Race Report: Across the Years December 31 Marathon

Today was day four of Across the Years.  My motivation for doing marathons each day instead of one of the fixed-time ultras was to run a quadzilla in Arizona.  To do that, I needed to run marathons on four consecutive days.  Today was the day I was completing my quadzilla, so I wore a T-shirt from the Seattle Quadzilla.

I’ve been waking up before my alarm every day.  Today, I was up much earlier than usual, so I decided to do a strength training workout before breakfast.  I have a routine that I normally do three times a week, but I had not done these exercises since Saturday.  I’m always too wiped out after running a marathon.  I thought doing a workout in the morning might be a good way to start getting some blood flow into my muscles.  It seemed to work.  After my workout, my legs felt normal for the first time since Sunday.

This course has long sections that are dirt.  Even with gaiters, a certain amount of dust will gradually work its way into your shoes.  I’ve been wearing the same pair of shoes for the last three days, so today I switched to a clean pair.

The weather was similar to the last few days.  It was upper 50s at the start with a forecast high in the low 70s.  I was once again hoping for clouds in the afternoon.

I didn’t do any walking in my first lap, because I was feeling chilly.  I needed to run until I got warmed up.

Starting with my second lap, I did the same run/walk mix as yesterday.  I walked two short ramps going through the stadium, and I also walked a section of sidewalk that comes later in the loop.  Everywhere else I ran, but at a relaxed pace.

Yesterday, I noticed early in the race that I was in the lead.  Today, I did my best to avoid looking, so I wouldn’t get too caught up in competing.

I always start the race wearing gloves, but I usually take them off after a lap or two.  Today, I ran three laps before I was ready to take my gloves off.  It was cloudy, and there was a bit of a breeze.

One of the cool things about this race is seeing all of the accomplished ultrarunners who are doing the 6-day race.  Some of them I’ve met before, like John Geesler and Ed Ettinghousen.  This year, there was a new face.

On Sunday, I saw a woman moving around the course slowly using a walker.  I didn’t know who she was at first.  The next time I saw her, I got glimpse of the name on her race bib.  It was Ann Trason.

Ann is a living legend.  She was winning races and setting course records when I first started running ultras.  Among other things, she won the Western States Endurance Run 14 times!

Over the last few days, I’ve noticed that several other runners had their race bibs signed by Ann.  Today, I had my opportunity.  I happened to reach the aid station when Ann was there, and a saw a sharpie on the table.  When she was done talking to another runner, I asked Ann if she would sign my race bib.  She said she would sign mine if I signed hers.  She had obviously made the same deal with dozens of runners.  Her race bib was covered with autographs.  We each signed each other’s race bibs, and then I got on my way again.

Since Monday, I’ve been eating solid food during every fifth lap.  I started doing that so I would have more than just liquid in my digestive system.  I’ve found since that what food I eat is less important than the psychological benefit of segmenting the race and having something to look forward to.

During my fifth lap, I ate a breakfast burrito.  Rather than eat it while moving, I stayed at the aid station long enough to finish eating it.  Because I spent so much time at the aid station, I skipped my last walking break that lap.

My longest walking break was on a sidewalk that I call the “Avenue of Flags,” because it’s lined with state flags on both sides.

In my sixth lap, I was feeling the cool breeze more, and my hands started to get cold.  I considered skipping my walking break at the “Avenue of Flags.”  Instead, I ran about half of it and only walked the other half.

One lap later, my hand were still cold, so I had to put gloves on again.  I talked to another runner who had the same experience.

I reached the halfway mark in the middle of my 10th lap.  I was about one minute slower than yesterday.  When I finished that lap, I finally looked to see what place I was in.  I was 11th overall and 7th among men.  Yesterday, going at about the same pace, I was winning.  Obviously, today’s race had a more competitive field.

Toward the end of my next lap, I was passed by a runner who had already lapped me earlier.  I was talking to him before the race, so I knew he was also doing the marathon.  I sped up enough to stay with him for the rest of that lap, because I wanted to see what place he was in.

When we each crossed the line, I looked for his name to come up on the timing display.  I was shocked to see he was the 5th place male.  He was 2.8 miles ahead of me, yet he was two places off the podium.  At this point, it was pretty obvious that I wouldn’t come anywhere close to placing in this race.

Knowing that was kind of liberating.  Instead of pushing the pace, I could just take it easy for the rest of the race, knowing my time didn’t really matter.

After that, I cruised through my laps at a slower pace.  I wasn’t doing any more walking, but my running became more of a slow shuffle.

About this time, I started to feel drops.  It was only sprinkling, and it didn’t last long, but I never had to worry about getting hot today.  It stayed cloudy all afternoon.

Besides the fixed-time and fixed-distance races, there was also a last person standing race.  That race started today at noon.  The runners in that race needed to run a 1.41-mile lap every 20 minutes.  That had the potential to create some extra congestion near the start/finish line if I happened to come through when those runners were lining up to start their next lap.

As it turns out, that never happened.  At first, I was coming through a few minutes before they started their next lap, so I would see those runners resting in the heated tent next to the starting line.

My laps were never as slow as 20 minutes, so I gradually came through farther ahead of their start times.

Paradoxically, the slower I got, the more tiring my laps felt.  Maybe it’s because I had no sense of urgency.  My brain wasn’t in “race mode.”  Without that sense of urgency, I was probably more apt to notice the cumulative fatigue from running four marathons.  It’s also possible I was feeling the effect of waking up at 3 AM.

It wasn’t until my last two laps that I started to pick up the pace again.  I skipped my last two walking breaks, not because I cared about my time, but just because I wanted to get done.

I finished in 5:26:44.  I didn’t win an award, but I earned something else.  Anyone completing a multiple of 100 miles receives a belt buckle.  Most people do in a single race.  I did it by running four marathons.

I also completed my Arizona quadzilla.  Now I’ve run quadzillas in 10 different states.  To join the 50 States Marathon Club, you need to finish marathons in at least 10 states.  I’ve often joked that if I could run quadzillas in 10 states, I could be the founding member of the 50 States Quadzilla Club.

Tonight is New Year’s Eve.  For runners who are on the course tonight, there will be festivities at midnight.  I won’t be staying up.  I have another race tomorrow morning, so I need to get as much sleep as I can.

Race statistics:

Distance:  26.8 miles

Time:  5:26:44

Average Pace:  12:11 per mile

First Half:  2:38:08

Second Half:  2:48:36

Marathons/Ultras in 2025:  37

Lifetime Marathons/Ultras:  572

Lifetime ATY Miles:  490.05

Quadzilla States:  10

A Quadzilla Update

My primary motivation for running the Jackal Marathons was to get a quadzilla in another state.  I’ve been trying to run quadzillas in as many different states as I can.  It’s not actually possible to run one in every state.  There aren’t series of races in every state.  I’ll run the ones I can find.

The term “quadzilla” was coined by members of Marathon Maniacs.  Today, there are numerous series of races held over multiple days, but it wasn’t always like that.

When I joined the 50 States Marathon Club, I heard about other runners who would sometimes run a marathon in one state on a Saturday and then run one in another state on Sunday.  They called this a weekend double.

I ran my first double in 2005.  I was already signed up for a race in Connecticut called the Mystic Places Marathon.  Then I learned that there was a race in Newport, RI the day before.  Deb and I flew to Providence on Friday, spent one night in Newport, and then spent the rest of our vacation in Mystic.

Running a “double” was tough, but not nearly as tough as I expected it to be.  A year later, I did another double with races in Indiana and Kentucky.

The next step up was a triple.  I knew of only one place where you could to that.  It was the Tahoe Triple, which is in California and Nevada.  Over the course of three days, you run all the way around Lake Tahoe, with a little bit of overlap.

Before I ran my first triple, I joined Marathon Maniacs.  This club is all about running marathons frequently.  Some members, including the three founders, had done something they called a quadzilla.  In recent years, the Tahoe Triple has taken place over a Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.  Originally, it was Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, making it possible to run another marathon on Sunday.  A few guys combined the Tahoe Triple with the Bizz Johnson Marathon, and the quadzilla was born.

I had my sights set on trying the Tahoe Triple in 2011, but then I learned about another triple.  There was a race in Portland, OR that was always held on July 4, regardless of what day of the week it was.  It was a race sponsored by Foot Traffic called the Flat Marathon.  In 2011, July 4 was a Monday.  Steve Walters, who lives in the Portland area created two smaller races on Saturday and Sunday.  These races could be combined with the Foot Traffic Flat Marathon for a triple over the long weekend.  Steve called it the Firecracker Triple, and he ordered T-shirts.

I ran the Firecracker Triple in July and then ran the Tahoe Triple in September.  The next step up was a quadzilla.

With the Tahoe Triple shifting to Friday through Sunday, it was no longer possible to do the original quadzilla, but now there was one in Seattle.  The Seattle Quadzilla consisted of four marathons over the Thanksgiving long weekend.

At the time, the Seattle Quadzilla was the only place in the United States where you could run marathons on four consecutive days.  Today, there are numerous multi-day series of marathons, but none of those existed yet.  The quadzilla was still the pinnacle.  For a Marathon Maniac, it was the most badass thing you could do.

Flash forward to 2013.  July 4 was a Thursday.  Steve Walter held races on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.  If you did those three plus the Flat Marathon, it was called the Firecracker Quadzilla.  I ran the Firecracker Quadzilla in July, and then I ran the Seattle Quadzilla in November.

On the second day of the Seattle Quadzilla, I was wearing my T-shirt from the Firecracker Quadzilla.  Another runner saw my shirt and said, “Look.  That guy’s a quadzilla expert."  Steve was standing next to me at the time, and it started a brief conversation.  We wondered how many states there were where you could run a quadzilla.  We didn’t consider the new series Mainly Marathons had where you could run marathons in several different states on consecutive days.

Besides the Firecracker Quadzilla in Oregon and the Seattle Quadzilla in Washington, we could think of only three others.  There was the Texas Quad, which was also held over Thanksgiving weekend, the Day of the Dead Series in New Mexico, and the Savage Seven in Florida.

It was this conversation that planted the idea in my mind.  I wanted to run a quadzilla in as many different states as I could.  I don’t know why I focused solely on series that were all in one state.  Maybe it’s because I was a member of the 50 States Marathon Club, and I saw running quadzillas in each state as a similar goal, even though I knew it was impossible.

I didn’t add my third state until 2015.  By then, the Day of the Dead Series had grown to a seven-day series.  I didn’t do the whole series.  I just ran the first four days.  That was enough to complete a quadzilla in New Mexico.

Mainly Marathons had been adding more and more multi-day series, but they all spanned multiple states.  I lobbied Clint Burleson to add a series in Hawaii.  Eventually he did.  It was called the Aloha Series.  It was a four-day series with every race on the island of Kauai.  I ran that series in 2017.

Clint also added an Alaska Series, giving him marathons in all 50 states.  Then he sold Mainly Marathons to two brothers from Minnesota.  They added a series of four trail marathons in Minnesota and called it the Minnesota Brothers Trail Series.  I ran the Minnesota Brothers Trail Series in 2019.

In 2019, I also did four days of the Savage Seven.  The Savage Seven was a seven-day series in Florida.  The series started the day after Christmas and ended on New Years Day.  I didn’t want to travel on Christmas Day, so I flew to Florida on the 26th and only ran days two through five of the series.  That was enough to get a quadzilla in Florida. I was able to fly home in time for New Years.

I had plans to run the Alaska Series in 2020, but I cancelled those plans because of the COVID-19 pandemic.  I had lots of race plans that got cancelled that year, but I found something epic to replace them.

The Rueckert brothers had rebranded their Minnesota series.  Now it was called Summer Camp, and they expanded it to six days.  They already had two other series that included races in Minnesota.  Their Heartland Series had races in seven different states, with the last one in Minnesota.  Their Prairie Series also had races in seven different states, with the first one in Minnesota.  Their grand plan for 2020 was to hold these three series back-to-back.  If you did all three, you could run marathons on 20 consecutive days.  There was just one problem.  The pandemic made it nearly impossible to get permits to hold races at venues in 13 different states.

Most of their series had to be cancelled that year, but they rearranged this one.  After learning what they had to do to get permits for races in Minnesota, they merged these three series and pulled all the races into Minnesota.  They called it Running Ragged 20 in 20.

I ran the Running Ragged 20 in 20 series, even though I already had done a series in Minnesota.  It was something epic to replace all the races that got cancelled that year.  Two months later, I did the Texas Quad.

In 2021, I finally did the Alaska Series, which was a four-day series.  I didn’t add any more new states until this week, when I did the Jackal Marathons to add Tennessee.  Now I’ve run a quadzilla (or more) in nine different states.

I’m planning to do Arizona next.  Aravaipa Running has multiple events going on at the same time during Across the Years.  Most of them are fixed-time ultras, ranging anywhere from six hours to six days.  During their six-day race, they also have marathons each day.  I’m planning to do all six, even though I would only need four to get an Arizona quadzilla.

If you’re reading this, please consider joining me in Arizona to run as many as six marathons from December 28 through January 2.  If you can’t make it for the whole series, consider doing the races on January 1st and 2nd.  I’ve looked at past results, and they get plenty of runners for the first four days, but not as many on the first two days of January.  I think too many people need to get home to return to work.  I’m hoping to recruit enough other runners to make sure there are at least 15 of us every day.

Running quadzillas in different states is sort of a silly goal.  I’m off in the weeds on my own for this one.  It’s silly for three reasons.  First, I know I can’t run them in every state.  I’m already running out of states that have quadzilla opportunities.  Second, running a quadzilla was once the be-all and end-all of running on consecutive days, but that’s no longer the case.  Finally, it ignores the many multi-day series that include marathons in more than one state.  Mainly Marathons has numerous multi-day series.  There’s also the Four Corners Quad Keyah and the New England Challenge.

I’m running out of serious goals, so I guess I’m down to the silly ones now.  In other news, the Jackal Trail Marathon was my second marathon starting with the letter J.  If I do one more race starting with Q, I could complete another round of the alphabet.

Race Report: Dragonfly Jackal Marathon

On June 24, I ran the Dragonfly Jackal Marathon.  This was the fourth race of The Jackal Marathons.  Like yesterday’s race, we were running on a paved loop through Pinson Mounds State Park.  I assume the name of the race was inspired by the abundance of dragonflies in the park.

The first two races of this series were in the woods, so I didn’t need to apply sunblock.  Yesterday’s race had a lot of sun exposure, so I should’ve used sunblock, but I forgot.  I realized it later in the day when I noticed how deep a tan I have on my arms and legs.  Today, I remembered the sunblock.

Running marathons every day can gradually wear you down.  Running them in extreme heat really takes a toll on you.  This was my fourth straight day running in extreme heat and humidity, and it was catching up to me.

I didn’t sleep well.  I woke up during the night feeling borderline sick.  I don’t think I was replacing enough of my electrolytes.  I got up before my alarm went off, so I could go down to the lobby and see what salty snack foods they had.  I didn’t have anything salty in my room.

I bought some BBQ flavor potato chips.  It’s not the healthiest choice, but it’s hard to find anything with more salt than that.  That seemed to settle my stomach.  I also ate my usual pre-race breakfast of tea and a cinnamon roll.

After applying sunblock, I also applied a layer of bug spray.  When I was done getting ready to leave, I went back down to the lobby and bought another bag of BBQ chips.

When I went out to my car, I immediately noticed two things.  First, there was dew all over the car.  There wasn’t going to be any relief from the high humidity.  The other thing I noticed it that there wasn’t a cloud in the sky.  The sun was going to be brutal again.

Today’s race scared me.  I didn’t know what I could do to handle the heat better.  When you’re out in the sun, on the hot pavement, it feels like you’re getting baked.  Going at a slower pace doesn’t help.  It just means you’re feeling that heat for a longer time.

About the only thing I could do was try to lighten my load a little.  Instead of keeping my phone in my fanny pack, I left it in the car.  Instead of carrying a 22-oz. bottle, I switched to a 16-oz bottle.  They had a self-service aid station about two third of the way through the loop.  If I needed more water or Gatorade, I could refill there.

I was worried about getting enough electrolytes.  Rob, who does this series regularly, gave me two packets of powder for an electrolyte drink.  Early in the race, I alternated between the electrolyte drink and water.  Later in the race, I alternated between Gatorade and water.

Yesterday, I ran most of the race with Tim.  Today, Tim ran faster, and I ran slower.  The aid station was set up in a parking lot near the picnic pavilion.  To get up to the trail loop, we needed to go up a small hill.  The first time I went up this hill, it felt unusually tiring.  I was so slow that I quickly fell behind Tim and most of the other runners.  I ran my own pace, and I was on my own for most of the race.  There were a few runners behind me, but not many.

The first mile of the loop was mostly shaded, and parts of it were downhill.  This was the easiest mile of the loop, so I usually forced myself to run the whole thing.

Later in the loop, there were long stretches that were in the sun.  I learned yesterday that walking these sections isn’t a good strategy.  You don’t want to be in the sun any longer than you have to.  Having run this loop nine times yesterday, I already knew where it was sunny and where it was shady.  I timed my walking breaks so I was always walking in the shade.

I spaced my walking breaks in a way that let me take a drink during each walking break.  I usually drank three to four ounces at a time.

There was a building with bathrooms with just under a mile left in the loop.  Outside of this building, there were large containers of water and Gatorade.  In the early laps, I was usually past this building before I emptied my bottle, so I didn’t feel the need to stop and refill.

For the first lap, I noticed that my average pace was about a minute per mile slower than yesterday.  That trend continued through the whole race.

Starting with lap two, I always put ice in my hat before starting the next lap.  The first time I did that, I put so much ice in my hat that it wouldn’t fit on my head.  The hat was sitting loosely on too of a layer of ice.  It felt awkward, but I quickly accepted that.  It wasn’t a problem as long as the ice and the hat both stayed in place.  There wasn’t any wind, so I didn’t have to worry about my hat blowing off.

I usually took my first walking break as I was going up the hill leading out of the parking lot.  That’s also where I took my first drink.  One advantage of drinking right at the start of the lap was not having as much weight in my bottle for the rest of the lap.

Yesterday, I didn’t start to notice the horseflies until the fourth lap.  This time, I got my first bite in the first lap.  After that, I had one or two bites in each lap.  It didn’t seem like my bug spray did anything to deter them.

The ice in my hat didn’t melt until halfway through the loop.  With that in mind, I put just as much ice in my hat on every lap.

In the previous three races, I sore a bandana that was soaked in ice water.  During my third lap, I realized I had forgotten to wear it today.  It was in the insulated bag with my ice, so I put it on before starting y fourth lap.  It felt really good when I put it on, but it only felt cold for one lap.

The temperature climbed a degree or two with each lap.  The big change, however, came when the pavement started to heat up.  I was in the second half of my fourth lap when I first started to feel the heat rising from the pavement.  After that, it got more intense with each additional lap.

I was extremely disciplined about not walking during the long sunny stretches.  It got increasingly difficult, but I always forced myself to keep running into I reached a shady spot.  Then I could take a walking break.

With the sun shining from above and the heat rising from that pavement below, it feels like you’re in an oven.  Walking doesn’t help.  You keep getting hotter as long as you’re in the “oven.”  The last thing you want to do when you’re in an over is spend more time in it, so I moved at the best pace I could manage until I reached the shade.  At times, I felt like Alec Guinness in “The Bridge on the River Kwai.”

During my fifth lap, I needed to make a bathroom stop.  The bathroom was air conditioned, but I wasn’t in there long enough to cool down significantly.  I stayed in there only as long as I needed.

By now, I was finishing my water or Gatorade before I reached this building.  I never stopped to refill there, because I had less than a mile to go.  It was easy to do the remaining section without another drink, because I knew I would take a drink break at the start of the next lap.

Yesterday, Hannah led the race from wire to wire.  It looked like she would do that again today.  Early in the race, she had a big lead, but Lindsay was starting to cut into it.  After my sixth lap, I paused in the start/finish area long enough to fill my bottle and put ice in my hat.  While I was still there, I saw Hannah finishing her eighth lap.  As I was heading out on my seventh lap, I saw Lindsay nearing the end of her eighth lap.  She was only a few minutes behind Hannah.

Before long, Hannah and Lindsay both passed me.  They were each on their last lap, and Lindsay was close enough to Hannah to see her.  I wondered who would win.  I wouldn’t find out until I finished that lap.

Lap seven was the first one where I had to start taking additional walking breaks.  I didn’t just walk when I was ready to drink.  I still only took walking breaks in shady spots.  I was just taking more of them.

I had to make another bathroom stop during that lap.  I wasn’t drinking as much as yesterday, but having to make two bathroom stops gave me confidence that I couldn’t be dehydrating too badly.

When I finished that lap, I saw Hannah and Lindsay in the parking lot.  I asked them who won.  Lindsay did.  I wish I could’ve seen that race unfold.

In lap eight, I did even more walking.  At times, I was able to talk to other runners who were still on the course.  Some were also on their eighth lap.  A couple were a lap or two behind me.

Before starting my final lap, I got my phone from my car.  We were running on a nature path, and this was the last time I would run this loop.  I wanted to take a few pictures.  Besides dragonflies, I was seeing lots of butterflies.  It took several tries to get a somewhat decent picture.

I also took a few pictures of the flowers.

Every lap, I saw a few signs like this one.  There were always trees in the way, so I couldn’t see very far in the direction they were pointing.

I didn’t know what the Eastern Citadel was, but I wondered if it was this structure, which I saw near the end of each lap.

Besides stopping to take pictures, I also did a lot more walking that lap.  I was basically walking every shady section and only running where it was sunny.  When I was close enough to the finish to see it, it was still a struggle to keep running.

I finished in 5:50:29.  I was quite a bit slower than yesterday, but I got it done.  When I was feeling sick during the night, I had my doubts.

After finishing, I needed to sit down.  I saw a few other runners sitting under the pavilion, so I joined them.  When I felt somewhat recovered, I filled my bottle with ice and ginger ale.  I hadn’t had anything to drink in the last mile of the race.  I needed something to drink before starting the 30-minute drive back to the hotel.

Yesterday, I brought a dry pair of shoes and socks.  Today, I forgot to do that.  I had to drive back to the hotel in soaking wet shoes and socks.

When I got back to the hotel, I stopped in the lobby to buy another bag of those BBQ potato chips.  It was the last bag they had.  I had food in my room for post-race refueling, but they were all sweet foods.  I didn’t have anything salty.

Twelve years ago, I set a long-term goal of running a quadzilla (four marathons in four days) in as many states as I could.  For purposes of this goal, all four races have to be in the same state.  This was my fourth day, making Tennessee the ninth state where I’ve run a quadzilla.  That was my primary motivation to run these races.  Had it not been for this goal, I might have seriously considered skipping this race.

This is a five-day series.  There’s one more race tomorrow.  I don’t need this one for my goal, but I figured as long as I was already in Tennessee, I might as well do the fifth race as well.

At this moment, I’m about 90 percent sure I’ll do tomorrow’s race.  I may regret that decision tomorrow.  Tomorrow’s race is considered by most runners to be the most difficult of the five.  It’s called the Native Jackal Trail Marathon.  It has sections of trail (with roots) and sections of road (exposed to the sun).  It’s also the hilliest by far.

At the moment, I can’t actually imagine myself finishing tomorrow’s race, but I’ve already registered for it, and I’m already committed to paying for another hotel night and another day of car rental.

Race statistics:

Distance:  26.2 miles

Time:  5:50:29

Average Pace:  13:22

First Half:  2:45:18

Second Half:  3:05:11

Marathons/Ultras in 2025:  15

Lifetime Marathons/Ultras:  550

Race Report: Alaska Series, Day 4

Today was the fourth and final day of the Alaska Series.  Today’s race was on the same course as yesterday’s race.  For the third time in four days, I race-walked.

I have a long-term goal of doing a quadzilla (4 marathons in 4 days) in as many states as I can.  I signed up for this series last year, so I could do a quadzilla in Alaska.  The series was cancelled last year because of COVID-19, so I deferred my entry to this year.  At the beginning of April, I still wasn’t training, so I was worried about being in shape to do a quadzilla in August.  I started getting in shape by race-walking, but I was still hoping to run the races.  Eventually, I realized I would need to race-walk them.  I was even more worried about being in shape to do that, since I had never done that before.

Yesterday was the first time I race-walked a marathon after doing a marathon the day before.  It may have helped that I mostly ran the day before, since running emphasizes different muscle groups than race-walking.  Today was the first time I race-walked a marathon for a second straight day.  I didn’t hold back much either Tuesday or yesterday, so I knew I would be fatigued.

Today’s race was the toughest of the four, but it was also the most gratifying.  Today was the day I would finally complete a quadzilla in Alaska.

I had an assortment of sore muscles, but my knee no longer felt stiff.  I think yesterday’s race worked wonders for it.  Meanwhile, the blister that bothered me in the last two races also bothered me during the night.  It’s a blood blister underneath one of my toenails.  This morning, I poked a pin under the toenail, so I could drain it and relieve some of the pressure.  That helped.  It didn’t bother me during today’s race.

When I went to bed last night the forecast was for a 68% chance of rain from early morning through noon.  When I got up this morning, the first thing I did was to look out my window.  The parking lot was wet, but I didn’t see any rain coming down.  I checked the hourly forecast again.  Now it was showing a 56% chance of rain throughout the morning hours, with a higher chance of rain in the afternoon.  Maybe we would get lucky today.

It still wasn’t raining when I left the hotel, but it started drizzling as I was driving to the race.  It stopped about the time I got there.  For the first time in three days, we had a dry start.

Even though it wasn’t raining, it felt a little bit chilly.  There was a cold breeze blowing through the valley.  I started the race wearing a Tyvek jacket.

Yesterday, I expected to be sluggish at the start, so I put extra effort into getting into a quick walking rhythm.  Today, I was more confident, so I didn’t work as hard in the first lap.  Yesterday, I averaged 24 minutes per lap for most of the race.  Today, I settled into a pace that was about 30 seconds per lap slower.

Halfway through my first lap, I started to feel warm, so I unzipped my jacket.  By the middle of my second lap, I was sufficiently warmed up that I felt hot even with the jacket unzipped.  After that lap, I took the jacket off and put it in my drop bag.

I’m not sure when they started doing this, but before one race of each Mainly Marathon series, Daniel hides a “loonicorn” sticker somewhere along the course.  The “loonicorn” is a mythical loon.  Whoever finds the loonicorn gets a special T-shirt.  Before the race, Daniel announced that today was the day he had hidden the loonicorn.

For the first few laps of the race, I was scanning the bushes and other landmarks along either side of the course.  I never slowed down or left the trail, but I was looking around.  I saw several others doing the same thing.  A few runners, who were taking it more seriously, were sometimes stopping and going a few feet off of the trail to look in the bushes.  One of the runners doing this was Trena, who everyone knew really wanted that T-shirt.  Trena was doing the 5K race today, but she was mostly looking for the loonicorn.  When I went by, she said she was probably going to do the world’s slowest 5K

By the middle of my fourth lap, I no longer saw people looking for the loonicorn.  I assume word got out that someone had found it.  It was Trena.

In the other races of this series, I always did a measured effort.  I was walking at a pace that was tiring, but I was always conscious of how many laps I had left and whether I thought the pace was sustainable.  Today I wasn’t doing that.  I was walking at a brisk pace, but I wasn’t putting quite as much effort into it.  I wasn’t thinking about how many laps I had left.  I was walking at a pace that I knew I could walk for several hours.  I just kept doing laps.

My mindset changed in the sixth lap.  That’s when the rain started.  At first, I started seeing a few small drops hitting the puddles.  It took a few more minutes before I started to feel the drops.  At first, I wasn’t concerned.  It wasn’t enough to make me think I would need a jacket or rain poncho.

In the second half of that lap, it felt different.  I was no longer feeling individual drops.  Instead, I felt like I was walking through mist.  I looked up at the mountains in front of me, and they were shrouded in mist.  I felt like I was running through the same mist at ground level.  I was going into the wind, so it felt cold as the front of my shirt started getting wet.

By the end of that lap, I was again noticing individual drops.  Now there were more of them.  It wasn’t raining hard, but it was gradually turning into a steady light rain.

In my drop bag, I had both a plastic rain poncho, and the Tyvek jacket I was wearing earlier.  The rain poncho is waterproof, but I wondered if it would be too hot.  The Tyvek jacket isn’t waterproof, but it takes a long time for water to soak through it.  I knew I could put the jacket on quickly, so as I started my next lap, I put on my jacket.  At first, I left it unzipped in front.  The front of my shirt was already wet, and I was worried the jacket would trap too much heat if it was zipped up.

Early in the seventh lap, a runner came alongside of me.  He was doing the half marathon and he was in his last lap.  We were going at about the same pace.  I sped up a bit to match his running pace, so we could talk.  As we talked, we both slowed down, but we stayed together for the whole lap.  That made that lap seem easier for both of us.

When I finished that lap, I was half done with the marathon.  I was noticing the rain more, so I zipped up my jacket.

In the second half of the race, the trail started to seem lonely.  Several of the runners doing the half marathon were done now.  Our route went past two lakes, and there was a small hill between them.  On one of my laps, I went over this hill and didn’t see anyone else all the way to the turnaround.  There were still about two dozen people on the course, but none of them happened to be at the same end of the course where I was.  I experience the same thing on the next lap.

Now that my jacket was zipped up, I felt like I had to measure my pace carefully.  It wasn’t a question of walking at a sustainable pace.  Instead, I found that if walked too fast, I would start to get hot.  I wanted to speed up and get done as quickly as I could, but I didn’t want to work so hard that I would overheat.

It still wasn’t raining hard, but with six laps to go, it had been raining long enough that my shoes were soaked.  Inside my shoes, they felt squishy.  Now I had another reason to be careful about my pace.  I worried if I pushed too hard to speed up, it might cause one of my insoles to slip within my shoe.  I no longer had the same carefree attitude I had earlier.  Now I was much more conscious of the number of laps I had left.

When I finished my ninth lap, I only had five laps to go.  That sounded manageable until I realized five laps would take me about two hours.  Five laps doesn’t sound like much.  Two hours sounds like a long time.

That’s a problem with race-walking.  It takes a lot longer than running.  For most of my life, I could run a marathon in three and a half hours.  At that pace, I would’ve been done by now.  Instead, I still had two hours to go.

By now, I was pretty sure it was going to be raining for the rest of the race.  I hated the feeling of my soaking wet shoes.  I also was starting to feel the rain gradually soaking through my jacket.  I probably should’ve opted for the rain poncho.  As my jacket got wet, it eventually began to feel like I was wearing a wet rag.

With four laps to go, I told myself it would take me another hour and 36 minutes to finish.  Clicking off one lap didn’t seem like a big deal.  Counting down 24 minutes seemed more significant.  I wasn’t worried about having the energy to finish.  I only cared how much longer I had to endure the miserable conditions.  Miles and laps had no meaning.

For the rest of the race, I was counting down the remaining time.  It was a big deal when I reached the turnaround in my 12th lap.  That’s when I had just one hour to go.

By this time, I was noticing a funny feeling inside my left shoe.  My insole was sliding forward.  Eventually, it would move so far forward that I would feel it curling up inside the toe box.  All I could do was try to ignore it.

Just like yesterday, the wind was coming from the south.  I really felt it in the early laps.  Then it died down.  Later in the race, it got strong again.

In the second half of my 13th lap, the wind felt really cold.  My legs began to feel cold and stiff.  I knew it would probably rain today, but I underestimated how cold it would feel.  I regretted my decision to wear shorts instead of tights.

Getting through the second half of that lap was tough.  When I started my last lap, I had the wind at my back for the first half.  When I reached the turnaround, I dreaded going into the wind again.

I didn’t feel it at first.  It wasn’t until I went over the small hill between the lakes that I really felt it.  Now my legs were really cold.

If my legs get too cold for too long, I can have circulation issues.  Blood vessels in my legs constrict, and I don’t get as much blood flow to my muscles.  With about half a mile to go, I started to experience that.  My legs felt so stiff that it took everything I had to keep them moving.  More than once, my legs seemed to quit on me, and I almost came to a stop.  Each time, I forced myself to keep moving.

I was grateful to be in my last lap.  If wasn’t about being tired or being relieved to be finished.  I honestly don’t think I could’ve done another lap.  I barely managed to finish this one.

I finished the race in 5:40:23.  Despite all the difficulties I had in the second half, I managed negative splits by three minutes.  In the first half of the race my pace was relaxed.  In the second half, I felt at times like it was a battle for survival.  Interestingly enough, I had negative splits in all four races of this series.

After I finished, I got the last two pieces for my chain of medals.  The medal for today’s race was a caribou.  Then there was an extra medal signifying that I finished every race of the series.

I got back to the hotel as quickly as I could, so I could get out of my wet clothes.  By then, my fingers were already turning white.  After a hot bath, I felt much better.

By finishing today’s race, I also finished my Alaska quadzilla.  Now I’ve completed a quadzilla in eight different states.

Race Statistics

Distance:  26.2 miles

Time:  5:40:23

Average Pace:  12:59

Lifetime Marathons/Ultras:  439

Alaska Marathons:  7

Marathons/Ultras Race-Walking:  21

Quadzilla States:  8

Race Report: Alaska Series, Day 3

On August 5, I race-walked the third race of the Alaska Series.  Today’s race was at a different venue than the first two races.  Our course was a paved trail at Twin Lakes.  The Twin Lakes are two narrow lakes just north of Salmon Creek. They’re right next to the highway that runs between downtown Juneau and the Mendenhall Valley.

The trail followed the eastern shore of both lakes.  We started at the south end of one lake, went all the way past that lake, and about half the length of the next lake.  Then we turned around and went back.  We needed to do 14 laps for a marathon.

Yesterday, I ran most of the race.  I ran more than I planned, and way more than I probably should have.  Immediately after yesterday’s race, my knee felt OK.  A few hours later, my knee started to feel stiff.  I iced it after the race and again in the evening, but I knew I shouldn’t do any running today.

Yesterday, I forgot to pack a rain poncho.  I had to compensate for my lack of rain gear by wearing clothes that were warm and didn’t soak up too much water.  Today, I remembered the rain poncho.  I actually packed it last night, so I wouldn’t forget.

When I looked at the forecast last night, it seemed likely it would rain for the entire race.  When I checked again this morning, the forecast was slightly more optimistic.  It was still going to rain, but it might clear up a couple hours after the race started.

As I was getting dressed, I checked my weather app, and it said it was currently cloudy.  I was surprised it wasn’t raining.  This is when the probability of rain was the highest.  I wondered if we would get lucky and it wouldn’t rain after all.

My hopes were dashed as soon as I stepped outside.  It was raining.  It might not rain for the whole race, but we were going to have a wet start.  No matter what happened after that, I would have wet shoes for the entire race.

My goal today was to finish in less than six hours.  Ideally, I wanted to break 5:47, which is my slowest time for walking a marathon.  It wasn’t necessary to go any faster.

When I got to the start, I was pleased to see that the aid station was inside a small shelter.  Our drop bag area was a set of picnic tables that was also covered.

Before the start, my right knee still felt stiff.  I flexed my knee several times to loosen it up, but it didn’t seem to help.  I wondered how it would feel when I started walking.  Thankfully, it didn’t bother me at all when I started walking.  It actually felt much better when I was moving.

I expected my walking to be slow and sluggish.  This is the first time I’ve ever race-walked a marathon after doing a marathon the day before.  It took about a minute to get into my rhythm, but then it felt surprisingly easy.

About half a mile into the first lap, I happened to glance at my watch.  It wasn’t running.  I remembered pressing the start button, but I was wearing gloves.  I must not have made a firm contact.  At this point, the best thing I could do was to start it at the end of my first lap, and track my lap times from that point on.

When I finished my first lap, I asked Daniel how much time had elapsed.  He said I did the first lap in 23:02.  I immediately started my watch and set out on my second lap.

That first lap was surprisingly fast.  It put me on pace for a 5:22 marathon.  That’s much faster than I expected.  I slowed down a bit in the second lap and more in the third.  Eventually, I settled into consistent 24-minute laps.  That was still a bit fast, but it wasn’t crazy fast.

Before the race, it had been raining steadily.  About the same time the race started, the rain began to let up.  I still felt drops, and I could see them hitting the puddles, but it was just a sprinkling.

By the time I started my third lap, it seemed like the rain might be stopping completely.  I pushed my hood back, but I kept the poncho on.  By the end of that lap, I realized I was going to be too warm with the poncho if it was no longer raining.  After that lap, I stopped long enough to take it off and put it in my drop bag.

I was in the second half of my 4th lap, when I glanced over at one of the lakes and saw raindrops hitting the water.  I didn’t feel it yet, but it was raining again.  I didn’t want to have to stop again to put my poncho on, so I decided to go without it as long as I didn’t get too cold.

In my next lap, the rain seemed to stop again.  After another lap, I noticed the sun occasionally shining through a gap in the clouds.  By now, I was pretty sure the rain was done.  I was starting to feel hot, so I took my gloves off.

There was a breeze blowing from the south.  In the first half of each lap, it was at my back, so it didn’t do anything to cool me.  That’s when I often felt hot.  In the second half of each lap, I was going into the wind.  Then I felt more comfortable.  Sometimes, it even felt cold.  That pattern persisted for the rest of the race.

I wasn’t quite half done when my left shoe started to feel funny.  I suspected my insole might be slipping.  It wasn’t too bad, so I did my best to ignore it.  Thankfully, it never got worse.

I was also noticing a painful blister on one of the toes of that foot.  I don’t usually get blisters on the tips of my toes when I’m walking.  This was a blister that I first noticed yesterday, when I was running.  Now that it was there, it hurt both running and walking.

When I finished my 7th lap, I was half done.  I was still averaging 24 minutes per lap, which put me on pace to finish in 5:36.  I tried to tell myself that I could afford to slow down, but I was in a nice rhythm.  I continued to consistently click off laps in 24 minutes each.

One of the runners was celebrating her 100th marathon.  She brought cupcakes.  I don’t normally eat much solid food during a race, but now that I was half done, I grabbed a cupcake and ate it while I was walking.

When I finished my 10th lap, I just had four to go.  I was still trying to convince myself to slow down a bit and save some energy for tomorrow.  I tried to tell myself I had 18 laps to go (including 14 tomorrow), and I should pace myself accordingly.  I tell myself a lot of things.  I usually give myself good advice.  The problem is I never seem to listen to myself.  I continued to click off 24-minute laps.

The closer I got to finishing, the more I became emotionally invested in maintaining the same pace.  With only a few laps to go, I wanted to have even splits.

There’s a runner who lapped me at least twice on Monday, but never lapped me today.  I kept seeing her walking, and I was getting close to catching her.  I picked up my effort just a bit and caught her just before the end of my 13th lap.  I later learned that she ran the first half of the race and walked the second half.  She was saving something for tomorrow.  Obviously, she’s smarter than I am.

As I finished that lap, Daniel asked me if I had one lap to go.  I said, “15 laps, including tomorrow.”  Even when I said it out loud, I didn’t listen.  As I started my last lap, I was on pace to do the second half about 30 seconds faster than the first half.

I was determined to at least do even splits.  As I started my last lap, I put effort into maintaining my pace.  I didn’t realize it, but I was actually speeding up … a lot.

In between the two lakes, we go up and down a small hill.  For 13 laps, I never noticed it.  In my last lap, I finally realized there was a hill.  As I crested the hill, I started to get hot.  The sun was out, and I could feel it.  I reminded myself I just had to get to the turnaround, and then I would have the cool breeze all the way back.

At I reached the turnaround, I looked at my watch.  I did the first half of that lap in 10:30.  Suddenly, I was on pace to have negative splits by at least two minutes.

Now I wanted to see if I could keep up the same pace on the way back.  I tried, but I couldn’t quite do it.  I finished the race in 5:33:45.  My last lap was 21:15.  To put that in perspective, if I had done every lap that fast, I would’ve finished in less than five hours.

I got another medal to add to the chain.  The medal for today’s race was in the shape of a wolf.

Since the race, I didn’t notice any stiffness in my right knee.  Doing several hours of walking did wonders.  Now that I’ve been sitting for a while, It’s starting to stiffen up again.  I’m still worried about the knee, but I’m pretty sure it won’t be an issue for tomorrow’s race.  Instead, I have to worry if I have any gas left in the tank.

Race Statistics

Distance:  26.2 miles

Time:  5:33:45

Average Pace:  12:44

Lifetime Marathons/Ultras:  438

Alaska Marathons:  6

Marathons/Ultras Race-Walking:  20

Race Report: Alaska Series, Day 2

On August 4, I ran the second race of the Alaska Series, in Juneau, AK.  That’s not a typo.  I ran this one.  Actually, I did a run/walk mix, but I did a substantial amount of running.

Every so often, I do a run/walk workout that includes a quarter mile of running for each mile.  At first, these workouts aggravated my right knee, even though the amount of walking was minimal.  I would try again every few weeks, usually with the same result.

More recently, I started doing run/walk workouts once a week.  Two weeks ago, I did a five-mile run/walk workout and barely noticed any knee discomfort while running.  I still noticed increased discomfort walking up and down stairs, but not as much as after my previous run/walk workouts.

Last week, I stepped up to a seven-mile run/walk workout, and it was encouraging.  I didn’t notice any knee discomfort while running, and I barely noticed a difference afterwards when I walked up and down stairs.

I felt I was ready to step up to a longer distance, so I decided to try a run/walk mix during one of the races of this series.  I was originally planning to wait until the last day.  That was before I saw the courses.

Today’s race was on the same course as yesterday’s race.  It’s mostly on a dirt trail and there’s a section that isn’t easy to race-walk.  By contrast, the course for the last two races in this series is entirely paved.  It looks like a great surface for race-walking.  With that in mind, I decided to try running today and then race-walk the last two races of the series.

It was about five degrees warmer than it was at the start of yesterday’s race.  There was rain in the forecast, but it wasn’t raining when I left the hotel.  I felt overdressed in tights yesterday, so I wore shorts today.  I wore a fairly warm tech T-shirt, and brought some other clothes that I could keep in a drop bag.

I opted to wear gaiters again, but I had mixed feelings.  On one hand, they were effective at keeping dirt out of my shoes yesterday.  On the other hand, they would get wet and muddy if it rained during today’s race.

I wasn’t expecting the rain to start until an hour or two after the race started.  Within minutes of leaving the hotel, it started to rain.  That made me realize I had forgotten to put my plastic rain poncho in my drop bag.

After getting to the start area, I made a last-minute decision to put on a long sleeve polypro shirt.  My race bib was pinned to my T-shirt, so I put the polypro shirt under my T-shirt.  I also started the race wearing my jacket and polypro gloves.

Since there was one segment of the trail that wasn’t easy to race-walk, I decided that would be the section I would run.  Yesterday, I picked two landmarks that were a quarter mile apart.  I ran the section between them in both directions.  That meant I was doing about a half mile of running during each lap.  If I kept that up for the whole race, it would add up to eight total miles of running.

The section I was running had some rocks imbedded in the trail.  It also had one awkward down and up crossing a gully.  I ran cautiously, taking small steps, going slowly, and staying on the balls of my feet.  It felt OK, but it didn’t seem like my running pace was much faster than my race-walking pace.  Partly that’s because of the way I was running, but I doubt if I could run very fast even with an all-out effort.  I’m just not in shape for it.

I paid close attention to how my right knee felt.  I could detect a hint of discomfort, but it was barely perceptible.  I only noticed it because I was comparing my right knee to my left knee.

After one complete lap, I started to feel warm.  I unzipped my jacket.  By the middle of my second lap, I realized the jacket was too warm, in combination with the layers I was wearing underneath.  When I finished my second lap, I took off my jacket and put it in my drop bag.

For the next two laps, I felt fairly comfortable.  Then the rain started to let up.  Without the rain, I suddenly felt overdressed.  I took off my gloves and stuffed them in my fanny pack.

That’s about all I could do without a time-consuming stop.  Now that it wasn’t raining, I was overdressed with both the T-shirt and the polypro shirt.  I couldn’t easily take off the polypro shirt, because it was underneath my T-shirt.  I couldn’t easily take off the T-shirt, because it had my race bib.  Without knowing if it would start raining again, I left them both on and accepted that I would be a little bit hot.

I was in my sixth lap when I felt one of my insoles slipping within the shoe.  I wear orthotics, so I always remove the insoles that come with the shoes, and I replace them with Spenco insoles, so there’s room for my orthotics.  That usually works well, but if my shoes get too wet, the insoles can slide forward within the shoes.  When that happens, the insole bunches up in the front of my shoe, and it gets really uncomfortable.  I’ve noticed that this is most likely to happen when I’m running down a steep hill or when I’m doing frequent transitions between running and walking.

If I only had a few laps to go, I would live with the discomfort.  I still had 10 laps to go, so I stopped at the aid station to fix it.  I had to remove my gaiter, so I could take off my shoe.  It took time to get the insole back into the proper position and put my shoe back on.  I didn’t bother putting my gaiter back on.  The trail was wet enough that I wasn’t worried about getting loose dirt in my shoes.  Since I had stopped for a few minutes already, I also made a bathroom stop.  Then I started my 7th lap.

If I went back to the same run/walk mix I was doing before, I would probably have the same issue again within a lap or two.  My knee was feeling OK, so I decided to just ran the rest of the way.  If my knee bothered me, I could always switch to walking.

After running the next two laps, I was half done with the race.  In the first six laps, I ran three total miles.  In the next two laps, I ran about 3.3.  At this point, I had already run more miles today than in the previous six months combined.  Running continuously felt tiring, but it was no more tiring than race-walking.  I decided to stick with it as long as my knee wasn’t bothering me.

My time at the halfway point was faster than yesterday, but not by that much.  So far, I was only five minutes faster, which was disappointing considering how much running I was doing.  I expected the second half to be faster, but I realized already that I would still take more than five hours to finish.

When I was only running the most difficult part of the trail, I had to run cautiously.  Now that I was also running the easy parts of the course, I felt like I could open it up a little.  Where it was flat, and I had good footing, I started to run with a more relaxed stride.  I also picked up the pace a little.  Still, it was much slower than the pace I’m accustomed to running.

Early in the second half of the race, it started to rain again.  I wasn’t sure if that was good news or bad news.  As it turns out, it didn’t matter.  The rain only lasted for about 10 minutes.

With five laps to go, I was tempted to switch back to run/walk, but I didn’t want to have insole problems again.  I didn’t want to stop again, and five laps was too far to live with the discomfort if the insole moved forward within my shoe.  I decided to run for at least one more lap.  Then I’d only have four laps to go.

When I had four laps to go, I again persuaded myself to run at least one more lap.  If I had insole problems, three laps of run/walk would feel more manageable than four.

With three laps to go, I caught up to two runners who had been just ahead of me for a long time.  They were going at about my pace, but they were doing a different run/walk mix.  They mostly ran, but sometimes took brief walking breaks going up hills.  I adapted to their run/walk mix, so I could talk to them for the rest of the race.  That made the last three laps seem to go by quicker.

I finished the race in 5:11:16.  I was about 14 minutes faster in the second half.  If I had run the entire race, I probably would’ve broken five hours, but not by much.

In all, I ran about 19 miles of the race.  Most of that was continuous running.  It wasn’t fast, but it was the first time in months that I felt like I was doing meaningful training for running.

When I finished, I got the next piece in my chain of medals.  Today’s medal was in the shape of a moose.

When I got back to the hotel, I wasn’t sure what do first.  I reheated some leftover pizza, so I could refuel.  While I was eating, I iced my knee.  Then I took a hot bath and did some stretching.  Finally, I massaged a few muscles with my massage stick.

I don’t know for sure how this much running affected my knee.  Usually, the real test is seeing how my knee feels going up or down stairs.  When I’m home, I go up or down stairs several times a day.  When I’m staying in a hotel, I don’t go up or down any stairs.  I feel like I’ve given my knee a test, but the test hasn’t been graded yet.

There are two more races in this series.  They’ll both be on a different course.  I’ve already gone to check out that course.  It’s paved and looks to be pretty flat.  It should be a good course for race-walking.

At this point, my plan is to race-walk both of those races.  The only wildcard is the weather.  I’m not sure what I’ll do if it rains, and I have problems with my insoles.

Race Statistics

Distance:  26.2 miles

Time:  5:11:16

Average Pace:  11:52

Lifetime Marathons/Ultras:  437

Alaska Marathons:  5