Bhearn Call out.... (Read 320 times)

Thanks Facebook!

While you were sleeping, Bob Hearn and Courtney Dauwalter broke their American AG records (50-54 and 30-34, respectively) for the 200K! 🇱🇷🇱🇷

This morning, Yvonne Naughton completed 200K to secure her place on the Irish National Team! 🇮🇪

And Courtney Dauwalter JUST broke the American AG record for 24 hours.

You still have time to make it down to the Riverbank track to see these incredible athletes do their stuff before the award ceremony at 9am. Go runners, go!

Is that the actual Ireland team or Americans playing at being Irish?

That's going to be deleted isn't it? I'm right, any deletion is wrong.

Stick to beer love, the hard stuff makes you angry.

Congrats on your race. I think 132 miles is pretty damn cool, congrats to your friend as well.

Thanks. My race went very well… until it didn’t. I was sitting in the #4 spot on the national team, with 149.24 miles, trying to improve that. They take the top 6. So I needed to run over 150, to defend my position against all the other guys trying to qualify before the window ends on 4/2.

Going into Riverbank, I had a persistent issue at 24-hour where I crash 8-9 hours in, walk several laps, then recover and stay strong for the rest of the race. I've been working with a sports nutritionist, and finally fixed that this time. Everything was PERFECT, effortless, though 100M. I was planning to speed up at 16 hours, then cut out the walk breaks at 20, depending on how I felt.

I hit incidental PRs at 100K, 12 hr, 100M (15:55 -> 15:30), and 200K (19:44 -> 19:37), the latter also improving my 50+ AR. Then... it just got too hard. I walked a few laps at 16 hours, trying to get a reset so I could keep running 2:15 - 2:20 laps comfortably and still hit 152ish. Held on through 200K. Then it got worse. The thing I don’t understand is, my body felt GREAT. I was running well within myself, feeling pretty confident, at 100 miles, that 154-155 was going to happen. I always think of 24-hour performance as ultimately being limited by cumulative muscle damage. But this time it was purely mental. I was very tired, and could not focus, and really, really did not want to be out there for the last several hours. At 20 hours or so I took a gel from the aid station for an extra sugar hit... then puked about a dozen times (remind me to stay away from Huma lemon gels). I hit every trash can on the track. I NEVER puke. And avoiding the mere possibility of GI issues is really what my low-carb training and low-calorie, body-fat-fueled racing are all about. I did up my calorie intake this time, from 100 / hour to 150. But that's still much less than the 300 or so most ultrarunners go for. After all the puking and walking, I could no longer hit 150 miles (I think... normally I am great at pacing math, but my brain was not working), and with all the extra walking I was doing finally my body was really hurting. So the last few hours were pretty half-hearted. I finished at 144.4 (about the same as at Desert Solstice 11 weeks ago, though it played out completely differently).

I'm kind of in a bad place emotionally after this. I just CAN NOT get this damn thing right. It's been my primary running goal for 2 1/2 years to make the team. I've put all of my running energy and focus into it, taking a lot away from other parts of my life. And my last three attempts have been pointless (as well as really, really hard). It's out of my hands now. I'll have to wait and see what happens. Rich Riopel bumped me from #4 to #5 with his 152, and a lot of heavy hitters are going to take their final shots in the next few weeks.

Bob, Sorry that it didn't go as desired. Hopefully you'll make the team and 'get it right'.

I always enjoy your post race analysis. Good luck

Prolly hormones, slick. It'll pass in a day or two.