[671] BBR 50

Bull Run Run 50

(2024)(2023)

It is my favorite race from my favorite running club, the VHTRC people.  BRR and MMT are my two beloved events, if readers haven’t noticed yet from my  posts of last few years. 

I mentioned them day in and day out.  My spring training was always occupied by these two events.  Why?  The people, the challenge, the grit and everything about ultra running are captured in these two events. See my 2023 and 2024 race report.  I have been repeating the same things each year report to say I love these two events a lot.

This year I am not running the Massanutten 100 (MMT), so Bull Run Run 50 (BRR) is my only club race I am taking part in. 

This year, unlike the last two years, I did not have time to join the group runs but instead I trained on my own.  I started the training in middle of December, when it was still winter, immediately right after the Devil Dog 100 mile. 

I went on the trail almost every week, sometimes near my house at the Centreville side, but  my focus this year was mostly around at the around the Fountainhead, called the Do-Loop.

The reason why I needed to train at the Fountainhead was because on my first race there in 2023, I got lost.  Last year during the Do Loop training run there, I got lost again. Ram, a friend of mine, then took me into the Do Loop and learned it before the race.   This year, a few times on my own into the park, I got lost too in the Do Loop.  So I told myself I need to know that section so I would do fine on race day.

The trainings paid off.  My race went without a hitch. I finished at 12:35 elapsed time.  My time was an hour slower than last year, which could be because my body was not recovered from a 40 mile run the week before.  

However, from other metrics such couple 5k races I have done, I am getting slower with age, and possibly from inadequate/improper training this winter/spring season.

Some lessons learned:  I was reminded not to goof off during a run. Some people, every race is a race, meaning, it has to be a PR attempt (for a personal record). It demands a full concentration.  There is no such thing as a social run. 

I do take my race seriously, such as arriving early, sleeping early, packing my things ahead of time, studying the course, memorizing the pace table and cutoffs chart as well as knowing where the aid stations located, and creating a race day plan and strategy. Racing is a lot of work. 

However, the moment the race begins, all the stressing of racing faded away.  I was a happy camper and I wanted to be in the moment and laugh and enjoy everything, the view, the flowers, the people, and temperature and such. 

I would stop to take photos.  I would talk and laugh with volunteers.  I even waited for a friend at an aid station.  Then a volunteer reprimanded me, saying, what are you waiting and goofing around for, and dare me to run the course over twice (100 mile in a day).  He was half joking and half serious. He himself has done the feat of running a 100 mile in a 50 mile event when he was his prime. I am never come close to that level of fitness, but I understood the mentality. One has to be serious to attempt it.

Indeed, volunteers took their time off so we could have our race, we better make it worth their time.  This was a race and not a weekend training run. 

Treat it as such, I told myself.  To me, it reminded me to pick up my pace or else, I might not even finish. 

The race got hard after mile 12.  This year I did not cramp up like a previous year.  Still my legs were tired.  I ran with a good pace to the first Hemlock, arrived basically the same times as last year at 10:06 am (a tad slower maybe). The race started at 6:30, so it was 3:35 elapsed. Hemlock was around mile 18. 

All my friends were around.  Wayne caught up to me.  I passed Dan.  Jamie and Jill too were there.  I was in a good company.  These people usually were faster than me but today I was in their company. 

But my legs were tired.  So not long later, all my friends passed ahead of me except for Scott.  Now Scott has always been a stronger runner than me.  I was surprised when he and I left the station together and we ran a few miles together.  He told me today was not his day.  I could see that he would walk more than run.  However, he was still gaining distance ahead of me.  I did not chase him but I ran at my own race, so soon he was too out my sight and I ran by myself.  I learned by now, there were certain people, I could not beat and I would just ruin my race if I had tried to keep up.

So all my friends disappeared ahead of me.  Some “slower” people I passed earlier overtook me too.  It was fine.  Patricia was one I overtook, now she was passing me.  My strategy was the same, let people pass and focus on my own race, such as telling myself to drink, to eat, and to move at a constant pace of not too fast nor too slow.

Patricia was one of those few would I ended up with staying together for a long time for the rest of the race. I believe, we ran 30 miles together. Sometimes, she disappeared far ahead but sometimes I found her catching me up again from behind.  I must have passed her during an aid station.

I arrived to the next aid station, Bull Run Marina. It was joyous. I know the volunteers there. They got me everything I needed.  Wayne was there too but then he took off ahead of me again. I believed others did as well.  It was similar to the earlier stations. I went onto the next station.

Wolf Run Shoals station.  It was long and hot.  My feet were tired.  I walked more than run. Me and several others were around me.  Less people were passing me now.  Maybe a group of 7-8 people caught up to me then passed me.  I called them a train.  They passed me like a train.  I did not care.  The best thing happened to me was my other friend David somehow caught up.  We were together earlier at the start and ran maybe first 5-7 miles together.  But he was a tad slower and I have left him after the Centreville aid station, but now twenty miles later, he caught back up or I really had slowed down quite a lot. I got him into running in this race and it was good to have a fellow friend running along side.

I refueled with some chicken noodle broth.  Q, another volunteer I know,  was helping at the aid station and we joked around. I got myself some ice cold stuff.  Off I went with David out the station. 

We had a series of climbs up to the Fountainhead.  David was laboring on the slopes.  I was fine.  David then would run at a quicker pace on the flatter section, but I would catch up once there were hills. Together we made it to Fountainhead by 1:15 pm, 6:35 elapsed, this was mile 28, a little over halfway. In theory, if we keep the same pace, we could finish it under 13 hours.

But time was getting tight.  I knew during the first year, 1:15 was the time I arrived at Fountainhead too, and that was my slow year.  The Do-Loop is a section that has a lot of climbs and it might take me 3 hours to get through them.  4:15 pm was Fountainhead cutoff, meaning we have to finish the Do Loop and get back at the Fountainhead by 4:15 pm.

David and I set off after a brief stay at Fountainhead. I did not have the appetite to eat real food.  Jeff, another volunteer I know, offered his hamburgers. I know from past races, his food are delicious.  You don’t pass up his food. Today though, the burger tasted dry and the sun was too hot for me to take in hot food.  He said try it with ketchup and added ketchup for me.  Ketchup helped get the burger down.  Jeff made the burger bite size (like a restaurant slider). It gave me the energy I needed for the Do Loop. 

One crazy thing I did was to fill my pack with only ice.  This was a bad idea.  I thought the ice would melt and I would have ice cold water.  The thing is, the melting was happening too slow.  I did not have much water to drink for the next 4.5 miles. The ice method worked in the previous section when I was not drinking that much, but here, I was thirsty and it took forever for the ice to melt. It took us a long time before we arrived at the real Do-Loop.  I think a little over  an hour to go 4.5 miles. 

David was saying, this does not look familiar.  I said of course, during the Do Loop training, we never run in the White Loop.  We had to do the “White Loop” first before doing the Do Loop.  It was new ground for us.  Luckily, I had the experience from my previous two years. The turns in the White Loop was vaguely familiar.

We finally reached mile 32.9 at the “Do Loop in” aid station.  The Do Loop itself is only a 2.5 mile loop.  Time was ticking. I felt, I must finished the Do Loop before 3 pm to have a chance at finishing the race.  I believed I arrived back at 3:00.  The Do Loop only took me 45 minutes.

At this time, I needed to get to the Fountainhead by 4 pm.  Aid station there closed at 4:15.  It also took me about 45 minutes and I arrived at 3:45 pm. 

On my way out of the Do Loop, I still saw people coming in.  I think the Do Loop station closed at 3:45 pm.  I saw 5-6 runners were heading in, including some runners I know.  I fistbumped them and gave them encouraging words. Then I saw the sweepers.  They were running in from the Fountainhead, very lively and full of energy. I told myself, I really need to get this race done before they over took me.

From Fountainhead to Wolf Run Shoals on the way back was just as long timewise.  After 30 minutes of running, I passed the mile marker 1.  I think it was misplaced.  I must have run 2 miles by then.  And some trail hikers I passed said to me I still have two miles to go before the aid station. BS.  At that time I did not know who was right. I told myelf, soon I would arrive at the aid station.  Indeed a few more minutes went by and I arrived at the Wolf Run Shoals station.  The trail marker was likely wrong.

  After Wolf Run Shoals, I just had to repeat the course back to Hemlock.  I started passing various people.  Many of them were not feeling good.  Some sat down on a rock waiting to cool off. 

I saw some of my friends when I got back to the Marina.  I was surprised seeing Scott and Dan.  I have left David in the Do Loop, but was hoping he would make the cutoff.  Marina closes at 6 pm.  I was there at 5:45, which should be enough to finish by 7:30, with 5.4 miles left. Patricia also arrived at the same time I did.

Joe, a runner I met at Stone Mill was out running ran up to both of us and I found out he was also a friend of Patricia.  Joe got into Western States this year.

On our back to the finish. Joe ran along side of us and we had a brief chat.  I kept my mind occupied. I caught up to Scott and then Dan as I pushed for the finish.  The moment we saw blue bells, we knew we wete in the Hemlock general area.  Dan told me about a bench they placed in memorial to a former club member Ed Cappacino (not his real name, just a name we called him) as a marker exactly a mile to the end. I never met Ed before he died, but I love the bench there. I think it was 6:55.  I was a bottom of the hill.  I was going to walk with Dan, but he told me to hurry up and finish. 

He was right. I should not goof around. So up the hill with my best effort and run about quarter mile and I arrived back with crowd cheering. Dan and Scott and Patricia came in a few minutes after me.

We stayed an hour more waiting for a few others to finish.  My friend David came in.  I was exhausted.