Ultracentric 48 Hour Race

Jim & Sue Norwood sent me this inquiry about my 48 hour strategy. Here is a brief report. Ok, it's kinda long!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Jim wrote:
Well, how did UC go for you? Sue and I were entered, but for various reasons didn't go. For one thing, we were a bit concerned about the lack of organization and conflicting information we found on the race website. From what we've heard, it may have been a good decision. We hope your experience was positive.

We're interested in hearing how things went for you. How did you deal with sleep? That seemed to be a concern you had. You received several responses from your post to the list in October and we're wondering how much was helpful, and if you were able to adhere to any kind of predetermined schedule. Since you solicited advice from the list, others may be interested in your comments.



I had a good race. As has been mentioned, there were some problems with the organizer, mainly a ridiculous, completely false course description. Lap counts were often hard to get. Sometimes, for several hours at a time. But, all in all, I had a great time at my first 48 hour experience.

I ran at a steady pace most of the first 9 hours. Started slow (15 min. pace) for the first couple laps. Then, cranked it up (ha, ha!) to around 11-12 min. pace for the remaining daylight hours. With rest breaks (bathroom, few minutes for dinner), I was keeping about a 13:30 average. Night brought a slow down, with a few laps coming in around 20 minutes (17 min. mile). But, one of the best things for me, psychologically speaking, was knowing that I could sleep. I decided to take a 90 minute rest around 2-3:00 am. At 1:30, I started to get the yawns. So, I pulled into the tent around 2:00 and set the alarm for 90 minutes. I think I only slept about the last 20-30 minutes. But, it felt very good to just rest and close my eyes. I woke up and immediately got moving. What made it worse was that our tent was at the bottom of the hill. So, I immediately had to go into a climb. But, no big problem. After a lap or two of loosening up, I was able to get my running going again.

Overall, I ran the flats. I mostly ran the downhill, alternating walking down every third or fourth lap, to save the quads. This seemed to work well. I walked mostly all of the uphills. Although, on the first day, I mixed it up a little to work different muscles. I would estimate that the 1.15 mile loop was 1/2 flat to slightly downhill, 1/4 slight uphills, 1/4 big hill at the start/finish.

I stopped again for a rest around 5:00 am. This time for 45 minutes. Due to a misunderstanding (and my wife being mostly asleep) she set the alarm for 35 minutes. But, it worked out great. I would guess I actually slept about 15-20 minutes. I felt fairly refreshed upon waking 5 minutes before the alarm. Once again, a lap or two of walkng got me back to a running gear. My best times during the wee hours of darkness were around 14-15 minute miles. I passed the 100 mile mark around 28 hours. I would estimate the course as having 50-60 feet of elevation per loop. Hundred mile total was around 4,500 5,000 feet of gain. I feel that I could have been faster through the first 100. But, I felt it was smart to try to keep my ability to run as long as possible.

Day two brought back some speed. I was able to do mostly 14 min. miles through the daytime hours. Eating real food every 5-6 hours seemed to work well for energy and felt great. I had a good, consistent appetite throughout, a rarity for me. I only had one shot of gel during the whole race. Took an S-cap! every hour during daylight, every 2 hours at night. I drank about 10 oz. of Clip2, about every 3-4 hours throughout. I did start out with my hydration pack for the first 2 hours. I realized that it wasn't needed, as I could get water every 15-20 minutes. So, for the first time, I ran the rest of the race carrying nothing. It was nice. I did feel like I lost a bit of time this way. At times, I found myself stopping every lap for a drink, a snack, to pee, etc. After 3-4 laps like this, I'd get frustrated at my lap times. Then, I would decide to go something like: 2 laps no stops, get water quickly, take food with me. Then, 2-3 more laps non-stop, etc. This kept my pace up to a reasonable rate, maybe 15 min. miles, average.

As the second night started, the constant wind finally stopped. The wind had blown strong and gusty since early afternoon on the first day. During day 2, I was in a jacket most of the day, sometimes with hat and gloves. I couldn't understand how the 12/24 hour runners were out there in shorts and singlets! I figured I was just physically depleted and not able to keep the furnace stoked. I also noticed most of the 48 hour runners were also bundled up. As the sun went down, I got a great second wind. I pulled out 4-5 laps at 12-14 minute pace. My goal was 150 miles. I decided that when I hit 150, I would call it and go to sleep. This gave me good incentive to keep moving. I was constantly doing math in my head: "only 9 hours to go".

Around hour 34, my achilles tendon really started to hurt. It went from a very slight twinge, to "hey, idiot!" in just a few minutes. This gave me cause for alarm. I know that achlles injuries can be very chronic. I asked a couple of well seasoned runners about it. They agreed that I shouldn't keep going if I had pain. After catching up with Dr. Andy Lovy, he also confirmed the diagnosis. He said to stretch and rest. If it didn't hurt, I could continue. If it still hurt, I would be risking more injury. After walking two more laps, it was time to throw in the towel. They had me counted at 126 miles. I felt content with that. So, at 36:05, I handed in my timing chip and caught a ride back to the motel. By 10:30, I was in bed.

We returned in the morning, just before the runners finished at 9:00. We had a nice breakfast. We hung out at the awards ceremony and cheered the other runners. There were some great performances, especially considering the course. Afterwards, we packed up camp and headed down the road.

Overall, I felt pretty good physically. Spending 2-3 days driving home was terrible for my circulation. We only drove 4-5 hours a day, taking it slow and milking a few more days of vacation. But, the blood just pooled in my legs. When we would stop at a hotel, I would walk around a bit and elevate. No problems. 11 days later, my achilles is still slightly sore, with a small nodule. A regular routine of RICE has helped a lot. I did my first run of about a mile on day 9, before it started to tighten up. I walked back. Yesterday, I went for a 4.5 mile loop. Ran 4 miles at pretty slow pace. More tightening up. I deceided it was time for some other therapy. So, I'm going to see my PT on tuesday. Slow and easy and no more injury is my motto.

I hope to be back on my regular, rigorous ;-) schedule of 30 mpw soon. Plus, as soon as it starts snowing, I've got some ski days to get in. And, of course, like any junkie, I'm thinking about trying to get down for Rocky Raccoon 100 in February.

PS- A huge shout out to my wife Paige, and daughter Ripley. The best crew a guy could ask for. They brought me Chick-Fil-A twice for dinner. And were generally fantastic! And, as is always the case, great volunteers at the race, Always helpful, always gracious. I hope that the RD can get his act together. This could really be a class act, with a few minor changes.