Race Report: A Race For The Ages - 2026

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 felt 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 regimen.

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.

Race statistics:

Distance:  157 miles

Time:  65 hours

Average Pace:  24:50 per mile

Marathons/Ultras in 2026:  30

Lifetime Marathons/Ultras:  602

Lifetime 100s:  17

Race Report: 2026 FANS 24-Hour Run

On the weekend of June 6-7, I ran the FANS 24-Hour Run.  I do this race almost every year.  For the last several years, it’s been held at Normandale Lake Park in Bloomington, MN.

In a 24-hour race, you can run, walk, or take rest breaks, but the clock is always running.  The objective is to run or walk as far as you can in 24 hours.  We started at 8 AM on Saturday, and we had until 8 AM on Sunday to see how far we could go.

The 24-hour race has separate divisions for runners and walkers.  I usually do the 24-hour run, but there are serious race-walkers in the 24-hour walk.  This year there were three walkers from Europe who came here to see if they could earn a Centurion badge by walking 100 miles in 24 hours.  The one rule the walkers have to follow is they can never have both feet off the ground at the same time.

Besides the 24-hour race, there’s a 12-race, a 6-hour race, and a marathon.  The marathon was new this year.  All of the fixed-time races started at 8 AM, but the marathon started at 10 PM.

Our course was a 1.85-mile loop around the lake.  The whole course is paved, except for two short wooden bridges, where we cross Nine Mile Creek.

This is a local race for me, but for the third straight year, I chose to stay in a hotel that was close to the race venue.  A long-term construction project on I-494 has made drive times difficult to predict.

I checked into my hotel in Bloomington Friday afternoon.  Then I went over to the lake to pick up my race packet.  For the second straight year, I had bib number 2.  Of the people doing the 24-hour run, only Ed Rousseau had more lifetime miles.

I had dinner with Deb, Betty, and John.  I went to bed early and slept for about six and a half hours.  Then I woke up and couldn’t get back to sleep.  I slept well the previous two nights, so I crossed my fingers that I got enough sleep to get by.

There was an area on the west side of the lake where we could pitch tents.  As usual, I was sharing a tent with my sister, Betty, and her husband, John.  Betty always volunteers at this race.  John does the 24-hour walk

The tent gave us a place to store all our gear.  Some people take naps during the night, but John and I usually press on through the night.

The earliest we could set up tents was 6:00 Saturday morning.  Betty and John were also staying in a nearby hotel, and we all arrived by 6:00, so we could get our usual tent site before someone else claimed it.

After setting up our tent and unpacking our gear, John and I each needed to pick up our timing chips and weigh in at the medical tent.  During the race, we needed to weigh in every four hours.

It was a hot day.  When I left the hotel, the temperature was in the 60s.  Humidity was so high that I had to run the wipers, because my windshield kept fogging up.  When the race started, it was 70 degrees, but the afternoon high was in the upper 80s.  Making matters worse, it was a bright sunny day, and I rarely felt any wind.

The last time I did this race, my goal was 100 miles.  I started too fast, and I got dehydrated on a hot afternoon.  By nightfall, I was struggling.  I fought hard to try to stay on pace for 100 miles, and I wore myself out.  My attitude was “100 miles or bust.”  When I was no longer on pace for 100 miles, I stopped.

This year, my goals were more flexible.  I was hoping to get to 100 miles, but I had doubts about whether I was in good enough shape for that.  The weather conditions made it even more unlikely.  I started the race on pace for 100 miles, but if I couldn’t get there, I would do whatever I could.

The course is moderately hilly.  None of the hills are long or steep, but there are about a dozen hills in each lap around the lake.  My pacing plan was to walk all the hills.  That gave me a dozen short walking breaks in every lap.  The beauty of this pacing plan is that I actually looked forward to the hills.  Instead of taking more energy, the hills were my rest breaks.

For the last two months, I’ve been doing most of my training on the race course.  More often than not, I’ve been walking the hills, so I could get an idea of what my average pace would be.  This is an image I captured after one of my training runs.  The dark blue segments are where I took walking breaks.

I found that if I walked every hill and ran the rest of the loop at a comfortable pace, my average pace was between 12:00 and 12:30 per mile.  That’s without stopping to eat or drink.  During the race, I needed to stop briefly at the aid stations.  I also needed to stop occasionally for bathroom breaks, periodic weigh-ins, or to get things from my tent.  Factoring in these stops, I expected my average pace to be at least 30 seconds per mile slower.

To get to 100 miles, I needed to average 14:24 per mile for 24 hours.  I was OK with starting a little faster than that, knowing I would almost certainly slow down in the afternoon heat.  I also expected to be slower in the second half of the race.

There were two aid stations on the course.  The main aid station was set up near the bandshell.  This aid station had water, Gatorade, and a variety of snack foods, including cookies, fruit, and sandwiches.  The secondary aid station was at the opposite corner of the lake, near Nine Mile Creek.  This aid station also had water and Gatorade, but not as much food.

I drank Gatorade at both aid stations.  To take in enough calories, I also occasionally ate solid food at the main aid station.

There were two methods of lap counting.  The primary method was chip timing.  We all wore ankle straps with timing chips, and there were timing mats at a few different places.  As a backup method, there were also volunteers at the main aid station who were manually recording our laps.

Every lap finished at the main aid station, but the first lap started near the medical tent, where we checked in.  This was done for convenience.  Our first lap included an out-and-back segment, making it longer than other laps.  This was done so the 100-mile point would come right at the end of the 54th lap.

The out-and-back was new this year.  There was one other small difference.  We used to go down a steep hill just before the secondary aid station.  This year, we approached that aid station from a different direction.  That made each lap slightly longer than it has been in past years, but it removed a steep drop that was somewhat uncomfortable.  The new approach was more gradual.

I did dozens of laps on this course in training, so I would know every turn and hill by heart.  I was training on the old course, so on race day, I had to get used the new approach to aid station #2.

There have been other hot years, but I usually felt comfortable during the morning hours.  This year, I felt warm right away.  I noticed the humidity from the first lap.

My past experience was that drinking a cup of Gatorade at each aid stations was sufficient for the morning, but I needed to drink more in the afternoon.  Last year, I didn’t drink enough, and I got dehydrated.  This year, I overcompensated.

Because it warmed up so quickly, I started drinking three cups per lap.  At one aid station, I’d drink two cups.  At the other, I’d drink one cup, and I’d sometimes eat some solid food.

For the first hour of the race, I was averaging about 12 minutes per mile.  As I started taking bathroom breaks and spending more time at aid stations, my pace slowed to about 12:30 per mile.  That was about the same pace as my training runs, and it felt pretty easy.

By noon, it was 80 degrees, and the sun was intense.  Now I was drinking two cups pf Gatorade at each aid station.

My first periodic weigh-in was at noon.  I was up 3.5 pounds compared to my pre-race weight.  I was shocked to have gained so much weight so quickly.  The next four hours would be the hottest of the race, yet I cut back on my fluid intake.

I had a cooler at our tent filled with Gatorade bottles and crushed ice.  I was expecting to need to supplement my fluid intake by drinking Gatorade each time I came by our tent.  I held off on that.

To cope with the heat during the afternoon hours, I started putting ice in my hat each time I came by the tent.  I also started taking electrolyte capsules.

In the afternoon, I was making more frequent bathroom stops.  Those stops, plus the time I spent at our tent getting ice, caused my average pace to slow down.  My afternoon pace was slower than the 14:24 I needed to average.  Some miles took more than 15 minutes.

About every four laps, I ate something at the main aid station.  I had a couple pieces of energy bars.  Then I had some trail mix.  When I came by at the end of my 13th lap, I saw pizza.

One of the sponsors was Parkland Pizza, and they delivered pizza at different times during the race.  It was a tavern-cut, making it easy to grab one square and eat it during a short walking break.  The pizza was better than any of the other odds at the aid station, so I ate pizza three times during the race.

I reached the marathon mark in 5:47.  That’s longer than I’ve taken in the past, but anything faster would have been too fast for the conditions.

I needed to focus on intermediate milestones.  The next one was 50K.  I reached that during my 17th lap.  When I finished my 18th lap, I was more than one third of the way to 100 miles.  I got there in less than eight hours.  In theory, I was on pace for 100 miles.  In reality, I had already slowed down too much.

With more frequent bathroom stops, my pace got slower.  Sometimes it was slower than 16 minutes per mile.  It became obvious that I was no longer on pace to get to 100 miles.  Realizing that goal was out of reach, I switched my pacing strategy.  Instead of walking the hills and running everywhere else, I started mostly walking.  I only ran on downhill sections.

 I was carrying my electrolyte pills with me in a small zip-lock bag, so I could take them at the aid stations.  I couldn’t get a pill ready while running, so I had to do it while I was on a walking break.

For several laps, I kept forgetting to get a pill ready.  I wouldn’t remember until I was already at the aid station.  Rather than stopping to get a pill out, I kept telling myself I’d remember on the next lap.  Then I’d forget again.  That contributed to problems I would experience later.

At 4 PM, I weighed in again.  Despite cutting back on my fluid intake, I was up another half a pound.

By now, most of the ice in my cooler had melted.  The rest had frozen into large chucks.  I no longer had enough small pieces of ice that I could put in my hat.  I thought it was late enough in the day that I no longer needed to out ice in my hat.  I neglected to consider that it was actually hottest at 5 PM.  Without ice in my hat, it was harder to cope with the heat.  I didn’t realize how much the ice was helping until I no longer had any.

My body was sending me mixed signals.  In the late afternoon, I was needed to stop to pee every lap.  On one lap, I made two bathroom stops.  Between that and the weight gain, it seemed clear that I was overhydrated.  On the other hand, my mouth and throat were always dry.

Now that I was doing more walking, I started to walk at a somewhat brisk pace.  My average pace wasn’t much slower than it had been when I was mostly running, but I wasn’t working as hard.

By 8 PM, I had run 48.1 miles.  In theory, I was on pace for 96 miles, but that was misleading.  At the pace I was going now, I would be doing well to get into the 80s.

This is an RRCA state championship event.  There were RRCA awards for the top male and female overall, and well as the top male and female in the open 40, over 50, and over 60 divisions.  I wondered what it would take to win the over 60 division.  When I’ve won it before, I did at least 100 miles.  On such a hot day, would something in the 80s be enough?

I weighed in again.  Finally, I had some good news.  My weight was down two pounds since 4 PM.  I was still two pounds over my pre-race weight, but I was moving in the right direction.

After another lap, I reached the 50-mile mark.  When I finished that lap, the lap counters ran a cowbell for me.  They do that whenever someone reaches 50 miles, 100K, or 100 miles.

Betty had been doing lap counting from 2 to 8 PM.  When her volunteer shift was over, she checked the live results to see how competitive the over 60 division was.  There was a guy over 60 who was already 18 miles ahead of me.  He was in third place overall.

Clearly, I could forget about competing for that award.  That left me with one other goal.  I needed 140 miles to get to 1,500 lifetime miles, so I could join the 1,500 mile club.  If I could run 70 miles this year, I would just need 70 more next year.

To get to 70 miles, I needed to finish 11 more laps.  That a lot of laps.  At this point, each one seemed to take forever.  I had plenty of time.  At the rate I was going, I could get to 70 miles and still have time for a few more laps.

The sun set at 9:00 and within half an hour, it was dark.  The course was lined with battery-power lamps, but there were still dark patches.  We were expected to use a flashlight or headlamp to help with visibility during the night.

Once the sun went down, it immediately felt cooler.  The temperature came down gradually, but without direct sunlight, it was much more comfortable.  I didn’t need to drink as much, but it was hard to resist drinking at aid stations.  On some laps, I only drank at one aid station.  At others, I couldn’t resist drinking at both.

As the night progressed, it got harder to maintain a brisk walking pace.  I wanted to average at least three miles per hour (20-minute miles), but I had to go faster to compensate for bathroom stops and other downtime.  With effort, I was keeping most of my splits under 19 minutes, but that effort was wearing me down.

I had to focus on more immediate milestones.  The next one was getting to midnight, when I would weigh in again.

At midnight, my weight was up again.  I had regained the two pounds that I previously lost.  I didn’t realize it yet, but that was my undoing.  I was drinking too much, and I wasn’t getting enough salt.  My fingers were starting to swell, which is one of the symptoms of hyponatremia.

By now, I started to notice that I wasn’t always walking in a straight line.  At first, I wondered if I was just a little disoriented because I wasn’t seeing the full width of the path.  I also wondered if it was the result of muscle fatigue.  I was also starting to lean to my right, as my core muscles got fatigued.

This was something else.  Over the next several laps, I noticed it more and more.  I was weaving back and forth.  I also started to feel punchy.  It was like I was drunk.

My next lap took me to 100K.  The lap counters rang the cowbell for me again.  After that, I still needed four more laps to get to 70 miles.

On my next lap, I was staggering, but I kept making forward progress, and I got through that lap.  Now, I just needed three more laps.

The next lap was much more difficult.  It was scary.  I didn’t know if I could get through another lap safely.  I worried that if I started another lap, I might not be able to stay upright.

I was still two laps short of 70 miles, but I couldn’t go on like this.  I told my lap counter that I was going to take a break at my tent, so he shouldn’t be concerned if he didn’t see me for a while.  Then I went just far enough around the loop to get to my tent.

I borrowed a heat sheet, so I wouldn’t get cold, and I sat down to rest.  The guy in the adjacent tent asked me if I needed anything, such as water, Gatorade, or chips.  Potato chips sounded wonderful.  He gave me some potato chips, and they were wonderfully salty.  It was just what I needed.

Rather than rest in the night air, which was getting chilly, I decided to go back to the hotel.  I took a hot shower and climbed into bed.  I set an alarm and tried to take a nap.

Before I could fall asleep, I needed to get up to pee.  I climbed back into bed, but before long I needed to pee again.  This went on for a while.  I never got to sleep, but I was gradually passing all the excess fluid I had been carrying for most of the race.

I eventually got dressed and went back to the lake.  I felt better, but I chose not to run any more laps.  I ended the day with 66.78 miles.  That’s disappointing, but I didn’t want to drag myself through another lap or two in my current condition.’

I talked to the people at the medical tent.  What I was experiencing can sometimes be a symptom of hyponatremia.  I’ve heard of this symptom before, but I had never previously experienced it.  It’s sometimes called water intoxication or water drunkenness.

John, who was walking, also had a goal of getting to 70 miles.  He went well beyond that, getting to 75 miles.  He could have gone farther, but he stopped at 75, so we could start packing up our campsite.  By 8 AM, we were all packed up.

After the race, there was a post-race breakfast, followed by an awards ceremony.  A surprising number of runners had strong races, in spite of the tough conditions.  Two of the race-walkers earned centurion badges by getting to 100 miles.

I expect to be back at FANS again next year.  I need 72.6 miles to get to 1,500 total.  That’ll probably be my overriding goal.

Race statistics:

Distance:  66.78 miles

Official Time:  24 hours

Actual Time on Course:  18:42:20

Average Pace:  16:48 per mile

Marathons/Ultras in 2026:  15

Lifetime Marathons/Ultras:  587

Minnesota Marathons/Ultras:  116

Lifetime FANS Miles:  1427.4

TBT: 2007 Mississippi Trail 50

This is a Throwback Thursday post.  I didn’t start writing race reports until 2010, and I didn’t start this blog until 2014.  This week, I decided to write up my recollections of a race I ran almost 19 years ago.  It was one of the best race performances of my life.  It was also one of the most surprising.

On March 10, 2007, I ran the Carl Touchstone Memorial Mississippi Trail 50.  This race was held on horse trails in DeSoto National Forest.  The closest city with hotels was Laurel, MS.

Deb and I flew to Gulfport and drove from there to Laurel.  Deb had a sinus infection, and her congestion made her ears painful on the flights.  We had to stop at a pharmacy to get her a stronger decongestant.

Packet pickup was in Laurel, where there was also a pre-race dinner and briefing.  The race was named in memory of Carl Touchstone, who was a well-known local runner and race organizer.  At the dinner, I met a runner who had known Carl.

What I remember most from the pre-race briefing was the race director telling us that it was turkey hunting season, and there might be hunters in the forest during the race.  We were cautioned not to wear anything red, as the red wattle of a male turkey is something hunters look for.

It would have been nice to get that information before we left home.  I brought a fuel belt that had two small red pouches on the front.  At this point, it was too late to get something else.  I went to bed that night hoping I wouldn’t get shot during the race.

The race started in a campground in the state forest.  We had to get up early to make the drive from Laurel.  I woke up with the beginnings of a cold.  My symptoms were mild.  I didn’t know how it would affect my race.  I also didn’t know how exerting myself for 50 miles would affect my body’s ability to fight off the cold.  I just had to show up and do my best.

I had low expectations for this race, and it wasn’t just because of the cold.  I had never run an ultra on trails before.  Training through the winter, I had done all my winter training on a treadmill.  I ran a road marathon a month earlier, but I had not done any training on trails.  I was in pretty good shape that year, but I was out of my element.

I wanted to get to the campground well before the race started.  I thought we were going to get there about 30 minutes early.  As we were looking for a place to park the car, Deb said, “I think they’re lining up to start.”

I assumed she must be mistaken.  The race didn’t start for another 30 minutes, or so I thought.  It turns out I was mistaken about the start time.  When I saw for myself that the race was about to start, I told Deb to just stop the car and let me out.

Fortunately, I was already wearing my fuel belt, and I had filled my bottles before leaving the hotel.  I hopped out of the car and ran over to the starting line.  By now, the race had already started.

We were supposed to check in before the race, so they would have a full accounting of who was on the course.  I ran up to the RD, who was at the starting line, and I asked him where I needed to check in.  He said, “You’re checked in.  Go!”  By now, everyone else had been running for almost two minutes.

The course was a 12.5-mile trail loop.  For the 50-mile race, we had to run four laps.  There was also a 50K race that started with two laps of the same loop and then switched to a shorter loop with different trail markings.

When I signed up for this race, I wasn’t confident that I was ready for a 50-mile race.  I was working on a long-term goal of running a marathon or ultra in every state.  I chose this race for Mississippi, because it fit well into my schedule, and we were able to get a good airfare for our flight to Gulfport.  Back then, we wouldn’t fly anywhere if the airfare was more than about $250.

I could always start the 50-mile race, but switch to the 50K race if it wasn’t going well.  I might not have signed up for this race if I didn’t have the option of dropping down to a shorter distance.

The course started out running though the campground.  I wasn’t familiar with the course, and the other runners were already too far ahead for me to see them.  As I ran through the campground, I was asking campers, “Which way did the runners go?”  The campers pointed, and I ran than in that direction until I was onto the trail.

Within another minute or two, I could see some of the runners.  I was catching up to the back of the pack.

We were on a trail that was wide enough for horses, but there wasn’t much room to pass other runners.  I wasn’t expecting to be competitive, but I also didn’t want to be stuck behind everyone, so I worked hard to get around people and move forward through the pack.  It’s only because of my effort to pass people that I started at a fast pace.  Otherwise, I would’ve paced myself more conservatively, knowing that I had never run 50 miles on trails before.

After at least a mile of working frantically to pass people, I suddenly broke into the clear.  There were still runners ahead of me, but they were so far ahead that I couldn’t see them.

The first time I reached an aid station, I asked one of the volunteers how many runners had already gone by.  He said, “five.”  I topped off my bottles, ate a donut, and continued running.

The course didn’t have any major climbs, but it was still semi-technical.  There were stream crossings, roots, and occasional patches of mud.  Thankfully, it had been a dry winter, so I could hop across most of the streams without getting my feet wet.

I still couldn’t see any of the runners ahead of me.  I was expecting to be able to follow other runners.  Instead, I was on my own to look for the trail markings.

At one point, it occurred to me that I couldn’t see any of the ribbons marking the route.  I didn’t know if I had missed a turn.  I briefly stopped to look back.  I didn’t see anyone coming up behind me.  I wondered if I should stop and wait.  Not wanting to lose too much time, I continued running.  Soon, I saw a ribbon, and I knew I was still on course.

The course was mostly a loop, but there was one short out-and-back-section.  When I got there, I saw the lead runner coming back.  As I continued, I saw the other four runners who were ahead of me.  By the time I reached the turnaround and started coming back, I could no longer see any of them.  They were too far ahead of me.

I was almost back to the campground when I finally got close enough to another runner to see him just ahead of me.  I passed him as I ran through the campground for the second time.

As I ran through the same section of trail where I was passing people before, I recognized most of the turns.  After another mile or two, I caught up to another runner, and we had a brief conversation.

Her name was Anne.  She was from Wisconsin, and she knew some of the other runners.  She said the next runner I would catch was Larry, and he was from Chicago.  As I went ahead on my own, Anne told me when I saw Larry, I should tell him Anne says hello.

Gradually catching up to the runners ahead of me kept me excited.  I never expected to run this race competitively, but I was now in fourth place, and I got more excited each time I caught up to another runner.  Soon, I caught up to Larry.  I gave him Anne’s greeting, and then I moved ahead of him.

Ultramarathons are at least as much psychological as they are physical.  Obviously, longer distances require more training, but it’s easy to underestimate the importance of things like confidence and excitement.  Each time I passed another runner, I got more excited, and I gained in confidence.  I didn’t stop to ask myself if I could run this fast for 50 miles.  I just got caught up in the excitement.

I eventually passed one more runner.  Then I reached the out-and-back section again.  I looked for the last remaining runner who was ahead of me.  I never saw him.  He finished this section before I got there.  For the rest of the race, I wouldn’t see another runner ahead of me.  I was running on my own for the rest of the race.

When I finished that lap, it was decision time.  Should I continue on the 50-mile course or switch to the 50K course?  I didn’t have to think too hard.  I felt good, and I was excited about being in second place, so I started a third lap of the same loop.  It would have still been possible to stop after three laps and get listed as a 50K finisher, but that wasn’t very palatable.  Three laps would be 37.5 miles, which is much farther than 50K.  I committed to running 50 miles.

For someone with no training on trails, I did remarkably well at maintaining a good pace, while avoiding roots and navigating stream crossings.  At one point, I did trip on something, but I was able to keep from falling.  I had a rather awkward landing on my other foot, however.  It was so jarring, that I immediately felt pain in my lower back.  My right leg briefly felt numb.  I managed to keep running, and within a minute or two I felt normal again.  That was a huge relief.

We were sharing these trails with a few people on horseback.  At one point, I passed a few riders.  When they saw me coming, they stopped, so their horses wouldn’t get spooked.  I could see places where the horses had stirred up mud on some of the softer parts of the trail.

My biggest recollection from my third lap was getting a sung stuck in my head.  It was The Chicken Dance, which is a song you typically only hear at wedding receptions.  I had that tune in my head for about an hour.

I was trying to catch up to the lead runner, but he was getting farther ahead of me.  Each time I finished a lap, I saw a  board showing what time the leader had gone through.  By the time I started my last lap, I knew I had no hope of catching him.  Instead, I focused on staying ahead of everyone else and running the best pace I could.  I may have slowed a little in the last lap, but not too much.

I finished the race in second place, roughly 20 minutes after the winner finished.  My official time was 7:24:02, but that was the time from when the gun went off.  By my watch, I ran the course in 7:22:29.  Either way, it was a 50-mile PR that I’ve never broken.  Even on roads, I never came close to matching that time.  I still don’t know how I did that.  I’m normally slower on trails than on roads, and I’m even slower when I’m carrying the extra weight of water bottles.

Later in the day, there was a post-race dinner back in Laurel.  When I told another runner about The Chicken Dance, he got a good laugh.

My award for second place was a plexiglass trophy in the shape of Mississippi.  It’s one of my favorite awards.

The winner of that race was a park ranger who worked in the DeSoto National Forest, so he was able to train on the same trails that we were racing on.  He outclassed everyone there.  I did well to finish second.

After the race, I no longer had any cold symptoms.  My exertion may have helped me fight off the cold.  That’s the sort of thing that can go either way.  In other news, I didn’t get shot by any hunters.

The next day, Deb and I drove to Gulfport.  Before flying home, we drove the coastal highway between Gulfport and Biloxi.  It was two years after the area was hit by Hurricane Katrina, and I wanted to see what the area looked like now.  I used to visit Biloxi on business trips, so I was familiar with the area.

I was astonished to see the damage along the coast.  Of the buildings I recognized, only a few were still standing.  One was a shopping mall.  It had damage, but it was still intact.  Another building I recognized was a small shop next to the beach that sold beach ware and souvenirs.  I don’t know how that building survived.  Larger, sturdier buildings were reduced to rubble.

Location was critical.  The buildings along the coast were all destroyed, even though many of them were modern brick buildings.  Just a few blocks farther inland, wooden houses were still standing.  Apparently, the larger buildings along the coast felt the full brunt of the storm.  They sheltered the smaller, more fragile buildings behind them.

I was pleased to see that the local governments had invested in restoring their white sand beach.  Having been to Biloxi before, I knew how important tourism was to the local economy.

The following year, I was contacted by the race organizers.  Because I placed second in 2007, they offered me a complimentary entry in 2008.  I had to decline.  At the time, we could only afford a few trips per year.  I was prioritizing races that gave me new states.  Other than local races, I wasn’t repeating any states.  That’s probably just as well.  There’s no way I could ever recreate the magic of my second-place finish in 2007.

Race Statistics

Distance:  50 miles

Official Time:  7:24:02

Actual Time on Course:  7:22:29

Average Pace:  8:51 per mile

Race Report: 2025 FANS 24-Hour Run

On May 31, I ran the FANS 24-Hour Run.  This is one of the FANS Ultra Races, which also include a 24-hour walk, a 12-hour run, a 12-hour walk, and a 6-hour run.  The race venue was Normandale Lake Park in Bloomington, MN.  The course was a 1.82-mile paved loop around the lake.

We could pick up our race packets at the lake on Friday.  Alternatively, we could pick them up Saturday morning before the race.  Race morning is always busy, so I picked mine up on Friday.

I was assigned bib number 2.  That’s the lowest bib number I’ve ever had.  The lowest bib numbers were given to the runners who have the most cumulative miles at FANS.  The runner with the most lifetime miles is Sue Olsen, but she was doing the 6-hour run, and the shorter races had different ranges of bib numbers.  Of the runners doing the 24-hour run, only Ed Rousseau had more total FANS miles than me.  Ed is the only runner who has done this race every year.

Ordinarily, I would sleep in my own bed, but I made a last-minute decision to stay in a hotel that was just a mile away from the lake.  There were two things that drove this decision.  First, Interstate 494 through Bloomington was shut down for the weekend.  To drive to the race from home, I would’ve needed to detour on side streets, which would force me to leave awfully early.  Also, staying in a hotel made it easier to get a large quantity of crushed ice.

There was an area at the west end of the lake where we could set up tents.  I shared a tent with my sister, Betty, and her husband, John.  John was doing the 24-hour walk, and Betty was volunteering.  The race didn’t start until 8:00 AM, but we could start setting up tents any time after 6:00.  The three of us arrived at 6:00, so we could get our usual tent site.

After setting up, I had time to walk through tent city and visit with other runners.

Although I picked up my race packet on Friday, I still had to check in Saturday morning to get the ankle strap with my timing chip.  Then I weighed in.

Weigh-ins were optional, but I find them to be helpful.  A large fluctuation in weight would alert me if I was overhydrating or underhydrating.  In addition to my pre-race weigh-in, I also weighed in every four hours during the race.

I had the same two goals as last year.  My first goal was to run 100 miles.  My second goal was to win the state championship for men over 60.  In the past, I would’ve taken 100 miles for granted.  My poor performance at the Across the Years 48-hour race in January shook my confidence, but I’ve had several good race results since then.  I’m not as well-trained as I was last year, but I’m still in better shape than I was three years ago, when I ran 100 miles with minimal training.

The temperature at the start was in the 60s.  It was forecast to get up into the 80s in the late afternoon.  That’s hot, but I wasn’t too concerned.  I was planning to take frequent walking breaks, which makes it easier to keep from overheating.

What concerned me more was the air quality.  Smoke from wildfires in Canada has been moving into Minnesota.  The air quality wasn’t too bad on Friday, but it got into the unhealthy range on Saturday.  I don’t have asthma, but it still wasn’t an ideal day to be outdoors all day, much less running.  The timing wasn’t great, but this is the only day of the year that I get to run this race.

I wore two watches.  On one wrist, I wore a Timex watch, which I used to keep track of elapsed time since the race started.  On my other wrist, I wore a Garmin watch.  My Garmin is an inexpensive model.  It has an estimated battery life of 22 hours when it’s in run mode.  That’s not long enough for a race like this, so I wasn’t using GPS.  To know my distance, I just needed to know how many laps I completed.  I wore the Garmin watch so I could have a record of my heart rate during the race.  It also counted my steps.

There were two methods of lap counting.  The primary method was chip timing.  We all wore timing chips on our ankles, and there was a timing mat at the end of the loop.  As a backup method, there were volunteers who were counting our laps manually.  If you weren’t sure how many laps you completed, you could always ask the lap counters.

The course had two aid stations.  The main aid station was next to the bandshell.  There was also a secondary aid station at the opposite corner of the lake.  Both had water, Gatorade, and food, but there was a wider variety of food at the main aid station.

We had until 8:00 AM on Sunday to run (or walk) as far as we could.  We could take breaks at any time, but the clock was always running.

The first lap wasn’t a complete lap around the lake.  Instead of starting at the main aid station, we started near the tent area.  That was done for convenience.  After that, every lap started and finished at the main aid station.  That’s where the lap counters were.

There’s an award for the person who runs the fastest first lap.  This award is named after Bob Frawley, who was the founder of the race.  Bob used to have a reputation for starting fast.

The first time I ran FANS, back in 1998, Bob was still the race director.  Bob later handed off the reins to other race directors, but he continued to run in the race.  Bob passed away last summer.  As a tribute to Bob, I decided to run fast for the first lap before settling into a more sustainable pace.

I lined up in front and went out at a fast pace.  Initially, one other runner was keeping up with me.  He was a runner I met two years ago, when we were both doing the 6-hour run.  He was doing the 6-hour run again.

After about half a mile, another runner caught up to us.  His name was Chris, and he was doing the 12-hour run.  For the rest of the lap, I ran side-by-side with Chris.  I had to work hard to keep up with Chris, and I couldn’t have done it for much longer.

I assumed this award went to the 24-hour runner with the fastest first lap, so I didn’t really need to compete with Chris for it.  I kept up with him, but I didn’t try to outsprint him to the finish line at the end of that lap.  We hit the line together with a lap time of 11:45.  The first lap was 1.51 miles, so our pace was about 7:47 per mile.

That was fun, but it was crazy.  After pausing to get a drink of Gatorade at the aid station, I had to walk for a few minutes to try to recover.  When I resumed running, it was at a more relaxed pace.  My left Achilles tendon felt a little bit tight.  I considered stopping at our tent to massage my left calf with a massage stick.  Instead, I waited a few laps to see if it would loosen up on its own.

Starting with the second lap, I used walking breaks to slow my pace down to something that I hoped wouldn’t wear me out.  In the past, I always started my walking breaks at the aid stations.  That way, I didn’t have to resume running immediately after eating or drinking.  The problem with that strategy is that it has me walking on the flattest parts of the course and running on the sections that are rolling.

This year, I tried something different.  Instead of one or two long walking breaks per lap, I took several short ones.  I walked most of the uphill sections and ran where it was either downhill or mostly flat.  In the last two weeks before the race, I did most of my training on the course.  I picked out eight hills that I planned to walk, but there were five other places that could technically be considered to be “hills.”  This course really doesn’t have any big hills, but there are lots of small undulations.

The image below is from one of my training runs.  The areas in blue are the hills that I was walking.  One was so short that it barely shows up in this image.

Besides the hills, there were also two wooden bridges, where we crossed Nine Mile Creek.  Sometimes, I also walked across the bridges.

Finally, I sometimes walked briefly while eating or drinking something from an aid station.

Over the next few laps, I gradually caught my breath.  My left Achilles tendon didn’t feel as tight, but both of my calves felt a little sore.

For the rest of the morning, I was averaging about 20 minutes per lap.  I knew that was still too fast, but I was planning to slow it down as it got warmer.

I was drinking Gatorade at both aid stations and occasionally eating solid food.  That was fine for the morning hours, but as it got warmer, I assumed I would need to increase my fluid intake.  I had an insulated bag at our campsite with several bottles of Gatorade.  If drinking at the two aid stations wasn’t enough, I could also stop at the tent to get a drink of Gatorade.

At noon, I weighed in again.  My weight was half a pound higher than it was before the race.  That surprised me.  I expected my weight to be down slightly.  I assumed that drinking at the two aid stations was enough, for now, and that the extra half pound was attributable to the sub sandwich I had just eaten at the aid station.

Realizing my pace wasn’t sustainable, I made an adjustment to my pacing strategy.  I started taking two additional walking breaks per lap.  I picked two more sections that were slightly uphill.  The sections I chose helped break up my longest periods of running.

The additional walking breaks didn’t slow my pace as much as I thought they would.  I was taking at least 10 walking breaks per lap, but they were all fairly short.  I was still running the majority of the loop.  It felt easy, but it was still too fast.

It was a sunny day, and the sun was now high in the sky.  By 1:00, I was already feeling hot.  I felt a little bit tired, and I had a little bit of soreness in my legs.  That was a bad sign.  I’ve never felt sore or tired this early in a 24-hour race.  Usually, I feel fresh for the first 10 hours, even if I’m going too fast.

My last line of defense against overheating was putting ice in my hat.  My Gatorade bottles were packed in crushed ice.  I stopped at the tent every lap or two and put a handful of crushed ice in my hat.  That’s an amazingly effective way to cool your self down, but it takes some getting use to.  It’s not comfortable, and the first time you do it, it can be a bit disconcerting.

I also added a cooling bandana that had been soaking in ice water.  As the ice in my hat melted, the cold water ran down the back of my next and was absorbed by the bandana.

There were signs around the lake marking various milestones we would hit at different points during the race.  During my 15th lap, I reached the marathon mark.  I got there in 4:56:22.  That’s not as fast as last year, but it was still too fast.

All through the afternoon, I was walking up the same ten hills.  Everywhere else, I ran at a relaxed pace.  I continued drinking Gatorade at the aid stations, but I only stopped to drink at the tent once.  Every few laps, I had some solid food.  Usually, it was a PBJ or some type of bar.  One of the race sponsors was Parkway Pizza, so I had pizza once.  Another sponsor was Jimmy John’s, so I sometimes ate part of a sandwich.

When I weighted in again at 4:00, I fully expected my weight to be down.  It wasn’t.  I was still up half a pound compared to my pre-race weight.  In retrospect, I probably was losing weight, but my wet hat and bandana made me weigh in a little heavier.

The lap counters ring cowbells whenever a runner reaches 50 miles, 100K, or 100 miles.  In my 28th lap, I reached 50 miles.  When I finished that lap, they rang the cowbells for me.

I ran the first 50 miles in 9:56:46.  My primary goal was still to get to 100 miles.  To do that, I just needed to run 50 more miles, and I had 14 hours to do it.

I still felt tired, and I still felt a little sore, but I didn’t feel any worse after ten hours than I did after five hours.  That seemed encouraging, but there were other signs of wear and tear.

I wasn’t drinking as much as I usually do on a hot day, yet I always felt like my stomach was full.  In the late afternoon, the air quality was getting worse.  At one point, I coughed a few times.  When I coughed, I almost threw up.

That sensation of almost throwing up is something I had to fight down three or four times during the race.  I sometimes wanted to skip an aid station, but I didn’t think that would be wise unless I had some evidence that I was overhydrating.

At 6:30, I stopped at the medical tent to do an unscheduled weigh-in.  I was hoping my weight would be up, which would give me justification to occasionally skip an aid station.  My weight was still the same.

My body was giving me mixed signals.  On one hand, I felt like I was overhydrating, because I always felt so full.  On the other hand, I wasn’t peeing as often as I normally do.  I sometimes went three or four hours between bathroom stops.

In the evening, my throat constantly felt irritated.  The sky was hazy, so I assumed it was from the poor air quality.  It didn’t occur to me at the time that I might be getting dehydrated.  I kept expected my weight to drop if I wasn’t drinking enough, and it never did.  At my 8:00 PM weigh-in, my weight was still the same.

Heading into the late evening, I was slowing down substantially.  I was still doing the same proportion of running and walking, but everything was slower now.

After one of my laps, I was met by a friend at the aid station.  My friend, Karen, came out to run a few laps with me.  She also brought some homemade ice cream.  I could only eat a little bit at a time, but it was a nice change of pace from drinking Gatorade every lap.

After the sun went down, I stopped at my tent to get my headlamp.  There were street lamps in a few places, and there were enough battery-powered lamps that it wasn’t too hard to see where the trail was.  Still, there are always shady spots, so it helped to have a headlamp.

While I was running laps with Karen, I reached the 100K mark, but I forgot to record my time.  Shortly after that, I had to do more walking.  There were still three small hills that I was previously running.  Now I was walking every part of the course that was uphill, however short.

After Karen went home, I was running by myself in the dark.  My running had degenerated into a slow shuffle.  My walking was more of a slow stagger.  At times, it seemed like I wasn’t always walking in a straight line.  Some of that was fatigue.  Some of that was stiffness in my muscles.  Some of that may have been disorientation.

It felt much cooler after the sun went down.  I started to feel cold, so I had to stop at the tent to add gloves and a jacket.

There were several Centurion walkers in this race, including six who traveled from Europe.  To be a Centurion, you need to walk 100 miles in 24 hours.  All of these walkers have done this before in other countries, and they came her to earn a Centurion badge in the United States.  Most people slow down as the race progresses, but Centurions are very consistent in their pacing.

Even though I was still doing more running than walking, I was frequently getting passed by the Centurions.  I could no longer run as fast as they were walking.

By midnight I had run more than 72 miles.  I just needed to run 28 more miles, and I had eight hours to do it.  Ghat should’ve been easy, but I wasn’t sure if I could make it.  My pace now was just barely fast enough to get there, and it was gradually getting slower.

After midnight, I adopted a new strategy.  I only ran the downhill sections, and I walked everything else.  On a long flat section, I could walk much faster.  I was now power-walking most of the lap.  That was fast enough, but I didn’t know how long I could sustain it.

Most of my training has been running.  I’ve done hardly any race-walking this year.  Race-walking is good cross-training for running, but running doesn’t prepare you for race-walking.  There’s no substitute for putting in the training, and I haven’t done that lately.

I was able to walk fast, but I quickly started to feel sore across my lower back.  I was using muscles that weren’t trained for this, and they quickly got fatigued.

John was doing the 24-hour walk, but he sometimes took rest breaks.  On one of my laps, I saw John in the tent and asked him if he could walk with me for a few laps.  He had just started a rest break and said he would be starting another lap for about half an hour.

The next time I came by, John was still there.  He was ready to resume walking now, so we walked together for the next four laps.

I stopped running the downhill sections.  While I was with John, we just power-walked the entire lap.  To get to 100 miles, I needed to average about 31 minutes per lap.  For the next two laps, we were about to walk them in about 28 minutes each.  Then I couldn’t keep it up any more.

About halfway through my third lap with John, I slowed down substantially.  I was completely fatigued.  Now I could only walk at a slow pace.  It was no longer fast enough to get to 100 miles.  On top of that, every step was painful.

At 2:00 AM, we both did a weigh-in.  We weren’t actually due to weigh in until 4:00, but we both got confused about the time.  My weight was up a pound since midnight.  I can’t explain that.  I was only drinking once per lap now.

During my last lap with John, the pain got to be too much.  There was still five hours left in the race, but it was no longer possible to reach 100.  If it wasn’t so painful, I would’ve kept moving, but the pain in my lower back was excruciating.  I couldn’t do that for five more hours.

I seemed like it took forever to get back around to the main aid station.  When we got there, I informed the lap counters that I was done, and I turned in my timing chip.  I finished the race with 44 laps, which is 81.6 miles.

From there, I still had to walk the rest of the way back to our tent.  John was planning to take another rest break, but first, he helped me carry a few things to my car.

The temperature had dropped to 59 degrees.  Now that I wasn’t moving, I quickly got cold.  It only took me a few minutes to drive back to my hotel, but my hands were turning white.

I took a quick shower to rinse off the salt and sweat.  Then I dried off and climbed into bed.  I was hoping to take a nap before I needed to drive back to the race.

As I climbed into bed, both feet and one calf muscle started to cramp up.  It took several minutes to find a position that didn’t make my feet cramp.  Then I started to shiver.  I took a few minutes bundled up under warm blankets for the shivering to stop.

I got back to the hotel just in time.  If either of these symptoms hit me while I was still walking around the lake, it would’ve been much worse.

I wasn’t able to get to sleep.  After resting in bed for a couple hours, I forced myself to get up.  I was more stiff than before.  I worked on my calves and hamstrings with a massage stick.  That made a difference.  Now I could get dressed and walk to the car.

Before driving back to the race, I had breakfast at the hotel.  We would have a breakfast after the race, but that wouldn’t be for another two and a half hours.  I was starving, so I needed to eat something right away.  I knew my body chemistry was off, but I figured eating some real food would help restore my electrolyte balance.  I still didn’t feel great, but it helped.

John was still walking, but Betty and I started packing and bringing things to the car.  I was moving in slow motion, but we had plenty of time before the race was over.

When John reached his mileage goal, the three of us took down the tent.  Betty and John waited to see the last few Centurions finish their races.  I started walking to the main aid station to see if there was still some food that would help settle my stomach.  I had some potato chips and a cup of ginger ale.  I think the potato chips helped.  I don’t think I was getting enough electrolytes during thew race.

After the post-race breakfast, there was an awards presentation.  First, they do the top finishers in each category.  Then they do the RRCA awards.  I didn’t win the over 60 title.  There were two men over 60 who ran or walked at least 100 miles.

I also didn’t win a director’s award.  I was expecting to win the award for the fastest first lap, but they were including runners from all races, not just the 24-hour race.  Chris, who did the 12-hour run, beat me to the line by a tiny fraction of a second.

I fell short of all of my goals at this race, but the most frustrating thing is that I’m not entirely sure what went wrong, other than starting too fast.  I know my nutrition was off, but it’s hard to know for sure what happened.  I’ve run in similar conditions before, but my body had never behaved like this before.  I had some symptoms that suggest I was getting dehydrated and wasn’t getting enough salt.  I had other symptoms that were inconsistent with that.

Race statistics:

Distance:  81.6 miles

Official Time:  24 hours

Actual Time Before Stopping:  18:42:53

Average Pace:  13:02 per mile

Lifetime Marathons/Ultras:  546

Minnesota Marathons/Ultras:  106

Lifetime FANS miles:  1360.6