Last year I wrote a piece called ‘another Saturday in hell’. The name was appropriate on several levels. Almost a year passed and I was asked to yet again fill in for someone on the same team in the same race. Nice guy? Glutton for punishment? Wanting to redeem my performance from last year? Ego? Probably 3 out of 4.
I did not know until 4 weeks prior to the race that I would be asked. Maybe I had a feeling. Maybe I was hoping to be asked. Whatever the reason, I spent a good portion of the summer in preparation for the event. For those of you who forgot or didn’t read my riveting story; the event in question is a 100km off-road relay race. Five members to a team so you really only have to run 20k more or less, depending upon how your sections get divvied up.
This year I did things a little differently. I suppose the main thing was building an appropriate amount and type of volume as a foundation. I paid a lot more attention to my heart rate than I have done in years. For my purposes that meant running and other training at a MAF rate for the majority of my sessions. MAF is 180-age. With allowances for illness, old age, and highly trained individuals. This turned out to be a lot harder than I could have imagined. There was a very long period of adaptation until I could train at such a low heart rate. Important to note… not every training session, just most. There were days like two weeks prior to the race when I did a 75 minute trail run at over 2,300m. Steep trails and bagged two summits in the bargain. The HR monitor was redlined and smoking on that one.
The purported benefits of this type of training are numerous and include increased endurance and better recovery. Based primarily on adapting the body to use fat as a fuel source as opposed to sugars. I’m not savvy to all of the science behind it. What I know, is that for me, it seems to work.
Another thing I did this year was to do a lot of trail running. Street and sidewalk running are fine, but they don’t translate near as well. Fortunately I have trails nearby that I can take advantage of.
I tweaked my foot somehow about 10 days prior to the race so I missed a couple of planned runs. Ice, and stretching and wrapping multiple times per day seemed to help. As did, I’m sure not running for a few days. Maybe it was my body telling me to taper sooner.
Finally the big day arrived. We got to the start in the pre-dawn hours, and picked up race packets and did all of those last minute preparations. I was runner 5, and although the race started at 0730, I wasn’t going to be starting my first leg until 1000 or thereabouts. The day started out cool and clear… perfect running weather. Even on my first section the temperature was still perfect. This race draws a pretty big crowd. There were around 337 teams. Some of these people are pretty serious as can be seen by their finishing times. Many are there for the party atmosphere. It is more common than not for teams to have a theme and be decked out in some form of costume. From the sublime to the ridiculous. That being said many of the costumed runners put in some very fast times.
My first leg started well enough. One of my team mates challenged me to beat the sexy girl scouts. What’s that now? Yes, a team of young ladies in Girl Scout miniskirts complete with sashes adorned in ‘merit’ badges, and berets. Apparently they were just ahead of us, and indeed they were as one tagged her partner seconds before I took off. So I had a target in sight, and I was off. I easily passed her within the first kilometer and was feeling pretty chuffed. This was my longest leg at about 9km, so it was important that I pace myself accordingly. I had run this leg last year, so I knew what to expect. It is pretty straight forward on nice trails with a long section in the middle that is on a gravel road. This is exactly where the Girl Scout passed me with a cheery comment and was on her way. Well that sucks. She easily outpaced me and was soon in the distance. Quite demoralizing that. Sure…she looked about 40 years younger than me… but in a Girl Scout costume…really???
Because of the course this year it was not easy to balance, leg length, difficulty, and rest time between sections. This meant that I only had two legs totally about 80 minutes before I was up again. Hydrate and eat, and stay loose.
My next leg was shorter, but much more difficult. But totally in my wheelhouse so to speak. Very steep hills; some not runnable, where hands were needed to scramble up. Dozens upon dozens of logs crossing the trail, and sections where you had to be very careful to follow the flagging lest you get very lost. A runner behind me caught her foot on a root and took a nasty tumble. She executed a great roll and break-fall, and appeared no worse for wear, and didn’t need any assistance. Some did, over the course of the day, and we saw rescuers several times, taking people to the hospital, and other runners who were limping off the course. Two good things about this section: One… I was doing most of the passing; I only got passed maybe once. Two… We managed to get ahead of the Girl Scouts on the last leg, and I was able to maintain our lead on this one.
I was beat, but happy. Now I had a 4 hour rest to contend with. Great for refueling, but I needed to stay limber too. The day was warming up as well. Nice while waiting around of course. Finally my last leg of the day was upon me. What a great section it was too. It was the shortest one of the day for me. Just about 5km with a variety of fields and forest trails. I had some guy on my ass for a few kilometers who wouldn’t pass me and kept yakking the whole time. I was finally able to shake him through one of the hilly areas. This was the second last leg of the day, and by this time runners are pretty spread out, and I was alone for much of it. Nice. There was one lady I ‘met’ about halfway through the section. Yes… met. She was running the wrong way and was asking directions. She had missed a crucial turn at the start where the third last and second last legs ran together for a while. She was running the third last leg and ended up on the second last. Oooops!
I was done! We had one more section to complete, and then the team would be done. This was dispatched in about 40 minutes. All that was left now was well deserved beer and pizza.
We finished in 125th place if you included our age and gender handicaps. Our total time was 10 hours and 59 minutes. Mind you, the winning time was 7:26. At the other end of the scale there were teams that took 5 hours longer than we did!
I never did find out where the Dirty Girl Scouts placed…