2025 Six Days in the Dome 24-Hour

(Photo by Troy Freund)

Will It Really Be 24 Hours

My return to racing 24 hours at Crooked Road 24 was not impressive, not withstanding a lack of adequate preparation. My 50K at Dawn 2 Dusk 2 Dawn (D3) was an improvement, but still far short for what I had hoped for this year. Since then it's been constant tension between getting in a good training run of teo plus hours and sometimes needing three to four days to recover after my resting heart rate jumps into the sixties from its normal low fifties. Any intensive speed work, especially intervals, aggravates that even more. I do think I'm in a better situation now than I was for Crooked Road, but the second twelve hours of the race will still be just as much a challenge, especially mentally to discipline myself to continue when tired and need to take calculated rest breaks before I run myself into the ground.

Despite the lack of thorough preparation, several PA resident age 78 records are within reach. I already have the 50K record of 9:37:54 and my 35.34 miles at Crooked Road 24 is better than the listed record of 33.6 miles. I expect to be well over that, so I haven't submitted that result for consideration. There are no extant records for 50 miles or 100K, so if I can reach those marks, they will automatically be records if split measurements are accepted.

As I've done previous years, I drove out early to arrive on Friday and volunteer through Sunday evening before going to my hotel for hopefully a good night's rest. We were short staffed this year so I was busier than usual at the aid station. On a couple breaks to relax, I tried to get in a few miles to kept loose, but temperatures were into the mid-90s (35C). With standing around and little to no running my legs felt tired by Sunday night. At that point I hoped I would feel better once I got moving in the race. I had some discussions with Mike Dobies about pacing. I had already been considering a backyard style approach, running 10-12 laps (443.4552m per lap) each hour and resting until the beginning of the next hour. Functionally that would keep me from starting too fast and even the pacing more. Mike had suggested this approach to another runner confirming to me that it was feasible.

Grabbed a minimum breakfast at the hotel and a little more when I arrived at the race. Still feeling a bit stiff and sluggish from so much standing the last couple days, I anticipated a slow start with a gradual warm up. I was moving better and faster than expected. Since the number of laps to run each hour was a toss up, I ran 12 in 55 minutes before taking my first break. That was too much to sustain, so I dropped to 11 laps per hour, which if maintained would be well over my 100K goal, closer to 127K though I knew that was not maintainable. That was allowing me 6-8 minutes rest each hour while still running between 4:40 and 4:55 per lap with the variation mostly due to when my walk breaks occurred. By 5:30 I knew I had outrun my fitness and I would be walking most, if not all, the remaining time. Making it that far on the training I'd done was a confirmation that this was a viable strategy for future races.

I maintained a good walking pace combined with continuing breaks every hour for another couple hour. Then I began experiencing what would eventually be my downfall, almost literally. Walking along my right leg gave out on me and buckled. It was only for a stride, and at first seemed to be an odd anomaly. Then it recurred, and recurred more often, several times to the point where I grabbed the track barrier to keep from falling. I hoped a long dinner break at the 9 hour mark might help, and it did but only temporarily. I tried various stretches and finally determined that stretching my hamstring was the only one that seemed to help. After a long discussion with the RD and EMT on site, I agreed that if it got to the point where I couldn't walk two laps without issues, I would stop. Stretching my hamstring allowed me to walk 3-4 laps, and once I even made it up to 9 laps with only minor occurrences,before needing to rest and stretch. I barely made 50K under 12 hours, but was determined to reach a minimum of 60K if at all possible. What was even more frustrating was my leg giving out was the only factor hindering me. My legs otherwise felt fine and could have kept walking for hours yet. At 136 laps, which is 60.309K/37.474 miles, I was barely making a lap without difficulty, so I retired and turned in my chip. I left open the option to return in the morning for a few more miles (or laps), but I didn't really expect I would. By the time I woke after crashing at the hotel, I would have less than an hour on the track and the effort wouldn't be worth it to me.

Post race recovery hasn't displayed any issues with my leg, but the longest I've run-walked has been an hour and a half. I have months to work on my fitness and resolving this issue before my next scheduled race in October. Hopefully the stretching will be sufficient, but if not I'll schedule time for physical therapy. I'm still encouraged by how I responded to the backyard style resting and not feeling overly fatigued during the race.

2025 D3 50K
Hoping Not To DNF

Hoping not to DNF is not a desired or typical approach to a race, being somewhat defeatist at first glance. However it may be realistic whether I like it or not. About a week after my last race, Crooked Road 24, in mid-March my RHR (resting heart rate) became high indicating I wasn't recovering well. I could understand a value in the upper 50s, but it climbed up to 70. At that point I began to wonder about the possibility of suffering from overtraining syndrome, not just over doing it and needing an extra day or two of rest, but a chronic condition possibly requiring weeks of rest and recovery. The symptoms I noticed were tachycardia, poor sleep, fatigue, and loss of motivation. Trying to work around that, I took extra rest days with not even a short walk. Sometimes it seemed to help and I could get in a good run of an hour and a half or more. I reasoned that longer runs when I could would be more beneficial that more intensive workouts. I'm now nine days away from race day and some days even a three mile brisk walk is an effort. Fortunately the 50K starts two hours after the 24 hour race, so I have 22 hours to finish my 125 laps on the 400m track.

One week to go an finally had some positive feedback from my workout today. First my RHR dropped back to normal overnight. Secondly I was very comfortable with walk ing 2:00, running 1:00 for my hour and a half run today. That was an experiment to see if running at all during the race was feasible. Stalking the weather so far, I haven't seen any really adverse weather report, though the temperature will reach into a moderately uncomfortable low 70s (22C). This far out that could change drastically.

Taper week has been a toss up for preparation. Only one day was my RHR at or near normal. Even with two consecutive full rest days, it is still high. I'm uncertain how or how much that will affect performance, but I'm anticipating a significant slowdown and the need for frequent breaks for recovery. I skipped Friday packet pickup and will plan on arriving 30-45 minutes before race start to pick up my shirt and number, timing chip, and to set up my chair and bags. Hopefully this race I won't forget anything. Last year it was a hat and I had to borrow one from Bill, the RD. I'm bringing my camera, but it remains to be seen if I'll remember I have it and take pictures.

Race day morning went relatively smoothly and I arrived at the track about an hour before race start, picked up my packet, set up my chair and knapsack, then visited with a few friends. It was chilly enough that I didn't remove my warmup suit until about 10 minutes before race time. I kept my long sleeve shirt on for several laps while I warmed up, but took it off before the first mile split to run in a short sleeve shirt. With the lack of long runs and mileage for several months leading up to the race, I started very conservatively running one minute and walking two. L was good with that for 20 kilometers which I reached in 3:16:00.

From that point on the race was a tedious trudge exasperated by my right leg periodically buckling on me. It was worse walking clockwise, so it was a relief when we changed direction again after six hours back to counterclockwise. Several times I took breaks to see if a short rest would help, but they seemed to have no effect. It was tempting to use that as an excuse for a DNF, but I knew I would later regret that, so I slogged on slowly trying to keep my laps under 5:00. It helped once I reached 30K to count down the laps remaining while I also watched a sub-9 hour time slip away. I occupied myself with a lot of mental calculations to see what was possible at the pace I was moving. That was a lot harder than it should have been, and I kept coming up with conflicting numbers. As I started counting down the last 10K, I was resigned to finishing somewhere between 9 and a half and 10 hours. Estimating the partial lap, I passed the marathon split in 7:58:58, less than 8K to go.

The final numbers came to 9:37:54 as I was able to speed up just a little to ensure I was under 9:40:00, finishing 15th of 15 overall and 5th of 5 men. Still it was about 20 minutes faster than my 50K split at Crooked Road 24. It was also harder and more painful; excruciating is how I described it to a friend.

I have only six weeks until Six Days in the Dome where I'm running 24 hours. Some of that time will be recovery as I don't want to repeat the mistake I made after Crooked Road and try to increase my mileage too quickly. That doesn't leave much time to actually train and get in a few longer runs, so I'm uncertain what to expect at the Dome. I could always request dropping down to 12 hours, but I'd planned the whole year around moving up in distance and time, so that would be counterproductive. It may still be the more reasonable alternative as my training has not kept up with my plans and goals.

2025 Crooked Road 24-Hour
Moving Up Again

 

It's been over three years since my last 24-Hour race, which coincidentally was at Crooked Road. I've been mildly annoyed that I've never managed to reach 100K in my previous 24-Hour races, so I thought I'd finally make a concerted effort this year. Crooked Road is more of a first step to that with my major focus and goal race being Six Days in the Dome in June where I know conditions will be ideal. Weather in early March in Virginia can be a toss up. My last couple races there when it was held in November were cold and rainy. That's also a possibility for March. Cold weather this winter has hampered my effort to increase my weekly mileage, so I'm not as prepared as I had hoped. I actually feel more primed for a solid 50K race than a 24-Hour race. With two weeks until Crooked Road I finally managed a good back-to-back long run weekend, but still short of the 2:45 to 3:00 runs I would have liked. At this point my focus has to be on recovery and getting more used to what I hope is a reasonable race pace. I expected the biggest challenge will be to stay on the course, not take too many breaks, especially long ones, and be prepared for inclement weather.

My goals for this race are modest as I don't expect to be able to reach 100K after the abbreviated winter training. The easiest, and one I should reach under almost any conditions, is my M75 PB of 44.909 which I ran at Crooked Road in 2021. My next goal, and what I consider my minimum acceptable one, is 50 miles. If only full laps are counted, that would require 43 laps for 50.654 miles. Anything after would be a bonus, including exceeding my all time PB of 58.04 miles set at North Coast 24 in 2015 which would be 50 laps for 58.9 miles. I doubt that any of the standard split distances are certified or reported, so the only PA resident single age record I could conceivably break is 33.6 miles for 24 hours. The race would have to be a total disaster for me not to do that.

Taper week gives indications that the race may not unfold as I would hope. The most aggravating development is a pain in my right hip that makes it difficult to run at all, and even walking is mildly uncomfortable. If I'm to have any hope of reaching my goals and expectations, I'll probably have to walk much more than I originally planned. Weather is another factor, though it may not impact me as much as I feared. The latest extended forecast had decent temperatures on Saturday, and even into early Sunday hours. It's not until about the time we set the clocks ahead that the feels like temperature drops close to freezing. With my past experience in 24-hour races, I have doubts that I will still be on the course then. With only 13.9 miles for taper week leading into the race, I did not feel sharp or confident about my final preparations.

The drive down was uneventful. My first stop was Waid Park to pick up my bib and walk a couple laps of the course to see what the margin of error was with my Garmin. It looked like it was measuring about 2% long, so I knew how much to adjust the Garmin mileage to help keep track of what lap I was on and what my pace was. (It's so much easier to keep track of pace on a 400m track or a course that's exactly one mile.) Crooked Road is 1.178 miles. The Baymont was one of the race hotels, so they knew all about the race. There were also quite a few runners at breakfast, which was at 6:30 AM, so plenty of time to eat at the hotel and still get to the race 15 minutes away for the 8:00 AM start.

I found my friend, Sue Ardrey, at the start, which is always a pleasant experience knowing there's a friend in the race. Despite her reservations she finished as third woman and sixth overall. After everything leading up to the race, I felt mildly under the weather that morning, not quite to the point of considering not running, but enough to add yet another negative factor impacting my confidence in reaching my goals.

With my hip being a concern, I began with walking two minutes and jogging one minute making mild adjustments on the small rises and dips on the course. While the pace was slower than what I planned before all the late issues, it was still fast enough that my goals were attainable if I could last long enough. One of the biggest positives was that I was able to maintain that for 5:36, when normally I would be shifting to a brisk walk after about 3 hours. Knowing I was under prepared, I planned on taking short 5-10 minute breaks every 3 hours of so. What I had not planned on was how inadequate that was as the breaks became more frequent. I tried to couple those with aid station breaks when I would eat better trying to replace my energy stores. In retrospect I don;t think it was low energy stores, rather it was muscle fatigue.

While my unofficial marathon split was a relatively slow 8:30:28, I reached 50K in 9:57:28, my fastest in a year. I was helped immensely during that stretch by another runner who walked with me for several laps as we kept a brisk pace while chatting. Things rapidly deteriorated after that. It required extra effort to maintain that pace and I wanted another break after completing that lap. I rested for a while and consumed a pulled pork sandwich. After that and with no one walking with me I couldn't maintain even a 20:00 pace. On my 30th lap I not only drifted off the trail, I almost fell where the trail sloped away. Some fancy footwork and flailing arms kept me from falling, but I took that as an indication that I had reached my limit for the day. I finished the lap and notified the race director that I was leaving the course. We left it open to the possibility of me returning in the morning for a more laps, but I didn't expect I would feel up to that, and I wasn't. With 30 laps completed in 11:49:37, I had 35.34 miles, good enough for 86th of 205 runners, 52th of 95 men.

Going forward I need to build up again to at least 3 hour workouts and more back-to-back long runs. I would consider an April race if I could find one that's convenient, but the only option at this time is an expensive 12-hour race that starts at 10:00 PM. I'm not comfortable with a 10:00 PM start because that might throw off my daily schedule and sleep pattern for a while. I could enter the 24-hour event there, but that would also drive up the expense and I would still be planning on stopping after 12 hours. My immediate focus is on the D3 50K in May so staying the full 24 hours would be counter productive. My next 24-hour race won't be until Six Days in the Dome in late June.