For some races I knew what I want to get out of it and and so would be very easy to do a race report.
However for Grindstone, I came in with no goals. The race kind of sneaked up on me. Obviously I wanted it done but also I did not want to disappoint myself for setting my hope too high. Main reason was my training was not anything to write about and after two years of not being able to get to the finish line, I knew how hard the race was befor doing it. I was not sure if I could finish it this year.
At the beginning of the race, the Race Director gave us his last bit of thoughts, he said to know your “Why” of why you are running. And Hold on to it when things get tough. It would get tough. We needed to hold on to what keep us going.
Grindstone was a very tough course. It requires digging very deep to pull it through. Like any races, there will always be an easy way out. Also equally true is there’s no easy 100 mile. At another equally hard race earlier, The Eastern States, I chose to give up after mile 80 when things got hard. I told my pacer, I don’t need another finisher buckle, I just want the pain to end. Grindstone got to that point, that finishing was no longer a goal, ending the misery was at least that was the prior year. I suspected many went through the same thought processs, should I call it quit or should I stay in for more of it. However, the finish, when I did reach it was never more sweeter. Three years and after three attempts, finally crossed the finish line for the first time. It was not a pretty finish, but a struggle to the very end, and almost come in at the very last finisher, known as the DFL. Some said, I have grit but I think I was just lucky. I had to fight to the bitter end. So, the race was like that. A lot of slogging through the dark hours.
In a race, people will either remember you as the fastest guy or the slowest guy. There is no shame as being the last one, except it is equally hard to get it. It means being out on the course the longest, and suffering the longest too. I almost earned the DFL. I just finished 10 minutes ahead of the last guy.
My journey to Grindstone began several years ago and I had no memory why I wanted to run it. Probably just out of curiousity because it was near where I live and many runners have done it.
I remembered I was very excited to receive the presale discounted price. The race had just been sold to UTMB. The old website was still available but the new website on a different address was also there. I signed up. Then I met some of people who were doing training run, Adrian, Mel, Scott (scott-n-stuff), and others. And I enjoyed those times. As previously alluded to it, I did not finish that year. So, as an ultra runner, you don’t just give up after a failed attempt. I signed up the following year and another year. Same result until this time around. There is no special formula of why this year is different. Well Maybe. I got to thank all the people who put up with me and helped me through. They are the reason why this year is different.
There are many reasons why I love running. Grindstone was just a race that scratched many of those itches. Mostly I was impressed or intrique by the challenge. Another reason was the people you get to meet and to be friends, and third the time spent on the course, and journey itself being alone in solitude was priceless.
I do love the Grindstone course. It uses part of the Twot loop (the Wild Oak Trail) which I have been on a lot of time. I did several camping trips there and love to hike and run there. Hone Quarry is also nearby. It is very beautiful. Reddish Knob is a well known lookout point. I love the race for such beauty. I love the remoteness but also knowing that towns are just only 30 minutes away.
About the people. In the past, it was about me. I go there to run. This year, the focus was really the cast around me. My community, several of my dearest friends came together and got me through the finish. They say it is the runner who runs, but I say without the various supports from friends and family, it would not have been possible for me to finish. I had two pacers who took turn between 10 to 12 hours each to cover over 22 hours. It is a luxury to have a pacer. Indeed, it increased my odds significantly.
As for race preparation, from last year report, I wrote I needed to have better rest on day before the race, monitor my nutrition, to eat at aid stations, know my pace, and stay awake at night.
A big focus is placed on resting before the race is because the race started in the evening at 6 pm, meaning for the slower people like me, we would be spending two nights out on the trail. Not having that extra rest would either make or break the race. Dealing with sleep deprivation is big for the second night. My previous race ar Eastern States did not end well because I was overcome by sleep and did not move as fast as I needed during the night (and that was only for one night, but at Grindstone, we deal with two nights). I really have no idea how I got through except with a lot of caffeine.
I usually don’t sleep well the night before a big race. It was no exception this time. I worried about my drop bags and spent whole evening packing them till late in the night. One thing I did do differently from last year was to take a day off on the race day. And use the extra time to drive to the course. It was only two hours away but we had the whole Friday morning set aside for traveling. It was a low stress day. Then I napped in the afternoon until the race start.
As for what I packed in my drop bags, I put a lot of food, drinks (sodas), canned coffee, Red Bull for energy. They did the trick! I did not pack caffeine pills but I got some from my pacer and they were very effective at 250ml each equivalent to a can of 16 oz coffee. I did not struggle with sleep walking/hallucination during the race. I was alert and perky even on the second night.
On food, it was very important for long race like this to eat regularly and eat well. Last year, I believed I ran out of energy due to not having enough food (calories) by mile 80, thus making the last 20 miles very hard. So this year, I have granola and cashew nuts in ziplock bags at every crewed station. I would go in stop and grab my food bag to take it with me out. I also had cans of chicken noodle soup to slurp down, Cambells or Progresso, and if I could not finish the can, I would tranfer the soup into a ziplock and take it with me on my way out. I think that work out really well. I had also crackers. I love pita bread I carried on me and nimbled at it from time to time.
It is especially true for Grindstone. Not to complain or anything, I think the food from the aid stations was not enough. Maybe because being a tail end runner, many aid stations already were out of food by the time I came by. So word to the wise, pack your own food. BYOD.
The play by play account of this race was not that exciting. It is a lot of grinding. We started in the evening. We ran a mile or so around the camp area. By the time we left the camp Natural Chimneys, it was half hour after the start. I saw Caroline, my g friend and pacer one last time before leaving. She would be sleeping at the campground. Since she would be pacing me the next morning, I did not want her to meet at the first crew stop at 4 am, mile 32.
Jeremy my other pacer made it to the campsite just in time to see me off. I thought I would miss him since he said he was not going to arrive until after 6:00. He was running a bit late. Originally, he was going to come on Saturday afternoon to pace me through the second evening. But the race required pacers to register at the start on Friday, so Jeremy rushed to get there. We said a brief hello as I ran by him. He was offering his hat if I needed. It was like a lucky sight to see all my pacers at the start of the race.
Stephanie, Scott Lee’s wife also waved excitingly and said hi when I ran by. At the time I did not recognize her but later in the race, I got to see her several times. She even crewed me when my friends arrived late.
We also came across another friend who crewed me and paced me at other races, Wayne. He would be pacing Dan, another fellow friend and runner this time. I was hoping during the race to stay with Wayne and Dan for company when my pacers were not around. It ended up, we did.
The race then headed to the first aid station at Lick Run at mile 5-6. The sunset of first night is always gorgeous. We went through the countryside. Some farmers sat in their barns waving at us as we passed by. It was a peaceful scene. This was a section I did with Caroline a week before. It was good to tread on familiar ground.
I started as one of the last three or four runners to cross the start line so, we were with a bunch of slower runners. No one really talked. I think because some runners were from overseas so they could not speak English. I met a guy from Kentucky. His name now escaped me. I think it could have been Dustin, but I am not sure. We were buddy buddy to Lick Run and then we climbed the first hill. There our pace started to differ. He went on ahead and later I caught up and passed him and he passed me back by the time we reached Wolf Ridge at mile 12-13. After that, I have no idea.
I was going at a much slower pace this year than before. We passed the first two aid stations with 30 mins margin before the cut. I knew, it probably hard to maintain the buffer after the next aid station at Reddish Knob. It was a 9 mile climb. I arrived by midnight there. I think they close at 12:30 or 1 am. I was glad I made it.
From there it is about 5 miles to Little Bald. The goal was to get there by 1 am so I would have plenty time to descend to North River Gap.
From Reddish Knob to Little Bald was not technical. We ran mostly on jeep or fire road. The footing was easy. I was tired by now, because we were at least 22 miles in. During this time, I came across a guy without a shirt. I came to know him as Dustin. He and I pretty much leapfrogged each other for the entire race.
The dude has no concept of distance, cutoffs, split time for the race and would ask me how far to the next station or how much time we have left. So I would tell him, we have to reach North River before 4 am. Dustin could run, so he would run ahead. I was much stronger at hill climbing, so I would caught up to Dustin whenever there was a hill.
Dustin later told me he got to North River Gap 10 mins before I arrived. I arrived at 3:50 am. I had just enough time to fill up my water and went out before its cutoff.
At this point, there were quite a few who dropped at North River. This is typical as I have seen year after year. The first 30 miles kind of hit runners hard. Also quite a few runners also left with me out of the station. Interestingly there were maybe 10 or so runners who got lost after leaving the North River Gap. The course turned right and hike a quarter mile on the road before making a left on the Wild Oak Trail to the swinging bridge. There was a sign on the road but no direction were given to turn left. So a bunch of runners continue running on the road for a mile or so before discovering they were off course and had to come back. They arrived back at the sign as I was about to turn left onto the trail. So I asked them, what does the sign say. One runner said, it was caution, slow down for runners — direction given to vehicles instead of us runners. They were mad, and they quickly passed me and climb the Lookout Mountain. I went at my own pace.
I hoped to arrive at Lookout Mountain station by 5:30. I was half hour late. Morning would be dawn soon. At Lookout mountain, I passed several runners, and some were not doing so good. At the aid station, one runner was having stommach issue. Dustin and I quickly left the station to press on to climb Hankey and then the descent to Dowells Draft, where our crew awaited.
Last year I arrived at Dowells draft at 7:45, and I hoped for a repeat. But last year, I was running at this portion since it was very runnable with slight uphill. Not this year. I walked most of the time until it was really on downhill. I passed maybe 5-6 runners including Dustin, thinking they might not make it. Dustin said he had enough and I thought he was going to call it quit once he reached Dowells Draft.
It took me 40 minutes to descend the two-ish miles. I knew according to my pace chart, I need to leave Dowells Draft by 8:30 to have a chance at finishing. I arrived at 8:15. Caroline who was going to pace me was not there. A woman came up to me said Caroline is not here. I assumed she must be someone I know. She said she is Scott Lee’s wife. And Scott just passed couple minutes ago. I ran with Scott in many races, so I definitely know Scott. Glad I finally got to meet his wife. Wayne left maybe 5 minutes, she told me. That was an important information. I might not be able catch Scott but I might be able to catch up to Wayne. She told me also to expect rain. I had nothing to do differently. We had to carry a jacket and rain poncho as part of the required gear. But I guess, mentally preparing for the rain was good, since before the race start, rain was not likely at all. She then offered to help me to get food, got my drop bag, filled up my water and helped me empty my trash. Then off I go. The whole exchange was about 4-5 minutes fast, since I know I was kind of 10-15 minutes behind pace.
From Dowells Draft to Dry Branch is a long climb up on Mt Crawford. It was like 4 miles up and 2 miles down. We had two hours to get to Dry Branch. It was at this section that first place and many other front runners would pass us on their way back, coming from the opposite direction.
As I was on my way to Crawford, my other pacer and friend Jeremy caught up to me. He said something about switching with Caroline, and he would pace me in the morning while Caroline would pace me at night and hope that I would not mind. Nope, not at all. I was going to go out by myself, but having a pacer was definitely many times better than not having one. Jeremy would pace me from mile 45 to 70. We had a good time, sharing many highs lows from 8:30 in the morning until 5:30 in the evening. He would have gone on to pace me at night too if he didn’t have a 200 mile coming up in a few days.
We caught up to our mutual friend Wayne and Dan as we climbed up to Elliot Knob. Dan was not doing well. We passed Dan and ran our hardest on the crazy descent. This was a very rocky two miles like the Bird Knob of MMT. We passed whole slew of runners. They might have thought the two of us were crazy. I believe, here I might have passed another friend Mango from Carolina, but I did not know he was running in the race or expected him to be there and so I did not recognize him. I was focusing on my footwork at the time and did not look up. He is a youtuber, so I might find myself in his video.
We got to Cold Spring and greeted by volunteers and a lot of gnats. It was mile 61, 100K in. There were 5 miles on the fire road to Dry Branch. Time was running out. We had to be back by 3:30 pm. Jeremy and I set our goal to get back by 3 so I would have sufficient time to climb Crawford a second time to go back to Dowells. I would say, this was my hardest point on Saturday. I was sleepy. My feet started bothering me (a rock or something was scratching me) inside my right shoe, I was chafed in between my legs and other areas. Aid station had no more food left or very few selections (at least from what I could see). They said sweepers were coming and there were only a dozen or so runners left on the secrion we on. They were started check runners who needed a ride back (assuming runners wanting to drop). Jeremy told me to hurry get out the station. I did. He would catch up in couple minutes. Also, the sky was making rumbling noises, because an impending storm was about to come.
Off I went. Climbing Crawford was not fun. Our consolation was going back should be a shorter climb. 2 miles up and 4 miles down. Jeremy lended me one of his trekking poles and with that I made it back to Dowells by 5:20. We had until 6pm there.
Caroline, Stephanie (Scott’s Wife) and many others were there. Wayne and Dan arrived not long either. Wayne said don’t let him catch up to me. Stephanie said Scott just left. Caroline got my water and food. I had a concoction of Red Bull, iced tea, coffee, and chicken noodle soup, which was really a bad idea for my stommach started hurting. As for my granola, I grabbed the bag with too much force and everything spilled out all over the ground when the bag or zipper exploded. I was about to change sock too since my feet were killing me. I ended up just emptying whatever sand and grits inside my shoes and that was fine for the rest of the race. We did not have time to change. While it seemed fast with so many people helping me, this was the longest stop. We stayed maybe 15 minutes.
Caroline went out with me and paced me from mile 70 to the finish, mile 104. The course was longer than 100. I knew that but I tried not to think of it. We focused just the mile ahead or the hill ahead at the time. It was a very long night. Rain did come. We rushed down to Magic Moss aid station, it was only second time I actually ran fast in this race. I thought incorrectly that the cutoff at Magic Moss was 7:30 (instead of 8 pm) and we arrived there at 7:29 pm. Once, I cleared that aid station, we had until 9:30 to get to Camp Todd, which was 5 miles away. It was very doable to do 5 miles in two hours. Many people passed us on the road portion, including Dustin. It was my first time to realize Dustin did not drop. He was running strong. We saw him a few more times. He finished 15 minutes ahead of me.
We arrived at Camp Todd by 9:00. I wanted to go in and go out making a quick turn around. However, I was wet and cold so I decided to better change into dry clothes. That took 20 minutes. I had helps from a good volunteer, but I was cold and could not move much.
After Camp Todd, Caroline said I was on fire reaching Little Bald in about an hour. At the top, Dustin asked me how much time we had left. I told him, we had 3 hours to do the next six miles and we had to arrive before 1:45 am at North River Gap 2. This was plenty of time. I arrived there at 1:20. This was almost the same time as last year.
Wayne and Jeremy was there to greet us. As usual, I got my food. Dried off myself. They wished me luck. We had a little over 4 hours to do the last 13 miles, which was very doable.
There were like 20 runners coming into the aid station at North River, but only maybe 5-6 went back out. By the time I left there, I had an eerie feeling I was the last runner. That proves almost true. Three or four runners passed me on the road.
We made the mile climb up to Tower Trail. I had a deja vu of last year. We were at this place the same time and same place with the same struggle. My feet could barely lifted another step. The ground was wet and slick muddy. Eventually, we reached the Signal Tower. Even though, Caroline and I came out a week ahead to run this specific section, it was now very foreign to me. Caroline found the trail to turn off. I was doubting if that was correct, so I paused to double check the map on my phone. She was correct. Surprisingly it was quite a very long descent. I had expected it to be half a mile but it ended up a mile and half. Three times longer. Unlike last year though, strength started return on the descent and I started running again. We caught up to a runner. I believed he was the real DFL, final runner to finish.
Once we reached the Lick Run’s Jeep Trail, I knew, we got it down. This year would not be like last year. We climbed like 7 hills on Lick Run before hearing the welcome voice of the aid station people at mile 99. Costi, my friend was there doing the graveyard shift. I could not be happier. He snapped a selfie of us together and sent it off to the guys in our group chat. There was very little I needed at the final aid station. Only thing left was to make the push of the final 4.5 miles to the finish. Caroline said I finally was happy because my mood was very bad for the last twelve hours.
Caroline ran on ahead. She was excited to be on pavement. Not me though. Every step my feet hurt again due to some raw blisters. I preferred the earlier softer ground on the trail. I started running somewhat but at a very slow 18 min mile run. Eventually, the campground came into view. They hurried me to get it done. We went on a half mile trail around the camp to a big field. We crossed to the other side of the field where they have the barricade and fences up to formed the finish chute. We ran through. The announcer greeted us. I finished in 35:46. Scott and his wife who finished more than an hour ahead were there to greet us. We watched as the final runner came in. I avoided the DFL.
I did not have any special insight after finishing the race. It was a feeling of calm that this freaking devilish race is finally over. Reflecting more on it, the race helped me to focus on the fundamentals, that is, nutrition, water, rest, pacing, and the ultra spirit of one step at a time, keep moving and eventually the end will come.
Another, I was super grateful for friends who gave up their time and weekend to help me accomplish a personal goal. They didn’t get a buckle for their work. It is good to have friends, where your goal becomes theirs too.
It was not a thrilling finish, but was good enough. A finish is a finish. We all felt a sense of relieve that I don’t have to go to back to Grindstone for another year.
In awe 