3/4's of the way there ....


After this year's Boston Marathon (that fun time this past April in the Nor'easter), I signed up a series of races in May and June. For various rational and irrational reasons, this worked out to being a marathon or ultramarathon every other week from May 20th to June 30th. As of this writing, I'm 3/4's of way through that sequence.

The first race was the Green Bay Marathon on May 20th. The original purpose for adding this one end was to go with a couple of friends from the office, who would be trying to qualify for Boston. David (age 52) had never ran a marathon and Mungai (55 year old Kenyan scientist) had ran one marathon, but that was a decade ago. This was only five weeks after Boston, so I was hoping to only have to run something around 3:30 so as to help these two get their (3:35/3:45) qualifiers. However, they trained all Spring with great enthusiasm. It became obvious that, short of a major blow-up, both would be well under 3:30. So much for the "easy" marathon run that I had planned. Weather conditions (around 40 F and windy) were conducive to racing. Overall, this is a fast PR-type course. Except for a brief initial chase of a 3:10 pacer who was too fast for me (he took off at a 3:03 pace ....), this one went well. I came in at 3:20, with Mungai (3:22) and David (3:23) chasing me. A great day all around, as everyone got that coveted Boston qualifier.

In-between these races, it was basically to be a repeating cycle of recover/taper/race -- mostly just easy one hour runs at lunch and an easy 10-15 miler on the off weekends. Side note here: Four days after Green Bay, I realized that I had been entered in the Corporate Challenge street race in Chicago as a part of my company's team. After a long warm up, managed to run the 3.5 miles at a 6:30 pace -- 15 seconds a mile slower than last year at this same race, but going faster didn't seem like a good idea. Then, it was time to "taper" for the next race on June 2nd & 3rd.

The next race was the 24 hour FANS run around Lake Nokomis, near Minneapolis, MN. It's a fairly easy 2.42 mile loop around a park lake. The event is well managed and well supported -- it's one I intend to do again in the future. It also has a 12 hour option for those liking shorter/faster type races. Though there were some storms in the afternoon and was a bit muggy, the weather wasn't very harsh -- I don't think it got above 75 F. However, some days you get da bear, and some days da bear gets you. On this day, da bear won. Not a good day. Started off OK, but ran into trouble in the afternoon. Made adjustments and got back going -- reached the 100K mark in the evening in fairly good shape, but then totally bonked and dropped before midnight with only 67 miles. The winner, who kept cranking the full 24 hours until 7 AM the next morning, got in 130 miles. He was a machine. Several folks broke the 100 mile barrier, but not me. I think my blood sugar dropped around 10:30 or 11:00 PM, and I failed to correct. By 1:30 or 2:00 AM I could've resumed, but by that time was no longer competitive. Good news was that the legs recovered quickly -- as they should have -- all I did was a 67 mile training run, as opposed to the ~105 mile race effort that I had planned to do.

Now, on to the Hawthorn Half Day on June 16th. This is a 12 hour hilly 5K cross country loop in a park literally next door to where I went to college just east of Terre Haute, IN. This too is a well managed event -- one I've ran in the past and will again in the future. This year they added chip timing. My mentor, Ray K, was able to join me in the race. A major difference between this event and FANS is that it has a number of relay teams entered also. And, in only its second year, is a good bit smaller (~35 ultra runners at Hawthorn vs. ~175 at FANS). The weather at this one was to be a bit more rugged -- at 1:00 PM, it had hit 94 F. Most of the race was in the 90's. In spite of that, this one went much better for me, as I stayed engaged competitively all day long. In the early morning hours I tried to "bank" some miles before it got too hot, but it quickly became too warm to continue that approach. After making some adjustments, I was able to settle into a steady pace that enabled me to continue without over heating. My fluid intake was over 8 ounces a mile all day long. And, for the first time, I was able to make great use of Coke in an ultra -- the instant sugar and caffeine helped a loot. Otherwise, I was getting by on Endurance Formula Gatorade (which is just "salty" Gatorade), gels, and water. And, the sandwich-sized baggies of ice that I kept stuffed in my shorts ..... For this one, was able to finish strong, with by far my fasted miles being in the final half hour as I kicked and moved into 6th place overall (one spot behind Ray K) with just under 59 miles. I'll admit, however, that this long of a race on hills in this type of heat was a bit tough -- it left me a bit tired through the following Wednesday.

Now, there's just one more race left in this experiment. On June 30th, I'll be running in a six hour trail race called 360 Minutes on the Muscatatuck. This is located in the knobby hills of southern Indiana near North Vernon, and about 20 miles from where my mother currently lives (with the family visit being a primary reason for adding this one in). After this, I'll do only one more ultra this summer -- the 8 hour Howl at the Moon near Danville, IL on August 11th (Mike Slepikas will be joining me). It'll be interesting to see how this close sequence of "long runs" during early season "base building" works out for the Fall races (Chicago Marathon on October 7th and JFK 50 Miler on November 17th).

For those interested in the more anal details, I've included some "data" below from this first 3/4's of this journey.

Steve

GREEN BAY MARATHON:

1-7:10
2-7:01 (too fast ...)
3-7:08
4-7:19
5-7:22 (let the 3:10 pacer ease away)
6-7:27
7-7:27 (up)
8-7:09 (down)
9-7:30 (up- gel, refilled bottle)
10-7:34
11-7:34
12-7:37
13-7:33
14-7:35 (gel)
15-7:34
16-7:44 (up w/headwind)
17-7:48 (up w/headwind)
18-7:44
19-7:52 (gel)
20-8:08 (no real reason for slowing down here -- shouldn't have happened, other than feeling a bit tired)
21-8:21 (refilled bottle)
22-8:15
23-7:52
24-8:09
25-7:59
26-7:52 (lots of sharp turns inside Lambeau Field)
26.219-1:29 (3:20:20/7:39)

FANS 24 Hour:

Lap

Cumulative Miles

Split Time

Total Time/Time

Notes

1

1.65

15:00

15:00/8:15 AM

2

4.07

23:18

38:19

3

6.49

24:02

1:02:30

4

8.92

24:00

1:26:20

5

11.34

25:16

1:51:36

6

13.76

25:58

2:17:35

7

16.18

26:40

2:44:16

8

18.60

26:57

3:11:13

9

21.02

29:09

3:40:22

pace fading early

10

23.45

29:47

4:10:09/12:10 PM

lost 1.5 lbs.

11

25.87

32:40

4:42:49

15 minutes behind plan for first marathon

12

28.29

32:41

5:15:30

13

30.71

32:31

5:48:01

OK for 50K split

14

33.13

35:24

6:23:26

light rain

15

35.55

35:47

6:5:13

16

37.98

46:36

7:45:49

more rain/wind; the first "wall"

17

40.40

37:20

8:23:10/4:23 PM

lost 1 more lb.

18

42.82

37:39

9:00:49

19

45.24

39:32

9:40:21

20

47.66

38:50

10:19:11

21

50.09

35:56

10:55:08

55 minutes behind plan for 50 mile split

22

52.51

36:18

11:31:26

23

54.93

36:57

12:08:24/8:08 PM

-- had gained 3 lbs. in the last 4 hrs.

24

57.35

38:46

12:47:10

25

59.77

38:19

13:25:29

26

62.19

38:09

14:03:39

100K split/13:33 pace (14:24 pace needed for 100 miles in 24 hours)

27

64.62

38:17

14:41:56

feeling fairly good ....

28

67.04

49:55

15:31:51/11:31 PM

3# wt. gain + low blood sugar made this more than just a second "wall"

29

walked ~0.1 mi. and dropped from race

HAWTHORN Half Day:
(Note: I ran this one previously in cooler weather in 2006, and inserted those splits as well for comparison purposes.)

Kilometers

5K Splits
(2007/74-94F)

5K Splits
(2006/60-74F)

Cumulative Miles (2007)

Split Pace
(2007)

Cumulative Pace (2007)

Cumulative Time (2007)

Notes
(2007)

5

29:35

31:10

3.107

9:32

9:32

29:35

trying to "bank" miles before heat

10

31:30

31:08

6.214

10:08

9:50

1:01:04

approaching 80 F

15

34:21

31:47

9.321

11:02

10:14

1:35:25

1st rr break; started taking gel each lap

20

33:14

33:15

12.428

10:41

10:22

2:08:39

25

35:32

31:50

15.535

11:27

10:41

2:44:11

2nd rr break, as Ray K laps me for the only time.

30

37:31

32:49

18.642

12:06

10:49

3:21:43

fading in heat -- adjustments necessary ....

35

41:03

32:50

21.749

3rd rr break; started caffeine (Coke) and settled into "heat pace" (running flat in the sun, and walking shaded uphills, with 3-4 minute pit stop after each lap for fueling, refilling bottle and wiping off; able to hold steady with walk jog pace between pit stops of 12 min./mi.)

40

41:40

36:20

24.856

13:34

11:26

4:44:26

temperatures in the 90's

45

42:03

36:07

27.963

13:42

11:40

5:26:29

~5:03 split for first marathon

50

39:50

37:44

31.070

12:49

11:47

6:06:20

4th/last rr break; 50K split 32 minutes slower than last year; definitely hot and sunny -- 94 F.

55

40:48

40:24

34.177

13:17

11:55

6:47:09

60

40:52

42:01

37.284

13:09

12:01

7:28:01

65

41:39

45:55

40.391

13:24

12:07

8:09:40

didn't get to 40 miles in 8 hours, but close ....

70

40:19

42:46

43.498

12:58

12:11

8:49:59

temperature still around 94 F

75

41:16

42:34

46.605

13:17

12:15

9:31:16

80

40:17

48:31

49.712

12:58

12:18

10:11:33

didn't get to 50 miles in 10 hours, but close ...

85

41:46

43:13

52.819

13:27

12:22

10:53:20

annoying camp fire smoke .... around 5:50 for second marathon.

90

40:58

36:28

55.926

13:11

12:25

11:34:18

feeling warm; no fade from 35K to 90K, and was then able to kick.

-

25:41
(2.94 miles)

39:59

58.87

8:44

12:14

11:59:59

7 of 0.42 mi. short loops --finished last one with 1 second to go in the 12 hour time limit with split of 3:00 (7:09 pace). Just shy of 60 miles again, matching last year's mileage for this event -- much hotter this year than last ....


(See attached file: 2007 06 Ultra Corner - three fourths of the way there.doc)