Race Report: Dances With Dirt 100k Team Relay

It was a cool, crisp, foggy morning. We loaded up the van and headed to the start/finish area. We arrive to a sea of vehicles with people milling about, getting ready for the long day. We walked over to the start line and sized up the other teams. We saw a few serious teams, and quite a few not as serious teams wearing some interesting costumes.

It was finally time for the start. Our first team member headed out - a quick 2.5 mile loop with incredible hills. He returned well ahead of the majority of the other runners. Then our second runner headed out on the second leg - a 2.75 mile loop with more hills and plenty of water. She gets back and our third runner heads out for a 6.5 mile point to point leg. The rest of us clambered into the van and headed to the next exchange point where I would be the next runner.

Leg 4 Description: "Shoot Me Now (They shoot horses don’t they?) – 3.2 Miles – Follow Blue - Nature Center to Hoosiers Nest – Reverse of Stairway to Heaven (Leg 13), you go … down a ton of steps to shatter your quads, a quick view of the lake then bushwhack up and down a serious hill to a mucked up horse trail filled with horse remnants, muddy hoof prints and several creek crossings (rivers if it rains). You will leave this trail onto a poorly maintained trail that goes … straight up! At the top you will roll along up and down through some nice pines but tricky footing to the exchange. If you end up lame, the team might have to put you down!"

My adrenaline level was at a high point when it was my turn to run. As he description says, I took off going down a trail that led right to a set of steps that seemed to keep going down. When I got to the bottom I ran along the edge of a beautiful lake only to head back into the woods for rolling hills. I didn't keep track of my pace during this run, but I felt good until I hit my second hill that seemed to go straight up. It was then I decided to walk up it -- a strategy I thought would prove to keep me from fading too much at the end. I soon learned that no trail run I had done to date had come close to preparing me for this race. At the end of my leg, I ran from the woods out into an open field where I became slightly disoriented from the change in scenery and had to focus on where I needed to go. I made the exchange and then headed over to the van to change my socks and dry out my shoes.

We ran two more legs from this exchange point and then it was time to head to the next exchange where we ran two more legs. It was once again time for my second run.

Leg 9 Description: "Gnaw Boned – 3.1 Miles - Follow White - North Gate To Opry – 1.5 miles of good trail then right into a bushwhack. Some of it’s very runnable and all of it is beautiful, some hills. You will run along a thorny ridge before plunging down to the highway and the exchange to the left. May of may not be a river to cross at the exchange"

This started out as a great trail run - just as described - beautiful, some hills. Then it turned into the woods where it had me going through briers down a hill and then onto a trail with rolling hills until it turned once again into the woods where it headed straight down a hill through more briers (and with runners coming up the hill on a different leg of the race) only to kick me out onto the road side about a 1/ mile form the exchange point. I turn on the speed and head to the exchange point. A runner heading out on the next leg shouts out to me as I approach the exchange: "it's not that deep". I wasn't sure exactly what he meant, but soon saw what he was talking about. The exchange had me crossing a river that didn't quite come up to my waste, but nonetheless had me going through it and up the other side of the bank to tag my team member. He, unfortunately, had to start his leg going through it, while I was lucky enough to finish on it. It actually felt pretty good.

We end up at a couple of more exchange points and run our other legs and then end up back at an exchange point we had been earlier in the day -- in fact the one where I started out on my first leg, but this time I was running a 6.2 mile point to point leg back to the start/finish.

Leg 14 Description: "Boned Again – 6.2 Miles - Follow Blue – Billy’s 2, down the road behind the Dance Barn. The reverse of Leg 3, start with ½ mile of road then left on to funky horse trails all the way to “The Plunge”, deadly downhill and finish in the field a ¼ mile behind the Dance Barn."

I was still pretty anxious to run my final leg - and all of a sudden they call out "legal cheat!" Which allowed the remainder of us still waiting for our runner to tag us to go ahead and leave now so we could finish up the relay around 6:00 pm. So I take off, this time armed with my GPS so I could track my pace and distance. I look down once I started and saw a 6:34/mile pace... what? I couldn't possibly have done that... I calmed down and settled into a rhythm - about a 8:30/mile. The other thing? I was running on road. I was getting comfortable with this thought until about 1.5 miles into my run it headed onto a trail, but it was an well maintained trail, so it wasn't bad. But that didn't last long... after two miles, I was once again going through briers, but my legs no longer felt the scratches I was on a mission to finish. After surviving the briers, I was back on a trail - a horse trail. It looked familiar... in fact it was the horse trail John and I had ended up on when we over shot our turn around point a few weeks back when we tried to run the first leg. Unfortunately it didn't help me much to be on familiar ground because it had rained two days prior to the race, there was almost nothing but mud on the trail. It was next to impossible to actually run through most of it, and I had to walk through these patches so I could keep my footing. One runner had lost his shoe to the mud just as I was passing him. I was actually catching up to some of the other runners when we were going through the mud. We finally got past the "bad spots" and turn onto a quasi-logging road filled with ruts and roots. I followed this out of the woods make a turn and find myself looking down a 250' drop down to a field. At this point my calves are balling up into knots, but I take off down the hill and get to the bottom pretty quickly and felt a surge of energy as I ran across the field. I caught up with the last two runners I had been following and pass them on the road and then turn back into the field to the exchange zone to finish my final leg. As I approached the end my calves were on the verge of seizing up. I finally made it and it was all I could do to not just fall down -- 12.5 miles completed and it felt like a lot more.

It was tough, at times painful, but wow it was sure fun. I think I would do it again, but I would definitely train more and differently.