2016 Dawn to Dusk to Dawn 50K

It Sure Didn't Feel Like Mid-May

In contrast to 2015 when it was sunny and hot, this year it was cooler with rain and overnight temperatures dropping into the 40s. Fortunately for me I finished the 50K before the rain and cold front moved in. Mostly it was an issue trying to stay warm as I cheered the 24-hour and 12-hour runners through the evening and night. But that only sets the stage, while training (or lack of it) began months prior. Training over the winter was low volume and the spring wasn't much better. I had a few good runs, even a couple good weeks, but they were interspersed with too many low mileage weeks. As a result I once again stepped to the starting line woefully under trained and ill prepared for the race distance.

While I had requested the weekend off, I was surprised to see that I was not scheduled to work Friday either, so I had the evening free to attend the pre-race dinner and packet pickup. It was also nice not having to work until 11:00 p.m. since I had to set my alarm for 4:00 a.m. so I could eat breakfast and still get to the track in time to set up my tent. When I arrived there was a group of runners standing around in the lobby apparently waiting. How do I know they were runners? It only took a quick look at the t-shirts they wore. Besides I recognized several race photos. It took a few more minutes before we realized where packet pickup and dinner was. I mingled a bit greeting others I knew before getting my packet and finding a table. I've met enough top runners to not be awestruck at who I found sitting with me, but I felt privileged to share a table with the Bob Hearn and Pam Smith who eventually won the 24-hour race the next day and Pam's crew member, Maggie Guterl, who placed 4th in the 24-hour world championships last year. I was as close to being mesmerized by their conversation and being included in it as I think I've ever been. Dinner finally broke up about 8:30 p.m. when I left to take care of final details to get ready for the race and get to bed as early as possible, even if I didn't expect to get much actual sleep.

4:00 a.m. came all too quickly. I ate my normal breakfast of cereal and coffee, then packed the car and finally, for the first time in three years of driving to the race, made it without making a wrong turn. I was a little later than planned, but had plenty of time to set up my tent and still wander around to greet people and introduce myself to several runners to whom friends had asked me to pass along greetings. The temperature at the start was comfortable, but rain was forecast for later. If I ran well, I should finish well before the rain arrived. What I hadn't counted on were clear skies and temperatures climbing into the 70s before the rains came.

Even starting with the 24-hour runners, I knew I would be among the slowest, so I lined up near the back of the 68 runners, 43 for the 24-hour and 15 for the 50K. Despite staying at a very easy effort, the first mile was still faster than planned. I began with running 300m, which brought me to one of the aid stations where I could grab something to drink, then walking the remainder of the lap while I drank. After the first mile I seemed to settle into a good pace, though still faster than planned. The Garmin was proving worthless for tracking mile splits because it consistently measured miles short, but with the digital clock I could still track then within a second or so. Instead I took manual splits every 10K thinking that would be more meaningful as well as smoothing out lost time for breaks at the food station and port-a-potties. Of more immediate concern was when the food would be put out. As early as I ate breakfast, I was already getting hungry and the schedule didn't call for food to be brought out until two hours into the race. Then when the food was brought out, despite a good selection, absolutely nothing appealed to me. I tried an energy bar, but it was too heavy, so I relied primarily on Gatorade and Coke for calories early in the race. By that time it was also apparent that the Sun would be a factor, so I was trying to pay close attention to my fluid intake.

The first 10K went by quickly and smoothly, averaging about 12:26 once I settled in. My goal had been to keep my pace under 13:00, but this was a little more than I'd planned. I expected to slow down soon, the question being how much. It was also encouraging to know I was down to double digits on how many laps were left. The second 10K was more what I had expected. I was still on the run 300m, walk the rest of the lap and had finally settled into my expected pace and felt good at that point. My average for that 10K was 12:52. With another 25 laps done, that was 50 total, and now only 75 to go. As I knocked out laps I felt myself slowing a little and also had to take a break or two when nature called. I didn't keep close watch on how much time I lost during the breaks, so it was more difficult to determine actual pace while moving, but even so, the 14:22 average pace confirmed what I felt, that fatigue was starting to set in and I was slowing. Another 25 laps marked the 60% completion point. Now only 50 laps to go.

The fourth 10K is where I started to fall apart. It was probably somewhere near 35K that I realized how much toll the sun was taking and not only was I slowing down when running, but also when walking. I had to drop to running about 250m, then walking the rest of the lap, but that didn't last more than 5K before I shortened it even more to running 200m, then walking. In addition I was having a hard time getting myself to eat, so most of my calories were coming from Coke and red twizzlers, not the best of sources. At times my stomach also bothered me, not to the point that I felt sick or nauseous, but unsettled. This had a cumulative effect on my performance and by the time I reached 40K, I realized that if I wanted to finish, I would have to walk probably the rest of the race, or at least until the last lap. I was convinced that if I took even an extended break at the aid station to eat and drink, that I might not get going again. And if I tried to run I would blow up and not finish. It was simple inertia that was keeping me moving now as my pace slipped to 17, 18 , 19 minutes per mile, at times drifting over 20:00.

The last 10K I was almost in a fog. I have to thank my friend, Perry, who had already finished and won the 50K for keeping an eye on me and making sure I was getting something to drink. Then there were Trish and Sky who would walk with me a while and encourage me. Previous years Sky and I would exchange bad jokes and puns, but this year I had nothing. I simply kept moving in a half-trance counting down the laps and watching the clock. Breaking 7 hours was had long been out of reach and I could see first 7:15, then 7:30 going the same way. There were only 20 laps to go, then 15, and final I was past 10 laps to go and in a single digit countdown. Perry stationed himself by the timing monitor to help with the countdown. Only 8 laps remaining, just under 2 miles, then 4 laps to go. A quick calculation indicated that I might be able to stay under 7:40 if I could keep my pace under 20:00. I don't know how I manage that, but I could still run those calculations in my head when I was barely able to keep moving and felt more like I was on autopilot. That was enough of an incentive that I was somehow able to pick up my walking pace to something close to 4:00 a lap. I wanted to finish actually running, but was still uncertain when I could safely begin and make it to the finish without walking again. I finally committed myself with 150m to go and surprised myself with how fast I could run and even how good it felt to be running again. I crossed the finish in 7:37:15, well off my goal but still over 18 minutes faster than last year.

While I checked my official finish time at the monitor, Perry checked on me. That's when I turned and made a quick dash toward the infield because I didn't want to mess up the timing table. I must not have been absorbing all the fluids I'd been drinking because they all came up and I sort of watered the infield grass until there was nothing left in my stomach. At least one other person came over to check on me, then left to get one of the RDs. Josh, the RD, arrived and with help walked me inside, helped get me out of my wet shirt into a dry one, then got me into my warm up suit with a blanket wrapped around me. The worst part of that was every time I moved something cramped, my foot or my calf or my hip. With strict orders to sit for at least an hour and get something to eat and drink as soon as I felt I could keep it down, Josh left me in the care of Nancy, chief of food and the aid stations, and also a nurse. We're getting to know each other as this is the third year I've run D3 and the third year I've ended up in her care. Finally warm and dry I was able to drink water, then started nibbling on pretzels. By the time Josh came back to check on me I was feeling a lot better, though still a little wobbly on my feet. The masseuse had arrived by that time, so he helped me up to her table. A massage really felt good then, but we were interrupted as the rain storm moved in and the wind picked up strongly. While Bobbi, the masseuse who is also a friend from my running club, helped hold things down I hobbled over to check on my tent. The wind had pulled up one of the poles, so I reset that then hobbled back to finish my massage once the wind died down. After that I felt almost normal for having run 50K and was able to get back to track side and cheer.

Temperatures were gradually falling and it was getting chilly, so every so often I would walk a lap or two around the track in the opposite direction from the runners. They changed direction every 4 hours. Most of the time I hung out with Perry and other friends from the Annapolis area that I had met when I ran the Endless Summer 6-Hour Race there. When it got too chilly for me I ducked into my tent and took a nap in my very warm sleeping bag. After what seemed an endless time the sun finally rose and the race was drawing to an end. Between the sun in the morning and the late afternoon and evening rain, I think the weather had taken its toll on a lot of the runners. Some records had been broken and goals reached, but I think there were also a lot like me who fell short. Some had reached their goal, often either 50 miles or 100 miles, and stopped then rather than continuing for the full 24 hours, so there were a lot fewer runners moving at the end than at the start. My results weren't really unexpected based on my training, so I'm not disappointed. I have a lot to do in the coming months because it's less than 12 weeks to Elkhorn 50K and less than 18 weeks to North Coast 24.