Cactus Rose 50 Mile Report
October 30, 2010
Bandera, Texas

I wasn't sure what to do with Cactus Rose, even after I'd signed up for the race a month earlier. The race is a semi-self-supported 50 mile and 100 mile race through the Hill Country State Natural Area in Bandera, Texas outside San Antonio. There isn't any food or sports drink at the aid stations - if you want anything, you have to provide it yourself. In a race of this distance, you should probably be doing that anyway, so Cactus really makes you think about your race strategy. There is water and ice at each aid station, and the course is really well marked, so it's not a fat-ass type race.

There also aren't volunteers at the aid stations to help you fill your water bottle unless you bring a crew. Cheri has wanted to crew me out at Cactus Rose since she did the 100 mile race last year, and we brought our puppy Rocky with us so he didn't have to stay in the kennel for the weekend. This meant she had to manage two of us - she did a great job and even looked after some of the other runners!

I also want to go back and finish the Bandera 100K next year after dropping out with hypothermia in 12 degree weather at mile 42 this year. That means I should probably go out and do a 30-35 mile training run at Bandera sometime before the race. That would be really tough for me - I prefer to run long in races and use them as supported training runs with water, course markings, and other people out there. Bandera's also a three hour drive from Austin, so I don't get out there much - this was the first time since the January race I'd been there.

Because of the 100K, I decided to make Cactus Rose 50 my long Bandera training run and not go for time - just to enjoy the day. I felt better about that decision around mile 18 where my leg muscles started to hurt from all the rocks and downhill hiking. Running started to hurt a lot, and I felt great just easing off, especially in the middle 20 miles of the race, which is the nastiest part.

The race has five different sections per loop, two of which are longer and harder than the others. In order from the start:
* Start/Finish to Equestrian
* Equestrian to Nachos
* Nachos to Equestrian
* Equestrian to Boyles
* Boyles to Start/Finish

After the first loop, everyone turns around and goes backward on the course back to the start/finish where 50 milers are done, 100 milers go out and do it again.

From Start/Finish to Equestrian is very easy except for Lucky's, which is just loose rock, and very hard to get down at night.

The easiest section is probably Equestrian to Nachos that has a couple of creek crossings but mostly sticks to some very runnable trails along the creek.

The Nachos to Equestrian section goes over Ice Cream Hill, which isn't too bad except for the sotol. Sotol is a nasty plant with spiky leaves that grows all over the trail in some places and tears at your skin. I wore long hiking socks that I pulled up over my calves when I went through the patches, but pulled back down the other times.

The hardest is definitely the 5.76 miles from Equestrian to Boyles that goes over Mt. Fuji, Three Sisters, Sky Island and a couple other loose, rocky climbs. Not only is that the longest section, it's also the most up and down.

Boyles to Start/Finish was long but not terrible, and I knew that part pretty well from the Bandera 100K.

As for my race, I decided to walk the first two hours of the course in the dark, because I wasn't too comfortable night running this year at the two Captain Karl's night races I did - not sure what changed, but I just didn't really like running at night this year like I have in years past. I also wanted to maintain a constant effort through this race and not get sucked into running too fast at the beginning and making it a death march.

I started 10 minutes late, here's a picture of me, John Sharp, and Olga at the starting line before they kicked me out of there.

On the way out to Last Change, Robert Heynen was directing runners, and I also saw Henry Hobbs on an ATV. Getting to Equestrian was pretty easy, and I saw my crew Cheri there! Sherry Meadows passed me before I got to Equestrian because she started twenty minutes late.

Going into Nachos, I took my time crossing the two creeks, even though they weren't that deep. I was just enjoying the weak rays of the sun coming up over the hills, and I was starting to warm up. It was great. I turned off my lights as soon as I could and just hiked along the creek to Nachos, where I dumped my lights to pick them back up on the way out. No problems so far, and I was looking forward to running out of Nachos back to Equestrian. Ice Cream Hill was in the way, but that's not too terrible, and on the way back to Equestrian you hit about two miles of flat trail that's very runnable, so I took advantage.

At Equestrian, I knew I'd be going through the worst part of the course next, so I ate a bunch of food (Lara bars and pretzels were what I used all day, also got turkey from Dawn Banka and noodle soup with 5 miles left to go). Coming out of the Wilderness camp site the front runners started to appear - probably 15 miles ahead of me. I got an okay picture of Steven Moore, the 100 mile winner:

The trail winds around and around before getting to Boyle's, and I ran into Gabe Ayson, who is most famous for a computer timing glitch that showed him briefly leading Western States 100 one year - he was out doing a training run.

Up at Boyles, I found Cheri, who was excited to help me, and Rocky, who was excited to jump on me - luckily Dawn had Rocky and Mingo together, so Cheri could help me out. Somewhere in this segment my knees really started to hurt, so I asked Cheri to get me a Diet Pepsi and some Aleve at the next aid station. I also eased way back on running for the rest of the day. I took off out of Boyles on the way to the Lodge, seeing most of the other runners along the way, including Jon Wicks:

and Gordon Montgomery:

In between Last Chance and the Lodge I ran into Louis Upton and his horse Buddy:

I rolled into the Lodge at 7:30 into the race or so, not really worried about my time or rushing back out. Cheri asked me if I wanted to drop out of the race after one loop, but my leg muscles really only hurt after sustained periods of running, which there isn't that much of on this course anyway for me. So I told her I was going to finish, even if it meant I just hiked most of the course. Going back out, not too much happened, except that I ran into Guy Morin doing a 35 mile training run, and Fred Thompson up at Boyle's glow-sticking.

On the way back to Equestrian, I stopped to eat pretzels, drink water, and enjoy the view at a bench Cheri and I call Lynn's Bench (because our first year out at Cactus, 2008, we volunteered, and early on the first day we found Lynn Ballard sitting on the best bench on Sky Island enjoying the view and telling us his 100 mile race was over). I knew if I made it back to Equestrian, that was the hard part, and it was 15 miles of easier trail back to the start/finish. I saw Cheri at Equestrian, and she brought some of Dawn's turkey over, but you know who else likes turkey? Mingo, and he came over to get some turkey too! Larry King was manning the aid station, and it was getting pretty hot out, so he put some ice into my water bottle.

Headed back to Nachos, I got there in pretty good time, picking up the pace a little to take advantage of the light. Nothing really happens at Nachos - it's a small aid station, and there's no place to linger. I headed back out and told Cheri she could cheer for me at the park HQ, which the course goes through. I took off down the creek trails out of Nachos, which are my favorites in the whole park, knowing that would probably be the last of the real running I'd be doing. Seeing Cheri at the Park HQ was great, and I also saw Big Chris from San Antonio and his all-star pacer Liza.

At Equestrian (mile 45) it was dark, and temps were about to drop. After DNF'ing with hypothermia at the Bandera 100K, I went super-conservative and took a non-breathing Tahoe Rim Jacket and a long-sleeve Tech T, gloves, ear warmers, and a mid-cap for the last five miles, which I intended to hike. I also had some coke and some noodle soup, served by the great Olga. This all turned out to be sort of unnecessary - it was cold out in the fields, but eerily warm on the Lucky's hill, but I was glad I had it. Once I hit Last Chance, I ran all the way back into the lodge because I hadn't really run much the whole day and had plenty left.

At no point in this race did my spirits ever drop - this is the first time this has ever happened to me in a 50 mile race, so I'm very happy with that. Part of the reason is that I just wanted to enjoy the day and get the miles in, and so I didn't have to stress out about anything besides going 50 miles on my own. I also avoided sugar, gels, and real food the entire day except at mile 45, sticking to Larabars, pretzels, S-Caps, and water (my "slow" race food that seems to work).

Will I come back and do the Bandera 100K in January? I don't know. I don't really like running at Bandera because of all the rock - for me, there are much more fun places to run. What makes Cactus Rose is the people - I really enjoy the atmosphere, and Joyce and Joe Prusatis put on a fantastic race that I'm proud to say I completed.