2 days of Syllamo or 2 out of 3 ain't bad; it's horrible

While Tim's choice if NIN lyrics wasn't my favorite, it was defenitely appropriate. The thought of running almost 80 miles in 3 days was outrageous but somehow seemed reasonable. Tim, Julie and I have done a lot of stupid things in the past and this seemed like something we could probably accomplish. The 3 days of Syllamo was supposed to consist of 3 trail runs over 3 days - a 20k, 60k and 50k. The runs were all on the Sylamore Trail (see Sylamore 50k trail run post) and the Syllamo trail system. Julie got us a room at Jack's in Allison Arkansas for the weekend. We though about camping but a warm bed and a hot shower seemed like a better idea since rain was in the forecast. Jack's White River resort was the site of the unfortunate hush puppy incident before the disasterous Sylamore Hardcore adventure race but that's another story. We drove over from Tulsa on Friday to Mt. View taking the very hilly and winding route through Fayeteville and Harrison. We stopped at Blanchard Springs campground to get our race packets. We drove to Jack's and all cautiously ordered non hush puppy containing food for dinner. The 20k (12.4 miles by the calculator) started at 10am on Saturday, so we had plenty of time to get our stuff together. Here's a picture of Julie before the start of the 20k. I know she's really thinking that she will want to kill me before the weekend is over.

The Syllamo trail system is named for Chief Syllamo. Judging from the 3 days of Syllamo Run logo http://runarkansas.com/ThreeDaysSyllamo.htm, Syllamo is a distant relative of Kokopelli. Both are pranksters, but Syllamo, both fists raised, likes to smack around unsuspecting trail runners and mountain bikers instead of prancing around Colorado and New Mexico posing for bad art and tacky tourist gifts. Between the Sylamore hiking trail and the 50 plus miles of the Syllamo trail system, there are plenty of miles to ride or run around Mountain View. The 3DOS relied mainly on the Syllamo trails but did use a bit of the Sylamore trail.

The forecast for the weekend promised a good chance of rain Saturday and Sunday but clear for the Friday run. We woke up Friday morning to find overcast skies, but no sign of rain. We had plenty of time to make the 10am start. The first run went pretty well. All 3 runs used parts of the same trails and trail marking was crucial. Different colored tape was used to designate each days run. Day 1 was red/white tape. Julie and I ran together the first day and it was pretty uneventful. We nearly missed one turnoff to the finish but got through it OK. The trails were great. Parts were smooth and cushioned with pine needles and others were quite rocky, making me wish I’d worn stiffer shoes. The terrain was rolling with a few hills that made walking seem like a good idea. We finished just a few minutes ahead of Tim. Below is a view of the White River from the day 2 run.

After the run, Tim and I went down to Syllamore creek to soak our legs after the race. This really seemed to help with recovery. Since it was numbingly cold, it was impossible to convince Julie to do the same. While we were soaking, we discovered that more than a few folks had missed the turnoff back to the finish and have run 2 or 3 miles more than necessary. We also discovered the first run was a bit long.

We ran into town to grab stuff for dinner before hading back to Jacks. We had pasta for dinner and got ready for the big show, the 60k race. 60k should be about 37.2miles. We were to discover, late the next day that the run was really closer to 40 miles. The run started with a long climb before settling into a rolling rythm of climbing and descending. Julie and I ran together for several hours. Up and down not a lot of time to take in the awesome views, just kept moving. None of us had run this distance before. We'd covered more miles but at a slower pace. We finally reached the 19 mile aid station and as we were fuleing up, Tim caught us. Below are the guys working the 19 mile aid station. We had drop bags here so we replenished gels, jerky and such and I changed socks. We'd crossed 3 streams in the last couple of hours so it felt pretty good. Working an aid station can't be a whole lot of fun but it sure is appreciated.

I left the aid station with ziplock bag full of cheetos which were hard to eat while running but were mighty tasty. We ran a big 13 mile loop between the 19m aid staition before returning to the same spot at mile 32. Below are Tim and Julie on the big loop. Tim looks pretty perky for having just run 20 hilly miles.


I bonked a couple of miles before we were back at the 32 mile aid station and wasn't feeling too good. Once there we again refuelled and ate peanut butter and crackers and I had more cheetos and drank lots of coke. Before we left the aid guy told us we had 'only' 8 more miles to go! This made day's route 40 miles. That migh not seem like that much of a difference between 37, but it sure as hell would have been nice to know when we started. Maybe we didn't pay attention to the course map that closely but still, we were not happy to hear the news of more running. We left the aid station following the yellow and black ribbon that marked the days route. Things were going so well.

We followed the yellow/black ribbon which also had blue/white ribbon marking Sunday's route. After a while there was no more yellow ribbon. After 6 or so hours of running we weren't paying much attention and we failed to notice. When we finally figured it out we were very bummed. We hadn't come to this stupid race to try to figure out what the race director had in mind. We just wanted to run. We hadn't seen any place for a trail to turn off but we hadn't seen the yellow ribbon for 20 minutes or so. We stopped and talked. Anywhere else on the course, the lack of correct ribbon would indicate the wrong trail. Here, it seemed, we were supposed to keep running for 2 or 3 miles on blind faith.

We had been in the same situation before during adventure races. I didn't want to go on without making sure we hadn't missed a turn. A cardinal rule in adv. racing is to return to your last known point if you're lost. How else will you know where you are? All 3 of us decided to back track to the last yellow ribbon we had seen. We went almost all the way back to the aid station, allowing about 20 runners to pass us. Getting passed wasn't so bad as much as having to make a choice about what to do. Having paid so much to do the race only to loose 2 hours of time backtracking becasue the race director chose not to mark a section of trail is very frustrating. If he'd simply have said something before the start or told the guys at the last aid station it would have been better. There were plenty of blue/white ribbons on this section. It didn't make much sense.

Two hours later we were back to where we'd first turned around. Julie had hurt her knee in a fall a few hours earlier and felt like she should walk and Tim walked with her. I had an adrenaline buzz from the screw up and ran ahead. Another mile and there were yellow ribbons again marking the course. I ran to the next aid station and filled up my bottles and made another blunder. Yellow ribbon left the aid station in 2 directions and I followed the wrong trail. I'd say this one was my fault but that is the danger of runs that involve loops. I was not thinking straight after 8 hrs of running and I was probably the only idiot to do this. Maybe.
I figured it out after I came to a parking lot we'd run through earlier in the day. At this point, who cared, I just wanted to finish. I turned around and ran back to the aid station and followed the other yellow ribbons which ended up being the same trail we started on 9 hours earlier. I jogged over familiar terrain, knowing I was close. I caught up with Tim and Julie who had passed me while I was getting extra miles in. Ha ha. Joke's on me. The were going to walk on in so I jogged/hobbled ahead of them and hit the finish. The were just a few minutes behind me. We figured we ended up running between 45 and 47 miles.

We were all beat up, tired and dissapointed. It was sort of a consolation to know that we could (and did) run farther than we'd planned to but it still didn't help much. Julie's knee was really killing her. We put on some warm clothes and headed back for the room. A lot of folks were upset about the lack of course marking and a few had complained of getting lost so we didn't feel like it was just us. Maybe it'll help for next years race, maybe not. Julie said she wouldn't be able to run the next day and Tim and I weren't sure we'd be able to even walk. Tim and Julie picked up pizza while I snored away in the room.

I think somebody was watching the NCAA basketball tournament on tv, but I was gone. We got up late on Sunday am, long after the 50k race had started. We packed and headed back to Oklahoma.

Maybe this was way over my head, but I'd have wished it had ended better. I'm not sure that even if Chief Syllamo hadn't had fun with us on the 2nd day that we'd have been able to finish the 3rd. I wonder if he's buddies with the Devil Cat...

The trails were awesome and the weather was awesome. North central Arkansas is still beautiful. I can only imagine the effort it took to put something like this together. However, I don't imagine I'll be back.