Rocky Raccoon 100 - Third time's the charm

How long does it take to run 100 miles? This race has a cutoff of 30 hours, but in my case, it took over two years. In 2011, inexperience and cold stopped me at 77 miles. In 2012, it was Rhabdomyolysis at 30. This year, it looked like weather wasn't going to be the cause of my downfall. I had two friends running the 100 with me and this just felt like this was the weekend we’d all go home with buckles in hand.

Race weekend started with me taking the day off work on Friday so I could drive up to Huntsville and pick up my race packet, along with dropping off my drop bag. I was racer #42. While up there, I ran into my old friend Brett Blankner and his wife and son. Brett is a 100 mile finisher and was running the 50-miler for the 4^th time this year. Alida and I stuck around to chat with him while his son ran the Kids’ Mile event. Then we drove home to get ready for Rosie to show up as well as my father. Rosie was going to ride up with us the next morning. After a hearty dinner and some last-minute packing and prep, the four of us turned in early for some sleep before what we all knew would be a very long weekend.

Me, Stef, and Rosie

3:20AM and the alarm went off. It was race day and we were still over an hour’s drive from the start line. Breakfast was made and eaten and Rosie and I piled into my dad’s car for the drive up to Huntsville.  Alida elected to stay and sleep in because she knew she would not get much sleep once the race started. The drive was uneventful and we got there with 20 or so minutes to spare. Rosie needed to drop off a box for Sabrina to take out to one of the aid stations for her. We met friends, snapped some photos, talked to our pacers, and soon enough the gun went off and nearly four hundred runners shuffled off into the dark woods.

The Rocky Raccoon 100 trail run is a five-loop course with four aid stations, one of which the runners pass twice per loop. Most aid stations are between 3 and 4.5 miles apart, but there’s one section with 6 miles between stations and that one requires a little bit of special planning. My friend Stef was feeling fast and she went off at a quicker pace. I started off running with Rosie and feeling out the intensity we wanted to run at. In the back of my mind was my 24 hour goal and I had a spreadsheet printout with times for each aid station along that pace.

Early in the race

As we progressed along the first loop, it became pretty clear that Rosie was having problems with her hip flexor muscle. She had been training a lot and I don’t think she had given herself proper time to recover and rest for this race. We took some walk breaks and she stretched, but toward the end of the loop, I needed to run ahead for a portacan emergency and afterwards, I didn't see her again. I finished the first loop under 4 hours and 15 minutes—a conservative pace that built up about 30 minutes of cushion on my 24 hour goal without expending undue energy that i would need later.

Alida was not there for the race start, but she had arrived in time to see me for the second loop. My dad was there too of course, as well as John, Jay, Belinda, Diane, Kristi, Chad, Sabrina, Mark and my pacers Dave and Laura. I know there were others and if I forgot to mention you, I’m so sorry, but my recall from the early hours isn't as clear. I grabbed a little bit of food and went right back out onto the trail for round two.

The second loop was a little harder than the first loop, but since I took it easy the first time around, it was far from punishing. The sun was up and the day was becoming pretty warm. Thankfully nearly all of the course is run in the shade, but we could still feel the heat as the temperature rose into the 70s. One of the bigger challenges was the mental aspect of knowing I’d be out for another 4+ hours on a course I already knew before getting back to my friends again. That was my mental checkpoint and one of the things I really looked forward to each time around. Throughout the morning and during the race, I was getting text messages and tweets from people wishing me well. I read each of them as they arrived and it made me happy. It was also nice to see so many familiar faces out on the course. Many of my friends were running the 50 or the 100 mile race and I never knew when I would cross paths with them. There really isn't a whole lot of detail I remember about my second loop and I ended up back at the turnaround about five minutes slower than the first time, expanding my overall time cushion to about an hour. Coming into the chute, I saw Andy Dufresne, who I only knew online. He was there waiting to pace his runner later that day.

Alida works on my legs as I eat some potatoes and get ready to go out

I went out again  for loop #3 and before even got out of the station, I saw another friend Gordon coming into the finish. Gordon is a sub-3 hour marathon runner who was racing the 50 this year after having to drop out from a tough day last year. I knew he was in the final steps of his race and he gave me a high five as we went by in opposite directions. The third loop (miles 40-60) was tougher and I was starting to feel the effort after 8+ hours on my feet. I knew this would be an important loop because the sun would be down by the time I finished and Laura would be waiting for me to pace me on the next loop. This was also the loop where I finally figured out my nutrition, salt, and water intake, although not without some trouble first. I had not been drinking nor taking salt pills on a schedule, but rather going by feel, which becomes less precise as the day went on and my exhaustion level climbed. This culminated in a much slower pace and a discussion with another runner as the third loop went on.

As the third loop wore down, I crossed paths with Jonathan French, who is a big Houston Dynamo supporter like me. I talk with him frequently about ultra running. He has had a tough year leading up to this race with a number of DNFs (Did Not Finish) for different reasons. He seemed to be running well and he was completing his last loop of the 50 mile course. We ran together for a while and talked about nutrition. It was after this discussion that I decided I would take salt pills at every single aid station regardless of whether it was day or night. Jonathan did finish well, by the way, and I’m extremely happy for him. It was around this time when I got the word that a friend of mine and former Houston Dynamo team captain Wade Barrett had won the 50 mile race outright with a time under 7 hours. I am very happy for him. He’s an incredibly strong runner and I guess this was just his year. Gordon, who I mentioned earlier, ended up finishing 4^th overall and he won his age group in the 50 mile race. That’s how you make a comeback!

Night had fallen when I made it in from the third loop and I was really starting to feel the fatigue of 60 miles on my legs. Alida gave me a quick leg massage before I went out for the fourth loop and Laura was a chatterbox, which was great for me since I was sick of thinking about the race. I knew I was in rough shape from the start of this loop and it would indeed turn out to be my hardest loop of the day. 12 hours of not executing a proper nutrition game plan was catching up with me and my new practice of taking salt and water constantly had not had enough time to straighten my body out yet. As the loop went on, I felt like I was doing more walking than running. I hit the wall hard around mile 68 and got so dizzy I had to sit down for a moment while I consumed a carbohydrate gel pack. I don't care for the syrupy sweet gels, but I have to admit they do absorb quickly into my blood stream. After a few minutes, my head cleared and I felt good enough to walk to the next aid station, but even then I had to sit for a good 20 minutes while warming up and nibbling on spoonfuls of salty mashed potatoes. My stomach finally settled down, but my legs never quite caught back up and it ended up being a tough and slow lap for me despite Laura’s best efforts to keep me moving. That was when it became clear that a sub-24 hour race was not in the cards for me. I finished that loop in 6:32—two hours longer than any of my previous three loops. I had a feeling it was going to be a very long night.

With that decided, I was free to take it easy and enjoy the last part of the race because the race cutoff wasn't until noon on Sunday. We got back to the turnaround and I thanked Laura for her help and drank a can of coconut water while Alida worked on my quads some more. My legs felt absolutely shredded, but at least I had sorted out my calories and salt. Dave suited up and off we went for loop number 5—miles 80-100. I was resigned to basically walk the whole 20 miles, but Dave wanted to give running a try just to see where I was at physically and mentally. We went off at a light jog and it hurt a lot—remember, it was after 2AM by this point--but as my muscles warmed up, I found that I was able to trot along at a respectable pace. I knew I wasn't going to make up the time to get back under 24 hours overall, but the sooner I got the race over with, the sooner I could get off my feet so I decided to push my luck.

Dave kept me entertained with stories about podcasts he had listened to and we talked about training and running and whatever else popped into his mind.  My mind didn't have a whole lot left in it at this point. One aid station went by and then another and then we were on the tough and lonely 6 mile stretch in the back of the park. I was feeling a bit weak and needed some calories so I took one of his Clif bars. Pacers are not allowed to carry supplies for the runners so we decided it would be better if I gave him a couple of my gels in trade. That way he wasn't really carrying anything for me. He just traded me some items J It was perfectly ridiculous and I’m sure Joe the race director would have had a good laugh, but somehow it made perfect sense out on the trail. With each aid station, I’d have another cup of hot salted mashed potatoes and maybe a cup of soup here or there and within a minute we were back on the road walking then running again. My energy picked up and I started to feel really positive again.

Around mile 90 or so, Dave brought up a subject that had not occurred to me. He asked how my feet felt. When I thought about it, I realized that they were doing fine. In fact, they were doing better than fine. I hadn't thought about my feet all day.  There were no hot spots, no blisters, no rubbing. Nothing. I never changed my socks or shoes because I never needed to. As we left the final aid station, I noticed the black sky was turning a shade of blue and I decided to see if I could finish the race before the sun came up. I picked up my pace and knocked out the last couple of miles with Dave. As I entered the finishing chute, all of my fatigue left me and I ran through to a small but enthusiastic crowd at the finish line and with a beep of the timing mat, the last 25 hours was over. I looked at race director Joe Prusaitis and informed him that I was promised hallucinations and that I wanted my money back. He just laughed at me and handed me the finisher’s belt buckle, which is a unique symbol of the ultramarathon community. I was a 100 mile finisher. My time bounced back strongly from the fourth loop and the fifth and final loop took me 5:12. My overall finishing time was 25 hours, 5 minutes, and 58 seconds.

I ran 100 miles and all I got was this lousy belt buckle!

 After about ten minutes of congratulations, hugs, and stripping off various pieces of clothing and equipment (which takes a lot longer than you might think when you cannot move very well) I asked how Stef did. She finished under 24 hours despite trailing off a little at the end. I had crossed paths with Rosie once or twice since we parted ways. I knew she had our friend Ron pacing her for the 4^th loop and then Sabrina would pace her 5th, but I didn't know how badly her injury might have been slowing her down. After hanging around for a few hours at the finish line, we gathered up all of our supplies and parted ways with our entourage. I suggested we drive down to the final aid station before the finish line to wait for Rosie and Sabrina to arrive. We had some time to kill and chatted with Paige and the others who were running the Park Road aid station. We watched people go by looking tired and beat down, but determined to finish off their races. It was inspiring. Finally, they came by and Rosie looked rough, but they both seemed in good spirits and I knew they had enough time to finish ahead of the noon cutoff.

Here I am with my wonderful pacers moments after completing the race.

Rosie did indeed finish with 30 minutes to spare. She took her belt buckle and tumbled into the back of our SUV where we had made a makeshift bed for the trip home while Alida drove us. I was too excited to get much sleep and checked Twitter and the Something Awful forums, where several people had been following my progress on the running thread. It was wonderful to see so many people throwing their well wishes and support at me and I was glad I could answer it by completing my task.

Epilogue

In hindsight, the way my race played out was a little unusual. Most people have loops that get progressively slower as the race wears on.  In my case, I made a substantial change to my race planning that had a measurable positive effect on the later stages of my race. I’m referring to my salt and calorie intake after the conversation with Jonathan on loop 3. The salted mashed potatoes were a big boost too. They were hot and tasty and the high glycemic index of the potatoes meant that they digested quickly and gave me calories I could use right away. I believe that if I were to go into another race with similar weather conditions and a similar level of training, I could definitely break 24 hours with that nutrition strategy. I simply had not been taking in enough electrolytes.

My diet: I have been on a 100% plant-based diet since the end of 2012. I don’t feel like this hampered me in any way. In fact, I feel like the food I was eating was providing me with everything I needed and the only thing I left out was the junk. It’s worth noting that aside from mashed potatoes, the aid stations had vegan soup and/or veggie burgers and perhaps other things specifically intended to appeal to runners with those diet concerns. This tells me there are more than just a few of us out there. My normal “walking around” weight is about 190 pounds. This is healthy and this is not overweight, but I still dropped about 10 pounds without trying on my current diet. I felt leaner and quicker as a result. In terms of specific race nutrition, I packed my drop bags with seaweed-wrapped rice balls with soy sauce packets, Greek lemon roasted potatoes, coconut-covered date balls, and peanut butter pretzels.  All of these were pretty much right on target for what I needed and my tastes changed throughout the day depending what my body wanted. I went into one aid station wanting nothing more than to gorge myself on orange slices, which I don’t typically eat a lot of at races.

I need to give some appreciation to some people whose conversations have led me in the direction I’m in with regard to race food and general fitness diet. Penny Wilson is a friend and a nutritionist who I have worked with for a couple of years. She and I are both advocates of bringing real food to races instead of gels and powders. It’s just what works best for me. Christine Lynch, the holistic guru, and I regularly talk about diet in general and eating healthy. Rich Roll, the vegan ultraman is a constant inspiration and an example of what someone can do on a plant-based diet.

My crew: I already mentioned my crew and pacers, but I feel it’s important to spend a little time talking about just how much of an effect a good crew infrastructure can have on a successful endurance race. In the middle of the night, my pacer and I ran by some people who were out there struggling alone in the dark. Maybe that’s how they wanted it so I won’t feel bad for them, but I know that’s not what I wanted for myself.  The first three laps went by much faster knowing that there was a pacer waiting for me on loop 4 and then again on loop 5. Every time I came back into the turnaround aid station, I had people there cheering for me and rushing to get me anything I needed. It made the whole experience much more enjoyable and let me focus on getting my gear and myself prepared to go out again for the next loop. It’s tough leaving all that behind and knowing it will be 4 or 5+ hours before I see them again.

My gear: I’d like to think I've distilled my race prep down a little bit even though I over-packed once again. My shoe of choice is the Newton Terra Momentum and this pair has over 700 miles on them prior to the race start. Some would say that is foolish, but they are very comfortable. I have a pair of UnderArmour ankle length running socks and they apparently agreed with me too because I never changed my socks or my shoes throughout the race and I never had any problems. I wore 2XU calf compression sleeves and they felt good on my legs as well. Actually, now that I think about it, I did very little clothing modification throughout the race. I wore tight triathlon shorts instead of traditional loose running shorts because running shorts can get sweaty and rub on my legs. My UnderArmour boxer briefs are my go-to base layer for underwear and they have never given me problems and I knew they wouldn't on race day. I wore my Houston Marathon finisher’s shirt for most of the race. It’s also made by UnderArmour and the material is extremely soft and never chafes me. It almost feels like silk. I wore my Zoot arm sleeves because it gives me sun protection and it’s easy to regulate between warmth and cool by adding a little water. I never got them wet them during the race though. I topped it off with a race cap and my Tifosi transition shades and I cannot forget the incredible Ayup headlamp—a birthday present from my wife.  This thing lights up the night! I wear a Nathan HPL020 hydration vest. I like how it sits on my back when I run and it has enough pockets of just the right size to carry what I need. When the night rolled around, it cooled off and I swapped my shirt with the Rocky Raccoon race shirt. It was a thicker long sleeve material and it suited the temperature. I swapped the race cap for a beanie pulled down over my ears and I threw on a pair of windproof cycling gloves. I never got more than a little bit cold out there. I like to use Skin Sake, which is a preventative ointment of sorts. I put it on sensitive areas before the race and it protects my skin against chafing and offers sunscreen protection as well. In hindsight, I don’t think I would make any changes to my clothing or gear for this race.

Last but not least, here's the tale of the Garmin: Rocky Raccoon 100 Mile Trail Run

Because I'm a geek and a fan of the Zombies, Run! iPhone app, I decided to make this race a zombie run as well. I think it was a bit excessive, but it got some laughs when I tweeted my result. I wonder how many people thought I just faked it.

I have no memory of this photo. I can see it was night time, but aside from that, who knows?

Hanging out post-race at Park Road aid station Lebowski-style