05:23:42 AM: It's 4:21am local time. I slept well and feel good this morning. Race starts at 6am.
06:49:46 PM: Alive. Completed in 8:45:36. Hung with second place woman, Anita Fromm, who motivated me throughout and then dropped me on second half of last lap, beating me by twelve minutes. Gave it my all and more in the first heat run of the season. Vomiting, nausea and near-fainting for solid hour and a half afterwards. Now, three hours later i've forgotten clothes at the hotel room, towel streaked to the minivan, tried to use canadian money in the vending machine and found blisters on my feet and side balls.. Still feel pretty horrible and my lower intestines are lit up like a christmas tree. Thanks to everybody who's touched base. You are appreciated. I'll get a full summary up as soon as I can. And just in case you're under the delusion that this run proves I have big balls, understand this: I listened to avril lavigne on my fastest lap. That should put me back on par with the Porsche-driving Dominic "Small Balls" Turano (just kidding big guy).
Next day: Alright, some recap action.
I woke up race morning and had my usual oatmeal and whey protein. No meat for three days prior in an attempt to avoid lower intestine problems (result: lower intestine problems. bonus: only after the race.). Getting to the race start was painless and GPS didn't get me lost. We were about five miles onto dirt roads, in a state park in south east MS.
The starting area was very low key. Much more so than a triathlon. Which is interesting because compared to cycling events triathlons are like Woodstock. The night before Annette, who organizes the lakecity50.com said that triathletes are "just insane." Somewhat ironic because most triathletes live in fear of the run and call ultra runners "psychotic." To each their own. I'll float between the groups as best I can. I was acutely aware of the fashion differences between the two and was looking forward to delving into some of the more human/social differences. Being a military brat I've long-known that every social group exhibits certain surface differences but that you only really understand the group when you look underneath. My approach is to quickly adopt the fashion/terminology/etc and then probe veterans in the group with a lot of questions, admitting my new status in the group.
I checked in and talked to the race director for a few minutes before getting geared up. Very nice guy who described the massive amount of work required to work with the forest commissions to put the race on. "You have no idea," he told me.
It was warm enough for shorts and a short sleeve shirt with the sun not yet over the horizon. A dense fog was pervasive. About ten minutes before the start everybody congregated near the start line. I met Terry from PA… a big tall dude with a long beard. He was wearing full red to protest the inclusion of a turkey hunting warning on the race handout which said "don't wear red." Very nice guy and a long-time runner. I explained my predicament (first 50 miler) and he was quick to offer advice and spent a good bit of time talking to me about his runs and experience. For this I was very thankful.
Just as the race started I met two guys running together who were also doing their first 50. They had missed the spaghetti dinner and asked for a re-brief. I told them to follow the orange, avoid the yellow and not to wear red. So, we were off.
I made it a point to keep the heart rate very low for a good while, not knowing the course or the distance. I slowed whenever I got near 138bpm or so, roughly my average for my ironmans. It was an easy pace but I knew that the distance would add up. The group spread out a good bit quicker than it did on the 30 mile runs I've done. I took this to mean the group was more respectful of the distance.
My lungs were still a little toasted from the efforts of the last three weekends but I knew that lungs wouldn't be my limiter so I didn't let it worry me much. For the first lap I kept to myself and listened to my audiobook. The course didn't have many hills at all and the surface was cushy. Some stream crossings. Some mud. Not too many roots. By the end of the first lap I knew that this run would be much more enjoyable than the 30 miler on 100% concrete.
I made a mistake wearing relatively new gear. The injinjis were giving me some hot spots on my feet so after the first lap I switched to my regular socks and put a bunch of body glide on my toes. Seemed to help within a few miles.
Second lap I found myself running with Terry from PA. Again, very helpful guy, willing to answer a lot of my questions. The 50k running women from MS said that they enjoyed listening to our conversation. I learned about Terry's father who was a pro basketball player, 6'8" and tough as nails. He twice hit roots while talking and tumbled… I apologized profusely and eventually decided I was distracting him too much. While running with Terry my heart rate dropped to the low 120s. This was a good thing and I was cool with a lot of people passing us.
On the out and back section near the end of the second lap I saw Anita Fromm who had leapfrogged me a couple times in the beginning, said hi and then moved well ahead through the second lap. She had a woman running directly behind her. As I started the third lap I was running with the woman who had been behind her. She said that it was her first 50 but that she'd done 10 marathons before. We leapfrogged a bit before she dropped the pace a notch. I was feeling great on the third lap. It was getting warm but I felt like I could go on forever. I eventually caught Anita near the end of that lap and ran with her for a little while. She was kind enough to encourage me and tell me that I was having a good first 50. It's great having an outside opinion because I was expecting the dreaded explosion at any moment.
Ok, on the music, why avril lavigne? I had been listening to my audiobook and it was fine but as noted by Marc and Dana during Sufferfest, we often get mad at our music after a while. It just gets annoying. I tried some metallica but after a few minutes it faded into a cacophony of noise. Same with prodigy. I put the ipod on mix and after a few songs an avril lavigne tune came on and the mix of vocals and light-hearted pop just fit for some reason. Who knows. I went with it.
There were no bag drops… after each lap I opened up the back of the minivan and grabbed whatever I needed. "What is this, a day spa?" yelled Anita as she passed through the start area using her declared pre-race strategy of minimizing time at aid stations. We again ran together for a few miles, leapfrogging a bit. At one point I realized that when she was behind me she'd drop back 50 yards or so. When I was behind her I'd be within 10 feet. I asked her if this was rude or otherwise not acceptable (like, say, halfwheeling in a casual group ride) but she said she was cool with it. Still, I'll be careful with this. I imagine that many people are more solitary and wouldn't appreciate it.
I figured that the miles had to eventually get me. I started having some trouble keeping up. Anita offered some cliff bar blox with caffeine. Life saver. On laps two and three I ran the entire time with a package of caffeinated blox. But heading into the last lap I forgot to bring my cola-flavored blox. Amazing how things work out, eh? Whenever my mood dipped I'd take some caffeine and it'd pick me back up.
I experienced some of the mood cycle acceleration that you read about in long races, but nothing dramatic. There were spots where my mood would just flip, for no apparent reason. I'd just work the nutrition and positive thinking and be back in stride in no time.
About halfway through the final lap my pace dropped off and I walked up a hill. Anita passed me for the final time saying "only a 10k left now… you can't walk at this point." True enough. I started running again and didn't stop until the finish. I was off my lap three pace, but I was moving.
In the end I finished in 8:45:36. I was very happy with the time. Anita made a 50 mile PR of around 8:33. As much as I wanted to stand around and talk the race and badwater with her I was feeling woozy and nauseous. Kind of a shame because she took off before I could compose myself (an hour and a half later).
As reported previously there was vomiting and near-fainting. I sat in the car for fifteen minutes waiting for things to settle. I think last year I recounted the ten minutes after a long run on the comet that had me a little spooked. The sensations were similar but a little more pronounced. My heart rate wouldn't drop and I felt like throwing up. Then my lower intestines lit up like a christmas tree.
Walker Williams, from Georgia, offered some crystallized ginger but my stomach was already on a roll and threw them out quickly. They were tasty though… thanks to Walker for taking the time to look after me. He mentioned that Rich Schick, from Atlanta, may have a run happening soon.
It took a solid hour and a half to get my wits about me again. At one point I walked out to a picnic table to lie down and then couldn't make it back to the minivan. I'd stand up, lose vision and have to take to the ground. I swear, I remember looking the twenty feet to the minivan thinking "how the hell am I gonna get back there?" Eventually I lucked into a reclined feet up position on the pine needles. Looking up at the tall pines swaying in the wind I was finally getting good blood to the head and digestive systems. My condition slowly improved.
So, of course, after my initial report my family freaks out. Maybe they should. And I appreciate the support. But I was never in peril. There were lots of people around and I knew that at any moment I could have simply said "I need help" and they would have taken care of me. There was an ambulance 25 yards away. The drama I recount is mostly in my head… it's scary when your body isn't acting normally… and I know that there are important lessons in that fear so I try to capture it accurately on the blog. I actively remembered lessons from the book Deep Survival and went through checklists every few minutes to determine whether I was in an actual survival situation. There were moments where I got very worried about not being able to keep water down and/or see straight, but generally I knew I'd be ok.
I wouldn't have it any other way. I pushed my limits and will be stronger for it. I would have been disappointed had I finished and felt fine.
Today, the next day, as I write this I feel surprisingly little muscle pain. Twenty four hour DOMS should have set in by now but I'm only getting joint pain. And some blister pain on my feet. My digestive systems are working properly.
Big thanks to everybody who checked in with me before and after the race. Without the support of everybody I know there's no way I'd be able to have so much fun with my little adventures.
Date: 2007-03-12 08:24:35 Name: Kelly Congratulations Joe, pretty amazing ! Sufferfest now this !?! What next ?? Again - congrats !
Date: 2007-03-12 09:01:48 Name: Joe Reger Thanks for the kind comments everybody! I'm inspired by all of you daily and I hope that I can give back a little bit from time to time!
30 Min Swim, 10 Min Stationary Bike