21 year old and neophyte ultra runner, Drew Crowley, debuted at his first-ever race on trails and first ultra this past Saturday at the Holiday Lake 50K++ in Appomattox, Virginia.  Based upon his results, it appears this Animal is a natural.

I traveled to ol’ Virginny last Friday to meet up with Drew and travel over to Appomattox to run the Holiday Lake 50K++ together.   David Horton, a legend in the ultrarunning community, was the race director and host.  He put on a first-class affair and his warmth and kindness was infectious.  Thanks to David for supplying Drew and I with warm and cozy sleeping bags.  We selected Cabin 12 on the YMCA campus and enjoyed a beautiful crisp and cool night all to ourselves - electing to sleep out in the cold verses in the heated confins of the bunk house.  Except for the howling dogs and a few late night Hokies (many of the Virginia Tech cross country team came to compete) we slept soundly.

This was to be Drew’s first ultra. In fact, it was only the second running race he’s ever attempted - the first being a 5 miler road race some five years ago.  Drew wants to pace me at Western so I agreed under the condition he demonstrate he could run a long distance on the hilly trails, at a good pace.  Boy did he deliver, but I must admit, as he pulled away from me at mile 3.5 and started to press the pace early in the day, the above lyrics immediately began playing in my head.  We had gone over the race plan on a number of training runs together and my sage advice was, “Start back in the pack, relax, take it slow and let others go out too fast - you’ll enjoy seeing them in your rear view mirror on the way home.”  He seemed to “get it” I thought to myself, but did his exuberance get the better of him and is he now going to pay for it towards the end of the run - experiencing the “joy of pain” every ultra runner contends with from time to time?  I’d have to wait and see how he was doing at the turn around (a 16.7 mile loop course - clockwise, then counterclockwise on loop two).

For myself, it was another opportunity to gain some valuable mileage and test my fitness a bit.  Overall, I felt satisfied with the result - a 5:10 (64th place out of 160 and 4th in age group) and adjusted for an actual 50K (the “++” in the race name is an extra 2.5 miles making it 33.5 miles vs. 31)  I ran a 4:47 50K which is the best time I’ve turned in since 1996.

But the bigger story of the day was Drew’s accomplishment.  It’s hard enough to finish an ultra.  But to finish the way he did and how he managed his race plan was remarkable.  He came in 35th place, a 4:52 time which corrected for a

true 50K was 4:30.  That’s an 8:42 pace - smokin’.   What is even more impressive is the way he managed his eating, drinking, aid stations and pacing.  He also helped a runner in need along the way and launched onto a couple of mates who he helped pace, then they returned the favor during the hard middle miles.  He even encountered a severe hamstring crap with less than 4 miles to go and had to figure out how to outsmart his body which was saying, “Quit you idiot!” and overcome the urge to pull up short of his goal.

Drew passed me just beyond the turnaround - about 2 minutes ahead, and he looked focused and in good shape.  He was clearly working hard.  He actually did negative split and gained another 16 minutes on me over the last 16.7 miles.

He really did heed my advise and ran a near perfect race.  His late mile cramps probably were caused by his electing to skip the last aid station and running out of water a bit early.  He also slowed down consuming Gu and never reached for the electrolyte tabs because he didn’t want to take the time to mess with his pack - he got a running rhythm going and can hardly blame him for not wanting to interrupt the flow..

I know Drew feels a tremendous amount of satisfaction in his achievement - well deserved.  I’m proud of his courage to take a risk, try something new and live life to its fullest - a true Trail Animal.