Big Sky Half Marathon Race Recap

Ennis Montana -- Big Sky Half Marathon

Race recap for state #10 -- Montana.

Registration:

I registered for this race online through events.com.  The reason I chose this race is explained in the following that I wrote on the plane ride home from Montana:

Some of these states are simply a long way away from Florida. Montana is one such state, so I had the brilliant idea to combine a couple of trips in an effort to minimize the time and expense of travel.  Several of you are aware that I go to Seattle regularly to teach and learn at the Kois Center. Our big annual Symposium was this past week. Keeley was asked to be a Junior Counselor for the youth program while I was in meetings. It is a fairly big deal for both of us. We needed to go out to Seattle to start our meetings and events early (7:00am) on Tuesday, which meant we had to travel on Monday. The event continues until late Saturday afternoon. So, I searched for a race out there somewhere and relatively in that time frame. I came upon the Big Sky Half Marathon in the Mountains of Montana.  It looked interesting and was run the day after my Seattle trip. This would allow me to fly out to Seattle, take part in my meetings and run the race and still be home in time for work on Monday. That sounded all good, but came with a series of challenges. One challenge was elevation. The race start was 8500+ ft above sea level.  I will discuss that more in a minute. Another challenge was time. Ennis Montana is slightly over an hour away from Bozeman Montana. Bozeman is the closest airport to Ennis. Getting good flights to Bozeman and from Bozeman that met our time frame proved to be challenging. Another aspect of the time challenge was that we would have no time to acclimate to the elevation as we would arrive the evening before the race, and there was really no chance of getting there any sooner without skipping the Seattle trip all together, and that was not gonna happen. Yet another challenge was sleep. It is not an uncommon scenario at these Sympsiums that I get very little sleep. Meetings early in the morning after a long travel day, events all evening, sometimes quite late, and early morning meetings again the next day until the red-eye flight home. Now, on this trip, if you couple the meetings and lack of sleep with more travel and a very early race check-in time of 5:00am, then a 13.1 mile race and yet another race to get to the airport in time to not miss your flight, sleep becomes a bit of a challenge. 

 Fee:

This one was pretty cheap, in comparison at $65.00 with no other fees.

The Expo:

There was no expo.  The pre-race packet pick-up had two options explained here:

Race Check In

There are two options for race check in. 

First, a box with SWAG bags, bib numbers, and all materials will be in the tasting room of Willies Distillery beginning Saturday afternoon.  Willies is at 312 Main Street in Ennis.  There will be a runners list in alphabetical order.  Find your name, note your bib number, and then get your bib number/bag from the box, and finally check off your name noting that you've picked up your bag.   This will be available for everyone beginning Saturday afternoon to about 8 PM.  Also, be sure to have a drink at Willies Distillery after you get your bag.  It's the best way to prepare for the Big Sky Marathon.

Second, we will have race day check in starting at 5:00 AM at the shuttle stop near the Exxon Town Pump gas station.  We will sign in runners until the shuttles depart for the starting line.  There is no check in at the starting line.

I opted to check in race day at 5:00 AM as I had difficulty getting there in time the night before... also, I might be tempted to over sample at Willies Distillery.  LOL.

Interesting story related to this... I walked up and the race director asked, "are you here to check-in?"  I responded, "Yes, sir."  He asked, "Name?"  I said, "Bynum".  He asked, "You are Jeff Bynum?"  I said, "yes".  He turned to a lady and pointed to her and said, "see, there?!?!"  and laughed out loud.  I asked, "What did I miss?"  He stammered and said, "it's nothing."  He then handed me my race packet and turned and walked away.  What the heck was that???  I still don't know.

Shirt:

The shirt was a short-sleeved wicking, tech shirt... and it came in this little bag.

Race Day:

Sunday, dark and early.

Race Start Time:

Race start was supposed to be 7:30am.  We actually started about 7:34am, but allow me to explain how this worked.  After race check-in at 5:15am, the busses (2 yellow school busses) made their way up the mountain.  The busses left about 6:00am.  Keeley and I followed the busses up the mountain.  There was ONE road.  One rocky, bouncy, hilly mountain road.  Dust was flying up behind the busses.  We had difficulty seeing the busses because of all of the dust.  Up we went to 8592 ft above seal level.  At about 6 miles into the trip, it dawned on me that we were traveling up the same road that I would soon be running down.  I do not recommend traveling the same road you are about to run before you run it.  It seemed long difficult, and my mind was preparing for this to be long and difficult.
The bus ride was a bit over an hour.  Somewhere along the hour drive, I realized that I needed to go to the bathroom.  By the time we made it all the way up, I REALLY needed to go.  There were two port-a-potties at the start.  This formed a line of about 40 people.  I could NOT wait.  I will spare you the details.  Suffice it to say I will never use those compression sleeves again.  There was still a line to the potties when the race started.

Course Map:

This is not exactly a course map, but it is from my Garmin.  I post it here because I thought you might find it interesting.  The blue line is my pace.  The gray part is the elevation.  Notice it is all downhill, except for these small (looking) uphill sections.  They were super steep and hard... so, I walked them.  Notice the blue line dips dramatically every time the course has any sort of uphill.  Makes me laugh (at myself).  Even worse was the last mile when my legs felt like they were filled with cement.

Here is the course map via Google Maps.

Accommodations:

Keeley and I stayed at the Silvertip Lodge.  It is a fishing camp.  It was not anything special.  The beds were comfortable and there was a bathroom with a shower.  I was able to come back to the lodge and shower after the race, but the manager was NOT happy.  He was ADAMANT that I "COULD NOT" return after the race.  There is NO late check out for the marathon!"  Well, I made it back before checkout time, so I was able to shower.  They had already cleaned most of the room and took our waters out of the fridge, but at least I got a shower.

Transportation:

Rental car from Bozemon airport.  Then rental car up the hill.  Shhhhh.... don't tell the rental car agency, but Keeley drove the rental car down the mountain to the finish and waited for me.

Here is a pic she took of me coming in to the finish.

Weather:

The weather was great.  No humidity.  Nice and cool.  The Garmin shows 57F.  I could deal with that type of weather all the time.

Race Morning:

I think I already covered this part... but to gloss over it for clarity.  5:00am we got up and got ready.  Trekked all the way the the EXXON station (it was about 200 yards).  Got the race packet, off-roaded up the mountain.  Hid with the bears in the woods and then ran down the mountain.  Got my medal and bak to the lodge for a shower, then off to the airport.

Race:

This was a smaller race and not at all like any of the other races that I have done.  To be fair, the slogan for the race series is "These ain't no pansy ass city races".  This proved to be true.  It was mostly rocks and gravel and dust and deer and elk and antelope and solitude.  I ran alone with the exception of twice when I passed a few ladies on a downhill section.  (They all passed me back at some point).

Water/Food Stations:

There were NO food stations and an igloo cooler was on a table with paper cups at mile 3 and 6 and 9.  All of which, BTW were on the downhill sections.  So, in order to get water, one needed to stop and pull a cup out of the plastic sleeve and pour the water out of the spout and drink the water, then either hold the cup until the next station or discard it right there.  (they did not want anyone to litter the national park).  I did not want to stop to get water, but I would have if I needed it.  What made it worse was that they were all on downhill sections.  I was not about to stop on the downhill part.  That was the only time I was moving at any relative rate of speed.  I carried a water bottle from the start.  At about mile 5, I lost the cap, so water was sploshing out all over me.  At about mile 8, I dropped the bottle. It rolled into the woods.  I couldn't find it.  Not that I could see very clearly.

Scenery:

It was really pretty.  As you can see from the pictures.

Race Entertainment:

None, and none and none.  No music, not spectators, no bands, no earbuds, no nothing.  Just me and God.  I thanked Him many times on my trip down the hill.  Not sure I was coherent enough to say anymore to Him.  Thank God for the Holy Spirit.

Finish:

The finish was simply 13.1 miles from the start.  The only reason I knew it was the finish was because it was the first time I saw another person that wasn't running.  No clapping, no music, no DJ, no fanfare.  Keeley smiled, took my picture and laughed at me breathing heavy.  I got some water out of the igloo cooler and got my medal and left.

Bling:

Misc:

Downhill sounds fun, but it certainly comes with its own set of issues.  My quads are killing me right now.  The lactic acid has built up and planted itself firmly in my quads and hips and hamstrings.  I was worried about the altitude.  I considered medications and all sorts of stuff.  In the end, I took nothing except two cliff shots.  One before the start and one at mile 9.  The altitude did not bother me too much.  I got winded a bit quicker than normal and only on the uphill sections, so I just walked them.  I recovered easily and moved on.  I was concerned about becoming anaerobic and not being able to recover, so I ran slowly.  I resigned myself to last place.  I figured, "who cares???".  In the end, I was not last place.  There were only a handful of people in front of me.  But I was much slower than my best time.  Seems like one should run faster since most of the race is downhill, but I was careful.  I did not want to over do it and struggle.  I was also somewhat careful on the downhill sections because the gravel road was rocky and one could easily fall and/or twist an ankle.  Downhill also comes with issues of banging your toes into the front of your shoes.
This is not only unsightly, but it is also painful  This oic was taken in the airport yesterday.  They look worse today (I'll spare you the picture) and I am certain that I will lose both of these toe nails, as I have already lost four others on the smaller toes.

In the end I finished just under 2 hours.  I am happy with that.  Next race, Mesa Falls Idaho.  Right now, I am content to sit in this chair and not move.

Altitude and Open Water Swim

Since I posted the picture, I will start with the Open Water Swim portion of my blog.  Because continuity of thought pattern is incredibly important in my blogs?!?!

Anyway, I was at the lake in Winter Haven.  I had to get a new tire for the truck because I got a nail in the old one.  This place in Winter Haven often does free repairs, so I took it over there, but alas they told me it was not repairable.  But, they offered me a significant rebate on a new one because the old one was fairly new.  Long story short... it only cost me $79 total for a new tire.  So, I figured that was worth the drive to Winter Haven.  I could not find a similar offer anywhere around here, so I figure it saved me almost $200.  Anyway, the boys and I dropped off the truck when they opened at 8:00am and we walked over to this BBQ restaurant for breakfast.  I know it sounds weird, but it is a very popular venue in Winter Haven for breakfast on a Saturday.  When we walked in, I thought for sure that I had ventured in to Mayberry during old home week.  EVERYBODY knew EVERYBODY... BY NAME.  They did not wait to be seated, they just walked in and waved and found someone to sit down with.  The waitress brought their favorite drink without asking what they wanted... they simply KNEW.  During their meal, they would get up and go sit with someone else and chat with them as if they were at a family reunion.  Everybody knew everything about everybody, yet they asked each other questions that they already knew the answers to.... "How's Erma doin'?"... "Yeah, I heard that."... "Hey there George.  Lookin' good after your knee replacement."... then they would continue eating and telling each other stories that they have all likely heard several times before.   The food was really good.  I simply had eggs, bacon, grits, and a biscuit.  The boys had pancakes and biscuits and gravy.  All good.  I don't remember how much it cost.  I did not really care, it was good enough.  After breakfast, we walked back to the tire store and the truck was ready and we went back to the house.  I realized that I had eaten more than I should have, so I decided to go for a run, but I also decided to wait for a coupe hours to digest my food.

Finally, I went for a run.  I ran to Legoland.  It is a hair over 3 miles.  I have, in times past run to Legoland and around the back of the park and the parking lot until I reached 3.5 miles, so much return would also be 3.5 miles and give me a decent run.  I got a little weak minded today and just turned around at 3.0 miles.  Oh well.  Then I got a little more weak minded in there and walked for a minute at mile 4 or so.  Then, I found myself plotting my next stopping point.  My mind was filled with when would be the best place for me to stop and walk.  Just weak.  Then, when I got to my lake, I could see my house at the far end of the lake.  I knew it was almost two miles around the lake to the house at this point.  Needless to say, I was tired of running and looking for excuses.  So...  I decided to swim.  What the heck was I thinking?  I have no idea how far it is from Cypress Gardens BLVD across the lake to the house, but without regard, I decided to swim.  I flipped off my running shoes and socks, stripped off my shirt and shorts, leaving me with only my compression shorts.  Stepped into the water and began to swim.

I probably made 50 strokes before I realized that this was going to take longer than I anticipated and was going to be more difficult than I had hoped.  There were several problems.  I will list just a few.  1.  There were four boats on the lake at the time.  Three more came along during my trip.
2.  I did not have any goggles, so I could not see where I was going.  Lake water is not always what you want to look through.  Even if you could see anything of value, it would not give you any indication that you were headed in the right direction.
3.  There were lake weeds and various other things floating in the water that, at times resembled living creatures that might make my swim more interesting.
4.  I am, apparently, not a great swimmer any more.  I swam free-style, breast struck, flutter kick, upside down flutter kick, upside down breast stroke (if that is even possible).
5.  I was not wearing any sunscreen.  Why would I?  I was only going for a short 7 mile run.  I certainly was not planning on a 40-60 min. swim.
6.  My Garmin was acting a little funny.  To be fair, it may have been me.  It started beeping and buzzing at me somewhere along the way as if it was going to shut off to save power.  So, I told it to resume and it looked like it started over... but then when I got home (yes, I made it home) it only registered a swim part way into the lake.    Surely I did not swim to the center of the lake and stop there.  I did not even get "credit" for the entire swim.  Oh well.
--- I could continue... but I won't.

I really have no idea how long it took me or how far it was.  I suppose it does not matter, but it would be interesting for me to know the distance I traveled and how long it took me.  Either way, I am betting that I worked off part of my breakfast.

Why was I swimming in the first place?  I am not training for a triathlon.  I have ridden the stationary bike.  I have now swum.  Obviously I have been running.  I decided to swim because I am a bit nervous about the race next weekend in Big Sky, MT.  Which brings me to the Altitude portion of the blog.

The race next Sunday starts at 9000 ft elevation.  I have been reading a lot about running at altitude.  It is apparently a fairly difficult thing to go from sea level to relatively high altitude without acclimation.  I do not have time for acclimation.  I will not arrive in MT until the evening before the race as I will be in Seattle the entire week before.  So, I will show up, climb to 9000 ft and run.  This is precisely what "they" suggest that one should NOT do.  I have read about oxygen masks... that is, wearing a mask that will deliver oxygen as "they" say that the oxygen is less at altitude -- I would argue this point.  Actually, I WILL argue this point.  Here in FL the oxygen in the air is 21% O2.  (roughly).  In the mountains, the air is 21% O2.  This is important.  We need nearly 20% to survive.  The difference is the air pressure.  Since the air pressure is decreased at altitude, it is more difficult for the O2 molecules to enter into the blood stream and be delivered to the brain and the muscles, organs, etc.  So, in order to get the required amount of O2 molecules in the blood stream, we need to increase our respiration rate.  Hence the reason that we get more winded during strenuous activity while at altitude.  We can get acclimated to this decrease in pressure, but it takes time... time that I do not have.  So, back to my point about oxygen masks.  As I understand it, the pressure will remain the same whether or not one is wearing a mask.  It CAN deliver more O2, but the atmospheric pressure is still the same, so we would still have difficulty perfusing that O2 into the blood stream.  I have also read bout medications.  There is one medication that is used for altitude sickness.  Basically, it increases one's respiration rate to allow for more O2.  This can certainly help deliver the O2 to the blood stream, but may not help with strenuous activity in altitude and may even hinder performance - although it is a stimulant and banned from competitive sports.  Also, there is much written about corticosteroids -- anti-inflammatories.  Also, potentially a benefit for recovery from altitude sickness.  It also shows potential benefit for performance, but carries some side effects and risk.  Risk that I am not really interested in taking.

So, I can really find nothing that --- oh yeah, there is the whole blood doping thing.  Simply explained, as I understand it, one COULD draw their own whole blood and store it.  After a period of 5-6 weeks or so, one will regenerate more red blood cells back to normal/baseline.  Then prior to the event, that whole blood (containing the red blood cells) can be added back into the body.  This will effectively give the athlete more red blood cells and more opportunity to carry more O2.  From what I read, it is possible and beneficial to aid in performance.  After all, the reason for fatigue is the depletion of the oxygen... so more oxygen would delay the fatigue.

Suffice it to say, I am not going to do that... or any of the other things I just discussed.  Even if I wanted to, I do not have the time to regenerate the RBC's before race time, so it would be worthless to subtract and then add back the same amount.  Even I can do the math on that one.  Net gain 0.

So, I have biked and now swum in an effort to do something, anything to increase my cardio.  My mind is weak, so I am having difficulty solo training.  I have little incentive to train longer and harder and I talk myself into stopping or slowing.  So I figure if I add another activity, at least my body is active and I am forced to utilize and improve my cardiac output.  I am hoping that this will assist me WHEN I get fatigued up the mountain.

I have no idea if I will survive the race.   I have a VERY tight time frame, so if I want to make my flight back with my daughter, then I NEED to finish in a respectable time and rush to the airport.  I bet I will survive, but it is quite possible that I miss my return flight if I struggle through the race.  I have no idea if any of this swimming, etc. will help me in MT, but I figured it is worth a shot.

Wish me luck.  Prayers are welcomed.  I'll update you... maybe while I am stranded in MT after I miss my flight.

Incremental Improvement

A little better every day.  Continue to work and you will get stronger and faster.  Muscles with become stronger.  Cardio will improve.  Red blood cells will multiply.  Oxygen will be delivered more rapidly to all of the areas that need it.  Stamina will improve.  One will be able to run faster longer.  All you have to do is put in the work and you will steadily improve… right?!?!  Sounds plausible, but NO! and NO!! and NO!!!  THAT IS NOT WHAT HAPPENS!  Oh, and you will lose weight because you are expending more energy and burning more calories, right??  NO, and NO again. 

Who writes this poop?  I have heard these things my whole life.  I have believed many of these my whole life.  I have even told some of these things to others in an attempt to teach them how to improve.  BUT IT DOES NOT WORK THIS WAY!  At least not with running, at least not for me, at least not at this moment.  There are simply too many factors involved.  As I have mentioned before, I have had the mindset that running should just be easy.  It does not require a lot of equipment and preparation.  One just decides to go run and they just go run… SIMPLE… BUT IT IS NOT SIMPLE!  Not easy, not inexpensive, not quick (in reference to time consumption), It DOES require a bunch of equipment — expensive equipment, (my shoes are $150 a pair… my shorts are at least $75 each… my socks are $15 a pair), lots of research, and multiple ups and downs.

These things are difficult to accept when you have been relatively successful with a totally different mindset for your entire life, but the most difficult thing for me to deal with is the mental aspect of this sport.  Most of the sports that I have participated in have been physical sports.  Football, baseball, basketball, soccer, racquetball, tennis, etc… even golf and bowling etc… to some degree.  Just run full speed or swing hard or throw hard or hit hard.  Yes, I recognize that there is the need for finesse in all of these sports.  Most of the times when I have had difficulty with these sports has been because I tried to “muscle” my way through where I lacked finesse.  And to be fair (to me :) ), this technique has a fair level of success.  Not with running though.  Running is a different animal.

If I were to simply run faster and/or train harder, I have already shown, I would injure myself, and/or I would “gas out”.  It just does not work the same way as everything else I know.  I still think it should be easy.  I read an article the other day that was suggesting that running should be fun.  Just like when you were a kid.  Kids just run.  They run in the house.  They run in the mall and in the parking lot and in the grocery and everywhere.  They run around the pool. They run to the bathroom.  They run for fun and they enjoy running.  This article was suggesting that we should enjoy running the same way.  I have said this before and I will repeat it here — I do not like running!  Running is not fun.  I do not run to the bathroom (except in those rare moments when the Mexican restaurant wasn’t as clean as it should have been.  And even then it is less of a run than a squeeze and waddle.)  

I set this goal of running these half marathons as a way of forcing myself to continue running for fitness and weight control.  Without a goal, when it becomes difficult, most people, myself included often quit.  So, I set a goal.  I kind of figured that I would lose some weight and I would be able to run easier and farther and improve … just as a matter of working and expending the energy.  And just for fun, and to upset me, that is exactly what happened at the beginning.  I lost weight.  I was able to run farther.  Running was easier.  It was never fun, but it was easier.  I was faster.  I just assumed that would continue.  It did NOT!

I ran today with Valerie.  She was slated to run 4 miles.  Run for two minutes and walk for two minutes.  I figured I would run with her for a while, then when she started her walk phase I would continue running and double back and pick her up.  I figured I would run at least five miles, sort of around in circles.  I did just that for the first of her two miles which was a bit more than 2.5 miles for me.  But then my weak mind took over.  We got to the point where I knew she was at two miles and needed to turn around, so instead of running past and circling back as planned… I STOPPED and walked with her.  Then when she turned around and started back… instead of running past and circling back to pick her back up… I ran WITH her, at HER pace… AND THEN WALKED WITH HER — TWICE.  Then I decided that was not gonna work for me, so I ran on back to the neighborhood, then doubled back for her and went back to the house with her.  Such a weak mind.  It has become increasingly easier for me to convince myself to stop, to walk, to slow up — what a wuss!  And to make matters worse, when I got home I noticed that my shirt was drenched, soaking wet.  I laid down on the hardwood floor in the living room.  I left a puddle…. and I was tired!  I think I averaged a 10:00 minute mile for just over five miles and I was exhausted and sweating profusely.  So much for running becoming easier and more fun over time.  So much for improvement.

I am fully aware that we all go through dips in our journey in every sport and all aspects of life, and maybe this is just one of those.  It sure is frustrating though.  

I am getting a little nervous about Big Sky Montana in a few weeks.  Elevation is somewhere around 9000 feet above sea level.  Rumor has it the air is thin up there and the oxygen is not as abundant.  I was really hoping that I would be in great shape and the effects of the altitude would not be such a big deal.  Another potential issue is that this is a fairly small and remote race.  I am not so sure there will be any significant hydration stations.  I have been looking at water packs and water belts and had held bottles, etc… but I do not like to carry a bunch of “stuff”.  This should be interesting.