Cold and Rocky, a Bandera 50k in Five Fingers

This is a more of a rant than an extremely late race report…

I ran the Bandera 50k on January 9th in my VFF Treks. This was my second ultra distance in Five Fingers, the first one being the 2008 Hog’s Hunt 50k.
My Bandera 100k in 2008 was a warm race with temps in the 80s. This time, it was anything but warm. This was to be Paula’s first 50k and she was extremely excited and apprehensive. For a first ultra, she sure picked a tough one!
Paula and I slept in the back of the Xterra the night before and woke up to find ice forming inside of the windows. Needless to say, we did not get much sleep, but we did the best we could to stay warm until the alarm went off. It was too cold to get out of the blankets, so we made oatmeal and coffee in the Jetboil and ate some of my leftover birthday cake
The temperature at the start line was 9 degrees and we were bundled up like Everest climbers at base camp. I tried to look around to say hello to fellow runners, but could not recognize anyone.  I had talked to my teammate John Reynolds about running together. He showed up at the last minute wearing every cold weather item he could find in his closet.
The first five minutes of the race were on narrow singletrack, and I focused on getting my toes warm before getting a bit ahead of the crowd. Joe’s races have been getting a lot more runners, and Bandera was part of the Montrail Cup this year.
My plan for this race was to take it easy, I wanted to see how my feet would feel in Five Fingers during an ultra on this type of terrain. John also expressed the desire to “take it easy,” and we settled into a relaxing run. There was a short point there where I got excited and started running a bit faster, but John and Larry caught up to me as soon as I stopped to remove multiple layers of clothing.
In a nutshell we had a wonderful time and chattered away like a pack of squirrels. Larry eventually had enough of us and ran ahead to catch Olga. I had never experienced this side of an ultra before, and it felt great to relax for once.

Paula finished her first 50k and ran in smiling! I was very excited to be at the finish line to see her!

My feet felt great and I never felt like the Five Fingers impeded my run. Now, if this were Cactus Rose, I think the distance combined with the rocks would eventually wear and make this a difficult endeavor. My overall take on it is: If you want to race an ultra like Bandera above 50k on rocky terrain, you probably want to stick with a minimalist shoe such as the NB MT100′s. However, on an easier course such as Rocky Raccoon, I could see racing with Five Fingers as a great option.

More blog entries coming soon. There has been a whole lot going on lately, and I promised myself and Paula I would blog more often.

Still Pending
-Shoe Review for Kigo Shel’s (Austin Marathon)
-Trail Speed + Agility Classes I am teaching
-POSE Method of running, integrated on trails?
-REI and Trail Clinics

Tagged as: Five Fingers, Kigo, New Balance MT100, Paula, POSE Method, Team Traverse, Tejas Trails, ultramarathon, ultrarunner