Tortugas Mountain 24 Hour Challenge 2022

Overview

I completed fourteen loops: four before sleeping, ten after. I was in the open division, not the drinking division, but I did drink a bit. Several people finished with more loops than I did, but I needed to be very conservative so that I could return to Albuquerque (a three and half hour drive) after the awards ceremony in order to be the five hour pace group leader for the Duke City marathon.

Pre-Race

The day before the race, I borrowed $100 from my son for gas money. I didn't think that would be enough for all the gas I would consume, but I still had some cash in my wallet and a tiny bit in the bank which I could use via my debit card.

On race day, I woke up and went to make my wife a cappuccino only to realize we were out of espresso beans. Oops! We had been using fairly scruffy beans of late, so I chose to drive down to Michael Thomas and get some excellent beans. I knew the expenditure might leave me without enough money for gas on the way home, but after some work on my truck, I didn't have an estimate of the miles per gallon I'd get on the trip. I thought I'd be fine but knew that if I was wrong I could borrow money from any of a number of people I knew who would be at the race.

Instead of driving directly to the start/finish site, I drove to Spotted Dog Brewery because I had an empty growler with a gift card good for a fill attached to it. It was awarded to me for finishing first in the drinking division last year. I didn't fill it last year because it was awarded at the end of the race and by then I had already drunk fourteen beers during the course of the race and another celebratory beer or two after. They had a wee heavy on tap, so I chose that, but needed to pay about an extra ten bucks because of inflation and/or the wee heavy being a bit pricier (after all, at 9.5% ABV it is about double the strength of normal beer). I tipped $5, because by then I was reasonably sure I was going to need to hit someone up for some additional gas money and I didn't want my current cash-poor situation turning me into a stingy bastard.

From Spotted Dog, I drove to the Monte Vista Hiking Trail Parking Log. That's where the start/finish line is and where I camp. I got there about and hour and a half before the race was due to start, which was an hour before the drinkers were going to have a rule-change meeting. Although I wasn't going to participate in the drinking division, I had had an epiphany and realized that I could still drink a bit at the beginning without it jeopardizing my health (e.g., allowing me to catch a cold) or otherwise decreasing my ability to pace the Duke City Marathon.

That hour and a half was enough time for me to set up my tent and socialize. Embarrassingly, I did not recognize Rob, the founder of this event. I know Rob's son Justin better than Rob, although it's been a few years since I've seen Justin and I probably couldn't pick him out of crowd either. In addition to Rob, who lives in Las Cruces, Kathy had driven down from Albuquerque. Kathy had done the Feral Hog 25k six days prior, so she and I were the only Feral Hog participants who were also doing the 24 Hour Challenge. That makes us Feral Tortugas!

In some sense, however, the two most important people I ran into were Perky and Prince Charming. They had ponied up for the two porta potties. Yay! As we chatted, I found out that the winners (male and female) of the beer division were not going to get a growler this year. I didn't yet know why, but I did volunteer that I had just picked up a growler of wee heavy and before I had even asked about borrowing gas money, Perky volunteered to by the growler for me. I asked for $20, which was the amount I was going to borrow, but she handed me $30. I wasn't going to fight her over the extra, especially since Prince Charming could break me in half like a toothpick.

In the blink of an eye, it was five-thirty, a half hour before race start and the beer drinkers gathered to hear the new rules and the big surprise. Instead of only the winners of the beer division getting a gift, everyone who was going to drink a beer at this little meeting (i.e., before the first lap) got a very nice large beer stein with the Beer Soaked logo and the epitaph "It's my own damn fault!" I drank a 16 oz. 7.5% ABV Malpais Stout and thanked Rob profusely for this participant's award.

In the days leading up to this race I had decided that since I wasn't going to compete, I'd make an already social event even more social by running each loop with a different person and chatting with (at?) them. However, I never articulated this plan, which was good, because I changed my mind when I remembered that I often have a Zoom meeting with a bunch of friends on Friday, Saturday and occasionally Wednesday evenings at 6pm, which was the starting time for Tortugas Mountain. They knew I was a crazy person who liked to run in circles, now I got a chance to show them.

Loops Before Bed

I finished four loops before heading into my tent to sleep.

So, I used my phone to join the Zoom meeting, explained to the people on the meeting what I was doing, then switched to the forward facing camera and stayed on the meeting until the final person dropped off about four hours later.

Before my second loop I had a 12 oz. 7% ABV Social Hour and before my third loop I had a 12 oz. 7% ABV Sunset Hazy IPA. On my fourth lap I fell from grace and did not drink a beer. This was according to plan. I had already had the equivalent of five beers due to the first one being a pint rather than twelve ounces and all of them being stronger than 5% ABV. When competing in the drinking division, you must drink a beer each loop (in previous years it was before each loop, i.e. in the start/finish area, but this year they relaxed the rules and allow you to drink the beer as you run/hike/walk/stumble). As such, when competing in the drinking division, it makes sense to have the weakest beer allowed (5% ABV) and the smallest amount (12 oz.) because drinking stronger beer adds up (just ask Jason, who was drinking 7% ABV beers at the beginning last year!). However, since I was in the open division, stacking a little more alcohol early was just that much more social lubricant for my zoom call.

My plan had been to finish five or six laps before going to bed, but I hadn't really thought things through and I hadn't even considered the Zoom call, which slowed me down a bit. So when I saw that it was about eleven thirty at the end of my fourth lap, I decided it was a good time to stop and get some sleep.

It took me a little while to sleep and I woke up a few times, both to use my pee bottle and to hear some fun friendly noise as various runners finished their laps. That was great, it meant that even my sleeping was semi-social.

At 5:15 my alarm went off like it usually does and I had the double espresso I had made at home and brought with me. I probably have a double espresso at 5:15 Mountain time 360 days a year. Every once in a while I shift when I have it, but only in extenuating circumstances. I typically wake up well before 5:15 but wait until 5:15 (on the second!) to drink the espresso because I use it to synchronize my sleep so that I don't get up earlier and earlier or later and later and to also tell my GI system to do its thing.

It was still dark out, so I put my Kogolla light bar and Petzl headlamp back on (those are what I was using the night before) putzed around a bit hoping for the caffeine to allow me to take a dump, got impatient and finally started my next loops at 5:36am.

Loops After Bed

I completed ten loops after sleeping.

Although I had much less sleep and a lower quality of sleep than normal, I felt great. My lighting was excellent and it was a bit cooler. I ran my first few post-bedtime laps in a little under an hour each, and that includes the time I was taking to eat like a piggy at the start/finish aid station as well as at the aid station that is roughly at the half-way point.

I had really enjoyed my Zoom the night before, so I did something similar at 11am. I have a different group of people who have a recurring 11am daily zoom. I've known some of these people for close to thirty years but I only recently found out that they had this Zoom call every day (perhaps I knew that at one point and forgot, but I'm not on Facebook and I don't recall reading about it on our mailing list). There were only two others on the call, but it was fun to do a show-and-tell and answer questions for about a half hour.

Like many a looped-course ultra, this race was run "washing-machine" style, meaning runners switch directions for each loop. The first and all odd loops were run clockwise (as viewed from above), the second and all even loops counter-clockwise. That allows competitors to see their competition and allows social participants to see the entire field, at least briefly, several times. However, it did conspire against allowing me to spend time with Lukas, the winner. We were chatting a little bit at the start/finish aid station, and we continued our conversation as we jogged together back to the main course, but, alas, he turned right and I turned left. For the next several loops, I'd see Lukas at the start/finish aid station, it was almost like clockwork. The difference though is that before we synced up he had already run seven more laps than I had! He also chose to run a final lap after I had called it a day, so he got twenty-two laps in all told, while I finished a mere fourteen.

Around 2pm I was finishing my twelfth lap and I had already worked out the numbers. If I sped up a little I could get three more laps in before the 6pm finish time, but that would be taxing, might increase my chance of injury and would leave me little time to tear down my tent and put things away before the awards ceremony. As such, I decided that I would do fourteen laps this year, just like last year, but since it was in the open division, I wouldn't even podium. Last year my fourteen laps (and fourteen "beers" (they were mostly hard seltzers which I might explain sometime, but not now)) was not just first place in the drinking division but a new course record.

Once I realized I was only going to do two more laps, I decided to see if I could mooch a beer for each of my two final laps. There would be four hours between the first of the two beers and the end of the race and about two and a half before the second beer and the end of the race and even after the end of the race was the awards ceremony, so I would still be able to drive safely, legally and comfortably. I came into the aid station and asked if anyone could give me a beer and the few people who were there were all out of beer! Someone, however, (Marco?), let me know that earlier Perky and Prince Charming had offered him a beer which he had declined, so he retroactively accepted that beer and gave it to me (i.e., we pilfered a Miller High Life from their cooler). I know P&PC well enough to know that they wouldn't mind and that I probably was not draining them dry.

Guess whom I saw when finishing my thirteenth lap!? Sure enough P&PC were at their tailgate, parked next to my truck, and I got to confess my sin. They were amused and volunteered to give me another beer. I could have another Miller High Life or—what the heck&mash;we could open the growler. They even had a nice small plastic cup I could pour the growler into. I was sold. I did have to be careful to limit myself, because this was indeed stronger brew, but it was only 3:30pm and I wouldn't be driving until 6:15 or 6:30.

I had some of the wee heavy and was futzing with my stuff as P&PC departed. Like I, they were going to head out on a counter-clockwise loop. I knew I would catch up with them and this time, I'd actually hang out and chat on the loop. So, a little while later I topped off my beer and headed up. I wanted to catch up, but I also didn't want to spill my beer. I didn't execute perfectly and there was a little sloshing over the side, but shortly I was within chatting distance.

Perky walks quickly! Here walking pace is slower than mine, so she would get ahead of Prince Charming and myself and eventually PC would remind me to run a bit to catch up so that I wouldn't have to shout so much. We had good time catching up and discussing our plans for 2023.

Post-Race

At 5:09 I was done with my laps and done drinking until after noon the following day. I pulled out my cooler and spent about a half hour packing my sleeping mat, eating recovery food fortified (with chia seeds, hemp seeds, soy milk and Udo's Oil)) oatmeal, nasty green drink, rice milk and some spaghetti and most importantly listening to everyone's stories. I then hastily packed my tent, gathered the rest of my gear and shoved everything in my truck so that I could be back for the awards ceremony.

The two times I've done this previously, I've left my tent set up and gone back to it after the ceremony. This year, with the start of the Duke City Marathon less than thirteen hours away, I said thanks, hopped in my truck, drove to a gas station, bought fifty dollars of fuel, saw that my tank was almost full, crossed my fingers and got on the road. Oh, while the gas was pumping, I had the choice: eat more spaghetti or clean the bug blots off my windshield. The splats were a bit of a nuisance, but I was hungry, so I left them there.

My drive back was mostly uneventful. I was not tired. I was not wired. I wasn't overly anxious, but I did continue looking at the gas gauge with regularity. I had one obnoxious driver to deal with, but luckily that vehicle pulled off in Truth or Consequences (that's the name of a town).

Everything was basically going fine until I ran into a little rain. My truck has fairly dim headlights (although they're a little bit brighter than they had been a few days go before I replaced a bulb) and my night vision isn't great. My windshield wipers are pretty poor, but it wasn't supposed to rain until the next day, or at least that's what I thought. Had I known it would rain, I wouldn't have eaten that spaghetti. Light rain, bug bits, and poor windshield wipers are a bad combination, especially at night. Luckily, there were some gaps in the slime that I could see through until the rain came down harder and everything got cleaned up.

I got home around 9:30, started charging my electrical stuff, took a shower, put away a few things, set my alarm for 4:30am and got to bed around 11pm. Tomorrow would be fun (and I'm not being sarcastic).

Whee!

"Food"

I brought some food from Albuquerque and think I might have had enough calories to squeak by, but there was yummy junk food at the aid stations so I ate a ton of that during the race.

Sophie had made a bunch of potato slices roasted in spiced oil. I had a few in Albuquerque for lunch, then stuffed a lot more in a baggie for the drive down. Sure enough, I ate them all.

Before the race I ate a bag of lentils (2/3rds cup when they were dry). I had made an entire package of spaghetti (approximately 2,000 calories), but only ate a little of that during the race. Most came back to Albuquerque with me and I ate it on the Monday and Tuesday after the race.

Sophie had made some homemade hummus and I took half of it with me in a baggie. With the baggie sitting on top of the ice in the cooler, the hummus took on a Play-Doh consistency, which was great, because I could tear off a piece and eat it without utensils. I also brought a baggie of steamed broccoli and cauliflower that I ate mid-day Saturday.

I ate a huge amount of aid station "orange slice" candies and pretzels on both days. Thanks!

On Saturday, I additionally snacked on salt & vinegar potato chips, some vegan cookies that were kind of like cream colored Oreos and some vegan Dijon mustard crisps. I had a Mountain Dew after each of my first two Saturday laps.

At the remote aid station, after I had eaten all the orange slice candies, I had a big handful of M&Ms and eight tiny Twix bites. Neither of those are vegan; they both have milk in them. I believe those were the only two non-vegan things I consumed.

Minor Setbacks

Chafing

I did not bring Body Glide and my running shorts irritated me a little bit. I also was wearing an ultra-vest without a shirt when I was using my Kogolla light bar because I wanted something to hold the battery and (when not Zooming) my iPod touch. However, at one point I also added tube filled with water and that extra pressure was enough to chafe my right nipple. Eventually I realized what was going on and moved the water to the other side and everything was fine.

Sunburn

I didn't wear any sunscreen, so I got a minor sunburn. I definitely didn't feel it at the time, so I don't think it slowed me down appreciably. I felt it slightly after getting home. Over the next couple of days the red turned to tan, so I'm happy.

Falling

I fell and hit the ground a few times. The first two or three times were, IIRC, Saturday, i.e., after I had slept, before I was drinking beer again. I tore some skin here and there but none were bad enough to introduce a limp or cause trouble post race.

Heat

I had meant to bring my ice hat and use it, both because I think it speeds me up, but also to get a little practice with it before Javelina Jundred. I even had it in the file that I created that had the list of things to bring, but I forgot to look at that file.

Music Driven Legs

I easily get the runner's high. While I have it, music often hits me emotionally. I feel like I'm a bull being led by a nose-ring and when the music is upbeat or perhaps just emotionally satisfying, I sometimes use it to drive my legs. One song that touched me while I was out there was City of New Orleans. City of New Orleans was written by Steve Goodman but made famous by Arlo Guthrie. Neither of those two were singing it, but since it came off my iPod library, I might eventually figure out whose version it was.

Listening to anything Steve Goodman had to do with always brings out a mix of emotions in me. The guy died of cancer when he was 36 but penned and performed many a classic. City of New Orleans isn't particularly fast, and I find it melancholy, but it was definitely driving my legs hard as I finished up one of my daylight even laps. I can't remember the other songs that wound me up, although one of them was by Jesus Jones.

Historical

The Tortuga Mountain 24 Hour Challenge started out as a drinking event, where all participants were required to drink a beer before each 4 mile loop around Tortugas Mountain (also known as "A" Mountain due to the capital 'A' in white rock on the hill that is visible for miles). The beer needed to be 12 ounces or more and 5% ABV or more.

As the event became popular, some people chose to do it without all the beer, so separate divisions were created. These divisions are recognized at the event itself, but are not made in the UltraSignup results. So, you can either take my word or ask a race director, but in 2021, I set a new course record of 14 beers and 56 miles.