31 May 2010

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Today, I decided to go for a very easy run, trying not to worsen my lower ab problem. While it does not really keep me from running, it does present a severe discomfort throughout the day, when I stretch my abs. I took the opportunity that presented itself when I dropped of my son at his bass guitar lesson. His instructor lives near the Aldridge Creek Greenway, so I strapped on my shoes and when for a job during his lesson. I figured I can get 5 miles in without killing myself, and I did. I took it real easy, running 9:30 per mile pace. That doesn't mean it actually felt easy. The heat and humidity are just hammering me down right now. I am making a conscientious effort to hydrate throughout the day. Eventually, I figure I get enough fluids to stay and feel strong again during my runs. Right now, it's heavy legs on every run. On top of that, it feels like someone keeps choking the air out of me during my runs. It has to be the humidity. I am going to keep the foot off the gas until I get a handle on this. I have my biggest race ever in two weeks and do not want to risk not being in top condition to run it.

29 May 2010

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I decided to go for another 4.5 miler this afternoon. I have been keeping my mileage low in an effort to recover properly from Saturday's trail race. I have one word to describe today's run, "humid". I ran my usual UAH loop and once I got to the open area of the course, with no wind and just the sun beating down on me, the humidity really hit me. It felt like someone was continuously pressing down on my chest as I was trying to breathe. I tried to maintain a somewhat respectible 8:30 pace for a short training run and it felt like I was racing. I am struggling to adjust to the heat and humidity of summer. I need to adjust and increase my water intake throughout the day, not just before, during and after training runs. I am definitely taking tomorrow off in hopes that my little groin discomfort subsides enough to make for a comfortable run. I am afraid to rest too much with the ultra race in Germany coming up in two weeks. I know its good to taper, but this is more than just tapering.

26 May 2010

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Since cross training was on the workout schedule for today and since I am still dealing with that blister and some lower abdomen issues, I figured I'd give the Vibram FiveFinger KSO's another shot. It had been a while since I tried them for the first and last time by running over 4 miles in them on the road, shredding my calf muscles in the process. So today I went about it in a much smarter way, which translates to me just running one mile on a dirt trail in them. Anyway, it all went well with no calf pain, yet. I followed it up with a few push-ups and crunches, realizing very quickly that I have been neglecting my upper body strength. Let's just say I felt like a wimp when I got done. As a result, I plan to do a set of push-ups and crunches once a day, every day with some yoga workouts thrown in for good measure. Of course, having never done yoga, this should make for yet another interesting experience.
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I figured it was time to go for a recovery run after Saturday’s taxing trail marathon. The blister on my right foot, while bothering me a little bit, did not present any real problems during my short run. Hopefully, it will continue to heal quickly. Surprisingly, the heat did not affect me either. I took it easy and ran 4 ½ miles at a leisurely pace of 9 minutes per mile. I tried out a new pair of Motorola Bluetooth head phones. To my dismay, there were as terrible as the previous set I used. They kept cutting out every couple of seconds. While I can live with the slight discomfort of having some ear plugs pressing into my ear canal, I cannot accept a stuttering running podcast that literally cuts out half of the content due to interrupting the sound every two seconds. I guess I will have to revert back to my wired ear plugs. So much for the advance in technology. I tried both the Motorola MOTOROKR S9 Bluetooth headphones as well as the Motorola MOTOROKR S9-HD and, quite frankly, they are both useless. I used them with a BlackBerry Curve 8520 and it should have worked seamlessly. However, while the pairing was easy enough and the sound is actually perfect for my purposes, as soon as I started running or moving, the sound started to cut out literally every couple of seconds. That is just unacceptable. As you can tell, this training run was neither eventful and as a result of the shoddy headphones, it wasn’t relaxing either. Hopefully there is something else out there that will allow me to use wireless headphones with my BlackBerry while on the run. Wednesday night I have cross training (in other words, last soccer game of the season) on my workout schedule. I haven’t decided yet if I will go for a run before the game. I feel like a slacker right now, because I’ve only done 4.5 miles since Saturday’s disappointing trail marathon. I need to work on my heat management. A couple of notes on the Scenic City Trail Marathon I ran this past Saturday. Actually, I consider them “lessons learned”: First, don’t bother using any type of Garmin device to track your pace or progress as the location causes your Garmin to provide erroneous data to you. Second, use that issue as an excuse to actually enjoy this race and the wonderful views by running at your pace without worrying about what your watch tells you.

23 May 2010

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While looking for a training run to prepare for my upcoming 108k ultra race in Germany, I came across this race listed on the G.U.T.S. online race calendar. Honestly, I first tried to register for the Twisted Ankle Trail Marathon, but it had filled up already. But can you blame me? What thrill seeking trail runner wouldn't want to register for a race with the phrase "twisted ankle" in it? Anyway, that's when I decided to register for another race fairly close to home. The Scenic City Trail Marathon is actually going to be the first marathon or ultra race I am traveling overnight for. This should be great training for my ultra in Germany.
The Scenic City Trail Marathon takes place at the Racoon Mountain Reservoir in Chattanooga, TN, which was build on top of Racoon Mountain ten minutes from downtown Chattanooga. This reservoir drops water down 990 feet to create electricity with turbines inside the mountain. After the water has been used to create electricity, it is discharged into the lower reservoir. The penstock or pipe that carries the water to the turbines below is large enough for a full-size bus to drive through. Built in the 70s, the upper dam is 230 feet high and 8500 feet long and the power capacity consists of 4 units supplying 1532 megawatts. The upper reservoir is 1.2 miles in length and the trails circumventing this reservoir will be the site for this marathon and a half marathon taking place at the same time.
I drove to Chattanooga the night before the race for the race packet pick-up and to take my better half out for a nice dinner. We had decided tostay in town through Sunday to enjoy a weekend away from home. I immediately located the Rock/Creek store in downtown Chattanooga, where I picked up my race bib and swag (a nice Patagonia short sleeve tech shirt). Afterwards, we drove about 5 minutes to our hotel to check in and to meet my running buddy Richard and his girlfriend. Richard was kind enough to run with me in my preparation for the ultra next month in Germany.
Richard and I went to the race location on top of Raccoon Mountain at 6:30 AM so he could register on site. We arrived there with the early crowd, able to enjoy some organic coffee and muffins (courtesy of Greenlife) that were absolutely fantastic. We put on our bibs, got our calves marked with the black letter "M" to identify us as marathon race runners to other runners. This was done to allow racers to recognize and differentiate the marathon from the half marathon runners during the race. Aparently, the race had doubled in size from the previous year. Since I had done some research online reading other race reports from last year, I knew that the course was 90% single track trail and that runners would get "stuck" behind each other on large stretches of the race. There was an opportunity to minimize that problem by going out hard on the first quarter mile on the road immediately after the start of the race. Now, all I had to do was convince Richard that is was a good idea to start out fast prior to reaching the single track trail...and I did.
We came out fast and settled in what I figured must have been at the front of the mid pack of runners. The field consisted of what must have been over 450 runners in the marathon and half marathon combined. I was settling into a comfortable pace, but Richard felt he was going out too hard too early. He sent me on my way arounf 5 miles into the race. Even though this was a training run, I wanted to try to push for a sub 4 hour finish. The course had been advertised as a fast trail course and I confirmed this tag line with other runners before the race, so I figured that I should give it a shot. I figured it must be rather flat since it was considered a fast course by many. However, there were two problems with my plan. First, the course wasn't flat or fast my any means of my imagination. Second and more importantly, there was a serious discrepancy between the actual distances covered during the race and the distances recorded by my Garmin 310XT (many other runners reported the same problem after the race). As a result, my Gramin kept showing me a pace significantly slower than my actual pace since it used false distance information. I, not aware of this error, continued to try to push harder to maintain a 9 minute pace not realizing that I was already going faster than that. The result of this error cost me dearly. Add the humidity and fairly high temperatures of the day and you get the inevitable crash and burn I experienced even before I reached mile 20. I was actually on track to finish in under 4 hours about 2 hours into the race. Unfortunately, my demise was becoming more and more evident as my balance and ability to lift my feet increasingly declined. I stopped counting my tripsand near face plants after ten. That coupled with my erroneous decision to wear two pairs of socks to prevent blisters and for added padding caused some foot problems late in the race. First, I stubbed my toes too many times to count. In addition, the high humidity caused "swamp" feet early in the race and the extra pair of socks did not seem to prevent blisters as I now have one pretty good one on the outside of my right foot. Next time, I will add hyrdopel to the mix (cover myfeet in it) and see if that helps.
Looking at the splits, I lost a significant amount of time towards the last third of the race. My Garmin recorded almost 4 miles less than the actual race distance. However, this need to stop running the hills late in the race to try to recover and lower my heart rate really allowed me to take in the beauty of this course. There were many places along the course where runners had magnificent views of the surrounding mountains and valleys. I just wished I had brought a camera to capture these images. Instead, I will have to leave you with an image of the price I paid to run this great event (see below).








19 May 2010

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With yesterday being a rest day, I opted for a short monring and short afternoon run to get some miles without killing myself. I am a little concerned with my abdomen issues and I want to make sure to give myself some recovery time before this Saturday's race, the Scenic City Trail Marathon. I selected that race as a long training run in preparation for the 108K ultra in Germany. Anyway, Richard stopped by my house at 5AM this morning. For some reason, he did not check his text messages while heading to my house. Otherwise, he would have read the slew of chain messages I sent him, trying to weasel out of this monring's run. I just didn't sleep well at all and wanted to try to catch another couple of hours of sleep. Since he did not respond to my messages, I assumed he was already on his way, and, not wanting to dissapoint him or have him pull up to a completely dark house, I ended up getting ready. By the time he got to my door, I had already finished my first cup of coffee. We decided to go for a short and easy, real easy, 4 1/2 miles around the UAH campus, my old stomping ground, and returned right around 6AM, in thime for the loca news and some breakfast without having to rush to the office.
Later that day, I chose to add another 6 miles by running the Indian Creek Greenway out & back. It was perfect running weather, a slight overcast with little humidity and temeratures appearing to be in the low 60s. Anyway, that added up to a nice 10 miles for the day. I think I'm gonna rest again tomorrow to help my abdomen and groin recover . I'm still not a hundred percent sure where and how I hurt myself.

17 May 2010

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I was pretty achy this morning, especially the groin and lower abdomen area. Must have been from the long run on Saturday and playing a 90 minute soccer game yesterday. Anyway, we all met up at the hiker's parking lot at Monte Sano State Park for an easy run on the trails. We opted for the South Plateau Loop-Family Bike Trail-Bucca Family Trail-South Plateau Loop option, which added up to a little over 5 miles. It sure felt like a lot more to me. My hear rate never went above 140, but my lower abdomen was just hurting a little too much. After all of that rain over the last couple of days, we really expected very muddy trails. I took this opportunity to try out my new pair of Inov-8 Roclite 312 GTX trail running shoes, hoping I would get to run through some serious mud and water. However, it wasn't to be. The trails were barely wet. But the shoes felt great. I hope to have a shoe review on a couple of shoes I recently purchased once I have been able to thoroughly put them through the paces, i.e. get some serious miles on them. I will also be reviewing my new road running shoes (Brooks Defyance 2) shortly. They withstood their first real road test (Strolling Jim 40 Mile Run) with flying colors and so did the Injinji socks. I haven't decided yet, if I will rest tomorrow. I might go for a run during lunch to do some heat/humidity training for my 108k race in Germany next month.

16 May 2010

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The alarm was supposed to go off at 2:40 AM. It didn't. Probably because I set it for P.M. instead of A.M. What is interesting about this is that I actually woke up at 2:45 AM, after just 4 hours of sleep and without the alarm. Subconciously, I must have know that Richard would have not been happy had I opened the door for him at 3:10 AM in my PJs, rubbing my eyes, asking why he was picking me up early;-) ANyway, none of this took place and by the time Richard did pull up at my house at 3:10 AM, I was ready to go. I even managed to have my usual cup of coffee to move things along;-) No, Richard and I are really not early risers, we just worked out a running route that required more time as usual. In addition, I had a family commitment that required me to be done with my running by 7:15 AM. I also had to be in Decatur at that time, which explains the route for our what I call "Madison Decatur Adventure Run". Thankfully, Richard is just slightly more crazy or masochistic or whatever you want to call it. Of course, real ultra runners would call this a normal training run. I, on the other hand, am still becoming an ultra runner, so I still refer to these kinds of training runs as crazy. However, this had to be one of the most fun training long runs ever. While running, we already discussed how and when to do this again, next time stashing our bikes for the return leg from Decatur.
We parked Richard's car at the old Kmart on Madison Boulevard in Madison and took of West towards Decatur. We continued on the old Higway 20 along I565W. Near the Greenbrier exit and after about 6 miles of running, we crossed I565 and continued along the other side of I565 towards Mooresville. However, the night before the run, Richard had wisely stashed some water all along the route and at that intersection which allowed for a quick waterbreak an hour into our run. The humidity was excrutiating this morning, above 90%, so we had to make sure to stay well hydrated. We were both feeling well enough, but the humidy was going to take its toll. We continued on into and through Mooresville until we hit the left turn onto the dirt road leading towards a boat ramp and Wheeler Wildlife Refuge. We would spend the next two hours on trails and dirt roads through Wheeler Wildlife Refuge and along the Tennessee river. We entered the refuge in darkness, but had planned ahead and were wearing our headlamps, lighting the way through the dense forest sections before we approached the river. Once we exited the forest, the sun was slowly rising at the horizon. It was quite a sight. But the wildlife refuge had lots more to offer. We crossed paths with a pair of coyotes, cranes, a rabbit, and a mother oppossum carrying 6 or 7 babies on its back. Aparently, she had decided touse the same trailas us and was not willing to share the road. Instead, it was turning around and posturing towards us, threatening to charge at us in an attempt to protect its babies, I presume. After about 5 minutes, we managedto coax it off the trail to clear the path for us to continue our run. If you are wondering why we didn't just try to pass the little critter, the answer is easy....neither one of us wanted rabies.
After these brief encounters with the local residents, we continued our run underneath the I65 bridge and towards the Highway 31 bridge towards Decatur. We had to make up a few minutes to manage to get to our meeting spot in Decatur for our pick-up. We exited Wheeler Wildlife Refuge and crossed the bridge just after 7 AM, close to our originally expected arrival time. We finished a 21 mile run in about 3 hours and 45 minutes. We plan to do this run again soon.

14 May 2010

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Getting ready for our adventurous long run tomorrow that will take us from Madison to Decatur with a nice part of it on actual trails. Should be fun, unlike today's brief lunch time venture out into the hot sun. Barely 6 miles and Richard and I struggled with the heat...or was it the humidity? Who knows. Anyway, we loesened up our legs and should be ready for tomorrow. However, family commitments will keep me from getting to bed early tonight which will have an impact on my run. Why, you ask? Well, we figured we have to hit the road at 3:15 AM tonight to get the out rendevous point in Decatur for our pick-up. You got to work around your family schedule sometimes. That's how you end up on the road at 3:15 AM at night...or in the morning, whatever you want to call it. Optimists call it early morning while pessimists call it night;-)

13 May 2010

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Richard and I scoped out our running route for this Saturday's long run. We planned a point to point run from Huntsville or Madison to Decatur. It will be 50% on county roads and 50% trails and dirt roads. It's about 20 miles and Rich and I decided the check that the dirt roads take us all the way to the interstate bridge we need to cross to get to Decatur. We only ran for about 1 1/2 miles. At that point Richard realized that we parked his car directly in front of a locked gate, essentially blocking any through traffic. About one mile into our run, we came upon some farmers who were working the field and clearly would need to get through the gate to exit the area. It didn;t dawn on us until we had gone another 1/2 mile. At that point, we realized that we were basically keeping these guys from leaving and decided that we needed to "sprint" back to the car. 6 minutes and some side stitches later, we got back to the car to see that the farmers had managed to squeeze their truck past Richard's car. A nice pickup run for nothing, thanks Richard;-)

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The weather this afternoon was hotter and more humid than expected. Richard and I went for a 10 mile run on Indian Creek Greenway. I didn't realize it at first, but it seems I was pretty dehydrated. I was struggling just to keep below 10 minute pace. After Monday's speedy run, I am ok with a slow day. But I have to make sure to stay hydrated. I have a long run scheduled for Saturday and there won't be any aid along the way. Summer is here and it's getting hotter and more humid every day. Did I mention its getting hottter.

10 May 2010

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Today, we decided to do some speed work. Since I really dreaded doing 800m sprints again, I made sure to download another speed workout from my Garmin Training Center to my Garmin 310XT. Last year, I accidentally came across of very targeted Garmin Marathon Training Schedules for download on the UK version of the Runner's World website. These workout schedules have been an excellent tool for my training in the past. I frequently used it when I was training alone. Looking at the fact that I did not PR during last weekend's 10k race for the first time in a while, I figured it'd be time again to train with a purpose. No more "junk miles". Today's workout called for a one mile warm up and cool down and three 2 mile tempo runs at 90% of my maximum heart rate. It was tough, but all three of us did pretty well. I know a lot of poeple don't like all that technology for running, but I love the ability to analyze any kind of running data and the ability to use heart rate target zones for your training cannot be overestimated. Not sure yet what tomorrow's training run will bring, but I know it won't be speed work.

09 May 2010

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9:30 AM is quite a late start for a race. I took this opportunity to sleep a little for a change. In this race, I would have to push for a PR as I had a prior commitment that literally required me to run through the finish and to my car to make my next appointment. Unfortunately, a PR was not in the cards for me today. Blame it on the 40 mile race last weekend, the (for me) higher than expected temperatures and wind. Either way, I missed a new PR by 13 seconds. So it is strange to note that I did manage a top ten finish (10th place to be exact) out of 404 finishers. That also meant my first ever age group win.
This was the second annual running of the Music Moves Me 10K and the first time I participated. There were bands and sounds systems blasting music all along the course, which really kept my mind occupied as I was mostly running alone for the early part of the race. During the final 2 mile stretch, I found myself jokeying for position with two other runners. While the top group was way ahead of us, this made for an interesting challenge towards the end. I was following the "leader" of our group until the final mile, were I passed him on a downhill stretch only to have him catch me again with a little less than hapf a mile to go. I obviously did not push hard enough to put plenty of distance between him and I do "discourage" him from trying to catch me again. The demoralizing effect of him passing me allowed the runner right behind me to pass as well. However, I wasn't going dowen that easily. With twohundred yards to go, I kicked it into another gear to sprint past the guy who had pased me just a quarter mile earlier. While I normally would not push past another runner on the final stretch of the race (since I usually do not contend for a top three finish, I find it to be badd running etiquette to pass someone on the last few yards of a race), I did not feel the same in this instance since this particular runner had just passed me himself. I figured this to be the continuation and conclusion of a 2 mile battle for position.
This was the first time I actually went directly head to head with other runners for position (if only for a top ten finish) and it really made it fun. Either way, I congratulated both runners on a great finish and took of for my car.

05 May 2010

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Cinco de Mayo. Started the day with a 5:30 AM run with the guys from Research Park to Rainbow Mountain, up the mountain, and back down again, to add a nice trail section to the run. Close to ten miles for the day. Not bad for recovery week. I am actually feeling pretty good, even if I am still a little sore. Joints are in great condition, no aches or pains there. Average pace wasn't too bad considering that we sandwiched the short Rainbow Mountain Loop trail in between the road running.
UPDATE: I added another four miles this afternoon after work on Indian Creek Greenway. Still feeling pretty good.

03 May 2010

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Very short report from this morning. Met Richard and Mike at their office at 6AM for a short and relaxing 4 mile run. Temps were in the low 60s and Richard and I struggled to get our legs moving. However, we did manage to go at a leisurely 9:50 per mile pace and made it back to the office without any major hickups. Iam ready for my next race after finishing the Strolling Jim 40 Mile Run on Saturday.

02 May 2010

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First of all, Happy Birthday to me. All kidding aside, what was I thinking running my first 40 mile road ultra marathon on my thirty-ninth birthday? Well, I just thought it'd be cool.




Pre-Race Dinner
Richard and I took the short drive from Huntsville, AL up to Wartrace, TN and made it there in a little over an hour just in time for the pre-race pasta dinner and to pick up our race packet. RD Mike Melton welcomed us at the packet pickup tent. He had been sending multiple event updates via email to keep us informed of the latest developments. This was just one of the examples of how well run this event is. Receiving the race t-shirts from Mike was accompanied by the words "real men wear pink." The picture above explains why. After the pre-race dinner and a quick chat with some fellow runners and a visit to Strolling Jim's grave site (see picture below) behind the Walking Horse hotel which was the site for the pre-race dinner, Richard and I headed back to Huntsville to get a good night's sleep. At least that was the plan. As usual, I did get the pre-race jitters that have plagued me before every major race. But that's all part of the fun.


Race Morning
I woke up at 4:15 AM to get ready. Did I say woke up? I meant I was ripped out of my dreams by my BlackBerry alarm clock that seems to get more annoying with every morning. After my pre-race cup of coffee, I left the house to pick up Richard and we left his house for Wartrace shortly after 5AM. Even with my Garmin, I managed to miss two turns. Anyway, we finally got there 30 minutes before the start of the race, plenty of time to double-check our gear and our three drop bags. These drop bags would be placed at miles 13, 21, 29 and 35. I placed a pair of broken in running shoes as well as a dry shirt along with a couple of sandwiches in the first drop bag that would be placed at mile 13 and later moved to mile marker 35. In addition to the sandwiches, I also placed some gels, bananas and Pepsi's in the other drop bags. These would provide nice picker-uppers in the latter stages of the race.


The picture above shows the supplies that would later be placed along the course every 2 miles or so. While I calculated that I would need about one bottle of water every hour on the course, the high humidity of the day made me rethink and change that strategy to a 30 minute refill schedule three hours into the race. Thank god for these water gallon jugs...or as my running buddy Richard put it: "Tap water. The official drink of the Strolling Jim".

Race start
Just before the race started, I had a last chance to chat with some of the more experienced runners before embarking on a new running adventure.


The picture above (courtesy of Robert Lewellen's Facebook page) shows Dink Taylor assuring Richard and I that the hills really are not that bad at all. Yeah, right! More about that later. Some runners almost did not make it to the starting line. They missed RD Mike's warning of a train passing through shortly, preventing runners from crossing the railroad tracks in time to get to the start line. Luckily, the train passed through just in time for the 7 AM start and all runners toed the starting line to hear the famous conch shell signaling the start of the race.

Miles 0-10
As we approached the first turn just yards after the start, the road out of town started with an incline. Surprise, surprise. It was definitely a sign of things to come as the course consisted of rolling hills, all the way. RD Mike was kind enough to place some "inspirational" messages on the actual road course. Thankfully, he used spray paint. Otherwise, the back packers would not have had the benefits of these motivational messages as the rain would have washed them away. I later realized that that might not have been a bad thing as I learned a lesson from experienced ultra runner Bill Keane, who I was lucky enough to run with the later part of the race, to "never believe anything an ultra runner tells you". This lesson clearly referred to some (not all) of the messages that were so lovingly painted on the road. The first such inspirational message I recall appeared in front of me as I was climbing the first hill. It read as follows: "THIS...IS...NOT...A...HILL". Clearly, RD Mike Melton had all of our well being at heart making sure we did not fall for the illusion that this first "hill" we came across clearly was not to be mistaken for an actual hill. He reassured us again on the next "hill" that "THIS...IS...NOT...A...HILL...EITHER". Well, I am a foreigner in this country and while I learned most of my vocabulary in school in Germany, I am always eager to learn and improve my language skills, and Mike certainly did his part in my education. He did teach me the definition of an actual hill as we climbed the next incline of the road. His message read "BUT...THIS...IS!". OK, great, now I do know what an actual hill is. But what do you call the things I came across before we reached this hill? Anyway, on we went and the weather could not have been better. At least considering the fact that we were supposed to be battling the elements in form of strong thunderstorms, lightning, strong winds and torrential downpours for the entire day. Instead, we experienced only about 30 minutes of rain on an overcast day. Quite frankly, I could have done with some rain towards the end of the race. The humidity was quite high.

Miles 11-17
It was during this section of the race, that Richard and I re-evaluated our goals for the day. Apparently, Richard didn't feel as strongly about targeting a sub 7 hour finish as I did. Come to find out, his "nodding in agreement" as I was laying out my race strategy during some of our recent training runs preceeding this race was merely his subtle effort to keep me from talking. Note to self, get verbal confirmation on race strategy in the future;-) In any case, Richard and I were well on target for a sub 7 finish (or so I thought) as we approached the half marathon mark and aid station, allowing us to access our drop bags for the first time. I now had to decide to either change shoes or continue on with the new, larger sized shoes I had opted for at the beginning of the race in order to correct issues I have had in the past with multiple blisters. The larger shoes worked fine. I also had no issues with the Injinji socks I wore for this distance for the first time. As a result, I only chose only to pick up one of my premade prosciutto sandwiches and walked out of the aid station, enjoying that sandwich. We had reached this aid station in less than 2 hours and felt confident that we might have a shot at that sub 7 finish, if we could maintain something about a minute slower than our current pace. While I had no problems digesting my sandwich and washing it down with some Nuun electrolyte water, Richard was not so lucky. He had decided to use our Pepsi treats early and that little bottle of soda paired with his PB&J sandwich seemed to be too much for his stomach at this point in the race. Our pace slowed to a walk in an effort to get his stomach to settle. At mile 17, Richard sent me on my way to try to break 7 hours. I was feeling bad leaving him behind, but he has much more experience running ultras than I do and I figured he'd catch me later in the race anyway as I was crashing and burning. Thankfully, that never completely happened, only partially. The picture below was taken by Richard after we parted ways and shows just how beautiful this race really is. You just have to take the time to pick up your head.



Mile 18-25
I mostly ran this section by myself. I also seem to recall Margaret Curcio blowing by me with no effort whatsoever around mile 19. It happened so quickly. It was kind of a "now you see her, now you don't" moment. And after running the Umstead 100 Miler just a few weeks ago she just missed the sub 7 hour mark. That's just incredible. It was also during this stretch right after the second major climb around mile 20 and before the marathon mark that I briefly had the opportunity to meet and thank Christian Griffith for his race reports he puts out at his ultra running blog at Run 100 Miles as he was passing me at the second drop bag location at mile 21. I came across his blog while googleing for interesting ultras to run and I have been following his blog and race reports ever since. After mile 22, a long and steady incline marked the third major hill of the race. I was still feeling pretty good and maintained a decent pace, but I lost a little time approaching the "peak" near mile 25. However, it was a steady decline from here for the next 4 miles and I was able to keep it steady.

Mile 26-29
I reached the marathon distance mark after 4 hours and 25 minutes, still on target to finish the 40 miles in less than 7 hours. For some reason, I continued to use 40 miles as the total distance rather than the official 41.2 distance. Either way, I continued on my merry way to reach the finish. I figured only a half marathon to go, that shouldn't be too bad. As a continued to run, I started to think about the infamous "Walls". Not sure what to expect, I hoped for the best and prepared for the worst. Just as I came around another turn around mile 29 or so, I spotted another RD message to the runners: "The Walls". The picture below shows the house located right at the turn that takes you to the Walls (courtesy of Richard Trice, my running partner in crime).


So there they were, didn't look to bad. Actually, I thought that this couldn't be that bad if the Walls continued as they started, which was a rather small incline in the road. Boy, was I wrong! Luckily, at was at this point in the race that I met another great ultra runner, Bill Keane. While jockeying back and forth with Bill and another ultra runner for about half a mile into the Walls, I decided to try to stay with Bill for as long as I could. My body was starting to feel the wear of the road and I really needed something or someone to push me at this stage. Thankfully, Bill felt the same way as I appreciated the fact that we were able to push each other ever so slightly for the remainder of the race. Quite frankly, it was obviously Bill pushing me but I appreciate him suggesting that my presence was helping him, too. While I am not very good at remembering exact quotes, Bill certainly taught me a lot about this race in particular as well as ultra running in general over the next 12.2 miles. It is not often that a beginning ultra runner like myself gets the opportunity to pick an experienced ultra runner's brain during the actual race rather than before or after, and Bill was certainly willing and able to provide tons of interesting information about each section of this race, ultra running in general and ultra runners themselves (and their trustworthiness...or lack thereof, which I will explain later with another inspirational message I read on the road after exiting the Walls). It was absolutely great to listen to Bill's stories about some of the runners participating in this event and about their storied ultra running lives. Just four or five of the runners Bill mentioned (him included) combined for over 1000 ultra marathon finishes between each other. That is just a mind boggling thought to me.

Mile 30-35
We passed the 50K mark still feeling pretty good. Only later did I realize that I got an unofficial 50K PR as I crossed the 50K marker after 5 hours 26 minutes. As we were reaching the end of the Walls, Bill continued to provide excellent feedback about what to expect from each upcoming section. This is also were I learned that not every "inspirational" message left on the road should be taken too seriously. Such as the message "NO...MORE...HILLS". "Really?" I uttered excitedly and naive as I am to which Bill responded "No, don't ever believe anything an ultra runner tells you!" Not 10 seconds after I read that hopeful message did we approach the next non-hill. Oh, the joy of ultra running. As I reached the final drop bag location I chose to only grab a gel and some more water. I was no longer interested in sandwiches and I was still taking in gels every so often to stay properly fed and cramp-free. In all honesty, the main reason for my quick departure was the fact that I really wanted to stay with Bill and keep the running rhythm going. While we did walk the hills and run the downhills in the Walls, we maintained a pretty good pace. I knew if I could stay with Bill I would be able to have a solid finish.

Mile 36-41.2
However, the Walls had taken a toll on me and I started to realize that without a 10K or 5K PR at the end, I would not be able to reach that coveted sub 7 hour red shirt. Especially considering that the 5K mark seemed to be more than a 5K from the finish. Maybe it was just the inaccuracy of my Garmin but the last 5K felt much longer to me. Since I knew that a 5K PR wasn't going to happen, I fell back on my secondary goal of finishing strong in a respectable time and come back next year to get that shirt in my second try. I take pride in finishing my very first "Strolling Jim 40 Mile Run" in 7 hours 21 minutes and 40 seconds and to be able to cross the finish line with such an experienced and accomplished ultra runner as Bill Keane, who was so willing to share his knowledge and stories with me during this race. And this last comment is in no way related to the fact that he shared an ice-cold beer with me right after we crossed the finish line, I promise!


Final Comments
First, I would like to thank RD Mike Melton and his fantastic group of volunteers that manned the various aid stations and took care of each and every runner's needs. It was a great event and I will definitely be back next year. Second, I'd like to thank my running buddy Richard Trice for being the sport that he is and signing up for this race to help me train for my 108k race next month. Thanks, buddy. Third, I'd like to congratulate this year's winner Valmir Nunes from Santos, Brazil, who truly proved to be a "Giant Killer" as his occupation had warned everyone before the race;-) Third, congratulations to a couple of local runners from Huntsville, DeWayne Satterfield and Kathy Youngren for winning the men's masters and women's open divisions, respectively.Very impressive.

US STATES WITH 100 MILE RACES COMPLETED (15)

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COUNTRIES WITH ULTRAMARATHONS COMPLETED (13)

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RACE CALENDAR

  • Mount Mitchell Heartbreaker 50M (Old Fort, NC) - March 23, 2024
  • Oak Mountain 50K (Birmingham, AL) - March 30, 2024
  • Southern States 200M (Delta, AL) April 12-16, 2024
  • Cocodona 250M (Black Canyon City, AZ) - May 6-11, 2024
  • Mohican 100M (Loudonville, OH) - June 1, 2024
  • Bighorn 100M (Dayton, WY) - June 14, 2024
  • Crazy Mountain 100M (Lennep, MT) - July 26, 2024
  • Eastern States 100M (Waterville, PA) - August 10, 2024
  • SwissPeaks 360 (Valais, Switzerland) - September 1-8, 2024
  • Indiana Trail 100M (Albion, IN) - October 12, 2024
  • Rim To River 100M (New River Gorge, WV) - November 2, 2024 (WAITLIST #99)
  • Charleston 100M (Mount Pleasant, SC) - December 27, 2024
  • The Montane Winter Spine 268M (Edale, UK) - January 12-19, 2025

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