2011 Lakefront Marathon Results

3:39:51 (spot on!!)

My second official pacer experience was like any other race experience, a learning one, but fun and exciting too.
Every once in a while, my lovel wife Misty can make the road trip with me to race, and this was just such a race. We left Michigan on Friday after she was out of work, and passed off the three kids to the respective ‘other’ parent. We then pushed on to my parents house in Cross Plains, WI, arriving at about midnight. Misty went straight to bed and I stayed up and talked with my Mom for a while. It had been a long time since I had seen here, so it was very nice to spend some quality time with her.

Saturday morning my sister and her family showed up for breakfast and more lively and enjoyable conversation ensued. Because I had to work the expo, we took off mid morning arriving in downtown just in time for my shift. The expo was pretty small, but had a good time chit-chatting with two other pacers. Standard banter, favorite races, fun racing stories, long term goals, etc. After my expo shift, Mist and I went to the Milwaukee Art Museum, which was totally awesome. A wonderful and diverse art collection inside a beautiful building along Lake Michigan. We stayed until close, and then headed to a downtown Irish pub for a great dinner. It was like we had been on a 24 hour date, it was so awesome.

I finally went to bed after watching my mighty Wisconsin Badgers beat up Nebraska and slept quite well. 4:45 wakeup, apple, banana, and 2 cups of coffee for breakfast and I was on the bus riding from host hotel to start line, ~26.2 miles away in Grafton, WI. The start line was within 10 miles of the house my father grew up in, which was kindof cool. The other 14 pacers and I hung out in the High School for a while waiting for race start since it was about 45 degrees outside.

I had checked the forecast just a day before and it was supposed to be high 30s at race start and not get much about 50 by the end so I wore running pants and a long sleeve running shirt under my official marathonpacing.com singlet. It felt fine before I started running…

About 25 minutes before the start me and my fellow pacers were up at the start holding our signs and people started congregating around their desired pacers. 5 minutes before the gun, I gave them my standard instructions. My background (give them confidence I will hit 3:40), that I will run through aid stations, that i will maintain dead even pace all day long. I also promised them a funny joke if they made it to mile 18 with me.

In the very beginning, I probably had about 70 people with me, with about 50 of those still there at mile 8. It took me a little longer to get settled in my pace. I was never more than 30 seconds off of where I should be at any specific mile marker, but I spend many miles in the front half 15-20 seconds behind schedule. I had to SLOWLY get those seconds back and managed to by the half marathon marker. My scheduled arrival time at that mat was 1:50 flat, and my chip time was 1:50:02. Boo-Ya.

The course was actually quite beautiful, with gentle rolling hills along back country roads, occasionally going by gorgeous Lake Michigan vistas. I was so focused on keeping my pace even, I had to try to enjoy the run every once in a while. The temperature started rising and I realized that I might have a problem. I was over-dressed, but more importantly, there wasn’t much I could so about it. It would have taken me several minutes to stop and do a costume change, but I was supposed to be running 8:24 mile-in mile-out, so I had to tough out the suns increasing heat in my running pants and long sleeve shirt. It made the last part of the race a little tougher than it should have been, but I learned that I have to spend a little more time planning racing attire when I am pacer.

At mile 18, I told my one funny joke (“A guy walks into Baskin Robbins…”) to about 20 people who managed to survive with me that long. They laughed. The group then began to break up. Some were feeling good and took off in front of me, some started to fade behind. By mile 23 I was pretty much alone, just being the solid even pacer dude. As I crossed the finish line in 3:39:51, there were a couple of my starters within 20 m of me who all thanked me after they crossed the line. Their thanks meant a lot to me. I really enjoy pacing, helping other achieve their marathon goals.

Since it is Milwaukee, the was of course free (delicious) beer at the end as well as a good spread of post race food. non-crappy finishers medal and yet again, a great marathon memory, especially because I got to spend it with my lovely wife. She really is fun to travel with.

2011 Oktoberfest Marathon Results (Or: Where Did This Speed Come From?)

3:05:35
5/127 Overall
1/15 Age

Last week I ran under horrible conditions including rain and mud in a slow trail race. This week was the stark opposite with beautiful weather and a fast course. The result is the fastest marathon I have run in the last 2 years in what my Mother would call ‘quintessential Americana’ town/event.

4am wake up call for the 2 hour drive to the thriving metropolis of Spring Lake, MI which is a beautiful little town on the shores of Lake Michigan. We got to run by the lake a few times, which when I saw it reminded me a whole lot of my Rhode Island race a few years ago. Those houses of course are 10-20 times as expensive. Someone told me the land lots (no house) go for about a million. Yikes. It’s a nice view, but not that nice…

An 8am race start meant the sun was up with temps ~50 degrees, 7-10 mph winds, and overcast so the conditions were pretty much perfect. The race horn went off and the (eventual) winner took off like a rocket (2:44 winning time) and I ran a little ways with Rich P, a friend whom I have lost to more than once, (he ran a 2:47 this day) and I got into a quick (6:45/mil) steady rhythm with the eventual 4th place finisher. We ran together about 10 miles talking about standard stuff. He is an accountant in the Detroit area and this was his 16th marathon. I pulled away from him for a little while, then he caught me. At about mile 23 I was only 5 seconds back from him, but eventually just let him go. What was I trying to prove? Exactly. :)


At about mile 8, a marathon newbie caught up to us. He told us that he had not even run a half marathon before today. We told him good luck as he took off. When he was reaching the range of my voice, I called up to him asking him what his longest run before today was. He said he had done one 20 miler. I said I was asking because I was curious when (and if) he would crash so I could catch him. His response was simply ‘good luck!’. Heh heh. Yeah, we caught him at about mile 20 from cramping. He ended up crossing the finish line about 20 minutes after we did. Rookies…

For most of the race, me and my group (3-4 of us most of the race) had a bicycle escort. There was another guy guiding the leaders and we had ours just to help with turns and such as the course was in and out of a lot of residential areas. The course was reasonably well marked, but having a bicycle guide was nice. Cool guy, talked with us and even offered us supplemental water in between aid stations which was just plain nice.
When I finished in an average pace ~7 min, I was quite surprised. Like I said earlier, I have not a marathon this fast is a while. It did take some effort, but not a tremendous amount. Because I did it at such a clip, my legs were actually LESS sore than recent other long races. I am not saying I am gonna bust my ass in the next road race, but maybe I will push it a little. I enjoy racing so often for several reasons, and one is because then I can run on feel, meaning when I want to go fast, I can. 3:05 for me (these days!) is defined as fast. I could have broken 3, but I didn’t want to work THAT hard…

The finish was pretty cool. The major sponsor was a local brewery/restaurant, so we got a nice finishers glass, quality shirt, tasty (and free!) lunch, cheap and delish beer and a cool age award. Yet another small town race oozing with love and affection for the runners. I would rather run these size races than some 5000+ runner race any time.

2011 Mellow Marathon Results (Or: This Race Is Muddy)

3:42:31
1/52 overall

This nice local race was actually one of many during the 3-day Woodstock festival of races (100 mile, 100K, 50 mile, 50K, full marathon, half marathon, 10K, 5 mile, and a 5K) which included lots of music, running, rain, and mud.

This would be my 5th career marathon win and first since March, 2009. What is interesting is that those two races were very similar. Both had horrible conditions (obviously, did you see my winning time?) That race in Ruston, LA was on hard packed mountain bike trail but it had rained for 4 days before the race so it was very slippery, but not so muddy. For this race, it had only rained the previous night, but this was on running trails, so the mud was slippery and thick (several inches) in lots of places.

After a nice nights sleep in my own bed (I love not travelling for marathons!) I got up at 5am and took off for the 1 hour drive to Pinckney Recreation Area near Hell, MI. My good friend, Ryan and his wife had been there most of the night pacing some of the ultra runners. They told me the course was horribly muddy and they were right. Within a mile, we were slipping and sliding on 2-5 inches of mud. The trail is very narrow so in most places, so you couldn’t just run on the side avoiding the mud. The rain that came during 75% of the race was not helping either. I can run in any conditions, but I really don’t like running with my feet wet. Some of the half marathoners were running full speed into the middle of the mud while I was being dainty on the edges. That was until a few of them fell. Hard. Then they wised up. Ahh, experience….

At about mile 4 there is a long out and back spur so I knew I was in second place in the full marathon with about 6 half marathoners also in front of me. I had no real dreams of the win, I just wanted to try to enjoy my day and have it not suck, which today meant not becoming miserable or getting lost like my last race. Luckily, the course was very well marked, so that part was fine.

At about mile 11 into the race, a halfer and I who were running together passed the marathon leader. I asked him how he felt and he said ‘pretty good’. He was (obviously) a newbie to marathons and had just gone out too fast. Once I reached the halfway point, I knew I would be alone for most of the rest of the race, which was true except for the other distances racers I was passing as the courses overlapped quite a bit. I felt really good, and I was re-running the same loop again and knowing exactly what to expect helped.

When I got to that same out and back spur, I checked my watch and I realized had a full 4 minute lead on the second place guy (not the original leader, by the way) but I felt strong. With my ultra experience and endurance, I knew even at that point, that I was going to finish strong. I slowed the back half of the race (always do) but never blew up (sometimes do). I just kept repeating the mantra ‘don’t blow up and you get the win’.

As I was coming back to the start/finish the marshals saw my bib and wanted me to head back out again (a 3rd 13.1 mile loop) and I told them, no, I was finishing. I crossed the finish line and there was nothing. Two more people asked me if I did the loop 2 times. I know there a bunch of other races, but can I get just a smidgen of joy, a half hearted handclap?

I wanted to head home, so I walked up to the awards table and asked them how long they thought it would take until my win was official so I could get my award. They asked me “Did you do two loops?” so I showed them my GPS watch and said “well, my watch did!”. I guess they were not expecting me so soon based on the horrible conditions (second place was over 4 hours). After a few back and forth iterations of the officials, I finally got my ‘gold record’ award and I was on my way. The trophy was totally cool looking, I think the coolest award I have received,. I was later telling SJ about it, and she asked if it would play. Upon inspection, it looks like there is real audio recorded on it. I think I need a record player

2011 Old Farts Marathon Results (or How to Roll Your Own Ultra)

4:25:33 (but I ran 29.5 miles, see below)
10/69 overall
4th age

This race is billed as the ‘toughest race east of the Mississippi’, and while I agree, it is tough, I have run harder races on this side, notably the Larry Yaegle trail marathon in Louisiana. It would end up being tougher for me because of my poor attention, but still a fun race.
This race was only a 1.5 hour drive from my house so again I got to sleep in my own bed, a recent change of my marathon racing policy. When my alarm went off at 4:25 am, I woke up wondering why it was going off that early on a Saturday morning. It took me a few seconds to remember that I had a marathon that day. I chuckled at myself (out loud) once I remembered that.

It was three weeks after my Burning River run and one week after another small local marathon, and my body has been sore, so I decided to take the week completely off from running. While I was not 100% today, I was a solid 85%. Taking the week off helped, making it so I was not cursing myself for even running the race.

Being a small town trail race, the race organizers had no time limit (usually 6-7 hours for most major races) and so there were quite a few more ‘experienced’ runners. (translation very slow runners who would finish in >9 hours) of which I met several before the start of the race. Many of them have completed the 50 state circuit (some more than once) a few members of the 100 marathon club (a goal I will accomplish in a few more years) and a few Marathon Maniacs. We chatted about standard stuff (favorite races, costs of traveling to races, etc) and about 2 minutes before the race start, we all headed to the start line.

Race conditions were near perfect. The temperature was in the low 60s’ and would reach the low 70s before the end. The trail was mostly single track and in some cases looked like it was made mere days before with some guy driving through grass with a mover. There was one large grass area (with two foot high grass) that we zig-zagged through 6 times. Challenging, but not super tough. There were a few hills we went down that ropes had been put up so you could hang on to them going down the hill to prevent you from falling. I only fell one time, running on flat trail, stumbling on a rock. The course was VERY well marked, and I really appreciated it, except for one very critical part, which is why I ran an ultra marathon this day instead of a marathon.

All three races (5K, half marathon and full marathon) started all at same time. About 1 mile into the race, we turned left off a dirt road onto trail heading back towards the start line (to drop off the 5K finishers) then the half and full marathoners continued out onto another section of brutal hills, eventually coming back to the start line to drop of the half marathoners. I crossed the half marathon point in 1:50, which is a fine time considering the brutality of the course and I was firmly in 4th place.

So 1 mile past the halfway mark, I came to that spot that ~13 miles before I turned left onto the trail heading back to the start. There was just one sign and it said ‘All runners’ and had an arrow but said the words ‘loop 1’. I turned down the path and got about 50m before my brain said ‘hang on, is this right?’ I went back and inspected the sign again and it was certainly not clear. I stood there stopped for a good 30 seconds waiting for the 5th place runner to come up and help me figure out where to go. I finally decided to head down that trail, even though it didn’t feel quite right. I said to myself, what’s the worst case scenario? I add ~3 miles to the distance. Well worst case scenario happened.

I make it back to the start line (visibly upset) and I ask the race director where I went wrong. Turns out just 20 meters past that #$^@ing cone at mile 1 was another cone (smaller, on other side of road) with a sign that clearly pointed down the dirt road to the RIGHT. So I thanked them and left the start line. Again.
When I got to that cone, the race director was just pulling up in his car (making sure the cone was there) and he asked me how many ‘additional’ miles I had added. I told him a little over 3 and so he actually offered to drive me a ways down the course. I told him no, but thanks anyways and I trudged down the course, cursing myself for my stupidity.

Now that I had gotten back on track and given my competitors a roughly 26 min head start, I actually started passing people. In that last 12 miles of the race I think I passed at least 10 people. The second half was also trail but also a ~3 mile section of long rolling hills on back roads. The run was quite pleasant, just tough. When i crossed the finish line it seemed everyone near the finish area was cheering. Great ‘crowd support’ to go with the great feel of this race.


The schwag from this race was awesome. The entry fee for the race was $60 (not too bad) but for that I received a cotton t-shirt, a cotton sweatshirt, a finishers pair of sweatpants, a finishers beach towel, a nice finishers medal and a nice 4th place-in-age trophy. Hauling all that back to my car after my 29.5 mile run removed all the angst I had over my mistake. The spread of post-race food was also quite impressive. That hot dog tasted goooood.

While it was not the toughest marathon east of the Mississippi, it was a lot of fun and I will definitely be back next year to run this low-key-friendly-neighborhood-style marathon. And don’t worry, I will NOT miss that turn next time.

Lucky 13 (x2= 26) RUT Fat Ass Results

4:24 (ugh)
1st place (16 people did 2 loops, I was the first one who finished, I think)


Timing is everything, really. Just two weeks ago I tore my body up bad running the Burning River 100 and had not recovered yet. A local running shop (Running Fit) is a huge sponsor of running related things, organizing races, training, etc. They have started doing Fat Ass (= no entry fee, no frills, potluck style races) runs, and this one was only an hour away. I just could not say no.

This run was organized by Farra (guru to Running Fit’s Ultra Team) as a training run for people getting ready for the Run Woodstock series of races (including a few ultra distances) in September. It is a nice little ~13.5 mile loop (hence the race title ‘Lucky 13’) in the Island Lake Recreation Area near Brighton, MI. The idea was people could sign up to do as many loops as they wanted, with most people signing up for 1-4 loops. Since it was advertised, over 50 people showed up (spread over all distances, not sure how many did 2+) and we even got race shirts, I am counting this as a marathon race for my 100 in 1 quest. I can do that since it is my idea. :)

Burning River kicked my butt and I took I seriously dialed back my mileage these last two weeks. I took the three days before this race off hoping my body would be at least 80% recovered by then. I was wrong. The course was not all that well marked and I had never runs these trails before, so I got in behind a speedster (a nice Running Fit employee named Trevor) who is a 2:50 marathoner who was doing only one loop. I figured I would follow him for the first loop and then do the second loop alone. The trail is almost all single track with small hills, but tree branches and grass growing over the trail. No way of getting into anything like a stable running pace, but that’s what you get when you do a trail race. Trevor and I were doing a decent 8:15 pace which is not slow for that trail. At about mile 11, I was starting to get seriously fatigued and my legs were started to protest, so I let Trevor go figuring by this point, the trail was self explanatory (it was).

There was a light drizzle for most of the day and the trail was wet, but not bad. My shirt got soaked from wet branches, but my shoes and feet stayed reasonably dry. As I was coming into the start/finish area, (1:55 into the race) I was seriously considering stopping after 1 loop. I felt awful, I was wet and cold and the night before our power went out, and Mistique was home alone still with no power. I couldn’t come up with a reason to go back out. But I changed my shirt, grabbed a cookie and went out anyways. I have run several marathons where the full marathoners run right by the finish line for the half-marathoners at the halfway point and considered dropping down to the half distance that day (usually allowed) but I never have done it. I guess this was just another case of ‘Get out there and finish the marathon, darnit’. Those other times, I was not still sore from a previous race, unlike this time where I felt rolled hard and put away wet.

The second loop was harsh. Frequent speed-walking sections and sore legs every step in addition to the same wet trail conditions (did I mention the mosquitoes were terrible?) made for a just not so fun run. But, since I am bull headed and I always finish what I start, albeit slower than I want, I finished. Once I hot the end, I spend only a few minutes chatting with others and eating some of the large amount of food brought by the kind souls of the race before the bugs got to me and I wanted to get home to my power-less home.
A fun little local marathon, which is exactly what I am looking for with my new 100 in 1 goal. Sleep in my own bed, wake up, run a marathon, and be home for dinner. I love that part.

100 in 1

So finally, I near the end of a 5+ year quest, to run a marathon in 50 states in under 4 hours. I have known this goal is getting close for a while, and I wanted to make sure I had something ‘in the pipe’ before I got there. I have many friends who have grand running goals that when they hit them (many after several years) they burn out since they have achieved what they set their heart out to do. I have seen runnerswho devoutly run marathons 1-2 a weekend stop stone cold after achieving some ‘goal’. I did not want that to happen to me.

I have been thinking hard about what to do next. In 2010, I started doing some ultras, with a 24 hour race (>100 miles) in April and a 100 mile race in July. I did quite well in both and thought that maybe that was going to be my next step, becoming one of those crazy 100 mile ultra people. Then Burning River 2011 happened. Without going into detail, it was really really rough on me physically and mentally. While I was good at 100 mile racing (9th and 10th in the 2010 and 2011 national championships) the actual running is rough for several reasons:
- Training 120-130 miles/week is a part time job that takes away from family time, no matter how well I schedule it
- Race costs are steep, >$200 for a cheap one.
- To do it right, you need a crew. I don’t like asking for help, so this is a big one. I have a great friend Ryan who has crewed for me in two of my 100 milers and he does an awesome job, but I can’t rely on him every time. Mistique is supportive of my racing, and will crew for me if I ask her, but it is a lot to ask of her.
- Recovery time is so damn long. 100 miles take a lot out of you. My most recent 100 miler took more than 2 weeks before I was back to normal. That’s just rough.

I didn’t start running to be a freak, I started running to get healthy. The racing is just fun and gives me an extra special bonus to reward me for getting out every day and slogging some miles. So after a long torturous time of self reflection, I decided to step back from the 100 mile thing for a while. So that left me hanging, I still need a new goal, something to keep me occupied for a few years. Many ideas have been given to me by friends which include repeating the states (too expensive, more time away from family) or doing 7 continents (WAY too expensive). I needed something that took me 5-7 years, is cheap, and minimizes time away from my family. 100 in 1 was born.

100 marathons in 1 state, that is my new goal. You might think that it will take me forever since it has taken me 6 years to run 64 marathons as of right now, but you would be wrong. There are over 15 marathons (or shorter ultras, under 35 miles) each year within a 3 hour drive of my house. That means I can sleep in my own bed (no hotel!), wake up early, drive to a race (no plane ticket!), run the race and be home before dinner. I am gone from my family less than 12 hours each time. It satisfies all my new desires, cheap, will take a few years, and less impact on my family.

In trying to save time in my 50 states quest, I have only done 6 marathons in the state of Michigan so far, so I am starting almost from scratch. But, if all goes to plan, I will be at 10 by the end of 2010. Whatever it takes to keep me out of trouble

2011 Burning River 100 miler and USATF National Championship Results

20:42:32
15/150 overall (~300 starters)
10th USATF National Championship

I have been focused on this race for many many months, running literally thousands of miles. I decided to try my hand at ultras a year or so ago as a ‘next goal’ after completing the whole 50 states thing. Months and months of 100-120 mile weeks (even a 140) and I felt totally awesome, like I could take on the world. Because I am lazy though, they were almost all long slow miles with little hill work. Just like I hate doing anything resembling ‘speed’ work, I hate hill work too, so I didn’t do it. ooops.

Friday night, I got to the packet pickup and did my thing, getting my race sweatshirt (the long sleeve technical shirt from 2010 was better) and sat down to eat some so-so pasta. I actually sat down with a large group of Michigan based ultra runners, all great people whom I was facebook friends with within just a few days. I also (finally) got to meet Laurie, who is a fellow ultrarunner (winning female division in last February’s Beast of Burden) who lives ~25 min from the BR race start. Her and I have become friends since BoB and she offered up her house for me to crash at, so of course I accepted. Her husband was doing BR as his first 100 miler and she was crewing and pacing him. He finished but had a rough time. Heck, we all did. On the way back to their house after dinner, we chatted about ultra running, about North Coast 24, about dream races, etc. Wonderful and pleasant conversation.
Everyone was in bed by about 7:30 since we were getting up at 3. I was pleased that I slept as well as I did, considering how focused I was on this race. Normally, I would toss and turn all night before big ones, but not this time. Maybe it’s because I knew I would not be running that hard.

We got to the race start about 4:30, just 30 min before the start. I left Laurie and company, thanking them and wishing them well, and was off to collect my thoughts. While waiting for the race to begin, I was wearing a throw away Jackson Community College t-shirt. A guy came up and asked me “Hey, do you work at JCC?” turns out it was John Yohe, fellow JCC professor (He is in the English department) whom I have been meaning to meet for a while (he said the same thing, tee hee) who was running BR as his first 100 miler, just like me in 2010. He asked me a bunch of questions and I could tell he was a little nervous. He is a barefoot runner, but this day he was wearing his vibram five fingers to protect his feet a little bit on the trail. This course was rough and the weather also took many prisoners, John among them. While he did not succeed in his goal, he vowed to conquer the 100 mile distance. I have high hopes for him, and I might even help him a future race as a pacer.

5 am and we were off, and I was in the first 7 people from the beginning, a group that contained the real big dogs, including Badwater course record holder (and 2010 BoB winner to my 2nd place) Valmir Nunes. Amazingly, his English is still pretty bad, so we didn’t talk much. The first 10 miles are on road, so we were clipping along pretty fast, somewhere in the high 7’s. Way too fast, but I’m just dumb that way. A quick aid station stop at mile 4ish and right back on the road.

At mile 10ish I hit the second aid station, and the first with crew access, and I saw for the first time this day, Ryan, my wonder crew. Regular readers of this blog know Ryan, my awesome crew/pacer from the BoB and race director of the Jan 1 Get Off Your Hungover Fat Ass and Run 26.2 marathon. He had been at a friends wedding back in Michigan until midnight the night before, then drove down and crewed for me all day on no sleep at all. He is a monster. He didn’t know until about a week before hand if he was going to be able to crew for me at all, so I prepared ‘drop bags’ for the course. Eight green plastic containers with spare socks, shoes, some candy, and my powder rocket fuel. Having run a few ultras, I knew that I had a hard time eating any solid food, so I needed some high calorie liquid fuel source. For few months I tested a solution that was 1 scoop gatorade (for flavor) 2 scoops carbo-pro (for calories) and 2 tiny scoops endurolyte powder (for electrolytes). Pour the powder into a 16 oz water bottle and fill. All told, about 300 calories and I had about 12 of them during the race. Saved my butt for sure.

I talked with Ryan for only a few minutes and I was back on the course, no finally on trail. I was in the top 10 and feeling pretty darn good. I would be passed by several people, finishing 15th overall, but ~8 people in front of me would drop, including Valmir. Aid stations came and went, changed socks at mile 18 (shoes wet from dew drenched grass), changed shoes at mile 33, drank my rocket fuel, ate some candy. Ho-hum right along as the sky remained overcast so the conditions were not that bad. Even the hills those first 40 miles weren’t that bad, as I walked up most of them.

Just before the mile 49.1 aid station, I noticed how hard it was to get running again after a walk break. I knew that point would come, but had hoped it would not be until way later in the race. The next section was ~4 miles and the first part was flat trail, so I ran that part which was just over a mile. It was the last complete mile I would run for the entire race. It was about here, that my emotional train wreck began. Not being about to run for any reasonable amount of time with ~50 miles to go meant I was going to be out here for a long long time. Coming into aid stations, I would jog just to show some semblance of confidence, but soon after I left an aid station, I was back to my walking ways. I know it sounds silly, but I had trained for this part, power walking when tired. I was still doing 15 min miles. I was tired, and mentally drained, but I knew I could pound out 15 min miles until the cows came home. Since I never sat down and rested (ever!) I still managed a good finish time. 10th place in the 100 mile national championship and I walked roughly half the course. What does THAT say?


The emotional train wreck came about because I knew I was not going to do as well as I wanted and I had worked hard for this race. When you know 12 hours before the end that you are not going to do as well as you wanted, you have a lot of time to ponder your fate. I was thinking really hard about my running career, and in the end, I decided that this might be my last 100 for a while.

I was getting blisters in new and interesting places on my feet, but none of them were debilitating. At one point it started hurting with every step, especially when ‘running’ so I just stuck to walking as fast as possible. The downhills eventually became the worst parts. With tough race conditions, the course would have a 50% casualty rate, which is high for even an ultra. At no point did I think I would drop from the race, but I knew it would not be that fast (this was my slowest 100 miler by far) since I am a unrelenting stick-in-the-mud when it comes to racing. I might not finish fast, but damnit, I am finishing.

The aid stations were as awesome as they were last year. Nice people, getting you want you need and loaded with food choices, most of which I ignored. I ate my fair share of grapes and a few cups of ramen noodles. I have never been good and keeping solid food down but this year I tried to eat fruit wherever possible as that seemed to sit ok with me. Ryan did a great job keeping me hydrated with plenty of electrolytes which kept me alive, for sure. My favorite aid station memory was at mile ~70. I walked up to the table and saw a 1 gallon ziploc filled with fresh-picked-that-morning blueberries. I said “Blueberries!!” and stuck both hands into the bag and scooped up a double handful of blueberries and stuffed them in my face in one motion. Only after did I realize what I did. All’s fair in love, war, and ultras. Leave your ego at the start.

This race was harsh and brutal and by far the toughest race I have ever run. with an attrition rate of close to 50%, the race course won this battle. Turns out some people even dropped at the mile 96 aid station. An elite (who was in 4th place at one point in the race) dropped at mile 93 in front of me. I think the fact I never sat down all day (except to change shoes) made a big difference. Had I sat down, I doubt I would have gotten up and it would been all over.

After the race Ryan and I (slowly) headed to our cars and back to the hotel for a quick (ha!) shower and some sleep at about 3am roughly 24 hours since I woke up. My feet were so bad and my legs so sore that I never really slept as I could not get comfortable even though I was dead tired. At about 8 am we headed to Bob Evans for a good meal and then I sent Ryan on his way home. I headed down to the finish line getting there about 30 minutes before the 30 hour cutoff. Saw the last finishers come in, some looking ok, most looking like death. I had pleasant conversation with John about his DNF, and with some other runners, some who finished, so who did not. Turns out everyone had a rotten day, just like me.
A boring awards ceremony, a medal for my 10th place USATF National Championship and I was on my way home alone to ponder my future. I stopped 5 times on the 3 hour drive because I was falling asleep and so I needed food and caffeine. It never really helped so I got home and crashed trying to sleep and failing again. It would be three days before I was able to sleep completely through the night. A memorable race, for a whole bunch of bad reasons. This race will be a turning point in my running career, for sure.