Blackbeard's Revenge 100k Race Report
Blackbeard's Revenge 100k is a point to point race starting on Jennette's Pier in Nags Head, NC and running straight down NC-12 to Hatteras, NC. I ran the 100k a couple of years ago and then DNFed my attempt at the 100 mile version last year. I love running down the outer banks of NC.
I was a little worried going into this race, as my training has been affected by a posterior tibialis issue that has kept me from training at my normal paces and distances since last September and a combination of that issue and a new role at work have seriously curtailed the walking that I use to supplement my running. The rule of thumb "better undertrained than injured on race day" was definitely in effect. My approach was also less "crush this race" and more "don't get crushed by this race".
We started off the race at the end of the pier, about a tenth of a mile out over the Atlantic at 10:00am and I immediately settled into my 3/1 intervals. We were running into the teeth of a constant 15-20mph headwind with gusts into the upper 20s from the start. The drawback to the point to point course down the banks was that that would not change. The entirety of the route was on the shoulder of open roads, mostly highway, and a few miles in we passed the Bodie Island Lighthouse. The course took us across the 2.8 mile long Basnight Bridge over Oregon Inlet. As soon as we got up onto the bridge, the headwinds intensified making it even more difficult to run. The views from the top of the 75’ tall center spans were breathtaking, though.
Relieved to have the bridge behind me, I settled into the best rhythm I could find, but it was obvious that this was going to be a race of survival, not performance. Just before the halfway point we hit a new 2.5+ mile long bridge into Rodanthe. The bridge just opened a few months ago and was built to replace a section of NC-12 that is routinely undermined and washed out during hurricanes and major storms. As soon as we were up onto the bridge, the wind intensified again and I found it nearly un-runnable. I ended up walking almost the length of it.
Not yet to halfway, I was seriously doubting my ability to finish the race. I had burned so much energy fighting the wind I was giving myself about a 5% chance of completing the race at that point. To make matters worse, my stomach is very sensitive to effort level in its tolerance for nutrition intake. The wind was turning my easy pacing into a high effort level and (TMI warning) I was having a hard time taking in nutrition without throwing up. I dialed my intervals back to 2/1 at that point and would skip every 3rd or 4th running interval in an attempt to get things back under control.
After a shoe and sock change just past mid-way, I had a bit of a second wind going (the good kind) and started playing mind games with myself. I split the remainder of the race into 6 x 5 mile segments from mile 32 to finish and was running mile to mile within the segment. I knew if I could get to the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse about mile 50, I could make it. All I could do nutrition-wise, though, was either a swig of Tailwind or 2 Honey Stinger gummies and water during every other skipped run interval. Even that was really iffy on my stomach.
I paused to put on my night gear around mile 43 (7:45 by that point) and headed for the lighthouse aid station. In a nice little diversion at this point, racers had to do a 1.3m out and back to the lighthouse and pick up a pirate’s eye patch at the turnaround to show you’d completed the segment at the next aid station. I was disappointed to hit the lighthouse after dark, but in a plus, that out and back was the only part of the course where we were sheltered from the worst of the wind, which had not diminished in the slightest with sunset.
I put on my headphones for a burst of adrenaline from my 80s playlist with ~10 miles to go, even though it could be hard to hear the Aftershokz over the howling of the wind. In full survival mode, the rest of the race is just a blur of wind, dark, waist lamp and running intervals when I could.
I hit the finish line just after 12:30am for an official time of 14:36:50, 22nd overall in the 100k. Watching the results roll in today, it looks like both the 100k and 100 mile races had about a 45% DNF rate. I love the course, but this was nothing short of brutal. We dealt with high winds during last year's race, but they were variable and shifting, sometimes crosswind, sometimes tailwind, but rarely a true headwind. The constant headwind was absolutely draining to fight across 14+ hours.
At any rate, thanks for sticking with me for another lengthy race report! A lot happens in these longer races. If you jumped to the end of the book to see how it ended, the TL;DR version is completed my 2nd 100k and 7th ultra this weekend in 14:36:50. Love the race, the course and the organization, but Rotten Tomatoes gives the course weather a generous 4% user score.
Not too many pictures from the race due to the conditions, but here's a course map, a picture of the awesome medal and for all you Garmin aficionados, the chart of my "Body Battery" from the race. I can almost hear my watch asking "how are you still alive?" while laughing hysterically at me.
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and temps are usually lovely.
