One minute I’m feeling great, on track for a huge 50 minute PR. Perhaps even my first sub 10 hour in the 50 mile distance. I’m easily keeping up with a huge pack of runners, maybe even with the mid pack of the 50kers. I checked the competition of my age group on ultrasignup and while I’m not clearly on the top, I have twice the race results than any of my peers. 26 results there vs the 13 I saw in the 50 mile group. Maybe I’ll win my age group (probably no award for it but still would feel nice). Then, all of sudden my IT band on my left leg flares up. I try to ignore it, hoping it would fade away but it lingers. Eventually I have to stop to attempt to stretch it out. I bend my left leg toward my butt but it hurts the farther up I go. In a moment I went from having what felt like would be my best 50 miler to a long day.
The Finger Lakes was my 4 th Ultra of the year in my build up to UTMB. It was supposed to be my longest run, a confidence booster towards the race. I had done two 50 milers in the early spring and a 50k two weeks ago where I got a massive PR. That 50k was followed by series of PRs in short distances further boosting my confidence in my abilities. It’s been a lackluster year compared to last year where I was PRing like crazy and getting them fairly easily. This year I have been fighting for each PR pretty hard and barely getting a few.
My IT band flared up two days ago, on July 4th, towards mile 40 of my 45ish mile bike ride. Despite resting the rest of that day and taking Friday off it didn’t fully heal by race morning. I shrugged it off and figured that after my muscles warm up, it’ll go away. I also started waking up with heel pain on my leg foot but it went away after a minute or so of walking so I thought nothing of it. Just some stiffness.
I ran the race two years ago where there was a torrential downpour as a training run for my first hundred miler. I dropped down to the 50k due to how crazy the weather was. I also ran it with no sleep, driving straight to the race after having hung out. I got met Akira who also ran the race through strava and we had communicated here and there about ultras and races. Akira was also running it this year as a tuneup for Twisted Branch 100k.
I woke up the morning of the race at midnight, the race started at 6:30 and I wanted to get there 5:45ish to do bib pickup, bathroom and warmup. I ended up leaving a bit later than expected and got there at 6 am. I originally had the Friday off and was planning to get there the day before but a sudden meeting Friday morning cancelled that. I still got to leave the office at around 3 pm so I was able to get some sleep in. With a 4.5 hour drive however, it wasn’t an ideal situation. For breakfast, I prefer eating 3 hours before the race so I ate some bread and peanut butter on the drive over. I wasn’t able to find any of my gels but I saw that the description of the race said that they had fully stocked aid stations. I interpreted that as including gels, though I did notice there was no nutrition sponsor.
I parked my car on the side of the road, changed into race gear and got bib pickup. There were only 3 porter-potties and a sizeable line so I wasn’t able to go to the bathroom before race. I briefly met Akira on the bathroom line before I decided I didn’t want to start the race late. I also was not able warmup but I figured that with 50 miles, I had plenty of time. The 50k and 50 milers went off together so I wanted to be cautious that I wasn’t running too fast I positioned myself mid-pack. I saw a couple of Dashing Whippets jerseys in the start. I learned of the race from a Brooklyn Trail Runners meetup event post (note, I ended up never running with the group).
The race started off without fanfare. We ran on a road for a little bit before breaking into single-track. I held back the effort level, it’s going to be a long day. The 50 miler consisted of three 16.5 mile loops with one .5 baby loop. My original plan was to average 13 minutes a mile the first loop, then 12 minutes a mile, and finally finish with 11 minutes a mile. However, I felt great in the first few miles despite holding back so much and found myself close to the 11 minutes a mile pace. The idea of achieving a massive PR in the 50 miler quickly took over my mind. The sub 10 in the 50 miler has been my goal since getting a 10:40 in the Cayuga trails 50 in my last ultra in 2018 (North Face SF got cancelled). This course was much easier in terms of elevation gain and there were good chunks on road which would lead to faster miles.
There ended up being no gels in the aid stations so I decided to eat peanut butter sandwiches (about a quarter of one each time) and drink up on Gatorade to get my calories. Theory wise it sounded like it could suffice but I know my body works best with gels. It was a super humid day. Within thirty minutes of running I looked like I took a dip in a lake from all the sweat. Despite the IT band problems I finished the first loop, 16.5 miles fairly well. I started struggling in the second loop. Akira caught up and another man - Paul I think. We ran together for a good chunk of the loop. Paul talked a bit about how NYC has a stranglehold on the Catskills, where he was from, due to it being where the city gets their water from. Eventually my IT band flared up and I lost both of them. It got so bad that I had to walk the last 3 miles in. Part of the course was on dirt road due to trail closure and I still wasn’t able to jog. I got looped by first place female doing the 50 miler. At this race, you have the option on race day to drop down from 50 miles to 50k which I did. I was still one of the last to finish the 50k and did worse than two years ago where I had no sleep and despite being so much fitter now. The course was also easier this year due to the trail closure which eliminated one of the hills. Afterwards I met with Akira and it was nice to talk with him a bit. I recall a woman asking me if I was okay and I responded that I was good. Another racer asked if I started cramping on, he saw me stop to stretch early on. Great community!
The race highlighted something I should have seen beforehand. I am willing to put the time into Ironman training and ultra marathon training simultaneously, something like 2.5 to 3 hours a day. However, after a month, it looks like I ended up over training. Perhaps it is possible but building a base for the Ironman training over a few months might have been a better, smarter approach.
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