Holiday Lake 50K

Ricky Scott has now joined the ranks of UltraMarathoners...here is his story...

What Was I Thinking?

Every day presents us with new opportunities and new challenges. Some we welcome some we don’t. Three years ago, I met the challenge of my first marathon. When the opportunity to do my first ultra presented itself, I answered the call. Instantly, I was transported back three years in time, before that first marathon. The same concerns returned. How do I train? Can I do it? Would I make the time limit? Even with my marathon experience, I had my doubts. Luckily for me, I had three running buddies that were going to go as well, Steve Burns, Frank Guler, and Jimmy Lovell. Steve was our experienced guide having done many, many ultras. Frank and Jimmy were like me, first time ultraers.

We arrived at the Holiday Lake 4H center around 6:30. After checking in and getting into the bunkhouse, we headed over for supper. The meal was good and plentiful. As we sat there waiting for the runners briefing, I noticed that this crowd of runners was different than most marathon crowds. These people were serious about their running. Again I started worrying about the run. In addition to all my other concerns I started thinking, would I get lost? Steve Burns just laughed at me and for the millionth time told me that I would be okay. Finally with the meeting over, we turned in for the night.

Race Day

I woke up about 5:15 and could not go back to sleep, I was ready to go. Everyone else was still asleep. Slowly everyone started waking up and getting ready. Jimmy, Frank and I dressed in bright colors, we figured that if we got lost it would help the search and rescue people find us. After checking in with the David Horton the race director, we returned to the bunkhouse and waited for the start. At 6:25, David Horton starting giving some final instructions. So we stepped out of the door into the back of the pack. (We were really that close.) As the seconds ticked down to the start, I reviewed all my fears. Determined to face my fears and meet my challenge of the day.

Precisely at 6:30. David said 5..4..3..2..1 go! It was dark. I could not see anything except the outlines of the people in front of me. As we started running, I tried to not step on anyone. Up ahead of us, some guy was wearing a flashlight, seems as if everyone was following him. All of a sudden everyone stopped, we were just standing in the road. After a few minutes, I could see what the problem was. It was time to head into the woods and the trail was not wide enough for all of us. Within five minutes of starting the race, I found myself headed through the woods, in the dark. I hope it gets better than this. Then it got worse. As the sun light increased, I could see just to my left was a big lake. It was mere inches from the trail we were running on. One misstep, one fall and there was a good chance you’d be swimming or ice skating. After about 15 minutes, we crossed a dam. It was flat and straight. On the end of it were steps that went straight up. While they did not present a problem now, they could be a major problem five or six hours from now. As we approached the end of our forest run, I heard someone behind me fall. I looked back thinking that it was Frank or Jimmy but it was not. The guy who fell, had not fallen into the lake either. He was up and running in a flash. Finally we crossed a wood deck and headed up a frozen mud road. Jimmy came up beside me and said wait until this trail thaws. Then we’ll really have some fun. I was loving every minute of it. WHAT HAVE I GOTTEN MYSELF INTO?

By now there was plenty of light and we could see. After running and walking through the frozen mud, snow, ice and non frozen mud, we came to the first aid station. There were so many people that I decided just to continue on. The course turned onto a nice wide gravel road and it was downhill! The four of us were separated, but we could all still see each other. At the bottom, we turned back into the woods. Steve was not to be seen and Jimmy was just ahead of Frank and me. I don’t think Frank was having a good time, but then again when is doing 26 miles, er… I mean 31 miles supposed to be fun? (actually I had heard 34 miles, but I did not want Frank to freak out.)

Soon we found ourselves running on pavement. I checked my watch and my GPS said we were running an 8 minute pace. It felt really easy, which I interpreted to be how hard we had been working on the trail. The second aid station was at the spot where we turned back into the mud, ice and snow. It was not as crowded. Steve was leaving as Jimmy, Frank and I arrived. Steve asked me how we were doing, I had a feeling that would be the last time we saw Steve for awhile. (I was right, we saw him on the way back and that was it until the end). This aid station was stocked with all sorts of food, cookies, candy, potato chips and soft drinks. I’m beginning to like this. I was only 6 miles into this race, maybe it would get better.

The next part of the race, miles 6 to 9 would be the part that separates the ultras from the marathons. Down through the snow, ice, and mud we went, then add a creek crossing. Great, I was starting to think of myself as little red riding hood. Before we got down to the creek, you could hear people hollering out real loud. Frank asked me what was going on up ahead, I told him he’d find out soon enough. There it was, clear, clean and cold! Through it I went, the ice cold water, embraced my toes and splashed on my legs. All of the feeling in my feet went instantly numb. As I came up out on the other side, I slid sideways on the mud and thought I had lost both my buddies and I’m not talking about Frank and Jimmy. Eventually, the feeling in my feet returned and we found ourselves on what looked like a Christmas Tree farm. It was here that Jimmy started pulling away from Frank and I. We kept him in sight for a while but just after the aid station at mile 9 I had to stop and tie my shoes. Just like Steve, Jimmy was now nowhere to be seen!

After while, we had another creek crossing, this one was a lot like the first, except this time I just walked through it. No problems coming out the other side this time. Then soon another smaller creek crossing, I was starting to get used to these things. My GPS told me that we had a little over a mile to the third aid station. I hoped this one was like the others. When we arrived there was a sign that said there were 3.6 miles to the turn around. I ate cookies and drank some coke. Quickly we were back into the woods, which meant that we’d have to deal with roots again. As Frank and I started running again, we noticed that a road ran parallel to our trail. I told Frank if we were smart, we be on it. Thud! Frank went down hard. I stopped running and before I could get back to him, Frank was up and running with a disgusted look on his face. We actually were running a pretty good pace. Then we started meeting those runners headed back already. Several people commented on our bright colors. Were we close to the turn around? No they were that far ahead of us. Down a hill we went and all of a sudden there was the lake again. I was leading Frank and another guy through the woods and over roots. We were doing pretty good and had a good rhythm going. Then all of a sudden, a root reached up and grabbed me. I had never fallen before and some how with a burst of speed did not fall this time. Frank was laughing. He said he expected me to eat dirt or wood. We ran and ran, more and more people kept coming. The turn around had to be somewhere close by. We rounded a corner and found ourselves on a beach. Across the lake I could see Jimmy’s yellow shirt. Hey these bright clothes sure do stand out! Returning runners started telling us that we had about 4 or 5 more minutes and we’d be at the turn around. Soon we were. We had finished the first half in 3 hours and 8 minutes. Closer to the cut off than I wanted to be, but we now had over 4 hours to finish it. Hey all we had to do was finish and we’d have a PR today!

Half-way

The halfway point was actually the starting line. Now all we had to do was turn around and go back the way we came. Couldn’t we just stay? I could be in the shower in less than 2 minutes. As I was getting something to eat and thinking about that shower, a guy that had been running with Frank and I, came up and shook my hand. He was thanking me for leading him on that last 3 mile leg. He was a trying to build his strength back up from a bout with cancer last year. Even though the thought of stopping here and calling it a day was going through my head, I took this as a sign to keep going. Even as I passed by my car as we headed back into the woods, I thought about stopping one last time. But I kept on going. That’s why I’m here. I’ll be glad when we get back!

The runners that we met still headed to the turn around, we offered encouragement just as those before us had. People kept telling us, nice colors! At first we took it as a compliment, but as time went on, we began to realize we stuck out. Next time, I’m wearing the camouflaged tights and coolmax shirt. I told Frank that I was going to take my time back around the lake as I was getting tired of watching roots. I figured what time we lost here, we could make up the two miles before the aid station. When we finally got to that part, it was slightly downhill and we found ourselves running at a nice pace. Bam, another root reached up and grabbed me and I did a belly flop into the dirt. I hopped up and everything was okay, so on we continued. About mile later, another root reached out for me and BAM, down I went again, hard. This time I actually landed on my knee. Instantly a sharp burning sensation went all the way up my left thigh. I’ve done it now I thought. I stood up and Frank asked me if I was okay. My left leg would not move. I just stood there and pondered what to do. I told Frank to go on, but he just stood there looking at me. I tried walking and the leg really hurt. The next aid station was close by, so I told Frank I would try to make it there. I hobbled along and as I did it actually seemed to get better. Frank took the lead and by the time we reached the aid station, I had been able to run some. I stretched my left leg some while eating cookies and drinking coke. My GPS read 20 miles but the sign here indicated 19 miles. Frank and I had to be at mile 22.5 by 5 1/2 hours, but we were not sure if that was actual miles or David Horton miles. Frank asked me if I wanted to stop and I said, no, let’s go. We’ve got a deadline to beat. We crossed the road and plunged back into the woods. I told Frank we only had a half marathon to go. Frank just gave me a blank stare.

I was really tentative on the trail. Luckily it was more open and eventually opened up into a road. I told Frank that we had a couple of creeks coming up. Sure enough the smaller one appeared shortly. Frank pounded through it I threw a small log across and tried to avoid getting my shoes wet again, but that might have been one of the most stupid things I had done all day. I still got wet. A few minutes later there was another creek and this time, like Frank had been doing, I just plowed through.

To be honest, the cold numbing water felt really good on my toes. The road we were on was either mud or snow and ice. Frank was starting to remind me of a dog. He’d run up ahead of me a little, stop look back at me and wait. At times he run right beside me and most of the time he’d just stay on my heels. Finally, we found ourselves at the next aid stop. I assumed this was where the 22.5 mark was supposed to be. My GPS said more and I was beginning to believe what I had heard others say about the course being more than 31 miles. I had hoped they were wrong. Frank and I had made the cutoff fine. We had plenty of time to make the finish as long as the wheels did not fall off. Leaving the aid station, we headed down a nice soft country road. I knew that up ahead was the tree farm and then the last creek. I could now visualize the rest of the course. We ran all the way to where the tree farm began. A couple of other runners had stopped with what looked like cramps. I told Frank that I hoped we could stay away from that type of problem. We stopped running at the bottom of the hill and just as I started walking, my right knee locked up. The good one! I could not bend it. I massaged it, but it did not help. I worked with it all the way up that hill. Was it cramps, was it from my fall. I had taken my last salt tablet several miles back. What was I going to do? Searching through my pack, I found 3 table salt packets that I had picked up at Subway and had carried with me for 12 or so marathons. I took one. The taste was awful, but it worked. A couple of minutes later I was running downhill to the last creek. Again the cold water felt good to my toes. We knew that the aid station up ahead meant we had a little over 6 miles to go. Before reaching that aid station, we had to go through the part of the course where the most snow and ice was. We found it better to run on the side of the road. Arriving at the aid station, we were pleasantly surprised to find that even though we had to be near the end of the pack, they had plenty of food and drink for us.

Back on the paved road again, and I mean paved as in asphalt, we found the running easier. Only problem was that it did not last long. Quickly we found ourselves back in the woods and no sign of life anywhere. My cramps returned and I took another salt packet. Again it worked and we made our way through what looked like a war zone. Some parts looked like a forest fire had burnt the trees up while others looked like loggers had stripped everything away. Finally we headed down a steep hill and we knew that the last aid station was just ahead.

At the last aid station, one guy told us that there were ten people behind us. They had plenty of food, but were out of cups. Frank and I ate some doughnut holes as three people came up and passed us. I told Frank, let’s get this over with and with that we headed off to the lake. Early this morning, this part had been mostly frozen mud. Now past midday, it was no longer frozen, we had to choose most of our steps. Moving slowly across this muddy mess, we finally found ourselves headed back across the wooden bridge over the lake and into the root covered forest. Not wanting to trip again, nor fall into the lake, I gave Frank the opportunity to go on, but he held strong and just followed me. Soon we found ourselves at the top of the stairs that led down to the damn. Off to our right we could see the bunkhouse that we had stayed in the night before. We were close now. Another 15 minutes and it would be all over with. It had been so dark this morning that I had not been able to see this part of the course. I could not believe how rooty it was. The closer we got to the finish, the worse the course looked. I did not remember any of this, neither did Frank. We were less than 5 minutes from the finish and could not find the course. Finally, we made it to the pavement. It was all downhill from here. There were still people there waiting for us. As we crossed the finish line, Jimmy was standing there with his camera and took a picture of us finishing in under 7:18 minutes.

We were now Ultramarathoners and had set a PR. Steve finished in 6:15 and Jimmy had blazed to a 6:33. My GPS said 32.5 miles and later another guy told us his had measured 33 miles. Either way it had to be more than 31 miles. I guess that’s why they call this one a 50K++.

Ready to roll. L to R: Ricky Scott (yellow), Frank Guler (#145 orange), Jimmy Lovell (#137 yellow), Steve Burns

Where is the sun?

Jimmy pulls away

Frank leaving the aid stop at Mile 9.3

Frank crossing a creek