Race Report: Running Ragged 20in20, Day 18

Yesterday, we ran at Mississippi River County Park for the last time.  We’ve also bid goodbye to three other race venues.  Today, we returned to Quarry Park & Nature Preserve, where we already ran eight races on four different courses.  We’ll be here for the rest of the series.

I’ve done well in this series, because I’ve managed my effort well.  Even though I’m running marathons every day, they feel more like training runs.  I always finish the race feeling like I still had some gas left in the tank.  That was even true on day 16, when I was racing with Tim.

Yesterday was different.  It wasn’t as fast as some of the other races, but it took more out of me.  Running on grass and wet leaves takes much more effort than running on pavement or firmly packed gravel.  Yesterday was the first day that I felt completely spent.

One way you can tell if you’re over-training (or over-racing) is by how a hard workout affects your sleep.  Ideally you should sleep better after a hard workout.  One of the symptoms of over-training is having more trouble sleeping after a hard workout.  For most of this series, I’ve been sleeping well, often getting eight or nine hours of sleep.  Last night I slept well for a few hours and then I was wide awake.  I eventually got back to sleep, but my restlessness during the night is a troubling sign.

I woke up this morning with some soreness near the top of my left hamstring.  That’s something new.  I think it’s from continuously running with uneven footing during yesterday’s race.  Thankfully, that was the last time we had to run on grass.  Today, we were back on gravel trails with solid footing.

The temperature at the start was similar to yesterday, so I wore tights again.  I knew it would warm up more during the race, but we were starting the race in intermittent light rain, and I didn’t want my legs to get cold.  When it comes to my legs, I’m more will to risk being too hot than too cold.  Because of the rain, I also started the race wearing gloves and a Tyvek jacket.

Today, we ran on the same course that we ran on last Thursday and Friday.  I was happy to hear that.  Aside from not having any roots or uneven footing, it’s also the flattest of the courses we’ve run in this park.

To count as an official race, you have to have at least ten finishers.  For most of this series we’ve had anywhere from 15 to 27 finishers.  Yesterday, several runners dropped down to the half marathon, with the result that the marathon only had 11 finishers.  Eight of them were the runners who have finished the marathons every day.  Another was Jim, who sometimes does the marathon and sometimes does the half marathon.  The other two were runners who went home today.

Before the race, I did some asking around to find out if we would have at least ten people running the marathon.  I knew I could count on the eight runners who are still vying to finish marathons every day.  I learned that Jim was also planning to do the marathon.  That made nine.  Then I learned that Angela was going to be here today, and she always does the marathon.  That makes ten.  There were other runners who were originally trying to do all 20 marathons, but have had at least one bad day where they dropped down to the half marathon.  I wasn’t sure about any of them.  Just before the race, I learned that Jun was doing the marathon today.  That made eleven, which gave us some insurance.

I didn’t know of any new arrivals today, so I didn’t expect to have any competition.  With that in mind, my only goal was to break five hours.  This course was 14 laps.  The last few times I did a 14-lap course, I paced myself for 20-minute laps.  I didn’t actually need to go that fast.  I tentatively planned to do 21-minute laps instead.

I start running with Greg.  When we got to a small hill, Greg walked, so I did too.  I usually do all my walking at the beginning of a lap, but I knew I’d be walking somewhere.  Just as we got to the top of the hill, another runner sped by us.  It was Chad, who joined us for one race last week.  He was apparently a last-minute arrival today.  I didn’t know he would be there.

I assumed Chad was doing the marathon.  The last time he was here, he ran the marathon in 4:32.  That was faster than I wanted to run, but I could run that fast if I had to.  I swore, but sped up and tried to catch up with Chad.

After reaching the turnaround, I asked him if he was doing the marathon.  He said he only does marathons.  I swore again and gave chase.

It seemed like we were going much faster than a 4:32 marathon.  The last time Chad ran with us, he arrived late, so his actual time on the course was several minutes faster than his official time.  These races don’t have chip timing.  It’s all “gun times.”  Still, I had run 4:18 on Sunday.  This felt much faster.

When we finished that lap, I looked at the clock.  If I remember right, our time for the first lap was 15:45.  I didn’t realize at the time how fast that was.  We were on pace for 3:40.

I overheard Chad asking Jesse to let him know what 240 divided by 14 was.  I interpreted that to mean he wanted to run a four-hour marathon.  There are 240 minutes in four hours, and we were running 14 laps.

At the beginning of the second lap, I caught up to Chad just long enough to ask him if he was pacing for a four-hour marathon.  He said he was for now.  That was too fast for me.  I let him go and backed off to a pace that seemed more reasonable.  As Chad pulled away from me, I yelled that 17 minutes per lap would be a 3:58 marathon.

By the end of my second lap, Chad already had a huge lead.  My time after two laps was 34 minutes.  Having already done the math, I realized I was now on pace for a 3:58 marathon, even after easing up in that lap.  I needed to slow down some more.

I started my third lap with two minutes of walking.  I tentatively decided to pace for 18-minute laps, as long as it felt like it might be sustainable.  That was sort of a compromise.  It was still much faster than I originally planned to run, but it wouldn’t make me blow up.  If Chad ran 17-minute laps, and I ran 18-minute laps, I wouldn’t fall behind too quickly.

Three times during this series, I fell behind another runner by as much as 15 minutes, but still caught them before the end of the race.  I didn’t think that was likely to happen today.  Chad is an experienced runner, and I assumed he would pace himself intelligently.  Still, I didn’t want to give up too easily.

By the end of my third lap, I was pretty sure the rain had stopped.  At the end of that lap, I took off my jacket and put it in my drop bag.  My time after three laps was 53 minutes.  If I stuck to 18-minute laps, I would only be able to walk for one minute.  I decided that wasn’t a sustainable pacing plan.  After that, I always walked for two minutes, even if it meant drifting into a slower pace and falling farther behind Chad.  I had to be realistic.  Chad was still going faster than 17 minutes per lap.  With each lap, his lead grew noticeably.

During my 5th lap, I noticed my legs were getting warm.  I couldn’t do anything about that, so to compensate, I took off my gloves.  At first, my hands were cold, but I knew that wouldn’t last long.

Because I didn’t sleep well last night, I was drinking Coke for the first half of the race.  A consequence of that is that I needed to make bathroom stops.  After my 5th lap, I made my first bathroom stop.  Despite that delay, I still walked for two minutes at the start of my next lap.

As I started my 7th lap, I saw Chad was about to finish his 7th.  He was now half done, and he was on pace for 3:45.  Shortly after I finished my walking break and resumed running, Chad lapped me.  At this point, I dropped any pretense of competing with him.  When I eventually finished that lap, I was on pace for 4:23.

As I began the second half of the race, I slowed down.  I was still only doing two minutes of walking per lap, but I allowed my running pace to become much more relaxed.

Before starting my 9th lap, I stopped to get my camera out of my drop bag.  During the next lap, I took pictures of all the runners who had completed marathons every day so far.

This is Trisha.  She did every marathon carrying an American flag for the whole race.

Here are Kevin and Liz.  In addition to completing every marathon, they’ve been helping set up the aid station every morning.

This is Clyde.  Each day, while Clyde runs the marathon, his wife Kelly takes care of the aid station.  We call Kelly the “water goddess.”

This is Greg.  I think he’s the only one of these runners besides me to have a sub five hour marathon during this series.

Here are Evelyn and Henry.  Sadly, Henry won’t be able to do all 20 marathons.  He has to leave on Thursday to get to another race, so he’ll only have time for the half marathon that day.

Finally, here's a picture of me that Sonny took during the race.

I also took a picture of Chad, who went on to win the race in 3:36:30.

That was probably my slowest lap of the race.  After that, I stopped paying attention to my lap times.  I looked at my watch only to time my walking breaks.  Eventually, I didn’t even do that.  I just walked to the same spot on every lap.

I didn’t eat any solid food during the first half of the race.  In the second half, I sometimes ate a cookie or candy bar.

One of the rules is that you have to wear a mask or other face covering when you’re at the aid station.  You can take it off while you’re running.  You don’t need to put it on if you’re just grabbing something as you go by the aid station, but you’re supposed to put it on if you stop at the aid station for any period of time.

After one of my laps, I wanted to get something to eat, but I was indecisive.  As I stood there for several seconds, Kelly reminded me to put on my mask.  I was embarrassed when I realized I didn’t have it with me.  On the lap when I was taking pictures, I temporarily took my mask out of my fanny pack to make room for my camera.  When I returned my camera to my drop bag, I forgot to retrieve the mask and put it back in my fanny pack.

I pulled my shirt up over my nose and mouth, quickly grabbed a baggie with some wafer cookies, and started my next lap.  When I finished that lap, I made a point of putting my mask back in my fanny pack, so I would have it with me.

Late in the race, I started getting hot.  It got warmer than I thought, and I started to regret wearing tights.  There was hardly any wind today, which didn’t help.  Usually, I cool off when I take walking breaks, but today they weren’t helping.  My tights were trapping too much heat from my legs.  Even when I walked, my legs didn’t cool down.  For the last few laps, I was just shuffling along, trying to get them done.

With two laps to go, I finally looked at the clock.  I wanted to make sure I was on pace to finish within five hours.  I was pretty sure I was well ahead of that pace, but I didn’t want any last-minute surprises.

In my last lap, the sun came out.  Now I was really hot.  I really slowed down in that lap, but at this point, it didn’t matter.  I still finished in 4:42:42.  I ran positive splits by 20 minutes.  Partly, that was because of my fast start, but getting so hot in the second half didn’t help.

My right knee never bothered me today.  My left Achilles tendon, which didn’t bother me yesterday, also didn’t bother me today.  Instead, it was my right Achilles tendon that was getting tight.  After the race, it was really tight.  Now I have one more body part to ice before and after each race.  Fortunately, my room has a full-size refrigerator, and I have the freezer well-stocked with gel ice packs.  This is me after the race.

So far, I’ve managed to keep any of these nagging injuries from getting out of control.  In particular, I’ve been pleasantly surprised with how well my knee is holding up.  With only two races to go, I think I’ve got this.

Race Statistics

Distance:  26.2 miles

Time:  4:42:42

Average Pace:  10:47

Lifetime Marathons/Ultras:  423

Minnesota Marathons/Ultras:  76

Series Statistics

Races Completed:  18

Under Five Hours:  18

Average Time:  4:39:42

Wins:  11