North Coast 24 Hour Endurance Challenge 2014 Race Report
The bullhorn sounded precisely at 9:00 am and 170+ runners
started off on our individual journeys. Some
were here to win, some were here to set world or national records, most were
here to push themselves to their limits and beyond. Here is a long version of my journey.
Last year I ran this race as my first Ultra. For those of you unfamiliar with this race,
it’s a 24 hour timed ultra marathon (any race over 26.2 miles) on a paved bike
path in a park in Cleveland, Ohio. I did
pretty well for my first time (62.2 miles or 100k) but I really, really struggled
during large parts of it and just walked away feeling defeated, knowing that I
could do better if I had another chance.
So when my main supporter, my husband Brett, suggested this spring that
I give it another try, I jumped at the chance to sign up. We spent a lot of time researching and
hashing out plans to improve my performance (nutrition and training), but more
on that later.
I started rebuilding my mileage base in January and started
my official 18 week training plan in May.
Most weeks looked like this – three 8 mile runs, a 10 mile run, a long
run between 18-26 miles and two rest days.
My training peaked at just over 60 miles, most weeks averaged 50ish
miles, low for most ultra runners but what I felt comfortable with, avoiding
the dreaded Mommy Guilt from taking too much time away from family. I did train very consistently with only a few
hiccups on long runs (getting locked in a park bathroom for 45 minutes and
having to be rescued by the fire department comes to mind.) Indianapolis had a very mild summer with only
a handful of days reaching 90 degrees.
I had an 8 hour Ultra in August as a tune-up race and finished 38 miles
so I was feeling healthy and confident going to my goal race.
Goals – 1. Stay out there for the whole 24 hours. 2. Reach 75 miles 3. Beat my performance from
last year.
Brett and I drove up to Cleveland from Indy on Friday early
afternoon. We talked more about our
nutrition plan and mileage plan. I knew
I wanted to take in more dense, protein packed calories this year to keep The Bonk
away. I also wanted to force the
calories in, even when no foods looked good, something that I did not do last
year. I wanted to pay better attention
to the foods offered by the volunteers as they probably have a good idea of
what they are doing. I also wanted to
reach 30 miles by 6 hours and 50 miles by 11 hours. I also
wanted to run most of those first 50 miles as that did not happen for me last
year. I trusted Brett to keep all this
info in his head as I knew I wouldn’t be able to do much math after a few
hours!
Friday evening we checked into the Travelodge hotel near the
park and drove over to meet up with some friends from the Runner’s World
Beginners Forum that I have gotten to know well in the past 5 years or so. I had meet up with most of them in 2013 so it
was nice to see familiar faces and spend some time catching up over a few
slices of pizza. Everyone seemed nervous
and excited and ready to go. We left
early because we were both tired from the drive. Headed back to the hotel, plugged all our
devises in to charge and went to sleep.
I slept well and was up, showered, fed and in the car by
7:45. Brett, Diana (friend from RW) and
I drove to Edgewater Park and found the rest of our group setting up camp under
a large tree. The park had transformed
into a ¼ mile long campground with canopies, tables, chairs and tents on both
sides of the bike path that we’d be running on.
Here is an overhead view of the route.
It’s 0.9 miles long, mostly flat and next to Lake Erie. The
start/finish line is at the southwest end of the park where the group of
buildings is and Tent City lines the path just to the curve turning west. We set up our canopy with some help and got
our table and supplies set out as well.
Picked up my bib and said hi to some familiar faces (Dawn, Charles,
Javier and Leo). Before I knew it they
were calling for us to line up!
We start exactly at 9am and are all crowded together for the
first lap or so. I’m feeling
excited. By lap 2, I’m feeling hot so I
ask Brett to grab my tank top that I had thrown in when I saw the forecast was
calling for a high of 80. He had it
ready on my next lap so I did a quick wardrobe change (I completely love and
highly recommend Ink N Burn clothes!! I wore the same shorts the ENTIRE race
without any problems, they are amazing.)
Anyways, the park already is busy with pedestrians of all types which
made it a little tricky to dodge dog walkers, bikers, toddlers and wedding
parties but nearly everyone was considerate of the runners/walkers.
See, I'm in front of a famous ultra runner! For about 10 seconds!
Tent city.
Walking up the "hill" with Chris and Anya in the evening.
Shortly after dawn.
The first few hours went by well. I was running all my laps with a short walk
break at the bottom of the small hill. I
hit 13 miles at 2:14, averaging 10:30 pace.
Brett and I were both happy with this.
I did some chatting with people as I saw them but for the most part, I
kept to myself, just running my race. The
sun was bright but it was warming up. This is going to be the hottest day that I’ve
run in all summer. I was eating peanut M&M’s and peanut
butter filled pretzels. I did feel a
little tired so I grabbed some chocolate covered espresso beans (so happy to
take in caffeine after purging it from my system for two weeks before
this!). I carried a water bottle filled
with Gatorade but the sugar from that combined with the candy wasn’t mixing
well. The temps rose quickly and by 1pm,
I was feeling nauseous. Brett and I
decided that it was from too much sugar so I switched to only water and
non-sugary foods. Brett went to Chipotle
and got me a chicken burrito with extra rice and a large bag of ice. I walked a lap and tried to eat as much of
the burrito as I could. It was really
good but I felt like I could hurl if I ate it too fast. Other runners were commenting on how good it
looked though!
I reached the marathon mark of 26.2 miles just after the 5
hour mark. I’m hitting my target goals
and happy with that considering the heat.
But I’m fading fast. I was also
concerned that I didn’t need to use the restroom much and when I forced myself
to, there wasn’t much urine output. I
knew I was taking in plenty of fluids and was just sweating them out. I was taking salt tablets as well. Brett decided to soak a dry wicking towel and
a golf towel that he grabbed at the last minute from home in our small cooler
with the ice. I alternated wearing these
around my neck which made such a difference for me!! I went from feeling like I was going to have
to walk the rest of the afternoon to running again. I would suck the cold water from the towel
while keeping it tucked into my shirt.
That was my second wind. I hit 30
miles about the 6 hour mark and really felt like I was in a groove so I decided
to just ride it as long as I could. I
thought about how last year I was a crying, miserable mess from 35-45 miles and
this year I was cruising along, giving and getting encouraging comments from
all my new friends. One even named me
the Green Machine. I talked with Eddie,
who at 75 years old was looking to set some records. I talked to Leo, who I think is in the 85+
age group and told him how much I enjoyed walking with him last year. I thanked Dr. Lovely for being there, the
USATF team doctor (also a purple heart Vietnam vet) who walks the entire 24
hours, checking on people, keeping a watchful eye out for tell-tale signs of
runner distress. I chatted with Angela,
who at 13 years old was running her first ultra and having the time of her life
(she finished with 58 miles). I
congratulated Harvey Lewis, the 2013 NC24 hour winner on his Badwater win this
summer (I think he heard me as he tore past me!). Chris, George, Eric, Angela, Angela, Dawn,
Kelly, Lori, Charles, Eddie, Naomi and so many more were so friendly every time
I saw them. Several people complimented
me on my “short but consistent gait” and how I was an “energizer bunny”. I marveled and shook my head at the muscle
bound guys who were cross-fitting on the pull-up bars for hours and hours. I ate oranges and bananas and lots of ice
cubes. And I hit 50 miles in under 11
hours. Yes!!
I stopped now to be stretched out by the medical staff
(thanks Kate) and to have some spots on my feet looked at. I was surprised to see a small blister on
each foot but the podiatry students were happy to drain and bandage them. I changed shoes and socks for the first time
as well.
Sadly the heat proved to be too much for a few people. Two runners had to be taken off course by
ambulances. It was a sobering reality to
see but I was also very thankful that the medical staff was assisting them so
quickly and made the right decisions to have them hospitalized.
Word on the street was that there was a large thunderstorm
in Detroit that was going to be making its way to Cleveland about
midnight. I’ve run in a thunderstorm
before and really wanted no part of it. So
after another 2 hours of running and realizing that I had unnecessarily just
yelled at Brett for not getting me ice fast enough (although I did follow up my
yelling of “Ice, Ice!!!” with a well timed “Baby”) I knew I needed a
break. So at 58 miles, I retired to the
canopies with several others in our group and tried to get some sleep. Although the hammock was very comfortable,
the wind on the loose canopy tarp was too loud so I hoofed it to the minivan
and dozed on the floor for a few hours.
Brett woke up at 2:30 and suggested that I get back out so I
did. I put on a clean shirt and walked
back to the canopy area. It didn’t look
like it had rained so I just figured that the storm had blown over. What luck!
I started walking while drinking the iced coffee (black with extra turbo
shot) Brett had gotten me a few hours earlier.
There were still some runners out there, amazingly looking like they
never slowed down. But most of the people
were walking now. The caffeine kicked in
and I felt pretty good so I started running again as well. I past the 100k point so every mile now was a
personal record but I still had at least a half marathon to go. I passed a canopy in Tent City and saw two
men looking at a weather radar on their iPad that looked very yellow and
red. Huh, maybe that storm didn’t really
blow over. I asked a volunteer as I
grabbed some salted potatoes if they knew the forecast and he said the
thunderstorm would probably stay over the lake.
Good because I couldn’t rest anymore if I wanted to reach 75 miles by
9am. And I was NOT going to NOT hit that
goal.
So it came as a very unpleasant surprise when the little
sprinkle I felt on the south side of the trail turned into a full on downpour a
few minutes later! I had just left Tent
City so knew I was nearly a full lap from my rain jacket so I ran that lap as
hard as I could. And, since it’s very
dark at 4:30am, I hit every single puddle out there. My body was completely drenched, to the
bone. My socks and shoes were heavy from
water. I stopped at the canopy to dig
out my rain jacket. I kept going but
walking now. I’m needing the use the
restroom about every other lap now, all my hydration was catching up to me and
I wasn’t sweating any of it out. The
course really cleared out, it seemed that most people had retreated to their
tents or canopies. Except the elites, they
really don’t ever stop. It was so
inspiring to be passed by them because they looked as fresh as they were 18
hours ago. There is some real strategy
going on though, I noticed several guys from Harvey’s crew, standing on the far
side of the course, spotting for him. I
never bothered to look at the leader’s board but I knew others were paying
close attention to the standings.
I kept walking for the next few hours. My shoes and socks were still wet but I didn’t
want to change into my last pair of dry socks when I still couldn’t see well
enough to avoid puddles. My energy did
perk up as it got lighter and lighter. I
changed into fresh shoes and socks at dawn and was lucky enough to be next to
my phone when my 10 year old daughter called at 6:45. I also got a well timed text from my BFF,
Damaris. Soon I saw Brett standing at
the timing mat, waiting to see how I had been doing. I finished 70 miles by 7am and knew 75 was
going to happen. I was running again at
this point, running 2 laps and walking a lap.
Brett joined me for a few laps and discussed the plan for the next
hour. Part of me wanted to stop at 75
and get a massage but part wanted to go until the horn sounded at the end. We were debating this and Brett said “You get
up at 5am every morning to run and you will regret not finishing this out” and
I said “No, I get up at 5:15.” Lol. Right
then we passed Dr. Lovely and overheard him say that this might be his last
ultra so he wasn’t leaving the course until it was over so I had my
answer. Brett took pictures as I hit the
75 mile mark and I took a small wooden block from a volunteer that I would drop
wherever I was at on the course when the horn sounded to end the race so they
could measure my distance past the timing mat for an official finishing
distance. I had 25 minutes left. We walked Tent Camp and up the little hill
and I started running again, stopping for a walk break past the port-o-lets as
usual. I crossed the timing mat at 8:50. Brett told me that I was NOT dropping that
block on this next lap, that I was going to complete one more full lap before
9am. I stared at him and said I haven’t run that fast this entire race!! But
then I had the biggest adrenaline surge and started running as hard as I could,
through Tent City, past our canopy, up the hill that I had walked every single
lap, ran hard past the lake and around “muscle beach”, passed the police
officer who yelled for me to keep going.
Brett checked the time and said I needed to pick up the pace but that he
thought we were about an 8 min mile pace.
I was feeling amazing so I ran faster, yelling for him to get his butt
to the finish line to get my picture. He
sprinted away. I ran and panted and ran
harder, down the little hill, towards the timing mat that was surrounded by
runners and spectators, hearing them yell as I sprinted across the mat with 20
seconds to spare so I kept running hard until I heard the horn and dropped my
block. Whew – THAT’S THE WAY TO FINISH A
RACE!!!!
I walked around to cool down, got some breakfast from the
Boy Scouts, chatted with some people, and watched the awards. I’m not sure of the winner’s name but this
was his first ultra and he ran 154 miles!!!!
Harvey finished 2nd with 134 miles (I think). The results aren’t posted yet but I saw many
happy faces with new belt buckles, which are given to those finishing 100+
miles. I ended up with 78.4 miles, not
counting the probably .05-.08 miles after the timing mat that will be added to
the official results, good enough for 48th place. I ran/walked 20 out of 24 hours. I’m sore but not injured in any way other
than some blisters. I feel tired but on
top of the world at the same time. I’m
so thankful to have this opportunity, this race and race director (Dan!) who
works tirelessly to take care of all of us.
I’m so thankful for the volunteers to made oranges appear when I wanted
them, got me turkey breast slices when I didn’t want sandwiches because of the
mustard (yuck!), and had the best ramen and chicken noodle soup ever. I’m thankful for all the friends I made out
there, the encouraging words, stories and jokes make the miles go by
faster. And I’m eternally grateful for
Brett. His coaching, crewing and ability
to know me better than I know myself at times allowed me to reach and exceed my
goal. It really does take a village to
make an event like this happen. A
village that I’m proud to be a part of!!
Congratulations to all the finishers!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment