2017 Montour 12-Hour

Working on Heat, Eating, and Drinking

This is more a training run in preparation for North Coast 24. Especially in the heat we've been experiencing this seems to be the only way I can push myself to run long. Getting my eating and drinking down seems to be more a hit or miss proposition rather than carefully planned. Going simply by what I feel like eating and drinking does not work. I'm not sure what to expect in detail will be offered at Montour, but I expect it will be typical with chips, M&Ms, oranges, bananas, water, and several types of soda and sports drinks. I'm bringing my own Snickers, Clif Bloks, and chips as well.

Leading up to this race I had a good short interval workout last week followed two days later with a good two hour run, but since then I've been slow and feeling sluggish and tired. Despite assurances that this is nothing to worry about, it is atypical of what I usually experience during a taper. At least from the weather forecast the heat doesn't sound too bad, a high of 81F with cloud cover, but there is also up to a 50% chance of rain and thunderstorms.

After working a 4.5 hour shift in the morning I made the 2.5 hour drive to Danville taking state roads rather than the interstate since is was shorter though about the same in time. It was a little more adventuresome since I made several wrong turns and had to backtrack. After checking in I changed and drove to Hess Field where the race would be held to check out the course. My travel curse continued to plague me as I missed a critical turn on the course, which I realized after I'd run 1.5 miles and was nowhere near the field where it started. fortunately that was not a problem on race day; they simply hadn't finished the course marking yet. I met a couple runners from my club there with one of their friends so we went to dinner together after picking up our bibs.

As usual I was awake before my morning wake up call and was quickly ready and on my way when I realized I'd forgotten a potentially crucial item, Vaseline. I had plenty of time so I turned back to get it. Considering how the day turned out, I was glad I did. It was a day conducive to chafing. Not realizing there would be bagels, coffee, and other breakfast food set out before the race, I stopped at a mini-mart to grab pastries and coffee. I wandered around after getting to the race to see my friends and look for another Running Ahead forum friend who was supposed to be there. He found me and I left my drop bag at his canopy. His DW and DD were going to walk the 6 hour race, so there were two more people I would know out on the course. After that we had to wait, and wait a little longer, because the timer was delayed. The race finally got off at 7:30 a.m. a half hour late. Meanwhile it didn't look like we were going to get the forecast cloud cover and it was still going to be warm, the high now being 85F.

The start of the race mimicked my taper runs, slow and sluggish on a trail once we left the field. We reached the only hill on the course not quite a half mile into the race. The hill itself wasn't too bad being only about 50-60 feet of gain, but at the very bottom was a large "step up" that I had to almost jump rather than run, then grab a small tree to help get me over the top. Some time later someone placed a hay bale there that made it easier. Once at the top we were back on a flat groomed trail and the running was very easy. Eventually we ran down a short hill turned onto a covered bridge, and shortly after than down a short, steep single track trail. That was the turn I had missed the day before. After this short section in the woods we came back onto the field to finish the lap. I was much surprised to see my first lap around 21:30 (14:20 pace) because it felt much slower. I also noted the the trees much be affecting my Garmin readings because it never matched the 1.50 miles measured for the course, sometimes being well under, then later being well over.

Although I slowed a bit on subsequent laps I was holding close to that pace for the first two hours which is when the heat started taking its toll. I was slowing significantly over the next two hours and feeling very overheated even liberally dowsing myself with water frequently. On one of those laps I was so self absorbed that I didn't even notice a two foot long black snake on the trail until a runner passing me at the time tried to jump over it and almost landed on it. That decided me that I needed to take a break, hopefully get some ice and cool off. I ended up at the med station to get an ice pack and within a minute or two after applying it began to feel dizzy. I stayed there for about 20-25 minutes recovering from the dizziness and bringing my core temperature down. On their advice, when I started again I walked the entire lap to see how I would react. I felt okay if not good, so I continued and re-instituted my run-walk pattern. Going was slow though. What I hadn't counted on was how much a sore heel would affect me. Being a mid-foot striker it didn't bother me much at all running, but it caused me to limp and slow down when walking. that slowed my walking pace from a typical 16-17 minute mile to 21-22 minutes. I made up a little of that by being able to continue easy running further into the race than normal. The other thing that slowed me down was longer breaks each lap to refill my water bottles and get something to eat and drink. I still haven't mastered the art of eating on the run, so I walked until I finished eating.

I continued to take it easy lest I overheat again, then about 8 hours into the race it clouded over and tried to rain. At first it was no more than spritzes, but then it became a steady soaking rain that turned portions of the course into quagmires and left puddles, some ankle deep, on the course. It was treacherous trying to avoid them because I would slide sideways right into the puddles if I tried to walk on the edge of the trail. I finally finished 17 laps putting me at 25.5 miles when I hit a mental and motivational crisis. About 3.5 hours remained to run, but I was thoroughly soaked, disappointed because I'd had to continually revise downward my goal and at this point almost talked myself into walking only one more lap to reach 27 miles, technically an ultra marathon, and throw in the towel. It was at that point, sitting at the aid station being miserable, that one of my running club friends came by. Talking with him convinced me that I should get up and finish the 4 laps I needed to reach 50K (plus a little more). The next two laps were difficult for me. I barely ran at all and only because it was less painful than walking and would let me finish quicker. As I was starting my next to last lap I caught up to a woman in her 70s who was in the 24 hour race and struck up a conversation. the next two laps went quickly subjectively even though we walked the entire time. When I finished lap 21 for 31.5 miles I still had almost an hour left, more than enough time for another lap, but I didn't care about another 1.5 miles, so I verified my distance with the timer and turned in my bib, i.e. removed it and put it in my car. The aid station had hot soup, hot sandwiches, and coffee, also hot, so I indulged in refueling. While I was eating the rain started coming down harder than ever, so I was very glad not to be out on the course again. Later after the 12 hour night race began, the creek was so swollen that the temporary bridge we had been running over was washed away and runners had to ford the stream in mid-thigh high waters. I can't imagine what that would be like once it was dark and a headlamp was the only light.

Overall I can't say I was disappointed in my race despite not coming close to my original goal or even my first and second revisions. I got some good advice on cooling down and eating from the med staff. When they took my blood pressure it was only 108 over 68, so they recommended more salt intake. I worked through some very negative thoughts to continue when I was contemplating stopping early. And I persevered through the rain and mud. The numbers bring into question whether my goal of 65.1 miles, or at least 100K, at North Coast is attainable, but I still have two months more to get ready for that, and there's no telling what the weather will be like, and that will be a big factor.