The Umstead 100 Mile Endurance Run - Hamilton Tyler The hard work, the training, was done. Race day, the reward, loomed just a few days away. Why was I stressing out? Why was I packing every single running related item for the trip to the race, checking my list time and time again, concerned that I had forgotten some crucial item? Why, because I had too much time on my hands from the taper and had TAPER MADNESS! I was overthinking everything. I just needed to run! The trip to Raleigh, North Carolina was uneventful. After a 5 hour drive from my Maryland home I arrived a full 5 minutes before the hour long race briefing. I enjoyed the pre-race pasta dinner and headed back to my hotel for a fitful night of tossing and turning. I checked all of my gear again for the 42nd time and laid out everything I would be wearing the next morning. The Umstead 100 miler is held in Umstead State Park in Raleigh, North Carolina. It consists of 8 laps that are 12.5 miles each. Thus, you have access to your gear after every lap which is one reason I took so much gear - because I could. I won the lottery of parking and was assigned to a spot that was right on the course a couple hundred yards from the end of the loop. My three alarms went off at 3:40 a.m. on Saturday, April 8, 2006. The first thing I did was check the weather to see if it was raining. The forecast was for severe thunderstorms at some point in the day and some general rain at others. The temperature was around 65, but it was a humid. I ate a quick breakfast and made the 10 minute drive to the park where cars were already lined up for the 5:00 a.m. opening of the gate. Everyone milled around nervously as the 6:00 a.m. start approached. All at once, everyone just started to move and some type of pyrotechnics were fired upward which startled all of the runners. Over 200 runners were at the start. A few planned on only running 50 miles, but most were there for the full 100 miler. It was dark at the start, but I did not carry a flashlight because I correctly figured that most others would have one and I could just follow them. Also, the running surface was fairly wide road that was made up of white very finely crushed stone. It was an excellent running surface. I wore a pair of the relatively recently released Nike 360 shoes which had about 100 miles on them. The Nikes were quite expensive, but if I was going to run for 100 miles I wanted to have as comfortable a shoe as possible. Trail shoes were not necessary given the smooth running surface. I also wore gaiters because I had read many reports of the race that mentioned that very small stones and grit from the road could make their way into shoes and cause blisters. I had on race ready shorts and a technical T-shirt. I carried a belt with 2 20 ounce water bottles filled with Conquest. My plan was to just fill up the bottles at the aid station at 6.85 miles and at the end. I had a drop bag at the aid station stocked with Conquest and Ensure. With 40 ounces I would not have to stop at the unmanned water stations along the way. We all took off and I jogged along slowly in the dark, resisting the urge to bolt and burn some of my pent up energy because I knew that I would need everything I had late in the race. The first part of the lap is an out and back near the Raleigh airport. I could easily see planes taking off in the distance. This was also kind of fun because you got to see many of the runners as they came toward you. I shot the breeze with a few runners who were running my pace, but after a while was on my own. The first lap was kind of warm and I had drained my 40 ounces by the time I reached the first aid station. I quickly filled up the water bottles, mixed in the Conquest and headed out. The first 7 miles had some downhills and one pretty long uphill. I was walking any significant hill from the start in order to save the legs and running the flats and downhills. The section of the course from mile 7 to the end of the loop at mile 12.5 had several short steep hills that were slow walks upward. The hills were not very long, but I could feel them stressing my leg muscles. At mile 10.5 or so I came back to the main road which was also part of the loop going out. After a long walk I made it to the turn off just before mile 12. At this point the course turned onto a very rocky road for a short distance and then eventually made its way through the woods, past my car and up the small hill to the race headquarters. I finished the first loop in 2 hours and 15 minutes, a pace of 10:49 per mile. My master plan was to run the 100 miles in under 24 hours by running the first 50 miles in 10 hours and the second 50 miles in 14 hours, recognizing that I was going to slow down as I tired and also when it got dark. With the threat of bad weather the aid station had been moved inside the headquarters building. The aid station offered everything you could ever want in terms of food and drink. There was fresh cut fruit, PBJs, turkey sandwiches, potatoes and salt to dip them in as well as all sorts of candy, potatoes chips and other salty foods. They even had some of the foods labeled as “carbs,” “protein” and the like. I took a little bit and headed back down the hill to my car where I mixed some more Conquest and picked up an Ensure to drink on the way. I used Ensure during training and found that it worked well. It has about 265 calories in an 8 ounce serving. More importantly, it does not upset my stomach at all. The aid station turn around probably took me about 10 minutes which was part of my time on the next loop. I headed out on the second loop at about 8:25 a.m. The temperature had risen and it was still humid. I drank as much as I could and seemed to be reasonably hydrated. I jogged along easily, walking the uphills and running everything else. I fell in with another runner for a good portion of this loop and enjoyed the company and conversation. As I was finishing the loop my wife and her sister and my two boys and nephew drove up. It was great to see them and they had made signs, that read “Go Dad.” I finished the second lap in 2 hours and 25 minutes which was about the same pace as the first lap given the time spent at the aid station at the end. My total time for 25 miles was 4 hours and 40 minutes, an 11:12 per mile pace. My two sons ran with me for the first 2 miles of the third lap which was great. How many kids can say they ran with their Dad in a 100 mile race. I can’t wait until they are old enough to pace and crew! This gave me a lift and I felt great. It had gotten a little hotter and I could feel myself getting a little behind on fluids. I was also taking Succeed pills (salt, electrolytes and stomach buffer) which I have found help a great deal in the heat to ward off cramping. The third lap went by easily in 2 hours and 36 minutes for a total time of 7 hours and 16 minutes for 37.5 miles, a pace of 11:38 per mile. However, the slower and slower laps were a disturbing trend. I was concerned that my legs were feeling a little beat up for having 62.5 miles left in the race. Just as I started the fourth lap my family drove up, returning from lunch. Unfortunately, it started to rain relatively hard and I sent them on their way since I did not want them to have to walk and run around in the rain. I had grabbed my rain gear and wore it for a while, but with a temperature in the high 60s it was a little warm for it when it was not raining really hard. Occasionally on this lap the sky would get really dark, but the forecasted severe thunderstorms never seemed to materialize, or maybe they just missed the immediate area. I finished the fourth lap in 2 hours and 39 minutes, just 3 minutes slower than lap 3. My time for 50 miles was 9 hours and 56 minutes, just under the 10 hour goal at a pace of 11:55 per mile. My legs felt much worse than I expected at this point in the race. My quads were very achy, like I had run much farther. I had no thought whatsoever of quitting, but was not sure if I would have to walk it in at some point in the not too distant future. One possible reason for the quad soreness was that the area was experiencing a drought and perhaps the normally soft crushed stone road had hardened due to lack of moisture. I headed out on the 5th lap at about 4:00 p.m., heartened by the fact that I was on schedule according to the plan which is not always a hallmark of my races! It rained a little bit during the 5th lap, but I still was carrying my rain gear which I took on and off as necessary. The temperature had dropped a little bit from its high in the high 60s or maybe 70 which made conditions a little more comfortable. I had not touched my shoes at this point, not even to retie the shoelaces, so my feet were not an issue. With the halfway point passed, I felt I was on the way home. Lap 5 passed uneventfully in 2 hours and 49 minutes for a total time of 12 hours and 44 minutes, a 12:14 per mile pace. I decided at the start of lap 6 it might feel good to change shirts, so I switched to another short sleeve shirt. It was raining some and the temperature was dropping as darkness began to approach. I started lap 6 at about 6:45 p.m. I knew it would get dark in about an hour, well before I finished the lap, so I picked up my flashlight from my car. There was more frequent rain so I planned on wearing my rain gear. At about mile 67, with two-thirds of the race completed, I finally turned my flashlight on to see as it got dark. Many in the race did not use flashlights since it was relatively easy to follow the white stone road, even in the rain. I had not done a lot of night running in the past, but the wide stone road was very easy to follow and there were glow sticks at any junctions. Besides, I had seen the loop 5 times in the light, so I pretty much knew the way by now. I reached the 6.85 mile aid station, affectionately named Tom and Jerry’s Ptomaine Tavern by race personnel, and lingered just a little longer than usual, downing my first cup of soup of the night, a splendid chicken and rice soup that was piping hot. The aid station was completely tented and as the weather worsened they had even added sides to the tent. I spied a heater going at one end and purposely stayed away, knowing that if I ventured near it and sat down it might be hard to get motivated to get going again. I left the aid station and was immediately exposed to a 20 mph wind, heavy rain and a falling temperature. I ran hard in an effort to get back into the woods and avoid the wind. I became chilled and my exposed legs were wet, but I was able to keep moving at a good pace, wanting to get back to the start and get some warmer clothes on. It was getting kind of lonely at this point. I slogged into the headquarters at the end of lap 6 in 3 hours and 9 minutes, 20 minutes slower than the 5th lap and 30 minutes slower than the 4th lap. My total time at mile 75 was 15 hours and 54 minutes for a pace of 12:43 per mile. I stopped at my car and picked up the warmest clothes I had, a pair of tights, a cold weather shirt, a wool hat and waterproof hunting gloves. I also picked up a dry towel and headed toward the bathroom which was the Taj Mahal of state park bathrooms, warm, dry and well lit. I stripped completely except for my sock and shoes (which I still had not touched), dried off and then put on the warm clothes. This entire process took a while, but was well worth it. I stopped into headquarters and downed some soup and ate a few small potatoes. There was a huge fireplace with a roaring fire burning at the end of the room, but I avoided it like the plague. The race was offering pacers and I tried to get one, but they were all taken. I left my name to see if I could get one for the last lap as I was informed there were a fair amount of runners dropping due to the bad weather. I headed out into very chilly temperatures and heavier rain for the start of the 7th lap at 9:54 p.m. I had almost 8 hours to cover the final 25 miles to break 24 hours. Initially I was a little hot with all of the clothes I had on, but with the heavy rain and knowing that the temperature was probably going to drop throughout the night, I just regulated my temperature by taking off the wool hat at times and keeping the hood of the rain jacket up all the time to keep my head dry. I was getting a little tired and wished I had lined up someone to run with me. It was also getting a little boring running the loop for the 7th time, even if it was the first full lap in the dark. I came up on a few runners who were not doing well. One runner was falling asleep on his feet as he walked along. His wife was walking with him talking to him to try and keep him from going out. He seemed to be muttering every once and a while. Luckily he was with someone (or I would have walked with him) and not too far away from the Ptomaine Tavern aid station. Another runner who I asked if he was all right could barely manage a grunt. His running partner said that he really needed to get to the aid station. I finally made it to the Tavern aid station and got some hot soup which was just what the doctor ordered. A bunch of runners had been caught out on the lap without warm clothes or rain gear and were now wet and cold and huddled around the heater at the far end, their teeth chattering. I dared not go near that end once again. I did stay way too long at this aid station, not wanting to go back out into the nasty weather. I finally did and pushed through the hilly section to finish the 7th lap in 3 hours and 24 minutes, the slowest lap yet (although that time included the clothes change). I was now at mile 87.5 in 19 hours and 18 minutes. It was 1:18 a.m. and the yawns were starting to slip out. I walked into headquarters and found the pacer director who thankfully had a pacer for me. I refilled my bottles and ate some more food and soup. My pacer was Bruce from Raleigh. I told him that we had to protect the sub-24 hour finish at all costs and out we went. After over 19 hours, it was great to run with someone. I don’t think I have ever had a pacer before. Bruce was great. He ran when I ran, walked when I walked. He did not really push me, but provided support and conversation the entire way. It really was a mental boost to have someone to talk to for that last lap. It was also helpful mentally to know that this was the last lap. I kept all of my warm clothes on as the temperature had fallen even more. However, the rain stopped at the start of the loop. I tried running a little more than I had during the last lap. The quads were pretty painful, but not much more so than they were at mile 50. Perhaps the rain had softened the road. We walked and ran along, finally reaching the Tavern aid station. Like last lap there was a group of runners huddled around the heater, still looking very cold. I had my last cup of soup and some food and out we went for the last 5 miles. I was really glad I had a pacer to talk with because I was really tired. I could no longer run a couple of the short steep downhills in this section. I stopped looking at my watch and concentrated on moving forward. We finally reached the last turnoff to the rocky road that lead to the headquarters and the finish. I walked some of this section, not wanting to fall so close to the end. I passed my car for the last time and walked up the last hill to the finish. I crossed the finish line to a few cheers after I told them that I was finished the race and not just completing a lap. The last lap was run in 3:08, faster than the previous 2 laps. My total time was 22 hours and 25 minutes. I had reached my dream and my goal of running 100 miles in under 24 hours. I finished in 22nd place out of 98 official finishers. I reflected on some of the things I did right during the race afterward. Amazingly, during the entire race I never touched my shoes. I had one small blister on one of my big toes that did not bother me. I lubricated my feet with bodyglide and wore a pair of Thorlo socks. It was a pleasure not to have any foot problems. I also never sat down the entire race. I had heard 100 mile veterans say that no one ever finished a 100 miler by sitting in a chair. My waterproof gear was invaluable in this race with the cold rain which was not really an issue for me, but knocked many others from the race. The jacket I wore was a Patagonia Specter jacket that kept me bone dry, yet still breathed enough that I did not overheat. I also did a good job with stomach management and never really had any stomach discomfort. One thing I did wrong was spend too much time at the aid stations. I found myself passing the same people time and time again because they were getting out of the aid stations faster than me. I also should have put on my warmer clothes earlier, at the start of lap 6. The Umstead 100 miler is a very well organized race. I highly recommend it, especially for first attempts at 100 miles and those looking to set a personal record. This was my second 100 miler and my time was about 4 hours faster than my first one, the Old Dominion Memorial Run which I completed in May of 2005. 1 {00027058.DOC; 1}