Going Long (again) in 2024

Had to take 4 days off after that hilly race on Saturday.  Had a massage and lots of foam rolling/stretching, but still feeling it in the right shin and right hammie.

Today was a 'show me' run.  Good news is the right shin pain is mostly gone and I didn't feel it while running.  The right hammie is still very tight and sore to touch and I'll have to keep working on it.  Definitely no hills between now and my next race in 2 weeks.  Glad I'm in taper mode.

Was able to pick up the pace and go a bit further today; 9:23 pace in a light drizzle.  Right hammie and the right quad just above the knee still tight, but improved.

Although still a bit tight in the right quad and hamstring, I managed to go long; 9:25 pace.

Easy run on a beautiful morning; 9:07 pace. Shin ache completely gone and hammies feeling a lot better.

Light rain and warm, at 12C/53F.  9:19 pace.

Strong wind; 9:09 pace.

Potentially bad news received from the race director by email this morning.  The trails for the race in 10 days time are 80% inaccessible, because of that ice storm 5 weeks ago.  They are trying to come up with an alternate route, but things are up in the air.  They will decide by tomorrow if the race will be cancelled.

That ice storm was an event that just keeps on giving!  Drat!

Easy morning run; 9:08 pace.

Good news received:  the race is on!  They had to measure out a new route, and it involves a combination of backroads and some trail, and is only half the required distance for a Backyard Lap.  So, it will mean running 2 loops/hour.  

I'm not sure of how that might play out.  On the one hand, there is familiarity with the course.  On the other, there is sheer boredom.  Also involves a change from running trails to running on road.  Most of my training has been on the road, so that might work out in my favour, even if it's not as scenic a run as it might have been.

No matter - I'm just glad it's a go after 26 weeks of training.

Easy run; 9:15 pace.

Easy run.  Beautiful morning.  No need for gloves or jacket.  9:04 pace.

Shakeout run; 9:12 pace.

Just a few days until the Backyard.  Still no idea what the new route will be like, or how much of it will be on trails vs roads.  I guess I'll find out when I get there.  I'll bring a variety of shoe options, just in case.

I set up my new tent yesterday to make sure I had that down.  I bought one that I can walk into, so I don't have to bend down or crawl.  I'll have a cot, table and chair set up in there, along with all my food and drink.

It looks like it might rain at least part of the time during the race, but that is much less of an issue if I'm running mostly on roads.  We'll see.

Temperatures look decent:  10C/50F at the start, up to 21C/70F during the day, and down to 8C/46F for the overnight.

Last shakeout run before the race; 9:20 pace.

I'm leaving this afternoon.  It's a bit more than a 4 hour drive to Bobcaygeon, where I'll be staying tonight.  From there, it's just a 35 minute drive to Lindsay, where the race takes place at the Ken Reid Conservation Area.  9am start on Saturday; 9am finish on Sunday.

I'm feeling mostly okay going into the race.  The only physical issue is that ongoing tightness in my right quad, just above the knee.  It seems to feel better as I run further, so I'm hopeful it won't be a problem.

This was my first Backyard Ultra experience.  It took place in Lindsay, about a 4 hour drive from home, in a conservation area outside of town on the shores of a lake.  This was one of the areas hit hard by the ice storm last month, and the race was up in the air as recently as the Thursday before.  They decided to go ahead with a modified course.

The modified course incorporated some dirt roads.  The closed course was all trail.  It was impassable because of all the downed trees.  The new course was about 60% back road and 40% trail.  There was a significant thunderstorm the night before and a lot of rain, so the course was wet, with a lot of puddles on the road sections.  The old course measured a standard backyard loop of 4.16 miles.  This one was half that distance, which meant running 2 laps for one "loop".

There were 3 events run simultaneously:  6 hour and 12 hour continuous events, with a goal of running as many laps as possible in the given timeframe, and my 24 hour event run with the Backyard format:  you had one hour to complete each yard (two loops in this case), after which you waited until the next hour to begin again.  There were 47 total runners, with 15 in my event.

We started at 9am on Saturday morning.  It was comfortable at about 10C/50F, but with very high humidity.  I kept a slow and relatively even pace, running an 11:30/mile pace throughout most of the day.  That gave me 13-14 minutes between laps to rest, refuel, etc.  I had a tent set up with a chair inside, as well as all my supplies.

In the early afternoon, a severe thunderstorm hit.  They pulled everyone off the course, or at least tried to.  They basically had to wait until a runner finished their lap before they could pull them.  I was pulled as I finished the first half of a loop, which was basically just after the rain and lightening started.  I hunkered down in my tent for almost a half hour while the rain and lightening and wind roared through.  It was pretty intense.  After that, they decided to reset the clock so that we were running a half hour behind, meaning my race would go until 9:30 Sunday morning.

It had been pretty warm up until then, or at least felt that way.  It hit 18C/64F with very high humidity just before the thunderstorm, but now things started to change.  The temperature began to fall, and the rain was pretty much continuous from late afternoon on.  The course was a real mess, or at least most of it was.  The trail sections were decent enough, except for the grassy parts that turned to mud.  The road sections were a maze of puddles that you had to either dodge or run through.  In some cases, you had no choice but to run through, because they completely covered the road.

At 3:30 the 6 Hour runners were finished.  Around that time, I took to putting on a rain jacket at the end of each lap, as I was getting a chill.  I would run with it for about 10 minutes, until I was walking up a big hill, and then tie it around my waist until the end of the yard.  At that point, when I stopped running, I would get a chill again.  

The course was relatively flat, but had 6 hills/loop that I walked.  A few runners ran even those hills, but most of us walked them.   It never felt crowded, even at the start of each yard, as we pretty much figured out where we should be in the pack before we hit the first single track trail.  After that first section of trail, our pack thinned out and everyone basically ran their own pace.

After 11 hours, it started to get dark in the forested section of trail, so I put on my headlamp.  It worked well for the balance of my event.  A few hours before their event ended, most of the 12 hour runners had dropped out; there were only 3 or 4 left running until 9:30pm.  By then, it was cold and windy, and the rain was relentless.  I had been keeping my rain jacket on now for several hours, mostly to try to keep warm.  At the start of lap 12, we were down to just 7 runners in my event.  I was really surprised by that, as there were some really strong runners that had dropped out by then.

My pace was really beginning to slow now, and I was slipping all the time.  I never fell, fortunately, but I did come close a few times.  My brain was really playing games with me, and I made it to the end of the lap with just 2 minutes to spare.  Setting out on the 13th lap, there were now just 5 of us.  I struggled to finish, but decided to run two more yards in order to reach 60 miles/100km.  As it turned out, I could only make it through the first half of that 15th yard.  That gave me just over 60 miles; just under 100 km.  But I was done.  I was shivering uncontrollably and just had to get dry and warm.  I wasn't prepared for the cold and wet that would continue all night.  So, a little bit after Midnight, I was out.

I didn't have much in my tent to help me warm up, as I didn't plan on dropping out.  I dried off and put on the clothes I had for driving home, and found an old blacket in the back of my car that I pulled over my head as I tried to sleep in my chair until daybreak.  I listened to the announcements at the start and end of each yard.  2 other runners dropped out on the 16th yard, so only 2 runners remained:  one the shirtless guy.  He ran the entire event with no shirt.  Crazy.  Everyone said so!  And a woman who was in the tent next to mine.  There were 2 women sharing that tent.  I figured one of them would finish, as she looked really strong.  She didn't.  Her friend, who looked like an average middle of the pack runner like me, ended up being there until the end.

After Midnight, every time she finished, she said she was done.  But her friend talked her into one more lap.  At 4:30am, I heard her tell the organizers that she was dropping out.  They congratulated her on running further than any other woman in the event's history.  Hearing that, she decided to keep running!  I started packing up after the 2 runners started their 22nd lap at 6:30am.  The shirtless guy had just put on a shirt.  Amazing.  It was SO cold, and the night was nasty.  Fortunately, the rain stopped in time for me to pack up.

I would have liked to have stayed until 9:30 to watch the end, but I still had a long drive home, and I really needed to get into a warm car, and I didn't want to get wet again.  So, I left.  I presume those 2 finished, but I have not seen any results yet to indicate that.  The drive home was uneventful; I stopped a few times to walk around.

EDIT:  Got the results.  The woman dropped out after her 22nd lap.  The only one to finish the 24 laps was the shirtless guy.  And even he had to put a shirt on in the end.  So, just one runner of 15 made it.  Says a lot about the weather that weekend.

No real physical problems.  A few blisters on my feet, and the normal soreness you would expect after a 60 mile event, but no injuries or anything else that will need to heal.  I'll take this week off and then start to run again.  I think I may still run the Sudbury Backyard in October, but I'm also thinking that it may be my last long Ultra event.  I enjoy running, but I am finding I do not really think it fun anymore to run longer distances in extreme weather.  I think I'm getting too old to handle that.

Easy 9:19 pace.  Had hoped to run a few times earlier this week, but too many things got in the way.  My nephew died suddenly on Tuesday; I'm off to celebrate his funeral right now.  

9:21 easy pace on a gorgeous morning.  Legs are still heavy, and that right quad, just above the knee is still tender, but a good run.

9:33 pace for this easy run.  Another gorgeous day.

A bit faster 8:56 pace with a couple of strides thrown in.

9:10 pace on a cooler morning with a bit of fog.

First speedwork in over 11 weeks.

5 x 400's with 400 recoveries.

Just went by feel; splits ended up being at mile pace of 7:16, 7:01, 6:55. 6:50 and 6:40.

Legs are finally starting to feel like they have a bit of bounce in them.  They have been dead since the race.