Fat Ox 24-hour Nationals 2024: building back, many steps at a time!

This was bold: I did run a short ultra training run early January but eased up on a nagging calf injury, ramped up training in February to prep for the 50K Road Nationals in March only to snap and break a meniscus one week before. My 2025 season was wiped out, with a surgery (arthroscopy) done in Paris four months later and the surgeon asking that I only return to running in September. 6 months off, I wish there was a measure of the muscle loss to see how far behind I'm despite some cycling and strength training at the gym. Short of such benchmark, I've completed 5 training marathons in the last 6 weeks at the local track, and managed to improve the pace consistently. Yet, there is a huge difference between jogging a marathon and getting to run for 24 hours... And yet, returning to a National Championship on the West Coast, that was too tempting. Especially as there was nobody entering my age group so it meant no pressure but to use this race as a test.

With the lack of preparation, a 100-mile buckle was on the dream list but, yet, seemed too far fetch and risky. I was hoping to run at least 2 marathons though, maybe 3. What I wasn't prepared for was to use the whole 24 hours so I booked a return flight for 11 am on Sunday morning (race started and finished at 8 am).

To make the trip even shorter, my flight out of SFO got delayed 6 hours due to an atmospheric river and I got to my hotel room at 2:45 am, barely sleeping 3 hours. Again, thankfully, it didn't matter as much since I wasn't planning to run for a day.

I left the hotel barely 1 hour before the start, with a 25-minute ride to the venue. With that late start, the breakfast buffet was already open for a change: I had brought my own breakfast but I grabbed a plate with eggs, bagel, bacon and a cup of coffee which I gave to the a homeless on a bench outside the parking lot. He was stunned by that bit of early Thanksgiving!

As opposed to the pouring rain at the start last year, the weather was perfect for this edition. On the warm/hot side between 11 and 3 but manageable. Still feeling a bit sleepy before the start...

Apart from 2 miles at 8:54 min/mile, I ran the first 31 around 9:15-9:30 min/mile. I was screwed (no crew) so lost 1 minute on mile 32 and 33 to refill. I wanted the stay under 10 min/mile for the first 50 miles but had to slow down a bit after mile 40.

A few pictures from friend and USATF official, Lin Gentling. Respectively at 8:44, 8:51, 8:59, 15:01, 16:11 and 16:19, a sunny day!

Meanwhile, the race was raging at the front, both in the Men and Women, with half a dozen trying to make Team USA for next year's World Championship in Albi, France. I got lapped by Michael Degeorge and Sage Canaday just before closing my 5th lap, then subsequently on lap 10, 15 and 20. I estimated they were running around 7:30-7:20 min/mile, which was really aggressive (7:30 corresponds to 192 miles in 24 hours!). Sage looked easy and in control, letting Michael set the pace. As for the women, I got lapped by 4 of them at the end of my 6th lap, that was really fast too!

I could feel some minor pain in my left knee, just enough to think about it and holding the pace. Around mile 10, the pain disappeared and I started to think I could go really long for a big change. Although I had never tried before, I decided to run with a knee sleeve to keep the inflammation at bay as long as possible. That generated some friction behind the knee but it was tolerable and I kept it for the whole day.

After he got off the racing circuit for 7 years, it was great to see Isaiah Janzen again. In addition to social media, we had met at the 2016 North Coast 24-hour (I ran 120 miles that year, and my 133-mile PR in 2014). Isaiah lapped me 4 times in my first 50-mile, as well as Thierry Joffrain, a compatriote I met at Spartathlon last year, who has lived in Texas for 30 years.

Isaiah still pushing it on the 24th hour!

Thierry taking a brief instant to change before running through the night.

A fixture of our long distance Nationals, Ed Rousseau, just turned 85 and, mostly power walking, was on a mission to set a couple of M85-89 American records on 100K and 24-hour (two new marks set by Jimmie Barnes at Jackpot, last February).

Michael and Sage ran the first 50 miles around 6:36. By then, the sun was blazing and I believe the temperature was close to 80F. They were carrying ice bandanas to avoid the overheating. As I recall, Sage too the control of the race afterwards, keeping a strong pace although I felt he had slowed down when passing me. Sun set was around 5:20 and it cooled down quickly after that.

I jogged the last 10 miles of my first 50 for a total time of 8:19. While the knee was still holding on well, my glutes were really tired, having forgotten what it takes to run for so long without walking. I felt obliged to cover at least 100K to make the trip and the age group title more worthwhile. Like last year, I teamed up with Rich McKnight who helped me shave one minute and a half off my walking pace (from 18:30 to 17).

I hate walking so much, that did help a lot. We talked about running, racing, society, politics. Let's say it was great to exchange perspectives but we didn't solve the current conundrum... This meme came up in my feed this week, not a bad one to capture the overall state of our society, amplified by our so-called social media. To me the real fracture is on short versus long term perspective on economic equity and sustainability in particular. But I digress...

Progressing in the late afternoon, the sun finally disappeared not without some breathtaking visual effect, well done!

The infatigable Jester, Ed Ettighausen, was running the non-championship 24-hour and logged another 100-mile!

Speaking of infatigable, what about the non-stop live coverage from Mountain OutPost, which included Zach Bitter, AJW (Any Jones Wilkins), Jamil Coury.

At least, with darkness, the board was now much easier to read that in the sun:

Rich was going for 100 miles over 48 hours, I had enough at 100K myself, didn't want to get too crazy on the knee yet. Completed lap 63, mile 63.2, in 12:18. I tried to take as much heat as I could in my body, from the heated tent, before spending the next 8 hours in the car. Rather uncomfortable night, I had to start the engine to heat the seat 4 times during the night (50F outside), yet much easier than walking all night like last year...

Not proud of the result on paper, and even worse for the UltraSignup ratio (44.3%, yikes!) but, given the context and circumstance, I believe using only 12 hours was a reasonable decision for me. It actually gave me a chill to see Sage suffering from hypothermia in the early evening; he would end up dropping at 86 miles, so long for the qualification (Michael ended up with 59 laps).

Janelle Stark, coached by the great Zach Bitter, was on world record pace for most of the day and took the lead after Sage stopped. She ended up with 137.4 miles, and 2nd overall. Kayle Frederick sprinted the last 5 laps to make the qualification minima by 0.4 miles, with Lana Haugberg missing it by 0.6 miles!

Also coached by Zach, Philip Sebastiani ended up taking the overall win with 142.3 miles, 3 laps short of the Men qualifying bar of 145 miles (but an overall win was great enough to qualify!). It was impressive to see him giving it all, logging a few sub-9 miles in the last hour.

Sho Gray took 2nd in the Men with 137.4 miles, followed my Isaiah, 125.5 miles, and Thierry, first Masters, with 120.6 miles. Oh, and Ed logged 77.1 miles which should be just enough for a new age group record for 24 hours!

USATF official liaison and friend, Lynn, was gracious enough to hand me the medal and patch so I could drive to the airport before the award ceremony. National champion patch #21, what would we do for a piece of fabric! ;-)

Although he had a later flight, Thierry tagged along for that ride to the airport. Lynn was the only official this time, she was busy monitoring the race, and taking pictures of us, which she shared this week.

Before leaving, selfies with local legends, Zach and AJW!

As I write this report less than 24 hours after stopping last night, on Sunday, the knee seems fine, phew! If anything, the glutes and hamstrings are sore from that longest physical effort of the year but I managed to run 3. miles on Monday and some strenght training at the gym on Tuesday, taking Wednesday off before the Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving. At least there is that for the 2024 season, with prospects of rebuilding for 2025! Many steps at a time, but not more than what makes sense... When ultra running is definitely an experiment of n = 1...

PS: the words I used in my Facebook post... Tasting the ultra waters again, it feels surreal between all the experience coming back but also not knowing what I'm doing, or supposed to do...

Fat Ox 24-hour Nationals: could I be tired yet?

A week has passed since Fat Ox and I already raced the Silicon Valley Turkey Trot 10K yesterday, time to keep the blog going with such a heavy regimen! (I'm still waiting for some pictures, I'll add later.)

Fat Ox: did you think from the name and the logo that it was about celebrating a big fatty local bovine? Well, sorry, you completely missed it, you got misled, and so was I! ;-) Nope, this is about a major real life Fat Oxydation experiment which has been set especially for Nick Coury to validate some key physiological hypothesis. Nick is actually the lead of our 24-hour Team USA on its way to the World Championships in Taiwan, next week. A major calendar conflict which explains why the big guys and gals of the discipline didn't show up at these Nationals.

In addition to being the current American record holder for 24 hours with 173 miles, Nick is one of the best representatives of the power of the Optimized Fat Metabolism (OFM), accelerated by the Vespa formula, a Japanese supplement product. In case you aren't a regular of this blog, I've become a big fan and user for the past 15 years (since Mt Diablo 50K 2008). In all disclosure, after refusing any sponsorship given the benefits I was deriving personally from the product, I became a Vespa Ambassador in 2019.

It was still dark when I checked in at 6:45 am.

After 8 attempts, my PR at this format has still been peaking at 133.4 miles, a mark I set at the NorthCoast 24-hour Nationals of 2014, placing 3rd overall, soon after turning 50. I had to stop for 2 hours after my pee had turned brown, so I always felt I was worth more miles if I could use the full 24 hours. Yet, I've struggled at this one-day format since, sometimes due to the weather. With that, I was excited to experiment again and hopefully improve on this PR.

In good albeith wet spirits before the start, with Lin Gentling, our USATF Official to oversee the Championships.

My primary goal was to win my age group, which would have been my 20th National age group title. Unless another M55-59 competitor was signing off, I was the only one in that age group when the online registration close which meant that I only had to complete one lap to fulfill this goal. How embarrassing...

One sad news was that Devon couldn't make it because of the impact of her Lupus. We were left with 9 participants and only 3 real competitions among 3 open men (under 40), 2 M65-69 and 2 open women. I had prepared in my luggage the plaque our Pacific Association committee which I chair made for Devon at the beginning of the year.

The event actually started on Friday morning with a 48-hour and various other time formats across 24, 12 and 6 hours, so there was always some action on that 0.988178-mile certified course. Our championship started at 8 am on Saturday. A few days earlier, the weather forecast was giving just a few minutes of rain at the start. While we ended up with almost 2 hours, it was not too bad, mostly drizzling. The 48-hour runners though got drenched as it poured so much in the early morning. I was actually shopping for some water and garbage bags at 6 am and had to wait for 10 minutes in the car on the parking lot to wait for the storm to pass. As a result, the flat and slick concrete course had quite a few puddles to slalom through in these first 2 hours. Thankfully, a handful of volunteers, including the big Aravaipa boss, Jamil, spent quite some time literally sweeping the course for us: top and most welcomed manicured course care! (Photo credit: Lin Gentling.)

I had conscientiously let the younger Open runners go at their fast sub-9 min/mile pace but I actually had trouble slowing down enough myself. After a few laps I was still averaging 8:35-8:40 minutes per mile. Lin was taking pictures while walking and monitoring the course:

Now, without any competition in my age group, I was free to take more risk and wanted to see if I could take advantage of the crazy training regiment I had put through the summer for Spartathlon, including a couple of 200-mile weeks. Plus the progress I made mentally as well with that experience. With that, I was even free to get a bit crazy: despite being only 3 months away from changing age group, I wanted to give a try to the 12-hour M55-59 which Bob Hearn set had set a few years ago at 78.7 miles. That was requiring 80 laps of 79.05 miles.

I was right on 20 miles at 3 hours. The glutes were tight, I know too well they have become my weak spot after my recent 4-year injury, during which I lost faith in recovery and didn't do enough strength training. But I could still hold on that sub-9-minute pace. By that time, the rain had stopped and the heat was picking up, making for an interesting weather pattern with the high humidity of the ground and air. By noon, it felt like I was not the only one suffering from the heat. I was too focused on my pace for stopping and taking the time to get some ice, I kept pushing until I reached 39.5 miles before the 6-hour mark, right on track. It was 2 pm and I was unfortunately not feeling as fresh as at the start, quite an understatement. By that time, it became much harder to maintain that pace, but I tried until I quickly fell off the rhythm.

In the morning, a local runner, Rich, was coming back on the course to continue his 48-hour run. He offered to share his table and actually moved the stuff I had left near my car onto his table. That made my stops much more comfortable than having to bend down to the ground.

Having lost the initial excitement of chasing the 12-hour record, there wasn't much positive goal remaining. After passing the 50-mile, I was even considering stopping. However, I saw a runner stopping by the timing tent and asking Katie, the Race Director, to look at the buckles. At the net lap I stopped myself and asked what the buckles were for: "100 miles!" Katie replied. Dang, there you are for a goal. Still, after initially dreaming of 135+ miles, 100 miles felt quite a remote and hard goal with all the slow walking which I had turned to. After the initial 39.5 in 6 hours, I managed to log 23.6 miles in the next 6 hours. Painfully.

At that time I was still in 4th overall, and 3rd in the Men, so "in the (some) money!" and I had 7 laps on Steven Barnett, 38. Steven shared that he enjoyed the cooler temperature of the evening and he was definitely moving faster than me now. The emulation kept me on my toes all night and I definitely felt the pressure seeing the lead decrease down to 4 laps. I walked a coupled of laps with Rich and that helped maintaining a 17 min/mile pace. Until Rich, and I as a matter of facts, reached 100K and called it a day as he was in the 48-hour mostly to support a friend who had already left.

If was past midnight when Steven passed me once more and, this time, I found the will to react and follow him in his acceleration. We passed each other a few times in the next laps and I felt the pressure and pace quite unsustainable as my legs were so tight and tired. Then I lost track of him for a lap until I saw him in his chair. For one lap, and one more, and another, rebuilding a 11-lap lead. All this battling eventually got me to 100 miles but I was still uncertain he couldn't come back and kill it. But then he eventually left, I think around 4 am.

Meanwhile I had jogged and walked along 5th place, David Harris, 69. David had a rough patch through the heat of the afternoon, even passing out. I was actually running through the aid station when I had seen the medical team called in a rush for a runner who had fallen, but didn't know who that was. As a consequence, they kept him in observation for a while and he got off pace for his 120-mile record goal.

Around 5:30 am, and with Steven now gone, I was getting a bit cold and decided to stop by the car to put one layer on. It was too tempting, I also got about 20 minutes of sleep, in 2 intervals. Someone seemed to be sleeping in the car next to me so I drove to park at the other extremity of the lot as I was running the engine to get the seat heating on. The whole stop did cost me about 55 minutes, really not efficient.

I came back on the course before sun rise and the sky was amazing. We were now less than 10 on the course, with a friendly battle between 1st and 2nd place, respectively Don Reichelt, 38, and Nick Elben, 29. As they were jogging or walking together, that looked like a Backyard format with Nick playing the assist. Don ended up being more consistent actually clocking several impressive fast laps in the last hour. Equally impressive Sierra DeGroff who finished strong, with 113 laps.

As for me, I kept on with my embarrassing and pathetic slow walking. After the 102 laps needed for the 100 miles, I painfully managed to add 5 laps for a total of 105.7 miles. Dang, so far from my initial goal. Last lap, in David's company, photos by Lin:

The overall 2024 American Champions, Don and Sierra:

Despite the small field, it took another 30 minutes for Kathy and the chief timer, Andy, to compile the results. At least the early morning sun was already providing a healthy warmth.

While we wait, here is a detailed list of my fueling (with the lap format, I was able to keep a bag of my wrappers, no need to keep track in my head, phew):

• GU Energy
• Waffle: 1 before the start
• Gels: 8
• Chews: 7 servings
• Brew: 7 servings
• Vespa: 7 concentrate (1 45 minutes before the start, 1 2 laps in as I had forgotten to take it just before the start, then 1 every 3 hours, skipping hour 21 as I was barely moving)
• S!Caps: 18
• Aid station: 2 cups of Coke, 2 small nems, 4 small avocado/ wraps (the best!)
• Mashed potato (Idahoan): 2 1.5-oz servings (I intended to take 1 every 6 hours but completely forgot about it until late in the evening, oops, the joy of being screwed, that is without a crew!)
• Water: I lost count but probably more than 10 20-oz bottles including quite a few stops for ice in the afternoon and even through the night.

Speaking of wrappers (yuk!), I keep mine when possible throughout the year and I love that GU Energy is offering to pay for shipping to send them to Terracyle (check this page, it doesn't even have to be GU Energy products). It was cool to see Aravaipa offers the same, on site at the aid station, although a bit disappointing to see how empty the box was at the end of 48 hours (until someone was frequently emptying the box as it filled):

Here is the mashed potato I used in races, super easy to mix with hot water up to the black line I draw with a marker in advance (I ate 4 of these during Spartathlon):

On behalf of USATF, Lin gave us our medals and the coveted patch. And Kathy, our buckles and checks. Next year, the qualification process for the 2025 World championships will be in full swing so you can expect a much deeper field and much more competition!

Here are some stats illustrating our poor job at initial pacing, with the 6-hours mileage splits:

• Don: 40, 34.1, 29.6, 23.3
• Nick: 39.5, 33.6, 28.7, 14.8
• Sierra: 39, 31.6, 25.7, 15.8
• Jean: 39.5, 26.2, 24.2, 15.8

Overall, I was super impressed by the professionalism of Aravaipa. It's not the first time I experience the quality of their organization, but it's only going up, kudos to the leadership, management, employees and volunteers for such a well oiled race machine! Particularly impressive was to see the speed at which the whole camp got unfolded and put back in the large trucks in less than 3 hours (I could watch as, without a hotel, I prepped for my flight back home on the parking lot, packing in the back of my car and using the restrooms to wash, missing the showers advertised on the park's website).

Before I close, I'd be remiss not to talk about the 48 hours in which Simen Holvik won by logging 224.3 miles, setting a new Norwegian record! And I can really not take Spartathlon myself as an excuse for a poor performance because, in his 3rd participation in Greece, Simen place 2nd this year 7 weeks ago! When I get to my Spartathlon race report(s) eventually, I'll tell you more about these tatoos. It was humbling to hear Simen's story as he focuses on his passion for these crazy long runs while taking care of his kids after his wife died last year. Thank you for visiting from Norway, Simen, what an impressive pace you could maintain over 2 days while we could see how much you were hurting...

Until we come back for more loops next year, I'm looking forward to seeing what Team USA is going to deliver in Taipei and I hope you'll follow the tracking as well! Go Team USA, we will be watching!