Rock 2 Rock - Trail Run

That was an incredible event. I had no illusions about truly competing. Never do in any other running event, so why bother now? That takes a lot of pressure off and you can just enjoy being out there. I did push hard all the way up the hill though. There was a lead pack of about 20 runners, then a gap, then me, then another gap, then a bunch of other people trudging their way uphill, single file. I felt good about the ascent for the most part, but the very technical downhill was just not something I could get into. I was passed by several people going down, but not before running with 3-4 other guys for a while. I could hear them breathing down my neck during a steep descent so I let the first guy pass me and jumped in front of the other two who were a little further back. This was during a section of “trail” that was best suited for a 12 year old. There was dense vegetation all around forming an arch not quite big enough for me to fit through without contorting my body. It was about 4 feet tall and just thick vine-like crap all around -- tight on both sides. There were tons of fallen logs and the shorter dude in front of me said, “sure, make me lead the way”. (The trail was really well marked, but you still had to figure out how to get through the crud). When I saw the guy grab a hold of a branch and swing his feet forward with both hands thrusting himself through a little hole between logs, I was thinking to myself, “yeah, he really minds doing this”. I jumped over that area because I couldn’t imagine doing what he did. He was like a little circus freak. Then his buddies were crowding in around me. I half expected them to grab a vine and swing above and past me. Soon afterward, they were demonstrating Kung Fu Theatre sort of balance as they ran through great lengths of loose rocks. I imagined that they could have sprinted along lily pads over water if they wanted to. Bad idea to let my mind wander though because just then I rolled my ankle and let out a big yelp. I hopped on one foot until I slowed enough to gain some balance. Luckily it was just a twist and not a sprain. The guys asked if I was OK without breaking their pace. I assured them I was all right, but they gained so much distance on me in a few seconds that I don’t know if they even heard me. I was completely done with trying to run with that herd of gazelles. Graceful as they were and as much adrenaline as I had going while with them, I knew I wasn’t in the same league… and I don’t aspire to be. I took it easy the rest of the way to make sure I didn’t ruin the rest of the season by risking a true ankle or knee injury. Never have I finished a race with such a low heart rate and breathing so freely. I felt a little guilty about that, but the downhill is all gravity and most of the last mile wasn’t even technical. It was a nice, smooth dirt road. That felt goooooood!

Things I learned at the Rock 2 Rock:

• although you may see nothing but the sky ahead of you, the trail can (and probably will) continue to turn upward.
  
• It is possible to use your arms while running a 10K. Rocks and trees can make nice handholds.
  
• Even warm water is a god-send when you finally reach the top.
  
• Technical descents are best done by people who have a clue how to run them.
  
• Don’t try to keep pace with acrobatic/daredevil runners
  

Jose is totally hooked. He’s coming back next year for sure. For me, I’m happy to have seen it and glad I completed it, but if I do it again I’d probably run it the same way. Aggressive ascent followed by a wimpy descent. I don't think Karen will be in for next year either due to the risk of injury, but she seemed happy to participate also. We all finished with smiles.

Karen and I just participated in an ultra distance orienteering meet yesterday near Chattanooga. We did the 12 hour version, but some folks were out on the course for a full 24 hours, starting about the time we went to bed the night before. They came from all over the country. There were some great views over very rugged terrain. It was all on foot, no biking or paddling. The nav was pretty challenging. We had about 3 miles in between points. You were forced to sort of chunk up each distance into bite-size portions and constantly ask yourself if everything looks right. The direction of travel, terrain on all four sides, and any creeks needed to be taken into account. When we reached a re-entrant that appeared to be the one we were seeking, for example, we had to verify that it was not only the right depth, size, and length, but also that it was veering in the right direction. My compass and altimeter came in handy. An experienced navigator could go by feel for a lot of that, but we had never done anything at this distance before and we are used to using 1:10,000 scale maps for O-meets with points only 500 meters to maybe 1K apart. This was 1:24,000 which is what we use for adventure races, but we normally don’t do true orienteering in an adventure race. If we do there is normally a separate map with a finer scale. So, I guess what I’m saying is that every point we reached was a small victory.

The wildlife was beautiful and we spent as much time watching that as we did trekking. The whippoorwills were loud as could be as we listened from our tent on Friday night. We heard a group of them calling over each other’s voices. I’ve never heard so many at once before. Normally only one at a time. Karen also thought she saw an indigo bunting bird. I took some photos of it as it splashed in a creek and bathed itself, but they didn’t come out good enough. My camera just doesn’t have the zoom power needed. We also saw many deer and heard something grunting at night and early morning that Karen reckoned was a buck, but I’m pretty sure it was of the sasquatch persuasion.

Anyway, we had a good time. The trip was awfully long (about 5 hours there and worse coming back due to Atlanta traffic) and not a place we plan to visit often, but we’re both glad we have been there. I’ve got one heck of a map if we ever want to go back. And by the way, when you view the map, the blue stuff is the Tennessee River and snaking around with it on either side are cliffs. That is represented by the thick brown stuff which are topo lines at 20 foot intervals that are so closely drawn that they appear to be touching each other. The points would often be hidden along the cliff or down the side of them near creeks. There were ways to get down the cliff that weren’t dangerous. It just took some maneuvering. We used small trees to help gain some footing. It was fun stuff.

Here are some photos:

http://picasaweb.google.com/pedalgrinder/UltraOGaine2008