On Sunday, I participated in the Buffalo Philharmonic 6-hour Classic.  I was warned not to.  But, I reasoned that I would only jog, and that it would be nice to run *with* a bunch of people rather than truly racing, and that I would stop at the first sign of trouble.  And I think that I really just wanted to go for a long, easy run as therapy.

Apparently, people take these things seriously.  In addition to a bunch of familiar locals, several runners had traveled fair distance to go around and around and around a nice but unremarkable 3.25 mile paved path loop near the University of Buffalo.

The gear they had!  Tents and tables full of food and drinks with alchemical labels like "d-ribose.  ROB" and lots of Hammer Nutrition and bags full of extra clothes and socks and shoes. As people set up prior to the start,  I felt like a rookie and hovered awkwardly over my two simple grocery bags of Powerade, fruit, a muffin, and some caffeinated water.  Soon enough, however, some runners from my recently-joined club showed up, so I threw my stuff under their pop-up and chatted for a while, since a warmup run would be sort of superfluous. (Bloody Nipples Athletic Club), BNAC for short.

I wore a clever disguise.  I suggested that I'd only jog for a little bit.  No one was buying it, and more than one local using the path but not running the race called out "nice job, Jay!".  Shit.  Perhaps I was not so Guy Incognito as desired.

Early on, everyone was happy.  Lots of talking and enjoying good weather.  Just a nice easy run in the park.

I mentioned to a friend that there was a lot of unsustainable pace going on.  He replied that he'd try to shoot for 9:00 pace for the duration to hit 40 miles and earn a "gold" medal.  Well heck, I'd try that too I guess.  He also mentioned that I should change socks every 10 miles to avoid hot spots or blisters, and in typical fashion, I thanked him for the good advice and proceeded to run in the same socks all day.

As time went on, the number of runners continued to drop, and those that were still plugging away became a bit more grim.  I still had great support at every pass of the "tent village", with friends offering up kind words, drinks, electrolyte pills, etc.  I held on to the pep talk but stuck to the fuel I had brought and was familiar with.  I felt physically good, still just on an extended jog, but I knew I was getting mentally weird when I started counting laps by making a mental grid of 3 punch cards with four light bulbs on each, and lighting up a bulb upon lap completion, because I couldn't keep focused on conventional numbers.

A bicyclist was overhead telling his partner about those funny "0.0" stickers, and I yelled that I'd never wear one.  Two of my local marathon peers that had been at Erie randomly went by and gave me a "good job."  Huge, huge boost.  I booed a guy walking in a Flyers jersey, and kept up with positive comments for competitors.  Some nods, some grimaces, some completely ignored me every. single. time.  Somewhere long after 26.2 had been achieved,  with the field thinned and spread out, a woman roughly my age went past me looking very strong.  I gave her a heartfelt "great job" and a broad grin, and although we never seemed to be at the same pace, from there on out, every time we leapfrogged or passed on the out and back sections it was big smiles and brief words of encouragement.  Not being alone is huge, and I think I know now why serious ultra runners use pacers.

4 hours had passed, 5 neared.  I was on my 3rd bottle of Powerade and took a few minute break to chat with BNAC friends at the shelter, more to break the monotony than out of any physical distress.  It had gotten warm and windy.  Charlie, the friend who had wanted to hit 40 was clearly not doing as well as he wanted, but somewhere on my lap 11, he mentioned that I had time to hit 40.  (If you were on a partial lap when 6 hours expired, the timers would pro-rate your distance based on your split for that 3.25 mile segment as long as you finished it.)  It would be close.  I couldn't jog 12.  So I picked up the pace, skipped a break at the tent village, and started to actually run.  The silly hat came off.  12 laps done, 39 miles, something like 10 minutes to go.  I yelled to Charlie that it was the bell lap and I had to kick.  He looked at me like he wanted to die and like I was insane.

Pace splits for each 3.25 mile loop:

01 - 8:10

02 - 8:20

03 - 8:23

04 - 8:52

05 - 9:24

06 - 9:16

07 - 9:16

08 - 9:02

09 - 9:24

10 - 9:59

11 - 9:24

12 - 7:47

13 - 7:20

So, 40.58 got counted, I got  a loaf of cinnamon bread, and a taste of what ultras are about.  Now for a nice taper with hopefully most of the madness taken out by doing this ahead of it  .

Great job Jay! I'm pretty sure I saw that hat in the Runners World Summer Gear Review issue.

How the hell did you have so much speed at the end? That is just ridiculous. Pretty amazing for a "rookie"; imagine what you could've done with a shot of d-ribose and a few sock changes!

Nice jog Jay, and lovely RR

You're crazy...crazy awesome.

That's awesome! Congrats on the 40+ miles.

Those timed, multi-loop ultras generally have a very different vibe than the trail ultras. Like you said, people take them very seriously.

No picture of the gold medal though?

Awesome job, Jay.  Love your comment about the socks: I thank him and then proceeded to run on the same socks all day, LOL.

I love ultras.  The environment, the people, it's all so different.

Holy cannoli!!   This is incredible, Jay!   What a Pink-mazing run!  Huge congrats!    So.....   this should make that little 26.2 you've got coming up feel like a walk in the park, right?

You're crazy cute with that hat on. 

I want to admonish you for pulling that stunt so close to Boston, but I can't. You have runner's insanity, and I know there is nothing you can do about it.:-) You had quite an impressive day for a newbie ultra runner! You're one hell of a runner, Jay.