I Died and was Reincarnated as a Turtle at the Georgia Death Race

I just hope it lives up to its name (spoiler: it does)

So last weekend I ran the inaugural Georgia Death Race, a 64ish mile ultramarathon/hike over the insane mountains of North Georgia. I signed up for this adventure after many peer-pressuring text messages from Rudy and Fletcher over winter break, however when I went to register on ultrasignup, the race was full (I have to say I was kinda relieved…) but for some reason I emailed Run Bum himself begging him to let me in, listing all my sorta okay race times and stuff like that. He HAD to let me in because I was SO curious (what??) about his race! So a month later he opened a few more spots and I grabbed on ASAP. So that was happening.

Suddenly, Friday came, and we left town. I felt like I was embarking on an adventure, not going to a race. That was a promising feeling. BRING IT, GDR. Rachel is coming for you.

We checked in, met up with our friends, grabbed some food, and settled in to the cabin around 10pm, realizing that we had to be up and ready to go in about 5 hours. Crazy. I managed to sleep pretty well, and felt extremely refreshed when my alarm went off at 2:45am. I grabbed my mandatory gear (most of it…) and we were all off to the start line!

It was WARM! Wow! Like SUPER WARM! It felt SO GOOD! This has been the coldest winter EVER in my short 18 years of life! All us Hokies managed to find each other at the start line before taking off, which was awesome (so cool that there were 6 of us out on the course! I love my running buds).  RumBum gave a funny prerace talk, just as I hoped he would, told us to go have fun, and we were off! Just like that this dreaded race/ highly anticipated adventure was happening!

I chose not to wear a watch, and just go by the sun/feel for where we were in the race. So I figured about…15 min in to the race, we hit an up hill. Run Bum was standing up it telling us we were awesome and should be WALKING. I love walking during ultras. So I walked, and we kept going uphill. But then we went DOWN and I was like “wow way to undo all out hard work…”
(you can probably guess how the rest of this report goes)

We went UP UP UP UP til OUCH my quaddddzzzz. Then we went DOWN DOWN DOWN DOWN til OUCH my kneezz were like STOP IT so then I’d walk.

We were all in a line, but someone would come up and pass us with some fancy off trail action, but then in a few minutes we’d catch up and pass, then a different person would pass us again, and then we’d pass again in a few minutes...It was like soul train.

This went on for quite some time.

It was cool being in the dark for the first 3ish hours because you couldn’t see how long the climbs were and just grinded them out. But also I got so eager and thought if I walked fast enough or ran fast enough downhill I’d get to the sun quicker (???) I was really stoked. Those trails were GORGEOUS (atleast the 2 ft  I could see with my headlamp).

I thought the sun was never going to come up. RunBum! What have you done with the sun?! It finally came up, and the sky was BEAUTIFUL!!!! Like seriously, WOWZERS that sunrise was no joke! The sun allowed me to see not only the BEAUTIFUL mountains, but also how high we had climbed already...super high. That made me kinda nervous, to have do so much vert already, but I guess that’s what I signed myself up for! Fletcher and I had basically been running together, but right as the sun was breaking I had to stop and pee, and I ended up losing him. I blew through the aid station and started up the next big climb around mile 8 or 10 (who knows) with a few guys I didn’t know. We chatted and had fun, then we hit a downhill and I passed them out of pure excitement. I ran by myself for a while, which was nice. I trotted along and enjoyed the sunrise and birds chirping and nice cool breeze blowing through the trees. Everything was going perfectly! I felt great, I was LOVING the trail and mountains, and the day was GORGEOUS! I was instantly in love with those mountains. And running. And everyone out there! If you are reading this, then I LOVE YOU! Seriously.

prettiness along the trail (Photo cred: Michelle Matys)

I started up a climb and suddenly noticed my legs were already kinda achy….oh well! I was mindlessly staring at all the trees and the blue sky way above my head of the top of the climb when I heard someone whistle at me, and sure enough it was Fletcher. I was so sure he was miles ahead of me at this point, but somehow I passed him? Weird. Anyhow! It was nice to have him back and he said he wanted to stay with me (yay!) so he wouldn’t go too fast and blow up. So we trotted along together, up and down and jumped over and limboed fallen trees and just had an awesome time out on these amazing trailzz together! It was so awesome!

The next 12 miles were splendid.

Around mile 25(27?28?) I lost all grasp of what mile we were at. The decent to the aid at mile 25 (?) was about 2 miles, and I was SO hungry by the time we got there. Those climbs just make you ravenous! So I ate a ton of pb&j, filled my pack, and was informed that the next section was long. KEWL. So we hiked back up and I was like:

Wow my legs…

Run Bum observing me and Fletcher in our natural habitat

But seeing everyones beautiful (and tired and already deranged) faces on the way back up was so nice!!! I love saying Hi to people when I am hiking/running. So we got to the top and kept going onwards. Our friend and 5 time Beast Series finisher (INSANE) Marc Griffin caught up to us talking about some knee problems and that he did not feel good at all. I was feeling in good spirits, as was Fletch, and the three of us ran together for the next section. Which was FOR-FREAKING-EVER. Oh man. I felt so good, but after an hour and a half, I was expecting another aid station….we’d been running, and told it was 6 miles away. So where was the aid? We were on pace? We kept going….and climb over the next mountain….and the next one…surely it was down this mountain?....nope…not the next one either. I had been eating and drinking, but the noon sun was hot and I was getting tired. I was also hungry and dizzy. It had been 2 hours. IT HAD TO BE CLOSE. I saw a massive climb coming up, and was sure we wouldn’t have to go over it. But guess what? We did. Marc had run out of water and drank out of a creek, I was dizzy and starving after eating all my food and Fletcher was leading the way.

What I Learned Here: If there is a mountain - no matter how big -  you will get over it, even in your weakened state.

WE MADE IT and I could not have been more relieved. That was NOT 6 miles. Idrank a lot of Mtn Dew and took cookies for the road. Fletch and Marc and I continued along together onto this much welcome road section. The next aid was soon after the last, only a TRUE 4 miles away. I was feeling it.

From there, we came across a swinging bridge and another big climb which didn’t seem as bad as the other. This is where the beginning of my downward spiral of stomach issues began. I had a good climb sorta…but stopped about 3 times to vom/other things. Where had this come from all the sudden?! This was NOT okay! I couldn’t keep food or water down and literally had to stop every half hour. It was so bad. I went from being so happy and energetic to dragging and dead. Everything was great, the course was just as I expected, and the conditions were perfect. What happened??
I don’t know, but my body was rejecting everything. With 23 miles left in this thing, I felt totally defeated. How was I going to grind another 23 miles out I couldn’t eat or drink? Even if it was going to all be on fire roads? I knew I had plenty of time to finish, but did I wasn’t to continue going? Was continuing going to do more harm than good? Could I die? Would I be able to mentally take DNFing my 13^th ultra, given perfect conditions and running buddies? I didn’t want the Death Race to beat me, and a 6 hour car ride back to Blacksburg without a spike would be so depressing. But was it worth it? I don’t think I said a word to Fletcher or Marc for about an hour.
We got to the aid at mile 40ish and I was in a lot of mental and physical pain. I didn’t know what to do, and everything on the aid table made me want to gag. I know I looked like I was about to either drop dead or burst into tears (and I felt like doing both), and everyone was asking me what I wanted and needed and if they could do anything for me. All I thought was

Please shut up and get the hell out of my face or I am going to vom all over you

I am always grateful for the aid station people and it’s nothing personal. I just really needed some space to confront myself.

I sat down while Fletcher got all packed up for the next 7 mile downhill stretch. I was pissed. I told him I didn’t know what I wanted to do (besides throw up and sleep) and he should just keep going because this is a race and at least one of us should finish. Sean Pope gave me a ton of electrolyte pills and some PopTarts, promising that they would make me feel like a champ in just a few minutes. Anything was worth a try. I eventually got up and started walking down the fire road with Fletcher and wasn’t sure what was about to happen. He started running and I promised I’d see him at the finish in one form or another, and proceeded to sit down on the side of the road.

A bunch of friendly people kept running/walking by and asking me if I needed help or anything. Well, yeah I did, but theres not much anyone can really do about it. I munch on the PopTarts and took all 3 endurolytes and just thought about why I was where I was (there is no answer to that question). A few minutes passes and one of my friends from these races came by and gave me a ginger chew. I had never thought about eating ginger during a race, but I love ginger chews in real life (because during an ultra you’re in an alternate universe) so I accepted the gift from him and ate it gingerly (HAHAHAHA GET IT?!). I thanked him, and he continued on his way.

I continued sitting and staring for another few minutes, and literally all of the sudden I had a revelation, a rebirth, a major come back. I thought

You are going to get up.

That’s all I had to do. So I got up, and to my surprise only half of my stomach was in a knot. I ate half of a PopTart and started running down the fire road. I was by myself, but I needed to be by myself. I felt so good! So suddenly! Ginger is magical. Don’t need no fancy processed stuff, just give me my roots outta the ground and I’m good to go! I even started passing people, announcing “LOOK AT ME I HAVE BEEN REBORN!” I kept passing people, and eventually caught up to my ginger-bearing buddy, bless his heart. We ran together and talked for a while, and then parted ways as I decided I wanted to catch Fletcher. I passed by Marc, who had also been reborn from a sock/shoe change. He told me Fletch took off and I probs wouldn’t catch him, but I felt like I could since I know how he runs. And whaddaya know, as I ran into the next aid at mile 48, there he was!

Thank you guys at this aid station SO MUCH for the bacon-grilled cheese. SO GOOD.

So back together, Fletcher, Marc, and I set off for the end of this show.

Due to pavement with 10 miles left, we started walking, and this quickly generated to a 10 mile hike. But we were all happy and chatting again, and no one was passing us…

And then we hit the fire road up to the next aid….and it twisted around, and around, and around, and aroung, and AROUNG until I got dizzy! Marc left us to get it over with, but we kept on walking. I think I blocked this section out of my memory because it started to suck so bad. Thank goodness my stomach was feeling better or I would have cried for the 3^rd time.

Finally at the last aid, the workers joked about giving us various psychedelic drugs and promising us we could run 6.5 miles downhill in an hour. I’m not sure which was more hysterical, but neither of those two events happened during this race!

We donned our headlamps and grinded forth into the lingering miles of our undertaking.

The downhill began with an uphill. What the HELL Run Bum?! (it’s not personal I swear)

We were walking anyways so it doesn’t really matter. We walked and walked and walked for an hour and a half until we hit a dirt road that took us to the pavement. The pavement brought a huge sigh of relief because it meant I could sit down soon. If we could only figure out which way to turn! There were no marking telling us which way to go! We went left and uphill…nothing…right and downhill? Nothing. Across the road? Nothing. Back to the dirt road? Nothing! We consulted our maps and a fellow lost soul broke out his phone to look. We decided to go left – cautiously – and ended up waving down a car. We asked the driver which way the visitors center was, and she told us it was right down the road, then take a sharp left at a stop sign. With these instructions, we proceeded, totally pissed and ready to just get this BS over with. We hobbled down, and a car behind us slowed way dawn and began shouting directions at us out his window. He told us the COURSE HAD BEEN CHANGED that morning and Run Bum Blanton was up the the last aid station telling runners about it. None of that made any sense to me – why not just mark the couse…whatever. We were ½ a mile til done. We turned left at the stop sign and began running. There were no marking telling us where the finish line was, so I began yelling “WHERE DO WE GO?!? SOMEONE TELL US WHERE TO GO SO WE CAN STOP!!!!” (I promise none of this was personal, it was all out of fatigue) and we were directed to run between these cars and then we could stop. What? Okay…so we ran there together and suddenly we were done. We gave our numbers to some guys and a woman handed us out spikes…

The most anticlimactic finish of all time.

I am still not sure if this was appropriate for the race or just another joke in the same vein as the “motivational” signs posted along the course (such as “Actually you’re nowhere near done with this climb! You should probably give up!”)….All I wanted was for Sean Run Bum Blanton to give me a high five and hand me my spike. But nope. Anyways, the deed was done, in 18 hours and 12 minutes. We finished the thing together. Happy. Suddenly we were sitting down inside and then on a shuttle back to Vogel. I fell asleep for most of this part. Then we were back in our cabin and I took the best, shortest shower of all time and passed out asleep.

And that was the Georgia Death Race/March/Joke/Adventure/Painfest.

What I Learned:

• ·         Don’t ever DNF unless you have literally busted an internal organ or broken an essential bone (i.e. your leg), because you never know how things can turn around in another few miles
• ·         Eating and Drinking are CRUCIAL in the 100k+ distances
• ·         I love going uphill on singletrack.
• ·       Doing a race that is so hard you question your ability to finish/cry/grind it out at turtle pace to the finish is much more rewarding that racing to win/PR/other time goals.

SPIKED the Death Race!!!

I enjoyed nearly every single moment of this race. The course was AWESOME even the parts I as cursing. I really like what you’ve done here, Run Bum! A beautiful and really challenging course a key aspects in any successful ultramarathon. I may even call this my favorite ultra I’ve ever run. DEFINITELY the perfect first 100k for me! I am still extremely satisfied and EXHAUSTED one week later, but that's not a surprise! See you next year?

Love,

Rachel Corrigan