Lookout Mountain 50 Miler Again

Jack Sayles

Dec 31, 201912 min read

December 21, 2019

I’ve done 3 different 50 mile races, The North Face Endurance Challenge 50 miler back before you finished across the Golden Gate Bridge, Natchez Trace 50 Miler which I just finished back in November and this one with now 4 finishes under my belt. This year was, to me, by far the hardest course I’ve run for a 50 miler.

In this year’s installment the race was a mixed bag of blessings and curses. The curses were a dramatically changed course and an elevation gain of nearly 8,000 feet, more than what I recall from years past. The blessing were getting so see and run with so many friends. I had known that Hunter Hall, Jobie Williams, Cary Long and Sean O’Brian had signed up but I didn’t know that Scott Bell, Jewly Height, Brian Brockman and Caleb had jumped into this 3 ring circus. Getting to spend time with them before and during the race made my day. Matt Hawkins even showed up and gave me a huge blessing.

I had the idea that I was going to treat this race like my previous to, power hike mostly and run the runny parts. My biggest concern was the big climb on the 18 mile section, it started just before mile 15 and ended back at the start/finish. If I could manage that I knew I would be just fine. Yea, what did I know? At packet pickup I was talking with Scott and Jobie thinking about what would be a good time to get back up to the start/finish, 5 hours seemed reasonable so shooting for 4 was a great hope. In the first loop the plan was to get down as quickly as possible, take it easy across the bottom in order to conserve energy for the climb up. Once through the start/finish my idea was to execute my fast hike and run the runny parts that had worked so well for me the past two races. All of which was designed to bring me in under the cut offs without much of a problem. Again, what was I thinking?

At the time of execution I briefly saw Hunter, Scott and Jobie before getting into the starting area. I really enjoyed seeing these guys as I have a lot of respect for who they are and what they are able to do. Brian had called out to me at the start, I had no idea he was coming out for this one and it was a great joy seeing him and meeting his wife. Our wives managed a few snap shots of the two of us as we waited for the impending doom. I had been wondering where Sean was as he is a good friend and a speedster. I really was interested in what he would be able to do and how he would feel afterwards, this was his first 50 miler. Spotting him in the starting area we chatted and encouraged each other and waited for the count down. To get to Sean I had to push through Carry as he was socializing with everyone, I love that he really doesn’t know a stranger and is such an encourager. Standing next to Sean was Jewly, who was doing 18 today then heading with her husband down to FL to run another 20ish mile race tomorrow. Standing just in front of the 3 of us was Caleb. I first met him at Pinhoti 2 years ago as he was running with Kyle and Brad. We all managed to get our hello’s and good lucks in before the start and we were off. At ‘Go’ I remember looking down to start my watch, starting to move getting crowded at the arch such that I had to hold onto the guy in front of me to keep from pushing him over. Once I got a chance to look up Sean was long gone, like so far in front of me that there was no way I was ever going to catch him, Jewly was about ½ way between he and I and I knew I wasn’t going to be able to catch up to her either.

Looking back I should have started the race the way I had in years past, that was to actually run to the trail to get to the front of the mid pack group. I didn’t this year and ended up behind a train of folks that even though they were keeping a good pace slowed dramatically at anything wet or rocky, which are both areas that I can manage rather well. The up side to being in this group was that I didn’t burn a lot of energy on this 18 mile section. At one point I was behind a guy who seemed to bounce from side to side, rock to rock, berm to berm along the trail. It was quite hard for me to manage his never really running straight as it made it hard for me to figure out how to pass him. Once I did, 20 minutes later he came bouncing past me to not be seen again. By the time I had reached Craven House I had accepted my place in the race and settled into executing my plan. On this flattish section I was passed by Scott and Jobie as we chatted they slowly pulled away, which at the time was fine as I was trying to relax before the climb. The climb became really interesting as I passed several folks who came flying by me earlier. One guy made our passing back and forth interesting as he made a bunch of noise about needing to get by me on the flats wanting me to pull over and stop for him to go around me. I told him I’m not stopping so pick your spot and go. He did about a ½ mile before the climb began, about ½ mile later I quickly walked passed him without much of a fanfare never to be seen again. Thankfully while the climb was hard, my climbing legs allowed me to move steadily up the mountain. I made it back in under 4 hours so I was very excited. I thought it was considerably under the 4 hours but reality was it was just under at 3:55 either way I had managed to put some time in the bank, which is always a good thing for me to do.

When I arrived back at the start/finish I headed straight for my drop bag. I saw between it and myself was none other than Matt Hawkins who was to pace Scott from mile 31 to the finish. When I said hello to him he was in conversation with somebody. Before I knew it he was standing beside me asking what he could do to help me. I was truly blessed and humbled by his help; he has finished some of the biggest and best known 100 milers and here he was helping little ole me. With his help and Jobie’s watchful eye and always much needed encouragement I got re-watered and restocked with Spring Energy. I took my turkey burrito with me to eat as I walked the first mile out of the aid station. I was out within 5 minutes, but that turkey burrito needed mayonnaise because it was as dry as saw dust. I think I downed about ½ of it before deciding I was wasting time trying to eat it. With that decision made it was time to start my fast hike idea.

About this time I ran into a couple from the last time I had run the race in which I had walked the last 13ish miles nearly as fast as they had run it. So their goal this year was to stay ahead of ‘the guy in cargo shorts with the hiking poles’. It was great fun chatting with them over the 8ish miles to the next aid station. About a mile out of that aid station they pulled away never to be seen again, officially. I think I saw them in the dark at one point, but we were on opposite sides of hollow that had at least a mile or more of trail between us. This 8 mile section I was currently on proved to be quite an ordeal for me as I began to run out of water and run low on Electroride, I was eating. I ended up pulling my water bottle out of its pouch in order to get the last of the water out, when I put it back I thought I had gotten it back into my vest. Somewhere in the last mile or two before the aid station I discovered my water bottle was gone. I hadn’t gotten it back into my vest and it had fallen out somewhere on the trail. Joel’s words came back to me ‘Something will go wrong, you just have to plan for anything to happen.’ I hadn’t. Now I was very worried about how I was going to be able to continue. I had been drinking about 1.5 liters per hour and the best that that was doing was to keep the dryness in my mouth at bay, which had created its own issues. I would eat my Almond Gold bar and my mouth would get so dry that I had to drink several ounces to wash it down. Upon arriving at the aid station I told them what had happened and said I would pick it up on the way back if someone managed to find it and dropped it off.

The water bottle had the potential to be a race killer, down to just one 17oz bottle was not going to allow me to finish the race with as much liquid as I had been drinking. About 2.5 to 3 miles away from the barn aid station I started to see the lead runners coming back. The first guy had a huge lead on Nathan who was in second, we shared a brief conversation in passing encouraging one another. I had just finished my favorite section of the race and I see these two runners coming at me and hear a hoot from them to which I respond, then I hear ‘Hey Jack’. It was Sean and Ashley, he was doing so great! He was somewhere around the top 10 of the race. We stopped for a minute to chat when I told them what happened to my bottle; Ashley without hesitation offered her extra bottle to me, which I hemmed and haud about taking but finally did. If that exchange hadn’t happened I’m sure I wouldn’t have finished in under the cut off.

Every year that I’ve run this race the course seems to have some sort of change to it. The first year was the last year that the total mileage for the course was under 50 miles. The next year with the additional mileage there ended up being several course changes. Two years ago seemed to be the same as the year prior, but I’m not totally sure. Last year instead of running I crewed some friends instead of running the race and the part I paced seemed to be the same as the years prior. This year however there was a major course changes. The changes had forced the course onto the section of trail I remember from the Chattanooga 100 when I paced Marla Albert for a section. It was creek side with tight windy trails through firs, hemlocks and rhododendrons. While beautiful it was treacherous going with all the ups, downs and knobby roots. Once done with this section you crossed over to the regular part of the course that at its end had a change as well, at the near end of this section you popped out on to someone’s drive way at that top of a hill, black top all the way down at 29 miles into the race followed by about a 1.5 miles of running on a highway. Now this is all part of an 11 mile out and back section so that what you go down on your way out you have to go up on your way back.

I made it to the barn in good shape, I just needed to keep going. I wasn’t too worn and I wasn’t too worried about time. I can’t say for certain, but I think that this loop from miles 31ish to 35ish had changed as well for it had steeper climbs than I remember. I remember asking for clock time when I hit the 34/5 mile aid station and being told 4:45 pm and that I was 30 minutes ahead of cut off time. I was grateful at that I had banked all that time in the first 18 miles taking about 3:45 to get those miles done. I had gone through most of that banked time. I think it was 5 or 6 miles back to the aid station on the out and back section where I needed to see if my bottle have been found.

I remember arriving there and asking about the water bottle I had dropped to see if it had been turned in, nope. I then asked how far to the finish as I’m looking at my watch going it should be less than the 8 miles I came out on, nope again. It was the full 8 miles back to the finish, by my math and the current distance on my Coros Pace of 43+ miles I was going to get some bonus miles for free. Oh joy. Several conversations with Peggy over the phone before and after this and I had told her it was going to be close to cut off when I would finish. From this aid station I began to get a sense of urgency in an attempt to beat cut off at the finish.

I looked at my watch at around 46 miles and go the sense in myself that I wasn’t 4 miles from the end, this was confirmed when I passed several other runners and asked about their mileage. We were all way different spanning everything from 44 to 48 miles. I wasn’t going to be able to trust a watch for distance so I focused on elapse time, it was at 12:15ish. I knew I had less than 4 or 5 miles to go, so I would get an official finish, but how close I wasn’t sure and I didn’t want to take the chance of missing that cut off. I looked again at my watch and read 48 miles and I knew instantly the mileage was off. The end of this race hadn’t changed in all the years I’ve run it, I knew when ‘2 miles’ out was and I wasn’t even close. So I pushed. When I hit the power lines that noted the ‘2 miles’ to go I checked my watch and exhaled, I was going to make cut off as my watched showed 12: 50ish. In the last ¼ mile I felt someone pushing from behind me, looking back I saw that they had gotten close. As I turned around I saw the Christmas lights that marked the beginning of the finish tunnel. I shouted out to the guy behind me ‘there’s the lights we’re almost there’. I ran, I ran with everything I had left. I didn’t really want to get passed at this point and I just wanted to be done. 13:08 and change, done. I collapsed on the ground and Peggy showed up right then, perfect timing. My feet hurt so bad that I just stripped off my shoes and socks and sat there. Peggy has always been the best end of a 50 miler crew person I could ever want. She got my finisher swag, food and change of whatever I needed every time. The only thing missing this time was that great big juicy hamburger loaded with everything, man I so missed that burger! After about 30 minutes on the ground with a little help from a longtime volunteer got I up and I headed to the car. It was over 50+ miles was done, this was the longest it had ever taken me to finish this distance.

Outside of my last two races I think it’s safe to say that my nutrition during the race was never spot on, this race was no different. I should have eaten more, a lot more. I managed 4 Almond Gold bars that required a lot of water to get down because my mouth was so dry and part of a turkey burrito, which you’ve already read about. As for the Spring Energy, one of these days I’m going to learn just to eat more of them, hopefully sooner rather than later. The greatest fuel for this race came from the SpeedNuts, I had 4 of the ones with the Hemp Oil during the day and 3 of the caffeinated ones at night one between the last 2 aid stations and the other 2 back to back in the last 8 miles, those two back to back had a huge impact on my mental and physical energy and got me through to the finish. Outside of these I had one Canaberry, 3 Long Haul, 4 Power Rush and 4 Electroride. As Spring Energy has grown and added to their offerings I’ve learned which ones give me the best bang for my buck both in the energy and flavor areas. The SpeedNuts, both kinds, I can’t beat for sustained energy add to those the occasional Long Haul, Power Rush or Canaberry and I’ve got enough energy to last. I just have to eat!