2013: The lost year?

After a promising start to 2013 with my best ever 50K race off minimal training, I set out an ambitious racing schedule:

2/2/13 - Lewis 10 miler - 1:07:01, 3rd
2/9/13 - Mid-Maryland 50K - 4:11:30, 4th
3/16/13 - Eliabeth's Furnace 50K - 7:01, 8th
4/13/13 - Bull Run Run 50 - DNF
5/4/13 - Farm Park 6 Hour Challenge
6/1/13 - Old Dominion 100
6/22/13 - Mason Dixon Longest Day Challenge
7/27/13 - Catoctin 50K - DNF

After EF50K, I wouldn't finish another ultra that year. It's not clear exactly where things went wrong but it must have happened sometime after EF50K, although I don't think that race was the direct cause. I started to feel pain on the inside ball of my foot. It hurt while walking or running and it would usually die down if I took a day or two off. In the end I went out and did a 20+ mile run on the AT the week after EF50K, and likely did further damage. The following day the pain was worse than it had been previously, and I resigned to take the two weeks leading up to Bull Run very easy and I didn't research further the exact nature of the injury since it didn't strike me at the time as anything serious.

Bull Run Run 50

As Bull Run came up, I felt reasonable healthy. I hadn't felt any pain in a few days and I figured I would be ready to run after a pretty hard taper. My goal after entering the race was simply to finish, as I needed a qualifying race for Old Dominion, but I though somewhere in the mid 8:30-9 hour range was reasonable on a good day and hopefully under 10 hours if things didn't go well. From the start I made sure to pace myself and run within my own ability. Everyone else flew by as we did a quick loop on some roads before hitting the trails. I must have been in 100th+ place after the first half mile, but I stayed relaxed. Eventually I slowly moved around people at my own pace for the first 12 miles or so, and then came upon a happy-looking group of runners all running at what seemed to be a comfortable pace so I decided to stick with them. Misery loves company, right?

Unfortunately, around mile 14 I could already feel a slight pain developing on my foot in the same area as had previously bothered me. I tried to shrug it off as minor but I had a foreboding feeling it was more serious than that. By the time I got to the aid station at mile 32 I had a 5-6 mile loop ahead of me and the pain was getting to the point where I realized this was not simply a little wear and tear. I was well ahead of cutoff (9:30 pace at this point) so I could have death-marched to the finish but I sat down at the aid station and after some contemplation I realized that my conservative approach to training (listen to your body) was against such heroics, and I turned in my bib number.

I ended up self-diagnosing it as a posterior tendon tibialis issue based on the localization of the pain and swelling. I spent the following three weeks recovering. My university started a club swimming team which I was fortunate to be able to take part in, giving me some reprieve from the inactivity that comes with recovering from an injury. By the time May rolled around I was more or less back on my feet, running pain free and starting to build my mileage back up. With late spring and early summer races out of the picture, I turned my attention to my home trails: Catoctin 50K.

Summer

My training over the summer was consistent with weekend long runs on some of the Catoctin 50K course. In 2012 I found myself under-prepared for the long grind that happens on the Catoctin course in late July as temperatures climb well into the upper 90's, so I included many afternoon heat runs in my training to the point where I was very comfortable handling the scorching weather.

During this time I also prepared to make a significant change in my life, as I accepted a position to pursue a Chemistry PhD at the University of Colorado Boulder. Squeezing in running between working full-time doing research and preparing to move across the country, I found myself learning quickly to be more efficient then ever with my time. I like to think this helped me to train smarter, taking more days off from running than ever before (because I was too busy) and making sure the runs I got in had substance.

Catoctin 50K

As Catoctin approached, I was feeling very confident about my fitness and race strategy. I knew from 2012 it was important to run my own race, as expending extra effort to stay with someone who climbed or descended much faster than me in the early stages on the race would weak havoc as the heat set in in the afternoon. Going out hard and hanging on is not an advisable strategy for as difficult of a course as this.

Race morning brought uncharacteristically pleasant weather (60's) for late July and the afternoon forecast was only around 80 degrees. With spirits high for such a great day in the mountains, the past from the beginning was fast and hard. Rather than hang onto the front like last year I simply ran at my own comfortable pace which ended up being somewhere between 7-9 depending on if I was hiking the valley slower than other or descending faster. Unfortunately, from the start I never quite felt in a rhythm. My legs felt heavy even though I was well rested, and I simply couldn't run as fast or as smooth as I was used to. In the end I think this was one of the best things that could have happened to me. As it turned out I was on pace through the Gambrill Rd. aid station for my pre-race goal of (5:30), while everyone else was running with the pedal to the metal.

As I started to the descent to the manor area turn around I finally started to feel some spring in my step, and finally my legs were coming alive. Eager to start making up ground on the runners in front of me who might have gone out too bard, I bombed the descent perhaps a bit too eagerly, and on one of the steepest portions tripped and ended up doing my best superman impression down the trail. I hit the ground hard. Fortunately I didn't impale myself on anything, but my knee did make contact with a boulder on my way to the ground. I got up and tried to run it off, but the pain was severe. I set out to make it down to the Manor area and reevaluate at that time, trying to run every few steps to see if I could shake it off. By the time I got to the manor my knee had swelled up to the size of a softball. While I was far enough ahead of cutoffs I might have been able to death march it in, I knew it wouldn't be the smart thing to do and I pride myself in running, training, and racing smart.

New beginnings: looking forward

After some self-contemplation it wasn't a hard choice to call that race the close of my 2013 racing season, if it can be called a full season in the first place. I moved out to Boulder, CO during the first week of August to begin graduate school at the University of Colorado.

Several months in I can say with certainty that Boulder is a very unique city. The lifestyle here in Colorado in the first place is much more relaxed than back east. I've noticed that in general nobody ever speeds. If the speed limit is 45, people do 45 or even less than that. On the highway where the speed limit is 65? You're flying by everyone if you do 66. This is an interesting comparison to back in Maryland where at least 5mph over the speed limit is considered typical in most places and if you are feeling particularly daring you might edge towards 7mph. This make for a useful analogy for comparing the two locations.

The options for nature and trail running are unparalleled for anywhere else in North America. I live relatively "far away" from the mountains, and I am still only 3 miles from the closest trail head. That makes for a long warm up in a run or a quick bike ride. The trails them self are ideal for trail running. While part of me misses the rocky trails of the Frederick Watershed and the Appalachian trail, it's difficult to surpass the divine sense of grinding a few thousand feet up a mountain to be rewarded with a spectacular view. Then you can cruise back down the mountain, with you feet cushioned by soft sandy dirt and fallen pine needles. The sun warms is pleasantly warming and the dry breeze cools you down. At the bottom you get to look up ahead and start another climb and the cycle repeats.

I've been fortunate to make time to get in some solid running as October has rolled around. This has allowed for runs in the cool crisp autumn weather, reminding me once again why this is my favorite season. With consistency starting to return to my legs I hope to try and hold some moderate fitness as I brave winter and set my sights for a better and more adventurous 2014.

As far as races go I am still a long ways off from deciding anything in particular but I think doing the Collegiate Peaks 50 in early may followed a four weeks later by the San Juan Solstice 50 will give me a good knowledge of longer distance logistics to make a try at the Run Rabbit Run 100 late in the summer.

Until then I will look back on 2013 as a valuable year for learning. Through all the DNFs I like to think I have come away away smarter and better prepared moving forward into the future. I recall a certain Batman movie with a quote echoing this idea.

Elizabeth's Furnace 50K

This Saturday I travelled down to the Masanutten Mountains in Virginia for the annual Elizabeth's Furnace 50k run. I originally heard about it from someone who attended one of the C&O Canal 100 training runs (he left something behind) so I went down there to get it back to him and hopefully enjoy a nice day in the mountains.

I drove down race morning with Bill S. and Dave G. and we ended up getting to the starting line just in time (6:58!) for the 7 am start. I could tell the morning was off to a bad start when I realized I had left behind my bag with all of the most important non-shoe items (body glide, hat, gloves, turn sheet, etc.). So off I ran to the start being very underprepared (in more ways than one) for a possible rainy day in the mountains.

I grabbed a turn sheet at the start, (fortunately they had extras) and set off. The first climb up to Signal Knob was a long one and being mostly towards the back of the group I resigned to hiking the entire thing despite some runnable grades. Looking at it positively, I made sure to not go out too quickly! At the top of the climb we followed some generic single track and I started to move a little more comfortably. I had not been on the Masanutten trails in a number of years and I underestimated their degree of technicality. Initially going in I figured 6 hours would be a good time to shoot for since I couldn't imagine a course harder than Catoctin, but boy was I wrong.

After this first stretch of singletrack we moved onto the Sidewinder trail as I think it was called. This was a great stretch on an old railroad bed and it felt nice to be able to open up a little bit and move my legs more quickly. Unfortunately, almost as soon as it started the Sidewinder trail ended and I arrived at the first aid station. I topped off my water bottles with Gatorade and grabbed a nice mix of Pringles/Nutter Butters for the road. I was in good spirits at this point and my legs were in good shape despite the relatively hard effort the previous day with Sage N.

I was rewarded over the next ten miles before the second aid station with a reminder of how little trail running I have done in the past few months. I could probably count on two hands the number of times since my IT band injury that I have ran on the AT or blue trail and it showed on the "uglier" Massanutten trails. While on the AT and blue trail you can usually pick you way through the rocks with careful precision, the Masanutten trail offered a new challenge often times of having only one possible path through the rocks. The reuired motions often would be best characterized as “rock hopping” for miles on end. Even then the AT and catoctin trail rocks tend to be flatter and slightly easier to navigate. The Masanutten rocks seemed like they were sticking up just looking to impale an innocent victim.

Despite this I did my best to stay focused and charged onward to the second aid station at Elizabeth's furnace. I was rewarded with a nice smooth downhill section coming off the mountain where I could again open up a little bit and stretch my legs which felt nice. At Elizabeth's Furnace I was feeling quite hungry so I made sure to eat up. I had a few handfuls of Fig Netwons and Pringles and then set out to conquer the last 10 miles of the course. Little did I know the awaited me.

The turn sheet describes the next climb of this so called "Sherman Gap" trail as "very steep" in the last 0.5 miles of the 2.5 mile climb. I would describe the climb as "very steep" starting 1.5 mile out, so I suppose it is all in perspective. Fortunately at the top of the climb I knew I was almost done so I soldiered on. After some more fun rock hopping across the ridge I was rewarded with another nice smooth downhill back into Elizabeth's furnace. One short climb later and I was able to roll into the finish line, relieved that I wouldn't have to do any more pseudo-rock climbing for the rest of the day. My final time was somewhere over 7 hours (update on 3/31/13, 7:01 officially), much slower than I expected, but I was happy to be done.

In the end I was reminded of how under-prepared I was for severe technical running like this. Because of that I never got into any sort of rhythm all day long and had to constantly cherry pick my way across the rocks due to lack of preparation. This will be good motivation to make a better effort to run on the AT/Catoctin trails, and the relative freshness of my legs after finishing (due to not being able to run "hard" all day long) helped to show me that my legs should be able to be ready to tackle the Bull Run 50 on April 15th. In the end I am happy I got out and put time on my feet in the Masanutten Mountains. Once you get over all the rocks it's a great time!

Gummy Bears and Pretzels: Mid-Marlyand 50K

I haven't updated my blog in quite a while, but this is mostly because I haven't done anything of serious note since last summer. Now as we begin to emerge from the depths of winter I have established some consistent training and a race result of note. This past weekend I traveled to Rockburn Branch Park in Howard County to take part in the second annual Mid-Maryland 50K trail race.

I didn't have any specific goals going into the race other than use it as a "mandatory long run" in the sense that I knew I would be out there for 31 miles so I might as well get as much out of it as I could. Fortunately with such low expectations they were easy to exceed. I didn't sleep much the night before the race. A cold front was moving through the area (and dumping snow all over New England) so there were howling wind gusts all night long. The morning started off with the usual pre-race routine: drink 1 liter of water 2 hours before race start, and eat two packs of Nature Valley honey oat bars. I drove into Frederick and picked up Vincent Kerbarh who was visiting from France.

Arriving at the start/finish area we were welcomed to the arctic cold weather by having to stand in line to pick up our numbers for half an hour in 20 degree weather with high winds. Thoroughly frozen, Vincent and I quickly hurried back to my car to warm up for 5 minutes before we had to head to the race start.

The course is a convenient 5 loop course, with each loop being 10K. Logistically this made things easy as I could keep a bag at the start/finish of each loop and stash anything I needed to drop, or pick up an extra layer if I got too cold. In the 5 minutes before the race I must have went back and forth at least a dozen times as to whether or not to strip off the tights and go with the short shorts and in the end (30 seconds before the race start) I decided to go sans-tights. This proved to be a wise decision. I was pretty cold for the first lap but once the sun came up and the wind died down I can't imagine how miserable I would have been running in tights.

Vincent (right) and myself (137) coming off the start line.

 

 

Vincent and I settled into a nice pace pretty early on. I was towards the back of the pavilion as we started so I had to do some weaving to get to the runners making what felt like a relatively comfortable pace. I realized after I started that I left my watch buried somewhere in my bag in the pavilion, so I would be flying blind as to my pace. The majority of the first loop was spent getting settled into a nice pace. I can tell I've become more geared towards the long distance events these days as it usually takes me 5-6 miles to feel warmed up. Vincent and I ran with two other guys who seemed to be pretty good friends as they chatted for most of the first loop. They were discussing their plans for the local RRCA 10 Mile Club Challenge race, and they seemed to have plans in the sub-60-62 minute range so I knew I was moving pretty well. Vincent and I would drop them around mile 5 as I started to feel good and I never saw them again all day long.

 

As I finished up my first loop I perused the aid stations goodies. They had HEED sports drink, the most foulest-tasting sports drink on the planet, but I topped off with it anyway since I didn't have much of a choice. I grabbed a few pretzel sticks seeing nothing else particularly appealing and headed out for the second loop. I made it my mission to spend as little time in the aid stations as possible and that was something I managed all day long. In my quick transition I dropped Vincent and I would not see him until the finish. In a rare occasion I noticed my split as I started the second loop (49:10).

 

During the second loop I settled into my groove. The 50K event occurred simultaneously with a 50K relay event, so I enjoyed having people to chase down and/or pace with during this time. It was hard to tell who might have been a 50K runner or a relay runner but overall placing was not on my mind at this point, I was just out there to have fun and get in a long run. After an uneventful second loop I cruised into the Pavilion. I ditched my hat at my bad and topped off my water bottle with HEED again. I went to grab some more pretzels and noticed a new treat I hadn't seen before: Gummy Bears! They looked too delicious to resist so I grabbed a handful of them to go with the pretzels and set out on loop three. Forgetting to look at the clock, I had no idea where I was pace-wise.

 

At this point in the race I had gotten a fairly good idea of who was running the 50K and who was on a relay team based on seeing unfamiliar or familiar runners ahead of me, so the third loop consisted of hunting down the lone 50K runner I recognized ahead of me. He seemed like he was hurting and I caught him around mile 16 or so. The third loop was the first loop I started to notice how muddy the trail was getting. The melting ice and combined footsteps of a few hundred people multiplied over each loop was taking its toll. This was going to be a fun race course come 12PM. Somewhere in the middle of the third loop I entered the best part of the race for me.

 

Without a watch to indicate how fast I was running I went purely by feel, putting in a comfortable effort that seemed sustainable over the 50K distance. As I entered the Pavilion for the third time I again grabbed gummy bears and pretzels, topped off on HEED, and set out on lap number four. Once again I failed to look at the clock. Feeling good and cruising at a relatively effortless pace ~18.6 miles into the race I was excited. Looking ahead I thought I recognized someone only a minute or so ahead of me: Serge Arbona. Serge is well known in the ultra-running circles for being a fantastic runner (former treadmill 24 hour world record holder) so for the first time all day when I saw him it struck me I must have been moving pretty well.

 

I closed the gap on Serge in a relatively quick fashion. I passed him on a downhill with a speedy up-tempo effort and did my best not to look back. I couldn't help feeling as if passing a great runner like Serge would come back to haunt me but fortunately I would not see him until the finish. The remainder of the fourth lap I felt like I was flying through the trails on a cloud, smooth, controlled, and effortless. After passing Serge I knew I had to be in a pretty strong place overall so I started looking for someone to catch. I would never find the next runner but the thought of keeping anyone from catching me would be motivation enough to keep the furnace stoked.

 

Entering the pavilion at the end of loop 4 I quickly drained what was left in my water bottle and stashed it with my bag, sensing I was hydrated enough and moving well enough to not need it for the last lap. I grabbed a huge handful of gummy bears and headed out. For the first time since the end of the first loop I looked at the clock and it read 3:16:06. This was a shocking time. I quickly did the mental math of what that meant as I headed out with a mouthful of gummy bears. "What is the absolute slowest I could theoretically run? No slower than 64 minutes, right?" "What is the absolute fastest I could run? Maybe 50 minutes? That would be 4:06! Holy cow!"

 

With these thoughts running through my head I started to feel discomfort for the first time during the race. I imagine it hit somewhere around mile 25-26. I am fortunate that my training to this point has strengthened my mental resolve and I was able to stay focused. My pace slipped on the last lap to a 9:00min/mi pace, but I remained mentally focused the entire time. This contrasts from my previous 50K's where at one point or another during the race I have a mental breakdown and I ended up wallowing in my misery until I pulled things together again. There was no doubt I was going to finish the race with a great time and I knew the only thing that could stop me lied between my own two ears. Sucking it up and running hard I made it to the finish still feeling relatively good, although no longer in "comfortable cruising mode". My final time was 4:11:30 and I ended up in 4th place. I think they said third place finished in 4:06, so it was no wonder I never saw him.

Reflections of this race need to go first and foremost to my effective pacing. Looking at the results sheet, I paced very well minus a slight slip up on the last lap:

Lap 1 (10K): 0:49:10

Lap 2 (20K): 1:37:30

Lap 3 (30K): 2:26:10

Lap 4 (40K): 3:16:06

Lap 5 (50K): 4:11:30

Post-race mud stucco. It required scraping off with a plastic spoon.

 

Interestingly enough, I also set a new marathon PB. I ran 3:35 in Virginia Beach back in 2011, and I must have split somewhere around 3:25 for 26.2 during this race. In the end, this gives me confidence moving forward that despite not getting in as much training as I might have liked during the winter months, I enter spring and summer with a good base, and most importantly a strengthened mental constitution in the area of ultras. Lastly, I never hit a wall of any kind. This has been a consistent pattern for all of the 50K’s I have done this far: the only thing that could hold me back was my legs. My energy levels were high the entire time, so hopefully I have dialed into a relatively effective glucose-management strategy of some sort.

 

Looking forward to the future, I "won" the lottery today for the Bull Run 50 miler in mid-April. I will have to travel out west (Denver, Salt Lake City, and Denver airports) on three consecutive weekends starting next weekend to visit graduate schools, which will reduce my running time but after that I will have to focus and get ready for the BRR50. If I can finish that race the large goal at the end of the tunnel is the Old Dominion 100 in early June.