Change of plans. Instead of the planned long run it will be a shorter edition starting tomorrow around noon. Exploring the Hohe Mark Steig (https://www.hohe-mark-steig.de).
Live Tracking:
https://tim-weissbach.legendstracking.com
Live Update via WhatsApp Group:
Live Update via Insta-Story:
By following the live-scoring of the individual Championships of Backyard Running (aka. Big Dog´s Backyard Ultra) which may or may bot approximately half-way of what everyone think could be the limit – there is an interesting terminology to be found on that tracking page.
In normal ultra races there are usually three things which can happen apart from finishing:
DNS: Did Not Start/Show aka „something went wrong and that’s why I couldn’t come“
DSQ: Disqualified aka „oops“
DNF: Did Not Finish aka „‚something‚ happened along the way which, unfortunately, made me diverge from the initial plan of finishing. You know. Well. Fuck.“
The Backyard family added three more detailed sub-levels to DNF – among them one really great one. Those three sub-levels are:
OVER: Backyard-specific expression of finishing (a loop) but over the given time limit of one hour per loop.
DNC: Did Not Complete loop. Well – it says quite clearly what it is. But in an honoring way. Its not a simple DNF – it values somehow the runner who had the guts to start the (most of the time) hopeless try to complete another loop. To go out another time. To fight the overwhelming task.
And then there is:
RTC: Refuse To Continue. And I mean: wow. Its not a simple DNF – its an RTC. A REFUSE to continue. Its a different and way more intense expression of a delicate situation. We all know runners (incl. ourselves) and their (our) various reasons and explanations of why they (we) did not finish a certain run/race. But the deeper story behind most of those „stories“ is nicely summarized by the expression: RTC. Because at the end – whomever/whatever we are blaming for our failure – the reason of discontinuing is mostly to be found within ourselves. The strong inner voice, the strong outside discomforts, the whatever – it is our decision and its an active one. We actively refuse to go further because in front of us lays the uncertain beyond, even more misery or whatever makes us pull the easy option. The way out. The instant relief.
And by that I don’t mean to underestimate any effort taken nor want to criticise any RTC. It never comes easy and may be the better/safer/more reasonable/healthier option in many cases.
But still. Did Not Finish is a fact. REFUSE TO CONTINUE requires an active decision. A decision which could have been a different one. It feels like it leaves the door to continue a tiny bit open. Some would say both expressions are the same and technically that’s true. On the other hand – its a completely different view on the things – a view only those can understand who really dealt with certain circumstances…
Next time casualties arise I will try to remember – try to make myself clear that its me, and only me, who is making an active decision to not continue. It will certainly make the decision more difficult and by that hopefully pushing me beyond that point.
„We don’t have enough stories to tell in the dark nights anymore
– we used them up already.“
As if the #fenix wanted to confirm the waves of dark premonitions it gave the daily notification: „30 min to sunset„. Just like that. The darkness was approaching. It was bound to happen and yet – even after all these years – it came as an unpleasant guest to an already demanding party.
Nights are an unavoidable part of long distance running events. And they are a fascinating part of the game. By time and experience one gets used to most of the things happening but the interesting thing is – no matter how good one is in controlling the night challenges – it still can change the run/race dramatically. To name a few unwanted things bound to happen in those dark hours:
f*** those stones really look like animals
are there humans between those trees over there – silently staring?
wow look – a sheltered place to finally sleep a bit: oh wait – its just some trees…
climbing these steep trails is a really really bad idea in dark nights
now everything is moving on the edge of LED circle
what are those animal eyes staring at?
is this dusk or just the emission of yet another distant city
we are just so fucked-up and lonely in this ocean of darkness
And yet: the night is dark for everyone. All of the others (if any) will need to endure parts of the above. Its just another challenge. Another hurdle to overcome. And it offers a possibility to make a difference. By not losing the battle against the demons and making it to the other end of the night there is a fair chance of gaining. Gaining some meters compared to the others, gaining some experience in endurance, gaining some places in the ranking compared to those who lost their nightly battles. It anyways feels like a lost battle at night – so its exactly the right time to push as good as possible.
And finally the #fenix again: „30 min til sunrise„. Adrenalin – followed by more adrenaline at the moment where light is fully back. For some glorious moments the world is whole and light again. Walking feels like running and all tiredness is forgotten for good. All too soon the hormones are used up and the suffering is back. But hey – its another day – its some decent hours of light – its some hope. Some hope to use as energy – until the sun sets again…
It was one of the moments I realized what I would be facing – in the first night approaching a climb I saw headlamps. But not somewhere in front of me but literally ABOVE me. I stopped for a moment hoping it was the moon or some bright stars shining through the trees but no: those were cleary moving LEDs. Seconds later the crawl started.
L´ Infernal Trail des Vosges is an (ultra) trail race in the Vosges mountains in the North-East of France. Covering distances from 15 to 200k this event is for everyone. And apparently everyone accepts the invite. The tiny town Saint-Nabord turns into a huge trail running festival for a whole really long weekend in September (2023 was the 15th edition of the event). Some of the shorter distances have more than 500 participants – a whole runners village/expo is built up – a sound system, light shows, fire work – you name it. Normally nothing I desperately hope for but the vibe was great – festival feeling. 700+ volunteers work relentlessly to run the village and all CP along the course. Although you don’t get anywhere with English they do their best to care about you and whatever which you may have. Big shoutout to orga/volunteers – this was an amazing job. Magnifique!
Luckily the #IT200 as the longest race starts first – so the hustle and bustle was not too bizarre at the start. I am lucky to have great friends and could take the train to Freiburg where I was picked-up and brought to the start (and picked-up after the finish on Sunday). What a service – thank you! Midnight start is not my favourite kind of thing as it just adds more sleep deprivation to the story. We arrived in Saint-Narbord 3 hours before start – enough time to place the drop-backs, check the backpack, make it through the kit check into the huge start area to wait for the start.
What a start it was. After a few probably useful information in French which I did not understand we were ask to quiet down and epic music was played culminating in the countdown to start. A proper firework, more music and a burning L´ Infernal logo sent us off into the Vosges night – pretty emotional for a start.
Although I obviously checked the track, the total distance and the elevation gain quite a bit upfront to the race I was unsure how this would actually feel in reality. The first climb made one thing really clear: it was going to be brutal. From the LegendsTrails runs I am used to ridiculous climbing but the Vosges are higher and steeper compared to the Ardennes. Overall it was a bit less technical (e.g. there is no Ourthe part in IT200) – but only a tiny bit. There were Mountainbike parks, ski slopes, senseless up and down on small rivers, straight and direct climbs with more than 30% slope – both up and down. In summary: a real brutal and pure ultra experience. And it never stopped – there was no mercy with the runners at all. One hit after the other. Something which drains you both physically and mentally until you are stripped-down to your core with nothing left. To continue in this stage is what ultra is all about. On top of this the weather added another difficulty with bright and sunny days with 30°C on Friday and even a bit hotter on Saturday. Heat can be a real problem. Nothing you need on top of the above described.
On the other hand: Vosges – how beautiful are you? Superb landscape, fantastique views! Not too many people out there – a perfect area. It was a great journey through those valley and over all those hills/mountains.
The checkpoints provided the needed breaks from all of that. In addition to the CP there were some unmanned water points dividing difficult stretches – well organized. Always enough water and supply at hand even in hot conditions (although there were stretches where I consumed 2L of water). The strategy for me could only be: stay focused and don’t do mistakes. So I set the watch timer to one hour and took a salt pill every hour and made sure to drink enough. This saved me from heat damage and worked really well in the given conditions. The rest was the usual fight. There were dark moments with lowered motivation, there were critical situation especially in the third night (unstable running, deadly tiredness, loss of focus, being chased by hornets) – but I was awaiting and embracing them and therewith taking their force away. At a few checkpoints I closed my eyes for 10-15 min each: this helped to ease the moments of fatigue so that I did not need to sleep on trail.
Overall everything worked-out as well as I could possibly hope for. Crossing the finish line at 0214 in the third night after 50h and 14 min of travelling through the Vosges was a great relieve.
A nice finisher hoodie, a worn empty bottle of coke were the rewards of yet another great, rough and truly ultra experience.
Clear recommendation for everyone who wants to push beyond. Be warned – the elevation is really extraordinary outside of the real mountains.
The official live-tracking would have added additional costs so I will just take my tracker with me. The usual one-dot-show to be followed here.
For some additional info – here is the breakdown of the different parts of #it200:
Race Format
The idea behind escape running formats is that you have to get away as far as possible from a given start point. The final distance for the ranking is pulled by taking the straight distance between start and end location. Meaning – efficiency in running a rather straight line is important. As planning tracks is something I really like I tried to optimize the route as good as possible.
Crew
I am not used to have support while running. My usual running style is self-supported. But for the given format and the fact that running full-geared and self-support is never the fastest way to travel I reached out to the ultra family – and was not let down. It all started with Desi who started in the early Saturday morning to see me at around km 96 for the first time with a car full of supply and my drop back – what a relieve. Saturday evening Ingo joined our party with his bus and equipment for crossing a whole continent. The three of us fought the second night and in the morning Maarten and Christine completed the crew. I mean: 4 highly gifted and experienced ultra runners at the sideline just for me. What an honour. Thanks a million. I am getting emotional quite easily and I continued for those four as much as for whatever km/race goals to reach.
Race
After a day with Deutsche Bahn, a Pizza at a local fast food close to the start the runners assembled at Grauer Kopf in Taunus – our start location. Strange to enter a race where you realize you will not see any of the other runners ever again during the duration of the race. Everyone with own routes, own plans, own strategies. Interesting. (This is not entirely true because I met Lars Willborn several times more as we managed a rather similar speed during the first night).
So it started Friday 07.07.2023 1800 and given the characteristic of the region it was pretty clear that a good portion of runners would need to get to Koblenz first to be able to cross and/or follow the Rhine to whatever North/West direction they would want to take. So lots of folks were basically running the same stretch but with tiny differences in the individual routes. One major challenge for the weekend became pretty obvious during those first hours: temperature. My water consumption was higher than expected but I started with a backpack for 100 solo km including 4 L of water. Detlefs crew added 1.5 L to that in Koblenz – thanks a lot. I as well bought another 1.5 L before leaving civilization to be on the safe side. Luckily the temperature became bearable after midnight and all went well in this first night.
At around km 96 my first crew member Desi entered the race – and changed it. What a relive to change from the 10 kg backpack to a race vest to ease up the job – and to know that I could see the car every 5-10 km from now on if needed. It was not only nice but also crucial with the conditions the weather offered us. My route was made with the intention to be flat and fast. The downside with a hot summer day this meant running the endless corn fields of Jülich-Zülpicher Börde in full sun with temperature around 40°C at the highest heat. What a disaster. Heat is nothing I like and running in those conditions is nothing one should do. It was only manageable with the car support and the combined experience to overcome difficulties. Tempo slowed down but what kept me moving was the hope for the second night and some relieve (I had no idea about the difficulties waiting in night 2) and the crew that was waiting/supporting/awaiting me at certain landmarks. So the only option was to continue as good as possible.
In the evening we were joined by Ingo – the one and only chez Ingo-Ingo. With his bus. So we were equipped to conquer the world. Entering the second night it became obvious to me that I would pay for moving in the heat with exhaustion. The ultra moments began. It usually goes in waves and the low points are getting lower and lower and more frightening. I was a bit shocked about myself as I found a track portion which was completely overgrow and undoable – and I was standing there for a minute unable to decide what to do. Of course these situations are standard scenarios and with 500 m extra the problem was solved. But I realized that I was more stretched that I wanted to admit. Good that we already decided for a proper break at the end of the stretch so I only had to make it to the cars. Two plates full of pasta and 30 min sleep in a chair was the plan. All in all a break for around one hour with the hope that it would get easier afterwards.
Well – that did not work. The hours 0100-0430 during the second night were the darkest of the whole race. Still deadly tired, weekend by the heat and easily upset about small things I more stumbled than properly walked through the night. It was also not really getting cool – but that may have been a personal issue with my strained body. So what to do? I decided to have another long break to escape from that dark place. So another time the chair was up (in the middle of a small village on the street) and another longer sleep followed.
Restarting from that break did not feel good but soon after the effect I hoped for was there: mood was rising and running was again possible. The second sunrise brought light and the heat was still a few hours away. I got rid of the race vest, put the tracker in one bag of my shorts and carried a water bottle. Minimizing the weight to push for some km as long as it was doable.
The next sections of the route had some nice „goals“ at hand as well – the „westlichster Punkt Deutschlands“, the border to NL and shortly after the border to BEL. Plus Christine and Maarten joined the support crew now consisting of four people. The weather played its last card with some thunderstorms around. Luckily we got some light rain but the big bursts did not hit us. Running was no longer doable – exhaustion all over. The second place in the 48 h runners was safe so a last target was to reach 240 km on the watch to secure the 5 km/h average. After some final walking to reach this goal I stopped with 20 min left to 48 h unable to continue and waited until it was finally time to end this race:
Summary
Looking back it really is an interesting format. The time goal is not as strong as a distance goal – making the motivation a bit more difficult. Running for 48 h with no normal race environment like in a traditional 48 h race around is not as easy as it sounds. Especially when some nice numbers or certain levels are reached: why to continue? At the end its plainly the question if you take the game seriously and are willing to really stay moving for the complete time. Good experience way out of trails and forest I usually prefer. Also getting the crew up and running and seeing the crew dynamics was really good. My ultra family was united for that 48 hours. Thanks to the Schinder to get this format to Germany. I guess it will find its place over here.
Lastly: crossing Rhein and Maas in one run and running in 3 countries – that is a really nice thing.
The final preparations are in full flow. Amazing friends agreed to offer support. That means I will see a friendly face after around 100k which will give me the opportunity to refill the supplies and to lighten the backpack a bit for some parts of the following stretches. From that point onwards I will always have support which will have my back, push me and fasten up the re-supply. Thanks a lot already now.
The race starts Friday evening 1800 which means that there will be time until Sunday evening 1800 to get as far as possible from the given start point.
There will be several possibilities to follow that interesting race format. The hashtag of the race is #schinderprisonbreak – so keep an eye on that one. My IG profile will also hold a few updates Friday – Sunday:
The best update will be – as always – through the live tracking possibilities by the Legends Tracking folks. There is a live tracking from the race as well as my tracker which will be active mainly for the support crew to see the planned track as well.
Last not least there are some WhatsApp groups which will be fed with updates – if you are interested to get more information – please get in touch.
So have fun following the race – it should look awesome when the race tracking page is active and evolving as most runner will start in different directions.
Enough is enough. Temperatures reaching above 20°C levels, daylight is almost days long… Time for the usual summer hibernation to endure this period until, finally, the darkness, the mud and the cold return.
So what are those distance runner doing? Some have been spotted to try to adapt with sophisticated drinking strategies to prevent dehydration:
Some have been spotted trying to hide somewhere at random destructive places:
Some found new homes:
So time to say goodbye for now – until the distance season returns.
Independent long-distance-planning means you really need to sit down and do your homework. A work meant to prepare you for all occasions which still leaves some doubts behind…
This gas station does not really looks like open 24/7. Does 24/7 means you can walk in at 0300 and buy coke or is it only gas you can pay with your credit card.
Will this cemetery have his water tab open? Will it be possible to enter?
What if that point crashes – is the distance to the next point too far?
No one really likes this work but still I am rather better prepared than worse.
In Long Distance Running there is the tendency to form fellowships to push-through together. Although these may be unique and useful relationships it’s a thin line between success and failure of such fellowships. To not be mistaken: if it works out it may be the greatest experience you will ever have and create live-long memories.
Personally I would never commit to a long run together by default unless I know the partner(s) extremely well. And by extremely well I mean extraordinary well. It´s more the sort of: in literally every imaginable situation I know how the other will react and we have a plan for this. Obviously this needs to be true for the other fellows with regards to your reactions as well or this does not work.
The common issue with this is that every imaginable situation is a wide playing field when being out there for days.
And again – there are plenty of good reasons to form fellowships. First of all things are in general more enjoyable together. To go through rough situations and being able to laugh about or fight through together is really great and can help a lot. You can support another with motivation, gear, food – whatever may be needed. You can benefit from key abilities and share responsibilities: while one is navigating the other can take a mental „rest“ and just follow, the other may have the spare food or clothing which could substantially help yourself, the other can remind yourself to keep up with food/water. A relationship which is beneficial for everyone which at the same time helps the time to pass a bit faster. Really helpful.
But what if that’s simply not enough? What if it all starts to be a burden rather than a supportive combination? Do you have these situation planned and covered as well?
What if that walking-running mixture the fellow is doing simply fucks you up? Will you be able to tell him/her? Do you know what the consequences are to stick together for you and your idea of the faith of your personal journey? Are you really sure that sticking together and enduring this situation is not only temporarily ok but will not backfire on you later in the run?
What if the hard time your mate is going through is totally fine for you and in principle you are ok to just walk/rest for a few minutes/hours until its get better but by having a realistic look on your watch you realize that you start failing on cutoff. Will you tell your buddy: listen: you seriously need to speed-up or I will need to leave you for good and speed-up alone? Can you cope with that? Did you discuss that upfront? Does your fellow know that this reaction may come and does he/she has a plan to not break immediately when facing this so that there is a chance that – once more energy is back – your fellow can continue his/her own fight with the potential to reach some dreams?
What if breaking the fellowship is needed – is everyone prepared for this so that it does not mean the end of running for one or the other? Although running together everyone should be always prepared for running alone by all means. Expect the worse to happen. At any time. Whatever your exit strategy may be – its advisable to have it at hand. It may be simple things like having you earphones ready when it comes to that point.
After all all members of such fellowships have different dreams and expectations and even more important: different level of determination to reach them. It’s impossible to be united on these and it’s even more impossible to have similar exit strategies when all goes down the drain. To at least have a rough understanding what the other may need in these end-of-world situations will be a huge advantage for the faith of your fellowship. Even if it means to split up.
There have been situations in which I told someone to speed-up because we were running short on cut-off although I knew the other was destroyed at that moment. There have been horrible nights with significant weather in which the running/walking/rest routines could not be synchronized anymore – in one of them we decided to split. Although this was a significant risk as the both the inside and outside conditions were calling for DNF we made the decision. On both ends there was hope it could work-out and after hours of horror for both of us it was a relieve to see the other headlamp again on the horizon: at the end it was the perfect decision and had the desired effect.
Having a dream and an overwhelming desire to reach this is key in Long Distance Running. Shared dreams is something you may hope for at the start line but is something you need to put a lot of effort in while running while on the same time you want to be ready to follow your personal dream with no excuses. Shared dreams are for sure worth to work for but sticking together for too long may become a disaster. If it works out though it’s purest gold.
