I have been playing with fire all spring. I signed up for 4 ultras over a 2 months
period. To make matters worse, the Naked
Bavarian 40 Mile, which was supposed to start it all, got pushed back 3
weeks. That left me with the difficult
task of running 4 ultras in 7 weeks and trying to log a total of 152 miles over
those races. Today, it all caught up to
me.
I came into this race with some issues. The HAT 50K was the first of the ultras. I ran in my Altra Lone Peaks then, for the
first time over a long distance. With
all the snow we had all winter, I didn’t get to break them in much. After 31 miles of mud, I survived, but the
top of my left foot began to bother me.
Things were fine during the Naked Bavarian. Again, I wore the Lone Peaks. I had some hot spots early on because the
shoes were too loose. I tied them
tighter during the race. I had no issue
while racing, but for the following weeks, the top of my foot hurt a lot. This was so much the case that I wasn’t sure
if I could even start the Hyner 50K.
For Hyner, I switched to my old trusty Salomons. They don’t do well on technical terrain, but
they would have to do. My foot hurt
during the race, but I survived. In the 2 weeks between Hyner and Bear
Mountain, I rested more of the foot felt great.
I knew I couldn’t run in the Lone Peaks or the Salomons for
Bear Mountain. This was a super
technical course, so I took some suggestions from friends and bought the New
Balance MT00v2.0 shoes. In my test runs
coming into the race, they didn’t seem to do well for me on technical runs,
like the one last week at Bear Mountain.
Therefore, I decided to take a chance and hope that the Altras would
work with some KT Tape on my foot. I
knew it was a gamble, but I wasn’t left with many good choices.
We arrived at Harriman State Park, about 20 minutes from the
starting area, and setup our camper on Friday evening. My dad was along to camp and crew for
me. I especially needed him for this
one, as I was unsure of my shoe selection.
One of my other big concerns heading into the race was the
start time. In order for everyone to
make the cutoff before dark, the race started in the morning darkness at 5
AM. I’m usually up until 1 or 2 AM, so I
knew sleeping would be tough. Sure
enough, it was. I went to bed at 9 PM,
but probably didn’t fall asleep until about 1 AM. I didn’t sleep solidly after that either and
was up at 3 AM to get ready.
I was in a rush getting all my stuff together before the
race. Luckily, we were able to park in
the starting area before they started charging.
This gave me a lot of time to get ready for the race and took away some
of my stress. I saw Pat and Jonas at the
registration table. It was good to see a
couple local people.
I stood around the fires right before the start. It was cold and dark. We had to begin with headlamps. I don’t wear mine often, but I figured I
could deal with it for an hour. The race
started in 4 waves. I could hear the
announcer and I thought that he said if you had a number in the 100s, you were
in wave 1. I started there, but in the
back.
We were off at 5 AM.
The race starts on some pavement and then goes to some wide trail. It was a bit rocky and muddy and we had some
climbs. Apparently this section was very
muddy last year. I cruised along making
good time.
A lot of this early section was back on to pavement. It was very runnable. I tucked in with a few runners and was going
solid. The thing that made it tough was
that it seemed to be a gradual uphill. I
ran most of it.
Things got a bit more technical as we went toward the aid
station (Anthony Wayne). There were some
photographers taking cool photos in the woods.
I wish more ultras had that. One
issue I had at this point was the humidity.
It was cold, but humid before the sun came up. I was sweating like crazy. I don’t know how people had long sleeves and
jackets on, even well into the morning.
The other issue was my energy level. It was probably the combination of poor
nutrition and lack of sleep. I had not
run anywhere and yet I felt like I already had done over 20 miles. This would be tough to dig out of.
This first leg was quite fast. I came through 4 miles around 45
minutes. I wasn’t running too
uncomfortable, but it definitely was faster than I would’ve run. Apparently, I should’ve actually been in wave
3, instead of wave 1. Oh well, lesson
learned.
I saw my dad, gave him my headlamp and told him I felt like
crap. I saw Ron and Jo and that was
encouraging. On I went.
After crossing a bridge, it was some climbing and some
technical singletrack. I took it easy
when I could and hiked the hills. Since
I was in wave 1, these people were moving quite aggressively and I was passed
often. I stumbled on the technical rocks
a few times, but didn’t fall. I twisted
my ankles quite a few times throughout the run.
Some guy commented on my multi colored calf sleeves.
Following the technical part, it was on to a paved road with
a gradual incline. I knew these sections
would be annoying to me, but at least they’d be fast and keep me ahead of the
cutoffs. I drank a lot of my highly
concentrated Tailwind, but I couldn’t get my energy levels up or wake up. It was very frustrating. I was so zapped and it was early. I figured that I would try to get to mile 19
and drop at that aid station if things didn’t improve.
We went from the road to a very pleasant woods road. It was quite smooth, fast and runnable. People in my group were flying and I often
was passed. I tried to run my own race,
but it was hard with so much speed around me.
The woods road got more technical and had some up and down,
as we went around Silvermine Lake. My
race went from bad to worse, as we approached the Silvermine aid station. With the now technical trail, my energy low
and concentration bad, I was stumbling over a lot of rocks and going slow. Instead of thinking I might quit at mile 19,
I now was thinking that I might quit at this aid station. In addition to all of that, the bottom of my
left foot started to get sore (not the top).
I came into Silvermine, not even 9 miles into the run and
already in low point. There are highs
and lows in ultras. I’ve learned that
that happens and I’ve learned how to battle through them. That is when the lows hit in the middle of
the race. I couldn’t fathom hitting one
this early in a race and surviving.
I came into the aid station and told my dad I was thinking
of dropping. He didn’t want me to, but
he wasn’t very convincing either. He
later told me that I did already look like hell. I then went to grab some food and
drinks. I bumped into Wayne there, as he
was coming through behind me. I told him
my dilemma and he said, “It’s not that far to the next aid station. You can even hike it all if you have.”
He was convincing enough.
I decided to grab some more food and drink. I took my time and switched shoes. I was now in the New Balance ones. I went to the bathroom and then headed back
out. It was on to Arden Valley. That aid station technically didn’t allow
crew or spectators, but I told my dad to try to meet me there in case I
dropped.
The break turned out to be what I needed. The upcoming trail conditions were a big
boost too. It was a relatively smooth
woods road that was quite runnable. Some
sections were rocky and I was forced to hike, but it wasn’t many. There were two young ladies that I swapped
spots with several times. They were slow
up the uphill parts, but blasted downhill.
Eventually, they got by me for good.
My energy was back up and I was feeling decent (still not
great). Then, it happened. We got on to the Long Path. So much for the easy going we had thus
far. I had been surprised at how
runnable the course was in the first 10 miles.
I knew there were a lot of technical parts and coming into the race, I
hoped a few runnable parts as well.
The Long Path was a beast.
It was a lot like the AT part I ran last week, except without the
views. It was short, steep ascents and
descents. It was quite rocky at times,
with some flat rock slabs to run on too.
As another guy correctly put it, you can’t get into any rhythm. It was a tricky downhill, a short flat and
then another uphill over and over again.
I had been thanking Wayne earlier, but now I wanted to curse him.
A lot of us were hiking the very technical parts. There were some cool rocky parts, including
this uphill scramble. That was about the
only part I did well on. Otherwise, I
was running slowly and often I was passed.
We were only on this part for a few miles, but it seemed to
take forever. My watch had lost signals,
so I had no idea what mile we were on anyway.
At first, the change of shoes helped and I felt awesome with a much
lighter pair. Now, as we went through
what I dubbed “Cragland” (for the rocky glacial remnants), the left foot began
to act up again. It hurt at the bottom.
I continued on. As I
got closer and closer to Arden Valley, the foot got worse. Eventually, I was simply run limping, even on
the flat parts. At one point, we ran by
some people camping on a rock. Another
time, this guy commented that we were at the part where a guy fell on the 2012
race video from Mountain Peak Fitness. I
saw that video many times and had to laugh when it was brought up.
I didn’t think there could be much that would annoy me more
than the way my day was going. However,
two guys behind me were chatting away.
They weren’t talking about anything interesting; instead they were
talking about their jobs. I was trying
to enjoy the peaceful woods and I had to hear about that. At least they passed me after no too long.
As the foot got worse and worse, it became clear that I was
going to drop. This wasn’t the type of
pain that wasn’t going to get worse and I could just ignore (like the top of
foot pain at Hyner). I think I might be
developing Plantar Fasciitis.
We got to the bottom of a hill and finally things flattened
out. We followed a woods road out of
there. I knew the aid station must be
close. A rescue group was helping out a
runner, who was walking. I ran some on
the woods road and then walked too.
I already knew I was dropping out, but of course they had
another cruel thing in store for me. The
aid station was at the top of a paved hill.
You had to run up it and then come back down it. Of course I was walking up it. Finally, I got there and my dad was
there. I grabbed a couple drinks and
some food and told them I was dropping out.
I was disappointed to DNF for the first time. I was happy that I didn’t quit earlier and that
I pushed through until an injury forced me out.
I could’ve run/hiked for a while longer, but there was no point in doing
more damage. I wasn’t going to finish 50
miles on this day. My body has been
calling for rest for weeks, so now it will get some.
I certainly don’t regret my decision and I don’t get too
worked up, but it does eat at me a little.
I would like to try another 50 miler now and eventually, I’ll come back
to this one. Maybe I’ll finish the 50K
first though.
I had to grab all of my bags. I saw Wayne going strong near the midway
point. I ran into Melissa from Trail
WhippAss at the finish line. She was
done with her 50K and we chatted for a bit.
I got passed by quite a few people from Trail WhippAss during the race,
but I simply didn’t have the energy to say anything to them.
I am never one to fear bad races. I love to use them as a learning tool. Unfortunately for me, it is a little more
than just the occasional bad race. Most
of my ultras are bad and I simply survive them.
Today, it was too much for me and my body. I now have most of the summer off and a lot
of time to think and evaluate how I can improve. I’m not that competitive any more, but I just
want to have smoother and better races.
About 7 months ago, I began a crazy stretch of trying to do
a lot of ultras. The thought process was
that I could get used to them and run stronger.
While my mind has learned how to handle a lot of different conditions,
my body clearly has not. I still often
find my legs fatigued much earlier in a race than I think they should be. That messes with my head, which another area
I have to get stronger with. I have
improved some over the last 7 months, but not as much as I’ve expected.
I started to improve my in race fueling and that has
helped. Now, I have to improve my
prerace fueling. Today was the first
time that that cost me big. I also have
to get stronger, especially my legs. I
hate lifting weights, but I’m going to have to do that some. I need to change up my training too. I need a nice mix of things. I need challenging climbs and descents,
technical running and fast running. I
haven’t run fast much in the last 7 months.
I need to add some time of speedwork and hill repeats. I’ve gained a lot of weight over the last year
and if I can improve my nutrition and drop some of that weight, it will be a
big help too.
I learned far more today than I would have if I cruised
through this thing. I’ll be taking most
of the summer off from racing, since I hate the heat. Instead, I’ll put focus back in on my
training. First, I’ll have to heal my
foot up though.
Bear Mountain, you may have won today, but I will get my
revenge one day. Live and learn.
14.2 miles - 3:23:56 (14:22 pace) 3205 feet of elevation gain
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