Huntsville, AL
November 21, 2009
Official Results
Two weeks ago I was in Virgina running a 50+ mile ultra marathon. Today I found myself lined up at the start of a 50km; my eighth ultra of the season. Since MMTR, I had dropped back on mileage and focused on returning to a healthy state. My knees had been sore from the downhill pounding of Masochist and my hips and glutes were sore from the climbs. All in all, I was a mess.
Earlier this week I did a tempo run on the track to test my fitness. I managed to run 25 laps with a 90 second negative split 10km at 37:54. This showed me that my legs had returned and that my cardio was still in tact. I was a little concerned about the right hip pain and left calf tightness, so I got in to see Kim Susor for a message.
Fast forward to this morning at 6:30am, just past day break, we were lined up adjacent to the Ranger Station on Monte Sano for Dizzy Fifties Ultra marathon. This event was originally developed by genius known as Jeff Kyser. All of the other ultras in the area are very difficult, so Jeff wanted to offer a 50km that would appeal to the first time runner. Also, at the time, there were no other 50Mile ultras around, so Jeff came up with a course that would permit runners to compete at 50km, 40Mile or 50Mile distances. For the advanced runner, the challenge is to break 4 hours on the 50km course; something that I would chase today.
The field was comprised of several very good runners, including David Riddle, Tim Vinson, John Brower, Tim Waggoner, George Sefzik, DeWayne Satterfield and Owen Bradley. Some of these guys were signed up to do the 40 or 50 mile distance, but if they were not feeling it, they would be competitive at the 50km distance.
My plan was simple; run out front and hard from the start. This course does not appeal to my strengths, as there is very little climb, so I would have to dictate the pace early and take away the strenghts of the other runners who can run fast on the flats and downs. So from the start I went out hard; but looking back at my splits, the pace was not overly aggressive where I would suffer later in the race.
The course does a little loop (2.5 miles) followed by repeating loops of 9.5 miles. My first two miles on the little loop were at 6:52 and 6:59. Coming back on the South Plateau Trail, I saw Jason Reneau, Sarah Bowden and Andrew Hodges; all whom were suprised to see me in the lead. I knew that David was just warming up and it wouldn't be long until he blew past me. I just needed to secure a safe lead heading down Chestnut Hill, Mountain Mist and into The Sinks to keep Tim at bay.
I came back through the pavilion, dropped my sleeves and headed out to run the north loop. This is the harder of the two loops, as it has the drop and the climb, but luckily is only 4 miles. Just past my 3rd mile split of 7:01, David came through and was looking strong. I knew from the start that I was not racing him; he is in a league of his own and it was me against the rest of the field.
Heading down into the sinks I ran 4th and 5th mile splits of 7:07 and 6:51. My plan was working as I manged to put a safe lead on Tim and took away his downhill running advantage. I too was feeling pretty good with no pain in my knees or hips. Just below 3 Benches starts the 1/2 mile climb out of the Sinks and back up to the Bikers parking lot. I had done repeats on this hill many times and most recently blazed up the first half in the Xterra 15km, so I knew how to attack it; which for me is a constant effort, focusing on form and staying below a red-line effort. This is a two part hill split by the Mountain Mist trail and climbs up 350'. My split up this hill was 8:50 and I felt very comfortable with it, though it dropped my overall average down to 7:15.
Once at the top, it is all about recovering quickly and getting back to my sub 4 hour pacing strategy. I ran along the cabin road and back through the pavilion and straight through without stopping for any aid. I was now 6.5 miles into the race with a little less than a marathon to go as I started out toward the south loop of the course. Although this is the longer of the two loops at 5.5 miles, it is much easier as it uses the South Plateau Trail and the Family Bike Trail. The latter is constantly winding and turning as it is intended for mountain bikers and is not very technical. This is usually where people trip as they lose focus on the trail. With all of the turns, it is also difficult to maintain a fast pace. As I entered the Family bike trail, I was able to catch a glimpse of Tim, who was about 2 minutes behind based on my estimation.
This loop was very uneventful and doesn't really deserve much attention. It is about running hard and trying not to puke with the twists and turns. I did see David at one point on the double U (it is a U shape inside of another larger U). He was blazing along as I expected. My splits were 7:16, 7:24, 7:05 6:56 and 7:24 in this section.
Coming back into the pavilion, I was feeling better than the first time through and I was amazed at how fast I was able to run through the first 12 miles. I did stop for a quick second to pick up some more Powerbar Gel Blasts out of my drop bag. I had taken 4 of them in the first 12 miles, along with 1 Advil and 2 S! Caps, keeping the cramps down. I also refilled my hand bottle with more Subtle Strawberry HEED, my favorite electrolyte drink.
Actual Loop Time 1:23:12 (2nd fastest split) for 11.88 miles for an average of 7:00 pace.
Lead on 3rd place was 1 minute 38 seconds
I did get a nice little emotional lift from seeing some friends at the turn, including Joey Butler and recent Pinhoti 100 mile finisher John Nevels. Leaving the pavilion and heading down the road toward the start of the north loop again, I did see Tim making his way up the road heading toward the pavilion. It looked like I still had about a 2-3 minute lead. I had spent minimal time at the aid station, and I had to assume the same for Tim as well.
Once again, around the Monte Sano Lodge, past the overlook into McKay Hollow, down Chestnut Hill and into the sinks. I was still strong, running in the low to mid 7's through mile 14 with a 7:15 pace average heading into climbing out of the sinks for the second time. I calculated that I would lose about 5 seconds per mile on my overall average, thinking that I would drop to 7:20. I ran all the way up the sinks and took a 9:14 split for the mile, which actually brought me down to 7:24 pace.
I knew that I could stay even for the next north loop, but I was starting to do the sub 4 hour math in my head. I always want to have a back up plan just in case I am not feeling it and need to know the worst case pace that I can run and still meet my 'A' goal. Coming through the pavilion, I stopped to fill my bottle with HEED and grab more Gel Blasts. My plan was to come out of the next south loop with a worst case 7:30 overall average.
My next splits on the south loop were 7:36, 7:39, 7:37, 7:36 and 7:35. I was amazingly steady which was surprising, as I was now 20 miles into the race, which I split at 2:28:46 for an average of 7:26 pace. I had been able to stay under 7:30 pace with only one full north/south loop to go and I was feeling strong. The notion of running under 4 hours was starting to energize me and I was feeding off of the adrenaline.
Actual Loop Time 1:12:38 (2nd fastest split) for 9.58 miles for an average of 7:35 pace.
Total Time 2:35:50 (2nd fastest) for 21.46 miles for an average of 7:16 pace.
Lead on 3rd place was 1 minute 46 seconds
Coming through the pavilion and then across the overlook, I was a little slow with splits of 8:14 and 8:01, but I was thinking about conserving some energy for the final push. For the final time, it was down Chestnut Hill and Mountain Mist Trail at a 7:43 pace. The next two miles I would struggle slightly as for the first time all day, I walked in sections of the climb back up to the bikers lot. But the nice part about a looped course with people running different paces and different distances, I had been passing people for quite some time. Despite not knowing what distance option they had chosen, passing people always provides a little emotional lift. So seeing others walk up the hill and being able to alternate run/walk to the top got me up their without completely melting down. In the process of running the hill and coming through the pavilion for the last time, I clocked two of my slowest splits at 8:47 and 9:41.
With 25 miles in the books I still averaging under 7:40 pace according to my watch. Pacing off of a GPS on a trail ultra is always difficult to do as the watch will sometimes measure inaccurate distances. I was right on for the little loop and the first north/south loop for the course to measure 31 miles, but now with just one 5.5 mile south loop to run, I was at 25 miles. So I was still looking at my overall pace from my GPS, knowing that my pace would be faster in the end as the distance would measure short, but the course would not be short.
As I mentioned I had spent a lot of time doing the math in my head. It really does help me pass the time when running ultra distances in races to work out complex math problems and allows me to dissociate for long periods of time, while still keeping up with my leg turn over and being reminded every mile of my split by my Garmin GPS. So having split 25 miles in 3:11, I knew that I could average a very high 8 for the last 5.5 miles and still hit my time goal.
Running on the Family Bike Trail for the last time, I switched focus from a time goal to a placement goal. Despite being aware of Tim's distance to me all day, I wasn't really thinking about placing, but had been time focused. Now that I was safely going to hit my mark, I decided that I needed to be more aware of my lead on 3rd place, not wanting to drop in the last loop. This meant that for the first time all day, I began to take frequent looks behind me when it was convenient to see if there were any glimpses of Tim. I figured that if he came up from behind me by surprise, it would be too late for me to react and he would run me into the ground as I didn't have much of a kick left. So even though it violates my policy of showing weakness during a race by looking over my shoulder, I figured that it was OK here based on the current conditions.
After splitting the marathon at about 3:22, I continued to run low 8's through the twisting and turning and mind numbing Family Bike Trail and out to O'Shaughnessy Point for the last time. I did toss in one more high 7 split at mile 29 after taking my last Gel Blast which gave me a little shot of energy for the home stretch.
Coming up the South Plateau loop to the Ranger's house road crossing, I saw Jason Reneau again, who was out on the course with his bike supporting fellow team mate and wife Jane, who was running the 40 mile option. This was Jane's first ultra marathon, but is well on her way through the 50 marathons in 50 states quest. Jason had been motivating me all day, probably unbeknownst to him. Jason had run a 4 flat here two years ago for the win and for the last couple of years has been my measure of success as I am always chasing him, but slightly behind. Knowing that I would finish ahead of his time gave me one last lift and hearing his words of encouragement to start running again really helped. I owe him much gratitude for his help.
For the last time, I left the White Trail and hit the black top road toward the finish. It looked like I could push sub 3:54 for sure if I was able to pick up the pace. My existing personal record for 50km was 3:53:54, but this was on a 'road' course at Delano Park. My real 50km trail PR was 4:07, a time I hit earlier this year at Bartlett Park 50km in Memphis. So I was pushing for a 13 minute PR for trail 50km, and if I could find anything left in my tank, I could have a true PR for the distance as well.
I managed to run the last section at a sprinters pace, coming through the finish line at 3:53:15. As I crossed, I stumbled for a few feet and then sat down. It felt great to just be done. David helped me back up and in the same breath I asked him what he ran, to which he replied "21", meaning 3:21; that is 6:30 pace. I think he smashed the course record by well over 20 minutes, but I don't have the exact figure. Either way, he is utterly amazing.
Actual Loop Time 1:17:25 (3rd fastest split) for 9.58 miles for an average of 8:05 pace.
Total Time 3:53:15 (2nd fastest) for 31.04 miles for an average of 7:31 pace.
Lead on 3rd place was 1 minute 26 seconds
Within 90 seconds, Tim Vinson also crossed the finish line. He had shaved significant time off of my lead in the last 10 miles, but I was able to hold on for 2nd overall. I think that this is the first time that Dizzy has had 3 finishers come in under 4 hours and the winner of the 50 mile distance split the 50km at 4:01.
There must be something about this time of year that I have great luck with racing. Last year I ran 1:16:38 at the Huntsville Half Marathon, followed by a 34:45 at Dam Bridge 10km. Now this year I shatter my own personal best for 50km trail. It must be all of the intense summer and fall training, combined with great weather that equates to fast times. Looking back at the 7 weeks, I had an awesome finish at Stump Jump 50km, then a PR at the Fleet Feet 15km, ran a low 17 road 5km at Liz Hurley, finished 3rd overall at Xterra 15km trail, held strong for a sub 8:30 in my first 50 miler at MMTR and now a PR at 50km trail at Dizzy.
I think that I am probably in the best shape of my life right now, and am very gracious for all that I have and have been blessed with. I could not be hitting these times if not for the support of my wife Laura, my running mates, great competition like David and Tim and the support of Fleet Feet Racing and Team inov-8.
My favorite quote following this race was a comment on my Twitter status from fellow runner and friend from back in Michigan, Steve Orchard. He said, "I don't think there is any distance that phases you..." which is a great complement. Thanks Steve for the kind words.
Congrats to all of the finishers, including first time 50km'er Luke Hobbs, who is barely old enough to drive!
Here are the top 10 all time fastest finish times for the 50km.
1. David Riddle 3:21:25 ('09)
2. Dink Taylor 3:45:52 ('06)
3. Feb Boswell 3:51:31 ('05)
4. DeWayne Satterfield 3:52:37 ('08)
5. Rob Youngren 3:53:07 ('05)
6. Eric Charette 3:53:15 ('09)
7. Tim Vinson 3:54:41 ('09)
8. Chad Davis 3:56:16 ('04)
9. DeWayne Satterfield 3:58:08 ('06)* (50km split of 40 mile)
10. Jason Reneau 3:58:55 ('06)
Equipment Review
Shoes: I wore the inov-8 Roclite 305's for the second consecutive ultra marathon. This ultra distance trail shoe was a good selection for the fast and flat sections of the south loop and had enough grip for the rocks and plenty of underfoot support for the technical north loop.
Compression: With my recent racing and calf tightness, I decided to race in my Zensah Calf Sleeves. I felt like they really helped to increase oxygen blood flow to my calves, resulting in the ability to push harder on the flats and avoid cramps on the climbs.
Other: After running MMTR two weeks prior, my knees were in rough shape, as I mentioned. I had been experimenting with KT Tape to ease the pain and provide some support. I had great luck with them leading into the race as they provided increased mobility and sped up my recovery. I will definitely keep these as an option for future races.
