The other day I was saying to my Mom that my lack of preparation and careful consideration of the rigors of climbing Mount Kilimanjaro didn’t even crack the top five dumbest things I’ve ever done. She asked me what DID make the list and while I wasn’t entirely sure of what were 2-5, I did know without question that the polar plunge in Antarctica was, is, and always will be the “dumbest thing f’ing I’ve ever done” (Radio Edit).
Where the Carolina Reaper Challenge falls on that list is open to debate… but I can tell you that mistakes were made. Many mistakes were made.
The Carolina Reaper consists of ten 2.62 mile loops, with each loop being set off every 40 minutes via the race director’s large clanging cowbell. I drove up from Florida the morning of because the first loop wasn’t scheduled to start until 2 PM and the tenth, final loop would therefore be run at 8 PM until 8:40 PM. I knew it was going to be a long day but figured I run marathons and could handle a series of 2.62 mile laps. Arrogance does not become me, yet I sport it often.
It appeared like the 100-ish of us running the marathon loops, and the 300 who would join at 5-ish to run the half marathon loops, lucked out as the sky was overcast and the mercury seemed content to top out in the low 80s, well beneath the long-term forecast that was calling for close to 100s and blue sky sun. The first loop in fact seemed to be downright pleasant with a gentle breeze, even if we did rather ominously run past an in-progress funeral at the cemetery section of the course.
By the second loop, the wind had fallen to nothing and the clouds had blown off, leaving large stretches of open ground and a pelting, brutal sun baking us and the humidity to boot. I was always far too warm and dripping to take photos on the run but did try and snap shots either before or after each loop:
One of the mistakes I made was in nutrition. I hadn’t really banked on “carbo loading” or really any kind of food prep for the long day’s journey into night that the challenge represented. I definitely didn’t eat right before or during the race.
As the Carolina Reaper namesake for the event is the World Record holding Hottest Pepper In The Land, a local vendor was selling commemorative hot sauces to participants. He also offered a “one-chip challenge.” The chip was free, but a glass of milk after the fact was $5. In honor of the mileage we were undertaking, he took 26 of the hottest peppers and spices known to man, woman, and child and mixed them all together. He took home made tortilla chips and sprayed them with olive oil, the better to have the 26-peppered seasoning stick. I had seen a guy endure the challenge before the race started and promised the guy I’d give it a go before the end of the day. I thought about doing it at the halfway point, 5 loops in, as a means to jumpstart my pace with a 26-alarm explosion of heat. Rocket fuel for the foolish. I was certainly feeling it by mile 13.1 and was going to skip out on the taste test challenge until after the race was done… but the guy had a family emergency and was going to have to leave early. It was as they say then now or never. And so while I’m not sure this counts as a top-five dumbest things I’ve ever done, the one-chip challenge is certainly one of the most RECENT dumbest things I’ve ever done.
I thought as hot as I was that maybe the one chip heat would help alleviate some of the heat, a fighting fire with fire strategy. In truth, the slow build of the 26-pepper concoction exploded progressively and while the guy I saw take up the challenge before the event said he was feeling better within 5-10 minutes, for me it took an entire loop of the course to find any kind of relief… and even then my stomach felt like it was co-starring in Ron Howard’s “Backdraft” fire fighter movie. I never really recovered from it, with each successive loop of the course getting harder and harder, and slower and slower. I suspect it wasn’t ALL chip-challenge related. Despite my best efforts to stay hydrated and to douse my head with water or ice chips when time allowed, I think I was severely overheated throughout the afternoon and into the evening.
On top of that, the other mistake I made was using any “recovery” time between loops I finished in under 40 minutes to focus on ice and water breaks. I should have stretched out my muscles between each loop rather than trying to cool off and bring my core temperature back to something under the surface of the sun. Going from full-tilt run to standing still meant my muscles tightened up and didn’t know what to make of this start/stop torture… er, I mean, routine.
Whatever the reasons — the heat, the lack of real food, the chip challenge, the time and mileage of a 3 AM drive followed by successive 40 minute running loops — I saw my average loop time climb exponentially. I also found myself gasping uncontrollably to catch my breath, like a goldfish plucked from his bowl and tossed onto a shade-less concrete sidewalk. It was not pretty… not by a longshot. Here than are some shots of the second half, illustrative of that point:
With heat exhaustion and physical exhaustion, it was a real struggle to finish the loops in under 40 minutes. By the final loops, my calves were saying, “no, no, no” to running so there were long, long, LONG stretches of ever-slowing walking up and down and around the 2.62 mile loop.
When I finally stopped at 8:36 PM, I saw my leg muscles were channeling John Hurt in “Alien.” I guess in a race, I couldn’t really hear my muscles scream.
I certainly heard them scream last night/this morning though. I spent a few hours at a crappy Motel 6 and kept waking up with muscle spasms/charley horses. Not getting much sleep. I opted to just get up and make the long drive home. With traffic and a much-needed 20 minute catnap at a rest stop, I finally made it back in 9.5 hours. All told, this challenge “weekend” had me in the car for 18 hours and 24 minutes, running round Traveller’s Rest for 6 hours and 36 minutes (or a 4:12:23 “marathon”) and in my “hotel” for about 6 hours.
Yeah, this was pretty dumb. It’s no jumping off an ice shelf into near freezing water at the polar ends of the earth, but it was definitely dumb.
And given my experience and time, I’m more worried than ever about Pike’s Peak next month. Maybe there is something to be said for the that whole “be prepared” motto.
