2021 Hainesport Summer 12-Hour

Survival in the Summer Heat

I must be crazy to register for a 12 hour race on July 3rd where I'll spend most of the time running in the summer heat and humidity of New Jersey. My major concern, as well as my goal, is coping with the heat and humidity for the full 12 hours. I began been training in the heat as soon as the temperatures started climbing by scheduling my recovery runs in the afternoons. With the length of time of my long runs, I was often finishing them in hot conditions also. Whether this is sufficient acclimation remains to be seen. They are still uncomfortable conditions to run in. Beyond that my training has been solid and surprisingly not any slower than usual.

Leading into taper week the temperatures have soared to record or near record highs. I've cut back even further on mileage and effort as a result. Fortunately it looks like there will be a break in the heat wave and temperatures may reach no more than 70-71F in the afternoon. Rain showers are a possibility, but that will be hit or miss. As long as it isn't a downpour, it may be a pleasant respite. To minimize race day morning hassles, I'm staying overnight in a hotel Friday as well as Saturday after the race.

I keep looking at my pace chart and 50 miles seems like it should be well within reach, but experience says keeping that apparently easy pace after I've already run and walked 25-30 miles is a lot harder in reality than on paper, or in this case on the computer screen. As a minimum I want to run 41 laps, .9913 miles each, to place me at least temporarily as number one in my age group in the U.S. for 12 hours. Completing 48 laps would be slightly better than last year at Delano Park. Reality will probably be somewhere between.

Friday I drove to the park to check out the course. I took at least one wrong turn, but still got a sense of the course and the general lack of shade. A couple areas had puddles stretching entirely across the path, so I anticipated some wet feet from that in addition to any potential rain. After checking in to the hotel I tried to meet with a friend for dinner. After several mishaps and one or the other being in the wrong place we finally met up a Miller's Ale House. Ironically it's only a couple hundred meters from my hotel.

Race day morning went smoothly. I arrived about an hour before the race and all the closest parking spaces were already taken. I didn't expect to need anything from my car, so that was fine. My friends arrived about 10 minutes later and we set up their table at another friend's canopy. That was good because we were able to keep it dry when the rain finally came.

With a 100 mile, 24-hour, and 12-hour race all starting we had 66 runners at the starting line. It wasn't too long before I was dead last and settling into my run 1:00, walk 1:00 plan. I was keeping the lap times well under my 14:00 target, closer to 13:15-13:30. Around mile 22 I started slowing down, and when the Sun came out I shifted to walking, not only because it was getting warmer (it was almost 3:00 PM), but my legs needed a break. Sofar I had been running alone. I had hoped that I might pair up with someone to walk with, but no one seemed to be moving at my pace. Around 5:00 PM and 8 hours into the race I shifted back to running and walking. It had also started raining lightly which kept things cool and made it easier to move a little faster. It was still a lot slower than in the beginning, but faster than simply walking. That lasted not quite an hour and a half before I was back walking exclusively again. The field seemed to have thinned out, because there were fewer runners passing me. Whether it was the rain or reaching their goals, it also meant I had to pay closer attention to the course because i couldn't just follow the runners ahead of me. I had this fear/concern that I would miss a turn and walk off the course and lose time and distance. My pace was varying from 17:30 up to 20:00. I was concerned that any attempt to start running again might jeopardize being able to stay on the course for the entire 12 hours and that was a primary goal for me. I had only 3-4 laps more to reach my minimum acceptable distance. That would leave me about an hour and 20 minutes to add on whatever I could. Thoughts of 48 laps and a new age group best disappeared when I shifted to walking back at 24 miles. I still thought about trying to pick up the pace to reach 46 laps (45+ miles), but that would have required holding the run 1:00, walk 1:00 for 5-6 miles, something I couldn't do before. So I settled into a good rhythm to get to 45 laps with 9-10 minutes to spare, not enough time for another lap.  That's officially 44.6085 miles and 8th of 18 runners in the day time 12-Hour.

Overall it was a solid effort in meeting my two main goals: to handle the weather condition, and to stay the course for 12 hours. The mileage was about in the middle of my minimum acceptable and my dream mileage, so again a solid effort. I didn't have any really bad periods, not even the slow walking 20:00 mile, and I was able to partially recover to running and walking again. All too often, once I've started walking, I walk the rest of the way.