Wednesday, June 10, 2015

The Big Adventure Approaches


As the big day quickly approaches, I begin to fill with anticipation and excitement. Those who are close to me know that I am talking about my big trip out west. I will be racing the Bighorn 100 next week. The anticipation comes from more than just usual anticipation of embarking on a 100 mile race. This anticipation also comes from the huge journey that lies ahead. This will be the first time that I have every traveled to a state that doesn’t touch Georgia.

The planning for this trip began about a year ago. The sights I saw in the southeast during my running adventures were incredible! I knew that if amazing views and wilderness like that existed so close to me, then there had to be so much more out there. I needed to see it. I wanted to use my running to be able to get out and really have adventures, so I started looking for races out West. The Bighorn caught my eye. I asked my friend John if he had heard of the Bighorn because I knew he had been all over the country to race. He told me that he had actually raced it back in 2005 and it was one of the most beautiful races he had ever run. That’s all the convincing I needed, and the planning began.

I was able to talk my little sister, Abbie, into tagging along with me for the journey. I’m thankful I will be able to share this experience with her. After the race, we will drive over to the Grand Tetons to camp a couple nights and do as much hiking as I can manage. It will be a good way to get the blood flowing after the race.

The training miles have been logged, planes tickets bought, hotels booked, and tents packed. All that’s left is to suppress the doubts that my mind produces, relax, and enjoy what lies ahead. I have no goal time for this race, but rather to get out there and soak it all up. The altitude is the only thing I’m not properly prepared for, but when you live in Georgia there’s not much you can do about that.

The Beginning


I’d like to give a little background before I dive into my blogs. Let me preface by saying that I’m no expert by any means and I am also not the fastest guy to toe the line at every race. With that being said, I am currently a 23 year old with 5 months left of school before I finish my Masters and Bachelors in Electrical Engineering. During high school I never did anything sports related. I spent all my time hunting, fishing, or working. I remember when I was in High School, we got our first cross-country team and the coach came up to me and asked me if Id like to be on the team. “Come on, you have the perfect physique for it. You’re tall and skinny with long legs. A runners body!” I blew the coach off by saying no and thinking “Yea right you’ll never get me to run”…… The old saying holds true, NEVER say NEVER.

            In my sophomore year of college, I began to realize I wasn’t in the best shape. I was still a tall skinny guy, but I was developing the “skinny guy pooch”. This is where a person is skinny looking with a shirt on, but without a shirt a small belly pooch is revealed. In January 2012, I approached my friend, Michael Knight, who had been a body builder all throughout high school and told him I wanted to do something to help my over all health and get into better shape. I started going to the gym with him everyday and he taught me a lot about nutrition. One day while at the gym, he brought up wanting to do a 5k. I told him that we’d find one and do it. The Dublin Leprechaun Road Race 5k was in February, so we decided to do it. We started off running in his neighborhood and I quickly noticed I would leave him. I thought this was because he’s very short (around 5’ 9” and I’m 6’ 1”).  Exactly one month after I had ever run my first lap around the block, I ran my first 5k in 21:02. Everyone at the race told me how good of a time that was, but I didn’t know any better. I thought they were just being nice. I had only been running a month so it couldn’t be THAT good. Well I placed 4th that day and it really lite a fire under me. “Maybe this is something I could be good at” I thought.

            So I bought my first pair of running shoes. A pair of the original New Balance Minimus shoes, which looking back was the best thing I could have done. It allowed me to learn to run with natural footing from the beginning. In May of 2012 I ran my first 10k, November 2012 I ran my first half, and in April 2013 I ran my first marathon. This marathon really kicked my ass and beat me up. The marathon took place in Nashville, and the day of the race it rained the entire time while also being 40 degrees and very windy. Not exactly perfect conditions. At this early point in my running, I didn’t know much about running and nutrition. I thought you were supposed to eat and drink as much as possible. So that’s what I did, and my inexperience was detrimental. With it being cold and windy, I wasn’t sweating near as much as I was used to but yet I was still drinking water like I was. I ended up getting hyponytremia. At mile 16 I began to cramp, and by mile 20 I was nauseated, shivering, and cramping severely. I stopped at an emergency tent and asked for a blanket. I walk/ran 3 miles with the blanket until I got my body heat up and began to feel better, shed the blanket and ran the final 3 at a good pace. I attribute this event to me finding the trails. I took a couple months off after the marathon only ran sporadically on trails for about a year and allowed myself to fall back in love with it. Trails are where I belong. It teaches patience and humbleness. It demands attention with every step. The greatest thing about it was that it allowed me to be out there for the single reason I wanted to be, because I enjoyed it. I didn’t have to impress anyone else or worry about times and splits. It was more challenging than a road had ever been, but didn’t beat me up.

In April 2014, I found out a Professor of mine at Mercer ran ultras. This was very interesting to me, because ever since I had heard about ultras, I thought it was a phenomenal feat. Michael was the person who first told me about them. While working out in the gym one day after I had began to run a lot he said “Man I read an article the other day about a guy running 100 miles at one time up a mountain!” Completing one had been on my bucket list every since then. I spoke with my professor and I made a goal, to run my first ultra that year. A little over a year has passed since then and it has been amazing start to a life long journey. In November 2014 I ran my first 50k and placed 3rd at Tortoise and the Hare. December I ran Pine Mountain 40 miler, January Cloudland Canyon 50 miler, February Mt Cheaha 50k, March Oak Mountain 50k, and in April I ran my first 100 miler Double Top 100.  I never thought that a year from planning my first ultra, Id run and win my first 100 miler. This has been a big year for me in my running career and I still have many big races coming up. In a week I leave for Wyoming to run the Bighorn 100, and also on the calendar for this year I have Georgia Jewell 100 in September and Pinhoti 100 in November. I couldn’t be more thankful with being blessed at being able to do something that I enjoy so much.

What started as a pursuit of better personal health has evolved into something so much more. I would like to end with a rebuttal to a statement that all ultra runners get told, “That isn’t healthy for you, you’re going to kill yourself”.
“Find what you love and let it kill you. Let it drain you of your all. Let it cling onto your back and weigh you down into eventual nothingness. Let it kill you and let it devour your remains. For all things will kill you, both slowly and fastly, but its much better to be killed by a lover
Falsely Yours,”