When I typed that into TP.com, the program read it as 28 mins, lol.
A race like this definitely needs a great race report, but instead of a rambling dialog of 29 hours of racing, I'm trying a different approach. Instead I'll do a '100 things about my race' type of report. This will keep me focused and hopefully make it less a rambling, paragraph-laden read. I'll break the report into topics and file my points under them to put things in a bit of order.
I. Common questions and comments.
1. WHY?! Um... why not?
2. Because I didn't think I could. This follows #1-1. I love a challenge, don't you? This was my way of finding out. When I started running in 2003, I didn't think I could do a 10K. When I registered for this, I had similar uncertainties. On about a 10-fold scale!
3. I hate to drive that far, too. That's why I decided to run it. OK, to be honest, I walked too. In fact, it turns out you walk quite of bit at my level of experience and pace.
4. It kept me going. Training for this race kept me going through what can best be described as "personal upheaval". I kept sleeping, waking up, eating, planning, and anticipating. And this race goal seemed way harder than my other problems. At least at the time.
5. Yes, it was painful. But that doesn't mean it hurts. A wonderful line about endurance training and racing from Jef Mallet's Triathlon book.
6. On the trail, behind a tree, in a Porta John. I pee'd wherever I needed to. At least I wasn't like the guy I met around mile 13 who was pee'ing while running!
7. Eat food. Not too much. Mostly
8. No, I didn't sleep. I wanted to finish under 30 hours! No nappin!
9. Did your feet hurt? I'm sure they did, but I was able to convince myself that I didn't have feet. Or ankles, or knees,...well I wasn't so successful on the knees. They HURT!
10. No it wasn't 'comfortable', and that's the point. This wasn't a vacation or pleasure hike. It probably doesn't sound fun to you until you are ready to accept getting uncomfortable. Get out of your cozy comfort zone and challenge yourself!
II. Training and Preparations.
1. Lonely long runs. Due to (training partner) Tim's injury and schedule conflicts, I did all of my 30 milers alone. I don't mind running alone, but what I do mind is when I get inside my own head and can't leave it. This is especially hard when you have so much on your mind (refer to 1-4). So for the first time ever, I started listening to podcasts. I found 10 Junk Miles, Pro You, America's Test Kitchen, SCD Lifestyle, Revolution Health Radio, trail running, and more. An hour would fly by with these voices in my head. And when I didn't have the podcast, I thought I'd go insane but to my surprise -- I enjoyed the silence!
2. Won't Back Down. My back injury was a huge wildcard for my race. Starting in December, continuing into March when it was finally diagnosed, then April and May of therapy for tight muscles, kyphosis, things out of place and twisted...what a mess. Many doubted it would be a good idea to race, I pushed that aside and trusted the docs who said I could. Besides, doubt only fuels me.
3. Peak Mileage. My peak mileage was only 70 miles a week, and that was for only 3 weeks. That sounds like a lot! But it really wasn't and left me worried it wasn't sufficient.
4. Only one-third?! And the reason I didn't think the peak mileage was sufficient was because at the end of the 30 miler training runs I was dead. It was like a switch turned off around mile 28. I got worried that I'd be like a quarter horse in a half mile race -- dead at the quarter mile line. Really worried!
5. One mile at a time. So I asked Tim about this, he said just take it one mile at a time. And when you're racing, you're thinking about other runners, meeting people, the new landscapes, and everything else. Not the mileage. And you know what, he was right! One mile at a time. Good life advice, too.
6. Potowatomi 30 Mile fun run. In mid-April I did the Poto 30M as a prep race. It started at 8pm so it doubled as a long run and night run. Thank you Dad for the batteries that saved my race, and led me to a 3rd overall and 1st female finish! Huge confidence boost from this race.
7. Run. Run. Walk. Run. Lynne had this in one of her notes. Great advice, I followed it in the race but didn't really train for it! So next time, and there WILL be a next time, I'll schedule some 3-4 hours power walk/hikes to prepare more for this. Walking uses different muscles and requires a different type of self control. Which means I probably won't do it in training!
8. Plan of attack. Before the race, I had spreadsheets and notes and scribbles about nutrition. I had a set nutrition schedule (see below) and knew about how much I'd need to bring. It was fun to plan, but scary to realize just how much SUGAR I planned on eating.
9. Running shoes, what else do you need? It seemed I had a LOT of bags packed for this. Three pairs of running shoes (trail, back up trail, road), clothes and back-up clothes, layers for the overnight, layers for the rain, drop boxes, food, coolers, whew! And that didn't include personal items, which was mainly yoga-like post race clothing.
10. 1415 miles in 259 hours. That's my tally for the the training and racing for this race. It's not even half way through the year! And don't forget the 390 miles of bike commuting, 76 miles of regular biking (mostly trainer), and 393 miles of dog walking. I should get my dog into endurance events.
III. Travel and the Race
1. Where, When, Weather. Southeast Wisconsin on the famous trail systems that follow the glacial ridges formed during the glacial recession. Early June turned out to be a perfect time for this distance. My long runs weren't in the sweltering heat, there was no freeze for the overnight. In fact, the race weather might have been too perfect. Mid-high 70's under partly cloudy skies, low-mid 50's overnight, light rain as the sun came up, then a sunny finish line.
2. 7-24-24-7-7-12-12-7. It helped mentally to break this distance into segments. Mostly we just ran aid station to aid station. Initially I broke it up into 31.6+31.6+39 miles, that seemed reasonable. But the night before the race I learned a different break down from my neighbor Ben. We run 7, then turn right. Run 24 miles then turn around, repeat the 24 and repeat the 7. That's 100K. Turn around, run the 7, then turn left to run 12 miles. Turn around repeat the 12 and the 7 one last time. We did that 7 mile segment 4 times, for 28 miles! No wonder it felt so long (3-4 and 8-6 below).
3. There and back again. And again. So this meant the course was two out-n-backs, one 63 miles long and the next one 38 miles. Which is fine on a trail because it all looks different going the other direction. And it helped to have a heads-up on the return trip. Knowing an upcoming section was runnable or hilly helped us plan ahead.
4. Silent Killers. That first 7 miles was a ski trail, up and down and up and down, these short pointless hills described at silent killers. I wouldn't call them silent, are these the hills the race packet referred to? They were OK the first three times...but I swear someone added extra hills for the 4th pass!
5. Meadows. The most debilitating part of the course was said to be the meadows, a couple miles of rolling grassy fields between 15 and 30. They were lovely! But racers from prior years described heat and humidity as their downfall in this section. Full sun, wet and soggy ground (we kept dry with numerous wooden bridges) characterized this area. But it was a great change of scenery, since we didn't have to deal with much heat and had light winds to cool us off.
6. Figuring out Scuppernong. I didn't understand the 31 mile turn-around until I ran it. I thought we had a lollipop loop at the end. Nope! A pure out-n-back. So I'm running along, looking for the loop, wondering why I kept seeing runners coming back towards me. Turns out the race course map just looks like a loop since the turn-around is so close to a previous segment of trail. This amused me for that 5 miles while I was wondering what the heck was going on.
7. The dreaded 100K mark. Another hallmark of the race was the fact that after 100K you cross the finish line to hit your checkpoint, and you are given the option of dropping to the 100K distance. They give you a medal (the Disc of Shame, we called it) and you're done with your day. In training, I mentally prepared for this, but in reality it never crossed my mind to drop down. Not even a second.
8. Back to the Barn. The Rice Lake turn-around at mile 81.9 was a great benchmark. Now every step literally brought us closer to home. When I hit this point, I was relieved and confident of a finish. Not that I wasn't confident before that, but you know what I mean.
9. Who added these hills?! Ooooooh that last 7 miles AGAIN! It's full not only of hills but also turns, so you couldn't see what was coming up until you crested the hill or rounded the turn. I swear someone added hills...I swear it. This was the loooooongest part of the race.
10. Kettle-Kettle-Kettle. Our finisher award is a small kettle (See 9-10 image). In the last mile, I started chanting "Kettle-Kettle...". That's all I wanted. After crossing the line, I was still chanting it until they finally handed me my kettle :)
IV. Nutrition
1. What I ate. Every 40 mins a shot of EFS, 1/3rd a powerbar, once out of EFS I switched to gels. I grabbed Jelly Beans at aid stations, only a few but they added up. Ginger chews for something fresh. And after the 100K mark the rice crackers. I tried a potato at Emma Carlin, but that was it.
2. What I shouldn't have eaten? Something caused gas in my tummy, either the chews or the beans? These were a different brand of jelly bean than I trained with and the ingredients included modified corn starch, palm kernel oil, caranuba wax, food dyes, beeswax, soy protein, soy lecithin. I should have researched this before eating them. Along with the tapioca starch in the ginger chews, it's no wonder I started reacting to something. More on this later.
3. What I wish I could have eaten. OMG those rice crackers were heaven. Salt. Crunch. Solid. There were about 20 crackers per bag and I could just slowly munch through them while running. Really enjoyed those.
4. Gas! Somewhere around mile 30 my gut started to make noise, to anyone else it might have sounded like my Camelbak sloshing. But I knew from experience that it was my large intestine bouncing and sloshing. At first I didn't know if it was water or gas, but after some time I figured gas. Although that didn't diminish my fear of having the dreaded big D! Because of this, I spend lots of time at aid stations trying to move that out. For some reason, I wasn't passing gas while running. This was OK for me in training. I could barely run with this, more running meant more cramping. It wasn't until the 81.9 mile Rice Lake turn-around that I managed to get rid of it, and I was pain-free the rest of the run. And when I passed it in the porta-john, all the stalls next to me had similar noises going on!! LOL!! So I'm not sure if the foods specifically caused this for me, or if it would have happened anyway?
5. Heavy Camelbak. Maria and Jim refilled my bak at the aid stations (BLESS THEM!!) and Maria often pointed out that the bag seemed too heavy, like I wasn't drinking enough. Thanks to her prompting and reminding, I started drinking more and more and more. Not just a few sips every few minutes, but substantial swallows. This really helped me, I needed the advice and the water.
6. Packed but didn't eat. Alongside all the extra foods, I packed the rice baby food. Didn't touch any of it in race. Also I skipped a couple of the powerbars.
7. Potatoes! I thought steamed potatoes would be awesome, but I passed them up at all but one aid station. The first one I grabbed looked like a gnocchi, but the aid station volunteer said otherwise. GROSS like a water filled sac of blech. I learned later it was a canned potato. But even the boiled ones didn't appeal.
8. Pre Race. My usual of 3 poached eggs, coffee, water. I skipped the powerbar. The day before the race, I just focused on easily digestible carbs like rice and potatoes.
9. Post Race. Whatever looked good. I had my rice ball treats and amaranth, more sweet solids. I hated to eat more sugar, but that's what I had on hand. A banana, a few oranges (so refreshing!).
10. Next time: Surprisingly I kinda nailed it here, so same plan of every 40 mins and no other changes, except more rice crackers.
V. Crew, Gear, Drop Bags
1. It takes a family. Someone in the STL group said this as I sat at a finish line picnic table. It's a great statement that sums up what it can take to get a runner across the line. Sure, many runners go without a crew, but having one is a huge bonus and might could make or break your day.
2. I tore my shoes! After cleaning the mud and horse sh!t off the Cascadia's on my last long run in Greensfelder, I noticed that both shoes had torn in the mesh section where to shoe bends at my toes. WHAT?! My trusty beloved Cascadia model was no longer on the market, Brooks moved up to the model 10 a long time ago. I stopped by Big River, picked up a pair of orange (ew...) 10's, but never took them out of the box. They didn't feel right, and I felt an odd unsubstantiated form of trust with my current 9's. So I took a black marker and marked the end of the tear, ran some more, watched for progression of the hole. The tears didn't get any bigger, so the 9's made it to Kettle! And the 10's were returned to the running store.
3. Friends in STL. The week before the race I asked friends and family for notes to put in my drop boxes. I hoped to get one note per box, something I can look forward to as I came into each drop bag station every 15 miles. To my surprise, everyone put together multiple notes! All different types -- jokes, songs, puzzles, quotes, pictures, memes, oh my, it was WONDERFUL. Can't complain about having to prepare an extra zip lock baggie in each drop bag to contain the 5-10 notes I had for each one! These worked for me, I couldn't do them in the dark or the rain, but I had so much fun with them.
4. Inspiration boxes. What I did with the meme pictures was tape them into the shoe boxes I used for drop bag organization. It looked like a high school locker! The quotes went on the outside of the box, when I'll pull a box out, that's the first thing I'd see. I was like plugging in to my group to recharge the mind.
5. No Garmin. My 310 wouldn't make the full race on its battery, so my initial plan was to put it on just for the night section. I knew from Redman 2012 and Beach2Battleship 2014 that I'd be just as happy without it as I couldn't watch the tenths of miles drag by when I got tired, so my only loss was the nutrition alarms. I used the alarm in training, but did great in Kettle as I just seemed to "know" when my 40 mins were up without looking.
6. No tutu lights. I was soooooo looking forward to tutu lights for the night section. I bought lights online, but broke the super thin wire during installation. I bought a second set the next day, but they were broke out of the box. Tutu lights just weren't meant to be, so I used $1 glow sticks from the Dollar Store. They didn't work all that great either, but I had my fun either way.
7. Compression socks. I always used my compression socks in training, but since I never trained over 33 miles this was a new experience with them. During the race, my calves just under and behind my knees started to ache. This was also a new experience. Hmmmm...can you believe it took another day or two after the race to figure out that the socks caused the ache!? Duh! So I'm not sure what to do here, the socks really help my feet from swelling, which is another source of pain for me.
8. Garbage bags for drop bags. Gotta get dedicated drop boxes. With rain in the forecast, I used 13 gallon white garbage bags to hold my shoe boxes. Lookie at the Rookie!
9. Jessica and Paul. Many thank you's to J and P who gave me a ride to my parent's home after the race. I tried to talk to the them and the kids during the ride, but I just wasn't awake enough. But I looked forward to seeing them all morning and it did brighten my post-race mood to have them with me.
10. Dad's laugh. And then dad's laugh as I crawled out of J and P's vehicle. My knees didn't want to bend, I didn't want to move, and all dad could do was bust out laughing. I joined him :)
VI. Tim and Maria
1. Caramel Compulsion. T and M picked me up at the family bakery to take me to Wisconsin. Thank you! While there, Maria got a caramel compulsion cupcake. Later at a rest stop, she ate it and showed me how to peel/flip/smoosh a cupcake to eat while driving. Except she didn't know if was filled! The car smelled wonderfully caramelly :) And later in the weekend when I ate a caramel macchiato gu gel, I thought back to this.
2. Buzzcut Dandelion. Tim's trail name. The dandelion comes from the gazelle/lion meme I saw in Runner's World a few weeks ago, combined with the bright yellow shirt he favors running in. I blamed the shirt on our last training run for a bee hitting him in the forehead. To a bug he looks like a dandelion. The 'buzzcut' was his addition. I liked it for the buzz ;) We didn't come up with a final name for me, although some options tossed out were ToothGrinder StinkyFeet, because he thought I had said I used to grind me teeth (I didn't) and because after a Greensfelder run my trail shoes were horse-poopy.
3. Maria's Trail Name. We also worked on a trail name for Maria, but don't think we finalized that either. This was entertainment for the first 15 or so miles of the run. Some ideas included her bright pink clothes (so we could find her at aid stations) and her sunshine-like smile.
4. Questions For Maria. Another source of entertainment was coming up with a list of things to ask Maria when we saw here. Stuff like... when was the God Loki prominent in Norse culture. We never did ask!
5. Terry Prachet. Somewhere around mile 45-50, Tim started telling me about Terry Prachet books, about a fictional universe on a large disc, 4 elephants, and a turtle. After that many hours running, this was fun to think about! I wanted to know, who fed the elephants. (Ask Maria!?)
6. Breakfast Burrito. At some point we were told that an aid station later in the run would have breakfast burritos. This motivated Tim to keep going, to get his burrito. Never did see them.
7. Phlox. Phlox were in bloom. Pretty purple and lavender colored flowers lined some sections of trail. At one mile I plucked one and stuck in in my visor. I pointed out the name to Tim, it was something to talk about, and after that every flower we passed he called a phlox! Even the little fabric/plastic/rainbow/spinny lawn decorations used to mark an aid station. LOL.
8. The Look. The last 20 miles I was trailing Tim. No pun intended about 'trailing'. Ever so patiently he would pause for me to catch up, and this pause included a "look", a sort of evaluation of how I'm doing, combined with a "come on" and "let's go".
9. (2+2)/2=? Tim asked this question somewhere around mile ... 60? I answered it I think around mile 85.
10. Let's run the last mile. When Tim said that around mile 90, I couldn't see myself running at all by that point. But you know what? A few of those looks, a few cowbells off in the distance, and the motivation of kettle-kettle-kettle and I ran most of the last mile!
VII. People I Met
1. SLUGS. I knew other STL and SLUG runners would be there, but I didn't know we'd have a crowd of 15-17 runners, pacers, and family. WOW! Reminded me of our big triathlon group races with familiar faces, support, and cheering. And with three of them named "Tim", names were easier to remember ;)
2. Cleveland. Met this guy in the meadows around mile 40-45. He was passing us, and we chatted. Turns out this was his 37th 100 miler, he runs something like 6-8 a year, he walked the first 10 miles of this race (and still caught and passed us), likes O'Douls and cheeseburgers from his crew at aid stations, and said he spends maybe 60% of the race walking. I gotta learn to walk faster.
3. Asian Couple. We leapfrogged for awhile then eventually passed a youngish middle aged Asian couple in matching gear and clothing. It was kinda cute. We never talked to them, I think they had headphones? And when I passed the sign for the Stone Elephant (a scenic view type of thing on an off-shoot trail) I followed the arrow on the sign to see what I could and instead I saw him peeing on the trail!!
4. Emory? This wasn't his name, and I never did figure it out. He was this super tall guy with hiking poles who walked as fast a my jog. We met him in the outbound meadow section. He was an Iraq medic and ate MRE's during the race. Very fun to talk to, he's done lots of midwest ultras including OT100. Tim thinks I'm confusing MRE with his name to get Emory. Possibly!
5. Poto Runners. The shirt for Potawatomi this year was a bright lime green, so they were easy to spot. And there were a LOT of them! I made a point to chat with as many as possible, figuring they were Illinois-folk like I was. Many were, so I made a few friends on that. Tim must get tired of hearing me talk about Poto.
6. Ben and Amber. My neighbors a few houses away. I saw the "100" sticker on the car, asked about it once when I met them walking our dogs, and mentioned Kettle to them. They signed up! We only got to run together once, but it was great having more friends out there. They are OT100 veterans, so a warm 100 had be quite the change for them. Both had great races, next they have MT100.
7. Jim. A SLUG who I met at this race, he was pacing someone, his wife? Not sure. But he was with Maria most of the day and shared advice, asked the right questions, and kept me smart at aid stations. He also chatted after the race, more tips and support. Thank you!! He was a great source of info, hope I can return the favor to him or another new runner someday.
8. Chicked by a tutu. In the last 5 miles, we were passed by a really rough looking guy and his pacer. This guy didn't looked like he was going to make it, yet he still passed me. Humph. But Tim heard that part of his motivation was that he didn't want to be chicked by someone in a tutu! Hey, your welcome!
9. Blue shirt guy. At the last aid station with 5 miles to go, while refilling and refueling and peeing, blue shirt guy passed us in the tents and got ahead of us. We could see him slowly making gains on us in the Nordic hills, every so slowly pulling ahead and it highlighted to me just how slow I was going. Ugh.
10. Eavesdropping. And now for all those runners that I'd run briefly with, either passing or being passed, as I made the way along the trail. A guy who was singing. Guy named Pat who'd run Quivering Quads. A women who was only a 2 out of 5 on the "how ya doing" scale until I told her a joke. So many people I met, no names and often no faces, but so much fun!
VIII. Moments to Remember
1. Flamingos. In the first 15 miles, as we passed through tree tunnel after beautiful tree tunnel, I wondered aloud if we would see any wildlife. Deer, fox, squirrel, rabbit...? Instead we saw pink flamingos, used to mark coming into an aid station. Wildlife!
2. Being serenaded by Ryan. Around miles 15-25, while Tim was ahead of me, I ran just ahead of a small group, one of whom had a great singing voice. He sang Meatloaf's I Would Do Anything For Love (with the alternating male and female voices, too!) and a song called No Children by Mountain Goat. More on that later.
3. BOOM! One of my favorite phrases, I threw my arms up and yelled BOOM! each time I crossed a timing mat for an aid station.
4. Give me a 3! To the woman who was only a 2 out of 5, I told her a joke from Lynne's note about "what does a sick bird need? A Tweet-ment!" and got her to a 3. Took some ribbing on my part, geeze some people just don't want to be happy. But I used this joke on a few people to cheer them up. Tim probably got tired of that too, lol!
5. !MOOB At the second to last aid station going into Scuppernong (or however you spell it) you come in and go back out on the same timing mat, whereas other aid stations you just crossed it coming in. So what do you yell when you're going over a mat in the other direction? !MOOB
6. 4-3-2-1 signs. The last 5 miles were the only ones marked by mileage signs. These were small, white cards with just a number. They happily ticked down the miles and I looked forward to each one. However on the inbound to the finish line they took forever and were not happily ticking down. It was as if there was a distance distortion, as if there were multiple miles between those stupid signs.
7. Good morning! After the clock struck midnight, somewhere after mile 70 or so, we started saying Good Morning to the runners coming by us. Some seemed surprised, as if they didn't realize the time. As the sun came up, it was such a cheerful thing to say and hear.
8. Moon rise. After the Rice Lake turn around at mile 81.9, I caught the moon for the first time. Peaking out from behind the rain clouds in a foggy glow.
9. Whisper of rain. A light rain started to fall around mile 83 or so, a quiet, calm rain for the 1-2 hours or so it fell. I took every moment I could to hear the whisper in the trees. :)
10. The finish line. Ah, the best moment to remember. We could hear the cowbells in the distance, but the trail was so twisty turny that the actual arch couldn't be seen until the last moments. We could hear cars along the highway, see cars in the parking lot, and finally the blue arch! Our friends were there cheering us! Some of the tackled Tim as he came by and yelled for me to GO, but I was already going the best I had. Once across the line, friends surrounded us, congratulated us, and to my surprise I was able to stand and hold a conversation. And I kept saying kettle-kettle-kettle until a volunteer handed one to me. My kettle medal!
IX. Media section.
1. Can you promise that I will come back? No, and if you do, You Will Not Be The Same.
2. St Louis Group Pre-Race Picture.
3. Race theme song. Played this off the iPhone in the hotel pre-race: Tom Petty's Running Down a Dream.
4. Guy named Ryan sang this on the way to Emma Carlin: Meatloaf's I Would Do Anything For Love. And he did a damned good job!
5. Ryan also sang this: Mountain Goats No Children. Got a great laugh out of this one, he described it as the best divorce song.
6. A disc, 4 elephants, and a turtle
.
7. Off On The Road To Morocco. Tim and I were trying to sing this around mile 50 or 60 something. By trying, I mean we couldn't come up with the lyrics!
8. Good Morning! Also trying to sing this as midnight approached.
9. Finish Line!
10. Kettle-Kettle-Kettle!!
X. Post-Race, How I Changed, What I Learned
1. Injury report. To my surprise, the worst of my injuries were locked up knees that wouldn't bend until Tuesday. Getting out of bed to pee Sunday night was hilariously pained. Minor blistering on the toes, dry chafed skin under my gaiters, and sore calves from the recovery socks. No falls, major ankle twists, cuts, bleeding, nothing.
2. "You will not be the same". As said by Gandalf from The Hobbit. Oh, and the truth there! I knew this would be a changing experience -- from the training to racing to finishing. Now when I have a 4 miler and I'm so tired I chide myself with "you've done 100 of these, you can do 4". Ugh.
3. Head wanted to run. At many points in the last sections, my head wanted to run so badly. Mentally I was OK to run, buy physically it just wasn't there. I'd be back to a walk in a few short steps. I kept trying, and kept trying to figure out where the problem was. Fueling? Pain? True fatigue? Regardless, it was a frustrating feeling.
4. Time distortion. Time passed so strangely for this race. Before the race, I was so concerned about what I'd do and think and handle running for that long, when I'd only done 30-35 milers as my long runs. But to my surprise, even though I looked at my watch to keep an eye on the 40 minute nutrition timing, I never really knew what time it was. 10am, noon, 4pm, all lost on me. Time just passed on it's own, quickly for the most part. But at the 100K turn around, I noted the 16 hours it took to get there (it was my first every 100K), and after that time really slowed down at some points. Probably because we were walking much more and the aid stations became further apart in time for that. But 28 hours and 53 minutes just went by in a flash!
5. Running Down A Dream. My race theme song. Stuck in my head for the first 15 miles.
6. One mile at a time. This was how Tim suggested dealing with the 100 miles. Don't think about all 100 at once. Just run the one you're in. Great life advice! Now when tackling a tough chore or challenge, I don't focus on being done, but rather the process of doing it. Instead of looking for the peak of the mountain, just take it step at a time.
7. Sub-29 and regrets. When asked how long the race would take, I said 25-29 hours. I really had no idea. The usual cut-off for this race is 30 hours, but this year for the 20th anniversary it was changed to 32 hours. But I wanted to finish under the usual 30. As we passed into the last 5 miles, my mental math was getting messy and I became concerned about my ability to finish sub-29 like Tim was shooting for. So every time I walked, every step I tried to run but couldn't, just ate at me. Maybe this is why my head wanted to run so bad. This sub-29 carrot dangling so close as we approached the line. And as painful as it was those last miles, I managed to run. Or jog. Or shuffle. (But we never trudged!). Because I knew that if I missed the sub-29 hour mark, I'd regret every walked step I took in those last miles. Turned out to be a powerful motivator.
8. It's mostly mental. See above! I was told that 100 milers are mostly mental. It's true. As much as I hurt, as tired as I was, as badly as I wanted to sleep, I couldn't even bring myself to think about sitting or stopping or resting. My head pushed through all the physical limits and brought me to the line.
9. I can run the last mile. I didn't think I could, but I did. I surprised myself, I was so happy with that feeling, and I learned...
10. I can do anything. And wow does that make me hard to live with! My head likes to point out "you can do this, you've run 100 miles". But yes -- me, you, anybody, can do anything.
X.6 What's Next?!
Believe it or not, I want to do another! But in the weeks after the race, when I'd call up a race page and see the 100 mile course map, my stomach would turn a bit! And my fatigue even now at almost 3 weeks out is still a hindrance. I'm still recovering, but also itching to sign up for more!
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