The road to UTMB - Chapter 4 - Vegan Power 50k

To be honest, I registered for this race because I’m vegan too and I was interested in meeting with and running with other vegan runners.  It’s been on my radar since last year when I joined the facebook group for it.  Over time I have been warming up to the idea of doing loops.  I have always considered it boring but I have realized that when the going gets stuff, it’s much easier to imagine points you have to reach rather than miles (which might feel like forever at that point).  Though it does work the other way, if the going is rough - you get the option to quit.  I registered in December 2018 for the race and got an interesting intro to the facebook group “Vikram Singh’s ultrasignup page reads like a love story to painfully hard races…” which I hadn’t really thought about but I guess it is sort of true.

The long drive to Western MA from NYC had me fairly tired by the time I got to the race.  Bib pickup was fairly quick.  A plain white shirt with some hammer (nutrition sponsor) products.  There was a real bathroom so I used that and then took a quick nap.  The course is 6 laps on a 5 mile loop and the relay and 50k started together.  Later in the day the 25k started.  The loop was fairly flat trail with some roots here and there to keep you alert and a small muddy section.  The race started with a small speech and it was mentioned that part of the reason of the race was to prove vegans could this without animal protein.  I sort of thought that was odd since ultramarathons and being vegan seems to be pretty common.  

The race started!  The loop starts with a tiny uphill on a dirt road section before hitting the trails.  As soon as we hit the trails, some of the people around me started breathing hard which was sort of alarming to me since it was very early in the race.  I passed a few people shortly and ran behind a man wearing long pants.  I thought it was a bit odd since it was summer but maybe he was from somewhere farther up or was doing the relay and just forgot shorts?  Think it would have been doable for one or two loops.  At the midpoint aid station I passed him.  I got passed a little bit after by two people.

I ended a little behind a Lindsay and followed her till the end of the loop.  At the start of the second loop I passed her but she was close behind.  It sort of pushed me to keep the pace when you have someone behind you.  Eventually we joined Juliene and started talking a bit.  Lindsay has run the 25k race before and is now doing the 50k.  Her brother is also running the race but she considered him the real runner (she ended up being 3rd place female).  Juliene is also from NY - from Peekskill, NY and also a marathon maniac.  She’s primarily a marathoner but has done the finger lakes 50 before.  I think the company really helped me stay strong.  I struggled on the fourth loop and we got passed by Lindsay.  Juliene and I ran up to the last 2 miles together where I was able to pick it up slightly.  I was a bit sad to lose her but we were close to finishing so I wasn’t too worried about her.  

There isn’t much to say about the loop, it’s forested and exactly what the description says.  It’s a singletrack that winds a lot so that makes it a bit more difficult but by the 4th and 5th loop, you’re an expert of the trail.  Like I said earlier, you could start to visualize points instead of mileage so that helps you continue mentally.  I finished in 5:45:47, an 11:06 pace and a massive PR in the 50k distance.  A lot of the assist in this was due to running with people!  Afterwards I hung out and cheered for a bit.  They had vegan pizza which was so great.  I took a picture with Juliene and just relaxed.  Then there was some light rain and I went back to the car.  I should have rested some more but I decided to start driving back.  I had some sleepy miles on the wheel that wasn't smart.  Eventually I stopped at a scenic point and took a quick nap.

This race gave me a strong confidence boost towards UTMB.  Success seems to be on the horizon!

The road to UTMB - Chapter 3 - Eagleman 70.3

Eagleman 70.3 was my third go at the Half Ironman distance and a buildup race to Lake Placid Ironman. The idea of doing it came from David. David DNF the swim course of the Syracuse 70.3 and signed up for Eagleman afterwards. I borrowed David’s swimsuit for my second go at Lake Placid 70.3 where I finally got through the swim and finished the race getting my first half ironman finish. When returning was when I first learned of the race. I told Jessica who has been interested in doing a half ironman and then my triathlon friends. Slowly there ended up being a group of six of going, five of us from the Queens Distance Runners team!

Five of us, Cathy, David, Matt, Yin, and I, along with Cathy’s boyfriend David rented a cottage about 20ish minutes from the race. I picked David and Matt up and used the bike rack I got from a friend Omar. It was only my second time using the bike rack and I needed some help from David in setting it up. It actually is pretty simple but it’s a bit nerve racking watching your bike hit bumps on the rear view mirror. We stopped by a dinner on our drive down Only problem with random dinners is the difficulty in getting vegan food without asking for modifications but I think I was okay with the food. We only stayed for one night so leaving NYC Saturday morning, bib pickup and bike drop and then racing Sunday.

We found street parking close to the Great Salt marshes easy enough and simply cycled the two blocks or so into the race village. We got our bibs which took quite a while to pick up. My previous two pickups at Lake Placid have been quick and smooth. I learned that the swim course had been moved to another side due to the water being too choppy. As soon as I heard this, I started thinking that the swim may be cancelled. I hadn’t prepared at all for the half ironman and the swim has always scared me. Sure I was still running and I tried jamming in a few bikes rides the week before but it was the swim that I was most worried about. Cathy and the others caught up and we attended orientation together. We learned that the swim course was supposedly in shallow water which was a big relief. It also led to quite a few jokes about our swim strategy. Cathy and Yin decided to swim a bit. I wanted to swim, however I also wanted to just relax for the race. Can’t cramp anything in at this point so I chose not to swim. My car, David, Matt and I were starving so we ate a Mexican place. I wanted to get this potato dish but the cheese was already mixed in it so I got it with avocado and black beans instead. How I wish there were easier vegan options. Then some grocery shopping and onwards to the cottage. The other group had already got in and were now leaving to get groceries and eat dinner. I thought of joining them for ice cream afters, a place had sorbet options, but I wanted to focus on relaxing and not doing too much do declined.

Race day came and the first thing we were relieved to see was that the race was wetsuit legal. Two days before the water temperature was too high and yesterday the water temperature was just barely below. A little bit after, just as I was about to start putting my wetsuit on, it was announced that the swim was cancelled due to safety boats not being able to be on the course. I jumped up for joy! The swim was freaking me out that morning. Then came the long wait to start the bike course. The atmosphere of the race became more chill. I met another man from Queens, Christian who was a strong swimmer and obvious disappointed. I hung out here and there with my friends trying to kill the time. Eventually we were off and boy did the bike start off fast. I made it to 18-19 miles an hour which was fast for me but I thought I could hold it since it was a flat course. I was still easily getting passed. About 20 miles in I started feeling pain from the bike seat rubbing against my skin. I have always used bike shorts but I forgot them and was using a tri suit that was a bit too small for me. It probably didn’t provide enough padding, also my seat was a bit in an angle sit it dropped a year ago. I was using my road bike instead of my tri bike so I didn’t really spend time trying to fix it since I was doing tris and all. In short, just unprepared. Eventually the pain became so great that I had to start taking breaks after 25ish miles. I would have to stop pedaling and stand on the seat for a bit. Around mile 33ish I found a position where the pain was bearable. I still had a slow 8 miles. I slowed down a lot and the race was essentially over me. I finished the bike ride but already knowing I performed badly I did an easy 2 hour half marathon. I mostly passed older racers at this point. Not a great race on my part but it fired me up and got me to start considering serious training for the full Ironman at Lake Placid.

I was the second last of my friends to finish. I was able to eat a bit and drop some things and watch the last of us come in to the finish. We decided to do a celebratory some time later. Our car ate with Jessica and her boyfriend. I had some eggplant pasta dish, pretty sure it wasn’t vegan but I tend to be more vegetarian after races. The post food options for the half ironmans are always pretty disappointing (especially when you compare them to some of the trail races I have been to). David was really looking forward to getting a cinnabon on the drive back but they were all closed by the time we got north enough to the NJ rest areas.

If it was just the race itself, I would say it was a bad experience but having friends to drive around with and hang out before and after made the trip a good one. Grateful to have other crazies in my life!

The road to UTMB - Chapter 2 - North Face NY 2019

The North Face Bear Mountain 50 miler is my eighth or ninth 50 miler, depending on if you count the 54 miler Maintou’s Revenge as a 50.  This race was my first 50 miler 4 years ago.  Back then, I went into races without training - I easily got away with finishing marathons (at a slow 5 hours+) without worry of DNF.  Here I found myself chasing cutoffs from around mile 20.  I really didn’t think I would make it past the first hard cut at mile 29.  I was somewhat content with that, at least I would have gotten a marathon in.  I got a second wind and made that cutoff with 10 minutes to spare.  I saw the despair of the back of the pack in ultras.  People mentally broken, struggling to move their bodies.  It’s a lot different than my experiences at road marathons.  There, even the back of the pack is cheerful.  Here is looked more like people trying to survive.  I struggled through to the next aid station where I got revived just in time from the encouragement of the volunteers.  I ran the rest of the race hard, making it through the 41 mile hard cut off with 2 minutes to spare and the final 14 hour cutoff with 4 minutes.  The race taught me about low points (“the wall”) that everyone experiences at marathons but it also taught me about the high point that comes shortly after.  I ran the 50k version of the race in 2016 and the memories of the volunteers that cheered for me rang strong in my head.  I skipped 2017 and in 2018 I volunteered at an aid station, I made a special point to try to encourage the back of the packers and afterwards caught up with some friends and cheered on till the last finishers.  The area is also the location of my first and second hikes.  The first of which I was fairly overweight and struggled through the whole way.  So I had a lot of emotional attachment to the location and race which I thought would be advantageous to my performance, more so than simply having knowledge of the course.  With Lake Somona as my long run 3 week before and feeling well recovered, I felt like I was in good shape for the race.  It rained all night the day before the race which I knew would lead to many muddy spots.  This removed the stress of any time goals.
I decided to not to do the official shakeout run with Dean Karnazes the day before because it started at 7 am and I thought it better to sleep in a bit more two days before since I won’t get that chance the night before the race (race started at 5 am but the last shuttle to the start from the parking lot left at 4:15 am).  I did a short shakeout during lunch as I ran to bib pickup and back.  I opted to go to work, go home straight afterwards and then sleep early.  I figured if I slept at 8 pm, I could get almost 6 hours of sleep before waking up, set my bag and then make it to the shuttle bus to the start.  I ended up going to sleep at 8:40 and got about 5 hours of sleep. 

Things in the morning were going well till I realized I didn’t wash my QDR singlet from the Leatherman’s loop six days ago.  I had left it in a bag in my car and it had skipped my usual laundry run.  I didn’t have another tried and true racing shirt or singlet so I quickly put it into the washer on quick wash mode and then got in the dryer for 10ish minutes.  I decided to just go with it and hang it in the car.  A few minutes later, in the car I decided I should just wear it and let my body heat dry it out.  Another lesson!  Always pack your things beforehand.  Making things a bit more complicated was my strategy of carrying water and gels via three methods for the race.  With two drops bag points that I would hit at miles 23, 29, and 41 (you do hit the first bag drop point at mile 4 but that’s really too soon for anything) I would use my Ultimate Direction North racing vest (with the GPS/cell phone cover removed) till mile 23.  Then I would drop the vest into my drop bag, grab some gels and a 16 oz. hand bottle for the next 6 mile loop which ends back at the same mile 23 bag drop.  Next I would drop the bottle and get the vest back for the next 12 miles.  At mile 41 I would once again drop the vest and use my hip belt that carries a 16 oz. bottle on the back for the last 9 miles.  Why a hip belt the last 9 miles?  Well once of the ascents on the last 9 miles is technical enough to need my hand to go up so I wanted two hands for that.  The hip belt gets put on like a pair of shorts so it would a bit uncomfortable to put on after 41 miles on the leg but I figured it’ll be worth having the hands free for that one section of the climb. Fog hit sections of the drive up limiting my vision to just about half a block ahead of me to causing the drive to be slightly more stressful than normal.  

Made it at 3:53 to the Anthony Wayne parking lot and got a shuttle bus to Bear Mountain around 4 am.  I pulled out my drop bag tabs and attached them during the ride.  At Bear Mountain I continued setting my drop bags, I grabbed a three of the huckleberry favored gels and put them in the drop bag going to camp Lanowa (mile 23, 29).  Next was a porter potty bathroom visit, then drop the other two bags (one was a change of clothes that stayed at the finish).   I went to bathroom again, I think more so of nerves, nothing came out.  I met Ami briefly who was also doing the 50 miler.  Among the chatter of the people I noticed a few West Point students and Canadians.  The announcer at the start said some deep things - how millennials of star dusk lead us to be here today at this point to accomplish our destinies.  I was in wave 3 and the waves went off just a minute after each other so it was pretty quick start.  Instead of the 7 am start in California, the 5 am start required the use of a headlamp for the first half hour or so.

Hold 

Knowing I went out too fast in Lake Sonoma I decided to start off slower this time.  With 3 miles of gradual uphill right away, I didn’t set a pace goal but rather went with effort level.  Placement going into single track is usually important in trail races but I did a preview of the first 7.5 miles a week after Sonoma where I decided I should make a move on the road portion of seven lakes drive and along the preceding wide ski trail 6 miles in if I still felt like I was moving too slow.  The race quickly got congested and I was aghast that people were trying to avoid mud.  It’s spring in NY, there’s going to be mud.  I ended up walking a bit more than I wanted to due to the congestion.  Perhaps I should have tried to out faster?  Still had plenty of miles for placement though.  Ami who started a wave behind me caught up for a brief moment and then lost her.  She did a 20 mile run two weeks ago at a good pace so I thought she would probably pass me at some point.  She was probably being extra cautious, it being her first 50 miler and all.  I started out with my Queen’s marathon beanie but it soon got too hot so I removed it.  The headlamp on my bare forehead didn’t feel as comfortable but I knew it was only for a few minutes longer.  I continued up conga line till the first aid station at Anthony Wayne.  

I blew past this first aid station.  Runners seemed to have crowded up here for some reason.  The next part was a short technical single track where it would be difficult to pass people so I would think people would want to keep moving.  You had the option of dropping off your headlamp at this aid station so maybe that’s what people did.  I simply packed it into my vest, along with the Queens Marathon beanie.  Other than those two, my pack only had gels and water.  I did a training run 2 weeks before and I knew exactly how this section of trail curved and moved.  This was a bit surprising to me, since trails in the same area kind do tend to look the same and I only been in this area a couple of times over the last few years.  I moved well in this section and soon we popped into seven lakes drive and started a short road section south.  I didn’t however move well on the road and many pasted me here.  This not moving well on the road would be a constant theme of the day.  We soon merged left into the silver mines ski trail where immediately we were greeted with mud.  For the most part, I would go straight through the mud, knowing that there will be mud spots later on and I didn’t want to waste precious energy avoiding them now.  I continued pacing myself, it had spread out quite nicely but no real groups yet.  I continued my strategy of jogging the uphill’s but with more room I started running down hard.  My quads didn’t get sore from 10,500 feet of loss that Lake Sonoma had so I wasn’t worried at all about them here (less than 7,000 feet of loss).  Bear Mountain descends were steeper so you moved faster downhill with gravity’s help anyway so it made sense to not hold back.  This was more to my liking, perhaps because it’s more familiar.

Learning from Lake Sonoma that a gel every 30 minutes wasn’t enough I decided to eat a gel every 25 minutes.  I started off with 6 gels and would restock in the hammer gels the race provides.  I would always leave an aid station with at least 4 gels on me.  Unlike Lake Sonoma, aid stations here were more frequent, most were 4ish miles apart.  As I passed by Silver Mine Lake I recalled looking at the lake for the first time 4 years ago.   Back then, I saw pockets of steam rising from the lake.  It was incredible beautify with the sun rising in the background.  Today it was cloudy and I saw no such effect.  The route climbs out of the ski trail to a single track climb.  I hiked most of it up.  It then descents quickly to the Silver Mine aid station at mile 8.7.  I grabbed a few chips, ate a small piece of white potato and refilled my 8 oz. bottle with water (I carried a 16 oz. bottle and a 8 oz. bottle in the front of my vest with a backup 8 oz. in the back).  I stuck to drinking only water the first 35 miles.
Steady
Out of the aid station, the trail starts fairly easy.  Somehow, I still trip over a small rock on a turn which causes the runner in front of me to ask if I am okay.  I reply that I’m grateful for the toe guards that trail shoes have.  We soon merges with the long path and the trail gets technical.  While there are no great mountain ascents, the trail is still fairly rocky.  On a steep technical descent that a runner in front of me struggles with, I decide to pass her by going off to the side and end up slipping, landing on my butt.  I get up immediately with no pain which helps relieve any fear I had of future descents (I know I can’t get hurt, even if I fall).  I occasional hit rocks but the toe guards on my trail shoes protect my feet.  Each hit though wakes me up and I start paying attention more.  Groups start to form but I’m not interested.  I don’t allow anyone to pace me.  The ascents, descents, and the rock hopping of technical terrain makes it difficult to pace with effort levels.  I often slowed down on the flat, non-rocky terrain to check myself and my effort level.  During these straight stretches I often fall behind the group.  Then over descents and technical terrain I easily catch up.  It’s way too early to start attacking anything and I don’t want to make any extra effort to keep up with anyone.  Eventually I end up leading the group. 

We pass by beautiful Lake Skannatati and the aid station there.  At the aid station I ate more potatoes and left a bit full.  I didn’t want to take a gel while having a full stomach so I skipped my next gel.  As we move along, I notice the Times Square rock and immediately recognize the area.  I’m in one of my favorite areas of Harriman state park!  As we approach mile 20, I briefly talk with another runner.  He has done the race a few times and we talk about the course and how most of the elevation gain is almost over with.  We exit onto a road and make our way to Camp Lanowa.  On this road section to the camp I easily get passed by the group.  I catch up to a woman, Veronica who is doing her first 50 miler.  I told her I’m doing my 9th depending on if you count a 54 miler.  She immediately asked if it was Manotu’s Revenge which surprised me.  When I asked on what inspired her to do her first 50 miler she says she lives close by and wanted to show her 4 year son that mommy could do fun things.  I mentioned that I was feeling hungry and she offer a gel but I declined.  I wanted to stay faithful to my 25 minute gel.  I would learn from the race that my body is better able to process the gels than real food.  Gels simply made me feel like I had more energy than real food and I don’t feel stuffed.  This sort of goes against the preference for real food ideals I hold.  I started feeling a side stich as I got closer to the aid station and I figure it may have been because the running vest was on too tight, limiting my breath.  Doesn’t matter as I was to switch to handheld soon.

At the aid station I stick to my strategy of switching water carrying methods to the handle held bottle.  My bib number 10 gets me an upfront placement of my drop bag and I am able to get everything I need quickly (though I do see how having a crew could turn my 2 minutes at the aid station to 20-30 seconds).  Despite having gels in the drop bag I grab a few from the aid station in case they run out on my return.  The route goes on an uphill where a group of West Point College kids past me.  I past Veronica as well.  A man with an English accent catches up to me and I offer to let him pass.  He declines saying we are going about the same speed.  He asks about the flag on the back of my singlet and I replied that it was the flag of Queens County.  He was happy to have learned something new on the trails.  This reminded me of a 50 miler in Arizona where a man name Jeff taught me all the plants around while we ran together.  The trail turns into a wide gravel fire tower roads.  I yo-yo with a college age looking kid.  Every time I passed him I would say the typical trail running encourage thing.  “Good job”, “nice work”, etc.  On the third one he thanked me and said I was helping him which made me feel good.  On a flooded section, I dashed straight across while the English accent man goes to the side to avoid.  He jokes about alligators in the swamp.  I remark that I’m happy there were no rocks in it (looking at you Lake Sonoma).  He soon passes me and catches up to another man.  He probably started talking to him as the man looked like he was struggling and then all of a sudden got super powered when they started running together.  I slowly fell behind them.  This section is 6 miles long but the easy of the gravel trail makes it short time wise.  Back on the road heading to back to Camp Lanowa I get passed by Veronica and the college age looking kid I was going back and forth with.  I got my bib marked by a woman who recognized the singlet.  She mentioned that she thinks her cousin was part of the team, Valerie Lores, to which I responded that yes, I know her!
Fire!
Back to the racing vest.  In my rush in the morning I forgot to pack my anti-fatigue pills into my racing vest and had left them at this drop bag.  I made sure to pick those up but I forgot to empty out the headlamp and my beanie from my vest.  I loaded up on potatoes and once again felt full.  I would skip my next two gels, opting to take the anti-fatigue pills instead.  The North Face Endurance Challenge races allows pacers for their 50 milers.  Pacers here are different than pacers in road races.  A pacer in an ultra joins a specific runner in the latter part of their race.  In this race, a pacer could join either at mile 29 and/or mile 41.  So you could have one pacer run 12 miles with you, then have another run the last 9 with you, have one pacer run 21 miles with you or simply have a pacer run the last 9 miles with you.  Veronica got her pacer and mentioned that her legs feel fine but she just went out too fast.  They then charged on ahead.  Pacers are definitely a huge advantage in races.  The trail now went onto old fire roads.  Wide but muddy at many spots.  I tried catching up to Veronica and the group around her.  I was starting to feel tired and would have liked to at least be around people.  My shoelace got untied twice on my left foot and by the second time I went to fix it, I lost sight of everyone.  Alone, the pain started creeping in but I welcomed it.  I knew I would start hurting at mile 30 something.  Learning to beat the pain is what I came for.  I rallied in my mind thinking about it.  I told myself that this is what I came for, that I today I say no to the god of death.  The announcer words about this being my destiny rang in my head.  I was able to keep my effort level high. 

Soon I met another runner, Adam who grew up in Westchester and now resides in Manhattan.  When I asked about what inspired him he said he heard about ultras back when he was in college and decided that he would do one day when he got older.  He then turned thirty and decided it had to be soon.  He did the Bear Mountain trail marathon 2 years ago, the 50k last year and is now the 50 miler.  On a downhill I decide to go down fast and Adam gets stuck behind someone.  On the following road section Adam catches up again.  I feel that he could go faster but he decides to stick around and talk.  It’s his first 50 and he is being cautious.  I walk a bit and then use the cones marking the course as points to start jogging between.  Back into the trails I continue talking with Adam, we talk about triathlons, my goal race of UTMB, the difficultly of training on trails in the city.  I asked if he was part of any running club or team and he said he had odd hours making it difficult to run with others.  I briefly talk about my 100 miler and he says he can’t imagine doing it but he likes the idea of doing a hundred.  Talking makes the miles click away.  On a descent I lose him a bit but I keep an eye out to see out hoping he catches up. 

I make it to Tiorati aid station, here 4 years ago is where I got revived thanks to the encouragement of the volunteers.  Back then, by the time I arrived they had ran out of water. A volunteer has some in his car and ran to get me some.  There was no real food left, just cliff gels and I got my pack filled with ice while I waited for the water.  I was advised not to drink too much and to book the next 10k to make the cutoff.  They told me that I could make it and that I could even see the Pacquiao vs Mayflower fight later at night. 

As I finish stocking up in the present, I see Adam pass by, not stopping at all.  I pass a man with tattoos on both his arms.  We been going back and forth for miles and we will continue for a quite few more.  The trail is rolling hills and I make it to the next aid station, Owl Swamp.  The aid station looks different but when I reached here 4 years ago, they were already packing.  Back then, I asked how I was doing on time and the man looked at his watched and asked if I really wanted to know.  The women tells me to run what’s runnable.  I immediately start sprinting uphill before she yells out her statement.  I realize that I should hike technical uphill, that being desperate doesn’t mean being stupid.

Past the aid station in the present, the trail goes uphill a bit and then has a long downhill descent.  The downhill helps I gain momentum and I realize that I can’t stop, I have to keep using the momentum I am getting from the downhill.  I ran through the muddy, swampy area harder than ever, passing many people.  The trail merges with the 50k and marathon route.  I thought merging with these runners would be a boost since I could say hi to more people but the ones I started catching were struggling, death walking marathoners.  I try to say encouraging words but most don’t respond, clearly they are beyond their element.  Near the end of the long descent is a short uphill and I complain to some 50k runners about it.  I could see the Palisades Parkway on the side and I know I am close to Anthony Wayne parking lot.  I’m close to the mile 41 aid station.  I kept thinking in my head that even if I walk the last 7 miles it won’t be so bad.  Here I was running strong to mile 41. 
You can’t outrun death

At the aid station, I struggled a bit to find my drop bag, not as neatly organized as Camp Lanowa.  Once found, I stick to my plan - drop the vest and put on my hip belt.  I refueled my bottle with heed, stocked up on gel and ate some more potatoes.  There is a road section, maybe a quarter mile long before it merges with a mountain bike trail.  I’m very familiar with this area as I hiked and trained here quite a few times.  However shortly after I leave the aid station, I find that I could barely move my legs.  I can’t even walk at a normal pace.  I’m shocked at the betrayal of my body.  My mind quickly enters into a negative headspace.  UTMB now seems impossible.  I can’t even do 41 miles, how am I going to do one of the hardest 100 milers in the world?   In Europe, with over 4x the elevation gain of this race?  I decide that I should stick to marathons and 50ks; that I’ll quit after this.  Anthony Wayne is the parking lot where I parked my car and I think of how great it would be if I could jump in my car and just sleep (I didn’t have my car keys however).  I strongly thought about turning around and heading back to the aid station to DNF.  I tell myself that I didn’t have anything left to prove, that I already did 50 miles plenty of times; that it would be okay to DNF.  Even with those thoughts swarming in my head, I guess I was too stubborn, I continued forward.  In my quarter mile zombie walk, 9 people walked pasted by.  Three told me that I could comfortably hike the rest of the 9 miles and finish the race.  Yea, that’s really what I want to hear.

When I finally made it to the trail, I slowly found some movement in my legs.  Soon I am able to run downhill's and jog the flats.  As I gained momentum I realize that my legs had gotten stiff; I had probably spent too much time at the last aid station standing around.  With this knowledge I decided that I would keep moving the rest of the race.  I hiked up the technical bald face climb, the same climb which lead to my decision of using the hip belt over another handheld.  On the steep descent that followed I told a runner about how what I just learned…that continuing to move is critical at this stage.  Soon I pasted by two Achilles guides guiding a runner for the 50k.  One of the women recognized my QDR singlet and asked if I knew Kevin and Jeff Munoz to which I said yes.  They were trying to get their runner to start running.  I wished I could stayed a bit longer to chat but I knew I had to keep moving.  I was trying to outrun the death of my legs.  A little past I saw a ranger that was coming to help a blinder runner.  I guess to help out the Achilles group.  I didn’t realize at that point but running blind in this kind of terrain is simply amazing.  I would imagine Rock the Ridge type of gravel road “trails” to be better suited.  Perhaps even the Greenbelt 50k or the road 50k championships in Long Island.  Pretty amazing.  I soon pasted the runner with the arm tattoos, for like the fourth time.  I also encouraged him to keep moving. 

Home
At the next aid station I refilled my bottle with heed.  I was slightly annoyed that I had to refill from the Gatorade jug instead of a gallon bottle which would have been faster.  I was racing against my body’s clock.  If I linger too long, I knew that my legs would get stiff again.  4 years ago I was here stuffing my face with M&Ms and taking my time through the aid station.  A volunteer advised me to not spend too much time.  I didn’t understand at first but shortly after I learned why.  My legs stiffen up back then as well and it took quite a while to get them back. 

Now here I was, refilled my bottle while doing toe ups, toe taps to keep my legs moving.  I rushed out of the aid station and almost forgot to thank the volunteers.  As I moved on, I started hitting an emotional high.  It was probably the strongest feeling I had during a run in a long time.  The pain from my body simply disappeared.  The stiffness, soreness, even mental tiredness of being awake since 1:40 am slowly faded gone.  All doubt disappeared too.  There simply wasn’t any room for anything but running now.  The trigger felt like it was purely emotional.  I held back tears.  I hit many highs after low points over the years but this felt completely new.  With my refreshed body I started running like the race just started.  To sort of explain how strong this state was, I caught up to and passed people at miles 46-49 that passed me at mile 30.

I met a man, one of whom tried to encourage me on back when I was zombie walking.  He commented that I got a second wind and I joked that I was back from the dead.  I then proceed to run the steep and long uphill up Timp’s pass.  The descent was very rocky and I was slightly upset that I couldn’t take full advantage of the downhills as I had to careful with my steps.  A runner commented that she would rather go up that rocky section seven times than descend it.  As I continued along on single track, some people had to step off the trail to let me pass.  I cried at the realization of how painful it must be to stop your momentum, even if you are just walking, to let me pass.  I started breathing harder, maybe going more into animal mode but after a mile or so I calmed down.  The pain never returned.  I caught up to a man I haven’t seen since mile 20.  He commented that this was his 5th Bear Mountain and he keeps coming back to it despite all the pain he feels now.  He also had a high a little bit ago but it weaned out.  He was running strong and we ran side to side.  Eventually He went over to the side when the trail narrowed to allow me to past.  I wasn’t planning on speeding up but I decided to not waste his efforts to allow me to past.  I ran faster.  He encouraged me to continue to ride the unicorn.  I caught up to Veronica and her pacer, still going strong and told her she was killing it.  Like the first aid station of the race, I blew through the last one.  I immediately thanked the volunteers as I went through.  I past a bunch others from shorter distances and I tried to encourage them.  They said positive things to me as well.  I knew I was home and that spurned me on.  

Out of the underpass tunnel back to Bear Mountain, two women encouraged me on, yelling QDR.  I was only able to read the word “trail” on their gray shirts.  Heading towards the finish I got slightly confused on where to go.  A women running in front of me made a right and left and I followed.  Without her, I was ready to run straight through the parking lot to the finish.  (This being said, the race is super well marked and organized, they definitely went all out to make sure you don’t get lost).  I managed a final sprint to the finish, around 7:20 minutes a mile pace.

After finishing I saw the runner in front of me use a hand sanitizer which I used as well.  Pretty cool that they had it, they also had sun screen and breakfast at the morning, definitely a step above many other races.  I grabbed two of my drop bags - the finish line one and the Camp Lawona bag.  My Anthony Wayne’s bag did not come in yet.  I proceed then to get hammer recovery drink and food.  Sadly the only vegetarian option was pasta salad so I got a whole plate of pasta salad with a sprite can.  I then sat on a table and slowly started eating.  Despite surviving mostly on gels the whole day I didn’t have much of an appetite.  I knew food was important however.  I talked at the table with a bunch of other finishers.  A man talked about the Spartan Ultra beast in Killington being harder despite being 20 miles shorter.  Two men, when I mentioned I will be doing UTMB, spoke of the beauty of Chaminix (France, where the race starts and ends).  I met a runner from Brooklyn, Nate and we talked quite a bit about triathlons as a gateway drug to ultras, his Bigfoot 200 race coming up and my UTMB race.  He is running the Vermont 100 next to continue his build up.  I confessed that I been looking at the 200s for quite some time but been too chicken to pull the trigger.  Ami soon found me and told me she DNF at mile 35.  She couldn’t run anymore and didn’t want to hike the remaining 15 miles.  Having DNFed 3 ultras in a row 3 years ago I tried to optimistic about it and told her not to doubt her decision in the future.  Nate got joined by his group, a Japanese runner from Harlem and another runner, John, who volunteered as a sweep.  I didn’t notice it before but it seems that there are quite a lot of Filipinos in ultras (at least in NY).

In the shuttle bus back I talked with a man from Westchester.  He was also doing the Vermont 100 and was impressed that I was doing UTMB.  He joked about me taking on Killian to which I replied I’ll bring some bees.  We talked a bit about training spots in Westchester - Rockefeller State Park was his favorite.  I dropped Ami off in Astoria which was nice since I got someone to talk to on the drive back.

Despite the finishing times of Lake Sonoma and Bear Mountain being quite close, the race experiences were polar opposites.  With no out and backs in the course in Bear Mountain I didn’t see any of the front pack.  While I always enjoy company, I stuck to my own pace, dictated by my effort level.  With better pacing I was able to avoid bonking till mile 41 versus the mile 13 at Sonoma.  When that low point finally did hit me though, it hit a lot harder than any of my low points in California.  In return, my high was so much stronger and I felt like I finished stronger than 3 weeks ago (it’s hard to compare times between trail races since terrain is a major impact on time).  I was able to talk with more people, both during and after the race in New York than California.  While the calves did hurt at points during beginning parts of the race, it was the quads that got trashed this time around.  Perhaps my calves are finally getting use to zero drop shoes?  Or perhaps this indicates the amount of elevation loss is not the only factor to quad soreness, terrain and speed might have been a more important variables.  Or perhaps all the hops and jumps that technical terrain demands does a number on the quads as well?  

Perhaps the most important lesson is that I really need to work on my mental game.  I should know that low points come and go and I should stay positive.  I really let my head go in a bad headspace, lucky I wasn’t around others.  I heard that misery loves company and that the negative headspace is contagious.  I need to devise ways to get through aid stations quicker and I’m going to have to think hard about food.  Could I survive 100 miles on gels?

UTMB, my goal race of the year, seems more daunting for me than ever before though.  A little more than 3 months to try to change that.

20th marathon - Rock and Roll NOLA

The Rock and Roll New Orleans was my 6th race this year and my 6th PR, beating my marathon PR set only 6 week before!  Conditions were fairly bad for me but through mediation I made it to mile 18 without too much of a struggle.  The next six miles were a struggle and then my toes started hurting causing the last two to be pure suffering.

Preconditions:  The biggest factor going to this race was that I ran a hard ultra 8 days before this race.   I ran the Mount Mitchell challenge, a 36ish mile race with 4,324 feet of elevation gain and my legs were still sore going into this race.  I also moved (across the street to anyone curious) midweek which took time away from some recovery swims and workouts.  I did manage to get in some easy pre-lunch runs and a shakeout run the day before.  The day of my flight we got hit by a noreaster which caused my flight to be cancelled and I got rebooked the following day arriving at NOLA at 6 pm.  The expo ended at 5 pm so I would have missed bib pickup.  It was a stressful morning.  I wasn’t able to find any earlier options but Rock and roll allowed me to do bib pickup on race day.  Having the day before to relax and walk around the city would have been great instead of traveling but guess this happens once in a while.

On the same flight to New Orleans I met Kieran who ran the QDR long run #2 in Alley Pond park a few weeks ago.  He also ran the Houston marathon as well and signed up for this race 2 weeks ago.  We talked for a bit and got a uber into the city.  Then I was off to the hotel and met up with teamate Julie.  Special thanks to Julie for dealing with the hotel booking issue, getting vegan pizza, granola, hammer and vega protein bars, and even a sandwich for tomorrow morning (that's dinner, breakfast and post race recovery covered)!  The race site was a 5 minutes walk from the hotel and we did a practice commute to race start.  Early to sleep afterwards.  Got 7ish hours.  Unfortunately heard a lot of in and other from neighbors through the night so I woke often.  Still felt pretty rested going into the race.

I ate a little bit of granola and a peanut butter sandwich for breakfast 2 hours before.  I brought 6 Science in Sport gels with me to the race.  I got to use a few of them on my ultra the week before and while I think it has too much of a sugar taste I should finish my stack before buying more gels (I would probably think differently if this was my A race).  Got my bib without any issue and got a .6 warmup run in before the race.  I started doing warmup runs before races since the 2 mile race in Van Cortlandt I did with Kevin and Maria.  Before that, I didn't do any warmup runs or drills before a race.  I think it's been helpful!

Going into the race I had no idea what pace to run.  I told some of my friends that I was going to do a crash and burn where I would attempt to run the race for a massive PR and then hit the wall and struggle through it.  I figure the experience would help me for my A race in NJ in the end of April.  However, still being sore from the ultra brought back painful memories of the Chicago marathon where I attempted to PR in the marathon distance two weeks after my 100 miler.  Julie was aiming for a 3:36 goal and I decided that I didn't want her to wait too long for me so I should go for the crash and burn.  I would hit the wall and I would struggle to finish the marathon but that's okay.  

To delay hitting the wall I decided to not look at my watch at all (of course I could hear my watch beep and see the mile markers but I would not think about the distance left).  I wanted to just focus on moving right now.  I tried to not think at all.  Here and there I would change up my breathing (in and out of nose, mouth and mix of the two) and think briefly on cadence.  Sometimes I focused on relaxing my breathing, relaxing my arm swings and just stared far ahead, looking at the branches of trees.  My idea was that if I was running more relaxed I could delay hitting the wall.  I might have listen to a podcast about Japanese runners on my flight to NOLA.  I had to remind myself of this plenty of times during the race.  

The race started with an out and back along St. Charles street.  I remember mostly thinking about how unique the trees were in this stage.  Then it goes quickly through some of the touristy places of the till it hits the corner of City Park.  Then it follows City park and does two out and backs along Lake Pontchartrain before heading back along City Park and ending in the park.  A lot of the later miles had no shade and were on the boring side.  The course was very flat with a few small 30-40 feet gains from a few small bridges.

The race was hot!  It started in the 60s and ended in mid 70s but it felt hotter.  I ran in North Carolina the week before and NYC had a few spring days so I thought I was ready for the heat.  That quickly become untrue.  As always with heat I started consuming gels more often.  The race had three gel stations and at the first one (around mile 4) the gels were in a box.  Not wanting to lose speed I quickly reached in the box for a gel.  I ended up grabbing five and just ran with them in my hand.  I usually do one gel after 4ish miles and then one every 3 miles after but from miles 10-20 I was consuming one every 2 miles.  I grabbed another gel on the course as well and ended up only using two of mine.  After mile 20 I started drinking gatarode instead of gels and throwing a water cup over my head at every water station.

I was able to run at what I felt was a sub 3:50 pace for 18 miles.  Then I struggled to maintain pace for two miles before my brain started to slow me down.  After 20 I lost my meditative state as well and just struggled.  I'm normally pick it up after 20 miles but i wasn’t mentally strong enough.  I been here before so I kept moving, only thing I could do.  I definitively got passed by a quite a few people.  With 5k to go I broke my rule of not looking at time and distance left.  I realized I was comfortably in PR zone but still couldn't get myself to finish the last miles strong.  With 2 miles left, my toes started hurting and I couldn't block it out.  At the last bridge I noticed I was heel striking the ground, my running form was breaking down (something that has happened in my early marathons but not anytime recently, I blame it on my ultra the week before).

I saw Julie three times during the race and always tried to cheer her on.  I saw Kieran twice as well and waved.  He was pretty fast (he got a 3:16 something marathon).  I caught up with Julie around mile 16 and tried to tell her what I been telling myself the whole race about not thinking about distance or looking at watch.  Talking to her made me feel a lot better.  I started to encourage other people as I passed afterwards for a bit.  At around mile 18 I met a man from Mississippi who was doing his second marathon, also going for sub 3:50 and we talked for a bit before he had to slow down at a water station.

I was able to make a final push, sub 8 minute pace upon seeing the finish line.  Sadly that was only a .2 distance but I finished with a little more than a 4 minute PR.  Not too shabby!

Mount Mitchell Challenge 2018

Mount Mitchell Challenge!

In the winter of 2016-2017 trail runner magazine came out with an article about the best winter races.  The one that caught my eye was the Mount Mitchell Challenge.  A 40 mile race that goes to the top of the highest peak east of the Mississippi.  Unfortunately, the lottery for the race was in September of the year before so I missed 2017.  Out of the five lotteries that I entered for 2018 running races, this was the only one I got in.

The race goes from the town of Black Mountain through the private college community of Montreat and then up double track trails till it hits the Blue Ridge Parkway.  From there it traditionally goes on road into Mount Mitchell state park and then to the summit!  This year, they changed the course to cut a bit of the road part to the top and instead go through the single track, rugged Old Mitchell trail.  Then we took the road back down back to the double track to a slightly different route back into Montreat and took smaller roads back to the town Black Mountain.  The race has about 4800 feet of elevation gain and of course you have to get back down!  For reference to my city folks, Harlem hill has about 82 feet of elevation gain.

The elevation gain wasn’t the crazy factor for me.  Just in NY, close by Breakneck marathon had 10,000 feet of gain in Coldsprings and the Whiteface Sky race in the ADK has 8,000 feet of gain in just 18 miles.   The new factor for me was that 1/3 of the course was on the road and most of the rest was on double track where I’m use to my ultras being out on single track.  So the course overall is easier and I feel like you could get away with training mostly on roads for this one.

I arrived to North Carolina two days before race day.  I did a moderate trail in Montreat run up Graybeard Mountain via Graybeard trail and then made a loop going down the West Ridge which went through some of the seven sisters (short hills) before descending back to Montreat.  9.1 miles and 2700 feet of elevation gain!  I planned to use my Nike Trail running shoes that I got for free from my 100 miler in the fall for the race but on this trail run I found that in the descent my toes hit the front.  The shoes were too small.  I recently got max cushion shoes and while they are comfortable, I found them extremely heavy when they got some mud so I switched back to my Brooks Puregrits.  These shoes have finger wide holes on both sizes and easily have done more than 600 miles but my quest for trail running replacements haven’t been going well.  The day before I did an easy trail run in the River trail by the agricultural Ward Wilson College, a flat 5 miles.  The Town of Black Mountain is by Asheville which the podcast hosts of No Meat Athlete are from.  One of the host specifically moved to Asheville because it was more vegan friendly so I was excited to eat around as well.

The Fear of Pain

I recently realized that I could run a lot faster than I previously thought.  I have always run at a comfortable pace for most of the race before pushing hard at the end.  I always thought it of it as running smart.  However, from racing shorter distances I realized that I didn’t even know what I was capable of.  When was the last time I blew up during a race or hit the wall?  I was determined this race to start off a bit faster than what I would usually do and see what happens.

Nutrition

I did both my practice runs wearing my Ultimate Direction SJ racing vest but in the race briefing the night before I learned that aid stations were only 5 miles apart.  So I decided to waist belt and double bottle it.  I had one ultimate direction hand handle and another Salmon soft flask that wraps around your wrist.  The Salmon flask has a pocket where I stashed a few gels and my waist belt stored my gel flask and more gels.  I brought 24 Science in Sport gels for $7 during a promotion they had so I used them for gels and I used my hammer gel flask which stores about 5 gels in a tiny bottle.  I planned to use the Science in Sport gels first, they had water in them so I used them to get some of my water needs in well.  At aids stations I usually ate two orange slices and then moved on.  I drank about 28 ounces of water during the almost 7.5 hours I ran the race.  Overall I felt like I didn’t need much.  I ate my first gel at 45 minutes and then ate another every 30 minutes or so.  Halfway I ate half a banana and near the marathon mark I felt slightly off so I ate a few chips and a shot cup of coke soda.  I ended up not eating half my hammer gel flask.

Start line

I parked at the finishing area of the race about an hour before start time.  Easily got a spot.  I had laid out half my gear out in the dashboard of my car the night before.  Bad idea, in the 20 minute drive quite a few things fell and got tossed around.  It took me about 45 minutes to get ready.  I actually had to rush out with one of my bottles only a fourth filled up.  I ran about a half mile to the start, got in the bathroom (thank goodness for a real bathroom at the start) and joined the 500+ runners at the race 3 minutes before start time.  Had enough time to tie my shoes and move near the back of the pack.  The race has two distances, the challengers who are doing the 40 miler and the marathoners who will run only to the Blue Ridge Parkway and then turnaround.  500 people was a lot for an ultra and it had a road running start feeling to it.

The first 13 miles

The first 3 miles of the race were on main roads going to Montreat.  I maintained about 10 mile pace with some steady elevation gain.  I passed a few people here and there.  Then we hit the double track where the pace quickly picked by.  Passed a lot of people in the next few miles here.  It was hard not to get excited when you finally hit the trails.  Despite the uphill the pace was quick but I stuck with it.  I passed by the first aid station without getting anything.  The next few miles you started to go back and forth with some people which allowed for some small conversations.  A guy gave me some of his dried mango which I found delicious.  Conservations were a mostly about where you’re from, training, and gear you’re wearing.  I met a man that is running this race for the 19^th time and he talked about someone else on course that is doing his 21^st one (that’s every year since the race started).  This man ended up running a lot faster than me and it blows my mind that someone who started running this race when I was around eight years is still crushing it!  As the trail got steeper I fell into a jog walk but still moved on the quick side.  Around mile 11 I started seeing the marathoners going back down. 

The Road Ascent

At around mile 13 we hit the Blue Ridge Parkway and started a 2.5 mile ascend up on road.  I drove up this road the day before to take some pictures from the summit of Mount Mitchell.  Recently, I stopped carrying a phone with me while racing (since I should be focusing my attention on moving faster) so I like to take my time the day before getting the photos.  It was weird seeing the road from this point of view.  I started jogging up, I figure that road would be a good way to do well on time but about a mile in, I got passed by three individuals walking.  So then I started walking but I couldn’t walk as fast as these three.  I fell about .8 of a mile behind by the end of the 2.5 mile road ascent.  Then the course turned to single track, rugged trail with plenty of roots and rocks.  It was very similar to Catskill terrain.  It was also wet from the light rain and fog.  I made good time here, easily passing those that passed me earlier.  I talked a bit with a man from Atlanta before I picked up the pace.  I kind of just went whatever pace was natural for me but people afterwards would tell me I crushed it there.  Two miles later and we end up right below the summit.  A volunteer marks an S on my bib.  Summit and turn around to the aid station.  I eat a bit more here since I’m halfway done before moving on.  Now the way back down is all roads till we are back on the double track.  I was expecting to make good time here.  Maybe 9 minutes a mile but I found my pace to be around 10:30 a mile.  I didn’t practice running downhill fast so I wasn’t able to pick it up here.  I found it different that running downhill on trails which I am somewhat good at.  Halfway through the three that passed me on the initial road climb passed me again.  I started feeling off towards the end of this section and then I touched my neck to find that there was a lot of salt on it.  As I hit the aid station at the end of the Blue ridge parkway I decided to drink a shot cup of coke with a few chips to get some salt and calories back in.  I passed a few runners here with my shorter time on the aid station.

The Double Track Downhill

The double back down was pretty rocky.  I sorted of noticed on the ascent but on the downhill I guess your feet hits the ground a bit harder so you feel it a lot more.  I did well here.  I passed by quite a lot of runners.  I talked briefly with a man from Burlington, NC, it seemed like quite a few people were here from there.  He was pretty impressed that I could manage this race while training in NYC.  The double track became less rocky but still downhill and I slowed a bit here.  There were quite a few splits of the trail and the course wasn’t marked that well in my opinion.  On the way up there were so many people so I had no trouble finding my way but now I was running alone 95% of the way.  I checked the map of my watch on a few of the splits; I pretty much had to assume that the larger trail was the right way.  After what the first aid station on the way up was is now the last aid station on the double track trail the trail became a very steep downhill.  I flew down but at one of the turns I couldn’t tell if I went the right way (again marking wasn’t as frequent as I’m used to).  So I went back up and found out that I was going the right way.  I wasted two or so minutes here which sucked since I was moving so fast. 

Back to Black Mountain!

The double track trail ended on Montreat roads and now the road descend was crazy steep.  It was the steepest road downhill I ever encountered (even steeper than San Francisco marathon downhills).  I passed by an aid station manned by Montreat college students.  As I got closer to finishing I thought about tips about moving fast that I have gotten recently.  I focused a bit on picking my legs up a bit.  A small section cut through park trails and in one of them I spotted orange marking in the middle of a stream and more orange marking on the other side.  It was hard to tell at this point if they belonged to the race or not.  I jumped to the giant boulder in the middle and was ready to jump into the stream to get to the other till I realized that the orange marking on the other side was no way a trail.  I must have wasted 3-4 minutes figuring this out and then proceed to continue the usual route.  Found more orange marking so I assumed that the other orange marking were a county or town mark for something else.  Rest of the two or so miles went smoothly.  The race ended with a loop around Lake Tomahawk.

After the race they had food in a community center building.  They had some delicious mushroom soups and I filled up on bread with peanut butter, bananas and pinto beans.  I talked with a few of the finishers and even a bit with the overall winner Morgan.  He finished the race in 4:20, more than three hours faster than my 7:23!  Others that finished the race said it was easier with snow since that covered up rocks.  It was the second hottest temperature of the race, high 60s in the bottom and high 40s on top.  After a little more than an hour of relaxing and talking I went back to Asheville to get a postcard which ended up being a lot harder than I thought.  Next was dinner and then the 10.5 hour drive back to NY!  I had two free beers that I could have claimed where they were doing the overall awards but I thought that to be a bad idea before a long drive.

2017 - Year of Change

2017 was quite the year of change for me.  I relearned to swim, made many personal bests in cycling, running, archery, added gym rock climbing, joined two running teams, traveled a lot and moved out of parent’s house.  But my biggest change to is what people often refer to vanishing/wasting away Vik, I lost over 50 pounds in about 6-7 months from my switch to a whole foods plant based diet (basically a high carb vegan diet with limited process food).  This is my food journey:

The idea of a plant based diet was reintroduced to me when reading Rich Roll’s Finding Ultra.  Rich Roll wasn’t the first athletic who spoke about the benefits of being vegan.  Scott Jurek spoke about in lengths in his book Eat and Run and I am a big fan of his but I ignored his claims at that time.  They both claimed more energy and faster recovery times.  The biggest difference now was that through experience and studying training theories that I now understood how important recovery was.  Finding ultra was able to convince me to go vegetarian but diary however was a different story, I grew up drilled by ads on how good milk is.  I never questioned why I ate diary and I felt it was essential to my identity.  

The next book I read was Whole by Colin Campbell which does a great job of explaining why I feel the way I do about food.  It was next on my list to read randomly, I found it on Strand and thought the cover looked interesting.  I adopted my diet as whole foods plant based from the book.  I committed myself to reading four more books about nutrition while slowly cutting out diary.  One book wasn’t going to be enough to change a lifetime of habitats!  Reading more about nutrition helped keep the ideas of plant based diet on my head as I changed.  

I started off allowing some weekly cheat meals (2 cheat meals, 2 cheat desserts a week [not cheat days, that would be too much for me]) for meat and dairy but my body adopted fairly rapidly.  Within a month I started becoming lactose intolerant.  It started by getting a bit gassy when eating diary (which was ice cream at this point) to stomach pain for about 30 to 40 minutes and having the runs.  That honestly made things a lot easier, now I didn’t have any choice.  As my body changed, my taste buds also started craving fruits more and I slowly lost the taste for diary and meat.  

I rapidly lost weight and without any training gained free speed.  Just 5 weeks after going plant based, I came pretty close to my marathon PR without training and while still recovering from a 50k the week before.  As my body changed, I become curious about testing out what it could do.  I started pushing the limits of my body farther in training.  I took on triathlon training and 100 mile training at the same time over the summer.  To my surprise my body was able to handle the load.  I went from someone who ran 30 miles a week to someone who ran 60-70 miles a week while also biking and swimming (a little).  

So perhaps you are thinking that I run so much, that’s why I lost the weight.  I averaged less than one run a week 5 weeks after my 100 mile race and 2 weeks after my recent 50 miler in December, I maintained the same weight.  My appetite adapts to my training load (the more I train = the more I eat).