Over Labor Day weekend, I
ran a race in Manchester, TN called A Race for the Ages. This is a fixed-time race, but there’s a
twist. Older runners get more time. Everyone has at least 40 hours, but runners
who are older than 40 get one hour for every year of their age.
The race director is Gary
Cantrell (a.k.a. Lazarus Lake). “Laz” is
best known as the race director of the Barkley Marathons and Big’s Backyard
Ultra. He comes up with some innovative
race concepts. He also designs races
that give you a chance to find your limits.
The race finishes at noon
on Labor Day. Your start time depends on
your age, with older runners starting earlier.
I first heard of this race several years ago. When I looked into the details, I saw that my
start time would be in the middle of the night.
I decided to wait until I was old enough that I could start in daylight. This year, for the first time, I could start
before sunset.
John Greene travelled to
Tennessee with me to crew for me. John
and I have crewed for each other at FANS, and John has also crewed for me at
other ultras. My best performances in
ultras gave been at races where John was with me.
Thursday, September 3
John and I flew to
Nashville Thursday afternoon. From
there, we drove to Manchester. The drive
time was about an hour. We arrived in
Manchester around 5:00 PM.
We had reservations at
Hampton Inn. When we got there, there
were several people already there who were waiting to check in. Some had already been waiting for more than
an hour. The wifi went out earlier in
the afternoon, and the hotel couldn’t process any credit cards without a wifi
connection. The guy at the front desk
said he couldn’t check anyone in without running their credit card. That was corporate policy.
John and I waited there
until 8:00 before finally going to dinner.
When we got back from dinner, the wifi was still out. We cancelled our reservations there and drove
to another hotel that had been recommended by a friend who was also doing the
race.
This hotel also had no internet. It was a city-wide outage, and every hotel in
Manchester was affected, since they all use the same internet provider. The owner of this hotel, however, was willing
to check us into our rooms and wait until the next day to process our credit
cards.
John and I were going to
have different sleep schedules, so we each had our own room. By the time we got into our rooms, it was
after 9:30. The temperature in my room
was 80 degrees. I can’t sleep in a warm
room. I turned down the AC and went to
the lobby to hang out with other runners until the room cooled down.
I finally went to bed
around 10:30. The room was a little
cooler, but it was still too warm for me to get to sleep. I tried to sleep for several hours, but
didn’t fall asleep until about 4 AM. I
got about an hour of light sleep. I
don’t think I got any deep sleep.
Friday, September
By Friday morning, the
hotel had their wifi working. John and
I finished the check-in process and had breakfast at the hotel.
We stopped by Hampton Inn
to confirm that our reservations there were cancelled and there wouldn’t be any
charges. Then we stopped by the race
venue to see how things were set up.
While we were there, I spotted a couple runners I know. Next, we stopped at Food Lion to get
beverages for the race.
We had lunch at a local
diner. Then I went back to the hotel to
try to take a nap. My hotel room was now
at a comfortable temperature, but I wasn’t able to fall asleep. After resting in bed for a few hours, I got
up and started getting organized for the race.
We had an early dinner,
so I wouldn’t be starting the race on a full stomach. About an hour before I was due to start, we
went to the race venue, so I could check in.
That gave us an opportunity to watch the 66-year-old runners start. The announcer listed all of their names and
their previous mileage at this race. The
most accomplished runner in the group was Ann Trason.
After they started, I was
able to pick up my race packet. It
included a sweatshirt, a warm hat, an umbrella, and a participation award.
After that, we had an
hour to wait before I could start.
During that hour, I drank an entire bottle of sweet tea.
The course was a paved
one-mile loop through Fred Deadman Park.
The whole course was paved. It
was relatively flat, but there were several turns.
I’m 65 years old, so I
had 65 hours to run or walk as many laps as I could. I could take breaks at any time, but the
clock was always running.
Well over half of the
other runners were older than me, so they were already on the course when I
started. The oldest runner had already
been on the course for 24 hours. The
youngest runners wouldn’t start until 8 PM on Saturday.
I’ve never done anything
this long before, so I didn’t know what I could realistically expect to
do. The farthest I had ever run before
was 124.81 miles. That was in a 24-hour race. I’ve attempted three 48-hour races, but none
of them went well. I always got to 100
miles, but I never exceeded my best 24-hour total.
The weather was about as
hot as you can imagine. Afternoon highs
were in the upper 90s, with enough humidity to feel 10 degrees hotter. In the early morning hours, it dropped into
the low 70s.
Friday was the hottest
day, but my start time wasn’t until 7 PM.
That was late enough in the day that the heat was beginning to
wane. Also, the sun was about to
set. The first night was my best chance
to get some miles in before the heat forced me to mostly walk.
My first goal for this
race was 125 miles. Beyond that, I had
to see how the race progressed. I knew
the heat would be a challenge. Getting
so little sleep the night before also didn’t help.
The first lap was the
only one that I ran without any walking breaks.
I went at a pace that should have been leisurely, but it quickly started
to feel tiring. I noticed the humidity
while I was waiting for my turn to start, but I felt it even more now. It made that first lap feel much longer than
a mile.
One part of the loop had
speed bumps. They weren’t a big deal
now, but I wondered if those would seem larger as the race progressed.
After that, every lap
included some walking. Early in the
race, I was doing much more running than walking, but I walked enough to ensure
my overall pace wouldn’t be tiring. I
established a rule that every lap had to include some walking.
I was able to complete
three laps before it got dark. After
that, I relied on light from the various lights in the park. That included stadium lights from the
baseball diamonds. There was no need for
a flashlight or headlamp.
I quickly got into a nice
rhythm. I felt much better now than I
did in my first lap.
I had a cooler with
several bottles of Gatorade, packed in ice.
There was an aid station with large dispensers of water, Sword, sweet
tea, and lemonade. I started out
drinking Gatorade, but as I finished the bottles I brought, John was refilling
them with Sword or sweet tea. I needed
the caffeine from the tea to stay alert during the night.
After a few hours, John
went back to the hotel to get some sleep.
I didn’t need as much support the first night, and it was important for
John to get sleep so he would be coherent when I was too tired to think
straight.
By midnight, I had logged
23 miles. Then I stopped to eat my first
meal.
The aid stations at most
ultras have a variety of snack foods.
This race is different. Every six
hours, we had a meal, catered by Cracker Barrel. At 6 AM, noon, and 6 PM, we got full meals. At midnight, we had a snack that included
fruit and a choice of soup. The choices
of soup were chicken noodle or potato. I
opted for the potato soup.
Saturday, September 5
Despite not getting much
sleep before the race, I had no trouble getting through the first night. I was sometimes drinking sweet tea instead of
Gatorade or Sword, and the caffeine helped me stay awake and alert.
At 6 AM, I had my first
Cracker Barrel breakfast. It includes
bacon, a hash brown casserole, a biscuit with gravy on the side, and baked
apples.
I sat down in a chair
that I had brought from home, and I ate everything except the gravy. I ate as quickly as I could, washing it down
with Gatorade. I’ve never eaten a full
meal during a race before, but I wanted to experience this race exactly the way
Laz organized it. I wasn’t eating any
solid food between meals, so I needed to get all the food I could whenever it
was available. It took me about 10
minutes to finish eating. That was
pretty consistent with all of the meals.
After eating, it was
tough to force myself to run. As I ran
my next lap, I saw the sun rising. I
knew the humidity was also rising. That was
confirmed when I saw a layer of fog over all the baseball diamonds.
I got back into the same
rhythm and ran three more laps by 7:00.
In the first 12 hours of the race, I ran 48 miles. I was averaging four laps per hour.
Now that the sun was up,
I needed to stop to apply sunblock. I
also reapplied Aquaphor in areas where I might chafe.
I needed to do more
walking now. I was walking the longest
uphill section, but there were other areas that were also slightly uphill. I started walking those sections as well. I was now doing twice as much walking as
before, but I was still doing more running than walking.
When John got back, he
added more ice to our cooler, so I could start putting ice in my hat. I did that a couple times, but there were
also a couple laps where I forgot to do that.
I really noticed the difference in those laps.
I was originally planning
to run through the first night and the subsequent day before taking a sleep
break. John persuaded me to try sleeping
during the day instead. That way, I
could avoid running during the hottest hours of the day and get back in time to
run through the night, when it’s not as hot.
At first, it was cloudy,
so the temperature wasn’t rising as fast as it did Friday morning. Around 9:00, the sun came out. Suddenly it felt much hotter.
I wanted to get to 60
miles before taking a break, but I was worried.
I couldn’t tell if I was properly hydrated. I also couldn’t tell if I was getting the
right amount of electrolytes. Rather
than risk blowing up in the heat, I went back to the hotel after only 58
miles. It was a little after 10:00 when
John dropped me off.
When we got back to the
hotel, I didn’t take the time to shower.
I wiped down briefly with a wash cloth, but I was still somewhat
sweaty. That made it difficult to climb
into bed. My skin was sticking to the
sheets.
At first, I didn’t know
if I would be able to fall asleep. I was
in an awkward position, but it was hard to move. I was tangled up in the sheets.
The next thing I knew, I
was walking up. I looked at the
clock. I slept for less than three
hours, but it was my first deep sleep since arriving in Manchester.
I tried to walk to the
bathroom, but my left Achilles tendon was so tight that I was walking with a
limp. I was up now, but getting myself
ready to run again would be a long process.
I started with a warm bath. Then I
was able to do some stretches. Finally,
I got dressed in a clean set of running clothes and a dry pair of shoes.
Besides having timing
chips on our race bibs, we also had chips on our shoes. When I left the course, I had to turn in my
shoe chip. The first order of business
when we got back was to get my shoe chip and attach it to my new shoes.
We got back to the course
around 3:00. I had missed the noon meal,
so I asked if they still had any. They
did, and they were still hot. It’s easy
to keep meals hot when it’s 94 degrees with sunny skies.
The noon meal consisted
of a chicken breast, corn, fried okra, cornbread, and a biscuit. I ate the chicken, okra, and cornbread. I gave the biscuit and corn to John.
Earlier, I established
the rule that every lap had to include some walking. Now, I had a second rule. Every lap also had to include some
running. That was hardest in the first
lap after returning. There was a
downhill section at the beginning of each lap.
If nothing else, I forced myself to run that.
On my first lap, I
noticed two things. First, the
port-o-potties on the course felt like ovens.
Second, there was heat rising from the pavement, which had been heating
up under the afternoon sun.
To cope with the heat, I
was putting ice cubes in my hat before every lap, and I was going at a slower pace
than I did earlier.
My only goal for my
afternoon laps was to finish them in 20 minutes or less. After a couple of laps, I found that I was
walking so briskly that I was finishing laps in 16 or 17 minutes. I was power walking. I kept up that pace for several hours.
By the time they served
the 6 PM meal, I had already completed 11 additional laps. Then I sat down to eat again.
The evening meal
consisted of a huge piece of fried chicken, cheesy hashbrowns, cornbread, a
biscuit, and coleslaw. I couldn’t eat it
all. I managed to eat a little more than
half of it, then I resumed the same mix of running and power walking.
It was John’s birthday,
so he had gone to have a nice dinner. He
got back just before 7:00.
At 7 PM, it had been 24
hours since my race started. So far, I
had finished 71 miles.
After a couple more
hours, I decided to stop power walking and just walk at a more casual
pace. I haven’t trained to do this much
power walking, and I was worried I would wear myself out. Even with less effort, I was still finishing
my laps in about 18 minutes.
John went back to the
hotel around 10:30, so he could get some sleep.
Shortly after that, I started to hear thunder.
There wasn’t any sign of
rain at the park, but I sometimes saw flashes in the distance. I was seeing distant lighting in two
different directions. We seemed to be in
between two storm cells.
By midnight, I had logged
88 total miles. Then I had my midnight snack. It was the same snack we had the previous
night. I had the potato soup again.
Sunday, September 6
I was just about to start
running again when another runner said she was going to do one more lap before
the storm hit. I asked her what she was
seeing on her weather app. She said the
storm would arrive at 12:30 and last about an hour.
I should have checked my
own app. Instead, I followed her lead
and tried to squeeze in one more lap.
I picked up the pace on
that lap, but I was still mostly walking.
When I felt drops, I started running.
I somehow found the energy to run the rest of that lap. I still had a quarter mile to go when it
turned into a downpour.
When I finished that lap,
I quickly loaded the chair and cooler into the car. By the time I got into the car myself, my
clothes and shoes were soaked.
I drove back to the hotel
to wait out the storm. While I was
there, I decided to try to take a nap.
Getting to sleep wasn’t
easy. For starters, it had only been
about 11 hours since I woke up from my afternoon nap, so I wasn’t getting
sleepy yet. Secondly, I suddenly noticed
painful spots on my feet. I had been
tuning them out before, but now the discomfort was impossible to ignore. Finally, I felt wired from all the caffeine I
had been consuming.
I wasn’t expecting to go
back to the hotel for at least 10 more hours.
All evening, I had been drinking either sweet tea or a blend of sweet
tea and lemonade. It wasn’t until now
that I realized I was drinking way too much caffeine.
I eventually nodded off,
but not for very long. When I woke up,
it was 3:00. Just like in the afternoon,
my Achilles tendon was so tight that I could barely walk. I had to take a bath and gradually work on
stretching everything before I could go back to the course. I finally got back around 4:40.
When I finished my next
lap, I drank the last few ounces of sweet tea from a bottle that was already
open. After that, I didn’t have any
caffeine for the rest of the morning.
I ran a few more laps
before breakfast. Breakfast was pancakes
with maple syrup, scrambled eggs, and sausage patties. It was so filling, that I felt full for the
rest of the morning.
John got there around
7:30. By then, I just needed two more
laps to get to 100 miles. I finished my
100th lap at 8:20 AM. At this point, I
was assured of a 100-mile buckle, but that was only an intermediate goal.
I was completing about
three laps per hour. In the next two
hours, I ran six more laps. By then it
was getting hot, so John and I went back to the hotel.
I managed to take a nap,
but I only slept for about an hour and a half.
When I woke up, it was about 12:30 PM.
Then I once again began the long process of bathing, stretching, and
working on muscles with the massage stick.
Before going back to the
course, I checked the live results.
Despite taking four sleep breaks, I was in fifth place overall.
We got back to the park
around 2:00 PM. The good news is that I
still had 22 hours to add to my total.
The bad news is that I had to endure the heat for five hours before the
sun went down.
I had missed the noon
meal, but they still had biscuits and cornbread. I ate a biscuit right away and saved the
cornbread for later.
As I resumed running, I
quickly got into a rhythm of running the downhill segment at the beginning of
each lap and walking everywhere else. To
cope with the heat, I put ice in my hat before each lap.
Most of the other runners
were coping with the heat by carrying umbrella to shield themselves from the
sun. That’s why we all got umbrellas in
our race packets.
Despite the afternoon
heat, I had the energy to power walk.
For the next three hours, I was averaging about 17 minutes per lap. I would’ve been happy with 20-minute laps.
By 4:00, I had moved into
fourth place. At 5:00, John left
temporarily to get some dinner.
The heat was waning, but I
no longer had the energy to walk at a brisk pace. I had to slow down.
After a few slower laps,
I realized that I hadn’t put any ice in my hat since John left. That’s why I had less energy, even though it
wasn’t as hot now. I was getting hotter
without the ice in my hat.
At 6:00, I had my last
dinner of the race. It was another huge
meal. It included chicken &
dumplings, macaroni & cheese, steamed carrots, a biscuit, and
cornbread. I ate most of it, but I had
to save the biscuit & cornbread for later.
When John got back, I
resumed putting ice in my hat. I was
able to pick up the pace again.
In the first 48 hours of
my race, I ran 123 miles. Two laps
later, I reached 125 miles. This was now
the farthest I had ever run. With each
additional lap, I would add to that.
My goal at the beginning
of the race was 125 miles, but I had known for some time that this was just
another intermediate milestone. I had
more than enough time to run 150 miles, and I wouldn’t settle for anything less.
After it got dark, I
traded my hat for a headband. I
continued at the same pace until 11:00.
After 11:00, I started to
do more running, so I could squeeze in another lap before the midnight
snack. In retrospect, that was a
mistake.
I sat for several minutes
while I ate my midnight snack and did a few things on my phone. Sitting after running a few faster laps was a
bad combination.
Monday, September 7
When I resumed running
after a meal, I typically feel stiff.
After other meals, I quickly loosened up. This time I didn’t. I also had extreme soreness in my quads and
glutes, which wouldn’t go away. Now, I
was not only running at a slower pace, but each lap was agonizing.
Before midnight, I had
run 139 miles. After grinding out three
painful laps, I was at 142. The next big
milestone was 150.
John and I discussed my
options. One option was to endure eight
more painful laps and then stop at 150 miles.
Eight more laps at my current slow pace would take About three
hours. I didn’t think I could endure the
pain that long. I also didn’t like the
idea of stopping at 150. I really wanted
to keep going until the race was over and run as many miles as I could.
I had some Tylenol and
ibuprofen back at my hotel room. My
second option was to send John back to get them.
A third option was to
take a break and go back to the room, to see if I could alleviate my soreness
by taking a bath, stretching, and working on my legs with a massage stick. That had worked well after sleep breaks.
I ran one more lap while
considering my options. I chose the last
one, but with a small modification.
After taking something for the soreness, I climbed into bed for an hour. That gave me a chance to rest and cool down
before starting my recovery regiment.
As soon as I climbed into
bed, I noticed soreness in my feet that I had tuned out while I was
running. I also noticed blisters on my
left foot. One was a large blister
around my heel.
Before getting dressed I
tried to drain my blisters. That was a
mistake. Heel blisters are notoriously
difficult to drain. All I managed to do
was inflame it. Now blister pain was
also going to be a bigger problem.
We got back to the race
venue at 4 AM. When we got back, I smeared
from Aquaphor over the blisters to reduce friction.
We had been gone for
about two and a half hours. That was time
well spent. When I resumed running, I
felt good as new. I had no soreness or
stiffness as I ran the downhill section of the course. When it was time to switch to walking, I
suddenly found myself race-walking.
Where did that come from? I had
to force myself to slow down, so I wouldn’t wear myself out.
In the next two hours, I
made short work of the seven additional laps I needed to get to 150 miles. Then I stopped to eat breakfast.
The breakfast included
bacon, two biscuits, an egg casserole, and baked apples. John helped me by eating one of the biscuits
and a strip of bacon.
The runner who had
previously been in third place stopped to take a break after running 150
miles. When I ran my 151st lap, I moved
temporarily into third place.
Since different runners
take breaks at different times, the standings change frequently.
Earlier, I had been in second place, but only because other runners took
breaks.
I kept up a good pace for
two more laps. Then it got difficult. With more than four hours to go, it was getting
warmer, and I was running out of energy.
150 miles had been a
significant milestone, but I wanted to keep going. I had time to get into the 160s if I could keep
moving until the end of the race.
The runner who had been
in third place previously was back on the course now. He could run faster than me, so it seemed
doubtful that I could hang onto third place.
I was nearing the end of
my 157th lap when I suddenly felt a painful blister under one of my toes. The larger blister on my heel was tolerable,
but this one was much more painful.
I finished that lap, but I
didn’t think I could continue. John knew
there were trophies to the top three men and women, so he was encouraging me to
keep running.
I took off my shoe and
sock to see if I could drain the blister. That’s when I saw a much larger blister on the
side of my heel, right where I had tried to drain my heel blister.
I drained both blisters
as much as I could. Then I covered the
larger blister with Aquaphor and put on my sock and shoe.
At John’s urging, I tried
to run another lap. I made it about 50
feet before stopping. It was much too
slow and much too painful. My lead over
fourth place was only about a lap and a half at this point. We still had still three hours to go. There was no way I could continue running at
a pace that would keep me in third place.
I walked away from the
course with three hours left on the clock.
I ran a total of 157 miles. That’s
more than 22 miles farther than my previous best.
Everyone who ran at least
100 miles got a belt buckle. I didn’t
take home a trophy, but I did take home a belt buckle.
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