The Plan
The plan going into this race had three essential
parts. The first was to go into this
race with the mindset that aside from a broken bone or comparable serious
injury, nothing was going to stop me from finishing the race. The idea of a possible 32 hour death march to
the finish was something I kept at the forefront of my mind from the very
beginning. The second was to revert back
to using gel as my primary fuel source.
After the issues I had with Tailwind at the Indiana Trail 100, I just
didn’t feel comfortable trying something new, and instead would go with what
had gotten me to the finish in my previous hundreds. The piece of the plan was both the most
crucial and most difficult to adhere to.
I decided that I was going to start off with an average pace in the
13-15 minute per mile range and stick with it for the entire time. In my previous events, I always went out
quickly and would find myself nearly unable to run during the last 30-40 miles
of each race. I have always started off
slow, but usually can only manage sticking to that plan for a short while
before I talk myself into going faster.
Loop One
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| Obiligatory "praying" photo - Christy always catches me doing this. |
I chose to line up at the very end of the pack at the start
of the race and ran with the pack through the park and onto the trail. Once on the trail, it was an agonizingly slow
walk up a gradual incline. I kept having
to talk myself out of picking up the pace and cutting in front of the conga
line. I kept repeating in my head “stick
to the plan, stick to the plan”. I was
listening to a couple of older guys telling jokes and talking about some other
ultra runs. Dave and Greg were shooting
for their 10th and 11th finishes and listening to them
helped keep my mind off of darting around the pack – until sometime in mile
3. At some point, Dave said he was going
to stay in position for 5 more minutes and then was going to go around. He asked if anyone was game, and I blurted
out “YES!” Dave shouted out at the 5
minute mark and we passed the group that we were behind. We passed probably 12 people right there and
got in with another group that we stuck with until the first aid station
somewhere around mile 4. I hadn’t drank
much of my water up to this point so I just called out my number and kept
moving through the aid. I fell in with
another group of guys who seemed like relative new comers to the ultra distance
(based on their general comments) so I rolled along with them for a couple of
miles until I just couldn’t handle being behind the guy who thought it was
funny to fart in my direction. I passed
around and ended up talking with a runner named Aria, who happened to be from
Oregon. We chit chatted for a bit about
our jobs, running careers and the Pacific Northwest. Before I knew it, I was at a large set of man
made stairs leading down to Lyon’s Falls.
Standing beneath the waterfall and getting doused with the cold water
was invigorating. The short section
through the creek bottom gave way to the infamous hand over hand climb out and
back onto the trail. That area was a
stunning sight. Certainly nothing I
would have expected to find in Ohio. I
soon found myself separated from all runners, and before I knew it, I had
passed through the remaining aid stations and arrived at the start/finish. I had told Christy to expect me there in
around 6 hours, and I think I came in just beyond that. Just a quick “I love you” later, I took off
for the second loop with a fresh supply of gels and full water bottles.
Loop Two
Not being stuck behind the conga line of people during the
first ascent of this loop was excellent.
I was still maintaining a slow but steady pace with lots of power hiking
mixed with solid running. After the
second aid station on this loop, I met up with a runner named Tommy who was
from Southwest Michigan. We seemed to
have the same approach to the race as far as pacing goes. We were running the flats and downs well, but
walking pretty much every climb. We made
our way down into Lyon’s Falls for the second time with me leading the
way. There are multiple points where you
have to crawl either over or under some fallen logs. I misjudged one of these, and mashed my
forehead into one of them. Fortunately,
I was wearing a hat and the strap on in probably prevented me from splitting my
head open. After climbing out of the
falls for the last time, we made our way to a point where Tommy’s friends were
waiting for him. I told him I would see
him down the way and kept moving. It was
around this time that I started to feel some hot spots developing on my
feet. This was very weird for me since I
haven’t really ever had any blister issues.
I guess the humid conditions combined with a few muddy sections and
creek crossings were the culprit. To
this point, I had not stopped in any of the aid stations for longer that the
time it took to fill water bottles, so I was actually kind of disappointed to
resign to the fact that I would need to stop for a shoe change at the halfway
point. However, I knew that it was
absolutely necessary. I kept plugging
along and realized that with 4 miles to the halfway point, I hadn’t had any low
points or hit any walls yet. Typically,
I really tank somewhere between 23-26 miles and have to battle to get myself
back in the game. This gave me a great
deal of confidence that my plan was working and I was proud that I had stuck to
it as long as I had. When I finished the
loop, my overall pace was somewhere around 13:10/mile – right where I wanted to
be. I told Christy about me feet problems
and she directed me to some ladies that were volunteering their time to help
with blister issues. They went to work
on my feet, identifying the problem areas while I enjoyed a turkey
sandwich. I sat there for probably 20
minutes while they worked on me, but I knew that I would be much better for it
when it was all said and done. When I
stood up, my body reminded me why I shouldn’t sit down during these
things. I hobbled over to my bag to grab
my last items and told Christy I had to get the hell out of here. After a quick kiss, I walked away and got
back to work.
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| Halfway Point - Hot Concerned About Feet |
Loop 3
The 3rd and 4th loops are shorter than
the first 2, mainly for safety reasons.
The loops cut out the Lyon’s Falls section but adds on a short 2 mile
bop between aid stations 2 and 3. I met up with Tommy again for a short while
and shared some random conversations. He
seemed to be moving along quite a bit better than I was so I just let him go on
ahead. I put in my headphones and just
kept moving along, focusing on eating and drinking consistently. After my stop for foot repair, my average
pace had gone from 13:10/mile to 13:33/mile.
Part of me wanted to push really hard to get back to where I was, but I
felt that it was still too early to consider deviating from my race plan. That didn’t stop me from putting in a little
more effort on the downhills though. In
fact, I kind of hammered the downhills from mile 20 on to the finish –
something I’ve never been able to do.
When I got to aid station 3 (Covered Bridge) I tried to eat some
Quesadillas that they had there but my stomach wasn’t having it. This was a bit concerning. My stomach was craving something more
substantial that the gels that I had been having all day. I turned my headlamp on at around mile 70 and
when I made it into the Hickory Ridge aid station, I was very dizzy. I didn’t want to mention this to the people
working the station in fear that they might pull me from the race or make me
wait around. Instead, I grabbed 6 pieces
of watermelon and sat in a chair and ate them.
One of the volunteers told me I shouldn’t sit down, but I just told him
I had to get the food down. Fortunately,
he didn’t ask any other questions, but instead told me I was in 8th
place. This gave me a surge of
adrenaline and I jumped up and headed out.
The final few miles to the start/finish were a bit of a blur. I know that I was pushing pretty hard to get
out and started on my last loop. When I
got there, I was in and out, only filling my bottles and grabbing the last
couple of gels that I would need to bring me home.
Loop 4
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| The Final Stretch - Running Under The Bridge |
Because I had sat down for so long before loop 3, I had to
walk for a bit to get my body going again.
This wasn’t the case on loop 4. I
ran out of the park and back on to the trail.
Knowing that I was on my last loop, I felt like I could stop holding
back. I started to run more of the
uphills and I was really pleased that I was still able to push the effort on
the flats and downs. Especially the
downs. Shortly after the first aid
station, I ran into Tommy and I was very surprised. He was walking and just mentioned that he was
not a night runner and had no comfort that he would be able to run without
injuring something. I told him to keep
working and moving and that I hoped to see him down the way. (Unfortunately, it looks like he
dropped. I couldn’t find his name on the
race results.) I pressed on and actually
pushed a bit harder to get into the 2nd aid station. Once there, again I tried very hard to be in
and out, only grabbing some more water melon and dousing my head with ice
water. I was beginning to get sleepy,
and the water really seemed to snap my head back in the game. The next 2 mile section seemed to go very
quickly on the way over to Covered Bridge.
A lot of the trail is downhill through here and I was going to take
advantage of my legs allowing my downhill running as much as possible. At this point, there was nothing to lose and
everything to gain. I had been passing
people quite regularly for the last 10 miles or so, but I had no idea if who I
was passing was on their fourth loop or not, so I had no idea if I was moving
up in the rankings. This changed at
Covered Bridge. I was again in and out,
but this time I was leaving with a guy and a girl (don’t know which was the
runner or the pacer) and I knew that one of them was on their 4th
loop. I walked out of the aid with them
and they wanted to talk a little so I obliged, but then mentally made a
decision that I was going to run the next climb and hammer the down as hard as
I could to not only put some separation between us, but hopefully demoralize
them a bit. At the time, I felt really
cutthroat. Now, I don’t really feel all
that good about it. I’m not in this
sport for the high finishes. Anyhow, I
was able to climb that hill pretty well and I ran HARD down the next
descent. It felt great and I never saw
them again. From here to the end of the
race, I didn’t see anyone else that was on the same loop. The final aid stations came and went and on
the last long descent off the trail, I just let go and let gravity do the last
of the work. Coming down onto the road
for the last time was a very happy feeling.
I saw Christy on the road watching for me, and I gave her a bit of a
fist pump but she didn’t see it. Crossing under the bridge and up across the
finish line was an amazing feeling. I’ve
never felt that good finishing a hundred, and it was even better considering
the disappointments of Bear 100 and Indiana Trail 100.
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| And Done. |
Final Notes
- Final time was 22:22:20, 7th place overall. Highest finish in a 100 miler
- Total elevation gain was around 15,000 feet. That made this course 2-3 times harder than Rocky Raccoon which is my fastest 100. (21:46)
- This was certainly my most consistent 100. My average pace at the end of the first loop was around 12:50/mile and my average pace for the entire race (assuming that it was in fact 100.71 miles) was 13:20/mile.
- Watermelon is probably my new go to solid food in ultras. I ate a ton of it.
- No cramping or need for pickle juice at all! First time since Arkansas Traveller!
- Recovery from this race has been the easiest and fastest. Very stoked!
- I dealt with chafing issues for the first time in a race. Time to invest in body glide for the more humid ultras.
- I used the New Balance 1210 for the first half and the Pearl Izumi N2 for the second half. The only thing I think I need to change about this is wearing the heaviest weight of Injinji socks with the 1210. Either that or get a half size smaller the next time I buy them. The N2 feels more rigid and stable and I think this was a good choice for the second half.
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| Redemption |
