I’ve lived here in St. Louis for almost three years now and I still had never run an ultra put on by the local SLUG running group. That was going to change this spring. Registration opened January 1st and I tried to sign up for the Double Chubb 50K. The race filled up in 20 minutes and I missed out. Without really thinking matters through I instead signed up for the next SLUG race, the Berryman 50 mile in May. Berryman is farther than Chubb, the trail is more difficult, I had never run the trail before (so I wasn’t as familiar with it), it was later in the spring (so it would interfere more with my cycling/triathlon schedule, and it would be much hotter). It would be a bigger challenge, but I was ready.

After a brief recovery period following Fuego y Agua I focused all my attention on this race, and aside from the silly fall I had just before the Frisco Railroad Run everything else went perfectly. I had my biggest months and several of my biggest weeks of training as far back as my records go. I made two trips down to Berryman to train on the course and familiarize myself with it.

During the three week period between Frisco and Berryman I intended to do a bit more moderate training and a short taper. It didn’t work out that way. My knee hurt so much after Frisco I didn’t run for 10 days. By that point, only 10 days out from Berryman, I was freaking out about the problem. I saw a doctor who took X-rays and assured me it was just a bad bruise. I should be fine to run as long as I could take the pain. After Frisco I knew I could race through almost any pain.

My first training run back was a disaster. It was like I forgot how to run. I couldn’t get comfortable. My pace would vary from 10:00/mile to 6:40/mile completely unintentionally. My knee hurt. A lot. But each successive run went better, and after a week the knee pain was slight enough I could completely ignore it.

The start (photo courtesy of Shannon Drohan)

I’m not an expert at running 50 miles. I have covered that distance one time previously, but it was on a much easier course with more frequent aid stations. I planned for the worst but hoped for the best. I made a point of starting the race extra slowly. If I start a short race too fast I might have a half hour or hour of misery before it ends. If I start a 50 mile race too fast I could have 5-6 hours of misery. For the early miles there were seven people in front of me and I was at the back of a pack of four. I was running very comfortably, breathing through my nose for the first 7-8 miles. The temperature was in the low-mid 60˚s, but it was rising rapidly.

7.5 miles (photo courtesy of Shannon Drohan)

I skipped the first aid station, passing my three companions in the process. I had plenty of water and I would have had to wait behind the first three guys in my group to get any food… and I had plenty of food. Every mile divisible by two I ate a Medjool date. Every mile divisible by three I took an S!CAP. I had my only real mental lapse at the mile 16 aid station where I completely forgot to pick up more dates from my drop bag. I was out by that point so I had to switch to my backup plan of Clif Shot Bloks and Hammer Gels, and I had a few of each with me. The first loop was mostly uneventful. I continued on at a steady effort (though not a steady pace, due to the hills on the course). I gradually passed three more runners to move into second place at the end of the first 25.7 mile loop, which I completed in exactly 4 hours.

I was hot and starting to fatigue rapidly. I had been hoping to finish in 8 hours, but I knew that was out of the question. It wasn’t a very realistic goal. I had to slow down. The first 5 miles of the second loop took forever and I ran out of water. My mouth was too dry to effectively chew the dates I picked up at the start/finish line, so I had to switch back to my backup foods. The first half of the second lap was just brutal. I was baking in the sun.

Halfway through the second lap I started walking up some of the hills. Walking up hills is pretty standard procedure in ultramarathons, but I had been running them all. The weird thing about the Berryman trail is that despite the numerous hills, none of them are very steep. They’re all completely runnable. And since several are quite long, and there’s often not a clear start or end to the hill, it’s a bit awkward to arbitrarily start walking and then later arbitrarily start running again. But I did it anyway. I still had enough energy to run, but I was overheating.

Melissa found her way out to three of the aid stations on my second loop, and it was nice to see her and Will. I feel bad for not paying more attention to them, but I was really focused on getting this thing finished.

In my tired, dehydrated state I had a couple of hallucinations (this happened to me 5 hours into my very first ultra as well). Through the trees I would see fragments of a shape and my brain would fill in the missing bits with what I thought should be there. One time I saw a couple of mountain bikers on the side of the path that weren’t really there. Unfortunately, since I really wanted there to be an aid station up ahead, that’s the thing I hallucinated multiple times. I even got so excited to see one of the aid stations I opened up my water bottle and dumped the remaining contents over my head to cool down (knowing I would refill it at the aid station), only to look up and realize the aid station wasn’t really there.

The last 5 miles of the loop are a roller coaster of constant ups and downs. Knowing I was so close to the finish line I began running the hills again. I still had energy left. After I came out of the woods and approached the finishing line I even noted to myself that I still had pretty good form. I finished in 2nd place in 8h59m. The winner was almost an hour ahead of me, and much to my surprise the 3rd place finisher was only 2 minutes behind me. It’s a good thing the race ended when it did.

The finish (photo by Melissa)

The finish (photo courtesy of Shannon Drohan)

So it was quite an experience. A few things went wrong, but most things went right. I’m quite pleased about that. I started out very conservatively, and I still had energy left at the end. My nutrition plan went quite well with the dates, and even my backup plan of Clif Shot Bloks and Hammer Gel worked for me. I never had any stomach problems. I stayed on top of the S!CAPS and I never had muscle cramps. There were times when I struggled in the heat, but there was never any doubt in my mind that I would finish the race. I did have a bit of residual knee pain in the first couple miles, but it went away and didn’t return. Despite one close call I managed to stay upright the entire 51.4 miles on a very rocky trail. The race was well organized and the volunteers were great.

If I searched hard enough I could probably find things to complain about, but I’m not going to. The race went as well as I reasonably could have hoped. This was the race I’ve been looking forward to all year and I’m not a bit disappointed with it (which is as close to pride as I’m willing to publicly admit).

Running

Most miles in a single month since 1996-1997.

Month	Distance	# Workouts	Avg per Workout
January	131.5 Mile	13	10.1154 Mile
February	87.4286 Mile	10	8.74286 Mile
March	162.84 Mile	17	9.57882 Mile
April	169.12 Mile	16	10.57 Mile
Total	550.889 Mile	56	9.8373 Mile

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Cycling

Moving the wrong direction here, mostly due to terrible weather.

Month	Distance	# Workouts	Avg per Workout
January	3.7 Mile	1	3.7 Mile
February	15.2 Mile	4	3.8 Mile
March	123.14 Mile	16	7.69625 Mile
April	114.22 Mile	12	9.51833 Mile
Total	256.26 Mile	33	7.76545 Mile

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Swimming

Several new 1000 yard PRs in April.

Month	Distance	# Workouts	Avg per Workout
January	0	0	0
February	3950. Yard	3	1316.67 Yard
March	18900. Yard	11	1718.18 Yard
April	15600. Yard	10	1560. Yard
Total	40100. Yard	25	1604. Yard

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Walking & Hiking

Down a bit on account of more running and bad weather.

Month	Distance	# Workouts	Avg per Workout
January	37.64 Mile	12	3.13667 Mile
February	50.6 Mile	21	2.40952 Mile
March	92.9 Mile	37	2.51081 Mile
April	41.5 Mile	21	1.97619 Mile
Total	227.24 Mile	93	2.44344 Mile

I limped to the starting line. Literally. I’ve never been in this much pain at the start of a race before. This was a bad idea.

I haven’t run a road marathon in over three years. I suppose this isn’t a road road marathon, as it is on a mostly gravel rail trail, but it’s definitely not on single track. Melissa found the Frisco Railroad Run and wanted to do the 50 mile race. They also had a marathon, which was around the distance I planned to run for training at this time leading up to the Berryman 50 mile race next month. I’ve already done two training runs this distance.

I didn’t taper for the marathon, but I did ease up a bit on my training a few days beforehand. Then on Thursday, two days before the marathon, I was doing one last easy four mile run when, for no discernible reason, I tripped on a straight, flat, smooth sidewalk and face planted. I bruised and scraped my left knee, hip, and elbow. I also managed to tip over the jogging stroller in the process, which scared me far more at the time. I got up, calmed Will down, and dropped him off at daycare, trying very hard not to think about how badly my knee hurt. A quarter mile from home I had to stop and walk the pain was so bad. There goes the marathon.

I couldn’t walk the rest of the day. The next day was a little better, but not much. I decided to make the trip down to Springfield, MO anyway so I could be there to crew for Melissa. And maybe my knee would feel better by race time. Who knows?

I gave myself a 50% chance of starting and a 25% chance of finishing. My knee didn’t really feel any better by Saturday morning, but maybe it would be better running than walking. I already paid the entry fee. If this was a running injury that would threaten future events I wouldn’t have considered racing. But since it was just bruises and cuts… I’ll go ahead and start, then drop out after a few miles if it doesn’t improve. It didn’t improve.

Photo courtesy of Fun Memories Photography

Pre-fall I figured I could easily cruise to a 3 hour finish, so I started around that pace. I kept a close eye on my heart rate to make sure I didn’t overdo it early. The pain in my knee was intense, but the rest of my body felt superb. I was still breathing through my nose comfortably at mile 7.

Photo courtesy of Fun Memories Photography

Photo courtesy of Fun Memories Photography

Until that point I had been slowly catching up to the leader, but then he picked up the pace and started to pull away. Ignoring common sense I went into race mode and sped up to catch him. I passed him around mile 11 and he stayed with me. I sped up to try to drop him, but he remained. I continued to lead until mile 18-19 or so when I needed him to share some of the wind breaking duties. So we took turns in front for a few miles.

It was raining hard now. I was anaerobic, but nowhere near my red zone. I started to have some serious muscle fatigue in my legs around this time and the pace which was previously downright easy for me was becoming more and more difficult to maintain. When I started to notice other pain in my body besides my knee I knew I was in trouble. I slowed. He slowed as well. I slowed more. He slowed slightly less. And that was all it took for him to pull away from me. I chased him the last 5-6 miles, while he gradually gained.

Weaving through half marathon finishers I eventually crossed the line in second place at 3:02, about 1½ minutes down on the winner. Despite averaging 6:58 per mile my last two miles were over 8:00. I’m a little disappointed at my spectacular collapse at the end of this race, but I’m not too concerned. I didn’t train for this race, I didn’t taper for this race, and I was in excruciating pain the entire time.

My time of 3:02 was good enough for a new marathon PR. Here’s a comparison of my splits compared to my previous PR. What I find most striking is my significantly faster pace at a consistently lower heart rate.

	Rockford Marathon 2009			Frisco Railroad Run 2013
	Time	Split	HR	Time	Split	HR
Mile 1	00:07:24	07:24	145	00:06:57	06:57	142
Mile 2	00:14:48	07:23	153	00:13:51	06:53	148
Mile 3	00:21:59	07:11	156	00:20:41	06:50	151
Mile 4	00:29:20	07:21	156	00:27:34	06:53	152
Mile 5	00:36:45	07:25	158	00:34:28	06:53	155
Mile 6	00:43:51	07:05	159	00:41:15	06:47	157
Mile 7	00:51:00	07:08	161	00:48:07	06:51	158
Mile 8	00:58:04	07:04	159	00:54:49	06:42	159
Mile 9	01:05:11	07:06	160	01:01:23	06:34	161
Mile 10	01:12:22	07:11	160	01:07:58	06:34	164
Mile 11	01:19:38	07:15	158	01:14:30	06:32	163
Mile 12	01:26:48	07:10	161	01:20:59	06:29	161
Mile 13	01:34:03	07:14	164	01:27:29	06:29	161
Mile 14	01:41:11	07:08	165	01:34:04	06:35	169
Mile 15	01:48:18	07:06	167	01:40:46	06:41	169
Mile 16	01:55:17	06:59	168	01:47:30	06:43	167
Mile 17	02:02:29	07:12	167	01:54:10	06:40	167
Mile 18	02:09:28	06:59	169	02:00:58	06:47	166
Mile 19	02:16:30	07:01	172	02:07:53	06:55	164
Mile 20	02:23:33	07:02	170	02:14:43	06:50	167
Mile 21	02:30:43	07:10	169	02:21:49	07:05	165
Mile 22	02:37:46	07:02	172	02:28:58	07:08	164
Mile 23	02:45:06	07:20	172	02:36:29	07:30	165
Mile 24	02:52:10	07:03	174	02:44:00	07:31	164
Mile 25	02:59:38	07:27	174	02:52:02	08:02	162
Mile 26	03:07:04	07:25	175	03:00:10	08:08	162

And now for a dark turn. Why did I bother racing so hard for so long through so much pain? I don’t really know for sure. It was dumb. But I was in a very bad place emotionally last week. I lost a dear friend to colon cancer. He was in his mid-thirties, the prime of life. I was thinking about him throughout race. I don’t recommend contemplating issues of life and death while running a marathon. But running is my coping mechanism. I was so distraught that all I wanted to do was run. And I was enduring so much emotional pain that all I wanted to do was suffer physically to try to mask that pain. I guess I just did what had to be done. I had to face my demons. I don’t know if I will ever get over the tragic loss of my friend, but at least now the healing process has begun.

Take Steps for Kids 5K

Just before the start of the Take Steps for Kids 5K on the Washington University campus on Saturday Melissa asked me, “So… what are you doing here?”

It was a fair question.

While a road 5K was right in my wheelhouse 10 years ago, I’ve been doing fewer and fewer as I advance in age. That’s not to say I’ve been doing worse at them. The two road 5K’s I ran last spring (including this one) were my two fastest ever. But that was last spring. My last four foot races have been:

• trail ½ marathon
• trail 50K
• trail ½ marathon
• trail 30 mile

Melissa rightly pointed out I was a bit out of my element. And as soon as we started I was inclined to agree with her. The first 200 meters were just about as fast as I’ve ever started. I was sucking wind. Sure it’s been a while since I’ve done this type of race, but I knew this was all wrong. Fortunately the leaders eased off a bit and I got back on terms.

We ran the first mile in 5:30, which was a bit slower than I expected. Just then a guy emerged from the back of the lead pack and forced the pace. I was the second person to follow the move.

Then came the stairs. Which sucked.

It took me a minute or so to recover. Around this time I think the bike who was leading our way took a wrong turn and cut a short distance off the course. Well, at least the entire lead pack went the same way. I passed the number two guy and made chase for the leader. I narrowed the gap a little bit, but it held steady at five seconds for the entire third mile. It was frustratingly close, almost like I could reach out and touch the leader, but I couldn’t close the gap. He looked back (normally a sign of weakness or lack of confidence) three times in the last half mile. I just couldn’t come up with those five seconds.

I finished second place, again. While my time of 16:37 is the fastest I’ve finished a 5K, it probably would have been a few seconds shy of my fastest time if we had run the full distance. But I’m quite pleased to have run faster than last year regardless.

Last year I had been doing speed work leading up to this race, while this year I’ve done none. One difference in my training is that I’ve been spending a lot of time doing easy runs just below my aerobic/lactate threshold. This threshold has been steadily increasing over the past 12-18 months, and (I believe) taking my anaerobic threshold with it. So not only can I now run 7:30 miles without building up lactic acid (i.e. all day), I also have a little bit more top end speed.

All by training slower (for my easy runs).

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(Thanks to Melissa for the cheering and photos)

(Forgive my pop song references. Will and I watched Wreck-It Ralph on Saturday and the song from the closing credits was stuck in my head the entire race.)

Quivering Quads Half Marathon

If you would have asked me a week ago how I thought I’d do at this weekend’s Quivering Quads Trail Half Marathon I would have responded: DNS. I was looking forward to this race for quite a while. Never having run the trail before, I wanted to go out there and take a peek at it before race day. Last weekend was the first chance I had.

The trail is only an hour away, but despite the fact that all the snow here in the city had melted days earlier, there was still a good 6″ of snow on the trail. Now, I don’t mind snow (I’ve run in plenty of it), but this snow was like nothing I’d ever experienced. It was layer after layer of alternating crunchy and mushy. It was almost hard enough to support my weight when I landed, but then I sunk. As my foot rolled forward I sunk more. As I pushed off I sunk a lot more. I had planned to run the entire 13.1 mile course at an easy 9-10 minute per mile pace. After working my ass off for 3 miles, struggling to maintain 15-16 minute pace, I gave up and walked back to my car. This was the worst, least enjoyable run I’ve had in years. And I wanted no part of the race the following weekend.

I vowed not to change my mind as the week went on. But after a few good runs during the week, and some lovely warm weather at the end of the week I was having second thoughts. It was looking more and more like the snow would all melt and the course would just be exceptionally muddy. I’ll take exceptionally muddy over the crap I ran through any day. Race is a go. Of course, on top of the huge quantity of melted snow, it also poured down rain the day before the race, and it was raining on the day of the race. Exceptionally muddy turned out to be an understatement.

It’s just a matter of time before we learn how to fly

The race starts in waves of 25 runners based on a self-estimated finishing time for a road half marathon. I haven’t run one in 9 years, so I made up a time (1:23) that was actually faster than my old PR, but that I knew I could do. It was probably a bit conservative. What was funny was that the race numbers were ordered based on seed time. I was #9, and I could estimate roughly how fast everyone else was based on their bib numbers relative to mine.

We began with a 1 mile out-and-back on a (muddy) fire road. Everyone was soaking wet from head to toe instantly. By the ½ mile turnaround I was in a group of four (#1, #2, #3, and me) who had a small gap. We turned onto the (muddy) trail and got down to business.

I’ve done plenty of trail races, and I’ve had a few stream crossings before, but never more than 2-3. This race had, I’m guessing, somewhere around 25. And given the massive snow melt in the past couple days, the water was frigid. Early on the water was ankle deep and the streams were narrow. As the race went on (and the rain continued to fall) the streams grew wider and deeper.

After 2 miles we hit an uphill section where #1 and #2 pulled away a bit. At the top I moved around #3 and caught back up to the leaders. Now we were a group of three. I felt good. I was running fast to stay in contact with #1 and #2, but I wasn’t killing myself. I wondered how much longer I could sustain the pace. On a few of the uphill sections #1 and #2 opened a small gap on me, but I easily caught back up with them on the downhill sections.

Around mile 4 we hit a long uphill section and #1 and #2 pulled away from me like I was standing still. So much for being in the lead group. At the top of the hill I took some water at the aid station (#1 and #2 both skipped it) and I started to refocus. Then came a long downhill. I remembered back a few miles to how I so easily closed relatively small gaps on the short downhill sections. I began to wonder if I could possibly close the now-large gap on a bigger downhill. There’s only one way to find out. I bombed the hill, and by the bottom I was back with the leaders. But for how long?

When can I see you again?

This became the status quo for the next 5 miles or so. The two leaders opened a gap on me on every uphill section. I held the gap steady on the flats. I bombed the downhills to catch back up. It was clear these guys were stronger runners than me, yet I gained time on the downhills and some of the more technical flat sections of the trail.

By mile 8 I could barely see the two leaders, their lead over 30 seconds by that point. I put all my effort into one last kamikaze descent to come within 10 meters of them at the bottom, just as we reached the widest and deepest stream crossing of the race. I heard them shouting a bit at the crossing, but I wasn’t sure why. Moments later I found myself balls-deep in frigid snow runoff and it was suddenly clear.

Oh oh, oh oh

I can’t imagine what they must have thought of this guy who they kept dropping, yet was right on their tail again. After seeing me on the other side of the stream I think #1 had finally had enough of me and he took off. He gained so much time on us so quickly that I seriously wondered whether he had taken a wrong turn.

I yo-yo’d behind #2 for a few more miles. With slightly more than 1 mile to race I once again came within 10 meters of him before hitting an uphill and losing contact again. Once we hit the (muddy) fire road (now rained on for hours longer and trod upon by 350 people) for the final out-and-back, I could barely move. I had no hope of catching back up. The gap went out to a minute in the last ½ mile. I finished in 1:46:09 for 3rd place.

The winner also won the race last year, though he was over 10 minutes slower this year due to the trail conditions. The second place finisher also finished second last year. I don’t know what their seed times were, but #2 has a half marathon PR of 1:12 (!). These guys are so far out of my league I’m still a bit stunned I was able to stay with them for as long as I did.

Then again, my last two first place finishes were sloppy, muddy trail runs in the rain.

Maybe this is becoming my thing.

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Update: Here’s an awesome video one of the runners made:

And here’s someone’s photos of the course during the race.

Life is way too short to take it slow

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