Indiana Trail 100
Below is the race report from my first 100 mile race; It was written mainly for my friends as well a myself.
April 20th 2013
The race took place on the Chain O Lakes State Park Trails in Albion, Indiana and was 100 miles in length - with a 31hour time limit. Of course you can walk at times, but there is no stopping or sleeping.
Training: With some help from my running group, I developed what I thought was a good training plan of working out with a small group who were training for the Boston Marathon (getting some speed work in) and adding additional slower miles to those workouts, as well as long workouts on the weekend. For a large majority of the last two months I averaged about 65-80 miles per week. This was a bit on the low end for a 100 mile race, but I was somewhat nervous about injury with increasing weekly mileage above this for my first 100 mile race. I specifically trained for this race for about 3 and ½ months, but I had a good base of mileage when I started.
Nutrition: With great advice from my group, I planned to take about 350 calories and 500 mg of sodium per hour. Instead of worrying about trying to figure this out with food/supplements, I opted to use Infinit Nutrition by recommendation. It proved to be wonderful. I was able to custom make a mix of what I wanted with carbs/aminos/sodium/etc into a powder, and simply consume 2 scoops in 20oz of water per hour, and add in some solid food as needed. This ended up working like magic.
Race: The race started at 6am Saturday April 20th and I would finish approximately 12 noon on Sunday. The major problem with the race was that the trails were very muddy and much of the park had flooded. Some of the course was diverted but at other spots, crossing knee/thigh deep water was unavoidable. The course consisted of 6 loops each 16.67 miles in length. My plan was to feel out the course on the first loop, adjust my race plan on the second loop with knowledge from the first, and relax on the third loop, which would get me through the first 50 miles. After 50 miles you are allowed a ‘pacer.’ This is basically a running partner who can run with you for portions of the course. I hoped my pacers would be able to help me through the last 50 miles, no matter how painful, as long as I could get through the first 50 fairly unscathed.
Loop 1: Loop 1 was an eye opener. We had been warned that the course would be muddy and wet, however approximately 1 mile in, we came to a deep water passage, that was nearly 30 yards in length and knee high water. At 6am and in the dark, this was fairly cold, but my main concern quickly turned to taking care of my feet. Getting blisters this early in a 100 mile race could spell big trouble. The course was extremely muddy and I don’t know how it worked out, but every time my feet would nearly dry, we ran into more water crossings. The first aid station was approximately 4 miles into the course, an old school house which also served as aid station 3 on the way back. I refilled my 2 handheld water bottles, turned off my headlamp, grabbed a few pretzels and headed on. The next aid station was at mile 9 where my drop bag was. I decided to take the time to switch to dry wool socks, refilled my nutrition, and took back off. Unfortunately about ½ mile after this aid station was a thigh-high water crossing, but you had a rope for assistance! My shoes and socks were again soaked. We looped back to aid station 1&3 at the school house, and then about 2 miles back to the start finish line. I felt great, as if I had just started, again refilled nutrition/water, and decided to change socks again. 16.67 Miles in the bag with a time of 4hours 9minutes
Loop 2: This was much the same as loop 1 except I knew what to expect and looked for more opportunities to try to get around some water/mud, now that the crowd had thinned. At least I could get through the water with some expediency. I purposefully slowed my pace slightly as I knew the mud and water were going to take a much larger toll on my legs than I had anticipated. I again changed socks at the ‘mile 9’ aid station and returned to the start finish line. Here I changed socks again, but began to wonder if it was worth it to waste the time, since my feet were getting completely submerged in water just a few minutes later. Luckily Emily was present to ‘crew’ for me in these early loops having my nutrition ready and assisting with changing socks/etc while cheering me on! 4 hours 38 minutes on this loop took me through 33.3 miles (already 7 miles past a marathon and over 66 miles to go, but you can’t think that way!) (Total time: 8 hours 47 minutes / 33.3 miles)
Loop 3: Mentally, this one was maybe the easiest. I was now very familiar with the course, I didn’t have to waste energy trying to figure out the terrain, and I knew where the big hills were, how far the next aid station was, etc. I also had the knowledge that upon completion I would be 50 miles in and my pacer Tim could jump in for some much needed company. I tried to listen to my headphones for a few minutes, but quickly got bored, and opted for the sounds of nature and conversing with fellow racers. I again changed socks at ‘mile 9’ but decided that wasting all this time on taking care of my feet was becoming inefficient because I just kept submerging them in water again a few moments later, and I was still concerned at this point about missing the total time cutoff. Ie: it would be really stupid to keep changing socks and not finish the race in time. I felt great, but could tell my legs were feeling the effects of running through thick mud. I crossed the start/finish line at a lap time of 4:44 to give myself a total time of 13hours 31 minutes through 50 miles.
Loop 4: It was about 7:30 pm at this time, and this was the first time I realized how long I had been running as it was starting to get dark. I guess at 13 hours in, if you haven’t noticed the total time elapsed that is pretty good. I still felt good, but my legs were beginning to fatigue a bit from all of the thick mud. Tim and I made good time, but this was the hardest lap by far, mostly mentally I suppose in retrospect. During this loop I began to feel tired from the physical exertion, as well as began to subconsciously realize that I had run this far, and still had to run through the entire night, the next morning, and likely close to noon the next day. I had already finished 50 miles, and the next milestones started being the next aid stations. Also, I noticed partially through this loop my left ankle was swelling up and this was a bit concerning with 40 some miles left, but it wasn’t that painful. I finished loop 4 with a lap time 5hours 24 minutes – clearly showing how tough mentally this one was – and a total time of 18hours 55 minutes for 66.7 miles.
Loop 5: The start finish line here was tough as I was beginning to feel fatigued now, and mentally was losing focus. Thankfully Emily was there as well Tim, and now my training team had arrived. They pretty much took charge telling me what to do thank god, and got me back out on the course after adding some clothes to stay warm, taking in some food, smashing red bull, and some much needed encouragement. Starting loop 5 was very tough. Frank, my pacer for lap 5 and 6, certainly saved the day. Being fresh he was able to talk to me just as if we were on one of our regular training runs, and it was nice to have someone new to talk to keep my fatigued brain busy. At the start of this loop it was about 1am Sunday morning. I noticed as this lap began that my feet were starting to blister around my toes and heels, and this was a bit unpleasant. I also started to feel the effects of sleep deprivation a bit, especially since I didn’t sleep well the night before the race. Frank kept a solid pace; backing off when we needed knowing we still had 16.7 miles after this lap was finished. I was freezing cold during this lap and did my best to stay warm. Also I was beginning to trip/stumble a few times on this loop over roots/etc. on the trail as my feet were getting tired and I was getting mentally lazy. My left ankle remained a concern and the pain was increasing. We crossed the start/finish line at a time of 4 hours 53 minutes (over 30 minutes faster than lap 4) for a total time 23 hours 48 minutes over 83.3 miles.
Loop 6: Now I was indeed fatigued, but I still felt like I had some in the gas tank. Certainly much better than I felt starting lap 5. Perhaps I could see the light at the end of this tunnel. Stocking up on nutrition, taking an extra headlamp from Frank as mine had died during the lap, I left the start finish line with encouragement from Emily, Misty, and Keith- now about 5:50 am Sunday morning. My ankle was very sore at this time, and it felt like some muscle damage or possibly an irritated tendon. We made it to aid station one, the schoolhouse, I grabbed some coffee and soup, which burned the be-jesus out of my mouth, but hey time was of the essence. We pressed on to the ‘mile 9’ aid station where I would see my drop bag for the last time. I could at this time feel blisters between and under every one of my toes from running in wet socks/shoes for over 24 hours now. I knew this would be ridiculously painful later, but blocked it out now. I could feel one or two pop between my toes, and couldn’t decide if this was good or bad. We exited the aid station at ‘mile 9’ with about 7.7 miles left, so around 92 miles in the books. Somehow in some loose mud I kicked a root and rolled my left ankle, probably because it was already sore and I wasn’t picking it up high enough. It immediately developed an acute point of pain just above the ankle joint directly on the front of the ankle. At this time I began to have trouble lifting my foot at all with my ankle, making running extremely difficult. To make matters worse, I was still concerned about the cutoff time. It would be a disaster to run 92 miles well, and then not be a finisher due to too much time elapsed. I found a large stick and used it as a crutch/walking stick of sorts to take the weight off of my left ankle as I stepped. It broke a little while into the mile and luckily Frank was able to find me 2 or 3 more as they eventually broke. I was no longer able to run with the ankle, but it became more of a hobble/jog. This was very frustrating because I felt like I had the energy to keep running, and was extremely nervous about the cutoff time. We made it to the school house for the last time after what seemed like an eternity. I knew we only had 2.5 miles left to the finish line. I was now wondering if my ankle was broken because the swelling was increasing and I couldn’t lift it up at all. I pushed off of my wilderness-fashioned walking stick with a lot of force at each step trying to jog along as best I could. This took so much time to cover these miles, and I knew now it didn’t matter what was wrong, I was crossing that line, but every once in a while I had to block out a thought of how terrible recovery was going to feel. Two more of my crew, Misty and Keith, ran backwards from the finish line with about ¾ a mile to go to cheer me on, and Emily joined shortly after. I hobbled jogged to the finish and finished with 58 minutes spare. Total time: 100 Miles - 30 hours 2 minutes.
Summary: It was challenging, but I feel the course conditions certainly made it much tougher than anticipated. I felt like my nutrition plan was spot on and could not have been better. My leg muscles were not much more fatigued than a regular marathon, which was surprising, but the blisters between every toe and on the bottoms of my feet reminded me I had covered a bit more distance than that. Upon later investigation it appears some sort of infection had snuck into my ankle through that water, which caused the swelling/pain and probably led to me tripping and spraining it. It took several IV’s and a supply of meds to start to fix that. Thank the good lord for my wife Emily and my crew/ running partners – Misty/Frank/Keith for taking control and crewing when my brain stopped working well. Overall, one week later, I feel great, my feet are healing and I plan to start running next weekend. In addition, I got this sweet belt buckle of an award!
Like anything else in life you can’t always look all the way down the road, sometimes you have to put your head down and just keep moving forward to the next check point. Someone asked me if this was the toughest thing I had ever done. I suppose the answer is yes, and I guess in looking back if going for a run on the weekend is the toughest thing you’ve had to do in 29 years, you’ve been pretty lucky.
Below is the race report from my first 100 mile race; It was written mainly for my friends as well a myself.
April 20th 2013
The race took place on the Chain O Lakes State Park Trails in Albion, Indiana and was 100 miles in length - with a 31hour time limit. Of course you can walk at times, but there is no stopping or sleeping.
Training: With some help from my running group, I developed what I thought was a good training plan of working out with a small group who were training for the Boston Marathon (getting some speed work in) and adding additional slower miles to those workouts, as well as long workouts on the weekend. For a large majority of the last two months I averaged about 65-80 miles per week. This was a bit on the low end for a 100 mile race, but I was somewhat nervous about injury with increasing weekly mileage above this for my first 100 mile race. I specifically trained for this race for about 3 and ½ months, but I had a good base of mileage when I started.
Nutrition: With great advice from my group, I planned to take about 350 calories and 500 mg of sodium per hour. Instead of worrying about trying to figure this out with food/supplements, I opted to use Infinit Nutrition by recommendation. It proved to be wonderful. I was able to custom make a mix of what I wanted with carbs/aminos/sodium/etc into a powder, and simply consume 2 scoops in 20oz of water per hour, and add in some solid food as needed. This ended up working like magic.
Race: The race started at 6am Saturday April 20th and I would finish approximately 12 noon on Sunday. The major problem with the race was that the trails were very muddy and much of the park had flooded. Some of the course was diverted but at other spots, crossing knee/thigh deep water was unavoidable. The course consisted of 6 loops each 16.67 miles in length. My plan was to feel out the course on the first loop, adjust my race plan on the second loop with knowledge from the first, and relax on the third loop, which would get me through the first 50 miles. After 50 miles you are allowed a ‘pacer.’ This is basically a running partner who can run with you for portions of the course. I hoped my pacers would be able to help me through the last 50 miles, no matter how painful, as long as I could get through the first 50 fairly unscathed.
Loop 1: Loop 1 was an eye opener. We had been warned that the course would be muddy and wet, however approximately 1 mile in, we came to a deep water passage, that was nearly 30 yards in length and knee high water. At 6am and in the dark, this was fairly cold, but my main concern quickly turned to taking care of my feet. Getting blisters this early in a 100 mile race could spell big trouble. The course was extremely muddy and I don’t know how it worked out, but every time my feet would nearly dry, we ran into more water crossings. The first aid station was approximately 4 miles into the course, an old school house which also served as aid station 3 on the way back. I refilled my 2 handheld water bottles, turned off my headlamp, grabbed a few pretzels and headed on. The next aid station was at mile 9 where my drop bag was. I decided to take the time to switch to dry wool socks, refilled my nutrition, and took back off. Unfortunately about ½ mile after this aid station was a thigh-high water crossing, but you had a rope for assistance! My shoes and socks were again soaked. We looped back to aid station 1&3 at the school house, and then about 2 miles back to the start finish line. I felt great, as if I had just started, again refilled nutrition/water, and decided to change socks again. 16.67 Miles in the bag with a time of 4hours 9minutes
Loop 2: This was much the same as loop 1 except I knew what to expect and looked for more opportunities to try to get around some water/mud, now that the crowd had thinned. At least I could get through the water with some expediency. I purposefully slowed my pace slightly as I knew the mud and water were going to take a much larger toll on my legs than I had anticipated. I again changed socks at the ‘mile 9’ aid station and returned to the start finish line. Here I changed socks again, but began to wonder if it was worth it to waste the time, since my feet were getting completely submerged in water just a few minutes later. Luckily Emily was present to ‘crew’ for me in these early loops having my nutrition ready and assisting with changing socks/etc while cheering me on! 4 hours 38 minutes on this loop took me through 33.3 miles (already 7 miles past a marathon and over 66 miles to go, but you can’t think that way!) (Total time: 8 hours 47 minutes / 33.3 miles)
Loop 3: Mentally, this one was maybe the easiest. I was now very familiar with the course, I didn’t have to waste energy trying to figure out the terrain, and I knew where the big hills were, how far the next aid station was, etc. I also had the knowledge that upon completion I would be 50 miles in and my pacer Tim could jump in for some much needed company. I tried to listen to my headphones for a few minutes, but quickly got bored, and opted for the sounds of nature and conversing with fellow racers. I again changed socks at ‘mile 9’ but decided that wasting all this time on taking care of my feet was becoming inefficient because I just kept submerging them in water again a few moments later, and I was still concerned at this point about missing the total time cutoff. Ie: it would be really stupid to keep changing socks and not finish the race in time. I felt great, but could tell my legs were feeling the effects of running through thick mud. I crossed the start/finish line at a lap time of 4:44 to give myself a total time of 13hours 31 minutes through 50 miles.
Loop 4: It was about 7:30 pm at this time, and this was the first time I realized how long I had been running as it was starting to get dark. I guess at 13 hours in, if you haven’t noticed the total time elapsed that is pretty good. I still felt good, but my legs were beginning to fatigue a bit from all of the thick mud. Tim and I made good time, but this was the hardest lap by far, mostly mentally I suppose in retrospect. During this loop I began to feel tired from the physical exertion, as well as began to subconsciously realize that I had run this far, and still had to run through the entire night, the next morning, and likely close to noon the next day. I had already finished 50 miles, and the next milestones started being the next aid stations. Also, I noticed partially through this loop my left ankle was swelling up and this was a bit concerning with 40 some miles left, but it wasn’t that painful. I finished loop 4 with a lap time 5hours 24 minutes – clearly showing how tough mentally this one was – and a total time of 18hours 55 minutes for 66.7 miles.
Loop 5: The start finish line here was tough as I was beginning to feel fatigued now, and mentally was losing focus. Thankfully Emily was there as well Tim, and now my training team had arrived. They pretty much took charge telling me what to do thank god, and got me back out on the course after adding some clothes to stay warm, taking in some food, smashing red bull, and some much needed encouragement. Starting loop 5 was very tough. Frank, my pacer for lap 5 and 6, certainly saved the day. Being fresh he was able to talk to me just as if we were on one of our regular training runs, and it was nice to have someone new to talk to keep my fatigued brain busy. At the start of this loop it was about 1am Sunday morning. I noticed as this lap began that my feet were starting to blister around my toes and heels, and this was a bit unpleasant. I also started to feel the effects of sleep deprivation a bit, especially since I didn’t sleep well the night before the race. Frank kept a solid pace; backing off when we needed knowing we still had 16.7 miles after this lap was finished. I was freezing cold during this lap and did my best to stay warm. Also I was beginning to trip/stumble a few times on this loop over roots/etc. on the trail as my feet were getting tired and I was getting mentally lazy. My left ankle remained a concern and the pain was increasing. We crossed the start/finish line at a time of 4 hours 53 minutes (over 30 minutes faster than lap 4) for a total time 23 hours 48 minutes over 83.3 miles.
Loop 6: Now I was indeed fatigued, but I still felt like I had some in the gas tank. Certainly much better than I felt starting lap 5. Perhaps I could see the light at the end of this tunnel. Stocking up on nutrition, taking an extra headlamp from Frank as mine had died during the lap, I left the start finish line with encouragement from Emily, Misty, and Keith- now about 5:50 am Sunday morning. My ankle was very sore at this time, and it felt like some muscle damage or possibly an irritated tendon. We made it to aid station one, the schoolhouse, I grabbed some coffee and soup, which burned the be-jesus out of my mouth, but hey time was of the essence. We pressed on to the ‘mile 9’ aid station where I would see my drop bag for the last time. I could at this time feel blisters between and under every one of my toes from running in wet socks/shoes for over 24 hours now. I knew this would be ridiculously painful later, but blocked it out now. I could feel one or two pop between my toes, and couldn’t decide if this was good or bad. We exited the aid station at ‘mile 9’ with about 7.7 miles left, so around 92 miles in the books. Somehow in some loose mud I kicked a root and rolled my left ankle, probably because it was already sore and I wasn’t picking it up high enough. It immediately developed an acute point of pain just above the ankle joint directly on the front of the ankle. At this time I began to have trouble lifting my foot at all with my ankle, making running extremely difficult. To make matters worse, I was still concerned about the cutoff time. It would be a disaster to run 92 miles well, and then not be a finisher due to too much time elapsed. I found a large stick and used it as a crutch/walking stick of sorts to take the weight off of my left ankle as I stepped. It broke a little while into the mile and luckily Frank was able to find me 2 or 3 more as they eventually broke. I was no longer able to run with the ankle, but it became more of a hobble/jog. This was very frustrating because I felt like I had the energy to keep running, and was extremely nervous about the cutoff time. We made it to the school house for the last time after what seemed like an eternity. I knew we only had 2.5 miles left to the finish line. I was now wondering if my ankle was broken because the swelling was increasing and I couldn’t lift it up at all. I pushed off of my wilderness-fashioned walking stick with a lot of force at each step trying to jog along as best I could. This took so much time to cover these miles, and I knew now it didn’t matter what was wrong, I was crossing that line, but every once in a while I had to block out a thought of how terrible recovery was going to feel. Two more of my crew, Misty and Keith, ran backwards from the finish line with about ¾ a mile to go to cheer me on, and Emily joined shortly after. I hobbled jogged to the finish and finished with 58 minutes spare. Total time: 100 Miles - 30 hours 2 minutes.
Summary: It was challenging, but I feel the course conditions certainly made it much tougher than anticipated. I felt like my nutrition plan was spot on and could not have been better. My leg muscles were not much more fatigued than a regular marathon, which was surprising, but the blisters between every toe and on the bottoms of my feet reminded me I had covered a bit more distance than that. Upon later investigation it appears some sort of infection had snuck into my ankle through that water, which caused the swelling/pain and probably led to me tripping and spraining it. It took several IV’s and a supply of meds to start to fix that. Thank the good lord for my wife Emily and my crew/ running partners – Misty/Frank/Keith for taking control and crewing when my brain stopped working well. Overall, one week later, I feel great, my feet are healing and I plan to start running next weekend. In addition, I got this sweet belt buckle of an award!
Like anything else in life you can’t always look all the way down the road, sometimes you have to put your head down and just keep moving forward to the next check point. Someone asked me if this was the toughest thing I had ever done. I suppose the answer is yes, and I guess in looking back if going for a run on the weekend is the toughest thing you’ve had to do in 29 years, you’ve been pretty lucky.