After a very long drive, we arrived at Amicalola Falls State Park in Georgia, just in time for the mandatory gear check, pre-race meeting, and race kit pick-up.
We met up with another friend of ours, Ken, who is a fantastic long-distance runner. Ken joined us for dinner and would go on to run a very impressive race.
The Georgia Death Race is notoriously difficult and claims to have 40,000' of elevation change in about 74 miles. It is a Western States Endurance Run (WSER) qualifying race and even offers Golden Tickets for the top 2 male and female runners. Finishers of the race are also awarded 5 points for the Ultra Trail Mont Blanc (UTMB) run, which is a gorgeous 100 mile race held in the mountains around France, Italy, and Switzerland.
I earned my WSER lottery ticket at the Rocky Raccoon 100 miler in February as well as 5 UTMB points, which means that I needed to earn 10 more UTMB points to qualify for that race. I was hoping to earn 5 points at the Georgia Death Race and then, if all goes according to plan, I hope to get my remaining 5 points at the Canadian Death Race in August.
We stayed in a great cabin at the starting area of the race, which is at Vogel State Park in Georgia. It was conveniently located only a few hundred metres from the starting line, which made for a more reasonable 3:30am wake-up for the 5:00am start. Those runners that stayed at the finish line of the race had to take a 2:15am shuttle to the starting line. Before the race, we checked in and were each given a railroad spike, which we were required to carry for the entire race. The 33.3% of the field that would finish the race would then toss their spike into a casket at the finish line and would receive their finishing award: a rusty old railway spike with the words "GEORGIA DEATH RACE" engraved on its side. Very cool.
The race starts by climbing 3,500' in the first 8 miles. We started by climbing a good sized hill for about a mile or two, followed by a long descent, which was a lot of fun. We then braced ourselves for what is considered the biggest climb of the day, which was 3.8 miles and 2,300' of gain. This was the biggest climb in terms of elevation gain coming at you all at once but it wasn't the most difficult climb and it certainly wasn't the longest climb in terms of distance; that would come in the later stages of the race!
After finishing this first big climb we had some more downhill. I was hiking the climbs quite well and running hard on the descents. By the time I reached 25k into the course, my quads were trashed. I love downhill running but these hills were too steep for me to run efficiently. I was warned that running too hard in the first half could be detrimental in the long run. I planned on taking it easy, but I guess I didn't take it easy enough.
The hills were relentless with no memorable flat sections on the course. The climbs were long and, quite often, steep. The maximum elevation grade on the course is 106%, which is unlike anything that I have ever trained on.
The aid stations were good and the volunteers were exceptional. At one station a volunteer saw me take out a fresh pair of socks and, without hesitation, sat me down and removed my disgusting shoes and socks and proceeded to wipe off all of the dirt and grime off my feet before carefully putting on my fresh pair of socks. At three different aid station we were able to get a volunteer to do a shot of whiskey with us. I love ultra running! Although I didn't have a big appetite, my stomach agreed with me all day. I rarely ate in between aid stations, which were typically around 2 hours apart. At the aid stations I ate grilled cheese, cheese quesadillas, pb and j, and avocados, which I don't usually eat while running. As the temperature rose to nearly 20 degrees C, which I was not yet acclimated to, I was sweating more than usual and ran out of water on a few occasions.
I was fortunate enough to run with my buddy, Matt Lowe, the entire race. This wasn't the plan because we have different running strengths. He is an excellent climber and I am usually a bit faster on the downhill portions. I expected him to be long gone after the first climb of the day but I was able to stick with him. There were a couple of times where he got ahead of me on a steeper climb but I was able to reel him back in on the descent. Neither of us hit any significant low patches and we worked well together with each of us taking turns leading the way.
The experience was enhanced with perfect weather, a beautiful sunrise, a stunning sunset, incredible views, and great company. At one point we were running alongside a pasture just before dusk and I felt very fortunate to have the opportunity to be there, even though I was starting to suffer. Shortly after the pasture, we began the longest climb of the day, which took us a couple of hours. The climb was actually pretty easy since it was non-technical and the grade of the hill was reasonable. However, it seemed to go on forever. After climbing for ages, we finally reached a sign that said "1 more mile until you are there". About a mile later, as if to taunt us, another sign read "1/2 mile until you are there". Half a mile later, "1/4 mile until you are there". I was starting to question whether we would ever reach the top when we approached the next sign "Congratulations. You are here. 3 more miles to the top". I couldn't help but chuckle even though it meant that we still had nearly another hour of climbing to get to the final aid station of the course.
After we reached the final aid station, we had some runnable downhill sections, which we ran quite well. The final portion of the descent was brutal though and the runners had to move slowly through the highly technical rocky terrain. After reaching the bottom, we could see the finish area but still had some work to do. We had to go part of the way back up but this time we would do so on the very steep but smooth surface of the pedestrian trail that leads to Amicalola Falls, which was breathtaking- even in the dark! We climbed 600-700 stairs to the top and then ran the final few kms back down a different trail to the finish area.
We were then required to cross through the creek (even though there was a perfectly good bridge right beside us) to the finish line. We threw our railway spikes in the casket, had a shot of Fireball, and collected our finisher spikes. 18 hours and 45 minutes after starting, we finished the Georgia Death Race.
One of the most impressive parts of the entire day was the parking spot that my partner Heather had scored at the finish line. It was literally the best spot in the lot. When we finished, Heather was out on the course pacing Matt's girlfriend Jodi, who had a fantastic day and finished just over 21 hours. This was her first time running over 50 miles and she crushed it!
We got back to our cabin by 3:30am and slept until 9:00am. We quickly packed our belongings and then Heather and I went for a hike around the lake. We were on the road by 11:00am and decided to drive straight through all the way home. We arrived just before 3:00am and were asleep moments later.
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