-O24-
Where to begin?
With my family of course!
Angie, Xander and Izabella. These three beautiful people are
my whole world. They inspire me, encourage me and support me. Without them I
could never accomplish the crazy, huge dreams I dream.
I spent the weekend of May 2-3 running for 24 hours in Kirtland , OH
We were there in plenty of time to grab my packet, get
set-up, get all my crap ready for race morning, talk to our many friends
running as well, and still walk a loop of the course together. The Rocks &
Roots crew were representing in full-force, many of them sporting our Not Yo
Momma’s shirts! You guys rock!
It was awesome to “sleep-in” on race day. With a wonderful 8:00AM start, my fam and I were able
to get plenty of shut-eye. Sweet!
The overnight temps were chilly but not TOO chilly. We
turned on our small tent heater and snoozed comfortably all night long. (Talk
about roughin’ it!) I slept uncharacteristically well for the night before a
race, though I did wake up a couple of times. I wound up rising and shining
about 6:00AM . After Izabella
and I hit the john’s, I enjoyed a breakfast of delicious date logs. Yummy!
A quick shit-stop before the restrooms got busy followed by
a little stretching, and I was ready to go. After taking plenty of family pics
and getting lots and lots of good luck hugs and kisses, I lined up with the
other runners, feeling awesome.
Soon we were off and…yep….running. My race started out
great. I felt as well-trained and ready to tackle this undertaking as ever I
had.
I had my Garmin set-up on a cycle of, run 4 minutes, walk 1
minute. This would most likely change based on where the best spots to walk
presented themselves in the loop, but I wanted to be sure I had this in place
from the start so I didn’t take off too fast and fuck my day up before it ever
really started.
“One small hill.” That’s what the brochure says :)
That little bastard was rough! Worse than the hill itself was the “climb” to
it. Basically the entire distance from the start area to One Small Hill, was uphill. A slight, gradual
uphill grade. I used One Small Hill as my first walking point, and this worked
great for the first 48 miles. I had a
system in place from the very first lap, where I would walk to the top of One
Small Hill, run the dip down to the bridge, and walk the short climb on the
other side of the bridge. This worked
famously, but being too lazy and stubborn to change my Garmin settings, I was
getting beeps at random times all over the course. I truly wish I could
remember every comment I got on these beeps from other runners. I heard
everything from, “You backing up?”, to , “Time for your pills?”, and I heard
them 374 times each :)
After battling stomach issues in the heat at several races
over the past few years, I was hoping for mild temps- as are usual for 024.
Because I signed up, the forecast was calling for some of the highest temps and
humidity of the year. Kick-ass :/ On the glass-is-half-full side of things, it
didn’t rain and was a gorgeous day and night and day again.
The temps began steadily climbing early in the day. I don’t
remember where they topped out, but it was somewhere in the mid to high 80s.
Given that we’d had very little super-hot weather yet this year, I was still
feeling pretty under-acclimated. Fortunately I have learned the hard way to take
a seat in the shade and cool off however I can during the hottest part of the
day. Even better, I’ve learned to follow my own damned advice.
I began icing myself down frequently when I came through the
aid station. Every other loop, or every third loop for several hours in the
afternoon. I had a ritual each time, first dipping my bandana and hat into the
ice water cooler, and then filling my bottle with ice and water, if needed.
During one of the thousands of times I performed this routine, a very angry lady-
also a runner- shoved me quite hard and shouted, “Hey, you’re dripping!”
Totally stunned, I stared at her trying to decipher her bizarre riddle. She
offered no further explanation, but held a hand pointing to something beside
me. Glancing around I finally figured out what the hell she was referring to. I
had just slapped my soaking wet hat and bandana back onto my head, and
water/sweat was pouring down my head, rolling off the brim of my hat…and
directly into the cooler of ice I was scooping from. “Ooops”, was all I could
muster. I believe I uttered something else like, “Didn’t realize.” Though I did
feel a little bad, I couldn’t help but wonder how this lady survived at ultras
if THAT grossed her out. I’ve seen dudes lube their junk up and then immediately
grab a handful of M&Ms with the same hand from a community bowl. Hmmm.
I had two breaks scheduled on my super-nerdy pace chart. The
first was slated for 1:30PM .
This worked out perfectly, as the heat was already slapping my ass around. I
was almost perfectly on schedule, with 29 loops logged only one minute slower
than I had planned. Wicked cool.
I spent the next 20 minutes in a camp chair, positioned in a
wonderful patch of shade burrowed from our neighbors pop-up tent, dousing
myself with cold water. Angie ran around getting me everything from my mental-
and dorkily typed up- checklists. Bottles refilled, Pedialyte, trail mix,
naproxen, a change of shoes and socks, and on and on the list could go.
I recently opted to start changing my shoes and socks
regularly in events over 50k. I used to only do so if it became an absolute
necessity. So far so good. Brand new for me at O24 was the use of a muscle rub
during the race. I had been reading lots of race reports for Old Dominion in
the months prior to O24, as I was considering running it this year. One of the
reports was written by a feller who swears by his use of a muscle rub on his
legs during 100 milers. This is something I have long wondered about, as my
generic Wal-Mart brand, icy-hot muscle rub works wonders post-race. So I gave
it a try, applying it three times throughout the day and let me just say, DAMN!
Pure awesomeness! I had absolutely no soreness in my legs during the race.
I had been eating well all day, downing 400 calories per
hour in various combinations of trail mix, dates. Date logs. Angie Bars Lara Bars
Plopping down in the glorious shade again, I poured water
all over myself and began to strip. Going all the way down to my shorts, I then
took my bandana and rinsed and cooled every damn exposed piece of skin until I
was actually shivering a bit in the cool breeze. Heaven! I once again changed
shoes and socks, and this time added a fresh shirt and bandana. As I went
through the rest of my break routine, watching the same people come around lap
after lap, a large, dark cloud threatened to settle over my head. I was bummed
out. Seriously fucking bummed out. The awareness of how bummed I was made me
feel even more bummed. Don’t misunderstand- I had no thoughts of stopping.
After my first (and last) DNF at MO 100 a few years ago, I don’t even let the
thought of stopping enter my mind. This bummer was the knowledge that I would
absolutely keep going, but I might not reach my goal if this fucking stomach
shit kept nagging at me. This kind of negativity usually doesn’t hit me until
the overnight hours, somewhere between 60-80 miles, when my fam is snoozing and
I am all alone with my thoroughly thrashed body, my exhausted brain and my
dismal thoughts. That’s when I usually start questioning what the hell I’m
doing out there. Why? I could be spending this time with my kiddos. Why am I
out here in the damn dark, trudging along for a stinking belt buckle. Until
eventually the answers come, and I remember that I am out here setting a
positive example for my kids. I am teaching them something unbelievably
valuable about hard work and setting goals and working towards your dreams and dreaming
so big you don’t know if you can accomplish those dreams but you’re damned well
gonna try.
But here I was, only 48 miles in to what I hoped would be
more than 103 miles (my PR for 24 hours), feeling all those familiar feelings
of BLAH, and wondering where the hell I was gonna get the fucking fortitude to
move forward. My body felt spectacular but my stomach just wouldn’t cooperate.
I went back over and over everything in my head. Every food choice. Every
calorie. Every mile. What could I possibly have done better? What should I have
done differently? Damned if I knew.
At this point I assumed I was experiencing “normal” stomach
issues. I decided to try some of my wife’s amazing paleo beef-veggie soup.
Knowing me better than I know myself, she looked at me sideways saying,
“Really?”, when I asked if she could please heat me up a bowl. I admit that I,
too, thought it was a long shot, but I had to try something. This turned out to
be one of the two best decisions I made all day, the other being opting for
early breaks in the heat of the day. I had a tough time talking myself into the
first bite, but the soup went down smooth and I gobbled it up quickly.
Normally I don’t break out my tunes and/or audiobooks until
the late miles of a race, but my fam had decided to head in to the local YMCA
for some swimming and other fun adventures for a few hours. Knowing I had a
long span of time without them, and with my stomach and mind still in shambles,
I decided to breakout Serial. Another stellar decision on my part. Yes!
Although I had greatly enjoyed talking and running with many of my trail pals
throughout the day, including Anne Lang who walked a loop with me when I
desperately needed the company, I was in a truly dark space inside my own damn
head right now. I need something to pull me out. What better than a who-dun-it
about a convicted killer!
I had been enjoying the hell out of the Serial podcast
in the weeks prior to O24. Honestly, I was greatly anticipating finishing it at
the race, so pressing play brought a quick smile to my face.
At this point I opted to walk a couple of additional
sections of the course. These were both short, steady climbs that made a world
of difference. All the power-hiking I’ve been practicing on the Not Yo Momma’s
course at Great Seal State Park really paid of for me at O24. When I was walking
during those last 50+ miles, I was walking fucking fast!
I was feeling tremendously better by the time I finished Serial-
other than being pissed off by the ending! The soup from earlier sat well on my
tummy, so from this point on I fueled almost exclusively on it. Every 4th loop I would grab a
cup-full and walk out of the camp area eating it. In this way I was completing
4-5 miles per hour.
The sun slowly dipped down. As the shadows grew longer, we
spent less and less time running in the sun. My emotional state continued to
improve. By the time night settled in and Ang and our kiddos snuggled into
their sleeping bags for the night, I was feeling more or less great!
Awesome Angie prepared me one last cup of soup for the
night, and left me all the supplies ready to heat some more while she slept. The
podcast had worked so well, and the number of runners still left on the course
had dropped so low, that I decided to breakout the first of two Sookie
Stackhouse books accompanying me on this adventure. By morning I had
listened to both complete books :)
I had the best overnight portion of a 100 miler I have ever had, hands down. I still list caffeine as my “secret weapon”, drinking only decaf coffee (and that only moderately), and depriving myself of even that for the week prior to a race. At O24 I began consuming about 4oz of regular coffee every three hours or so. It might has well have been crack! I was wide-awake the entire night, never feeling the slightest tug of sleepiness. Also, I finally invested in a decent headlamp and flashlight. My night vision totally sucks, so this made a huge difference to my sanity through the night.
Following my run/walk cycle for many more hours, which now included a total of three spots on the course I was walking, I managed to haul my ass around that damn loop 108 times, PR’ing my 24 hour best by 5 miles, and PR’ing my 100 mile time by about 3 hours, reaching that benchmark at 22 ½ hours. And all this while stopping for about 5minutes every fourth loop to warm up a cup of soup on our camp stove :)
Strangely I felt absolutely fantastic for at least the last
30 miles. My body felt as strong as it ever has during an ultra, so once my
stomach came around I was golden.
Another first for me at O24 was “racing”- at least for the
last 6 loops ;) I am not a competitive person in any traditional sense. I
compete with myself, always striving to improve. When I take part in races I go
in looking to better myself and my past accomplishments. When I hit the 100
mile mark at O24, I knew I wanted to push myself to get any as many more miles
as possible. I still had 90 minutes and I was feeling stronger all the time.
Much to my surprise, when I came through on that 100th lap, Angie is
in super-competition mode. She starts telling me how many people are ahead of
me, and who I need to catch, and I’m pretty sure there was a whole bunch of
other stuff thrown in there, too :) Though I felt great, I was still 22 ½ hours
in to a very hard endeavor, and my brain wasn’t firing on all cylinders. Ang
shoved me back out onto the course, still shooting instructions at me. I ran
one of the fastest splits of the day on that loop. WTF?
The last six loops were a total blur. I kept running faster
and faster- though not really “fast”. I actually found myself trying to catch
up with the couple of runners ahead of me with the same number of laps on the
board. Crazy. It was a real rush to feel a competitive spark fire up inside me!
Unfortunately, after the race my stomach went really
haywire, and as the morning heated up super-quickly, I was utterly worthless
for packing up the car :/ I found out the next day- via FB- that a couple of
folks had been forced to drop due to stomach bugs! I really belive that my
stomach issues were the result of some kind of bug. Luckily, those issues
subsided for me!
O24 is an awesome event that I’d recommend to anyone. Great
course, great volunteers, great medals and buckles.
Thanks so much to all involved with this event. Thanks to
all my trail buddies who shared miles and conversations.
The biggest thanks, as always, goes out to my family. You
guys kick so much ass and I love you!
