OK- so Part 1 ended with me FREAKING OUT about running 20 miles on the trails in Bandera...
Here is the story:
We start the first loop running slowly. The ground was wet and sticky, so for the first few miles we accumulated dirt waffles on our shoes, making our shoes pretty heavy. With each step, my legs felt like lead as I pulled my legs up from the sticky mud. I wondered (worried) how I would manage these sticky trails for the next 5 hours...It was not encouraging, let's just put it that way.
Beside the stickiness, the trail was great- damp and cool, and very secluded. You felt like we were out in the wilderness...well, I guess we were...
After a few miles the muddy trail turned to rocky trail (and pretty much stayed like that for the next 8 miles). And then the climbing began. I'm not sure what all of the climbs on this loop are called, but I think the first one is called "big nasty" and I know why.
A few miles in, we started to see the patches of Sotol. The Bandera website describes the cactus as such : "Another devil is the Texas Sotol. It is also a cactus plant and is impossible to avoid in some areas. It has a sharp point and serrated edges. It either sticks you directly or cuts you as you slide by." Yup, I can attest to that. Still have the cuts on my leg today...
The miles go by slowly and my legs are starting to feel good the trail is mostly rock now (big ones) and the ground is no longer sticky.
The footing is tricky; not only do you have to be careful where your feet land because of the large, odd shaped rocks- you also had to watch to make sure not to step in horse poo (check out the photo). Which was abundant, let me tell ya. I ran with Monica the entire time- we have very similar paces and do a lot of leap-frogging whenever we run together. I fell a few times, but nothing too bad.
The loop brought us up over some hills and the view looking down at the top of the hill was just beautiful. We headed along another trail that was made for the Bandera race, a very rocky climb. The climb brought us up along a ledge that overlooked a canyon- I had to stop in my tracks and just and look over the ledge- it was awesome.
The rest of the loop was fairly runnable, with only one more rocky climb near the end. As we rounded trail at "the saddle" I encountered large patches of Sotol bushes, scraping against my legs on both sides of the trail. There was no way to avoid those F$%kers! I had cuts and poke marks all over my entire leg and they burned! But the pain was soon numbed when I looked to my right and saw the campsite- I was almost done with loop 1 and I was feeling good. The trail down to the campsite was all downhill and before I knew it, I was finished with my 1st loop. Two hours and 40 minutes.
I grabbed a bagel and some Powerade and headed back over to the trail head. The coach let Monica and I know that we had the option to do a 7 mile loop in another area of the park instead of the 10 miler. We decided to do the 7 miler instead (can you blame us?). But honestly, part of me was looking forward to running on different trails as well. We headed back up to the saddle, then turned up a steep climb in the opposite direction of the 10 mile loop. Monica had her Garmin - so she was keeping track of just how far we had gone. She called out "1 mile" after what seemed like forever, and when I looked down at my watch it read 29 minutes. It took 29 minutes to go 1 mile. We realized that the 7 mile option may be shorter, but perhaps as tough as the 10 miler. Or tougher. We pictured the guys back at the camp (the coach and the Bandera RD) laughing at us for trying to "take the easy way out". However the first few miles of this loop were beautiful- you could all of the hills in the area, and nothing else- no houses, no roads, nothing.
The 7 mile loop was a killer. We got confused at one point, following an course marker arrow (made of rocks) the wrong way. We realized that we had looped back to the same spot and had to do "the 3 sisters" section (a section with three hill climbs in a row). We weren't too happy. At one point, after an hour of running/climbing and only going 3 miles, I felt like the loop was never going to end! Pretty darn discouraging. This loop had much more Sotol, and after running for 4 hours I couldn't even try to avoid it anymore, I was too uncoordinated and just plowed through the cactus bushes. The trail was so rocky I was just trying to stay upright. At one point I said to Monica - "Can you believe the 100K runners run this in the DARK?" It was unbelievable to me that people could navigate the trails in the broad daylight, let alone int he dark.
Finally, we approached the saddle and we knew we were almost back to camp. Finally- 2 hours and 20 minutes later, for a total of 5 hours of running! We headed down to camp and heard the cheers of our fellow (faster) runners. We were done for the day (or so I thought).
One of the runners was staying in the RV park 10 miles into town and let us know that for $3 we could shower at the RV lodge. Claire (my tent-mate and ride) took her up on her offer and headed into town for a shower and a late lunch. At lunch I had a big sandwich and a giant margarita to reward myself for my successful run. We headed back to camp to chill out. Most of the runners were in town watching the game so we got a chance to have some down time.
The crew got back to camp around sunset. We all headed to the gathering area to hang out and swap stories about the run. A bit after dark I start to hear some rumblings about a night run. I was intrigued, but I knew that I couldn't run again at night, then run again in the morning. I blew off the idea of the night run- after all, I already had some serious running under my belt, plus I had that giant margarita with my meal. But.....it sounded pretty cool. I decided to do it, and just see what happened. I changed into my other set of running clothes, grabbed my headlamp, water, and some gummy worms and joined up with everyone for the night run on the 7 mile loop.
It was awesome. I remembered the comment I had made to Monica about running the loop in dark- it seemed so impossible earlier in the day. It wasn't easy, but once we got into the groove, and positioned the headlamp appropriately- it wasn't so bad. In fact, the air was cool and without the sun I had a ton of energy. My legs didn't hurt, it was so strange. The worst part was going downhill. A few miles in I fell pretty hard and caught myself on a rock ledge, bruising the palms of my hands pretty badly.
We ran along the loop, this time we took the right turn and encountered the never-ending Ice Cream Hill climb. But since it was dark, you couldn't see how far up you were climbing, so it wasn't really that bad! Shows how much of it is psychological I guess. The group was split into 3 groups by the middle of the run, and you could see the green and white lights of the other runners spread along the course. It was pretty darn cool.
The 7 mile loop, when going the correct way, is actually almost 8 miles. We finished this loop quicker than the loop in the morning in 2 hours and 10 minutes or so. As soon as we got back to camp, I grabbed a beer and a bagel and sat my butt down. We went to bed about a half an hour later. We were off the hook for the run in the morning since we did the second run so we planned to sleep in. I feel asleep absolutely amazed that I was able to run for that long and not feel like I was going to die. I felt a bit stiff, and the Sotol scratches burned like hell- but I didn't really feel that bad...? How strange.
We woke up the next morning and headed out mid-morning. I was so happy to leave (the porta potties were getting pretty darn ripe) and couldn't wait to get home for a shower.
A few days later, I miss Bandera already. I'm ready to go back... Luckily we have a run in San Antonio in a few weeks, and I think it will be similar terrain. Can't wait!
