Today was day two of Across the Years. For me, it was the second of six daily marathons. I had hoped to go easy enough on day one that I could wake up feeling OK today. My time yesterday was about an hour slower than it would be for an all-out-effort, yet it still left me feeling sore and stiff.
The scary part is that
yesterday was the easy day. It was the
only race that I was starting with fresh legs.
For the rest of the week, every day will involve dragging myself through
19 laps on tired legs, refueling, getting as much sleep as I can, and then getting
ready to do it again.
For the second straight
day, I got up four hours before the race started. I needed that time. When I rolled out of bed and walked to the
bathroom, the best I could manage was a slow shuffle. My legs were stiff, and both Achilles tendons
were tight.
After a long soak in the
tub, I did my morning stretches and worked on my calves with a massage
stick. That helped. By the time I went down to breakfast, I was
walking normally, although my Achilles tendons were still a little tight. The more I walked, the easier it got. I didn’t know how running would feel until I
started.
I was surprised when I
checked my weather app. I was expecting
the weather to be about the same for the first four days. At 7:00 AM, it was 10 degrees warmer than
yesterday. The forecast high was also 10
degrees warmer. There isn’t much shade
on the course, so staying hydrated as it warmed up was a bigger challenge
today.
When I arrived at the
race venue, I noticed another difference in the weather. It was windy today. Before the race, the wind made it feel cold,
but I knew the wind would be helpful as the temperature climbed.
Every day, there’s a
group start at 9:00 AM. That includes
people doing the marathon and people starting one of the fixed time races. Yesterday, it seemed like a majority of the
runners were starting the 6-day race. All
of those runners were already on the course, so today’s group start wasn’t as congested.
Yesterday, I was running
the whole time until my last lap. Today,
I needed to incorporate some walking breaks.
The course is mostly
flat, but we go up two ramps as we run through the stadium. Yesterday, I always ran on the ramps. Today, I usually walked them. I would have walked them both on every lap,
but the first ramp is at the beginning of the loop. We were starting out into the wind, so I
needed to run to stay warm.
I didn’t know how running
would feel, but when it was time to run, I ran.
I felt mostly OK. My Achilles
tendons both felt tight, but running was manageable.
When I got to the second
ramp, which is shorter, I walked it. Starting
with lap two, I walked both of the ramps and ran everywhere else.
My pace in the early laps
was similar to my average pace yesterday, but I was expecting to do more
walking as the race progressed.
Yesterday, I didn’t eat
any solid food until my last lap. I
drank the same beverage for the whole race.
It’s a sports drink called Gnarly Fuel2O. I don’t think I’ve ever had that before, so I
was breaking a cardinal rule of races.
Don’t try anything new on race day.
I don’t know what caused
my digestive difficulties yesterday, but I made three changes today. First, I didn’t drink any fruit juices with
breakfast. Second, I ate some solid food
every five laps, so I would have more than just liquid in my digestive
system. Finally, I drank several different
beverages.
I started with Gnarly
Fuel2O, but when my cup was empty, I filled it with ginger ale. Later, I switched to Coke, them Gnarly
Hydrate, then water.
In lap five, it was time
for some solid food. I ate a PBJ. I didn’t want to stop at the food tent long
enough to eat it, so I took it with me and walked until I finished eating
it. I wanted to follow it with some beverage,
but I needed to wait until the next time I came around to the food tent.
That mile was slow, because
of the extra walking. After that, I got
back to the same pace. I kept up a
consistent pace until lap 10. Then it
was time for more food.
They have different hot foods
at different times. Now, they had egg
sandwiches. That’s not something I could
eat without washing it down, so I had to stop at the food tent long enough to
finish eating it.
Later in that lap, I
reached the halfway point. I was roughly
on pace for a five-hour finish. My
halfway split was much slower than yesterday, but I held up better in the
second half today. It helped that I wasn’t
having any digestive issues.
In the second half of the
race, the temperature climbed into the 70s, but the wind really helped.
There was another
pleasant surprise in the second half. My
Achilles tendons no longer felt tight.
They gradually loosened up.
Yesterday, the last seven
or eight laps were an ordeal. Today,
those laps felt more manageable. They
were slow, but I felt much more confident that I could keep up my pace.
The length of the loop
doesn’t divide evenly into a marathon distance.
To finish a “marathon,” I needed to run 19 laps, which is actually 26.8
miles. Yesterday, my watch read 27 miles
before I finished. I expected it would
today too. In the late laps, I had to
constantly remind myself how far I needed to run to finish. For example, when my watch read 20 miles, I
wanted to think that I had 6.2 miles to go.
In fact, it was probably at least seven miles.
Whenever I finished a
lap, I looked to see my name come up on the large screen next to the timing
tent. Yesterday, I never noticed the two
columns on the far right, which showed what place I was in. With five laps to go in today’s race, I saw
that I was in third place overall and second among men.
I had intended to start
taking extra walking breaks, but I never did.
Now that I knew I was on pace to win an award, I was determined to keep
up the same pace for the rest of the race.
In lap 15, I had solid
food for the last time. I ate a bean
roll-up. Those were small enough that I
could eat one quickly and get on my way.
In the last four laps, I
was counting down every half lap. Each
time I told myself how many laps I had left, I immediately remembered how I
felt at the same point yesterday. Today,
I was always more confident that I could keep up my pace.
As I was about to start
my last lap, I spotted a woman from Australia who I had been talking with early
in the race. She was also doing the
marathon. When I saw her name come up on
the display, I noticed that she was currently the second-place female.
Instead of walking up the
ramp at the beginning of the lap, I kept running. I wanted to catch up to her, so I could tell
her she was on pace to win an award.
When I got to the second ramp, I ran that too. It was the only lap that I ran the whole way.
I wanted to run my last
lap without stopping, but with half a mile to go, I felt the urgent need to
pee. I didn’t think I could hold it for
the rest of the lap, so I stopped at the last set of port-o-potties. It was a brief stop, but then it was tough to
force myself to run again.
At this point, I just
needed to run through the parking lot and partway through the stadium. I forced myself to run, but I was sluggish at
first.
I finished today’s race
in 5:04:33. That’s slower than
yesterday, but my pacing was much more consistent. My second half was actually faster than
yesterday.
For the second straight
day, I went back to the hotel with a second-place trophy.
Today’s race went better than expected. I’m now much more confident that I can keep
doing this for four more days.
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