My Second 100 Miler

My Second 100 Miler

Ultra #015

This race report was originally posted on Facebook Notes on 2017-12-30.

Signing Up

Well it has been some time now since my RVR100 has past. Enough time for the pain to be in my distant-ish memory. But since our family was going through a move from my work it was a chaotic few weeks and times after my first 100 miler back in June. I took a good long recovery period, sort of, before jumping back into running. Once we finally moved to Texas, after about 3 months of just myself commuting wife my wife and kids visited her family, we settled in the USA officially on October 23, 2017 when our house purchase went through. Now that this stress in life had gone through it was time to sign up for some local TX ultras and dive into the running scene down here in the south.

October 30th I got sucked into ultrasignup at work and found a race (or two). I found myself signing up for the biggest ultra in TX (Brazos Bend 100) and well a warmup race of the Dinosaur Endurance Run 100k as a test of my currently lacking training.

Brazos Bend 100 Miles

Knowing how flat south Texas is and the lack of hills anywhere in the area, the fact that this was now my home territory it was easy to train for this on flat ground since that is all I had in this area. But flat is an understatement for anyone who has never been to South Texas. I can run a long run here in the Houston/Sugar Land area and not get over 300 ft of elevation. It is what it is here in the area.

Pre-Race Day: December 8^th

2017-12-07 Bib pickup & Pre-race shakeout run

Being new to the area I did not know a lot of the people or trail runners yet but Just being able to join this event that did eventually sell out, with 900 runners, was pretty sweet. Trail Racing Over Texas (TROT) was the host of this event and a well known racing company here in the southern Texan region.

Finished off work on Friday and managed to leave slightly earlier than normal. But took the advantage and drove out to the Brazos Bend state park, which was only about 28 mi drive (40 mins).  Headed out and got their right on time for the pre-race briefing. Rob from TROT was doing the briefing over the radio to the mass crowd standing there in the non-ideal cold temps (was about 40 f). But this was kind of cool as I got there and saw couple of the big name runners: Caroline Boller (50 mi WR holder) and Gordy Ainsleigh (started Western States).

Got my bib number and was surprised by the low number of #11, which somewhat freaked me out. Not sure if this was a coincidence or just random. But it made me feel kind of weird in any sense. Stood for a little listening race briefing in the cold Texas weather and then went for a very brief shakeout run around the Elm Lake Loop which was only about 2 mile. Was very scenic and gave me a brief overview of what was about to come.

Race Days: December 9-10^th

03:45 my alarm goes off after some restless hours of sleep, the usual pre race restlessness. My wife got out of bed slightly before me and headed downstairs and got me some breakfast started. Simply amazing woman she is. We got the kids up and through the last few bags into the van. 04:20 and we were off!

Got to the gate right on time about 05:10 ish and headed in the small line up and managed to get parking close to the start/finish. Got out and took a load of my bags over to the coral line for my in between loop crewing. Was a brisk 31 f outside on the clear Texas morning. I think this is about as cold as it gets here. I made 2 more trips to complete getting all my stuff and the girls over to “our blanket area” we claimed for the day. I slowly got ready in the van as the girls were getting bundled up and my wife fed Paisley, our youngest.

Not really sure how but time had gotten away from me like it always does on race day and before I knew it they were about to start the mini pre race briefing which meant 10 mins to go. I was now outside filling and stuffing my race vest. Got my tailwind mixed up just in time. Heard the RD stay 3 minutes to go and then I got my watch set to start recording, as well as starting my livetrack connection for Garmin.

1 minute to go…at this point I kissed my wife, and each of my 3 daughters and went around to the coral start line. Hoped over the flagging and boom I was in line with as they counted down. 06:00 and we were off: 100 mile or bust!

LOOP 1

Early loop chilly conditions |
Photo: Trail Racing Over Texas, Let's Wander Photography

Went off slow right off the start but then settled into a decent pace. Was aiming for 9 min/mi for my first 50km, but honestly during races I don’t look at my watch much, especially at the beginning stages. I like to run by feel for the most part. I was following the pack and there was a supposed to be an out and back section right after the first turn, however the leader, and every single person after followed and did a lollipop style out & back instead which added about 0.9 mi onto the first loop. Luckily this was the only excitement for the route the entire day, as the race volunteers put super extra flagging for the 50 milers and everyone else after they found out what happened. (At least the entire 100 mi field did it – so the mileage was fair). Finished off loop and was exactly the 0.9mi over clocking 17.6 mi and right around 2.5 hr. Was on a strong pace.

LOOP 2

Heading out on loop 2 | Photo: Katie Meding

Headed back out after refilling my tailwind bottles and changing my buff. Was slightly warmer as the sun was peeking out now, but not fully warmed up. About 7 mins at our crew blanket area, got some food and I was off. Loop 2 was solid again and I held my pace fairly consistent again for the entire thing. Which meant I came in 2 loops complete, just over 55km done and was at exactly 5 hrs.

LOOP 3

Another consistent loop, although my legs we starting to get slightly heavier. My feet were aching a bit now, but I was not letting that tough creep into my mind. Completed loop 3 (50 mi) just under the 8 hour mark. This was good and kept me motivated as my goal of 10 km/hr was still intact, although slowly slipping away each hour now.

Elm Lake | Photo: Trevor Meding

LOOP 4

2 oldest daughters crewing | Photo: Katie Meding

No major issues although my walk breaks now started to creep in. I kept moving forward never actually stopping, but my pace my dropping. I have never been known to negative split ever, so this was kind of expected of myself even though I try and convince myself every race will be different. Come in after loop 4, which means I am about 67.5mi complete. I realized that I had made some PRs today in the process (26.2mi, 50km, 50mi, 100km). That was never my intent but the first 3 loops just “felt good”, so it just happened, plus the flat course helps the times.

Katie and the girls were now packing up and about to head home for dinner and to get the girls some sleep. Sadly this would be the last time with my crew as for the final transition loop5-6 my family would be at home sleeping. I tried not to think about it nor let that thought creep in my mind.

LOOP 5

This was quite slow and nearly 4 hours. Had a little trouble staying moving and feeling good. I knew I just had to push through it. I had my tunes on in my earbuds to keep my beat going. It only helped so much. After this loop I took a nice long break at the transition myself since my family was sleeping and well it was now 22:00 and the start/finish was fairly quiet, besides the volunteers. The crews, pacers, and supporters were all huddled up in sleeping bags and trying to stay warm, and the temperature starting dipping pretty hard again. Sent Katie a message letting her know I was off and gave an ETA of 02:00 which would be another 4 hr loop to finish off. This was my new goal as that was aiming for 20:00:00 time, and I like round numbers.

LOOP 6

Stopped and refueled at all the aid stations and used the chairs consistently on this lap. I was trying to just keep moving but my mind was fading. I am pretty sure I was sleep running at time doing some micro sleeps at points. But I kept that 02:00 finishing time in my mind all the way until the last 6 mi. I knew I was going to be close but I just couldn’t keep moving, I stopped for like 5 minutes each time as the aid station. But this little recharge was needed. I got back to the final stretch with about 4 miles to go and messaged Katie. She was awake and already headed back to the park. 1 mile to go sent a message letting Katie know I would be in 10 minutes. I could see the glow of finish arch in the distance now, looked down at my watch 100.1 mi….ran a bit more looked down and my watch was froze (doh!). Got last few steps to go and let out a big yell of joy as I crossed this finish line to be greeted by Rob the Race Director. Thanked him and he thanked me as well for running, and with that he presented me my sub-22 buckle.

Crossing the finish arch mid-morning | Photo: Katie Meding

Results

The numbers as told by STRAVA:  https://www.strava.com/activities/1308925610

Like I mentioned my watch froze about 0.5 mi from the finish line, so overall it was 101.2 mi clocked and my official race time was 20:07:28. My placing was 16^th overall, a mere 6.5 hrs behind the overall winner.

16th overall | Photo: Katie Meding

Gear Used

Headwear

·        Hat: Nathan/Boco endurance hat

·        Buff various head wraps

Headlamp: Nathan Nebula Fire

Sunglasses: Oakley Prism M-Frames (Trail tint)

Hydration packs:

·        Nathan Vapor Krar 4L Race Vest (steel grey)

·        Nathan 18 oz. soft flask

Watch: Garmin Fenix 3 HR

Clothing:

·        Patagonia top: GRVR’17 t-shirt (white)

·        rabbit top: to-a-tee (medium grey)

·        rabbit 7” shorts: fully loaded (orange)

Others:

·        Altra heat zoned running jacket (black)

·        Salomon running jacket (blue)

Socks: Injinji trail socks (Cali edition)

Shoes: Altra Olympus 2.5 (lime)

Nutrition

Tailwind Nutrition (Berry & Green Tea Buzz flavors)

GU hydration tablets

GU Roctane gels (vanilla-orange)

Coke-Cola (vanilla)

Various nuts and trail mix

And lots of various fruit provided at the aid stations (mainly oranges & bananas)

Lesson Learned

My second 100 miles has brought me some more lessons:

·        Nutrition – As my previous 100 relying mostly on Tailwind and supplementing with real fruit was definitely the key. I also had some other real foods in there and tried to limit the gels as much as possible. But I did listen to my body and when they sounded good I did pound a gel or two to get my kick back. I have been experimenting with Vegetarian diet and so far so good. So for 2 months leading up to this race I never had a bite of meat product.

·        Pacing – Well again I mentioned I run on perceived effort, however the first 2.5 loops were a fast pace even for me and let to me setting some PRs. But this seems to be my style of just run hard from the gun and hang on. Then you look at it from the other side and going out that fast gives me a good cushion for a faster time. Definite room for improvement next time around.

·        Recovery – based on my fitness and preparation going into this race I knew I was ready. But Secondly on top of all that the vegetarian diet is supposed to help a person recover faster and the fact I was ready to run 36 post race I knew something went well. I will continue to experiment and see what works best for me.

·        Mind over Body – not sure if it was the lack of hills or what, but 2^nd time around it seemed easier in a way. But the night loops were a trial of my stamina and alertness. Mind won over body on this day(s)!

THANKS!

Huge thank you to:

·        My team:

o   Crew chief/Biggest Fan/Family Glue/My Wife: Katie Meding

o   My Little Fans -- my 3 daughters and my inspiration: Addison, Lillian, Paisley

My family was there with me from the start of the day. They helped me crew each of the first 4 transitions before my wife had to head home and put the kids to bed for some much-needed rest (which I could of used at the time). But how amazing my wife is was again proven by the fact she went home and got some rest set her alarm and got the kids back out of bed and came back to the finish line to watch me complete the race at 02:07 in the morning! True commitment and pure love. My wife is simply amazing and the support is so nice to have.

·        Race Director: Robert & Rachel Goyen – these folks know how to put on races. This particular event is the biggest in TX and one of the biggest in the US, as far as I know with 900 runners. Rob & Rachel have been running Trail Racing Over Texas with great success and put on a great event. I recommend there venues anytime. I did one back in Oct. before I officially moved in as well.

http://www.trailracingovertexas.com

·        Brand Supporters:

o   rabbit clothing – I was recently picked to be a RADrabbit for the 2017-2018 season. rabbit makes quality running clothes by runners for runners. They are made in California by runner who care! Check them out.

https://www.runinrabbit.com