By now y’all are wondering how the heck my ultra run went, how I did, and for some of you who pledged per mile — how many miles I ran so you know much you need to donate!!

Well, first off, thank you all for the prayers and thoughts to keep the storms and rain away, because it worked!!! We were dry all night. However, the heat and humidity inside the woods were otherworldly. Add that to the pitch black night with just headlamps, inhaling tons of dust with poor air quality, and it made for some extremely tough conditions.

I made the decision to call it at 4:15am at 27.87 miles. I didn’t go back out for a 5th loop. For safety reasons. At this point, I hadn’t been able to get any nutrition down for 6.5+ miles or get any H₂O down for ~2-3 miles. The heat and humidity inside those woods were something I and everyone else weren’t prepared for.

My wife, Tiffany, hung at the car and aid station waiting to crew me each loop (6.7 mi loops), and said many people were puking and dropping out. There were lots of injuries. The heat had everyone zapped and hydration was tough to stay on top of. At one point I drank nearly 70oz on a single loop.

I got heat exhaustion and was walking the line of heat stroke symptoms with confusion and dizziness. I definitely had and by Sunday night still have some symptoms of heat exhaustion.

To lay the foundation here, the 9 hour and 10k groups started at 9pm, and the 6 hour group started at midnight.

The first loop started like any other trail race or training session I’m used to, aside from this being my first night trail run. After the first lap, my left foot arch was cramping up so I ran thru the aid station to the Jeep to take my shoe off and remove my left compression brace. My feet were already swelling from the heat.

On the second loop I was forced to slow down to a 11:30 pace to attempt to keep my heart rate down, but still couldn’t keep it under 178-180bpm, which was quickly zapping me even more. Being so dark, it was also hard to tell if I was running on a slight incline, which usually I slow down for and run declines slightly faster, but the rolling hills and limited visibility and many turns made this difficult to assess. Again, after the second loop, I ran to the Jeep to this time take my right foot’s compression brace off as my foot was swelling too much and became limiting. Tiff refilled my 70oz reservoir pack and I took a couple bites of a PBJ sandwich, maybe one Oreo, and another Gu gel and was on my way. The second loop I was over 12 minutes per mile so I knew my original 45-mile goal was out of reach, because I would have had to hit 6 loops or 40.2 miles at an ~11:15 mile pace in order to make the 4:30am last loop cutoff. This time I sat at the car for I think almost 10 minutes trying to get some brief recovery and smearing CBD and Arnica cream on my legs to help with the cramping.

The third loop was tough. My brain was working double time trying to handle dehydration, lack of nutrition, and navigating the difficult terrain in the dark. I couldn’t even handle listening to music to help manage my cadence and pace because music was overstimulating and stressing me out. It was all nature from here on out. By this loop, my pace was breaking 13/mile pace, and I even had to start walking some uphill bouts. About halfway, my batteries in my headlamp were dying but luckily I had just met a guy named Jake who was on his first loop for the 6-hour race that had started at midnight. We chatted as we ran and got our minds off the pain, and we shared his fresh headlamp light for the remaining 2 miles into the aid station. By this time I was 20 miles in, and sat at the Jeep in a chair for 30-40 minutes, trying to get mentally and physically prepared to Go One More. Tiff refilled my H₂O and swapped my headlamp with new batteries. I wanted to quit so bad at this point but I couldn’t. Tiffany reminded of why I started. It was for the kids and the less fortunate families in Haiti and North St Louis through raising money for Brace For Impact 46 — they needed me to put everything I had on the line. So I got up, ate an Oreo, chugged some H₂O, and grabbed a quarter banana from the aid station on my way back out. “[Bib] #27, heading back out,” I told them at the check in/out.

The fourth loop was not just brutal — it was an entirely different experience. By this point I was having trouble staying on the trail. I would hear noises in the woods and look with my headlamp in that direction, and then realize I was swaying off the trail once I looked forward again. I was falling so many times from the random holes and the rocks and roots jetting up from the trail. It was painful. I walked a lot. There were a couple open field stretches we had to run through, but my headlamp was casting shadows on the grass I was running on, which made it look like optical illusions or like the grass was moving, which really messed with my mind and eyes. At this point I wasn’t able to get any nutrition or H₂O in without wanting to puke. Somehow, about halfway, I was able to start running consistently again and was able to finish out the last couple miles at a slow pace. I hadn’t even seen anyone out on the trails anymore the entire fourth loop until that last mile when I passed three people once I got running again.

Once I got back though, I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to go on. After about 40 minutes at the Jeep, I finally made the decision to call it at 4:15am. It just wasn’t safe for me to go out for another 6.7 mile loop when I was already in such bad shape.

Just two months ago I ran the Double Chubb 50k (31mi) with 4,500 ft of vertical in 6 hrs 21 min, but this was much tougher due to the heat and humidity, running it alone with no partner/buddy, and being in the middle of the pitch black night.

I called it, then Tiffany and I got home about 5:45am, I showered, but wasn’t able to really sleep and still felt like I was going to throw up the first half of the day. At 9am Sunday morning I was finally able to keep down a meal since supper Saturday night pre race. From there, I was able to eat a bit more over the course of the day and then capped it off with Mission Taco.

I’m doing a lot better now. My body is still in rough shape, running a slight temperature, knots in muscles and cramps, but overall it was a successful night given the circumstances. There were a lot of seasoned ultra runners out there that have done this night race many times before and usually get over 40 miles but were dropping out like flies at mile 20. So, I feel great about what I accomplished. Goals are goals and are meant to be challenging and slightly out of reach — they are not supposed to be easily attainable.

So here’s to raising money for charity and literally giving my max effort. 🥂 I’m proud to say I left it all out on the trail.