This one is a bit long, but It covers 100 miles, so…
Shortly after running my first 50k last fall, I signed up for a 50 miler as a winter getaway. Of course, I didn’t even wait to experience that before signing up for my first 100 miler: Burning River. At the time, I was still living in Cleveland and could get to any section of the course within a 40 minute drive, so I spent the winter running portions of the course in the snow.
Having about 3 months in Seattle to complete my training made me much stronger on the hills and gave me practice on more technical trails. I’m not sure how much better I am with technical trails, given how much blood I’ve left out on those trails since April…
Race day had nearly perfect weather. It rained overnight and was very humid at the start, but it was only 65 in the early hours and the high for the day was 75 with sun. I started out in road shoes as the first 11 miles were on road with fairly easy trails after that to the first drop bag at mile 21. There were 2 creek crossings in there that required going ankle-deep, so a shoe change was in order by that point anyway. I had a pacing plan for each major section and was doing pretty well. I was very close for the first 11, though I came into mile 21 10 minutes early after misreading the wrist band I had my pacing strategy noted on. I used some of that extra time for my shoe change and a bathroom break without feeling rushed.
The next 20 or so miles were pleasant, running through the woods and sharing miles with other runners when our paces aligned. It was mile 45 where things turned. I was feeling good about my hydration and calorie consumption, but I started getting nauseous and was having trouble taking water. The gels, shot blocs, and sport beans I was carrying suddenly all sounded awful. I had trained with these items up to 33 miles (and used them in my 50 miler), so I was in foreign territory without any experience with fixing tummy issues. I was still about 10 min ahead though and figured I could take it easy into mile 50 with hopes that I would feel better then.
My pacing plan had me finishing around 20 hours, 30 minutes (which was crazy ambitious for hundo #1), but I came into the 50 mile station at 9h30m, having given up my 10 min time bank. Unfortunately, I was still having trouble eating. I took about 20 minutes to slowly try different food and rest. My mind started to despair here, which was probably a mix of mental fatigue and things not going well in a way I wasn’t familiar with. Deep down, I knew I was doing great and even still had a great shot at sub-24hr, but I left the halfway point nearly in tears carrying a Ziploc baggie full of pb&j sandwiches that didn’t really sound any better to eat than gels at that point.
The next 10 miles were a combination of walking and jogging. This was especially brutal as it was a pretty flat portion of the course where even a slow run would have been 4-5 min/mi faster (I was averaging about 16:30/mi here I believe). I was still having trouble drinking and this was the least shade I would have through the middle of the day, compounding my issues. Somewhere in here I also realized that, in my funk at the halfway point, I failed to re-apply Vaseline and get some Tums to see if those might help me.
Around mile 55 the aid station was run by the Cleveland Triathlon Club and I knew some folks volunteering. Their energy was a big mental boost and, when I asked about Tums, a volunteer must have dumped half a bottle into my pb&j baggie. I would munch on those periodically for a while and the helped a little.
At the mile 60 aid station I was surprised to run into a former coworker volunteering. We had a little chat, I got some Vaseline to apply (it was too little too late), and this was the first aid station with GRILLED FREAKING CHEESE!!! This was the first real food I was able to take since mile 45 (over 4 hours ago). I managed some pickle juice as well and went on my way.
On my way to the mile 66 aid station, I got a text that my first pacer, Sean, who had planned to meet me at mile 72 had been following me online and saw I was in trouble, so he drove out to pick me up 6 miles early. The Tums had been helping a little bit, but I was still in rough shape. Knowing that I would have a pacer soon helped me run a little bit more to mile 66 and I had decided there was one last thing I hadn’t tried to help my tummy. I was going to move on to Coke and see if the cola would help.
I rolled into 66 a little bit stronger. I explained to Sean what I was going through and what I had been eating. He suggested that I may have been low on salt as the chewables I was using were much less potent than caplets. I took more salt, had some grilled cheese, ramen, and coke (the most calories in a long time!) and we headed out. It took a little while, but I started feeling much better. Not great, and I was still having trouble eating on the run, but it was the best I had felt in quite a while. We ran more than I had been and I came into mile 72 feeling stronger.
The coke and ramen had gone down best, so I went back to those options again. The grilled cheese wasn’t working for me any more, so I doubled down on what was. I also had pickle juice and green grapes. Over the next 4.5 mile section, I started to feel really strong. I don’t think I realized till later, but I believe the caffeine in the Coke gave me a huge boost. Toward the end of this section, I even ran down a relay runner. As good as I was feeling, Sean and I decided maybe I was going a little too hard with 25 miles to go.
I was a little quicker through the mile 77 aid station. Coke, ramen, pickle juice, grapes. This would pretty much be my go-to at every station from here on out. It was also time to trade in my sunglasses and cap for my headlamp. I also tossed a light wind breaker in my pack and grabbed a Payday bar, which I had packed as a special, salty treat for later in the race.
The sun set between 77 and 82 and it got pretty chilly outside of the woods. It was pretty surprising how much heat the woods retain after sundown! I managed to eat half the Payday bar in this stretch (very slowly) which was my first time taking calories between stations in a long time (and the last, I think). I was also extra motivated to get to the next station as the captain had promised me a beer prior to the race. Chafing became a really big problem around this time.
As we rolled into the next stop, I put my wind breaker on to keep myself warm, which helped a lot and stopped in the bathroom to wedge some TP between my cheeks. It was a last-ditch effort to help the chafing, but it worked perfectly! That problem was completely solved the the rest of the run at least. At this station, I got coke, ramen, pickle juice, a cold Coors Light, and tried grilled cheese again (nope). The beer was a great moral boost going into a hilly 5 mile loop, but I also knew this would be the last really hilly section and I had trained on it a lot so I would know what to expect even when fatigued and in the dark. After some prodding from my pacer we were off.
Early in the race, there were some relatively steep downhills on road that I tried to take easy but ended up using a short choppy stride that I wasn’t used to. By mile 20, I had some discomfort in my right shin that I thought felt like shin splints. It stayed with me all day, so I tried to focus on good form without heel striking. By mile 82, it was starting to really hurt. The hilly section between 82-87 really took it’s toll and I had to be really careful on downhills for the first time. I also started to legitimately worry about serious injury. I had almost 20 miles to go and was in significant pain. I wasn’t sure how it would hold up (though I knew I was well-enough along that I could finish as long as I could walk). With my increased pace since mile 66, I had a decent shot at 23 hours, which Sean kept telling me to stop thinking about. All in all though, my attitude was really positive at this point.
The station at 87 came and went. I had my routine down now: 4 small cups of coke, ramen, pickle juice, some grapes, and go. This 5 mile section was mostly road and then one good hill in the woods. The road was easier on my shin, but just keeping my foot from dropping and dragging on the ground really hurt now. As we entered the wooded section, we heard a coyote. Sean remarked on how cool that was and then we heard another and another and another… Suddenly, up the trail ahead, we heard maybe a dozen coyotes howling… and then fighting. It sounded really vicious. Sean and I were silent for a bit and I had visions of running into some injured, pissed off coyotes on the trail. Luckily, that didn’t happen, though it was an unnerving 2 miles through that section of woods.
Back out on the road, I knew the next aid station was getting close. Now walking hurt about as much as running with the shin pain, so I picked up the pace. I was running people down that I hadn’t seen since mile 60 or before and leaving them in my tracks. At mile 92 I exchanged pacers (my younger sister, Brittany, tagged in) as well as shoes (back to more padded road shoes for the last ~10 miles). This was my only time sitting down the entire race. I did my nutrition routine and we took off. I definitely wasn’t getting the hydration and calories I needed, but I figured I could make it to the end. I needed to average 12/mi to finish under 23 and we headed down the path at a 10/mi pace out of the aid station.
I still had nausea, but the shin pain was getting REALLY bad. A wrong step here or there would result in me crying out in pain and stopping in my tracks. It was even worse trying to get started again after a short break. I was having to crouch down and bounce a little to stretch out my hips, knees, and ankles and then start running as soon as possible to avoid tightening up. I decided at this point that I wouldn’t be able to run for about 8 weeks, so I might as well make the most of this race. I also wanted it to be over as soon as possible. We hit mile 97 and had just 4.3 miles to go.
There was one more section of trail with some small hills and some stairs, but I could taste the finish line already. My watch died around this time and Brittany didn’t have her distance/time worked out to know what we needed to do to get in at 23 hours, so I was just going as hard as I could. We hit a nice, smooth downhill on a road an I had to walk. The pain was searing. I hobbled through the woods and had to use the hand rails to get down the stair cases. When the path ahead flattened out for good, I decided I needed to run the rest if at all possible. Each time I stopped to walk, getting started again hurt more and more.
We were then out on road for the last 1.5 miles. Every step hurt so bad, whether it was walking or running, so I told Brittany that I was going for the finish as fast as I could. Pretty soon she couldn’t keep up and continued to cheer me on from behind. That last mile and a half felt like a sub-8 pace. I was passing other runners on my way in and, when I saw the finish, I was in a dead sprint, crossing the line at 22:50:02.
I was exhausted. I congratulated a few runners that crossed behind me and then sunk into a chair. A volunteer brought me my buckle and Brittany grabbed me a ginger ale. I’m not sure how long I sat there; maybe 20 minutes before I started to get cold and decided to head over to the hotel. I got a hot bath, drank some water, ate a little something, and tried to sleep. I was way too uncomfortable to sleep. My hips ached and my shin burned, so I tossed and turned for about 4 hours. I decided to get up and grab some breakfast before heading back to the finish for the last hour before the cutoff. It was great to see 3 runners beat the cutoff in the last 30 minutes and the runner that came in 15 minutes after clearly wasn’t worried about the official time, she had covered 101.3 miles under her own power and the joy in her accomplishment was clear.
It’s been a week now and I can’t believe how well I’ve recovered! A physical therapist friend took a look at my shin later on Sunday and suggested that I probably just had a strain of the tibialis anterior (a much less serious injury than shin splints), which has proven true as it feels almost 100% 8 days later. I ran 5 miles on Tuesday (which was too much) and then 5 more on Thursday (still too much but manageable). After 2 more days off I ran 20 on the Sunday following my race and felt really strong. I’m excited that I’ll be able to do some more racing this summer and fall!
Nice, look forward to 10 more race reports from this race!
