Here’s the "short" report on Across the Years 48-hour run. The loop we ran on was a nice 1.05-mile wide dirt trail through through the Dodgers Spring Training facility. There was about 100 yards of pavement, not really a problem. The course was certified using the shortest possible route which generally was impossible to do with all the turns. I think I averaged about 1.07 per loop.
I always start out pretty fast, and sure enough I completed the first loop ahead of all the other runners (24-hour, 48-hour, 72-hour). I lapped my first runners on my second loop. Many would walk every step.
At the end of each loop, we could see a real-time board that would show the latest runner passings, so I could check on my pace and a few other runners around me. Unfortunately they never displayed a leader board for us, which made it hard to tell where our competition was. If I wanted to know for sure, I would complete a loop behind a person and then check out their mileage and pace on the board.
I believe I held the overall lead on mileage for quite a few laps. As I had predicted, Luis Miral, a young, fast, 37-year-old in the 48-hour race was keeping pace with me and he eventually went ahead and lapped me. I was never concerned, knowing that he had never gone over 50 miles before. And sure enough, later in the day he disappeared off the track for awhile. But the overall leader in miles was Joe Fejas, in the 72-hour race who was going out at a blistering pace. Wow! He would go on to finish his first 100 miles in about 17:12, and run 133 miles on his first day.
My pace was strong, but the heat of the day was getting to me immediately. We had almost no shade at all on the entire course. It got up to about 71 degrees, but it felt like 85. My early laps were fast, I didn’t record my first lap over 10 minutes until mile 18. Laps over 11-minutes started to happen at mile 25. For each lap, I could stop at my personal aid station to grab something. I probably stopped way too often, but it was nice to have anything I really needed so close. My son Kevin crewed me for the first day and even made a pizza run. I know that watching the race really got him excited to start his own race, the 24-hour, the next day.
I hit the marathon distance at 3:54. I knew that this pace was slower than last year when it was cool and slower than my pace goal, but I was still pleased with how things were going. I hit the 50K mark at about 4:48. With the heat of the afternoon my lap times were creeping over 12 minutes. I reached the 50-mile mark at about 8:32, much slower than planned. Around 72 miles, I passed Luis and was in 1st place in my race. But later on, I discovered that Tracy Thomas was a little ahead of me. I got all confused with the color the bibs and though she was in my race. I guess that was good because it motivated me to push harder. But she was in the 24-hour race and quit after 12 hours with over 70 miles.
Sure enough, Luis started to fade. How was I doing against the other 48-hour runners? As far as I could tell, my buddy, Tom Jackson was in 3rd place, leading another pack of runners. Tom and I have been good friends for years. He’s married to the sister of my best friend growing up. For the entire two days, we helped each other, ran with each other, encouraged each other. When I hit 50 miles, Tom was about 5 miles behind. My lead over Tom would grow to about 11 miles. So as Luis faded, my lead grew and grew.
I reached the 100K mark at about 11:03. I told Kevin to post that on my Facebook, mentioning that I had only thrown up three times so far. The sun had gone down and the temperatures dropped. I started to feel much better. I was only 23 minutes behind my goal pace. Runners started to disappear from the track for the night as they turned in to sleep, but about half of us continued on. I was one of the few runners actually still running.
During the night, I focused on reaching a Personal Recrod for the 100-mile distance. Between 10:00 and 11:00, I found great speed. I clocked several laps under 11 minutes. It was great fun to run that fast and I was getting lots of comments from the others I was passing who were plodding along.
Since this is the short version, let me make it shorter. I reached 100 miles at 19:40. I had beat my PR by three minutes! I was finally ahead of last year’s pace and back on my goal pace. By the 24-hour mark, I had reached a PR of 117.80 miles, more than a mile ahead of last year. I knew that this was a huge number to put up the first day, far more than all the 24-hour runners. In the 48-hour race, Tom Jackson was in 2nd place, nearly 11 miles behind. As we ran with each other, we both thought that lead would hold up. Could I hit 200 miles? I was in great position to do it.
But things started to crumble around me by noon. The heat of the day slammed me. I had also changed into my road shoes, a big mistake because my feet had swelled and the shoes didn’t fit. By the time I changed into my third pair of shoes, some bad blister damage had been done. I used up a lot of time doing foot care for the rest of the race. Kevin was doing great in this 24-hour race and reached PRs for all his distances. At times our pace was about the same and we could run with each other.
For much of the afternoon, I went very slowly and runners around me passed me over and over again asking if I was OK. At about 3 p.m., I stopped at the air-conditioned restroom and ended up just lying on the floor for about 15 minutes trying to bring down my body temperature. As the sun was going down, I concluded that this just wasn’t working right any more. I couldn’t continue doing 18 minute laps and hope to win this race, so I stopped to try to take a nap in my tent. I put in ear plugs and rested for more than an hour. Feeling somewhat better, I hit the track again at 6 p.m.
I now had less than a two-mile lead over Tom. He was going strong, doing sub-15 loops. I had to stop again to do foot care, and finally Tom lapped me again and took the lead at about the 145-mile mark. I knew that it was his race to win now.
I knew my race was just about done. My lap times were going over 20 minutes. At one point I threw up very violently, leaving me with a very sore stomach. This had been about the sixth time I had thrown up. I just couldn’t stand the heat. I had told many runners that I would take the cold rain from last year any day. They would look at me like I was crazy. I also had some terrible knee pain, my ITB. When I would stop at my aid station, it would be terrible to start walking again and would take about ten minutes for me to find a running gear. It was really frustrating.
Drowsiness slammed me. One runner mentioned that I looked like a drunk. I was stumbling along, my head would droop down and I would weave back and forth. My pace was very slow.
Finally at 8:30 p.m., I was finished. I had reached 150 miles and that was fine. I got in my tent and called my wife to say I was done. Kevin was still going strong and hoped to reach 80 miles. I again put in ear plugs and tried to find sleep. It was terribly uncomfortable to be a sweaty mess in my sleeping bag, but I didn’t have the strength to go out and try to wash up. Rest came, and I must have found a little sleep because the hours passed quickly.
Finally at about midnight, I saw a shadow on the tent. Kevin was making another visit. I took out my ear plugs and asked how he was doing. He was slowing and had made a visit to the warming tent. Again just like last year, I quickly decided that it was stupid to quit, so I got up and got ready. It helped that I hated to lie in my sweating mess. It took me a half hour to get ready because I again had to change into yet another pair of shoes and do careful foot taping. The crew next to us was surprised to see me getting ready to leave again. One lady had mentioned to Kevin that she was very worried about, that I looked terrible. Kevin told her not to worry, that it was normal. One major problem was that I caught a cold the day before the race, by Day 2 it had worked its way into my lungs so I was hacking up stuff, making gross noises.
I was back at it and felt 100% better. My stomach was finally OK again and I could run. I soon was running sub-11-minute loops which was a huge difference compared to most of the others plodding along at 20-minute loops. I got lots of compliments. It was super fun and I was so pleased to feel well again. Where was Tom? He wasn’t on the track. Since they didn’t have a leader board, I didn’t know how far ahead he was. Could I catch up to him? Maybe there was still hope. But several laps later, I caught up to him. He had been taking a nap in the warming tent. I was at 157 miles, he was at 172 miles. That was discouraging to here, but we focused on how far Tom could get. He thought he could still get into the 190s. I encouraged him on. There were a couple day-two starters that could catch him, but I told him that in most years if a runner goes over 180 miles, he wins. Tom said I looked much better, that the last time he had seen me I looked very pale. Tom is a doctor, so knows his stuff. We both concluded that I must have had a bad fever.
My motivation and leg pain took a hit and my laps slowed. I knew there was now no hope in getting the win. So I just tried to enjoy the rest of the race and see how many miles I could do. Kevin had turned in, had reached 62 miles, a great effort.
My pace for the rest of the race was better than Tom’s, I did lap him a couple times, but he was solid. As dawn arrived, we ran several laps together. Others came out on the track. Kevin appeared with his clothes ready for a shower. I told him to put that off, come and run several more laps. He did and reached 66. Tom reached 187.95 miles, just a little further than I did last year.
The morning was beautiful and I had great fun talking to other runners and joking with them. My last two lap times were respectable, 15:42 and 14:35. I reached 174.30 miles, very respectable, I’m pleased. Still, only one person older than me had run more miles than that at ATY-48.
That last 24 miles took its toll. My right leg was in rough shape, injured. I had just tried to shut off the pain. It looks like it is a combination of my bad knee, ITB, and very sore upper calf muscles right below the back of the knee. At the airport, Kevin and I were quite the sight. We both could hardly walk. Doing it again, I should have just asked for a wheel chair. I could hardly walk at all, in terrible pain.
Once home, I felt worse than I had after any race. My body had been slammed by heat, miles, and terrible leg pain. 24 hours later I feel much better but still can hardly walk.
Looking back, it was a little disappointing, but I know that any distance above 100 miles is a mystery. Tom was able to handle the heat and sleep deprivation better than me. I’m now convinced that I need to plan for at least a 4-hour rest and just schedule that into my plan. | 