Pinhoti 2009

This weekend has been one of the most tiring race weekends I've experienced. I don't even think the Ranger Challenge competition two weeks ago put me out like aiding for this race did. The second annual Pinhoti 100 mile race across the Talladega National Forest was a fulfilling experience for everyone involved. Last year, when I heard that John Nevels had taken this challenge, I was very intrigued by the concept of running that many miles in one day, so this year I had to come down and see what the madness was all about.
A few days before I was going to head to Sylacauga I wasn't really sure what it was exactly that I was going to do there. I thought I might help out with the Fleet Feet aid station at mile 85 or join Fred and help crew John, but about two days before the race I got a message from Rob Youngren about a guy he knew that needed someone to help crew. I thought, why not? and told him I was up for it.
Friday after class got out at noon I got all my gear ready and left for Sylacauga, the location of the race briefing and the finish line. I met the guy who I would be crewing that afternoon. Tim Barnes is an ultrarunner from Louisville, KY who was attempting his first hundred mile run. I met him and his pacer, Russ, at a hotel off of 280 on Friday afternoon. We chatted about our past race experiences and other such things and began to plan how the next day was gonna go down.
The race briefing was at 5:30 pm that evening so I had some time to go check out part of the Pinhoti trail that would be run the next day. The trail head that I found was about 11 miles away from Sylacauga and would be the location for the mile 85 aid station. I got in a few miles on this portion of the trail and tried to image what would be going through the runner's minds when they get here tomorrow.
After the briefing, Tim, Russ, and I went to Pizza Hut for dinner. (Sylacauga didn't give us a whole bunch of food options). We headed back to the hotel and continued to talk race strategy before we went to bed.
3am, Saturday morning. We all got up and gathered all of our gear we would need for the long day ahead. At about 4 we began the drive up to the starting line in Heflin, AL about an hour away. When the bus arrived with the rest of the runners, everyone headed to the starting line. It was really neat to see all these athletes gathered here from all over the place. You had people like Karl Meltzer, who ended up coming in first to secure his 28th ultra victory of his career, and guys like Christian Griffith who showed up with not much more than a duffel bag and some handheld water bottles.
6:17 am and the runners were off. Their day long journey had begun and it was time for Russ and I to hit each aid station as Tim came through. (Course map with aid station locations) At the first and second aid stations, roughly 5 miles apart, Tim was out front looking strong as he came through. Some aid stations were not accessible by the crews so Tim would have to rely on the aid stations for refueling at some points. At aid station 5, 27.6 miles in, Meltzer had decided it was time to pick up the pace. He was now out front with a comfortable lead and would stay there the rest of the day. Tim came though not too long after that and swapped out his empty bottles with full ones. The next time we would see him would be at mile 40 at the Bald Rock Lodge aid station on top of Mt. Cheaha, close to where the finish line was for the Cheaha 50k I ran last Feburary. When Tim showed up, he seemed to be in a bad way. He had just finished a climb to the highest point in Alabama and still had a long way to go. He took his time at this aid station. Pacers were allowed to join their runners at mile 40. Russ had planned to pace starting at mile 60 to the finish, so we decided it would be a good idea for me to pace from here until that point. The portion I would join him for was the same route as the Cheaha 50k only backwards, and I was only running a 20 mile section of it.
We descended the dreaded blue hell shortly after I began pacing him and a few miles later Tim still didn't seem to be felling to great. At aid station 8, 45.25 miles in he got some ibuprofen and began to feel better. His pace picked up and he settled into a grove. By the time we got to aid station 10, Adam's Gap, it had gotten dark. Tim and I donned our headlamps and began the next 5 mile portion that ran along a gravel road. Mile 60.3and it was Russ's turn to pace and my turn to drive the car from aid station to aid station.
At mile 68, the Porter's gap aid station, I saw the two runners come forth from the woods and informed them that I would not be seeing them again for another 16 miles. Before they came in I had prepared Tim's pack he would need to carry enough fuel to get him to aid station 16 at mile 85.
It didn't take me long to navigate through the back roads of the national forest to find aid station 16 where some of the fleet feet crew were set up. It wouldn't be for at least another 3 hours before my runners emerged from the woods so I had a lot of time to kill. Fortunately there was a lot of good company and good food at this aid station so it helped to pass the time quickly. I caught up with some ultra buddies of mine I hadn't seen in a while. Karl Meltzer was the first to come out of the woods. The sun was completely down at this point so you could see the runners headlamps from a little was off. It was almost kind of mystic when these ultra runners were coming off the mountain, their headlamps bobbing in the darkness, shedding up the trail as they moved.
Finally Tim and Russ appeared, seeming almost unphased by the mountainous section of trail they had just completed. The rest of the race was mostly on gravel roads before the runners hit the final 2 mile road section to the finish line. I met Tim at two other aid stations before I saw him for the last time before the finish. Mile 95. Tim dropped off a water bottle and he and Russ set out for the final push to the finish.
I arrived at the high school track in Sylacauga about 45 minutes before I'd see Tim finish with a time of 20 hours, 53 minutes placing fourth overall. Funny, I thought, how trivial a distance around a track seemed when compared to what the runners on it tonight have just been through. When he crossed that finish line, his sense of relief and accomplishment was felt by everyone there. He was so happy to be done. By 4:25 am, Sunday morning we were back at the hotel. We were all exhausted from running a combined distance of over 160 miles and being awake for the last 25.5 hours.
We got up at 10:30 am, packed, left the hotel, and went to the awards ceremony. Todd Henderson, the race director that did an incredible job with all the logistics of putting on a hundred mile race, said some final words about the race and gave trophies made from Alabama marble to the top finishers. I said my goodbyes to Russ and Tim and congratulated him on his great finish.
So now I'm finally back at my apartment about ready to get some more sleep because I've gotten tired all over again just recounting the events of the last 2 days. It's also really weird how just this morning at 3 something am I was at that track as the racers were finishing. Now I have to get back to normal life, once again surrounded by silly modern conveniences that give us absolutely no good reason to run ludicrously long distances like that run last weekend. I greatly valued my time on the Pinhoti trail. The experiences I've gained will be very useful when I return to that starting line in Heflin this time next year, only then, I won't be aiding.