Well lets just start this one with. "There is always next year." and the year after that and the year after that.... Everyone knows how bad I wanted to win this one this year. This is the race where I put all my eggs. No matter how hard you train. How you change your diet. Do everything right. Stay injury free the one thing you can't control is who shows up to the race.
That was the theme for this years race as there were a lot of new faces in the crowd. Returning champions from last year were in the field of starters Josh and Ashley Nordell. This dynamic duo of trail running is top class through and through and I am glad to call them friends. Also returning to give it another go around were Paul Schoenlaub and Stewart Johnson going after their fifth consecutive finishes.
After having seen the entrants list for this years edition of 3 Days I'd figure that my stiffest competition would come from Josh Nordell. Looking at his winning time in the Overall from last year was like a carbon copy of mine in 2007. I knew that I was trained and ready this year both physically and mentally. Either way it ended up. It was going to be a slobber knocker to the very end. Turns out though I should have done some better pre race research. As this year we were introduced to a very talented runner from West Virginia by the name of Adam Cassadey. Who managed to fly under every ones radar coming into the weekend. Turns out that Adam had a 3RD place showing at last years Massunutten 100 miler. Translation..." You don't get third at Massunutten because your shitty on technical single track..."
After chatting it up with all the wonderful folks I've gotten to know so well over the past couple of years down there. Willie Lambert and I decided to head over to the cabin and get everything unpacked and in its place for the rest of the weekend. Once we got unpacked we decided to eat some supper at the Anglers Resort. At dinner I was chomping at the bit for morning to come. Usually when I get like that I know I'm ready to tear up a course and in a big way. Willie kept asking what he thought I might try to do on day one. I honestly didn't know. Paul Schoenlaub and I had discussed a few options the week prior but those kind of things you never really know about until you get right in the middle of it all. My final answer was that I didn't know. I'd have to wait and see how things played out. Then I would decide then and there. The good thing was that this year I would be able to handle anything that was thrown at me. Or so I thought.
Day one was a shortened version of the 50km. Ice storms from a rough January left the trails down there resembling that of a Wichita trailer park after a tornado. Debris from the ice storm could be seen everywhere you looked. With the exception of more than a few miles of forest service roads the race pretty much stuck to the Syllamo Trail System.
The stage started out at an honest enough pace. I felt like we could keep it going at that pace for around 8 miles or so then the pack would thin out. John Muir. Just running the 1ST and 3RD days was leading up the first big climb of around a mile and a half in length. Close behind him was Josh and even closer behind Josh was myself. Josh kept asking if I wanted to go around him but I kept telling him I was fine right where I was. I told him I wasn't going to let him get to far out of sight. By the time we hit the first aide station at Gunner Pool I was in second. Josh had to stop for a nature break and I kept running. Though I wasn't going balls out I kept it reasonable because I felt it was way too early to put in an attack. Especially being the first day. It's tradition to go easy on the first day there but this year I would soon find out that all bets were off.
I flew through the Gunner Pool aide station only to drop off an empty gel packet. I had enough in the bottle to make it into Barkshed. The temps were still in the upper thirties and I wasn't really sweating all that much. Something happened on the way to Barkshed though. I just got into the mother of all grooves and went with it. At Gunner. John was 6 minutes up on the field but between Gunner and Barkshed I put myself in the middle of that. In No Mans Land. 2 and a half in front of the pack and 2 and a half behind John. At Barkshed they told me to head down this Forest Service Road for about four miles to the turn around. That's when I found out the course would be short. About a 100 yards out of Barkshed the race got fun for me. As one of those climbs from my dreams hit me right in the face. It was around a mile and a half long and had just the right pitch to it. I dropped it down into granny gear and cruised up the whole damn thing never going slower than a 10 min pace. It just felt good. Once I hit the top there were a few short rollers. Followed by a half mile downhill that I just floated. Then another mile long climb to the turn around.
Just about to the turn now. I saw John heading back my direction. I asked how far to the turn. He said not far. A minute or so. Sweet! I pulled the gap down under two minutes and was still feeling good. Hit the turn. Grabbed a few Pringles and filled the bottle. I was there maybe 15 seconds. Got back out on the road and started counting back to the rest of the field. I saw Josh and I was out of the turn around 3 minutes now. Next came a couple of runners I wasn't sure who they were. One of them though was Adam Cassadey. Running in fifth or so was Paul who was about 16 minutes behind me. At that point I knew I had done some serious damage on that hill section to the rest of the overall stage runners. Some of them were already walking. That made me feel great.
Trying to resist the great feeling I had. I pulled back on the reigns a bit. I had another three miles of this road to get down. I didn't want to trash my quads for the last 10 mile section and the rest of the weekend. So I just put it in cruise mode at that point. If anybody pulled me back then so be it. I would at the very least have enough to stay with them and nobody would be running away with the overall on the first day.
The next four miles were uneventful. I made it back through Barkshed inbound and had a few easy miles in there. Then as I was winding back around a switchback just under a waterfall. I heard foot steps. It was Josh and he was running like someone lit a fire under his ass. I guess seeing me at the turnaround motivated him enough to get his butt back in the race. At that point we had about 10km to go to the finish. He went around me and I just tucked in behind again. We came back through Gunner Pool inbound close together. There, though I just took a minute to make sure I had enough of everything before I took off. If Josh caught me then I figure the others weren't too far behind and I'd hate like hell to completely blow up in the last five miles and lose my ass 15 minutes. Once I was good I just cruised it into the finish. With about a mile and a half to go I had a guy get close. He had gotten within 200 yards of me but I didn't sweat it too much. I was at the top of the downhill drop into the finish area and in the clear. I crossed the line in 3:38 something. For what I felt like was a great 28 mile time considering the course had about 7500 ft of vertical gain to it. Doing the math at the finish line Josh who ran a 3:36 and change figured we were running around a 4:05 50km pace had the course been a complete 50km. Which would have made that about 47 minutes faster than I ran the first day last year.
Completely wiped out I started getting the carbs back in me with copious amounts of New Belgium Beer. Then headed down to the creek to soak the wheels. So as to minimize the destruction of the day. After the creek I took a hot shower at the camp ground. Ate some pasta. Then headed back to the cabin to make some potato soup for some more calories. Willies wife Karen and Jess met us at the campground a little earlier. So we got them settled in and then built a nice fire in the cabin. Paul, Stewart and Deb all came over for some soup and we sat around talking about how we thought things were going to go for the next day. One of the things I remember from that conversation was that the thought of a sub 8hr 50 miler would be tough to do. I thought that maybe the winning time for day two would be around 8:30 hrs. So with that in mind I hit the sack around 9PM to get as much sleep as possible.
Day 2 - The alarm clock was buzzing in my ear at 5:00AM. I quickly shut it off to not wake Jess up. I then proceeded to go threw my pre race rituals. Willie and I sat down and being half awake tried to carry on a conversation over a fine Tennessee Pride sausage and egg biscuit. When we headed out the door I thought I double checked to make sure I had everything I needed for the race. Right as we were getting to the campgrounds I realized I had committed the first of two SNAFU's I would perform for the day. I had ran out of the cabin and left my water bottles sitting on the kitchen counter. CRAP!!! I didn't have time to head back to the cabin and get them before the start of the race. So when we hit the campgrounds I went on a frantic search for someone to help me out. I didn't have to look far. Steve Kirk hooked me up with a couple of Nathan handheld's. Though they were minus the ever important bottle part I felt like I was halfway there. Heading back over to the car to see If by chance I had maybe left any in the back from a previous training run I ran into Andy Emerson. Who bailed me out with a trail runners version of an economic stimulus package in the form of a water bottle.
Now I was set. What else could go wrong I thought. Why is it people always say that when something goes wrong. Shouldn't we learn. It's almost as we're inviting something else TO go wrong. Well I said it and I never learn so something else did go wrong. This stage had us running across the Syllamore Creek. Which if anyone doesn't know it's a waist high plus water crossing. I made the decision to wear what I like to call the Karl Meltzers' a pair of shorts that have a lot of pockets on them for carrying all kinds of stuff in an effort to reduce my dependency on aide stations. Being that this was a 50 mile I had more than my usual amount of crap stuffed into the pockets. What I failed to realize was that I also had taken the belt out of that pair of shorts. When we got to the water crossing everything was going great Adam, Josh and myself were all running close together. When I came out of the water crossing I found myself unable to run because my shorts were down around my ankles. This was a problem. A major problem. I didn't bring a spare pair of shorts and Nobody had anything to tie up my shorts with. The thought of running another 44 miles while trying to hold my pants up was not an option. Well I had about 6 miles to figure something out.
That was one of the longest 6 miles of trail running in my life. I tried not to think about how mad I was getting. Running with one hand on the waist of my shorts and the other holding a bottle. I just kept running. I knew I had to figure out something quick or my weekend would be over. Making it back to the start/finish area I immediately ran over to my car to try a find a solution to my problem. The hardest thing I did all week was to try and keep my cool while I was rifling through the back of the Suzuki to find something to keep my pants up. With each passing minute I found myself getting closer and closer to that boiling point. I just kept telling myself that 8:30 would win it today and I was still on 8:20 pace at that point. Finally after exhausting all of the ideas I thought would work. I found it. The answer to my problem. There. Staring into my desperate eyes was a Dillons plastic grocery sack. I quickly ripped the sack in two and proceeded to thread that S.O.B. through the belt loops of my shorts. Cinching the sack up tight and tying it with a double knot I was gone with the wind. I asked a guy standing near the trail head if anyone had come by here. He told me a tall guy with blond hair ran through a couple of minutes ago but that was it.
O.K. Well that's not so bad. That means that my second "F"up only cost me about 5 maybe 6 minutes. Hell it could have been a lot worse. On the climb out of the start/finish area I regained my cool and started getting some calories back into my system. Once at the top of the climb I told myself that the break was over and that it was time to get to work. Take my time. Run my race. Don't try to get it back all at once. 10 seconds here a minute there. Just run my race and they would come back to me. If they didn't. Well then, SHIT I probably wouldn't have won today anyway right. Still I felt good and I wasn't even close to throwing in the towel yet.
From that point until around mile 25 it was a lonely run. Eat, Drink, skip the peeing part that could wait. Refill bottles, eat some more. Keep the arms pumping up the climbs and so on and so forth. I had gotten word that just before Gunner Pool outbound Josh had kicked a big rock in a big way and that he might have broken his toe/toes. I felt bad for Josh but if that was the case he was still able to run and run strong. I don't think I gained one inch on him from the start/finish to Barkshed. The gap was still around 2:30 minutes. It wasn't until around mile 25 when I finally caught up with Josh. It was heartbreaking. You could tell he was in a lot of pain, still he wouldn't give up. I looked at his shoe and it was soaked in blood. Almost like in the movie Prefontaine when he ran the race with seven stitches in his foot. I pulled up even with him and told him I heard about the bad news. He just said. Well, you got me today Dave. I told him to keep his head up and hang in there. At that point I knew I would probably keep my second place in the overall but it sure was a shitty deal in the way it came about. For months I had dreamt about it coming down to Josh and I on the last day. A real gentleman's duel if you will. Now because a stupid ass rock it wasn't to be. With each passing hill I was putting another 30 seconds into Josh's' slim lead over me. However I was still in second place on the road and at the last time gap I was in second place in the virtual overall. Adam was up the road running like his shoes were filled with helium.
Now I thought maybe I could catch him. If I could just hold him close. The last time gap I got was at Barkshed at mile 20 and he was like 7 minutes ahead. Since I had put three minutes on him the first day and he was seven ahead. He was really only in the lead by around 4 minutes or so. If I could somehow manage to pull back a few minutes then It would be everyman for himself on the last day. I kept running a smooth pace. It was roads for the time being and I had to make a move here. If he got back down to the rocks and the trail with too much of a gap I was screwed.
Finally I saw Adam coming back my direction. That put a smile on my face for a brief moment. Until I asked how far to the turn. Thinking his response would be similar to Johns from the day before. I was floored when he said about seven minutes. You could hear the wind leaving my sails. Coming into the turn around I had already settled for the silver medal. Steve Kirk, Billy Simpson, and John were there though and they said to keep running hard. Billy said to keep it up anything could happen and he could fold his cards at a moments notice. John told me to get the HELL out of there and just run. So I did. Like Forrest Gump. I just ran. 20 miles to go now. I had 10 more miles of road. If I was going to get any of that time back it would come right here right now. So I put in what was to be my final drive of the day. Pushing all the way back to Barkshed at mile 40. At one point I had taken back four minutes around mile 35 or 36 coming from the runners I was passing on the way back in. When I got to Barkshed I got the real news that he was about 16 minutes up.
In a way it was actually kind of a relief. I knew there was no way I could make that gap up in the last 10 miles of rocky trail on him. Also I knew there was no chance I could get the element of surprise on him the next day and make up that kind of time in a 20 km race. The pressure was off. From the turnaround at mile 30 I figured I had around 20 minutes on the guy who slipped into third for the day. So I just took a couple of minutes and changed my shirt, enjoyed a cup of hot chocolate and ran real easy to the trail head. Once I hit the trail I loosened up and cruised it in. I started to run a little faster and faster with each mile. I hadn't noticed though.
When I finally looked at my watch with around two and a half to go it read 7:32:?? Then I started doing more math. CRAP! again. I could go under 8:00 hrs on a course that even though had 20 miles of road. The lack of trail was made up for with 12,500 foot of vertical climb. So I decided that I at least had one more thing to run for this weekend. Myself.. Kicking it in I ran the rest of the way with the exception of a short and very steep ATV trail. That last mile and a half downhill was like a freaking roller coaster ride. I was running so damn fast that my eyes were starting to tear up and it wasn't even cold out. Throwing caution to the wind I took every risk that presented itself. I didn't care this was for a SUB 8 BABY!!! Coming off the trail the watch read 7:55:?? with 150 yards of field to cross I hit the tape in 7:56:?? Adam was already over by his tent. Which confirmed what I had already knew that the overall for me at least was over this year. He crossed the finish line with a 7:32:??. Awesome run from an awesome guy. Keep a watch out for this dude. I wish him all the best as he returns to Massunutten to try and run a sub 20 there.
Post race of day two was more of the same. Beer, soak in the creek. Get the calories back in and get to bed. This night though I slept like a baby. I knew I had made it through another 3 Days. Barring any unforeseen injury or accident. I was also able to prove, that my win in 2007 wasn't a fluke. Not that anybody really thought that. It just made me feel better about it after all the crap that happened to me here in 2008.
Day 3 - Finally the easy day that we were all hoping for. This was the way I'd prefer it to be. Conceding first to Adam I told him the night before that we could just take it easy and cruise the 20 km together. Of course he agreed. Ashley had her race sowed up for a third year in a row. So she decided to tag along. We also had some comic relief in the form of local Arkie and friend Paul Turner. The four of us ran together the entire 20km similar to the way the peleton rides around the Champs - Elysee's on the final day of the Tour de France. It had the feel of a true victory lap. The surprise for the day was that Paul Schoenlaub was around 6 minutes out of the 3RD place spot for the overall to start the day. We told him to go out hard and get ahead of the guy he needed to be ahead of and we hold off any attacks that came his way. Paul had it in the bag though. The guy that was in third told us his legs were gone for the day. Paul usually takes pretty good care of himself in these long races. So he was able to sneak onto the podium for a 3RD place in the overall and 1ST male masters. Also I would like to congratulate Deb Johnson on a fine finish taking 1ST in the women's masters race. Congratulations go out to Stewart Johnson and Willie Lambert for strong finishes and congratulations to all the finishers of this years 3 days of Syllamo. It was again a tough year but a very rewarding year as it always is when you finish a race of this magnitude. For me it's time for a short rest before the Freestate Ultras. So I'm going to go enjoy what's left of the good pain I have left in my legs from this past weekend. See Y'all out there.
That was the theme for this years race as there were a lot of new faces in the crowd. Returning champions from last year were in the field of starters Josh and Ashley Nordell. This dynamic duo of trail running is top class through and through and I am glad to call them friends. Also returning to give it another go around were Paul Schoenlaub and Stewart Johnson going after their fifth consecutive finishes.
After having seen the entrants list for this years edition of 3 Days I'd figure that my stiffest competition would come from Josh Nordell. Looking at his winning time in the Overall from last year was like a carbon copy of mine in 2007. I knew that I was trained and ready this year both physically and mentally. Either way it ended up. It was going to be a slobber knocker to the very end. Turns out though I should have done some better pre race research. As this year we were introduced to a very talented runner from West Virginia by the name of Adam Cassadey. Who managed to fly under every ones radar coming into the weekend. Turns out that Adam had a 3RD place showing at last years Massunutten 100 miler. Translation..." You don't get third at Massunutten because your shitty on technical single track..."
After chatting it up with all the wonderful folks I've gotten to know so well over the past couple of years down there. Willie Lambert and I decided to head over to the cabin and get everything unpacked and in its place for the rest of the weekend. Once we got unpacked we decided to eat some supper at the Anglers Resort. At dinner I was chomping at the bit for morning to come. Usually when I get like that I know I'm ready to tear up a course and in a big way. Willie kept asking what he thought I might try to do on day one. I honestly didn't know. Paul Schoenlaub and I had discussed a few options the week prior but those kind of things you never really know about until you get right in the middle of it all. My final answer was that I didn't know. I'd have to wait and see how things played out. Then I would decide then and there. The good thing was that this year I would be able to handle anything that was thrown at me. Or so I thought.
Day one was a shortened version of the 50km. Ice storms from a rough January left the trails down there resembling that of a Wichita trailer park after a tornado. Debris from the ice storm could be seen everywhere you looked. With the exception of more than a few miles of forest service roads the race pretty much stuck to the Syllamo Trail System.
The stage started out at an honest enough pace. I felt like we could keep it going at that pace for around 8 miles or so then the pack would thin out. John Muir. Just running the 1ST and 3RD days was leading up the first big climb of around a mile and a half in length. Close behind him was Josh and even closer behind Josh was myself. Josh kept asking if I wanted to go around him but I kept telling him I was fine right where I was. I told him I wasn't going to let him get to far out of sight. By the time we hit the first aide station at Gunner Pool I was in second. Josh had to stop for a nature break and I kept running. Though I wasn't going balls out I kept it reasonable because I felt it was way too early to put in an attack. Especially being the first day. It's tradition to go easy on the first day there but this year I would soon find out that all bets were off.
I flew through the Gunner Pool aide station only to drop off an empty gel packet. I had enough in the bottle to make it into Barkshed. The temps were still in the upper thirties and I wasn't really sweating all that much. Something happened on the way to Barkshed though. I just got into the mother of all grooves and went with it. At Gunner. John was 6 minutes up on the field but between Gunner and Barkshed I put myself in the middle of that. In No Mans Land. 2 and a half in front of the pack and 2 and a half behind John. At Barkshed they told me to head down this Forest Service Road for about four miles to the turn around. That's when I found out the course would be short. About a 100 yards out of Barkshed the race got fun for me. As one of those climbs from my dreams hit me right in the face. It was around a mile and a half long and had just the right pitch to it. I dropped it down into granny gear and cruised up the whole damn thing never going slower than a 10 min pace. It just felt good. Once I hit the top there were a few short rollers. Followed by a half mile downhill that I just floated. Then another mile long climb to the turn around.
Just about to the turn now. I saw John heading back my direction. I asked how far to the turn. He said not far. A minute or so. Sweet! I pulled the gap down under two minutes and was still feeling good. Hit the turn. Grabbed a few Pringles and filled the bottle. I was there maybe 15 seconds. Got back out on the road and started counting back to the rest of the field. I saw Josh and I was out of the turn around 3 minutes now. Next came a couple of runners I wasn't sure who they were. One of them though was Adam Cassadey. Running in fifth or so was Paul who was about 16 minutes behind me. At that point I knew I had done some serious damage on that hill section to the rest of the overall stage runners. Some of them were already walking. That made me feel great.
Trying to resist the great feeling I had. I pulled back on the reigns a bit. I had another three miles of this road to get down. I didn't want to trash my quads for the last 10 mile section and the rest of the weekend. So I just put it in cruise mode at that point. If anybody pulled me back then so be it. I would at the very least have enough to stay with them and nobody would be running away with the overall on the first day.
The next four miles were uneventful. I made it back through Barkshed inbound and had a few easy miles in there. Then as I was winding back around a switchback just under a waterfall. I heard foot steps. It was Josh and he was running like someone lit a fire under his ass. I guess seeing me at the turnaround motivated him enough to get his butt back in the race. At that point we had about 10km to go to the finish. He went around me and I just tucked in behind again. We came back through Gunner Pool inbound close together. There, though I just took a minute to make sure I had enough of everything before I took off. If Josh caught me then I figure the others weren't too far behind and I'd hate like hell to completely blow up in the last five miles and lose my ass 15 minutes. Once I was good I just cruised it into the finish. With about a mile and a half to go I had a guy get close. He had gotten within 200 yards of me but I didn't sweat it too much. I was at the top of the downhill drop into the finish area and in the clear. I crossed the line in 3:38 something. For what I felt like was a great 28 mile time considering the course had about 7500 ft of vertical gain to it. Doing the math at the finish line Josh who ran a 3:36 and change figured we were running around a 4:05 50km pace had the course been a complete 50km. Which would have made that about 47 minutes faster than I ran the first day last year.
Completely wiped out I started getting the carbs back in me with copious amounts of New Belgium Beer. Then headed down to the creek to soak the wheels. So as to minimize the destruction of the day. After the creek I took a hot shower at the camp ground. Ate some pasta. Then headed back to the cabin to make some potato soup for some more calories. Willies wife Karen and Jess met us at the campground a little earlier. So we got them settled in and then built a nice fire in the cabin. Paul, Stewart and Deb all came over for some soup and we sat around talking about how we thought things were going to go for the next day. One of the things I remember from that conversation was that the thought of a sub 8hr 50 miler would be tough to do. I thought that maybe the winning time for day two would be around 8:30 hrs. So with that in mind I hit the sack around 9PM to get as much sleep as possible.
Day 2 - The alarm clock was buzzing in my ear at 5:00AM. I quickly shut it off to not wake Jess up. I then proceeded to go threw my pre race rituals. Willie and I sat down and being half awake tried to carry on a conversation over a fine Tennessee Pride sausage and egg biscuit. When we headed out the door I thought I double checked to make sure I had everything I needed for the race. Right as we were getting to the campgrounds I realized I had committed the first of two SNAFU's I would perform for the day. I had ran out of the cabin and left my water bottles sitting on the kitchen counter. CRAP!!! I didn't have time to head back to the cabin and get them before the start of the race. So when we hit the campgrounds I went on a frantic search for someone to help me out. I didn't have to look far. Steve Kirk hooked me up with a couple of Nathan handheld's. Though they were minus the ever important bottle part I felt like I was halfway there. Heading back over to the car to see If by chance I had maybe left any in the back from a previous training run I ran into Andy Emerson. Who bailed me out with a trail runners version of an economic stimulus package in the form of a water bottle.
Now I was set. What else could go wrong I thought. Why is it people always say that when something goes wrong. Shouldn't we learn. It's almost as we're inviting something else TO go wrong. Well I said it and I never learn so something else did go wrong. This stage had us running across the Syllamore Creek. Which if anyone doesn't know it's a waist high plus water crossing. I made the decision to wear what I like to call the Karl Meltzers' a pair of shorts that have a lot of pockets on them for carrying all kinds of stuff in an effort to reduce my dependency on aide stations. Being that this was a 50 mile I had more than my usual amount of crap stuffed into the pockets. What I failed to realize was that I also had taken the belt out of that pair of shorts. When we got to the water crossing everything was going great Adam, Josh and myself were all running close together. When I came out of the water crossing I found myself unable to run because my shorts were down around my ankles. This was a problem. A major problem. I didn't bring a spare pair of shorts and Nobody had anything to tie up my shorts with. The thought of running another 44 miles while trying to hold my pants up was not an option. Well I had about 6 miles to figure something out.
That was one of the longest 6 miles of trail running in my life. I tried not to think about how mad I was getting. Running with one hand on the waist of my shorts and the other holding a bottle. I just kept running. I knew I had to figure out something quick or my weekend would be over. Making it back to the start/finish area I immediately ran over to my car to try a find a solution to my problem. The hardest thing I did all week was to try and keep my cool while I was rifling through the back of the Suzuki to find something to keep my pants up. With each passing minute I found myself getting closer and closer to that boiling point. I just kept telling myself that 8:30 would win it today and I was still on 8:20 pace at that point. Finally after exhausting all of the ideas I thought would work. I found it. The answer to my problem. There. Staring into my desperate eyes was a Dillons plastic grocery sack. I quickly ripped the sack in two and proceeded to thread that S.O.B. through the belt loops of my shorts. Cinching the sack up tight and tying it with a double knot I was gone with the wind. I asked a guy standing near the trail head if anyone had come by here. He told me a tall guy with blond hair ran through a couple of minutes ago but that was it.
O.K. Well that's not so bad. That means that my second "F"up only cost me about 5 maybe 6 minutes. Hell it could have been a lot worse. On the climb out of the start/finish area I regained my cool and started getting some calories back into my system. Once at the top of the climb I told myself that the break was over and that it was time to get to work. Take my time. Run my race. Don't try to get it back all at once. 10 seconds here a minute there. Just run my race and they would come back to me. If they didn't. Well then, SHIT I probably wouldn't have won today anyway right. Still I felt good and I wasn't even close to throwing in the towel yet.
From that point until around mile 25 it was a lonely run. Eat, Drink, skip the peeing part that could wait. Refill bottles, eat some more. Keep the arms pumping up the climbs and so on and so forth. I had gotten word that just before Gunner Pool outbound Josh had kicked a big rock in a big way and that he might have broken his toe/toes. I felt bad for Josh but if that was the case he was still able to run and run strong. I don't think I gained one inch on him from the start/finish to Barkshed. The gap was still around 2:30 minutes. It wasn't until around mile 25 when I finally caught up with Josh. It was heartbreaking. You could tell he was in a lot of pain, still he wouldn't give up. I looked at his shoe and it was soaked in blood. Almost like in the movie Prefontaine when he ran the race with seven stitches in his foot. I pulled up even with him and told him I heard about the bad news. He just said. Well, you got me today Dave. I told him to keep his head up and hang in there. At that point I knew I would probably keep my second place in the overall but it sure was a shitty deal in the way it came about. For months I had dreamt about it coming down to Josh and I on the last day. A real gentleman's duel if you will. Now because a stupid ass rock it wasn't to be. With each passing hill I was putting another 30 seconds into Josh's' slim lead over me. However I was still in second place on the road and at the last time gap I was in second place in the virtual overall. Adam was up the road running like his shoes were filled with helium.
Now I thought maybe I could catch him. If I could just hold him close. The last time gap I got was at Barkshed at mile 20 and he was like 7 minutes ahead. Since I had put three minutes on him the first day and he was seven ahead. He was really only in the lead by around 4 minutes or so. If I could somehow manage to pull back a few minutes then It would be everyman for himself on the last day. I kept running a smooth pace. It was roads for the time being and I had to make a move here. If he got back down to the rocks and the trail with too much of a gap I was screwed.
Finally I saw Adam coming back my direction. That put a smile on my face for a brief moment. Until I asked how far to the turn. Thinking his response would be similar to Johns from the day before. I was floored when he said about seven minutes. You could hear the wind leaving my sails. Coming into the turn around I had already settled for the silver medal. Steve Kirk, Billy Simpson, and John were there though and they said to keep running hard. Billy said to keep it up anything could happen and he could fold his cards at a moments notice. John told me to get the HELL out of there and just run. So I did. Like Forrest Gump. I just ran. 20 miles to go now. I had 10 more miles of road. If I was going to get any of that time back it would come right here right now. So I put in what was to be my final drive of the day. Pushing all the way back to Barkshed at mile 40. At one point I had taken back four minutes around mile 35 or 36 coming from the runners I was passing on the way back in. When I got to Barkshed I got the real news that he was about 16 minutes up.
In a way it was actually kind of a relief. I knew there was no way I could make that gap up in the last 10 miles of rocky trail on him. Also I knew there was no chance I could get the element of surprise on him the next day and make up that kind of time in a 20 km race. The pressure was off. From the turnaround at mile 30 I figured I had around 20 minutes on the guy who slipped into third for the day. So I just took a couple of minutes and changed my shirt, enjoyed a cup of hot chocolate and ran real easy to the trail head. Once I hit the trail I loosened up and cruised it in. I started to run a little faster and faster with each mile. I hadn't noticed though.
When I finally looked at my watch with around two and a half to go it read 7:32:?? Then I started doing more math. CRAP! again. I could go under 8:00 hrs on a course that even though had 20 miles of road. The lack of trail was made up for with 12,500 foot of vertical climb. So I decided that I at least had one more thing to run for this weekend. Myself.. Kicking it in I ran the rest of the way with the exception of a short and very steep ATV trail. That last mile and a half downhill was like a freaking roller coaster ride. I was running so damn fast that my eyes were starting to tear up and it wasn't even cold out. Throwing caution to the wind I took every risk that presented itself. I didn't care this was for a SUB 8 BABY!!! Coming off the trail the watch read 7:55:?? with 150 yards of field to cross I hit the tape in 7:56:?? Adam was already over by his tent. Which confirmed what I had already knew that the overall for me at least was over this year. He crossed the finish line with a 7:32:??. Awesome run from an awesome guy. Keep a watch out for this dude. I wish him all the best as he returns to Massunutten to try and run a sub 20 there.
Post race of day two was more of the same. Beer, soak in the creek. Get the calories back in and get to bed. This night though I slept like a baby. I knew I had made it through another 3 Days. Barring any unforeseen injury or accident. I was also able to prove, that my win in 2007 wasn't a fluke. Not that anybody really thought that. It just made me feel better about it after all the crap that happened to me here in 2008.
Day 3 - Finally the easy day that we were all hoping for. This was the way I'd prefer it to be. Conceding first to Adam I told him the night before that we could just take it easy and cruise the 20 km together. Of course he agreed. Ashley had her race sowed up for a third year in a row. So she decided to tag along. We also had some comic relief in the form of local Arkie and friend Paul Turner. The four of us ran together the entire 20km similar to the way the peleton rides around the Champs - Elysee's on the final day of the Tour de France. It had the feel of a true victory lap. The surprise for the day was that Paul Schoenlaub was around 6 minutes out of the 3RD place spot for the overall to start the day. We told him to go out hard and get ahead of the guy he needed to be ahead of and we hold off any attacks that came his way. Paul had it in the bag though. The guy that was in third told us his legs were gone for the day. Paul usually takes pretty good care of himself in these long races. So he was able to sneak onto the podium for a 3RD place in the overall and 1ST male masters. Also I would like to congratulate Deb Johnson on a fine finish taking 1ST in the women's masters race. Congratulations go out to Stewart Johnson and Willie Lambert for strong finishes and congratulations to all the finishers of this years 3 days of Syllamo. It was again a tough year but a very rewarding year as it always is when you finish a race of this magnitude. For me it's time for a short rest before the Freestate Ultras. So I'm going to go enjoy what's left of the good pain I have left in my legs from this past weekend. See Y'all out there.
