Subject: Umstead Report - Long Date: Tue, 11 Apr 2000 15:43:40 +0000 From: tmorgan@rc.phs.wfubmc.edu Umstead 100 race report by Tim Morgan This is a report from an excited newbie; therefore, beware, report is very long with little new content for experienced veterans I'm fairly new to running (<4 years) and to Ultra's in particular (first and only marathon 10/98), first 50K (1/99) and first 50 miler at last years Umstead (4/99). The Umstead Endurance run is held in Umstead State Park near Raleigh NC. The course consists of 10 - 10 mile loops that include a 2 mile out and back. The course is mostly on hard packed dirt roads with uncountable gravel and rocks that can eat up your feet. Total elevation gain and loss is 8,000 feet. I was concerned going into the race because I was not able to get my weekly mileage up to where I wanted, never really got above 60 miles per week (except once), but did get 3 50K races in this winter and was able to get one back to back 30/20 training run in. I was mostly concerned because I had been developing pain in my right heel and had greatly cut back training with minimal running (<20 miles/week), mostly some workouts on an elliptical trainer to reduce aggravating the heel. It bothered me that this would hurt my chances of achieving a "decent" time but would increase my chances of making it to the start and finishing the race. Based on advice from the list that predicted pacing for 100 miles to be 2.5 to 3 times your 50 mile time and my 9:35 finish for 50 miles at last years Umstead, I planned for a goal of between 24-27 hours. I thought if things did not go really bad, I would break 27 hours and thought if my heel did not hurt and had a great race, I had a chance of breaking 24 hours, which was a very appealing goal of finishing in less than a day, but I kept thinking this would really be a dream goal. I prepared two pace charts for 24 and 27 hours. A week before the race, I looked at times of others who had run the same 50Ks as I have and ran Umstead and thought I might be in better shape this year. Although unimaginable, I thought a 22 hour finish may not be totally without question; although I never wanted to actually believe that it was sane to think about such a time. My plan was to take my two oldest sons, Brad 16 years old and Daniel 14 years old, to serve as my crew and pacers. Both are talented runners and I had no concern they could cover the distance, especially at the slow pace I would be going. Although I wanted to share the experience with them, I was concerned because they did not show any interest when I tried to tell them what a crew and pacers were supposed to do, and showed no interest in the pre-race briefing. The day before the race, I picked my sons up from school in my van and proceeded on the two hour trip to Umstead. About 30 miles from the park, the transmission was acting up and would not shift into 4th gear. I was still able to travel on the freeway; however, I had to go 15 miles per hour slower than I normally would (5th amendment privilege prevents me from defining normal). This was irritating; however, I could still get to the park in time. About 8 miles from the park, The van would not even get into third and I was having to go 25 miles/hour in a 55 mph zone (sorry for anyone who had to go around me), but I had trained too long not to make it to the race. We got to the race and only missed a couple of minutes of the pre-race briefing. The next morning, the transmission was totally gone, would not move an inch. Race morning was nice and not too cold, low 50s and would only be dark for about 20 minutes after the 6:00am start. On the 1st lap, I probably went out a little fast, but not too worried and I ate a lot to keep my blood sugar up. Towards the end of the 2nd lap, I was more concerned about running too fast and I started to feel a hot spot. I warned my crew that I will probably stop at end of the next lap. I drank a generic version of Ensure to keep blood sugar up. I asked Brad what he knew about the van? He had been calling his mom back at home, who was calling around to find someone to tow it to a place that could fix the transmission. He told me a tow truck was on its way. 3rd lap. As I was a quarter mile up the road I saw the tow truck coming to our camp site. Drinking the Ensure was my biggest mistake of the run. Within one mile, I threw up. I kept going but my stomach was still upset and gave me a general bad feeling. Running made it worse. I couldn't run more than 1/4 mile without having to walk because of the nauseous feeling. I took Tums, stopped at 4.1 mile aid station, and grabbed some apple slices, which helped me over nausea last year; however, it didn't work this year. I got tired of the walking so I pushed the running distance farther until I threw up twice, then ran 100 yards and threw up two more times, felt better and push some more and stopped to throw up one last time. Typical of ultra running, this did not phase runners that passed by on this out and back, the only comment I received was that "it is too early in the race to be doing that". After this last episode I felt great. After feeling really bad for five miles, all of a sudden I felt great, a new man, and was able to take off at the same pace I started. I learned that if nauseated, it is much better to "relieve oneself" than to try to baby yourself and endure with what ever is making you feel terrible. Finished 3rd lap a little slower mainly due to the slow down from miles 21-26 because of nausea. The hot spots on my feet felt a little worse so I stopped to have them worked on. I stopped and my crew were ready for me, they took my shoes and socks off, had blister patches out and put them on the blisters and then put new socks on. I saw the van still at the campsite and asked about the tow truck and was told they could not get to it because too many cars were blocking access to it. They would come back when we could tell them that some cars had left. Despite my sons apparent indifference and lack of attention prior to the race, they really had their act together once the race started. As I took off for the 4th lap the blisters hurt for about a quarter mile and then the patches settled in and then my feet felt OK. The 4th and 5th lap went OK. I felt OK but naturally was feeling the fatigue. Still walked the up hills and ran the down hills but not as fast as before, ran each of these laps in just under 2 hours each. I was amazed I finished the 50 mile split 16 minutes faster than I raced for 50 miles last year. I was tired but felt I had more left and felt good that as long as I could keep walking the uphill and do a slow jog on the down hills I could break 24 hours. It was still warm, >70, but I could see the clouds starting to roll in. I asked my crew to put my light "rain resistant" coat on. As I took off on the 6th loop, having the jacket on was too hot so I had to take it off and tie it around my waist. The sun was still breaking through in spots and it was warm and I was wondering if I had been overly cautious by lugging the jacket with me. As I was running the out and back, I did not see hardly anyone with a coat, which I thought was strange since the weather forecast clearly indicated a good chance for rain, but as Blake Norwood indicated the night before, all week the chance of rain had been diminishing. At about mile 55 the rain came, a hard rain with strong winds blowing it horizontal. I thought I was OK with my "rain" coat on, except for the fact that I was running directly into the strong head winds. Within a half mile I realized the light jacket did not keep me dry, it and my shirt underneath were soaked and plastered to my skin by the strong head winds. I had been running listening to music with a portable radio and small earphones to distract me from the fatigue. They interrupted the program to announce severe thunderstorm warnings for the area and a tornado warning for two counties. Since I am from NC, I knew these counties were just adjacent to Umstead to the Northeast. Since they said the tornado threat was moving toward the Northeast, I felt safe from the tornado; although, we were getting the strong winds of the thunderstorm and the temperature quickly dropped to the 40's. The driving rain had soaked my socks and shoes and with each step I could feel the squishy feeling of walking in a pool of water within my shoes. I was concerned what effect this could cause with blisters. What few runners I saw, most of them were now wearing garbage bags. I had forgotten advice I received from this list that you should always carry a garbage bag in your fanny pack in case of rain. Now I realized that most of runners I saw without coats were not being reckless because they had their garbage bags just in case. For a newbie, it was a sight to see the number of runners and the different ways one can wear a garbage bag. As I was running soaked with my coat on and was getting cold, I remembered the garbage bag advice and wished I had one instead of the coat. At mile 58 a park ranger offered to take me to shelter to get out of the cold rain, but I politely declined as I felt I could make it 2 more miles to get back to my cabin. I passed one or two runners that did not have any protection from the rain that were moving OK but could not imagine how they could manage. As I ended the loop, my crew was ready for me with my bags. I told them to take everything to the cabin and when I came back from the turnaround in a half mile I would need all new clothes and blister treatments. I had decided to take a break at the cabin because I felt this was no time to be worried about time and a fast turnaround. I knew I could finish if I could get dry, warm and keep my feet protected. I was shivering while my crew took off my wet shoes, socks, jacket, and shirt and quickly put on two long sleeve shirts to get me warm. They patched several new blisters that developed from running in the soaked shoes and put on new dry socks and shoes. They gave me some food and put on a heavy poncho. I did not have water proof gloves so Brad gave me his gloves and then tied plastic bags around them to keep them dry. This stop took 18 minutes but it was well worth it. When I left the cabin to start the 7th loop, I felt warm, comfortable and had new energy from the rest. I felt like I did on the first 2 loops, at least for 4 miles. After these 4 miles, I still felt OK just that the new energy was gone and the more realistic fatigue was back. At the start of the 8th loop I picked up Daniel, my 14 year old son to pace me. The 8th lap was a good lap for me. I'd like to say enjoyable; however, none of the laps would I call enjoyable at the time since you do have the pain of fatigue; however in hindsight this was one of the more enjoyable laps. I was able to talk about what was happening getting the van fixed and when was mom going to come get us Sunday morning. It was clear that I would finish way before 6am, but the park gates don't officially open until 8am except for short periods on the hour. He told me she would be here shortly after 8am so I could get some sleep after the race, which sounded very good. I told him I was tired but still moving OK. I told him I was just like the van, after 30 miles I lost 4th gear and after 50 I lost 3rd gear, but I still could walk (1st gear) well up the hills and could still do a slow jog (2nd) down the hills. I told and retold and retold Daniel how I would like him to follow me but he indicated that he had a lot of energy and it was hard not to get ahead of me. He helped a lot at the aid stations and provided good companionship. At the start of the 9th loop, I picked up Brad, my 16 year old son who would pace me the last 20 miles. We both commented on how surprised that my times were much better than I predicted and that even if I walked, I could break my 22 hour miracle pace. He did not want me to talk about walking home, as long as I could run, he would help me run. I've always been a competitive person even though I've never been a competitive runner. For someone who has not broken the 6 minute mile or the 23 minute 5k, I'm always a middle of the pack runner, competing to break a personal goal like 49 minutes in a 10K. I felt I wanted run as much as I could but not overdue it unless I could come up with a goal I wanted to try for. I checked my watch and figured that I could break 21 hours if I didn't slow down too much, but I would have to run the last 2 loops in 4 hours, 12 minutes to break 20 hours. Is this possible? Could I, should I try to kill myself for a made up goal? My last loop took 2 hours and 11 minutes. I decided that I would try to maintain or improve my pace and would re-evaluate before the 10th loop. Brad was a good companion, we talked about this race and his track season. He helped me get started to run on the downhill and reminded me to keep my form smooth and relaxed. This really helped. Although I would have liked to increase my pace to give me a chance at a new made up goal, I was feeling more tired than ever and my jogging form was getting choppy and rough. Every time he reminded me about running smooth, my pace seemed to pick up with less energy being expended. The 9th lap took 2 hours and 7 minutes. I could break 20 hours if I could run the last lap in 2:04. I thought I would give it a try. No reason to hold back now. I continued to walk the up hills and ran a little faster (still slow) and for a little longer distance on the down hills. I was feeling even more tired but had some motivation. At about mile 93, my foot came off one of the many small pieces of gravel and gave me a sharp pain indicative of a bad blister. I tried to run for another 100 yards but confirmed I had a painful blister. All along I knew pushing for an arbitrary goal time was kind of stupid, so I stopped on the trail and told Brad I needed him to fix the blister. This would make breaking 20 hours totally impossible, but really hurting oneself for such a cause was not worth it. I could not sit down without Brad's help. I had a blister patch with me and he tended to my new blister and had me back up walking after several minutes. We made it to the 2nd aid station and stopped for some soup. As we left for the final 6 miles, I was so glad that I was no longer trying to push myself to the extreme for an arbitrary time goal. I still ran as much as I could and Brad still got me to improve my speed by reminding me to power walk the up hills and work on form on the downhills. I finished in 20:06. We were both amazed and extremely satisfied. I could have never dreamed of that time. As I was basking in the time, Brad asked what place I came in. When the scorer started moving his finger down one by one, I was expecting a long pause, but instead, he quickly said sixth place. Now for you elite runners this doesn't mean anything, but for this middle of the pack runner, I almost fell out of my chair. The only race I ever finished in the top 6 was a 50k where 6 people ran the race. I would like to give a great big thanks to everyone that has posted advice on the list. I have lurked reading the advice for the last year and a half and looked at selected postings from years past posted on Web sites. I could not have even finished this 100 mile race without this advice. Without the list, I would not have brought and/or carried all the extra clothing, lights, and medical supplies. I would like to thank my crew, Brad and Daniel who greatly helped with the finishing time, from helping at aid stations, changing my clothes while shivering and pacing me during the night. The race personnel and aid station staff were wonderful and were doing everything they could to make the race enjoyable and to help people to reach there goals. They helped runners without crews to get clothing changed and helped them through the cold rain and offered encouragement and support to runners worrying about the cutoffs and offered pacers to those chasing time goals. My only regret is I will never be able to do better than this; however, the real joy is in the training and participating, so I'm sure I continue to enjoy persisting, even if slower in the years to come.