Red Dirt Ultra
Ultramarathon #086
Another weekend and another last minute sign-up for a 100 mile ultra. If you have followed my blog for any length of time you may know this is not out of the ordinary for me. I am always ready to run and explore a new race, and sometimes the inspiration to do so doesn't come until the last few days before I pull the trigger and hit that register button on UltraSignup. My mind works in weird ways. I am always watching the calendar and have my eye on one or two different ultras that I may or not enter. Of course every year my big races I have planned in advance and register early, but that is not the way I roll.
Finishing up work Friday afternoon I took my Victory Sportdesign gear pack and headed out east towards Louisiana. Arriving in the cloak of darkness the temperature was already falling fast. I knew the forecast was to be a cold morning warming up throughout race day. Dirt bagging it by sleeping in my car proved to be a restless effort as the temperature dropped along with the slow passing of time. Eventually the 04:45 alarm went off and it was time to get up. The best part was that the volunteers had a nice bonfire going and coffee in a thermos to greet the runners as we checked in to get our bibs. I took a cup back to my car to enjoy as I got the remainder of my rabbit running gear on in the warmth of my car.
A few minutes before the start of the six o'clock hour and the courageous ultrarunners gathered around for a quick race briefing from Edie Couvillon, the race director. A few short minutes later we were off down the trail into the forest with headtorches on. I think it was around 36f at the start of the race if I recall correctly - either way it was a cold start to the race.
The course consisted of a giant loop through the Kisatchie National Forest on the sandstone multi-use trail. The trail was double track clearly used by ATVs and even some horse traffic was evident. The was a mix of some smooth sections, a few areas that was loose ground up fine sandstone, and then large section of hard sandstone itself with many embedded rocks and roots to make it the full trail running experience. The trail was fully immersed within the forest and the tall trees that guarded the trail itself. There was also quite a few short steep climbing sections that made the trail anything but flat. Red Dirt Ultra had 3 full loops of the Sandstone trail, plus an extra out & back that was on the first loop only. The loop was stated to be 31 miles however I tracked much less mileage, and also confirmed other runners did as well. Overall this made the mileage actually quite short overall. Every loop we got to cross over a few water crossings that were insignificant. However, there was 2 creek crossings each loop that required walking through the creek, and so in total I had to get my feet wet 6 times through the course of the race.
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| One of the two creek crossings we encountered each loop. |
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| Portion of the Sandstone trail we ran on. |
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| Red Dirt Ultra 100 buckle. |
Gear Used
- Shirts: rabbit LS & SS rabbitELITEtrail team kit
- Shorts: rabbit 3" FKT, 5" shredders 2-in-1
- Jackets: rabbit let ‘er zip hoodie, swish PRO (Hawks edition)
- Shoes: HOKA Challenger ATR 7
- Socks: Dry Max
- Headwear: rabbit (BOCO) rabbitELITEtrail cap & beenie
- Gloves: rabbit (BOCO)
- Sunglasses: goodr (Athletic Brewing Co. Run Wild edition)
- Watch: Garmin fēnix® 6X - Pro Solar Edition
- Lighting: kogalla RA Adventure Light (waistlamp) & Nathan Sports Halo Fire (headlamp)
- Hydration: Nathan VaporKrar race vest 2.0 12L (purple)
- Anti Friction lube: Trail Toes
- Gear Bags: Victory Sportdesign
