Well it wasn't a major race as far as the Midwest is concerned. It was though another victory notched in my somewhat bright at times but more or less mediocre ultrarunning career. I didn't expect much from this race. As it was to be my first race since the Freestate 40 miler back in late April. Taking some time off for the family and also to let my legs rest up some seeing as I will be pushing them pretty hard August through November to finish out the year. 12 weeks is the longest break I've had between races for the last few years so I wasn't sure how they would respond if I tried to shake out the race rust all of a sudden.
Being a very low key race I didn't have to worry about competition from the other entrants in the field. So my main goal was to see if I could top the time that was put up by fellow teamate Rick Mayo at last years inaugural running. When I first saw what his time was after last year I thought that it was pretty soft. I wasn't quite sure why it had been so slow. Rick had been running extremely well at that point last year. Entering the race because Western States was called off and he didn't want to waste any of that good training. I thought maybe he just had the same no pressure from the lack of competition as I was facing this year and didn't have anyone to push him to keep his pace early on.
After the drive out to the race though I was starting to get the sneaking suspicion that I was going to have a hilly good time during the wee hours of the morning. I had to readjust my strategy a little and try and figure out a way to be able to keep my tempo up when the hills started to hurt during the second loop. My initial plan was to go out hard and try to catch up to the tail end of the 100km group of runners that had started their race 2 hours and 10 minutes before us. Then once I hooked onto the back of that group I could use each runner I caught sight of after that as sort of a rabbit. The "carrot in front of the horse", theory.
That worked out great. I got word from my crew after finishing my first 20 mile loop that the last 100km runner just left out onto his 2ND loop just 6 minutes before me. Great my first goal. Once I caught up to the runner I could see why I was able to do so as quick as I did. He was suffering from severe cramping and hadn't been taking in fluids like he should have been. It was about 80 degrees out still at 1 AM and the humidity was also around 70 to 80 percent. To make it even more unbearable there wasn't the slightest wind to be found anywhere out on the course. I asked him if he was O.K. and he said he was going to try and make it to the next aide station and see how he felt after a few minutes. That was the last I saw of him for the rest of the night. Or any other runner for a good long time. The heat was a major factor. As it destroyed over half of the 100 km field and the entire 40 mile field excluding myself but I was definitely feeling the strain and on the urge of throwing in the towel.
Finally I started catching the blinking LED lights of a few of the other 100km runners around the 50km point of both of our races. Hit the 50km mark in around 4:15 to 4:20 The 100 km guys I were passing were now well into their 6TH hour of running. Had a fairly good aide station stop at mile 34 and was out under 2 minutes. After that though about a half mile down the road the wheels fell completely off for me. The next several miles felt like they took forever. Which would later prove to be correctly so as several people who had wore Garmins measured the course a bit on the long side. About one mile per loop on the long side. Which explained also why it took me 42 minutes to run 4.5 miles from the 25km mark to the aide station at 20 miles. After I had been consistently clocking 7:20's through 25km. Making it into the aide station at 38 miles (40 miles). I left out with roughly 22 minutes to break the record Rick put up the year before. I wasn't sure if I would get it thinking there was still around two, two and a half to go. I knew there was still one more big hill to get up and I really felt like I had nothing in the tank. I wasn't going to take it easy and just miss it by seconds either. So I kicked it in and let adrenaline get me to the finish in under 15 minutes. Bettering Mayo's mark by over 7 minutes.
I just want to thank my crew, GPRC and Salomon for all their support. The gear they provide our team with is top notch. I toed the line sporting a pair of XT Hawks, Trail shorts, XT Wing Twin Belt and white Salomon visor. My shoes were completely soaked with sweat after the run yet they still managed to provide me with a blister free ride for the entire run.
Being a very low key race I didn't have to worry about competition from the other entrants in the field. So my main goal was to see if I could top the time that was put up by fellow teamate Rick Mayo at last years inaugural running. When I first saw what his time was after last year I thought that it was pretty soft. I wasn't quite sure why it had been so slow. Rick had been running extremely well at that point last year. Entering the race because Western States was called off and he didn't want to waste any of that good training. I thought maybe he just had the same no pressure from the lack of competition as I was facing this year and didn't have anyone to push him to keep his pace early on.
After the drive out to the race though I was starting to get the sneaking suspicion that I was going to have a hilly good time during the wee hours of the morning. I had to readjust my strategy a little and try and figure out a way to be able to keep my tempo up when the hills started to hurt during the second loop. My initial plan was to go out hard and try to catch up to the tail end of the 100km group of runners that had started their race 2 hours and 10 minutes before us. Then once I hooked onto the back of that group I could use each runner I caught sight of after that as sort of a rabbit. The "carrot in front of the horse", theory.
That worked out great. I got word from my crew after finishing my first 20 mile loop that the last 100km runner just left out onto his 2ND loop just 6 minutes before me. Great my first goal. Once I caught up to the runner I could see why I was able to do so as quick as I did. He was suffering from severe cramping and hadn't been taking in fluids like he should have been. It was about 80 degrees out still at 1 AM and the humidity was also around 70 to 80 percent. To make it even more unbearable there wasn't the slightest wind to be found anywhere out on the course. I asked him if he was O.K. and he said he was going to try and make it to the next aide station and see how he felt after a few minutes. That was the last I saw of him for the rest of the night. Or any other runner for a good long time. The heat was a major factor. As it destroyed over half of the 100 km field and the entire 40 mile field excluding myself but I was definitely feeling the strain and on the urge of throwing in the towel.
Finally I started catching the blinking LED lights of a few of the other 100km runners around the 50km point of both of our races. Hit the 50km mark in around 4:15 to 4:20 The 100 km guys I were passing were now well into their 6TH hour of running. Had a fairly good aide station stop at mile 34 and was out under 2 minutes. After that though about a half mile down the road the wheels fell completely off for me. The next several miles felt like they took forever. Which would later prove to be correctly so as several people who had wore Garmins measured the course a bit on the long side. About one mile per loop on the long side. Which explained also why it took me 42 minutes to run 4.5 miles from the 25km mark to the aide station at 20 miles. After I had been consistently clocking 7:20's through 25km. Making it into the aide station at 38 miles (40 miles). I left out with roughly 22 minutes to break the record Rick put up the year before. I wasn't sure if I would get it thinking there was still around two, two and a half to go. I knew there was still one more big hill to get up and I really felt like I had nothing in the tank. I wasn't going to take it easy and just miss it by seconds either. So I kicked it in and let adrenaline get me to the finish in under 15 minutes. Bettering Mayo's mark by over 7 minutes.
I just want to thank my crew, GPRC and Salomon for all their support. The gear they provide our team with is top notch. I toed the line sporting a pair of XT Hawks, Trail shorts, XT Wing Twin Belt and white Salomon visor. My shoes were completely soaked with sweat after the run yet they still managed to provide me with a blister free ride for the entire run.
