Subject: Umstead Race Report - Very long From: Brockmeier Scott sbrockmeier@unc.edu Date: Wed, 10 Apr 2002 18:17:20 –0400 Below is my rather long race report from my first time 100M attempt. First a bit of background on my running career. Around 1990 I started running regularly. I ran purely for recreation, only doing two or three 10ks in my first 10 years or so of running. I'd run 5 to 7 miles maybe three days a week and was perfectly happy with that. About a year ago I decided to do a marathon so I started training for the longer distance and did Grandfather Mountain last July. So much for my recreational running......I was now hooked on distance. My first ultra was the Mountain Masochist 50M on 20 October of last year. Since then I've done a number of 50ks, a 40M, and another 51M run. My obsessive- compulsive gene kicked in and I'm just hanging on for the ride. My big goal for the year is Leadville and I decided to try Umstead to see how I handled the distance. The experiment had mixed results.... *A Newbie Learns Some Lessons* I started watching the WRAL 5 day forecast on the Internet a week before the race. By Wednesday it was clear that the weather was going to be perfect. Lows in the low 30's and highs in the mid 50's. Ideal. I really prefer running in cool weather and since it looked to be so nice I decided on an ambitious race plan. I would start with a 2-hour per loop pace and hold it as long as I could. Even with the cool conditions I didn't really think that I could run a 20-hour 100 but I thought that maybe I could at least get close, if I could maintain my pace until late in the race. Umstead in only 25 minutes from where I live and I've done some training out there preparing for the Masochist so I knew the course. The big unknown was what would happen late in the race as I'd never run for longer than 10.5 hours. I'd also never run at night before. Friday afternoon finds me at the registration desk where I see Will Brown. I met Will at the Uwharrie 40M in February and he wishes me luck with my run, as I do with his. In deference to Massanutten next month Will plans to stop after 50 tomorrow. After collecting my nifty personalized embroidered hat I track down Jay Finkle, a Roanoke runner that I first met at the Salem Lakeshore 50 in January. Jay's been at many of the ultras that I've done and we carpooled and ran together for 10+ hours at KUTS 6 just three weeks previous to Umstead. We plan to run together tomorrow at least early in the race. I also run into Brad Smythe who offered, a couple weeks ago, to run the last 30 miles with me. Little did he know what he was getting himself into! Next is the race briefing and then a fine pasta dinner with a real salad! No iceberg lettuce at this race. This meal and the page long "menu" in the race packet, not to mention all that I've heard, tell me that food will be nothing but first class at this race. Despite a fair heap of apprehension I get a decent night's sleep and the alarm wakes me at 4am. A quick breakfast and coffee and I'm out the door, surprisingly, not too nervous. I've been thinking (read: obsessing) about the run a lot and I feel mentally and physically prepared. There's no way I can know how I'll respond to the challenge but I know that I've done about all I can to prepare. Now it's just a matter of putting one foot in front of the other (albeit for 20+ hours). There's the usual pre race nervous intensity in the registration building. I talk to Bob Boeder about his retirement and moving to Silverton this summer. Nearly every other person that walks by says 'Hi'. Bob has been running and directing ultras here on the East coast for many, many years. He'll be missed. I put on some sunscreen and it's time to head down to the lake for the start. The gun goes off and so do we. Most of the first several hundred yards are uphill so we walk most of it. It's light enough that lights aren't needed. Eventually we get out to the bridle trail and the fun begins. The hills on this course are really well spaced. They allow you to run just about as long as you'd like and then you get a nice uphill for a walk break. After a couple miles we start on the 1.9-mile spur that takes us to the first aid station at 4.1 miles. The crowd is starting to spread out but we're still pretty thick on the trail. The aid station stop is quick with a shot of Hammer Gel from my drop bag and we're back down the spur passing loads of runners. The rest of the loop consists of a couple of significant hills and a couple short ones, again nicely spaced. By the middle of the race I had a definite pattern of where I'd run and where I'd start walking. Later in the race I was really looking forward to where I'd start walking again. Jay and I kept up a nice pace and finished the lap feeling warmed up and ready to go. Jay got rid of some clothes and I lost him for a bit but he caught back up real quick. In the first couple of laps we gathered a 15-18 minute cushion on our 2-hour per lap pace without really trying. We were pretty consistent after that. At the start of the second lap I had drunk an Ensure plus and found that it took a bit longer than I would have like to process it. I guess 350 calories plus some nibbling at the start/finish aid station was a bit much when running. On the next loop (start of the third) I felt fine and stopped again at the car and drank an Ensure (non-plus) which is only 250 calories, thinking that the lighter load would be easily dealt with. Normally when doing ultras I don't have any problems with my stomach and can be quite ravenous even after 9 hours or more. Today things would be different, though. I soon realized that the ensure wasn't being processed and about 2/3 through the lap tried to clear my stomach some but wasn't able to get much up. Apparently I got enough out. I started to feel a little better but didn't have much appetite and didn't eat much even at the start/finish aid station. My stomach never did feel all the way back to normal till the very end of the race. During the fourth lap Jay said that he thought the pace was too fast for him to maintain and he decided to back off some. I was feeling really good and thought that I could keep the pace up for a good while yet. Jay had a longer aid stop that lap and I continued on, beginning the fifth lap, and fell in with Bob Boeder. We ran and talked first about Bioethics (I'm a philosophy grad student and teach a course on Bioethics so I spouted off my views on euthanasia while Bob graciously listened. You did bring up the subject, though, Bob). Then we talked about our respective obsessive personalities and how we came to the sport and Bob told me how all I had to do with a lot of the folks in this sport is scratch the surface a bit and I'd see the same kind of pattern over and over. A history of alcohol or drug abuse (or at least enthusiastic use), a realization of all that's bad about that, and then a rechanneling of that same kind of excessive and focused energy into running ridiculous distances. This might be a good thread for the list. We could all talk about our past......a kind of virtual runners anonymous meeting. Through the first aid station on that fourth lap I still didn't eat much but I did stick a Power Gel (stocked at the aid station, thank you very much) in my fanny pack. Then about half way through the loop, for the first time ever during a run, for me, I started to bonk. I got that weak kneed slightly queasy feeling and though I didn't feel hungry I ate the Power Gel and felt better almost immediately. Now I just hoped that that 110 calories would carry me through to the end of the loop. It did and I set a 50M pr somewhere around 9:45. I was now halfway and still had that 15-minute cushion. Though a bit worried about my stomach and having suffered that low blood sugar episode, I was still confident and upbeat. My legs felt a bit tired but still strong. I had picked up a fair bit of dirt and grit in my shoes so I changed shoes and socks and was back on my way. (I also had a bit of a hot spot on the sole of my foot so I taped that up.) I was able to eat at this point, getting down some Chex mix and crackers and turkey sandwich but my stomach was not like it usually is and not like I would have liked. It'd be a continual struggle to get enough down for the rest of the race. With fresh socks I started my sixth lap. I was still feeling good and though it was getting to be a bit of an effort to start running again after walking a hill, once I did get back up to speed it wasn't hard to maintain my pace. I haven't seen all of my splits but I remember that for at least three laps in a row I was within one minute (1:12 or 1:13) for my time from aid station one to the start/finish. I was running very consistent laps. I had really fallen into a very consistent pattern for each part of the course. I guess this is an advantage of running a multiple loop course but the mindlessness of it did get a bit wearing. The rest of the sixth lap was uneventful. I was continuing to eat as much as my stomach would let me and was maintaining my hydration and electrolyte levels. Everything was right on course. At the end of the sixth lap I saw Brad (my pacer for later in the race) and he reaffirmed that he'd be ready to go at the start of the next lap. I had a pretty fast stop here. I think this was the first lap where I had an ice cream float. Yes, you heard right. Breyer's vanilla ice cream with Pepsi poured over. I had one that lap and the next. Yum! I also stopped at the car and put on a windshirt at this point as it was cooling off. I ended up taking the shirt off about three miles into the lap when I started sweating from running again and I didn't put it back on until almost mile 80. I was still running pretty hard. This lap was again pretty much as the others though it was getting more and more difficult to get up to my running speed. Again, once there I was ok but I was obviously tiring. I talked to a couple of folks on this lap and talked about where we were in our races. I said that I was sure I could finish this (7th) lap at my 2 hour pace and probably the next but that things seemed less certain after that. What I was expecting to happen was that I would maintain my pace up to a certain point and then just gradually fall off that pace to the end of the race. I imagine that a number of you cagey veterans out there are shaking your heads at my naivete. You're right, my expectations were mistaken. But I get ahead of myself. I finished the lap and saw Brad ready to go. I told him that I thought that I had fallen off the pace a bit that lap but he told me that it was almost smack on 2 hours. Well, no rest for the weary. A quick refueling and refilling of the bottle and Brad and I were off. 70 miles down and only 30 to go. "Only" 30, yeah right. The seventh lap had been the first one in the dark and I had run it without a light. With the exception of a few short sections there was really no need for one. Brad carried a small light for those brief sections and would turn it on just in those places. Running in the dark didn't seem to bother me. This was the first time running in the dark for me though I have done a fair bit of night hiking. The lack of sleep also didn't seem to be a factor for me. Later in the race I did want to lay down but only to get off my feet, not to sleep. I asked Brad how he felt and he told me that he was a bit nervous. I'm not sure why but I think this was his first time running at night, or at least running at night for this distance. We took off and I fell right into my old pattern though I skipped walking one hill in the first two miles, I guess in the excitement of having someone running with me. We went through the aid station and back down the spur. A little before the five-mile point the wheels came off. We were doing a downhill and I had to stop in the middle and walk for a bit. I'm still not clear on why I couldn't run. It might have been not eating quite enough, too much pain, a pure lack of response to my command to run, or some combination. I didn't feel weak really so I don't think it was a pure lack of fuel. I think that probably the biggest factor was just that it started to hurt too much. What puzzles me is that it was so sudden. I was able to finish out that lap running much of what I had been running in the previous laps but I did have to keep taking walking breaks. My theory that I would gradually slow down was obviously wrong. The last two laps I walked the whole way. Poor Brad thought he was going to go out for a nice 30 mile run through the night. What he ended up with was a bit of running and then a long walk with me whining (not too much) and moaning every time I jarred my legs the least bit. It couldn't have been too pleasant. At the end of that 7th lap I was getting chilled since I wasn't generating nearly as much heat walking so much and the temp was really dropping. I put on some tights and we were off again. I did make a few pitiful attempts at running in this 9th lap but they were short, painful, and barely faster than walking. I had really come up against it. It was a long 10 miles. Finally I was starting the last lap. It was nice to have Brad along. He and I are both rather quiet so we didn't talk the whole time but it was really nice to have him there and to get me things at the aid stations. In the last two laps I had taken to sitting down for a few minutes before starting back up. He really hung in there and helped me out. About a mile out from the first aid station I passed by a tall guy on the trail and thought "Hey that looks like Jay". "Jay?" I said. It was he. I hadn't seen him since the 40-mile mark. I asked him what lap he was on and he said his last. He was only 2 miles behind me! I would have thought, even with all my walking, that Jay would have been farther behind. But he had run a smarter and more consistent race and was feeling much better than I was. I told him to try to catch us so we could finish together and Brad and I took off. On this lap there were times where I not only couldn't run but I would have to stop walking for 10 or 15 seconds to gather my strength. When I was walking uphill I'd be putting out an effort and breathing as if I were running the hill. Everything was very hard. I think we maintained a fairly good pace but it was really hard and I was digging really deep to keep moving at anything greater than a snail's pace. I was hurting big time. Brad and I passed the nine-mile mark and we figured that Jay probably wouldn't be able to catch us so late in the race. Then we saw a headlamp behind us. I yelled out Jay's name but it wasn't him. It was Tom Sprouse. And he was running up a hill! 60 years old, 22 and a half hours and 99 miles on his feet and he was passing me, running uphill to the finish. Amazing. Great race Tom. We crested the final hill and then down to the finish line. I crossed the line in 22:48:07 for my first 100-mile attempt and finish. I guess I would have been elated if I hadn't been so trashed. I was really glad that I could sit down and not have to get up but that feeling easily swamped any elation I had of having completed a hundred miler. It just didn't seem that important just then. Boy did my feet hurt! I wanted to be waiting by the finish for Jay when he finished but I went inside by the fire first as I thought I'd have some time. I was only there for a few minutes and I started back outside but before I got to the door there was Jay. He was only five minutes behind us! What a great effort. Jay said that he had run that final lap in not much more than 2 hours. What a great finish. I wish I had know that he was so close behind. I would have waited so we could finish together. I should mention that this was also Jay's first 100- mile attempt and finish and he's feeling good enough that he sent in his registration for Massanutten yesterday. Hell, my ankles are still swollen! There's no way I would try such a tough 100 so soon, or any 100 for that matter. You're a hell of a runner Jay. A huge and hearty thanks to Blake and all the absolutely wonderful volunteers. The aid stations were absolutely first class both for food and the people. Especially at the first aid station they were really doing a great job of nursing us during the wee hours. The Turkey and Rice soup really kept me going for that last 20 miles. I don't know how you all keep such good spirits staying out there in the cold, dealing with cranky runners and your own sleep deprivation. You're all amazing and we really do appreciate it even if we aren't so good at remembering to say it at 3 in the morning. Thanks again, until next year! Scott Brockmeier Chapel Hill PS Any input on how and why I fell apart at mile 75 would be much appreciated. Was I just under-trained for a 20 hour 100? Was it inadequate calorie intake? Is there some physiological explanation that fits my description of what happened? Can I avoid it in the future? If so, how? I really believe that being on this list has allowed me to finish a 100M race within 6 months of starting this sport. Otherwise I would have crashed and burned long ago. Thanks to everyone for your help.