2018 North Coast 24 Endurance Race

On 6 Weeks of Training

This year has been a year of contending with injuries and medical issues, leaving me woefully under trained for the race. Early in the year I was dealing with a sore right heel, possibly plantar fasciitis and/or a heel spur. That proved to be my downfall at D3 where it took me almost 11 hours to hobble the 125 laps around the track for the 50K. After several months on very low mileage, I modified my foot plant slightly to shift the stress off the heel. That seemed to help, so I was able to start increasing my mileage just in time to also need to cope with summer heat and humidity. At D3 the EMTs who were called when I briefly passed out after the race mentioned a-fib on my ekg. The ER didn't make much of it and released me. Neither did Dr. Ashby's associate whom I saw the next day. It wasn't until July when I had my annual check up with my cardiologist that it was addressed. Once that was finally corrected in early August, I realized how much it had been affecting my running in slowing me down and limiting my mileage. So my serious training for NC 24 really started the second week of August. With the taper the training was only six weeks. As a result I threw out all mileage goals and focused simply on staying on the course as long as I could.

The weekend started well with a good weather forecast and an easy seven hour drive to Cleveland. I stopped at Edgewater Park and met several other NC 24 runners there, walked a few laps to refresh my memory and think about which sections would be good for my walk breaks. After I checked into the Travelodge I bumped into Nica and her crew, Dani. I joined them for an early dinner at a local Italian restaurant, then tried to relax and get some rest after laying out what I planned to wear at the race. Sleeping was fitful as usual, so I didn't need to set the alarm, though I had, just to be sure I would be up early. There didn't seem to be quite as many runners at the motel as in previous years for breakfast. I has my usual muffins and coffee since there's a limited selection, then headed over to the park about an hour before the start. There were only a few of us this year from the usual crew: me, Eric, Chris, and Michael. Charlotte Vaserhelyi, the Canadian champion, set up next to us so we were sharing the canopy and tables with her. I saw a lot of runners I knew as I walked up to pick up my bibs and goodie bag. Of course I also had to stop at the med tent to say hello to Paige and Dr. Frank (I can't remember her first name, but I think it's Leah), whom I've gotten to know over the last few years.

It was a little windy at the start, my hat blew off at one point, but we had 100% cloud cover and nice cool temperature. I was in no hurry at the beginning but I still was sub-14:00 for my first mile. I managed to slow down a little but was still hitting sub-15:00 for my each of my first nine miles. I felt fine, possibly because I was taking my walking breaks more frequently than I had in training. Beginning with mile ten I started looking for other runners whom I could walk with for a while, chat, and pass the time more quickly. That took my pace into the 17:00 range, though it dropped back to the 15s when I was running alone. This was fine as it was still well under the pace I had set as my absolute slowest that I wanted to run. About six hours and 25 laps into the race I made my first stop at the med tent. My hands were feeling puffy and a little swollen, so I wanted to see how I should adjust my food and fluid intake. While I was there they also worked on stretching me out as they noticed I was getting tight while they were checking me over. Back out on the course I continued as I had been, walking with other runners when I could or walking and jogging when I was by myself. I had another brief visit to the med tent around mile 30 to work on my legs which were really starting to feel the miles by then. Otherwise my only breaks were at the port-o-potties or to stop briefly to chat with someone, which really didn't slow me down much. Things started going downhill as I approached 40 laps. I continued until then before I stopped at the med tent again. My legs felt completely drained and my pace was over 20:00 per mile. I felt a lot better when I left the med tent, but it didn't last long, a sign that I was reaching my limits as a result of my limited training. When I found myself weaving slightly now and then, I realized I should stop again. I wasn't feeling bad, I just wasn't really steady on my feet. I sat in the med tent for an hour or so trying to recover and let the students practice on me with the various stretches. I suppose I could have wrapped myself in a blanket and tried to nap for several hours and possibly gotten back out for a few more laps, but there was no guarantee of that and I really did think I had pushed as far as I should, any more and I might push myself to where it would take too long to recover. I hadn't planned for this possibility either, so was ill prepared to handle it. I had deliberately not brought my tent and sleeping bag to specifically avoid the temptation to take a long break like that, and now that option was not realistic when I could have used it or at least tried it.

I was more than pleased with how long I had kept the pace I did considering only six weeks of preparation. While I don't have any definite race plans for the rest of the year, I have been considering several and didn't want to place those in jeopardy by overdoing it here. I have a couple options I'm considering. I enjoyed the Piedmont 8-Hour race last year. That's in five weeks at the end of October and should be a good match for my fitness. After that I could reevaluate before registering for another race, possibly Crooked Road in November. Or I could concentrate on preparing for another 24 hour race and end the year at Across the Years, a race I've wanted to go back to since I ran it in 2015. The two aren't mutually exclusive, but the way I would structure my training would be affected by whether I ran Piedmont or not.