APRIL 2024 Monthly Running Challenge

April Goal: 130 Miles

4/1: 3.34 miles
4/2: 6.26 miles
4/3: 6.02 miles
4/4: 6.02 miles
4/7: 13.13 miles
4/8: 3.30 miles
4/9: 6.05 miles
4/11: 6.32 miles
4/12: 6.52 miles
4/14: 10.26 miles
4/15: 3.16 miles

70.38/130 miles completed for April

Today's run was a 3.1 mile recovery run. It was pretty warm already and I was slow. But it was an OK run.

Good job at the gym @quilteryoyo. Sounds like you are getting stronger 💪

6.5 hot sweaty miles this morning.

Great recovery run @kgirlhart .

Great run @tarun_yadavA . A little dirt never hurt anything. I hope the new shoes felt good and will work for you.

Thanks @Scott6255 . Great job on the sweaty miles.

Nice run and very pretty sunrise @Teresa502 .

Went to the doctor for my pacemaker checkup. All went well and the next checkup is in one year.

I saw my friend, P, at the lake early this morning. We ran together for about a mile.

4/1 - 2.14 Miles. Lakefront Park, 36F, Mostly Cloudy. 7:10 am.
4/1 - 1.35 Miles. Up the Hill. 48F Sunny. 12:26 pm.
4/2 - 1.19 MIles. Neighborhood. 40F, Cloudy.
4/4 - 1.35 Miles. Lakefront Park, 36F, Misty Rain.
4/7 - 3.1 Miles. Eclipse 5K, 41F, Sunny.
4/9- 3.04 Miles. Lakefront Park, 43F, Sunny.
4/11 - 3.82 Miles. Lakefront Park, 56F, Cloudy, Some misty rain.
4/12 - 1.07 Miles. Lakefront Park, 62F, Rain.
4/16 - 5.05 Miles. Lakefront Park, 41F, Sunny. Nice morning.

Congratulations @Laurz9191!! That is an awesome PR!
@ContraryMaryMary - looks like a great place to ride and explore. Sorry about the sore bum though!
@tarun_yadavA - love the new shoes!! Please tell me you aren't wearing the orthotics with them. I learned my lesson of no correction on top of correction - it can lead to serious injury.
@Teresa502 - love the views you get on your hikes!
@martaindale - hope the race weekend isn't unbearably hot and you can have fun and enjoy yourself.

I haven't been walking as much as I should be but I haven't felt unto it when I could go and the last couple of days I have appointments preluding getting out. I was able to run agility with Hobbes last night (the entire class) and it was so fun and felt great. S I have just 10.4miles for the month so far.

Sorry for the long delay in posting this, but finally, here's my race report.
My first post attempt exceeded the the maximum number of characters so I'm going to break this into two parts.

Part 1 of 2

Bootlegger 100 Mile (they also had a 50M race, and two 10 mile races, one of which was in the dark)
Dauset Trail System in Jackson Georgia
April 1st, 2024
Weather: 37F to 65F, low humidity, low wind - PERFECT!
Course was configured with two 5 mile loops for a 10 mile total circuit, done ten times.  
49 runners entered for the 100 mile race, 45 runners actually start
32 hour cutoff overall, with a 28 hour cutoff at mile 90

Pre Race


The unfortunately premature end to our camping/fishing trip did have one silver lining...I was able to get PLENTY of sleep in the days leading up to the race, and in a proper bed, not in a tent.  That was gold!  I told my brother not to wake me up and I usually slept until 9:30 AM.
 
The day before the race we first went to he race start/finish/aid station area to get set up.  This year they did something new in allowing the 100 and 50 mile racers early access to set up a base camp at the same time as packet pickup.  This was an excellent idea on their part and would save us valuable time in the morning.  We got their 30 minutes earlier than the setup time because I had a certain spot I really wanted, only to find out that two groups had already entered the area and one took "my" spot.  No problem, there was plenty of space.  It didn't take long.  We just had to set up a pop-up canopy, table and a camp chair.  I still planned on getting to the race early the next day to make sure I could park next to my spot but it was comforting to know that I had my base camp in a prime location.

I did my final grocery shopping, getting bananas, chips, trail mix, mini-bagels, chocolate candy, watermelon, and a few other things I can't recall. That combined with the energy bars, nut bars, cookie dough bites, Nutella wraps and gels I brought from home would make up my "fuel" at my base camp.  In addition, we had a cooler for my homemade TailWind mix, plain water, ice and two celebration beers for after I crossed the finish.

I took the last several hours the day before to slowly go through all my gear, clothes, food, and supplies to try to sort things out in a logical manner.  Things I knew I'd want frequently would be on the top of the table under my canopy.  Things I wanted handy would go below the table.  Things I might need, such as extra shoes, socks, warmer gear, extra gear, hat, gloves, spare bottles, etc, would stay in the back of my rental vehicle, but easily accessible.  I'd also have a camp chair and towels under the my canopy.

I went to bed somewhat early but of course pre-race nerves meant it took me a long time to get to sleep.  My alarm went off at 4:30AM.  My goal was to leave at 5:45 to 6:00 am for the 10 minute drive to the site.  Amazingly, I didn't hit the snooze button on my phone alarm.    Up and at 'em!!   I had avoided coffee for 3 or 4 weeks leading up to the race but with a goal of getting things moving before the race, the first order of business was a half cup of coffee.  I'm happy to report that the coffee did it's job.  Next it was time to tape my feet, nipples and the area where the clip on my HR strap rubs against my side.  The only tape I had was some kinesiology tape, which worked fine for my nips and side, but it was worthless to tape my feet. I tried on my heels and balls of my feet, but it started to come off when putting my socks on so I just ripped it all the way off.  There would be no foot taping for me.  Normally I lube my feet up fairly well but decided to skip most of it this time, lubing up just my heels, toe tips and outside of the two outer toes.  I find that lubing between my toes as I used to do attracts too much sand a grit and becomes an irritant.  I did bring extra strength diaper rash cream (40% Zinc Oxide) for my feet in case it were to rain but with no rain in the forecast, I didn't use it.

All dressed and prepped, I loaded the last couple of bags into my car and headed out to the race, with my brother right behind me.  Thankfully I was able to park right next to my base camp.  I pulled out all my bins and bags and put them just where I wanted them, continued to eat mini-bagels to start the carb feast, and chatted with those around us.  I was actually a lot calmer than I expected.  In spite of my woeful amount of training (no running the last 8 weeks of 2023, and just 370 miles in 2024 prior to the race), my utter lack of strength training, and my failed intentions at more yoga, I felt pretty darn good about it.  

Strategy


Last year my main failure point was clear.  I just got exhausted and couldn't go on after 70 miles and 23 hours.  As I mentioned, my two main strategies to combat that issue this year was better sleep leading up to the race and cutting the caffeine for a few weeks before the race.  As I understand it, you have adenosine receptors in your brain and when you get tired, your body releases adenosine which slows down your nerve activity, making you tired.  Caffeine has similar structure to adenosine and will block adenosine from those receptors so not only are you not slowing down, the caffeine stimulates you.    But, after a long time drinking caffeine, your brain create more and more receptors to compensate.  To get the same stimulation effects you need to drink more and more caffeine.  On the other hand, if you wean yourself off caffeine, in two weeks or so your brain has decreased the number of adenosine receptors.  This was the effect I was going for.  Other than that half cup to start the day, I was going to avoid caffeine until I absolutely needed the boost in the race.  I made sure to separate all my caffeine-laden gels where I couldn't accidently take them early.  I also had several canned cold-brewed coffees at 250mg per can.  

For the performance itself, my strategy was to cut way back on my early effort so I could keep up that effort longer before transitioning to power hiking mode.  I think last year I went out like it was a normal long run and that caught up to me.  This time I would start by hiking for a couple miles to warm up, then hike the up hills, run the down hills, and do 50/50 run/hike on the flats as long as I could.  I would later find out that all that intentional power hike training would serve me well on this race.  One thing I like about long distance racing is that your race pace is actually SLOWER than your training pace.  How cool is that!  

For fueling, I was going to take in 200 calories of my homemade tailwind every 5 mile loop and an 80 calorie gel ever hour on the hour.  This would be supplemented with anything I found I was hungry for either at the aid station or at base camp.  I was aiming for 300 calories per hour but wasn't about to calculate the actual intake.  Just eat as much and as often as I could.

Ready, set, GO!

Finally the time to start is here.  I've been so eager to just get going that the last few days I've been like a kid waiting for Christmas morning.  Well wait no longer!  

I let about 80% of the runners go ahead of me then fall into line towards the back, happy to be slowed down by someone.  At this point I'm simply walking slow but there are those around me so eager they almost running in place.  We've got all day, and night, for that, I'm taking it easy.  We soon get to the single track and its the typical conga line and now we're getting into more of a hurried walk pace.   This goes on for another two miles before I decide to pass those in front of me.  I'm warmed up and ready to chew up some miles.    My first several 5 mile loops went as planned and I was happy with the progress I was making.  At point, about half way through my first 5 mile loop I caught up to the 71 year old runner.  He was plugging away and we enjoyed about a mile of conversation but he was going a bit too slow for me and I had to wish him well and go my own pace.  

The course is a beautiful one, with varied terrain and scenery.  Hills, valleys, rocks, roots, dirt, gravel, pine trees, deciduous trees, it was hard to get bored with the course.  There was just one water crossing and there were several rocks and logs thrown in the stream if you wanted to use them to keep you feet dry.  I elected to slow down and do just that since last year wet feet doomed me to huge blisters from early in the race.  

Somewhere around the 12 mile mark the sun had risen to the point where if I were to run towards it, it was right in my eyes and blinded me.  I decided at that point that any time that happened, I'd quit running and walk carefully to avoid tripping.  Good in theory but as I rounded a curve the sun hit my eyes, I was blinded, and my right foot caught on something...probably a root..and I went flying.  I landed on my forearm, hip and knee.  The hip hurt the most and I thought it might be come an issue later one but within 15 minutes all the pain was gone.  The worst thing about the fall was that it caused a safety pin on my bib to open up and the timing chip, which as loose and also attached to that pin, was lost in the kerfuffle.  From then on, 17 more times, I had to manually tell the timekeepers my bib number and remind them that I didn't have a timing chip.  A minor annoyance, but eventually they remembered me each time and all I had to do was get their attention.

All was going well and my strategy was going as planned until Mile 15ish.  It was then that I was starting to feel what I can only describe as "pressure" coming from my Morton's Neuroma.  It never reached the level of what I would call pain, but for the next 10 to 15 miles, it was on my mind and I was paranoid about a full flare up.  Thankfully, I eventually found myself forgetting about it and at some point it was gone, never to bother me again.

Every time I finished a loop I went through the timing area, into the pavilion where they had the food and looked around to find something I wanted to eat.  Sometime I found something good, sometimes not.  They usually had a main food item for a 6 hour time period, along with the usual cookies, snacks, chips, candy, etc.  The first main item was PB&J sandwiches.  I don't mind them, but peanut butter is not something I want to eat in a race because it would be hard to wash down.  For the first few laps I was grabbing chips, peanut M&Ms and the like.  After that I'd go the 50 feet to my base camp where my brother had my gels laid out, would grab my bottles and refill them, and grab what ever else I wanted.  Quite often I'd forget to grab something before getting back on the trail so I'd stop and quickly text him and he'd have it laying out for the next time around. I have to say, my brother is a fantastic crew.

Later on they had grilled cheese sandwiches, quesadillas, barbecue pork sandwiches, hot dogs, soup, ramen noodles, mash potatoes, and breakfast. Unfortunately the food was a huge disappointment.  They would cook everything all at once then leave it out for the next several hours getting cold.   Cold barbecue is not that great.  Cold hotdogs are not great.  The soup, ramen and potatoes were warm but they really screwed those up too with either nasty soup, undercooked and under seasoned ramen, and pasty dry potatoes.

All was going well until Mile 40.  At this point I was having a sharp pain in my right quad and my left hamstring was on the verge of cramping up.    I'm used to getting muscle cramps so this was not a surprise, and I've learned how to deal with them - stop running and start walking.  Many problems can be solved by slowing down I've found.  So, for the next 10 miles that what I did.  I was hoping to run/walk until dark but this had to be dealt with right away before getting worse.  After 8 or 9 miles the cramping and quad pain started to subside, only to be replaced with lower back pain and a head ache.    The back pain I dealt with by stretching and though it didn't take care of the issue, it did make it manageable.    The headache was a conundrum though.  I had been pounding down the Tailwind and had water with Nuun in my other bottle so I knew I was getting plenty of electrolytes.  In fact, I was worried I was drinking too much.  Normally I might stop to pee once or twice in a race but half way through I had already stopped 4 times and would end up stopping 7 or 8 before the race was over.  So I knew I was getting enough to drink and enough electrolytes, and I turned down any pain killers.  I would just have to tough that part out.  I cant' recall how long that stuck around but I'd guess 10 miles.

Oh, and the chafing...that also started around mile 40.  Mild at first, it got worse until mile 60 when my butt cheeks were enflamed.  Though I kept on reapplying lube (Vaniply) every 10 miles, it didn't help.  It was just something I'd have to block out of my mind for the rest of the race.
I should stop to mention my family at this point.  My wife had asked if I'd be able to receive text during the race and I said yes, but it's highly improbable that I'd ever take the time to respond until after the race.  Well she must of told everyone to send me texts because all day, night and the next morning I was getting text from her, our kids, their girlfriends, and my BIL and his wife.  Every time I got one, even if I couldn't read it at the time, made me smile and lifted my spirits.    That was really nice to have.

You’re amazing @7lenny7, an absolute legend. Sounds like you ran a pretty flawless race - just a few tweaks for next time!

I can’t believe they were packing up the finishing Shute - that is so rude. If anything, more needs to be done for those finishing nearer the cutoff - you’ve been working longer and harder than the speedsters.