I am fortunate to have a great group of running friends here in San Antonio. Our group has grown tremendously in the past months, and I love being a part of it. Aside from running, we share adventures, laughs, and beer-brewing tips. It’s really a fun group of people to be associated with, and I consider myself very lucky to call them friends. This past weekend we held our first annual RockHopper (that’s our group’s name) campout in Bandera at the Hill Country State Natural Area. Rich and his wife were kind enough to book the Lodge and organize a first-class weekend, supplying food, water, and anything else you could ever want.
The plan was to get a long run in on Saturday (doing most of the Bandera 100K course) and another medium distance run in on Sunday. I joined Tom, Chris P, Troy, and Joe T/JoeBro at 6:30 AM for a tour of Cairn’s Climb and Boyle’s Bump in the pre-dawn darkness. The weather was cool but comfortable, and my light jacket was soaked by the time we reached the Lodge after 5+ miles. I debated whether to remove it and leave it at the Lodge or continue on. I decided to keep it on a bit longer, and boy am I glad I did! When we arrived back at the Lodge, we were greeted by a huge crowd of runners eager to tame the Bandera rocks. I’ve never seen so many cars and people out there on a non-race day. We must have had 25-30 runners.
After a quick bathroom stop, I hustled to catch up to the others, chatting with Chris and Chris for a bit. We were soon headed up Sky Island, but I ran in the opposite direction so I could drop off a water bottle with my friend Jean. After everyone had passed through, I followed the group down towards Trail 1, where we would hit Ice Cream Hill. As we approached Ice Cream, we could already see the faster runners cresting the top of the hill. Once on top, we re-joined a group that had taken a side trip to get a “double scoop” of Ice Cream. I followed (at least I tried to) on the heels of Tom, Troy, Rachel, Connie, and Chris P as they went screaming down the backside of Ice Cream Hill. Our group continued on through Nachos, not stopping until we arrived at park headquarters, where Tom and Troy broke off to run different trails, while Rachel, Connie, Chris P, and myself stayed on the Bandera course and headed up Trail 8. We navigated out way up and over the rocks of Trail 8, running into the Tanya and Jason, who were “training” pacers for the 100K. After chatting and re-filling our bottles, we tiptoed through the dangerous sections of trail that had been torn up by horses during an endurance ride held over Thanksgiving weekend. Not wanting to break an ankle, we gingerly stepped in and out of horse holes. Somewhere in the field section, we lost Chris. Since I knew he was planning on stopping at Crossroads, I wasn’t too concerned. I was, however, concerned that it was now just me running with Rachel and Connie, both of whom are way faster than I am, even with nagging injuries slowing them down.
The 3 of us blew through Crossroads (mile 16 of Bandera 100K) in search of the 3 Sisters. We encountered Liza and the “fast” group along the way (they had already done the Sisters), as they headed back to the Lodge. Physically I felt pretty good at this point, but my mental state of mind was wavering. After a long week, I was spent. It was at this point that the rain started. Coupled with a slight wind, it was getting colder. Luckily I was still wearing my jacket. Up and over the Sisters I went, chasing Connie and Rachel the whole way. We headed through Crossroads again with the plan of me heading back to the Lodge (I already had the mileage I needed) and Rachel/Connie doing Lucky’s Peak, but since they were both hurting (each had a leg injury), we all ran back to the Lodge in the rain. I ended up doing 28 miles and had a blast running with friends.
Sunday morning I awoke with sore legs and a tired body. I really wasn’t in the mood to run again, but I had made plans to run with Chris, Liza, Rachel, Connie, and Travis. It was tough to leave the Lodge since Rich and Jeannie had tons of food and hot coffee laid out for us. What really caught my eye (aside from the Nutella I ate) was a huge carrot cake!!! I love carrot cake. This would be my reward for running. Reluctantly we trudged out into the cool morning air (at least it wasn’t raining or windy). Knowing the low-lying trails would be muddy and slow, we opted to hit as many of the hills as we could, even going so far as to do repeats up and over Lucky’s Peak! After scaling Lucky twice, we hit Cairn’s Climb and Boyle’s bump, dropped off Chris and Connie at the Lodge, and headed back out for one more loop. Rachel immediately took off ahead of Travis and I. Occasionally we would catch a glimpse of her, but we never caught up. I enjoyed chatting with Travis as we climbed and ran down. My body loosened up, and I really felt good and didn’t want to stop running, but we needed to help clean the Lodge before checking out. Luckily for us, the others who had stayed behind had done most of the cleaning for us. Before I left I made sure I snagged an extra large piece of carrot cake!
A big thanks go out again to the Mihaliks for organizing the weekend and keeping us well fed. What a great way to kick off the holiday season.
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