I headed to Poteau Friday and caught a ride with Coach Hall to the race Saturday morning. There was a good crew from Poteau that competed in the race. If you don't know much about the Athens-Big Fork Trail Marathon the elevation chart should just about sum it up. I stole it from Tom Brennen's Blog along with another pic.
As you can see this is not a race for beginners! If you go to the race website they actually discourage people from running unless they are experienced runners. Maybe I should have listened to there warning, haha! Well, the race plan was to go out hard, because the first couple of miles are paved or dirt roads and flat. One other runner went with me. That was Nick Lewis. I didn't know him before the race, but I did hear someone behind us say that he finished 2nd at the Leadville 100 Mile Run. I then knew he was good. Leadville is known as the toughest 100 miler out there. When we hit the trail I let him take the lead. I figured I would chill on the uphills and then fly on the downhills. After the first downhill I realized that this was the wrong strategy. Nick was like a deer down that hill! I stayed with him, but I knew I better not let him get away on the uphill if he can run like that downhill. We then came up to the first creek crossing. I should have been paying attention to the trail, but instead I wanted to make sure I didn't take a swim in the very chilly water. As you cross the creek the trail splits and Nick and I both took it the wrong way. There are white blazes on the trail, so if you go down the wrong trail you will stop seeing blazes and know you need to turn around unless you take the trail that we went down. We saw blazes for miles!!! There is an aid station on the trail around the 8.5 mile mark so you would think once we got there we would know we were lost. The only problem is right around the time we hit the 8.5 mile mark the trail we were on crossed a parking lot. There were a couple of trucks there and bathrooms, but no people. Nick turns to me and says man we beat the aid station here. He also told me about a 50 mile run he ran where he beat the first three aid stations! So on we went! Nick had a GPS on so we finally turned around after we had run 14 miles out. We were having doubts about the trail at around 10 miles because it became pretty flat. As you can tell by the elevation chart it is never flat! Anyway, we ran back together and got in a good 28 miler. I wish we would have took the right trail. I would love to have battled with Nick! The Poteau crew did great! Tom Brennen came in first and broke his course record! Josh Snyder, who is another Poteau guy set a PR for the course and finished 3rd. I'm proud of those guys, plus Chris, Coach Hall, Kristen, and members of the Poteau XC Team ran the 17 mile fun run. That's right they call it a fun run!!!
While heading back to Poteau I look in my bag and grab my phone and it will not work. LOL! It was gone for good, but I have a new one now. Then when I need to leave and head back to Lawton on Sunday a snow storm hits! It wasn't all bad, because I got to spend an extra night in Poteau. I'm back in Lawton now and ready to start preparing for some spring track meets and the next big marathon in May!
See ya on the roads!
Matt
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