Capt'n Karl's 30k Race Report

cross-posted on flotrail

Saturday night we drove out to Pedernales Falls to do the first of the Capt'n Karls series from Tejas Trails.  The races begin at 7 pm for the 60K, 7:15 for the 30K, and 7:30 pm for the 10K.  Katie ran the 10K and took fifth overall and three place female.  I signed up for the 30K, electing not to do the 60K, as we had a long ride on the schedule for Sunday.

I did very little prep work for this race.  I'd only run a handful of times since Comrades, and I didn't even look at the course description.  Luckily, about 5 minutes prior to the start I asked how many loops the race was.  One.  Oops...better go grab my headlamp and stock up on nutrition.

The temperature was in the upper 90s when we started, but luckily, there was a little bit of shade on the course.  I was expecting a pretty technical race, as much of the footing on trails around Austin is pretty gnarly.  Surprisingly, the vast majority of the course was very, very runnable.  The goal was to take it easy and just log the miles, which wasn't hard to do with the heat.  The first part of the race descended a down to a rocky creek bed and then turned into a long, gradual climb along the fence that marked the park boundary.  I really didn't feel that great for the first hour of the race.  My legs felt shaky, I felt low on energy, and pretty lethargic.  I walked the steepest of the inclines and jogged the easier ones.  Eventually the course wound back through the woods and followed some flats and downs.

Somewhere around the one hour mark, I started feeling really good and picked up the pace.  Uphill or downhill, it didn't matter.  After the first aid station, I looked to my left and saw an amazing sunset.  The sun was enormous and was a nice hue of orange.  I soaked in the fleeting moments of sunlight as I started bombing down a service road with some steep descents.  As I flew down, I tried to push thoughts out of my head of running back up.  After we turned off the wide service road, the course continued to slowly wind down on mostly smooth single track.

Eventually we started climbing again.  I walked the steep descents, turning on my headlamp as darkness was finally taking over.  Around the 2.5 hour mark, my energy was completely gone.  I slowed my pace considerably and concentrated on not falling.  Although the trail was still very runnable, the darkness provided the opportunity to easily trip over the few rocks out there.  Just as I was mentally getting exhausted and ready for the race to be over, I heard the commotion from the finish line.

Overall, the race was well-organized (as all of Joe's races are) and very runnable.  The biggest obstacle was the heat.  I got the feeling that I'm still not 100% recovered from Comrades.  The downs and flats felt fairly easy to run, but when I tried to run uphill, my legs felt heavy.

I highly suggest hitting up one of the other races if you have the opportunity.

Mule Shoe Bend 7/21
Colorado Bend 8/11
Reveille Ranch 9/1