Bear Country and Fiesta Nights

Back to back weekends volunteering with Texas Outlaw Running Co. at their Bear Country Night Trek and Fiesta Night Run trail runs. Hosted in Waco and San Antonio respectively, they were close enough (an hour and a half drive from Austin, where I was hanging out at the time) I felt driving without an overnight stay would be manageable enough.

Before I’d even gotten the volunteer shift list from TORC, I checked in with my trail runner friend Gisela, and she was all in for both weekends. The two of us had been wanting to volunteer to man an aid station together for quite a while. For both events, TORC held Friday night races, in addition to the Saturday night main event. Here was our chance!

For Bear Country, the 4-hr Friday Night shift at “Johnny’s Aid Station” was still open so I signed us up for that. The AS was setup near Emmons Cliff. This was alongside Cameron Park Rd. and adjacent to the Johnnie trailhead.

Cameron Park Rd. was a very busy thoroughfare, even later at night. Maybe even busier after dark. Ironically, TORC’s owner, running the 10K course that night, was a near miss as a motorist sped by without slowing–despite a blinking red light on the road’s shoulder, two neon orange, reflective traffic cones on either side of the road, and Gigi in the road with her flashlight trying to signal and slow them. What else can you do?!

10K course through Cameron Park. Our AS was about 4.5 miles into the course
This gives a great view of the intricacy of the Cameron Park trails, as well as a sample of the descriptively apt trail names.

Weather-wise, I was pleasantly surprised to have stayed fairly comfortable throughout the night–with obligatory and liberal application of bug repellent, that is. The relatively open space on the roadside, while still beneath the trees, allowed what breeze there was to find us. Runners, out in the dense woods and undergrowth lining the trails, weren’t nearly so comfortable.

“How is it,” I’d ask.

“Humid!” “Horrible!” “It’s tough!” They’d respond. I’m surprised I didn’t get a “How the hell do you think it is, smartass?!” 😜 I really wasn’t being flippant. I was sincerely curious.

Been there. Done that, you see, albeit during daylight hours. (Was it as bad at night as it had been during the day?) I have to admit, I’m really disappointed with myself for not being trained up well enough that I could have tackled the course with them. I really, really wanted to run those trails that night. Ah, well. Always next year, I guess.

Thanks to Gigi’s generosity and thoughtfulness, the runners at Johnny’s Aid Station were treated to cold watermelon and mandarin oranges, in addition to the cold water and Gatorade® provided by TORC. We laid out a good spread that was appreciated by the runners.

If I’m being honest, I might have gone a little overboard with the Bear Country volunteer gig. In addition to Friday night, I ended up back there Saturday night as an “Asst. Race Director.” An assistant race director does whatever tasks they need a body to do.

Time keeping was first on the list. Unfortunately, that didn’t last long thanks to my aged eyesight which wasn’t very compatible with a tiny tablet screen, night-time shadows, and glaring spotlights. Even my multi-focal contacts couldn’t keep up. I needed my “cheaters” (aka reading glasses), which weren’t in Waco with me. I could and did refill the 5-gal water bottle from the spigot near the water fountains, hand out medals, tote unneeded boxes and bins to the trailer, and cheer loudly for the incoming runners. All in all, it was a great opportunity to see much more of the behind the scenes work that goes into these events.

Because I needed to retrieve something from home before heading back to Austin, I did “overnight” in Teague. I think I arrived there around 1:45AM. I was up by 5:45, loaded and headed back to Cameron Park by 6:45. The TORC crew was meeting me at 8:00AM to finish the teardown and loading. I was on the road back to Austin a little before 10:00–after a quick trip through Sonic for a Rte. 44 sized Powerade® Slush. I don’t know. I just felt I had to have that freezing, sugar hit to get me going. My coffee was long gone and I didn’t want “hot.”

Saturday night main event start for all distances, except the ruck
15K Ruck start
Finisher medals.
Proof I was there early Sunday morning. The sun was so bright!

Jump ahead six days. It’s another Saturday night and Gigi and I are headed for the Land Heritage Institute in San Antonio TX for the TORC Fiesta Night Runs. This event included an ultra (50K) so the on course aid station needed someone on-site most of the night. We signed up for two 4-hr shifts and spent the night at the “Homestead Aid Station” set up immediately in front of the Presnall-Watson Homestead1. I’m still kicking myself for not getting a few good shots of the “Grand Ol’ Lady,” as the property manager referred to the house. (He followed us in to check and make sure we were where we were supposed to be. I think he was nervous about so many people roaming all over the property at night.)

As usual, everything was waiting for us at the AS when we arrived so we got busy prepping the food and drink. I focused on the beverages, mixing the Gatorade® and Tailwind®, then dumping a bag of ice into each one of the coolers. Gigi started working on the fruit. In addition to bananas, mandarin oranges, and watermelon, the cooler also contained pineapples and cantaloupes!

“Nobody is going to want pineapple,” Gigi said, making a face, when I set it out to be prepped along with the watermelon. Later that night, as she prepped the last pineapple to replenish the table, I couldn’t resist an “I told you!” (Turns out, she has a bit of a bias against pineapples, having eaten more than her fair share during childhood.) It helped that the fruit was perfectly ripened and sweet. So good!

You can see the shadowy figure of the “Grand Ol’ Lady” in the dark behind us.

There were sodas and Pickle Juice®, albeit warm right out of the box container. SaltStick® chews, fruit bars, potato chips, and two different kinds of cookies–which the sugar ants loved! They were the biggest nuisance of the evening. The mosquitoes didn’t even come close, which is saying a lot.

We managed to keep them out of the food–mostly. (The story I’m sticking with is “No additional protein crawled its way into the peanut butter jar during the assembly of the last batch of PB&Js!”) They did, however, find their way into the closed bin of AS supplies…on top of the picnic table bench…and inside the opened but resealed cookie packages. Fortunately, the loaves of bread didn’t have enough sugar, I suppose, to interest them. Speaking of the bread for PB&Js…

We got caught out on the non-availability of the sandwiches about 10 min after the race start. They were the last thing we were prepping. In fact, we hadn’t even started on them when a kid came up and asked for a peanut butter sandwich, “only peanut butter.”

The Homestead AS was positioned on the course so the runners passed it twice on both courses, 5K and 15K loop. It was only a half mile from the starting line and I certainly wasn’t expecting anyone to stop on their way out at the beginning of the race. I really wasn’t expecting anyone until the 15Kers (at 4 miles in) stopped to refill and snack before heading out into the next 6+ mile section.

But this kid really wanted a peanut butter sandwich. He waited patiently while I fought to get the safety seal off the jar and slather a big scoop of the nut butter onto a slice of bread. Waited even when his buddy decided it was taking too long and left him. 😁 Learned my lesson. PB(&J) sandwiches are worth the wait!

As was the case the previous weekend, we were again fortunate to be setup in a open area with a light breeze blowing and found it comfortable. The humidity beat up on the runners again, though, especially those making multiple 15K loops for the 35K and 50K distances.

We had several runners that would hang out on the nearby picnic table, taking an extended break to recover before continuing. One guy hung out with us for quite a while. He was from South Carolina and thought the humidity would be about the same. Unfortunately, he found it much worse in Texas and was strongly considering a DNF (Did Not Finish). It was really bothering him. He said he’d never DNF’d before, “But I just don’t know if I can do 20 more miles.” He hung out with us for about an hour, I think.

Gigi is a mind over body kind of person. Doesn’t matter if the skin is sloughing off her feet from blisters, legs cramping (or bleeding, if she’s taken a hard fall), unable to ingest anything other than water because of persistent nausea. “I can do this. I’m going to do this.” And so she usually does.

Now I, on the other hand, have been known to walk the 1 mile back along a course rather than push through for the next 5+ miles with blisters already bothering me. (New shoes, dammit, I knew better.) The mental and physical distress wasn’t worth it to me. I allow myself those failures. Now, that said, I do hope my mental fortitude will be there if I ever get 20+ miles into my first marathon or ultra and don’t have blister tape on me. 😕

Mr. South Carolina had lots of time to get perspectives from both sides of the finish line, as it were. Gigi encouraged him to take as much time as he needed, reminding him the 6:00 AM cutoff was still a long way away. While I encouraged him to listen to his body (and mind). I also encouraged him to try the SaltStick® tabs since his main complaint seemed to be feeling “water logged” from having to drink so much to satisfy his thirst. Hopefully, he took away some good advice from both of us when he eventually headed off again into the 6-mile portion of the 15K loop. Next time we saw him he said, “I’m back in it! I’m feeling okay.”

At some point, my change request was approved 😜 and the music on the bluetooth speaker switched to 80s rock. That was all I needed to keep me awake and going the rest of the night. I couldn’t help “dancing,” which I never do in public. With reason! 😂

We remembered our cowbells this trip!
Me trying to strike a pose. My friend who usually nails it. 😉
The “taxi” got a powdery, white coating of dust.

Every so often, I’d have to taxi a runner back to start/finish.

The first was a 15K rucker who bonked. Kind of like what happened to be at Fire Trail. (Ruckers, for those that aren’t familiar, carry an additional 25-lbs in packs on their backs in addition to any water they’re carrying.)

My second taxi out was a guy who’d finished his first 15K loop and was 4 miles into his second when a hip injury he thought was healed took him out.

The third was a polite (so polite!) young man into his third (or was it only second) 15K loop. He’d started vomiting and couldn’t recover enough to continue.

I don’t know what the final tally might have been for DNFs, but the course did take a toll.

It got a little silly out at the Homestead around 2:30AM, what with the velociraptor running loose on the property.

I think our last runner must have come through a little after 3:00AM. After hanging out for another half hour, we checked in and got the go ahead to start breaking down the AS.

By 4:00, we had half the gear shoved into the bed of my truck. Took one more trip to get the ice chest, water coolers, and trash back to the race hub. Unfortunately, we couldn’t breakdown the pop-up canopy. It had a slightly bent leg that kept it from telescoping back into itself. I let the RD know we’d had to leave it. (I need a toolbox with some basic tools in it in my truck.)

A stop at QuikTrip for fuel and coffee and we were on the way back to Austin shortly after 5:00AM

Check out the size of that 50K medal in Mr. Bones’ lap!
  1. There’s a picture on the Land Heritage Institute home page. The “Learn More” button opens a site showing the history of the house along with architectural drawings. Originally built in the 1850s of stone and expanded to the two story wooden structure it is today in the 1880s. I’ll have to go back and visit when they’ve completed the remodel and it’s reopened as a “Living History Center.” ↩︎

1 Comment

  1. Carley Rains

    This is so wonderful, humorous and fun!☺️😄

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