dejected because it was all I had. I have never felt so depleted. I was eating gels and getting nothing. My body was just done. We could see the sun peeking through the clouds and soon heard the camp. It seemed like a dozen people passed us. I didn't care as there was no chase to be given. We got to the last stretch and had an awful little decent to get down (with the help of a tree) just before the dam. From there it was a short 7 minute walk to the finish. I crossed in 37 hours and change.

I was spent. Clark and Horton gave me big congratulations and I was so glad to be done. After cleaning up and eating breakfast, John and I headed home. Before we left, Horton commented how proud he was of my effort. He knew this was a tough struggle for me to stay "out there" so much longer than expected. That really meant a lot and was just what I needed to here.

So what went wrong? I was in great shape and trained like a madman for this race. In the end, nothing went wrong. Grindstone is just hard. Fatigue certainly set in earlier than I expected and I did have some minor foot issues along with the knee. However, these are to be expected in 100 mile runs. Part of it is just experience. I am still somewhat of a novice as this was my fifth 100 mile attempt and fourth finish. At some point in the future (perhaps at Hardrock?), I will look back on these struggle and it will be a motivator for me to keep pushing. I can't say enough good things about this race as it is very well organized and is a beautiful location. Camp Shenandoah is a wonderful venue to host a race and you can tell great care and effort is taken by the race organizers to ensure a quality event. Will I be back? Absolutely...maybe not for a year or two but certainly at some point.