I am officially an ultra marathoner as of yesterday, and it was well worth it. I finished the 100K as the first female and second overall. I missed my A goal, but hit my B goal. This is generally the case, as my A goal is set at an almost impossible level. B goal is cause for celebration to me as a job well done. I would like to say that if it was 10 degrees cooler like the weekend before I might have had a better chance at the A goal. Near 90 degrees is not the time to hit an A goal, or my goals are messed up and I would be required to call myself a sand bagger.
One of the significant keys to my success was my crew and pre crew. The set up was perfect and they were perfect. Kenny spent the week before with one of his big lists of stuff. I say stuff, because I don't do the list thing. When I go on long runs my time spent pre-preparing is about 10-15 minutes. All this list stuff magically ended up in the back of my truck. I think he did a set up for every runner. I didn't have my gels. I had boxes and boxes of gels. Except it was my favorite flavor. I didn't have a big cooler. I had three coolers and one of them, which were the size of the back of the truck, was odd. We (by we I mean Kenny) put the cooler with ice in the back of the truck the day before. I freaked out there thinking. That is going to be water in the next two hours. Nope, two days later everything is still solid ice. I am going to use this ice for an ice bath later today. I learned that they make ice coolers which keep ice solid for five days. Another note was everything I used for the race, we got duplicates. This would make it so I wouldn't have to wait for refilling or packing time.
The race crew was Seth, Jill, and Vickie. During the race I had a list for them by hour and what I wanted in my water belt. I showed up to the aid stations and they handed me the new belt, which contained whatever I was suppose to have. Once the temperature got hotter I then had ice under my hat, which was refreshed. The stops where under 30 seconds each. Until the last stop, because I needed a bit more of relaxation time. More details later in my novel, I mean post. I liked my crew’s style, because it matches mine. Kenny was the one to set everything up, and we talked about what we were going to do about 15 minutes. They did everything perfectly. I didn't have to think about time. If there was something in my pack, I knew I was supposed to eat or swallow it. My watch broke, and they had my next one set up and ready to go on the next aid station. They didn't stress or freak out. They made me feel awesome. Not just awesome. They made me feel really awesome, because they were awesome. I loved my crew.
My coach Scott D'Angelo was another significant part of my success. He had prepared me very nicely for the race. I was ready for the heat. I was ready for walk/run plan. I was ready for straight running. I never did very much of the straight running though. I was ready for the full collapse at the end and could still speed walk the final section in semi reasonable time.
The course started off with my broken watch. No freak out here, because this has been a regular occurrence since I got it. I bought it just for this race and I was determined to use one watch for the entire race because that would be cool stats. I kept a nice easy comfortable pace. I would run for nine minutes and walk for one minute. Nothing else worked on the watch, but at least it started my workout and vibrated and beeped at me for my required intervals. I am not sure if the heart rate monitor was accurate. The nine minute sections my heart rate ranged from 170-173bpm. During the walk it would go back down to 160bpm. It felt about right. This is low for me. When I do a marathon my average heart rate for a race is close to 190.
Everyone made the first turn in the race. The second turn, I was right behind the pack leaders and they all skipped the turn. I tried shouting to inform them, but it didn't work. This was about mile five. I was tempted to just go straight. However, I remember the race rules, and I was determined to follow them. Just because other runners are doing it, it doesn't give you the excuse to cheat. Besides, I knew they didn't do it on purpose. They just missed the sign. I knew to turn there even if the sign wasn't posted. I remembered it from when I did the course two weeks prior. I also knew there was check in and aid stop from the map. My crew would be waiting for me. If I skipped it and they didn't realize I missed it, I would have been crewless. This means I get about a half mile longer than the other runners. It was the shortest distance for cut ins. This was a very lonely area. It was dark, there where strange drunks wandering around and I didn't see anybody in front of me. Then it dawned on me. They are going to hit the bridge from their pace. If you went out any faster than 9:18/mi, you will hit the first bridge. My guess of pace put them going out pace at about 8:30-9:10's. In the end; I found my crew, got my refills, and missed the bridge that they all hit. It worked out.
After the turn and before the bridge I saw my friend Tina from the Keys100 relay. Tina does police patrol and was patrolling the area on her bike. I told her Jen and Scott unknowingly missed an aid station and check in. She went back down to the aid station and informed them. Tina and I chatted for about 12 minutes. It was great to see her there. I can't wait to do the relay with fun people again. The Keys100 relay is still my favorite race.
The next eventful moment was just as we were coming into Deefield. Ah-oh, what I ate didn't work with my bowels. I had the runs and started eyeing down all the bushes. I would like to believe that it was from eating too much at this time in the race. I ate breakfast, then had a pb&j 10 minutes before the start, then had another pb&j at 8:00 (2 hours into the race). Instead of finding a bush and having burning butt syndrome for the next 50 miles I held it in. I knew I was less than a mile away from the boardwalk section in Deerfield. This section I was going back and forth with my coach as he was running straight and I was doing a run walk. It was cool to see him so focused. I made it to the bathroom. I kindly asked the next person in line if I could cut. There were very nice and didn't make me wait. I cleared everything out, and only took 45 second off my time. I made it up by pacing 8:45/mi and skipping the next walk break. Oh by the way my watch magically starting working again about two miles before this. I couldn't see my overall pace because it was showing as over 30/mi. I could only see my current lap pace. I was happy with that.
The aid station between miles 13 and 14 was missing for all the uncrewed members. I was lucky to have my crew. I am pretty sure that the uncrewed members assumed I was cheating here because there was no aid station visible, but I was getting crewed at the location of the aid stations. The aid station vehicles were not there. Nothing was set up. I think they thought I was cheating, but honestly I am hoping they know I wasn't. Maybe I am wrong here, because there were other runners getting crewed at non aid stations.
The next section was the Bayan road loop thing, which was yet another unorganized thing in the race. The signed pointed one way when everybody was telling me I was supposed to go the other way. I knew the map. I knew I was suppose to turn right and do the little numb, do the loop, get my page, then go back to the aid station. I turned left because too many people yelled at me when I tried to force the right turn. During the pre-race expo somebody brought up that there would have to be two books because if you have a number 9 and number 10, then the first run is going to take the second runners number. He assured us that there would be two pages. When I got there of course there was only one book. Good thing I was there before number 10. Too bad number 10 won't have a number. Hopefully they just grab any page. This is the worst. This area is where everybody was told they would have their drop bags for the highly dependent nutrition. It was horrible. They didn't have anybodies drop bag. They didn't lose one. They had none.
Things went really bad with the race organization. I would not recommend for anybody to run the Palm100 Individual 100K if they think they will have anything supplied. You have to have a crew. Drop bags where lost like I just said before and aid stations where not set up for the first 10 runners for the entire first half of the course. I had a huge advantage. I had the best crew in the world. Every aid station. Well where every aid station was supposed to be, they handed me a new belt, covered me in ice, and filled my pack with exactly what I told them it should contain by time of day. I had exactly what I needed. I know I have already said this, but really I appreciated it the most. Everybody else was left with nothing. When I say nothing, I mean nothing. Some aid stations that actually where set up offered coke instead of water. What is wrong with them? This isn't a 5K. This is 100K. You could kill somebody out there making these kinds of mistakes. My crew had enough stuff to help everybody within 10 minute front or behind me. Nobody would take anything because they planned on items being available by the race volunteers, and you can’t accept when you are not running as crewed. I wasn't doing anything out of regulation as I was running crewed. You were only allowed to crew at the aid stations. My crew was offering other runners what they needed only where the aid stations where suppose to be located.
Other runners where talking about runners that where getting crewed incorrectly. I thought that was stupid for them to cheat because I didn't see why they wouldn't just follow the rules. I was really happy to see my friend Jason out there on the course saying hi. If I had known everybody else was getting crewed everywhere I would have taken that drink of water he offered when I was dry.
I was in the lead from mile 37 until 6 miles to go. The 10 minute or so loss from the last bridge didn't help me. It gave the runner up a good 10 minutes of running to catch up to me while I was just there standing and waiting. It was either wait or push an 8 minute mile, and that wasn't going to happen. Instead I walked to avoid stopping, but still had to stop for 7 minutes. I think I should have pushed for the 8:00 minute mile, as it may have avoided the hamstring cramping. The winner was also a much better runner. I knew this before the race started. He proved it during the race. He was also one of my favorite runners that I encountered today in the race. I am happy that he caught up to take the title of first overall.
I first met up with Craig Lozowick somewhere in Delray and we chatted while keeping our pace going well. At least I think it was him that I was talking to in Delray. I lost him at an aid station, and then he got stuck at the Boca Inlet Bridge shortly after. I regret not seeing him because I mapped out the bridges to aid stations and paces to avoid hitting any of them. I brought my pace up a bit to miss the Boca Inlet Bridge. I hit the Hilsboro Inlet bridge with full knowledge that I was going to hit it, but couldn't speed up to the planned pace. I would have had to make up 5 minutes within three miles. I also didn't realize the bridge takes 10 minutes. I put it at five minutes at each bridge, as that was the typical time when I watched the bridges the weekend before. My loss in time was the same as his, since he also got stopped on the bridge before. Bridge for Bridge.
Before he caught up, it was fun to meet up with some of the 50K runners. They said they were all rooting for me to take first overall. I knew I didn't have it, and would respond with, sorry that isn't going to happen. I knew the mile lead was going to be collapsing. But thanks you guys for the cheers.
After the stop my hamstrings cramped up, which caused me to slow my pace down. Craig caught up a mile or two after the bridge. When he caught up. He again became a great running partner. If I walked, he cheered me on saying "Come on, let's finish this together. We both get first". He did this for the next four miles. He stopped, when I stopped even if he didn't need to stop. He was looking strong and in control.
The last aid stop Craig had my crew give me an ice bath even though I didn't want to stop. I wanted to keep walking. I limited each stop to 30 seconds, until this stop. This stop was also the stop that I peed the second I stopped. I didn't even realize I had to pee. So I wiped with the towels my crew had ready every stop. Yep, it was covered in bright red blood. I didn't have traces of blood. It was red flowing blood. Jill was an EMT and her face screamed, you need to stop now. Her mouth said, that can't be good. Seth reminded me of the googling I had done prior to race where that has been known to happen. This is when I decided to take advance of the great coaching skills of Scott D'Angelo from the Doghouse Performance Cycling Center. He is a great ultra marathoner, triathlete, surfer, climber, and all around fitness expert. He trained me for all sorts of back up plans. I could keep a speed walk of 13:00/mi for the remaining five miles. I forced Craig to go forward, and I think the death look on my face he knew I didn't have any more running left. He booked it to the finish line and I did some nifty speed walking. It actually made me really enjoy the last part of the race. The beach was to the right and there were a lot of strange people to watch. When you are not dieing, it is easy to see the site around me. Well the truth is, even when I am dieing I am looking at everything around me anyways. Focusing on one thing for longer than 30 seconds doesn't happen. I'll one of those that see the pretty flowers, birds, unpulled weeds, and anything else that is around me. This occurs even during speed workouts. I think it actually helps with my ability to shut off pain, because it isn't constant. It seems to just go away.
I felt great for the first 50 miles and I was enjoying the view, the run, and my crew. Things were going better than planned. It was
Things that went bad
I can now say that I can do the 100K completely off feel. The first 2 1/2 hours the Garmin310XT couldn't find any Satellite's. I was left without any distance or pace knowledge. There wasn't a cloud in the sky and I was completely in the open. If you are ever thinking about buying a watch, avoid this one. It is the worst watch, if you expect it to be accurate or work. I am crossing my fingers that Garmin lets me return it. I hate it so bad I wouldn't even try a new one if they replaced it for free.
I stopped thinking and missed one station of electrolytes and ran out of water for three miles. This was the why the crash occurred after mile 50. When I say missed. I had it in my pack, but just didn't take it. The next stop so happened to be another missing aid station, which is what added the extra 3 miles of no water.
Next Races
I think I am going to avoid the local ultra's in Florida. Well, that is after I do the local Oleta park races. They look too fun to pass up. I am glad the next two races are in my happy place. I will be doing the Speedgoat 50K in July and in September Bear 100 as my first 100 miler. I am pretty sure I am more nervous about the upcoming 50K then the 100 miler. I ran an 8K a year and half ago in July that was on the bottom, easier section of this course. All I can remember is being handed a new one. That was an 8K. Instead, let’s do the same thing on a 50K. It will be so much fun.
I am going to leave my ultra running as a fun adventure. I am going to avoid Palm100 repeats. I loved the running. I loved the actual course. I am happy with how it went, well not really, but I will keep telling myself this. I learned what I did wrong, kinda. I won't repeat my mistakes. I loved some of the runners like Craig, Brad, and Mohawk guy.
