Old Man Still running

I'm getting very mentally ready for Across the Years 48-hour run. Just three days to go! I've worked on my race strategy.  Two approaches, steady pace, vs. fast start and then slower later.   I've read reports and looked at splits of the best in the sport and decided to stick with the approach I usually use, run fast, bank the miles, and then hold on.  For me, if I start slowly, I tend to stay slow, and then later on just go even slower, losing the hope for a dream race.

So, I've worked on a pacing strategy that tracks each 10K.  For each 10K, I can decrease my pace by 2 minutes. My dream goal is 170 miles.  My ultra dream goal is 200.  So the pace chart zeros in on the ultra dream goal and we will see how I do.  When I ran Pony Express 100 in October I was ahead of this pace until about the 50-mile mark when the heat was slamming me.  Good news!  No heat at ATY.  A cold front is coming in.  High temp will be 62 and low of 27.  Some chance of rain.  This is ideal for me.  At night runners will slow down because of the cold. I need to use all my cold night training and keep the pace going.

There will be a few world-class runners starting on the same day as I am.  It will be fun to try to keep up with them for awhile.

I'll focus on my lap times.   Each lap is 500 meters (or 1/2 K). I'll try to keep my lap times under 4 minutes for the first 75 miles, and then under 5 minutes for the next 60 miles.  The only time I should go over 6 minutes is when I need to stop for some reason (bathroom, clothes change, short rest, etc.)

In 2010, my lap times went way down during the night.  I didn't dress warm enough and got very drowsy.

In 2008, I ran the ATY 24-hour race.  You can see how I did then against my 2010 pace goals.

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Kilos	Miles	Lap #	elapsed	clock	lap times	mile pace	2008
10K	6.21	20	0:56:00	9:56 AM	0:02:48	0:09:01	0:50:52
20K	12.43	40	1:54:00	10:54 AM	0:02:54	0:09:20	1:47:26
30K	18.64	60	2:54:00	11:54 AM	0:03:00	0:09:39	2:45:17
40K	24.85	80	3:56:00	12:56 PM	0:03:06	0:09:59	3:54:15
50K	31.07	100	5:00:00	2:00 PM	0:03:12	0:10:18	5:02:09
60K	37.28	120	6:08:00	3:08 PM	0:03:24	0:10:57	6:23:55
70K	43.50	140	7:18:00	4:18 PM	0:03:30	0:11:16	7:39:11
80K	49.71	160	8:30:00	5:30 PM	0:03:36	0:11:35	8:56:32
90K	55.92	180	9:44:00	6:44 PM	0:03:42	0:11:55	10:14:54
100K	62.14	200	11:00:00	8:00 PM	0:03:48	0:12:14	11:54:06
110K	68.35	220	12:18:00	9:18 PM	0:03:54	0:12:33	13:21:38
120K	74.56	240	13:38:00	10:38 PM	0:04:00	0:12:52	14:57:09
130K	80.78	260	15:00:00	12:00 AM	0:04:06	0:13:12	16:42:14
140K	86.99	280	16:24:00	1:24 AM	0:04:12	0:13:31	18:56:24
150K	93.21	300	17:50:00	2:50 AM	0:04:18	0:13:50	20:48:14
160K	99.42	320	19:18:00	4:18 AM	0:04:24	0:14:10	22:37:59
170K	105.63	340	20:48:00	5:48 AM	0:04:30	0:14:29	23:59:12
180K	111.85	360	22:20:00	7:20 AM	0:04:36	0:14:48
190K	118.06	380	23:54:00	8:54 AM	0:04:42	0:15:08
200K	124.27	400	25:30:00	10:30 AM	0:04:48	0:15:27
210K	130.49	420	27:08:00	12:08 PM	0:04:54	0:15:46
220K	136.70	440	28:48:00	1:48 PM	0:05:00	0:16:06
230K	142.92	460	30:30:00	3:30 PM	0:05:06	0:16:25
240K	149.13	480	32:14:00	5:14 PM	0:05:12	0:16:44
250K	155.34	500	34:00:00	7:00 PM	0:05:18	0:17:04
260K	161.56	520	35:48:00	8:48 PM	0:05:24	0:17:23
270K	167.77	540	37:38:00	10:38 PM	0:05:30	0:17:42
280K	173.98	560	39:30:00	12:30 AM	0:05:36	0:18:01
290K	180.20	580	41:24:00	2:24 AM	0:05:42	0:18:21
300K	186.41	600	43:20:00	4:20 AM	0:05:48	0:18:40

My son and I ended up driving all the way down to Arizona yesterday, ariving at 10:15 p.m. Now I'll have the entire day to relax, get set up and focused.  The weather will be fantastic today but could rain all day tomorrow.  The weather will be a huge factor, it will seperate the tough from the wimps.  I hope I'm not with the wimps.  I have plenty of rain gear, tarps, etc. I just worry about the shoes because I know the Hokas don't do well when they become very wet.  But I have four other backup pair of shoes.  On Thursday, the rain goes away, but the cold comes in.  Over night, the temperature could dip to 25.  I have penty of cold weather gear too.   Cold could really slow people down.  This could be the coldest ATY race in years.   So, the elements will be a major factor and this could be an epic race.  I think I'm prepared.

Race time is 9 a.m. on Wednesday.  Track me online at http://www.acrosstheyears.com/ They will have realtime results showing my pace for each 1/2 K lap.  They will also have a webcam.  During the first day I should be wearing a yellow shirt.  But when in rains, I could put on a garbage bag first.  If it pours, I'll switch to rain gear.   You can send me messages that get printed out every couple hours.  Short messages that get my mind off of the pain are great.  I don't plan to have down time to sit and read essays, but my son can run along with me reading them.  Even at night, messages can be fun.  Just knowing that someone is watching me helps motivate me to not be a slacker.

p.m.  Wonderful walk in the warm sunshine.

 Detailed race report here

Had the race of my life this week.  I'll do a detailed race report tomorrow.  I started fast, held a lead for all the races for awile and held the 48-hour race lead until the second night when I thought I had given up at mile 160, at 11 a.m. and went to bed for four hours.  But a 3 a.m. I got up, discovered I was behind Debra Horn by 10 laps (5K).  She had a good trot going, but I still had a very fast running gear, so the race was on.  A guy looking at the standings board smiled broadly when he saw me show up.  All I said to him, was: "The chase is on!"  Others gathered around the board to watch the fun.  For the next 1:53, I ran very hard and eventually passed Debra.  All she said was "good job."  After that, she put on a great fight with her crew to try to get back the lead for the next couple hours.  I ran scared because she is a terrific runner, on the US National 24-hour team.  But I pushed my lead bigger and bigger and eventually just ran behind her for many laps, keeping her in my sights so she couldn't surprise me with a chase. I could tell that her crew wasn't very happy about the turn of events.  Soon she gave up the fight and I slowed to walk with all my new friends and accept their kind complements.  For the last two laps, I still had amazing speed and finished off strong with 187 miles.

I didn't expect to win.  World-class runner, Philip McCarthy was in the second group and finished the first 24 hours with almost 116 miles, must a half mile behind what I did on the first day.  But he had medical issues and didn't run day two.  Two other runners could catch me, but it looks like the cold night is taking its toll and they are fading, so I might have the win.

I PRed at distances 50K, 50-mile, 100K, and 100-mile.  Wish they would have published the first day split times.  My 100-mile time was about 19:42.  Finally broke 20 hours.

Recovering nicely.  Feels like a typical 100-miler recovery. Not much appetite yet, but I can force down some food. I'm still stunned that I put in 187 miles. And acually it was a couple more than that.  The Garmen showed more miles, probably due to weaving around and not cutting all the corners close. The miles went by fast and at the finish I could have kept going.  Ended the month with 475 miles, my top month ever and finished the year with 3,479, my most miles in a calendar year.