Notes
In total, 106549 + 42789 steps - that's 149,338 steps (including some steps before and after the race). More to come when I feel more energetic. Also I do want to add the splits, but I think I need a second monitor to make that easier. Or not my laptop screen at least.
Stream of Thought Notes - clean up later?
- Changed shoes between 10-1 I think? The sketchers were pretty good for walking, better than the Kinvaras, but were pinching my right pinky toe SUPER badly. Walked in the Kinvaras for about six hours, tried one lap in the oofoos (did not work due to gravel, but was not totally crap). Swapped back to the sketchers for the last four-ish hours because I felt a blister in the kinvaras and switching shoes helped.
- Food was still an issue. I figure I probably had something like 4000-5000 calories at the upper edge, but that might also been a comical overstatement. For future - sausage sticks work very well; potato chips are solid; broth is good, but the veggies were unappealing; donut sticks were good; the clif bloks at about 4 AM were good once I remembered that I had them; ginger ale remains a solid choice (I figure I had around a liter or so); coffee/hot water overnight is pretty good while walking, even if I couldn't really drink out of the camping mug.
- 100 miles was insanely ambitious for the first time. That said, I don't think it's too far off. If nothing else, trimming about an hour for full rest (which feels optimizable) gets about 3-4 more miles. I left one lap on the table (damn you round numbers!), so I think with a little work, 85 miles is doable. Another 15 is a lot, but I also didn't run a step after about 7 PM and my walking pace is solid enough that any running overnight is pretty much gravy.
- That said, walking pace and walking are a bit weak. I don't walk that much and I'd argue that I'm in the boat of this being a walking/very light jogging race.
- People were extremely friendly and nice! The laps with someone were so much nicer than the solo laps, especially while walking, so much so that I'd almost want to run the race with someone else who'd be willing to walk consistently. I also caught most people's names and it looks like everyone that I could remember finished their races in the ballpark of what they were hoping for, which is great.
- Maria's mom crewing was very appreciated and having a walking person for the overnight was also lovely. Everyone coming out to walk was great - Maria got two laps, Aunt Coco, Emily, and Mike got one, and Patty got three or four, maybe five?
- The loop was nice counter-clockwise (start line away from tent city) and less nice the other way. The starting way (CCW) felt a bit flatter and the small inclines felt punchy and relatively easy. The descent off the road into the park area was nice and the climb at South Gate was pretty nice. The other way meant the descent at South Gate was a bit hard and the climb onto the road was annoyingly "steep" (read - not steep at all). I really didn't mind the flat terrain - there was enough little rise and fall that it varied some muscle usage just a little bit.
- One fun conversation was with a woman who's run AtY a bunch and she commented that the loops didn't feel like 1.4 because they are usually 1 and a touch. I'd kind of agree with that; the loops felt long enough to have sectors, but short enough to not feel like a mile and a half. Weird thing that! (I think having the long-ish section on the road, while annoying with dust, helps a ton with this - the landscape is totally different there, so it breaks up the loop.)
- Gear was pretty good - Belega hidden structure socks, patagonia longer shorts, and a variety of shirts - started in the Grandma's training shirt, switched to Bigfoot running, then switched back to Grandma's, then added the reflective jacket and adidas pants, then added the tattered black sweatshirt under the jacket. Hat and gloves for most of the overnight along with a buff for the deep night - I could have had one different layer at some point, but for the most part, everything felt very good.
- Standing around gear was insufficient! When I do this again, I definitely need warmer stuff for any rest breaks or any time when I'm not running (or for crew).
- Sunscreen coverage was bad - I totally forgot about sunscreen in the morning and didn't realize quite how much it was glaring until about 4 PM on Saturday. So sunscreen!
- Another thing - I should at least try having music or something for these. I don't think it would have been much, but having something for that 1-6 AM section would have helped a bit and I wasn't worried about the footing. On the other hand, I did really enjoy the conversations and I do think headphones would have negated at least some of that, which I would have really missed.
- If I had registered for the lap an hour challenge, I would have succeeded, which feels wild to me. I want to say I didn't want to commit to it, but in hindsight, I was already thinking that was my plan, so may as well toss that in!
I'll do another 24 hour at some point - would it be Across the Years? Probably, although the wrinkle to that would be wanting to try something longer, which AtY is extremely good for. Decisions, decisions.