It’s been almost a month since running my first 48 hour race as I begin to write this report, so I’ve had plenty of time to digest and reflect on the experience. Of course, that also means I’ve had plenty of time for the details and my memory of the experience to become a bit faded and less reliable. Even so, I hope to still present an accurate recollection of the experience as best I can. I’m sure I’ll still get all of the major points correct: I had a big goal, it was going well, weather and trail conditions got bad, my main goal became unattainable, and eventually I settled for a new goal to stay motivated to continue. That’s the summary without any of the details or my thought process throughout. If that sounds like it could be interesting, here’s the full story.
I had been considering the possibility of attempting a six day race ever since running for 75 hours at Capital Backyard Ultra last year. With my inexperience in longer timed races fueling me, my naive thought was that if I can last for 75 hours in a backyard format race I should be capable of putting up a solid performance in a six day timed race. Although I was pretty confident of that at the time, and still am, I didn’t want to do anything too rash and just dive into a six day race with the longest timed race I’ve ever done having only been a 24 hour. That was my reasoning for attempting a 48 hour race this year, to test the waters of a longer timed race event. I wanted to see how my motivation would hold up for 48 hours without being forced to hold the required pace at a backyard format race. Which made my target mileage goal pretty simple for this attempt, to hit 200 miles in under 48 hours and then see how I felt and how much farther I could go before time ran out.
I began searching for 48 hour races not too far from home that wouldn’t conflict with other races on my schedule for the year or work and family plans. I finally decided that the Dogwood Ultramarathons at Twin Lakes State Park in Green Bay, VA was the race best suited for me to make this test run. It seemed like it was fate pushing me there as this was the first year the race offered a 48 hour option and the timing was good for all other aspects of my pretty crowded schedule. The course is a 3.35 mile trail loop with about 246 feet of elevation gain which makes for about 7,380 feet of gain for every 100 miles when you do the math. Based on elevation, this didn’t sound like a ridiculously challenging course to attempt two consecutive sub 24 hour 100 milers so I felt like my A goal was well within the realm of possibility. I wasn’t able to find any information on how technical the course was, but from the pictures I had seen everything looked runnable. Without finding anything to discourage me or think otherwise, I registered for the race with a pretty high confidence level of reaching my A goal of exceeding 200 miles.
My training went splendidly and I arrived the morning of the race feeling rested and ready. Although I felt a bit rushed between arriving at the venue and the start of the race, the first day started off really well. The course wasn’t very technical, just a few roots and rocks to remain aware of. The two water crossings were a non factor the first day as the water level was low enough that a couple steps on rocks and you were across with dry feet. The elevation changes were mild with just a few short climbs and descents, none of which were steep or treacherous. I ran my first few laps under my target past comfortably and learned the course. There were a few trail intersections, so you just had to be careful at a few points to make sure you didn’t inadvertently go off course but the course marking made it pretty foolproof.
Everything was going great for me pretty much the whole first day. I felt good and was on pace to get 200 miles in with plenty of time to spare. I didn’t feel like I was over exerting myself to maintain the pace. My stomach felt good and I had no sign of any digestive issues. It seemed like everything was falling into place as I hoped. The only factor left that I was concerned about was the weather. Forecasts predicted storms and steady rain starting overnight after the first day of the race and continuing through the end of the race. The forecasts were pretty accurate; it started raining lightly not long after dark. After a few hours of light rain, it picked up. The trail got sloppy and slick in spots. The water rose at the two water crossings. I got damp and chilled. I tried to just keep moving and run through it, but it was taking a toll on my pace and mental state. After multiple clothing changes and a fall at an especially slick turn on the trail I found myself back at the aid area shivering, feeling pretty chilled. I was at about 84 miles at that point and had been steadily slowing down. The rain was coming down heavy enough that putting on dry clothes had become pretty pointless. I decided it’d be best for me to get warmed up and dried off while at the same time getting in a nap so I could recover a little. It was around 3 AM and I decided to go to my car to do just that.
I hoped it would work out that I’d be rested and refreshed and the bad weather would be over when I woke up. Unfortunately, I woke up to the sound of rain hitting my windshield. I had slept a few hours and felt ok, but really wasn’t feeling like getting chilled and running in the rain for another 24 hours. I checked the forecast and it was promising, reporting that the rain should clear out within an hour. This gave me a bit of hope. My A goal was most likely out of reach at this point, or at least much harder to achieve. I checked the race live results to find I was still in the lead, but my lead had been reduced to a pretty narrow margin. Clinging to the lead became my new motivation for going back out and finishing the race. I thought about just packing it in and going home, but continuing to move to hang on to the lead is what drove me back out to run.
Once back out on the course, I was surprised at the first turn when new runners for shorter timed races took a different route. After a quick chat, I found out that the course had been rerouted due to the water crossings becoming too dangerous to cross because the water had risen so much from the steady rain. The course was now a 1.1 mile loop around a lake near the start/finish aid station. Ok, no big deal I thought. During the first loop I learned how much of an impact the rain really had on the trail conditions. A good stretch of the new course was on trail and much of it was a sloppy mess from all the rain. I’d estimate about a half mile was shoe sucking mud. If you’ve ever tried to run on shoe sucking mud, you know how difficult it is to maintain any kind of decent pace. Especially when you have around 100 miles on your legs already. After becoming accustomed to the new trail conditions, I accepted the fact that my 200 mile goal was now definitely out of reach. Without having my A goal to chase, I continued to plod on “running” laps on trails of standing water hiding ankle deep shoe sucking mud.
To make a long story short. It wasn’t much fun from that point on. It was tedious and slow going. It was a constant mental battle. But I didn’t quit and I hung on to the lead being pushed by the second place runner (Aaron Bowers) until about 3 AM. At that point, I felt like my first place finish was almost a guarantee based on the pace Aaron had been running for the last few hours and the amount of race time left. What I was most proud of was that I managed to push on through terrible trail conditions and falling temperatures (it got quite cold and windy after dark that second night) for another 70 miles during the second half of the race to finish with 154 miles total. A huge thank you to Aaron for continuing to push on as without him steadily adding to his distance, I likely would have called it and quit much earlier than I did.
I may not have hit my A goal, but I did go home with a valuable lesson. I was reminded that variables completely out of my control like the weather and trail conditions could have a huge impact on overall performance at a longer timed race. I guess that should be pretty obvious, but having a refresher lesson in the fundamentals never hurts. Additionally, the longer the race goes, the higher the likelihood that one of these events will occur just by the window of opportunity being extended. So how does one control a variable such as inclement weather to be sure it doesn’t have a chance to impact your race? The answer is simple, select a timed race event held at an indoor race venue. Which leads to what may be my target, my A race next year: Six Days in the Dome.
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