Yesterday was Twin Mountain Trudge 2008. As many of you remember, I was pretty stoked to go out and do this, because it has always been one of my favorite winter events, and this year looked to be a little more difficult than past years. Well, it turned out to be a very defining event.
As I had said previously, the snow has been really bad in the mountain outside of Laramie this year. As such, there was no aid station, and we got an extra mile added on because we couldn't reach the start line. Alec, the race director, sent out several emails to let everyone know exactly how bad the conditions were. Because of the emails, the race group was cut in half compared to previous years; now a 10 man crew. At 9:20, we were released into the wild...
Right off the bat, the course was already more difficult than usual. The first mile or two of the course were dirt roads, and they were completely covered in a deep snow. However, the snow was easy to break through, so if you weren't in a bubba-trucker track, you were immediately post-holing. So, between sinking in the snow, and the inherent slickness of the tracks, it was slow goings immediately. And that was the easy part.
Once we got off the roads and onto the trails, we found out exactly how much snow the mountains had gotten. To quote Brian, winner of the race, "God, it was ball-deep!" And that it was. The snow was at least waist deep for a most part, and it was very easy to fall through. I know for me personally, I was take a step, and that leg fell through clear up to my groin, and the other leg would be pointing off in some crazy angle. With the free leg, I would then proceed to attempt and step forward. And it would be crotch deep. So, I would be forced to drag myself out of the drift, and crawl for a few feet to get clear. There, I would stand up slowly, take a step, and sink again. Thus is the story of the trudge. For the first quarter of the race, there were some runnable parts, but from then on, almost all of it was unrunnable. It was a hike at best, and a crawl at worst.
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| And balls deep it was. |
By the halfway mark, I was wasted. I had completed it in 2 hours and 10 minutes (remember that number, it'll come into play later) and the post-holing and hiking through the snow had completely taken it out of me. Not only that, but my soaz/ hip problem started flaring back up. Which was very fortunate, because the second half of the race is where the deep snow was frequent, and all the major altitude changes occurred.
So, I proceeded on, but was gradually slowing down and suffering more and more. Physically, I was drained and I was cracking mentally. The tree line climb, the major climb of the race, had a ton of snow. Post holing up hill was not a fun experience. It had reached a point after the Devil's Playground Loop, any rock that was next to the course and in the sunlight, I had to stop and sit on for 4-5 minutes. Beyond the Devil's loop, the trail had leveled out for the most part, but the snow was still very deep, and far less broken than the rest of the course. I'm sure some of you understand what breaking trail for a long period of time is like.
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| So much snow... |
Mentally, I was at losing it because my body felt like it was shutting down on me. I had actually reached a point where I decided to lie down on a rock, and wait for the medical sweeps to find me. Fortunately, that lasted about 20minutes. When I finally finished the race, I was completely trashed. I picked myself a lawn chair and didn't move for an hour. I came in at 5 hours and 30minutes, meaning I took 3 hours and 20minutes for the second half. It's probably a good thing Kathy didn't get any pics of me crossing the finish, as I'm pretty sure I was the poster-child for being an unhappy camper.
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| Someone went and got their ass beat. |
A day later, 22 hours after finishing, and after a long discussion with Alec, I can look back on this race and actually say something meaningful. Trudge '08 was a one of a kind event. There was no place else in the nation where you could have those conditions and that sort of terrain in one place. Brian, the guy who always begged Alec for a 33mile version of the Trudge, refused to go out for the second loop. Mark, one of the racers and an ultra-marathoner who's ran races across the nation, said that he hasn't bonked that hard in a race in three years! This was the most difficult thing I had ever done; it was even more difficult than the 30k race I didn't train for!
An "ultra-race" is usually defined as a race that is longer than a marathon (26.2 miles) or is done under extraordinary, or ultra, conditions/ circumstances. Every one agreed that this was an ultra-race. Those were conditions never before seen in that particular race, and it was definitely in hostile terrain. And the fact that ten runners stepped up for the challenge and ten runners came across the finish line was incredible.
For the ten of us who completed Trudge '08, it will mean something very different and special for the rest of us. Trudge on a normal year is difficult, but this wasn't a normal year. Every last one of us earned our finish time. There are no words to adequately describe what we went through out there, but the ten of us, Alec, and Perry (one of the medical sweeps who did the whole thing afterwards) will all know what this meant for us.
Was it fun? Fuck no; not in any sense of the word was it "fun."
Was it worth it? Yes, I would say so. I saw how far I could push myself yesterday, and I came out, physically and mentally, a stronger runner and person for it. To paraphrase Alec, no matter how difficult any of my races are in the future, I can always look back and say, "Get up you sissy! You completed Trudge '08, and this is nothing!"
So, in conclusion, congrats to all the runners this year, and congrats to Brian for setting a new 11 mile course record in 2 hours and 50 minutes. (I know, some of you are curious how he set a record if conditions are as bad as I said they were. The way this course decides records is the time of the slowest winner gets the record. This is because they assume that if the winner time was slower, the conditions were worse.). Now, for a little treat, I will present you with some of the post race quotes from the racers and volunteers
Brian- "It's awful!"
Mark? -"God, I hate this..."
Me- "Two years ago, I did the Big Horn 30km race, but didn't train for it. That was 1000x more pleasant than this years trudge was. I'm not sure who has more issues... the masochist who shows up for this every year, or the sadist who puts this on every year."
Perry- "Every dead person I saw, I ate. Great run!"
Ted (Another volunteer)- "Judging by how beat everyone was, I may change my mind about next year!!!"
CONGRATS AGAIN TO EVERYONE!!
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