Ft Lauderdale A1A Race Report

The A1A weekend brought three St Croix Valley runners—Randy, Steve, Candy—and a couple of their friends together for a great time. Captain Randy was a gracious host, coordinating dinner reservations/locations and race logistics.

Lady Chateau

The runners and their support teams met on Randy’s Lady Chateau before heading out for a pasta dinner on Saturday night. A discussion about race logistics and our departure time from the hotel the next morning turned into a bit of a negotiation between Randy and Steve. As always, Randy wanted to get to the start line about an hour before race time. That gives him enough time to take in the crowd, drink some extra fluids, and revel in the atmosphere. Steve, on the other hand, prefers to step out of the vehicle and into the running queue, getting all the beauty sleep he can and wasting no energy on frivolous, pedestrian activities. As it turned out, we were very early and it got to be uncomfortable standing in that cold, blustery wind.

The Runners--Steve, Bobbye, Candy, Randy, Juliana

The Support Team--Jerry, Robin, Gary

The weather conditions for the 6:00 am start were much cooler than in past years. The temp was 45° F at the start, or 38° F with the wind chill due to a 17 mph wind out of the north. This was a bit of a concern because the route for about 11 miles of the marathon and 4 miles of the half was straight into the wind.

Staying warm--Bobbye, Steve, Juliana, Candy, Randy

The first priority during those early morning hours was staying warm. The high temperature for the day was somewhere in the 60s.

Randy placed second in his AG in the marathon and friends Juliana and Bobbye nailed down PRs in the half. Steve ran the half with Juliana, and Candy managed to drag her butt across the finish line logging one of her slowest times. All were very interested in Candy’s time in that she was trying a new training technique. It’s the Hanson-Brooks method, and for those unfamiliar with it, they stress running on tired legs with the longest run at 16 miles. She followed the program pretty well, but a bout with the Minnesota “crud” wasn’t on the schedule, and she found the running against the cold wind quite challenging.

Randy expanded his host duties on Monday by taking our merry group on a boat ride along the Intracoastal Waterway. Among the notable things to see was Steven Spielberg’s yacht that is parked a dock away from the Lady Chateau.

Cruising the Intracoastal Waterway--Bobbye, Candy, Robin, Juliana (ouch that is sunburn) 

The Spielberg yacht--complete with indoor swimming pool

Thank you Captain Randy for the Ft. Lauderdale adventure!

The Adventures of Keto-Man

The end of 2012 found me contemplating my previous racing season.  It was a great year of ultra-marathons, with multiple PR’s, an AG win and almost a top-10.  I was left with the feeling though, that “this was it”, I just can’t get much faster or better and it will be all downhill from here.  I am 48, so that day is looming I’m sure.

But.  I still have one card yet to play.  My diet.  I've always just eaten anything and everything.  Why not when you run 70 mi/wk, right?  Well, after reading ZachBitter’s blog on low-carb performance, I thought that was well worth investigation.  My long race performance (> 50 mi) sure could use some improvement.  Too many bonks with too much central fatigue.

I went out and bought The Art & Science of Low-Carb Performance by Stephen Phinney and Jeff Volek.  I have now been officially keto-adapted for 8 weeks and I’m no longer looking back to my old diet.  I eat <50 g low-glycemic carbs/day, a set amount of protein, and enough healthy fat to manage my body weight.  Here are some of the results I've found in my short experiment:

Energy Level – I considered the spikes and lows of carb-based nutrition as just normal every-day life experience.  Not so as keto-man!  I feel awesome!  My energy levels are even all day long, with no afternoon slumps.  During long runs, I experience about an hour of slight soreness in my legs, and then no significant discomfort after.  Without fueling.  My longest run so far has been 4 hrs, so what happens beyond, we’ll see.

Recovery – Wow. This is the area where I am seeing the greatest improvement.  I used to really feel a 4 hr run for at least 48 hrs.  Now it is just a dull ache for about 12 hrs, and I am ready to go the next day.  This is good, because I want to be doing closer to 100 miles/week max in training for a 100 miler.

Explosive Power – I find that I might have a little less explosive power available.  I am still in my base training phase, and have not started speed-work yet, so this may not be the case.  But.  I do stair training every Tuesday morning, at the 250 ft Willow River falls stairs.  Last year, as a carb-fueled person, I would lunge every-other step for the first 125 ft, and then run each step of the remainder.  This year, the lunges seem to me a bit more difficult to maintain, and I’m dying more at the end.  We’ll see though.  It may be too early to tell.

Body Weight – I can’t keep it on!  My racing weight used to be around 150 lb at about 14% fat.  Training weight was about 155-160 lb.  Today, I am running about 50 mi/wk at 142 lb and 12% while dropping about 2 lb per week.  The real bummer is that I don’t seem to be adding lean muscle mass yet.  I’m not sure what is going on.  I do think that, for being in a training phase, I weigh too little and need to pack on a bit more to my 6 foot frame.  More fat I guess.

The Role of Carbs in Racing – I am convinced that I can run a race while maintaining the keto diet.  Supposedly the Vespa supplement could help me, but it is so dang expensive.  Others speak of using super-starch, like U-CAN, which slow-drips the carbs into your system.  Zach Bitter mixes his carb gels and Vespa while racing for optimal performance.

I am convinced that carbs will play a role in my races.  I will start experimenting with U-CAN after my long runs reach about 5 hours or so.  I’ll try some gels too, to gauge their effect.  From what I read, I’ll want to avoid the insulin response.  Hmmm.  At mile 90 I’m thinking the Expresso Express gel might be what the doctor ordered.  Or, I might drop from a coronary.  We’ll see.

Favorite Food – Steak, duh.  My second favorite is a shake though.  Add the following to a blender, in this order:

                1/4 cup blueberries

                1/2 cup Greek yogurt

                1/2 cup cream or half-and-half

                1/4 cup whey protein (peanut butter works too)

Blend to consistency.  Pour into glass.  Add the following to the glass (this will gunk up your blender, so add it here):

                Olive oil, or fish oil to taste

                1 TBSP chia seeds

There is a wonderful blog written by three (now four!) keto-adapted athletes called runketo.com, where I have found some great info to aid in my diet adventure.  There are many links to other keto-friendly blogs there as well.

I know I am an experiment of one, but the results look promising!

Running Willow River

I’d like to share with you a wonderful running location not 10 minutes from my front door in NW Wisconsin called Willow River State Park.  This 3000 acre gem can be reached from the Cities by taking I-94 into Wisconsin, and heading north on Hwy 12 (exit 4) for a few miles.  The swimming isn't much (unless you prefer your bathwater green), but the trails are great and getting better.

From spring to fall, I can get up to 15 miles of trail without backtracking (much), allowing me to mix up my runs a bit.  In the winter, you get about 6 miles, which I’m not complaining about.  The park trails, like most up here, are limited to skiers only.  I struggle with the ethics of this: limiting park access to those with the means, or only to those who chose to ski.  But heck, I’ll take the 6 miles.  Here are some of the pictures I took on last weekend's run.

The Falls is beautiful any time of the year.  In the Winter, it is exceptionally so.  You are greeted with a fully frozen cascade with fractal-like ice formations; to totally free running free, and anything in between.  This is a great place to climb too!

Willow River Falls - partially frozen

What's nice about this falls is that you can scramble up and along (and even behind) it along both sides.  This falls was reborn recently when a dam was removed.  You can see the spillway along the right (southern) rock wall.

Willow River Falls - a closeup of the runoff

There are many hills in the park, many exceeding 250 feet or so, with lots of smaller rollers.  It doesn't take long to get 2,000+ feet of climb in an afternoon!

Running along the bluff edge

One of the many hills to climb

A view of the river along the southern bluff...

... and from the northern bluff

The park offers about 6 miles of trail for pedestrian use during the winter.  The path varies from ski-grade groomed to lightly trampled singletrack.  Fun!

Miles of some pretty interesting running

Run 1 – starts at the River Road parking lot, and runs along the southern park boundary, returning along the southern edge of Little Falls Lake.  This will get you about 10 miles.

Run 2 – starts at the same location, and runs north of Little Falls Lake.  This is a new section of trail that is nearly completed.  It started out a single track scout-trail, which was fantastic.  Now you can drive a jeep down the trail.  Oh well.  Then return to the falls along the lake, back along the southern boundary and then returning along the north side of the lake.  This will get you up to 15 miles.

Park trail map

I hope you all get a chance to check out this park during any season, it is well worth the visit!

Adventure 2013

Happy belated New Year everyone!  With the new year comes a transition between introspection and family, into “The Grind” until spring.  I’ve used a bit of that introspection time off to catch up on blogs, and I’ve found a common theme: Why do I run (such stupid distances).  For me it is simple: adventure and competition.  I do get a kick out of racing, but I will focus on the adventure portion for this post.

What other endeavor allows us to experience so much in a day or a run, while allowing for the mental clarity to truly live that adventure?  What people might take 2-3 days to experience while hiking with their worldly goods on their backs, I can live in an afternoon.  True, hiking allows for other types of adventure, but running allows for more of it.  Running can be a feast for the eyes and mind.

The following describes some of the things I’ve learned on my many adventures while running.  But first a couple of updates:

Kettle 100 – I’ve signed up for my first Hundred!  I am pretty pumped.  The base training has started, with hills and speed to start in February.  Funny thing, I am not so worried about the discomfort thing during this race, but more the bugs.  It will be spring.  I hate black flies.  I need a plan…

Diet – The low-carb diet has started with three weeks of mainly fruits and vegetables.  Things are going pretty well so far.  I will incorporate more protein and fat in two weeks.  My only craving is really popcorn and chips.  Potato chips are vegetables, right?

OK.  Here are some of the things I’ve learned on my many adventures while running:

Owls are cute – While in a forested section of the Southern Unit of the Kettle Moraine, on a misty moisty morning, with two of my brothers, I was stopped by a commotion in the trees above.  After a bit of searching, we found the source; two parent owls teaching two (ball of fluff) owlets to fly.  It was mesmerizing.  Whenever the owlets tried to land on a branch, they promptly did a 180, flipping underneath the branch, wildly flapping their wings.  The parents?  I’ve never seen such indifference.  They just watched as their chicks fluttered and rotated from branch to branch, unfazed by the possibility of a 30 ft plummet.  We watched them for what seemed like hours.  They never did seem to get the hang of it.

Fawns are super-cute – Most visitors and campers at Willow River State Park in Wisconsin tend to flock to a 2 mile section of trail between the campgrounds and falls.  The remainder of the park tends to be sparsely visited.  I like that (selfish, I know).  In one remote forested portion, the main trail winds through a thick stand of pines.  On one cool, spring morning while rounding a bend in that trail, I saw two enormous eyes staring back at me.  After stopping cold, I worked out the tiny body of a fawn lying in the center of the trail.  As it was not moving, it must have been born just moments prior.  We both remained in place playing don’t blink for several minutes before I figured the fawn was not going to budge.  Mom was nowhere in sight.  Finally, I chose to bushwhack around; the fawn was obviously terrified.  After my first loop I thought to run an abbreviated second loop to check for the fawn.  It was gone.  You just never know what’s around the next bend.

Turkeys are stupid – The Glacial Drumlin Trail is an east-west Rail-to-Trail in southern Wisconsin between Waukesha and Madison.  The trail tends to be thinly lined on both sides by trees, with fields of corn, soy, etc. outside of this leafy corridor.  There is a great 5-mile section just outside Lake Mills with nary a road crossing, and opportunistic wildlife in the farm fields.  Once, on a summer long run, I was spied by a flock of turkeys in a potato field wolfing down scraps.  They could see me through the thin line of trees bordering the trail.  In true turkey-fashion, the alarm went up and the whole flock ran for cover.  Of course, the only cover was that tree line along the trail; where I was.  Running to the trail now, the stupid birds led me perfectly such that, as they passed through the tree line and onto the trail, they ended up directly in front of me and underfoot.  I’ve never heard such squawking and gobbling, all gigantic eyeballs and floppy neck things stumbling over each other.  The alpha that got them into this mess probably heard it after that!  It is hard to laugh and run at the same time.  And to think Ben Franklin was a fan of the turkey over the eagle.

Eagles are clumsy – Why do eagles try to fly through densely wooded areas?  They are clumsier than turkeys when trying to alight onto trees, and have no room to launch themselves.  Talk about noisy too.  Proud and graceful in the open, eagles are anything but in the trees.  Maybe Ben was onto something.

Spearmint smells great – Along the Glacial Drumlin trail, there is a 200 yard section of wild spearmint.  I often think of smell as the weakest sense, but the smell of that spearmint is so captivating and almost overwhelming that it can dominate the others.  The fragrance seems to last for about a week each year, with the remainder of the year being a subtle background odor.  I can smell it now just thinking about it.

Willow River waterfall is a gem – The falls along the Willow River in the Wisconsin state park of that name can be quite beautiful.  I run past this gem many times each week, and it is ever changing depending on the season and time of day.  On summer afternoons bathers can be seen filling the plunge pool, and peeking behind the falls themselves under the overhang.  On humid mornings, I can barely see the falls through the mist that covers the trail.  It is in the winter, though, that the falls takes on a completely new façade.  Depending on how much freezing weather we’ve seen, the falls can be seen partially to fully frozen over, with the water still flowing beneath.  A dichotomy between the roar of the river and the motionless ice.  The shape the ice takes is ever changing, providing a beautiful break location for every winter run.

Geese, Ducks, Swans – The lazy waterfowl that choose to winter over in Wisconsin and Minnesota need to compete for the limited open water space this time of year.  And they don’t share nicely.  The swans bully everyone.  The geese need a runway from which to takeoff, and barring the availability during a panic, just blast through everyone else.  And the poor ducks just try to eke out some space.  An idea for a reality TV show?

Wildflowers – I’ll save the best for last.  There is a section of the Ice Age Trail in the Southern Kettle Moraine south of ZZ, where a runner is far from roads and manmade structures.  Seemingly endless prairie.  If you hit this section at the right time of year, the expanse of wildflowers is breathtaking, with a corona of pollinating insects buzzing industriously throughout.  I think the Kettle 100 runners will experience this in June.  I hope so!

I guess I can find adventure in the little things.  Probably comes with advanced age.   I know, I need to get out more.

                                                                                                                                            

End of the Old, Start of the New

Running the last race of the season is a bittersweet event for me.  I’ve been truly blessed with a great year.  I was injury-free and have had only one race I would consider “bad”; and that turned out to be a 50-mile PR, making “bad” a relative term.  My 2012 races:

• AftonTrail Run 50k, 4:57, 33/199
• NorthFace WI 50-mi, 8:27, 28/222
• Surfthe Murph 50-mi, 9:12, 11/51

I know.  Three lousy races.  I am hardly king of the trails.  It is kind of weird, but I take those races pretty seriously; fuel for my type-A personality.  Afterward the transition can be kind of abrupt:

Spring-Summer-Fall schedule

• 5:00 am: alarm goes off
• 6:30 am: get out of bed
• 7:30 am: endless miles, lots of hills and stairs
• Remainder of the day: eat like a horse, complain about my aches and pains, fight the dog for the best sun patches, take some vitamin-I and go to bed

And then it ends: The Winter schedule

• 10:00 am: no alarm necessary, I can set my internal clock to “sloth”
• 10:30 am: do a few squats and core exercises until I get bored
• Remainder of the day: eat like a horse, complain about my aches and pains, fight the dog for the best sun patches, take some vitamin-I and go to bed

And plan for next season.  I like to up the ante and then regret about it later, and am faced with the choices of trying to improve speed, distance, or course toughness.  I choose the first two for next year.  I’ll save Superior for the following season.  Chicken, I know.

A New Diet – To help me to take it to the next level, I am considering a change in my diet from non-existent, to low carb/high-fat.  The intent is to convert myself into a “butter burner” after about a two week transition.  I read a great book called The Art and Science of Low Carbohydrate Performance.  Zach Bitter introduced me to the concept on his blog; the science looks sound and the concept just makes good sense to me.  I may also start adding Vespa to my training and racing nutrition.  Maybe.  I’ll wait until AFTER the holidays though; fudge truffles will be impossible to resist.  My main purpose trying this diet:

• Steady flow of energy by tapping into an “endless” source of fat-based fuel, instead of the rollercoaster ride that is carb fueling.
• Better mental clarity by reducing central fatigue – I’ve read that bonking comes at a time of battle between your brain and muscles for your depleted glycogen reserves.  Since you need those muscles to outrun the lions, your brain attempts to perform at a reduced energy level.  Kind of like my laptop.  Bonking may have something to do with aromatic amino acid uptake as well (whatever that means).  I’ve always felt that if I could eliminate one challenge from running, it would be central fatigue.  I’ll take tired muscles and an upset stomach before I start feeling like I want to pass out.  Mental morass just sucks.
• Reduction of CO₂ in my bloodstream – Seems that when exerting yourself in strenuous exercise, C0₂ can accumulate in the bloodstream as a byproduct of lactic acid buildup due to carb metabolization, reducing your blood pH, and placing yourself in a state of hyperventilation.  This has happened to me a few times and has been incapacitating (blog post).  Fat burning causes less lactic acid to build up, and thus less CO₂ in my bloodstream.  This is my second choice for elimination.
• Quicker Recovery – Burning fat causes less metabolic stress than burning carbs.  As I get older I am finding that the tough runs are harder to bounce back from, causing me to reduce my training volume immediately following.  I’m lucky if I can do a 70 mile week.  To do well in a 100 mile race, I think I want to increase my training volume, which means I need to recover quicker and more thoroughly.
• Sour cream, butter, cashews, coconut oil, bacon, eggs, cheese, cream, lard, …

Which gets me to the races I want to do next year – For some reason I get great comfort from running the same races year after year.  I’ll try to force myself out of this rut a bit next season with a race longer than I’ve ever run, and one shorter (and hopefully faster) than usual.

• Kettle Moraine 100m – This will be my first 100 mile race, and I think I’m ready for it.  The race is run in the Southern Unit of the Kettle Moraine in WI; trails I’m very familiar with and love (blog post).  The biggest challenge, I think, will be getting in the long runs though the winter months.  Training starts in February.  Brrrr.
• Afton Trail Run 50k – I just love this race and cannot fathom a year without it.  I did pretty well last year (blog post) and hope to hit those hills even stronger next year.  The big challenge will be recovering from Kettle Moraine in time for this race.  Is 5 weeks enough time?  If not, this turn into a fun run.
• Hartman Creek 25k – This race has been on my radar for a few years now.  I took my kids camping here a few times; very nice.  The trails are nice and flat and well maintained.  This should be a fast and fun 25k, and I can take my family camping to boot.
• North Face Endurance Challenge 50m – This will be my fifth time running this race and I’m ready to be done with it.  Don’t get me wrong, this is a fun race, but it is getting expensive and I think I’m outgrowing it a bit.  It is flat and fast and beautiful; and I have some unfinished business (blog post): namely a sub-8 hr 50 miler.  This race is at the same time of year as Superior, with which I hope to replace the following year.
• Willow River 10k – Just a low-key, fun and hilly race on my home turf.  I train here every week and enjoy my unfair local advantage.  Plus it is pretty cheap and supports a good cause.
• Surf the Murph 50m – I really like this race, after I’ve (kind of) figured out the course.  If I can stay on the course I can do pretty well here (blog post).  Plus it is close by, relatively cheap and becoming an end-of-the-season tradition.

Should be fun!

How Does One Race a Phantom?

OK, let me start this post by stating this is not about sour grapes.  Really.  Well, maybe just a little.  I am usually not one to rant and I try not to come across as pessimistic.  Even so, I want to share an interesting experience from Surf the Murph 50M this year.

I am a competitive person, and I set personal race goals for motivation.  There really is no social aspect to running a 50 mile race for me; I have a set of goals and I try to achieve them.  My social scene is saved for before and after, usually racing from start to finish.  I am not particularly fast, but I don’t care about that.  This year at Surf the Murph my goals were twofold: under 9:30 and top-10.  Finishing well, I thought I achieved them both.

Leaving the last aid station (horse camp) on the last loop, I was 4.5 miles from the finish.  I was on pace for 9:10 and was told I was in 9^th place; both goals easily within grasp.  It would take disaster to not achieve them.  Of course, this is where I say “and then disaster happened”, but it didn’t.  I ran a very strong finish, actually pushing hard to see if I could make ground on 8^th place.  Who knew, number 8 could have been hurting.  In the last mile, there were straight sections that allowed about a 50-100 meter view ahead.  I was alone both in front and behind, and thus was not picking up or losing a spot.  I crossed the line in 9:12 and (supposedly) 9^th place.  We wife told me that the previous racer crossed the line about 10 minutes prior; the next person crossed the line over 5 minutes after.  I really was racing alone.

I was surprised after seeing the published results a few days later:

·         9:06:52 9^th

·         9:12:28 10^th

·         9:12:54 11^th (my time)

·         9:18:46 12^th

That surprise eventually led to confusion regarding how this could be.  This did not deter from satisfaction with my performance or enjoyment of the race.  But still, I was perplexed.  I do remember people talking about some who were allowed to start later than the official 6:00 am start.  This race has timing mats that record one’s time when crossing at the start and finish, not gun time.  If so, this may provide a possible explanation.

I’ve allowed this question to simmer for a couple weeks now, and have ended up in a state a little less pleased than when I started.  It is not boiling over really, but it is not cool to the touch either.  Most larger races in which I’ve competed count only clock time for the first three places for male and female open divisions; after that, it’s chip time.  Is there a limit to how much after an official start someone is allowed onto a course?  In a race with timing mats, are cutoffs the only deterrence to the late starter?

And how does one strategize against a late starter?  Take, for instance, someone who might cross the starting mat 5 minutes after the official start.  In my point of view, they are at a competitive advantage.  They know they need to hold a position of no more than 5 minutes from the racer in front to maintain their position in the race.  The racer in front has no such competitive knowledge.  The front-runner, of course, is (wrongly) assuming that they need to maintain about a 10 second lead on the person behind (accounting for the mass start) in order to maintain their position.  If I’m that front-runner, I am running a strategic race, and I am at a strategic disadvantage; and I’m ahead!  In my last leg of Surf the Murph, if I saw a racer 26 seconds ahead, I would have busted my ass trying to hatch him/her.  How could I have done that when 10^th place was a phantom?

Is this really no big deal?  Should I just shut up and be happy with my 11^th place and quit being a crybaby?  Does anyone else even care about this?  Well, I guess I do.  Maybe races should have a period of time in which one may start in order to be listed among the ranked finishers; say 30 seconds for a race like Surf the Murph.  If you start after that timeframe, your time is listed as a finisher, but you are not ranked.  Might there be other possible options?
Please share your input in the comments section.  Thanks!

Mary's Javelina Jundred 100M Race Report

This has been kind of a crazy year for me because of my 94 year old mother’s health situation. In April she was admitted to the hospital and then to hospice. I returned to MN to help with facilitating aspects of the transfer, returned to AZ and the next day ran the Mt Lemmon Marathon here in Tucson, a beautiful continuous uphill course from 2700 ft. elevation to approximately 8500 ft. It’s an excellent, unusual event which I would highly recommend.

My goal for this summer was the Sunrise to Sunset 42K and 100K run in Mongolia which I wrote about in an earlier post. When I returned from that trip our family had decided that it was time for my parents to move to an assisted living apartment. This decision occurred right about the time that I ran the North Face 50K in WI. During this run I fell and landed on my left hand and discovered 4 days later that I had broken a bone.  I’m happy to report that I was able to finish that event and it was a great motivator for how I could possibly perform at the Javelina event in October.

After running the Twin Cities Marathon for the 31^st time, we returned to Tucson. Plans were in place for my parents move and we were just waiting for an apartment to open up. I was able to do one good desert hike two weeks before Javelina. In the meantime I was trying to determine if I should give up my race and return to MN to help with the move. The gods were with me and my youngest sister was able to work it out to go to MN from Denver.

Four days before the race my parents' move went very smoothly and I felt a load lifted and I was ready to run the Javelina Jundred.

 

Pam Reed and Mary

A week prior to the race I was all set to go. I left early and picked Pam Reed up at the airport in Phoenix. She was planning to pace me and had informed the RD that she would be pacing me an extra loop, because in some 100 milers runners over 60 are allowed a pacer for the entire run. This was hardly necessary in this run. I have run the loop as the Pemberton 50K in Feb. a number of times. But it was great to have a pacer from the time it was dark.

We arrived at the race headquarters without a tent reservation and were prepared to set up a tent if necessary. Luck was with us and there were a couple tents quite near to the start/finish available. So we paid our fee and were set to go. In the past it has been possible to park at the start of this event. But since it has become so popular, the RD decided to institute a shuttle system, which according to my pacers really worked quite well.

The host hotel was a very nice Radisson which is associated with a very large and busy casino. Lots of smoke in there, so probably not too many runners. But there are also two hot tubs and a beautiful pool. Great for soaking in after the race. 

The race started at 6:00 AM and most people were arriving around 5:00. A number of runners had camped at the race site so there was lots of activity when we arrived.

The Javelina Jundred is a 15.4  mile loop which is run 6 times, reversing course after completing a loop. Then to complete the 100 miles there is a final 11 mile loop, thus giving you a final run of 101.4 miles. The Pemberton 50K always runs two loops clockwise, so this is the route I am most familiar with. During the race I came to realize why I like this direction. Somehow the rocky sections just don’t seem as bad, which is purely psychological, but it sure played with my head in the dark.

There was an extra aid station added to the race this year which I neglected to pay attention to prior to the race. This only became a problem in the first loop, since I didn’t fill my water bottle at the 2 mile aid station and then discovered it was 6 or 7 miles to the main aid station. Since it was early in the moring this didn’t really pose a problem, other than I was planning on an aid station in 3 miles. This change is an excellent one and was clearly explained in the course description. I just was going on my past experience.

Before the race I had filled out a race log provided on the website with my predictions for each lap. I had done my predictions based on my time from my previous race and added a bit of a cushion, since I felt a bit undertrained.  I was pleasantly surprised to find that by the last two laps I was over an hour ahead of my predicted time, and was ahead for each lap by at least 10 minutes.  Ironically, I was 10 minutes slower in the first loop, but that was partly due to a very slow start, since I started quite far back in the pack and we walked for about half a mile on the single track trail.

In the past few years I have become a big proponent of eating real food in ultras and try to stay away from anything “sugary”. Thus I am limited to peanut butter sandwiches, potatoes dipped in salt, potato chips, pretzels, soup, mashed potatoes, etc. The exceptions I made in this race were to eat the cantolope and water melon, which were very refreshing in the heat of the afternoon and during the night I had some dates because the other food did not appear appetizing. I carried gel packs only as a back-up in case I was stranded with low energy between aid stations. I took only two gels the entire race.

The aid stations were amazing and the volunteers were always very eager to help fill our water bottles and help us eat as much as we could. Many of the volunteers worked more than one shift and it was fun to see familiar faces as we kept looping around the course. Each aid station also had a small ”mash unit” and it was obvious that the runners in their care were being well taken care of.



Mary (center) with her pacers

It definitely helped to have a pacer in this event. There is never really a concern about going off course, but when one has tired legs, it is even possible to lose your balance, especially in the rocky sections, and we saw this happen a couple times. As I indicated, I broke bones in my hand in Sept. and had not had a recent X-ray to determine how healed the break was. So I ran with a splint in place and was more cautious, as I was constantly aware of preventing a fall. I only fell once in a very rocky section in the middle of the night, and landed right on my splint. The pain was immediate, but I took an Advil and continued running, hoping I didn’t do any more damage. (I’m happy to report that I got rid of the splint this past Thursday-no apparent re-injury.)

This was only my 4^th completion of a 100 mile run, and my most successful as far as avoiding stomach issues and feeling fatigued. I never felt hallucinatory, or over-tired. I had chocolate milk after the 4^th and 5^th loops. And during the 6^th loop I had a half cup of coffee at the midpoint aid station.  For some reason I was able to hydrate myself adequately during the heat of the day and I believe this contributed to my success during the later hours of the race. This race has a fairly high DNF rate for one only moderately challenging. It seems the mistake that many make is either going out too fast or becoming dehydrated in the midafternoon when the temperature is usually in the high 80s. The other challenge is a mental one and that is to believe that the 100K will do if you are not feeling so well.

Finishd!

It’s been 9 days since I finished the race. I think I can safely say that I feel almost completely recovered. I will find out if that is true in 2 days when I do a difficult hike in the Catalina mountains near my home. It will be a continuous downhill hike for 16 miles and will be a good test of the recovery of my quads. I’m more worried about the residual effects of some nasty blisters I got during the run.

Like Dave said in his report of Murph the Surf, now it’s time to take a bit of a hiatus from training and concentrate on healing mentally and looking forward to runs for next year. I am very excited to say that I will be running the CalballoBlanco Ultra in the Copper Canyon of Mexico. This is the event that was featured in the book Born to Run.  Since the death of Caballo Blanco (aka Micah True) last spring, there is more interest in this event. And this year there will be a special tribute to him, so I am very excited to be part of that celebration.

 
I would like to thank those who show an interest in my crazy running adventures and encourage all of you to explore what might challenge you to go beyond the limits that you may have set for yourself. If you are still only running road races, you would be surprised what joy can be found in running on trails.