2018 Blue Ridge Double Marathon

2018 Blue Ridge Double Marathon (52.4 miles)
April 21^st, 2018 – Roanoke, VA
Watch time: 11:48:44
Chip times: 5:27:31, 6:20:57
Position: 31 out of 54 finishers/64 starters

We run mountains

Back Story

A year ago, I ran America’s Toughest Road Marathon with a group of my friends from HSRC.  Several of us turned it into the most fun I have ever had at a race.  We walked whenever anyone got tired, stopped at every aid station, took lots of pictures along the way.  We even stopped for mimosas at the halfway point and champagne at the top of the third mountain.  It was very difficult but because of the way we tackled the course, it didn’t feel so bad. 

One highlight of the run was every time we saw someone wearing a pink bib, they were getting all kinds of shout outs, fist bumps, and high fives.  These were the “Doublers”, a handful of ultra tough runners who did the course twice, one time before us starting at either 1:00am or 2:30am.  It was very inspiring seeing their ability to tackle those mountains twice, and after a few drinks and hanging out with friends, I talked myself into running the double.

For quite a while in 2017, I was content running 100 miles per month.  That seemed to be enough to get me through a marathon, although not necessarily hitting the time goals I thought I was capable of.  After running the Barkley Fall Classic in September, I decided to get serious about my training.  I started ramping up my mileage a few miles at a time, from 25 to 30 to 40, and eventually my first week ever of 50 miles the last week of 2017.  Blue Ridge Training began on January 1^st.

Weeks before race day

During this training plan, I would have to start learning a lot more about running from an endurance standpoint, and being smart about recovery and nutrition.  I slowed down pace quite a bit, and also began doing several runs with walk intervals, often times sacrificing the chance to run with others and instead trudging along at the back of the pack.  I was always thinking ahead to the run that I would have to do after my run tomorrow.  I made it a point to try to do some things for the simple fact that they would be ridiculously hard.  Usually it is enough to run Heartbreak Hill or Soulcrusher once or twice – I went out one Saturday and ran the loop 20 times.  I did a handful of long runs by myself at 1am or 2am to experience the difficulties of waking up and running at that time of night.  One of those long runs was a solo marathon on Crossway – our hilliest route in Holly Springs that is 3.6 miles that I repeated 7 times. The day after that, I ran another 15 miles in the morning and 10 miles in the afternoon. I continued setting new personal bests for distance in a week and month, culminating with a 76 mile week as part of a 302 mile month in March.  I tapered for three weeks after that big week, and we all joked how ridiculous it was that I was still running 40-50 miles during a taper.  Compared to what I had been doing, that felt like I was barely running at all.

In the weeks leading up to the race, I had a decision to make – would I start at 1:00am or 2:30am?  Based on how well my training went and knowing how much time we spent at aid stations and doing pictures last year (things that wouldn’t be there on the first loop), I was confident I could run the course under 5 hours.  However I wasn’t sure to what affect that would have on the second run.  After lots of waffling I decided I would start at 1:00am, run it easy and come in sometime around 5 hours and have a long break in between, during which I would elevate my legs, roll them, stretch, walk, wear compression, eat, drink and anything else you can imagine to recover and go run a ridiculous hard marathon for a second time.  Although I didn’t expect I would RUN the second time, but more so have a party with my HSRC friends just like last year.  A few of them had not trained much and their only goal was to make sure that I finished.

“Run it easy”.  If you asked me what that meant a month ago, I would have guessed at some random pace per mile.  As part of my desire to become a better runner, I committed to reading more.  I bought 5 different books from different authors, including one from Christopher McDougal named “Natural Born Heroes”.  It was almost like a history lesson about World War II events on the island of Crete, with a lesson about using fat as fuel for long endurance runs, and using a method from Dr. Maffetone to calculate your optimal heart rate for running.  I had never trained that way – I had always looked at target pace, which can be very difficult to be consistent with, as it is greatly affected by everything from weather, nutrition, stress, route, etc.  So I decided I would start wearing the heart rate monitor I have had sitting in a box for years.  I wasn’t going to change how I was training two weeks before the race, I was wearing it out of curiosity and getting ready to start training based on HR after the race.  What I found was that I could actually push harder than I had been and still be well within my target heart rate zone (132-142 bpm).  I decided I would wear the HR strap for the race, and my plan would be to run while keeping my heart rate low, and when it got elevated because we were going up a mountain climb, I would take a walk break until my HR got back down.  Keeping my heart rate this low meant that for the majority of the race I would be burning fat instead of glycogen, so I wouldn’t really need to eat like I used to – more on that later.

So my plan was in place.  Friday I made the trip up to Roanoke by myself, arriving in town around 4:30pm.  I went to check in to the hotel and headed immediately to the expo.  I threw a mini temper tantrum when I found out I wouldn’t be able to get a shirt size that I could wear because of a problem with the registrations.  After they found out I was doing the double, I was able to get a shirt in the correct size after I sheepishly apologized for acting like a 3 year old.  I also bought the custom art work this year as this was a pretty monumental undertaking, and I wanted something extra to remember this achievement.  After that we headed to eat a very good dinner and have a quick course briefing from Molly the RD.  I said that I wasn’t going to drink any beer, but somehow there was an extra one poured and I couldn’t let it go to waste.  Then I tried to fall asleep around 8:30.  It was at least an hour before that happened.  It was a good thing that I hadn’t run any of the early morning runs all week and I slept 9+ hours on Thursday night, because the alarm was going off at 11:30pm and I was going to go run for 10-12 hours on 2 hours of sleep!

Race Day

Everyone ready to run at 1:00am

Before the race was kind of hectic.  I’m really glad I wrote out a list of everything I needed to do because my brain was not functioning on so little sleep.  First problem of the day was that the batteries in my headlamp decided to die overnight and I didn’t bring any extras.  Good thing I brought a back-up lamp but it was a cheap one from Walmart that didn’t cast a very bright light.  Better than nothing I guess.  Around 12:30am I headed out of the hotel room for a short walk to the start line.  There were probably 50 other runners there and a handful of race staff.  We had to check in and leave our drop bags, and before we knew it we were lining up in the street (moving out of the way a few times for the people having a late Friday night), we had a countdown and we were off!

Race adrenaline got us up to the front of the pack and we were actually leading the pack of 10 or so after the first few hills, which weren’t difficult at all.  A few of the others in our group chatted about having a goal of 5 hours, which was exactly what I was hoping for.  Before long we were hitting some hills going around Mill Mountain up to Roanoke Mountain.  There was a volunteer at the 2 mile point where Brian made the wrong turn last year.  This time all of the runners are going straight, and we just follow the lights.  Here we met the first of several awesome volunteers stationed at key points of the course (generally major turns and mountain peaks) where we had to call out our bib number and they checked off that we ran the correct route.  We ran until my heart rate hit 150, and then walked for a few minutes.  I forgot that the 5^th mile is mostly flat or a slight downhill, so we went from a 4^th mile of 11:38 to 9:39 pace.  But mile 6 is a pretty steep climb up Roanoke Mountain and we walked most of that.  Coming down from the highest point of the course was difficult because of the steepness, and the dark path between the trees made us run cautiously.  Unfortunately, Brian would begin cramping on this downhill section.  He had told me that he was untrained, honestly I had no idea how much he trained because he had basically gone offline for the previous several months.  So I decided that we would try to finish “around 5 hours” but if it was slightly over that was fine.  My only goal was to make sure he finished the loop without stressing himself out too much.

The run back down to the Mill Mountain climb was fairly easy, although the tilt of the road caused some flare ups of outer hip pain, due to shortened steps on the left side for a long time.  This would be an ongoing thing until the last quarter of the race.  We did see a few of the speedsters that started at 2:30am, as we were over 10 miles in at this point and they were about 2 miles in, around 3:00am.  We also passed the guy who was apparently trying to run the course 4 times in a row.  He got way behind schedule and started lap 3 with the 2:30am runners.  Brian continued cramping up every couple of miles so we were taking walk breaks even on the “easy” sections.  We got back to where the half marathon split point and made the turn to go up Mill Mountain after checking in with the volunteer again.  We hike up Mill Mountain to the Roanoke Star, only to be a bit disappointed that it wasn’t lit up.  Still, we got to see a cool overlook of the city.   At this point the group was starting to spread out quite a bit and it wasn’t long before it was just the two of us.  Shortly after passing the halfway point, I realize that I need to go to the bathroom, but have no idea how far it would be before we see somewhere to go.  Wait a second, its 3:30am and we are about to run on a greenway along the side of a river.  Stopped to water the trees for a minute, which was a good thing – I was well hydrated.  Tried to eat a bite of my secret weapon – a Snickers bar – only for it to be frozen solid.  I wasn’t really hungry because I had been running at such a low heart rate, that I was truly burning fat for my fuel.

We then turned into the neighborhoods which would wind around to the dreaded Peakwood.  There was one guy that pulled up in a truck and offered us two beers.  Maybe I would say yes if it was loop 2, but we have 8 more hours to be out here so I have to pass.  Peakwood is extremely steep so we agreed to just power hike up the whole thing.  Probably could have managed to jog intervals up, but instead decided to preserve our legs for later.  We were passed by a few volunteers driving U-Haul trucks to go set up the aid stations.  At the top of Peakwood, they didn’t have champagne out yet but they did have water and bananas.  I ate half of one and started the descent.

The rest of the course was pretty uneventful.  Just kept trudging along wondering when we would hit the “Jesus Saves” hill.  Around mile 21 or so we got passed by a runner who just says “Nice job gentlemen” as he flies by.  It was Chuck Engle – Brian thought he looked like Robocop with all of his lights and his running form.  We finally hit the Jesus Saves hill (it’s just a sign on top of a church) around mile 25.  At this point Brian is cursing any hill and wondering why a race would ever design a route with this many hills.  It’s called America’s Toughest Road Marathon for a reason.  At this point messages have been flooding in from our friends giving us encouragement to finish up the last few miles.  As we make the last few turns, I end up just a few minutes slower (5:27:xx) than my time last year (5:25:xx).  I was hoping for a 5:00 finish but I am feeling completely fine, whereas last year after running the course I was exhausted and sore everywhere.

So now we have a full hour break before we start lap 2 at 7:35am.  I take this time to do some stretching, eat some food, use my roller stick, change my outfit, and elevate my legs.  I chat with a few of the other runners that were hanging out in the conference room of the hotel, including Nelson the friend we made last year.  The time passes quickly and before I know it, I am heading outside to meet all my friends to run loop 2.  Brian decided to run loop 2 with Heather, as he told me that he didn’t think he could keep up.  I told him we weren’t expected to have any speed for loop 2, and he was more than welcome to hang with us.

I'm sooooo tired!

Loop 2 was a bit of running at the beginning, but ended up being mostly walking.  I was delirious and honestly can’t remember much of it.  What I do remember is my run club friends making one of the hardest things I’ve done physically feel like it was a party.  Several of them were willing to sacrifice their race to make sure they stayed with me and helped me along with whatever I needed to finish. One of those guys was the husband to my friend’s friend and he has some ultra experience. He was really helpful as he knew the kind of struggles I was having, and knew what and when to ask certain things.  Also what not to ask, such as “how do you feel right now?”  He knew the answer was something along the lines of “everything hurts and I’m dying.”

At the top of Roanoke Mountain, we took a group picture and I felt appropriate to lay down and “pretend” to be sleeping.  It became a joke for me to actually run – and I would speed off quickly for about 15 seconds before I needed to walk again.  We stopped for mimosas at the halfway point, but I couldn’t bear the thought of putting that in my stomach.  Same with the champagne at the top of Peakwood.  And sadly had to skip the beer at some random person’s house around mile 22ish.

"Sprinting" to the finish line

The finish was surreal.  I had been messaging with some of the others from our club who were already done, letting them know when I was going to finish.  We had walked most of the last few miles.  Rounding the last corner, I saw a few of my friends and got a surge of energy.  Several high 5s and then I was sprinting down the last hill to the finish line.  I crossed with the biggest smile on my face and exchanged several hugs and even some tears that I accomplished this huge goal I worked for months towards.  I was then given a chair to sit in and brought a full pizza with beer!

Royal Treatment

Lessons Learned

• I have the best wife in the world (but I already knew that). There is 0 chance I could have done this without her. She kept the household running while also being a full time student, and allowed me to put in 10-12 hours per week training.  I am thankful every day that she allows me to follow this crazy passion of mine.
• Pick a plan and stick to it. Do what YOU have to do to achieve success. I did a lot of training alone for this race, but that is what my plan dictated.  I knew that to do a 50+ mile race, I would have to slow my pace significantly.  I also knew that the elevation gain at Blue Ridge would be enough to reduce me to walking/hiking pace.  I spent quite a bit of time doing that on big hills during my training runs, which meant I wasn’t able to keep pace with others.  I was also experimenting with low heart rate training for this race, which meant a slower running pace in general.  However, all of this paid off in spades as I was able finish the race feeling great. 
• HSRC rocks! I couldn’t have finished this race without my friends.  Of course, if it wasn’t for them I wouldn’t be trying stupid things like this either! You learn a lot about people who are willing to do something difficult with you for 6 hours.  I saw a group of people willing to sacrifice, be generous, and highly encouraging even when they were hurting, all for the sake of seeing me through to the finish line. 
• Work works. If you are willing to put in the time and effort, I believe that anyone is capable of doing a race like this. It requires patience though, and a long term plan.  I built up to this race for basically 6 months – since my failed attempt at the 2017 Barkley Fall Classic. Slowly adding to my weekly mileage, I built up from doing 25 miles a week to a peak week of 76.  If you do the work, the rewards on race day will be great!