So it finally arrived. After being 81 on the wait list, I shot up every week and then nearly every day starting in late September and by the time early October arrived, they actually had no more wait list and were letting people sign up as so many people dropped out of the entry list. My goal for the race was sub-18 hours. I chose this because when I won the Tesla Hertz 100 in 2014, I ran 100 miles according to my Garmin in a little over 18 hours. However, the race was about 105 miles so my finishing time of 19:20 stood as my official 100-miler PR. At the FANS 24-hour race in 2016, I couldn't hit 100 miles until 20 hours so this upcoming race was the chance to run fast if I could. It is a pretty flat course (only ~3,200 feet of gain) with the only real climb and descent being about a 1 mile stretch or less and that is also the only technical portion.
I went out at a comfortable pace. I knew I would slow from this pace but basically wanted to keep the same effort level throughout. After about 30 miles, the heat started to rise a bit, which caused me to slow down just a little bit but it didn't last long. Things were going well. I felt reasonably comfortable. I got to 50 miles in something like 7:45 and thought I had a chance if things went really well to break 17 hours or in an amazing case, 16 hours. However, at around 60 miles, my right eye started to get signs of corneal edema. This time, I was prepared (or so I thought) with some 5% solution drops to help. Unfortunately, these drops didn't work and my eye got progressively worse. To make matters worse, my headlamp started to die at mile 80 (and I wouldn't be able to get batteries until mile 90) and that combined with my declining vision in that eye made moving on that course difficult since there were runners coming at me and their headlamps basically blinded my good eye. The technical section was really tough with only one eye. Still, I pressed on and when I got the new batteries for the final 10, I was ready to run as best I could. I pushed and ended up finishing in 17:20, good for 5th place. I was so happy about this time and I think I could have gone below 17 hours had I not had the eye problem.
This is not to say the race was easy except for the eye issue. For many parts of it, once the eye problem began, and even before that, I thought about dropping. I don't know why. I think I was scared to hold that pace and thought I would blow up. I felt my legs starting to get a little heavy around 40 miles and didn't want to have to walk and have a close to 24 hours finish when I was on pace for under 17. So my mind thought about quitting before that happened. Instead, I just thought about everything I could to distract myself and keep running. I did not allow myself to walk this course except for a hundred feet or so out of the aid stations. I through on my iPod earlier than I wanted to but needed it for the distraction and it worked very well. This race really showed me that it is a mental game and I need to just get rid of bad thoughts and keep moving forward and running as much as I can or the very least, keep up a certain effort level. Obviously, if this were a big mountain race and I had some big climbs, I would be hiking those and not running. But when running is possible, just run. Worry about falling apart later.
This race made me very proud of what I can do and I'm going to stick with my Maffetone / Primal Endurance lifestyle of diet and training. It has worked wonders. I'll discuss this in a future blog. Up next (in 4 days) JFK 50-miler.
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