I finished Rocky Raccoon 100 miler in 2005. Back then, I was younger and faster and I knew going into this race, one of my biggest challenges would be making the cutoff. I had to start my fifth 20 mile loop by 6 a.m. Sunday morning and I had a cutoff at each aid station until the final cutoff at the finish at noon.

For those who do not want to read this whole report to find out what happened, I dropped at Dam Road around 4:30 a.m. when I knew I didn't have any chance of making it back to the start/finish by 6 a.m. I had 8 miles to go from where I was and I was simply too exhausted and moving too slow. My awesome pacer Letha Cruthirds did her best to persuade not to give up and at least go on to the next aid station. She reminded me that a "true" ultrarunner never drops but keeps going until she times out. And I agree with her. I should have kept going even though it was hopeless.

Lynn Ballard, aid station captain, also told me I had to get out of the chair I was sitting in because he needed it. He told me all four SUV vehicles on the road were stuck in the mud and no one was getting in or out by car and a bunch of other white lies to get me out of there but I was trashed and that was it. Every cell in my body was hurting and I was not willing to continue to punish myself any longer for the sake of pride and integrity.

So I made it approximately 72 miles. It was a wonderful training run as I have another 100 miler scheduled for April 11 and I will complete that one because I have more time. I simply couldn't get this one done in 30 hours.

The Full Report

Ok, for those of you who want to know the whole story, Debi Evans and I left for Huntsville Friday morning around 9 a.m. Debi was running the 50 miler. She also was my partner in crime in December when we both ran the Run Like The Wind 24 Hour race in Austin. (I haven't gotten around to doing that race report yet.)

We got to Huntsville and met up with a bunch of the hardcore North Texas Trail Runners who were manning the Dam Road aid station. For the second year in a row, we ate lunch at the Subway at exit 116 off of I-45. They included Lynn Ballard, Fred and Char Thompson, Dave and Paula Billman. This group of people you will see at many Texas ultras either running on volunteering and there is not a better group of people on the planet. They give back a lot to trail running and are largely unrecognized so I wanted to do that here. You guys totally rock!

After lunch we drove to the Huntsville State Park to set up the Dam Road aid station. Dam Road is located about 6 miles into the 20-mile loop of the 100 miler course. Runners come through twice as the course here is a loop and comes back to Dam Road. It is by far the most difficult aid station because of the sheer number of runners coming through. This year there were around 700 runners total (I don't know the final count) on this course. The 100 milers go through here 10 times and the 50 milers three times. So a rough estimate of how many runners they serve is well over 5,550. They are working their butts off all weekend.

After setting up the aid station there was a pre-race meeting at the Walker County Storm Shelter in Huntsville. Debi and I left for that. There we saw lots of old friends and new ones that I had met on Facebook. There was a pre-race dinner but I had opted out of eating there because of the crowd and a group of us went to The Farmhouse Cafe to eat. Lorri Gray was kind enough to make a reservation and that group included me and Debi, Lorri and her husband Ken, Jerry Hollingsworth and David McCaghren (both from Abilene), Buddy Teaster, Phil ??, and Buddy's wife and two beautiful daughters, Jennifer Kimble and her pacer Mike ???. The food was good and my only disappointment was that they were out of the coconut cream pie so I had to make do with the coconut cake, which was really good. If you like pie, this place had about 10 kinds of pie.

Then to bed! We were getting up at 3 a.m. The race started at 6 a.m. but Joe Prusaitis (the best race director in the world) warned us to get there early because of parking and pre-race check-in. So we determined we'd be there by 4:30 a.m.

We got to the park around 4:40 a.m. Got a great parking spot right next to the start/finish. The check-in person wasn't even there yet so I had plenty of time to set up my chair, my cooler, the little table, and my race bag. While I was in line to check in, a runner in front of me said she had been second in line (she was at the gate at 3:40 a.m.) Race staffer Henry Hobbs was there trying to get the gate to open and it turns out they had changed the combination and not told him. So getting there earlier would have meant sitting in the car.

I took as many photos as I could of everyone I saw that I knew before the race start. Strapped on my two-bottle waist pack and vest with lots of pockets and we were off. I started out running with Donna McGuire and her husband Frank, but soon got separated from them as there were nearly 400 runners and it was a single-track trail, and it was a little crazy.

I had a great first loop. I came in around 4:25 and my goal was to keep the first three loops under 5 hours so I was right on track. My second loop I came in around 5 hours so I was still going good. One funny comment came from a guy who was passing me. I had on a two bottle waist pack and a vest with pockets. I guess he thought I was "overdressed" as he asked me as he passed if I was "running away from home."

I felt good and was running the flats and walking the hills. I was eating as much as I could. I was very happy that the course was not as backed up as I thought it would be. I was able to pretty much run my pace even at the beginning without getting stuck behind someone.

The third loop was where I started to tire and slow down. I went through the start finish still feeling Ok but by the time I hit Dam Road about 46 miles into the run, I started to struggle. The 6 mile loop from Dam to Dam was my least favorite section of the course. It had the most mud to navigate around, the most roots, and it seems like the most uphill sections. I did less running on this section than any other. When I returned from that loop it was dark and I had all my lights on.

In hopes of getting a second wind, I stopped at Dam Road and sat down and ate a soup and lasagna guessing I was low on calories but my energy level did not pick up on the way to Park Road. At this point, people I had been ahead of all day, started passing me as I am a slow walker. I talked to Sherry Meador as she went by. Grant Holderby (78 years old!) passed me with his pacer Anne Watts. We were all walking but I was really plodding at this point. In fact, I admit I stopped three times and sat down on a bench once and a log two other times trying to recover some energy. It was never for more than a minute but I really felt like crap and at this point I started to doubt if I could pull this off.

It took me about 7.5 hours to do the third loop. Letha Cruthirds, my pacer was there waiting me for me and I had thoughts of trying to convince her to let me drop. She talked me out of that. While I was eating I sat next to Brooks Williams, someone I met on Facebook. He had just finished in 17 hours. He was commenting on how much he hated running. J Ryan Loedling (NTTR member) also was there. He was calling himself a slowa_s because he had finished in 17 hours. Since I still had 40 miles to go, I was not very sympathetic.

So I went out for my fourth loop. I had completed 60 miles. I was nearly three hours behind my hoped-for projections. Letha was scolding me to stop being negative and not use words like "slow." To make me move faster, she was literally putting her hand on my back and pushing me along the trail. We got through the first aid station at the Nature Center. I got some mac and cheese and pushed on to Dam Road.

All day long at Dam Road, every time I came in, I felt like a rock star. Everyone would shout my name and I had two or even three people come rushing up to me to see what they could get me. The service was better than a five-star hotel. I really felt the love there and I am so appreciate of all the great folks from NTTR working that aid station. Those people gave up their weekend to help runners finish a race, and they do such an awesome job. It's so much more than just handing out food and drink. They give so much encouragement and support ,and they want you to finish as much as you do. Kudos and my heartfelt thanks to all those great people who were there. I am so proud to be a part of this trail running club. It is an honor to be associated with such great people.

So Letha pushed and shoved me through that last six miles and I was hating every minute of it. I told her she was a sadistic. She kept reminding me that no one finishes a 100 miler without a lot of pain and suffering. But I was so exhausted and just felt horrible. I had nothing left. If anyone would have gotten me further it was Letha but I just wanted to curl up and die. If I felt there was any way I could have beat the cutoffs I would have dug deeper and found a way to keep going but I knew that I couldn't do it in the time I had left.

That being said, there is nothing I love more than running endurance races. I had so much fun. The trails, the people, the experience of running through the woods, pushing yourself to your limits, I adore all of these things. I am so happy when I am out there, there is nothing like it. Some days you get it done, and some days you don't, and that's all part of it as well. And I'm Ok with that. Any race you don't finish just fills you with more determination to train harder and try again and that's how I feel.

Joe Prusaitis and his staff put on the best races in the world. They are so well organized and every need is met. Runners are treated like royalty and Joe does everything in his power to make his races a wonderful experience. Almost everyone out there is a volunteer giving up their weekend to help other people and you cannot thank them enough. If you run one of these races, you owe these people for life. And the best way to give back is to plan on volunteering yourself at one or more races a year. These races cannot happen without volunteers.