Cross Timbers Trail Run
Cedar Bayou, Tx
March 19, 2005
Mike Riggs

Joe, Joyce, Margo and I took off from Austin about 4:00 on Friday afternoon for Lake Texoma. Joe decided to go via I-35W to avoid traffic in Dallas. After stopping for dinner, we arrived at Cedar Mills, about 2 miles from the start line around 9:30. Cedar Mills is a small resort/marina with cabins and a nice restaurant. We shared a small cabin with two beds and a kitchenette. We prepped our stuff and got to bed around 10:30.

The alarm went off at 4:30. Joyce made some coffee, I slugged a few Ensures, we got ready and left around 5:30. The temperature was in the mid 50s and clear so it looked like it was going to be a nice day for Joyce; but maybe a bit hot for myself and Joe. Being a Clydesdale has it downside and hot weather is definitly one of them. The start line was fairly casual, we picked up our t-shirts and numbers and hung out. Marko had a few extra burritos that we all wolfed down. They were delicious. So much for my diet, but we’re racing and you don't count calories on race day. J

I had done this run a few years ago and knew the terrain was hilly. The course layout is a 20 mile out and back along the lake to the east and then a 5 mile out and back in the other direction. Sadistically, the 5 mile section has the nastiest hills on it. The pre-race briefing was pretty uneventful; except that we learned that the course had been marked on Wednesday and not checked since then. This made me nervous. The race always seems to have trouble with people getting lost. A few times, we had to look around for the markings; but were able to find them. The course is a hiking trail so there are generally red or white reflectors for the course which help to keep on track.

Going into the race, I didn’t really have much of a plan other than to get through the race and hopefully get under 11 hours. Joe goaded me to try for 10; but I didn’t think this was realistic given where I was physically. This is a training run for my 100’s this summer and all I needed was a finish without getting hurt.

The first couple of miles where fun. The course is like a roller coaster and I was feeling strong. Except for a few of the steeper hills; I ran everything – up and down – which is unusual for me. Around mile 3 Joyce caught up with me and said her goal was just to hang with me for the day. Generally, Joyce can dust me anytime she likes; so this was fine with me. I figured she’d be pushing me later in the race and some company would be good.

The first aid station is around mile 3.5, Larry runs the aid station and by the looks of things; he backpacked everything in. He also blew the leaves off the entire trail to make it easier for us to follow. What a trooper! We chit chatted for a minute and continued on. The aid station food was standard ultra junk food of chips, cookies, raisens, M&Ms and the like.

The second aid station is at Paw Paw Creek at mile 7. My nutrition plan was to do Ensures each time I went through this station and the start/finish and then Gu’s in between. Continuing on, we got to the turnaround at Paw Paw Point, mile 10, at 1:45. This was roughly a 9 hour pace, which wasn’t sustainable, but we were feeling good so we kept it up. The trip back was pretty uneventful except that as we got within a few miles of Cedar Bayou Joyce starting having stomach issues which we attributed to the Ensure. Regardless, we made it back right at the 3:30 point. I generally don’t do road runs this fast; so, going this well on hilly trails surprised me. All the hill work and weight workouts were finally starting to pay off. Joyce took a little time to recover, we both changed shoes and we took off on the 5 mile out and back. We didn't push it too hard and the 5 miles took us a little over an hour.

As we came back in to Cedar Bayou at the 25 mile point, Joyce took a turn for the worse took some time to recover. I decided to wait for her and push her through it bad spot. She was mostly likely to get through it and be pushing me later anyway and this day wasn’t about racing. We figured out Joyce was low on calories so she pushed a few Gu’s and Perpetuem(sp?). Slowly, I could see her start recovering and figured she’d be pushing me before long.

We saw Larry again and he warned us that he might run out of water before we came back through and to fill up at Paw Paw Creek, just in case. It was starting to get hot now which was bad for me but seemed to help Joyce. I poured cold water on my head to wash out the salt and cool off at every aid station from here on.

At this point, Joyce was recovered well enough that on the flats and down we were going about the same pace. Going uphill though I was moving a good bit faster. This allowed me to push hard on the ups and take it easy otherwise which made for some nice training. On the outbound leg from Paw Paw Creek, we managed to get off trail. The trail was on a jeep road and then turned off and we somehow missed it. We realized it within a 100 yards and spotted another runner in the woods so we could bushwhack our way back to the trail.

Coming back into the start/finish at mile 45, I was a bit down and had started walking. Joyce was looking a lot better and her pacing experince started taking over. She first came up behind me and made a lot of noise stomping her feet. We both laughed and it got me going. Going into the start finish area, there's a short section of road that's up hill. It felt like a good section to walk and I wasn't feeling all that great. Sure enough Joyce comes cruising by with this look on her face that said "You're such a slug". She may as well kicked me; but it got me running again. Good pacing is all about knowing how to push your runners buttons and that's what she did.

We pulled into the start/finish; fueled up quickly and took off on the last loop at the 10:25 point. We started pushing it to beat 11:00 hours. We were both feeling good by now and ready for whole ordeal over with. The last hill into the aid station at the turnaround is a nasty 150' elevation climb. Not quite as long as some of our hills in Austin but just as steep. I was feeling pretty good and ran up the thing. Probably not the greatest idea of the day, but it was nice to have some spring left in my legs this far in a race. At the top though, I paid for it with a nice head rush. The ride back was pretty fun; every step got us closer and we counted down the last few mile markers and then finally the last hill.

Our finish time was 10:57, which meant we did the five mile loop in an hour. Finishing this strongly made me really happy with our performance. I generally fade at the end of a race and having Joyce reign me back early helped even my pace out and finish better. One thing that worked very well was using gaiters. There are some sandy sections and using the gaiters kept my feet clean and blister-free the entire race.

While this wasn't my best 50 mile times, it was one of my better executed runs. We pressed hard and finished strong without doing much damage which was the whole goal for me.

Mike