Franklin Mountains 50K – 2018

After being humbled at the Barkley Fall Classic, I decided I needed to get more experience at climbing on trails.  Since the opportunities in the Austin, TX area are limited, I decided to sign up for Trail Racing Over Texas’ (TROT) Franklin Mountains 50K in El Paso, TX.  My goal for Franklin was conservative: finish in 8 hours or less. Unfortunately, I missed my goal by about 12 minutes; I finished in 08:11:55. There were many factors that contributed to my slower time and missing my goal, but ultimately I failed to push past the fact that I was having an off day.

Franklin Mountains 50K by TROT is a great race.  The elevation climb is around 8,000, the terrain is unique (at least for me), the trails are technical, the people and volunteers were awesome.  If my schedule permits, I plan to go back next year. If you have opportunity to run it, I highly recommend the race.

I put together interactive data visualizations of the 50K race and racers based on their splits.  Check them out here.

 

Keeping it Cheap

Franklin Mountains 50K was not a race I had on my schedule for this year.  I wanted to keep the costs for the race down and have a goal that was conservative and reasonable.  I gave myself the goal of finishing in 8 hours or less, knowing it would take me longer than a regular 50K due to all the climbing.  I also decided to drive and camp at the park to reduce my costs.

The drive took around 9 hours.  When I got there I was not prepared for how different the landscape in El Paso is from most of the rest of Texas or for how windy and cold it would be.  After checking in, catching up with friends, and listening to the race report, I drove to a place to camp. My original plan was to set up my tent and camp outside, but the strong winds caused me to change my plans and sleep in the car.  It is less comfortable than sleeping outside, but I really did not want to deal with the possibility of the wind collapsing my tent on me in the middle of the night. The wind was strong and shook my car all night. When it was time to get up, I had not slept well and was definitely starting the day tired.

My Off Day

When the race started, I was pretty psyched.  I did not know anything the the race route, so I ended up getting caught a little further back in the single track conga line climb than I would have liked.  Once the trail started to open up a bit, I was able to pass some folks and put down a comfortable speed. I did hit a cactus about 2 miles in and it hurt like hell.  I did not think much about it or take the time to check/remove any needles from my foot. Instead, I decided to push forward. As it turns out, I had a fairly big needle sticking out of my pinky toe and rubbing against the inside of my shoe for the entire rest of the race.  I only checked it out after the race was over and needed a pair of pliers to remove it.

The first half of the race had a lot of climbing, include some awesome super steep and technical climbs, unlike ones I have experienced elsewhere.  A lot of the trail was not “runnable” due to either the difficulty or size of the trail. Once I hit the summit and said hi to the gold skull, I started my descent.  During the descent, I could tell my pace was a little slower than I wanted. I did not think much about it at the time, realizing that it had a lot to due with my lack of confidence about running on the terrain.  

When I arrived at the aid station that was roughly at the halfway point, I knew I was behind my goal.  One of the other runners that was familiar with the trail and race, told me that the rest of the trail was runnable.  I could tell I was not in the right mindset for a race, but I put that aside and thought “Awesome, I can make up my time now.”  I took off from the aid station attacking the trail. I was at a good pace, but I was running sloppy. I ended up kicking a cactus hard.  I tried to keep pushing, but when I looked down at my foot I could see the size of the needles sticking out of my shoe and knew I needed to take care of it.

I removed my shoe, pulled out the needles I could see and continued on my way.  That short delay made come back in attack mode. It was an aggressive pace, but again it was sloppy.  Just like before, it was not too long before I kicked another cactus. This time, I decided not to try and push through and just take care of it.  This time there was only one needle sticking out of my toe. This time, the needle was barbed and took effort to pull it out. When I did pull it out, I could see by the blood that needle was in there deep; so deep that it must have been down to the bone.

When I got back running, my motivation was just not there.  I had come to Franklin to climb. I guess that knowing the climbing was behind me, my “WHY” for being out there was gone.  I was at a low point in the race: I was tired from lack of sleep, my legs were tired from the race, and my foot hurt from the cacti.  I tried to push myself out of that funk, but was unable to. The goal of finishing within 8 hours was still obtainable, but it was not enough to drive me.

Ultimately, I was unable to overcome the off day I was having.  My pace slowed down and I missed my goal even though it was within reach.  I finished the race in 8:11:55. At the finish line, I thanked Rob for the race.  I was disappointed in my performance, but I did have fun out there and loved the course.  

Given the funk I was in, I did not feel like hanging around.  I walked the 2 miles back to my car, cleaned up, and started the long drive home.  I got home around 2am, took a shower, and crashed into mattress.

Final Thoughts

Despite being in a funk that I could not get out of for the second half of the race, I am so glad I ran that race and I did finish it with a smile on my face.  My only regret, in hindsight of missing my goal, is that I did not stop and take more pictures. As with everything in life, you only truly fail if you don’t learn the experience.  There are lessons I learned from this race that I will take into my future races.