The Grindstone 100 went very smoothly. There were no major problems, and I managed
to hit my “A” goal of finishing under 24 hours (“B” goal was finishing before
dark, and “C” was of course just finishing).
So much can happen over 100 miles that lots of it gets
chalked up to luck, but I managed to avoid some of the stupid mistakes I have
made in past races. Before the race
David Horton, ultrarunning legend, always tells the field “don’t do anything
stupid.” I took this to heart and tried
to run smart and error-free. Every race
is a different, and I believe that every person is an experiment of one, but
here are some takeaways that may help others in future races. At the least this should be a good reminder
for me in the future to continue to not do stupid things!
Pre-Race
Since I got into the race 1.5 weeks before the start date, I
had no time for my usual panic & overtraining. I had plenty of time to be terrified, but no
time to doing anything about it!
My last long run was 30 miles in Asheville 3 weeks out. I had a really long 11+ hour day 5 weeks out
in the Sardona Ultra. I did not second
guess my training, and I didn’t try to cram in last minute long runs. This was more of a “hope and pray” scenario.
As a result I got to the start line healthy and very
rested. I had trained hard all summer
but relaxed
for the 3 weeks beforehand. I
certainly do not advocate jumping into 100s at the last minute and will not count
on this as a successful strategy in the future, but this should serve as a
reminder to have confidence in your fitness and focus on getting rested before
the big day.
Pacing
In the 100s I DNFed I think I just went out too fast. The only pace I had in mind was the pace required
to finish in 25.5 hours and daylight. I
knew this was extremely doable and within my fitness, so I focused my mindset
on going out at the “all-day pace.”
I summited the first 4K foot climb feeling like I had not
done anything. I was running the pace I
felt like I could sustain forever. 100
miles is a long way, and this is the only pace you should be running.
Nutrition
Nutrition is wildly
different for everyone, but I’ve come away from Grindstone thinking my mistake
in some past races has been too little solid food and not eating often
enough.
I had my first solid food 2 hours into the race (after
having two gels). I ate every 30 minutes
for the rest of the race with tons of solid food. On the trail it was almost entirely water and
solid food, and the aid stations were soda, soup, and solid food. Because I kept a constant stream of calories
going I had good energy levels, never felt too full, and didn’t have stomach
problems. I was eating in relatively
small quantities(1/4 PB&J while walking out of aid, 6 grapes 25 minutes
later, nature valley bar 30 minutes after that, etc.), but it was more than
enough.
I also no longer believe in sticking to a regular schedule
with S-caps. With cooler temperatures
and lots of salty foods, I simply didn’t need more electrolytes for a long
time. Had I tried taking one per hour, I
think I easily could have overdone it and caused stomach issues I’ve had in the
past. I didn’t have a single S-cap until
62 miles in. Granted I think I waited
too long, but after taking 3 over a 30 minute period, I snapped out of it very
quickly.
Night-Time Running
I was terrified of having to run
throughout the entire night. I had
visions of falling asleep on the trail, having to sleep in aid stations, and
being attacked by wild animals at night.
It just wasn’t that bad. I had
two 5-10 minute stretches that were a bit tough, but it really wasn’t a
problem.
The human body can do amazing things, and running throughout
the night is one of them. I mean we have
all pulled all-nighters in college, right?
My wife was up for an entire night while giving birth to a baby, and I can ensure you that was way tougher
than walking / slowly running for a while.
Many people will do long nighttime training runs to get used
to it. My personal belief (having not
done so) is to not worry about it and just go in rested (though see below about
Gear).
Aid Stations
I have tried too hard to be super fast through aid stations
in prior 100s that ended in DNFs. There
is definitely a good point around efficiency, and it is all too easy to spend
30 minutes at an aid station. Multiply
that by 12-30 aid stations in a race, and you can see the problems stacking up
quickly.
At Grindstone, you frequently had 2+ hours between aid
stations. That is a long time, and
without a crew or pacer, I had no room for error and needed to make sure I was
taking care of myself. I took whatever
time I needed at aid stations until I had run through my checklist multiple
times and felt ready to get back on the trail for more tough miles. I was constantly doing something and not just
sitting around, but I didn’t time myself and wasn’t in a rush.
During tougher parts of the race, I would start out after
the aid station feeling good, steadily deteriorate, and come into the next aid
station feeling wiped out. Taking the
time to bring myself back to life was critical to being able to continue and a
successful finish.
So be fast and be efficient, but don’t be rushed and make
sure you take care of business. I had
multiple of my longer aid stations stops that were around 10 minutes, and I am
confident they saved me time and saved my race.
Gear
I am not exactly quick to experiment with new gear or adopt
the latest trends. The Sardona Ultra
literally forced me to buy a bunch of new gear (the required gear list was a
mile long). I also realized that my
trail shoes weren’t cutting it in technical terrain and picked up a pair of
Salomon Speedcross shoes. These are
awesome and will be my new shoe of choice.
Running in the pre-dawn dark on a super foggy night with
Dylan in the mountains around Asheville exposed how woefully inadequate my
lighting system was. There was no way my
current headlamp was going to cut it.
Dylan’s bike flashlight was far better, so I did some research on good
running flashlights. This certainly
saved my race and was one reason why I finished.
I planned my gear well and also made sure my drop bags were
well stocked and well prepared. Here is
what I used during the race:
- Pack: Salomon S-Lab 12
- Shoes: Salomon Speedcross
- Socks: Drymax maximum protection
- Shorts: Salomon S-Lab Exo Twinskin (had some chafing issues and had to use tons of body glide / Vaseline … need to figure out something better for next time)
- Top layer: VHTRC short sleeve shirt, Nike long sleeve dry fit shirt, Chicago Marathon T-Shirt (I like wearing my VHTRC blues but think a performance race shirt wouldn’t hurt)
- Rain shell: Patagonia Torrentshell (did not use)
- Headlamps: Petzl Myo XP (worked ok in combination with the flashlight; ran out of batteries after ~ 10 hours; might put the Petzl Nao on my wishlist). I also had the Petzl Tikka Plus as backup and used it after the Myo XP ran out of batteries rather than take the time to put in new batteries.
- Flashlight: Fenix PD35 2014 edition (this was the bomb; setting # 2 out of 5 lit up the trail and it has 38 hours of power at this setting!)
- Camelbak 2 liter bladder (added this to my Salomon pack, did not refill it)
- Brooks running hat (worn backwards of course)
- Gloves & hat (used the gloves up on the ridge at night)
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