2019 Crooked Road 24
It Rained on My 100K Attempt
The leading role at Crooked Road 24 was the rain, roughly 12 hours of rain, and chilly temperatures hovering around 40F for the entire race. At least I think it did for the entire race, because I was finished by 8:00 PM.
My training and racing had gone well all year. Though on occasion the weather limited the numbers I ran, the subjective results were very good. I had high hopes that Crooked Road 24 this year would be the race I finally reached 100K. Stalking the weather beginning two weeks out, I had hopes, slight though they were, that the weather pattern would shift one day either way. Friday and Sunday forecasts were near ideal, but this nasty forecast persisted in sitting in the middle on Saturday when the bulk of the running would be done - 40F and steady rain from late morning until midnight. The big challenge this year would not be pacing or nutrition and hydration, but staying as dry and warm as possible. It didn't do much for my mental state either.
The drive down wasn't too bad and I got to packet pickup in plenty of time to also walk the course and refamiliarize myself with it. After that I checked into my hotel, grabbed dinner which wasn't that good, arranged my clothes and drop bags for the morning, then tried to get some sleep. Typically I tossed and turned, waking almost every hour, checking the time, then trying to get back to sleep. Saturday morning I was feeling a little under the weather, so took some allergy medicine to clear some of the symptoms, and acetaminophen as a preemptive measure in case I was coming down with a cold. Hopefully that would stave off any mild fever or headache.
Arriving at the park in plenty of time, the weather wasn't too bad for the start. I greeted some friends and tried to stay warm until we began. My plan was to walk one minute, run one minute for as long as I could with minor adjustments to walk the one longer but minor "hill", and after the aid station walking while eating and drinking. With the 1.178 mile loop I expected each lap to be between 16 and 18 minutes depending on how long I walked while eating. My race effort would then yield a pace of 13:30-13:34, but when I checked my splits they were closer to 14:00-15:00 pace. I stayed with the effort rather than pushing to bring the pace down. I held that for about 15 miles then the times started to regularly creep over 18 minutes and over 15:00 pace. By this time it had started raining and wouldn't let up for more than a few minutes for the rest of the time I was on the course. After a while puddles formed on the trail and we were sloshing through cold water getting our feet thoroughly soaked. Volunteers were digging trenches to try to drain the water, while others were able to bring more crushed stone to fill in the puddles. Puddles formed right in front of the aid station as well, so they moved it back a little and moved the food and drinks to the side instead of front of the canopy so we wouldn't be standing in water when we stopped there.
I was still feeling strong, but slowing down, though some of that was a longer walk break after the aid station while I was eating. I finally ceased the running and moved to all walking after 34 miles. The first couple laps walking were good and steady, then I started feeling wobbly and nearly walked off the trail a few times instead of holding to a straight line. I was definitely losing concentration. At one point I almost missed a turned and narrowly missed walking into the side of a tent before I realized where I was. At that point I decided to take a break after I finished the lap.
My first thought was to go to my car, start it, turn up the heat, and put on some warmer shirts. I was quickly distracted when my car wouldn't start, nothing but a click. Doing my best in the cold and cramped space, I donned one of my Polartec shirts, then walked back to the aid station to ask if there was some place I could sit and get warm. They offered me a seat right next to the heater. When I explained my car problem, several of them offered help with jumper cables and suggestions on the best place to buy a battery if that was the problem. Meanwhile I'm starting to shiver, even sitting next to the heater. That was the final factor in deciding I was done for the day. All I wanted was to get my car started and get back to the hotel to get dry and warm. While I was deciding this, one of the volunteers brought me hot broth and another brought me my finishers medal. Oddly when we went back to my car, opened the hood, and checked the battery cables, etc., not only did everything look normal, but when I tried, the car started immediately, no need for a jump. I thanked the volunteer profusely and left for the hotel. That pretty much wrapped up the day. My final total was 36 laps for 42.408 miles.
In retrospect I let several factors affect me. The weather was not in my control, but I didn't plan for it as well as I thought I had. I had also been looking forward to warmer temperatures than a Pennsylvania November, but with the unusual weather this year, didn't get that. In the weeks leading up to my taper and throughout my taper I did very little speed work and no interval workouts. I think this led to my being sluggish and my slower pace at the start. While I would have preferred being able to use a two or three minute run with one minute walk, the one minute run, one minute walk worked much better allowing me to maintain that much longer than a 3:1 or 2:1 ratio has in the past. It gave me slower splits in the early miles, but by the time I reached the marathon and 50K distances, I had made up any lost time and would have been well on my way to an age group best for 50 miles under better conditions where I wasn't dealing with being cold and wet.
Crooked Road is still one of the best 24 hour races and I hope to be back next year. My focus for the next six months, though, will be 50K, then moving on to running a good 12-hour race.
