Overall, I had a great time at Bandera, and I’m delighted to have finished my first 100K (for those of you disinclined to visit metric conversion web sites, this = 62.14 miles). It was a bittersweet experience though, in that my buddy Liam (Polarbear) and I had trained together for this race and planned to finish together, but Liam wound up having a tough, tough race and wisely decided to save it for another day (more on that later).

I drove to Bandera Thursday evening so I could have my work conference calls from there Friday morning, since I had volunteered to do race packet pickup Friday afternoon.

I stayed at the River Oak Motel, very nice and clean, the people were friendly, and I managed to get a room with a little extra alcove and a table that worked fine for doing laptop and other work.

The room had a black light and a fluorescent ceiling with sparkling stars, moon, etc, hilarious !

I had race number “1” since I signed up for this race so early (just after last year’s event, as training motivation). At packet pickup Friday I wore my #1 runner number and a sign that said “No I’m not fast, I just signed up early” cause often the prior year’s winner wears #1 and I didn’t want any confusion! A lot of folks laughed at the sign.

Friday evening there was a delicious dinner at the race site. Sammy V. of HCTR enlists volunteers and cooks for days in advance, the food Friday and throughout the weekend was just great.

Friday night I nervously and compulsively packed my drop bags, containing anything and everything I might possibly need, especially as a 100K newbie I didn’t really know what I’d need.

I slept well (I always do), and got up early, at 4:30 or so. Off to the start, we started really slowly, walking, as we planned. Of course I was bundled up like an Eskimo, as always, I love the warm days, suffer at the cold or even cool ones.

The 100K is 2 x 50K loops, you’ve heard about the terrain from others, beautiful, tough, rugged, rocky, steep ups and downs, no switchbacks, sotol cactus, etc.

We finished the first loop in about 10:15, slower than our original plan but we felt strong, had stayed within ourselves, and felt good. Every 15 minutes like clockwork (pun intended) my watch beeped and I called out “EAT / DRINK” and we ate and drank to stay on top of our nutrition and hydration. Don’t ever run with me if it will make you crazy to listen to my watch beeping every 15 minutes J. I had said to Liam: “my goal for the first loop is to enter the Lodge area (start/finish) with enough left that I’m not dreading heading out on the second loop”. And that’s how it went.

To my great surprise my friends Eric and Channing, and Eric’s sweeter than sugar dog Dulce, were there at the Lodge to say hi and cheer me on and out for the second loop!! They had surprised me by driving out from Austin to be there, what a great surprise.

I also met two friends Don and Colleen at the Lodge who had volunteered to pace me for the second loop. When I say “volunteered” I really mean it – I never asked them to pace, they just said: “hey, do you want some help out there? ”. I certainly did, and the way the second loop transpired I really needed them there.

Grabbed warmer clothing, headlamps, handheld lights, and off for loop two. I felt like I was a smooth, efficient machine during transition, my friends told me I was out of control and completely disorganized. Oh well. Polarbear starting having problems after the first aid station, we’re still not sure if it was illness, nutrition, or other. But he’s a tough SOB so he soldiered on past Chapas and on to Crossroads, where he reluctantly decided to call it a day.

Colleen and Don were leapfrogging us aid station to aid station, one would run with us, the other would drive the car to the next aid station, then switch. This worked really well. And especially after Liam dropped I was so grateful to have company out there at night on those tough trails. We had some laughs, Don decided that some of the rocks on the trails just didn’t seem like they belonged there, so he went ahead quixotically kicking a few out of the way. I cursed Joe P. liberally for the insane routes he planned. The first time I saw a trail marker that showed a path we were NOT taking and it said “More Difficult” I wondered why, since Joe always takes us on the toughest routes. Then I saw at the bottom of the same sign that the route we WERE taking was labeled “Most Difficult” !! L

One advantage of being as slow as I am is that we got to see Sunday morning’ s sunrise while still running!! The daylight gave me some renewed bounce in my step and I even started running some now that I could really see the darned trails again !!

I knew that the 24 hour race cutoff was not to be, but I also knew that Joe as RD is pretty relaxed about the cutoff and really wants to encourage anyone out there still running to finish. As we were nearing the end Colleen noticed we could finish inside “1 hour after cutoff” if we picked up the pace. What the heck, it’s an odd goal, but a goal nonetheless!

Sure enough, we ran in and finished in 24:56. Joe and Joyce gave me my finisher’s belt buckle, and a big hug each. I have to say with the welcome round of cheering and applause I got from everyone at the finish, you’d have thought I won the darned race !! I especially like the irony of having once again won the coveted DFL spot while wearing race number 1 J

My recovery was embarrassingly quick. Just one blister, still left unpopped. And after some Tylenol my feet and ankles started recovering quickly, and by a few hours later on Sunday I was really feeling better than anyone should who has stayed up all night running! What I started feeling more was the lack of sleep, that’s the price I pay for taking 25 hours instead of, say, ½ that to finish, no sleep for the weary !!

Bandera is so special, so well run, and such beautiful country that I’m sure it’ll be a regular on my calendar. See y’all out there.