Race Report: 2022 Summer Camp Series, Day 3

On July 18, I ran the third race of the Summer Camp Series.  Summer Camp is a series of marathons and half marathons in central Minnesota put on by Mainly Marathons.  This series was previously known as the Minnesota Brothers Trail Series.

This year, the Summer Camp Series consisted of five races.  Each one is at a different venue.  Two of the venues were new this year.  I’m not doing the entire series, but I want to experience each race venue at least once.  As it turns out, the races with new venues happened to be on consecutive days.  Running on consecutive days doesn’t give me much time to recover between races, but it’s convenient for traveling to the races.

I stayed at the same hotel in St. Cloud where I’ve three or four times before.  In the last three years alone, I’ve spent 31 nights in this hotel, so I’m getting to know the area pretty well.

I drove to St. Cloud after lunch on Sunday.  On my way, I made two stops.  First, I stopped in Clearwater to familiarize myself with the park where tomorrow’s race will be held.  Then, I went to the park in Sauk Rapids where yesterday’s race was held.  Several of the runners were still on the course, and I got a chance to say hello to a lot of runners I know.  Everyone was talking about how hot it was.

When I got to my hotel, they didn’t have a room ready yet.  While I waited, I went grocery shopping to pick up food for breakfasts and post-race snacks.  By the time I got back, my room was ready. After unpacking, I went to Whitney Park, to check out the venue for today’s race.

I had an early dinner at House of Pizza in Sartell.  They have pizzas with interesting combinations of toppings.  I had their roasted garlic potato pizza, which is the same pizza I had before the first day of the Running Ragged 20in20 Series, two years ago.

I got to sleep as early as I could.  I slept well for half the night, but then I woke up and had trouble getting back to sleep.  When I got up, I didn’t worry about whether I got enough sleep.  Instead, I worried that I might have let myself get dehydrated yesterday.  I was either outside or in a hot car for most of the afternoon, but I didn’t have anything to drink until dinner.  I don’t usually drink much before a race, but this morning I made an exception.  I also reminded myself to take in plenty of fluids during the race.

Today’s race was held at Whitney Park, which is a large athletic complex in St. Cloud.  Our course was and out-and-back route that went most of the way around the perimeter of the park.

The course was paved, and it was extremely flat.  According to my watch, there was only 27 feet of ascent in the whole race.  That’s an average of one foot per mile.

We ran clockwise around the park for just over a mile.  Then we made a U-turn and ran counter-clockwise until we returned to the starting point.  To complete a marathon, we needed to run this route 12 times.

The race started at 6:00, but I needed to be there early to pick up my race packet.  People doing the entire series already had their race bibs, so there were only a few of us who needed to pick up our race packets in the morning.

Today was another hot day.  When the race started, it was already 75 degrees.  The forecast high was 95.  It wouldn’t get that hot until late afternoon, but it climbed into the upper 80s before I finished.

There was an aid station in the start/finish area with water, Gatorade, and a variety of food.  There was a table where we could leave our water bottles.

Usually, these races only have one aid station.  Today, there was also a self-service aid station on the opposite side of the park, which had water, Coke, Sprite, and a cooler full of ice.  It was positioned where we would pass it twice on each lap.  If I had known there would be two aid stations, I would’ve brought two bottles.  I only had one bottle, so I left it at the main aid station.

I struggled at the Firecracker Triple earlier this month, and my training has been hampered by an inflamed tendon in my left leg.  I wasn’t really sure if I was up to racing on  two consecutive days, so I planned to pace myself very conservatively.  The hot conditions gave me an extra reason to go slow.

When we started running, I went out of my way to start slowly.  My pace was so slow that it felt awkward at first.  Even so, there were only a few runners ahead of me in the first lap.

At each of the aid stations, I took a one-minute walking break.  I did that to keep from overheating.  Walking for a minute gives your body a chance to cool down.  For the first few miles, my pace (including the walking) was about 11 minutes per mile.  After a few miles, my pace slowed to about 11:20.

I was sweaty, but didn’t feel hot.  The walking breaks were effective in giving my body a chance to dissipate the excess heat.

Kevin Brosi does a lot of these races.  Kevin tells bad jokes to anyone who will listen.  Apparently, Kevin has raised his game.  Now he puts them on signs too.

Kevin can be forgiven for the bad jokes, because he’s there early every day to help set up.  He makes sure all our ducks are in a row.

By the end of my third lap, I had already emptied my 20 oz. bottle of Gatorade.  I refilled it and headed out on my fourth lap.  I continued drinking at the same rate for the whole race.  At first, it seemed like I was hydrating well.  After five laps, I already had to make a bathroom stop.

For the first half of the race, I often thought I heard footsteps.  It always seemed like there was another runner right behind me.  I eventually realized it was the sound of my camera bouncing up and down within my fanny pack.

After six laps, I was on pace to finish in the low 4:50s.  I expected to slow down in the second half, but it seemed likely that I would break five hours.  I was hesitant to make that my goal.  I had to wait and see how I felt in the second half.

Before starting my seventh lap, I refilled my bottle again.  I also took the time to take my camera out of my fanny pack and put it in my drop bag.

By now, the temperature had climbed into the 80s.  I felt warmer, and I was sweating more, but the walking breaks were still doing their job.  I didn’t feel like I was in any danger of overheating.

My pace slowed down a little.  In the first half of the race, it ranged between 11:00 and 11:30.  In the second half, several of my miles were slower than 11:30.

Speed is relative.  I was running at a pace that I regard as slow.  For many years, I consistently finished marathon with times in the 3:20s.  Today, I was on pace to be an hour and a half slower than that.  Most of the other runners seemed to regard me as the fast guy.  Indeed, I was the first runner to finish six laps.  By the end of my eighth lap, I was already at least one lap ahead of everyone else.

When I did the Running Ragged 20in20 Series two years ago, I often tried to be the first one to finish.  When I was only competing against other runners who were doing the whole series, I could do that.  Sometimes, a new runner would show up with fresh legs.  When that happened, I knew better than to try to complete with them.

Today, I was the runner with fresh legs.  Most of the other runners were already on their third consecutive day.  Some of the runners did the 7-day Heartland Series right before this one.  For them, this was the 10th day in a row.  I had some soreness in my left leg, but I’m pretty sure everyone else had more aches and pains than I did.

Although I didn’t have a bottle at the secondary aid station, I realized there was still a way I could make use of it.  It occurred to me that I could stop there to put ice cubes in my hat.  Each time I went by there, I thought about it.  Each time, I told myself that I could consider doing that later, but I didn’t have any immediate need to do that.

When I finished my 9th lap, I finished another bottle of Gatorade, but my bottle had warmed up in the sun.  The Gatorade was warm, and it wasn’t at all appetizing.  I still finished it.  Then I started to refill my bottle.  I wondered if I could put ice cubes in it.  Then I saw the volunteers were scooping ice cream to make root beer floats.  I left a little room in my bottle and asked them to put a scoop of ice cream in it.  Then I put the cover on.  A Gatorade float may sound weird, but it was a way of chilling the Gatorade so it wouldn’t warm up as quickly.

In my 10th lap, I started to feel really hot.  Sweat from my forehead was dripping into my eyes.  The salt made my eyes sting.  It was time to start putting ice in my hat.  I had already run by the self-service aid station once, but I could stop there on the way back.

When I got back to the self-service aid station, I opened the cooler and put a handful of ice in my hat.  The hat I was wearing today has a large opening in the back and half of the ice went right through it.  I put more ice in my hat.  This time I was more careful to keep the ice in the front of my hat.  When I put it on, half of the ice still fell through the back.  The ice that remained in my hat felt good.

This is the first time I can recall putting ice in my hat during a marathon, but I’ve often done that during hot-weather ultramarathons.  It’s effective in cooling you, but the cold ice on your head can hurt at first.  There wasn’t actually that much ice in my hat, so it didn’t hurt.  Within a minute or two, I could start to feel it melting on top of my head.

The ice made me feel more comfortable, but it didn’t take long for it to melt.  Early in my 11th lap, the ice cubes were already gone.  Ice water from my hat ran down my neck and into the back of my shirt.  The cold water in my shirt helped cool my back.

When I passed the self-service aid station again, I felt like I was OK for now, but I decided to stop there again on the way back.

I put ice in my hat again.  This time, I got most of the ice to stay in my hat.  That was both good news and bad news.  It would eventually cool me down, but it was painful at first.  It also seemed to make me feel sluggish.  Having so much ice on my head caused a rapid surge of blood flow to the top of my head.  When that happens, it can briefly make you feel short of breath.  I’ve experienced that before.  I didn’t actually feel short of breath, but I had to slow down.

A few minutes later, I could feel ice water filtering through my hair.  That felt good.  I felt much cooler now.

Near the beginning of my last lap, I stopped again to pee.  I could’ve waited until after the race, but the port-o-potties were a distance away from the start/finish area.  I decided to stop while I was going by anyway, so I wouldn’t have to walk there after the race.  That says something about how I felt.  I would rather lose time during the race than have to do extra walking later.

When I was halfway through my last lap, I looked at my watch.  It was obvious that I would break five hours, but not by as much as I previous expected.  My previous mile had taken 11:44, and I assumed I would continue to slow down.  I neglected to consider that my previous mile included a bathroom stop.

In the second half of that lap, I was sure I was slowing down.  In retrospect, I may have been overly pessimistic.  I felt awful, and the last mile seemed to take forever, but I may not have slowed down at all.  I may have actually sped up in that mile.

I finished in 4:55:40.  That surprised me.  I was expecting to finish in 4:57 or 4:58.  I slowed down in the second half, but only by about two and a half minutes.  That’s not bad when you consider it was much hotter in the second half.

The medals for these races are designed to link together to form a chain.  You get the top piece and the piece indicating the year for doing at least one race of the series.  For completing today’s race, I got the piece that says, “Viking Voyage.”  That was the name of today’s race.  For each additional race in the series, you get another piece to add to the chain.  Finally, if you do the entire series, there’s an extra piece.  Here’s what my chain looks like so far.

After finishing, I was out of breath.  I had to lean on a table for a few minutes before I could walk away.  I finished my Gatorade and sat down on a bench for a few minutes.  Then I got a root beer float and sat down again while I drank it.  I needed several minutes to recover before I could walk back to my car.

During my last lap, I made I bathroom stop, so I wouldn’t have to walk back to the port-o-potties after the race.  That turned out to be a bad decision.  After sitting for a few minutes, I needed to make another bathroom stop, so I had to do that extra walking anyway.

After the race, I briefly had a symptom that I can only assume was heat-related.  My vision was slightly impaired.  When I looked at the grass, I saw a combination of white and green.  It was as if the grass was covered with cotton balls.  That eventually passed, but it was disconcerting.

When I got back to my car, the first thing I did was to check my weather app.  It was now 87 degrees.  When you factor in the sun and the humidity, the “feels like” temperature was 99 degrees.  No wonder I felt so awful.  I felt like I was doing OK for most of the race.  It was only in the last three laps that the heat took a heavy toll on me.

When I got back to the hotel, I switched into recovery mode.  My first priority was refueling.  I drank three glasses of chocolate milk and ate four mini-scones.  I wanted to replace carbs as quickly as possible, while also getting some protein.  I refilled my water bottle and put it in the refrigerator to get cold.

I had some symptoms of dehydration.  I had to be careful how I moved my feet, or they would cramp up.  If I stood up too quickly, I would get light-headed.  I worked on rehydrating for the rest of the day.

After a race, I usually take a hot bath and stretch.  I took a bath, but I was careful not to get the water too hot.  Then I did some stretching.

One of the advantages of driving to a race is being able to bring anything you need.  I didn’t have to travel light.  I brought a variety of gel ice packs from home.  My hotel room had a full-size refrigerator, so I was able to freeze them overnight.  After I dried off, I iced the sore spot in my left leg.

Ideally, I wanted to ice it and then hop in the hotel’s whirlpool.  I was worried I might easily overheat in the whirlpool, so I settled for just icing, and then waiting for my leg to warm up on its own.  Then I iced it using a different ice pack.  I had enough of them to do that five times.

Tomorrow’s race is expected to be just as hot as today’s.  Given how wiped out I felt after today’s race, I’m a bit worried about tomorrow.  I may have to go much slower.

Race statistics:

Distance:  26.2 miles

Time:  4:55:40

Average pace:  11:17

Lifetime Marathons/Ultras:  460

Minnesota Marathons/Ultras:  86

Race Report: 2022 Flat Marathon

On July 4, I ran the Flat Marathon in Portland, OR.  “The Flat” is a nickname for Sauvie Island, which is a large, relatively flat island in the Columbia River Valley.  This race was the third and final race of the Firecracker Triple.

The first two races of the Firecracker Triple were relatively small races organized by Steve Walters.  This race is a larger race sponsored by Foot Traffic, which is a chain of running stores in the greater Portland area.

Sauvie Island is mostly farmland, and several of the farms have fields of berries.  The race starts and finishes at a country market called The Pumpkin Patch.  The island has a distinctly rural feel, yet most of the island is within the city limits of Portland.  The bridge to the island is only 20 minutes away from downtown Portland, yet you feel like you’re way out in the country.

There’s only one bridge onto the island, so you need to arrive early to avoid getting stuck in a traffic jam.  The regular start for the marathon was 6:10 AM, but there was also an early start at 5:30, for people needing extra time.  The half marathon started later.

The road we started on is the same road you need to drive to get to The Pumpkin Patch.  For that reason, you want to get there well before the earliest wave of runners.  Deb and I got up early, so we could get to The Pumpkin Patch by 5:00.

When we arrived, we were directing to park in a field across the road from the Pumpkin Patch.  Runners are encouraged to carpool or take a shuttle from downtown, but there are still more cars than they could accommodate in the paved parking area.  Deb and I got there early enough to get a parking spot right next to the road.

My expectations for this race were framed by my miserable experience at yesterday’s race.  I knew I’d be slow.  I knew I’d be sore.  I just wanted to finish.  I was hoping it wouldn’t be a suffer fest like yesterday.

As I was talking to other runners, I was reminded that the marathon has a time limit of 5:30.  When I signed up, I thought that would be plenty of time.  After taking 5:16 to finish yesterday, I was no longer confident that I could finish within the time limit.  I asked the people from the timing company if I could switch to the early start.  They said I didn’t need to let anyone know.  I just needed to line up and start at 5:30 with the other early starters.  I gave Deb my warm-up clothes, made a bathroom stop, and got back just in time for pre-race instructions.  Because I started early, I wasn’t there for the pre-race group photo of everyone doing the triple.

Dan Chapman, who ran the seven-hour races on Saturday and Sunday, was also doing the early start.  I lined up next to Dan and we started running together.  We started at a nice easy pace.  Yesterday, I tried to force myself into a faster pace.  Today, I just wanted to finish, so I ran at the pace that felt most comfortable.

Dan and I were both starting at the same pace, so we started talking, and ended up running the whole race together.  Our conversation made the miles go by easier and helped keep me going.

The course is a single loop with two out-and-back segments.  The only time we had to run a section of road we had seen before was on the out-and-back sections.  That was easier psychologically than doing multiple loops.  I don’t mind a multiple loop course when I’m feeling good, but it can make everything feel worse if you’re struggling.

About two miles into the race, we ran by the Sauvie Island Bridge.  I stopped to take a picture and told Dan I would catch up to him.  I saw a line of cars stopped on the bridge.

Catching up to Dan took some effort, but as soon as I caught up, I was able to ease back into a more sustainable pace.

After running under the bridge, we reached a junction where all the cars coming from the bridge had to stop and wait for the runners before they could turn onto the same road.  This is why you need to get to the Pumpkin Patch before 5:30.  Anyone still on that bridge was in danger of not getting to the start on time.

About five miles into the race, we left the loop to begin the first out-and-back section.  This section is about six miles each way.  On our left, we had views of the channel.  On our right, we had views of farms, including this one that was growing flowers.

The aid stations had water, Nuun electrolyte drink, and gels.  At first, I was drinking water or Nuun.  Then I remembered that Nuun doesn’t have any calories, so I needed to start eating gels.  At one of the aid stations, Dan made a bathroom stop.  That gave me extra time to eat a gel.

Eventually, the fastest runners from the regular start caught up to us.  I didn’t know any of the fastest men.  Just before the turnaround, we were passed by Sadie Smith, who was leading all the women.

The water and Nuun were in small cups.  To make sure I was drinking enough, I started drinking one of each.  I usually also had a gel.

About halfway through the race, Dan stopped at an aid station to refill his hydration system.  That gave me time to make a bathroom stop without falling behind.

Before this series, I was concerned about a sore spot near my left hip, where my hamstring connects.  Yesterday, I barely noticed it.  Instead, I noticed soreness in just about every muscle in my legs.  Today, I noticed it whenever I picked up the pace to catch up to Dan after stopping to take a picture.  On the bright side, I wasn’t noticing much soreness anywhere else.  Starting at an easier pace seemed to make a pic difference.

On the way back, we got to see the channel from the opposite direction.  I stopped a couple times to take pictures, but it was getting harder to catch up to Dan after stopping.  Eventually, I had to just run.

Early in the race, I could hear my watch recording splits, but I didn’t look at my watch.  By the halfway mark, it seemed obvious to me that I was running faster than yesterday.  We reached the halfway mark in 2:22.  That was already eight or nine minutes faster than yesterday, and I felt better.

After about 16 miles, we finished the long out-and-back section and returned to the loop.  Just a few minutes later, we began the shorter out-and-back.  This section is only about half a mile each way, but it has the most noticeable hill on the course.  I was glad to be done with that section.

Next, we turned back onto the loop, which would eventually take us back to the Pumpkin Patch.  The rest of the loop was more exposed to the sun, but it wasn’t an unusually lot day.  The next few miles felt manageable.  At about 21 miles, it started to get more difficult.

I wasn’t sure if I was getting tired or if Dan was speeding up.  I eventually realized we were speeding up.  For most of the race, we were going slower than 11 minutes per mile.  By the time we reached the last three miles, we had sped up to about 10:30 per mile.

As we passed runners who had started walking, Dan would encourage them to join us for the last few miles.  I would remind them that there would be ice cream at the finish.  Several runners joined us for at least a mile.  We usually had at least four other runners with us.

In those last few miles, I once again felt that sore spot near my left hip.  I stayed with Dan as long as I could, but he was still accelerating.  We were almost to the 26 mile sign when I had to let him go.

Dan finished, and I came in shortly behind him in 4:48:46.  That was 28 minutes faster than yesterday.  I also felt more comfortable.

After I got my medal for today’s race, I walked over to the Steve’s tent to get my medal for finishing the triple.  Steve also gave each of us a plaque and drinking cup.

I wasn’t kidding about the ice cream at the finish.  On our race bibs, we each had a tear-off tag that we could redeem for an ice cream sandwich.

While I was running, Deb had a change to explore the market and the animal barn.  She didn’t have any breakfast before we left, but she was able to get a grilled cheese sandwich and strawberry shortcake at the café.

I was pretty disappointed with yesterday’s race, but I felt much better about today.  Now I need to recover.

Race statistics:

Distance:  26.2 miles

Time:  4:48:46

Average pace: 11:00 

Lifetime Marathons/Ultras:  459

Race Report: 2022 Summerlake Loopy Marathon

Today was the second day of the Firecracker Triple.  Today’s race was the Summerlake Loopy Marathon.  The course was a paved loop around Summerlake Park in Tigard, OR.  The loop was less than a mile long, so we had to run 28 laps.

I’ve run this race once before.  In 2013, it was a part of the Firecracker Quadzilla.  While I wasn’t excited about running this many laps, I knew I would have plenty of opportunities to drink at the aid station.

I often have trouble sleeping the night before a race.  The exception is when it’s also the night after a race.  Lack of sleep and physical exhaustion combined to help me sleep like a rock.  In that respect, I felt much better this morning than I did yesterday morning.

In other respects, I didn’t feel better.  My left hamstring didn’t feel sore during yesterday’s race, but it did feel sore later in the day.  This morning, I also had some soreness and stiffness in other muscles.

Since May, I’ve found that my left leg sometimes grazes my right ankle when I run.  It didn’t happen at all in FANS, but it happened about six times during yesterday’s race.  Each time, I barely brushed against my ankle, but the cumulative effect was to break the skin.  After the race, my ankle was bleeding.  Before today’s race, I put a band-aid over it to help protect it.  I didn’t know if the band-aid would stay on or if it would come loose as I got sweaty.

The race started at 7:00 AM, with packet pickup starting at 6:00.  Deb was volunteering again, so we made a point of getting there by 6:00.

When we picked up our race bibs, we also got back bibs with our names.  That was so we could encourage each other as we passed each other during the many laps.  In fact, most of the runners at this race already knew each other.

Ten minutes before the race, we had pre-race announcements.  Then we assembled for group photos.

As we left the start area, we went downhill to a bridge and then uphill to a parking lot on the other side.  I started running at a slow pace until I got through this section.  Then I tried to pick up the pace.

As I picked up my pace, I had a lot of soreness in my legs and glutes.  I also found running at a normal pace to be unusually tiring.  I assumed it would get easier as I got warmed up and worked into my pace.  It didn’t.

For the first two laps, I forced myself to run at a 10 minute mile pace.  Then I had to slow down.  That pace was much too tiring.

I wasn’t even done with two laps before I felt my left foot graze my left ankle for the first time.  It was painful, even with the band-aid.  Fortunately, that only happened one more time during the race.

In my next two laps, I slowed down to an 11 minute mile pace.  Even that pace felt tiring.  I wasn’t even done with my 4th lap when the leader of the half marathon lapped me.  That made me feel really slow.

I tried to slow down to a pace that felt easy.  For the next several laps, I was averaging about 11:30.  That wasn’t as tiring as 11:00, but it still felt tiring.

I was only in my 8th lap of 28 when the leader of the marathon lapped me.  One lap later, the leaders of the half marathon lapped me for a second time.  I wasn’t trying to keep up with anyone, but it still made me painfully aware how much slower I was running today.

When we registered for this race, we had an opportunity to enter something interesting about ourselves.  Steve made signs and posted them around the course.  Here are a few examples.

Because the laps were so short, I didn’t feel the need to drink after every lap.  Instead, I just drank Gatorade after the even numbered laps.  Starting with my third lap, I ate glazed donut holes after the odd number laps.  Alternating between food and beverage like this made it easier to remember which lap I was on.

Next, I slowed down all the way to 12 minutes per mile.  At first, that pace felt a little easier, if you didn’t count the soreness in my legs.  Eventually, even that pace started to feel tiring.

At the halfway mark, I was on pace to finish in just over five hours.  I had been slowing down, and I expected to keep slowing down.  I guessed that I would finish somewhere between 5:10 and 5:15.  That proved to be optimistic.

In the second half, my lap times continued to get slower.  Before long, I was averaging 12:30 per mile, and even that pace was tiring.  At one point, I told Deb how many laps I had left and she told me to take it easy.  My reply was, “There is no easy.”  Every muscle in my legs was sore, and no matter how slow I went, it was still tiring.  I don’t think I’ve ever felt this way in a marathon.

I’ve had races where I hit the wall and struggled badly in the last few miles.  This whole race felt like that.  It was tiring, it was uncomfortable, and it was taking a really long time.

Running multiple laps meant we kept seeing the same scenery on every lap.  Summerlake Park is a beautiful park, so even if the scenery didn’t change, it was pretty nice scenery.

Late in the race, I was counting down the remaining laps.  If I thought about how many miles I had left, it didn’t sound that bad.  Normally, it wouldn’t be, but today every lap seemed to take forever.

I eventually finished in 5:16:52.  It felt like it took longer.  I wasn’t taking any walking breaks.  I was just running really slow.  That wouldn’t have been so bad if I was just taking it easy, but I wasn’t.  I was really trying to go faster, if I could.  I just didn’t seem to have any power in my legs.

There are any number of reasons which might explain why I was slow today, but none of them tell the whole story.  I ran a marathon yesterday, so obviously I was going to be a little sore and slow, but I’ve never slowed down by 45 minutes from one day to the next.  Two years ago, I ran marathons 20 days in a row, and none of them were this slow.  That was with a knee injury.

It's possible I didn’t eat the right foods yesterday and my muscles were depleted of glycogen.  That could explain me hitting the wall, but not so early in the race.

I’m not as well-trained as I usually am for racing on consecutive days, but just two weeks ago I was doing training runs at an 8:30 pace with far less effort.  By the end of the race today, I was going four minutes per mile slower than that, and it was much more tiring.

The only other explanation I can think of is that I tried to do this triple too soon after a 24-hour race where I ran just over 100 miles.  Maybe that took more out of me than I thought.

After the race, Deb and I had lunch at Burgerville again.  When we got back to the hotel, I showered, soaked in the hot tub, and worked on my legs with a massage stick.

I’m not optimistic about tomorrow.  At best, I might feel the same way I felt today.  I can’t imagine I’ll suddenly feel better

Race statistics:

Distance:  26.2 miles

Time:  5:16:52

Average pace:  12:05

Lifetime Marathons/Ultras:  458

Race Report: 2022 Cook Park Marathon

On July 2, I ran the Cook Park Marathon in Tigard, OR.  This was the first race of the Firecracker Triple, which consists of the Cook Park Marathon, the Summerlake Loopy Marathon, and the Flat Marathon.

The first Firecracker Triple was held in 2011.  It was built around Foot Traffic’s Flat Marathon, which is always on the 4th of July.  The 4th was on a Monday that year, and Steve Walters held two smaller races on Saturday and Sunday, making it possible to run marathons on three consecutive days.

In 2012, the 4th was a Wednesday.  Steve still held his two races on the weekend and called it the Firecracker Double.  In subsequent years, there have been races on three, four, or five consecutive days.

2020 was going to be the last year for the Firecracker Triple, but the races were cancelled because of the COVID-19 pandemic.  After a two-year delay, the final Firecracker Triple is being held this year.

I did the Firecracker Triple in 2011, 2014, and 2015.  I also did the Firecracker Quadzilla in 2013.  I’ve had some great results in these races.  I had the fastest combined time in both 2011 and 2014.  Because I have so many good memories from these races, I had to be a part of the last Firecracker Triple.

The names and venues of Steve Walters’ races have changed over the years.  This is the third time I’ve done the Cook Park Marathon.  It was also part of the triple in 2014 and 2015.

Deb and I flew to Portland on Friday.  Before driving to our hotel, we made four stops.  First, we stopped at the Foot Traffic store in Vancouver, WA to pick up my race packet for Monday’s race.  Packet pickup was available at different Foot Traffic stores on different days.  This was the location that was most convenient for us, since it’s not far from the Portland airport.

Next, we stopped at a brewery called Zoiglhaus Brewing Company.  Zoiglhaus makes German styles of beer, and one of their signature beers is a style called a zoigl, which is an historical beer style from a small region in Bavaria.  It’s rare to find this style of beer anywhere in the U.S.

After Zoiglhaus, we stopped at Salt and Straw, which makes ice cream.  Salt and Straw has interesting flavor combinations, and you can taste several of them by having an ice cream flight.  Deb and I each ordered a flight, and then we tasted each other’s flavors, so we each got to try eight flavors of ice cream.

Our last stop was another brewery, which was supposed to have another historical beer style called an adambier.  Unfortunately, this brewery has gone out of business.

Both of Steve’s races are in Portland’s western suburbs.  Monday’s race is on Sauvie Island, which is also on the west side.  We stayed at a hotel in Beaverton, which was centrally located for the three races.

After checking in and unpacking, we discovered a problem with our hotel room.  We were able switch to a different room, but repacking, moving, and unpacking again took time.  We ended up going to dinner later than we planned.

We had dinner at a farm-to-table restaurant called Golden Valley.  We split a candied bacon appetizer, and loved it so much that we regretted not getting one for each of us.  We also had their meatloaf.

We tried to get to bed as early as we could.  Deb was able to sleep for most of the night, but I only managed a few short naps.  The first night in a hotel is always tough for me, and I often have trouble relaxing the night before a race.

The race started at 7:00, but packet pickup started at 6:00.  Deb was a race volunteer, so we got there early, so she could help with packet pickup.  When we arrived at the race, I saw lots of people I know.  A few of them asked me how I felt.  The best answer I could give is to say I felt shaky.  Besides the lack of sleep, I also had a couple of bouts of diarrhea before we left the hotel.  It cleared up before we left, but I definitely wasn’t feeling up to par.

The course was six laps of a 4.37 mile loop.  The loop starts and finishes in Cook Park, but also goes through Durham City Park and includes an out-and-back on a greenway along the Tualatin River.  The course is mostly paved.  There were a couple sections of wood chips or gravel, but those sections were short.

The loop was the same one we’ve run in the past, but we started in a different place.  Instead of starting at a pavilion near the boat launch, we started at the pavilion near the main entrance.

There was one aid station at the start/finish area.  If we wanted to drink more frequently than once per lap, we needed to carry water with us.  I kept a large cup at the aid station and made a point of drinking a substantial amount of Gatorade each time I finished a lap.

Before the race, we did several group photos, including everyone doing today’s race and everyone doing the triple.  There were also group photos for various running clubs.

I went into this race with no expectation of running competitively.  In the last two weeks, I only ran twice, and they were both short runs at an easy pace.  I’ve mostly been resting to give a high hamstring injury a chance to heal.  I was confident I had the endurance to finish these races without any difficulty, but I expected to be slow.  That said, I couldn’t help but be tempted to test the waters.

The start was somewhat comical.  Nobody lined up within 20 feet of the starting line.  When Steve said, “start,” and blew his air horn, everybody just stood there for a few seconds.  It’s like everybody was waiting for everyone else.  I finally started running and crossed the starting line at a leisurely pace.  The runners around me also started at a leisurely pace.  Finally, one woman who started much faster ran around us and sped away.

My pace felt slow for the first few minutes, but after about half a mile, it started to feel faster.  I wondered if I was starting too fast.  After I ran far enough to start getting splits from my watch, I found that I really wasn’t going that fast.  My early mile times were all in the 9:30s.  That pace shouldn’t feel fast, but I haven’t done much training in recent weeks.

I was actually more concerned with how my left leg felt.  My pace wasn’t causing any tightness or discomfort in my left hamstring, so I didn’t worry about it too much.

At first, there were only about five runners ahead of me.  As other runners got warmed up, a few more moved ahead of me.

Going through Cook Park, the course is fairly flat.  The out-and-back along the Cook Park Greenway has several small hills.  On the way out, there was one hill that was uncomfortably steep going down.  Coming back, I had to get up on my toes running back up that hill.

Coming back through Cook Park the course was flat again.  Instead of going back the way we came, we took a path that goes near the boat launch and past the area that used to be used as the starting line.  Then we began an out-and-back on the other end of the park.  This one took us under a railroad bridge and then alongside the tracks.  When we got to Durham City Park, we did a short loop  through the park.

The loop through Durham City Park had a few sharp turns and a few small hills.  Once again, there was one downhill segment that was steep enough to be uncomfortable and one uphill segment that forced me to run on the balls of my feet.  Coming back into Cook Park, the course gets flat again.

It’s been seven years since I last ran this course.  Some parts seemed familiar.  Other parts I didn’t remember.  Finally, some parts were different than I remembered them.

I finished my first lap in 42 minutes.  That put me on pace to finish in 4:12, but I expected to slow down.  I still felt like I was going a little fast.

Next to the table with water and Gatorade, there was a large table with a variety of food.  I don’t usually eat solid food during a marathon.  I usually get enough calories just from Gatorade.  In addition to the Gatorade, I also ate glazed donut holes.  I wanted to make sure I wouldn’t get too depleted, since I’m racing again tomorrow.

I took a long time the first time I went through the aid station.  While I was there, three more runners passed me.  I now counted 11 runners ahead of me.

The out-and-back sections gave me a chance to see the faster runners.  The first runner coming back was the woman who started faster than anyone else.  She was way out in front now.  Later in the same lap, I saw her already in the second half of her third lap, while I was still in my second lap.  She was doing the half marathon and went on to set a new course record.

My second lap was about 30 seconds slower than my first lap.  I was still on pace to break 4:15, but not by much.

In my third lap, I started to wonder how many of the people who were ahead of me were doing the half marathon.  I’d find out in my fourth lap.  By then, the faster runners who were doing the half marathon would already be done.  Anyone ahead of me who was still on the course was either doing the marathon or the seven-hour race.

Late in my third lap, I had a mishap.  I was in Durham City Park, when I reached a small bridge over a creek.  I didn’t remember crossing a bridge before.  I’ve been known to get so focused on pace, distance, and effort, that I don’t always notice my surroundings.  Still, it was odd that I didn’t remember the bridge.  I was on my third lap today.  Including the first two times I did this race, this was now my 15th lap around this course.

I hesitated, but then continued running.  I started to pay more attention to my surroundings.  I kept waiting to see some familiar turns, but I didn’t see them yet.

Next, I saw a playground.  I also didn’t remember seeing a playground at this end of the course.  The loop through Durham City Park is kind of remote.  You don’t see much besides trees.

I turned around and started to backtrack.  I went until I saw the railroad tracks.  On the trail next to the tracks, I saw runners who were completing the loop.  I was just starting the loop, so it didn’t make sense that I should run in the opposite direction that they were going.  I second-guessed myself and turned around again.  It seemed like this had to be the right way to begin the loop.

I crossed the bridge again.  I continued all the way to the playground.  Looking farther ahead, I could see that the path would go through a parking lot.  That was definitely wrong.  I asked people at the playground if they had seen any other runners come through.  I was the only runner they had seen.

I backtracked again.  This time I went all the way back to the railroad tracks.  When I got there, I realized my mistake.  We were supposed to follow the railroad tracks and then do a loop through the park.  Before the beginning of the loop, there was a place where there was a trail going to the right, but we were supposed to go straight.  A short time later, we would reach a fork, and we would keep to the right.  I got to the first junction and thought that was the beginning of the loop, so I turned too soon.

It's worth noting that both of these junctions were extremely well marked.  I just wasn’t paying attention to the signs.  This mistake would haunt me for the rest of the race.

When I finished my third lap, I was half done with the race.  My watch should’ve said 13.1 miles (or perhaps a bit more because of measurement error).  Instead, it said 13.9 miles.  I ran an extra eight tenths of a mile.  I ran it somewhat hesitantly and stopped a few times, so it may have taken as long as a full mile.  I wasted both time and effort.

I had been looking forward to seeing how many runners were still ahead of me.  There were only a few, but their leads were larger now.  One runner, who was only a few minutes ahead of me before, now seemed to be about a mile ahead of me.

That took the wind out of my sails.  My pace in the last three laps was noticeably slower.  Part of that may have been fatigue, but there’s no question part of it was psychological.  If I hadn’t gone off course, I might still be within striking distance of the leaders.  Instead, I was well behind them.

In the first three laps, my mile times ranged from 9:30 to 10:00.  In my 4th and 5th laps, my mile times were between 10 and 11 minutes.

I usually speed up in the last lap of a race.  Not today.  In the last lap, some of my mile times were slower than 11 minutes.

I eventually finished in 4:32:54.  Then I found out I took second place.  It’s a small race, so there are only awards to the first place male and female.  I thought I saw at least three runners who were faster than me, but two of them may have been doing the seven-hour race.  I didn’t have to compete with them.

After getting my medal, I stayed long enough to find out if the runner who beat me is doing all three marathons.  He is.  He leads the triple.  I’m in second place, but I’m 20 minutes back.  Without my wrong turn, I’d still be in second place, but I’d only be trailing by about 10 minutes.

For what it’s worth, my watch read 27 miles when I finished.  Here’s the map of my route that Garmin Connect drew.  The short out-and-back near the east end of the course was the part I wasn’t supposed to run.  I actually ran out-and-back on this segment twice before getting back on course.

Part of my recovery regimen for running on consecutive days is to refuel as soon as possible after the race.  On our way back to the hotel, Deb and I stopped at Burgerville.  Burgerville is a regional fast food chain that uses locally grown ingredients.  That seemed to be a theme of this trip.  Later in the day, we went back to Golden Valley for dinner.  We had to have more of that candied bacon.

Race statistics:

Official Distance:  26.2 miles

Actual Distance (including wrong turn):  27 miles

Time:  4:32:54

Official pace:  10:25

Actual pace:  10:07

Lifetime Marathons/Ultras:  457

The aftermath of FANS

It’s been three weeks since the FANS 24-Hour Race.  Going into that race, I had two concerns.  My first concern was my lower back, which has been bothering me since last November.  The other was a sore spot at the top of my left leg, where my hamstring connects to my pelvis.

I’ll talk about my back first.  For the first 16 hours of the race, it wasn’t an issue.  After midnight, I wasn’t doing as much running, so I had to put more effort into my power walking to keep my overall pace from slowing down too much.  I was able to do it, but I started to notice fatigue all the way across my lower back.  If I only had discomfort on one side, I would’ve been more concerned.  Instead, I attributed what I was feeling to tired muscles.  I wasn’t used to power walking for so many hours.  I didn’t really train for that.  Before FANS, my longest walk of the year was only nine miles.

In the last few hours of the race, I was beginning to slow down, so I put much more effort into my walking.  That’s when I started to notice discomfort on the right side of my lower back.  That was a bigger concern than the fatigue I felt earlier, but I was committed to getting to 100 miles, so I ignored the discomfort and just plowed through it.

Late in the race, I started leaning to my right.  Here’s a picture that was taken in the last 20 minutes of the race.

I didn’t have any idea I was leaning until my friend Mary said something after the race.  I later learned that I already looked like this at 3:30 AM.  I was leaning to my right for at least four and a half hours.

Immediately after the race, my lower back was so painful I could barely move.  It didn’t help that I also had delayed onset soreness in my quads.  Earlier in the year I strained a muscle on the right side of my lower back.  I was worried I might have done the same thing again.

Here’s the good news.  I took it easy for the next week, and my back felt a little better each day.  A week after the race, my back felt about the same as it did before the race.  After two more weeks of recovery, my back feels better than it’s felt at any time since November.  While it’s still not 100%, it doesn’t seem as though the race did any lasting damage.  What I felt right after the race was just the soreness you can get after running 100 miles.

If my back was the good news, my left hamstring was the bad news.  During the race, I barely noticed it.  I occasionally felt some minor soreness, but only on the laps where I was walking fastest.  It didn’t bother me while I was running, and it didn’t bother me when I walked at a more moderate pace.

I waited several days after the race before starting to run again.  When I resumed running, I initially ran at a relaxed pace.  My hamstring didn’t bother me.  It was only when I started to pick up the pace of my training runs, that it started to feel sore.  After a couple runs at my marathon race pace, I realized it was quickly getting worse.  Since then, I’ve had to emphasize rest.

In the last 10 days, I’ve only run twice.  The other days I get exercise by doing lots of walking, but all at a casual pace.  I’ve noticed improvement, but I still feel it when I run.  I also feel it walking, if I’m putting in extra effort at the beginning of a hill.

Over the July 4th weekend, I’m going to be running the Firecracker Triple: three marathons in three days.  When I’ve done this series in the past, I’ve competed for the overall win.  I won the triple in 2011 and again in 2014.  I’m probably not in good enough shape to compete for the win this year, but I would’ve given it my best shot if I was healthy.  Instead, I’ll probably take it easy and just run to finish.

There’s one other piece of good news.  Before FANS, I was carrying some extra weight.  I wanted to lose at least six pounds before trying to bring my marathon times down.  The day after the race, I weighed myself, and I was down almost three pounds.

I initially took that with a grain of salt.  I probably burned off a pound of fat during the race, but I was skeptical about losing more than that.  The rest could be water loss.  Indeed, for the next two days, I seemed to be gaining the weight back.  Then something amazing happened.  I started losing weight again.

Since FANS, my activity level has been fairly light, but my weight has been going doing a little bit each day.  This morning, I weighed in almost five pounds lighter than I was before FANS.

I noticed something similar the first time I did a 24-hour race.  My metabolism was elevated for the next week or two.  It’s pretty cool to be able to lose five pounds without any significant change in diet and without increasing my activity level.  I know from past experience that my metabolism will gradually get back to normal, but I’ve already lost most of the weight I wanted to lose.