24 Hour Ultra: Plenty of Gas, two flats. April 13, 2008
Posted by anton in : Race Report , 1 comment so farI’ve been looking forward to this for awhile…The Virginia 24 Hour Run and Relay. A fund raiser for the American Cancer Society…I’m running to honor my parents.
It’s all about time. 24 hours. Person with the most milage in the end wins. Simple. Run on a flat, 3.75 mile loop on dirt roads and a forest trail. Easy.
Just stay up for 24 hours and keep moving. Fuel up right, be smart and reel in the miles. Scary. No finish line waiting 4 or 10 or 17 miles down the road…no “I can tough this out for the next 10 miles” business. More like, “Can I tough this out for the next 13 hours?”
I drive down Friday evening and get to the Sandy Bottom Nature Park, get a camp site (10$!) and walk through a course preview…meet the RD get some dinner and wait. To sleep early with the bullfrogs and spring peepers and actually get six hours uninterrupted.
Up at four, break camp and and schlep over to the start area.
The RD provides water. You bring everything else, so I set up an aid station with chair, cooler and “Box o’ Stuff.” The box holds first aid items, clothes, extra shoes, socks, an assortment of hats, head lamp, ipod and whatever else I may need for a whole day.
There are 30 solo runners and an assortment of relay teams…after a brief meeting and welcome, George, the RD says “Ok, you can go now.” And it begins at 7:08 am.
The plan is to adhere to a strict 4/1 ratio for 50 miles. Run four minutes and walk one. After that..run as I can.
All goes well for quite awhile…I’m sort of in the back at the start, but by 20 miles have moved up through the field. At 30 miles I’m feeling…well super!
It’s hot. 80 degrees. Humid. and I”m just soaked with sweat even though most of the course is shaded. The sweat runs down my legs and into my shoes… About 3 pm clouds pop up…a brief shower which helps for awhile, then more sun and a spike in temps.
A pattern develops. Run/walk. Arrive back at the start, check in to make sure they are counting laps correctly (they do) and a stop at my aid station to pick up gels and snacks, water and gatorade and later Pepsi and Pringels. Back on the trail after a brief stop. We run and talk and wave and generally just keep moving.
Mile 45 comes around and I notice a few hot spots on the soles of my feet…I consider stopping and changing socks and shoes. I decide to do after the next lap.
My mistake. By the end of the the next lap at 48.75…I sporting raging blisters on the bottoms of my feet. I stop, pop them, put on some blister pads and duct tape, new socks and shoes and go back out to see how bad it is. Blisters on toes, no problem. Bottoms of feet, another story.
It’s bad. I come in and the end of lap 14, 52.5 miles in 11 hours flat…walking the whole last lap. To continue would be folly and would be risking some serious damage…I’m having trouble walking on them.
I toddle over to see George and tell him I’m done. That simple. Done.
Packing up and saying some goodbye’s I’m a bit angry at myself…Here I am with plenty of gas in the tank and two flats and no spares. Today as I sit here writing I can honestly say I’m not a bit sore or tired. It’s just the feet that are trashed. I’m confident I could have broken 100 miles.
Next year.
