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Monday, November 27, 2023

Return to Dino Valley

Operation Get a WSER Q for Northern Texas

A Return to Dinosaur Valley State Park | Ultramarathon #109

It had been 5 years since I had been out to Glen Rose, TX and participated in Dinosaur Valley. In 2017 I did the 100 km version on one of my first races I did upon moving here, followed by the full 100 Mi version in 2018. Since then, the race has grown a bit but has maintained it grassroots. Libby, the Race Director, has been publicly proclaiming that this year they were going for enough 100 km/ 100 Mi finishers in order to be eligible for consideration as a Western States qualifying event in the future. Currently there is not an event in Northern Texas that has this distinction, only Brazos Bend 100 & Rocky Raccoon in Southern Texas. My ongoing #12in12 project has not been ideal up until this point but as you may realize I simply love running 100 mile events and so I jumped into Dinosaur Valley only couple days before the event in order to get my November 100 Mi run in.

hitting the road
Friday was a regular work-from-home remote day for myself before I wrapped up and got all my running gear in order. A family movie (as is our custom) was on deck for Friday evening dinner. When we put the little girls to bed I decided to put myself to bed as well since my sleep would be limited. I recall that I was in bed around 20:00, give or take. A short 4 hours later and I awoke to my phone alarm beeping beside me on the bedside table...00:00 (midnight).... time to go. I got up dressed, brushed my teeth, grabbed my bags, pressed start on my pre-measured portion of coffee to go and loaded up my car. Note: coffee is ESSENTIAL for early mornings and ANY and EVERY car ride - that is my take on that. A short commute north through Houston up towards Glen Rose, TX which lies just Southwest of the Dallas Fort Worth Area. It was about 4.5 hours of total driving with a quick stop at Buc'ees for fuel. I arrived at the race location which was actually the back entrance of Dinosaur Valley State Park. Parking my car it was around 05:15 which gave me about 45 minutes until runner check in. The logistics of the race required us to park in a field which was 0.4Mi away from the actual start-finish area, and thus I loaded up my Victory Sportdesign bags and grabbed my chair and hiked in to claim my spot in the runner area. I saw Libby coordinating a few of her volunteers and she greeted me as I walked by, thanking for joining the race.


The first Third (Loops 1-3)

A quick seamless check-in and it was within less than an hour till the 07:00 start. The sunrise was now slowly creeping up the horizon just barely shedding some light into the misty foggy morning air. Seven hours after waking up I was now off and running with all the other 230+ people taking on the 100 km & 100 Mi distances.

If you have read any of my prior race reports, you may notice some trends:

  1. I do not plan my paces and timing out before hand
  2. I always go out to fast
  3. I NEVER negative split a 100 Mi race.
This is just the way I am and am truly trying to work on these things to improve my performances, especially later into the races, which is where things typically fall apart. Starting off here in Dino Valley I was thinking I would aim for the first third (i.e. 3 loops ) at around 12:00 min/Mi pace and go from there based on feedback of my body on the day. However, as mentioned above I fall victim to my downfalls every time, and so I ran with the lead pack on loop 1 and we were clicking at 10:00 min/Mi pace. I knew this was a bad idea - so I let them go and settled into a slightly more modest 10:20 min/Mi pace. I decided to keep this pace instead of slowing down more because it felt so easy and smooth from the start. Does this mean today is my day? Am I going to smash my 100 Mi PR? Can I really hold this pace for another 17 hours? After loop 1 the sun was out and providing some gentle warmth from the sun and so I ditched my long sleeve for the short sleeve version of my rabbitELITEtrail kit top. The pace was manageable still I managed 10:20 pace for the entire first 3 loops.

Loop 1 = 10:11 min/Mi

Loop 2 = 10:21 min/Mi

Loop 3 = 10:37 min/Mi

Photo: Let's Wander Photography | Jesse Elllis


The Middle Third (Loops 4-6)

Coming in after my 3rd loop I had a nice surprise of my parents there to greet me. They had been driving down (from Canada) to visit us for Thanksgiving and stopped by to say hi briefly before continuing on to Sugar Land. After a very short visit (minutes) and quick chat I headed off for my 4th go around and took off again from the start-finish area. I knew that I needed to start being more conservative in my pace, especially with the heat of the day ramping up. It was turning out to be a lot warmer than forecasted, so that was a little bit of surprise, all through not super hot, it felt warm for this time of the year and a change from the past few days. Anyway I committed in my mind to slowing down a full minute per mile slower and aim for 11:30 (ish) pace, hopefully for the middle three loops. My thought was I would then slow down again for the later third of the 9 loops as needed, but still hold onto whatever pace I could to be as fast as possible on the day. Loop 4 went well and I nailed my pace (11:44 min/Mi - not bad). I thought to myself this is perfect now just replicate that 2 more times and we can slow down again as the legs get more tired.

As endurance running goes my pace did not hold and I began to feel super heavy in the legs. Loops 5 & 6 were not on my newly anticipated pace, but I kept it within the 24 hour pace as to not fall back to much in my A-goal of at least getting sub-24 hours and the coveted colored buckle. After loop 5 I took my longest break and got a bunch of food in trying to restore my energy. Psychologically this was just over the halfway mark and so I rewarded myself with my longest break off my feet & changed my socks. My 6th loop I finished just as the sun was fully dropping behind the horizon and so I had hoped the cooler evening air would help pick my spirits back up. 100 km was now behind me. Time to get serious and get my grit on to get this thing done.

Loop 4 = 11:44 min/Mi

Loop 5 = 13:39 min/Mi

Loop 6 = 14:25 min/Mi

Photo: Let's Wander Photography | @luoyunghwa


The Final Third (Loops 7-9 & 10th "victory small" Loop)

All kitted out in my headtorch and my kogalla waistbelt setup I was now off into the darkness of the trails. To me this is my favorite time in 100 Mi events. Some of the 100 km runners had dwindled down in numbers, and all of the shorter distance runners were now gone home so the trails become more peaceful and less crowded. The nature of this course being a large lollipop style course where the first/last 3 miles are two-way traffic you see a lot of runners each loop. It makes it hard to determine where you stand within the race, but it is great to have people to give kudos along the entire way. After my poor performance in the last couple loops I was determined to try and claw my way back. My legs were not having it. Something was just off today and I was fighting to maintain 24 hour pace (~14:23 min/Mi) at these latter stages. My immense ultra experience intuitively told me to just keep going and it would get better eventually. I was still hoping to get back down towards 13:00 pace or so to finish off and solidly come in sub-24. Well it never really came around quite like that. Although I was still moving forward and marching towards a 23:xx finish. On my 8th loop I was getting towards my natural circadian rhythm low of early morning combined with the exhaustion of having run 85+ miles at this point. There was a lot of walking miles on this 8th loop around the park. Grinding this one out left me with "only" 15 miles to go - 1 loop and a smaller "victory loop" as they called it to finish off. Mentally this was so doable now I sped back up and dropped my pace lower than it had been in the past 4 loops. It felt faster, but in reality it was not super fast at this point, but heh it is a hundred miler where "fast" is a relative term for everyone individually, especially late into the race. A quick bottle refill after my final full loop and I was off again just wanting to get it done.

Half way through the loop getting to the loop split where I had gone left (the full loop) on the prior 9 time through, it was nice to realize I now got to go right and head back into the finish and wrap this thing up. Plus the last 1.5 Mi were all new scenery to me even if it was still in the cover of darkness. I rolled back up into the arch in 23 hours 11 minutes and some change. Done: my 109th ultramarathon and my 35th ultra of 100 miles or more completed.

Loop 7 = 14:58 min/Mi

Loop 8 = 17:10 min/Mi

Loop 9 = 14:10 min/Mi

Loop 10 (*5.5 Mi only) = 14:00 min/Mi


As I crossed the line Libby Jones (Race Director) was there at the timing table and came over to congratulate me. We chatted for a bit about how I had done the race in the past (2017, 2018) and on her prospects of getting this to be a WSER Qualifer (which I think she will it seems). Libby passed me my sub-24 hour colored buckle and like that the post-run high feeling of accomplishment flooded over me - one of the best feelings in the world after getting an ultra done. Overall it was a great day. I packed up my gear and trekked the 0.4Mi walk back to my vehicle straight away. Afterall I was going to get home to see my visiting parents. Now that the sun was up I took off south back to Sugar Land. I pulled over and took a couple car naps along the way to ensure I was alert and safe enough to drive, so in the end it took me just under 6 hours to get home. Arriving around 13:00 it was a total of  37 hour door-to-door experience from when I had left for the race in the first place. Just another adventure in the life of an #UltraRunningDad. 


Results


Gear Used

  • Jackets - rabbit Treeline rain jacket
  • Lighting setup - kogalla RA Adventure Light (waistlamp) & Nathan Sports Halo Fire (headlamp)
  • Shirts - rabbit LS rabbitELITEtrail team kit, SS rabbitELITEtrail team kit
  • Shorts - rabbit 3" FKT 2.0
  • Headwear - rabbit (rnnr) rabbitELITEtrail team kit
  • Eyewear - goodr (Nuclear Gnar version)
  • Shoes - ASICS GEL-Trabuco 11
  • Socks - rnnr, Drymax
  • Hydration - first 5 loops: NATHAN soft flasks x2 18oz handhelds. last 5 loops: NATHAN Pinnacle 12L race pack with x2 20oz soft flasks.
  • Anti-Friction Lube - Trail Toes
  • Watch - Garmin fēnix® 6X - Pro Solar Edition
  • Gear/Drop Bags - Victory Sportdesign (Grizzley backpack)


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Thanks for reading my race recap.
Next up: Loup Garou Trail Run 100 Mi (2023-Dec-02).

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