The Tecumsah Trail Marathon
Report – Nashville, IN – December, 2005
(quotes that came to mind during the race…….)
…..The Woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.
Robert Frost
and….
“Is there No end to this accursed Forest?”
Thorin Oakenshield, to the rest of the dwarves in Mirkwood Forest – J.R.R Tolkiens – “The Hobbit”
Well, my friends, this race rounded out my year for sure. This weekend, I did the Tecumsah Trail Marathon outside of Nashville, Indiana (East of Bloomington, where Indiana University is)
Three words. “Oh. My. Gawd…….”
I should have been warned by the FAQ section on the event’s website which read:
How difficult is it really?
Answer – Hmm… Pretty difficult. Try it and find out!
Anyway, sign up I did. Here’s the story…….
Packet pickup was Friday night as it was a Saturday race. Forgetting that Southern Indiana is actually on Eastern Time (my first clue was when the clock on my cellphone suddenly jumped a whole hour) I managed to leave Wisconsin too late on the six-plus hour drive down there to reach the Headquarters for the cutoff time for packet pickup of 8:00 pm. No, matter, I used to live in Chicago. I showed up anyway – about 8:45 pm local time. WAY after dark.
You had to drive through miles of country roads, then onto a rough pot-holed gravel road to get to the State Campground lodge where the packet pickup was.
I pulled up to the parking area next to another car, cut off my lights and……it was pitch black. So dark you couldn’t see your hand in front of your face.
I peered through the darkness, and saw a flashlight bobbing at the end of a path. I also smelled woodsmoke, so I stumbled down, what daylight the next day revealed to be the actual Finish line Chute towards the light. Tiptoeing around the corner I called “hellooooo – anyone here for the race?”
“Yeah, c’mon in” a voice replied.
Inside a converted log pavillion (with plastic sheeting over all the openings and Two Fireplaces both blazing merrily), was a guy wearing a Miners Headlamp, which was the only light in the place, and the “flashlight” I had spotted from the parking area. He cheerfully had me sign a waiver form, fished in a stack for my racing bib, pulled out an-even-in-the-dark Funky looking sweatshirt, and also gave me some runners “swag” including Tylenol, deoderant and some energy bars. To all of this, he added a cool plastic bag to put it all in. I noted also, ominously, that, printed upside down on the Bib (so you could read it as you looked down at your shirt front) were the words “I think I can……”
We chatted about the race, and upon further investigation, it turned out that he was not actually part of the race staff – he was a veteran trail runner from Rockford, Illinois who just hung around after the rest of the volunteers had apparently left for the night, and decided to help latecomers…..like myself. He had never actually RUN this race, either………
Great security. Actually, that was pretty weird…..But, I got my stuff!
Later, after finally finding the motel about nine miles east of there, which was supposed to be a Best Western, but had “changed it’s name” I got a pretty good nights sleep, and then, fortified with the free continental breakfast, I headed back to the State Forest.
It was a 10:00 am start time, kinda late, but it was light out anyway. As this was a Point-to-Point race, you had to board one of several busses at the Finish line by 8:45 am, which I did, which all then left in convoy and drove what seemed to be all the way back to Chicago – about a 50 minute ride, to wherever the start line was. I still have no idea where it was, it seemed we circled and drove forever. Either way, it was nice and warm on the bus, and the pre-race chatter of all the runners was fun, lotta energy and people fretting over weather, water, chafing,….all of the runner type issues.
At some point in the bus ride, it actually occurred to me that…oh yeah. I actually got 26.2 miles to run today. And, it is supposed to be “rough”
And, oh yeah, it was…
The race was delayed about 15 minutes as the race director was closely monitoring the Porto-lets, and actually waited till everyone was “done”.
Ready, Set, GO! And off we went.
The first 100 yards was a piece of cake. A nice winding paved road, the crowd starting to stretch out. Then, we hung a sharp left, went down a hill, and we were “off Road”
I won’t give you blow by blow of the race (well, maybe I’ll give you some!) but let me tell you. If anyone has ever run Cross Country, they might have a bit of an inkling about what this was like. For those of you who have ever run the Trailbreaker Marathon in Waukesha, Wisconsin – it’s kinda like that. For my team members from the Cross Country Challenge in Gilberts, IL – YEAH, it’s a lot like that……except after you do the Cross Country Challenge distance, in this race, ya got 21.23 miles left to go – of the same stuff.
I gave up trying to qualify for Boston after the first mile..
The course is mostly “single Track” which means you can only run single-file safely. Mud all the way. Leaf-covered mud. Huge HUGE switchback uphill stretches. Sheer downhill stretches. Slanted, angled paths that roll along ridge lines, so you run with one foot higher than the other. At least a dozen River crossings. Muck. Fallen leaves covering tree roots to trip over. Boulders protruding. Branches over the path to duck under. At least 200 fallen trees (and I am really, really not exaggerating that number) – to hurdle.
Cold weather – about 36 degrees, and cloudy, with a headwind at times that was pretty chilly. The wet feet after the first few river crossings didn’t help either.
No mile markers. Only about six water stops, with vague indications from the volunteers there where you were at mile-wise in the race. No clocks.
Again, about all of the above – NO, I’m not kidding. Really, I’m not…..
And all of that being said – wow did I have fun…….
I have to say that Southern Indiana is beautiful. You may think of Indiana as Flat, but it is anything but. The mountains (so to speak) the ravines, the trail itself, the trees, the rock outcroppings – all stunningly beautiful. I wish I had brought a camera – one scene that comes to mind, which I will never do justice describing- is this mile-long, quintuple switchback descent down this huge ridge. Again, the path is single track, and you can see all of the runners stretched out from top to bottom, wearing running garb all of the colors of the rainbow, running down the switchbacks in a continuous curving line – like Ants! An unbelievable scene.
There were huge stands of 100 foot pine trees you suddenly ran into and out of, with a carpet of needles underfoot.
Sudden drop offs where you would find yourself in mid air.
Tree roots that appeared out of nowhere under your feet – you felt them hit your foot, at the same time you impacted the ground in front of you with your hands or elbows.
And so on…..
One other thing – it was actually a “blue Ribbon” course. To follow the trail, you had to watch for six inch segments of bright “blue ribbon” tied to branches about every ten yards or so. If you missed one, you may have still been out there when night fell. The best strategy was to keep runners in front of you and hope they were paying attention.
Of course at some point I was running alone, and had to follow the ribbons. It was really interesting and there were a few scary moments before I found the next one. This was really out in the middle of no where. And also, while you are looking for ribbons, you’re not watching your footing, so there was ample opportunity to have more close encounters of the ground-type.
The race was incredibly Zen. It was so “technical” that time really was not a factor. You really had to stay present in the moment, and pay attention to each stretch of course, each step, each movement – and it really flowed from there. Big blocks of time eased by as a result, and while sometimes it seemed like it took a half hour to go a mile, other times you clipped five miles off in no time at all The no mile marker and no clock part was part of that. It was hard to talk to people as they were either in front of, or in back of you, and if you turned around, you’d likely trip and tumble. Most of them didn’t appreciate my smart-ass comments (see below)
Also, there were no spectators to cheer you on……too rugged out there and NO access.
I quickly learned, along with the other runners, to walk up the steep hills. There were SO many of them, that if you tried to tackle all of them at race pace, you would have been done long before the half way point. Even walking up the hills was hard enough, seriously, San Francisco has NOTHING to compare some of the major stretches of this trail run.
The water stops, though minimal were great. They served food and gatorade, and you would not believe how great Fig Newtons, and Bananas stuffed at the same time into your mouth and washed down with Gatorade tastes after running the trails for a few hours. That kind of stuff beats Gel for sure, it was like Jet Fuel. And most people stopped and munched and joked for a few minutes, which was fun.
There were HUGE opportunities for shouting Puns for me, among those being:
“time to LOG IN” (as we jumped over any one of the hundreds of fallen trees)
“Joining a SPLINTER Group” (as I tripped over and broke a branch)
“I’m getting BOULDER (bolder!) – as we ran over the rocks)
“you’re FIRED” I told one of the Water stop volunteers, as he was poking a campfire to life along the trail
Okay, that’s enough…..Most of those were funny just to me. Ya had to be there!
Luckily, I had a kick that wouldn’t quit that hit me, as usual, at the “20 mile” (yeah right!) water stop, and I blasted to the finish, actually charging most of the last hills. The kick carried me in strongly – even though The finish line, however Just Didn’t Want To Show Up – I’m convinced that like the Lakeshore Marathon in May, this was about a 28.5 mile 26.2 Mile marathon.
Okay, though, the stat. Since there were no mile markers and I really couldn’t gauge much from my watch, the only thing that mattered was the finish time ….which was 4:53, which goes on record as My Slowest Marathon Ever. However, as it is my first Trail Marathon, and (read above) a little “extreme” I”LL TAKE IT!!!! I was told to expect about an hour more than your normal marathon time, so I think I was a little ahead of the game.
There was Really good Hot Vegetable Soup, sandwiches, Hot Chocolate and big cookies at the finish line – it was a really great finish line nosh.
The Shirt…..is a Bright Red Sweatshirt, with, of all things, Palm Trees, like a Jimmy Buffet Album, with what looks like a Black Panther sprinting among them. A quote from Dr Seuss (seriously!) is on the back – “Today is your Day! Your mountain is waiting, so get on your way!”
I think I’ll keep this one (?)
Legs are sore in places I’ve never felt before, this one really hurt once I stopped moving. The six hour drive home really didn’t help, either.
So, Final count for 2006 – Six Marathons – five of them between September 25 and December 3rd. 33 Marathons for the lifetime total. 12 or so states and one Canadian Province. And counting.
One big toe black toenail that won’t go away, and a recurring blister right next to it. Lots of memories. And, too many words in this story, you’re all sleeping now,,,,
See y’all up the road!