Notes
Hard to write a report for this race. I went out to run a 24-hour race and only made it through 15 hours. So from that perspective it was a big failure (though it was still an awesome and powerful experience). Only because the 100 mile distance is a thing and they mark out that split does it even seem like I somehow also finished a race. From the wonderful vantage of hindsight, I would go back 3 months and have made the decision to go after the 100 mile distance and not the 24 hour.
As per Newton's advice, I had a plan, and I was patient. I think they release splits eventually, but until then I'll go off memory. I had decided to run 100km at around 8:30-8:40 pace. I was probably right on that target, or a little faster. And I felt almost no sign of fatigue whatsoever. I tried to adjust my pace a bit and back off to accommodate the rising sun. Once the sun set, I felt great again.
I was worried that the 78 mile mark would be tough as Newton had projected, but it never really came. There was maybe a short stretch of 2 miles or so where I started to feel some fatigue, perhaps when I started to burn fat, somewhere around 11 hours, but that passed pretty quickly and I was able to keep pressing on. I can't really remember when, but I started to feel a little fatigue maybe at 90 or so and I started incorporating more walking. But I just couldn't keep a walk and so would only walk for about a 100-200m.
I had no issues with fueling or pacing (though I did start dropping sub-8s when I got excited about being on American record pace). I set out to do this race as a means to motivate me through the fall to keep higher mileage. I figured training for a 24-hour race would allow me the comfort to not have to worry about adding intensity along with volume while training for a race. I think in retrospect my lack of experience allowed me to make a couple of minor mistakes, but ultimately I ran perfectly. It was just that damn foot at about 95 miles. For the past few weeks I'd been trying to get a crack on my right foot to close up, and it never seemed to get better. The end came on pretty quickly. I monitored my foot and it was fine and fine and fine and then all of a sudden at around 102 it wasn't. I noticed blood and when I stopped I noticed also that the tendons in my right foot had swelled up and were in pain.
Looking back, I wonder how long I would've been able to hold that pace up, or at least a 10 minute mile pace. I didn't quite realize how much my feet suffered out there. The track was a bit rougher that I expected, but more than that the unrelenting impact just added up. My feet were super swollen on Sunday and through Monday and the tendons in my right foot had me on edge that pressing on would lead to significant injury.