2021 One Day at the Fair 12-Hour

Not How I Planned My Taper

The last two weeks of August through the middle of September with all the PT sessions for vertigo and balance set my training back somewhat because I didn't want to go into my PT sessions with tired legs. Training had finally been going well when I nailed a tempo workout two weeks before the race.  Then everything fell apart when I caught a viral stomach bug that put me in bed for three days.  I didn't feel back to normal for a full ten days and my confidence was shot.  My main concern was that my reserves were still really low and I was doubting whether I could last 12 hours.  Before the virus hit I had hopes of running 46 to 48 miles.  Now I would be more than pleased to reach 41, which would put me at the top of the M70 12-hour DUV list for the US.  This would be my last opportunity, since my Hainesport race results were never posted to DUV and I move to the M75 age group on Sunday.

Travel was largely uneventful and I settled into my hotel room with my microwave dinner for the night. Typically I had a restless pre-race night waking multiple times before finally getting up before the alarm went off.  The hotel offered a normal breakfast menu, and with the race start at 9:00 AM I had the leisure to enjoy breakfast before packing up for the race.  I brought my typical contingency items of extra socks, shirts, and shorts, rain jacket, and two water bottles, one for water and the other for a sports drink or soda. I didn't anticipating needing the rain jacket because the weather forecast kept edging toward partly cloudy and afternoon sun.  

The race began on time with about 55-60 runners among the marathon, 6-hour, 12-hour, 24-hour, and 48-hour races.  I immediately settled into my run 1:00, walk 1:00 routine but at a much slower pace than hoped for.  I assume that was the result of the cutback in training and the stomach virus I'd had.  Since my hopes of a big day to close out the age group had already been scuttled, I tried to settle in and take whatever pace I could maintain for as long as I could.  The first few miles were right around 14:00, but the time gradually crept toward 14:15-14:30.  Trying to run through calculations in my head, I figuring out how long I need to hold that before switching to walk mode and still reach 41 miles.  If I can just hang on and get to 24 miles by 6 hours, that should give me some breathing room even walking 20:00 miles for the last 6 hours.

By mile 21 I was definitely slipping.  Both running and walking paces were slower, and with the Sun coming out it was also warmer.  I reached 21 miles at a little over 5 hours and by the time I finished lap 22 I was finished running.  Now it was a matter of what pace I could maintain walking.  While completely unplanned I needed a break after trudging through the next few miles.  Finishing mile 24 at about 6:01-6:02 felt like a reasonable time to take one as long as I didn't let it drag out too long.  It gave me time to sit and eat a substantial mid-afternoon meal, as well as give my legs a rest.  After 8-9 minutes I was able to continue, but initially it didn't seem to have helped much.  It was only after 3-4 miles that I felt my energy level picking up and my legs less tired, probably taking that long for food to digest since I was still trying to avoid any with high sugar content.  In any case I hit an upswing and my pace dropped from the mid-19's to sub-18:00.

That brought me to 35 miles at which point my goal was in sight, which was a good thing because physically I was back on a downward slide.  Different excuses kept passing through my mind to justify taking another break or stopping.  (I don't know if I could have forced myself to start again, if I did take a break.)  I'm counting down the laps and computing how much leeway I have if I can at least stay with sub-20:00 laps. With 5 laps left to reach 41 miles, I figure I have at least a 20 minute breathing margin.  That's when I start contemplating whether there's enough time to walk a bonus lap for 42 miles.  Even if I had the time I wasn't sure I wanted to put myself through the effort; I was on the border of whimpering from how much I already ached.  Even so, with picking up a minute or so each lap at a sub-19:00 pace, that seemed realistic, then I started wondering how much time would I have left if and when I reach 42 miles.  I shuddered to think about having to make a decision for yet another lap if I had 17-18 minutes left, because that would be just within the realm of possibility pushing myself to my limits...and I couldn't decide if I really wanted to push myself that hard with the possibility of falling short by 100-200m.  Only full laps count and 12 hours is a hard cutoff.  I was very relieved to finish mile 42 with only 9:31 left before the end of 12 hours, so I didn't have to make that decision.

While I couldn't be happier with the results, it was one of the hardest, most painful races I've ever run over the course of my 54 year running career.  It far exceeded my more realistic expectations, because even though my goal was 41 miles, I had serious doubts whether I could even reach 35.  Nor can I remember that last time I felt as stiff and sore the day after a race.  Normally I can at least walk 3-4 miles, and often even run that far at an easy effort, but simply walking a lap the next morning with a friend in the 48-hour was an effort.  That just adds to what makes this one of my more memorable races.