Running in Columbus, Ohio: Olentangy Trail

Business travel isn't always fun, especially when flying domestic, but I love to discover new places especially when they are as runner-friendly as Columbus, OH. Downtown is pretty boring, especially at night and during the week, when there isn't a big hockey game, but the Mayor and his Parks & Rec are really committed to getting the local community fitter.

They designed a network of bike paths which extend dozen of miles from downtown, ideal for some long runs. Incidentally, the weather this week has been perfect, quite sunny after a major storm on Sunday and temperature around 70F at the end of the afternoons. I was able to go on a run twice this week and enjoy the 14-mile trail along the Olentangy river. It's now time to taper again before this Sunday's 50K race.

Needless to say, Columbus is the nationwide capital, like Cupertino is for Apple. Here is Nationwide's headquarters, a 1978 building on Nationwide plaza:

On the Nationwide Boulevard, you pass a monument which looks like a ruin from Italy or Greece, with Corinthian-style columns:

Well, thanks to Google, I learned that this wasn't coming from Europe but the remains of a local train station, Union Station #3.

The best way to catch the Olentangy trail from downtown is to hop on Long Street and run toward the West, you will find a trail starting in North Bank Park and a bridge going over the estuary of the Olentangy River and its confluence with the larger Scioto River.

The bike path has mile markers which you can't miss:

The path goes on for miles along the quiet river:

After 2.5 miles, you run along the campus of the Ohio State University (OSU), home of the Buckeyes:

At about mile 4, you pass under the Lane Avenue bridge,

where you can stop and cross over to visit a very special monument to honor cancer survivors on the other side of the river, an opportunity to think of all the people who know who are battling cancer so courageously:

See my Picasa photo album for more pictures of the 16 motivational plaques around Victor Salmones' sculpture:

On my way back, after sunset, I started seeing flashes in the dark bushes and wondering if I was hallucinating... No, I can still run 16 miles safely, it was just a myriad of fireflies or, as the locals call them, lightning bugs. They are quite hard to photograph while flying but look closely at this black picture, you should see a fluorescent green spot (it not, you need to see your eye doctor! ;-).

And here is a closer look and more interesting view of a Photinus firefly:

Again, that's only one of the trails composing a much larger network, some trails still under construction or only planned, but a major commitment to bikers, including commuters, something which reminded me of what I've seen in Scandinavia for instance in Sweden this winter.

With that, if you ever stop by Columbus, Ohio, you'll know where to run!

Have a great rest of the week and see some of you at Skyline 50K, that will be my 8th consecutive one, 47th 50K race, looking forward to it!

Tahoe Rim Trail 100-mile 2014: yikes, again...

It was the 9th edition of Tahoe Rim Trail 100-mile, not quite the 41 years of the mother of all trail 100-milers, Western States, but a history and legacy is steadily forming in Nevada. And, along the history of the event, the creation of many very personal stories as participants experience both "A glimpse of heaven, a taste of hell..." (as the event tag line says). From our Quicksilver team, Mark Tanaka was back for a 5th finish. Defending champion, Bob Shebest, had already 3 finishes under his belt, each time shaving 2 hours of his time. Victor Ballesteros was back after three bad experiences and DNFs on this course. And, including the 50-mile distance, there were runners coming back for their 10th participation.

In comparison, my own story with TRT 100 is rather short. 2 years ago, I got in but broke my shoulder the day before the training runs, farther on another section of the TRT, a few weeks before race day: DNS (Did Not Start). Last year, I really enjoyed discovering the course in the first 50-mile loop but messed up my stop at the main aid station and got dehydrated and lost motivation in the next 12 miles, dropping at Tunnel Creek 4 (4th passage through that aid station): DNF (Did Not Finish).

This year, it was supposed to be "my" 100-mile scoring event (we can only score one 100-mile event in our Grand Prix) except that I later decided to fly back from Europe in June to run the 24-hour race which was added later to our list of events and where I logged 127 miles, getting the points of a 100-mile event. With that, my main goals became to improve the M50-59 age group record which was at 23:03.

Agnès and I drove to Carson City and arrived just in time for the check-in (I hadn't realized it was such a drive from the Bay Area with the long stretch on Highway 50). Quite a few familiar faces but also many runners coming from other states with a handful from abroad (Canada, Mexico, France).

For the pre-race briefing, the Nevada State Assembly amphitheater was filled with an unusual population, several hundreds ultra runners all anxious to hear about the race details and conditions, especially the weather forecast.

Last year was exceptionally hot and dry but other years are actually chilly with some of the trail sections covered with snow, so quite a range. And the week leading to the race had an unusual high number of storms with lightning on the course as well as rain and even hail. At least this was cooling off the area and it wasn't supposed to be as hot as last year. And here is Dean explaining the subtle use of the timing mats at Tunnel Creek:

While it was amazing to get the timing chip technology introduced to this event for the first time, I must disclose from the feedback I received from family members and friends and my own when tracking other team members later, that the website needs some important user experience redesign to become more intuitive...


For those following my blog, you might remember that I did run a "fat ass" in June with Guillaume Sautai in, or more precisely around, Rouen, France. Guillaume included TRT in a family vacation, touring the American great west. Here he is, at the start, between myself and Frederic, another Frenchman of the Bay Area and new teammate on our Quicksilver Ultra Running Team.

Chatting with Guillaume while getting ready...

We started promptly at 5 am. The temperature was already in the high 60s and it felt good to run before the sun hits us later in the morning.

Bob Shebest immediately took the lead and I thought I'll never see him again. I really wanted to pace myself (read: not start too fast) and, without pushing at all, settled in 3rd place for the first climb. Last year I didn't take a lamp with me and had to piggy back on the runners in front of me and guess where the rocks and roots were, which is a bit stressful and risky. This year, I took a headlamp with me which I switched off at 5:30 (you really need light for 20 minutes).

On the final switchbacks of the climb, we caught up with Bob, then he disappeared in the next downhill section, he is such an amazing descender! Just keeping jogging the last uphill before Hobart (mile 7), we caught him up again and I actually passed him to take the lead as he made a stop at the station, while I had enough fluids in my two bottles to cover the first 11 miles to Tunnel Creek 1. We were a group of 6 runners and, for what it is worth, that is nothing, I was the first to get to the "photo shoot" as we were passing a ridge with the sun rising. Bob passed all of us again in a down hill, then we passed him again on another climb. Sincerely, the pace felt ok but my plan wasn't to race against Bob so that got me uncomfortable. In the switchbacks down to Tunnel Creek I even told the group "I'm too hold to be at the front!"

We reached Tunnel Creek at 6:54 am, that is 4 minutes faster than the race plan I had printed out on Thursday, credit to Frank Schnekenburger's UltraSplits website. Despite power hiking the 3.5 miles and 1,700 feet elevation gain up to Tunnel Creek, my crew, Agnès and our friends from Incline Village, missed me by 2 minutes. The time I find my drop bag to take a Vespa, I was the last of our group of 6 to take the plunge down to Red House. I could still see Bob in the lead but, with 2.5 miles of steep downhill in which he excels, that was the last time I was going to see him that time. Here is Bob in a solid lead by mile 17:

With the pounding of rushing down the steep trail, my intestine started to hurt really bad. I started to have some GI (gastrointestinal) issues earlier in the week while teaching at a boot camp in Austin, TX, and was hoping to have it under control by race morning, but not quite so unfortunately. It became unbearable on the way up to Tunnel Creek 2 and, with the pain, I had hard time smiling at the runners who were crossing in that section and nicely providing us with encouragements.

As I reached the aid station, the medical staff took my weight which was just one pound below the weight on my bracelet. Then I rushed to the porta-potty, my first of many stops to take care of my diarrhea. I was still able to drink but, too uncomfortable with my GI system and being a bit nauseous, I wasn't eating much, certainly not enough to sustain the effort throughout the day and night at this rate. In retrospective I should have stopped longer at the station to take care of the issue but, with the racing spirit in my mind, I went on toward Bull Wheel, albeit now at a much lower pace which was kind of depressing only 20 miles in the race.

I got passed by a few runners in that 9-mile section to Diamond Peak, making 3 or 4 stops behind bushes or rocks to take care of the painful "business..." It almost feels that the saying "shit happens" is appropriate in my race report to sum-up my morning, sorry for the crude expression...

It was a relief to see my friends at Diamond Peak, along with teammates Toshi and Sachin. Toshi had come from the Bay Area to pace me from mile 50. 2 weeks ago, he was already on this Tahoe Tim Trail completing an amazing feat, covering the entire loop, 165 miles, in 75 hours, solo and unsupported! They helped me refill my bottles and off I was on the incredibly steep 2-mile ski slope up to Bull Wheel. Not only steep but also sandy, making each step a challenge, especially under a burning sun now. By Diamond Peak I was still right on track according to the 20:40 pace chart, not far from my 2013 splits.

Including a long and painful "pit" stop near the summit, it took me 60 minutes to cover the 2 miles between Diamond Peak and Bull Wheel, yikes, slow motion! As I was approaching the end of the hill, Chris Calzetta caught up with me. Chris joined our team 4 years ago and had a few very successful ultras before getting injured then moving to Monterey and focusing on work and soccer. It was his return on the ultra scene and he seemed to really enjoy the day so far, power walking the steep hills with his poles. We ran together for a few hundreds yards after Bull Wheel but I told him not to wait for me and, indeed, I lost sight of him pretty quickly. I got passed by another handful of runners in the 3 miles to Tunnel Creek 3, on a trail which is both somehow technical with the big boulders and busy as we cross many of the 50-mile and 100-mile runners on their way to Bull Wheel 1 and Diamond Peak 1.

Agnès welcomed me at Tunnel Creek and I told her how bad my GI issues were getting. After another stop at the porta-putty I finally decided to take the few minutes needed to assess and address the issue. I had in my drop bag a medicine to treat stomach and GI issues, which I should have taken at my first or second passage through Tunnel Creek. I also asked for ginger candies which I had heard can help in such cases. Like at Diamond Peak, I was 4 pounds below my Friday PM measure, which was still manageable.

I left the aid station with Victor who started the day with a conservative pace and seemed to finally have a good day on this course. I was barely jogging and he was running so I didn't see him for very long. I actually walked most of the 5 miles to Hobart, getting passed by more and more runners and feeling quite depressed with my average pace falling down, now over 11 min/mile. What I like in ultra running is really the running part, not the walking one... During that section, I decided that I was too sick to meet the goals I had set for the day and that I will stop at mile 50. I spent 30 minutes at Hobart, taking 2 cups of soup, a delicious smoothie, cooling off my head with ice water and staying in the shade of the tents. That helped but I still didn't have the energy, at least mentally, to run. I asked a volunteer (Ken, 10th last year) to text Agnès that I'll drop and to release Toshi so he could pace Chris who didn't have a pacer.

Again, I walked most of the next 3 miles to the next aid station, Snow Valley, at mile 43. That seemed so long, I was really not interested in spending all night moving at that slow pace. I enjoyed the great service and company of the Boy Scouts manning the aid station and stopped for another 15 minutes I believe, able to drink a cup of soup and a few chips. The intestines were now feeling better and I started jogging again but I couldn't even keep up with Mark Tanaka who was himself on a rebound after a tough morning.

Five miles from the 50-mile checkpoint, I got passed by two runners who were shuffling solidly and I decided to try to pick up their pace. It felt really great to be moving and running again and I felt better and better, passing other runners in these final miles getting us to the barn. It felt so great that, upon getting to the aid station, the idea of dropping wasn't so clear to me and I was confusing the volunteers and Agnès with my hesitation. Seems like I was even smiling when I reached the aid station... ;-)

On one hand, with 11 hours for that first loop instead of 9 last year, 90 minutes behind my race plan, it was very clear that I had missed my key goals for the day. But there was still a possibility of finishing, maybe even under 24 hours, or even under 23 hours. Now, with all the pit stops, I was chaffing pretty bad, with the GI issue I had not fueled properly all morning, and my mental was pretty low having had planned for the last 15 miles for a drop at the end of the first loop. To add to the bad excuses, the weather was turning pretty bad in the area and it indeed fired a few nasty hail storms on runners later in the afternoon.

Looking at the results, I'm amazed at Bob's performance with not only another win but in a blazing 17 hours and 38 minutes, a new course record (previous one was set by Thomas Crawford, 30, in 2010 at 17:47)! 2 hours and 45 minutes ahead of second place, Mark Austin, from Boise, ID (Mark who came last year to win the 50-mile race in 8:38). Chris placed 5th in 21:30, Victor 17th (23:28), Mark finished his 5th TRT just under 24 hours with 1 minute to spare (and "screwed" that is without any pacer or crew the whole day and night!); Amy Burton (QuickSilver) took 3rd in the women division in 24:08, 1 minute behind Jamie Frink, Guillaume placed 24th in 24:16 and Frederic completed his first 100-miler in 26:03. And Charles Cheya of Sacramento improved the previous M50-59 age group course record by almost half an hour (22:35:31). We were 10 QuisckSilver team members to toe the line and 8 did finish, quite a successful rate overall: Jill in 29:53, Stephen 30:36 followed 4 minutes later by Scott (30:40), Harris in 32:57 and Jeff in 34:08. And it was inspiring to see other team members stepping up to pace us: Toshi, Guy, David, Greg, Clare, Sandra, Lisa, Harris, kudos to you too!

Apart for the late afternoon storms, the weather conditions were much better than last year, at least not as hot (correction as I read some comments after my original post on FaceBook, the night was actually chilly and even the award ceremony got cancelled on Sunday afternoon because of lightning, rain and flooding. Good for another yikes!). This, plus the support of the volunteers all passionate about ultra running, contributed to many personal successes. It remains a tough course and the loop format is certainly part of the challenge of this event especially if you had a bad experience in the first 50-mile loop.

On Sunday, our friends, Agnès and I hiked up to the Tunnel Creek aid station again to get my drop bag, a good excuse for a morning exercise and some post-race stretching. It was so impressive to see the last runners going through the aid station before the 10:05 am cut-off at mile 85, and also the volunteers who had been up and busy since 5 am the previous day.

That's ultra... volunteering, with Noé Castanon being a prime example of, volunteering when he can't run, even when recovering from shoulder surgery. Here I am with Noé, proudly carrying my Victory Design drop bag (thank you Victor! ;-):

Overall, I'm of course disappointed for having failed at meeting my goals at this race again and adding another DNF to the list (5 out of 101 ultra races in 9 years). But I feel that diarrhea is still a good enough excuse to have only covered 50 miles and it wasn't worth more pain given that I race so much. My main regret beyond of course not getting the unique 150th Nevada State anniversary belt silver minted medallion, is that, after 10 attempts, I'm still struggling at the 100-mile distance. Speaking of racing, next one is in 2 weeks, Skyline 50K, a distance which fits me much better (it will be my 47th!).

Congrats to all who succeeded at TRT, good luck to those who didn't, for a rebound, and I always enjoy meeting you on the trails, or the web!

Running in Austin, Texas: Walnut Creek Park

I should be tapering, not running, before my return to the Tahoe Rim Trail 100-mile next week but, I promise, I spent more time sitting and following Hardrock 100 this Friday night and Saturday than on my feet, running! It was both humbling and inspiring to read the live updates of iRunFar.com on Kilian Jornet's perfect race leading not only to his overall win but a new course record (of course!). Now I'm really intrigued by Kilian's quote at the finish "Hardrock was the last race on 'the list'." I now he is on another quest, climbing all the highest and most challenging summits on all the continents, and in record time each, but he is only 26, he can't just disappear like that from the running circuit... We had three club teammates in the race this year, John, Kristina and Chihping. Not only this is the toughest course of the 100 or so 100-mile races in the US, excluding Barkley, but the conditions were awful on Friday with heavy rain and lightnings especially for the lead runners. In these condition, Chihping was the first of the three to drop and Kristina didn't make one of the cut-offs on Saturday morning, heartbreaking. Now, John (Burton) did amazing, finishing 12th overall and 11th men in the midst of a very strong competition. Kudos to him for this outstanding performance!

Being in Austin for a few days to teach in a boot camp for new hires in our business rules practice, I had the joy to run with Max this Saturday morning as he just started working for IBM here in Texas. Max took the lead to make me discover the trails near the IBM site, in the North of Austin. In the process I got some good last minute heat training for next week (TRT is supposed to be hot again this year, hopefully not as hot as last year though).

 

Here is a shy but adventurous turtle exploring the trails away from the creek:

We started West of Mopac running through the Balcones District Park, then crossed an area called Centrum to end up picking trails randomly in Walnut Creek Park. An easy 9-mile run but a good sweat!

As you can see on the pictures, Austin is quite green in these preserved creek areas. That reminded me the run I did along another creek in Austin last year, Barton Creek Greenbelt, South of Austin. And, rereading this post, I realize it was also a week before a 100-mile race, one which I won actually (Headlands Hundred) so maybe I'll have a better TRT this time! I hope so, especially as Toshi accepted to pace me again, go Team Farther Faster!

Well, if it doesn't, it will be because Judy is missing, being in India this month, volunteering, so for a very good cause! ;-)

Looking forward to next week for some hilly trails in amazing Tahoe. For a glimpse of heaven, and not too much taste of hell this time hopefully... See some of you up there, have a great week in the meantime!

Ultra race #100: the longest day to celebrate!

Yes, June 21 was my 100th ultra race and what a better way to celebrate that a new race format, a 24-hour run! I wasn't supposed to be in town for the second half of June but my Mom's health led to a change a plan late May and an earlier family vacation than usual in Europe (see my previous blog posts from England, France and Malta). As a result, I was able to take part of this inaugural event in our Grand Prix which had been missing such an important format for at least the last decade. Besides, the race was organized by John and Maureen Brooks' PCTR (Pacific Coast Trail Run), proud of keeping Sarah's great legacy alive including the famous motto: "Serious Fun!" We are also grateful that John joined our Quicksilver club and ultra running team!

It was a low key and local event, nothing to compare with last week's Western States, especially in terms of competitiveness. For this reason, I was a favorite again. Despite being my first attempt at that "distance" as we say, our Grand Prix co-chair, Bill Dodson, offered to come and record all my splits in case I was going to set a new Age Group Record (M50-54). Although that record still shows at 140 miles on the USATF tablets, Ed Ettinghaussen, aka The Jester, has run 146.6 miles in 24 hours last Fall. And Ed was actually present to run his 17th 100-mile race, on his way to setting a new Guiness record of the highest number of 100-mile race ran in one year (which I believe is 40).

As you can see from the picture, Catra (Corbett) was also running, see more about her ultra passion, addiction and achievements in this interview. Yes, that was her 100th 100+-mile race back then, not "just" her 100th ultra race as it was the case for me 2 weeks ago. For the non insiders, an ultra is any distance beyond the marathon mark (26.2 miles or 42.195 km), typically 50K (31.1 miles), 50 miles, 100K, 100 miles, ...

The start was conveniently set at 8 am which meant a breakfast before 5 am for me which wasn't much of a problem since I had flown back from 3 weeks in Europe the previous day (Friday) so the jet lag woke me up even earlier than that. I woke up at 5 am in Annecy to catch my flight in Geneva so I had been up for 25 hours the day before the race which was less than ideal, maybe some late sleep resistance or deprivation training, but I don't recommend to do that the eve of a 24-hour race...

Getting into the race, I knew my biggest challenge was not to start too fast so I made all the efforts not to take the lead, knowing we were mixed with participants in the 12-hour and 6-hour races. I settled on a very comfortable pace between 8:30 and 9. After a few laps, my GPS distance was actually off the official marks (multiples of 1.06-mile lap), so I was actually not sure about the real pace. Besides, it was difficult to really gauge the effort as we were running against wind gusts for the northbound half-mile, more on this later.

We were a good contingent representing our Quicksilver club and, with this slow pace, I didn't see Stephen and Lisa for many laps, them running at a similar pace. On such a 1-mile loop though I kept passing slower runners and we exchanged encouragements most of the time: way to get entertain for those who think such format is boring. Furthermore, apart for the strong wind (15-20 mph), the weather was perfect and you can't get tired of the amazing views of the Golden Gate, the Presidio, Alcatraz and San Francisco, even for 100 times in one day!

As I mentioned above, that was my first attempt at running for 24 hours straight. I ran 9 100-milers actually but, not counting the two which I DNF'ed (Did Not Finish), my slowest time has been 21:30 at Western States 2010 so I indeed never ran for a whole day and a whole night. For this reason, I wasn't sure what to expect and, more importantly, how to decompose the distance in sub goals. I started feeling some fatigue in the 5th hour, mostly the wind gusts eroding my mental. It is around that time, after 50 laps, that the wind blasted John's computer table with two computers and a large display getting onto the ground to John and Bill's dismay, and me as well as I was approaching the finish area just at the time. Thankfully for me at least, Bill had kept a manual count and record of all the splits, so I was confident they'd be able to keep the count straight.

In these 5 hours, I had made more than a handful of pit stops, more stops than usual which I attributed to the long transatlantic flight (I tend to hydrate more than needed in such long flights) and some race-induced stress. These stops resulted into a few 9 and 10-minute laps, otherwise many of my 40 first laps were actually under 9. I slowed down slightly after mile 50 yet was pleased to be right on 80 miles at 12:00:00. 80 miles are my official PR for 12-hour although I ran 84 miles in 12 hours a Run d'Amore 18 months ago on my way to running 100 miles under 15 hours. Happy but tired, especially pushing against the wind at every lap. It was 8 pm and not getting weaker. I actually asked Catra if the wind was going to stay that strong all night and she wasn't sure, she advised me to ask John. I didn't even dare because there wasn't not much John could do about it anyway...

I kind of recall that the wind decreased shortly after midnight. The night was cool but, keeping running and running, and fighting this wind, my body temperature was fine and I ran all night with a very light wind breaker. My legs were fine, it was more my mental which was getting weaker. Pierre-Yves (Couteau) had stopped by on his way back from Sacramento for Darcy Fink's celebration of life, and he did help me during the evening with a few bottle refills and mixing some mashed potatoes (I was racing in Darcy's memory and in honor of my friend Ann).

Later, Greg (Lanctot) also stopped by after his trip to Sacramento and another obligation, and stayed all night and the next morning to support us which was super helpful for me.

Without my own crew, I was also helped by our team Captain, Loren Lewis, and Lisa's husband, Harris Mason, when they were not busy with their own runners or running themselves across the Golden Gate to enjoy the area and kill some time. (Photo: Pierre-Yves Couteau)

In 80 laps or so I had lapped Lisa only a couple of times so I knew she was running very well and strong. Lisa has had an amazing season so far and she had a sight on the Team USA 24-hour qualifying time (125-mile minimum for women). I told her that I didn't even know what it was for men but that guys making the team typically run more than 150 miles.

During the night it was hard to keep track of the other runners first because of the lack of light but more importantly because many runners were making long stops, to change, take a nap or even sleep for a few hours, or drop. Yet, John was well awake next to the computer screen and acknowledging each of our passages. I had released Bill of his official tracking function around 9 pm if I recall when I knew that I didn't have any record in me. Here is the time keeping triumvirat, from right to left: John Brooks, RD, Dave Combs and Bill Dodson.

From 145 miles, then 135, my revised goals were first to run without stopping for 24 hours to see what this was about and, second, cover at least 200 kilometers, that is 124.4 miles.

Running through the night was so peaceful but, with my previous long day, I was getting tired around 1 am. Based on Jon Olsen's experience at the 24-hour World Championships last year which he won with 167 miles, I had bought a bottle of 5-hour Energy booster. I mentioned that to Greg and he didn't object so I took it around 1 am. Wow, for someone who never drinks coffee, that was something. Again, not much physically as the pace was slow by then, but I was seeing much clearly all of a sudden! (4 next pictures from Shiran (Shir) Kochavi)

With that, it was amazing to see the day light coming back around 5 am, with 3 more hours to go. Slower pace and, more importantly, longer stops at the aid station which I started enjoying way too much ending up clocking laps over 15 minutes now, even a 21-minute one on my 101th lap, oops. It wasn't too long before Lisa lapped me back once. She was really moving and I didn't feel the energy to fight back to keep the lead much more. I had a 13-lap lead on Ed who had a rough night and, with 2 hours to go, that was enough to win the men division, and yet meet my revised goals even if it meant walking the last laps. Which is what I ended doing anyway. And, as soon as I started walking after 22 hours of running non stop, my body temperature dropped and I started shivering. Time for another pit stop, this time under the heated tent of the Red Cross crew with Greg helping me changing from head to toe.

I went back on the course dressed like for a winter run and, as I was feeling a bit better and started jogging again, I got too warm, peeling off layers in the last two laps.

I crossed the finish line with 15 minutes to spare, not enough to walk and jog another lap, satisfied enough with 120 laps and 127.32 miles overall for such a first attempt at the 24-hour format. In the last laps, a few runners had regained their form and both Mark Tanaka and Ed lapped me as I was walking. Ed finished 3rd overall with 109 laps, and Mark 6th with 104.

Extraordinaire Lisa won overall with 124 laps, that is 131.564 miles, all while smiling for 24 hours: many and big kudos to her!

We waited for all the remaining 24-hour finishers to come back to the "harbor" and got this super cool picture at the dawn of a new day.

I drove back home by myself which was slightly on the unsafe line at the end of a very long 31-hour day (not counting the physical challenge and fatigue of running 127 miles). By far my longest running day ever. Even pacing Pierre-Yves last week at Western States was less hours and miles on my feet. Craving for food after having run on Vespa and only 17 Gus total, I stopped by a Mac Donald's to learn that they were not serving meals before 11 am, damned! Thankfully, I found a Burger King which was more open to the idea of a hamburger and fried  at 10 am, and crashed in my bed by 11:30 am. Just slept for 5 hours to wake up and work on a work project.5 more hours before going back to conference calls on Monday morning then flying to DC in the afternoon, getting to the hotel in Georgetown by 1 am. I must admit I was really tired on Tuesday and wasn't 100% up to my game for the important customer meeting in the afternoon but it went ok. On Tuesday evening I even met Alex for a short 10K run in Rock Creek Park. I was still tired and short of breath and I had hard time keeping up with him despite a mild 8:30 min/mile pace on these nice trails, phew! Alex ran his first marathon last year in 3:38, a great performance for the little training he was able to put in with his studies and job, and he got in the Marine Corps Marathon again this year.

Special thanks to:

• John and Maureen Brooks and their PCTR volunteer crew for setting up such a professional event, staying up for even more hours than us, wow!
• Bill for staying for more than 14 hours and logging at least  85 of my laps!
• All the runners for their encouragements as we were passing each other so many times in a day.
• Loren, Harris, Pierre-Yves and Greg for the assistance at the aid station, with a special mention to Loren for taking pictures with my camera to make this report more visual.

I'm really glad I did manage to keep moving for 24 hours, that was a big endurance test, one which tested and pushed my limits, both physically and mentally when running against the strong wind. I'm very glad that I covered more than 200 kilometers in that longest running day to date, that's a nice symbolic milestone.

Now, I didn't meet all my goals but a few were certainly too aggressive for a first. Too many pit stops, not enough sleep the previous nights, drinking too much (for once!), no specific training, a very "positive" split (80 + 47 miles) or should I say negative, the lack of combativeness in the last 3 hours, some chaffing, the fatigue the following 2 days, there are quite a few lessons to learn from to improve. Running on Vespa mostly worked with one pouch every 2 to 2.5 hours: I topped it with 17 GUs, one can of Coke, 2 cups of soup and one bowl of mashed potato, not that many calories compared to those spent. Overall, I've even more respect for Ed's amazing M50-54 record at 144.6 miles.

Next race is in 2 weeks, the grueling Tahoe Rim Trail 100, "a glimpse of heaven... a taste of hell..." Some unfinished business to take care about from last year, yet again one my primary goals will have to start conservatively. You'd think that I'd know better about pacing by my 100th ultra race, but I'm still young at heart and taking the risk to push my limits while I can. Let's see how this plays in 2 weeks then!