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...