15. My First 100k: Race Report and Lessons Learned

Run Woodstock 2014: L.S.D. 100k

Race Report

Event: Run Woodstock L.S.D. 100 km, Pickney, Michigan

Date: September 5-8, 2014

Website: http://www.runwoodstock.com/

Description: Run Woodstock is a 3-day running festival, inspired by the original Woodstock. It is a lot of fun, but the RunningFit folks appropriately take their running, and their runners, quite seriously -- and this is evident in the quality of the events they put on. The camping and camaraderie is a blast, and there are running distances and events available for all levels from 5k to 100 miles. If you go, I would encourage you to take advantage of all the options that you can handle (take care of your legs, of course), and aim to do the "weekend challenge" of running all three days. The 100's start on Friday, but if you are in an event that doesn't start until Saturday (50-mile, 50k, marathon, half-marathon, 5-mile), there is a nice Friday evening 5k available. There is another 5k Saturday night and the weekend is capped off with a 5-mile Sunday morning trot. Take it easy, visit with your fellow runners, and think of it as "active recovery" from your long run. (There are also various other events and options throughout the day Saturday, including awesome music all weekend.)

The Course: On the recommendation of some other Indiana Trail Runners, I did my first 50-mile ultra at Run Woodstock in 2013. I had done my first 50k at "Dances with Dirt" earlier in the season, and, since that was also put on by the RunningFit folks, I looked forward to another opportunity to run with them.

In general, it's a nice rolling course, comprised of single-track, horse trails, and a couple rail trail and road segments. Each loop is just over 16 miles, so for this year's 100k, it meant four times around. Aid stations were well-stocked and attended by fantastic volunteers.  Runners in the ultras essentially hit an aid station every 4 miles. The first segment, from the start/finish to the first aid station, is good warm-up terrain. After looping through the grounds, you enter a nice trail area, followed by a graveled rail-trail segment of about a mile, and then back into the woods. The first aid station also doubles as the third for your return toward the finish. Leaving the aid station, you'll spend some time on the road (a bit more than a mile) before entering the trails. You'll spend most of the next 6 miles in the woods (except for a road crossing), including the second aid station and a short road stint, before returning to the same road segment leading back to the first/third aid station. The final segment from the aid station (#3) to the start/finish area is probably the toughest terrain of the course. It includes some pretty good hills along with some really muddy soupy sections that have been softened by horses and runners. The final hill and the turn in to the cheers of the camp area is very rewarding -- especially if it is your final loop.

The weather always seems to present an added dimension. The race began Friday afternoon with the Michigan temperatures near 90 degrees. About 3 hours in, I was still on my first loop when the area weather alert sirens started blaring, and as the winds moved over us, I could hear trees cracking. While I did not see anything come down, other runners did and there were three newly downed trees on the trail for subsequent loops. As the winds died down, the rain moved in, sporadically heavy, and intermittent throughout the night. With the morning, though, all was calm and comfortable. The weekend weather was quite perfect.

My Finish:
I would describe this as a pretty rough run. As you'll see below, I was not as well-prepared as I had hoped. And, in the third loop, I was not in good shape. In fact, I was pretty certain that in my current condition I did not have a fourth loop in me. So, as I trudged into the camp area with three loops and 49 miles behind me, I laid down in my tent at 5:00 am. I woke up a bit after 7:00 feeling amazingly refreshed. So, I put on some dry socks and clean shoes, and headed out for the final lap.

I had gone into this event thinking that I might take 16 to 18 hours to finish. Had my summer training plan stayed intact, it might have been possible, and, I suppose that if you take the nap out of the picture, I wasn't too far off. What amazed me, though, was that when I crossed the finish line, I was told that I was a top finisher in my age group. WooHoo! Hooray for slow 50-somethings!

Race distance: 100k
Actual mileage: 65 miles
Finish Time (official): 20:18:21.8

 

Lessons Learned

 

Train more, pack less.

My training in the two months leading up to Run Woodstock suffered greatly. As part of my RunThisYear goals, I generally try to aim for about 175-200 miles of running each month, including varied long runs every weekend. To be fair, this is probably too low for someone striving to complete a 100k ultramarathon. In July, I had a respectable (for me) 183 miles, but only one long run, way back on July 4. I know that doubling up on weekend long runs are an essential component of ultra training, but it just didn't happen. August, from the training perspective, was a disaster. I logged 97 miles for the entire month, and 45 of that came in one day at the "Hamster Endurance Runs" 12-hour event. Things began to settle into normality in September, but, of course, it was too late to do anything from the training perspective toward a September 5 event, so I logged a few "taper" miles and headed up to Hell. (Run Woodstock takes place in Pinckney, Michigan, which neighbors the community of Hell. One story is that when one of the founders back in the 19th century was asked what to call the town, he responded, "I don't care, you can name it Hell for all I care.") I knew it would be a rough 100k, but I was determined to have fun and to finish on my feet.

The other thing that I have noticed is that I need to get better at incorporating strength training into my routine. When I get beyond marathon distance, my back gets sore across the shoulder blades. It is not particularly painful, but is definitely a distraction that adds to the overall fatigue.

As for packing, I suppose that I have a bit of a "Boy Scout" tendency -- Be Prepared. I have clothing that I like for fit, function, and various weather contingencies that I took along with me. Some of the options, I even carried in my race vest. But I took too many items, bringing most of them back still folded. I also have various foods for hydration and nutrition that I have found work reasonably well for me. The nice thing about a looped course is that I can leave things at the transition area and still have regular access, but I still carried too much and consumed only a portion of what I brought. The primary reason for this is that the aid stations were well-stocked with options and I am getting better at making choices across those options for what works for me. This is a GOOD thing. So now I just need to convince myself that it is okay to travel light, even in a long race. Many races will post the aid station "menu" ahead of time, so I should be able to just fill in the gaps for what I think that I'll need.

"Long Slow Distance Produces Long Slow Runners."

Sebastian Coe, British middle distance athlete and Olympic medalist, once made the above statement, complaining about that frequented training principle. Frankly, I don't see a problem here. Of course, I'm not an elite athlete, and don't need to concern myself with the other guy in a race. The only guy I'm concerned with besting looks back at me in the mirror each day. As a result, my race day objectives are simple: Have Fun and Finish. Of course, there are training regimens that I pay attention to in order to improve the prospects of reaching my goals. And, while time is a factor, it is not the objective. Long, slow, distance is a part of my training regimen. It's also likely an apt descriptor of my race day performance. And I'm okay with that.

A NAP is better than a DNF.

Earlier this year, I DNF-ed (Did Not Finish) at the Winter Night Trail Marathon in Indianapolis. As I had completed the second of four loops, I knew that I could not finish the third in time to start the final lap for a marathon finish. Dropping to the half was hard, but the right call. For the 100k, ironically, I had the luxury of time.

As I headed up to Run Woodstock this year, I had joked that with 30 hours available to complete 62 miles, I felt that I could sleep along the way and still finish, as long as I stayed uninjured. After all, I had done a weekend double marathon earlier in the year, completing the second less than 30 hours from the start of the first, with more than an 18 hour gap between the two 26.2-mile segments. So even though I hoped to NOT take any downtime along the trail, I felt it within the realm of possibility that I could add 10 miles to the total even if I wasn't on my feet the entire time. My finish time might not be particularly spectacular, but what's a bit less spectacularity to and LSD runner?

You can do it!

Look at it this way. I am a 51-year-old asthmatic clydesdale (a runner who weighs more than 200 pounds). Know your limits. TEST your limits. And above all, HAVE FUN DOING IT!


Happy Running!