8^th Annual Ancient Oaks 100 Mile Endurance Run

09-10 Dec 2006

Enchanted Forest National Sanctuary

Titusville, Florida

After attempting to qualify for Boston in my first marathon in 1999 at age 44, my daughter called me to ask how it went. I told I had finished and had made the qualifying time by a few minutes, but that the last 5 miles had been really hard. She replied incredulously, “Was there something that had led you to believe the last 5 miles of a marathon were going to be easy?!?” Well, this past weekend was my first 100 mile trail event, and the last 5 miles were far from easy. No surprise there.

Having ran a couple of dozen “marathon and beyond” races since that first marathon in 1999, including a 12 hour event this past summer that covered nearly 60 miles, this was to be my first attempt at a distance that would go into the night. The course in Florida “sounded” friendly – loops of 3.459 miles each (29 loops totally 100.31 miles), no high elevations, and modest grade changes. However, as time would prove, this was offset by large amounts of sand and roots. The dense foliage, which was so scenic in the daylight, combined with the roots in the darkness to create mental fatigue that I had never before experienced. The sand, which seemed little more than a nuisance for the first 50 miles, proved to be physically fatiguing and more than a match for my “gaiters”. The gaiters are a shoe covers that are supposed to keep debris out of the runner’s shoes and socks. They were badly over matched by the fine sand. Over the last fourth of the event, my feet paid a huge price.

The course was interesting and varied. The surfaces ranged from a small bit of pavement at the beginning of each loop, to large amounts of sand (of varying consistencies), to short stretches of concrete sidewalk, to dirt, to very rooty sections. There were also some short sections of boardwalk. The course had very little flat, by no long or large hills. There were a few slight grades that climbed maybe 10 meters or less, and one very steep hill of maybe 5 meters that required “stair stepping” up. There were a lot of “rolling” sections with 6-12 inch hills. While the course had a few large “ancient oaks” near the start, much of the course was in dense “jungle” type foliage. And, the course came with a few critters. We were warned about the wild pigs, though I did not see any. However, I did hear a couple of “oinks” from nearby rustling foliage as dawn approached. One sandy portion of the course had a very large turtle that hung out for about 3 loops. Another wooded section was favored by an armadillo. Parts of the course had fresh oranges that had fallen from the trees. There were a lot of unusual looking purple seeds that looked like walnut sized blackberries. And, around 8:45 PM that evening, the race featured an event that perhaps no other could – a night time shuttle launch from the very nearby Space Center. The roar and the light was spectacular.

The race itself is an invitation only no fee event that is put on by race direct Stu Gleman. He provided shirts, and hosted a pasta dinner the evening before – obviously a labor of love. There were 23 starters, but the field included a number of famed ultra runners (Monica Scholz, Ray Krolewicz, Noora Aladina , Matt Mahoney, Shane Sampson, etc.) – all of which had completed in scores of 100 milers and with many wins to their credits. On this day and night, however, things conspired to create a heavy dropout rate – only about half the field would finish, and no one would come in under 24 hours. I must I admit that I’m not sure why that was. The weather was excellent – no rain, some breezes, and temperatures in the 50-75 deg F range.

Originally, based on the elevation changes and weather, I had thought that a finishing time somewhere in the 24 to 27 hour range was doable for myself. The sand and then the difficulty of going through the very rooty dense foliage areas in the darkness soon convinced me that any official finishing time would be a success (the cut off time for this event is 32 hours). I had an intermediate goal of getting to 50 miles by the 10 hour mark and to 70 miles by midnight (after the 7:00 AM start). Reality was 11-1/2 hours for 50 miles and it was nearly 1:00 AM before I passed the 70 mile mark.

While no aid stations were promised to the runners, there was an informal one at the start/finish line of the loop, where various items were available – mostly provided by volunteers. My wife Debbie spent a good bit of time there helping out, staying until well after 1:00 AM and then returning early the next morning.

I started the event in shorts and a light jacket. After the first loop I dropped the jacket and then ran for several loops in sorts and singlet. After dark, as the paced slowed, I put the jacket on again. After 21 loops (just shy of 70 miles), I could feel large amounts of sand in my shoes. At that point I elected to change shoes and socks, while attempting to leave the original tape job in place. My right ankle, which had been a bit sore coming into the event, was more-or-less behaving, and being managed by a couple of does of ibuprofen. Otherwise, the feet seemed to still be OK. Around this time (around 1:00 AM), I was surprised to see Mike Arnstein drop out of the race. Mike, a young runner from New York City, had recently placed third in the Chicago Lakefront 50 Miler in a time over one and half hours faster than mine. To my knowledge, the two of us were the only first timers in the event. He had already lapped me once in this race. He said he couldn’t believe that I was going out there again for another loop. I did go out to run another loop, and began to feel hugely fatigued mentally. My concern at this point was that the paces would continue to deteriorate to the point where I would not finish within the allotted time – was starting to look more like a mailbox impersonator than a runner.

So, I elected to take an extended pit stop. Until this point, the pit stops at the beginning of each loop had consisted of grabbing a quick bit to eat (gels, PB&J sandwich, chicken soup broth, etc.), a drink of water, and refilling my hand held ½ L Gatorade bottle. This time, I put the sleeping bag on a picnic table and crawled into it for maybe nearly 2 hours (loop 23, which included this break, took about 3 hours). This left me cold and shivering, but mentally refreshed. I then put on long running pants and a long sleeved shirt. No longer cold, and pleasantly surprised that my legs were not stiff at all, I headed out again. However, it was from this point forward that the skin on my feet suffered.

What did not suffer was the companionship on the course. While most of the loops were ran alone, I did meet a few great folks out on the course. Richard Westbrook from Georgia (who coached cross country and whose teams had competed against my daughter’s team at Lakeside) ran with me at various times on about 5 different loops. He later pulled away from me. Don and Marion Landry from Canada ran with me for 2 or 3 loops. Marion, who is over 60 years old, hammered the last 8 loops faster than any of her first 21 in order to beat the cut off. That was the most inspiring efforts I ever witnessed first hand in any race. Ray K also ran 2 or 3 loops with me, including the one where ran up to me while talking on a cell phone and yelling that the shuttle was about to launch. We stopped, and stood together to watch the show. Numerous other folks were with me briefly for parts of loops. Folks like Monica, Noora, Ray K, Shane, Matt, etc. were, of course, lapping me.

After leaving the sleeping bag and resuming loop 23, it was still tough going in the dark. Sunrise did make the going a bit better, but it was made bitter sweet by the realization any potential finish was still a long way off. As the temperatures rose, I continued to eat and drink. Soon, the long pants and the long sleeve shirt were removed, as I continued on in shorts and singlet. The middle of the night rest break had left mentally refreshed and the legs actually felt pretty good. However, by this time, the toil from the sand on my feet was severe. Each step hurt, and alternating a slow “power walk” and a “shuffle” step was all I could do. This continued into mid day on the second day as the temperatures began to rise. Loops 24-26 were hard, because it was getting so late into the second day and their seemed to be so much further to go – the final loop 29 seemed so far away. I was, however, able to pick up the pace a small bit. It was easy to see why so many folks had dropped out. Loop 27 brought a surprise, as they started taking down the course markings from the rather convoluted route. I suppose that after 26 loops one should have this thing down at, but rather some of us had simply become dependant upon the excellent course markings. In our fatigued state, we became very worried. Stu and some volunteers quickly bailed us out by strategically placing some directional arrow shaped palm tree leafs on the ground. To my amazement, I never got off course on any of the loops, day or night.

But, as loop 28 began, I began to think like a racer again, and attacked the course. Both feet were hurting like hell, but running hard (I said hard, not fast ….) and finishing became more important. I ran the final loop 29 as hard as I could, and completed the 100.31 miles in 29 hours, 31 minutes, and 41 seconds – well within the 32 hour cut off. It was 12:31 PM on the second day. Debbie informed that I was the 9^th place finisher. She was there along with Stu, Ray K and others to congratulate me at the finish line of my first 100 miler. I finished feeling good, with the legs in good shape, and not feeling sleepy. Only the sandy feet hurt. However, the general body soreness later in the day was more than noticeable. And, the feet were ugly indeed – enough to make a young podiatrist question his or her career choice. Fortunately, my appetite was not impacted – the Mexican dinner afterwards tasted great.

The overall results and details on my split times are below.

Steve Richey

1. Noora Aladina 24:38

2. Tony Rouse 26:12 - first male

3. Matt Mahoney 26:19

4. Ray Krolewicz 26:51

5. Ernest Stolen 26:54

6. Don Landry 28:14

7. Richard Westbrook 29:04

8. Mike Melton 29:20

9. Steve Richey 29:31

10 Doug Dawkins 31:18

11 Marion Landry 31:20

12 David Hughes 31:23

23 starters

Here are the anal details (beginning of each loop includes time for pit stop):

Loop #	Split	Time of Day	Pace (MPH)	Cum. Miles	Notes
1	39:08	7:00 AM	5.3	3.459	Ray K takes off to early lead
2	41:25	8:20 AM	5.0	6.918
3	40:16	9:00 AM	5.1	10.377
4	39:43	9:40 AM	5.2	13.836	Ray K laps me
5	42:45	10:22 AM	4.8	17.295	Starting to warm up
6	41:28	11:03 AM	5.0	20.754
7	45:36	11:49 AM	4.6	24.213	The first slight slowdown
8	45:59	12:35 PM	4.5	28.672	Other leaders lap me at marathon
9	47:57	1:23 PM	4.3	31.131	The 50K mark at ~6:20
10	51:57	2:15 PM	4.0	34.590
11	49:29	3:04 PM	4.2	38.049	Ray K laps me again, and joins me
12	51:36	3:56 PM	4.0	41.508
13	53:57	4:50 PM	3.8	44.967
14	52:51	5:43 PM	3.9	48.426	The last daylight for awhile
15	56:49	6:40 PM	3.7	51.885	Slowing into the second half
16	1:08:56	7:48 PM	3.0	55.344	First time over 12 hours
17	1:10:03	8:59 PM	3.0	58.803	Shuttle launch !!!
18	1:08:55	10:07 PM	3.0	62.262	Past 100K – new distance PR
19	1:11:27	11:19 PM	2.9	65.721	Moon helps to see sand, not roots
20	1:13:45	12:33 AM	2.8	69.180	It’s now December 10th
21	1:23:44	1:56 AM	2.5	72.639	Changed shoes
22	3:02:20	4:59 AM	1.1	76.098	Picnic table break
23	1:09:55	6:09:AM	3.0	79.557	Sand is taking its toll
24	1:13:14	7:22 AM	2.8	83.016	The last loop in darkness
25	1:04:41	8:27 AM	3.2	86.475	Coming back – a new day
26	1:04:03	9:31 AM	3.2	89.934	Slowly speeding up
27	1:02:46	10:33 AM	3.3	93.393	Warmer than yesterday
28	1:01:42	11:35 AM	3.4	96.852	No course markings!
29	56:01	12:31 PM	3.7	100.311	“Finishing kick”
	29:31:41		3.4		Gotta be a PR ….

And, here is a separate race report written by Matt Mahoney:

I just returned home from the Ancient Oaks 100 mile race in Titusville FL.

Most notable among the DNFs was course record holder (19:19, for both men and women) Monica Scholz. She quit after 76 miles in 14:22 with a huge lead. She was vague about her reason for quitting. Shane Sampson, who was third last year in 20:13, pulled out at 50 miles with iliotibial band problems. Several other runners had diahrrea, and a few others quit when it became apparent that making the 32 hour cutoff was hopeless.

The race is 29 laps of a 3.5 mile trail loop in the Enchanted Forest in

Titusille FL from 7 AM Saturday to 3 PM Sunday. The course goes through a deep canopy of huge oak trees. The trail has lots of roots and sandy

sections, a few boardwalks and some small hills. Runners score themselves after each lap so everyone can always tell where their competition is. The weather was perfect, 50-65 F with clear skies and a 3/4 moon for the 13 hour night section. We also got to watch and hear the roar of a night space shuttle launch that lit up the sky.

I was disappointed to not break 24 hours as I had the previous 4 years, and also to arrive 14 minutes late for the start and lose to second place by 7 minutes. I was running rather slow for some reason, 11 hours for the first 50 miles instead of the usual 10. Also I had forgotten my nice LED flashlight and ended up buying a cheap light at 7-11. I prefer the diffuse light from a LED light to the spot beam of a normal light so I can run faster over the roots. Also, on the third night lap my batteries died and I had to wait for the next runner and run in his light to the aid station. After that I changed batteries every 2 laps.

Late at night I had real problems staying awake and took several short naps (a few minutes) sitting against a tree. I dropped from 6th place at sunset (mile 50) to 10th at midnight, then moved up to 5th by sunrise (mile 86), not because I was running very fast (30 minute miles) but because other runners were taking long sleep breaks or dropping out.

A funny thing happened at sunrise. I got a second wind, as if the last 86 miles were erased from my legs and all that remained was a 14 mile trail race (4 laps), which I ran at about 37-39 minutes per lap. I quickly passed Ray Krolewicz and chided him about taking a nap last night and giving me a lap. He had a 2 lap lead on me midway through the race, this in spite of a mishap in the first few miles where we were talking trash, goading each other into pushing the pace, when I ducked under a low tree and he didn't.

Now in 4th with 3 laps to go, I noticed from the split sheets that Tony Rouse and Ernest Stolen, who were a lap ahead, were taking 80 minutes per lap. I boldly announced that I would pass the only two men ahead of me. I caught Ernest with just over a lap to go and narrowed Tony's lead from over an hour to just 9 minutes. He was mine. Or so I thought. On the last lap I pushed hard expecting to see him any minute. He will no doubt be walking, and after I pass him I can relax. But it didn't work out that way. People at the start/finish let him know I was hot on his tail and that he had better work hard to keep his lead. It turns out there was nothing wrong with his legs, just a blister, which he popped, and then ran the last lap in 41 minutes to my 39.

-- Matt Mahoney, matmahoney@yahoo.com