Full disclosure: I’m the local Team RWB Akron/Canton Chapter Captain, and since this event is our “capstone” event of the year for our Chapter and is on the Team RWB Midwest calendar, it was important to me and our leaders that we do this event very well this year, especially since our Chapter was just “born” at the top of the year as the former Cleveland/Akron Chapter split. A few months back, our social coordinators got together and spear-headed the charge to plan the free pasta dinner and the army of 50+ volunteers it would take to put together a 24hr event and provide the kind of support necessary to not only provide “care and feeding” of 500 participants but medically as well. When we began that planning, I wasn’t signed up to participate and figured I would just volunteer and support my wife would was planning to ruck it again this year. Last year, she did 50 kilometers with her ruck with lofty goals to crush that this year and I did 40 miles with my ruck. That destroyed me physically. About a week prior to the event as our volunteer schedule was set and well over 200 had signed up for the pasta dinner adjacent to the race site, something tugged at my heart and I decided to sign up and ruck it with my wife. Goal? Whatever her goal was. She didn’t tell anyone but me but she wanted 50 miles. LIke I said, her previous distance was 50K or 31.2 miles. Outside of that, she’s done a few trail races at the 25K (15.6mi) distance. Never had she walked, ran or RUCKED under weight past 31.2 miles. “Goals,” right?!
For the weeks leading up to Eagle Up, we did a lot of rucking together with increasing distances carrying at least the required weight of 22lbs. I normally carry at least 35 pounds but often carry more. I have a background of ultra-running, the nutrition involved and the legit mental game that reigns supreme in these kinds of challenges so I just followed much of that. What’s very different from rucking this kind of distance vs. doing a GORUCK challenge is that the constant, repetitive nature of it under weight. In an event, we do PT, we carry things, we stop, we start, etc. It’s not the same step one after another from sun-up to sun-down. It’s also very different than running 50K or 50 miles. When you first throw 22 pounds on your back, one may not think much of it but it’s toll doesn’t take long to be realized. It changes your gait, it applies constant pressure on your shoulders and rests at different spots on your back, introducing a whole new geography of chafing spots not normally realized when only running. Chafing can end an event, as can blisters. Blisters...we’ll get back to that.
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| At the start, 6am Saturday |
At Eagle Up, the rules and guidelines are simple. Camp (or not) anywhere near and surrounding the area leading to the start/finish area and start/stop moving as often as you wish as long as you exit/enter the course at the same point...all between 6am Saturday and when the horn sounds at 6am Sunday. Timing is via chip on your ankle and as you cross the start/finish each loop, the TV screen will display your name and number of loops/miles complete. Each loop is flat and in the shape of a rectangle on a groomed, crushed-limestone towpath trail surrounding the Tuscarawas River. Support is INCREDIBLE. I have crossed the finish line of 32 ultra-marathons and 29 marathons and have never seen the quality of food, diversity of options, and consistency in the “staples” we runners/ruckers want and need. From gluten-free options to cups of pickle juice to hot BBQ to hot Dominos Pizza to Peace, Love and Little Donuts...and the volunteers...just NO COMPARISON and for a 24hr event. Further, we had a mid-way mini-aid set up at 2 ½ miles with more fluids and a few snacks. That remained staffed until 11pm. Even more, two drums of water were evenly spaced to provide even more hydration refills.
We set up our tent and canopy on Friday at noon, picked up our packet, and headed home for the night to give us a good night rest prior to race day. Many camp out the night before, especially those coming from the 30 states represented this year. From one-man tents to full-blown six-figure RVs, you’ll see it in “Tent City” along the race course in Canal Fulton. From all accounts, the free pasta dinner went very well at Canal Boat Lounge, courtesy of Team RWB Midwest. We couldn’t attend but our team and the restaurant pulled it off really well and we plan to bring it back in 2019. Back home, my wife made pizza on the grill and we were in bed early for a 4am wakeup call.
The race kicked off on schedule at 6am amidst a rising sun and sea of Team RWB red shirts, 177 Eagles, to be exact. I made a commitment to myself for this race: NO RUNNING. In 2017, I ran quite a bit and crushed the event but it crushed me. In fact, I laid on the concrete for about an hour after I finished, unable really to get up without passing out. Cramping was out of control, terrible dehydration, and disorientation. My logic in much of 2017 was this: I used to run all the time so running + rucking made “sense.” Wrong. In 2017, I also was having issues with my knees and couldn’t figure out why. It made me withdraw from GORUCK events and pushed me into seeing my doctor to investigate. Nothing was ever found and I never put two-and-two together that my foot pounds of force I was putting on my knees by running with 35+ pounds on my back was destroying them. Instead, I prided myself on how fast I could cover benchmark GORUCK distances like 12 miles in 1:48. Insane. So, I stopped that and guess what, my knees got better.
So off we went, side-by-side, fast-rucking as we always do together with a bit less intensity due to the overall goal. Our normal 5+ miles was to turn into 50 miles. My goal for this event on the hydration side was very proactive. I was determined to not let what happened in 2017 happen to me again. So, I carried a 24oz bottle and a container full of Hammer Fizz tablets. Think Alka-Seltzer meets electrolyte tab. The goal was to finish all 24oz per loop of Fizz and drop another tablet with a water refill at the start/finish. I did this EXACTLY to the tee. Further, our volunteer medical lead and one of my volunteer Eagle Leaders, Jill Smith, strongly recommended pickle juice to ward off dehydration. It’s not normally smart to try new things on race day but my years of endurance running taught me that I have an iron stomach and I would do this. Big chunks of pickle were out at every loop as well as “shots” of pickle juice. Whether I wanted them or not, I ate pickles and drank the juice along with whatever else from the “buffet” that I wanted.
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| Photo Booth at the start/finish for everyone whenever they wanted to dive it for a shot. Us at Mile 25! |
Feet: rule of thumb...never ignore ANYTHING. While a towpath trail is awesome for how well it’s groomed, it’s bad for tiny little pebbles that undoubtedly make their way into your shoes/socks. As a minimum, I’d recommend tall socks to keep them out of your socks, which I did. Ideally, I recommend wearing gaiters. You’ll save lots of sitting down to empty out your shoes/socks. Make sure you do, though. It became ritual nearly every loop to dump out the pebbles. As we finished our 25th mile and 5th loop, we were certainly feeling some hot spots and we both changed shoes a few times and applied more lube.
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| Jason Lee (Team RWB Midwest Coordinator) and I chattin' up a storm while my bride is ALWAYS camera-ready! Photo Credit: Dave Alverson |
So there is this ice cream shop in downtown Canal Fulton that we hit up last year called Oser’s. Oh my. If you love homemade hard ice cream, this is a must-visit. Last year, we finished during daylight hours and celebrated our finish there. This year, they’d sadly be closed at our finish but we were unwilling to give in to defeat that easy. We decided at Mile 35 to shed our shoes and timing chip at our tent, don our flip flops and go endulge. It was sooo good! It was around this time that my bride was hurting both physically and mentally. Feet, legs and the funk was running wild in her head. On the walk back from Oser’s, she said “I think I’m going to lay down for a bit if you want to go swimming.” Oh yea, they set up a swimming pool at the start/finish! I have learned through ultra-running that to slip into comfort mid-event is a death sentence towards finishing. Even with the flexibility of a 24hr event, I stressed to her this would be a grave mistake. “We have to get comfortable with uncomfortable and forge ahead. We can’t stop. We’ll never start back up again. We have to go.” I prepped her socks with the lube powder I swear by and got us back on the trail. We had 3 loops to go. One more before sunset. Still, alone for the whole event together and not splitting up anytime soon.
There was lots of time where it was total silence, times of generic chatter and times of attempted comedy thrown in. In the end, we just kept encouraging each other through our highs and lows (always happening opposite each other) and was careful on the pace to ensure we stayed together and kept moving ahead smartly and efficiently. As we crossed 40 miles, we grabbed our headlamps and warnings about a storm heading in. We actually saw the radar on a volunteer’s phone at 42.5 miles and the storm was all around us and creating a hole right over Canal Fulton. I wouldn’t have believed it unless I saw it! It was crazy and clearly a God-send. It never did rain before our finish but poured overnight. At this point, our feet were both wrecked. Hers had blisters all over them and me taking my socks off for ice cream was a mistake. I had zero issues prior to that and after, I all-of-a-sudden had hot spots on the outside of my feet near my heels on BOTH feet. So strange and never felt before in my years of endurance running. I lubed them up the best I could and put on my old CrossFit shoes as they are soooo comfy. “Get comfortable with uncomfortable.” Remember that.
At Eagle Up, the major distances you see participants do is 50K, 50 miles, 100K, the 50/50 (50 miles plus 50K), and 100 miles...or most miles possible of your choice. There were also 4 and 8 person relay team options. We always knew when a relay runner blazed past us on the trail. For us, though, our target was 50 miles. At 12:18am, we crossed the finish line, hand in hand. It took us 18hrs, 18min, 27sec to complete 50 miles. We were very happy to be sub-20hrs, too. We’ve been kicking around doing the new GORUCK Star Course and it has a requirement to finish 50 miles in sub-20 hours to earn the patch. Given how many “shoe dumps” we took, the trip to Oser’s, and chatting it up with Eagles at the Start/Finish, we felt REALLY good about our time. She was the top female amongst ruckers and I was 2nd overall. I was/am so proud of her. I kept telling her that there is so much to learn here over just crossing a finish line. She said more than once this was much harder than giving birth and only 2nd to the GORUCK Light event she did with Cadre Geoff Reeves in July 2016. (I think her elbows are still bleeding from that event…) After we shook Eric’s hand (race director), I made a bee-line for the freezing pool and she hit the sleeping bag. The rain did come but only after we were laying horizontal, shoes off for the night.
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| Finished! |
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| Joey (first ruck and 50K) and Jeromi Photo Credit: Dave Alverson |
There was a lot of awesome stories this year at Eagle Up, not just ours. One fellow CrossFitter had never gone the 26.2 mile marathon distance in her life yet she finished the 50 miler. (YOU ROCK, SARAH!!!!) Then another brand new Team RWB member and fellow Navy veteran just got his brand new ruck the week of the event and had never rucked before. He finished the 50K with the requisite weight and had a flock of Eagles to support him. That’s what it’s all about! There are many more stories out there so if you want to join us in 2019, the date is already set! June 8/9, 2019!
1 comment:
I was at Eagle Up. I remember seeing you and you wife several times. Thank you sharing and congratulations on your goal.
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