In the middle of 2022, roughly two years into my ultrarunning career, I decided it would be wise to start working with a coach. The number of injuries, amount of pain and difficulties I felt after my first ultra was too much, and it was obvious I wasn’t going anywhere, literally speaking, running by myself.
I decided to call Armando Teixeira. Besides his work as a coach, Armando is also the organizer of a race, Estrela Grande Trail (EGT) in Portugal, an 85k race with 5,000 meters (16,400 feet) of climbing at Serra da Estrela, mainland Portugal highest mountain. That was the challenge I needed.
EGT is not just a race. Runners actually scramble for most of the time, with plenty of opportunities to twist an ankle, get feet wet and in a good year, avoid the rolling rocks on steep mountains due to snow.
This was definitely not a race for my ability or experience, but nevertheless, I showed up at 6 a.m. with my bib on and ready to tackle anything. The first part was mostly dirt road uphill and with poles, I breezed through. The second stretch was a different story. Growing up in an urban environment I’m not comfortable with traversing rocks and technical terrain. There was no way I was going to quit, so I decided that the best way to face my fear was to tag along in silence with another runner. I ended up running 15k with someone more experienced than me, trying to keep up with his pace, and ended up making it all the way to the aid station. Things went better than expected.
I got to Torre, the highest point of mainland Portugal, almost 2 hours ahead of the cutoff yet my mind was already in survival mode. I left as quickly as I could and started my way down the mountain.
From there to Vale da Amoreira, just 20k from the finish, I blacked out and lost my memory as I continued to move forward. Vale da Amoreira was a monster, because from there, I had to go up 750 meters (2,500 feet) in 5k. At that point in the race, I had already fallen half a dozen times. The stress of getting to the finish line was ominous.
Finally, at the top, the flat terrain allowed me to start jogging again even though my legs were not in such good shape anymore. By then my watch warned me that it was just 10 minutes until sunset. At first, I got a little concerned about the race flags as I struggled to see them throughout the entire race due to being colorblind. As I got my headlamp on and night fell, the temperature immediately dropped, and I struggled to put my jacket on while holding my poles.
I walked the final 3k to Sameiro where the last aid station was located. When I entered, I felt like everyone there was looking at the dead man, but I soon realized that the room was already filled with dead men. They were all eating and getting ready to leave. They told me to join them in the last stretch and while everyone there tried to bring me back to life, I was done.
I dropped out 10k from the finish line with still almost 5 hours left to finish. My coach was right, I can’t remember crying so much in my adult life as I did the following morning as I walked to cheer on a friend in his 26k race.
As a kid growing up, we all start counting the days to Christmas on December 26. I started counting the days to next year’s EGT on May 15.