slkdriving

[slkdriving]

Devil's Den Ultra - 30 hr

Background

In early September, I was thinking about long trail efforts. One reason was my friend Julia's ManHump effort to celebrate her birthday. Living in Vermont, any excuse to hike and run in the beautiful trails in an effort to train for a bigger event is appealing. A couple days later I rediscovered the Devil's Den Ultra, an event that I heard of but didn't get involved with in the past. As the website says, "The devil will be testing what you believe you are capable of on all distances." It's an annual event that happens to have existed only as long as I've lived in the area and only an hour and half away from home. And conveniently it was not the same weekend as the Newport Marathon that I had put on my calendar several months ago. Knowing that it was entirely a trail run was justification that I could do both the road marathon and ultramarathon in back to back weeks, as it would not be working the body quite in the same way.

So on September 11, 2023, I registered for the 30 hour race and immediately thought of who I'd love to have with me to crew and pace. Thinking back to the Hawk Hundred experience 7 years ago, and even the THON dance marathon back in 2010, I knew I would be physically and emotionally drained in the middle of the night. So my buddy John would be perfect to share the experience with, and I also recruited Ken to pace some nighttime miles (although he was not able to join race weekend). They were down to join, so I now turned to focus on how my training would look. It was the middle of my marathon training, so I figured as I peaked my mileage in the next couple weeks, I'd transition to doing more trail runs and hikes. In fact, this day corresponded to the end of a normally scheduled set of 7 overnight shifts; I actually paused my training after consistent weeks going back to July, so this gave me an extra push to resume with a new spin.

photo credit: @ACARTERCLARK 

One of the training runs was the Three Peaks Mountain Race at the Bolton Valley ski resort (seen above approaching the summit of Vista Mountain). As part of the awesome Wednesday evening trail series Nik Ponzio was organizing/advertising was one of the Three Peaks course previews at the very end of August. It happened to be on a day I could join, and there was a pretty good turn out for a group run at a fairly out of the way location with lousy/wet weather. While the main appeal of the trail race was the 25K event, being only a week before my marathon I was eyeing the new 10K option. That worked out well once I decided to do the Devil's Den on top of the Newport Marathon. The uphill slog early in the race was a good proxy to the type of climbing I'd have at the ultramarathon, but there was also a beautiful, flowy descent that made it a real joy to return to the mountain base before an additional smaller climb and more technical descent. With some of the fastest folks doing the full race, I managed to come in 2nd place; as a well-sponsored event, I netted a $35 Outdoor Gear Exchange coupon and generous pick of random gear, which included a pair of Salomon Speedcross sandals (designed for hiking or recovering from a trail race) in my foot size.

Race Weekend

Friday

I happened to be off from work on Friday, October 14, coinciding with the kickoff of Skirack 9 AM weekly group runs. A nice easy 6ish mile run under 24 hours from Devil's Den was perfect, primarily on the waterfront bike trail. New local business Plink! provided some electrolyte refreshment and samples of their powder as well. At the store, I picked up some sale items including backup fuel and water bottle+bladder. At home after that I finished packing up for the event, including sleeping bag, camp chair, a couple pairs of trail running shoes, multiple shirts including base layers and outer layers, change of pants and shorts, some food for a small cooler and food for snacks, and massage gear.

Around 5 PM John arrived at my place and soon we hit the road. Arriving at the campsite/base operations of the event a quarter mile from the Devil's Den trailhead, we checked in with Jay Mozey, race director/creator, picking up a bag that had unusual items. The four items, aside from my included our favorite candy bar (I said caramello!), a tarot card, Untapped maple syrup "gel", and a red devil hoodie that says The Devil upside on the front (like the art on the race bib) so you see the words right side up looking down while wearing it. We also set up John's tent that we shared back over Memorial Day weekend in the Adirondacks. Since we both were hungry and in search of dinner, we hit the road again for a much shorter drive into downtown Bradford, VT.

As a very small town, seemingly everybody eating out was at the impressive Italian restaurant (Colatina Exit) that we wanted to go to. An 18 minute wait gave us time to mosey along the tiny main street area and stop by the well-regarded Vittles coffee shop, still open for a special event according to the shop's friendly co-owner. Once it was time to be seated, bizarrely, the host said a party had refused to sit upstairs, switching us to a better option than the initial spot by the kitchen. The seating upstairs was within earshot of a live cover band and aside from a wobbly table was flawless. A couple of Cashmere Hoodie pints from local brewery Upper Pass (Tunbridge), stuffed mushrooms, and ample chicken parm made for great pre-race fuel. It was enough food to save a bunch of pasta for after the race, as I was stuffed without being overly so.

After driving back 10 minutes to the race starting area, we got back around 9 PM which meant it was time to sleep! I felt cozy and warm in my sleeping bag and fell asleep quickly.

Saturday

With an adequate, albeit limited amount of sleep in the tent waking up in the middle of the night a couple of times, I awoke for the day to some pre-race satanic type of music before doing final preparations for the race.

This turned out to be a test for the real pump up at 6:55 AM following our pre-race 6:30 meeting. Jay (wearing The Devil hoodie in center of picture) intensely encouraged us to push ourselves using whatever motivation you possess, even when you may think you want to quit.

As he wrapped up with some fist bumps, we got ready to begin.

According to my watch we actually started seconds before 7 AM.

In this picture very early in the first lap, I ran with a small group including a 12-hour runner Elliot and 30-hr runner Eugene. Eugene and I would run all of lap 2 together. Holding his trekking poles here, he said had only used them once before. It turned out many folks used them on this course, which may have been particularly helpful for me on the relentlessly steep downhills. More on that later!

At the top of the big ascent near the overlook at Wright Mountain, the photographer Pete Wood captured each of us nicely.

One of us (not recalling who) also took a selfie of the group of us that power hiked and ran this first of many climbs to the gorgeous vista. I separately took a photo of this view, seen below.

Thanks to this event and the shirt Scott was wearing, I'm now aware of 46climbs, and on a related note, the entry fee for Devil's Den goes towards the Josh Pallotta Fund. Scott and I would run part of lap 8 together when he was doing lap 7. He would go on to finish two more laps than I did with 140km, finishing in 2nd place.

On the third lap, I think, this picture was taken on that initial ascent of Wrights Mountain. It wasn't lap 2 because I was still wearing pants (these shorts were underneath for a quick change). Unlike most steep climbs where ropes are attached to trees to aid in navigation, this was actually kind of loose and unhelpful, especially with the trail's direction drawing you to the right of it pretty quickly. But it looks cool!

Lap 3 was also the one I had the pleasure to spend a big chunk of it with Lee, who was the winner of the 30 hour race. He came prepared and confident, coming off a 100 mile race victory in July. Lee wasn't wrong when he said I was gonna want poles (as you can see him use below), like on lap 10. Although he came a lap short of reaching our shared goal of 100 miles for this devilish race, he did improve on last year's distance completed; this was his third attempt. If these trends continue he will pull it off next time if he wants it!

After the first of two baselayer shirt changes, this photo must have been somewhere in the range of laps 5 through 7, when there was still daylight. I was starting to get physical fatigue but could still run all of the flats and downhills with power hiking the ascents. Relative to the average lap pace I was looking to pull off to complete 100 miles, I was right on target but knew I was using too much energy to do so. Still, I was happy with my effort and was having a great time.

Saturday Night

This is the part of the race I anticipated being the toughest for several, additive (multiplicative?) reasons. 1) Darkness. With a headlamp, while you can see what's in front of you, your vision overall is diminished which lowers your ability to best plan your footfalls. 2) Time on feet. You've now been running/moving for 12 hours. That's a lot. 3) Temperature. It's going to be getting colder, or at the very least feel colder, as you tend to slow down and sweat less. Loss of body heat can lead to hypothermia. 4) Fuel. This is a big one that builds up after all this time. You've now passed through all three primary meal times and it's unlikely you've been able to eat enough food equivalent to that and all the energy and salt you've been using up through the exertion of more than 10,000 feet of elevation gain. With the steep, technical downhills, the breaking on the descents doesn't give much of a break, either. 5) And that ties into the big one, muscle fatigue. As mentioned in the last paragraph, I was starting to feel this a bit during the afternoon well before nightfall. Following lap 7 I was so thankful for a massage therapist who treated my sore calves and hammies. Based on how much discomfort I felt during the massage, the muscles were indeed breaking down. Thinking back to the Hawk Hundred, I could only anticipate a potential debilitating leg cramp as what could happen. Through that massage, an early morning nap, and good fuel, maybe I avoided that type of injury!

The main other thing to note is the importance of having a pacer at this point. While laps 8 and 9 I did by myself in the dark (albeit I'd see other 30 hr folks on the course at times), I could no longer really run much so laps were getting slower as evident from the smoothed pace chart above. And I expected the next one would get slower since it was almost 11 PM when I got back from lap 9. All five of those factors listed above were coming together, and spending a lot of time fueling and not moving at the base area made me decide - yep, I could use a pacer right now. Thankfully, while not dressed to run, John was wearing boots and warm clothes that were good enough to hike through the woods. So after 33 minutes (way more time than any other lap breaks), we set off for a late night journey. John got to experience the whole course, and he set a very fair pace for my energy level. It felt difficult physically going uphill but not overly so, and by walking the downhills, though still challenging, I didn't risk injury as much as if I tried pushing those, in particular the frequent twisting, rocky and rooty sections. We also rested a few times, including at the Wrights Mountain overlook (which still was beautiful in the middle of the night with an assortment of street lights in the distance).

According to the big, handwritten scoreboard, by the time we returned, 3 hours and 8 minutes had elapsed. That was more than 50% more time than the previous lap. Even if I had attempted to resume 2 hour laps, time was not on my side to complete 16 laps (100 miles). Simple arithmetic (even with a sleep-deprived brain) could calculate 6 laps x 2 hours being a minimum of 12 hours needed. It was just shy of 2 AM, so there were 11 hours remaining in the race. There's a reason why it's supposed to be really hard to run 100 miles in 30 hours on this course! So my new goal was to just continue. Unfortunately, over the next hour, aside from the nourishment of bbq pizza (one of I think four slices of pizza I ate over the weekend), I struggled through shivering cold. After slowly finishing noodles and soup that had become cold, I finally motivated myself to leave the fire and make it to the tent a short distance away for much needed sleep. But I arose not only to instantly shiver but could only limp with huge discomfort now putting weight on my right leg. John opened the tent and helped me get comfortable as quickly as possible, minimizing the amount of time I shivered uncontrollably in a pretty damp tent that made it hard to feel warm unless I had fully dry covering. Thankfully the air inside the tent was still relatively warm, and I was exhausted so I soon fell asleep sometime after 3 AM.

Sunday

I woke up from my nap in the tent feeling cold but not shivering. Thank you Hannah for the warm blanket - don't know what I would have done without it with all my warm clothing having become damp from early morning dew. Although I wasn't immediately ready to exit the tent, I forced myself out a little later, after sunrise or a bit after 7 AM. After crawling out of the tent, I first put weight on my left leg, and then surprised myself finding that I could now put weight on my right leg without it hurting much. Walking back and forth from the porta pot, I felt it was go time; no time to think more on it, I would continue as soon as possible. The pizza and cup o'noodles I consumed before the nap would be enough fuel for now.

On lap 11, the first of two that I did not expect to run, I got a boost by watching the 6 mile folks run by me one by one. The leader came by roughly half way through on the nasty Cindy's Trail, closely followed by another runner. Some others passed me on Cindy's big ascent, including Shelly, a beast of an ultrarunner who did 100 miles at RUTfest in 2021. And there was a runner with a dog!

Another runner (I think Matt Hayes?) chatted with me for a little bit as he passed me on the out and back to the eponymous Devil's Den. He was coming off an injury but seemed to be doing pretty well, considering. Running even one lap of this course isn't easy. He expressed that folks doing the 30 hours inspired him and I definitely took that as encouragement to continue the best I could as the final hours ticked by. From this picture, note that I'm only able to fast walk downhills with the pain in my right hamstring and inability to go any faster versus a shuffle. At this point, I'm wearing my final outfit including entirely different shoes, socks, shorts, and shirt with an unnecessary double jacket look around my waist if I started feeling chilled.

[Side note: the socks were nice to change into and entirely expected. The shoes, while great, were forced upon me. Let's go back to Saturday night/early Sunday morning. At 2 something in the morning, I took off the Pearl Izumi trail shoes I had been running in while sitting in front of the fiery fire pit that kept me from shivering. John, after some time, noted the smell of burning rubber. I had minutes prior, visually took account of smoke between the pit and myself but didn't remember or see the shoes in front of me. Sure enough, rubber from one of the shoes had indeed been burning. If you're wondering what that looks like afterwards, here it is.]

As I returned to the base, it was well before 10 AM, which was my mental cutoff as to if I would have to consider not running another lap. So I was mentally set to do one more, a 12th lap to complete 120 km or roughly 75 miles. The lap would not count if I got back at 1 PM and 1 second. Based on how long lap 11 took and how that pace didn't feel overly difficult, I would have plenty of wiggle room if something went wrong. Also, since there were only 3 wristbands - nice thick bands with the iconic devil font saying YOUR WHY>EXCUSES - remaining in the bracelet box, I would be coming back to the finish area for the final time still with 11 bands on my right wrist. Jay assured me it was no matter. Also appreciated him signing me in and out on the big board for most of the laps after the first several - more time to refuel the better, with even seconds adding up.

After taking down some more sugary treats (including homemade, moist pumpkin muffins) to keep my energy up, I asked John if I could have my phone back for the final lap, and he obliged. This was the only lap I didn't log any of on my watch which had shut off its GPS automatically when its battery dropped to 2% on the previous lap. This would also provide some satisfying symmetry as the only other lap I took pictures was during the first lap. Some of the awesome Halloween themed decorations along the course were not set up yet early on, so I snapped a pic of one early in the big ascent.

Many of the trails criss-crossed each other necessitating clear markings like this one. Especially at night, even tracing over the same trails over and over again, the clear signage was clutch.

I also took a picture of some educational material that was part of the Wrights Mountain/Devil's Den Town Forest about various birds that live in this forest. Many may soon migrate southward, such as the chestnut-sided warbler and hermit thrush.

The course includes a series of several trails with people's names, as well as trail names such as Appreciation Way. The sequence includes Ernie to Cindy.

As referred to previously, Cindy is kind of a b*tch. In contrast, Ernie is short and gentle.

However, Cindy does provide a break in the technical steeps by this vernal pool.

After finishing the incline that marks the end of Cindy's Trail for the final time, and after a relatively short time going downhill, I heard some voices. Given the lack of people still on the course, it had to be Calvin and Nick who had been doing the whole thing together. In fact, John and I happened to join the two of them a couple of times in the middle of the night when they were on lap 7 and I was on lap 10. Their goal as stated much earlier in the event was to complete 10 laps, and sure enough, that's what they were on! At this point, I was moving only very slightly faster than they were. So once I caught them, along with Wayne (on lap 11) and another Nick who was pacing them on the lap, I decided to stick with them for the remaining roughly 1.5 miles.

One last look from the overlook at Devil's Den. While skies were overcast for most of the daylight hours on both Saturday and Sunday, there were intervals of sun. A little bit of blue sky can be seen at this time (11:37 AM).

Considering the clock, we were in a perfect position to celebrate our accomplishment hiking into the finish area without time pressure. The four of us were marked in with a last lap return time of 1214 and presented with a heavy and stylish devil medal.

I snapped a photo of the near-final results before we began to make our exit from the race base.

It was noteworthy and impressive that Scott (finished with 14 laps completed) and Lee (finished with 15 laps completed) each were determined to set out again when time was not on their side, based on when they last checked out of the starting area. I figured bragging rights, and the Devil's Skull (!), was on the line even if the odds of completing one final lap were low.

Quick Wrap Up

Although I didn't achieve my primary goal, this event definitely challenged me physically and mentally as it was meant to do. Got to fight back from "the abyss" and came back with the classic black toenails!

So no question about it, this was a successful ultramarathon and a great reminder of what's so great about these types of events. Looking forward to hanging out and doing a few laps at this year's RUTfest, where I'll see some of the same awesome people around.

[slkdriving]

Sioux Falls Marathon 2014

This was a great experience, and my first Boston Qualifier to put me in the Boston Marathon! After the first two qualifying times came up short, third time was the charm by finishing 4:59:50 ahead of the BQ.

How did this happen? Nearly a perfect weekend helps. I’ll start with the day before. I arrived in Sioux Falls after a 3 and a half hour drive from Lincoln - where I was staying at a friend’s apartment having coming from a nearby wedding the night before. The trip was long and eventful, included a warning from a state trooper who caught me failing to completely stop at a stop sign before a rare (right) turn on a mostly empty country road. At packet pickup location, being by myself, I could easily focus on hydrating, the course strategy, and taking my time walking around the small race expo before contacting my Penn State alum friend and current National Weather Service forecaster in Sioux Falls. We met, along with a coworker and friend of his, in the downtown area around 4 PM and walked around Falls Park. I think this is the only marathon I’ve done so far in which the marathon was just a footnote to the town’s weekend events - among other festivities on Saturday, there was the 20th annual Germanfest. Although I had a pint of Spaten beer, I drank a least a half gallon of water the rest of the evening, including at a NY style pizzeria called “The Taste of the Big Apple”. Mark and I eventually went back to his apartment where we watched the end of the Ohio State game to see them lose. Before going to sleep, I put my race bib on my Penn State polyester shirt. I slept comfortably on his couch from around 11PM to 5:45AM.

Upon waking up, I made good on Mark’s offers from the night before: I had a cliff bar and filled up my water bottle with water from a plastic water bottle. Being a small marathon, there was no shuttle or long drive to deal with, so I was able to have a stressless drive to the parking area literally a few hundred feet from the starting line of the race in ten minutes. It was warm enough to not need a bag drop - I brought it in the car just in case, but I left my long sleeve shirt in there and took exactly what I would have for the race. So I arrived on the outdoor track, along with my water bottle, three energy gels, and phone (in the bottle holder), with hundreds of runners already there. The atmosphere was almost that of a high school track event, especially by focusing on the several runners who were stretching or jogging on the football field. After the national anthem was sung by the current Siouxland pageant winner, invocation was made (which seemed odd and overlong, but I guess praying for good things isn’t a bad idea), and the one wheelchair participant started (to proportionately more cheering than he probably should have), the race began with a starter pistol.

I started near, or just ahead, of the 3:10 pacer, with maybe 15 to 20 people in front of me. The sun was just starting to rise as we left the track and hit the road. Around mile 1, I noticed I was running next to a guy around my age. This guy, Blake, currently an insurance underwriter in Denver, said it was a (6:50?) mile, and he was planning on staying at that pace the whole race if I wanted to stay with him. I figured this was a good plan, since I chose not to wear a watch and could stand to not push myself any faster than a guy aiming for a 3:00 - 3:05 finish. I mentioned that I’m fine with people passing us now (there indeed were a handful of runners going out to fast the first few miles), since it’s more fun to do the passing later on. I wanted to run the first half and race the second half. Soon, a third guy, Justin, joined our group and we ran together through the small hills that made up much of the next six miles, before arriving at the only pancake flat section of the race. Most of this part was on a paved bike trail, where we caught up to another guy, who happened to be named Seth as well, who ran with us for much of this stretch despite his apparent calf problem. We crossed the halfway mat at approximately 1:32 according to the big clock on the course, and I felt good, much better than I did at Utah Valley at the same point in the race, and similar to Big Sur. Despite the sunshine and temperature well in to the 50s, I felt comfortable. Regular sipping of water keep me hydrated, but also diminished my supply to a low amount once I washed down my first (chocolate) gel before mile 14.

After the first hills in a long time, we descended into downtown. By this point, Seth was long gone, and we lost Justin too. Our pace through downtown and Falls Park was a bit faster than earlier in the race, but it felt good and a lot of it was downhill, and familiar due to walking through a lot of it the day before. We were definitely pushing each other along, especially on the uphill sections. There were surprisingly few spectators for a city race, but the large number of enthusiastic, and mostly young, volunteers made up for it. After the steepest uphill of the race on the backside of Falls Park, we came through a short stretch between the city streets and the park. Here, a man who did not appear to be a regular volunteer, offered large water bottles. What luck! I gladly took one, and with Blake’s help, I was able to unscrew my nearly empty bottle while he took a swig from the plastic bottle, and then I poured what I could fit into my bottle. The little that remained went on my head, and that was very refreshing - coming up to mile 19, it seemed nothing could slow me down now. It was great knowing I didn’t have to stop at water stations on the course - that’s why I had the bottle. Soon I consumed the second, and final, gel (mocha) of the race and we exited downtown to begin the final 10 km or so.

Occasionally I commented out loud encouraging things about the race, with one of the last ones being that the rest of the way is mostly flat, with just tiny hills. Now, of course, hills seem bigger past 20 miles, and there indeed were some hills that felt bigger than I expected through miles 21-23, especially the stretch that was back on roads and a residential area. But I felt great, and always love passing people, even if they are half-marathon “runners” who started a half hour later and closer to the finish than I did. Around mile 23, now back on a somewhat forested bike trail, I did start to move ahead of Blake. The last three miles I felt great and had no idea my time until seeing another big clock approaching the finish line. It said 3:00:0 something - this was a faster time than I expected, but being what it was, there was nothing more I could do than continue running as fast as I could to the finish.

I completed my eighth marathon in 3:00:10, received a medal and water bottle before waiting for Blake towards the end of the finishing chute. He came in about 2 minutes later; he was clearly thrilled and gave a quick hug of elation. We both PR’d and had a great experience. Very minimal soreness afterwards, similar to Big Sur, and after meeting Mark, enjoyed some post-race food (eventually - it was a shockingly long line for food, partially because the tent was in a separate area where they had a lady take “food” tickets from racer bibs), including an ice cream sandwich, chocolate milk, and banana. Some food I saved for later on the car ride back. In between, Mark and I went back to his apartment where I picked up the rest of my things, and drove to a Mexican restaurant to enjoy a big post-race beef burrito a couple hours later when I was hungrier. My sister was concerned about my long drive back to Kansas, but thankfully my legs felt okay that evening and over the next couple days returned to completely normal.

[slkdriving]

Hawk Hundred (09/10/2016) Detailed Race Report

Overview

The Hawk Hundred is a trail marathon and ultra marathon in Lawrence, KS, about 15 minutes west of the University of Kansas. The course consists of four 25 mile loops in Clinton Lake State Park, full of rolling hills and rocky terrain. The race is put on by a non-profit running club called the Lawrence Trail Hawks (hence the race name), and it was the 6th year of the event. The 50 and 100 mile race begins at 6 AM Saturday, and the marathon starts an hour later.

Pre-Race

I arrived with a friend, Eli, who was doing the marathon distance Friday around 4 PM. We bought a two night primitive campsite reservation and sent up a tent in a campground near race headquarters. Shortly after we met other runners who were camping over, including Matt, a recent graduate of Penn State, my Alma Mater, living in Wichita. We drove over to the pavilion where the pre-race dinner and briefing would take place at 5 PM.

We chatted with some fellow runners, including a middle-aged man who informed us that we were going to be running on the roads because there had been a lot of rain the last couple of days and the trails are in rough shape. Matt was absolutely not wanting to run on concrete, and Eli was “ambivalent” since there were both positives and negatives to the change. There would definitely be some advantages to doing an easier course for his first marathon and my first 100 miler. Thankfully I was wearing road running shoes, otherwise I only brought trail shoes for the race.

Dinner was ready at around 5:30 PM, and since I was pretty hungry, I filled a plate full of salad, lasagna, and bread, and had a second helping including some carrot cake. After we all got some delicious food, the briefing began and they jumped right into the big news that the park requires them to have a “rain course” and that it would be enacted this year. Early in the day they had to make the decision, and so volunteers, after putting hundreds of hours into working on trail maintenance and marking, had to put up signs and flags to mark this new course. It had no published map, but we were told we would take “every left turn” in the park, with one 3.8 mile trail section in the middle that was mostly grass and a power line section never before seen by anyone. We were told that if it did not rain tonight, however, they would switch it back to the normal trail course. Otherwise, they would take a look at the trail condition in the afternoon and make a switch if possible.

Of course, a strong cold front was approaching with a high likelihood of thunderstorms. At the campground, the was some relatively light rain at 9 PM amidst frequent lightning and some thunder. But then closer to 11 PM, storms moved right overhead with pretty heavy and long lasting rainfall, and a couple of very loud rumbles of thunder. The arrival of the rain brought in much cooler, more comfortable weather. Unfortunately, the ground saturated enough to seep through the tarp with the weight of my body, so that the sleeping bag eventually got damp. As a result, I didn’t sleep for more than an hour or so before getting up to put on my race clothes in the heated bathroom nearby. My alarm was on my watch at 4:30 AM, and Eli was still sleeping despite having his phone alarm set for 4 AM. So when I got back to the tent, I woke him up; it turned out his alarm wasn’t actually set for today.

Race Morning

We went to the race headquarters around 5 AM. I had several bags with me, two of which would need to go to the aid stations elsewhere on the course. So I placed my drop bags in the appropriately labeled spots on the edge of the pavilion before having some breakfast, which consisted of orange juice, bagels, croissants, and coffee. I had some of the first two items, used a porta-potty, removed my jacket, and then it was time to walk over to the starting line area just a hundred feet or so away. I met back up with Matt over there after leaving Eli behind for the next hour before his race began. Promptly at 6 AM the ultra marathon began and Matt and I crossed the starting line several seconds later.

Lap 1

With headlamps on, we ran a small loop at the edge of the park to return to the starting area and then up a gentle hill which was the road we drove in on. That was one advantage to the unexpected course, in that I was familiar with the first/last couple of miles having driven on it to get to the race and campground. The first steep hill was in the second mile, with the incline not so steep to walk on this first lap. It was difficult to pace other than by effort, since I anticipated running on technical trails that would be relatively slow. We were generally going around 1:30 to 2 minutes/mile slower than my marathon pace, which felt very comfortable but was also faster than I planned.

At the top of the aforementioned hill was our first left turn, which soon was followed by a right turn and another left turn down a more narrow road that took us down to Lake Henry in a short out and back loop. I did not feel this hill was steep enough to walk. Upon getting back up the hill, we made a right turn which takes us eventually to a marina. This consisted of a big downhill with a gorgeous view of Clinton Lake; at this point, the sun was beginning to rise and we turned off our head lamps. Then the route circles through the parking area before returning back the way we came. I decided we should walk up this hill to conserve energy, which of course I would be doing a lot of later on.

Due to the out and back nature of the road course, we would see a lot of our other fellow runners. The front runners consisted of the eventual 50 mile champion, Jaclyn, and the two 100 mile men who would later crush the course record. I commented to Matt when we were back up the hill that it feels a lot like a big group training run.

Over the next few miles, the elevation change was pretty minimal outside of one more steep descent and ascent, and the course basically meandered through a picnic area and then the campground that I was staying in. Soon we would arrive at the Land’s End aid station in the 7th mile, which was at the end of a gravel road that has some cabins. If we were on the trail course, this station would have actually been set up on the trail a short distance down the hill and come up a bit sooner. I had decided to not eat any food until the next lap; rather, I got all my calories from Tailwind endurance nutrition, which is pretty much water enhanced by a blend of sugar and salts.

[About Tailwind: it is basically Gatorade made by and for long-distance runners, with no added colors or flavors. I would sip on this from my handheld water bottle throughout almost the entire race. As a rough estimate based on my bottle size and Tailwind nutrition information, I consumed about 3400 calories from Tailwind during the race!]

We departed back on the gravel road and turned left to continue the loop through the campground. Then we were on the main road again and on our right, we saw Bunker Hill (not a big hill, but nicely elevated above the surrounding area) with the lead runner already on that portion of the course. He was very close by, but we would not get to that hill until getting to the next aid station a little over three miles away.

Matt and I were still running together, and though I was somewhat concerned the pace was faster than was ideal for him considering I occasionally heard him breathing, I wasn’t going to say anything since he would slow down if he needed to. It was great having someone to run with. Sure enough, as we passed by the West Park Road aid station (a volunteer asked if wanted to stop or just take the hill and come back after completing this out-and-back) and reached the relatively narrow grassy hill, I would start to pull away from Matt. I did notice on my Garmin that my pace was kind of fast, but I felt comfortable and was no longer pounding the pavement. A photographer was at the top of the hill and smiling involved no faking; it was a very beautiful area and things were good. Soon after Bunker Hill, the route goes through a grassy area that leads to a surprisingly rough trail that included a fairly wet creek crossing and some hills, about a 1/3 of a mile through a somewhat hazardous recently cut cedar forest underneath powerlines, and a disc golf course, before climbing and descending Bunker Hill again from the other side. This section of the course takes us past the half way point, and the remainder is on familiar territory.

Upon getting back to the aid station by myself, I again asked for a refill of Tailwind and continued the way I came on the campground roads. There was an unfortunate bit of route confusion near the Land’s End station. By this point in the race, I was consistently running past marathon runners going out towards Bunker Hill. While the markings for the course consist of clear signs to turn or “wrong way”, when you go back the way you came, you still are supposed to take the loops in the same direction you did initially, not in reverse. I did not know that initially, and the volunteers at Land’s End could not confirm for me that the mileage would be the same if I went the reverse direction. It turned out the way I exited from the Land’s End gravel road was incorrect and based on my watch GPS tracking, I came up about 1/2 mile short. I told Sherrie, the race director, about it at the finish area and said I would make up the 1/2 mile on the next lap (the “rabbit”, also named Matt, had 24.9 miles, and I had 24.4). In that first lap, every mile split was between 8 and 9 minutes/mile, which was perfect as far as I was concerned, having planned on 9-11 minutes/mile if the race was all on the trails. The elevation gain was just under 1000 feet, approximately half of what the trail course would have been.

By this point in the race, I was comfortably in third place in the 100 mile competition and would open up a gradually larger lead over the next 50 miles based on when and where I passed my competitors. Late in the first lap and in the second lap, occasionally I briefly ran with Russell, a relatively young (22) 50 mile racer who finished in second. His moving pace was very fast, possibly 7 minutes/mile, but stopped or walked for large chunks of time. There is room for multiple strategies to be successful in an ultra marathon!

Lap 2

During the second lap, I did indeed add what I thought was an appropriate make-up to my shortened first lap by turning back around as I hit the end of the campground loop, doing a quarter mile, and then coming back. Since I knew the slight GPS errors and my precise route would mean 50 miles at the finish area was unlikely, it was not a big deal to see I was still short of 50 on my watch upon being officially half-way done with the race in under 8 hours.

This second lap pushed me past my longest run ever, and with this came natural wear and tear, I naturally slowed down; my moving pace was more like 8:30 to 9:30, with walking up the bigger hills near the end of the second loop leading to more of a 10 minute/mile pace. A major factor was the weather. Although it was far from hot, the course was 90% in sunshine with only very brief cloudy periods. I put a small tube of sunscreen in my pocket and applied it twice during the day on my face, arms, and shoulders while I ran. A volunteer at the West Park road station also sprayed my back that was exposed to the sun.

I passed Eli for the second and final time during the lap and he was doing great. He would finish 3rd in the marathon, beating out the 4th place finisher by under a minute to earn a handmade Hawk mug for getting the bronze in his first marathon with a time of 3 hours and 25 minutes! Also during the second lap I took a bit more time at aid stations in order to consume actual food. I ate what looked appealing, which for me was watermelon, peanut butter filled pretzels, and M&Ms. I also tried a Honey Stinger salted waffle, which I put in my pocket and ate while walking up one of the hills.

Lap 3

On the third lap, my Garmin battery died and I forgot to switch watches at the aid station where I left it. (I had brought my old Forerunner 305 to switch to and simultaneously charge the Vivoactive to switch back to during the last lap.) Since I was running by effort anyway, it didn’t seem important. Later on, I occasionally asked volunteers and pacers what the time was or what the pace was, but I didn’t need to fixate on it as I would have to for a shorter race. By this point, I was walking most hills, excluding short climbs that were not steep.

Although I was running alone without music for the past several hours, I kept my mind occupied by either talking to myself or encouraging fellow runners who I regularly, although less frequently now, passed by. Several of the marathoners in particular, who were not what one would consider a “runner” by traditional standards, seemed worthy to motivate; it is still a long distance to go on foot and a great accomplishment regardless of how long it takes.

Upon returning to the Land’s End aid station, I was ready to change clothes. I went over to the cabin nearby to change into a new pair of shorts and put on a new pair of socks and trail shoes. Then I replaced my tank top with another tank top and reattached my bib to it.

Before leaving, I saw the rabbit Matt from the morning, who had only run those 25 miles because of the new race course. He was going to head back towards the starting area and offered to run with me. So I had a pacer for the first time during the race. For this race, a pacer can join you past mile 50 whenever they’d like to as long as they check in at an aid station. We chatted a lot about running and pacing, as well as the trail. Because by this point in the afternoon, the volunteers got word that we would switch to the trail loop for the final lap!

If I had to put my finger on anything I did wrong strategically was running the steep down hills. I purposed tried to take it as easy as possible on these hills, but the damage on my quads for having taken each of those descents six times was probably substantial. As I ran with Matt approaching 12 hours on my feet, I was experiencing my first signs of physical fatigue. Upon climbing the bigger hills, no longer was I ready to start running when the terrain leveled out. Instead, I walked a little longer before telling Matt I was ready to run again. And then in the final big descent before returning to the finish, I decided I should walk the downhill as well as the uphill. So my energy level was fine, but my legs were no longer matching the vitality of my upper body or my feet, which surprisingly still felt okay. I peed a couple times during these 12 hours in public restrooms right off the route and I seemed to be sufficiently hydrated.

Lap 4

I began lap 4 heading out the trail route. With it being new to me, the general instruction to go out on the blue trail did not work for me, since there were no flags in sight to lead me to the entrance from the starting line. Thankfully, Sherrie led me the right way after I veered off and asked where do I go, and then I was on my way. I felt pretty good running on this trail, which had some of the easier terrain of the 25 mile loop. Hills were all short and fairly gradual, and rocky areas were fairly brief. Over time, my legs were starting to feel more tight, with my left leg especially becoming uncomfortable when running downhill. It turned out once I reached the Land’s End aid station from the trail out-and-back detour, when a volunteer touched my hamstring and calf muscles, they were incredibly tender, more tight than I’ve ever felt in my life. I was beyond stretchable or massageable. This was also where I put on my headlamp, as the sun would soon set and darkness was already increasing on the wooded route.

So when I departed after enjoying some homemade curry soup, it was at a slow shuffle with a slight limp, as I learned that when I stop moving, it now is pretty tough to get moving again. It was a pretty huge descent down to and on the red trail, which was described as being very technical. It is a mile long rocky trail near the lakeshore, with a few steep sections but mostly small ups and downs with many flat sections consisting of large uneven rocks to traverse. The scenery with wide-open views of the lake and partially orange colored sky was awesome. And at this point, I still was able to run lightly on the smoother sections, mainly flat and small hills. The red trail ends as I moved back onto the blue trail.

Things were going well until I reached a sign that said to turn left. At this time it was now fully dark and even with my headlamp, found myself lost since the left turn took me down a modestly steep hill on a gravel road that came out on a grassy area and no evidence of the trail. I eventually retraced my steps, saw some flags at the edge of my route farthest from the lake, but again failed to see the blue trail. There was, however, a long set of concrete stairs leading away from the lake that, given my options, seemed like the best bet to get where I need to be. This was a big climb, and it led to a sign that had a map of the trail system, and it was evident that both the white and blue trails had crossed the stairs I just ascended. This made it clear where I needed to go, but also meant I wasted both time and, more importantly, energy. And of course, as I was going back down the steps, headlights were approaching with I think three runners (maybe 2 pacers and an 100 miler) coming towards me and confirmed that I was going the right way, even though at the opening of the blue trail that was adjacent to the stairs, there was no sight of blue blazes or flags. Since they were running and I was now walking, I soon lost sight of them as I continued onward and was alone again.

From here on, I don’t believe I ran again. Soon I would again waste some effort when I saw a Trail Hawks post that said Mile 12, not realizing at the time that simply referred to the white trail distance (it would descend to 1 going eastward back to towards the starting area) and seeing a white trail blaze and thinking I should still be on blue. I forgot that the next aid station was after being on white for a little while. So I wound up returning the way I came, even though I felt I was successfully following the race route. Thankfully, it wasn’t long before another 100 miler approached, and was very confident that I was going the right way since he raced last year. He was, unlike me, not visibly injured since he was running on the relatively flat trail section. So when he encouraged me to run with him, I simply said I can’t run and eventually I lost sight of he and his pacer.

I finally reached the West Park Road aid station. I enjoyed some soup, ate a little bit of several things including cookies and M&Ms, but was slow to leave. I was encouraged to head out on the Bunker Hill loop for the fourth time today, a section that was so runnable before and now impossible to run. A lady suddenly appeared and offered to come with me on this loop, as she had no one else to pace. She was from Omaha and has done relatively frequent ultra marathons and pacing including 50 miles. She was super to have over  the next hour and twenty minutes (as my pace was confirmed to be generally 20 minutes/mile with my sluggish gait). It clearly hurt me more going downhill, especially on uneven terrain, which even on this relatively easy section was frequent. So my pacer was consistently and frequently asking me if I was okay, encouraging me to go faster on the flatter or uphill sections if possible, and generally chatting a lot about life experiences and random things.

So upon returning to the aid station, I was not feeling better, but not any worse, either. I was definitely cold, though, since I hadn’t been running for awhile; it was probably around 60 degrees; and I was wearing a tank and shorts. I did not have a long sleeve shirt or jacket in my drop bag at this aid station. One of the younger volunteers, who was later going to pace someone to the finish, offered me a compression long sleeve shirt which I was happy to wear for the final miles. Chicken broth tasted great, and in general my appetite and physical shape, outside of my leg pain, was still good.

Setting out for the longest 11 miles of my life alone, within a few minutes a man came cruising behind me and told me it looked like I could use some help. So with that, I had a pacer for the remainder of the race. Not as chatty but still exceedingly helpful, Derrick led me through a very challenging trail given my inability to lift my left leg by more than maybe an ankle height without issue. There were a couple of downed trees that to traverse, he grabbed my hand to help me navigate. It was generally a lot of mental work to minimize the shock in my left leg with every step on the rocky, and occasionally root-filled, portions of the trail. There were many sections that had pretty steep hills to add to the difficulty. A couple times over the next couple hours I asked what time it was, and it was clear that I was still in good shape to finish in under 24 hours given my 25 minute/mile pace.

We eventually saw the sign that says 1/4 mile to the next aid station, and it was a long quarter mile. And we finally arrived at the final aid station. For once I got my bottle refilled with water after tiring of all the Tailwind. After probably a 5 minute stop, we went back, slowly the way we came to return to the white trail. For the first time, I drank coke while walking, since a volunteer said I could hand the cup off when I finished drinking the soda a short ways down the hill.

The remainder of the white trail, and thusly, the race, was pretty relentlessly hilly and full of hazards when your leg is injured. But as long as I kept moving, even with some declines being incredibly slow, I knew I should finish before 6 AM. With under 6 miles to go, and more than 4 hours to play with, things were definitely okay. I continued to sip on water and occasionally eat some food that I threw in my pockets to keep my energy sufficient. There were moments that I was feeling a bit sleepy, but having Derrick to follow removed a substantial amount of mental stress when my mind power was definitely depleting.

I kept anticipating the crossing of Marina Road, which would be a nice milestone after what seemed like endless trail of no substantial variation. I was happy to finally see it for the first time since crossing it while on the blue trail back when the sun was still shining. Then came a section of the trail that I had run on in training a month ago that was within the final mile and half of the race. Then came the 1/4 mile to aid station sign, which now meant the end was near!

Finish

I would have loved to run to the finish line once I saw it, but had known for hours that would be impossible and also pointless, since there was over an hour to go ’til the 24 hour mark. I simply lifted the blue compression shirt to reveal my bib and came in to a handful of volunteer support and the photographer. I was finally done, having covered (at least) 100 miles in 22 hours and 51 minutes. The photographer had me get an official finishing photo after I was given my sub-24 hour gold belt buckle, and then I was ready to sleep! I was looking forward to a beer at the end, but sleep at this point was way more appealing!

Results

I had finished in 7th place, or 5th man. (All four men who finished ahead of me, I noticed, had completed at least one 100 KM or 100 mile race before, where as my longest had to then been the 50 KM distance.) The top three finishers set course records of 16:12:36, 16:35:02, and 18:26:44. The winner, Jeremy Morris, 37 years old, was only an hour and forty minutes ahead of me at the 75 mile mark, so I definitely feel good about my effort if I could have stayed uninjured. He previously set the course record in the 50 miler with a time of 7:19:45. This all tells me that the change to mostly roads probably did make the 100 miler faster than it would’ve been otherwise. The top 5 were all between 31 and 41 years old which is basically the prime age for ultra running, maybe on the young side, and all from the tri-state region (Nebraska, Missouri, Kansas). Number 6 was a 50 year old man, and then I was the next finisher an hour later. One more lady finished sub-24 hours, a young mother who had much more even splits than myself or even Jeremy.

My 25 mile splits tell the story that 100 miles is a long run! I expected to slow down over time, and in retrospect, I may have gone too fast in the first 50 miles. The approximate splits are as follows: 8:30, 9:20, 12, and 25 minutes/mile. There were twenty-seven 100 mile finishers, thirty-eight 50 mile finishers, and sixty-nine marathon finishers. The remaining nineteen 100 milers finished between 24:51 and 31:04 to receive a silver belt buckle and have the benefit of seeing the sunrise with a daytime finish.

Final Thoughts

I am very happy with this experience. I was focused on the training and the race itself that I didn’t even consider the recovery. I took no medicine and let rest and light active recovery work its magic. With gradual healing of my calf, and more slowly, hamstring, I was able to walk with some difficulty Monday morning, gingerly and slowly run Monday night, play volleyball and indoor soccer on Tuesday evening at 90% capacity, and run normally on Wednesday, for a successful recovery. An ultra marathon is a great community running experience. The next one I participate in I think I will be a volunteer, and then try running another 100 miler, at a 6 month interval or so, alternating with the marathon distance. My next long-distance race is in December, the Rocket City Marathon.