2012 Tahiti Moorea Marathon

I think I could get used to racing here.

We arrived in Moorea on Saturday morning and checked into the Hilton, which was very nice.  Packet pickup was the same day several miles away down near the airport.  As we wandered around the common area trying to figure out how we would get to packet pickup, we ran into Team Austria who was staying at the Hilton as well.  Three men and three women were completely decked out in Austria running kits and one guy was waving a giant flag around.  It was great!

Team Austria

After trying to figure out why the shuttle to the packet pickup had not arrived, we started fending for ourselves.  The parking lot guard, Serge, had an interesting idea for getting our packets—he tossed me the keys to his car.  Well, at least I assume it was his car.  At any rate, the car sat the four of us and I hopped in the driver’s seat and got a quick refresher on driving a manual transmission.  It had been a few years, but I got it all sorted out pretty well and we were on our way.

Packet pickup was on the beach and, as one might expect from a low-key affair, it was pretty basic.  Chris and Genevieve had their packets waiting for them, but Alida and I were not on the books.  That was annoying, but after a bit of finagling, we managed to convince them to let us run anyway.  I have no idea where the money went, but I know we paid entry fees so I don’t feel the least bit worried about them getting paid.

After packets were sorted out, we wandered around the “expo” for a bit while they got things set up for the pasta dinner.  I have to give them credit, they did everything right, it was just a very basic version of it, but when you are in paradise, you learn to go with the flow and so we did.  We browsed some of the vendors and sat around listening to some music for a while as we watched the ocean.  Eventually, we all had some very simple pasta and chicken, then headed back and returned the keys to Serge.  It was off to bed early for a 3:30 wakeup the next morning.

The alarm went off and we grabbed out gear.  The Hilton had very kindly prepared breakfast boxes for us since the dining area didn’t open until 6—long after we would be on the road.  We got all of our gear together and met up with Team Austria as we waited for the shuttle to the race.  After catching a ride to the Total Gas Station, which also doubled as the race start, we had some time to kill as we got ourselves situated and figured out our game plans for this race.  Chris and I were running the full marathon, starting at 4:30AM, and Alida and Genevieve were running the half, which started at 5AM.

My game plan was to throw all expectations out the window.  I knew I had a pretty nasty sinus infection and I really shouldn’t even be running this race.  I refused to take any Tylenol or Advil because those do not mix with endurance activities.  I just had to tough this one out.  The cutoff was six hours and I planned to keep my heart rate under 150.  I knew it would be hot and humid so I decided to run with my two liter hydration vest and I brought eight Pedialyte packets.  Water stations were scheduled every 2.5k so I planned to have a Pedialyte packet with water every 5k.  This should keep my chemistry pretty solid and all the water should keep me hydrated.  I had no idea how recovered I was after my bout with Rhabdomyolysis only two weeks prior, but I planned to take no chances.

The gun went off and so did we.  Chris and I were right back in the rear of the pack heading out as I monitored our pace and my heart rate.  I wanted to get into a flow of slow and steady right from the start and not get too excited and go out hard.  The first few miles went well and we settled into an easy pace that allowed us plenty of conversation.

I should take a moment to describe the water stations.  The day before the race, we saw the people constructing them on the side of the road.  The people built a framework of bamboo and then thatched the roofs with palm leaves.  They were completely homemade and absolutely perfect!  They offered cups of water, various fruit drinks, and lots of chopped fruit.  I really felt like Moorea takes this marathon seriously, which made me very happy.  Many stations also had people playing music and dancing.  It was exactly the way you would expect a Tahitian marathon aid station to look and sound.  The Pedialyte was a bit hard to choke down sometimes and I really felt like I was drinking more of it than I needed, but I knew the reward outweighed the risk so I chugged away.

The course is a 42 km out and back with the turnaround just before 21km, which means we overrun the end and ended up at the beach near the packet pickup area.  I’m not one to complain about finishing a marathon on a beautiful tropical beach, but first there was a race to run.

Chris and I plodded onward having a great time, chatting, taking photos, and dancing along with the musicians, which always brought some laughs.  Chris started struggling a bit before the turnaround and I stuck with him for a while, but he waved me on and so on I went.  I hit the turnaround and picked up the customary red garter belt, which was how they knew you ran all the way to the turnaround before returning.  After the turnaround, I saw that Chris wasn’t very far behind me and he was still in good spirits, so I wished him well and continued.

The sun had come up by this point and I was over two and a half hours into the race.  I was starting to get a little bit tired even though I wasn’t exerting the intensity I normally do on a marathon.  I jogged onward, taking walk breaks whenever my heart rate would top 150 and then walking until it got back under 130.  This was a pretty good system and I knew I was ahead of cutoff pace, so I saw no reason to change things up.  It would just be a long morning.

About 30k in, I jogged up on a couple of guys who were walking at a strong pace.  I ran up on them and tried to make some light conversation.  They were both Tahitian and spoke not much English, but we exchanged thumbs up and general encouragement.  I walked with them for a while and then decided it was time to jog onward.  The views of the two bays were spectacular, especially during and after sunrise.  I stopped many times for photographs of the stunning vistas.

After leaving the two Tahitian gentlemen, I eventually came upon another runner near the 35k mark.  This guy did speak some English.  His name was Christian and he was from France.  He was an older gentleman and this was his 85^th marathon.  He had just flown in from a diving trip in the Marquesas Islands, which are the most remote islands in French Polynesia.  We walked some, jogged some, and chatted a while.  We were moving along nicely and the much-awaited 40km mark finally fell to the wayside and I knew we didn’t have much more to go.  After we passed the gas station where we started, we went further then split off into the jungle.

The last bit of path was through the jungle eventually, dropping us on the beach as we ran up to the finish line were we found Alida waiting for us.  My finishing time was 5:42:29, which is by far the slowest marathon I have ever run (not counting Ironman) but I have no regrets.  The sinus infection was a bummer, but I took care of business and I banked my third continent.  French Polynesia counts as Oceania.  The finisher’s medal was even pretty neat and I got a shirt as well.  The best part—The vacation was only just beginning!

Here’s the tale of the Garmin.

Rocky Raccoon 100 Mile Trail Run - DNF

Last year at the 2011 Rocky Raccoon 100 mile trail race, I had a great night of running and made it over 75 miles before my inexperience in nutrition took me out of the race.  This was supposed to be the year that I set the record straight.  Things did not go according to plan.

Let me start by contrasting the races this year and last year.  Last year’s 100 mile trail run was the weekend of a severe ice storm.  Starting temperature, while clear, was 28 degrees.  All of the footbridges were covered in ice and running after dark was bitterly cold.

This year, temperatures were better, but conditions were miserably rainy.  I thought that would make things better, but it actually made the event harder.  I base this on the fact that last year’s finishing time was nearly 45 minutes faster than this year’s time.  As we pulled into Huntsville State Park at 5AM on race morning, the sky opened up and torrential rain came down.  Not just rain, but a true storm.  Lightning lit the sky and I had time to think about just what I was getting myself into.  As we prepared to line up in the start area, I made a last-minute decision to switch into running tights instead of shorts and to run in my Houston Dynamo rain jacket.

Rain at the race start (taken from Ian Sharman's blog)

I went out at a quick but comfortable 12:00/mile pace with Sarah and the two of us ran the 10k to the Dam Road aid station uneventfully.  The torrential rain had already created some massive puddles and runners were presented with the option of running right down the middle or trying to skirt the puddles.  I was very conscious of my nutrition and calorie intake after last year.  I had spent a lot of time working with Penny Wilson on getting together a race day plan and I intended to stick to it.  At my Dam Road drop bag, I topped off my water again and grabbed another Perpetuem packet.

We ran the 6.5 mile Dam Road loop without incident as well.  This part of the course was not as boggy and featured several long inclines that gave me walking break opportunities to spin my waist pack around and get at the food I had picked up.  In this case, it was four rice balls wrapped in seaweed.  I was consuming calories at about the limit of my ability to take them in.  I wanted to set the tone early for how I planned to eat throughout the day.  We made it back to the Dam Road aid station at the 20k mark and again I grabbed another packet of Perpetuem and topped off my water.  My hydration and my nutrition were spot on.  I also grabbed a packet of potatoes to eat on the move.  I was spending an extremely short period of time at the aid stations, which was another thing I wanted to do better from last year.

From that point, I passed through the Park Road station and eventually, Sarah and I finished our first loop at mile 20.  We came in at 10:02AM meaning our first loop was just a touch over four hours.  That was a little fast, but not taxing for the first loop and besides, it was nice to know we had a little cushion of time for later on.  I topped my water, but missed Alida who had my drop bag.  As I was running out, I told her to meet me 5k later on at the Nature Center, which she did.

One thing that did strike me as odd about the first loop was that I was beginning to feel some fatigue in my quads.  That didn’t seem right to me.  I had two solid weeks of rest and I certainly wasn’t running hard enough to have tired quads so soon.  I resolved to slow the pace a bit and be more attentive on the second loop.  As we went out on the second loop, the 100 mile leaders were already coming in at the end of their second loop.  Ian, Hal, and Karl led the way with race numbers 1, 2, 3.  By the time I got to the nature center, my quads were noticeably fatigued and it was starting to concern me a little bit.  I was only 23 miles into the race—not even ¼ of the way finished.

By the time I made it through the Dam Road station again, I was really sore to the point where I wanted to take some walk breaks every now and again.  Something had to change or else I was going to be in trouble.  I just couldn’t figure out what was going wrong.  My hydration, nutrition, and calorie intake were right where they were supposed to be.  I crossed paths with Stef, who was running her first 50-miler.  I was proud of the way she had been approaching this race and we trained together on a few long runs leading up to this race.  It was good to run with her.  Eventually, we reached the 50-mile cutoff and she turned right whereas I had to go straight.

After Stef split off, I stepped behind a tree to relieve myself.  This was good.  Having a full bladder meant I was managing my hydration properly.  What was not good was when my urine came out the color of coca cola.  At first I thought it was blood, but it reality it was much darker.  This is when I knew I had a problem.  I have done all kinds of long distance training runs and ultramarathons in the past and I’ve never had this happen before.  I called Alida on the phone and told her of the troubles with fatigue I was having and my most recent shock of the kidney issue.  We decided it would be best to finish the 6.5 mile loop back to Dam Road and then ask someone about it once I got there.

Once I hit the 28 mile turnaround and unmanned timing mat, my legs were so tired I almost could not run at all.  Even hiking felt like a chore.  I called Alida again and we discussed the very real possibility of me having to drop out of the race before I was even 1/3 of the way through with it.  It turned out I would never even make it to the next aid station.  It got so bad I had to stop at a park bench and rest for a few minutes.  Eventually, I had the energy to walk a half mile or so to the next park bench on the dam itself.  Looking across the lake I could see the finish line close by even though it was over 8 miles away by way of the race course.  I decided I could not continue.

I called Alida and told her to have the race crew either send an ATV to pick me up or if possible, to send a boat across the lake.  It turns out they were able to send a boat, which was much shorter and faster.  As I sat and waited for the boat, it began to rain again and I got colder and began to shiver.  It was early-stage hypothermia, but I was not concerned because I knew I would be picked up in a matter of minutes.  It was still pretty unpleasant though.  Final score: 30.5 miles.

The boat picked me up and took me to the medical tent.  I laid on a cot and they covered me with blankets.  Once I warmed up a little bit, I was able to get some chicken soup down.  When I described my strange and seemingly unrelated symptoms to the doctor, she immediately told me it sounded like I had Rhabdomyolysis, which I had never heard of before.  Apparently it is not all that uncommon in ultra distance runners.

Rhabdomyolysis is the breakdown of muscle fibers that leads to the release of muscle fiber contents (myoglobin) into the bloodstream. Myoglobin is harmful to the kidney and often causes kidney damage.  Symptoms include: Abnormal urine color (dark, red, or cola colored), Decreased urine production, General weakness, Muscle stiffness or aching (myalgia), Muscle tenderness, Weakness of the affected muscles.  Well heck, I had five of the six symptoms right there.  But why did I get it here and now?  The most common cause of it in ultra runners is dehydration, but I had been very careful in taking in the right amount of fluids throughout the race.

Most importantly, the doctor told me that I should drink a lot of fluids and electrolytes.  If I can flush the color from my urine, then I’m good to go, but if I cannot, then I need to go to the emergency room.  I didn’t like the sound of that.  I drank a ton of water, chicken noodle soup, and Gatorade and eventually, everything came out clear like it was supposed to.

The reason for why I experienced this was a complete mystery until the drive home the next day when it all came together.  I had made a last-minute decision to run in my Houston Dynamo rain jacket.  It did a good job of keeping my upper body dry and warm, but it removed all ventilation.  I had wondered why my running shirt was soaking wet under my jacket and why water would pour out of my sleeves every time I lowered my arms.  I just assumed some rain had gotten into it.  After looking at the results from my Garmin GPS watch, I see that my heart rate was also far higher than it should have been right from the start.  I'm not exactly sure about why this is, but I do believe that was a factor as well.  http://connect.garmin.com/activity/147545601

I was disappointed to have to drop out of the race for the second straight year, especially considering I had put so much effort into training and preparing for it this time around, only to be taken out of the race by possibly the last thing I would have imagined.  All I can say is that I will be back again next year with yet another hard-earned piece of wisdom and experience.

I would like to give thanks to everyone who donated toward my fund raiser for Team COCI.  Even though I was unable to meet my goal this time around, I can assure you that this money will go to children who are in great need all over the world.

I should mention I feel fine now (unfortunately) and I believe the danger has passed.  Next stop: the Tahiti Moorea marathon!