Big Bend Ultra – 50 Mile Race Recap

It’s been years since I’ve written in this blog but it’s been years since I’ve raced! Last month I traveled to Big Bend once again to tackle the insanely tough Big Bend Ultra. I wanted to document everything so there’s no better time to bring the blog back from the dead.

I love this race. I love it for its remoteness, solitude, the majesty of the landscape and I love Big Bend Ranch State Park. Most importantly, I love the security that comes with knowing I can run in the backcountry of the park ALL DAY and still have some level of safety, which isn’t to say this race comes without risk. The course is so desolate, so isolated that if something happened to you it could be hours until someone found you. You have to rely on yourself, 100% of the time. That’s part of the challenge but it is also part of the risk.

I know race recaps can be boring (kinda like seeing someone else’s vacation photos) but I like documenting these things for myself to read later. You forget so many details with time and I want to capture as much of it as I can so when I go back to do it again I can remember what I did wrong! I’ve written recaps on this blog about most of the major races I’ve done.

The Boston Marathon, Ironman Texas, Rocky 50, Houston Marathon they’re all here along with countless other races, training updates, personal updates, and coaching tidbits that I’ve compiled over the years. Since Big Bend is always such a tough race it deserves a spot here so I can remember all the details later.

Enough chatter, let’s get to it. First some background info in the course.

The Course

The race is two loops: one 50k loop and one 30k loop. You run the 50k first, then you return to the Barton Warnock Visitor Center where you can access your dropbox, then you go back out to run the 30k course. The 50k course is long but technically the easier of the two. There is about 2800 feet of climbing that culminates at the furthest point out and then it’s downhill all the way back in (mostly). The climb in the 50k loop is gradual and most of the time hardly noticeable. The 30k loop is similar but the climbs are steeper, shorter, and VERY noticeable. The terrain isn’t highly technical but by the time you get to the second loop your legs are pretty much shot and you’re most likely dehydrated which makes everything worse.

If you add these together, you should have 2,800 feet of elevation gain but my Garmin (Fenix 6) registered just over 4,000 feet of gain. I’m not sure who to believe but I can say that my legs thought it was closer to 4,000 so I’m gonna go with that!

Miles 1-16

The race started at 5:30 am and a cold front had come through the day before. It wasn’t windy but it was COLD. 27 degrees F at the start and it got progressively colder until the sun came up, my best guess is that it got down into the lower 20s before it finally started to warm back up. When we got to the first aid station, 5 miles in, we found all the food was frozen. This race always has a cold start but this year it was much colder than normal.

I started the race wearing leggings (I would normally start in shorts), a long-sleeve tech shirt, my trusty black windbreaker, gloves, a fleece stocking cap, and a buff around my neck. It was forecasted to warm up later in the day so I had extra clothes in my dropbox and plans to change.

Miles 1-10 were pretty uneventful, other than it being very cold. I got smart this year and took some of those hand warmers you use camping and held them in my hands to keep my fingers warm which made the cold, dark part of the race much more enjoyable.

This is a relatively small race. Only 50 (ish) people started the 50-miler so after a few miles everyone was spread out and you were essentially running alone. Whenever I run in Big Bend I always take emergency supplies in case something happens or I get lost (an emergency blanket, hand warmers, compass, matches, and extra batteries for my headlamp) and my headlamp batteries were rattling around in my pack making an awful noise. At the first aid station, I had to take my pack apart and rearrange everything.

Around mile 8, I developed a cramp in my left foot, just below the ball of my foot where the arch starts. At first, it was mild but as the miles progressed it got worse. I wore my Topo Ultraventures, shoes that I LOVE but for some reason, they weren’t agreeing with my foot. There wasn’t much I could do about it though except to keep monitoring it and reassess after the first loop.

The sun finally started to rise around mile 6 but it would be about three hours into the race before I got some direct sun.

Miles 8-16 are in Fresno Canyon and involved a lot of traversing through dry washes. The footing was everything from beach-style sand to rocks the size of softballs. I did a lot of walking through here simply because I didn’t want to aggravate my foot and a lot of it wasn’t actually runnable.

I finally got some direct sunlight around mile 12 and by the time I’d made it to the top of the 50k loop (mile 16) it had warmed up enough to take off my jacket.

I packed my own nutrition. Some bagels, Tailwind, and crackers and was going to rely on the aid stations to fill in the holes. However, the aid stations were sparsely stocked. Some water, hammer gels (which I don’t train with so I didn’t use), pickles, Stroop waffles, and some orange slices. In past years they had cookies, flat coke, M&Ms, etc but didn’t have any of that this year. This made the nutrition a bit challenging but I’ll talk more about this later.

I took a ton of pictures during this part of the race, it was just so beautiful with the sun coming up and I wasn’t tired yet! Every time I turned around I saw something new and beautiful to capture! Fresno Canyon is my favorite part of the course, it’s amazingly beautiful and at some points, it’s easy to forget you’re in a desert.

Miles 16-31

After 16 miles of climbing, the descent back to the visitor center was amazing. It felt great to run downhill and get out of the creekbeds. I ran most of this (probably faster than I should have) because it just felt so good to run! This is probably the most uneventful part of the race. My legs started to tire around mile 27 but that was expected. No biggie. I have ZERO pictures from this part of the race, I was too busy running!

Visitor Center

I finished the 50k loop around 12:30 pm and by that time it had warmed up significantly. I changed out of my leggings and into shorts, dumped my gloves, and traded my stocking cap for a baseball hat. I kept my buff and wrapped it around my hat to keep my ears covered. Though I was no longer wearing my jacket I kept it in my pack because I knew exactly what happens in the desert as the sun starts to set. I would need it later.

The pain in my foot had progressed from mild to somewhat concerning so I also changed out of my trail shoes and into my Hoka Clifton road shoes which I’d brought along just in case.

After the wardrobe change, I drank a Lean Body, a plant-based protein shake, and poured some Body Armor into my handheld both of which turned out to be a mistake. I have used Body Armor before on long runs before and it never gave me trouble but there’s a first for everything. I was at the visitor center for a total of about 10 minutes.

Miles 31-36

This 5-mile stretch is part of both loops. The switch to the Hokas didn’t heal my foot pain but it did keep it from getting worse. Unfortunately, the Lean Body I drank sat in my stomach like a brick. It combined with the Body Armor and made me very nauseous. What I SHOULD have done was pour out the Body Armor at the mile 36 aid station and replace it with more Tailwind but I didn’t. Instead, I was stubborn about my decision to stick with the Body Armor and I paid for it in the end.

Miles 36-41

The Contobando Dome loop was where my entire race died and I thought I was going to. My churning stomach meant I had no appetite. I tried eating crackers in my pack but they were too dry and I was too dehydrated to eat them. The thought of anything sweet made me feel like vomiting and the lack of nutrition made me dangerously weak.

These miles inched by. Occasionally, I would glance down at my watch to check my progress. Though it seemed I only looked at it once an hour in reality I had only gone a half-mile. There were moments between miles 38-41 when I actually thought I would pass out. I got dizzy. I felt weak. I could barely lift my legs on the climbs and could barely shuffle on the flats. This part of the race was positively brutal and utterly terrifying.

Adding to it was the heat. We had a 40-degree temperature swing during the race, so though it started at 25ish degrees by the time I’d made it to mile 40 it was 65 degrees and in the desert with no shade that is HOT.

I knew all too well from my experiences working closely with park staff how easy it was to get into trouble out here and exactly how long it would take them to find me if I went down. Sometimes being overly educated can be scary!

The conversation I had with myself in my head went like this, “I am a mom. My kids need me. This was too risky. Doing this race was stupid. If I don’t die I swear I’ll never do this again. It’s not worth the risk.”

At this point I was no longer running, I was walking and just barely doing that, the little bit I would “run” was actually slower than the walking I had done at the beginning of the race when I was going through Fresno Canyon and climbing over rocks.

When I finally finished the last climb and got to the aid station at mile 41, I was so drained I could barely talk. I held onto one of the trail markers for a little while to catch my breath. One of the bike patrol volunteers offered his peanut butter and honey sandwich from his pack (which was insanely nice!) for me to eat because I badly needed nutrition. I knew though there was no way it would stay down, so I politely declined. But I did make a very smart decision here, to pour out what was left of the Body Armor and refill my handheld with Tailwind.

I knew it was only three miles to the last aid station and if I made it there I would actually finish the race. Making to the last aid station immediately became my goal so I asked someone on the bike patrol to wait for 10-15 minutes then follow behind me just in case something happened and then I set off.

Miles 41-44

Knowing someone would be around to find me made pushing myself a little easier. The rest of the course was downhill with only a few climbs up small hills to tackle.

Thankfully the Tailwind started calming my stomach almost immediately and the sugar hit my system just a few minutes later. I ran most of these three miles with a few breaks. It took most of these three miles for the bike patrol guy who followed me to actually catch up and when he did we had a nice little chat which gave me a bit of energy, the next thing I knew I was at the last aid station.

Miles 44-50

As I was approaching the last aid station I felt the first puff of cool air and knew it was time to put my jacket back on. While I was stopped I topped off my Tailwind thanked all the volunteers who’d been out there all day and headed out to make the final shuffle to the finish.

I ran at least four of these last six miles, taking short walk breaks just to give my muscles and my body a chance to breathe. This was nothing short of a gut job. It took everything I had left to make it through these last six miles. Lots of verbal groaning, moaning, grunting, and more than one curse word. I’m not sure who I was talking to when I was out there bitching, mostly to myself about how stupid I was to do this race again. I could see a lady about 200 yards in front of me, she looked equally miserable. With a mile to go as I climbed the final ridge, I saw the main road and the visitor center in the distance. It was literally all downhill from there.

The Finish

The last time I did this race I finished alone, in the dark. This time it was daylight and I was surrounded by my family and friends. My husband and kids were waiting for me at the turn into Barton Warnock. The kids chased me down the finish chute. The finish line video taken by the timing company shows me finishing but it also shows the kids chasing me which I didn’t see at the time.

When I finally crossed the finish line my daughter gave me a huge hug and I couldn’t help but cry. I had been holding back tears for a while and was so relieved to be done that I just couldn’t stop myself.

She asked me why I was crying and my only reply was because “I was happy”. She had no idea what I’d been through.

My good friend Rick had run the 50k himself and was waiting there too with his camera in hand, as were the park superintendents whom I’ve become friends with. Other members of the Friends group board were there too, and the guy I was paired up on bike patrol with back in 2020 when I couldn’t run due to injury. They were all there. It made something that was already special that much more so.

When I started running this race in 2018, I did it for the challenge of being alone but in the process, I’ve found friends who have quickly become family out in far west Texas who now I can’t imagine life without.

Post Race Assessment

94 people registered for the 50-miler, only half of them showed up, and in the end, only 22 people finished – I was one of only 4 women finishers.

Over the course of the race, I consumed 200-ounces of liquids and didn’t pee once. I took in approximately 1200 calories all day, I burned 5000. I pushed my body to the absolute limit of what I could do that day. There wasn’t much left.

As we sat around the campfire after the race, I again swore that I’d never do it again. My legs were cramping badly and I was so sore I could barely shuffle around. But by the next morning, I wasn’t in quite as much pain and I’d already started planning to do it again.

Honestly, I don’t know why. Maybe because I like the challenge? But I think maybe because I’m not going to be happy until I execute it as well as I know I can, which is about an hour faster? Either way, if they offer the 50-mile distance next year, I’ll be there. This time, I won’t make the same mistakes, but I’m sure I’ll make new ones instead!