Snakes on a Run

Snakes on a Run

Yesterday we ran the TATUR Snake Run 3 Hour run.  The race was held on Turkey Mountain in Tulsa and was a 3.75(ish) lapped run.   There was another course, a 1/2 mile, loop runners could use to rack up more distance if they hit the point where they didn’t have the time to finish the big loop.  Not finished = not counted.

The course was a gently sloped up and down, shaped like a W based on my Fenix’s tracking.   The course was well marked with streamers, chalk and hazard tape to keep people on course.   It was a mix of double/triple wide track and single track and primarily hard packed dirt with some sand and rocks thrown in for good measure (typical Turkey Mountain Pink Trail).

It was mostly an out and back with a slight alternate loop on the way back to get the distance up to 3.75 I assume.

The weather turned out to be gorgeous for the race in spite of the possibility of heavy rains but they held off till later that afternoon.

Support was good with an aid station at the turn around which was offset a little in distance at the turn around that you passed going and coming.  There was always the usual trail fare, pretzels, cookies, nutter butters, bananas, pb&j’s, trail mix, gummies spread out along with water and some energy drink, gatorade maybe, waiting for anyone that needed.  I only used the water since I prefer eFuel after trying everything under the sun.

There was also the adult beverage aid station where if you needed something a little stronger to get you through the lap it was available.

We went out a little fast as usual but we had 3 laps done with 47 minutes and change left over.  I made the possibly dumb decision based on how I was feeling to see if we could get the 4th lap in and honestly a half mile in I felt like it was the wrong decision.  Energy levels were low, no sleep, lack of training in the two weeks prior trying to recover from the Little Rock Marathon and injury had me telling my partner to go on. Which she didn’t do but which she could have.

I used to hold an edge in endurance while she was the fast one but the student has become the master.  Anymore it seems like we keep each other moving, one of us will be struggling and the other picks up the slack.  Although the last couple of races I’ve been the one doing the leaning.  Not sure what I’m going to do on solo runs, have to find myself a temporary running wife I guess. (Just kidding!)   [Or am I?]

Anyway with her there to keep me moving we finished lap 4 with 42 seconds to spare by my clock, I stopped the timer at 2:59:18, even though up until the last 90 seconds I thought it was a done deal, as in we weren’t going to make it.

As of right this minute we only got credit for 3 laps as I believe they’d moved everything over to the half lap at that time and weren’t really expecting a last second finish on the big loop.   No worries though, Garmin and us know what when we finished. 🙂  I did ping the race director to see if we could get our 4th one made official as that would officially have both of us placing 3rd in our age group which would be a pretty cool result.

The laser cut and painted wooden finisher medal was a nice touch, better than the Greenleaf 30K medal for sure.

All in all while I’m not a huge fan of lap races personally the Snake Run is definitely worth running especially if you live in the area.  Most of the runners were super nice, with many offering encouragement each time you passed them by.

Gearwise I ran with the following which is my expected ultra gear so I wear it for any run longer than an hour or two so I can make sure we’re happy together –

  • Shoes:  Altra Lone Peak 3.5
  • Socks: Injini
  • Footpod: Stryd
  • Shorts: Champion
  • Underlayer: Underarmor compression shorts
  • Shirt: REI quarter zip base layer
  • HR: Garmin HR chest monitor
  • Watch/Timer: Fenix 5X
  • Vest: Salomon Adv Skin 12 with Ultimate Direction soft flask with straw.
  • Hydration:  Crank Sports eFuel
  • Fuel: Crank Sports eGel
  • Run Plan:  10 minute run, 1 minute walk (didn’t stick to it as well as I could have)
TREX