Road to Marquette

It has been 2 weeks now since my race at Marquette. I have been wracking my brain and beating myself up about what I did wrong in training and during the race. Here is the list I came up with. Let me know if you have any other ideas.   *I had some major leg problems during miles 25.2-30.7 - right hamstring was locking up and couldn't barely walk after one of the major climbs. Right quad was totally hammered. Both calves were starting to "twing".  LESSON: More specific leg strength work - hills, stairs, squats etc 

*I ate a lot of junk during training and put on some dumb pounds, which I'm sure affected my pace and efficiency. Made excuses for the poor nutrition by the number of miles I was running.  LESSON: Stay lean, eat clean. Eat to run, not run to eat. 

*I ran really easy for the first 11 miles and settled around a 145 bpm heart rate target. I was paranoid of running out of gas for the total 50 mile distance, but this cost me way too much time at the beginning when terrain was very runnable and temps were cooler.   LESSON: Either ditch the HRM completely for races or be better at utilizing it for racing

*too laid back and lackadaisical attitude in beginning, no sense of urgency. Main reason/excuse was that I wanted to hold back in the beginning to conserve energy to make sure that I could "last" for the entire 50 mile distance. I now know that I should have been passing people who were taking their sweet time in the 50K and should have run harder/faster when the course was actually runnable. [spent too much time "enjoying" and not enough "racing"]    LESSON: remember the months of training & sacrifice. This is a RACE, having fun is fine but not at the expense of finishing. 

*Got off schedule with gels and tailwind bottles. Did well for first 3-4 hours, but lost track at some point as mind got mushy.  LESSON: stick to the plan, and do not vary. If you come off the plan during race, get back on it ASAP. 

*I don't think the weekly speedwork was helpful, but I'm not really sure. LESSON: Do workouts focused on DIFFICULT climbing and specific leg hammering routines instead of speed. Always be race course specific in training, this course had long and steep climbs, so I should have trained that way instead of doing speedwork.  

*Spent too much time stopping for pics and talking to family at aid stations - but also wanted to enjoy the race experience. LESSON: ALWAYS have a sense of urgency. Have fun, but lengthy talking and stories can wait for post race. Keep in race photos to an absolute minimum. 

*Consumed gels at the aid station a few times so I could dump gel wrappers in trash at aid station, but I should have grabbed them and took off. LESSON: ALWAYS be moving.  Need to get out of mindset of that its "ok" to stop and waste precious moving time at aid stations 

*Lost time getting stuck behind slow conga lines early on in some really technical sections, should have moved around and passed   LESSON: don't be shy, this is YOUR race. Ask people in front of you if you can get around and pass. Run YOUR pace, don't let it be dictated by other runners. 

*I had no way of knowing how long it would take to hike the big climbs, and they took way longer than expected which threw off my race time estimates. LESSON: calculate and estimate the climb times for future races

*I missed a turn early on (following the guy in front of me), went the wrong way, and hiked up a big hill that wasn't even part of the route. Easily lost a few mins on the hill, going the wrong way, & back tracking  LESSON: stay razor sharp focused at all times. 

*I had to walk sections with tons of roots and rocks, perhaps need to train to be able to run these? Concern for injury if I pushed this too much though, seems like you're just asking for trouble.  LESSON: ??

*Lack of understanding of how hard the course was led to some bad pacing tactics. Part of this was due to the fact that almost all of the people that I talked to who had run the race were WAY faster runners than me, the type of runners that either place at or very commonly win the races they enter.  LESSON: Try to find runners who are the same fitness/speed level as you that have run that race before and find out what they thought of the race course you are considering. Also, check previous years results data to see how many finished and how many DNFd

*I did not know that so many flatter sections would be completely unrunnable, and I should have ran faster when I COULD run -- but this also risks running out of gas? LESSON: run faster when you can, having done the appropriate homework on the course and knowing when the times are to crank the effort and when the times are to back off. Don't be afraid to run some small hills. Toughen up and do some work -- as long as the hills aren't mega long or super steep

*I should have researched the course better to get a better understanding of how hard it was before jumping right into the race as my first 50 miler. It may have been wiser to do the 50K there first to scope out the course (and also actually get to officially "finish"). <---- But this thinking method is also taking the "easy" and less risky way out. Not sure on this one...

Random questions I don't know the answers to

I may some day fill in more detail, but for now here is a basic writeup of what happened at my first ever attempt at a 50 mile race at the Marquette Trail 50 on August 15, 2015 (which I DNFd at mile 31).  I will also be following up with some photos from the race when I have some time later this week.

This was a HARD race, it had 4 really big climbs; one of which was 500 foot of gain at a very high grade. A good portion of the course was runnable, but I was surprised to find that there were quite a few sections of “flattish” terrain that were so rocky and rooty, that you could not run at all. So I had to stop and walk and lost a bit of time in those sections, which would come back to haunt me later in the race.  I got stuck behind some pretty slow lines of people hiking and jogging a few times too, which I didn’t consider much at that time; but I now know that I should have passed those people. 

One tricky aspect of this race was that the 50K runners and the 50 mile runners all started together. The 50K racers had no time cutoff, so they could go as slow and easy as they please. I think I screwed up a few times in this race early on by getting behind some of these 50K runners and not moving around to pass, since I needed to make the 8 hour cutoff at the 31 mile point.  

My mega-awesome wife and kids came to the race to cheer me on, and my inlaws stopped by the race on their way driving back from Michigan to their home in Minnesota. I saw them all at aid station 2 at the 10.7 mile point, which was a good boost to the morale and a nice break from the race stress even if just for a few seconds.

I met a bunch of cool people on the course and chatted with a few of them, but it seems like I would only be with someone for 5-10 minutes and then we would get separated at an aid station or something else. The first major climb was Sugarloaf mountain at about mile 15. At that point, my legs felt great but I still walked the entire climb. This was the only climb that had stairs. It was a mix of stairs and roots to climb up the “front side” of the mountain”. [This was another moment where perhaps I should have ran up parts of the climb] I got to the top, and snapped a few pics of the amazing scenery, and made my way down the back side. I can’t say I really ran down the backside, as it was very rocky and sometimes hard to spot where the trail markers were along with watching your step down the big rocks and boulders.

The section between aid 3 and 4 was the longest segment between aid stations, at about 7 miles. It was also the longest section of flatter terrain. It ran right along the edge of Lake Superior for most of it, so the scenery was quite awesome. This section was a mainly pine tree forest, so most of the terrain was a very runnable bed of pine needles.  I trucked along here at my “race effort”, but the temps were rising and so was my heart rate. I know now that I should have picked up the pace here, as I lost a lot of time later in the race on the large climbs.

I hit aid station 4 (mile 21.7) at what felt like longer than 7 miles, and saw my family again. They were a sight for sore eyes, and my wife handed me 2 fresh flasks of Tailwind.  I gave her the empties and then filled my bottles at the aid station. I pulled out my buff and had a super nice aid station worker fill up both the front and back of the buff with ice cubes. I wore it around my neck to try to keep my body temp down, as it was getting hot and was supposed to be temps in the high 80s today.  The buff/ice combo worked PHENOMENAL, and I will definitely use this method in future races where you can get ice from the aid stations.

I left that aid station still well on track to meet my goal and beat the 50K cutoff. But the next section included a climb up Bareback mountain, which was quite hard and looking at the data now I lost a lot of time.  By the time I hit the next aid station at mile 25.2, I had lost an hour of “race completion time” and was now pushing closer to missing the 50K cutoff.  I filled up all my nutrition and ice at aid station 5 and pushed on. This next section would be the hardest of the day, with a big climb up “Top of the World” and also a climb up “Hogsback Mountain”.  When I looked at my GPS, I had about an hour and forty minutes to make it 5.5 miles; which at any other course would be EASILY doable.  

My legs were really starting to tire now and the climb up “top of the world” really heated me up as you were out of the treeline on most of these mountaintops and it was a pretty steady climb of about 300 feet.  I kept coming around corners thinking I was almost to the top, and then discouraged by seeing that I had more to go.  I got to the top and had someone at the peak tell me that the next section going down the back side was pretty runnable so I tried to pick up the pace/effort and go faster. It was quite difficult by now to go faster, as my legs were starting to revolt. My right quad was in a lot of pain, and I started having issues with my right hamstring “locking up”. I tried to stop and stretch it a few times, but it was really bad. I also noticed that my calves were “twinging” a little as if sending the signal that they were just about ready to cramp up. I thought to myself that it was a bad move not to have worn my calf sleeves for this race.

I came across a few racers I knew from West Michigan (Scott VanLoo, Peter Burrill, and Lewis Hayden) who were doing the 100K and going the other way. They tried to encourage me and tell me that I had plenty of time to go and looked great, but I know I was looking and feeling bad. I was really struggling by this point. They told me that I “only” had Hogsback left, and then I would be just a few more miles to the 50K checkpoint aid station. At this point, I still thought that beating the 8 hour cutoff was feasible, but my legs were in rough shape and I began to doubt my ability to turn around and run these same hills for another 20 miles.

I got to Hogsback and the first section of it is a really crazy all tree roots climb with plenty of places where you can’t even find a good place to put your foot. I had to do a lot of tree grabbing and other hands-and-foot scrambling up this one. Once I broke out of the treeline, it was all rocks, and it was INSANE. My legs were screaming, my body was ridic tired and hot, and my will was breaking.  [I really wish I would have taken some pics of Hogsback as it is really hard to describe in just words, but I didn’t want to lose any time messing with my phone.]  I kept looking at my GPS and seeing the time ticking away, knowing that my goal of running my first 50 miler was slipping through my fingers. That realization and the difficulty of the climb utterly breaking my will to go on made the Hogsback ascent one of the hardest things I have ever done, both mentally and physically.  As I climbed the rocky sections, I started seeing more 50 milers coming towards me and going the other direction as they headed out for their final 20 miles.  

By the time I reached the top, I was destroyed. My legs were trashed, my will was shot, and I just wanted the day to be over.  But now I still had to climb down the backside, which is no easy task; along with running a few more miles once I got down. There are a few sections where there is no foothold at all, you have to either butt slide or just hope that your shoes grip as you scale down the flat rock.  I finally got to a section that I could run and I tried to pick up the pace again to see if I could make up some time.  My watch was getting closer and closer to the 1:30pm cutoff and I strongly doubted I would make it. I kept doing the mental calcs in my head of how much distance I had left and how much time I had left.

At this point, it was extremely difficult to stay running. Lots of walking and despair and pissed-off-ness too. Without going through the details, I ground it out to get back to the start/finish area and jogged in to where I could see my family waiting around the corner from the finish line. By this time, it was already a few minutes past 1:30pm, so I was really sad and mad and everything. I tried to put on a good front for my kids, who so awesomely held out my favorite candy bar (an Almond Joy) as my reward when I ran by them on my way to the start/finish.  I came around the corner and had a race official tell me that I missed the cutoff, which made me even more upset. Then I slogged it in to the finish line where the RD was waiting to shake everyone’s hand. I was in a piss poor mood by now at knowing I had just DNFd and didn’t have a lot to say to the RD.   

I walked over and talked to my family, who tried to console me while I threw a temper tantrum pity party, but yet I was glad the suffering was over. I felt totally gassed once I stopped moving and I don’t think I could have made another 20 miles in that heat on those dead legs if I had made the 50K time at say 7:55, instead of missing it at 8:06.  I missed the cutoff by six minutes and change, but to me it seemed like I missed it by a mile.

I had trained so hard, and had solely focused on this race for over 9 months; but at the end of the day; I didn’t train hard enough. I also did not use correct time/pace management tactics early in the race, worrying more about “going the distance” than making the required time cutoffs.  Those failures are solely on me. Now it is time to rehash what went wrong and to try to learn.  As I write this, it is 10 days after the race and I am still mad about it.  I think it will take me some time to get over this; but I am trying to remember the positives about the race and the journey that got me there.  I met many new people, ran new places, pushed new boundaries, and got to really experience some amazing examples of God’s creation while working towards this goal.  Even if I did not meet the end goal, the journey itself was worth the effort.  

I am now 2 days away from my first ever 50 mile race, that Marquette Trail 50. At this point, all the physical preparation is done, there is nothing more that I can do to add to my physical readiness for the race. As the saying goes, “the hay is in the barn”.

So this week I have been focusing on mental preparation. Earlier in the week, I was trying to get past fears and doubts and negative thoughts. As of right now, I think I am past that; and am feeling excited and really looking forward to the full experience on Saturday.  

One thing that I like to do as a runner is to write down various inspirational quotes that I come across from time to time. Some of these are from famous athletes, some from books, some from movies, and others I have no idea where they come from. A few of them I like to keep in my head as an in-race “mantra”. Then when I really start to struggle, I repeat the mantras to myself over and over to grind through the hard times.

Here is my current list of various quotes and mantras, I’m sure you will recognize some of them!

====IN-RACE MANTRA LIST=========== can't stop won't stop

relentless

one foot in front of the other

you're stronger than you think you are

gliding, floating, covering ground  <---Quenton Cassidy

one more mile

========Various other quotes/sayings================

run like Korolov

impossible is nothing

relentless

I am Dauntless

you're stronger than you think you are

gliding, floating, covering ground -- Once A Runner

there is no try, only do -- Yoda

simple aint easy -- Jay Johnson via Theloneus Monk

"Pain is weakness leaving the body." -- Tom Sobal

"There's no such thing as bad weather, just soft people." -- Bowerman

"To give anything less than your best is to sacrifice the gift." -- Pre

"Of course it's hard. It's supposed to be hard. If it were easy, everybody would do it. Hard... is what makes it great." --

"Progress is made up of a road littered with 'nothing exciting' " -- Greg Strosaker (aka Pre-Dawn Runner)

“The key was not how fast he could run, but how fast he could run while tired."  -- Once A Runner

“Look, runners deal in discomfort. After you get past a certain point, that’s all there really is. There is no finesse here.” -- Once A Runner

"It's at the borders of pain and suffering that the men are separated from the boys." -- Zatopek

"The man who can drive himself further once the effort gets painful is the man who will win." -- Bannister

"...running to him was real, the way he did it the realest thing he knew. It was all joy and woe, hard as a diamond; it made him weary beyond comprehension. But it also made him free..."  -- Once A Runner

"What was the secret, they wanted to know; in a thousand different ways they wanted to know The Secret. And not one of them was prepared, truly prepared to believe that it had not so much to do with chemicals and zippy mental tricks as with that most unprofound and sometimes heart-rending process of removing, molecule by molecule, the very tough rubber that comprised the bottoms of his training shoes. The Trial of Miles, Miles of Trials. How could they be expected to understand that?" -- Once A Runner

=========unknown sources===================

"The harder the battle, the sweeter the victory"

"If you want it to happen, RISE and grind"

"They're not giving out success, but you can earn it. You can take it, I need you to take it..."

"You gotta fight the fear, cause guess what? Fear aint bigger than you."

"You've gotten this far, if yous gonna quit - you shoulda quit a long time ago. You've gotten too far, you've come too far to quit now. SHOW me that nothing is impossible"