Saturday, September 10th, 2016
Fountain Hills, Arizona
1,500 ft. of vertical gain
Written by Stephen Woodall
Redemption! Well, at least for the most part. I’ve cataloged in previous race reports my challenges up to this point in dealing with injuries or sickness during races. These obstacles have kept me from performing to my potential and left me feeling less than satisfied with my race experiences. Having only been running for just over two years at this point my actual race experience has been pretty limited. I’m still growing as a runner, getting faster (and smarter) during training, and learning more about how to best approach races. With my goal race, Javelina Jundred, just around the corner, I talked with my new coach, Chris Vargo, about whether a race 7 weeks out would be good preparation for my first 100. He completely agreed that running a 50K would be excellent. So, that’s how I found myself at the start line of the Javelina Jangover 50K put on by Aravaipa Running. This is the same event I had a miserable experience at the year before due to heat, and that was only the 25K version. This year I told myself would be much different.
Leading up to the race about a week out I felt fantastic! I’m substantially faster than I was a year ago through a combination of additional miles, speed work, hill specific workouts, and overall just runs with substantial elevation gain that has provided me with increased strength to tackle the climbs. In fact, the weekend prior to the race Angela & I ran 20 miles on the CV 50/50 course with another local runner friend, Larissa, in preparation for their running of that event this November and the climbs up to the finish line that last year seemed fairly hilly were so much easier this time. With this last, longer run behind me I felt pumped up for the next weekend. And then I caught Angela’s cold! Ugh, I couldn’t believe it was happening again. I tried to stay positive that I would recover before the race, but in the back of my mind I was worried. I took my normal Monday off and even skipped my run on Tuesday in hopes of recovering faster. None of this helped as the cold lingered on and the remaining runs that week felt very difficult, just a slog through the miles as my body had very little energy & my lungs would be coughing up stuff both during, and most certainly after my runs. Race day came upon us (Angela had signed up for the 25K) and we both thankfully felt much better, although not near 100%.
Now, a brief description of the course. The Javelina Jangover 50K runs on the Pemberton Loop in the McDowell Mountain Park and is a night race, with the 50K starting at 7:30pm. This Pemberton Loop is much of the trail used for the Javelina Jundred which is another reason why this race makes excellent preparation. The race website indicates it’s 15.7 miles to complete one loop of the Pemberton and then I’d turn around and head the other direction for the second 25K. Total elevation gain was listed as a fairly minimal 800 feet or so per loop. The loop’s peak elevation comes about halfway, so regardless of direction the first half of each loop is a modest climb, with a descent on the second half. My strategy was to go out fairly conservatively on the first 25K in order to have energy to make it back up the uphill portion to the one aid station at the halfway point before finishing strong on the final downhill section. I did have some time goals in mind as I wanted desperately to put together a good race for once that really showed my potential! I’d felt very confident that without sickness I should be able to finish somewhere around the 5 hour mark, worst case 5:30 and best case sub-5. Placing high in the race wasn’t my priority but I figured a top 10 finish was reasonable based on what I saw from results in past years. Another noteworthy point about the Javelina Jangover is that the 75K starts half an hour before at 7:00 and the 25K half an hour afterwards at 8:00pm. While each race does have different bib colors it’s quite difficult, especially at night, to see what race people are running so determining one’s place in the race is hard.
Angela and I arrived at the venue with the perfect amount of time to get my timing chip/bib, foam roll quickly, and get situated to tackle the race. At the start I took it casually, letting a group of 8-10 runners head out in front of me and settling in behind another runner who was right at about a 9:00 minute per mile pace. The opening two miles are a bit rolling but more downhill than up so I was more than happy to stay conservative. Just about the 2 mile mark when the trail starts to head uphill I passed the runner in front of me as I could tell he felt uncomfortable with me right behind him. It quickly became apparent I was a stronger climber as he fell back and I wouldn’t see him until turning around to head the other direction. The third mile has the biggest elevation gain of over 200 feet in that one mile, followed by four consecutive 125 foot climbs over some fairly rocky terrain. I kept telling myself to run at a comfortable pace and not to worry if I needed to slow down or even walk. My climbing has gotten so much better that I never walked and felt very comfortable the entire time. Right at the top of these climbs, at the steepest and rockiest section, I passed two more people that I believed were in the 75K before coming to another short downhill section that gave me a nice break from the exertion of running uphill. These next few miles overall were fairly rolling, although more uphill than down still and eventually let to the Granite Tank Aid Station at just over 8.5 miles.
I rolled into the aid station, refilled one handheld with water since the other one I was using still had plenty of Gatorade, and headed out very quickly. Spending the minimum amount of time possible at aid stations is something I’m certainly working on. The halfway point at the start/finish was just under 7 miles away and the vast majority was a fairly gentle downhill. I fell into a pretty good groove running those miles in about an 8:40-8:50 pace, not pushing at all. In this stretch I passed some more people and got passed by a couple of the 25K leaders, including Art Degraw who won with a new CR. As I crossed the timing mat at the halfway point I was at 2:19:13, feeling very good with that time, knowing I hadn’t pushed hard at all and didn’t walk a step. Again I refilled my water handheld but not the Gatorade as it still had enough to make it back to the aid station again. Off I went back up the trail feeling confident.
Within two miles I began to feel a bit fatigued though. It wasn’t so much my legs being tired as just a general body fatigue. I wasn’t feeling too hot from the temperature, so I think it stemmed from still being a bit sick. This was the feeling I’d had on my runs earlier in the week, just zapped of energy. Angela was running the 25K and I was hoping to run without walking until I at least saw her. Now, the trail was also heading slightly back uphill until the Granite Tank Aid which certainly impacted the difficulty. Even so, I knew early on the return journey it would be a bit of a struggle finishing this one off well. Eventually I came across Angela, right after I took my first walk break. She was struggling herself unfortunately, still not fully recovered from her sickness either. After leaving her I alternated walking and running for the next few miles, hiking the ups and trying to run all the flats at least. This put my mile times typically in the low to mid 11:00’s with the slowest being a 12:24. Thankfully at this point no one was passing me so I knew I was still holding my own, but I had begun looking behind me a bit which is never a good sign. Right before the Granite Tank Aid I came up on another runner who happened to be a 50K participant. I came into the aid station right behind him and there was one other 50K male at the aid. This time I refilled both my water bottle and Gatorade, while also having a volunteer tighten up my headlamp strap which had begun to loosen slightly. I ate one potato chip (my only food of the night….yes, I do need to refine my nutrition intake before JJ100) and took off once more. This was my longest stop but still wasn’t very long at all really. The runner who’d arrived in front of me left just before I did, while the runner who was there when I arrived had left a minute or so prior, and another runner who was a 50K racer came in while I was in the aid. At this point I had zero clue as to where I stood in the race, but figured I was in the Top 10 somewhere. As it turned out, we represented places 1-4 in the male division.
The terrain leaving the aid station started primarily uphill and I hiked quickly up to the runner in front of me and passed him. However, hot on my heels was Miguel Moreno, who had come in to the aid while I was there. He passed me looking strong and we briefly exchanged a few words. He’d asked me how many 50K’ers were in front of us and I told him honestly I had no idea. The course was pretty rolling through this section and I knew I just wanted to get over the pass and to the final 6 mile point where it would be mostly downhill from there. I had gapped the runner behind me but lost touch with Miguel quickly as well, spending these miles all by myself. When I was walking I tried to make it a pretty strong powerhike at least. Finally when I crested the last major hill I breathed a sigh of relief and took off down the rocky slope. The trail still was more rolling in this section than I remembered from my way up during the first 25K. Even on these downhills my body just felt fatigued. It probably was a combination of the miles, heat, and most definitely the sickness. My legs themselves never felt really gassed though. It was a bit odd knowing I should be able to run but just couldn’t muster a sustained effort. However, these downhill miles were at least in the low 10’s to mid 9’s, even with some walking a couple quick full on stops. At the bottom of the downhill I knew it was just a couple more miles to the finish.
I felt good to have not been passed but was still wary of someone coming up on me as I really wasn’t doing much running at this point. My head was almost on a constant swivel looking behind me. I was telling myself that the placing wasn’t too important, more my time. I knew with about 4-5 miles to go that my sub-5 hour goal was very unlikely. This was a bit disappointing as I knew I had the ability to accomplish that goal if I was healthy. I still wanted to make my time as respectable as possible and while place wasn’t at the forefront of my goals, I still really didn’t want to get passed at the end. Eventually with about 1 mile to go I did see a headlamp in the distance behind me. I walked faster and then as it closed a bit more I was about three quarters of a mile away and decided I could run it in from there. Off I went and I felt pretty comfortable no one behind me would have enough speed to catch me when I was actually running and I would be able to preserve a likely Top 10 finish.
As I came to the finish line I felt elated to cross the line in 5:13:57! This was within the timeframe I had hoped for, even if it wasn’t my “A” goal time. Angela was waiting for me at the finish and after getting congratulations from her and one of our former TTR runners, Benedict Dugger, we moved to sit down and rest a bit. It was then I heard over the speaker the announcement of Stephen Woodall takes 3rd place male in the 50K. This was quite a shock to me and honestly I felt a bit emotional, knowing my hard work in training had paid off with a really good showing. So while my placement hadn’t been all that important, it was extremely rewarding all the same to finish so well. After just a couple minutes of rest and walking around they called the Top 3 men up to the podium to get our awards & pictures taken. What a night! I felt pretty good after the finish, just a bit hot, physically drained from the sickness & effort, but not really nauseous which is a good change from past races. I rehydrated with Angela’s help, had a little food and we hung around the finish for a bit before driving home.
I’m really happy with this result and view it as a great building block towards Javelina Jundred. That race will certainly test me even more! However, with any luck I can avoid illness and put in another solid effort for my abilities. Javelina Jangover 2016 was finally an effort I could be proud of and I certainly received quite a few kudos from my friends and family afterwards which feels great!
