Race review: Flatlanders 12 Hour Run

ENOUGH WITH THE SMALL TALK. HOW'D IT GO?
I met my bare-minimum goal, rounding the 1.4-mile loop 36 times for a total of 50.4 miles. I was so worn out I sat down for the third and final time with almost 2 hours left on the clock.

DID YOU WIN?
Of course not, but having never gone past 50K before, I shouldn't have expected to. I was right in the middle, 17th of 33 entrants. If I had tried to shuffle along until the end, I might've moved up another 5 spots, but I didn't.

HOW'D THAT HAPPEN?
My plan was to jog along at my comfortable training pace until I couldn't anywhere, and then just fight for whatever miles I could after that. As I later learned, this was a ridiculous plan.

After starting in the middle of the pack, I scooted around a few folks and found myself behind just one other runner barely half a mile into the race. I didn't know if the leader was in the 6-hour race or the 12, but I thought it'd be pretty cool to take the lead, so I did. I was running easily, so I figured there was no harm in it.

I kept the lead for another lap... and a couple more... and a few more after that. I wasn't wearing my Garmin and I was keeping only rough track of my lap times, but I was in the neighborhood of 8:00 miles -- less than a minute slower than marathon pace and much faster than I'd been running around the neighborhood to build aerobic endurance. I'd been amped for this race; clearly too much so.

On lap 10 or so one of the 6-hour leaders ran by me and remarked that I'd have a course record in the bag if I kept up my pace. A few people I'd lapped made similar remarks. But it was near the end of lap 12 that I got my 15 seconds of fame.

I'd spotted last year's winner motoring along the one long straightaway on the course. Much as I figured it would be neat to take the lead, I thought it would be very cool to lap this guy. And so I did, passing him just as we crossed the start/finish line. I heard a few murmurs from the lap counters' tent. I considered that my formal introduction.

Of course, he'd have the last laugh, as he would pass me back, and then continue to pass me, repeatedly, until he walked off with another win. As the day wore on it became very apparent that I had been that guy, the one who goes flying off at the start of a race (relatively speaking) only to crash and burn. Before the day was half over, I had reached into my container of goodies and pulled out a lacrosse ball to run over my hamstrings, quads and IT bands to work out the fatigue. As the 6-hour racers wrapped things up, I crossed the line for the 21st time to mark 35 miles.

At 42 miles I sat down for the first time. I wanted to call it a day. I couldn't run anymore thanks to tendinitis in my shins. All the muscular issues from before, I could work out, but this kind of pain could only be relieved by stopping. I was upset with myself that I couldn't get to 50 miles; even though I'd never come close to running that far I figured surely I could stick it out to there. After 15 minutes or so on the ground, I got up and started walking.

I finished 5 more laps to get to 49 miles and told my lap counter I had one more lap in me... but let me sit down for another few minutes first. After resting for 15 more minutes and hobbling another 1.4 miles, I brushed off the volunteers' pleas to keep going and took my shoes off. It wasn't the 70-some miles I'd allowed myself to think I might be capable of, but it was certainly respectable.

WHAT ELSE?
The great thing about a fixed-time event on a loop course is that you can break the cardinal rule of racing: doing something for the first time on race day. And I did this, many times, really without much trouble.

I planned to take in 250 calories per hour. I never do this during training runs, so this was an experiment. After each odd-numbered hour, I downed whatever the Kroger version of strawberry Ensure is called. The other hours were a mix of Gu, coconut water, protein shakes and granola bars. I had no real digestive issues to speak of.

I started the race carrying Nuun in my handheld bottle, trying to make sure I got a good start with getting salt in me. After a couple bottles of that, I went mostly with water, mixing in Gatorade and soda here and there. Judging by the fact that I didn't pee until an hour after I'd quit running, and by the brief bout of nausea that hit on my way back to the hotel, I could've used both more salt and more fluids throughout the day.

Except for pre-race preparations, I ditched the Body Glide and went with Aquaphor for all my critical areas. Thanks to timely (but not terribly frequent) re-applications, I got through the day with nary a chafe. I had no blisters either; I credit the toe socks for that. In hindsight, I definitely could've gone with my compression shorts and socks. The latter don't prevent blisters for me so I'll have to try out the Ijinji liners with them.

Aside from all those intricacies, I enjoyed the feel of this small club race. There were just 66 entrants in the two events combined. I'm not the most social animal but I struck up conversations with a few folks along the way -- you really can't help it when these few faces are the only ones you see for so long.

SPLITS?
N/A

OK, WHAT ABOUT THE REAL REASON WE ALL RUN, THE STUFF?
The St. Louis Ultrarunners Group uses this race as an annual fundraiser for the Muscular Dystrophy Association, so I didn't expect to be showered in goodies. We all got a blaze orange cotton T-shirt, and everyone who finished at least 26.2 miles got a medal:

WHAT'S NEXT?
Tyler Rose Marathon, Oct. 9.

Race preview: Flatlanders 12 Hour Run

WHERE ARE WE GOING?
Fenton, Mo.

WHEN?
Sunday, September 4

WHY?
Flatlanders 12 Hour Run

NO REALLY, WHY?
I took my last swing at qualifying for Boston, I sorta made it, and now I'm on to other things. Some folks I work with -- even fellow runners -- have asked me why I would want to run for 12 hours. That they would ask why is a large part of why.

WHO ELSE IS GOING?
Only about another 40 folks, mostly members of the St. Louis Ultrarunners Group (SLUGs).

WHAT'S THE FORECAST?
Looks like upper 60s at the start warming to upper 80s in the afternoon. Warm, yes, but I've been logging miles at least in the upper 80s for many weeks. If I encounter any trouble, it shouldn't be because of the weather.

HOW DO WE WIN?
I don't have a true upper-limit goal for this event. There are some numbers I have in mind but I need to consider I've never gone past 31 miles so this will be a record by (hopefully) quite a long way. I can say that I'd be very upset if I wasn't safely past 50. I could hit that with barely above a walk, so all I really need to do is drop everything to prevent chafing, and keep moving forward.

Race review: The Hottest Half

ENOUGH WITH THE SMALL TALK. HOW'D IT GO?
This was my slowest half marathon in 15 attempts. I set a reasonable goal and came up plenty short, easing to a 1:42:08. Yes it was hot, but it was also hot at Too Hot to Handle and I managed to be 3 minutes faster through 15K there. I think I have to blame this on disinterest; I had been looking past this race to my next one for weeks. If this were college football, you could say I was looking ahead to the Texas game and lost to Baylor.

DID YOU WIN?
Not at all, although my placing looked respectable: 75th of 1379 overall, 16th of 138 in my age group.

HOW'D THAT HAPPEN?
I started slow, very slow. A little past half a mile in, we split from the 10K runners and headed over the footbridge along Mockingbird. Nothing will deaden your stride more than trying to bounce along that bridge with several hundred other people at the same time. One step comes up short and feels like you stepped in quicksand. The next step goes long and you try not to fall over.

I found my stride for a little bit after that, but I could tell my pace was getting away from me. I hardly looked at my watch -- maybe this was why -- until mile 11 or so, just to see if I still had a shot at 1:40 (I didn't). There's really not much else to say; I just plain didn't run as fast as I should've been able to.

WHAT ELSE?
In rapid succession between about 6.25 and 7.25 miles, I crossed paths with three dailymile friends and a co-worker. Judging by the trend in my splits, those friendly faces gave me about a 15-second boost, so go make some friends out there!

Aside from my time goal, I wanted to finish first again among the participants in the Four Seasons Challenge. Those results aren't yet posted, so we'll see. I know there was one guy who beat me, but he didn't run the Texas Half so we really shouldn't count him.

SPLITS?
7:28
7:14
7:11
7:29
7:30
7:37
7:25
7:39
7:59
8:12
8:00
8:14
8:24
7:40 pace last .22

OK, WHAT ABOUT THE REAL REASON WE ALL RUN, THE STUFF?
I like the red tech shirt, but as with Too Hot to Handle, if you're using the heat to sell your race, you really ought to go with a tank. It's just more appropriate.

The medal is not bad, though turning this into a bottle opener would've really been going the extra mile:

WHAT'S NEXT?
Flatlanders 12-Hour, Fenton, MO, Sept. 4.

Schedule changes

There's been more upheaval in my running schedule, the greatest of which has nothing to do with running. A couple months ago, a thunderstorm induced a power outage that zapped my PC and took with it my entire music collection, a bunch of pictures and, most importantly for purposes of this blog, my notes on upcoming races. My whole daily training schedule was wiped out, along with the ideas of what races I'd be running for the rest of this year and next.

There's a chance I might be able to revive the machine long enough to get everything moved to an external hard drive and then be done with it. For now, let's focus on the running.

Among other things in the last couple months since I posted my schedule, my 50-mile debut along the Katy Trail was canceled because of Missouri River flooding, so I replaced it with a similar race in the same part of the world (although I'll somewhat spoil the preview by saying I'll be very disappointed if I only cover 50 miles). The New Year's Double convinced me to dump Bandera from the schedule, which may have been a wise move anyway given my trail experience.

I have one more slot to fill for 2012, and given that I've scratched two ultras from the calendar, you can be sure that last spot will be an ultra. But the schedule as constructed doesn't leave a really good space to put one, so if I were you I'd expect to see a pretty good rearrangement of things in the back half of next year.

*8/14/11 The Hottest Half, Dallas
*9/4/11 Flatlanders 12-Hour, Fenton MO
*9/10/11 Katy Trail 50, Boonville MO
*10/9/11 Tyler Rose Marathon
*10/23/11 13.1 Dallas
*11/13/11 Rock 'n' Roll San Antonio Marathon
12/3/11 Run Like The Wind 24-Hour, Austin TX
12/31/11 New Year's Eve Marathon, Allen TX
1/1/12 New Year's Day Marathon, Allen TX
1/7/12 Bandera 100K
1/29/12 Miracle Match Marathon, Waco TX
2/10/12 Rouge-Orleans (126.2 miles), Baton Rouge to New Orleans
2/25/12 Mount Cheaha 50K, Oxford AL
3/17/12 Dash Down Greenville (5K), Dallas
4/16/12 Boston Marathon (or 4/15/12, Austin 10/20 (10-mile))
5/13/12 North Trail HM, Dallas
6/2/12 Old Dominion 100, Woodstock VA
6/17/12 Dadfest (5K), Dallas
7/4/12 Liberty 10K, The Colony TX
7/15/12 El Scorcho 50K, Fort Worth TX
8/4/12 Headlands Hundred, Sausalito CA
9/3/12 Labor Day 15K, Dallas
9/15/12 Tour des Fleurs 20K, Dallas
9/23/12 Heels & Hills & Him HM, Irving TX
10/6/12 Heartland 100, Cassoday KS
10/21/12 Waterworks 25K, Dallas
11/4/12 DRC Half, Dallas
11/18/12 Big D 30K
12/2/12 Rock 'n' Roll Las Vegas Marathon
12/15/12 Jog'r Egg Nog'r 15K, Dallas

Race preview: The Hottest Half

WHERE ARE WE GOING?
Dallas

WHEN?
Sunday, August 14

WHY?
The Hottest Half

NO REALLY, WHY?
This is the third leg of the Four Seasons Half Marathon Challenge. I beat all the other Challenge entrants at the Texas Half, and all of them who ran the full at Big D. So my sweep is on the line.

WHO ELSE IS GOING?
Mellew says 1600 in the half and 900 in the 10K.

WHAT'S THE FORECAST?
I said Too Hot to Handle would be hotter than Mila Kunis baking a pie in her underwear. This might make that look like Kathy Bates instead. Consider that I keep the thermostat at 78, and it hasn't been 78 since June 30.

HOW DO WE WIN?
I don't expect to come within 10 minutes of a PR; I'm just hoping not to fade too miserably toward the end. Oh, and keeping my Challenge streak going would be good too.

Race review: Too Hot to Handle 15K

ENOUGH WITH THE SMALL TALK. HOW'D IT GO?
I wilted over the final 5K but still managed a 1:07:13, well below my goal and within 4:15 of a PR I strung together in weather about 40 degrees cooler. On a normal January day this might've gone under 1:02.

DID YOU WIN?
No, this being the big event that it is, plenty of speed demons were out. I was 11th of 77 in my age group and 48th of 1007 overall.

HOW'D THAT HAPPEN?
I got off the train at White Rock Station at 7:03, downed my pre-race caffeine and started jogging down Northwest Highway to warm up. I began to perceive this impending... intestinal requirement, whose needs were going to surpass by great lengths anything in the athletic realm. Fortunately there's a lone port-a-potty at the foot of Flagpole Hill, of which I was able to avail myself.

A little more jogging got me to Norbuck Park, where I then needed to empty out the front end. When all was said and done, it was 7:27 by the time I was settled in behind the starting line. I wasn't pouring sweat yet, but I was close.

Having started 24 seconds off the line, the first couple miles gave me plenty of chances to pass folks. I tried running at a pace I was comfortable with, just a little slower than what I might've been capable of in cooler conditions. I hit the 5K mat in 21:18. It was faster than I knew I could sustain, but I wasn't worried. All I needed was to beat 1:09 and I'd be happy.

As I neared the turnaround, a group of us encountered that most evil of White Rock denizens, the cyclist who won't cede her ground because YOU are on the wrong damn side of the trail. Look, I know the trail is open to everyone and you're just out there trying to enjoy a nice ride, but let's be reasonable here. We're in a RACE. We're trying to get from here to there as fast as possible within the rules, and the rules are such that the shortest route includes taking all the tangents. If it's that big a deal to you, it's very easy to find out if there is an event going on at the lake and avoid it. As this woman growled at us running by, it's possible I said something rude. Possible.

My second 5K took 22:48, but I was already starting to ease up before I got to the mat. Somewhere around mile 6.5 I remembered that I had a GU in my pocket. I don't know if would've helped any if I'd eaten it 2 miles earlier, but by this point it was definitely way too late. I kept pushing, barely keeping it together until another runner edged by me coming down the stretch. I misstepped and almost bit it less than 100 yards from the finish, but caught myself and zoomed across the line. The last 5K split was 23:30.

WHAT ELSE?
A couple spots along the course had sprayers rigged up to shower you as you passed. It was a nice thought, but the problem was that at least one of them was unavoidable unless you ran off the pavement. Something like that needs to be optional; I like being cooled off but I don't exactly dig getting sprayed in the eyes.

On the other hand, as we crossed the finish line, before we got to water or Powerade or bananas or anything else, volunteers handed us each a hand towel plucked from a tub of ice water. Draping that towel across my shoulders felt just fantastic. A brilliant idea.

SPLITS?
6:40
6:51
6:55
6:58
7:04
7:08
7:39
7:42
7:42
6:49 pace last .37

OK, WHAT ABOUT THE REAL REASON WE ALL RUN, THE STUFF?
The selling point of the race is that it offers some of the best goods of anyone, but I gave this year's premiums a lukewarm reaction. The red running hat is stylish, certainly, but the choice of a muscle shirt over a tank was not well-received. For guys like me who must run shirted, something like the tank given out a couple years back is ideal for the summer. It's a nominal reduction in fabric, sure, but it's still less.

WHAT'S NEXT?
The Hottest Half, Dallas, Aug. 14.

Race preview: Too Hot to Handle 15K

WHERE ARE WE GOING?
Dallas

WHEN?
Sunday, July 10

WHY?
Too Hot to Handle 15K

NO REALLY, WHY?
It's something to do. If I have to go all summer just slogging out 90-degree, 20-plus-mile long runs every Sunday, I'll go nuts.

WHO ELSE IS GOING?
The 15K and 5K together ought to come pretty close to the 3,000-runner cap, with about half in each event.

WHAT'S THE FORECAST?
Hot... hotter than Mila Kunis baking a pie in her underwear.

HOW DO WE WIN?
I can compare this to the 15K I ran in Sherman last September in roughly equal miserable conditions. That course was tougher and I faded significantly to a 1:10:39 finish. I think anything starting with 1:08 will make me happy.