Subject: Lake Waramaug, April 27, 2003 From: Date: Thu, 3 Jun 2004 21:43:27 -0400 If you just want to read a summary, feel free to skip to the bottom of this message. I also add some footnotes[1] at the end. These make the main thread more readable. My alarm goes off at 4:50. This is it. I'm gonna try to walk 50 miles today. Everything I'm supposed to wear is on the bathroom floor. Everything I'll need after the race is already in my car (change of clothes, peanut butter sandwich, 2 cokes). I eat a cliff bar and drink some Gatorade. I get dressed. By 5:08, I am in my car. I get to the lake at 6:20. Some people are already here. I park at the far end of the parking lot, which is also as close to the start/finish line as possible. I have some 'alternate' clothes in my car. I'll have a chance to get to my car every lap (7.6 miles). There are two port-o-potties near the start. I use the one on the right. Then I pick up my race number and t-shirt. I pin my number to my sweatpants.[2] I'm sure I'll be wearing the pants all day; all my temperature regulation will be done by changing clothes above the waist. No need to warm up, there will be plenty of time for that in the first hour. I make small talk with some of the other runners. 7:00 AM. The race director gives us last minute directions.[3] By about 7:04, he sounds an air gun, and we're off. I'm in the middle of the pack. In about a minute, there is no one next to me. I turn around to confirm there is no one behind me. Yep. I'm in last place. After about 5 minutes, I see one of the runners walking slowly. I figure I will catch him soon, but then he starts running again. O well. We get to a very small uphill incline, and he starts walking again. I'm gaining on him. As he gets over the top of the hill, he starts running again. Then he starts walking when he reaches the bottom. If I walk fast, I can catch him by walking fast down the hill. No! I have a plan for my race, and it doesn't include any sprints in the first mile! 1 mile in 12:50. Right on schedule. I'm supposed to do the first 10 miles at a 13:00 pace. At just before 20 minutes, the lead runner passes me. I'm supposed to get to the 2.2 mile turn-around at 28:00, so the lead runner is going almost twice as fast as me. I decide to count them as they come back. I finally catch the run-walk-runner. He is an older gentleman in his upper 60s. We talk for a few minutes. I never got his name. 2 miles in 26:00. Clockwork. Nothin' to it. After 42 runners go by, I see another racewalker! He is wearing a red sweatshirt and a white hat. I look at him, he looks at me. I don't recognize him, he doesn't recognize me (I presume). I count 51 runners before the turn-around. Plus me and the older gentleman I passed. 53 starters. Right after the turn-around(2.2 in 27:45), I catch another runner. He is Don Lang.[4] We stay together and talk for over a mile. He runs some and walks some. He is going a bit slower than I need to go, so we get separated. I get to the water table at the start in 55:00. I was scheduled for 4.4 in 57:00, so I stretch my hamstrings. I looked over the M&M's, fig newtons, coke, Gatorade, etc. My plan says it's still too early for sugar, so I start walking again. At about 6 miles, I duck behind a tree, and get rid of some of that gatorade from 3 hours ago. Don is about 100 yards behind me, so I stretch while he catches up to me. He has picked up his pace a bit, so we stay together for a while. At the 6.3 mile water table, I had my first sugar of the race. A cup of Gatorade, a cup of coke, and some fig newtons. I pour water and Gatorade into my water bottle. Maybe 5 ounces, no need to carry much with water tables so often. We get to the 8.2 mile water table at 1:45:30. I'm scheduled to be here at 1:47, so I stretch a little. I know I can catch Don (who takes a shorter break). It takes me about a quarter mile to catch Don. At about 9 miles, we catch another runner who is now walking. He is from Albany, and he just ran a 50k yesterday. Wow. I start talking about racewalking and the racewalker in red. He had talked to the other racewalker. He tells me 'red' is from New Jersey, and is walking 12 minute miles. I'm hoping 'red' has started out too fast so I'll have a chance to catch up to him and meet him. There are so few racewalkers in the world, and I know a few from New Jersey. A few minutes later, the lead runner laps us. It's a 7.6 mile lap. We've done about 9.5 miles. He has done over 17 miles. Show off. lol. My dad was going to come watch part of the race. I told him that I would be at the finish line in the state park shortly after 9:30. That would be 12.0 miles. I walked quickly to the 12 mile check point to 'bank' a few minutes to spend with dad. I hit 12 miles in 2:34. (scheduled for 2:37) Dad was not there yet. Oh well. But by 12.5 miles, I see dad's car. He had got to the far side of the lake and waited to see which way people were running. Then he drove against the runners, figuring he'd bump into me eventually. After he found me, he turned around and drove next to me for over 3 miles. That worked out better than I could have expected. At about 15 miles, we see 'red' is slowing down. I'm in no hurry, now I know I'll catch this mystery racewalker from New Jersey. At the 15.8 mile table, dad leaves. That worked out well. I hadn't seen any other runners for over 5 miles. At about 18 miles, I see 'red' go by a large tree. I get to that tree 90 seconds later. Its time to catch him. I make some minor adjustments to my pace, and start reeling him in. About a mile later, I finally catch him. He is Pat Bivonia.[5] He is planning on walking 50K in 6:30. Hmm. I plan to hit 50K at 6:59. This doesn't add up. However, since I know that I'm on pace, I figure Pat has not realized that he has slowed down so much. (I, on the other hand had just hit checkpoint 9 out of 26, and I was 3 minutes ahead of schedule. lol) 19.6 in 4:15. (4:20 scheduled) I'm 5 minutes ahead, so I let Pat go and I stretch some. I figure 'I caught him before, I'll catch him again'. Nope. Everyone has an idea about their 20 mile split. When Pat saw his, I'm sure he realized he had work to do to salvage his 50K in 6:30. His arms were bent at 90 degrees, and his stride frequency was higher. Approaching 25 miles. This is a critical part of the race. I need to attempt to slow down and conserve energy. It would be easy to get going too fast after the next few milestones. First, the half-way point. That will get my adrenalin going. Then the marathon split. Another psychological boost. Then the 50K turn-around at 29.1 miles. At that point, I can't be tired. After walking 29 miles, I can't even consider the question 'should I walk 2 more miles or 21 more miles'. I need to get through that point on cruise control. I hit the 25.0 mile split in 5:32, 2 minutes ahead of schedule. The race director had marked the 26.2 split on the ground. I got there at 5:51:50. As I stopped to write that down, a runner lapped me. His name is Ray K.[6] We walk and talk together until about 29.5 miles. Along the way, we see Pat coming back at around 28.5. He'll probably do his 50K in about 6:45, give or take. At around 29.5 miles, another runner catches us and Ray runs off with him. Oh well. The company was nice while it lasted. Wait a minute. 29.5? That means that when I wrote down my 6:32 split at the 29.1 mile water table, I didn't even notice that it was the 50K turn around. How cool is that. I'm doing a 50 mile walk! There happens to be a water table at 31.0 miles. This is on the far side of the lake. You do not get a 50K split here. The only way to get a time for 50K is to do the 50K. There are no 50K splits for the 50 Mile and 100K runners. I got to the 31.0 water table at 7:00:00 on the dot. (If your memory is good, you recall I was scheduled to be here in 6:59. Still on schedule) I get around the lake to the start / finish line and the 34.8 mile table in 8:00(scheduled 7:55). I'm slowing down a little bit. I use the port-o-potty, and go up to my car to get rid of my wind breaker / rain jacket. The sun is out full force, so I get a light hat from my car and pour a cup of water onto it. That should help. I leave the start / finish line in 8:06. The 6 minute pit stop leaves me 11 minutes behind schedule. My schedule was to finish in 11:40, which works out to a 14:00 average. The course is open for 12 hours, so I still have 9 minutes of slack. On the other hand, I have over 15 miles to go. Things could get interesting soon. I pick up the pace a little. After all, I just had a 6 minute break. I get to the next table, 36.7 in 8:34. Schedule said 8:22. I'm 12 minutes behind schedule, and I'm 8 minutes ahead of the cutoff. I may have to use the entire 12 hours. It's a good thing I had 20 extra minutes built into the schedule, in case things got ugly. 38.6 in 9:01 (scheduled for 8:49). Still 12 minutes behind, still 8 minutes ahead of cut- off pace. 40.2 in 9:27 (scheduled for 9:13). 14 minutes behind, 6 minutes ahead of cut-off pace. The schedule gets a little easier here, as it calls for the last 10 miles at 15:00 each. Unfortunately, my last mile was about 16:30. I need to see how fast I can comfortably[7] walk a mile right now. I know of two marks on the road a mile apart, and they're coming up soon. Between 40.7 and 41.7, I concentrated on form, breathing, turnover, and whatever else it takes to walk fast. I did that mile in 13:30. Then I reached the start / finish line in 9:59. 42.4 miles done, 7.6 miles to go. I had just walked the last lap in 1:53, and I had over 2 hours allowed to finish the last lap. That clinched it. I KNEW I could finish! The last lap: 7.6 miles. And 2 hours to do it. I haven't walked that slow in 4 years. So I'm walking along, and another runner comes up behind me. His name is Dan. He is one lap further than me, but he is doing 100K, which is 12 miles further. We walk and talk for about a mile. Actually, Dan runs until he is about 10 yards ahead of me, and then walks until he is 10 yards behind me. I'm just slow and steady. After about 45.5 miles, dad drives up again. How cool is that. Dad drives along with us, and pretty soon, Dan runs off. At the 46.2 mile water table, I sent dad up to the 47.8 mile table. That 1.6 mile stretch is on a busy road, route 45, and a car can't safely drive 4 miles per hour on that road. I'll be there in about 25 minutes, and there may be a lonely volunteer for him to talk to. I meet up with dad again, and we go down the last 2.2 miles together. With about 200 yards to go, I point out the finish line, and dad goes to park his car. He walks up to the finish line at pretty much the same time that I do, which was in an elapsed time of [8] [1] footnotes start here. If you have read the whole report up to here, feel free to read footnote #8 now. [2] Sweatpants. I wore the same pair of sweatpants to the 50K here last year. I had cut off the elastic around the ankles because it was raining last year, and I wanted to be able to change wet pants without having to remove my shoes. So my sweats are 'capris' (Men: That word describes a length of pants longer than clamdiggers. Women: I would have not known that, other than from a recent unrelated conversation with my wife) [3] Course description: everybody starts with a 2.2 mile out and back, which gets us all to the start / finish with 4.4 miles under our belt. 50K runners do 3 full laps to get to 27.2 miles, and another 1.9 out and back to finish. 50 mile runners do 6 full laps. 100K runners do 7 full laps, and then an out and back to finish. [4] Don Lang is 68 years old, and has run a marathon in every state, plus D.C. That doesn't begin to describe his accomplishments. He has run 3 different marathons (or ultras) in all 50 states plus D.C. As we were walking, he rattled off the seven races he was going to do in the next seven weeks. [5] Pat Bivonia became the 58th person to walk 100 miles in under 24 hours in the USA. [6] Ray K has completed 100K at this race for all 23 years it has been run. He usually wins it. [7] Comfortably? You can't 'comfortably' walk mile #41, no matter how you walk. Who writes this stuff? [8] 12:05:40. Remember how I said I knew I could finish before the last lap? Well, once I knew it, I didn't feel the need to hurt myself by trying to do it. I still have to drive over an hour to get home, and it will be dark soon. I don't want to fall asleep at the wheel. I have a one week vacation in Benson, Arizona coming up in a few days. I also knew that the 12-hour limit is listed to discourage people from attempting a 14-hour 100K. Route 45 has no lights, and it would be too dangerous to walk there in the dark. So I took a nice relaxing lap around the lake to finish off my day. You will just have to believe I could have done it in under 12 hours. SUMMARY 10 miles in 2:09:30 20 miles in 4:21:00 26.2 in 5:51:50 30 miles in 6:45:51 40 miles in 9:22:52 50 miles in 12:05:40