On January 1-3, I ran the
Across the Years 48-Hour Race. This is a
fixed-time race where you run as far as you can in 48 hours. They have other fixed-time options, including
6 hours, 12 hours, 24 hours, 72 hours, and 6 days. They also have fixed-distance options,
including marathon, 100 miles, and 200 miles.
Finally, they have a last person standing race.
The 6-day race started on
December 28 and ended on January 3. For most
of the other races, you could choose which day you wanted to start. I could’ve chosen to start the 48-hour race
as early as December 28, or as late as January 1.
I considered starting on December
28, but changed my mind and started on January 1 instead. Finishing on January 3 made it possible for
me to attend the awards banquet, which was held two hours after the end of the
6-day race. If I finished earlier, I probably
would’ve flown home before the awards banquet.
I’ve done Across the
Years three times before, but I always seem to run only about half as long as I
expect. The first time I ran the 48-hour
race, I started to develop an ankle injury.
I stopped after 28½ hours, because I didn’t want to make it worse.
On my second attempt at
the 48-hour race, I went into the race with a hamstring injury. I tried to run the race with the injury, but
it didn’t go well. I stopped as soon as
I got to 100 miles.
Two years later, I did
the 24-hour race. Four weeks before the
race, I fell and broke a rib during a trail race. I recovered sufficiently to be able to run,
but coughing was still painful. The
course was mostly dirt, and it was dusty.
Breathing the dust was starting to make me cough. Because of the pain, I stopped after 50
miles.
This year, my training
was going well, and I came into the race with high hopes. A lot of diffe4rent things can go wrong
during the race, but I thought I was at least making it to the starting line healthy.
They had a new race venue
this year. These races used to be held
at Camelback Ranch in Glendale, but that facility wasn’t available this
year. The new venue was the Peoria
Sports Complex in Peoria, AZ, which is on the west side of Phoenix. The Peoria Sports Complex is a baseball
facility used for spring training by the Seattle Mariners and the San Diego
Padres.
The course was a loop
through the facility. The first part of
the loop went around the perimeter of a stadium. This part was concrete and included two ramps. The second ramp came up to a bridge going
over an entrance on one side of the stadium.
After that, there were
sections of dirt and gravel, as we wound our way around several baseball
diamonds. The tent area was at the
beginning of the longest dirt section.
The last part of the loop
was along a concrete sidewalk and through a parking lot where people could park
RVs.
I flew to Phoenix on December
30. My flight was delayed, so by the
time I checked into my hotel, it was almost dinner time. My hotel was less than a mile from the race
venue, and there were lots of nearby restaurants.
Arriving a day early
allowed me to drive to the Peoria Sports Complex on the 31st and check in
early, even though I didn’t start my race until the next day.
When I registered for the
race, I had the option of renting a tent.
Having a tent gave me a place to store my gear and change clothes. I was going to experience a wide range of
temperatures, so I anticipated adding or removing layers a few times during the
race.
When you rent a tent, you
don’t have to set it up yourself. All
the tents are set up in advance by race volunteers. I just had to choose an unclaimed tent and
attach a sticker with my name to show that this was my tent.
The tent included a cot,
and I also rented a sleeping bag. I
didn’t know if I could make it through the whole race without sleep. I was hoping to keep moving for the whole 48
hours, but I needed to have a backup plan.
Having a tent with a cot gave me a place to take a short nap during the
race, if necessary. I didn’t think driving
back to my hotel would be an option. If
I was too sleepy to keep running, I would also be too sleepy to drive. Besides, going back to the hotel would take
extra time, even though it was close.
After I picked up my race
bib, I looked around to find a tent that wasn’t claimed yet. After picking out a tent, I loaded my gear
into it. I wouldn’t leave anything of
value in the tent, but I was comfortable leaving spare clothes and shoes
there. I also took the time to organize
things a bit, so I could find things quickly when I needed them during the
race.
While I was there, I saw
several runners I know. I had a chance
to visit with some friends who were there for the 72-hour race. Then I went back to the hotel to do some strength
training exercises before lunch.
In the afternoon, I went
back to the race venue, and I walked a couple laps with some friends who were
doing the marathon. That gave me a good
preview of the course.
Setting up in the morning
gave me an idea what the temperature would be like in the morning, but I still
didn’t have an appreciation for how much colder it would feel during the
night. Walking the course in the
afternoon gave me an appreciation for how much warmer it would get in the
afternoon. I was going to experience
temperatures ranging from 40 to low 70s.
For dinner, I went to an
Italian restaurant that I knew had good pizza.
What I didn’t know was that they had a limited menu for New Year’s Eve,
and pizza wasn’t on the menu. I didn’t
find that out until I got there. Since I
was already there, I still ate dinner there.
Instead of pizza, I had to settle for pasta.
Most people stay up to
celebrate on New Year’s Eve. For me, it
was the night before the race, so it was important to get as much sleep as
possible. I went to bed shortly after
dinner.
I slept until about
3:15. Then I woke up, and I couldn’t get
back to sleep. My mind was racing. I rested in bed until 5:30, but then I got up
and started getting ready. It would’ve
been nice to get a few more hours of sleep.
That’s not a good way to start the day when you’re hoping to get through
a 48-hour race without sleep.
The race started at 9:00
AM. Most of my gear was already in my
tent, so I didn’t need to get there too early.
That gave me time to have breakfast at my hotel before driving to the
race venue. When I got there, I dropped
off my warm-up layers at my tent. It was
cold, so I waited in my car until it was time to go to the starting line.
Because of the chilly
morning temperatures, I started the race in tights. I didn’t know if I could wear them through
the afternoon hours or if I would get too hot.
I had to wait and see.
I assumed the dirt
portions of this course would be similar to the course at Camelback Ranch. My experience on that course was that the
fine dust would gradually work its way through the fabric of my shoes. Gaiters help, but they only slow the
inevitable. Once that dust works it way
into your shoes, it’s almost impossible to get them clean. I assumed any shoes and socks I wore during
this race would be ruined.
With that in mind, I only
brought shoes that already had enough wear that I would’ve been retiring them
soon anyway. I brought four pairs of
shoes and socks, with the intention of changing shoes every 12 hours.
If I learned anything
from my experience at the FANS 24-hour race last June, it’s that I had to have
a plan for how to pace myself. Winging
it doesn’t work. I went back to a tried-and-true
method. I had a target time for each
lap, and I used variable-length walking breaks to ensure I wouldn’t go
too fast.
My plan was to run each
lap in 20 minutes. If I finished a lap
ahead of schedule, I would walk until the next multiple of 20 minutes before I
started to run again. I chose a target
time of 20 minutes for two reasons.
First, 20 minutes divides
evenly into 60 minutes. My target time
always ended with 20, 40, or 00. That
made it easy to remember. In this long
of a race, it’s important to keep things simple.
The second advantage of
running 20-minute laps is that it put me on pace to run slightly more than 100
miles in the first 24 hours. That’s a
pace that I assumed would be manageable for the first 24 hours, but would get
progressively more difficult in the next 24 hours. I didn’t know long I could keep up that pace,
but it seemed like a reasonable pace to start.
I came into this race
with two straight rest days, so there was a danger that I would have too much
pent-up energy. Having a pacing strategy
was the only thing to keep me from going out too fast.
As far as goals go, my
primary goal was to make it to the end of the race without quitting. I had never done that in a 48-hour race, so
this was going to be a learning experience.
I wanted to find out what the second day feels like. I also wanted to know whether I could get
through the entire race without sleep.
If I couldn’t, I wanted to find out whether I could get to sleep quickly
and how soon I could get back onto the course.
I wasn’t focused on any
one mileage goal. First, I needed to go
farther than I’ve gone before. I assumed
that would be easy, since that was a distance that I had run in a 24-hour race. Beyond that, there were a few numbers I was
hoping to hit, but I really didn’t know which ones were realistic and which
ones weren’t. It all depended on how
long I could continue running three laps per hour.
There was a tent with
food and beverages in the start/finish area.
As long as I stuck to my pacing plan, I would go by the aid station
every 20 minutes.
My first big concern came
early in the race. In recent weeks, I’ve
sometimes noticed soreness on the inside of my left foot when I wake up in the
morning. I had been assuming it was from
sleeping in a position that had the side of my foot pressing against the edge
of the mattress. I sometimes noticed
that when I first woke up but the soreness would go away within an hour of
waking up. On race occasions, I would
feel that same soreness during a run, but I didn’t think it was a big concern.
This was one of those
mornings when I woke up with a sore foot.
It hurt more than it has in the past.
When I started running, I felt the same soreness. It was a minor concern, but you don’t want to
start a long race with something already hurting.
At some races, you weight
in regularly, and you can tell if you’re hydrating properly by paying
attentions to fluctuations in your weight.
They don’t do that here. Instead,
I needed to pay attention to how I felt and how frequently I was making
bathroom stops. That proved to be more
difficult than I thought. More on that
later.
Another challenge was
taking in enough calories. I won’t go
through my calculations in detail, but I estimated I would be burning 400-425
calories per hour for as long as I was doing 20-minute laps. I could meet some of my caloric needs by the
slow metabolism of stored fat, but also needed to take in as many calories as
my digestive system could handle. I
expected to get some of my calories from drinking Gatorade at the aid
station. The rest had to come from solid
food.
One of the foods at the
aid station was peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, cut in half. I’ve found that PBJs are something I can eat
all day without having digestive issues.
They provide easy-to-digest carbs, while also having some protein and
fat. If I ate half of a PBJ every hour,
that would provide about 200 calories.
Between that and the Gatorade, I would probably take in enough calories
to get by.
The food tent had
different foods at different times, and I sometimes ate different foods just to
get some variety.
You may be wondering why
I wasn’t eating gels. A gel packet has
about 100 calories, so eating one gel per hour isn’t enough without also eating
some real food. When I’ve tried gels in
other races, and I’ve found that I can only them for about 10 hours before
starting to feel bloated. PBJs work
better for me.
That’s one of the things
about a race like this. Everybody’s
digestive system is different. You have
to experiment and find out what foods your digestive system can handle.
It was chilly at the
start, but it warmed up quickly. I
started the race wearing a Tyvek jacket and gloves, but I took then off during
my third lap. My tent was right next to
the course, and I went by it about halfway through each lap. That made it easy to stop briefly at the tent
to add or remove a layer of clothes.
In the early laps, my
walking breaks got longer with each lap.
By the fourth lap, I was already starting each lap with 10 minutes of
walking.
By the end of my fourth
lap, my legs were already getting sweaty.
It had warmed up enough that I needed to change into shorts. On my next lap, I stopped at the tent to
change. To do that, I needed to take off
my shoes. That took extra time, which
came out of my next walking break.
By my seventh lap, my
walking breaks were back up to 10 minutes.
By my eighth lap, I was walking all the way to the midpoint of the lap
before I needed to switch to running.
Just past the
start/finish line, they had a screen that showed your name, lap time, number of
laps, and total distance. Each time I
finished a lap, I looked at the screen to see my name come up. After my 10th lap, I never saw my name come
up on the screen.
I had my phone with me
for the whole race. I usually kept it in
airplane mode to conserve power. I took
it out of airplane mode, so I could look at the live tracking. I saw my time for the midpoint of my 10th
lap, but not for the end of that lap.
There was a chip mat in
the middle of the lap. The next time I
crossed it, I checked the online tracking again. It showed that I had reached the midpoint of
my 11th lap, but it still didn’t show a time for the end of my 10th lap. When I lap 11, I stopped at the timing
tent. They showed me with 11 laps
completed. That was official, even
though one of my lap times was missing from the live tracking.
I talked to a few other
runners who had similar issues with the timing.
After that I always looked for my name when I finished a lap.
The dirt portions of the
course were dusty. Whenever someone ran
by me, they raised a cloud of dust.
After four hours, the dust started making me cough.
When the races were held
at Camelback Ranch, they used to change directions every four hours. Here, they didn’t do that. It’s a somewhat complicated loop, which
includes about a dozen turns. Always
going in the same direction made it easier to get used to it. After a while, I could do it on autopilot. I was happy to always go in the same
direction. Changing directions might
have been confusing later in the race, when I was tired.
After about 15 laps, I
started to notice chafing under my arms.
I know other runners who put Vaseline or Body glide in that area. I’ve never needed to do that, because I don’t
usually chafe in that area.
This is an arid
region. The air is dry enough that your
sweat evaporates quicky, leaving behind traces of salts. My T-shirt was dry but the salt residue
created extra friction. This was
something else that I could tune out, but I was concerned about the number of minor
issues I was already having in the first five hours of a 48-hour race.
The PBJs were something I
could take with me and eat on my walking break, but I wasn’t carrying any
fluids with me. I could eat a PBJ slowly
and swallow it down, but it wasn’t long before I wanted to eat something
different for a change. As I finished my
16th lap, I saw that the aid station had grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato
soup. I took a grilled cheese sandwich
in one hand and a cup of tomato soup in the other hand as I started my next
lap.
A few laps later, as I
finished a lap, I saw a volunteer holding a tray with several paper cups. They were smoothies. I usually drank Gatorade, but on that lap, I
had a smoothie instead. I also had a
smoothie after my next lap.
As my walking breaks grew
longer, I found myself getting into a nice rhythm. Without really trying, I was starting to walk
faster. That, in turn, led to me to go
even farther on my walking breaks. My
walking breaks grew to be 13 minutes, then 14 minutes.
As my walking breaks grew
longer, I got excited about it. Now I
was putting more effort into walking at a brisk pace. Soon, my walking breaks grew to almost 15
minutes.
The second half of the
loop included a long section that was dirt.
Some of the dirt sections also included a few rocks. I really hated to have to resume running
while I was still on this long dirt section.
There were two reasons why I preferred to walk the dirt sections. First, walking didn’t raise as much dust as
running. Second, I was less apt to trip
on a rock if I was walking.
I kept putting more
effort into my walking until I was able to walk all the way through the last of
the dirt sections. Then I only had to
run on the last section of the loop, which was all pavement.
I was eating PBJs every
three or four laps. After lap 24, I was
due to have another PBJ, but as I walked though the food tent, I saw small
pieces of pumpkin pie. On that lap, I
had the pie instead.
At 4 PM, it started
cooling off. For most of the afternoon,
it had been about 70 degrees. I didn’t
think the heat was wearing on me, but I felt more comfortable as it cooled down.
By late afternoon, my
walking breaks peaked at about 15 and a half minutes. Unfortunately, I had not trained to do this
much walking at a brisk pace. It started
to get tiring. You don’t want to start
feeling tired this early in 48-hour race.
Putting so much energy into my walking was my first big mistake of the
race. It was also the first sign that my
race plan was going to go off the rails.
About nine hours into the
race, I saw my first sunset of the race.
After that, it cooled off more rapidly.
I don’t think the temperature had actually dropped that much, but it immediately
feels about ten degrees cooler when you no longer have the added warmth of direct
sunlight.
The next time I came by
my tent, I put on gloves. I also
replaced my running hat with a warm winter hat that has an LED light. The course was well lit at night, but the LED
made it easy to find things when I needed to go into my tent. The tent area was the only part of the course
that wasn’t lit up at night.
At first, I thought the
hat might be too warm. I quickly
realized it wasn’t. I really needed the
warm hat to keep me warm as it kept cooling off.
I eventually realized
that I needed to do more running and less walking. I wanted to walk all of the dirt sections of
the course, but I was also walking some paved sections that came early in the
loop. I started running those sections,
as well as the longer paved section at the end of the loop. I continued to walk the only two uphill
sections. One was a ramp at the
beginning of the loop. The other was the
ramp coming up to a bridge.
Now that I was running
more, I could throttle back the pace of my walking until it was just a casual
walking pace. I should have started
doing that much earlier.
With the revised run/walk
mix, I still had to pay attention to when I needed to end my last walking break
and run the rest of the loop. I was
still finishing my laps in about 20 minutes.
By 7:30 PM, it had cooled
off enough that my legs started to feel cold.
I needed to change from shorts into tights, but I waited. I was planning to do my first shoe change at
9 PM. I needed to take off my shoes to
change into tights, so it made sense to do both changes at the same time. In retrospect, I should’ve just changed shoes
earlier. This was my second big mistake.
Through my first 35 laps,
I was consistently finishing my laps anywhere from 12 to 15 minutes ahead of my
target time. At the end of my 36th lap,
I was only eight minutes ahead of my target time. I realized at this point that I could no longer
stay on the same pace with my current run/walk mix.
I was tiring. I wasn’t sure what to do next. One option was to abandon 20-minute laps but
keep running and walking the same part of the course, knowing it wouldn’t be as
fast as before. I worried that even
doing that might continue to wear me down.
It was time to change
into a new pair of shoes and socks, so I stopped at my tent. I was originally going to change into tights,
but I decided to change into sweatpants instead. I might not need something that warm yet, but
the temperature would keep dropping all through the night. I would need sweatpants eventually, so why
wait?
Changing shoes was a
glacially slow process. First, I had to
unclip each of my gaiters from the shoelaces.
Then I could untie the shoes. Taking
off each shoe was difficult. Even with
the gaiters, there was so much dirt on my shoes that they were stiff. I had to loosen the laces to get them off.
I wear orthotics in my
shoes, so I had to remove the insoles to take out the orthotics. Then I needed to put the orthotics under the
insoles of the clean pair of shoes that I was changing into.
Next, I removed my
gaiters and my socks. Then I put on
clean socks. Now, I could finally change
from shorts into sweatpants.
Putting on the clean pair
of shoes also took time. It was tough to
get them onto my sore feet. I needed to
loosen up the shoelaces, so I could pull the tongue back as much as possible. I forgot that I had brought a shoe horn. Using that would’ve helped.
The last thing I needed
to do was attach my gaiters to the laces of the new shoes. I had trouble with that. Maybe it’s just because I was tired, but I
really struggled with getting the clip to go over the shoelace.
That whole process took
somewhere between 20 and 25 minutes. My
legs were cold even before I started.
Sitting that long in the cold evening air made them even colder. When I stood up, I could barely walk. My legs were too cold and stiff.
The long break was hard
to avoid, but it didn’t help that my legs had already been cold for a long time. My legs don’t respond well to being too cold
for too long. This was the same issue
that caused my race to come to a sudden end at FANS.
It took some effort just
to walk in a straight line. At first, I
was staggering. With more effort, I
managed to walk forward at a normal (i.e. casual) pace. It took even more effort to walk at what felt
like a brisk pace. Running was no longer
possible. For the rest of the night, all
I could do was walk.
There was some good
news. After changing shoes, my feet felt
great. I had noticed soreness in my left
foot since the beginning of the race, and I felt other minor irritations in
both feet as dirt worked its way into my shoes.
Now, I no longer had any discomfort in either foot.
After another lap, I
stopped at the tent again. My hands were
too cold with just the polypro gloves. I
added a pair of Gore-Tex shell mittens.
At first, my hands were still too cold, but they gradually warmed up.
The course was much
quieter now. There were fewer runners on
the loop. Runners doing the shorter
races (marathon, 6-hour, 12-hour) were already done. Runners doing the longest races (200 mile,
72-hour, 6-day) tended to sleep at night.
Even many of the runners doing the 24-hour or 48-hour races took breaks
during the night. The only runners still
out there all night were the ones who were the most competitive.
I wanted to know what my
pace was now that I was only walking. At
a minimum, I wanted to maintain a pace of three miles per hour. That meant completing laps in 28 minutes.
The lap with the long
clothing change was obviously slow. The
next two laps were about 26 minutes each.
I was still going faster than three miles per hour, but not by a wide margin.
After another lap, I
stopped at my tent again. I was still
cold, so I took to time to take off my jacket and T-shirt, so I could put on a
long-sleeve polypro shirt underneath.
Now I was wearing three layers on top.
That was as many layers as I brought.
I never imagined that I would need more than that.
During the night, the
temperature was in the 40s. That may not
sound cold, but it feels much colder during the night. Also, 40 degrees in the dry desert air is not
the same as 40 degrees with humidity. If
you’re not moving, it can feel bone-chilling cold. At this point, I wasn’t moving very fast.
I didn’t want to be
reduced to only walking. There was one
part of the course where it was easy to run.
That was on the ramp coming down from the bridge. I started running down that ramp on every
lap, even though it only saved a few seconds.
Mostly, I wanted to preserve my ability to run. I’ve learned the hard way that if you walk
for too long, it can be difficult to start running again.
For a few laps, I tried
to keep running after the course leveled out again. With effort, I could do it for about 30
seconds, but it was really tiring. After
trying that for a few laps, I went back to just running down the ramp and
walking everywhere else.
During the day, I was
consistently making bathroom stops after every third lap. In the evening, my bathroom stops got more
frequent. At one point, I had to stop to
pee on consecutive laps. I assumed I was
overhydrating, yet I felt thirsty after every lap. My body was giving my mixed signals.
After talking to a more
experienced runners, I concluded that it was the dry air that was making me
feel thirsty. I cut back to just
drinking a sip or two after each lap. I
was keeping my mouth from drying out, but I wasn’t drinking much.
That was my third major
mistake, although I wouldn’t realize it until much later. I was peeing more often just because it was
nighttime. Sometimes kidney function
gets weird during the night. During the
night, I gradually got dehydrated, because I thought I was overhydrating.
As the night progressed,
my pee breaks became less frequent.
Eventually, I was back to only making bathroom stops every few laps, yet
I continued to limit my fluid intake to only a sip or two after each lap. I should’ve gradually started drinking more. I still didn’t realize that I was letting
myself get dehydrated.
In a long enough race, where you’re eating solid foods, it’s inevitable that
you’ll need to poop at some point.
Fortunately, there were real bathroom in the stadium, and they were
right along the course. Near the end of
my 43rd lap, I stopped to poop. While I
was in the stall, I looked down at my shoes.
I had only been wearing these shoes for about three hours, but they were
already getting caked with dirt.
When I finished my
business and tried to wipe myself, I didn’t realize my jacket was in the
way. I got a poop stain on the bottom of
my jacket.
I had to take the time to
wash that part of my jacket in the sink.
That took time. Then I needed to
dry my jacket with a hand dryer. That
also took time. The time I lost on that
lap was time I could never make up. I
just wasn’t walking fast enough to make up for any significant downtime.
It was then that I
realized that I could no longer sustain a three miles per hour pace, when I
took occasional stops into account. That
realization was demoralizing.
After that I gave up on
trying to walk at a three miles per hour pace.
It was taking too much energy. I
walked at a pace that didn’t take too much energy, and I accepted that I was
going to be slow.
With all the layers I was
wearing, I was still getting cold. I
wasn’t moving faster enough. I wasn’t
generating enough heat to stay warm.
Dehydration probably also played a factor, but I didn’t realize that
yet.
I talked to a runner from
Chicago who had brought her warmest winter coat to cope with the nighttime
cold. She couldn’t believe I
didn’t. I had warmer clothes, but I
didn’t bring them. I didn’t think I
would need all the layers I was already wearing, much less anything
warmer. That was my fourth major
mistake.
It was only 2 AM. The temperature wouldn’t bottom out until 7
AM. I didn’t know how I could get
through the next five hours.
They had a warming tent
near the finish line. After my 46th lap,
I sat down in the warming tent and tried to figure out what to do next.
Before the race, several
people asked me what my goal was. I was
hesitant to commit to a mileage goal, even though I had a few numbers in
mind. Instead, I always told people that
my primary goal was to make it to the end of the race without quitting. My resolve to do that was being put to the
test now. Everything was going wrong,
and I really wanted to quit.
I decided to go back to
hotel for the night, but keep open the option of continuing in the
morning. I was clinging to hope that I
might be rejuvenated if I could get warmed up and get a couple hours of sleep.
I talked to one of the
race officials to find out how best to proceed.
I needed to stop at my tent to get a clean pair of shoes to wear in the
morning. The tent area was in the middle
of the loop. The official I talked to
suggested that my best course of action was to start another lap. By
following the race route to my tent, my walking was all productive. I picked up a pair of shoes at my tent, and I
continued walking along the route until I reached the point on the course that
was closest to my car. When I got to the
parking lot, I went straight to my car and drove back to my hotel. I waited until the next morning to complete
that lap.
When I got back to the
hotel, I wrestled off my dirt-encrusted shoes.
Then I got undressed and climbed into bed. It was 3 AM now.
As soon as I got into
bed, I started to shiver uncontrollably.
That lasted for 10 or 15 minutes.
I normally keep my hotel
room pretty cold at night. I wasn’t
expecting to come back to the hotel until after the race, so I didn’t set the
thermostat as cold as I usually do. It
was about 67 degrees in the room, but I was covered with thick warm
blankets. There’s no way I should feel
this cold.
That’s when I realized
something was wrong. I was dehydrated,
and it was impairing my body’s ability to regulate my body temperature.
Under the warm blankets,
I eventually warmed up, but it took a while.
Then my attention switched to another problem. My left foot started to hurt again. I couldn’t find any position that didn’t make
that foot hurt.
I had previously written
off that sore spot as something caused by spot pressure if the side of my foot
pressed against the edge of the mattress while I was sleeping. Now, I had to consider the possibility that I
had a more serious injury.
The pain made it
difficult to fall asleep. I was lying in
bed for what seemed like two hours. Then I finally rolled over to look at the
clock. It was 4:20. I still had time to try to get to sleep.
I laid in bed for what
seemed like another hour. Then I looked
at the clock. It was 7:30. I could see light filtering into the room
from outside. I never felt like I fell
asleep, but I couldn’t account for how much time had passed. I must have drifted into a light stage of
sleep.
I got up, but before
getting dressed, I took a quick bath and did some stretches. The time I took to do that proved to be a
good investment. I also took the time to
have a quick breakfast at the hotel before driving back to the race venue.
I started the day in the
same clothes that I was wearing the night before, but I changed into a new pair
of shoes and socks.
It was only now that I
realized that trying to take a nap in my tent would never have been
practical. Before climbing into a
sleeping bag, I would need to take off my dirty shoes. Before the race, I didn’t have any
appreciation for how long that would take.
I parked my car in the
same spot where I was parked the day before.
I re-entered the course in the same spot where I had left the
course. Then I walked the remainder of
the lap that I had started seven hours earlier.
When I crossed the chip mat, I looked at the screen and saw that the
timing system had recorded my 47th lap.
As I started my next lap,
I was still walking, but after crossing the bridge, I ran down the ramp.
After running down the
ramp, I decided to see if I could keep running.
To my surprise, I could. It
wasn’t as tiring now. In fact, I was able
to run all the paved sections for the rest of the lap. Between the rest, the hot bath, and the
stretching, I had rejuvenated my legs.
I was overdressed now, so
I stopped at my tent to shed my jacket and the Gore-Tex mittens. I also swapped my warm hat for a regular
running hat.
It was warming up
quickly. On my next lap, I took off my
gloves, and I removed the polypro shirt that was under my T-shirt.
One lap later, I changed
into shorts. That involved taking off my
shoes, but they weren’t too dirty yet. I
was able to continue in the same pair of shoes.
I wasn’t running all that
fast, but running half of each lap allowed me to make respectable time. My lap times weren’t as fast as the first
day, but they were only a couple minutes slower.
I started the morning
with only about 64 miles. I needed 36
more miles just to get to 100. At the
pace I was going, I could plausibly get there before nightfall. I was now focused on that goal.
Before the race, getting
to 100 miles wasn’t even on my list of goals.
I took it for granted. I was
hoping to get there in the first 24 hours.
Now, I had to work for it.
At the aid station, they
now had breakfast burritos. I had
something similar for breakfast at the hotel, but now that I had completed a
few laps, I was ready to start eating at the aid station. A bacon and egg burrito doesn’t digest as
quickly as a PBJ, but its something you can easily carry with you and eat while
you’re walking.
As the day progressed, I
was able to keep up the same run/walk pattern.
I remained focused on getting to 100 miles before nightfall. In the afternoon, however, I started to notice
the heat. It was a few degrees warmer
than the day before, and I noticed the sun more.
They food tent featured
different foods at different times. The
next treat that appealed to me was a hot dog, but I couldn’t eat a hot dog
without having a beverage to go with it.
Instead of taking it with me and eating on the run, I had to eat it
before leaving the aid station.
There was a particularly
long section of pavement at the end of each lap. As it got warmer, it was too tiring to run
the whole thing, so I started adding a walking break in the middle of that
section.
My lap times were a minute
or two slower now. As I did the math, I
realized I wouldn’t get to 100 miles until about 20 minutes after it got
dark. That wasn’t a big deal. I remained focused on that goal. I knew exactly how many laps I still needed,
and I counted them down.
I was drinking much more
than I was the previous afternoon. The
first day, I rarely drank more than half a cup of Gatorade. Now, I was sometimes drinking a full cup of
Gatorade and also drinking some water.
As I was on my 63rd lap,
I was particularly thirsty. I wondered
if they were going to have smoothies at the aid station again. As I finished that lap, I saw two race
volunteers holding out trays with paper cups on them. Smoothies!
I had two of them.
The last special treat I
had at the aid station was a plate of pierogies.
The volunteer in the food tent warned me that they were still hot. I had to stay in the food tent while I ate
them, so I could follow each bite with a sip of water.
At about 4:30 PM, it
started to cool down. I needed four more
laps to get to 100 miles. Before I got
there, I saw my second sunset of the race.
With one lap to go to
reach 100 miles, my legs started to feel sore as I started running. I’m surprised it took that long. I had held up well all morning and afternoon,
but now it was getting difficult again.
That would be my last running of the evening.
It was cooling off
rapidly. I didn’t want my legs to get
too cold, so I stopped at the tent to pull on a pair of Gore-Tex wind
pants. I could put those on without
having to take off my shoes. I also added
gloves and a jacket.
Before the race, I wanted
to know if I could get through two nights without sleep. Since I had already gone back to the hotel
during the first night, there wasn’t much point in trying to plow through the
second night. I knew I didn’t have
adequate clothes to make it through the night.
Going back to the hotel was inevitable.
It was just a matter of when.
At first, I was going to
start walking laps after I reached 100 miles.
I wasn’t going to go back to the hotel until I got too cold. Continuing into the night, however, carried
some risk. Now that it was dark, there
was a real danger that I could start getting sleepy at any time. I wanted to drive back to the hotel while I
could still do so safely.
After reaching 100 miles,
I started one more lap, but I wasn’t going to finish it until the next
morning. I stopped at my tent to get my
last clean pair of shoes. I also put on
my warm hat, so I would have it when I returned in the morning.
I walked most of that
lap, but I went to my car before finishing the lap. Then I drove back to the hotel.
I saw another runner in
the hotel lobby. She was cheerful, and
she had obviously changed into clean clothes.
I asked her which race she did and when she finished.
She had done the 100 mile
race, and she finished the day before.
That explained how she could be cheerful. By comparison, I was a train wreck, although
I was happy to have reached 100 miles.
We started talking about
the race. We had some similar
experiences. In particular, she had also
come back from the race during the night and started shivering after getting
into bed. We talked until I started
getting sleepy. Then I went up to my
room and climbed into bed.
I was sleepy, but I had a
hard time getting to sleep. At first, I
was hot. My metabolism was probably
still revved up from the race. I had to
push the blankets away. Also, my foot
hurt. During the race, I felt it, but I
could tune it out. Now the pain kept me
awake.
I was still awake at
midnight, but I slept well for the rest of the night. I wanted to get back to the race by dawn, so
I set my alarm for 5:30. The alarm woke
me up.
I wanted to be back on
the course before 7:00, but I had time to take a quick bath and do some
stretches. My left Achilles tendon was
tight, but stretching helped. I had
noticed it was getting tight the day before.
I was only going to be running until 9 AM, so I wasn’t too worried about
it at this point.
I changed into my last
clean pair of shoes and headed back to the race. I got there around 6:30 and finished the lap
I had started the night before.
I was once again able to
run the paved sections and walk the dirt sections. My pace was about the same as the day before.
My first full lap after
getting back on the course was in the dark.
Then I saw the sun rise.
I had time to run at
least four more laps. As long as I did
enough running, I could probably do five.
With only a couple hours to go, I didn’t need to stop at the food tent
to eat. I barely even needed to
drink. The only stop I made was to shed
some clothes as it warmed up.
After running four more laps, I still had plenty of time for a fifth. I
could’ve walked that whole lap, but I still ran half of it. I finished my final lap after 47 hours, 49
minutes, and 10 seconds. That lap brought me to 109.9 miles.
I wanted to take a
picture of the screen showing my final lap, but it never came up. My final lap wasn’t recorded by the timing system. I immediately went over to the timing tent to
let them know, and they recorded that lap manually. The time recorded for that lap was a few
minutes later than I actually finished it, but that doesn’t really matter. What matters is your official distance. Everyone’s official time is 48 hours.
Every runner gets a
mug. I have four of these now.
If you finish a multiple
of 100 miles, you also get a belt buckle.
This is my third 100-mile buckle from this race.
On my way back to the
car, I stopped at the food tent to get a breakfast burrito.
After stopping at the car
to drop off my mug and belt buckle, I walked to the tent area. I needed to pack up all my gear and bring everything
back to the car.
They had an awards
banquet at 11:00. I had everything back
in my car by 9:20, so I had time to go back to the hotel, unpack, wash up, and
change into clean clothes before going to the awards banquet.
The awards ceremony was
held in the stadium, where there was seating.
They had food and beverages, but we were all there to hear about the
runners who had epic results.
They started with the top
finishers in the various shorter races.
Most of those runners had already gone home, so they weren’t there to
receive their awards in person. The last awards were for the top three men and women in the 6-day race. Those runners were all present, and the
mileage they each ran (or walked) was impressive.
In four tries at ATY,
I’ve yet to have a good race. There are
a lot of things I like about this race, but there are also two things I
hate. I’m not a fan of the dirt sections
of the course, and I have trouble with the nighttime temperatures. Will I be back? Probably.
Would I do a few things differently?
Definitely.
One good thing that came
out of this race is that I had my first experience with sleeping during a race
and then coming back to do more running in the morning. If I ever do a longer multi-dace race, I’ll
have a better idea of what to expect.
My biggest concern coming
out of this race is the pain in my left foot.
Is it a bruise? Is it
tendonitis? Is it a stress fracture? Is it plantar fasciitis?
That last possibility is
something that didn’t occur to me until the day after the race. For the first time, I had discomfort in my
foot just from putting weight on it.
When I’ve had plantar fasciitis in the past, the onset of pain was much
more severe. This has come on much more
gradually. Whatever it is, I needed to
figure it out, so it doesn’t become a long-term concern.
Race statistics:
Distance: 109.9 miles
Official Time: 48 hours
Actual Time Before Stopping: 47:49:10
Average Pace: 26:06 per mile
Lifetime Marathons/Ultras: 536
Lifetime 100s: 16
Lifetime ATY Miles: 382.85
