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Bobcat Marathon Race Recap
Sun, 11/08/2009 - 20:21 — Mark
This weekend I headed to the inaugural Bobcat Trail Marathon. Located just outside of “nowhere”, Burr Oak Sate Park is a diamond in the rough for trail runners. With over 35 miles of trails you are bound to find some good running.
Once arriving at the park, checking in, and doing a quick little “loosen up” run it was time to head down to packet pick-up and get some food. For those of us staying at the park, they had everything you need.
After packet pick-up, runners were treated to an all-you-can-eat pasta dinner (well it was $12.00) or you could eat from the menu at the lodge restaurant. After dinner, I headed back to my cabin to relax and watch a little TV.
The 8am race start is about the only nice thing the race director had up his sleeve. After brief instructions, and the National Anthem presented by the OU ROTC we were ready to head out.
With only the first 0.8 and last 0.8 miles on the road and a few other spots in-between, the remaining miles were the most challenging trails I have ever run! The course was filled with hills, roots, rocks, hills and more of the same. It was by far the toughest course I have ever raced, and to put it in comparison the marathon took longer to complete than the last Buckeye Trail 50k I ran. Challenging yes, but the course was absolutely beautiful as it circled the entire Burr Oak Lake and never went far from the shoreline.
Aid stations were placed approximately every 3.5 miles and had everything you could imagine including PB&J, cookies, potato chips (my favorite), PowerBar Gel, water and lots more. They definitely did a great job stocking the stations, and the volunteers were outstanding.
Once across the finish it was all first class, as volunteers were there to hand you water, fluid replacement, anything else you needed and escort you over to your finisher’s sweatshirt. Yes a sweatshirt … no more medals.
Once done, the folks at Burr Oak Lodge extended the “late check-out” for the rooms and cabins until 2:00 p.m. For those of us with a long drive home it was much appreciated.
Overall a great experience, a great race and some really sore muscles. If you plan on participating in this race next year, I suggest multiple long runs in the 4 plus hour range. Yes 4 hours!
Comments
My Take on the "Bobcat Trail Marathon"
Once again a job well done by Vince Rucci. The weekend trip ended up being well worth the time as the weather was perfect and the race phenominal. Going into the event I was planning a stronger finish but at mile 23 my goal was to do just that... finish.
It was nice to walk out the front door of the lodge right up to the starting line and after a quick five minute warmup jog it was just a couple of minutes until the starting horn sounded off. All the runners were gathered and ready in the cool clear morning. As Vince made the final countdown the horn sounded and we were off. After a short distance on some nice road inclines we were off into the wooded trail.
As we entered into the first segment the group was thick as people ran along the single lane trail jockying for position and using that initial burst of adrenanline to build pace. As we made our way deeper into the trails we could see the lake and from that point on it was always there. It was a great ally as you made your away across this beautiful terrain. The trails were winding and the hills were steep. The hazards were not for the faint at heart as you would find roots and rocks continuously under the cover of the dense fall foliage now submerging the path.
It was always a relief to approach an aide station knowing I needed to rehydrate and refuel. As I passed the mile 21 station I felt a sigh of relief knowing that five grueling miles until the finish. I pushed hard but Vince had planned to challenge us to the extreme for this last section. Making my way through this portion of the race we were fed a steady diet of "hills". I would think ahh at last another one down only to see across the ravine a hill twice as long and just as steep. But as I looked around I marveled at the beautiful landscape as the sun pressed the dense forest colors and reflected brightly over the lake as a guiding light to the finish.
Once I recognized the final pass through the forest I pushed with everything I had left to bring in a solid finish. After I made it out to the street I glided in with a heavy pace to the finish line. I have run the Summer BT50k and though my time here was better this terrain provides an extreme challenge and I strongly recommend for all trail runners of every caliber to put themselves to the challenge of "The BOBCAT"! This will be one race you will never forget, this was a 26.2 miler and 1st place made it in 4hr 15min... nice work VR looking forward to next year!
Well stocked aid stations every 3.5 miles ...are you kidding?
There was no aid stations between mile 12.1 and mile 21. Nothing. No water, no drinks, no fuel nothing. It killed me. There were supposed to be 2 aid stations, one at 14.3, and another at 18.3. But there was nothing. I am surprised no one died!