2016 Year In Review

A Disappointing Year

I finished 2015 with a decent but not great 24-hour run at Across the Years in Phoenix. With what I learned there and with the excitement of the race I anticipated a good 2016. I fully expected to not only finally reach 100 Km in a 24-hour race, but get in some good trail races and maybe better my 50 Km best. None of that turned out to be the case. Problems started almost immediately on returning home.

Between a nasty rash around my ankles and a hacking cough, probably from the dust kicked up at ATY, I only ran 12 days in January with a total of just over 59 miles. After eventually getting over the cough February was better with almost 90 miles. The low mileage meant skipping Clearwater and Whispering Pines on my annual trek to Florida to visit Adrienne. Instead I spent March beginning to prepare for the ultra marathons I had planned, especially the HURL Elkhorn 50K which would challenge me with both altitude and more vertical gain than than I'd ever done. There was no way I could train for the altitude, but I hoped to run some races that would at least give me some exposure to more vertical gain than what was available locally.

March brought me back to the training levels I had planned with a total of 140 miles, some spent running over Mt Joy and Mt Misery at Valley Forge National Park to begin my hill training. Nor did I neglect the track, not only with interval workouts, but also a 15 mile training run to prepare for my 50K at Dawn to Dusk to Dawn in May. Then training was interrupted with a week off in early April. My notes don't remind me of why, but it came right after two back to back hard runs of 10 miles each. As a result I ran only 119 miles for the month. I finished April running easy after walking most of the Hyner 25K Trail Race. I completely misjudged the difficulty of the climbs there, found myself under fueled and dehydrated early in the race, then turned it into mostly a hike just to finish.

D3 was mid-May so mileage was reduced for both a taper and recovery. Even though the 127 miles was a decent total, my long runs suffered. D3 was going really well for me until I started having problems with eating and drinking. I was very strong through the first 20K and still moving well at 35K when things fell apart. I went from having a chance to run sub-7:00 to finally finishing in 7:37. It was over a month, past mid-June, before I had another double digit run. That was at Running With the Devil 12-Hour in New Jersey on a 3-mile loop with 1100 ft of climb each loop. I managed 5 loops, 15.3 miles by my Garmin, but calling it a day with my legs so tired I didn't think I could make another climb. With only two more months until Elkhorn, the vertical climb I would face there looked daunting. That still added to a solid total of 150 miles for June. July slacked off in total mileage with 127, but I got in more double digit runs including a 15K trail race for more trail running experience.

That brought me to August and one of my feature races for the year, the HURL Elkhorn 50K, which I was combining with a four day vacation in Glacier National Park. At the pre-race dinner and packet pickup, the RD claimed this was the toughest 50 Mile course in the country and the 50K included some of the biggest climbs of the 50M course. Despite what I had done in running more hills, I was unprepared for the course difficulty. Combined with the altitude I was near exhaustion and my legs were shot by the time I hit the top of a major climb at about 10 miles. It rapidly became obvious that I was not going to make the time cutoff at the race midpoint. After resting and recuperating at one of the aid stations, I took the 23K route back to the finish. While disappointed, mostly in myself for not being better prepared, it was still a good experience and I have a better idea of what to expect and what I need to prepare for any future races in the mountains.

The hiking in Glacier was a good lead in for North Coast 24 where I anticipated doing a lot of walking, especially after 12 hours. The reality was something else. Even after three years of running ultras I've failed to get to find a suitable and consistent plan for eating and drinking. The first six hours or so or until about 27-30 miles I was running well then I started experiencing all sorts of problems from blisters to light headedness. Quite possibly I was low on salt intake or not getting enough protein to balance all the sugar and carbohydrates, but in any case I was feeling so uneasy that I was afraid to continue for more than a few laps at a time before taking extended breaks to rest and recuperate. I disappointed myself by giving up with less than 50 miles done and took a five plus hour break. Only the thought of not reaching 50 miles and also having my nap frequently interrupted by needing to urinate prompted me to finally get back out for the extra lap or two needed for 50 miles. Surprisingly once back on the course I kept going after reaching 50 miles and finished with almost 55 miles. Kim Van Delst with her upbeat attitude walked the last few with me which kept up my spirits so I at least finished on a high note.

With my final goal race done I could now focus more on finishing the year with what I'd planned as a celebration race for my 70th birthday. I'd chosen what I hoped would be a very scenic race, the Mount Desert Island Marathon in Bar Harbor, ME, on the first weekend after my actual birthday. That would also include a few vacation days to tour Acadia National Park which was also celebrating its 100th anniversary along with the National Park Service. After making all my reservations and registering for the race, my daughter surprised me with a request to join me for the weekend. While the time for the race was exceedingly slow, part of that was by plan since I wanted to enjoy the race and not suffer over the last miles, but also because I ended up walking in the last five miles with a first time marathon runner who was struggling to finish. Those last few miles went quickly for me with the company and hopefully a lot easier for her since she wasn't alone and conversation kept her mind off her fatigue. I considered the weekend a huge success spending time with my daughter and son-in-law, feasting on seafood, and visiting yet another national park during the height of the fall colors.

The year ended on an odd note. I decided to run a local 5K, but got confused and mixed up the starting time with that of another race I was considering. As a result I arrived to pick up my bib just as the race was beginning. With over a 3 minute handicap and no warm up to speak of I pursued the back of the pack. At some point I apparently pushed too hard because aster the race I realized I had badly strained my upper hamstring or gluteus. I could barely shuffle back to my car after I finally got my results straightened out. With the huge difference between my chip time and gun time the printed results didn't show my name at all. We finally figured out that my chip time had moved me into 50th place on the results, but since the first sheet of 50 had not been reprinted and sheet two started with 51st place, I was nowhere to be found. A look on the computer resolved that, so except for the resulting injury I was pleased with the race and being able to catch up to the back of the field in a controlled manner.

Overall it was not a great year for racing, but that was balanced by some important learning experiences, a couple great vacations, and by the end of the year with a renewed enthusiasm to train and race in 2017.