Leading up to the race
I have been dealing with a nagging adductor issue with my left leg. Three weeks ago I was on mile 28 of my last long run when my left knee just locked up and shot a horrible pain up through my groin. I thought about calling Laura to have her come pick me up but I thought this would be a good training session on how to deal with pain issues that inevitably come with ultras. So, I walked. Then I stretched a body part. Then walked some more. Then stretched a different body part. Ultimately, I was looking for a good stretch that would subside the pain and allow me to move forward at a pace fast enough to finish in under the 13 hour time limit. Unfortunately nothing worked and I hobbled the last 3 miles home and jumped in an ice both wondering if I the last 12 weeks were a waste.
I started thumbing through my training log as I sat in the ice bath and realized that I have enough training that I may survive an extreme taper (i.e. no running until race day). At this point, I had been averaging around 55 miles per week with three 30-mile runs and a few weeks of good speed work. So, I quit running. Hell, I didn’t even put my running shoes on but not toeing the line was not an option, nor was quitting once I started. Without running I decided to focus on my diet. The biggest change was that I started eating mostly vegetarian with a few sprinkles of chicken or salmon. In addition, I cut out beer entirely. By the time I weighed myself the Thursday before we headed up to DC I was nearing my peak running weight and feeling really good. I still didn’t know how the knee was going to hold up but we were about to find out.
Race weekend
We drove up to DC on Thursday after work and rolled into the city around 12:30 in the morning. Melissa was awesome and stayed up for us and let us crash on her couch so I could be close to packet pickup the next morning. On Friday we grabbed my packet and headed off to Alice's where I managed to get a nap between playing with the kiddos and even watching Julie play a softball game! And, the MVP award for the weekend goes to Laura. She woke up at 3:00AM to drive me to the race start which was an hour away. Then, she met me at mile 14 to crew me for my first loop at the Great Falls Aid Station.
The night before the race I had a huge helping of spaghetti that Alice made and drank a bunch of water and started to up my electrolytes before I went to bed. I managed to crash at 20:30 (it’s nice having the kiddos around because they have early bed times) so I managed to get around 6.5 hours of really solid sleep. I didn’t have any ‘night before race’ jitters and just crashed as soon as my head hit the pillow. At 03:00 my alarm went off, in addition to my backup text from Luke, and I was ready to rock. I got my gear on, ate a banana and some juice and took off for the race start. We got to the start about 45 minutes early which allowed me to have some coffee and oranges and get that last toilet break in. I was feeling really excited and still not too nervous. Kind of weird but I guess when you bust your ass for 12 weeks you shouldn’t have too many surprises ahead. My only concern was my adductor but I decided I wouldn’t even think about that so, not an issue. I didn’t stretch, I didn’t do any warmups, I just sat. Any step I took before the race could be the one that got me over the finish line. When the 2-minute warning came Dean got on the microphone and wished everybody good luck then we were off. Laura got a pre-race photo and a video (I'll throw the videos up later).
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| 04:45 pre-picture |
I had a race plan and a goal. And no, my plan/goal was not “to just finish”. I think that is a bullshit answer that newbies use. Even if you want to ‘just finish’ you need to have a plan for a 50-miler otherwise you might as well just go to the beer tent and not waste a shuttle-drivers time having to drive you back after 20 miles. My goal was to finish in nine hours. My pacing plan was to go out slow and just when I think I should run faster, slow down. This was some advice that Charlie gave me some time ago when we were chatting on a trail run in Boulder (thanks Charlie…I thought of you and your Leadville race quite a bit during this race). My food-intake plan was simple: one gel every 20 minutes, NUUN in my two hand-held water bottles, one S-cap every hour. In addition, I brought Ibuprofen and ginger pills with me as needed. I knew the aid-stations were plenty and stocked but I wanted to be self-sustaining so I loaded up all my pockets and set out.
The gun went off at 05:00 sharp and we were off. I chose to start in the middle of the pack as I knew I didn’t want to get stuck behind the walkers but also didn’t want to end up in a sprint pack. The course cruised through some nice, flat single-track in what I think was a marshy area as it was dark and I didn’t dare take the light from my headlamp off the trail. I found myself running alone most of this section with the exception of a few people that were, to my best guess, doing interval training these first four miles. I cruised through the Sugarland aid station right on target of my pace. I didn’t need anything as we’d only gone 4.8 miles. The next few miles were mostly on double track and a few people cruised by me with a bit of a ‘slowpoke’ nod. I took Charlie’s advice and slowed down a little bit. I also took mental note of their numbers and 3 of the 4 DNFd and the fourth finished 3 hours behind me. So, coach Charlie was correct. I got to Fraser aid station and topped off my water bottles in addition to loading up with some extra gels.
The singletrack between Fraser and Great Falls has some really cool sections of trail. It’s the longest on the course without aid (still only 7 miles) but it was hands down my favorite section for running. The hills were short but steep and the trail was technical but runnable. I was still feeling really solid up to mile 12 and just kept my slow-n-steady mentality. I ran nearly all of this trail except for two of the really steep sections (still runnable but I was being conservative) and used those walking breaks to eat my gels, Scaps, etc. The best part about this whole section was that I only saw one group of runners so was able to focus on how I was feeling and just take in the sunrise over the Potomac. Around mile 12 the first hints of ‘I might have to poo’ started creeping into my head. I had 2.8 miles to go and figured I’d just wait until I got to the outhouse. Then, around mile 12.5 my body decided that it was going to happen now. One small problem, this entire section is lined with fields of stinging nettles meaning I was going to go on the trail or risk a scratchy 37.5 mile run. At this point, I was not going to choose either of those options and, instead, changed my running form to more of a straight-legged hobble. It definitely slowed me down and really sucked thinking I might mess myself with any step but, luckily, the feeling went away after about 15 minutes and I was able to make it to the aid station feeling strong and just a couple minutes behind my target (see the picture of me coming in at Great Falls below).
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| Coming into Great Falls at mile 15 |
The next 20 miles consisted of three loops around the Great Falls park. It was a mix between jeep road, double track and technical singletrack all topped off with a kick ass rock garden that puts you on the edge of a 50 foot cliff down to the Potomac. This was a very cool place as I even saw some people top-roping off the cliffs. As I said earlier, this race is extremely well stocked as the halfway point on the loop had a great aid station too. I thought about ditching one of my water bottles but really wanted to stay in my self-sustaining mode mostly for mental training for the Cascade Crest.
After I got a little cameo on the video, snuck a smooch from Laura and sent her on her way (she had other errands to run and was going to meet me at the finish line instead of be bored while I ran in circles for a few hours) and made a much-deserved bathroom stop I was off for my first loop still feeling really good. At this point (15 miles in) my game plan was spot on. Again, this loop is very runnable and reminded me of my training grounds in Umstead. The first loop went very smoothly. There was one section where I stepped funny off a rock and felt that adductor tighten up for a second but I refused to acknowledge it and kept on chugging. I realized finishing up the first loop that I was a little optimistic about my time here and lost a few minutes. However, my pee was still light yellow, my stomach was feeling great and I couldn’t stop smiling so things were solid. Hell, I wasn’t even sick of gels yet.
The second loop was still really solid for me but I started to notice the adductor more and more, especially as I was going downhill. It wasn’t a constant pain but it would definitely give me a little jolt occasionally. I knew that if I was able to finish this loop that I had my ITB strap back at my drop bag that might help out (probably not logical but it made me think I had a fix waiting for me). Since the uphills felt fine and downhills made the jolt of pain I decided to cruise the uphills and adjust my running style for the downhills. This worked really well except I’d fly by people on the uphill and they would return the favor on the downs. All-in-all, I finished that loop about 10 minutes slower than the previous but was still feeling great sans the occasional adductor pain. I dug through my drop bag and found my strap. I also had some Trameel (homeopathic pain gel) so rubbed that all over the leg then cinched down the ITB strap. At first I didn’t have it tight enough and the Trameel made it really slick so the strap just slid to my knee cap. Once I cranked on it and started to run I could tell the pain was going to stay above my knee which was a big mental win. The third lap was a great lap for me and I found myself cruising with a lot of the 50k runners as they made their way to the loop after a later morning start. I finished my third loop and was 6:50 into the run, only 20 minutes behind my goal pace. Overall I was still smiling and feeling great but did think to myself “I’ve been running almost 7 hours and I still have more than a half marathon to go. 50 miles is a long ways!”
I loaded up on gels, stuffed a bunch of salted potatoes in my mouth and took off down the road through the park. By this time, the marathon and 50k folks were all on the trail so you didn’t know who was running what. I found myself in a pack of marathon folks running my pace so I tucked into the back of their group and just zoned out for a little while until we hit the first big climb and I power-hiked past them. At this stage I was feeling good but I was just tired. The steep climbs seemed a little steeper, the downhills more technical and the stinging nettles more stingy. I never bonked during this race but from miles 35-42 were by far my most difficult. I found myself running alone and concentrating on the trail markers was becoming more challenging (this is where a pacer can earn their keep in my book). At mile 38 there is a big climb followed by a really cool rolling downhill section. I usually use these downhills to slow my heart rate and catch my breath after the big climb however I couldn’t get my heart rate to slow down even though I wasn’t running very fast. At one point I stopped and took a few deep breaths that seemed to help but it was still a little concerning. It wasn’t until the next steep climb followed by an equivalent downhill that I realized I was holding my breath on the downhill sections because I was concentrating on not burning out my quads. Once I figured this out I just focused solely on breathing and never had another issue with the heart rate. At mile 40 I caught up with a couple ladies running the marathon and asked if I could tuck behind them and follow them the next couple miles to the aid station. They did one better and said I could run in between them so I couldn’t fall off pace if I felt tempted. That gesture alone lifted my spirits and took me into mile 42.1 and the homestretch.
From here there was a short lollipop loop followed by a 2.5 mile fire road to the finish party. I felt really strong on the finish and even managed to catch a 50k crew finishing up to come in at 9:45. The most exciting part of all was that I had family and friends at the finish lie to celebrate the day with me!
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| Post Race Party Crew....best ever! Thanks guys!!!!! |
Overall this was a very successful race for me. My quads are pretty tired and my stomach had some issues last night after the race but I feel good today. Here are a few bullet points of things I learned:
- Beer is better than a massage after a race
- Sitting down to go to the bathroom has added challenges after a 50-miler
- Friends and family crewing and at the finish line is awesome
- The North Face puts on a good show
- 50 miles is a long ways!
I'll throw some more pictures and videos up as they trickle in.
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| Sunrise coming up on the Potomac |
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| A view from the Great Falls Section of the Course |
