2020 Piedmont-8

Back to the Trails For 8 Hours

This comes only three weeks after 3 Days at the Fair 50K, the soonest I've tried to race two ultras hard back to back.  That left me barely enough (hopefully) time to recover, then turn around and immediately taper for the race.  Recovery took longer than I anticipated, and even then I'm not confident I've fully replenished my reserves.  Shorter speed workouts were fine, but even medium length long runs of 7-8 miles left me tired.  Then during taper the week leading up to the race, I wasn't as relaxed and running as easily as normal, even with some complete rest days.

Friday was a travel day, it but turned into a longer, more tedious drive than planned with extremely heavy traffic around D.C.  By the time I got to my hotel it was over an hour later than expected and more tired than I had hoped for.  I didn't even consider an easy shake out jog, just grabbed dinner and tried to relax.  As is often the case sleep was fitful with frequently waking during the night only to see that only an hour or so had passed.  With a hurried breakfast of pastry and coffee, I was not feeling at all ready to run, much less to race on Saturday morning.  At least I didn't get lost on my way to the race like two years ago.

Due to COVID-19 restrictions the race started in waves of twelve runners alphabetically, so I was in the last wave starting at 8:12 AM. Within a half mile I think I was dead last and had already lost sight of the runner in front of me. After the fast start at 3DATF, I tried to slow things down by running 1:00, walking 1:00, instead of running 2:00 like I had three weeks earlier. Checking my Garmin after the first mile, it looked like I was still a little too fast, but when I checked after two miles, the times made no sense at all. I didn't get a good check on my actual pace until I completed my first lap in 34:11, around a 12:54 pace. That was much too fast, yet I felt like I was plodding along. I tried to adjust my effort, but the next two laps were about 13:08 pace, and the fourth lap was still at a 13:22 pace. During the last two laps there was a notable increase in temperature to the point that it was definitely hot and it was only noon. I noticeably slowed on the fifth lap to a 13:45 pace, though I lost a few of those seconds that lap laying on the ground after the first on my two falls in the race. But there was worse to come.

I took extra time after that fifth lap to eat and drink more, so the lap time wasn't really as slow as the time would indicate. I was still maintaining my 1:00 minute alternate running and walking. When I finished that lap I was feeling very overheated. I sat for a few minutes to cool down, that got ice from the aid station. About half went in my water bottle and the other half on my neck and head. I lost track of how much time I lost there, but as I started on the next lap I was walking more, not because my legs were tired (they were, but I could still run), but because I would overheat and start to feel light heated or dizzy. I could run better when the course turned into the woods and I had shade. So with the long break at the start and less running than prior, that lap took me about 54 minutes. The next, and my last, lap was pretty much a repeat: a long break to cool off before starting, slow walking when the course took us along the edge of open meadows, then more running once back in the woods. By the way my second trip and fall was in there somewhere very near where I had tripped and fallen on an earlier lap. This lap took over 56 minutes.

At this point 12 laps, what would be needed to run more than 50K, was out of the question. There was still plenty of time for two more laps to get slightly more than a marathon, but other considerations made that seem unwise at the time. While I was going to get more ice, I almost lost my balance and fell because I was unsteady on my feet. After sitting for a while in the shade and considering my options, I decided it wasn't worth possibly pushing myself to heat exhaustion. My car thermometer indicated the temperature was 85F/29C in bright sunlight. The forecast afternoon rain storm wouldn't arrive in time to cloud over and cool things off for me. I told the RD I was retiring with 21.2 miles. I don't have any official splits yet, but it was 5:30:11 by my watch when I finished that lap.

Coupled with my 3DATF results raises a lot of questions for me in race preparation and execution. That's back to back races with very promising starts, then falling apart at about the same point, though for what appear to be different causes. Time to consult with my coach and see where we need to make changes and what ones we should make. Meanwhile there are no races on my schedule until May, 2021. That may also change but current pandemic conditions are a strong deterrent to travel.

 

2020 3 Days at the Fair 50K

Waited 7 Months For This

 

A week after my last race, Delano Park 12-Hour on March 7th, the racing calendar was essentially shut down. All sorts of restrictions were placed on travel, gatherings of any type, and what businesses could remain open. This was the year of COVID-19 and the coronavirus. At first races were optimistically postponed for a month or so, but it soon became obvious that that the pandemic was going to last much longer. Spring races were being postponed until the fall or cancelled altogether with registrations rolled over to 2021. My 2020 race calendar was a shambles. In lieu of in person races I registered for two long journey type races, the Great Virtual Races Across Tennessee 1000K (which was actually 1021.68K) and Tip to Tip - The Great Florida Traverse, a 901 miles virtual run from Pensacola to Key West. As much fun as it was to follow the virtual journeys of runners from all over the world, virtual journey races don't fulfill the same role as racing in person.

When 3 Days at the Fair (3DATF) was postponed, runners were given the option of running on the new dates or postponing until May 2021. Watching race after race being cancelled, even some of those that had initially been postponed, I had doubts that 3DATF wouldn't meet the same fate. Some time around mid-August I started to believe it would actually be held, my particular 50K race being on October 3rd. More than five months had passed trying to maintain my motivation and training schedule, but at this point, even with finally seeing a race on the horizon, my motivation to put out the effort for the longer or harder workouts was waning. It took a few unscheduled rest days and a couple run as you please workouts to get back to where I could focus on race training and preparation. As I finish my last back to back long runs before my two week taper, I'm starting to run the best I have in several years. I hope this is an indication that I can match or exceed my performance at Delano Park.

Leading up to race day I'm still uncertain whether to attempt a run 2:00, walk 1:00 schedule or stick with run 1:00, walk 1:00. I may not decide until I see how I feel in the first minute of the race.. The one thing I don't want to do is blow up in the middle and miss not only my stretch goal, but any semblance of a decent time. The weather forecast is ideal with the temperature ranging from 50F at the start to a high of 62F and no rain. The aid station is the only real unknown now. I'm bringing a lot of snacks to fall back on if necessary, but that would be less than ideal as it's more makeshift and lacks the foods I prefer and the variety to adapt to different tastes. That's my poor planning.

Race day began as promising. I was able to get a good breakfast at my hotel, and the weather held, so near perfect. The aid station looked promising, but more on that later. My biggest decision was whether to go for broke and possibly set a new M70 age group best, or starting conservatively and almost guarantee a solid, but not spectacular race. I still hadn't decided when we stepped to the starting line.

Once we started and I began to get a feel for the race, I decided to go ahead with run 2:00, walk 1:00. I was hitting a fairly fast pace with minimal effort. In retrospect that should have been a warning to limit the running rather than a sign to run more. My Garmin splits, which are always a little fast, indicated I was moving at an average pace between 12:45 and 13:05, which means my real pace was about 12:55 to 13:15. At that pace I was either going to have a huge age group best or hit the proverbial wall sometime in the second half of the race.

I was swinging by the aid station every two to three laps (a lap was one mile) for something to eat and drink. While the aid station was well stocked, I had a hard time choosing what to eat since they PB&J and grilled cheese sandwiches weren't out yet. My choices were probably too heavily weighted toward sweet and sugary. About 10 miles into the race I was getting to the point where nothing seemed to sit well in my stomach, not even my go to PB&J sandwiches. More than once I took only a couple bites of what I grabbed and had to throw away the rest. The consequence was that I wasn't getting the calories I needed to keep going, particularly at the pace I'd settled into. Since I wasn't taking many bites, the lack of calories came back to bite me. I first noticed the slowing pace around mile 17, so I switched to a run 1:00, walk 1:00 schedule. By mile 21 it was becoming more difficult to transition from walk to run. By this time all semblance of a good race had vanished and now it was mainly a matter of getting in the laps to finish. About that time I was coming up behind a friend who was in the 48 hour race. Rather abruptly I decided I'd like some company to help the miles go by quicker, so I slowed to a walk to share a few laps. We stayed together for the next 8 miles keeping each other company as I worked toward the finish and she worked toward her 100 mile goal. With three laps left I realized I would need to pick up the pace slightly if I wanted to finish under 8 hour. Since she was thinking she'd like a break before her final push to 100, I took off chasing that time. My legs really objected to trying to run gain, more stiff than tired by that time. I had finally found some food that was palatable, and I was also taking in liquid calories with Gatorade and cola, so had recovered somewhat. While it felt awkward at first running again, I managed to close out my last three laps in 14:40, 13:48, and 13:00. I finished in 7:49:41, far off any of my goals, but I think I (re)learned a few things along the way.

With one more scheduled race this year, I hope to apply my experience here a bit better and close out the racing season on a more positive note. Next up is Piedmont-8 in three weeks.

 2020 Delano Park 12-Hour

An Unexpected Journey

 

North Coast 12-Hour in 2013 was my first ultra marathon and perhaps still my best, so Delano Park will be a good measure of where I stand since then. This will also be my first race in Alabama. It's a certified 1 mile loop with more than 100 runners registered, including five more in my 70+ age group. I'm not thrilled about a 6:00 AM starting time, but that also means I won't need a head lamp. Getting there put me in a quandary. It's just far enough that it would mean a two day drive, but that would be less expensive than flying and renting a car. I'm also leery of flying with the erratic winter weather we've had and my experience with flight cancellations last August traveling to and from Lean Horse 30M. I have no idea how that much driving will affect my race performance.

I drove extra on Thursday so Friday's drive wouldn't be as long. Of course that meant I had time to spend at the Space Museum in Huntsville. It probably wasn't the smartest thing to do spending four hours on my feet walking around the exhibits, but I thought it was a wonderful complement to the Kennedy Space Center rather than a duplication, so well worth whatever effect, if any, it might have on my race. I also checked out the course before packet pick up and pre-race dinner. I was definitely confused because the obvious loop was only .9 miles, not the certified 1 mile advertised. This was cleared up at the dinner when I asked some runners about it. There's a loop around a water tower that branches off the main loop and returns to make up the extra distance.

 

Saturday morning was cold! I didn't want to freeze the first couple laps, but neither did I want to get overheated from wearing too many layers. I opted for a tech short sleeve t-shirt, a lighter weight tech long sleeve shirt, and my warm up jacket. The jacket came off after two laps and the gloves after about 8. While cool at first when I took my jacket, the temperature was rising quickly from just below freezing at the start to eventually mid to upper 50s Fahrenheit with plenty of sunshine.

 

As planned I started with a one minute run, one minute walk that I would keep as long as I could before shifting to a longer walk recovery. I hoped that would be for 25-30 miles, but strange and unusual things happened. Normally I try not to make big changes in race plans and strategy mid-race, but being a fixed time race, I thought some changes just might bring some unexpected results. I was consistently keeping the one mile laps between 13:15 and 13:45 except when an aid station or port-a-potty break took a little extra time. And at 15 miles I was still moving very easily and comfortably. That's when I started thinking about what sort of times I could run (unofficially unfortunately) for the marathon and 50K. I had a good idea where the splits would be from checking the distance from the start multiple times with my Garmin. At 20 miles I was still moving briskly and keeping laps in the same range, so I decided then to keep pushing the one minute run, one minute walk beyond the point where I would normally shift to longer walk recoveries. If I hit the times I thought I could for the marathon and 50K I would still have more than ample time to walk enough to reach my pre-race goal of 40 miles, though I expected those miles would not be pleasant.

 

By this time in the race my Garmin readings were a quarter mile off from the certified distance, so I had to be careful that I was at the correct distance for the splits taking into account the offset error. I had selected landmarks and hoped I'd remember to note the time when I passed. As I swung by the marathon split my watch read 5:58:58. Fortunately that would be easy to remember. I could see myself noting the times, then getting confused and not remembering correctly after the race. At 30 miles, split in 6:52:04, I was over 15 minutes ahead of my Lean Horse 30M from last August which I considered a better performance than my official over 70 50K best time of 7:25:43. At 50K I was 7:06:04 which is more than 1:30 faster than the shorter Lean Horse 30M. I had also noted that at 6 hours my distance was 26.28 miles. All of the above are my fastest times since turning 70. The 50K time is my second fastest ever, bettered only by my 6:45:38 from five years ago.

 

I paid a price for pushing that hard. As soon as I dropped to a walk I knew it would take a huge incentive to get me running again. I was barely shuffling along at 20, 21, maybe even 22 minutes per mile. At that point I was mulling over my options and considering finding the tiniest excuse to stop even though I was short of 40 miles. I'd weigh that against the effort, mostly mental though some physical, but always decided to keep going at least until I reached 40 miles. Then I could stop regardless of how much time would be left. What I didn't count on was meeting up with one of the top over 70 runners in the race, one who consistently finishes ahead of me, talking to himself about whether he could match last year's total of 43 miles and whether 45 was within reach if he did some running. He probably didn't care, but that triggered my competitive instincts and it just so happened that I started feeling a lot better then. My walking pace improved to sub-20 minutes, then got even faster when I had another runner to walk with. I think we were close to 16 minute miles. Meanwhile I'm trying to keep an eye on my fellow competitor to be sure I didn't lose too much ground to him. I inadvertently discovered I was 3 laps ahead, so it was a matter of not losing too much ground to him. Then the numbers started to kick in. When I got to 43, I was positive he couldn't catch me even if he were trying. But 45 miles was only 2 more laps and 45 sounds better than 43. Then there was less than an hour remaining, so why stop now. Then there's just over 19 minutes left. Sure, I can finish one more lap, and maybe run a little to give myself a small cushion. About 14 minutes later I completed lap 47. That placed me 15th of 54 men and 28th of 115 overall. Not a bad showing given that I was ready to quit at 35 miles.

 

This race raised a bunch of questions and leaves the rest of the year in turmoil and uncertainty. In one race, at least unofficially but good enough for me, I've already met almost all my goals: 1) sub-6:00 marathon 2) sub-7:15 50K 3) 75 km in 12 hours (47 miles = 75.639 km) About the only one I haven't met is 45 km in 6 hours. That's 27.962 miles and is the minimum to be listed on DUV for the 6-hour race. Last year only 33 men in my age group made the list worldwide, only one of them from the US, so it will be a very challenging goal. Meanwhile I need a break, not only for physical recovery, but a mental one as well after the build up to and running of this goal race. I'm clearing my race schedule until May 16th when I run a certified 50K at 3 Days at the Fair. I'll get back to serious training for that in a few weeks after I enjoy this success.

 

 2020 Shiver By The River 10K

Rare Road Race

Having gotten a good 5K under my belt in December, the next step was a 10K to get a better evaluation on my stamina. The Shiver By the River series in Reading was about my only option, but January weather is always a potential issue. It was less than a week until race day before the weather forecast allowed me to be comfortable with the forecast. Unfortunately there were other factors. On Thursday I tripped and fell trying to avoid a loose dog charging me. Aside from a little soreness where I contacted the ground, my concern was soreness by my big toe joint where it felt like I had strained a tendon. I kept my runs on Friday and Saturday short, testing how much it might bother me running. There was no obvious issues even running some light strides. The reduced mileage as I cut short Thursday's run and kept Friday's shorter than my schedule called for, created an unintended taper. I had originally planned to train through this race. For whatever reason I still felt tight and unable to run relaxed on Saturday's runs despite including 4-5 gradually increasing strides. As a result I wasn't expecting a great race, though my M70 10K PB (personal best) was soft enough that I had no doubts I would beat it handily.

 

Sunday would have been perfect racing weather for me except for the wind. There were lots of wind advisories on the turnpike signs as I drove to the race. My hopes were that there would be enough obstacles on the course to block the wind. I had no idea what the course would be like. I was under the impression that it was on a groomed trail, but that proved to be wrong as we raced through a local neighborhood adjacent to the park. The 5K would run one loop, the 10K two. The second challenge was the start of each lap including a long hill. That wasn't a problem the first time, but after 5K of rolling hills including another long one in mile 3, to be faced again in mile 6, it was more than I willing to run. I thought it would be better to walk a portion knowing what I had to face on the second loop. I picked up the pace when I resumed running at the top, enough that I made up most of the time I lost in walking. I was still averaging sub-11:00 miles when I reached 5 miles with a new M70 PB of 54:39. Shortly after that was the long hill from mile 3 again. Once again I thought it more prudent to walk portions, especially knowing that the finish, even though downhill, would be into a strong wind. There were a couple runners slightly ahead of me at this point, but with the effort I could exert I couldn't make any headway to catching them. I had no kick whatsoever barely able to maintain my pace to the finish in 1:08:27 by my watch. Gun time was 1:08:48 but it wasn't chipped timed so I delayed starting my watch until actually crossing the starting line.

 

I slowly walked around for several minutes before even thinking about a cool down jog. I shuffled roughly a tenth of a mile over to the building for post race refreshments. That was the extent of my cool down. I checked on my time and place, 94 of about 105 and I think first in my age group. There were no awards for individual races, only for the series with a minimum of three races required.

 

While I'm quite pleased with the race results, I was completely wiped out all afternoon and napped for most of it. I've revised my training schedule to allow the entire week for recovery and skip the normal Wednesday interval workout. With no races in February particularly enticing that aren't sold out, the next challenge will be a return to 12-hours at Delano Park on March 7.