On May 31, I ran the FANS 24-Hour Run. This is one of the FANS Ultra Races, which also include a 24-hour walk, a 12-hour run, a 12-hour walk, and a 6-hour run. The race venue was Normandale Lake Park in Bloomington, MN. The course was a 1.82-mile paved loop around the lake.
We could pick up our race
packets at the lake on Friday.
Alternatively, we could pick them up Saturday morning before the
race. Race morning is always busy, so I
picked mine up on Friday.
I was assigned bib number
2. That’s the lowest bib number I’ve
ever had. The lowest bib numbers were
given to the runners who have the most cumulative miles at FANS. The runner with the most lifetime miles is
Sue Olsen, but she was doing the 6-hour run, and the shorter races had
different ranges of bib numbers. Of the
runners doing the 24-hour run, only Ed Rousseau had more total FANS miles than me. Ed is the only runner who has done this race
every year.
Ordinarily, I would sleep
in my own bed, but I made a last-minute decision to stay in a hotel that was
just a mile away from the lake. There
were two things that drove this decision.
First, Interstate 494 through Bloomington was shut down for the
weekend. To drive to the race from home,
I would’ve needed to detour on side streets, which would force me to leave awfully
early. Also, staying in a hotel made it
easier to get a large quantity of crushed ice.
There was an area at the
west end of the lake where we could set up tents. I shared a tent with my sister, Betty, and
her husband, John. John was doing the 24-hour
walk, and Betty was volunteering. The
race didn’t start until 8:00 AM, but we could start setting up tents any time
after 6:00. The three of us arrived at
6:00, so we could get our usual tent site.
After setting up, I had
time to walk through tent city and visit with other runners.
Although I picked up my
race packet on Friday, I still had to check in Saturday morning to get the
ankle strap with my timing chip. Then I
weighed in.
Weigh-ins were optional,
but I find them to be helpful. A large
fluctuation in weight would alert me if I was overhydrating or
underhydrating. In addition to my
pre-race weigh-in, I also weighed in every four hours during the race.
I had the same two goals
as last year. My first goal was to run
100 miles. My second goal was to win the
state championship for men over 60. In
the past, I would’ve taken 100 miles for granted. My poor performance at the Across the Years
48-hour race in January shook my confidence, but I’ve had several good race
results since then. I’m not as
well-trained as I was last year, but I’m still in better shape than I was three
years ago, when I ran 100 miles with minimal training.
The temperature at the
start was in the 60s. It was forecast to
get up into the 80s in the late afternoon.
That’s hot, but I wasn’t too concerned.
I was planning to take frequent walking breaks, which makes it easier to
keep from overheating.
What concerned me more
was the air quality. Smoke from
wildfires in Canada has been moving into Minnesota. The air quality wasn’t too bad on Friday, but
it got into the unhealthy range on Saturday.
I don’t have asthma, but it still wasn’t an ideal day to be outdoors all
day, much less running. The timing
wasn’t great, but this is the only day of the year that I get to run this race.
I wore two watches. On one wrist, I wore a Timex watch, which I
used to keep track of elapsed time since the race started. On my other wrist, I wore a Garmin watch. My Garmin is an inexpensive model. It has an estimated battery life of 22 hours
when it’s in run mode. That’s not long
enough for a race like this, so I wasn’t using GPS. To know my distance, I just needed to know how
many laps I completed. I wore the Garmin
watch so I could have a record of my heart rate during the race. It also counted my steps.
There were two methods of
lap counting. The primary method was chip
timing. We all wore timing chips on our
ankles, and there was a timing mat at the end of the loop. As a backup method, there were volunteers who
were counting our laps manually. If you
weren’t sure how many laps you completed, you could always ask the lap
counters.
The course had two aid
stations. The main aid station was next
to the bandshell. There was also a
secondary aid station at the opposite corner of the lake. Both had water, Gatorade, and food, but there
was a wider variety of food at the main aid station.
We had until 8:00 AM on
Sunday to run (or walk) as far as we could.
We could take breaks at any time, but the clock was always running.
The first lap wasn’t a
complete lap around the lake. Instead of
starting at the main aid station, we started near the tent area. That was done for convenience. After that, every lap started and finished at
the main aid station. That’s where the
lap counters were.
There’s an award for the
person who runs the fastest first lap.
This award is named after Bob Frawley, who was the founder of the race. Bob used to have a reputation for starting
fast.
The first time I ran
FANS, back in 1998, Bob was still the race director. Bob later handed off the reins to other race
directors, but he continued to run in the race.
Bob passed away last summer. As a
tribute to Bob, I decided to run fast for the first lap before settling into a
more sustainable pace.
I lined up in front and went out at a fast pace. Initially, one other runner was keeping up with me. He was a runner I met two years ago, when we were both doing the 6-hour run. He was doing the 6-hour run again.
After about half a mile,
another runner caught up to us. His name
was Chris, and he was doing the 12-hour run.
For the rest of the lap, I ran side-by-side with Chris. I had to work hard to keep up with Chris, and
I couldn’t have done it for much longer.
I assumed this award went
to the 24-hour runner with the fastest first lap, so I didn’t really need to
compete with Chris for it. I kept up
with him, but I didn’t try to outsprint him to the finish line at the end of
that lap. We hit the line together with
a lap time of 11:45. The first lap was
1.51 miles, so our pace was about 7:47 per mile.
That was fun, but it was crazy. After pausing to get a drink of Gatorade at
the aid station, I had to walk for a few minutes to try to recover. When I resumed running, it was at a more
relaxed pace. My left Achilles tendon
felt a little bit tight. I considered
stopping at our tent to massage my left calf with a massage stick. Instead, I waited a few laps to see if it
would loosen up on its own.
Starting with the second lap, I used walking breaks to slow my pace down to something that I hoped wouldn’t wear me out. In the past, I always started my walking breaks at the aid stations. That way, I didn’t have to resume running immediately after eating or drinking. The problem with that strategy is that it has me walking on the flattest parts of the course and running on the sections that are rolling.
This year, I tried
something different. Instead of one or
two long walking breaks per lap, I took several short ones. I walked most of the uphill sections and ran
where it was either downhill or mostly flat.
In the last two weeks before the race, I did most of my training on the
course. I picked out eight hills that I
planned to walk, but there were five other places that could technically be
considered to be “hills.” This course
really doesn’t have any big hills, but there are lots of small undulations.
The image below is from one of my training runs. The areas in blue are the hills that I was walking. One was so short that it barely shows up in this image.
Besides the hills, there
were also two wooden bridges, where we crossed Nine Mile Creek. Sometimes, I also walked across the bridges.
Finally, I sometimes
walked briefly while eating or drinking something from an aid station.
Over the next few laps, I
gradually caught my breath. My left
Achilles tendon didn’t feel as tight, but both of my calves felt a little sore.
For the rest of the
morning, I was averaging about 20 minutes per lap. I knew that was still too fast, but I was
planning to slow it down as it got warmer.
I was drinking Gatorade at both aid stations and occasionally eating solid food. That was fine for the morning hours, but as it got warmer, I assumed I would need to increase my fluid intake. I had an insulated bag at our campsite with several bottles of Gatorade. If drinking at the two aid stations wasn’t enough, I could also stop at the tent to get a drink of Gatorade.
At noon, I weighed in
again. My weight was half a pound higher
than it was before the race. That
surprised me. I expected my weight to be
down slightly. I assumed that drinking
at the two aid stations was enough, for now, and that the extra half pound was
attributable to the sub sandwich I had just eaten at the aid station.
Realizing my pace wasn’t
sustainable, I made an adjustment to my pacing strategy. I started taking two additional walking
breaks per lap. I picked two more sections
that were slightly uphill. The sections
I chose helped break up my longest periods of running.
The additional walking
breaks didn’t slow my pace as much as I thought they would. I was taking at least 10 walking breaks per
lap, but they were all fairly short. I
was still running the majority of the loop.
It felt easy, but it was still too fast.
It was a sunny day, and
the sun was now high in the sky. By
1:00, I was already feeling hot. I felt
a little bit tired, and I had a little bit of soreness in my legs. That was a bad sign. I’ve never felt sore or tired this early in a
24-hour race. Usually, I feel fresh for
the first 10 hours, even if I’m going too fast.
My last line of defense
against overheating was putting ice in my hat.
My Gatorade bottles were packed in crushed ice. I stopped at the tent every lap or two and put
a handful of crushed ice in my hat.
That’s an amazingly effective way to cool your self down, but it takes
some getting use to. It’s not
comfortable, and the first time you do it, it can be a bit disconcerting.
I also added a cooling
bandana that had been soaking in ice water.
As the ice in my hat melted, the cold water ran down the back of my next
and was absorbed by the bandana.
There were signs around
the lake marking various milestones we would hit at different points during the
race. During my 15th lap, I reached the
marathon mark. I got there in 4:56:22. That’s not as fast as last year, but it was
still too fast.
All through the
afternoon, I was walking up the same ten hills.
Everywhere else, I ran at a relaxed pace. I continued drinking Gatorade at the aid
stations, but I only stopped to drink at the tent once. Every few laps, I had some solid food. Usually, it was a PBJ or some type of
bar. One of the race sponsors was
Parkway Pizza, so I had pizza once.
Another sponsor was Jimmy John’s, so I sometimes ate part of a sandwich.
When I weighted in again
at 4:00, I fully expected my weight to be down.
It wasn’t. I was still up half a
pound compared to my pre-race weight. In
retrospect, I probably was losing weight, but my wet hat and bandana made me weigh
in a little heavier.
The lap counters ring
cowbells whenever a runner reaches 50 miles, 100K, or 100 miles. In my 28th lap, I reached 50 miles. When I finished that lap, they rang the
cowbells for me.
I ran the first 50 miles
in 9:56:46. My primary goal was still to
get to 100 miles. To do that, I just
needed to run 50 more miles, and I had 14 hours to do it.
I still felt tired, and I
still felt a little sore, but I didn’t feel any worse after ten hours than I
did after five hours. That seemed
encouraging, but there were other signs of wear and tear.
I wasn’t drinking as much
as I usually do on a hot day, yet I always felt like my stomach was full. In the late afternoon, the air quality was
getting worse. At one point, I coughed a
few times. When I coughed, I almost
threw up.
That sensation of almost
throwing up is something I had to fight down three or four times during the
race. I sometimes wanted to skip an aid
station, but I didn’t think that would be wise unless I had some evidence that
I was overhydrating.
At 6:30, I stopped at the
medical tent to do an unscheduled weigh-in.
I was hoping my weight would be up, which would give me justification to
occasionally skip an aid station. My
weight was still the same.
My body was giving me
mixed signals. On one hand, I felt like
I was overhydrating, because I always felt so full. On the other hand, I wasn’t peeing as often
as I normally do. I sometimes went three
or four hours between bathroom stops.
In the evening, my throat
constantly felt irritated. The sky was
hazy, so I assumed it was from the poor air quality. It didn’t occur to me at the time that I
might be getting dehydrated. I kept
expected my weight to drop if I wasn’t drinking enough, and it never did. At my 8:00 PM weigh-in, my weight was still
the same.
Heading into the late
evening, I was slowing down substantially.
I was still doing the same proportion of running and walking, but
everything was slower now.
After one of my laps, I
was met by a friend at the aid station.
My friend, Karen, came out to run a few laps with me. She also brought some homemade ice cream. I could only eat a little bit at a time, but
it was a nice change of pace from drinking Gatorade every lap.
After the sun went down,
I stopped at my tent to get my headlamp.
There were street lamps in a few places, and there were enough
battery-powered lamps that it wasn’t too hard to see where the trail was. Still, there are always shady spots, so it
helped to have a headlamp.
While I was running laps
with Karen, I reached the 100K mark, but I forgot to record my time. Shortly after that, I had to do more
walking. There were still three small
hills that I was previously running. Now
I was walking every part of the course that was uphill, however short.
After Karen went home, I
was running by myself in the dark. My
running had degenerated into a slow shuffle.
My walking was more of a slow stagger.
At times, it seemed like I wasn’t always walking in a straight
line. Some of that was fatigue. Some of that was stiffness in my muscles. Some of that may have been disorientation.
It felt much cooler after
the sun went down. I started to feel
cold, so I had to stop at the tent to add gloves and a jacket.
There were several
Centurion walkers in this race, including six who traveled from Europe. To be a Centurion, you need to walk 100 miles
in 24 hours. All of these walkers have done
this before in other countries, and they came her to earn a Centurion badge in
the United States. Most people slow down
as the race progresses, but Centurions are very consistent in their pacing.
Even though I was still
doing more running than walking, I was frequently getting passed by the
Centurions. I could no longer run as
fast as they were walking.
By midnight I had run
more than 72 miles. I just needed to run
28 more miles, and I had eight hours to do it.
Ghat should’ve been easy, but I wasn’t sure if I could make it. My pace now was just barely fast enough to
get there, and it was gradually getting slower.
After midnight, I adopted
a new strategy. I only ran the downhill
sections, and I walked everything else.
On a long flat section, I could walk much faster. I was now power-walking most of the lap. That was fast enough, but I didn’t know how
long I could sustain it.
Most of my training has
been running. I’ve done hardly any
race-walking this year. Race-walking is
good cross-training for running, but running doesn’t prepare you for
race-walking. There’s no substitute for
putting in the training, and I haven’t done that lately.
I was able to walk fast,
but I quickly started to feel sore across my lower back. I was using muscles that weren’t trained for
this, and they quickly got fatigued.
John was doing the
24-hour walk, but he sometimes took rest breaks. On one of my laps, I saw John in the tent and
asked him if he could walk with me for a few laps. He had just started a rest break and said he
would be starting another lap for about half an hour.
The next time I came by,
John was still there. He was ready to
resume walking now, so we walked together for the next four laps.
I stopped running the
downhill sections. While I was with
John, we just power-walked the entire lap.
To get to 100 miles, I needed to average about 31 minutes per lap. For the next two laps, we were about to walk
them in about 28 minutes each. Then I
couldn’t keep it up any more.
About halfway through my
third lap with John, I slowed down substantially. I was completely fatigued. Now I could only walk at a slow pace. It was no longer fast enough to get to 100
miles. On top of that, every step was
painful.
At 2:00 AM, we both did a
weigh-in. We weren’t actually due to
weigh in until 4:00, but we both got confused about the time. My weight was up a pound since midnight. I can’t explain that. I was only drinking once per lap now.
During my last lap with
John, the pain got to be too much. There
was still five hours left in the race, but it was no longer possible to reach
100. If it wasn’t so painful, I would’ve
kept moving, but the pain in my lower back was excruciating. I couldn’t do that for five more hours.
I seemed like it took
forever to get back around to the main aid station. When we got there, I informed the lap
counters that I was done, and I turned in my timing chip. I finished the race with 44 laps, which is 81.6
miles.
From there, I still had
to walk the rest of the way back to our tent.
John was planning to take another rest break, but first, he helped me
carry a few things to my car.
The temperature had
dropped to 59 degrees. Now that I wasn’t
moving, I quickly got cold. It only took
me a few minutes to drive back to my hotel, but my hands were turning white.
I took a quick shower to
rinse off the salt and sweat. Then I
dried off and climbed into bed. I was
hoping to take a nap before I needed to drive back to the race.
As I climbed into bed,
both feet and one calf muscle started to cramp up. It took several minutes to find a position
that didn’t make my feet cramp. Then I
started to shiver. I took a few minutes
bundled up under warm blankets for the shivering to stop.
I got back to the hotel
just in time. If either of these
symptoms hit me while I was still walking around the lake, it would’ve been
much worse.
I wasn’t able to get to
sleep. After resting in bed for a couple
hours, I forced myself to get up. I was
more stiff than before. I worked on my
calves and hamstrings with a massage stick.
That made a difference. Now I
could get dressed and walk to the car.
Before driving back to
the race, I had breakfast at the hotel.
We would have a breakfast after the race, but that wouldn’t be for
another two and a half hours. I was
starving, so I needed to eat something right away. I knew my body chemistry was off, but I
figured eating some real food would help restore my electrolyte balance. I still didn’t feel great, but it helped.
John was still walking,
but Betty and I started packing and bringing things to the car. I was moving in slow motion, but we had
plenty of time before the race was over.
When John reached his
mileage goal, the three of us took down the tent. Betty and John waited to see the last few Centurions
finish their races. I started walking to
the main aid station to see if there was still some food that would help settle
my stomach. I had some potato chips and
a cup of ginger ale. I think the potato
chips helped. I don’t think I was
getting enough electrolytes during thew race.
After the post-race
breakfast, there was an awards presentation.
First, they do the top finishers in each category. Then they do the RRCA awards. I didn’t win the over 60 title. There were two men over 60 who ran or walked
at least 100 miles.
I also didn’t win a
director’s award. I was expecting to win
the award for the fastest first lap, but they were including runners from all
races, not just the 24-hour race. Chris,
who did the 12-hour run, beat me to the line by a tiny fraction of a second.
I fell short of all of my
goals at this race, but the most frustrating thing is that I’m not entirely
sure what went wrong, other than starting too fast. I know my nutrition was off, but it’s hard to
know for sure what happened. I’ve run in
similar conditions before, but my body had never behaved like this before. I had some symptoms that suggest I was
getting dehydrated and wasn’t getting enough salt. I had other symptoms that were inconsistent
with that.
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