Colossal Vail 50/50

Saturday, November 14th, 2015

Vail, Arizona

3,000 ft. of vertical gain

Written by Stephen Woodall

The Colossal Vail 50/50 was a race that had been on my radar since early in the summmer. I had been building up my mileage again after coming off of dealing with a knee issue, training for the Javelina Jangover 25k, with the ultimate goal of perhaps finding a trail marathon or 50k. Once I discovered a local Tucson trail race that fit this requirement I knew it was an opportunity I couldn’t pass up. The timing also worked reasonably well in that I had enough time to build up my mileage if I was somewhat aggressive with my training. With a training plan crafted I was off and literally running.

Training for the 50k (which it should be noted is actually more like a 56k in that it covers 34.6 miles or 34.89 miles according to my Garmin) was a mixture of both fun and misery. Easily the worst part of the training was running long through the hottest months of summer in Tucson, with many days edging the thermometer over 100 degrees. Learning how to run 20+ miles in high heat was tricky, and there were a few days that I absolutely suffered from some mild heat exhaustion and felt terrible. However, my pace was steadily increasing and my fitness for longer miles was rapidly improving. I did get in two marathon distance training runs before the event and it felt pretty comfortable. Not only did those runs feels solid but my pace I was happy about (4:14:58 & 4:06:50) considering I wasn’t pushing as hard as I could yet. Both of those runs were also followed up by 15 & 10 mile runs respectively the following days. I felt ready to go, just the taper left!

Note: Here begins my “excuses/reasoning” for my less than stellar results”. I am owning those results though. Then bad news hit me the following weekend on the second day of a 15 & 12 mile run block – knee pain! Having just gone through issues with knee tendinitis that put me on the shelf for four months almost exactly a year ago, I was very bummed out. Throughout training I had felt little niggles and discomfort in my legs, but I knew this was different from the onset. Being two weeks out from the race I essentially shut down all running, testing it only once more before the Ragnar Trail race at McDowell Mountain the following weekend. Ragnar went very well and I was finally able to display how improved my fitness level was. The times I put up for my segments I was overall very happy with, although the knee pain was very real, albeit tolerable for these shorter runs. After Ragnar I completely shut down any training, hoping that with some rest I would be fine to tackle my first ultra one week later.

That next week my knee gradually recovered a little bit and the pain was subsiding. Race morning I woke up with expectations for a good day, until I started walking around the house getting ready and the pain was worse than it had been since the weekend prior at Ragnar when I had run hard. Ugh! I wasn’t going to miss the opportunity to take part in my first ultra though, so Angela & I packed up the necessary gear, got my two kids ready to go, and headed to Colossal Cave Mountain Park early that morning for the race start. One thing that I had planned on doing for my training but never got around to was heading down to this area and running the course, which mostly takes place on a couple passages of the Arizona Trail. Living up on the Northwest side of Tucson in Oro Valley, it’s over an hour drive down to Vail and the timing just never worked. I had studied the elevation profile though and wasn’t too concerned with running it blind.

The start location was easily found and I got checked in on race morning. The only aid station that was accessible to crew was the Gabe Zimmerman Trailhead aid station at mile 4.9, so I’d only see Angela & the kids very early and very late in the race. With a few words from Race Director Ross Zimmerman and Matthew Nelson, Executive Director for the Arizona Trail Association, the runners were sent off. The first mile of the race starts uphill, climbing out of the Colossal Cave Mountain Park area, before a bit of a rocky descent towards the Arizona Trail itself. Not wanting to go out hard in this initial climb I took it nice and easy but realized quickly that I was stuck behind some slower runners that made the climb out a total shuffle. However, I quickly got around a few of these folks and settled into a decent rhythm.

Just before getting to the Gabe Zimmerman Aid Station the course crosses the beautiful Cienega Creek riparian area which features some “real” trees in our desert landscape. Southern Arizona has very few actual large trees so this is a rare treat! A short uphill section out of this creek area took me to the Gabe Zimmerman Aid Station and a quick stop with the family. I passed along the news of how my knee was faring so far, which was not good, but soldiered on. From here the trail moved to much flatter ground overall. There were sections of gentle climbing and a dark tunnel going underneath the I-10 freeway, but mostly very runnable terrain. I moved along well until about 8 miles into the race and the knee pain became much more severe. My biggest concern was altering my gait as that had previously caused me additional issues, so I pledged to just try to run through the pain while keeping good form. That proved much easier said than done. At the next couple of aid stations I took some time to try and massage my knee and stretch out but it wasn’t getting any better.

The final push into the turnaround point was one of the narrower and slightly steeper sections of the day. Most people at this point were walking it. Not having done too much hill training and with the knee very painful at this point I joined those ranks. By this time there were quite a few 50 milers and fast 55Kers who were headed back the other direction. With the trail being a fairly tight singletrack up against the hillside here it slowed things down a bit but before too long I crested the hill and then descended the last half mile or so into the halfway aid station. I arrived just at the 3 hour mark which was on pace with my goal time.

I took a bit of time here to grab some food (loved their PB&J sandwiches & the fruit was very refreshing in the heat) and sat down for a few minutes of rest. In hindsight I may have stopped a touch too long in this instance. My knee issue has responded fairly well to some short rests but too long and the inflammation seems to get worse. Regardless, when I took back off I was unable to continue without limping noticeably. Still, I kept on going alternating some walking out of the aid station before running the next few miles of up and down terrain. This continued until reaching the next aid station. Still at this point even though it was painful and I had slowed down quite a bit, I was still able to legitimately run. Upon leaving that aid station though I was pretty much unable to get back to running. I like to think of myself as someone who can push through pain very well and who is mentally tough. However, there comes a point when unless it’s life or death I just don’t think my body was going to allow me to move in a manner that could be called running. This was very disheartening because I knew I was reasonably well conditioned for my first ultra and believed I could put in a very solid result. This second half of the race was primarily downhill and should have been a bit faster overall, even with it being many miles in. Instead I was left to trudge along walking, while trying to mix in some sections of running.

Before long running became completely impossible and my quick walk turned into a limp. I was getting passed pretty frequently as I plodded towards the aid station and the heat of the day didn’t help my spirits. Getting passed normally wouldn’t concern me too much as I know I’m not going to contend for any podium, but the fact that I knew my conditioning was much better than those passing me was simply deflating. Given the state of my knee and that I was reduced to simply a slow hobble, I was strongly considering dropping. I actually pulled out my phone and began to text with Angela a little bit, who was tracking my position on her phone and knew it had turned bad before I even said anything. Had this not been my first ultra and had my kids not been there at the race, I think I probably would have dropped. Even so, as I pulled back into the Gabe Zimmerman Aid Station and saw them I was unsure of whether I would continue. My pace was simply horrendous and the pain was excruciating with each hobble of a step. The popsicles at the aid stations were the only enjoyable thing during this period, as even seeing my kids almost took me down further as I felt like I was letting them down.

Finally, I decided to proceed to the end as I was only 4.9 miles away. While I figured I’d be walking this entire section, I did want to complete my first ultra and not DNF. Before leaving I had taken a couple of Ibuprofen for the pain and inflammation. These finally kicked in a couple miles later and I was able to actually put in a good hiking effort climbing up the uphill covering 2 of the last 3 miles to the finish. After cresting the top of that climb I was able to once again get a decent running motion going again! This was amazing to me and showed how much the Ibuprofen had helped to lessen the inflammation to make it bearable once again to at least jog. All semblance of goals were out the window and at this point my expected 6 hour journey ended up being just over 8. However, I did feel a strong sense of accomplishment as I worked my way into the finish line. Seeing my kids and Angela there at the end was great! At least I hadn’t given up and had persevered through intense pain to get the finish. While I still wish the race had gone more as I had planned, I didn’t lose any motivation to keep running ultras. I knew the recovery from this knee would not be easy again, and it so far has proved to be a tough struggle.