One of my goals this year (2015) was to run 100 kilometers in a 24-hour race. I fell a little short at Jackpot in February with 52.36 miles and again at North Coast 24 in September with 58.04 miles, though I set personal bests in both. That should have been incentive to train more and train harder, but instead I fell into a running funk. October had a grand total of 95 miles and November wasn't much better with 127 miles. Even accounting for a taper, which I really didn't need with the low mileage I was running, I had only 55+ miles for December going into the race. For this one I was going to need to rely on not losing too much fitness with the recent mileage and whatever mental discipline I could muster during the race.

Traveling to the race went smoothly until I was on Camelback Road. It was dark by this time and I couldn't figure out where to turn to get to the race check-in. Fortunately my brother not only lives in Phoenix, he works many of the sports events there and was parking that day at Camelback Ranch while working at the Cardinals game. I got detailed instructions from him and was finally able to check in, get my tent and sleeping bag, then met him for dinner. Pizza may not be the traditional pre-race dinner, but it was good. What I hadn't planned for was how much the cold nights would affect my sleeping. I tossed and turned all night, rarely getting more than an hour's solid sleep at a time, so getting up in time for the start Monday morning was no problem.

I was one of the earlier risers, so I wandered into the aid station tent to get warm. Erin was getting things started there while waiting for the morning group of volunteers and kindly got the coffee ready to help me warm up. It was a good place to hang out as runners gravitated there as they arrived. I got to meet quite a few then, some of whom I ran or walked with later during the races. In addition to all the 6-day runners starting that morning, the first groups of 24-hour, 48-hour, and 72-hour runners also started. As a result, for a brief day my name actually appeared near the top of the leader board for the 24-hour race, finishing the day in 15th place.

Aid station volunteers

Waiting for the start

Once the race started I tried to proceed on a regular run 3:00, walk 2:00 pattern. It didn't always work exactly because I sometimes passed the aid station during the middle of a run segment or at the end of a walk segment. When that happened I made small adjustments to the 3:00 and 2:00 periods to get back to a schedule where it was easy to know when to change gaits. I was moving very well and the first 20 miles flew by. Runners were passing at all different paces and every so often I might pass someone walking for a stretch when I was running. During these early miles I rarely ran or walked with anyone, but many runners made friendly and encouraging comments as we passed each other.

Out on the course

My memory is a little foggy here and I haven't seen any splits posted, but somewhere between about 22 and 25 miles I began to feel the effects of the lack of serious training mileage over the last few months. I happened to catch up to Bill Schultz about this time. His comment that I seemed to be breathing rather hard for this early in the race woke me up to my situation. Reasoning that since it was the running that created the most fatigue, I backed off to 2:00 of running instead of 3:00, but kept the 2:00 walking. The race was quickly unraveling for me now. I kept the new ratio for about an hour or so before I dropped to 1:00 running and 2:00 walking.

Friends on the course

In addition to the leg fatigue there was another issue looking ahead that didn't appear until around mile 35. Fifteen months earlier at North Coast 24 in 2014, I had pain across the top of my left knee cap that eventually forced me out of the race after 45 miles. The pain got so bad that I could not place any weight on that leg. Around mile 35 today I started to feel the same pain. I did not want to face another 10 weeks of PT during recovery to treat that again. I spent more time walking, but that was merely a delaying tactic. I passed 40 miles, then 45 miles taking 10-20 minute breaks every 2-3 laps trying to extend as much as possible the time I was on the course moving forward. About 52 miles into the race I was noticeably limping and decided that was as far as I could or wanted to push it to minimize any possible injury. I was also starting to have mild hallucinations like looking at the ground and seeing it undulating like water waves. I limped to my tent to try to sleep a bit, but kept my chip just in case my knee felt better after an extended break

I slept for about 5-6 hours. I remember it being abut 7:20 A.M. when I got up. My knee did feel a little better. What I should have done last night but wasn't thinking, I finally did this morning, i.e. went to the med tent. After some consultation, Wyatt, the EMT on duty, wrapped the knee to try to keep the knee cap tracking better. 100K was out of the question at this point, so I grabbed my camera to slowly walk a lap and photo document the course. Surprisingly that didn't take as long as I expected nor did my knee feel that sore with the support of the wrap, so I walked yet another lap. When I finished that one there wasn't enough time for another full lap, so I turned in my chip with a total of 55.64 miles for the 24-hours. While well short of my 100K goal, that was predicated on better training and no injuries, so I was pleased with the total.

On a guest lap with friends

Now with my racing over I had 5 more days ahead of me before flying home. Several days I spent exploring the area and sight seeing with my brother showing me around. However one of the reasons I had planned to stay the entire week was to absorb as much of the culture, knowledge, and experience as I could. I hung out at the warming tent listening to runners who had been at it for years spin yarns ans tales of the early days. When I wasn't there I'd be by the finish area cheering. I was free to run errands for the runners if needed. This involved everything from checking the leader board to driving a sick runner to the airport so he could get home earlier. In general I tried to make myself useful. I had no idea what that would eventually lead to. Since my sleeping habits were all askew because of staying up much of the night, then not being able to get a good night's sleep because of the cold, I found myself awake in the middle of the night. I walked over to the aid station to get a cup of coffee and discovered they were understaffed at that time with an insufficient number of volunteers. Handing out food and drink can't be all that difficult, so I offered to help out until the volunteers for the next shift arrived. From then until Sunday morning I was in and out helping as needed. This was fun. I'm warm. I could sit when needed. I got to meet almost all the runners. Some knew exactly what they wanted, grabbed it or asked for it, and were on their way. Others came in very indecisive, so we ran through what was available at the time to see what appealed to them. On occasion we took special requests and told them they would be ready the next lap. When there were enough volunteers there, I would excuse myself for short periods to run a guest lap with a friend. All in all I had the best of all worlds there, running, crewing, volunteering, and thoroughly enjoying myself the entire time.

Now this races wasn't named Across the Years without reason. The 6-day event was the primary race, though not the one with the most entrants, but there was at least one 24-hour, 48-hour, and 72-hour race in progress along with the 6-day when midnight rolled around on New Year's Eve. We had Champaign or sparkling cider for whoever wanted it as we counted down the seconds, then many of us took a celebratory Champaign Mile lap to bring in the new year. I'm disappointed that I probably won't be able to get back there for the next few years because the holiday season is our busiest time of the year at work, but for anyone who wants to run a fixed time race, this should be high on the list on ones to run.

Despite the lack of training you did a great job.  Sounds like a really enjoyable time, and a great opportunity to meet and talk with a lot of other experienced runners.

How is your knee feeling now?

Tough race for you, but loved the report. Sorry you had issues this time around but 100K is around the corner soon!

I am amazed that you did as well as you did with as little training as you put in.  A lifetime of fitness can pay off.  I hope you're able to get the knee fixed so you can reach your 100k goal soon.  It sounds like you had fun, even though you didn't achieve the goal this time around.

As usual - great race and an inspiring report!

Great  New Years Eve party.   Are you obligated to stay and volunteer for the next 5 days?

Looking forward to your 48 hour report next year.

Congratulations !!!

For chrissakes George, get a GPS already.

Actually I'm not sure that would have helped. I found the address listed but there was no entrance at the address, just a fence surrounding the property. I had to turn down the next road after that which also had a name not listed on my directions and come in from the back side.

Volunteering is cool, I can see why you did it. Nice pics. Tough race but still damned impressive and better than falling woefully short of your career best. Just gotta put together an above average (not elite level) training cycle to get over that hump.

I think finding these things is part of the adventure. lol