To continue with my theme of ultra stars alignment after my last post and with 2 USATF championships within 2 weeks, I felt that many stars were aligning pretty well again this time. A huge one in particular: one of my College alumni and friends, Vincent, with whom I first worked on AI back in 1985 --yes, 40 years ago!-- drove from Las Vegas to crew for me, what a treat! It was his first exposure to ultra running and he picked a 24-hour event, quite a bold move! Oh, and did I mention potential rain too...?
Vincent really offered the full crew service, starting from pickup at the airport on Friday evening, to dropping me for a flight scheduled 3 hours after the race finish, even offering a shower on the way to the airport before he checked his room out! Also bringing a large tent which we set on Friday evening within our USATF-authorized aid station perimeter. Professional and masterclass crewing! After 2 decades of mostly racing in what we call screwed mode, that is without a crew, that was a huge change! Vincent enjoys hiking so the deal was that he was going to take a few hours during the day to explore the nearby Estrella mountain since the race was happening in the Estrella Mountain Regional Park, in Goodyear, Arizona.
The start time at 8 am was rather convenient to setup, get an okay night and absorb a 1-hour time difference. With a few clouds very high in the sky, the sunrise got spectacular and dissolved the worries of that rainy forecast for the evening. I felt chilly but, as usual, a few others were just wearing singlets.
Let's talk goals. My primary goal was to win my age group for a 25th National age group title but, with no other M60-64 registered, that wasn't a very aggressive objective: I just had to finish a 1-mile loop, that's it! Although, with a registration closing the previous Sunday, I was surprised to see other participants getting in on race day. I mean, there could have been someone else showing up in my age group then. But it didn't so I could peacefully focus on a much bigger goal, our age group American record, which my friend Roy Pirrung had set at 215,263 meters at the World championships in Korea in 2008. On his way, Roy even set the current 100-mile record at 15:29:44, a 9:18 min/mile pace! After my big miss at Tunnel Hill, I was resolute not to aim at anything faster than 10 min/mile.
10 min/mile, how slow this feel at the start... The solution, as I learned from Pam on the first 4 laps, a technique which she herself learned from Bob Hearn, alternate shuffling and walking. Pam (Smith) has been representing the US at almost 10 world championships, from 100K to 24-hour. She is currently the manager of the team, aka the boss! Running along her for the first 4 laps gave me 40-minute worth of personal coaching! And that included Pam rolling her eyes watching me carrying two bottles, in a 1-mile loop format race! She stated that it was 2 extra pounds to carry, damn my habit to have run 60,000 miles this way these past 25 years, as I like to sip water whenever I want, even on training runs! Call me old Ultimate Direction school, they don't even sponsor me anymore when, meanwhile, the world has switched to running vests...
More important was the pacing class. Pam had set her watch to get signals for a pattern I believe was jogging for 6 minutes followed by 4 minutes of power walking. Then rinse and repeat. For 24 hours! With this smart approach, we indeed ran the first 4 laps right on 40 minutes. Since the lap is certified at 0.988178 mile, a 10-minute pace actually corresponds to 9:53 minutes per lap. As Pam stopped at her table to get some fluid, I continued and jogged the next laps to get back right on the 10:00 pace. Oddly so, although I was following the pace sheet down to the second, my Coros watch kept indicating a 9:51 min/mile average pace, as it seemed to be missing some distance. Mere seconds didn't seem like a big deal.
I was really please by how relaxed I was at this lower pace, with a clear mind to fuel according to my plan: 1 S!Caps at the top of every hour, 1 GU Energy gel at the bottom of every hour, skipping the first hour to give my body a reason to switch to fat burning, 1 pouch of Vespa Power every 3 hours, 1 bottle of GU Energy Brew every 15-miles, along one bottle of water. And potentially more fluid in case it got hot, which didn't happen. Here is what I flew back home with, since I leverage GU Energy's recycling program with Terracycle. Needless to say, I didn't stick to that nutrition regimen the whole 24 hours, I also picked solid and warm food at the aid station.
And yet, I'd say around 20 miles, my adductors started feeling super tight. Dang, that was way too early and I blamed the shuffling which is a very different and unusually short stride for me. I kept focusing on staying as close as possible under the 10-minute pace and, eventually, I think around mile 40, the pain and tension in the adductors completely disappeared, I was super pleased. But, oh wait, now the glutes had something to say...
At the end of lap 57, mile 56.33, I was still right on that 10:00 min/mile average but Vincent had noticed I had starting to slow down on the past 5 laps. It was 5:37 pm. Around 4, I had asked a local runner what he thought about the rain forecast and he assured me, "nothing before the end of daylight." Well, the problem is the daylight was short and, sure enough, it actually started raining before 6 pm, yikes! Light rain but I still much appreciate stopping to put my light wind breaker on. Including the hood over my cap and visor.
Again, the rain wasn't too bad, yet puddles starting forming on this sleek and flat concrete. To make the matter worse, the mix of sweat and water accelerated the chaffing. One more worry spinning in my brain. The rainy weather conditions were another excuse for getting resigned and deciding it wasn't worth the effort anymore to chase a record. I was still pleased to pass the 100K mark this year in 11 hours and 4 minutes instead of last year's 12:18. The rain had stopped for a short while and Vincent told me it was going to pick up again between 9 and 10:30 pm. At that point I formed a plan of getting a few hours of sleep during the rain, thinking that the rain would then stopped and I would run the last 8 hours dry.
I stopped at the tent at 8:40 pm, with 70 laps in the bank. Vincent left for the hotel and I changed before getting in a comfortable sleeping bag. Just a problem: our tent was right in the middle of the super noisy area between the aid station crew on steroids to stay awake, the loud music and announces of the finish and timing tent and runners and crews chatting in the finish area. I'm sure I ended up sleeping a bit but I also recall finding super hard to fall asleep in this noise, and waking up several times. To the point that, around 10:40 pm, I realized that, if I had to walk them, it could actually take me more than 8 hours to cover the 32 laps I had left to get to the 100-mile mark, and the belt buckle, and that I'd better to get moving again then. Although it was still raining, yuck!
This time I put on my sturdy Ultimate Direction rain jacket, hoping that will keep me dry. After a 2.5-hour break, my legs felt much rested and I was able to clock the next 6 laps in a 10-13 minute-range. However, at that pace, and under the waterproof jacket, I got quite hot and sweaty to the point that, slowing down a bit to catch my breath, I got cold again... I still hold a good pace for the next 5 laps before having to walk most of the next 2 laps and stop at the tent, shivering, to change again. It was 2:35 am. Fortunately, the rain had now turned to a drizzle, I switched to a warmer but barely water-protecting jacket. That was lap 85.
I didn't have much stamina left and walked a lot in the following laps, until 94. But I was pleased by the ability to still do some power walking at least. At that point, Larry Orwin, in the M65 group, was still 4 laps behind but now back to running and clocking 12-minute laps. That gave me some kick to run again and I clocked laps 95 to 100 each under 14 minutes. That also got me to catchup with 5th place, Stephen Gnoza who was coached by elite marathoner and ultra marathoner, Sage Canaday.
Having spent all night just focused on getting to 100 miles, or 102 laps, I was mentally done when I reach that point at 6:54 am. But Vincent, back after 5 hours of sleep, wasn't having it, he wanted me to keep going! I jogged lap 103 and 104 at a 13 min/mile pace but painfully covered 105 and 106 in 16:05 and 18:05 respectively. And there were still 6 minutes remaining so Vincent pushed me to keep going to plant my extra distance mark/flag as far as possible. I complied but not before asking him to at least take his car and drive down along the course to pick me up. And I had recommended Sage to do the same to pick his runner whom I had seen in distress on the last lap, on his knees. I'm glad I did, that was worth the ride back, with Larry also stopping where Stephen and I ended and grateful for the ride back to the finish.
That extra 0.25 mile got me right above 105 miles, 105.0502167 to be very exact! In 24 hours, zero minute and zero second! ;-) Very far from my 133-mile PR, and almost 50K away from the age group record I was chasing, overall quite a big and disappointing miss although my family doesn't see it this way... By the way, Stephen and Larry were on the same lap and ended up being separated by about 10 meters (101.0997271 versus 101.0933518 miles). At least it made the work of the measurers even more worthy!
So, overall, still some good progress from last year, showing that the effort to rebuild pays off. It was my 11th 24-hour event, out of 207 ultra races including 190 finishes. Again, very grateful for the ability to keep running after last year's episode and scare.
Upfront the battle was raging and I could tell I was way behind given the dozens of times I had been lapped by the lead runners. Scott Munson was the most impressive, maintaining an impressive high and long stride à la Jim Wamsley and a sub-9 min/mile pace through the first 80 laps! He was the first one to reach 100 miles, in 15:05 but slowed down through the night, and ending up in 3rd with 122.5 miles. At the 100-mile mark, Scott Traer, 44, was just 1 minute behind but held on super well all night to claim the overall win with 138.3 miles. While Zachary Szablewski passed 100 miles an hour later, he finished 2nd overall with 131.5 miles. Sho Gray took 4th with 119.7 miles.
On the women side, a win for Polina Hodnette with 117.7 miles, then Stella Springer, 54, with 91.2 miles then Pam, 51, with 75.1 miles, all in the money!
For his first 24-hour race, my Pacific Association mate and elite M50, Jonah Backstrom, suffered from painful achilles and stop on lap short of 100K.
At the top of our age groups, in the M85-89, Ed Rousseau was hard at work again: he had started on Friday morning to chase a bunch of records from 48 hours to 100K. On Andy's USATF Record page, I don't see any new pending records for Ed, he might have missed due to the bad weather. Or the page hasn't been updated yet. And with the difference in size, the second picture could be appropriately captioned "When I grow-up, I want to be like Ed!" ;-)
Because, yes, that wasn't great conditions to set records, the weather gods, or stars, didn't align well this time. And years do pass, hence the big disappointment when missing on an opportunity... From a lesson perspective, I'd say that I definitely need to keep working on my glutes. And my mental. Always. TO explain my disappointment, I would also mention that I ran the hilly and hot Cool Moon 100, on trails, in 22 hours and change. And it took me one more hour to cover that distance on a flat course, here. Granted, this time, I stopped for 2.5 hours for a long nap...
Going 10 deep overall, plus the M86-89 age group, Lin, our USATF official, was generous with her medals: every participant got at least one, if not two, plus an age group champion patch! I'm still dumbfounded that so few USATF members show up at these championships, especially from local or close-by associations.
And with that, I indeed got my 25th patch. 4th this year, it certainly feels good to still be running after thinking my days were over with that meniscus tear last year. For many years I took running for granted. Not anymore, I now appreciate any new mile making it into my log.
In addition to thanking Aravaipa for setting this event up and investing into hosting this national championship (if you know, you know, it does cost a lot!), for the knowledgeable and helpful volunteers manning the aid station in particular, or literally sweeping the water off the course, those working the timing table, the awards, the registration, those setting up the nearby camping tents, my deepest gratitude goes to Vincent for even forfeiting the local hiking opportunity and assisting me every 10-15 minutes, throughout 24 hours. Welcome to the community, Vincent! As a bonus, Vincent also took a few clips throughout the day (YouTube picked the background tunes and took them out to address copyright infringement, hence the sound off...):
My flight ended up being delayed by 30 minutes first, then 40 at the end which wasn't too bad and diffused some of the stress of rushing out to the gate. The timing worked out quite well after all. As I was leaving, Sage asked me what was my next race... And he knows about my regimen so he wasn't too surprised when I replied: "A 10K Turkey Trot in 4 days..." That will be the next race report tomorrow then, stay tuned as they say...! ;-)
PS: this time my legs were quite sore on Monday, proving that was some work to shuffle through this challenging weather. Also a rare but abundant sweat during my 10-hour recovery sleep on Sunday night, my body was trying to say something! And I was still tired on Monday... Well, it's not getting easier with the years...
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