2018 Cape Fear 24 Hour Endurance Run - 100 MILES!

2018 Cape Fear 24 Hour Endurance Run
November 3/4, 2018 at Parks and Recreation baseball fields in Lillington, NC
A lesson in running 100 miles from someone who doesn't have a clue about it
Watch time: N/A - didn't want the hassle
Chip times: 100.0142 miles in 23:56:45.3
Position: 8 of 63 (tied 5th most mileage but took longer to achieve it)

100 mile finishers with the best support crew ever

Back Story

I guess this race is the culmination of my past 3 years of running. When I realized I needed some friends after moving 750 miles away from everyone I knew, I joined a run club that was started by Mark Campbell and some others a few years before. What was once a club that ran every other Saturday at the beginning was now organizing group runs every morning and also most evenings. I went from running 3 miles 2 or 3 times a week alone to running 5+ miles almost every day, and meeting a world of new friends. Several races and several thousand miles of running later....

2017 was my year of the marathon - I ran my first back in 2013 and hadn't ran a race since then. Family, wife back in school, little kids, new job, moving, etc all took priority over running. After the move I started working full time from home, and running became my outlet for stress and a way to get out of the house and see other adults. At my 3rd HSRC run, I committed to running another marathon - the Blue Ridge Marathon, no big deal (just labeled "America's Toughest Road Marathon"). I would also end up running Myrtle Beach, Rock n Roll Raleigh, the Barkley Fall Classic, and Kiawah marathons.

I decided 2018 was my year of the ultra. I had a little taste of ultras from the BFC, but that was a failure. I had signed up to run the Blue Ridge Double Marathon, and as part of my training I also added the Uwharrie 40 miler in February. I maintained decent mileage (30-40 miles/wk) through the summer while chasing a goal of running 2018 miles in 2018. Then I got to go back to Barkley Fall Classic again, and again I was under-trained and had to settle for a marathon finish. But this year I was able to share the experience with Mark and it was an awesome weekend despite not great success in the race.

All the way back in May, Mark suggested I join him for this 24 hour run he had signed up for. I was very tempted (as I always am when it comes to racing), but knew it might not be a great idea. I already had the Marine Corps Marathon on my schedule - 6 days before this race. His argument was that it's not a measured distance race, it's a short 0.59 mile loop around a park that you repeat as many times as you can/want to. If my legs are too tired I can stop any time I want to, and go home/shower/sleep/whatever. Mark was planning on pushing Brandon Rizzuti in his chair, and I remembered how much fun we had during the Team Smile and Roll border-to-border run (VA to SC - 162 miles), and how inspirational it was. It was time to add another chapter to that book. Finally in October, I caved and decided to register, but wasn't setting any kind of goals because there were so many unknowns. But in the back of my mind, I secretly wanted the 100 miles...

Weeks before race day

Well I can't keep my mouth shut about anything - our plan to keep the gender of our children a surprise to others until they were born usually lasted about 8 minutes after we found out. So as this race approached, I put a post out on Facebook about how I wanted to go for 100 miles and I wouldn't be able to do it without the support of my friends. So now everybody knew, but that also meant I would have my people to help. Our awesomely supportive friend Julie Jones was planning on being there the entire race, doing whatever she could to help us. A few others mentioned they would come out and help as well.

Marine Corps Marathon was an absolute disaster.  I had put another huge goal out there (sub-4 hours) and my friend Dave Karls tried pacing me - until I fell apart. Under-trained, poor planning, and poor execution. Made me question what I had been doing as a runner, and if I really had any idea about how to set realistic expectations. I did wonder though, if my training had been more appropriate for ultras (low heart rate, time on feet) than a marathon PR attempt. Either way, I backpedaled a bit on the 100 mile goal, and decided that my main goal was to set a distance PR (52.4 miles) and still be able to move by 7:00am on Sunday morning.

All the clothes I packed, almost
none of which were used

I did as much research as I possibly could, about how to survive your first 24 hour/100 mile run. Every article and race report I read gave little tidbits that I would use in this race. I packed shirts/shorts/pants/jackets/headwear for every scenario, multiple pairs of socks and shoes, food and drinks. I obsessed over an Excel spreadsheet with formulas about run/walk ratios, at what paces, and also included backup plans for increased walking/decreased running when everything went to hell. On several solo runs around our 0.3 mile neighborhood block, I practiced my "ultra shuffle", basically a very slow relaxed jog focusing on good form and keeping my heart rate extremely low. I would run a lap or two, then walk a lap, to try to simulate what I wanted to do at the race. I figured out a plan to run Strava my phone in airplane mode (GPS still works) with external batteries so that I could get the stats of my entire run (last minute decided not to do that). I even dug out an old iPod so I could have some music for the night time to help keep me awake. I was armed to the teeth with knowledge and gear, ready to do battle. Just had to remember to pack the determination and mental focus.

Race Day

After loading up all of my gear the night before, I made the short 25 minute drive from home down to nearby Lillington to meet up with Mark, Brandon and Julie. They had camped in the park Friday night and told me they hadn't slept very well - it was chilly, rainy, and apparently some people there like to intentionally make their cars loud (some muffler thing I don't know about) and drag race up and down the road right next to where they slept. I quickly set up my camp chair and unloaded the car, got my bib from the race staff, and chatted with a few other runners while we waited for this thing to start. Mark and I discussed what our plans were for the day, and it was just to keep moving. We figured we would get separated at times and we were both ok with that. It's a short course and we were bound to see each other frequently no matter what.

Nerd alert! Let me geek out on some numbers for a bit. After obsessing over another Laz race - Big's Backyard Ultra - I knew that to hit 100 miles in 24 hours required a 4.1667 mph pace. That equated to just over 7 loops needed per hour (7 * 0.5918 = 4.1426). In my planning, I had settled on running one loop around 10:30/mile pace, and walking half a loop around 17:00/mile pace, and I wanted to maintain that for 6 hours. Those combined paces would give me about 8 total laps per hour, and I would use the walking breaks that coincided with passing the aid station as queues to grab something to eat and drink - and of course do that on the move - no standing around wasting time! I also did some math during the race, although Mark wasn't sure he trusted it because of past running math experiences. I was certain our average pace needed to be 14:24/mile to hit 100 miles. The math was easy - 1440 minutes in 24 hours, divided by 100 miles = 14.4 minutes/mile. 0.4 minutes is 24 seconds (0.4*60). One nice thing we had with the live tracking was that it not only showed our lap times and total distance, it showed our overall average pace.

Starting off way too fast

So back to the race. Of course I ran the first 3 laps in 20 minutes. In typical fashion, I went out too fast, even at a 24 hour race. The good news was that "too fast" was still over an 11:00/mile average pace, which is still a few minutes slower than a good effort pace for me. Mark and Brandon had decided that they were just going to walk the entire first hour. It was going to be a long day and there was no need to overdo it early.  Once I finished my 9th loop just after the first hour, I decided I needed to get onboard with the strategy that Julie had suggested the few days before the race - run a lap, then walk a lap. She messaged me a few days before the race and said although she has no experience with ultras, she just had this nagging sense to tell me that this should be our strategy.

Neither of us was wearing a watch, so we just settled into a comfortably easy pace (the ultra shuffle), focusing on being able to chat easily. That meant our heart rate was low and we weren't going to burn up our glucose stores. When you do that is when you end up hitting the wall, as I experienced 6 days earlier. That easy pace had us finishing the run laps around 6 mins 30 secs and the walk laps were around 9:30 (8 mins/loop). That meant 7.5 laps per hour, which was enough to keep us on pace. But we still never talked about a goal of 100 miles. That would be ridiculous. And terrifying. Instead we decided we would run/walk until we got to 10 miles. Once we hit that milestone (around 2 hrs 10 mins), we said why not run to 20. And so it continued on throughout the day that we would make small goals that would give us something to focus on for just the next few hours. It kept our minds off the fact that we still had 22 hours, 20 hours, etc, to keep running.

We maintained this for two hours, however I think a combination of walking more than I was used to, walking at a much faster pace than was comfortable, and wearing some older shoes was causing the walk laps to be a bit painful. I decided I was going to switch back to the run a lap, walk half a lap for a while. After doing that for an hour, I finally met back up with Mark, Brandon and Julie. I had added 1 lap in an hour. It seemed stupid to have done all that extra work that didn't really benefit me much. So for hour 5 and 6, it was back to the trusty 1:1.  Surprisingly, our lap times were exactly in that same range as when we first started, and we were still feeling good.

We hit the marathon point somewhere around the 5:30:xx point. We had been doing a great job of staying hydrated and eating food up until this point. Generally, we would grab stuff on our walk laps at the end of every hour. A few times in the middle of hours I would get hungry or thirsty, so I would go into the all-you-can-eat buffet a.k.a. aid station, and get whatever looked good. It was now around 1:30pm, and was a beautiful clear sunny day. I made it a point to focus on hydration for the next few hours - knowing dehydration (and eventual muscle cramps) was something that was on my quit list. This is when I told Mark that I thought hitting 100k was an almost certainty, and I thought a triple marathon (78.6 miles) would be my stretch goal. That seemed like a good logical progression after the Blue Ridge Double Marathon. But if we got that far and still had time, we should probably just go for 80 miles.

We made a plan that we would stop every 6 hours for an extended break. This was just like a pit stop in a car race: in and out as quickly as possible, and get as much done as possible: stretching/rolling, changing socks/shoes and foot rub with intensive care lotion, a big snack/drink, bathroom, re-applying anti-chafe stuff everywhere, etc. We felt like we were very efficient. Mark asked me if we had taken 5 or 6 minutes, but when we finished our lap we saw it took us almost 23 minutes - so our break was about 13 (after you take away the 10 minutes of a walking lap). It amazed us how quickly time passes on a break. It was time well spent, but we hoped we could be more efficient on the 12/18 hour breaks.

After 7 hours, we crossed the 50k distance. This was a big deal for me, as I had only covered this distance 3 times previously. However, I also started having some minor problems here. Just some general foot/knee aches and pains. I decided that since I had 3 extra laps under my belt compared to Mark, that I was just going to walk for an entire hour. I still ended up logging 6 laps that hour, so I was still in great shape after my nearly 9 lap first hour. But I needed to make a slight adjustment to the plan. Mark had been ticking off the laps like a machine, but I didn't feel like I could maintain running an entire lap and then speed walking for an entire lap. So I switched to my "half n half" strategy. We would run to the half way point of the lap (the big gray pole) together, then I'd walk the rest of that loop while Mark ran. Then Mark would do his walk loop, and I would run another half loop to catch up. We would walk the remainder of the loop together. This worked well for an hour, things started going south again, and I decided to walk another entire hour (the 9th hour). Still had a long time to go. This was how I battled through the lows - just keep moving, no matter how slowly.

My motivation (boys were busy on the playground)

Hour 10 brought some much needed relief and a huge pick-me-up. I had been looking forward to this point all day - when Katie would finish her make-up day of class and bring the kids to the race. They had been excited when I told them they would be able to run a few laps with me. Hearing them cheer for me as they ran out of the van gave me a nice adrenaline rush. They tried to run with me for the half lap, but apparently I was still running too fast for them after 10 hours! So we ran a bit, then I took a walk break to let them catch up, then they played on the playground while I sped around the rest of the course to see them again. Lots of I love yous, kisses and hugs were exchanged in the time they were there and their visit really got me back on track. Katie has always been my biggest supporter, and having her at the race telling me I looked great, she was proud of me, and she knew I could do it (whatever "it" ended up being) made all the difference.

I felt refreshed after 50 miles. Katie was ready to take the kids home, but they stuck around to see me hit 50. No matter what, I was now going to achieve my main goal of a distance PR. We hit 50 miles at 11 hrs 52 mins. Somehow, we were STILL on pace for 100. However, a lot of my research and some other runners we had asked earlier that day said that a first-time attempt at 100 should probably hit 50 miles between 10 and 11 hours to have a legit shot. You assume that things will go downhill in the second half and you will need a few more hours for your second 50.

Shortly after hitting 50, we took our second break. Did everything we did during the break at 6 hours, but apparently our minds and bodies weren't functioning quite as well. This was new territory for me - I had never done a race that went beyond 12 hours. This break/lap took us around 28 minutes - 19 minutes of no movement. For the first time, our average pace was slower than 14:24/mile, and the break was so long that our average actually dropped from 14:07/mile to 14:30/mile. This had an interesting affect on me - I was disappointed at all. It was almost a relief and I said "oh well, we aren't on pace for 100 anymore, now there is no pressure." So we conversed and we both somehow still felt good enough to continue running, and so we did. Back in my plan building, I had expected that by the second half I would only be running half a lap and then walking a full lap. But Mark was still running his full lap (aside from walking the mountain on the NE corner of the park), so I wanted to keep up with him. My half n half strategy sort of morphed into an 80%/20% run walk during Mark's run lap, so I would then have less to run during his walk lap before I caught up. We were doing the same pace as we had way back in hour 2. We had a perfect plan, we had been pacing ourselves perfectly (without watches!), and so we decided on our next goal - lets get from 50 miles to 100k (62 miles). That's a huge accomplishment in the ultra world.

At this point, we had some new friends visit us. Candice showed up with the great energy that only she has - and ran some loops with her unicorn hat on. Dave is one of the most encouraging members in our run club. He is unable to run currently but he showed up anyways and joined us on the walking laps, telling us we looked great every time he saw us. Derek also joined us for a while, which was awesome having him there after he just finished running the Tuna 200 mile run by himself. He knew just the right things to say to keep us feeling confident. When you feel like you must look terrible and things might start falling apart, having friends there constantly telling you that you look great can actually convince you that you feel great - even though it makes no sense and there is no way you should be feeling that way. Julie earned the title of best support crew person of all time all throughout the day and night. Whether it was mixing water with Carbo Pro/Malto Dextrin, preparing food or salt tabs for us, plugging in my phone to charge, whatever we needed she was on top of it. As we ran by our camp we would tell her what we needed the next time we came around on the walk lap, and she always had it ready. While we were in good shape and didn't need her help, she joined us for several laps on the course. She actually ran her most miles ever in a day - 35+ officially on her watch, but I think more like 38-40 because there were several laps she didn't record. She is the most humble person and will take no credit, but there is zero chance we could have done anything close to what we did without her help.

This is the time in the race where things get confusing. Any pains I had felt in my feet/hips/knees/muscles had gone away. I didn't have any stomach issues all day (due to keeping pace slow and easy), so I wasn't hungry or thirsty, and was still eating/drinking regularly. The temperature had dropped quite a bit - probably in the 40s. I had worn a tank top all day but now had on a long sleeve shirt and a jacket (mostly for the pockets to carry my phone, gloves, etc), with compression sleeves on my legs, but still shorts #nopants. I think this cold weather resulted in us being much more alert, and I never even once considered that I needed any sleep. I'm sure lots of Coke helped with that too. We said repeatedly how despite running this same 0.59 mile lap over 100 times, it didn't feel repetitive. The 1:1 strategy was so embedded in our brains, that we didn't even question what we had to do. We crossed the timing mats, it was time to run, almost like an on-off switch. I ran to my checkpoints then short walks while Mark pulled away a bit, then he walked and I usually caught up around our camp spot and we walked. Then repeat, over and over again. If this was any other race and we didn't have that short loop/timing mat to tell us when to run/walk, I guarantee we wouldn't have had any sort of consistency. At the time when we should have been falling apart and becoming more inconsistent, was the time that we became more consistent than ever. I was surrounded by this strangely calm euphoria, and everything felt great. We were executing this plan perfectly even though it didn't make any sense, and I was going to keep it rolling as long as I could.

How are you still running? I don't know but I feel great!

I had been constantly checking the live tracking results, and just before we hit 100k, our average pace was back under 14:24. I announced this fact to our crew - we were back on pace for 100. When we hit 75 miles at 17:55 (5 minutes ahead of 100 mile pace), things started to actually get real. For the few hours leading up to that, we kept wondering when things were going to fall apart. We said it would be heartbreaking to get up in the 90 mile range, and then not hit 100. We knew we had a break coming up at the 18 hour point, and we had to make it quick. Another 19 minute break would probably make it impossible to hit 100, and we wanted to keep the chance open as long as we could. We had a small cushion, but when we ended up taking another 14 minute break, so we had some time to make up again. But it wasn't as much of a hole that we had to dig out after the 12 hour break - and we had added a 5 minute cushion on top of that hole. This break actually got us back on track together for the first time - while I took the break, Mark ran an extra lap with Derek to make up the 1 lap difference we had been on since the beginning. We wanted to make sure we finished our race together.

At the break, we had 40 laps left to complete 100 miles, and I debated counting down each lap. It ended up being too much, so I was announcing every time we had 10 lap less. It took us 17 laps after our break before we made up that time we lost on the break. We were over 85 miles at that point and there was no chance we weren't going for 100. It just became a fact that we were going to run 100 miles, there was nothing that was going to stop us. Every time we ran past runners and race crew they told us we looked great and asked how much further we had until 100. We would say "20 laps (or 15 or 10, etc) but that's still a LONG way to go." We still expected that at any moment things could go south. We knew we had to be careful about every little detail from here on out, as we were still just one small issue away from being derailed. We told Brandon that if he needed a bathroom break or anything, he would have to sit out a lap and have Julie help him, as we didn't think we could sacrifice the few minutes it would take. We also made an agreement that if one of us had to stop for a bathroom break or anything, the other person had to keep going on the regular pace, and it was up to the guy who took to break to catch up. No sooner did we make this agreement than Mark had to jump in the bathroom. I continued on and he caught up shortly. 2 laps later and I was looking for the bathroom. Without getting into too many details, when you eat 10,000+ calories of ultra race food, and then pile on top of that 7 or 8 chocolate meal replacement shakes, the results aren't always pleasant. This felt like the most stressful 4 minutes of my life, as I stared at my phone every second, watching the time slowly tick away, 3:25am, 3:26am, 3:27, 3:28, 3:29.... I finally got out and knew I had a lot of work to do to catch up. But I was happy Mark had continued on at pace. I think it took me 5 laps of pushing quite a bit (without a lot of my regular walk breaks) before I finally caught back up. Thankfully it was right as Mark was starting a walk lap and I walked the entire lap.

Around 90 miles, we still had 2 hrs 30 mins to go. There finally weren't any more "another 10 miles" goals to make, except for the final one of 100. We called this our "sit-down" goal - once we reach it, we get to sit down for a long time. Finally with about 10 laps to go, we were almost to the point we felt we could walk the rest of the time and finish the 100. We weren't going to take that risk, as we didn't trust any math at this point. We still felt ok to run so we did. Mark did finally relent on running the entire lap and joined me on my regular walk breaks. The run loops finally deviated from the 6:20-6:30 times, not because of pain, fatigue, sleep deprivation, or necessity, but by choice because we knew our goal was in hand.

Crossing the line to 100 miles

We were counting down the loops for Julie, so she could wake up and head over to the finish line to record us running in. We witnessed a runner who almost quit at 90 miles have a resurgence, thanks to another runner strapping his shoes back on after he had limped around for a while. They were sprinting around the last lap to finish his 100 miles. This was a testament to how awesome the ultra running community is - even when George was feeling awful, he knew Tait needed someone to push him so he could reach that 100 mile milestone, and he did. They asked us to join but we had 13 minutes to do the last lap and we weren't in a hurry. We walked the last lap and heard a few others getting cheers as they finished. Once we made the last turn, we ran in to the finish line together, to what felt like a massive audience all cheering for us. We shared hugs, tears, and thanks, and all acknowledged how perfect everything about the last 24 hours had been, and that there was no way any of us could have done what we did without each other.

Post Race

It was a surreal feeling, accomplishing something that I had thought about as a dream goal I might chase in a few years. I never seriously thought it was possible on this day. Even now, we can't begin to fathom how there was absolutely no downfall. I downloaded all of the data I could from the timing company, and did some further analysis to look at lap pace and average lap pace. Aside from my fast start in the first hour, and the 3 long breaks at the 6/12/18 hour marks, our average pace is nearly a straight line. It fluctuated between 14:20/mile and 14:25/mile for almost the entire last twelve hours. Our splits were insanely close - our first 50 miles took 11:52:28, our second took 12:04:17. If you subtract the extended breaks we had, the moving time for the first 50 was 11:39, and for the second 50 it was 11:31 - in a sense A NEGATIVE SPLIT.

What went wrong? Honestly, only a few small things. For the first six hours, I wore some shoes that were too old and my feet let me know. I had some pains and the beginnings of a blister on the side of the ball of my right foot. During our break I quickly stuck it with the safety pin from my bib to let it drain, re-applied lotion and got a new pair of socks. I also switched to a newer pair of HOKA Clifton's which felt like stepping on pillows and that problem was quickly resolved. I had some lows during the 7th and 9th hours, but I embraced them - knowing that there will always be highs and lows in an event this long. I didn't let it affect me mentally, I just knew that I would take things easy until I felt better, and I think not having a set goal going into the race helped a lot. I knew just continuing to move forward - even walking for an hour straight - would be fine with me, whatever the final result. The only other thing was the bathroom break, and 4 minutes out of 1440 wasn't ever going to make or break my race, despite how I might have been feeling during that moment.

In the days after the race, I haven't really had any more pain than typical post-race soreness.  I did have some swelling in my left ankle (no idea why), but with some compression and icing that went away after a day. My leg muscles got pretty tight two days post-race (Tuesday), so I focused on stretching and hydrating and they are feeling much better now. Because of careful preparation and monitoring/maintenance throughout the race, I had no chaffing issues and no blisters. The shoes I wore were perfect and I didn't have any toenail problems. I did get a slight sun burn from being exposed to the sun all day, but nothing too bad.

There is definitely a question of where do we go from here? There are obviously several other 100 mile races that are quite different than this race. There are also multi-day journey runs such as the Tuna 200, Tarheel Ultra and Last Annual Vol State. I may attempt runs like that at some point, but not any time soon. For now I'm just going to run a few half marathons in the next few weeks, hit my goal of 2018 miles in 2018, and then take some rest before I focus on the Barkley Fall Classic 50k goal for 2019.

Lessons Learned

• Don't dwell on failures, they don't define you as a runner. I've seen my fair share of failures in the past year, with the two marathon finishes (50k DNFs) at the Barkley Fall Classic, where I missed the cutoff for the 50k by two hours both times. I also had what I considered an epic failure at Marine Corps Marathon just 6 days before this event. We all have those days in training that seem like failures, because we don't hit a distance or a speed or whatever arbitrary goal we have set for that run. Sometimes it is just not your day, and that's perfectly fine. I've learned to put my ego aside, accept that there will be bad runs/races, and I move on to the next one. That mentality helped me remain confident in what I was doing all day, and that led to one of my greatest successes as a runner.
• Do research and learn what you can from others, but ultimately find what works for you and stick to it. I read all I could, and tried some different things throughout training and this race. Some things worked, some didn't. I went into the race fully prepared for many situations, with all the different clothing and food options. However, I wasn't running into any problems with the outfit and gear I was using, so I ended up wearing the same outfit all day (aside from adding a layer when it was cold at the start and end). I found some food that I could consistently eat, so I stuck to eating that at least once every 2 hours - turkey cheese roll up and corn chips with gatorade or coke. The same can be said for our pacing. I had a few variations of the run/walk strategy which still ended up finishing two laps in the same total time as Mark. The 1:1 was working for him, but I had to find what worked for me, and we were both able to find our own way to a successful 24 hours.
• Break an ultra into smaller, more manageable pieces. I think this was one of the biggest components to our success. We had a few times when we wondered how far we could really go as the day went on and we continued to feel great. But for the most part, it was 10 miles at a time, and we weren't really even tracking that distance since we weren't wearing watches. Our race was really approached as one lap at a time, thanks to Julie's plan! This idea can also be applied to any other race, even distance races - if you are able to mentally block out the end goal. Running to the next big climb on a mountain trail, or running to the next aid station or mile marker on a road race could be smaller goals that lead to multiple successes throughout the race.
• The Cape Fear 24 Hour Endurance Run is a must do race. This was my first experience with a timed race, and a looped race. It never got boring as there were 60+ runners spread out on the short loop. We were constantly interacting with all different people, even through the night as several runners stopped running, but either walked the rest of the course and cheered us on, or stayed in their chairs or at the aid station to encourage those of us that were still going. The aid station was an all-you-can-eat buffet and held true to the phrase that "ultra running is just an eating contest." Different food I ate included pizza, cheeseburgers, hot dogs, grilled chicken tenders, PB&J, turkey/cheese and ham/cheese wraps, trail mix, pretzels, corn chips, cheeze its, bananas, oranges, candy bars, rice krispy treats, muffins and danishes. There were also several other things I didn't eat - quesadillas, bacon, several different soups, etc. This race offers maximum support and is the perfect opportunity to go challenge yourself to run a distance you never thought possible.
• Give back. One of the biggest thoughts in my head about "what's next" is that I need to give back. I need to be the one in the support role for somebody. Now that I have this experience I would love to be the one to help somebody else the way Julie helped me this year. Maybe next year we will get some other friends to run this race and I can do that. We have already told Julie she is running it next year and will get 50 miles, and if she does I will be there, up all night, attending to whatever she needs to reach that goal. Or at least to run just one more lap!
• Find a friend, and tackle a challenge together. This is a cornerstone of what our run club has been - we run together, but we are also just as much a social club as we are a run club. I put out the call for help to get this done, and friends and family responded. Without all the encouraging messages, I easily could have gone to a dark place mentally and quit early. Without the help from Julie in camp, we would have spent several extra minutes getting our own things around, and would have ran out of time. Without having Mark and Brandon there running with me, going through the same challenges and feelings as I was, I would have ran slower and walked slower, ran less and walked more as the night went on, and possibly would have stopped before the 24 hours was up. We accomplished what we did, because we had each other's back the entire way.

Woooooo! Sub-24 hour 100 mile belt buckle!

Sporting our semi-colons; supporting those who battle with mental illness

Mark and Brandon with their buckles!

Post race junk food binge - a KrispyBo - made famous by Barkley Marathons finisher John Kelly.
It's a cajun chicken filet from Bojangles with two Krispy Kreme donuts in place of the biscuit,
and it was everything I dreamed it could be!
P.S. Couldn't handle the BoKrispy (Krispy Kreme inside the biscuit), maybe next time.

Not long after finishing my dinner, this is how you crash after running all night.

A group of friends set out to do something crazy............

My Excel data mapping skills. This shows each lap pace in red, and our overall pace in blue.
You notice it is almost completely flat for the second half of the race. Still can't explain how that is possible.

2018 Marine Corps Marathon

2018 Marine Corps Marathon
October 28th, 2018 at Washington, D.C.
A lesson in how NOT to run a marathon
Watch time: 4:40:35 (26.64 miles)
Chip times: 4:39:21
Position: 920 of 1,756 (M35-39), 8,389 of 20,700 (Overall)

Back Story

In 2017, I had marathon fever. As part of that chaos (3 marathons in 7 weeks in spring 2017), I decided to put my name into the Marine Corps Marathon lottery.  Of course I was picked!  I was excited because this would be my first big marathon.  Every other one I have done was maybe 3,000 people, and this would be 10 times that amount!

But I also had developed an obsession with everything Barkley Marathons, and had put myself on the wait list for the Barkley Fall Classic 50k in September. Lo and behold, a few weeks before that race, I got in.  Luckily, it was still within the deferral period and I decided it would be a bad idea to attempt a marathon after a brutal trail race like that, so I deferred to 2018.

Weeks before race day

How to describe a training cycle that doesn't have a training plan? How about a hot mess? Especially hot because most of it was done during North Carolina summer heat.  That's not to make excuses, because many others do it, but it's not exactly easy for me to get motivated to go run for three plus hours when it's 90 degrees and 95% humidity.

And so I just..... didn't.  I didn't follow a training plan. I didn't do long runs. I didn't do track work. I didn't do tempo runs at my target race pace. I didn't really even set a race goal until a few days before the race. What did I do? I definitely logged the miles. I set a goal for the year to run 2000 miles. What that resulted in was the desire to get out all the time and keep adding to that number, which meant I was running 5-6 miles almost every day. That meant I wasn't getting enough rest days (maybe 1 a week), and my long runs suffered because of that... I'll detail my failures at the end of this report.

So about that goal..... I have said it for a while that this was going to be my last road marathon. Right now, I'm enjoying trail running and getting into the ultra mindset, and I think that racing a road marathon requires a different mentality - or maybe just a better running ability than I currently have. If this was to be my last, I was going to go for that elusive sub-4:00 race. I've been close a few times, only to have things fall apart in the last few as I trudged on alone. My friend Dave said he would run the whole race with me and keep me on pace as long as I was up for it. My ego spoke much louder than my brain and I decided to go for it.

Best race shirts ever!

We drove up early Saturday morning, a 5 hour drive that ended close to 6 because we stopped for lunch. We couldn't decide where to eat until we saw an exit sign for Fuddruckers, which is where we ate the night before Myrtle Beach marathon - where Dave BQ'd and I set a PR of 4:04. So we upheld that tradition. We got to the expo around 3:00pm, picked up bibs and our beautifully ridiculous shirts that got trashed on social media. We met up with Doug and of course had to get a group photo with said shirts to share with all of our friends back home. I also was able to buy the very last Marine Corps themed buff at the expo, even though it was from 2017 it still looked awesome (2018's had sold out before noon).

After wandering around for an hour we headed to our hotel. At this point, we still weren't exactly sure how we were getting to the start line. I had called them a week before to ask, and the man I spoke to said it wasn't very far away. When I checked in, someone asked the receptionist about walking and she said it was way too far - maybe she wasn't a runner because to me a mile is just a short warmup. We did some research and found that to get on metro and then take a shuttle and then walk could take us over an hour, so we decided we would just walk. Grabbed some dinner at a restaurant next door, and then got back to the room thinking we should get to bed, and it was... 6:00? Well that would be silly, so we stayed up and watch some of the World Series game until about 10. Alarms set for 5:15 since it is a later race start than usual (7:55).

Race Day

Alarms went off after an unusual good night's sleep. Must be I'm just not too stressed about this race - whatever happens, happens, and I'm ok with that. Maybe things hold together, and maybe they fall apart completely <shrugs>. Usual morning race day routine, and we are out the door to walk to the start at 6:10. It was a perfect morning for a race - starting at upper 40s and warming up into the 50s, and overcast so no worry about the sun making it too hot. Lots of people sitting around in the hotel lobby, but one other guy is walking so at least we aren't the only crazy ones. It ended up being a bit longer than we thought (about 2 miles), but I wasn't worried about it. I did get a little hungry so I went ahead and ate one of my Snickers bars - yes I know, not your typical race fuel but it works for me.

Calling my shots

The one complaint was how far we had to walk to for bag check. Had I known that, I wouldn't have brought one, but I wasn't sure how I would be feeling after the race. I wanted to have a long sleeve and some gloves to wear in case I got cold. But it made sense to have them at the very far end of the corrals, since that was where the shuttles dropped everyone off. I think it was an extra mile of walking to get from our place in the corral, to the bag check area, and back. After that we hit one of the seemingly 1,000 port-a-johns (no wait lines), then we got into our space between the 4:00 and 4:15 sign and I hoped these would be the people I would hang with all day.

The start was pretty cool. They had skydivers bring in the flag, then a few motivational words from a World War II veteran, and the National Anthem. They started the push chair racers at 7:45, and we had an Osprey flyover for that, along with a cannon blast. The duo racers (near and dear to our run club's hearts) started at 7:50, and then right at 7:55 we were off with a cannon blast, which kind of surprised us as there was no countdown or notice that it was going to happen.

We started running, and then we were jogging/trotting. Never have I been so crowded at a race, and we were running down a 4 lane highway! I figured it would probably thin out a little bit after the first few miles of "hills". I say that because to us, they weren't really hills, compared to what we are used to running.  So we hit our first mile about as expected, 9:30, knowing that the crowd would be an issue early on. The next mile had a few downhill sections and we just went with the flow, and ticked off an 8:48.  Figured I would check my heart rate as I wanted to keep it pretty low early on, but for whatever reason there wasn't good contact with my chest strap, so I had no reading (didn't get one until near mile 5). I wasn't too worried as we were chatting along the way so I felt like that was a good sign.

Flags lining both sides of the course
just past the Blue Mile

I have only been to D.C. once in my life, over 20 years ago, so I wasn't too familiar with where we were or what we should be seeing. There were some cool looking old church buildings across the Potomac River, in what I guess to be the Georgetown area. I feel like we ran around the Washington Monument area 3 or 4 different times. We ran right up to the Capitol Building shortly after mile 18. I guess at some point we ran past the Lincoln Memorial, the Jefferson Memorial and all of the museums, but I had blinders on at those points of the race and completely missed them. Probably the most moving section of any race I have done was at mile 12-13, the "Blue Mile", in which poster boards line both sides of the course of Marines that have paid the ultimate sacrifice for our country. Every few feet I looked at pictures of young men and women, and the one thing I noticed was their ages - most were 21 or 22 years of age. It hurt thinking about their families, many of which were out there next to their lost love one's signs, cheering us on. That helped give me some motivation to run when things hurt - it was the least I could to honor them.

The support from the Marine volunteers and all the spectators was unlike any other marathon I've done. There were only a few short sections that I didn't feel like the streets were lined with people cheering. There were 7 or 8 different live bands out there playing. The aid stations were plentiful and never felt like more than a few miles apart. They were chaotic as you would expect at a crowded race, but they usually had a dozen or more tables handing out Gatorade, and then the same amount handing out water. Might have worked better to have them on both sides of the road, but I managed to get in and out without ever having an issue. They also had food stations with gu, oranges, trail mix and Halloween candy, etc, and another thing I've never seen - Vasoline on a stick to help anyone with chaffing issues. I just stuck with the chews and Snickers bars that I carried in my pack. Late in the race there were a few places giving out small cups of beer, and I stopped for that, but skipped over doing the shots of Fireball - my one regret as maybe I would have felt better at the finish!

So what about that pace? As I said the first few miles had some hills and were crowded, but after that we hovered between 9:05-9:15/mile for the entire first half of the race. A few miles crept below 9:00 and when I noticed that I backed off a bit. The pace was a little bit faster than I had planned - I was hoping to be around a 9:15-9:20 average at the halfway point, then run the second half faster.  There was one point when I checked my HR monitor again and it said I was around 145 which I thought was perfect.  I wanted to keep it below 150 for the first half of the race. But now looking at my HR data I don't know how reliable it was, and if it really was 145 when I checked, it was steadily rising to much higher than I wanted (170s). My legs felt great though, and I had been able to eat and drink all morning - never felt hungry or thirsty.

It was a bit draining mentally when we hit the half marathon point and the clock read 2:04:xx. I knew we were a few minutes after the clock time, so we were really around 2:02 chip time, but the course was also measuring long (my watch was at 13.3x at the 13.1 timing mat) so I immediately had thoughts of not breaking 4 hours. I think Dave sensed the same doubt in me, and asked if I thought it was going to happen. Of course, that's when I started making all the excuses - course was long, both hips had been hurting, left knee hurt, I thought I had a blister on a left toe (I did but other things hurt more so I ignored it), etc. I said probably not and then....

As quick as a snap of your fingers, my race goal was gone. I lost the mental battle (in addition to the physical failures of training) and my legs responded by feeling like someone had tied cinder blocks around my ankles. I felt like the Tin Man from Wizard of Oz and it took every ounce of strength I had to run one step. I told Dave I needed to take a 30 second walk break to try to reset myself. That resulted in a 9:45 mile 14. I thought I would try to run a few miles around 9:30 and that might get me through the rough patch, but it never happened. Mile 15 required two 30 second walk breaks, and it was all downhill from there.

In front of the Capitol Building
after the disaster began

At one point I texted Katie, because she had told me the tracking alerts weren't working for her. I let her know that things were falling apart but I was going to grind it out to the finish. I also got on Facebook and noticed a friend had commented that our pace had slipped from 9:15s to 10 minute miles and the tracker must be drunk. I started posting on there also to let everyone know I was ok, just having a bad day. Being the great friends they are, they tried to encourage me and told me to get off my phone and run, but I just didn't have it. I had decided to just take some pictures and try enjoy the rest of the day.

It wasn't long before I was thinking about a 4:30 finish, or longer. This was going to be a miserable 12 mile death march to the finish line. I tried to settle into a 3 minute run / 30 second walk cycle, and that lasted for a bit, but eventually went to 3:1, 2:1, and finally ended up about 2:2 for the last few miles. And the running pace wasn't anything fast, as all the muscles were aching. The bargaining began, and I had to reset every goal I had in the race. For a while it was "don't run a 12 minute mile", then "don't run a 14 minute mile", then "just run for 2 minutes", and finally just actually finish this thing. I really wanted to be able to run up the last steep hill at the end, to the finish line, but I only made it about half way up before I had to walk the rest of the hill, before running across the finish line around 4:40:xx, my slowest marathon besides the Blue Ridge Marathon in 2017 (which wasn't even attempted to run and was more a run/walk party with friends). I ran the gamut of emotions from embarrassed to proud. Embarrassed that I had called my shot of a 3:59:59 the morning before, and had imploded so epically, but also proud to be a marathon finisher for the 8th time, something we were told before the race that only 2 out of every 1000 Americans will do this year. I also can't complain too much - despite having what I would consider a "slow" time for me, I know there are many people that would love to run the time that I did, and so I am proud and content with my results.

Post Race

Relieved to be finished

After the race, we were hoping to get back near the finish line to cheer in several of our friends, however we were herded like cattle through the finishers area and had no clue if it was even possible to get back to cheer. We got our medals, had some food and a beer, and then walked the 2 miles back to our hotel. Thankfully we were granted a late checkout at 3:00pm, so we had time to shower and sit for a minute before the long drive home. Surprisingly, it didn't take long to get out of D.C., but we had to stop 3 times along the way to get out and stretch, each time more painful than the last. My legs have been pretty sore for the past 48 hours, but I did get out for a 1 mile run around the neighborhood today (Tuesday) and felt a little better afterwards. Hopefully I can get one more run to flush out my legs, and then it's time to go for a 24 hour on Saturday!

Lessons Learned

• Respect the distance. In 2018, I have done race distances varying from 1/4 mile, 5k, 10k, half marathon, marathon, 50k, 40 miles, and a double marathon.  All of them present unique and interesting challenges, both within the race itself and with how you train for them. For me, without a doubt, the marathon distance is the most difficult. The shorter distances seem easier to me, because I'm able to maintain a much better pace and I know the pain will be over with quickly.  It's also fairly easy for me to get out and run for 1.5 - 2 hours every weekend - as long as I get out of bed at 5:30 - so a half marathon distance just feels "normal". I haven't trained specifically for shorter distances much recently, but I think it will be fun to focus on getting faster. The longer distances I have always been able to handle mentally. I approach those races knowing that I will go at a slower running pace and do a lot of walking. My goals for those races have just been to finish and that was something I could easily accomplish. The marathon is a different kind of beast. A distance you should train hard for and race hard. A lot of things have to align to even have a chance at a good race, i.e. weather, getting to the start line healthy, good crowd support/motivation, race day nutrition/hydration, and many other little things that all need to cooperate. I had all of those things lined up perfectly for me, except for just one teeny tiny little problem...
  
• Log the miles - but make sure they are the right miles. To say I didn't train for this race would only be half the story. I did train in a sense, but not necessarily for this race, more like for overall fitness. I logged 30-40 miles every week this summer/fall, except for the one week following BFC. But I know the most important thing for a marathon is the long run, and I failed miserably at that task. I have been chasing the 2,000 miles for 2018 as I mentioned above, so I was logging low mileage almost every day. I think that may be a good plan for ultras (focusing on total time on feet over the course of a week), but not so much for a 26.2 PR attempt. It was almost laughable when I got home from the race and looked back at my long runs ( > 10 miles) this training cycle:
  July 8th - 10.17 miles @9:53/mile pace
  July 15th - 10.01 mi @ 10:23/mi
  July 20th - 10.01 mi @ 12:23/mi
  July 28th - 13.11 mi @ 10:09/mi
  Aug 5th - 10.01 @ 10:48/mi
  Aug 19th - 12.01 @ 10:07/mi
  Aug 25th - 15.31 @ 10:42/mi
  Sept 1st - 15.51 @ 11:27/mi
  Sept 8th - 10.31 @ 11:13/mi
  Sept 15th - Barkley Fall Classic - 26.2 in 11 hours 40 minutes
  Oct 4th - 16.51 @ 10:05/mi - Heather Jones's run for her son Cam, where I ran 2-3 miles at a time then took walk breaks or sat down for 10-15 minutes in between.
  Oct 20th - 10.72 @ 10:47/mi
  
  WHAT IN THE WORLD MADE ME THINK I COULD RUN A SUB-4:00 MARATHON? I only had 2 legit runs barely over 15 miles, and those were not even close to the pace needed (most likely they were 3:1 interval run/walks). Because I had been doing so much higher weekly mileage, I thought I was better trained than I had been before. I didn't realize how terrible I had been about getting in the long runs.
  
• Respect it, but also CHALLENGE the distance. This is something I try to do at every race. Putting aside the fact that I wasn't trained for this thing, I think it is more exciting to shoot for a goal that is just a little bit more than what you think is attainable (even when properly trained). As someone once said, "There can be no great success without the risk of great failure."  With a level head, I could have reviewed my training and set a finish time goal somewhere in the 4:15-4:20 and probably achieved that. But I would have felt like I sold myself short if I didn't risk it all and shoot for the PR. So I did, I blew up completely, and I'm ok with that. I tend to learn more from epic failures than small successes and this race is no different. I can be proud of the grit I showed to continue after everything fell apart with more than 10 miles to go.
  
• Learn from mistakes, and move on. Part of why I write this blog is to have a personal record of success and failure. Next time when I think about signing up for a marathon and attempting a PR, I will look back on this report and see what I did wrong. Hopefully, I will do things differently next time and get a better end result. In the end, I had a great experience at a great event, and I would recommend the Marine Corps Marathon to anyone.
  
  So what's next? Oh, just a small little thing on Saturday - running for 24 hours. A few weeks ago I was considering going for 100 miles, so of course I let everyone know about it. What that probably means is that I will get somewhere around 30 and quit! Either way, find enjoyment in whatever you do, I'm sure I will find it at my next race!

A unique medal that I will always be proud to have

Beer Mile!

South Wake Beer Mile
October 13, 2018 at Carolina Brewing Company in Holly Springs, NC
Remembering the days of my rock star life
Watch time: 9:06
Chip time: 9:04.33
Position: 31 of 78

Back Story

Our run club likes to run and drink beer.  Pretty self explanatory here haha! But what is a beer mile? For those of you who don't know, it starts with drinking a 12 oz beer and then running a quarter mile, ending back where you started.  You then do this 3 more times for a total of drinking 4 beers and running 1 mile.  There are some rules if you want to be "official", but we aren't trying to break any records here so we did what worked best for our group.

Weeks before race day

I put in loads of training for this race. A few times a week I would go out for a run, and then drink a beer.  Actually though, I did have one run where I took lessons from a guy who ran under 6 minutes - lessons on how to chug a beer quickly. Me and the eventual female champion ran 2 miles, chugged a beer, then 2 more miles, chugged another beer, then did a quarter mile sprint.  And after that, we decided we should drink one more just for good practice - so 3 beers in preparation for a race where we drink 4, kinda like a 20 mile run in preparation for a marathon.

Race Day

Not today!

I really did have a plan. It centered around "don't puke", but I also wanted to go under 10 minutes.  It was only my 2nd time doing a beer mile.  The first time was on Fathers Day in 2017, and my time was around 13 minutes, mostly because I spent around 3 minutes sipping the last beer.  I figured I needed to channel a former lifestyle - before I had 4 kids - and get back to the state of mind of a rock star.  I dug through some old clothes and found my favorite Metallica shirt that I used to wear to gigs - we were an 80s heavy metal cover band.  It seemed like an odd choice to add to the wardrobe of short Nike running shorts and Hokas, but you can't argue with the end results (see finishers photo above!).
The individuals were split into two groups so things weren't so crowded. I watched the first group, mostly in awe of one friend who made his first beer disappear in 1 second.  I slowly drank one beer while they were running, to warm up my stomach for the onslaught it was about to face. I had a lot of fun cheering for everyone, and also joking with them that they looked like they might puke.  A few of them did!

First out of the gate

Shortly after the first group was done, it was go time.  I talked to my drinking coach and he reminded me of our training and the techniques I had learned.  Grabbed my first beer, counted down, and boom! Beer was gone and I was second fastest out of the shoot, but was a faster runner so quickly I was in the lead!  This lasted all of 5 seconds when I realized my morning run had zapped my legs of all running ability.  But it was only a quarter mile, and as we rounded the empty keg at the turnaround point, my friends shouted at me that I wasn't looking like much of a rock star, so I picked up the pace back to the beer.

Drinking is just as important
as the running

Loops two and three were quite similar.  Run under the beer tent out of breath and try to get under control enough to drink.  Three mouthfuls and the beer was down each time as I walked around the table.  Still on good pace, I got halfway to the keg and couldn't get the burp out.  That is one of the keys to a successful beer mile - burping.  So I slowed to a walk until I got a good one, got mocked as only friends know how, and ran back.
Finally, the last beer is where the practice kicked in.  Coach Andy and practice partner Heather were under the tent and yelled at me to remember my training.  I downed that last beer in one go, probably under 3 seconds time.  Got the burp out quickly, and then magically my legs decided to start working.  Either that or I was getting buzzed and didn't notice the soreness any more.  After the turn, did a quick head bang and it was a sprint to the finish and flashing the metal sign as I crossed just over 9 minutes (4 minutes better than last year).

Post Race

More beer, lots of laughs, witnessed a relay team (4 guys drink one beer and run 1/4 mile) run it in 5:04, an elite winning time of 5:37, a great Foo Fighters tribute band, and getting driven home by my wife as I was in no condition to do much of anything.  I swear this is the dumbest race, but I'll probably be back again to go under 9 minutes - or who knows, maybe under 8 with more practice!

Lessons Learned

• Running and drinking is fun! That is all.

Training Review

The hay is in the barn! I have completed my self-created training plan for the Marine Corps Marathon.  I have no idea how this race is going to go - it could be a personal best or an epic disaster.  This will be my 6th road marathon and for the first time, I didn't follow a traditional mileage marathon plan.  Instead I created my own time-based running plan.  I was much more flexible with how far my weekly long runs went - most were 2hrs 30mins or less, whereas before I would target several 20 mile run that would take in the neighborhood of 3:30 - 4:00.  I had a goal of somewhere between 6 to 7 hours of training a week, for almost every week. The last few weeks before tapering would approach 8 hours.

I also started doing a lot of heart-rate based running, in lieu of target paces.  That was the main reason that I switched to a time based training plan.  In the past, if I wanted to run 10 miles, but it was 85 degrees and 95% humidity, that would greatly affect my run.  I would either end up running a lot longer than expected so as to not burn myself out, or at a much higher level of exertion to hit a target pace.  So instead I would convert the mileage to a target time based on what my normal "easy" pace is, and then just plan to run that many minutes.  If I got 8 miles or 11 miles in that time didn't matter to me, what mattered was that I kept my HR within my MAF range.

What is MAF?  It is named after Dr. Phil Maffetone and is focused on heart rate based training.  I initially learned about this by reading the book Natural Born Heroes by Christopher McDougal.  The principles are centered around ultra running, however it made sense to me that they could also be applied to "shorter" distances and be beneficial.  The concept is pretty simple - slow down to speed up.  Start wearing an HR monitor and keep you HR within a range that is considered aerobic.  Aerobic means "in the presence of oxygen". This is the type of running you do when you feel slow and comfortable, or at a pace where you can easily hold a conversation without having to take breaths between words. Anaerobic running basically means the opposite - running hard and to the point where you are breathing heavy as your muscles as screaming for oxygen.  This happens when you are doing sprints around a track or fast hill repeats, etc. When running aerobically, your muscles can get enough oxygen from the blood to process the energy in the cells (burning fat in most cases).

Burning fat you say?  For all of my other marathons, I have packed on several pounds.  The increase in running has led to several sessions of "eating all the things", or being HANGRY at 8:30pm and stuffing my face with junk food. Another facet of the Maffetone Method  is focused on your diet, and encourages you to eat a low carb-high fat mix.  When you are running at a low HR, your body is burning fat for fuel, so it makes sense that you would need to replace that fat from what you eat.  This was appealing to me, as it meant eating more eggs and bacon for breakfast, and steaks or burgers for dinner.  It also led to me cutting out a lot of junk food - chips, soda, candy, etc., for quite a while, and I ended up losing around 10 pounds.  I had a lot of fun experimenting with different ways to replace some of my favorite foods, such as the Fat-Head pizza crust recipe - I actually like this better than most pizza places we buy from!  I haven't exactly been as strict as I should be in this area, and have slipped back into some of my bad habits as the training has ramped up, and the cravings are hard to suppress.  After this race is over, I plan on getting back on the wagon.

But slowing down to speed up?? That was a tough pill to swallow.  Everything I have ever known about running was that if you want to run faster, you have to run fast.  The problem with that logic is that running "fast" means you are constantly in your anaerobic state, and have an elevated heart rate. Your heart basically becomes a muscle that is constantly overworked and never has a chance to recover and get stronger. The main idea is that if you get your effort easy - heart rate in your MAF range - your pace will be slower AT THE START.  However, as time goes on and your body gets better trained, putting forth that same effort (read: heart rate) level will yield a faster pace.  Another thing I haven't exactly been strict on was wearing my HR strap to monitor.  I have more kept my runs at a conversational pace, which is close to equivalent to your target MAF HR.

It has been a challenging training cycle for sure.  North Carolina summer months are not friendly to marathon training - routinely high temperatures mixed with high humidity can crush your runs and leave you feeling less than confident.  That's why I am not going into this race with many expectations.  I'm hoping to stay with a low HR for the first half of the race, so the weather will play a big factor into what kind of pace I can maintain.  We haven't yet had the break in the weather for the fall season, although with Hurricane Michael coming through, we are expected to see quite a drastic change in temps next week - right at taper time!

Fingers crossed for good weather and possibly a marathon PR, but if not I'll be thankful for the chance to experience a terrific race.  And always thankful for the physical ability to do something that I love.  Then it's on to the next race.....

Numbers

I have an obsession with numbers. When I went to college, I was initially planning on being an accountant.  That quickly changed, however my love of math and numbers has never gone away.  My wife refers to me as the Human Calculator (not sure that really sounds like a cool super hero name) and will often times just ask me a math problem rather than wasting time typing it into her phone's calculator.

Of course that has translated over to my running.  Runners have so much data available to them it can be overwhelming.  Just during the course of a single run, I worry about things like - How many miles have I ran today?  What is my average pace?  What is my current pace?  How long is this interval?  What is my current heart rate? HOW MANY MORE MAILBOXES UNTIL THE TOP OF THIS HILL?!?!?  That's just during a run.  When I get home, I then analyze the crap out of my run on Strava.  I look at mile splits, my speed on different segments compared to last time (or the overall leaders), my fastest pace (sometimes when I sprint the end of the run), my total elevation gain, the list goes on and on.  And lastly, there are cumulative numbers that I'm always thinking about. How many more miles can I fit in this week? Will I get more than last week?  Am I on track for my monthly goal?  If I increase by 10% each week, how many miles will I end up with for the year?

My current fixation is on my yearly mileage - I have a goal of cracking 2,000 miles in a year for the first time in my life.  I currently sit at 1,735.4 for the year, needing 264.6 more miles for the year, over the course of 92 days, so I need to average..... wait, there I did it again! You can see my problem pretty clearly.  I have such a problem, that I recognize exactly what I am doing, and yet I am still not able to let it go, and I must tell you that I need 88.2 miles per month, or 2.88 miles a day to reach my goal.  If I stay on my current track of 6.36 miles per day, I will hit 2,000 in just 41 days (November 10th).  At that point I will probably decide to shoot for 2,200 or something in that range - 2222 sounds good!

I will say that the problem with the mileage numbers has actually worn me down quite a bit mentally.  My body is holding up well because I have been smart about doing a lot of runs at an easy, conversational pace.  I've taken a slow, cautious approach to building up my mileage, never increasing by more than 10-15% a week.   I have also done quite a bit of interval run-walking - it still all counts as mileage, just like if you do intervals at a race!  I think I won't be chasing a mileage goal next year so I don't have to have that cloud looming over my head all year. 

However, today I signed up to attempt the Barkley Fall Classic 50k again next year.  It is a lottery and it looks like I'll have maybe a 25% chance of getting selected.  But I know how the waitlist for this race works, and many people will drop out before the race.  So I am going to plan a full year around training for that race as if I'm in it.  I want to be ready even if I don't get notice until just a few days before the event.  My training plan will not focus as much on mileage this year, although there will be plenty.  I will be more focused on strength training, climbing, and just general "embrace the suck" activities.  My training goal numbers will be set around total elevation gain, which will just be a new obsession I have to pay attention to all year.

Why am I a slave to numbers like this?  There have been a few times that I have just left the house without my watch - or had the battery die in the middle of a run - and those have been some of my most enjoyable times.  Sometimes I wish I could "lose" my watch and not have all that data at my fingertips.  Although I would later just obsess over how many numbers I missed out on...

My love-hate relationship with training

I have the post-race blues after the Barkley Fall Classic.  It always happens, especially after a race as awesome as that one.  I think it is because training is just so boring.  I often times wonder about the insanity of sticking to a training schedule - a little number in an Excel spreadsheet that dictates everything about my running life.  If it were up to me - and time and money wasn't an issue - I would just do a few easy jogs each week and run a race every weekend.

You wouldn't think monotony would be the case.  There are so many variables that revolve around training runs. Early morning, lunch time, or evening? Hill repeats, track, route around town? Am I going to run intervals?  Will it be speed intervals with a slower jog recovery, or an easy run pace with a walking recovery?  Do I want to run a negative split run, or an even pace?  Should I run by heart rate or not? Do I want to push hard on the uphills, push hard on the downhills, or keep an even effort level through the entire run?  Do I want to run alone or with a group?

Despite my tendency to do a wide variety of these running styles, after a few weeks I tend to feel like I'm in a rut.  I wake up and have no desire to go run.  I think of how dumb it is that I'm setting my alarm at 4:26am to go do a training run - because that is the only time that works well for my schedule.  I think about my college self, who would often times still be up from the night before at this time.  I think of my young parent self, who would wake up all hours of the night with our children and be exhausted the next day.  I think of those same kids, who now when they wake up "early" they are still getting up more than 2 hours later than me.  And yet, I am choosing to do this!  What is wrong with me?

I look at the light posts and can literally see the humidity in the air.  I think how much training through the North Carolina summer sucks, and I wish fall would hurry up and get here.  I've read articles that say when the dew point is over 70, you should either have extremely low expectations for your run, or consider skipping your run altogether and wait for it to be better conditions.  The alternative to the high humidity is to wait until later in the day, when the humidity might drop a bit but then the temperature climbs up to the 90s or higher.  It feels like we have been dealing with this weather since March, and it seems it will never end.

I think of the absurdity of driving my car 15 minutes each way to go run with a group of like-minded people, which most likely will split up because everyone is running their own pace and I may end up left behind to run in the dark alone.  I think about how it would be easier to just run around the neighborhood for the 100th time, but then I might set the alarm for later, like 5:30am.  That generally turns into "why not wait until lunch?", and I end up working through my lunch hour, which turns into an exhausting day and an inevitable skipped training day.  So we are back to the car and driving down the road when everyone else is still asleep, and wondering what I'm doing with my life. What is wrong with me?

Then it happens. After getting out of the car and all geared up with lights, the feet start slowly moving.  I think this might not be so bad, after I work out some of the kinks from yesterday's run or rest.  I usually take the first mile or so pretty easy, just to let the heart rate slowly rise and get my legs loosened.  Today was a 15 minute warm up before the group meetup at 5:30.  I join another dozen runners for the run club's "run of the day."  Today is a 4.4 mile road run with rolling hills, with a mile or so where it flattens out. The pace felt easy, yet I was able to keep up with a group of runners.  We were chatting about races and other things so the hills passed quite easily.  As the run went on, the pace quickened yet my legs still felt strong.  Heart rate and breathing was under control.

Suddenly, my previous hate of training becomes a love of training.  Complaining about the weather seems ridiculous, because I know putting in hard efforts in hard conditions will pay off in spades when the weather changes (hopefully by the time race season comes around).  Every training run is like a drop in a bank account, and come race day when it is time to make that withdrawal I want to have as much as possible built up.  Waking up early is a logical choice - I always feel better after a run and now I will have this feeling for several hours throughout my work day.  And I will be able to relax in the evening hanging out with my wife and playing with my kids.  Who needs sleep anyways?  The route was the same as last week, but that also makes it familiar, so I know what is to come.  It is a great feeling to know when I need to back off a bit and when I can push.  And if I had just ran alone in the neighborhood, I would not have had the encouragement of other runners, my friends who will push me to reach my goals as they strive to reach their own.  I enjoy the quiet car ride home to cool off and reflect on how great of a run I just had.

Do all training runs end this way? Of course not, it can't always be all sunshine and rainbows.  Sometimes I feel like "everything hurts and I'm dying" and I continue my hatred of the training run.  But NOT TODAY! That will have to wait for some other time...