Ultra Runners

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Croatan 24 Race Report. 100 Mile finish from a normal runner (Read 41 times)

    I say normal runner. Over the last 10 or so year's I've completed numerous 5/1K/ half marathons, and 9 marathons, and a half dozen ultras. Basically one marathon a year and some ultras sporadically. My marathon times are 3:38 - 3:58. For 5/10K and 1/2 marathons paces are in the 6:45-8:00 range. I'm a good runner but nothing about my accomplishments are brag-worthy, except maybe the number of finishes. Maybe.

     

    The Croatan 24 is one of those 1.3 mile loops around a lake. This one near the eastern North Carolina coast. Pretty much all flat. A little different for this one is that no trash producing articles allowed on the course so all fueling is done within a couple hundred meters of the start/finish.

     

    This year leading up to the Croatan 24 I completed a 40 and a 50 mile ultra. Neither were overly remarkable. For the training leading up to the Croatan I was averaging over 120 miles a month or around 35-45 miles a week for about 6 months. Not nearly what some of the ultra types run for weekly mileage. My long runs were in the normal marathon long run range, 16-20 miles. My normal weekly runs were 7-8 miles at tempo like pace.For me, and YMMV, a hundred mile run is not so much in the training as in the mental determination. My training probably prepared me to race a marathon or complete a 50 mile run. The 100 is more about constant attention to my body and not becoming winded, hungry, thirsty, or sick, and relentless forward motion. I spent hours focused on pace and pain without interruption. That was hard, constant monitoring and constant focus and wanting to think about anything at all rather than pace and pain. It's taxing.

     

    My goal was certainly to finish 100 miles which I did. Yea!! I completed 100.5 miles in about 23:15 and called it quits even though I could have walked one or two more laps to edge higher in the ranks. As it was only 6 of us ran more than 100 miles with me being 6th. 136 total runners for the day.

     

    The forecast the week prior was cloudy, 40-50's and a good chance of rain all day. It turned out to be in the low 80's for the entire day, mostly sunny, and very high humidity. The day running was brutal and I could see many runners struggling from dehydration and sun exposure. It was brutal. My typical overindulgence in food for the first 30 miles made me feel sickly but I kept running sub 13's for the entire day and not stopping at all except to grab a snack or use the restroom. I munched Rolaids every 4-5 miles just in case as this has helped a lot in the past. I ate only two pieces of pizza for real food along with a couple quarter pieces of ham and cheese sandwhiches. I ate lots of gels. Probably one every 5 miles. Around 40 miles in I felt great but noticed my urine was absolutely dark brown. I kind of expected this and backed off and walked two laps while drinking just to avoid a heat injury even though I felt great. It was probably a good idea to pull back and recoup during that time.

     

    At about 9PM and 60 miles for me (~11 hours in) it started raining. Hard. Like Forrest Gump hard. With wind. Like blow me down lean your head sideways into the wind gale force oh my God wind. The course was such that half was in the open with several metal bridge crossings over the water and half within the woodline sheltered from the wind but subject to ankle deep trail flooding. Each was bad in its own way in the rain. This hard rain kept up for three laps or about an hour in which time it seems every runner headed for shelter and stopped running. Just a few of us out there pushing on. I think I logged my best 5 miles of the latter half of the race in that wind. Something about it rejuvenated me. After an hour of hard rain it slowed down but never really stopped until the sun came up. Yea, about 30 miles running in the rain with numerous ankle deep puddles on the trail. My feet were getting trashed to say the least. I changed socks three times and my feet were soaked before I ran a single lap. It wasn't the water so much as the fine silt/sand particles that got inside your socks and felt like small rocks on sore wet feet. I pushed through but knew my feet would be rough. The last 10-15 miles were pretty hard but I kept a run/walk the entire way. Had I stopped for the hour during the rain storm I would not have completed the 100 in under 24 hours. I suspect this was the downfall of many runners. Running in the rain is just like running wet and unless you're going to quit when it starts running you might as well be running in the rain too. Don't let that stop you.

     

    At the end there was a quick awards ceremony where I got my first ever 100 mile belt buckle and the winner was Valmir Nunes, the Badwater record holder. Wow.

     

    I wore the same pair of Hoka Cliftons the entire race. I wear them a half size larger than my normal shoe and without footbed inserts. The Hoka footbeds always scrunch up and wiggle out on me so I throw them out. No big deal except that prevents rocks from slipping out of sight at the edges of the footbed like normal shoes. I bought a new pair to switch out but figured there was no point since the trail was flooded and they'd be wet within a lap or two anyway.

     

    Otherwise, I wore the same pair of Asics shorts I had for years with the small pockets along the back similar to race ready shorts and some shirt I got from another race. My old running hat with a thousand miles on it and a few pair or thick wool socks either Darn Tough or SmartWool.

     

    All in all a great run but I'll probably not do it again since there are other options yet attempted closer to home. Up next, Umstead 100. Since I already have a 24 hour 100 finish, maybe I'll just enjoy the sights and shoot for the 30 hour cutoff.

     

    Happy running to all and hopefully anyone whose training is not where they want it to be is motivated to press on.

     

    I'll leave you with a quote from some unknown person so much more eloquent than I....

     

    Your biggest challenge isn't someone else. It's the ache in your lungs and the burning in your legs, and the voice inside you that yells 'CAN'T", but you don't listen. You just push harder. And then you hear the voice whisper 'can'. And you discover that the person you thought you were is no match for the one you really are.


    Mmmmm...beer

      Congrats!!  Great job pushing through the rain and hitting your goal!

      -Dave

      My running blog

      Goals | sub-18 5k | sub-3 marathon 2:56:46!!