2017 North Coast 24 Endurance Race

Yet Another Try at 100K

This could be almost a copy of last year's race report. Leading up to NC 24 this year my mileage had been less than I wanted until summer. I was getting in over 100 miles per month but didn't get good mileage until 164 in July and 144 in August. I wanted to be averaging over 150, but could not get myself to put in the long runs and had too many short periods of lethargy when I hardly ran at all. Once again my goal was 100K, a goal I've repeatedly fallen short of.

I drove up the day before and made very good time. I was actually too early to check into the motel, so I drove to Edgewater Park to check out the changes and the new course. The new pavilion is really nice. The main changes to the course were removing the short downhill just before the finish and rerouting the course to the leeward side of the Pavilion so we won't get sand blowing onto the course. It is also just a trifle shorter at .8822 miles. The changes push the aid station and medical tents further down the course, so the tent section also got pushed further down, but we still got a good site thanks to Michael arriving early Saturday morning to stake our claim. Pre-race dinner was purchased and eaten at the Pavilion with me, Michael, Susan, Diana, and Chris in attendance.

With the race start moved to noon on Saturday, breakfast was a leisurely affair. I saw several friends at breakfast who were also staying at the Travelodge as well as Dr. Lovy and his medical team. I chatted with Paige, who was running a study of the runners, and decided to participate. I ended up seeing Paige far more often than the study justified. By the time I got to Edgewater Park it was already sunny and getting very warm. I was sweating just sitting around. This did not bode well for me and many of the other runners. The heat and humidity took a toll on many of us.

Besides our own group I saw many other friends there to run and crew. It's always exciting to finally meet runners that I've known only through the Internet. I think at final count there were about 150 of us that toed the starting line to brave the heat, humidity, and hours of running. I started off as planned running three minutes and walking one. It was immediately obvious that even that would be a struggle so after a couple miles switched to running two minutes and walking two minutes. I was already finding the heat troublesome in the first hour. By the time I'd finished 7 laps, barely 6 miles and only an hour and a half into the race I realized I was already on the verge of trouble. I stopped at the medical tent to get ice and cool myself off as well as advice on how to proceed with my eating and drinking to be sure I was getting the electrolytes and fluids that I needed. I was far more unsteady than I realized. At this time I don't have my lap splits, but I must have been kept there close to an hour before they were willing to let me continue and that only with the proviso that someone walk at least the next lap with me. This pretty much became the story of my race repeated over and over. Cover as many laps as I could, all walking at this point; stop at the medical tent when I started experiencing more problems; get treated and continue on my way.

With the heat affecting many, indeed most, of the runners, I was able to often find people who would walk with me for a lap or more. It was a wonderful way to get to know some of them better and it really helped me, keeping me distracted from the effort of moving forward, so the time passed much more quickly. I don't remember all the others whom I walked with besides Laura, Brad, and Susan from our group, but I do remember many enjoyable laps with Lorelei whom I knew from the North Coast 24 FB page, but met for the first time just before the start. Susan also spent some time in the medical tent with dehydration, so the two of us had a lot in common as we encouraged and accompanied each other many times around the park. This may be a little too much information, but early on I had a very low urine output which was a concern to the medical volunteers. When that passed, it became a cause of limiting our rest breaks so we could walk a lap to get to the port-a-potties.

Throughout the race it was heartening to see that so many runners were still on pace to meet their goals despite the heat and humidity. As much as possible I tried to give a word of encouragement each time they passed me. Afterwards in talking with runners and at the awards ceremony we heard of quite a few who set personal bests and I believe at least one world age group record. That was in my age group incredibly enough. It was also exciting to hear that many of the award winners were friends including both the men's and women's overall winners, Harvey Lewis and Tara Langdon. Even more exciting was seeing both Mary and Lorelei place in their age groups and both exceeding their goals. The biggest surprise of all, though, was when they announced my name as the third place finisher for my age group as my 44.21 miles was well short of what was needed to place in previous races.

Naturally I was disappointed that I couldn't overcome the heat to achieve my goal, but this is the first time I've been able to endure to the end without talking any long breaks or naps other than those dictated by the medical personnel. That's a big deal for me because those types of breaks have been my downfall in the past. I'm tempted to rush out and find another 24 hour race as soon as possible for another try at running 100 kilometers, but that's probably not the best idea. As much as I would like to use that as an excuse to run Across The Years in December or the Jackpot Festival in February, I think it would be better to wait until April for the Beyond Limits Ultra Festival in California. That gives me not only more time for recovery, but much more time to train properly.

 2017 Run Till You Drop 5-Hour

Training and Tune-Up Race for NC 24

I've been getting in some belated training for North Coast 24 this year and this race will be the final long run with only 13 days left. My hope going into this race was to run 20 plus miles in 5 hours. My training this week leading up to the race was not the best preparation for that. I already had 30.2 miles for the week including a 10 mile run on Thursday. On Saturday I thought I was beginning to get a sore throat and still felt that way when I woke at the ridiculously early hour of 4:00 A.M. to get ready for the 6:00 A.M. start. I was still dark and raining driving to the race, so I missed the unilluminated sign for Downingtown West High School and had to back track. At packet pick up I saw the shirts were an uninspiring grey. The only refreshments on the course would be water and Gatorade, no snacks of any kind so I brought some Clif Bloks. They did not go down well so that added to my discomfort.

The course was laid out as a .22 mile tail, then a mile loop more or less in an hour glass shape. That meant a lot of right angle turns, at least 12-14 since some of the sides of the two main squares weren't straight. That tail threw off my pace comparisons between lap times and Garmin recorded mile times because I neglected to manually lap that small section. None the less the Garmin times were 10-20 seconds faster and the point where the split was taken on the loop regressed each lap. Despite all that I was consistently running 13 minute pace plus or minus a few seconds through 6 miles, then slipped slightly to 13:10-13:25 for the next 8. I was noticeably slowing at that point, but more importantly I was starting to feel cold and clammy, not a good sign. I decided to run one more lap then stopped at 16.7 miles per my Garmin.

While I had wanted to run the full 5 hours, there was always the thought that it might not be the best idea with North Coast 24 less than two weeks away. My training earlier in the week was more and harder than what I normally do before a long run or tune up race. Then I wasn't feeling my best though in retrospect it probably wasn't as bad as I let my imagination make it. Going back to compare my pace with what I ran at D3, I was a good 30-40 seconds faster, though also more tired. I don't intend to start anywhere near that fast at NC 24, but it does show a significant improvement in fitness since May, even if I did need to take a 4 hour nap when I got home.