The Grand Finale: My 300K Tour de los Tejas Finish - Part 2

But either way , I hope you'll enjoy this conclusion as a standalone story too . Welcome to the Choose to Enjoy podcast , the go-to show for back-of-the-pack ultra runners . Join us as we explore uplifting stories , interviews , gear and training tips , all tailored towards the unsung heroes at the back end of the ultra universe . My name's Richard Gleave .

I've been ultra running since 2017 . I've finished numerous ultra distances , from 50k all the way up through 200 miles . I'm a qualified USKA ultra running coach and I'm unashamedly a member of the back-of-the-pack , just like you . Right , then , if you're ready and willing , let's pick up the story at the start of day three .

As a reminder , day two was wet , it was cold and it was getting colder , and I'd called my buddy Chuck to come meet me at the hotel I'd stopped at just on the northern outskirts of Lagrange . My progress in the race was now wholly tied to whether or not he would show up and at what time .

So I went to sleep on the second night , warm at last , but very apprehensive .

Now the hotel I was staying at put on an unexpected hot breakfast buffet something of a rarity in those COVID times . So I was actually able to get my fill of coffee , orange juice , all water and feast on some scrambled eggs , sausage and potatoes just the thing after last night's eating fiasco .

So , feeling full and somewhat revived , chuck duly arrived and I gratefully changed into my warmer gear . I believe I set off that morning right around 7.10am . I checked my watch , but the mileage for the day was shorter than the previous two , at 42 total . So I had high hopes of getting through the day with more hours to recover in the evening .

Now the route had us continuing north from where I stopped . In fact I had a straight five mile section until the FM 153 left turn further up ahead . Immediately I turned on to 77 north again . However , things went south A I tried to run , but my legs were having absolutely none of it , they would not move .

And B I had turned into a 15 mile per hour freezing headwind and it was cold , and I mean very cold . Thankfully it wouldn't have been wise to run into that anyway , even if I could so head down , buff up around my face , beanie down and hands in pockets to protect from the cold .

I set off for the day and five miles later I met Chuck again at the turn up ahead and I had to jump in his car to warm up . My face was absolutely battered from the constant freezing wind and I needed more layers . I think I spent 15 minutes in the car warming up and putting more clothes on before I took off west down 153 .

Now , 153 itself was a nice rural run Lots of cows , lots of fields . Unfortunately , the fields were exposed , so anytime I ran by one , the wind whipped right through me again . Additionally , this was the worst road surface of the entire race for me Very bumpy , very uneven , to such a degree that it really hurt my feet to walk on it .

And then it started to rain hard . Another jump in the crew car to get out of the wind and driving rain was necessary . Everything was cold and I couldn't get warm , so all I could do was try to keep moving . Today was already not a great day , I think .

Anecdotally these days , these kinds of days inevitably happen , and when they do , I think it's important to find a positive to hang on to . Even with painful feet , I could still walk okay . So that's what I determined to do , as fast as I could . Nine miles along 153 and 14 miles for my daily total was the town of Winchester .

Now , I really wanted to hit Murphy's Steakhouse and Shorty's Bar here for a beer , since I had scouted them early on , but sadly both were closed at the time I arrived . I believe other runners did and have excellent photos to prove it too . If you can go out there and find them on Facebook , there's literally nothing else in Winchester store wise .

So I trudged on through the freezing rain , wanting to get to the state parks about 23 miles into the day before dark . Once again , chuck provided some excellent support . He went and grabbed hot drinks and hot food as needed , and we ate lunch around 2pm in the support car .

Shortly thereafter I had my one and only on course bathroom emergency , one of the interesting unknowns about Ultras any item you eat might set you off with GI troubles , and there's not always a bathroom around . In this case I wasn't even out on a trail in the woods . What to do ?

Ultimately , I decided I had to jump down into a culvert by the side of the road as an emergency number 2 bio break , 2 miles away from the state park . Fyi , dropping pants in that kind of weather is no bueno . Everything got wet again as I derobed and , despite my best efforts , I'm pretty sure my squatting white ass could be seen from the road .

Sorry , drivers , but you know needs must . Right after this , in that two mile stretch before the state park turned , a total of three more cars stopped and asked if I needed a lift somewhere , presumably because of the atrocious weather .

The last car couple were annoyed that I turned them down and at this point I had stopped explaining to people what we were doing . It just took too long . But they had sheets of ice all over their car and they had come from Austin , so that definitely worried me a little , since that's where I was headed .

Anyhow , I met Chuck again at the entrance to Buesha State Park around 3pm and he drove with me the entire 15 mile route to the other side . We chatted and took photos . It was certainly good to have someone to talk to .

The park was beautiful , especially since the rain had turned to ice and these little icicles on all the trees and plants looked like mini chandeliers . The hills were brutal on the legs though , particularly feet and shins . We went up , we went down and around for what seemed like an eternity .

A lot of the fauna in Bastret Park in particular is still recovering from a wildfire not too long ago , so burnt out trees were all over , and these totally added to the spook factor when the sun started to go down , along with the coyote howls in the distance . I would definitely not have liked to have gone through that park totally alone at night .

I later learned that's exactly what Lisa Carter , 4 miles behind me , did more power to her fantastic effort . Had we known , we certainly would have gone back to check on her , but we both thought that she'd had a crew with her , since I had been checked on by her crew . Coming into La Grange very briefly the night before .

Five and a half hours after entering the park and a lot of steep climbs and steeper descents , elevation , wind , rain and sleet I eventually exited into the eastern outskirts of Bastret . It was now dark again and very , very cold , made worse by the constant wet clothes and the driving wind .

My hotel for the night was on the west side of town , approximately three miles away , but the course took us through Bastret Buckeys so I was looking forward to a quick warm up there . I looked over head to the hotel and I was getting to the day's finish just by myself .

As I was approaching Buckeys , I got a group messenger notification that Tom and Pam were actually in the Buckeys after finishing their days in La Grange earlier on .

They were there getting supplies and could see me coming on the tracker , so I hung around in there a few minutes longer and eventually I heard Pam shouting at me across the store and I have to tell you it was so good to see friendly faces and share stories from the previous couple of days .

It was very timely , since I hadn't had a great day at all , not being able to run , being hellishly cold , trudging along through wind and rain . It reminded me that I wasn't out there racing alone . In fact , none of us were . Much like the day before , I was shivering badly .

Once the sun went down , it was all I could do to get myself out of the warmth of Buckeys , where friends were , and start the trek across town . I was pleasantly surprised again by Bastrop . It's another lovely place . I've only ever driven through on the main road there , but a few streets back from the main road is the town itself .

Much like La Grange , it had lots going on , lots of unique shops and boutique places . I definitely want to go back and check out more one weekend . But one thing they hadn't done in Bastrop , though , was grit the dang sidewalks , or at least they hadn't done it very well . I bit it twice on the 3 mile walk to the hotel , slipping on the ice .

I eventually reached there around 9.45pm . Chuckered ordered pizza and pasta , so we sat around chomping that down after a long day and began to think about scenarios regarding what to do tomorrow . Lisa Carter was now 5 or 6 miles behind me , according to the tracker .

Was she going to run straight through to grab the lead , as she did at the end of the first day ? Was she going to stop ? If so , how long was she going to stop ? For when should I plan on getting up to get on the road ?

I honestly hadn't thought about any kind of racing until this point , but having completed 3 of my 4 days , been at the front of the field for most of those , surprisingly , and only being 31 miles from the finish , suddenly I found some competitive juices from somewhere . They turned on and I actually wanted to win .

We couldn't control what Lisa did and we knew , based on her pace and being a distance behind me , she wouldn't likely be getting in until kind of midnight 1am timeframe as it was .

I was in no position to continue through the night , so I figured I would take a chance that she needed to sleep , rest and warm up for some time too , and if it was still reasonably close when I got up in the morning that I would go for it and try to make a race to the finish .

We decided that I would leave no later than 6am the next day and move to the end . Full racing for the day , 42 miles in about 13 hours really disappointing , very emotional . Not what I was expecting at all , but hills in the weather and such an emotional event .

Going into Buckeys and talking to Pam and Brett , who is Pam's husband and crew , and Tom they were really an absolute lifesaver . That day Really dug me out of an emotional hole .

Day 4 so the alarm went off at 5am , I jumped out of the bed , went to check the tracker to see where Lisa had got to overnight . She was still in Bastrop and did not appear to be moving . Okay , game on . In fact she had stopped on the east side of Bastrop , which meant that she had at least those 3 miles to cover to even get to where I was .

So I took my time getting ready . We exited the hotel right at 6am in the morning . It was brutally cold again , but the wind had at least died down a little bit and there was no rain or mist about , so that was pleasing . Chuck drove off to find some McDonald's for breakfast and I got back on the course .

I had roughly half a mile to complete to get out of the town along 71 west feeder road before having to take a right , which is north again , onto FM 969 , the road that would take us the majority of the way , all the way back into Austin . So set off walking thinking about how do I maintain this lead ?

But I quickly noticed some flashing colored lights almost a full half mile ahead of me . Now , it took me a minute and in my defence I hadn't had any coffee yet , but it finally dawned on me that this was a person in a lighted tracer running vest like mine , like the one I had been wearing . Why would they be out here at 6am ? Who was it ?

Uh oh , the only person it realistically could be was Lisa . But how ? She must have left her hotel right around 5am when I saw her on the tracker and she'd been making her way across town . While I was faffing about getting ready to run , she got the jump on me again and by this time was about half a mile ahead . So I was pretty irritated with myself .

Really . Not Lisa . Great move on her part . No way was I coming this far to give up that lead , having worked so hard to be in a position to potentially win a race for the first and only time in my life . Okay , chase on Now . Yesterday I could hardly run at all , for whatever reason , so I had mostly walked .

I was therefore quite apprehensive about how attempting to run today and needing to run today , would work out . I gave it a shot anyway and , lo and behold , I could indeed run again . Not sure why , but I suspect that , having hardly run at all yesterday , maybe my running muscles got a break and we're now ready to go once more .

Regardless , I was happy as I made that right turn onto 9.69 , still a ways behind . Just at this point Chuck rolled up with breakfast . Now , normally I would have grabbed coffee and sausage and egg sandwich and enjoyed them . He brought two of them while I walked , but I was in no mood to be walking right then .

So I gave the coffee back , wolfed down one of the sandwiches and vowed to eat properly if or once I was able to gain enough of a lead back to be able to do so without looking over my shoulder constantly . It turns out this wouldn't be for another 16 miles .

As I set off after Lisa , it had not yet gotten light and I remembered reading about some elite runners at western states . Or was it bad water , or was it somewhere else ? Ah , I don't know , but I did recall the text talking about them turning off their lights at night .

That way racers ahead and behind couldn't see where they were , so as to gain a competitive advantage and not to give their position away . Now , bear in mind these guys are doing it on a closed course , on trails with no traffic , but I was on the road , feet from cars , we under turn . I decided that was the tactic for me .

So I relayed to Chuck that I was going dark , hoping Lisa couldn't see me coming . Bear in mind too at this point . I had black long pants on , a black coat and a black beanie . So , with no lights and dressed full on Johnny Cash style , off , I went in hot pursuit .

After a while on the winding , undulating roads , I lost sight of the coloured lights ahead of me . I assumed I'd catch up slowly over the course of the day , like I had on day two , so I didn't really pay much attention to it . To be honest , chuck rolled up in a car beside me about an hour later and asked how I was doing in the chase .

To my surprise , he told me we were now half a mile ahead . Hang on ahead . How can that be ? I haven't passed Lisa on the road . Chuck proceeds to tell me that he had found Lisa a short ways back and she said she had stopped in a field for a bathroom break . Apparently I had ghosted right past her while she had her lights off in the field .

I didn't realise I had gone by her . I couldn't see her and she didn't realise I had gone by either . Since she couldn't see me , we were both in stealth mode Excellent news for me at least . Boiled by this , I pushed on continuing my rhythm from days one and two where I was running the flat and walking the uphills .

969 was another really nice rural route Fields , farms , cows and super smooth road surface , perfect for running on . I did enjoy this road quite a bit as it goes by mile sixteen of the day , at Weberville . Half way to the finish , I was four miles ahead . This was pretty much the only town of any note on today's 31 mile route .

As long as I kept walking or moving forwards at this point I was confident Lisa wouldn't be able to pass me . I finally stopped to eat a second breakfast sandwich and take the coffee that I wasn't able to have earlier on , and I took a ten minute break . I was right around mile let's say , 170 at this point .

So by comparison , the last 15 or so miles should have seemed like a cakewalk , but it wasn't . The exertions of running hard to regain my lead earlier in the day were now beginning to show and I slowed down quite a bit .

According to Chuck , who was going back and forth to Lisa to make sure she was okay , seeing if she needed anything , she was also walking by this point and with that news the run went out to me and I started to walk more . With eight miles to go , coming into the outskirts of Austin , my shins gave out completely and rebelled . They'd had enough .

It felt like someone had took a baseball bat to both of them and it became excruciatingly painful to walk or run even worse on the ups and downs , and this reduced me to something of an uneven hobble . Wobble that's the only way I can describe it . Everything seemed to stand still from that point onwards . It probably took me three hours to finish .

From there it felt longer and I did not appreciate those hills . Once I got back into Austin City Limits , I just couldn't run or walk properly . I wasn't losing ground to Lisa behind me , I don't think , but I did have to keep moving . Still , I was a fair bit irritated by the situation and that I couldn't run .

I had dreamed of cruising triumphantly into Austin as the winner of the race , coolly jogging up the hill to the finish and touching the wall . I suspected that's what real runners who win races would definitely be doing , and here I was , hobbling and wobbling like an old lady .

I think I told Chuck at one point that I didn't feel like much of a race leader , that's for sure . Nonetheless , I did eventually . Eventually make it back to the capital and up the final incredibly steep incline to once again get on the building grounds .

I spotted Rob , the race director , standing against the wall , right where we had left four days earlier , and I summoned up the energy to jog over . If you see the video , that's the most painful jog I've ever done .

But touched the wall I did , and just like that the race was over , I was finished , I could stop and for the first time in my life I had won a running race in my late 40s . The daily total was about 31-32 miles , 8.5 hours-ish . I was elated , but you know I'm English so we don't really do outward emotions very well , unless a lot of beer is involved .

First , congratulations to ReFistBump it was . Then I received a super cool embroidered finishes jacket with a race logo on it and a wicked handcrafted wooden belt buckle with my name on the back for completing the distance . Those are things I will cherish forever .

But all I wanted to do right then was sit down and go get some fast food such as ultra-running life . We duly went off , found some Chick-fil-A and went back to the capital to watch and clap Lisa in roughly an hour and a half later . She did an amazing job of running and showed huge character to keep going , keep chasing the whole way around .

I was incredibly impressed . She had a fantastic race and she should be insanely proud of her efforts as well . I hope she is . I still can't believe she went through the parks by herself at night Massively . Great job , lisa Carter . After finishing I went back to my hotel . I showered , I waddled over to Chuck's Hotel for a celebratory beer or three .

I think I had an Austin Beer Works 701 Sun Session IPA it was really pretty good . And then I went back to my hotel and crashed hard . What a four days . Trevor Medding won the 600km version of this race twice as long , almost 400 miles , if you can believe that . An unfathomably long way and an incredible effort . I think , too , trevor is Canadian right .

So nice to see the Commonwealth still out here and showing Colonials how it's done . Then , right the day after , when I woke up the Saturday morning , I checked the race feed on Facebook and I saw that Luis had run through the night from Bastrop to the finish . He'd come in 3rd at 4am to the Austin Capital Building . Good grief , kudos to Luis .

That would have been exceptionally dark , windy and cold . What kind of lunatic would do that ? Well , apparently a dad whose child had requested him to be back at a sporting event to watch her later on that Saturday . Luis ran through the night , his only option to be able to finish the race and be back home in time on the Saturday .

To make that happen , people , that is parent of the year award right there . Magnificent effort . The other news , however , was all about the ice storm coming this way .

I checked in with home and learned that my son really wanted me to head back to Houston , as did the wife , ahead of the storm hitting and getting stuck in Austin , since overpasses and freeways were threatening to get closed down .

Now I had originally planned to stay through the weekend because I wanted to wait for and cheer on any runners that happened to finish after me at the Capital Building , but this wasn't now going to be possible .

But I theorized I could travel back towards Houston the same way I had run in on the course the previous day , since it had no bridges to get closed . Additionally , this would also then take me past racers who were still out on the course Tommy , pam and Kevin .

At this point Now I really wanted to go check on them and see if I could be of any assistance . I know how much of a boost it was to have Chuck checking on me as crew , so I wanted to pay it forward and do what I could do for other folks out there and make sure they were doing okay , especially since I remembered a couple of them had no crew .

So I set

off . I bumped into Tom first . He seemed like he was doing pretty well . He was running nicely . He was halfway done with the last day by the time I caught up with him at Webberville , approximately 15 miles from the finish .

He took a few minutes to warm up in the car , since it was very , very cold again and we chatted about his race and his estimated finish . He was in search of some hot food , but I had neglected to bring any with me , which definitely , paul planning on my part . You know , I'm kind of new to the crewing gig .

But luckily there was a store just half a mile up the road which I thought had hot items for sale and would be open . So I offered to go grab some pizza for him . But he told me don't worry about it , he'd be fine , and to keep going down the road . So I duly obliged .

Tom finished a few hours later , having found the hot food at that store , and he continued looking strong . I believe he waited for Pam at the finish too , which I think goes to show again just how much we were all here supporting each other to get to the end and making these friendships along the way . Next on my visit list was Pam .

She's such an uplifting individual . She can grind out loads of miles , but I really wanted to stop by and give my support to her any way . I could let her know I was genuinely very excited for her to get to the end .

She wasn't actually too far behind , just a few miles down the road , and she was being crewed by her ever supportive and brilliant husband , brett , so I figured she wouldn't need a whole lot from me nutrition wise . It would be more moral support maybe I could offer her . I pulled off the road just ahead of where she was and I waited .

I think she was genuinely surprised to see me standing there waiting for her . Like Tomie , she looked in great shape . She was chugging along really nicely . She hugged , she told me how her day was going , which turns out was pretty well , and I let her know she was doing brilliant and was nearly halfway done with the last day .

I cheered and clapped for her as she carried on along to the next turn up the road . I have so much respect for Pam and how strong mentally she is . I believe both Pam and Tomie had better last days , or at least better last half of the last day , than I did .

I was definitely super proud and a little envious of them both for looking so strong physically and mentally . They are both fantastic runners . Lastly , I knew Kevin was out there somewhere a ways back , mr Boyd and I was pretty certain he didn't have a crew , so I made a beeline for him .

Deliberately , learning from my Tommy encounter , I decided to stop at the Bastrop Buckeys , where I had shed tears on the way , and grab a few hot items a big hot chocolate , couple of hot sandwiches , some trail mix , just in case . I caught up with Kevin about 3 miles from the entrance to Boucher and Bastrop State Park and he looked cold .

I'm not actually sure he recognised me at first , but I reintroduced myself and he jumped in the car for a warm up . We chatted about his race day for 20 minutes or so and he appeared to be having a rough moment . So I think I got there in the nick of time .

He got the hot chocolate down , he ate a hot sandwich and I think he seemed much better after that . Since he still needed to go hit the parks , I offered to go ahead of him and meet him there an hour and a half later , which I did . As Kevin made his way to the parks , I made sure his day pass was taken care of and I watched him wait for him .

Eventually he arrived and we chatted again . We shared a mile or so of park walking before I had to leave and go back to the car . Since I was heading to Houston , I was genuinely , genuinely sad to leave Kevin .

He is such a nice guy and I know what lay ahead for him , but he assured me that his wife was coming by to assist on the long , lonely miles through the state park and that he would be okay . You know , sometimes it's not physical support you need the most , but mental .

I know from having run the majority of the first part of this race alone that it's so good sometimes just to have a friendly face around and someone to talk to . I was very glad to be able to provide that in those moments for Kevin and make sure he knew he had a little support . The guy is such a beast .

Kevin got out the park several hours later that night , but he actually finished the race in his own neighborhood on Sunday in ice , snow and 10 degree weather , with encouragement from our entire race participant group on the Messenger app . Rob , the race director , canceled the original finish late Saturday and told everyone get off the course .

If you're still on it , get off the course and go finish at home , since conditions were getting worse and really very dangerous at this point . Knowing where he was when I left him , how long it took him and the struggles he went through , the amount of perseverance and guts he showed to get it done in hostile conditions , was unbelievable .

I have a ton of respect for all the races that were out there , but I think , kevin most of all , what an effort . I love the epic nature of these races . They seem above and beyond normal racing and I love that they have almost nothing to do with how fast or slow you believe you are . So many stories , memories , such shared experiences and camaraderie .

At the time that was the second one of those I've done the Ring of Fire and Anglesey in North Wales being the first and I really like this style of running . Yeah , it can be painful physically going that far , but they do expose you to yourself , challenging you and helping you to cope mentally when things don't go right and they never go right .

In long races like this , something always goes wrong . I have a quiet glow of self-satisfaction and some killer memories and experiences that I could not have gotten any other way but doing this race . I trained for six months , straight from injury , to complete this race and I accomplished my goal .

Winning was an entirely unexpected and cool bonus , but never the intent . My goal was to finish at my own pace , on my own terms , and to help others finish if I could , and to have a story to tell , something epic .

After all , isn't that what we're all after , when everything's said and done A sense of learning and satisfaction and some epic story to tell and inspire your kids as they grow up ? You can do hard things and , honestly , it doesn't matter if you didn't complete the race . Either way , you gain experience and you'll learn something for next time .

All you do need is the guts to sign up and tow the line . The rest will take care of itself . If you're willing to try and willing to accept the consequences , whether they're good or bad , cool things can happen .

So , after six months of obsessing 300km , 186 miles , five counties , four days , three really angry Dovermans , two Buckeys that made me cry , one finish and a way too long report , I was finally done . I do hope to see you at the next one of these long races . Come find me and say hi .

I promise you'll have some great stories to share , no matter what happens . In the meantime , don't forget to subscribe , share , follow and review . Doing any of these really does help with the algorithms , which , in turn , helps get the word out and helps others find the show . You can find us on Instagram and Facebook and over at ChooseToEndurecom .

I'm also over on YouTube now for a video version , though what I want to see there I have no idea . Anyway , be sure to head over to any of those and check us out , or say hello or drop a message , throw a topic out there , give us some feedback if you have a moment . I love getting those interactions .

Until then , run long , run strong and keep choosing to enjoy .