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Rocky Raccoon 100 mile race is held in Huntsville State Park. The race consists of five 20 mile loops with aid stations spaced every 3-6 miles. There is a 30 hour time limit. A 50-mile race is also held on the same day with a 29 hour time limit. This year a record number of people started the race, 344 100 milers and 296 50 milers. I have done the 100 miler three times, finishing twice. Last year, the course was changed making it slightly harder. If you are a back of the packer, that slight change can make all the difference. As I approached the date of the race, I was getting pretty nervous. The prior year at RR100, I stopped at mile 83.1 and couldn’t get myself mentally to move another step. Another 17 miles felt overwhelming and bleak. Unlike a shorter race, a 100 mile race is as much about mental toughness as it is about physical ability. So, here I am a year later, to test my body and mind again. Do I still have it? Can I push myself to my limit after last year?
"I decided to go for a little run."- Forrest Gump I arrived at the park 5:45 AM on Saturday morning. I got a great parking spot near the bathroom and close to the starting line. I knew Sunday morning, any distance would be too far of a walk from the finishing line to my car. I check-in with Julanne Lott. She is an awesome lady! She was working as a volunteer. I last saw her at the Bandera 100K again working as a volunteer. I talked to the other racers some of whom I have not seen since last year. One thing about these 100 milers, you build a bond that is hard to find anywhere else. Unlike shorter distance road races, we are more often competing against ourselves and pulling for each others to finish. 
At 7 AM Saturday, it was time to go forth with 343 fellow 100 milers. Don't think about the distance to the finish or how long it will take. Just take it mile to mile, step to step. Enjoy the moment. I knew everything was going well when the aid stations seemed to be a short distance apart. First loop done at 4:33! 
Onto the 2nd loop. Keep smiling. Stay positive. Second loop, 40 miles done at 4:50. Everything was still going well. The aid stations still seemed pretty close together. 
"Relentless forward motion. Run when you can and walk when needed but always stay moving and eventually you will cross the finish line." Onto the third loop, mile 40-60, I was starting to get weary and starting to think about the many miles to go. Started to trip on the roots. On one of the fall, I went flying. Hitting my knee and cheek on the ground. Ouch! The distance to the aid stations seemed to grow. Who moved the aid stations? I could hear people laughing (they were the laughing frogs) at me continuously from deep within the forest . To keep despair in check, I started humming Bobby McFerrin'a song “Don’t Worry, Be Happy.” It lifted my spirit the rest of the race. At mile 53, darkness arrived. But, finally finished the third loop. "It's very hard in the beginning to understand that the whole idea is not to beat the other runners. Eventually you learn that the competition is against the little voice inside you that wants you to quit." - George Sheehan Now, the fourth loop, mile 60-80. The most difficult loop. It was cold and dark. Many people had pacers on the fourth and fifth loop. I went alone. I'm lit up with a headlamp, chest lamp, and waist lamp. But, I was still having difficulty seeing the roots. No depth perception. I kept running where I knew there was no roots, the bridges. But, walked the other portions. WALK WITH PURPOSE. I kept moving, not lingering at the aid stations. Mile 63 Nature Center, Mile 66 Dam Road, Mile 72.2 Dam Road...then as I leave the Dam Road aid station at about 1 AM, I get the YAWNS..can’t stop yawning..an overwhelming desire to sleep. Yawn! Just close my eyes and go to sleep. The 3 miles to the next aid station, Park Road, was literally a sleep walk. But, once I hit Park Road, I woke up again. Just 4 more miles to the end of the fourth loop. When I made it in back to the start/finish line at 3:45 AM, the race director, Joe Prusaitis,(does he sleep?) greeted me. He told me I had plenty of time to finish the last loop! Those simple words just brought a huge grin to my face. One last loop! I got it in the bag! The last loop, mile 80-100. Arrived at the next aid station, Nature Center, I looked around at the volunteers in the tent and realized I lost the vision in my right eye except the peripheral. The vision in my left eye was partially blurred but still usable.I seemed to always have this problem, a lost of vision on the last loop. Drinking too much water causing swelling in the face, hands, ankles, feet. My electrolyte level was OK. I just had too much fluid. The only solution was to stop drinking and eventually my body would get rid of the excess fluid. Leaving the tent, I was hoping my vision in the left eye would hold up to the finish line. Mile 90! Sunrise! I made it. Turned off my lights. Still couldn’t see very well. But the left eye was still holding up. I arrived at the Dam Road aid station at mile 93. The volunteers offered me the most delicious pancakes I ever had. I felt great, only 7 more miles to go. Mile 93-100, the forest came alive. Hundreds of itty bitty tiny rabbits and dragons, the trees started bending, large females in overflowing white dresses standing in a circle, a black bear in the tree, a black beer rolling on its back, a gorilla, deers, a farmer plowing, people standing in the woods. I realized I was having hallucination. When I got up close to the image, it evaporated and the real image appeared. To say the very least, the last 7 miles were interesting. Then finally, the finish line in 28 h 34 min! Joyce Prusaitis handed me my 100 mile buckle. Julanne and Robert Lott congratulated me. A few of the volunteers from Dam Road and Park Road were there to greet me also! It was just awesome! 
Much thank to all the volunteers at the aid station. Joe and Joyce Prusaitis, the race directors, worked their butt off to put on a well-organized race. This year 63% of the 100 mile starter finished. My race nutrition was 1/2 package of Vespa per loop, 1 Motrin per loop, 1 Succeed S-cap per hour, 4-oz cup of coke per aid station, one container of Ensure, a few cookies, and 1/2 peanut butter sandwich. Drank too much water. Using a hydration pack, it was hard for me to keep track of how much water I was drinking. "Perhaps the genius of ultrarunning is its supreme lack of utility. It makes no sense in a world of space ships and supercomputers to run vast distances on foot. There is no money in it and no fame, frequently not even the approval of peers. But as poets, apostles and philosophers have insisted from the dawn of time, there is more to life than logic and common sense. The ultra runners know this instinctively. And they know something else that is lost on the sedentary. They understand, perhaps better than anyone, that the doors to the spirit will swing open with physical effort. In running such long and taxing distances they answer a call from the deepest realms of their being -- a call that asks who they are ..." - David Blaikie |
