Rocky Raccoon 100 Race Report 2014

Sub-24hr finisher buckle

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

Dirty Half Marathon Back in Bend

First mile was on the road allowing everyone to spread out.

Just back from a great trip to Bend where Amy and I used to live. Oregon is such a perfect place for trail running and the Dirty Half is now in its tenth year and is a top-class race which I did last year too. Great long weekend seeing friends and favorite restaurants (so many of both).

It was a new course and was also the USATF National Trail Half Marathon Championship for the second time, meaning lots of fast runners. At some point I'll race this one but it was more sensible to use it as a WS training run and sit back and enjoy the ride. I layered up with as many jackets and warm tops as possible to get a reasonable fat suit look and hoped it'd be a hot day on top of that.

It was sunny and warm, providing near perfect running conditions but maybe a little hot towards the end for fast running. So I started at the back of the first wave and was comfortable for the first five miles but then started to feel the heat. The course had some steep sections and I doubted whether the winners would break 1:15 by much. Only one person did, local Max King, who had won the race multiple times before. A great recap of the whole race is on Scott Dunlap's blog here. All results here.

I was nowhere near the sharp end of the race but kept up an even pace to finish in 1:44. The heat got to me and plenty of volunteers and supporters seemed concerned that I was wearing too much, but everything that makes the heat feel easier in less than two weeks is worth it. Combining this with torturous sauna sessions is hard but worthwhile and the big showdown at Squaw Valley looks like being pretty special.

Dirty Half makes for a great US trail championship

Today was the USATF trail half marathon championship in Bend, OR at the Dirty Half. Since I'm in Bend for a couple of weeks it would have been a shame to miss this so I signed up early for the highest profile and well-regarded local race. It was a bonus that it was also a championship race since it's well worth travelling to, even without that honour.

Summer started in Bend on the Saturday after a long period of generally crappy weather but the conditions on race day were perfect with the recent rain making the course less dusty. It starts off with a few miles of uphill, levels off around five miles, then undulates before descending again and throwing in some more hills near the end with a total elevation change of +/-1,000ft.

The guys at the front went off fairly fast and I didn't see them again after about a mile. For me, the aim was to run hard and get in a great training session on relatively easy trails. The legs are still feeling Comrades and I could tell within the first minute that they had no pace in them, especially for the uphills.

I wanted to have an enjoyable day and most of it was...except the actual running bit. The tired legs meant I was breathing hard and going slow enough uphill to have people overtake me easily. But with it having plenty of downhill in the second half, I aimed to push and get the heart rate up higher than in all the marathons and ultras. This almost ended with me having to walk or at least slow down to a gentle jog because I started sprinting downhill before seven miles and the legs felt extremely wobbly with a lot of miles left. But I spent the time from five miles in going past people and got up to eighth by nine miles then couldn't see anyone again til the last half mile. Seventh was too far ahead but it gave me an extra incentive to push and meant I got in a great training session.

Max King won by over a minute in just under 1h11m and was almost a minute per mile ahead of me, in 1h21m. It's a great race, although trying to race it on tired legs wasn't as much fun. Excellent organisation, as ever, by Footzone and it reminds me of why Bend's such a great place to live, especially for runners.

No more races until Western States in 13 days. Am guessing I'll need another session of Active Release Technique work for the knee, but that should be long enough to recover and be in reasonable shape. As long as I can get a place, 2011 will probably be the year I can race it really hard and this year will need to be a learning experience (not that I won't try to be near the front).

Now I need a lie down. These half marathons are knackering.

US Trail Marathon Champs at Ashland

Lithia Park.

The road home.

Finishing and glad about it.

Spot the great outfit on the right behind me.

That outfit again...

My support crew of Amy and the pups.

Another weekend, another marathon. I told myself I'd cut back when I moved to the US so I'd have some time to train when not exhausted. And that's still the plan but I couldn't miss the opportunity to go to the US Trail Marathon Championships at the Lithia Loop Trail Marathon - it is in Oregon and (just) driveable after all.

I'd heard from the guys who'd been 1st and 2nd the previous year and there was a helpful profile on the website so I knew it was a tough course with 3,700ft of climb which was almost all in the first eight miles. Then a flatter section and about eight miles downhill. In fact it was just the last six which went down noticably, but I only found that out later.

Sounded like a good challenge and I wanted to see how fast some of the best US guys are as well as some great scenery in a beautiful part of the country. The fact that the race director is Hal Koener (winner of the last two Western States 100 races) was also a draw.

On race day the weather was about as good as could be expected in November, above freezing with intermittent rain. 150 runners lined up, including Max King who leads coaching sessions in Bend and makes me ache every Tuesday evening. He'd run New York six days earlier and got 2:19 after keeping it to 5 minute miling for 20 miles, but was still the favourite.

I also bumped into Scott Dunlap, a prolific ultra blogger, who I'd met in the bus queue at the Boston marathon earlier that year. Even the US can feel small within the ultra community, but I wasn't quite on first name terms with everyone...yet (give me a few years on the scene and I'm sure I'll get to know the guys who turn up to everything).

So the course started on road and was gently uphill for a mile before hitting fire access roads into the mountains. I went off in 6th behind the lead group but my legs felt tired within quarter of a mile and I slowed down. I later found out that my heart rate monitor peaked at 238 with an average of 201 for that first mile before dropping down to an average of well under 160 for the rest of the race. So either my heart exploded or the HRM wasn't fitted quite right for a mile. My previous highest is 184 in the sprint off at the end of a mile race, so it's a tad unlikely I could raise my beats by 50/minute.

Over the next few miles I dropped back into 20th and felt like I'd need a walking break after less than three miles. Not a good sign, but I felt fatigued from the marathon PB and surprisingly hard effort in the half the weekend before. Or maybe it's just because of trying too hard at the start, but it didn't feel like my heart was working excessively near the start.

The trail kept going up relentlessly and I got a drink at the aid station at mile five, to give me a mini walking break. The trails were enclosed by fir trees the whole way and it made for a good atmosphere with the mist which started to feature as I got closer to the highest point of around 4,900ft.

It wasn't a technical trail although there were some sections of single track. Lots of fun to run on downhill, but I found the uphills a real effort so need to get some hill training in over the next few months...especially if I get a place in the Western States 100 from the lottery in December.

The top section was undulating but at least it was possible to run properly on it rather than a slow jog on the way up. I knew that it would be a really bad run if I didn't do a big negative split, given the profile, but I wasn't sure how much time I'd gain back in the second half. My Garmin went in and out of reception with the trees but it was clear that the mile markers were a bit short, so I went through halfway in about 1h41m but it was certainly short by a couple of minutes. There was some light rain and more mist along the middle section of the race but I was wearing a couple of layers, a hat and gloves so was snug.

I'd barely seen anyone since about mile 4, but had overtaken a handful of people. I was cruising nicely along the top section at close to normal marathon pace but I couldn't wait for the downhill as there was almost 3,000ft to drop and not a long distance to do it in.

As I went past 18 miles I expected to see the slope going down but it still stayed at almost the peak altitude. Only after a water station just after the 20 mile marker (still about the same amount short as at 13 miles, so those middle miles were marked right) did the trail head down. There was a left turn going steeply downhill, reminding me slightly of the latter days of the Trans Alpine race. It looked very cool as the mist covered the trail so I ran straight into a spooky-looking section.

I'd passed a few more people and was hoping to at least get into the top 10 by the end after getting to around 13th before the downhill. I felt strong so was able to really let myself go and fly downhill. I'm always much happier going downhill so I expected to have a fun second half to the race and to catch up a few positions.

I only saw about two more mile markers but had an idea of where I was from my Garmin. I knocked out a 5-minute mile before getting to the one remaining uphill section, for just a half mile. In true McDonald's style I was definitely lovin' it (sorry for the bad pun) and kept approaching guys ahead of me and catching them almost immediately after seeing them in the distance.

Having not seen a mile marker since about number 22 I couldn't be certain where I was but I'd left myself about 26 minutes to do the last 4.2 miles and was going well below 6-minute mile pace, so I expected to be comfortably below three hours. However, when I got to the turn back on to the asphalt road from the start for the last mile and a bit, I knew that the last 4.2 miles would be around half a mile long. That made it a real issue to break three hours and was a bit demoralising after being so certain I was comfortably below that time.

Within that last mile I saw one more runner ahead but he had 200m on me and I didn't think I had a chance of catching him. But I was trying so hard to get that finish time have a two at the start that I knocked out a 4:58 last mile according to GPS (with the help of a little downhill) and ended up 14 seconds ahead of that runner, but just over the target in 3h00m36s. It was slightly long in total which wouldn't normally be an issue for a trail race, but those mile markers had really screwed with my mental calculations.

The first eight miles hadn't been fun for me but the remainder was a great training run with a lot of hard-pushed miles. I squeezed into the top 10 with 8th place, which wouldn't have been a success in my mind prior to the race, but after feeling the tiredness in my legs it was really satisfying. And, allowing for the mile markers being slightly out, I got the most negative splits I've ever run - 1:43 and 1:17.

A really challenging course and some great performances from guys from all over the US. Max King did indeed win, in 2h40m (a course record). Pretty scenery too, although the mist and light rain meant I couldn't see as far over the forests as on a clear day.

Next race is the Seattle marathon at the end of November and I've decided to run as Elvis to get back the silly Guinness World Record for fastest Elvis. Someone recently took the 'title' away from me with a 2h49m run so I think it'd be fun to get it down to about 2h40m. Hopefully that'll be a tough one to beat, although I'd had it for two years with 2h52m. I might even run as Spiderman again within the next year or so to get back the fastest superhero record which was snatched away a few months ago with a 2h43m run...ok, I know they're both weird records but it adds some funky variety to the road marathons. Not every road marathon can be a PB attempt so these records add a fun challenge and the crowds go wild for it. I'd recommend it to anyone, but not to guys who are faster than me :)