Mountain Lakes 100 - Preconditions - The Journey

Last year, the cold and with quads hurting for miles I quit the Mountain Lakes 100. I had only gone 10% farther than my previous longest run (a 50 mile race). I still remember it clearly, my quads started bugging at mile 30ish and we're hurting by mid 40s. I slowed to a walk and not prepared for the drop in temperature of the night, got cold. The hard cutoff was at mile 70, I knew I wasn't going to make it and couldn't imagine going farther so I quit at the aid station at mile 55. I still have mixed feelings about it, I remember how horrible I felt but I also feel like quitting is against the idea I have of myself.

I sort of fell into a running slump after the race, I still ran races but wasn't doing well and just not motivated. I knew I had to try the 100 miler again but sometimes I would play with the idea of missing registration in my head. It wasn't till I was asked about it during a hike in January that I decided to definitely do it.

Also in January I happened to randomly pick two books to read where nutrition was played a big role. Finding Ultra and Whole: Rethinking the Science of Nutrition which slowly convinced me to changed my diet (I had to go through a couple more books as I figured things out). That started me on a course to slowly lose 50 pounds and with faster recoveries, I went from 25 miles a week of running to 60 plus miles a week while still biking and swimming (a bit). I gained free speed and for the first time since my second year of running I was crushing my previous PRs in all distances.

I decided to run more ultras this year and made destinations a part of the fun. A 50k in the Santa Montica mountains by LA, a 50k in the desert by Las Cruces, a 100k by the beautiful gorges and waterfalls by Portland, 50K in the finger lakes forest near Ithaca and another 50K around the volcano St. Helen. Training runs were also in the beautiful close by Palisades and Harriman state park, extending to the White and Green Mountains of New England.

Another strong boost to my running was joining a running club or two. During a run in March I met a man who ran with me for a while. We talked about running quite a bit and he encourage me to join a running group. I applied for Queens Distance Runners that night. Shorty after I moved from eastern Queens to western Queens and I ended up close to a whole bunch of running groups. On my second day, with boxes still to be unpacked I found out that WoodsideSunnyside Runners were doing a long run starting a half mile from me so I joined them. They clubs have been a good motivation to go running but I also drew inspiration just from seeing people so devoted to running. I started doing speed workouts for the first time and even followed my first training plan ever.

For September I decided to complete in three different types of endurance events. A Half Ironman (triathlon with 1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike ride, and 13 mile run), Spartan Beast (14ish mile obstacle course racing up and down a mountain) and this 100 mile trail race. I didn't make the swim cutoff for the Half Ironman which cut that race short (bummer but next time)! After a two day mental break I started running again, without biking or swimming I ended up running more than scheduled but recovery seems okay. I did well on the Spartan race but scraped my right knee. I haven't been running since then to allow myself to cautiously recover. Last shakeout run is tomorrow! Feeling excited!

I know I'm physically capable of running 100 miles, the struggle is going to happen between the ears.

Picture: Sunrise at Olallie Lake, the start/finish of Mountain Lakes 100

Spartan Beast Killington

The idea of back to back challenges in difference endurance events actually came from a podcast interview with the founder of the Spartan race while driving to my second marathon 3 years ago!

Strengths: Experience with ski trails (in the summer)! Ski trails are wide, treeless, grassy and are steeper than regular hiking trails. Last year I raced on Wildcat Mountain and Whiteface mountain ski trails, both are also 4,000ers. Whiteface Mountain has the steepest ski trail east of the Rockies so I already done worse than Killington. I also have loads of experience of running in muddy trails.

Weakness: Upper body strength, not good with burpees, lack of experience with obstacles.

Preconditions: I didn't specially train for this race, I started off with some pushup and then pullups strength training but as training for my 100M went to peak weeks, strength training was the first thing I cut (swim was second and I paid for that last week). I did do trail runs which ended up having significant elevation gain. Killington ended up being my tenth 4000er of September. Despite not knowing what I'm getting myself into I was confident that I was fit enough to handle anything that comes. I heard stories of friends cramping in the Spartan race and made sure to have good nutrition. I didn't know how long the race would take but figured I aim for 6 hours, I usually consider being around twice the time of the fastest person good for middle of pack.

My confidence dropped a bit when I saw that the time cutoffs for when you were required to have a headlamp on you. Made me rethink how long this would take. I liked that you had to climb a small wall to get into the start line area.

The race started off with an immediate uphill and the front of the pack started off running it. I just power hiked, doing the usual ultra-running strategy of not running up unless I could see the end/top. The first few obstacles were getting over small walls and such. There was a monkey bar a bit in and I successfully crossed it. That's my first time! Afterwards there was a barbed wire which I found pretty easy to crawl under but it was longer than any barb wire I faced in other obstacle course races. This one wasn't muddy, sometime I didn't realize I would appreciate on the second one. The Z-walls were my first failed obstacle. Had to pay with 30 burpees.

The Bridge obstacle was the only one I seen pictures of beforehand. It involved swimming a bit to a rope ladder, then climbing it and then swinging on 3 dangling ropes to hit a bell. We were required to have a life vest which made swimming freestyle awkward. I switched to back stroke and relaxed swam my way to the bridge. I felt pretty comfortable, very refreshing, in the open water, I guess swimming 86 minutes last week at Mirror lake helped eliminate some fear. I failed to hit the bell from the dangling rope, another 30 burpees.

Around mile 5 I met Jeff. We had been passing each other here and there. I would pass on the uphill and he would pass me on the downhill. We talked a bit, found out he worked in NYC for five years before moving back to the Ohio/Kentucky area. After the
bridge the non-ski trails became muddy which added to the fun. The ski trails are still weird to me but as soon as the route gets some trees, rocks and roots I get into my element and have so much fun.

Some getting over obstacles initially look like you need to get your hands to the top and pull yourself up which is why I thought my lack of upper body strength (I could barely do more than 20 pushups in a row) would be a big weakness. However, after observing some people I found out that after getting your hands to the top, you could swing and crawl your legs to the top and get it over which reduces the body weight you need to pull up. Ends up you don't really need strong upper body for most of the obstacles. Going down my first 7 feet wall my knee banged against something on the way down. I felt like it didn't hit any muscle so I knew I was okay but I guess the force of the impact made my brain go into limp mode. I limped for the next five minutes to the next obstacle.

Around mile 7 I saw people starting to tire out. I started telling people good work or good job as I passed, common practice in ultras. People did interesting things like walking uphill backwards and running downhill sideways or in S shapes like skiing. I could remember when I tried things like that when I was younger.

Sandbag carry wasn't bad as I thought it would be, it felt like carrying a heavy backpack. I imagine the backpackers found it easy. Going uphill with the weight had me focusing on breathing. On the second sandbag I was running downhill with it. I did however struggled with the bucket carry, not because of the weight but because the bottom rims dug into my hand (I could see how gloves would have helped here). At mile 10 we hit the death march which I been hearing people talk about along the way. It was a steep ski trail climb, maybe a mile uphill then fell into some regular trail running before merging with the sprint Spartans and then a steep downhill. This was all normal terrain to me so I went through it with ease. I tried cracking jokes to people as I passed on the uphill to help keep the mind off pain, one person kept up with me for a while. It was weird seeing the sprint Spartans...the beast Spartan were all suffering and now we merged with a group that were out as a family thing. They even shared burpees! The obstacles got more frequent towards the end and I failed a few of them. The burpees got pretty tough, it got to the point where I had to take a few seconds break after 5 of them (something to work on if I do this again).

I had to do burpees near right at the end because of failing the javelin throw. A few feet away was a jumping over fire and then the finish line. Not enough distance for me to recover from the burpees. I’m pretty sure the finishing pic is of me looks like I’m dying.

I finished in 6 hours and 6 minutes, my garmin says 14.8 miles with 10,640 feet of gain! 12th in my age group. Arms are sore from the burpees and forearms and knees scratched from the barbed wire crawling but pretty good overall. No trouble walking down the stairs but I can’t run down them.

Gorges 100k

Gorge 100k

A goal: Sub 16 hours
B goal: Sub 17 hours (official finisher + entry into lottery for 2018 Western states 100 miler, often called the Boston of 100 milers)
C goal: Make it pass the last aid station before cutoff so I could finish 100k, regardless of being an official finisher or not.

I took some pictures of waterfalls the day before so I don't have to worry about that during the race. I simply stock my drop bags with my favorite fuel foods, a hydration pack at the drop bag at 22 and an extra jacket in drop back mile 49. I have a running vest with some gels and 2 16 oz bottles. Never had so many drop bags before and I hit 3 of them twice!

The race director gave us a few rules
Don't get run over by a car
Don't slip and fall 50 to 100 feet
Don't push a tourist off a cliff

No name (0 to 6) - The first mile of the race starts at a grassy trail connecting Benson state recreation area to Multnomah falls. I quickly fall last place, and only start catching up on the first downhill which comes after a nice long uphill. I take the downhills easy, fearful of burning out my quads like I did in my 100 miler attempt in the fall. My garmin has my heart rate as fairy high so I check my Fitbit and it seems normal (under 150). So I end up ignoring heart rate for the entire race (Fitbit requires you to swipe a few times to see heart rate making it fairly inconvenient). It's my third time in this area and for some reason this time, looking at the vastness of the Columbia river I feel very small.

Yeon (6 to 13) - I refill my running vest which has water bottles with water mixed with gu brew. Towards the end of this distance I end up going back and forth with about the same three people. Didn't find people as chatty, guess I'm too close to a major city area? A runner asks me what my mileage is and I tell her the distance in kilometers, struggle a bit to calculate the simple conversion. The race goes two miles on road and I hit exact kilometer splits on them. I was a bit proud of that at the moment.

Cascade lock (13 to 22) - This area of the trail is fairly muddy. A man I pass jokes welcome to the tough mudder. There are quite a few fallen trees, some requiring me to crawl a bit under, others I am able to go over. I do a run walk on uphills, I usually just walk it but I started feeling slightly cold walking for so long. I miscalculate the distance and end up drinking all my fluids.

Wyeth (22 to 31) - 9 miles to the turnaround point! I take my hydration pack (2 liters of water) with me. I push myself to make it to the turnaround point. I draw on moments where friends have came out to cheer me and I replay those memories to get me through. I made it to the aid station at 8:10 but it was a struggle. I make sure I eat along the way.

Mediation mode (31 to 40) - I feast on fruits and start making my way back. I leave with the same pack of runners I been around since around the half marathon distance. The first few miles are a struggle, I feel beat. I lose the pack putting my running jacket on. I start to take long deep breathes to pace myself. In and out the nose. Soon I end up only focusing on the breathes and the pain disappears. My subconscious takes over pretty much everything, the breath is the only thing consciously I'm focused on. I start moving faster. Food starts to give me a burst of energy and I feel like I could do a negative 50k split. I feel great! I quickly catch up and overtake the pack. A bit later I catch up to a man and woman. The man says "yea, you better run". At first I thought he was mocking me, then I realize we must be close to the cutoff. A downhill soon starts and I decide to not save anything for later, all out.

Tough Mudder (40 to 49) - Made it to the aid station but informed that cutoff is in a few. I kind of panic and start rushing the next mile. I end up exhausting myself. Back to breathing and everything starts going good. Here I encounter the fallen trees again. Instead this time I rarely go over any, choosing to go under. After a waterfall where a race photographer takes a pic I find out that the trail to continue requires about 30 feet of vertical gain of rope to get on top to. I guess this is why trails are more fun.

Despair and Hope (49 to 56) - A runner limps to the aid station and shortly drops out. I have nothing but utmost respect and admiration for people that made it this far. I put a jacket on top of my race vest, probably not looking too much like a runner but I'm a bit fearful of being cold at night (can you tell how much my failed 100 miler haunts me yet?). The sun is setting and the rest of the race will soon be in the dark. The race goes two miles on pavement which I thought would be great but as I hit the pavement both my IT bands flared up. The pain took over my mind and I was not able to mediate my way out of it. I struggled though. This completely demoralized me (I was expecting the road to be a sweet break) and I concluded that I could not make it to the next aid station. Back on the trail I feel a bit better. Took a little while to get back to my mediation mode. I check my watch and realize I could make it, with hope I move along happily. I do end up taking a nasty fall right after passing someone (so embarrassing) trying to get over a tree.

Finish (56 to 62) - Made it to the last aid station! No free ride to the finish line for me. C goal is achieved, though at this point I have a chance to make it to B goal. Only 6 miles and a huge climb left: I struggle though the trail at first but soon the race hits a paved trail up Multnomah falls. Despite the many switch backs I find the paved path going up easier than trail and I am able to move at a steady pace. Eventually I hit trail again and the struggle continues. Downhill starts soon after. I find the muddy downhill to not be much of a problem. There was one section where a strong stream overtook the trail which caused a few minutes of confusion. Back on more level ground I run slowly to the finish. Seeing the finish line, I see the clock tick 17:14:40 and sprint to try to get it under 17:15. My official time is 17:15:26 on ultrasignup. I missed the 17 hour deadline which would have gotten me into the Western States Lottery but I don't really care, lol.

And that's it! The race had no finisher medal or belt buckle. Afterwards there was pizza being made in a oven, had two olive slices and then back to Portland.

Note: My watch battery died so the mileage is a bit short. I believe most Garmins in the past record 63.5 miles for the course.

Rock and Roll DC Marathon

D.C. Marathon - Marathon #15

Pre conditions: A 50k trail race and an average of 5 hours of sleep the week before left in pretty bad shape for this race. While I did hikes that reveled my quads were pretty burnt out I didn't do any recover runs opting to just rest when I could. 3 hours of sleep before race but has a great breakfast thanks to Jessica.

Mile 0.05 - I tell the twins that we only have 26.1 miles left.

Mile 1 - "Twenty five point freaking two left!" I lose The twins due to bathroom. Wasn't going to be able to keep up anyway so I decide to run with the 4:25 pace group. By this point I already felt off with my calves. The pace was slightly above my comfort pace but I decided to stick with and look forward to hitting the low point. With proper nutrition and pace you could avoid the "wall" but not so much in ultras. I wanted to get some experience of hitting my low point and pushing through it.
Mile 6 - I see the twins briefly and then lose them and the pace group on the hills. The crowd support on the was spectacular though! My quads burn on the uphills and hurt on the downhills.
Mile 9 - I catch up to the pace group. I feed off the energy of the pacers.
Mile 12 - High five with Ramona! I think that's the first I seen my name on a poster board before too.
Mile 13 - I lose the pace group while refilling my water bottle. Already pretty tired I start focusing on my right foot striking the ground.
Mile 17 - I briefly see the twins and get more high fives on a turn around. They are followed by the pace group. Maybe two minutes ahead. The turnaround has a band playing too. My energy level goes up and I'm struggling to calm myself as I really want to start kicking.
Mile 19 - I meet an older Asian man who says this is his 325th marathon. It's all about the training he says. I get pretty motivated by this. I focus on long breaths in and out of my nose.
Mile 20 - Seeing the 20 mile makes me happy. Normally I get my second wind here. I do feel better but the feeling only lasts for a mile. The rest of the race will be a struggle.
Mile 24 - My thoughts turn to friends and family who have supported me through the years and I draw motivation on this.
Mile 25.9 - Near the end I don't feel like kicking but I see a fellow person of the 4:25 pace group kicking so I have no choice but to try to.
Mile 26.3 - Finish. Two volunteers check on me. Better than my first marathon 3.25 years ago where I was on a wheelchair for a bit and every volunteer checked on me. I ended up short of a PR by a few minutes, not that I care about silly stuff like that.

Sierra Vista 50K

Pre-conditions: A 4.5 hour flight, 1 hour wait to get rental car, then 3 hour drive to Las Cruces. Sleep 2 hours. A slice of bread with Nutella and OJ for breakfast.


0-3: Sleepy head - Forecast had 45 degrees so I wore a light jacket and a hat but less than a mile in I had to store them in my vest. I was pretty sleepy in these miles. 


3-8: Zen mode. Following miles I cleared my mind and miles just passed by. Pretty happy running.


8-9: I struggled to breathe for a little bit. At 4500 to 5000 feet I shouldn't be struggling for oxygen but felt like this for 10 minutes. Two runners pasted me and I decided to stick with their pace. Lost them at the next aid station.

9-12: Nutrition focus - At the aid station I saw avocado. Fat power! I grab one and a banana. A minute later I look down and notice two bananas and spend the next three minutes debating whether I really saw the avocado (mirage?). I probably just rushed it too much and grabbed the wrong one. These miles I slowed a bit to make sure I was eating enough.

12-16: An old foe - reached a low point till the turnout point. The miles felt long and the sun started to beat down. I underestimated the sun again. Should have know better by now...I been competing outdoors for 7 years now.

16-26: Stronger together - I met Mikey who did the 50k at midnight, came back 8 minutes before the race, changed into daytime gear and ran again. We ran together till almost the end. Talking helped the miles go by.

26-30: It's suppose to hurt - By this point Mikey and I stopped talking. Though I was motivated by him being behind me I wanted to just collapse. It reminds me of a quote I once read: To run a ultra is to keep going when everything else wants to stop.

30-32: Hyper mode - Mikey starts a strong kick which after 60 miles is super impressive and leaves me in the dust. I end up getting my boost from the downhills. Charging the downhills gives me an adrenaline rush that is sustained for a bit. My breathing becomes wild but I loose any feeling of pain and speed up. Lucky the end of the course had enough of a downhill for me to get into the mode. I pretty much kick till the end.

San O'Brien 50k

Precondition
Haven't done a trail run in about two months. Longest recent run was a half marathon distance done twice in the past weeks.
Prefuel - beet juice and an hammer gel anti fatigue. A croissant, banana muffins and chocolate croissant for breakfast from 7 eleven.
Strategy - 200 calories an hour. Keep heart rate around 160 till near end, then ignore heart rate and race till end.

What actually happened
Course went uphill right away which lead to a spike in heart rate. I had to walk for most of the uphill. I ate two gu gels the first hour keeping up with my calorie intake but forgot to eat anything the second hour. I ate a potato and half with a salt pill to make up for it in the third hour. The potato made me feel full at first but I felt super powered ten minutes later. Rest of the race I was pretty active in keeping calories up with gels and potatoes. It started raining and the course got muddy. It made for slippery conditions, reminding me of whiteface mountain trail race back in summer. Eventually the muddy conditions ended as I approached a different canyon. 

At mile 13 my legs felt tired and I noticed that the heart rate monitor that was originally telling me to slow down was now telling me to speed up. Miles 13 to 15.5 were mentally tough but I got a boost from other runners encouragement who were running back from the turnout point. I felt better on the return. At mile 22 I ate a rice ball which was delicious. Eventually around mile 25 I wasn't able to will myself to go faster even though my heart rate was low. I started focusing on my breathing which got me back to work. Around mile 27 I fell into a trance mode where I felt no pain and felt like a warm blanket was on me as I ran hard. The trance broke up around mile 30 when I had to do a stream crossing with the water a few inches above my knees. The rest of the 2 miles to the end were a struggle. Overall pretty happy with my results.

NYC Marathon

TCS NYC Marathon – The first marathon I ever heard about but because of the difficulty of getting in, my 13th marathon.

Staten Island – Arrived at Race village around by 6:50 am. Hanged out with Cathy and Larry for a bit, then walked around with Larry and hanged out with him till around 9 am. Headed to my corral and waited till 10:30 am to start. The corral area was so tiny! You pretty much had to wait in between porter potty lines. The waiting pretty much killed any excitement I had. Finally get to start and go over the bridge. To my pleasant surprise I got to run on the upper level, yay for not getting peed on. Another reason for upper was that I have already ridden the lower path in the TD 5 boro bike tour.

Brooklyn – As soon as I hit Brooklyn I found the crowds to uplifting and encouraging. Around mile 4 I found out I dropped my dukin donut hat. A member of Marathon maniacs made it sound pretty exclusive (you could only get it early of race morning). Oh well, it was a bit annoyed at having to carry it. I meet friends and coworkers which also boosted my spirits. Eventually I started struggling and I wasn’t even half way done. I decided to not worry about time and I started to give out more high fives (that also messed up my pace since I would start sprinting after a round of high fives). It was great to see a diversity of people come out. It felt like the city had your back.

Queens – The course only goes a bit into Queens but the crowds were packed. Before long I was in the bridge to Manhattan. No crowds here but I have ran this part many times so I know it’s not a big deal. My Garmin gps watch lost signal here and my mileage got messed up on the watch.
Manhattan – Off the bridge and into the city! The crowds were large but by this time they had a diminishing effect on me. I still found giving high fives a mental boost and continued my quest to get high fives in the boroughs. As started to struggle more I started to just walk to get water instead of trying to grab a cup and then drink a slip and then throw the rest out. I regret not bringing my own water.


Bronx – Super short stop here, got some high fives and a pretzel which I later found out I wasn’t able to eat (not really able to chew hard food while running). 


Back to Manhattan – A nice welcome as runners entered Harlem! As I approached Central Park my spirits lifted. I run here weekly and know the remaining course exactly. I started running hard. At 800 meters (half mile to finish) I started sprinting. I had to do some extreme zig zags. I started gassing out at 400 meters but at that point, can’t stop!


Got my medal! Overall I would say the experience of the crowds and volunteers is amazing! But I didn’t like the long wait time at the beginning, the items in recovery bag was lacking (though the bag itself is nice) and the inability to cheer your fellow runners at the finish line sucked! They just marshaled you along to your drop bag or poncho and then you exit. I didn’t feel any sense of running community that I usually feel in the races I do.