So when I got home that Monday night, I signed up for the 50 mile race and Max was next. It was 5 months away so I didn't have to worry about it for quite a while. It's like a dentist appointment. You don't really worry about it until it's a few days away.
Once I got home from the Berlin Marathon in late September, all of a sudden 6 weeks didn't seem too far away.
I had been battling a sore right hamstring most of October and when I went to run 21 miles on November 1st, it started to bother me, so after 10 miles, I ran the last 11 miles at my planned Ultra pace of 10:30 per mile. Running at that slower pace felt better on the hamstring. With the 50 Miler only 13 days away, I was a bit worried about the hamstring. Then I got the email from my coach for what training will bring for November 2-8, and I saw that I had 78 miles to run! I guess you need to get the miles up if you are going to run 50 in one day.
I had one last tough workout the week of the race. On Wednesday, I ran 12 miles with a progression from 8:45 to 8:30 per mile. When I woke up Thursday morning, I could feel the right hamstring a little bit, but not too bad. So I decided Thursday's and Friday's runs (6 miles, 3 miles) would be at the 10:30 Ultra pace.
On Friday, Max and I left town around 12:30 PM and we headed to Paducah, Ky, to check into the hotel. After getting checked in, we headed the 30 miles to Vienna for packet pickup. We found the Vienna High School and got in line for the 50 Mile packets. Looking around, the people looked a lot different than when you show up at the shorter distance races. I wondered how some of them could run 50-100 miles, but they must be ready.
Friday night we ate dinner at Olive Garden and I was able to get my last carbo load that would need to get me through 50 miles. Got back to the hotel and took two Benadryl to help the sleeping and it was lights out at 8:30 PM.
Woke up at 6 AM and I drank a bottle of Gatorade, at one Clif Bar, and had one Double Latte Gel. So that was about 450 calories for the start of the day.
Temperatures were supposed to be mid to upper 30's to start and about 60 for the high. Sunshine was forecast with very little wind. Really perfect weather for this type of race. Even though it would be cool to start, I was wearing shorts, t-shirt, arm warmers, stocking cap, and pretty thick gloves to keep the hands warm.
Several runners were in the hotel lobby and we headed up around 7 AM and arrived at 7:30 AM. We dropped off our boxes for the 3 pit stops (Karnak, Vienna Park, Tunnel Hill). One needed a strategy as to what to pack in the boxes. Here were the mileage points where we had access to our gear boxes:
10.6 miles - Karnak
16.0 miles - Karnak
26.6 miles - Vienna Park
36.3 miles - Tunnel Hill
40.3 miles - Tunnel Hill
Max and I waited a little longer in the car since it was cold out and headed towards the start around 7:50 AM, 10 minutes before the start. We ran into Scott Jordan and the 3 of us prepared to start together.
What seemed like a fun idea 5 months ago, was now reality as the starting moment was now here.
And we were off to the races. An early mistake was not getting to the front of the start line as it was such a narrow trail with 400-500 runners all taking off. The intended starting pace was 10:30 per mile, but the GPS was showing 11:00-12:00 because we had to go with the crowd that wasn't thinning at the start. Finally we had to go slightly off trail to get around people to get past the slow masses. After about a half mile, the lap pace was finally back under 10:30 so we got our pace back. It took about a mile or so for the crowds to thin, but it wasn't bad after that point.
The first mile clicked at 10:24 and we were slightly faster than our intended pace of 10:30. Scott Jordon went on ahead of us after about a mile, as he's a more experienced ultra runner. Miles 2, 3, 4, and 5 clicked off at 10:22, 10:29, 10:22, and 10:24. Couldn't believe I already needed to use the rest room, so we got it line at the first stop at the 5.5 mile mark. Only two porta johns? Lost a couple minutes at this stop. But then it was back to racing towards the Karnak.
Miles 6-10 clicked off at 10:23, 10:27, 10:31, 10:23, and 10:27. For the most part, we were averaging about 5 seconds below our 10:30 target. My hamstring started bothering me on the 7th mile but after the Karnak break, it felt a little better for a mile, then would bother me some. But it was manageable, but it did give me early doubts as to whether I could finish.
We reached Karnak, which was the first major stop. Another rest room break and then it was to our gear boxes. I reapplied some vaseline to prevent chafing, mixed up a 20 ounce bottle of water with Tailwind nutrition, had a double latte Power gel, switched my thick gloves to thinner ones, and then it was back to running. It was also time to ditch the arm warmers. We probably spent 5-6 minutes here, but I was expecting a minimum of 30 minutes on the stops today. We now had 2.5 miles to get to the turnaround and then it was back to Karnak again. It was about a mile before the turnaround where we ran into Scott Jordan, so he was about 2 miles ahead of us. I'm sure he gained some time on our stops in addition to his faster running pace.
Miles 11-13 clicked off at 10:20, 10:27 and 10:21 and then we hit the turnaround. No stopping here, just give them your bib number for the timing and keep moving.
I knew we were running a little ahead of our planned pace, but it was feeling pretty easy, but then again, we had 37 miles to go.
Miles 12-16 clicked off at 10:27, 10:21, 10:24, 10:20, and 10:18 and we arrived at Karnak for the last time. Another mixing of the Tailwind and water, ate another gel, and now I took off my stocking cap and took the visor out of my gear box, applied some more vaseline, and we were back running, only spending about 2 minutes on the second Karnak stop.
I had some concern seeing the last two miles at 10:20 and 10:18. That was a little off plan but it was feeling easy. Time will tell if that was a mistake.
We hit a bit of a boring stretch now as Max and I had 10.6 miles to get back to Vienna Park. There isn't much of fan support like the big marathons. We were both anxiously counting the miles to get to the half way point. That would be a good milestone to reach.
We continued to run a bit fast and miles 17-24 clicked off at 10:23, 10:18, 10:28, 10:25, 10:16, 10:21, 10:22, and 10:22. We were a little startled seeing that 10:16 and slowed it a bit after that one. Finally we were on mile 25 hoping to get to the second half of the race. Mile 25 clicked off at 10:21 and there was some relief we were now on the second half. We now had 1.6 miles to reach Vienna Park where we started before we would venture to the north side.
We must have had a little adrenaline from reaching the half way point that we ran mile 26 in 10:13, the fastest mile yet. A couple minutes later, we reached the 26.2 mile mark and said we have done a marathon, but the depressing part was knowing there was still 23.8 miles to go even though we just ran a marathon. 4 minutes later we arrived in Vienna Park for our longest stop of the day.
We actually took our gear boxes that were at Vienna Park and brought them to the car. I changed shoes, socks, and shirt and discarded my gloves, mixed up another bottle of Tailwind, ate another Double Latte gel, another rest room break, and finally we were headed north towards Tunnel Hill. The right hamstring was making its presence known, but it wasn't getting worse and I didn't think it would be a factor on the second part of the race.
We quickly finished mile 27 which came in at 10:27 and then there was a noticeable slowdown. Mile 28 and 29 were 10:34, 10:39, and we fought back on mile 30 with 10:25. But that would be the last sub 10:30 mile for the day. We skipped the water stop at the 29.4 mile mark. Max was indicating he was starting to feel it in his achilles and leg. The most important thing for both of us was not to come out of this race with an injury. Miles 31 and 32 clicked off at 10:44 and 10:56. Max said he needed to stop to prevent injury. It was still another 5+ miles to make it to the Tunnel Hill stop and maybe he could get a ride back there, but it was 5.5 miles back to the starting point. Max decided it was best for him to walk back at this point and I marched on solo towards Tunnel Hill.
Miles 33-35 clicked off at 10:45, 11:04, and 11:25. I was now going uphill and could feel myself getting much slower. I also realized I was low on water and would run out prior to Tunnel Hill. Running with a Camelbak proved to be a great idea as sipping away all day was better than only getting water at specific stops.
By now I was just telling myself if you can get to mile 40, then you can start to do some walking. Miles 36 clicked off at 12:15 and a few minutes later I was going through Tunnel Hill and reached the major rest stop. I had another gel and mixed another bottle of Tailwind, and had a very refreshing cup of coke that was available at this stop. After 36+ miles, it tasted great. It was only 2 miles to the turnaround, so I knew I would be back at this stop in 4 miles.
Miles 37 and 38 were downhill so I got a little faster. I ran into Scott Jordan about 1/2 mile from the turnaround so I had gained some time on him. After the turnaround a couple miles back up hill towards the Tunnel Hill stop. Miles 37-40 came in at 10:58, 11:18, 11:46, 12:20. I had finally reached mile 40 where I had said I would start some walking. I had thoughts at one point about walking the last 10 miles, but I decided to go with a strategy of walk 1/4 mile, run 1/4 mile.
I enjoyed that first 1/4 mile walk and then start running and reached the second Tunnel Hill stop. I knew I wouldn't finish in the daylight and it would start to cool down, so I had a stocking cap and gloves waiting for me in my gear box I put them on and grabbed my headlamp from the gear, mixed up another batch of Tailwind, and this time had two cups of coke.
Then it was on to finish the last 10 miles. The rest of the way was mainly slightly downhill, so I was able to get a walking pace around 14:30. Mixing half walking and half running, I wasn't losing that much time. Maybe a minute per mile, so only 10 or so minutes lost over the last 10 miles by walking and running.
I was actually gaining speed on each mile as the walk breaks were getting me more rested.
Miles 41-47 were 13:46, 12:26, 12:20, 12:09, 12:01, 12:03, 11:59. It was almost a progression of getting faster. A runner went past me and said, hey #443, you have a pretty good strategy.
But now it was dark and I had 3 miles to go. I didn't wear the headlamp, but held it like a flashlight. A couple minutes later, I arrived at the last water stop and had them put some water in my Camelbak and I had another cup of coke. Finally on the home stretch.
I was a little more cautious when it got dark. I saw some big dropoffs off the trail in the daylight and didn't want to go tumbling down, so I would scan my light back and forth to make sure I was on the trail. It was pretty lonely at this point, you would rarely see anyone. Finally someone did pass me, which was good, so I could see their light ahead of me to reassure me I was on course.
I slowed some, but I think some of it was due to it being dark and I needed to be a little more cautious. Miles 48-49 came in at 12:22 and 12:33 and then I took it pretty easy on the last mile, and was feeling pretty excited about finishing a 50 mile run. I got to the last 1/4 mile and again switched from walking to running and felt pretty strong that last 1/4 and I saw the finish line ahead and just kept going forward and finally, I was at the finish with the time showing 9 hours, 50 minutes. The last mile coming in at 12:54.
I heard them announce Alan Watts from Hendersonville, Tennessee, I claimed by Belt Buckle and ran into Max and Scott Jordan and the celebration started.
After a drive back to the hotel in Paducah and getting cleaned up, it was time for a rewarding Steak and Potato!.
There was talk earlier in the week with my coach, Scott Wietecha, about reaching that 100 mile week threshold. The 50 miler put me in at 91 miles for Monday through Saturday. And Scott texts me "So close to 100!". Would I really want to run 9 miles the next day just to reach the 100 mile week? Of course, so I had planned on going out for 6 miles and then run 3 miles later. But I just kept going and got all 9 miles in at once and reached my first ever 100 mile week. That also extended my running streak to 304 consecutive days, averaging 9.1 miles per day during the streak.
I am now an Ultra Runner. Will I do another? Oh probably.
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