Arkansas Traveller 100 Race Report

First off, let me start this by saying I'm not known for my brevity. If you don't like to read A LOT, and read lots of details don't read this race report. I'm horrible about giving the play by play, but hopefully there is a good mix of emotion in the 10,000 word race report as well. If you want the condensed version just go to my last blog post.

When I found this race I had a very difficult time finding a good race report that gave me the details I wanted, so this race report is also for all those guys and gals out there than plan on running the Traveller and need a detailed race report to read.

There are videos in this report, so if you'd like better quality be sure to choose the 720p HD setting, because I'm not sure how to make that default. All photo and video credit is to Brian and Lynn Ballard.

So, with no further ado, here is my race report from my first 100 miler.

I was power hiking up one of the last climbs of the 2011 Arkansas Traveller 100. It was probably around 1am, near mile 80-85, and Brian, my pacer was talking to me about something. (I really don’t remember what it was) While he was talking I was just focusing on the ray of light from my headlamp pointed at the ground.

All the sudden it looked like all the little pebbles were popping like popcorn. They were jumping up and down just like watching popcorn pop.

Whether this was a legitimate hallucination, or just me and Brian kicking rocks I’ll never know, but I’ll always go with a hallucination, cause by gosh, I paid my entry fee, and I wanted my hallucinations!

I of course chose not to tell Brian about it at the time. The last thing I wanted to do was completely freak out my pacer during his first ultra.

Hallucinations aside, let me backtrack to Saturday, October 1st around 0415.

My alarm finally sounded and I lay there waiting for Lynn and Brian (my crew) to stir in their bed. Neither one made any significant movements so I hopped out of bed and turned on the light.

The race started at 0600 and the drive was around 40 minutes to the start. We stayed at this pretty shady Super 8 in Morrilton, Arkansas.

I quietly lubed up all the spots that could possibly need lubing and put on what I hoped to wear for the entire 100 miles. Over that I put some sweat pants, and light jacket and a beanie, because it was a brisk 45 degrees outside.

We headed down to the truck and I made my PB&J sandwich while Brian finished business in the hotel room and Lynn went to the Waffle House in the parking lot to grab us all some coffee.  

I downed the PB&J, banana, and a ClifBar while waiting for Lynn.

Finally, we jumped in the truck and were on our way. I enjoyed my small Waffle House coffee while I listened to the stories of people in the Waffle House from Lynn and Brian.

I had my headlamp on in the backseat and was double-checking all my gear and loading up my pockets with gels, waffles, and S-Caps.

When we made the last turn off, I decided to go ahead and lace up my New Balance MT101s. I wanted to wait till the very last minute to put these things on. I knew I was going to be in them for awhile, and didn’t want to have to wear them any longer than I had to.

I was surprisingly calm for my first 100 miler, but still a bit jumpy. Thankfully we arrived with only 30 minutes or so till the start, so I didn’t have too much time to dwell on what was about to happen.

I dodged inside the race headquarters to get my bib, and then hung outside with Brian and Lynn till it was time to head over to the start. I reluctantly took off my warm sweatpants, jacket and beanie, and traded them for some arm warmers and a singlet.

We walked up the inclined driveway to the road where we’d begin our journey. I said bye to Lynn and Brian and lined up a few rows back near my friend, and first time 100 mile runner, Ben.

The gun soon went off and I took the first running step of my first 100 mile run.

 
If you know anything about the Arkansas Traveller 100, they embrace the jeep roads. They make no apologies about the course. They use jeep roads, and that’s just the Traveller.

The course is maybe 2-4 miles of pavement, 8 miles of Ouachita trail single track, with around 90 miles of jeep roads ranging from smooth maintained forest roads, to completely unmaintained, grassy 4 wheeler track.

Altitude is not a factor with the high point being around 1,450 ft and the low point at 650 ft. The gain for the course approximately 12,000 ft.

As I began running down the paved road I looked around and Ben was no where to be found. I assumed he was going to run his race and I’d hopefully see him later.

I let the front runners fun off into the darkness while I probably hung back around 20th-30th place of around 107 starters.

After what seemed for 2-3 miles of paved road, we took a left onto a well maintained gravel road. I was running with people here and there, but we were all fairly quite except for some guy randomly singing out loud behind me.

The gravel road twisted up and down through the tall trees while I enjoyed watching the daylight slowly increase among us. I didn’t really need a headlamp here, so I carried my micro light that’s about the size of a pen. Once it was bright enough to turn it off I did and stuffed it in my belt.

Before I knew it we were at the Browns Creek aid station at mile 5.2. I refilled my one water bottle and headed out all within 30 seconds or so.

I opted to begin the race with one bottle since it was so cool. I easily drank the entire bottle and wished I’d had a second, but I was peeing every 20-30 minutes so I assumed I was getting PLENTY of liquids.

Few quick things I need to mention is that my nutrition plan was to drink ONLY water the entire race, while taking one strawberry banana powergel every hour and one Honey Stinger Waffle every hour. So I never planned on taking anything from the aid stations other than water for the entire race.
For salt and electrolyte replacement I took Succeed S-Caps. I started the race taking one every hour until my 16-17, then got to my regular schedule of 2 every hour.

As I walked out of Browns Creek aid station I could see the jeep road was turning uphill a bit, but had no idea how much.

Once we hit a significant incline I stopped running and began power hiking. The climb didn’t last too long but was a nice break after an hour or so of running.

We reached the Flatside Pinnacle aid station at mile 8.6, after around 500 ft of climbing. The aid station was at the start of the only single track we’d run on all day. 8 miles of the Ouachita trail. I refilled my water bottle and quickly hopped on to the beautiful single track.

I didn’t study the course profile too much, because I wasn’t too concerned about 12K of climbing in 100 miles, but it turned out to be quite a bit more climbing and descending than I had pictured in my mind.

We pretty much steadily dropped at this point all the way back down to the Browns Creek aid station that we’d come through earlier that morning. On this section I started talking with a guy who tried to be a NAVY SEAL. He was around 22 years old an we spend this entire section chatting about that.
He was going a bit slower than I wanted to, but I was enjoying the conversation and knew I had miles to make up any lost chatting time.

At some point, I pulled off the trail to pee, and my friend Ben came zooming in from behind us! This was a nice surprise cause Ben was running more my speed, so we enjoyed chatting about how each others races was going and were quickly in the Browns Creek aid station. This was mile 11.9.
I refilled my one bottle with just water and hiked out of the aid station with Ben quickly following from behind.

This section of the Ouachita Trail was absolutely beautiful. We hiked up, and up for what seemed like 20-30 minutes then enjoyed a nice downhill jaunt to the next aid station. The friend I had made earlier hung around for about 30 minutes then it was just me and Ben.

At this point I pulled out a laminated pace chart that Ben had given to me. I wanted to see what pace we were on, and saw that we were probably close to a 22hr pace.

The single track twisted through the trees, on the side of a small “mountain” (by Arkansas standards) and was just fantastic. Ben and I were living it up. It was moments like this, that keep bringing us back for more ultra pain.

I watched the 20 hour pace click by on my watch, but knew the Lake Sylvia aid station was coming up any minute.

Soon I saw the race photog and knew that was just before the aid station. I looked down and saw we were actually a minute over 22 hour pace.

This was a little disappointing so early in the race, but I knew there was plenty of time!

This was the first drop bag station and the first time I’d see my crew, Brian and Lynn. I was super excited to see them and could hear them shouting before I actually saw them.

I cruised into the aid station to witness ultra crewing at it’s finest. Brian immediately started taking my trash from me and handing me new gels and waffles. He was more focused than I was!! I took off my singlet and was opting to run the hot daytime hours shirtless. I left my arm warmers as well. I also finally got to pick up my second bottle. I had actually taken off my gloves and stuffed them in the leg of my shorts (seen in the picture above/my right thigh)

This entire time, Lynn was videoing! Before I knew it they were pushing me out of the aid station and I was walking away waiting on Ben to catch up.

Once Ben was with me we started running down a nice section of maintained forest road. Brian had also brought his mtn bike, so he rode down the road to take some pictures and say hey one more time.

After taking a few pictures he left us to running and we headed uphill towards our turnoff to the pumpkin patch aid station.

When Ben and I turned off we encountered our first section of “unmaintained” jeep road! It was definitely pretty rocky and uneven. All we could think about was how much fun this was going to be around mile 97.

We enjoyed chatting with each other here and just talked about anything and everything we could think up. I had to remember to eat every 30 minutes, plus down both bottles.

The rocks slowly faded and the jeep road got a bit smoother, but more overgrown. I glanced down at my pace chart and saw that we were still somewhere around 22 hour pace.

Before we knew it we were at the pumpkin patch aid station at mile 21.9 still feeling fresh and strong! I refilled my bottles with water and headed back out. I walked a bit waiting for Ben and then jogged down to another small incline.

We walked up this until it flattened out a bit and started running again. This section was really short and measured somewhere around 2 miles to the next aid station. It was mainly uphill with a nice downhill right at the end. We ran pretty much the entire section. It was at this point I really noticed that it was heating up and probably somewhere around 80 degrees.

We both pulled into the Electronic Tower aid at 24.4 miles at the same time. I refilled both bottles and started hiking out of the aid station. The volunteers told us it was a short quick climb, then pretty much all downhill to the 50K mark which was the next crew/drop bag aid station.

As we hiked out of the aid station up a short hill I could see another runner up ahead. We slowly pulled up with him and struck up a conversation. Before I knew it, I had to pee for what had to be the 4th or 5th time. As I pulled off the jeep road, Ben and the guy we met jumped ahead.

I hopped back on the trail and began running while trying to swallow my honey stinger waffle. The other guy had run off, but Ben was within ear shot. I quickly caught up with him.

The road hadn’t gotten a little rougher here and was taken a VERY noticeable down hill turn. It felt like we just kept going down, and down, and down. We were both thinking the same thing, just not saying it.

We were going to be going back up this climb around mile 85-90 in the dark.

We both tried to push that idea out of hour heads and enjoy the scenery. We were on a small four wheeler/jeep road cut out that was on the edge of a small mountain . The trees were huge and the forest was beautiful. The sun was high in the sky by this point and the temps were warming up. Every once in awhile we’d hit a small incline, but other than that, it was ALL downhill into the Rocky Gap aid station at mile 28.6.

I refilled both bottles and started walking out of the aid station. Ben took some extra time here so I walked out without him. Soon I hit another significant downhill so I began running, while waiting for the sound of Ben catching up.

The four wheeler trail got pretty rough here and there were huge gaps in the road where water would drain off the hill. I pushed the pace just a little bit and was quickly at the bottom of the four wheeler track and took a left onto a well maintained forest road.

I looked behind me and Ben was no where to be seen. I figured he was just behind me, so I just kept up the pace I was at. I could see a body of water to my right through the trees and knew that had to be Lake Winona where the next crew/drop bag aid was.

The road was rolling here, but the net was definitely down. Soon we came to a steep downhill and the trees opened up to a large opening. All the sudden I heard someone shout my name and looked up to see Brian snapping photos.

I took a right at the bottom of the hill and Brian told me it was around a half mile or so to the next aid station. He rode ahead and I was soon rolling into the Lake Winona aid station at mile 31.9.

I kept an eye our for Lynn and Brian, but had told them to try and park past the aid stations so I could check in and out, then refill my food. I refilled my bottles with water and headed out of the aid station.

Then I saw Lynn and Brian with two chairs set up off the road in the trees! Just beautiful. These guys are pros for sure. I saw down and they took after me like a true pit crew. Brian was handing me stuff from my drop bag while Lynn was videoing and asking the tough questions.

Within around 5 minutes I was restocked and walking back out on the smooth forest road we’d come in on. As I was walking out I realized that I’d forgotten to switch hats, so I tossed Brian my old hat and had him give me my other Brooks hat which breathes was better in the heat.

Brian again rode his mountain bike out of the aid station ahead of me and snapped a few photos as I walked up a hill. Once to the top of the hill I bid farewell to Brian and told him I’d see him again around mile 48 at the Powerline aid station.

The road began a fairly gradual uphill at this point that wasn’t too steep to run, but would be nice on the way back through later tonight.

Finally I opted to power hike instead of run and slowly started picking off other walkers that I could tell weren’t feeling to well. My power walk was 100% and I was moving.

Finally when we crested the hill I began running again and the views were fantastic. We were in the shade with a nice exposed section on our right with some lush lower vegetation. I was running at a nice clip, just enjoying the moment when I saw a truck heading down the road.

It slowed and I could tell Chrissy (the RD) was in the passenger seat. As the truck passed I couldn’t help but lean in and shout “Arkansas SUCKS!” in the window ☺ If you’ve ever been to any race Chrissy puts on, you’ll know exactly what this was about!

Before I knew it I was at the Pig Trail aid station which was mile 36.5 As I was heading into the aid station I could tell that all my waffles and gels were slowly catching up with me, so as I left the aid station after refilling my bottles I asked the volunteers if they had any toilet paper. Of course they did, and of course I used it about a half mile from the aid station.

That felt much better and I was now a bit lighter! The section of the race was pretty rocky, but was heavily wooded and beautiful. It felt like a slight downhill for the most part so I just enjoyed it, while passing maybe 1-2 people here.

In the back of my head, I knew we had a climb coming up called “Smith Mountain”. I kept wondering where it was on the course, but knew I’d know it when we got there.

Soon I was the Club Flamingo aid station at mile 39.4. I had another drop bag here so I grabbed a seat and replaced all my wrappers for new gels and waffles. Bottles were refilled with water and I was quickly out.

The jeep road took a STEEP downhill turn here into a low spot, then we started a nice uphill. Someone had caught up with me here as I was walking to eat, and we both questioned whether this was smith mountain or not.

We caught someone else and asked them. They said it was not, and that it was after the next aid station. This was reassuring, since this climb felt like a small mountain! The guy I was running with was Todd, and we enjoyed a nice conversation all the way into the next aid station which was Smith Mountain at mile 42.6!

I refilled both bottles with water and was out within 30 seconds. Todd had to take a few extra minutes to refill his bladder and we got separated here for a bit. I knew this is where we’d start the climb, and the goal was to run as much as possible.

I crossed under a bar blocking the trail, and was soon on a pretty rough piece of four wheeler trail. The best way to explain the trail over Smith Mountain is that it’s a lot of grassy lumps with rocks strewn about under the grass, so they’re very difficult to see.

I caught a woman here and chatted for just a minute then she started walking. I continued running, up until the climb warranted hiking. I maintained my strong power hike and couldn’t help but think about how good I was still feeling this late in the race.

All systems were a go, and I was showing no signs of slowing. At each aid station, I’d look at my pace chart and I was still around 5-10 minutes ahead of 22 hour pace.

All the sudden the trail flattened out a bit and I had some fantastic views to my left of the Ouachita National Forest. The trail went up a bit more then flattened out again. Before I knew it the trail began a downhill trend and I was now descending Smith Mountain!

Wow. That couldn’t have been Smith Mountain I kept thinking. That was a piece of cake. I guess the hype was exaggerated, because I was quickly into the BM Road aid station at mile 46.1 and they reassured me that was Smith Mountain!

The BM Road volunteers were SUPER nice and had my bottles refilled with water in no time. As I was walking out I looked at the mileage chart again, and we were only 2.1 miles from the Powerline Aid where I had another drop bag, plus the crew would be waiting!

This section was mainly downhill with some good running to be had. I passed someone else here and caught up with a nice guy named John. We chatted for a few minutes and ran together into the Powerline Aid station.

This was our first weigh in spot, so I headed straight to the scale and saw that I was at the exact weight I started at! Bam! They let me go, I refilled my bottles and walked out with Lynn and Brian to the truck where my seat was waiting for me!

Same routine here, replaced wrappers with new gels and waffles, then walk out of the aid station.

Here, Todd caught back up with me so we enjoyed chatting and running together for a bit. It was again, pretty much downhill running on smooth maintained forest roads so we really took advantage of it. We ran all the downhill’s, flats, and small inclines.

We were picking people off pretty regularly here. About 1-2 miles outside the aid station we saw a mile marker that said 50 miles! I looked down at my watch her and it said 10:10.

So, I’m not much of a mathematician, but  that puts me at a 20:20:00 pace for 100 miles. The pace chart I have on me says we’re pretty much exactly on a 22 hour pace.

I can’t help but think that this makes no sense. I talk to Todd about it, and we decided that the pace chart MUST be taking into account slowing down on the second of the race.

This meant that if I maintained the pace I’d run so far, I was on track for a 20:20 100 miler! While I had no intention of running that face, I felt really fresh considering. This was a huge uplift, because I realized here that I had and hour forty cushion on the second half to finish in under 22 hours, and I had three hour forty minute cushion to break 24 hours!

This was huge! I think this is the point where I really started to relax and just keep running. I stopped worrying too much about breaking 24 hours and just going as fast as I could without blowing up.

Todd and I just continued with what we were doing and enjoyed the good running. We soon saw the race leader, but no one else. About an hour after leaving the last aid station we both rolled into the Copperhead Road aid station at mile 52.1. The crew had come in to this aid station as well, so it was a nice pick me up to see them again so soon.

It was at this point that I shared with them what I’d figured out about the pace chart earlier. I think they found it funny how I reacted, but I was truly excited!!

After refilling the water bottles Todd and I headed out and were now on our way to the turn around aid station! 

The forest road continued with a slight downhill to flat trend and was still VERY runnable. We got to talking and the time started flying by. We both expected to see lots of other runners coming back at us, but there weren’t a lot.

We started speculating on whether we were in the top 10 or not. We continued running a good clip and started keeping an eye out for Todds friend Brian. (A guy I’d met back in April at the OT50)

We finally caught up with him just before taking a slight left towards the turnaround, and now there were three!

Around this point I started experiencing some leakage from my bottle around the cap. Everytime I’d go for some water, some would leak out all over my shirtless self. Finally I looked at the spout and could see a small hole in the rubber. (was using an Ultimate Direction handheld bottle) I quickly started using it in a way that no water was leaking.

Well, after about 2-3 more uses, the rubber “nipple” (snicker if you will!) CAME OFF! It just tore off in my mouth. So here I am with the rubber nipple to my bottle in my mouth around mild 57 and water now readily splashing out of the bottle.

I mention this to my fellow runners and started holding the bottle as steady as possible so more water wouldn’t come out. At this point in the run it was only an hour or so between aid stations.

We all three enjoyed the company and just chatted as we ran down this forest road between the towering pines. Soon, we crossed a low creek and the road turned upwards again. We all three power hiked up the hill and turned again to find more uphill.

I looked at my pace chart again and saw that we had just passed the 22 hour pace. It was at this point that I decided to try and make up a little time. I power hiked quick up the hill to find the turnaround aid station here at mile 57.9. I had another drop bag here, so I replaced all the goods and jumped back onto the gravel road and began my 43 mile backtrack to the start.

The downhill was nice so I opened up a bit. I knew that it would be a gradual uphill all the way back to Powerline. This section was also nice, because I was seeing a lot of familiar faces I’d seen earlier on the course, plus I’d get an update on Ben when I saw him.

After around 15-20 minutes I finally see Ben and he looked fresh! Awesome. We both felt good and were both still running WELL under 24 hr pace.

The course was VERY runnable here so I just focused on staying within the 22 hr pace and running as much as possible. After around 30-45 minutes I caught up with another runner and his pacer. He turned out to be a friend of my friend Willy.

I ran with him and his pacer all the way into the Copperhead aid station at mile 63.7. I was still around 10-15 minutes ahead of 22hr pace.

As I ran into the aid station I once again was greeted by my awesome crew. Brian of course grabs my bottles and gets them filled up while Lynn videos and takes pictures. As soon as I had water I began walking out. Brian walked about 100 yards with me here.

We all three knew that it was going to get dark during this section, but I opted not to pick up my headlamp or get a shirt just yet. (I still had my micro light from when I started the race which is more than adequate for jeep roads)

This section actually ticked by pretty quick. I played leap frog with the guy I’d met just earlier and his pacer. I left my light off as long as I possibly could. Finally around 7:45pm I pulled it out of my pocket and twisted it on.

I was now officially in the dark. Night running in the forest has always been something I love.

I continued my goal of running all the flats and downhills while power hiking up the uphills. The road continued to stay smooth and didn’t have too many climbs. Everyonce in awhile a car would come down the road (which they shouldn’t have), and it would stir up the dust quite a bit. Finally a lost lady (crewing for someone) asked me if she was on the right road. I told her no, but that it would take her to the aid station.

I tried to give her proper directions, but they were pretty sloppy seeing as I had never driven the roads and had been running for 12 hours.

After about 55 minutes I came to the left turn that would take me back to the Powerline aid station where I was picking up my pacer, Brian.

As I got closer I made an effort to enjoy the night sky, which was completely full of shining stars that I could never see near Dallas.

The temperature was starting to drop, and I was now looking forward to getting a shirt on, as well as my headlamp.

Within a few minutes I was pulling into the Powerline aid station at mile 67.7 for the second time. I came in and immediately went to the scale and found myself only a pound lighter than the first time. They released me and I checked out of the aid station. Lynn had parked the truck just up the road, so we walked out and once at the truck I sat down to refill all my supplies.

Brian handed me his water bottle, which was such a blessing. My broken bottle was sloshing water all over me and making me cold. Brian told me that he was going to wear Lynns Nathan vest. I insisted that Brian not use the vest and take his bottle, but he would have none of it.

What a crew I had.

We took our time here and made sure that we had everything we needed. I restocked gels, waffles, and S-Caps. I went ahead and stood up, and walked out. Brian came just behind me and we began the rest of this journey together.

A brief history of Brian and his ultra running background:

Nothing.

Ok, stop laughing now. Brian has completed an Ironman and been racing triathlons for 4-5 years now. (Not to mention he’s got some pretty good DNA) Brians longest run up to this point was a marathon in the Ironman. His second longest run was probably 20 miles or so.

I told him, originally, that I’d only need him for around 17 miles of this race. Unfortunately for him, I think we all knew that he’d be running the remainder of the race, we just never openely discussed it. We had decided before hand to make that decision when we got there. I fought mentally for months with the fact that I was probably asking him to do a lot more than he really wanted, but I could only hope that he’d love this as much as I do. I knew, that he’d never say no if I asked him to continue…. But regardless it weighed heavy.

Well, we were now 17 miles away from having to make that decision.

We walked away from the truck and Brian immediately pulls out the video camera! Awesome! He brought it! This turned out to be a great idea.

This was my first time to have a pacer in a race, so I was just as excited as Brian was. We spent the first few miles getting comfortable running together (despite the fact we’ve probably run a few hundred miles together in training! Well maybe ~100)

I enjoyed getting to describe to him different parts of the course. Since it was dark he didn’t really get to see the things I’d seen earlier. I got the impression that he really liked the fact that I knew the course so well. I’d constantly tell him, “we’re taking a slight right up here with a small incline, then a sharp left onto some rough 4X4 trail”.

After about 2 miles we came to the BM Road aid station at mile 69.7. These people are SO nice. I joked with them again about how Smith Mountain wasn’t really a mountain and chatted as long as Brian would permit! We quickly headed back out after I had my bottles refilled with water.

This was Brians first ultra aid station, so he got a feel here for how they work when on the run. From here I told him that it’s a quick little climb up Smith “Mountain” and then a sorta sketchy downhill with the grassy rock laden four wheeler trail.

As soon as we hit a significant uphill we started power hiking. This is where Brian got his first taste of my power hike! This really was a great time for both of us, as I taught him about how to attack certain types of terrain and how you use your momentum from any downhill whatsoever.

We enjoyed good conversation all the way to the top. Soon the trail leveled out just like before and within a few minutes we were heading back down hill.

Brian opened up a bit here and got a few yards ahead of me. I let him enjoy the trail downhill while following his foot placement in the grass. It was a lot of running here so I knew we would be making up some time.

The next aid station as the Smith Mountain aid where they played all the disco music. I told him that we’d be able to hear this aid station way before we saw it. It was also here that we started to see another light bobbing around ahead of us. I liked this, because it was reassuring to know that we were still passing people so late in the race.

We passed them just as we came into the Smith Mountain aid station. We were now at mile 73.2. I refilled both my bottles with water and quickly started walking out. Less than one minute spent in the station. I walked out while Brian finished up doing what he needed to in the aid station and soon he had caught up with me.

We both chatted about the person we’d passed. It was a female and I think we were wondering if it was the first female or not.

I rechecked my pace chart again and noticed that we were STILL ahead of 22 hour pace by 10-15 minutes. I still was totally shocked that we were moving so well. Everything was still feeling good on my end, so I was just going with it. I figured I’d run as long and far as I possible could. Until either my body stopped me, or the finish line. Whichever came first.

I told Brian that we had a rocky downhill here which we did and took a left onto some more glorious maintained forest road.

Not a lot happened here, but I do remember seeing a headlamp bobbing around in front of us. Then we noticed another one. Looked like a runner and their pacer. We were power hiking faster, but they were running faster.

We came to a nice steady climb and I power hiked well up it. It was here that I noticed Brian wasn’t walking as fast as I was. Instead he’d walk until he fell back a ways, then he’d run to catch up and repeat. It was a huge boost to have him compliment my power hiking so much.

Soon we caught up with the headlamp. It was VERY motivating to me each time they’d turn around and look for us. It was so obvious each time the headlamp would turn around and peer back to see if we’d gained. I kept making it a point when I’d see a headlamp turn around to look for us, to find them. To catch them.

As I like to say, the pain train was moving, and there’s no stopping it now. Either hop on or get off, but it’s pulling out!

We said Hi and I noticed it was a female. I let her know not to worry, we’re both males.

We informed her that the other female was probably 10-15 min back now. We hiked/ran along side them for awhile, until she got back to running and dropped us pretty quick.

I kept telling Brian about how there was a REALLY steep downhill coming followed by a really steep uphill into the Club Flamingo aid. Turns out the downhill wasn’t as bad as I remembered in the daylight, but the uphill was pretty rough! We were greeted by a very friendly aid station volunteer as we hiked in.

Mile 76.4.

I had another drop bag here, so I popped a squat in the closest chair I could find and refilled my goodies. Brian went off to tend to his needs and we both headed back out together after no longer than 3-5 minutes.

For some reason in my head I remembered the next stretch being much rougher than it turned out to be. I thought running the same terrain for an O&B would be really boring, but it turns out it was a completely different course in the dark!

We rechecked the pace chart and saw we were still under 22 hours! If I had a any kinda of low point during the race I’d say this was probably it. Nothing went really wrong per say, but my power hike turned more into a walk here. A walk without much purpose.

Brian of course (like a good pacer!) caught on pretty quick and ever so slightly mentioned it to me. He said he knew it was slowing because he was able to keep up with me! This was motivating, but it didn’t change my hiking pace too much. My running was still good, but this section was pretty boring and I was starting to worry about Brian. Not on whether he could run the whole thing really, but on whether he was gonna stop at Lake Winona. (mile 83)

I wasn’t going to ask him to continue. I was going to have him make that choice. I just didn’t want to have to do that. This still weighed pretty heavy on my mind the closer we got to Lake Winona.

After awhile we caught up with another Texan! Brian knew him and introduced me. We talked for a bit and ran it in together to Pig Trail aid station, at mile 79.3.

I refilled my bottles with more water and left the aid station. They had a huge fire which looked OH SO inviting! No thank you. No way I’d leave a fire like that!

We looked again at the pace chart and realized we were still a good ten minutes ahead of 22 hour pace!

I got a quick boost when we started the stretch, because I knew it was VERY runnable, mainly downhill maintained forest roads! Not steep downhills you see, but the gradual downhills that you can really make good time on.

It flattened out after a mile or so and we enjoyed some good running. At some point I pulled off the road to pee for the 37th time in the last 14 hours (slight exaggeration) and let Brian walk ahead.

I turned off my headlamp and just enjoyed the beauty of Gods creation. Doing these races is a choice, so no matter how much it hurts, it’s a privilege to be here, spending time with good friends in such a beautiful area.

I finished my business in the brush and ran back towards Brian. We started running and soon were at the gradual downhill. We could see headlamps bobbing around ahead. This was, as usual, motivating. I thought about walking, but Brian was going to have none of it.

We were pushing the pace and knew that we were getting close to Lake Winona. Here, two trucks came by us and stirred up the dust really badly. It was SO annoying. I pulled my shirt up over my face and ran with it like that till it cleared a bit. I couldn’t see very well because the beam of light from my headlamp had dust all in it.

The second time someone came by I shouted, “COME ON!”. Brian heard this and probably realized I was getting a little annoyed.

I kept expecting for Lake Winona to be around each bend, but alas, it wasn’t there yet. Here, Brian mentioned the headlamp ahead of us. He said, “Let’s catch him”.

Ugh. Fine. We’ll catch him.

He knew I wanted to, I knew I wanted to, but I was still a little reluctant. I was afraid to expend excess energy this late in the race, but did it anyway.

We pushed the pace and kept watching him turn around and flash us with the beam from his headlamp as we got closer and closer. It was now obvious he was trying to stay away from us.

This was motivating. Finally, we caught up to him. Once we were about 10 yards behind he slowed to a walk, and said something along the lines of, “ I can’t hold ya’ll off any longer, I tried.”

We continued on and I was SO ready for the Lake Winona aid station.

After what seemed like 20 minutes, we rolled over a small incline and could see the lights from the Lake Winona aid station. We had reached mile 83.9.

I came in and shouted, “103 checking in”, and refilled my bottles. I immediately found Lynn and walked out towards the truck. I then realized I forgot to check out cuase I’d left so fast, so Lynn shouted, “103 OUT!”. Yes sir… 103 out.

I found the truck and quickly popped a squat to refill my goodies.

Lynn was also helping out another runner here (a very young first 100 miler) and I believe gave him some chocolate milk. The kid looked pretty messed up and seemed kinda disoriented.

I didn’t want to spend too much time here, cause I was getting way too comfortable, way too fast. I stood up and started walking.

Sure enough, I glance behind me and Brian is heading out with me. We didn’t even have to exchange the words.

He was coming with me.

I said a quick prayer thanking God for sending Brian and answering my prayers. We were now finishing this thing together.

We told Lynn we’d see him in a few hours at the finish, and that was the plan.

Brian and I walked out and I told Brian how this was going to work. I knew that the next section was going to be tough. Lots of uphill, with some pretty rocky, loose terrain, but once we were at the top it was almost all the way down to the finish.

I told him that we would need to run every single flat, every single downhill, and anything else that was even remotely runnable, cause we were gonna be doing some hiking.

We started running and I had a new attitude. I know felt like I could do this, and I could do it well.

Soon enough we took the left turn towards the uphill. I started power hiking again. Power hiking like I had before. Brian was having trouble keeping up, and I knew I was back.

Mentally I was preparing myself for this section all day. I knew it was going to be really tough, and now looking back, I think that I made it was tougher in my mind that it was.

It was a HUGE relief to find it much more runnable than I remembered. We ran everything that we could like planned. I told Brian that a right turn was coming and that it would be pretty rough trail from here up to Rocky Gap aid station.

This held true. As we turned right the terrain changed and took an uphill angle. I was still running and feeling good so I didn’t break stride just yet. I glanced up and saw two headlamps bobbing around.

Motivation.

We kept running. We I could tell we were going to catch them I broke stride to a fast power hike until we were just behind them. It was the first woman and her pacer. We had caught them again. We talked for a few minutes but they were going slower than I wanted so I started running again.

I mentioned to Brian that I couldn’t believe I was running, but I felt great. I wasn’t going to waste this energy. Within a minute or two we saw MORE headlamps! Two more were glancing back at us.

Motivation was everywhere.

I put my head back down and started running up the hill again. They were walking pretty slowly so we caught them quick. We struck up a conversation and hiked along for a minute or so.

Before I could even realize where we were we pulled into the Rocky Gap aid station at mile 87.2. I refilled my bottles and pulled out a gel here. Brian was out WAY quick and saw me sucking down the gel. He tried to pull me out here, but I wanted to take the gel in the station so I could leave my trash with them instead of carrying it.

The two guys we’d caught were already walking out of the aid station and I think Brian didn’t want them to get too far ahead.

I downed the gel and pulled out of Rocky Gap.

The terrain was runnable so we started running and quickly passed the guy and his pacer. We kept running up until the incline was too much. This was the beautiful section I mentioned earlier on the side of a small mountain with huge trees and great views. Unfortunately the views were covered in darkness and all we had now was our beam of light bouncing around on the ground.

This next section was going to be the toughest, but the last uphill section of the entire race. I told Brian to prepare him and knew if we could get to the next aid station ahead of 22hr pace we’d most likely finish sub 22.

The trail continued to be runnable. The time for this section was predicted at around an hour and ten minutes to the next aid station.

It was during this section that I noticed the first few signs of fatigue with Brian. I made a point not to ask him how the Nathan vest felt or how he was feeling in general. I didn’t really want to give him a chance to complain about anything being wrong, even though I suspected he had things going wrong as well. (pain, etc)

He was getting tired of all the rocks and at one point mentioned feeling them under his shoe. That the rock plate probably wasn’t think enough. I didn’t give him much time to elaborate and changed the subject to the trail.

I kept telling him that we’d know we were getting close with the road took a significant right and then we’d hit a section of tough switchbacks up to the Electronic Tower aid station.

Finally we hit the right turn and I knew that we were probably within 1-2 miles. Unfortunately I never felt like the switchbacks came. I was really power hiking hard and Brian was falling back on all the climbs now. In a way, knowing that he was suffering made it a little easier on me. It took my mind off the pain I was experiencing. I kept trying to encourage him and let him know that we were getting close.

We finally came to a gate that we had to go under and I knew we were a few hundred yards away. This was a glorious moment, because the course trends all the way downhill here except for a few minor bumps.

We pulled into the Electronic Tower aid station at mile 91.4 and around 30 minutes ahead of the 22 hour pace!!

Despite how we felt we made good time on those two tough last stretches and made up around 15 minutes.

Once in the aid station I grabbed a seat while someone refilled my bottles and chatted with the vols for a minute or two. I said we were making good time and one of the volunteers said, “you’ll probably break 24 hours!”

I couldn’t help but think, “Dude, I really wanna go sub 21:30…..”

I think it was also here that the volunteers seemed like they were trying to push us out of the aid station. We couldn’t have been there for anymore than 2 minutes, but Brian and I stood up and headed out.

The gravel road had one more final stand in the form of a nice steady climb out of the aid station. It lasted only 10 minutes with my power hike and we were now trending downhill.

Pumpkin patch aid station was less than three miles away, and at that point the finish was only 6.5 or so. I started running and had no intention of slowing. We took a right and then one more right onto some more well maintained forest roads. There was a quick downhill that hurt the quads pretty good, but then leveled out for some good running.

I knew that we had a left turn before we’d get to pumpkin patch. Brian and I didn’t talk too much here. I was focused now and only had one goal. Sub 21:30. I thought with the pace we were running now we were bound to make up some more time into pumpkin patch, but surely enough we rolled into pumpkin patch right at ~1:55am, only ~31 minutes ahead of 22 hour pace!  Ha! The pace chart had taken into account the fast runnable terrain behind us.

Pumpkin patch aid was right at mile 93.9. The course measure 100.3 miles so we had 6.4 miles left. A friggin 10K.

I knew that this section could get a little rough, but there were no significant uphills so we were running whatever we could.  We rolled out of the aid station and walked for a minute while I downed a gel (probably number 22) and some water. We checked out the stars one last time and started running towards the finish.

We just kept running and running here. I’d break stride for a few seconds on some rough terrain, then it was right back to running. I didn’t even think about Brian at this point. I was just running to the finish. I was hoping that Brian would take some of my energy and follow my lead.

Before we knew it we were at the 95 mile marker. I asked Brian to do some math (since I’m not known for my math skills) and tried to have him calculate the pace we’d have to run at this point to break 21:30.

He acted totally surprised that the goal was to break 21:30! Whoops. I guess I forgot to tell him that the goal had changed..

He did the math and said it was like ~13:50 (or something like that). He said it was “loose” math. I asked him, “Do engineers do loose math?” He told me at 2AM in the middle of the woods they do. Haha. Good times.

We had less than 5 miles left and I knew that once we hit the smooth forest road section it was less than 2 miles for sure. That means that we really only had around 2-3 miles left of this rocky four wheeler stuff. Brian was behind me cursing the rocks and kept falling back. I noticed this, but tried to push it out of my head until I couldn’t anymore.

He finally said what we both were thinking.

“You can go ahead of you need to. Don’t let me slow you down”.

Ha ha, I thought.

“No way I’m leaving you out here. We’re finishing this together.”

My goal from here to the smooth forest road to was to keep his spirits up and motivate him. We crossed a rocky dry creek bed, then onto some more four wheeler track.

We came up to a wet creek crossing which was unbelievably difficult to cross in our current state! It was an interesting sight to see for sure. We tip toe’d across the dry rocks and both managed to get across without getting wet.

I knew that the trail was about to get a lot rockier, but assured Brian that in about a mile we’d be at the forest road. While I could have run this section, I opted to power hike it and make sure Brian didn’t slow.

I was running on pure adrenaline and excitement, and wasn’t concerned at all about finishing here. I was power hiking like a true pro. Brian would occasionally run up to me then walk again. I’d drop him with my hike, then he’d run back up to me and walk. We continued this all the way through the rocky terrain.

I kept telling him we were almost there. I soon saw a car on our left up a ways. That was the forest road. We were close.

“Come on Brian…. Don’t slow now…. We’re almost there… Once we’re to the top it’s all smooth downhill.”

The brush opened up and we were there. I followed the flower arrow on the ground to the left and the trail opened up to the smoothest most beautiful piece of maintained forest road I’ve ever witnessed. I looked up into the sky, above the top of the pines, and soaked up the majestic night sky. This was the moment I’d been thinking about, and dreaming of since I started training for this race.

Brian pulled up beside me and was now running my pace. We pushed the pace a little and I reassured him that I was 100% sure it was between 1-2 miles left.

I knew that when we reached the Ouachita Trail sign, we were almost to Lake Sylvia, and that when we reached Lake Sylvia we were less than a half mile from the finish.

We continued running downhill. The conversation was still light. It was pretty much me letting Brian know we were almost there. I felt the urge to pee, so I stopped in the middle of the road and went. I told Brian to walk it out and then we’d run it in.

I turned my headlamp off and relieved myself in the Ouachita National Forest one last time.

Headlamp back on, and back to running. We were now running pretty strong and it was looking pretty good that sub 21:30 was ours! It seemed like it took FOREVER for the Ouachita Trail sign to come. I kept telling Brian that it had to be around the next corner. Sure enough, it wasn’t there. Maybe the next corner… nope. I think Brian was probably getting annoyed by my inaccuracies, but hey! I was 99 miles into a run! I can’t be held responsible for my lack of distance perception.

By this point I kept glancing behind me to make sure we weren’t about to get passed at the finish line. Brian said we were good, so I took his word for it.

We came around another bend and sure enough there it was. The Ouachita Trail sign.

I looked ahead and could see the lights from Lake Sylvia. As we ran passed Lake Sylvia and the gravel forest road turned into pavement I couldn’t help but look back and reflect on how 18-19 hours ago we were here. Going the other direction.

This was a great moment. We were both unbelievably happy. I was happy that we’d both get to finish this thing together. That Brian had now done his longest run ever, as had I.

I asked Brian how far it was and he said at least a half mile. I was convinced that it was less than a ¼ mile, but sure enough he was right.
We knew there was one last climb before the finish, and I told Brian we were running it. No walking now.

We could see the guardrail up ahead turning upwards. We reached the climb and pushed the pace with everything we had left. Brian turned on the camera and video’d the rest. I glanced down at the watch to see 21:25:XX and knew sub  21:30 was mine. The finish line music started playing once we were in sight.

I took the right turn and ran downhill all the way to the finish line. I crossed under the banner and straight into the arms of Lynn. I gave him a huge bear hug and Brian came right up behind us.

I gave both of them a huge hug thanking them for what they’d done.

The watch read a finish time of 21 hours, 26 minutes, and 3 seconds. I had covered 100.3 miles on foot for the first time. 

To the volunteers and staff of the Arkansas Traveller 100, I thank you for a great event and very welcoming environment, despite being from the terrific and impressive state of Texas. This is a top notch race and was exactly as advertised.

To Brian and Lynn Ballard, I thank you guys for giving up your entire weekend and devoting your time and energy to see me finish this race. I genuinely appreciate it.

To my beautiful wife, I thank you for putting up with my relentless training, and always being receptive to my crazy ideas. You are an incredible woman and make all of this possible.

Finally I have to thank God for the ability to do this. Like I said in my post earlier, I completed this event, not because I'm so great at what I do, but because our God is so great.

-Jacob