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.

Mountain Lakes 100

Mountain Lakes 100 - First 100 miler attempt - Dropped out at mile 55

"There will be low points, there will be high points, there will be low points, more low points and in the end, it is going to suck"
--Race Director

Strategy: The first 26.1 miles of the race are the hardest so I decide to start off with a handheld bottle and hip belt bottle. About 1 liter of water. At mile 26.1, first drop bags awaits where I would switch to a race vest. The race vest contains 1 liter of water, 1 liter of Gatorade, ultra jacket and headlamp. At my second drop bag in mile 55 I would take out another layer and one more headlamp and a handheld lamp.
Nutrition: I do my usual start off with salt tablets an hour, then slowly start using gu, then Gatorade, then caffeine gu and real food.

0-5 The race starts off on jeep road and two miles in breaks into trail. My motivation increased a lot going into the trails. The beauty of the area was stunning. 

5-11 "If you think you are going slow, slow down" --Someone's Coach. Back onto jeep road leads to easy fast miles. I met a woman from Baltimore and talked with her for a bit. I found out that she did her first 100 miler last year, 4 years after she started running and knew someone that was planning his first 100 miler the following year which would also make it his 4 year. I guess my attempt at 100 miler in 4 years fits into a certain category of runners.

11-20 The trail gets technical and there are lots of uphills. My pace gets slow but the easy miles before made up for them.

20-26 An hour and back lets fast runners (coming back) to offer words of encouragement which was great after 9 hard miles. I run with Patricia, a woman from Portland. She seems to know a lot of the volunteers.

26-30 I drop the bottles and switch to the race vest. These miles are mostly downhill and I feel pretty strong.

30-37 At the aid station at mile 30, I eat soup with rice and salty mashed potatoes for lunch. Best feeling ever. My quads start bugging at mile 34

37-44 At mile 37 I start losing the group I been going back and forth with since mile 5. My pace slows but still doing good time wise.

44-50 My quads burn out at mile 46 and I can no longer run uphill. It's night and the weather is in the low 40s. I can't run so I move slower and can't warm up. Motivation is dead and I want to quit by mile 50.


50-55 I went into the aid station at mile 50 wanting to quit but there are only two volunteers and it doesn't look like they could help. I eat real food and sit down for two minutes. Then I move on the next aid station mile 55 which I know is a major one. I limp walk till I met two sweepers catch up. Their presence helps me get back into a speed walk. The miles feel like forever. 


Finally at the aid station, I debate going on for another 16 miles. It's hard to quit even though I want to. I know I can't make the hard cutoff at mile 71. I check in with the medic hoping he would advise me to drop out but he doesn't. Finally I drop out. I change my clothes and spend the next two hours with a sleeping blanket and in front of a heater trying to warm up. I never get warm in the heat tent. I talk with pacers and learn how they are pretty much do the thinking of their partners at the later parts of the race.


Looking forward, I need to train with my quads dead and I need to train a lot more in the night.

Erie Marathon

Marathon #12 in the books!
Mile 1-2 easy run
Mile 3 - got to put some work in
Mile 6 - Hi Lanson! Meet Hally who is also in her 12th marathon. We talk till Mille 11 when she fell slightly behind and then soon passed me.
Mile 11 - Met Harrison? and Nathan and we talk till mile 15
Mile 15 - Low point. Quads feel sore and pace drops
Mile 16 - Yay, 16 miles. Only an hour more to go. I could do an hour. Few minutes later I realize that I made the same math error as my first marathon.
Mile 17 - Notice my steps are more towards heel than toe. Start focusing on the elastic return part of form.
Mile 20 - High Point - I get into my happy place. Pace returns and I try encourage other runners as I pass.
Mile 22 - I start using jelly beans. Pretend they are senzu beans. Pass Harrison and Nathan yelling golden corral.
Mile 23 - I slow down to get water and I find my left calf has a slight cramp. Run or cramp it is!
Mile 24 - As happy place wears off I try to phase out but doesn't work. Focus on form till I'm ready to kick. I practice sprint breathing.
Mile 25 - Start to pick up the pace.
Mile 25.5 - A woman named Cathy gets someone to run the last bit with her. I pretend the encourages are towards me.
26 - All out sprint.
26.21 - Medic staff watches me but I'm fine, whew!
26.3 - Meet Michael and Lanson!
26.4 - Find the barrels of cholocate milk and in a few minutes, 6 cartons are done.