Event: Cap’n Karl’s Pedernales Falls
Distance: 10K
Date: 2025-06-07, Sat, 7:30p
Location: Johnson City, TX; Pedernales Falls State Park
Event Host: Perspective Pacing
Full disclosure: Capt’n Karl’s Pedernales Falls 30K 20K 10K (That’s how my registration history reads, anyway.) 😜
The Cap’n Karl’s Trail Series is a popular series of four nighttime races in the Texas Hill Country. Each race is at a different venue, most within an hour’s drive of Austin. For this first in the series, there were a total of 245 participants registered. Nice size event. A high number of participants, 48, in the 60K ultra distance. Among that group was my friend. Gisela. She continues to inspire me.
I was to use the 30K (18.6M) as a training (and “proof of concept”) training run for my upcoming July marathon, which is to be my first. <sigh> As most of you know by now, my plans almost never go as…well, planned. I’ll get to my excus—um, reasons in a moment.
Since the event started late evening Saturday, I didn’t have to arrive until later in the day. Gigi and I usually try to share a campsite, even if we’re driving separately, as we were in this case. Initially we were going to make do with a primitive campsite in the park arranged by Perspective Pacing for the event. However just the day before Gigi found a spot with water and electricity which became available last minute. I like the convenience of electricity even if I’m tent camping.
As I was volunteering at packet pickup (PPU), I arrived around 3:30 pm and got may campsite set up, mostly just my cot/tent since we were only staying one night. (Forgot to get a picture.) Gigi didn’t setup her tent as she planned to simply take a nap in her car before driving the hour back to Austin. I, on the other hand, had a 3.5 hour drive back to Teague and I needed several hours of sleep before tackling I-35 on a Sunday.
I did arrive in time to start packet pickup, but the race director hadn’t been able to put up a sign indicating the turn off the park road toward the race hub. There were a lot of people missing it—including Gigi and I. I went back out with a teardrop flag to stake out as a “confidence marker.” It’s location wasn’t ideal, but the ground was so rocky it was hard to get a spot that would work. Kind of funny, I ended up hammering the stake into the ground with a rock. My little plastic camp hammer just bounced off. Plink! 😁
PPU was a little rough. I felt bad for the lead volunteer. She was having to make it all work. The wifi was down and there was nobody around who knew how to fix it. To make matters worse, there was little to no cellular service and we couldn’t even use one of our phones as a hot spot. Initially she was having to record it all manually in her phone with the runners giving her details about their registration. Eventually she was given a static copy of registrant’s names on the computer and was able to start logging there. After a half-hour, wifi service was up and she was able to search and record things normally. Unfortunately, we couldn’t track who had registered in time for shirts and ended up running out. Apparently a lot of runners weren’t heeding the “If you didn’t register in time for a shirt, check back after the event to see if we have any left.” Of course, our fault because we weren’t set up in a way that we could monitor and weren’t insisting on proof of registration date.
My start time wasn’t until 7:30. 15 or 20 minutes before as PPU slowed, I went to my Renegade to gear up. (Yeah, a 2016 Jeep Renegade is my new ride. Not the ideal replacement, but it’ll do for now. I miss my truck.) Bandanna headband to cushion the AY UP headlamp I’d be wearing. I’m still impressed with the quality and performance of this headlamp a decade later. (I heard AY UP wasn’t selling to the US anymore. Or maybe they aren’t accepting US currency.) Trekking poles, check.
BTW That night, I saw a lot of the exact same trekking poles I have. I had to watch myself because I’d almost pick them up thinking I’d left mine lying in the way. Then I’d recall my pair were folded and stashed in the back of my car. Could have made for an awkward moment.
More of the usual: hydration pack (now containing protein snacks), collapsible cup. Most trail events are cup-less these days, although we still have runners who forget or don’t read the event description. A lot of single serving Pringles Snack Stacks containers become improvised cups at the aid stations.
Garmin watch, Shokz headphones—although these weren’t much use without cellular service. (Note to self: You’ve really got to copy some music files onto your phone!) “Wristola” (bandana wrist wrap for quick swipes at dripping sweat). Ibuprofen, SaltStick®, and lip balm all stay in my pack full time. I just refill or replace when running low.
Like I said, I’d originally registered for the 30K (18.68M) and had been eager to tackle the distance. That is until my epic fall during Frio Trail Run. My knee was still a little stiff and my ankles alternated in being achy, so I switched to the 20K at PPU. It was a looped 10K course and I set out with the intent of doing the 20K, but gave myself an out of dropping to the 10K if I wasn’t doing so well.
I was pleasantly surprised that I retained good energy through the first 6.2M, keeping up a steady forward motion. I managed a decent (for me) pace. Hiking the course (which was all I was willing to do that night) wasn’t really physically challenging. My average heart rate reflects that: 112 bpm. Garmin did show I hit the 150s at some point on the course, probably one of the steep, short climbs. A lot of credit for my success should probably go to the nice breeze that was blowing, drying the sweat off of us regularly. I know the 30 and 60K’ers appreciated it.
My minimalist shoes turned out to be a poor choice for the course. Or, at least, for this night. As you can see in the course detail shown up top, there was very little elevation gain. Turned out to be enough, though.
I couldn’t get my shoes tight enough to keep my feet from slipping back and forth on the downhills. I was on the verge of developing blisters. Between that, the knee, ankles, and left hip (which had suffered the brunt of the “Frio” fall), I felt I was pushing my luck if I muscled on through another 6.2M.
Note: No self-respecting ultra-runner would ever consider blisters a legitimate reason for dropping down in distance. Yes, I’m a still a wimp—to the unspoken frustration of my accomplished ultra-runner friend(s). Another part that needs to go into my training routine: mental toughening. Learning to be comfortable with discomfort. 😉
The decision to stop at 10K was also made because I’ve had so much trouble keeping consistent in my training. My main concern and hindrance since February has been that recurring fever, I mentioned in a previous training update, and the extreme fatigue that accompanies it. Plus my ongoing challenges with balance and hip pain, balance actually being the greater issue of those two. (It contributed to my fall at Frio.) I would not risk creating an actual injury which could sideline me for weeks! Stopping at 10K gave me more time to help out at the Wolf Mountain aid station, too.
Though not on a mountain that I could discern, it was the aid station the runners passed through multiple times. That’s always fun! You get to see them and cheer them on with each pass. You learn what they like and anticipate what they need their next time through.
10K passed through once, 20K twice. 30K twice and 60K four times. Biggest fault with that station, it had to be set up on top of a landscaping mesh that helps prevent erosion. (Looked like it was recently cleared area.) Our trail shoes gripped that mesh like fingers! I stumbled around on it my 10K pass through. However, when arriving to volunteer, I quickly changed my trail shoes out for flip-flops. Much less stumbling and tripping.
It was a long night. I arrived on site a little after 10 pm and remained there until we packed it up around 7:00 am. I was there in time to see Gigi coming back on her first loop and both times going out and coming back on her second 30K loop. Always fun to meet and get to know the other volunteers, too, usually accomplished ultra-runners themselves.
The interesting young man at Wolf Mountain—who had been manning the aid station solo and competently so before I arrived—was no exception. I was as fascinated by his other hobby as his stories of past races. An amateur astronomer, I guess you’d say.
He regularly takes photos of the night time sky and posts on Instagram. His phone allows a long exposure time, so he’s able to capture more light and has editing techniques (also done with his phone) to make the images even clearer. He took a shot of the Milky Way that night.
Funny, I couldn’t imagine what he was doing when I saw him headed out to the parking lot with a half loaf of bread from the aid station. Turned out, he’d forgotten his tripod and was using the bread to prop his phone up for the shot. 🙂
He no longer had a copy of the shot he took that night, but shared this one with me and permission to post here. Credit: @aniruddhasune
After packing up the aid station and leaving it ready for pickup, we returned to the start/finish and hung around until the last runners came through. A pair of experienced female ultra-marathoners I know. I took a photo for them and they looked fantastic, despite the 40+ miles they’d finished. They were DFL because they’d missed a turn. I think they did part of the 10K course and when it took them back to the start they realized they were way short. So like any true ultra marathoner, they went back out to do their second 30K loop, even though it meant extra mileage.
Quick shower and I hit the cot. Sun was already bright, but I was under a tree that provided some shade. With my little battery operated fan hanging above me, I actually got a very restful nap. I still needed to crash once I got to Teague, but didn’t have any trouble on the drive back, at least.
The next race in the series is at Muleshoe Bend Recreation Area outside of Burnet, TX. In just a week. Guess what distance I registered for. 😜
