Umstead 100 - race report

This was my first 100 miler and I hit my "B" goal, finish in under 28 hours.   In summary, it was an extremely cold year for the race (temps dipped into the single digits at night) and there was a lot of carnage as a result.  I had the help of my family in crewing me and my friends to pace me.  Without them, I don't think I would have been able to accomplish my goal.  Although folks can complete the distance without support, us mere mortals rely heavily on others to engage in this selfish sport.

I developed a little bit of an ITB issue in December, so I had fairly low volume training the entire time (at least from training plans I have seen and what I have read online).  I never ran more than 56 miles in a week.  For those of you looking for low volume training plans, that worked (sort of, see below) My training looked like this:

December 29	x	x	x	4	x	24	x	28
January 5	x	x	5	x	x	18	x	23
January 12	x	1	5	4	x	24	6	40
January 19	x	4	x	5	x	24	8	41
January 26	x	x	5	x	x	12	x	17
February 2	x	x	5	4	x	28	9	46
February 9	x	5	2	5	x	30	10	52
February 16	x	x	4.5	x	x	8.2	5.3	18
February 23	x	4	5	x	x	47	x	56
March 2	x	x	3.5	x	x	13	4.5	21
March 9	x	5	x	4	x	20	8	37
March 16	x	4	x	x	x	14	3	21
March 23	x	3	x	x	x	100	x	103

Although I finished, I essentially was forced to walking the last 25 miles.  I developed a calf strain around mile 70, which I would attribute to 3 things: 1) I had ran 70 miles already; 2) I didn't get enough vertical during training; and 3) my volume was so low that since I didn't get enough vertical my calf said enough was enough.  Without the calf strain, I likely would have came in sub-24.  Oh well, another year perhaps.

In concluding, the race is extremely well run and the volunteers are better than any race I have previously ran.  If you can manage to grab one of the coveted spots, I highly recommend it.  If you are running the race and want to talk about the course, etc. please reach out.  I used to live in Raleigh and the course was my old training grounds, so I had the added benefit of knowing every bump of the course before I even started.

Eastern Divide 50k

5:30 and 15th place (unofficial results).  A race report (with official results) will follow soon and replace this post)!

JFK50 race report

Ok...so many months later I still have not gotten around to writing a race report.  I suppose it has been to long for me to write a real one so here is a a summary of my thoughts, which I guess could be considered a race report.  I am glad I ran the race, given its history and size (a 1,000 runner ultra - what?!?!).  That being said, I don't think I would run it again.  The race was well organized and the volunteers were amazing but the course design just isn't my thing.  I knew going into it how much road/tow path there was but I had never run such a race.  Having done so, I know that I enjoy more off road races, especially ones with little to no pavement time.

I ran the entire race in the Brooks Cascadia's and had no issues.  The shoes did just fine on the final long stretch of pavement.  This was my inaugural race with the UltrAspire Spry vest and I couldn't have been more pleased.  I used it for 43 of the 50 miles and only switched to a handheld for a stretch so I could charge my Garmin (I put the battery pack in the zip pocket of the handheld).

In the end, I ran a sub-11 50 miler and that was my goal before the twins arrived.  My new training schedule leading up to this race of doing a long run on Saturday, followed by a 10 miler on Sunday paid drastic dividends.

JFK50 results

10:51:36.  A new PR (by a lot).  It was cold.  Last year I would have qualified for WS100. Oh well, personal goal accomplished.  Race report to follow.

TNFEC 50 miler race report

June 1, 2013 - Washington D.C. (technically we were in Sterling, VA but that isn't how North Face advertises it)

3:45 a.m. - why is my alarm going off...why is it so dark...what is...oh yeah...that's right...I'm about to run 50 miles.  After a little breakfast and final gear check my wife drove me to the start line.  There were a little over 300 folks registered for the 50 miler, which had a 5 a.m. start.  Later that morning there was a 50k (7:00 a.m start) and marathon (9:00 a.m.).  I had never ran an ultramarathon before and, to add to my anxiety, it was supposed to get up into the mid-90s early and stay there all day, which was well in excess of what I was acclimatized to.  There were 3 "waves" separated by a minute to let us stretch out before entering the trail.  I was in the last wave and at 5:03 a.m. I was off!  At 5:02 a.m. I realized that my Garmin 405 failed to upload the workout I had planned to monitor my heart rate throughout the day...epic fail (although it turned out to be a good thing later on).