No Easy way to say it: DNF mile 36 (37 total, or 60km). Update: not really.

I’ll probably drive out to the course to check on people but my race is over; it was over at about 14 hours last night.

Update I did drive out there, and because the course was still open, the race director let me continue.

I hiked back to to where I had dropped (the night before) and finished the remaining 14 miles. So at 31 plus hours, I have what is probably the slowest non-Barkley 50 miler on record. Or I’ll put it this way, two of my previous 3 one hundred mile finishes were faster than this!
Back to my original post:

The first loop went ok; 2:39 which, looking back on things, was probably too quick for my conditioning and the trail conditions. The first loop saw about a half-dozen very slick muddy spots, and mud for much of the rest of the course, but much of the mud was either “tacky” or “shoe sucking”.

I had a chance to chat with some of the runners and pretty much enjoyed the first 10 mile loop.

Loop two went a bit slower (2:59) but I was still moving forward and enjoyed it.

Then came loop three: the first 5.8 miles were ok, but I was really struggling on the now increasingly slick course. It had rained off and on and it was in the 30-40′s (F) and the whole course was getting slicker by the minute. So, during the last 5K when I slowed to a crawl (about 25 minutes per mile) I got passed dozens of times, so at least I got to see and briefly visit with much of the rest of the field.

I sat by the fire at the start/finish line, and after 35 minutes I found that I could hold down a bit of food, so I ate and tried to start up again. And once again, the first 5 miles went ok (roughly a 4 hour loop pace), though the course had gotten slicker than I’d ever seen it. I fell and slid down a couple of hills on my butt. From seeing some of the other participants, I wasn’t the only one that had happened to!

Still, up to mile 5 I was still visibly moving forward. Then the last couple of “up the bluff” sections finished me off; by the time Bonnie and her psychedelic tights passed me, I was barely moving forward.

I sat in the heaven’s gate aid station for about 30-40 minutes before I decided to drop; that was mile 35.8 and I still needed to hike back to the starting line. But I took the “about 1 mile” short cut.

Oddly enough, this one mile hike was not that bad as these trails were wet, a bit muddy, but no where nearly as slick as the race course. I might have been able to finish that loop with that kind of walking surface.

Lessons: I am no where near ready to do ultras, so I’ll probably not attempt any more of these for a good, long time.

Conditioning wise, I need to lose some weight while building up my legs. My legs are simply too weak to handle this challenge.

My mileage isn’t yet what it needs to be either. In 2004, I did 584 miles in the 10 weeks prior to the McNaughton 50 mile, and that included 7 weeks of 60 miles or more. I also had three “double 20 miler” weekends, and one 30 miler.

This time, I did 441 miles in the same period (75 percent), and that included ONE 60 mile week. Also I got the flu 8 weeks ago, and that really set me back for a couple of weeks and left me weak for a couple of more weeks. I had zero “double 20 miler” weekends and no 30 milers.

Note: I had 75% of my previous mileage, and ended up making 75% of the distance. Go figure.

I know, there are those who can get away with less training. Being that I walk ultras, I need the mileage.

I might drive out to the course to see how the 100 and 150 mile runners are doing. Maybe I can pace a slow moving runner for one loop?

Update: Andy did comment on the number of races that I do. In fact, I probably do need to train more and race less. Where it is true that I see pretty much the same faces at all of the races, maybe racing that much isn’t good for me even if it is good for them. Dr. Andy has some impressive results (21:xx 100 miler, sub 24 Western States) but selects his races wisely.

Second update: here is my race report; his repeats some of what I said above:

Folks, I think that we saw the slowest 50 mile finish ever, at an event not named “Barkley”.

31:xx hours to finish 50 miles. Yes, it is an official finish as the course was open for the 100 milers.

What happened: basically, I didn’t fully recover from the flu until 3-4 weeks ago and didn’t have time to train or taper. Hence, aside from taking a semi-easy week, I kind of “just attempted it”.

I figured that getting in 50 (if possible) would help me with what was going to be my goal race (FANS in June)

The day gave us a ton of mud. True, it was kind of fun seeing the spandex wrapped babes with muddy butts, but hey, I’d rather of had a dryer course.

My first lap was 2:39 which, normally, would be just right (course PR is 12:46). But it was too fast for the muddy conditions and for my undertrained condition. As far as the course, there were 4-5 isolated slick spots; much of the rest of the course was “tacky” mud with a couple of “shoe sucking” section. The highlight of this first loop was my talking to this guy from Chicago (my guess he was Korean due to his accent). He asked me how long I thought it would take for me to finish the course and I said “15 hours”. He gasped: “you are kidding me, right”? He then took off. More on him later.

My second lap took 2:59 and wasn’t that bad. But the course had gotten just a bit slicker; it rained off and on. Still I felt ok.

My third lap: This was the beginning of the end. I started off ok but was tiring quickly. On this lap my “new friend” from Chicago caught and passed me and remarked: “you weren’t kidding about 15 hours, were you?” I said “no” but thought “yes, I was kidding myself to think I can do that”.

I can tell when I am getting tired at McNaughton when I start whining on the first uphill after the bridge (just past the Golf-Heartbreak-Sheridan section). When I am fresh, I don’t notice this uphill. Still I struggled up and was going ok through Heaven’s gate.

The 3 miles of woods after Heaven’s gate was a complete death march; I slowed to a crawl. I took about 1:30-1:45 to cover those 3 miles; just about the entire field passed me by, so it seemed.

I got a few condolences, including one from Julie Berg. By now, the course was a sea of mostly slick, shiny mud.

I walked at a death march pace through the finish line, with about a 4:02 lap, or about 9:40 for mile 30, which is very slow, even for me. I had decided to drop during this last 3 mile stretch.

I sat down by the fire and was asked “are you resting or dropping”. I said “I am making up my mind” and was told “ok, you are resting then”.

Finally, I could eat something (broth and bread) and I felt better. So I took it out again, 35 minutes later.

The first stretch to Golf Hill seemed slow but ok. Yes, the course was terribly slick; slicker than I had ever seen it before.

Going across a field I heard some lady cursing; she apologized and I told her “it is ok; you are just saying what I am thinking”. She had on black tights and had a huge mud splotches on her butt. Her friend took a photo of it and she laughed about being able to fit in her whole butt in the picture. I spoke up: “be nice to your butt; it has taken you a hell of a long way” and kept moving.

I was ok until the Golf-Heartbreak-Sheridan section. Then, half way, I was tired and utterly miserable again; that is where Bonnie Busch passed me and said that I was “a sight for sore eyes”. Her psychedelic tights made me think that I was hallucinating.

It was all I could do to make it to the Heaven’s Gate aid station, where I sat down and was well taken care of. A kind aid station worker (also an ultra runner) wrapped me in blankets. I was cramping up, shivering, and I was barely moving prior to that.

So, I decided to drop and ended up hiking 1 mile (via a short cut) to the start line and turned in my chip.

But after a good night’s sleep, I was ready to return to the course, which was kept open for 34 hours (52 hours from noon Friday, when the 150 milers started).
I got there at 8:30, asked Andy if I could continue and he encouraged me to do so.

So I hiked back to where I had dropped out (Heaven’s Gate) and finished that loop plus one more (3:27).

The course had returned to a pleasant state by then; there were only a few really muddy spots. I saw Julie Berg finishing her race (100), and I walked just a bit with a 100 mile finisher who was in bad shape (limping). I then got passed right at the end by someone I had a mile lead on with 3 miles to go! She was a 150 mile finisher.

I’d like to give a huge thanks to Andy Weinberg who runs a classy event and to all of the crew members who manned the various aid stations: this includes the Buffalo runners who were so kind to me, the Peoria Tri club who manned the Totem pole aid station (and all who are ultra athletes themselves; I noted that Beth Haynes brought out her bike trainer!), and I’d like to thank all who worked so hard on the trail in the weeks prior to this.

I am glad that ya’ll are on this earth.