At mile 20 I felt like running was the easiest thing ever and maybe the course record would go down. Five miles later I realized this wouldn’t happen since my legs were already sore, even though my heart rate and effort were low. And so it goes with 100 milers - big highs and crappy lows.
Rocky Raccoon is known for being a flat and fast trail 100 miler, but the normal course still has 5,500ft of vertical gain and lots of roots to trip up unwary or tired legs. This year there was construction work on the dam and that altered the course to include more jeep roads, more climbing (somewhere around 1,500ft per 20-mile loop or 7,500ft in total) and a little more distance (around 0.3 miles/loop or 1.5 miles in total). So there are definitely faster trail 100s out there, but none that have attracted the same level of talent as this Huntsville, Texas, race (Eric Clifton, Anton Krupicka, Hal Koerner, Karl Meltzer and Scott Jurek…just on the men’s side).
I’ve had good and bad years at RR100, which were predictable in hindsight. A DNF for my first ever 100 miler (right after an injury and almost zero running for two months), a course record (I was in great marathon shape), another DNF (too focused on going for the record even with really muddy, stormy conditions), then three more runs in the mid-to-high 13hr range with two of them as wins and a second place.
This one ranks on the predictably imperfect end of the scale. I entered it 12 days pre-race on a whim, after fully planning on focusing on a marathon instead. In the five months pre-race I had one long hike and a handful of long runs, all but one under three hours. However, I was in good shape and had some quality speed work in the past couple of months. So that resulted in 20 miles feeling very easy then the lack of endurance rearing its painful head soon after. After two loops I felt like I’d run four and was hanging on for dear life. Luckily I’ve leant a few things from previous 100s about how to manage things when the original plan is derailed, so I settled into grinding mode and acknowledged that every bad patch (of which there were many more than there should have been) would only last a few miles.
Photo: Jason Bryant
So lesson learnt, only enter short races at the last moment and respect the 100 mile distance. However, the upside of a tough run is it’s that much sweeter afterwards to know that there were many opportunities to quit and I didn’t take them. Some of the most satisfying races of my life have been the harder days where it didn’t go perfectly. In contrast, the course record year at RR100 in 2011 was anti-climactic since it felt ridiculously easy (hence why I don’t slow down). I’ll keep striving to have another perfect day like that but realize that so many factors have to come together that it’s more about managing inevitable problems mid-race than expecting none to occur.
In terms of results, I held on for the win in 13:45:03, followed by Paul Terranova who repeated his USATF 100 mile Championship title win after being first American at RR100 last year too. Even more impressively, Sabrina Little ran in third all day (or with Paul for 25 miles) and finished in 14:55, the second fastest time ever at RR100 on a day that the course added a little time to her run. Mind you, the weather was absolutely perfect for fast times, never hot or humid.
In addition, two legends of ultra running ground out great finishes - Gordy Ainsleigh qualified for Western States 100 at the last chance he had (he automatically has an entry due to being the founder, but still needs a qualifying race); plus 71-year old Gunhild Swanson of the famous 2015 ‘seconds to spare’ WS100 finish was strong for a 28:22 finish.
Gunhild gets her buckle from RD Chris McWatters. Photo: Lynnor Matheney
Gordy after his successful finish. Photo: Lynnor Matheney
Congrats to everyone who ran and the loops and out-and-back sections mean that I saw all of them many times through the day to mutually support each other. Full results are here.
Gear (all worked perfectly and will be used in exactly the same way in my next ultra):
I've lived in the US for five years now and only missed one Rocky Raccoon 100 in that time. There's something really fun about having a big winter target while most runners I know are just starting to build back up to get fit for Spring.
Why do I keep going back? Well, it feels like it's one of the classics of ultrarunning and is one of the older 100s (this was the 23rd year) with many outstanding performances over the years and a lot of top level runners have given it a shot. The five 20-mile loops also allow for a lot of social interaction with out-and-back sections and less loneliness and solo running than on point-to-point courses. It always feels like a big social catch-up too, like the way I ran much of lap one with Liza Howard (one of the coaches at Sharman Ultra and a two-time winner - here's her very amusing race report on getting 2nd place) and James Elson (RD of Centurion Running in the UK and a good friend - here's his race report from running a sub 15hr race this year). It's also impeccably organized by Joe and Joyce Prusaitis plus their team.
Undoubtedly RR100 is a fast course, but it still has small rolling hills throughout and has significantly slower terrain than flat road or track running, especially during the night sections. That potential to run a quick time draws in a lot of runners aiming for a PR (myself included) and a lot of first-time 100-milers, but it can also be deceptive and cause runners to forget some of the basics of ultra pacing and instead aim for fast splits no matter what.
I had high hopes of running well and hopefully having a shot at my 2011 course record of 12:44, but knew that I couldn't really gauge that until maybe 30-40 miles into the race. After a shortened build-up after fracturing my foot back in July on Mt Whitney, I'd lost a lot of fitness before restarting walking at the end of October. However, I felt fit and the foot seemed to have healed, allowing me to run approx 300 miles/month for December and January, including some decent speed work by late December.
The Race
Starting in the dark for the first hour of running, the weather wasn't too cold and it remained very pleasant all day, between about 43 F and maybe 60 F, but without last year's humidity. Frankly it was perfect weather for speedsters. However, I was surprised at the end of the first 20-mile loop to find I was 12 mins back from the leader who set a lap record of 2:19 to my 2:31 (the CR split was 2:29) and I was in about 8th, just ahead of the first two women.
It didn't worry me since I was running at a fairly comfy pace and I know the last two laps are the ones that count and that small differences in early laps make little difference overall. That next loop was gradually harder and I could tell I didn't quite have the endurance I'd hoped for. I hadn't run too fast early on, I just hadn't had enough time to build up my endurance. So there's only one sensible thing to do that early in the race - adjust the pace and focus 100% on looking after my body and making things sustainable.
Lap two was marginally slower in 2:34 so I was happy it wasn't too much worse despite making things easier for myself. Things got fairly bad in lap three and my stride was shortened, I felt tight and I had to concentrate hard to stop myself focusing on negative thoughts like how slow the last loop could end up being. I was extremely tempted to drop, cut my losses and continue working on my fitness for the rest of the season. The one thing that stopped me was that I wasn't injured and was moving forward fine, it was just harder and slower than it should have been. That's not a good enough reason.
Lap three dropped to a 2:49, making sub-14 hours less likely if the slow-down continued, although the early leader had dropped by this point and I wasn't far from the podium, now in 4th. I made sure I ate more (especially the new savory Clif Bar Organic Energy Food pouches, which I used at WS100 and Leadville last year too) during that loop and near the end I started to feel a little more normal. Then the wind was knocked out my sails when I saw several runners right behind me at the turn around, including female leader Nicole Studer. They all looked better than I felt, but that's fairly meaningless since some runners look great when they're struggling and others look like the walking dead when they're actually cruising.
Mentally I switched gear after that third loop and starting thinking about how mile 60 was the start of the real race, the important part that separates the runners at the front. I'd not pushed too hard to this point and had spent 20 miles trying to sort out things, so it started to pay off. Paul Terranova caught me a couple of miles into the loop and we ran together with his pacer and chatted. Back in 2011 he'd paced me on loop 4 for a 2:35 loop, so the quirkiness of having him there to 'pace' me again at the same stage felt like a good change and a nice mental boost. Half way through the loop I started feeling genuinely good and gradually pulled away from Paul, catching 3rd and 2nd over the next 10 miles and getting to within two minutes of the leader since about halfway, Marco Bonfiglio from Italy, a winner of numerous 100-milers in Europe and 4th at last year's Spartathlon.
Marco had looked great all day but he was around 12 mins ahead at mile 60 so the two min gap was very encouraging for me. Lap four was an improvement on lap three, in 2:46, but the more important factor was that I was running freely and felt like a new man. The uphills were easy when I'd had to hike some of them on lap three. I had no doubt I'd catch Marco and I did so after about four miles, making sure I passed strongly to get out of sight within a couple of minutes. Now the adrenaline was flowing and I knew it was completely within my control whether I won or not.
As the light faded I sped up, knowing the dark would force slower running with the roots and occasional bumpy terrain. I turned my headlamp on around mile 91 and kept pushing to avoid any chance of getting caught. That's a lot easier to do when you're in the lead and have a bigger incentive to push, plus I felt much stronger than 50 miles earlier. It looked like the tortoise's slow and steady tactics were going to pay off. Those final miles were surprisingly comfortable, although I fell twice more in the dark (total for the day was four full-on trips). So the final loop was 2:50 for a finish of 13:32, 48 mins off the record but still respectable for a winning time.
Nobody else broke 3:15 on that last loop, reaffirming my belief that to really race a competitive 100-miler well, it's mainly about getting to the latter stages in good shape then being able to hammer it to the finish. Just in 2014 there were two perfect examples of this - look at Kilian's last 25 miles at Hardrock 100 or Rob Krar's push from mile 62 at Western States 100. Those guys weren't leading in the first half of those races but dominated at the end.
I feel this was probably the best race of my life, not because of the time or my fitness level, but because I really got the most out of my body and stuck to my tactics throughout, despite being over 30 mins back near halfway. It's certainly the most satisfying and I'm now ecstatic that I didn't give into the demons mid-way through and drop out pathetically. It gives me a lot of confidence that with a few more months of training and getting fitter, I can hit the summer races as hard as possible, especially Western States and Leadville. After all, I only ran a little over 750 miles between the injury and the start line so tripling or quadrupling that (over a longer build-up) would help a lot. Frankly, I'm really excited for what 2015 has in store.
One comment I made post-race was that longer ultras are 20% physical and 80% mental. That doesn't mean you don't need to be fit, just that fitness will only get you so far. Grit is important, but that's not the full meaning of the mental side and it also includes the tactics, pacing and ability to plan for and react to issues mid-race.
Results
Here's the Strava data, including HRM data - this was the first time I've worn a HRM for an 100. Note it shows the course is 96 miles due to the constant tree cover and cloudiness. I wore two watches as an experiment to see which was more accurate, my old Garmin 910XT and my new Garmin Fenix 2. It wasn't even close - the 910 worked throughout and kept a better signal while the Fenix 2 dropped signal in the trees frequently and just stopped recording after 58 miles because it couldn't regain the signal.
This is the beautiful trophy for the win (always something unique from Tejas Trails races), plus the coveted sub 24-hr colored silver buckle:
Full results here and the USATF National Champions are Paul Terranova (3rd man, behind a Brit and an Italian who don't count) and Nicole Studer with her new 100-mile trail best of 14:22, taking 23 mins off Traci Falbo's 14:45 last November. Plus loads of photos and a great write-up from Scott Dunlap here.
Also, here's the post-race interview with Ultrasportslive.tv who covered the race superbly:
Thanks and congratulations to everyone involved with organizing the race, the volunteers, the runners themselves and everyone for your kind messages post-race, as well as Mark Kenney for crewing me. Also, I always know I can count on the following companies to provide me with what I need at races:
On my fourth trip to Huntsville State Park in Texas, my first priority was to bump up my finish percentage to 50%. The first year (2010) I came in injured and only ran because I didn't want Western States to be my longest run ever (it still was since I stopped at 80 miles at RR100). The second time I was given the misconceived idea that flat 100-milers are easy (12:44 course record) because none of it felt hard and I could comfortably have kept running. Third time wasn't the charm as I had that CR on my back and went out too hard in a spectacular thunderstorm, burning out my muscles and pulling a hip flexor to watch Hal Koerner run a masterclass for his win.
So this time I planned to use my experience from grinding out the Grand Slam races last year. There were so many tough parts of that challenge that I knew RR100 would be a shorter length of suffering, even at the worst case scenario. However, the selective memory all humans have meant I always come into races forgetting how much I'll want to stop and give up when it gets tough.
Although not on a par with Western States, the men's field had a lot of top runners who could run sub 14 hrs on paper. However, the women's field was more stacked with four of the top eight ranked athletes from the Ultrarunner of the Year listings, including the top two, Michele Yates and Pam Smith. In the end the only one of these four to finish was Kaci Lickteig, in second behind defending champ, Nicole Studer.
95%+ humidity the whole day caused carnage throughout the field and meant the sensible runners who didn't focus on their watches too much did better. Many of the lead men dropped through the first few loops, including Dave James who led from the gun to mile 20 and Peter Hogg who took over that lead until mile 56. I ran a lot of miles with Peter but we both felt the humidity and I backed off earlier than he did so was able to rally again and keep things together.
When I set the course record I ran every step and barely noticed the hills. This time I started walking the couple of tiny steep sections from lap two onwards to keep my intensity down. In addition I walked through each aid station and about 100m past it to take on food, something which stopped my stomach going over the edge...although it got close.
End of lap 1 with Dave James ahead and Peter Hogg right behind. Photo: Eric Scheider.
Several laps later, chasing Matt Laye. Photo: Eric Scheider.
However, it was Matt Laye who did a textbook pacing job, with only about five minutes between his fastest and slowest lap. In contrast, I had almost 30 mins difference! I've been doing training runs with Matt recently and had offered tips for his first 100 miler on those long efforts. Clearly the downhill speed sessions we did (like this one on Strava) paid off.
Matt's an experienced and highly trained runner but he dealt with the conditions, pacing and inevitable difficulties later in the race as if he was a smart 100-mile veteran. He passed me at the Damnation aid station at mile 66.2 and was seven minutes ahead by mile 80. The final loop had more darkness than I'd hoped for (it gets dark soon after 12 hours of running) and my headlamp was set to too low an intensity since I can only change that via my laptop. It added some annoyance but I kept going at a respectable pace with the full knowledge that leaders have been passed right at the end in 100 milers, despite seemingly insurmountable margins.
For example, there's Graham Cooper's 2006 victory at Western States where the leader collapsed just before the finish and was disqualified for being assisted (I'm sure there's a little more nuance to it than that). Or Jason Lantz taking the lead at the Vermont 100 last year at mile 98.5 - I was watching out for him since he was at RR100 and had finished a long way ahead of me in Vermont in a horrible, humid day that wiped me out early.
100s are never easy, just fast or slow, so I didn't expect to cruise all day long. However, I could certainly tell that by about 30 miles my legs had less pep in them than expected from my recent (shorter) training runs. It's hard to tell what effect the Grand Slam had on my body because I felt broken at the end, but I wanted to finish this race even if there was some residual fatigue so I could learn more about my recovery. There was nothing serious going wrong and the humidity masks issues to make it hard to determine what was specific to the day and what might be a lasting effect from 2013. At mile 50 I was fairly worried that I'd need some serious down-time to really rest, but by the end it was just dealing was normal 100-mile crap. Three days later my legs feel good enough to run, but I won't be doing that for at least a couple of weeks.
In hindsight I'm very happy to finish and know that I gave it my all on the day so there are no regrets or 'what ifs'. Only 58% of starters finished, much lower than normal. RR100 isn't easy and 100 miles is always a long way to run. I may return to the race since I feel there are still improvements I can make but I now appreciate much more how well 2011 went.
Full results here. Thanks to the race organizers and volunteers for putting on a first class event.
The final finisher in 29:58. He was very emotional, as you can imagine.
Kit:
Scott Kinabalu T2 shoes
Drymax Max Pro Trail socks
UltrAspire Isomeric Pocket and 8oz handhelds
Julbo Dust shades
Clif Bar Shot gels and bloks
Having just got back from the 50th annual JFK50
(see a great history of the race here), it was an honor
to be part of the event, especially with course records being destroyed (see results). It got me thinking about the comparability of race times
between road and trail races, plus different distances.
On a training run the day before the race it's easy to bump into half the Montrail North American team and a whole bunch of Canadian speedsters.
For interest, here’s the JFK course profile which includes
around 3,000ft of ascent and a little more descent. It has roads or canal path
easy trails for all but 11 miles, of which there’s a really fun 10-mile section
on the Appalachian Trail which is quick and generally not technical except for
maybe 3-4 miles of rockiness. I may write up a report of the race, but there are a few of those around from others who had more interesting days out on the trail. In summary, I loved the AT and jogged through that then sped up on the canal path before getting slight stomach problems (rare for me) and couldn't get motoring so just kept up the best pace I could and mainly ran solo, finishing 4th in 5:50.
Predicting finish times from one ultra to another
One stat I’d heard at the Miwok 100k in California is that
if you double your time from that race you get your Western States 100 mile
finish time. Although broadly true there’s a lot of variation, plus that
assumes having a good day at both races. It’s glaringly obvious that there’s a
large degree of individual impact on how well, say, a marathon time translates
to a flat ultra and even more so to a mountainous one. But JFK brought some of
the fastest runners ever to a US trail 50-miler – Trent Briney ran a 2:12 marathon and
has been the US alternate for the Olympic marathon (he got 2nd and
broke the CR); Max King runs a 2:14 and took almost 6 mins off the record;
Emily Harrison runs a 2:32 and smashed the women’s record, but not by as much
as 2:42 marathoner Ellie Greenwood; plus there were a lot more guys with 2:2x
marathons, not least David Riddle who came 3rd and held the record
from last year.
Ultras like Comrades, UROC 100k, JFK 50 and American River
50 have plenty of fast road sections (or trails that are almost as quick) so they favor a fast marathoner who also trains for ultras. But there’s a lot more
that comes into it too (as anyone reading this will certainly know). A quick
comparison of some of the fastest ultra courses for people who’ve run them at
the front shows road speed is fairly important, but more so the shorter the
race. I’m biasing this towards courses I’ve personally done so I can
legitimately compare them.
Comparison of PRs* for
selected runners over multiple fast ultra courses:
Marathon (26.2)
JFK (50.2)
American
River (50)
Comrades Down Run (55.5)
UROC (60+** 2012 course)
100k
Roads (62.2)
Rocky
Raccoon (100)
Western
States (100.2***)
Eric
Clifton
?
5:46
6:23 (Age 40)
?
Not raced
?
13:16
22:13
Max
King
2:14
5:34
6:01 (Bad day)
Not raced
7:57
No 100k
No 100s
DNF (injured)
Trent Briney
2:12 (2004, but ran a 2:19 in 2011)
5:37
Not raced
Not raced
Not raced
Not raced
Not raced
Not raced
David
Riddle
2:26
5:40
Not raced
Not raced
DNF (Bad day)
6:45
Not raced
16:42
Ian
Sharman
2:32
5:50
6:00 (Bad day)
6:01
8:25
Not raced
12:44
15:54
Ann
Trason
2:39
Not raced
6:09
5:58
Not raced
7:00
Not raced
17:37
Ellie
Greenwood
2:42
6:12
6:18
6:08
9:04
7:29
Not raced
16:47
Emily
Harrison
2:32
6:17
Not raced
Not raced
Not raced
Not raced
Not raced
Not raced
Lizzy
Hawker
2:47 (2007)
Not raced
Not raced
6:48 (Up Run - slower course)
Not raced
7:29
Not raced
18:32 (Bad day)
*PRs are to the best of my knowledge, plus the help of Google
**UROC 100k 2012
had 10,000ft+ of ascent but it was largely on roads and hugely favored fast
marathoners who could also run trails
***Western
States 100 isn’t nearly as flat and fast as the other races but it’s the only
100 miler for some of the athletes to date
Before I get comments saying this isn’t a large enough
sample or it’s not scientific enough, I’ll mention that there aren’t enough
runners who’ve run around course records at several of these races to make direct comparisons plus weather
conditions play a huge part, especially on trails. More runners could have been
included but I’m doing this with a JFK 50 2012 slant and am trying to show the
really pointy end of the field, (plus myself for comparison because it’s my blog
and it gives me context).
Along the C&O Canal at JFK. Photo courtesy Ray Jackson Jr.
Also, I'll point out that a great site for comparing race finish time for the entire field from race to race is RealEndurance.com. You can get an idea of your potential finish time in a race based on what other people managed at a given event who run at your speed in races you've already done.
What does that imply
for 100 milers?
The other reason for looking at these stats is that I’m sure a lot of people
are wondering what Max, Trent or Emily could run in a 100 miler. From
experience the correlation between fast shorter distance times and 100s is a
lot looser than between a marathon time and a race like JFK. Plus there’s a
clear trade-off between how much time a runner can spend on road speed and on
mountain endurance, although most would agree that these do complement to some
degree. Kilian isn’t going to run a 2:10 marathon off pure mountain running and
the Kenyans won’t run a 20 hour Hardrock 100 when their longest run is 2 hours
and at a much higher intensity. Of that I’m certain, although it’ll never be
tested (at the least they’d switch their training significantly if they went
for the races at the opposite end of the spectrum to their usual).
To run an average pace of 9 min/miles at Western States
means a lot more training at a slower speed than a marathoner would do. This is due to
the law of specificity, meaning that your body adapts to the training
stresses that are placed on it. If you want to run a fast marathon, a lot of
marathon-pace or faster running is required. If you want to sail up and down
mountains all day long, a large portion of training needs to simulate that.
When was the last time one of the really big, competitive
100 milers was won by a sub 2:30 marathoner? Doesn’t tend to happen at Western
States (please comment if you know who the last person was to manage this was
as it’s not any of the recent winners). UTMB is for pure mountain guys and many
of the top runners haven’t even run a road marathon. Never mind Hardrock – a
recent fast marathon time is almost (I’m exaggerating) a predictor of a bad run
as it implies too much time spent on the roads and not enough in the mountains
at altitude. It’s much more important to do a lot of vertical in training than
to be able to run the flatter sections at a 5 min/mile.
In summary, I don’t think there’s a very strong relationship
between mountain ultra success and a top end marathon time. I’m not going to
dust off the old economist’s tools (my previous life) and search for a huge pile of
data to find out which variables correlate to mountain ultra success. It’d cost
$20k to get a bunch of economists to do that analysis so I’m going to go out on
a limb and give you my non-scientific predictions of the key variables for a fast elite time
(relative to a world class runner for that style of race) at a given mountain 100-miler:
Results at really similar 100 mile races or with
similar aspects to the race in question
Turning up completely uninjured with a long
injury-free period pre-race for consistency in training
Location – living close to terrain that’s
similar to the race for training
Frequency of DNFs – the fewer, the better
Motivations – this’d be a hard one to model and
would need truly honest answers to a questionnaire but someone who turns up
with the aim of enjoying things first and competing second rather than caring
more about records and winning with second place being deemed a ‘failure’
And factors that I think are somewhat correlated:
Past success at the race in question in the
recent past, but this could also build the pressure too much to cause bad pacing
100k or 50 mile mountain results
Marathon time
Age – Marco Olmo is probably the last guy around
retirement to win a really major race but the peak age range is fairly wide
Rippling six-pack/big guns – shows the runner
does more training than just running all day, which is more important in an
ultra than in shorter races. You wouldn’t pick a fight with Kami Semick and
she’ll probably beat you in the race too…
100 mile records
So what about a flat 100-miler on a hard surface? There
really aren’t many that fit that description except on a track. Fast trail 100s like Rocky
Raccoon 100 (5,400ft of ascent) or Umstead 100 (8,000ft of ascent) are
still significantly slower than a flat road race of that distance. What do I
think the runners listed above could run on a flat road/track 100? Well, the
100k on roads gives an indicator but only covers the ‘easy’ bit of the race.
The male World Record for 100 miles is 11:28 by Oleg Kharitanov, pretty
much 3h marathon pace x4! I think Max and Trent have the pace to do that if
they altered their training to include a lot more miles at a pace they’d think
of as slow.
Ann Trason holds the female World Record of 13:47 which I think Ellie could run. Lizzie Hawker too.
But who’d want to run around a track all day? Well, I’ll
answer that in a month after I give it a go at the Desert Solstice 24h race in Arizona.
