Nashville Ultra

I am exhausted and in pain now. I know running an Ultra is painful, but I just tend to forget how painful the last Ultra was and still end up signing up for a couple more. I can feel the twinge of soreness in my Achilles tendon, and I don’t dare break those nasty blisters. I’d decided that I would rather leave the room lights ON and go to sleep instead of making an attempt to get up and turn them off.

3:18AM, Oct 16th, I forced myself out of bed at this God-forsaken hour to hit the shower. The race starts at 5:00AM. I decided to start along with my friend Diane, two hours prior to the official start time. My ambitious goal was to get the 50 miler under 10 hours and run until 7:00PM to get a 100K. Little did I know what was in store for me for the rest of the day.

It was so cold that morning that one could see their breath. I wasn’t expecting it to get this cold. No long-sleeved shirt and no gloves. About 20 runners took off, into the fog, into the darkness. Not knowing where you are running is bliss at times. I could hardly see anything ahead of me, and that included the elevation as well. The first few miles were quite hilly until we reached Kohl’s, from where we ran towards Percy Priest Dam and back to the start line. Running that long wooden bridge along the Stones River has always been my favorite course. While running back towards the start, I saw the runners who started at 7:00AM. There were many faces that I could recognize. Dallas Smith, Josh Hite, Mike Melton, Mike from Bartlett, John Titjen and more. By the time I got to the start line, which was mile 16 now, my hands were completely frozen and I had to take Angela’s help, another awesome runner and a good friend, to even open a can of Coke and the cap of the water bottle.

The sun was up by now and I made my way towards Shelby Bottoms. The course was great and the course directions were marked pretty clearly. There was NU written at all the intersections. It was a pleasant surprise when the arrow turned right, detouring from the pavement to a dirt/grass trail. The grass drenched in early morning dew, with trees covering both sides of the trail, it felt like running in the wild. That’s when the unexpected happened. I landed in a small ditch, which was camouflaged by the covering of grass, and I really twisted my ankle and felt a sharp pain shoot out from my Achilles. I walked a bit and when I felt good I started running again. The grass trail was winding all along the course until a few miles short of the Shelby Bottoms aid station. It wasn’t until after crossing the Pedestrian Bridge, mile 26, that my feet started hurting from the earlier ankle twist. It was getting hotter, but nothing unbearable. Running along Cheatham Lake reminded me that it’s the Purity 10K course, which I ran earlier this year, and I ran the Purity 10K just for the unlimited ice cream after you finish. I saw the turnaround point for the 60K and 70K and was eagerly waiting to approach the 50 Mile turnaround point. Mile 31, finally I made it to the turnaround. Now all the way back to the start in addition to a small loop to the finish line.

Mile 33, piercing pain hit my Achilles and even running a 13 min pace was becoming impossible. I was well on time until now for a sub-10:00 and decided to take it easy and walk to the pedestrian bridge, but when I reached mile 37 I lost all hope and the goal was just to finish. A doc at the aid station looked at my leg, and after examining my feet he said that my foot was swollen and it was going to be difficult, but when I insisted on continuing, he decided to splint my Achilles, which offered very little support. It was still painful, but at least it helped me keep moving. Prolonged walks on the hot pavement: my Vibrams couldn’t handle it, and I ended up developing blisters. At mile 40, when I reached the aid station, I had nothing on my mind but quitting. Should I drop down to 40 miles and finish the race? Running another 10 miles in this situation was something too daunting. While my body was waging a battle against my mind, I decided to keep moving on the course so that I would not have a choice but to continue to the finish line.

Soon I hit the grass/dirt trail. The same course which I loved running earlier that morning was looking like a crazy demon waiting to devour my leg as soon as I set my feet on it. My feet and blisters didn’t like the uneven surface and they started hurting like hell. What would have taken an hour on a good day took me about 2 hours to cross that section. When I found a shady spot, I just crashed and the crazy pain caused my eyes to tear up. I just wanted to lie down there all day. Somehow I gathered myself and decided never to stop until I hit the next aid station.

The aid station at mile 45 came into view and it felt so good sitting on a chair for a while sipping chilled Coke. Angela, my friend, decided to pace me for the next 5 miles. She was such a godsend. I was glad that I had someone to talk to, as I was getting bored talking to myself for the past 10 miles. The volunteers cheered me on as I got up on my feet to run the last 5 miles. On the last section of the course, I met Julie, the Vol State Queen who won the race this year. Man, what a woman. A great inspiration. While looking for the turnaround point, to my horror, there was another dirt/grass trail section that I had to cross. By now, the pain was excruciating and I so wanted to give up, but I didn’t come all this way to give up at the last moment. Not today. Reached mile 49 and was back to the same aid station and from there it was a hill, a bridge to cross, and another hill. That’s right, a hill right before the finish line.

(Yards before the finish line. You can see my splinted right foot)

The sight of the finish line was gorgeous. At that point in time, to me, the finish line was the most expensive strip of land that I wanted to set my feet on, an object of great desire, a beautiful girlfriend to embrace (I’m single though..haha).

I guess I was in a state of hallucination by that time. The crowd’s cheering helped me to sprint to the finish line. I endured unbearable pain for the last 4 hours just for this moment. Now, I am not usually dramatic, and I’m not sure why I did this, but after reaching the finish, I got down on my knees, fell to the ground and kissed the finish line. I finished. 12:08:55.

I have no regrets about not finishing it under 10:00 hours as planned earlier. It just felt so awesome to finish this race. It was a nasty sight when I removed my Vibrams. Removed the splints and applied some blister Band-Aids offered by a runner. I couldn’t even move to collect my finisher mug. All I wanted was rest and sleep. I dozed off for a good 15 minutes until a volunteer woke me up to hand me my finisher mug.

Pepperoni pizza and chili felt like heaven after that long grueling day. Had a little cultural exchange conversation with the race photographer Stacey Irvin, who, I realized later, is an award-winning photographer, and her work was splendid. Diane had to drop down at mile 40 after developing really bad blisters, but she was there at the finish line with a wide smile and some cowbells, cheering on every runner crossing the finish line.

Back in my room, I realized that I was not going to get any sleep tonight. I didn’t dare to break those blisters. I drank some chocolate milk, took some Tylenol and didn’t even have the strength to turn the room lights off. Though I had every reason to drop out of the race, all said and done, I was glad that I could finish this race, maybe not strong, but I finished. This race definitely tops my list as the most painful race that I have ever run. Reminded me of the Team 413 quote.

“I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” (Phil 4:13)