Running with Venom

Texting Sam in July that I am going to be 20 minutes late from a family outing to meet him for our run.  I arrive at the house at 8:10 ready to run about 40 minutes later than I would have preferred to leave for a run up Cavanal Hill.  I ask Sam if we could run the 7 mile loop on the road and then I saw his Dog, knowing he wanted to run the trail.  I then implied for us to put the dog in the back yard or the garage.  Sam had previously done both of these things leading to great disaster and costly damages!  So Sam said, “I am running the hill!”  I didn’t hesitate, I love that mountain in my backyard the challenges it brings, I grabbed my head lamp and off we went!

Cavanal Hill- Worlds Largest Hill in my back yard and it is 3.5 miles to the top with a little 2,000 feet of elevation!  The first mile I blazed though the woods and over a couple rock drop cliff areas with about 800 feet of elevation gain of climbing.  We were climbing this first mile and I was about 8 minutes into the run and I was killing about 1 horsefly per minute of running wishing I had a shirt on and listening to Sam laugh as he bragged about putting on some Oil that was keeping the horseflies away from him.  I though to myself I need to stop worrying about the horseflies and watch the trail.  Hoping many rocks getting darker by the second.  I then scream grabbing at my ankle!  Sam yells, “Snake” I yell back, “it just BIT me, what kind is it.”  Next words Sam’s mouth were evil but true! “Stay Calm” knowing he was about to tell me it was a rattlesnake or copperhead.  He said, “it is a BIG Copperhead.”  I then scream louder and pretty sure I was jumping up and down!  Sam then goes CrossFit style on the copperhead dropping rocks on it as I was tying my headband around my ankle.  Next thing I know I look up and my dog is nose to nose with that Snake and Sam is yelling at her!

I then begin the long mile down the hill hurting more and more with every step, wishing Sam would speed up at times and wishing he would slow down at times. Our headlamps are on now and we can see the trail better than what we could see just minutes before when it was dusk.  I stopped at one point to feel my heart and it was beating threw the roof!  Not sure if it was from the snake or from the adrenaline going through my body.  We made it to the flatter area about 300 yards from the house and Sam took off to get my family warned and things ready to get me to the hospital.  I figured I would do what I normally do after a run, jump in the pool, figured at this point it was get rinsed off and cooled down a little and for sure lower my heart rate!  My wife comes running out and Sam is sprinting up the trail yelling for me!  I yell back that I am in the pool and they are shocked that I was taking a dip in the pool.

I jump in Sam’s truck and off we go to Poteau Hospital, my wife and kids are on there way to papa’s and glandma’s so she can drop the kids off.  Stihl my oldest is crying & my youngest Scarlett is laughing saying “daddy……. Snake….. bite….” I try to call a doctor friend and text him hoping to find out what to do.  Then I call another good friend, Dautis that was bit just 2 months previous. No luck from either friend, the pain now is starting to settle in the foot and it hurting pretty bad.  Arriving at the hospital I get to see a good friend, Brandy who is a nurse.  I then get the foot up and start the long process with Poteau on how they didn’t really know what to do with the snakebite.  They wanted to get me in an ambulance and take me to Fort Smith and I wouldn’t do it!  I then start throwing up every 5 to 10 minutes in extreme pain.  Get some more pain meds in me and K-Jo and I are off to Fort Smith.  They didn’t help much over there either. The Doctor tried to put me in the waiting room as I was filling a barf bag and the head nurse said I have a room we can get him in.  I finally held down an anti-nausea pill long enough that I stopped throwing up and now was moving out the other end every 20 minutes… Couldn’t believe that much fluid was in me!  I hit the famous 6 hour mark and they sent me home.  This is when the swelling started.  It was 3 in the morning now and I fell asleep for 3 hours.  Waking up to a wife that was worried sick about my leg as over the next 24 hours it would swell to the size of a 400 pound man’s leg would look.

Prayers and loving friends taking care of me kept me sane through the pain.  The next 3 days I would only get out of bed 7 times.  You will see me in the pool in extreme pain to get in there but probably the most relaxed at had been in 3 days and also my first half redneck bath!

I am writing this exactly 6 weeks later and wow what a 6 weeks it has been!  I have never been hurt very long over the past 7 years and if I had a running hurt I would fall to biking and always work through it. Would I go from fast to not as fast, yes but never was I not able to do what I love, running, biking and playing with the kids outside. 

A good friend of mine, Jason Waymire shared one of his struggles with me, “Josh I had to find who I was because I was a different person not being able to be active.”  This is so true to what I have been going through the past weeks.  I am still having trouble and pain. Swelling when I take off running or biking.  Not swelling when I am running.  So trying to find the medium is where I am at for now.

I hope that if you have been injured you are staying strong to get back at it and fight to do what you love!  I love the outdoors and hope to not be scared of the woods or snakes!  This 2015 year started out with a dream ride at Queenwillamena 105 miles and 16k of elevation, thinking I could go do anything!  Then down and out with a big surgery on my nose coming back to do another huge ride to my Grandmother’s House of 163 miles! To snake bitten and out for the rest of 2015 season!

DON’T GIVE UP!

Sylamore Trail 50k 2014

            My wife, 8 months Prego was putting my shoes on and tying them for me.  It was the Monday before the upcoming Saturday race and I had tweaked my back (Pregnant Karma Sutra, know your limits).  I showed up to the race and didn’t do too bad until I slipped on the ice and re-tweaked it at mile 23.  I finished 4^th with a time of 4:36 and was happy with my 2013 race.   But, I’ve been dying to return to Sylamore to PR and see where that puts me in the competitive group of racers that are drawing from Memphis, St. Louis, Little Rock, Oklahoma and Texas.  With 225-50k’ers and 625-25k-er’s signing up for this race, it is the biggest trail race in Arkansas if not the 5 state surrounding area.  I had looked up before the race and saw the top 6 from last year were signed up to come again and race for 2014.  That in itself was exciting and gave me more reason to trail with intensity for this early 2014 season!  So me and my 2 Valentine Sweetheart’s, Kristin and Scarlett, loaded up for the 4.5 hour trip.  It included some major twisted roads to get to North Central Arkansas near Mt. View, AR.

Chris, Bryan, and Me

At 7 am the race director announces that we have never done this before for the 50k, but if you choose to turn around at the 25k we will not DNF you from the race.  Then he went on to explain that the course was 80% snow and ice for major sections of the trail. He then says this isn’t the fun snow to run in.  This is ice on top of snow….bust you’re a** snow.  He then says good luck and sounds the horn as everyone was 30 feet from the starting line (typical for most trail races).  Me, Tom and Bryan, from Memphis 2013 with 2^nd place and a really fast time, were pacing the first three-fourths of the uphill road section together.  As we were chatting Bryan told us that Matt wouldn’t be running because he was injured, he would be just crewing and cheering.  Then Chris flies by us, and I thought, “Oh man, it is the guy that goes out fast at every race and then comes back.”  Right about then we hit the first snow and ice going downhill.  Normally we would be flying down this hill but everyone was slowing because it was super slick.  We neared the bottom and Tom goes down hard. Says he is ok and we keep on trucking.   We get on the wrong trail right off the bat and bushwhack to the correct trail and then come upon the first major creek crossing.  On the other side of the creek it was solid ice going up the steps and I felt like I was crawling on all fours to get to the top of the trail out of the creek.  The next mile would be some of the worst, most dangerous running I had ever encountered in my life.  Bryan who was ahead of me was sliding on his butt in one spot to get down.  And I spotted Tom slipping on another dangerous rocky spot.  We kept pressing forward and I passed Bryan and went into 2^nd place not worrying about Chris to much and trying to focus on running my own race.  I was feeling pretty good and being really cautious not wanting to get banged up early into the race.

Ice, Bryan, Me and Tom

            First Aid Station at Blanchard Springs, Team Snyder was there ready to go.  I dumped a shirt got my lucky hat, a new bottle and was on my way giving time for Tom.  Another dude that looked like Van Diesel running strong and Bryan were coming into the aid station as we left.  This was the first big climb and it was good Tom was leading the way because this was a good check for me not to kill this hill as I wanted to let it loose.  I finally went around Tom and pressed to the top of the climb until we bombed down it to the North Sylamore Creek shores.   Then we were fast approaching the second big climb and I was feeling great!  I then started the big descent on the second mountain.  Both of these mountains had snow that was about 3 to 4 inches deep with a layer of ice on top of the snow.  It was hard and the previous footprints were twisting my ankles and leading me on the wrong trail.  I came upon an intersection and just stood there not sure where to go.  Single Track Trail that didn’t look like anyone had ran on it at all?  Or down the big clear trail with tons of foot tracks?  I was waiting for a second opinion and after about a minute I got one but I didn’t like what he said which was to go down the hill.  So I waited for the third opinion and he said yes take the single track.  I took off and saw a cliff edge just past a few trees below the trail.  It was roughly 10 feet and led to a 150 foot drop to the river.  I said to third place behind me, “you don’t want to fall here!”  I hadn’t fallen at this point, but I had noticed blood all over Tom’s legs and seen several guys hit the ice hard!  Glancing again at the cliff’s edge, before I knew it I was hitting the ice hard.  Taking a fall at the worst possible place on the entire 31 mile course!  Luckily I didn’t slide down the mountain or over the cliff.  I then stood up slowly and went on my way thanking God as my life felt like it flashed before my eyes.  I looked down when I got to the turn around and I noticed my leg was bleeding pretty badly, but I was four minutes behind the leader Chris.

Mile 28, 60% of the Trail looked like this

            Tom and I had talked before about Chris and thought he would come back, so I felt if I kept a good pace I would see him again.  On this out and back course it lets you know how far you are behind and you also get to see how close your competitors are to hunting you down.  This is good motivation to keep the effort going!  I then saw many 50k’ers that would cheer me on and it would seem I was getting closer to the leader, but still no sign of him as I rolled into the Gunner Pool Aid Station.  There were the best two aid station workers I have ever met!  They are in their seventies I just know him as Big Shot.  I also got to meet his wife, Lou.  They are the sweetest, most encouraging people I have ever met.  Their history of trail running, their time and dedication to the sport has helped bring it to where it is today!

           

 So I took off from their aid station heading for Team Snyder at Blanchard Springs.  It was just over a couple of big climbs, but the bad thing is I wasn’t feeling the best at this point.   I decided to let up the gas a little bit and then I started feeling better real quickly.  I then starting passing tons of 25kers.  They start their race one hour later and were moving slower this year with the trail being so slick making it much more congested this year.  I came into Blanchard feeling pretty good but really had my heart set on my wife telling me that the race leader was only 2 minutes ahead.  Instead she said, “He is probably 5 minutes ahead or so.”  At this point I was upset because said, “5 minutes or 7 or 2 what is it?”  This is the point I should have not said anything and kissed my wife and started running!  Looking back, this is the point my wife should have kicked me in the tail and said get to running!!  I was still trying to get the time out of her and she couldn’t tell me.   Last year’s race winner Matt said, “He isn’t to far ahead go get em!” And off I went into the woods with now packed snow that much easier running than earlier in the day!  This same section in 2013 kicked my tail with a sore back, hopping, jumping and stumbling over the many rocks and roots.  Add to that, this year is still icy in so many places.  But I would press on.  Passing 25k runner after 25k runner thinking every time I would see him in the distance, the X-Navy Seal that I was trying to run down and pass for the victory.  Syalamore doesn’t give anything for the Second place winner.  If you get First you get to come back the next year for free and you also get a big, sweet trophy! If you get Last place you get the same thing that you get for Second.   You have to love this, but you also have to hate it when you can’t ever catch that first place runner!  As I crossed the freezing cold creek I saw one of my GU’s that had fallen out of my pocket.  It must have dropped crossing the first time so I told the camera man he could have that one!  I then took the last icy climb up the hill pretty fast and bombed down the last three-quarters of mile to the Anglers Resort and Finish Line.  My hat is off to Chris, as if he did slow down it wasn’t much because I lost by exactly 3 minutes.  As I crossed the line I asked Chris if he had already gotten a cheeseburger inside and came back out.  He laughed and told me great race!  He was a great sport about beating me and I hope to chase him again soon!  As for Sylamore I got you on the PR this year and I didn’t think a PR could be done with the course conditions.  But running smart, training and enjoying whatever you do, you never know what can happen!  Big Thanks to my Girls for crewing me, driving me and cheering me on!  Tom for telling me years ago I had to go run this race and pushing me to longer, harder runs!  And to My Lord and Savior for giving me the ability to run and enjoy his amazing beauty in the Mountains!

I love this Sign! 8.5 Hours one way!

Training a lot of hills helped me get ready for this years race looking forward to another good one next year!  This sums up the trail races for Winter/Spring 2014, now changing gears with many long Mountain Bike Races and Boston Marathon in April looking forward to those races and stories to come!

4:31  2^nd Place