2018 Run Under The Stars – Paducah (June 9, 2018) Race Report

Steve Durbin and Myself

Having had to miss the Land Between the Lakes race this year due to a number of issues Steve Durbin of Durbin Race Management graciously allowed me to transfer my entry to another of his races.  Due to scheduling with work and other races I was already committed to the only date open was June 9th and thus my entry in the Run Under the Stars (RUTS) in Paducah Kentucky.  There are three RUTS races each year: Oakridge – TN was on May 19th (1-1/4 mile walking trail), Paducah - KY was on June 9th (1/2 mile horse track) and Corydon – IN is on July 7th  (1/2 mile horse track).  All races are 10 hour timed events and are run from 8PM on a Saturday till 6AM Sunday morning.

If you have never done a Steve Durbin race you are missing out as they are all well run and you will be taken care of.  One of the cool parts with this timed event, and others like it, as compared to say a trail race is that you will see all 200+ entrants all night and not just at the start.  Also, you will find that as most everyone is there for the 10 hours, even if they do not run the entire time, that at the end you will also have a crowd at the finish.  This was my second timed event but the first on such a short course and the longest timed event by far as my other event was a 6 hour run on a 1.35 mile trail a couple years ago.  The idea of running so many laps was a little daunting since in college I had a hard time with 12+ for the 5K or 25 for the 10K.  What was 100+ laps going to be like?  How would I deal with going round and round and round for 10 hours?  How about weather as the report was for thunderstorms and rain accompanied by the usual humidity - thankfully that did not happen?  How would my Plantar Fasciitis hold up?  For that matter, how would I hold up as this would hopefully be my longest run distance, and time, wise?  What follows is my look at a race that on the surface - with no elevation, no rocks, no roots or cliffs to deal with – should have been relatively easy – "should" is the key word here.

Trackside Set-up

The Set-Up
The first thing that makes the RUTS races difficult is that they start at 8PM with set up beginning at 4PM.  Thus, if you are like me and get up at 8AM, by the time the race starts you have already been up for 12 hours and by the end of the race 22 hours - let alone anther 4 ours to drive home.  For me I left my house about 4 hours east of the race with a long drive ahead but at least with some time to rest and loosen up.  Once at the track and having driven through some heavy rain storms with showers at the track it looked like it might be a wet night.  I set up an canopy pretty much right at track side with my water, SFuel bars and drinks, as well as a few other essentials.  Then I got some rest till race time, still 3 hours away.  I set about reading a little, some from my Bible as always good to get in a little reading of God’s word then also started reading The Great Appalachian Trail Race which is looking to be a good read.

Apart from that I just tried to stay cool and walked around a little to stay loose.  This pre-race part of things was different as I have my usual “morning race” routine and usually do not drive more than 90 minutes on the day of a race . As this was so late in the day, and not close to home, that routine was hard to follow but I did the best I could.  I ate lunch about 11AM at home before I left with a meal of chicken, asparagus and some broiled potatoes and then an hour prior to the race I took my usual cocktail of: a serving of SFuel drink, UCAN (3 scoops) and water all mixed together.  This usually works to hold me over for 4-5 hours at which time I take another cocktail.  As race time neared more people showed up and were milling around till it was minutes before the start.

The Race

Just Getting Started

I went into the race wanting to run 100k (62.2 Miles) but knew that might be a little ambitious as while my training was going well I still only ran at most 45 -50 on a big week with a long run of 20-22.  Not really ideal training to “race” an Ultra but does fit the larger plan I have to run Boston in 2020 by qualifying next year.  So I set out with my HR monitor set at about 10 beats over my MAF heart rate of 127 (monitor at 137) figuring that would be a good pace.  While it did feel easy it was for sure too fast a start being at around  8:15 a mile as I needed to be nearer to 9:00/mile.  Around 10 miles my HR started working its way up some so I slowed to 9+ pace than at about 17-20 I started having issues.  Not so much physical, even though I was a little tired from being up for a while already, but mentally just thinking about how long time wise I had to go.  Thus I slowed down and then even had a few walk breaks until about 5 hours, or close to 50K.

At 5 hours I decided it was time to walk a lap and then run the rest of the hour.  I used the walk as my drink and refueling break so that I got my SFuel bottle and carried it for the ½ mile lap then put it down and ran a comfortable pace for the rest of the hour and then repeated this up till the lap I walked at 2 hours from the end.  With a little under 2 hours to go I knew I was in 6th place and was not sure where 7th was but knew they were probably close so decided I needed to run for the last two hours and keep a good pace.  Interestingly in the last 2-3 hours, other than on my walk breaks, I did not get passed again as it appears many were slowing down.

Not sure what I was looking at  - Maybe contemplating my feet

As there are no partial laps given you get the mileage at whatever full lap you completed when time runs out.  Having picked up the pace in the last 2 hours I got to 56 miles with the clock reading 4:30, or so, to go.  I decided that I should be able to do 9 Minute pace and went for it.  Funny that someone that was helping mentioned I would have to run my fastest to get the lap so I simply said something to the affect of “well I better get going.”  I picked up the pace and looked to be at sub 8 when I checked my watch and up ahead was a relay runner and anther runner trying to finish his last lap as well.  As I got to the home stretch I could see I was going to make it with about a minute-plus to spare and according to the official lap times I did the last ½ mile in 3:24, or sub 7 pace.  I also found out the person running in front of me on the last lap was the 7th place runner so it was a good thing I kept up the pace at the end as he ran 56 miles.

As far as placings goes I ended up 7th overall and 6th overall for the men.  I know in watching the board that gave out your laps and placing I was in 9th place up until I had the bad spell where I dropped back to about 17th or so.  Once I got to 5 hours and past my mental issues of just wanting to call it a day at 50K  I was able to steadily pick up places and finally got to a 6th place somewhere around 2 hours, or so, to go.   Knowing how I felt with 7 hours to go and waning to quit - ending up 6th was pretty good.

For the men it was clear that Eric Hunziker was intent on putting in some miles as he was gone from the start and ended up with 72 miles and tied the record.  Second and third were Olaf Wastermack with 64.5 miles and Joshua Holmes, who added to his overall lead in the total miles at RUTS, with 63.5 miles.  For the women the top three were Marylou Corino in 1st with 59 miles , Cathy Downs in 2nd with 55 miles and in 3rd Sue Scholl with 54 miles.  You can see all the results here and here is my Strava data for the race.

Women's Winner Marylou Corino

Men's Winner Eric Hunzinger

Fueling
This an area I am still fine-tuning but think it is getting very close as I never was hungry during the whole race.  I did seem to drink lots of water, but it was humid out.  I find that once I drink water on days like this I have a hard time stopping and thus get bloated.  This happened in the 2016 Boson Marathon as well.  Due to this later in the race instead of carrying the bottle with me for many laps I took advantage of the easy of getting to my drinks a changed to drinking during my ½ mile walk breaks every hour and this helped to curb getting bloated.

As far as what I consumed for the race it was follows:

• 1 - SFuel/UCAN Cocktail in 20oz of water 1 Hour before the race (1 Scoop SFuel and 3 Scoops UCAN) also had about ½ a 200z SFuel/Cocktail at 5 hours
• 6- 20oz servings of SFuel Drink
• 4 -16 oz bottles of water
• 1.75 - SFuel Bars
• 2 – 33Shake Gels
• 3 - S-Caps
• 2 – GU Roctane Sea Salt Chocolate (took one at 2 hours to go and 1 hour to go)

The above seems to have worked and largely due to my work at getting fat adapted progressing well.  For races I do use carbs but strategically such as at the end of the race with the 2 GUs.  I also had the 33Shake gels just to change up things for taste.

Overall Impressions of the Race
While I cannot say this is my favorite type of race it does have its positive aspects.  For one being able to set up right by where you are running and going by every ½ mile means your drinks and food are readily available and do not need to be carried.  The race did also provide aid but I find it best to rely on my own items to make sure I have what I need.  Also, as seen done by many at the race, if your goal is only a particular distance you have the full 10 hours to do it and you can walk and take breaks as needed to help you accomplish your goal.  Another great feature is that unlike most ultras where you see people at the beginning and maybe some at the end but during the race often can go long spells of being alone at a race like that this is never a problem.  The race in many ways is a 10 hour party with many conversations and activities going on.  The fact that one cannot be stuck out in the wilderness alone leads many to find this a good time to try their first ultra knowing they will not be alone.

What is interesting about this format is that my brain said other than going round and round in circles this should be easy – hey no elevation or getting lost.  While that is true, when you combine the mental aspect of going over the same ground for 100+ laps and, other than changing directions every 2.5 hours, running on the same surface with basically the same stride and foot placement for 10 hours it makes for an effort that is much harder than it seems.  This act of basically having the same motion hour after hour wears on you more than you think it might.  When running trails you are always changing pace and using different muscles but not so on a flat track race.  Also, as I found out, you can easily be sucked into running too fast too soon, as it just feels easy, since the terrain is not an issue and you can, and will, pay for this later.

For me, at least, the part I found to be the hardest was the mental aspect  of dealing with the time on my feet with little else to think of.  While at 10-20 miles I really did not feel that bad but just needed to slow down to get my HR in the right place my mind started to play the “you have 7 hours to go maybe you should just stop at 50K” game.  While I have been running a long time, 45+ years, and have done many marathons running ultras is new to me and the issue I tend to come up against at 1.5 -3 hours is just thinking about how far, and how long, I have to go and harboring thoughts of dropping out.  I have gotten by this urge in trail ultras by realizing it was not easy to drop out and simply not wanting to DNF as it tends to make it easier to DNF later.  However when running on the track this becomes harder since you can just stop at any distance, as many do intentionally, and stopping is easy since your stuff is set up conveniently right by the track and you see it every 1/2 mile.  As I mentioned in the race section I had these mental issues till about 5 hours then when I got to the downside of the time it got easier mentally and thus for me physically.

I also found that unlike most races where you may be able to convince yourself if you run faster you will get done sooner.  That tactic will not work here since if you run faster you just get the reward of running farther.  So you have to play a game to see what is the just the right speed to keep moving but not too slow as to not get in the distance you would like to get.  This is simply a different mental aspect of the timed race.

The goal of the race but you get to see this sign every lap:)

As mentioned before another thing that makes the RUTS races difficult is that they are run from 8PM to 6AM and this makes for a long day of dealing with being tired.  That said this does work to help one get ready for longer races that go into the night.  I am running the Tunnel Hill 100, my first 100 miler, this year, another Durbin Race Management race, and RUTS with running when simply tired from little sleep is good training.  Also, Tunnel Hill is a very tame course, as RUTS is, so this race plays into being a good training run for that as well.  I did deal with a few spells where I felt like taking a nap but in general that was not a too big an issue which was good to discover.
Not sure I will make these shorter course timed races a regular event but I do want to do one again some time to try to do better and work on my pacing.  I will be doing the Backyard Classic in August which is an 8 hour timed race on a 3.25 trail course which will have its own trials I am sure but I am hoping my run at RUTS will help in dealing with the mental issues.

Conclusion
If you want to run your first Ultra the truth is this type of race is a good one to do so.  Not only is everything convenient but also if you do one of the RUTS races you will experience a great race put on by a great race director.  You still have one race left for the year in the RUTS series if you want to do Corydon IN on July 7th.  By the way here is a code for $10 off Steve's races: DRM10.  Make sure to check out his race site for all the races he outs on: Durbin Race Management.

#Zensa #GoLonger #SFuels

2018 Yamacraw 50K Race Report

Photo by Misty Wong

Not Having the Race You Wanted – But Having the Race You Should have Expected

Being a week after running the 2018 Yamacraw 50k on April 7th in Sterns KY I figured it was time to look back on how it all went.  Last year I wrote a long race report with my fueling and such but will this time mostly focus on how the race went and did not go as well as an overall perspective on it.  I am one of those who is usually not pleased with my race as I can always see where I could have improved as well as having a penchant for holding myself to a standard that may often be too high for my fitness and age – but that is who I am.  In this case that is exactly how I viewed things, not well, after the race but now a week or so later and things look a little more clear and I can take some positives away – so here goes.

My lead up to the race did not go very smooth.  While for the last few months I had been at 30-40 miles a week and got in a few 20-22 milers in at a good pace things were not right.  First I have struggled with Plantar Fasciitis , or a form of it, for maybe 8 months and my right foot not only has been sore in the heel my feet just feel beat up on longer.  One part of my training, which I did last before Yamacraw, was wanting to run a 50K training run as well as again run the Land Between the Lakes (LBL) 50 miler so my legs, and feet, had extended running time on them – but that did not happen this year.  Truth is I had not run as far as this weeks 50k since last years race.  While I had some good 20 mile training runs, great for marathon training, they were at a quicker tempo which is all well and good but did not give time on my feet and legs which is what I was missing in the build up to this years Yamacraw.

Photo by Misty Wong

The other issue that reared itself  was with my right eye at the end of February where I went blind in it for about 5 minutes.  Initially I did nothing, just my nature to blow things off as an “oh that will pass event”  but then decided it would be good to get it looked at and was taken right in once thy heard what happened.  From there I was sent to a specialist and was told not to run till another visit later in the week.  Due to all this I had to cancel my LBL 50 race as I did not know if I would get the OK to run at the next doctors visit or not and with all going on figured it was the best decision.  It ended up that by race day I was able to run but only a short run and taking it easy.  To this day, 6 weeks later, they are not totally sure what caused the hemorrhage in my eye and even now there are still lots of floaters and it can be really murky looking though my right eye as the blood clears up.  It is more of an annoyance than anything as all through Yamacraw it seemed gnats were flying around me or that I had a fingerprint smudge on my right ey.  Well at least it took my mind off of the race.

All of the above allowed me to keep up some lower miles but in truth not enough to really race 50K as I wanted to.  After running 5:59:37 last year my goal for this year was 5:50 or there about – faster if I had a really good day.  But that goal was based on a good build up like I had the previous year and similar weather.  I have a problem lowering expectations on myself and that was what happened for this year’s race.  What with my reduced training, sore foot and the course being muddier and more slippery on the rocks and bridges than last year and also with more water on the crossings my expectations should have been adjusted accordingly – but I did not.

Pre-race day predictions were for rain then snow and 35F temps but on race day other than some drizzle at the start and some snow near the end all we got were fairly consistent 35F temps with wind.  While not everyone would agree as far as temps they were almost perfect, maybe 5-10 degrees warmer would have been good but 35F worked for me.  So off we went and I ran a good first mile feeling comfortable and not pushing it but still was left behind.  While I wanted to go faster I knew I just did not feel quite right and wanted to make sure my foot was good and warmed up before I pushed it any.  By the second mile there are some stairs and rocks and I took it very cautious and started getting passed.  The race just felt blah for me, not good - not super bad just blah and tired, and to tell the truth in the first 10 miles knowing I had 22+ to go I would have dropped out if it was easy to do but dropping out was not easy and I knew if I did so I would struggle more with it mentally later than just running poorly.  So on I went and just kept up a steady pace getting passed by those picking it up later in the race.

One of the most interesting parts of the race was the river crossing that was too deep to wade across so they had a raft bridge set up.  The idea was to walk raft to raft to cross and for most it was matter of sitting on the edge and swinging your legs across.  For me, however, the issue was my legs cramped when I tried this technique so I had to do the “belly-flop” move form raft to raft which was quite slow and probably comical to watch.  When you got to the other side you had to climb up, with assistance, a step bank by stepping on tree roots sticking out of the bank.  Even when I made it up the bank I had to walk as the mud was very slippy and did not want to end up back in the river.

From the river the course begins to rise to the drop bag check point and then it is an up and down ride to the finish from there, with a few good steady climbs.  Felt a little better in the last 7 miles and was able to keep up a good pace to the finish but still did not go down hill as well as last year, or at least did not feel so.  Down-hills were my downfall this whole race as they often are in races but more so this year.  I used to be, in my youth, a good descender but as I have gotten older, less flexible and less willing to take risks I just did not push the down-hills like I could or should.  Most of the descents had a number of areas with rocks and roots that, to me, were slippy so I took it easy.  To add to this my right foot was hurting which led me to just go slower than I wanted on the down-hills that were more runable.  I also walked across most bridges, and also the wood planks set up to avoid the marshy areas, as they were very slippery as well.  On the few sections that were level or only slightly downhill I was able to get up to a good pace but those areas are not excessive.

As far as fueling I preloaded before the race with my modified bullet-proof coffee as well as a cocktail of UCAN and SFuels Drink.  For the race itself I stayed with using my SFuels drink which I really liked.  I also cut up some SFuel Bars into small bite-size cubes and coated them in tapioca powder, you can also use arrow root powder, to help stop them from sticking together and this seemed to work.  I have a hard time eating and running as my sinuses are not great so when I eat I do not breath  but this helped having smaller sized bites.  The only issue I had was that I put the SFuels portions in small baggies I had in a waist belt to be mixed at Aid Stations but I had issues getting it out of the baggies and wasted extra time mixing a new bottle.  Near the end I did take a couple GU Roctane Gels and at the 20 mile Aid Station where we could leave a drop bag I left a bottle with the UCAN/SFuels mixture that I took.    My take on my fueling was it did work but I need to be better at not loosing time.  Also not sure if the UCAN/SFuels bottle at the end helped but it may have.  I never had a bonk even though I never felt really energetic either so need to work on fueling some more,

Tongue Hanging Out Says it All

Got to the end knowing I was not going to be able to break 6:30 and ended up with a time of 6:37:18 for 53rd OA and 3rd in the 50-59 age group.  As I said at the start I left the race happy to have finished and for sure happier than if I had DNF’d but not pleased with my time having run 37 minutes slower than the previous year.  Over the week since the race and thinking back on it I am not sure the actual running of the race was as bad as I thought.  I am pretty sure my Aid Station stops were much slower than last year so at about 3 minutes a stop extra for 5 stations that accounts for 15 minutes.  Then with walking all the bridges and wood planks may have added 5 minutes so my running was about 17 minutes slower which could easily be attributed to going slower than normal on down-hills.  While many ran faster this others did not.  For me the course being wet and me being overly cautious easily accounted for the extra time.  None of this makes the race better but at least I can see that my running itself was not as off as I had thought and with the minimal training I did I should be more pleased with the run.

So there is my report.  I really like this course even though it for sure does not play to my strengths with its descents.  I want to come back and improve but due to schedules over the next couple years I will not get back till 2021 so that will be interesting as I will be 3 years older and seeking to run faster  - so we will have to see.  Bottom line is when you run a race make sure to look back after some time is allowed to go by so you can get a better look at what you did.  Often you will find things were not as bad as you thought once you sift through "what you had expected" and "what you should have expected".

If you want to run a beautiful and challenging course this is a good race to do.  The climbing is good but in all not too much.  This is a good first 50K if you want one to do but you will have to enter early as the raced filled up this year and as it gets even more of a name for itself it will fill up even more quickly.   Race website: Yamacraw 50K/20K/10K

#SFuels, #GoLonger,  #Zensah #RunYamacraw

2017 Yamacraw 50+K Recap (April 8th, 2017)

Well the experiment is over.   In 8 weeks I have run three Ultras with the Yamacraw  50K being the 50K time trial with 2550’ of climbing in California on a loop course I set up in a time of 5:02.  This was followed 4 weeks later on March 11th at the Land Between the Lakes 50 Miler in 8:44:51 with 4500+’ of climbing getting 10th overall and 1st in the 50-59 division, see race report here.  The string of Ultras finished this past Saturday (April 8th) with the Yamacraw 50K, well it is said to be actually around 33 or 34 miles, and its 3540’ of climbing.   What I learned from this is that while I could indeed run this many long runs I need more miles in my legs to do so effectively as I felt the previous two runs in this past Saturday’s race and my heart rate also indicated it as well.
last.  It all started with a

Here is a Recap of the race

Weather
Considering the weeks preceding the race had been quite wet race day came with no rain and little wind.  The temperature was in the low to mid 30’s at the start but with no wind was not bad at all and the forecast was for upper 50’s by noon, race stated at 7:30AM.  Due to this I figured to wear a singlet and arm warmers and it was a good choice as it did indeed warm up and while I am not sure the actual temp it sure felt like it was in the high 60’s to low 70’s and sunny.  It was a beautiful day and while for me it could have been a little cooler, and for racing I like it to be overcast, it was all in all great weather.  With all the rocks on the course and stream crossings if it was raining I could see this course being much tougher and treacherous, well at least for me.

Trail Condition
As I have already alluded to the trail conditions were great with the creek crossings not too deep and mud at a minimum, but when it was encountered it was mucky.  One thing about this course is that it has many sections with rocks and roots hidden by leaves but also other areas that were just leaves.  Not sure I would label this course as fast with its more technical terrain in various areas it is still a runnable course.

The Course
The course is advertised as 33 miles, with one map saying 34, and my watch saying 32.3, others were getting 33+.  The mileage is made up of dirt roads, double track, single track and a very few paved sections.  The single track ranged from clean fast trails to areas with many rocks and roots often covered in leaves.  As seems to be the norm for the Daniel Boone National Forrest many of the descents, and climbs, were made up of rocks and in some areas even stairs.  Concerning the stairs in the last 5 miles there was a set of stairs that were very steep and the steps small, well small for my size 12 feet.  Many talked about the stairs and I must have looked funny going down as slow as I went.  There are also numerous creek crossing and even one with a line to hold on to that was about thigh deep this year in spots.  While I am sure many seasoned trail racers may not see this as a technical course I would say for most people it is and thus what you lose on the climbs is hard to make up on many of the descents.   That said all in all it is a great course and while not what I excel at now a-days it is still one that is enjoyable and very scenic.

As far as how the course is run it starts slightly up hill then drops down till about mile 4.5, or so, then things go up for a few miles. At about mile 7.5 there is a steep descent for a mile and a half then a series of rollers to mile 17.8 where things go up again followed by more rollers.  Then came the road that while only showing to be a mile, from mile 23-24,  on my watch sure seemed to go on forever followed by more rolling road and then the final aid station at about 26 miles.  From there to the finish includes a couple good descents with a combination of fast single track, rocky sections and even stairs along with a couple ascents.  You then finish on a descent till you get to the bridge to the finish, which is pretty cool.

Here is a map of the course.

The Race
I came into this race having never run the course or having even run in the area so was not sure what to expect.  Thus estimating what time to aim for was difficult and since I started off thinking it was a 50K (31 miles) and as things went on I started to hear it was closer to 33 or 34 my time goals moved out.  While I would have liked to have gone under 5:30 I was hoping to at least break 6 hours.  Again, not knowing the course makes estimating times difficult as terrain, not just vertical, can dictate time as much as anything. In looking at the topography it did appear there were some good climbs but as with most maps they do not always tell the entire story.  What I was not as ready for were the more technical descents although I should have been ready since this is in the Daniel Boone National Forest, as is the Rugged Red Half marathon, held at the north end of the forest that I ran in a couple years ago and it had the same type of terrain.

Still feeling a little tired from the Land Between the Lakes 50 (LBL50) miler 4 weeks ago I was a little unsure how the race would go so decided to just run and see how I felt.  As with the LBL50 I wanted to go out slower for the first couple miles but still stay up a little farther forward to avoid having to pass people on narrow trails.  From the start my heart rate was in the 140’s even though it did not fee that hard.  Comparing that to LBL50 where it was in the 130’s I knew things were not quote right.  That being said I just tried to stay relaxed.  Not sure what place I was in but based on my finish I was probably in the top 30, or so, thus was good as far as not having a crowded trail and it was stringing out anyway.


There were a number of river crossing and navigated them pretty well till about 10 miles where on crossing one of the  smaller crossing I stepped on a rock that was slippy and took a tumble backwards.  In falling I hit my hip, cut a couple knuckles, bruised a finger which was pretty sore and got nice and wet.  Maybe worse is my hand help water bottle strap broke and the thought of having to carry it by holding to it for 23 miles did not seem all that fun.  Fortunately the bottle had a neoprene wrap so at the next aid station I chucked the strap and just fit my hand in the neoprene and this worked for the rest of the way.  It took a few miles to get things going again and work out the kinks and in that time a number of people passed me but not as many as expected and I was able to catch up, by the end of the race, to all but about 3-4 of them.

The next bit of fun was that at about 15 miles I realized I had a blister on my left heel so stopped to adjust my sock and loosen my shoe a little.  Man I like using the Lock Laces as they adjust very easy without messing around with tying the laces.  By loosening them it seemed to help quite a bit but was still sore.  Not sure if it was how I ran or some other factor but the pain subsided some, did come back at each stream crossing but in general was able to keep going and not feel too bad.  When the blister broke at 15 miles I was not sure how the next 18 miles would go so I am thankful that it went well.

Basically from 15 miles on I just figured to keep moving along and try and keep the best pace possible and look at pushing it in the last 7-10 miles.  The problem was my watch seemed to be short on the mileage so I thought I had more to do than I did which was a little depressing with how things were going.  Once I hit the last aid station at about 26 miles I decided to start pushing on to the finish.  I then saw a trail sign that said 5 miles to the area where the race finished and looking at my watch I figured there was still a chance of a sub 6 hour race.  The problem with my calculations, which led me to think I could finish by 5:50, was I did not realize how difficult some of the descent sections were, including the infamous stairs.  Thus the closer I got to what should be the finish, hard to tell where it was, the more difficult sub 6 hours seemed.


Finally, I got to what I figured was a mile from the finish and started to push it a little more.  Then I got to where I could see the bridge to the finish but did not know how long the bridge was and my watch said 5:59 thus I started sprinting.  I mean running as fast I could and according to Strava even hit as fast as 5:15 per mile, last 0.2 miles came out to 6:13/mile, all the time trying to see the clock and all I could make out was 5:59 then something as I could tell it had not gone over to 6 hours yet so I pushed on.  I realized my clock time was a little off from the chip time as I had not crossed the start line right away but wanted to still beat the clock time to 6 hours.  I did not let up till I crossed the line to see 5:59:42, or so, which ended up being a chip time of 5:59:37.  I ended up getting 21st Overall, 18th Overall Male, and 1st in the 50-59 age division.  While not the time I had wanted all things considered it was good for the day and all the miles in the last 2 months.

Fueling
Having run a 50 miler 4 weeks earlier I pretty much was going to use the same fueling plan, but for 50K (Approx 6 hrs). So here was my fueling:

• Before the race, about 4:15 AM as race started at 7:30 but had to be there by 6:15 and had a 40 minute drive there, I had a Modified Bullet Proof Coffee – See recipe here
• About 1 hour before the race I had three scoops of UCAN in 20oz of water, to preload some slow release carbs.
• About 20 minutes before the race I took one Vespa CV-25
• I carried a hand help water bottle with Tailwind’s Green Tea flavor, best flavor to me as it is not very sweet, but did not drink from it until after 2 hours
• At 2 hours I took another Vespa CV-25
• Then started sipping on Tailwind at about 2:15 in
• At an aid station, about 2.5 hours, I took a 33Shake Chia Gel
• With a long climb coming I took a Roctane Sea Slat Chocolate Gel, probably at about 3 hours
• During the rest of run I topped of water at aide stations and a couple times added a half packet (100G) of Tailwind
• After 4 hours I took another Vespa CV-25
• At last aid station with 6+ miles to go I topped up water and Tailwind and had a cup of coke
• Took last Roctane at about 5 miles to go 
• Also took one S!Cap during race, at about 3 but probably needed to take more as it did get warm and I did get some cramping.

I think the fueling worked well as I did not feel hungry during the run or after.  Optimized Fat Metabolism (OFM) and the use of Vespa has seemed to make a great difference in the Ultras over the last two months.  I will say I was thirsty but it was getting hotter so that makes sense.  As I mentioned above I probably needed to take a couple more S!Caps since even though Tailwind has some electrolytes it was not enough.

Conclusion
Every race I run I hope to learn something, even after 44 years of running and this race was no different.  What I learned was that even when things do not go as planned keep moving forward as things can change.  Also, I have realized I need to temper my expectations on more technical courses and while working to descend better I might also work on going quicker on the less technical sections so as to minimize lost time on more technical ones.  Another area I know I need to work on is walking hills as for me if I walk I slow down way too much so for now I run most everything unless it is super steep.  Due to my not being able to walk hills in an efficient manner I just keep plugging along on climbs as it works best for me.

This is definitely a race I will do again, whether it is next year I am not sure as it depends on other races I may want to do but I will run it again.  In most races it is nice to know the course and Yamacraw is for sure one of those races so I think a trip back would make the race all that much better.

While I have heard that this race is good for ones first 50K I have to say – maybe.  It is for sure a beautiful course and a well-run race.   Add on to that the vertical gain is not extreme it does seem to fit into the first time race category.  But I give the “maybe” because of the technical nature of some descents.  If you are there to just experience your first 50K then this may be for you but if you are looking to race it you do need to be ready for the terrain that will be before you.  I say all this not to dissuade you but to make sure you know that this will not be a cake walk as saying a race is good for first-timers may convey.  There are for sure flatter and easier races that to me make for good first time Ultras but if you are up to a challenge, want to run a beautiful course and are not averse to work then this race may be for you. Also, if 50K is not for you they also offer a 20K and 10K.

If you think that maybe 50K is not challenging enough there is going to be another race in the area called the No Business 100.  Here is the description from the race website:

“The No Business Hundred is a 103.4 mile loop course with 11,383 feet of ascent that traverses through the heart of the Big South Fork National River & Recreation Area across the state line into Tennessee and back on some of the most scenic & picturesque trails in the southeast.”

Yamacraw 50K
Race Results

2017 Land Between the Lakes 50 Mile Race Recap (March 11th, 2017)

Well this is a first: a race report.  I see lots of these on the web and in magazines but while I have run plenty of races and may have commented on them I do not think I have ever written an actual race report.  So this is a first and maybe since I actually ran than raced, there is a difference- at least to me, then maybe this is more of a run report.

Weather
The couple weeks leading up to the race the weather was looking to be all over the place as it usually is in Kentucky.  There is a saying, and I am paraphrasing, if you do not like the weather wait an hour – or is that a few minutes.  Well that was the case as one moment it was calling for rain then snow then snow and rain then clear but in general always in the low 30’s or so with maybe highs up at 40.  Come the day before the race the news was that it looked like no rain or snow till late in the day but it would be coldish, in the low to mid 30’s to start then maybe hitting 40 around mid day.  So what did we awake to dark and early Saturday morning – snow and not the dry fluffy stuff but it was a little damp but it could have been worse as it was not a mix of  snow and rain so that was a relief.   So we all stood around for the 6:30 start on March 11th, 2017 and as with many trail races it just sort of started and we worked our way down the main road to the trail about 1.9 miles away with snow falling and the anticipation of what the trail would be like ahead.

Trail Condition
Having not run the course before I was not exactly sure what was ahead but did know that it was a pretty good trail with roots and leaves but not excessively rocky.  The day before the race with snow looking unlikely, were we in for a surprise, there had been rain during the week so the course was to have “some” puddles and “some” mud.  Then came race day and the snow, wet snow at that, starting early in the morning and continued for an hour or so into the race leaving a muddy-sloppy mess.  In many places it was like running on a slip-and-side with many having stories of falling numerous times.  I was fortunate enough not fall but came very close a few times but all the sliding played havoc with my right ankle as it was fairly swollen the next morning and still is slightly days later.  Thankfully during the day of running with the rain and snow stopped some sections of the course did dry out so there were times of reprieve from the slop.  I am not sure if people will truly realize how fast Matt Hoyes’ time of 6:28:06, 6th fastest over the years, really was considering the conditions.

The Course
The course is made up of a 2 mile road run to an approximately 11.3 mile loop, consisting of single-track, and when done with 4 laps you run 3 road miles to the finish and the final accumulated miles according to the course map is 50.65.  This year due to cloud over most everyone’s GPS showed up as short but in talking to others that have run this before the course is indeed the 50.65 miles.  There are aid stations every 2-3 miles with the main drop bag area at about halfway through the main loop.  The first half of the loop consists of mainly rolling trails with the second half containing 4 climbs of about a quarter mile each.  The total climb according to the race map is 4200FT total with my GPS getting about 4500FT.   It is easy to see how this can be a fast course on a dry year but still being runnable even on less than ideal years as this one.

The Race, well Run
As this was my first 50 miler the plan was to run conservatively from the start while still hoping for a
sub 9 hour time.  As part of my training has been to burn fat for fuel one of the key aspects is, in longer races and runs, to start at a speed that kicks off fat burning before starting to work a little harder.  To warm up correctly and work to burn fat I started in the first quarter to third of the pack which had 600 runners registered for all 4 races (23k, Marathon, 60K and 50 Miles) that took off together.  The good part was I kept my HR low but the bad was that with a stop for a nature break at the start of the trail I got behind a lot of people on the mostly single track course and then spent the next 11 plus miles working to pass a lot of people.  I need to think about the start more as I may have been able to use less energy starting a little faster so as not to be so far back and have to expend short burst of speed to get around people on not so level embankments on the sides of the trail.  The danger with a faster start may have been that I would start burning carbs way to early and thus not have fueling, more on that to come, as I wanted to do.

Once past the first lap it was a matter of just working to stay in a heart rate zone that did not put me over the edge.  In looking at my Strava data my average HR was at 138 and in looking at the actual data I did a fairly good job of not going too high and that included running all the hills.  It may be just me but I feel way more efficient when running hills unless they are very steep thus I kept a good pace on most the hills.  Over the next three laps I slowly caught those that started out much faster and for once in a long race can say no one ever passed me for good during the entire race.  Well that is except for Matt Hoyes who lapped me on my third lap, his fourth.

As I expected the third lap was mentally the hardest as I had just finished about a marathon and had another one to go and as 31 miles was the farthest I have ever run I was also close that realm of the unknown.  I was also finding it slow going in the aid station where I had my drop bag as over the course of three stops I probably lost 20+ minutes there.  I also find that stopping at an aid station was not as restful as it could be as it was hard to get started up again.

Once I got to the fourth lap I was able to pick it up some for the first part on the rolling hills but as I was feeling a little tightness in the hamstrings I dialed that back a little.  Once hitting the main aid station for the last time I worked to not slow too much on the last hills and be able to get to the last road section with the ability to get under 9 hours.  As the GPS had been off I was thinking for some time that I would not be able to get under 9 hours but when I got to the final 3 miles and feeling good I was able to pick it up a fair amount so as to get a final time of 8:44:52.   So the run was done and while there was some soreness and later an ankle issue all in all I felt good and energy was good.  Did I want to run more, no, but could probably have done so if I needed to do so.

The final results were that I got 10th overall and 1st in the 50-59 age group.  For my first 50 I was pleased and can see where I can improve, such as at aid stations and knowing my limits better may have been able to pick it up more in certain areas.

Fueling
This was an area that for me was a concern.  I had tried some fueling trials in training runs but how this worked for 50 miles was an unknown.  I have been working on Optimized Fat Metabolism (OFM) so needed to make sure my fueling worked to benefit from my training where in general I eat little, to nothing, as compared to racing.  So here is my fueling:

• Before the race I had a Modified Bullet Proof Coffee – See recipe here
• About 1 hour before I had two scoops of UCAN to preload some carbs.  Actually put in 3 scoops but did not mix well so probably left a scoop at the bottom
• About 20 minutes before the race I took one Vespa CV-25
• I carried a hand help water bottle with Tailwind’s Green Tea flavor but did not drink from it but for a sip till after 2 hours
• At 2 hours I took another Vespa CV-25
• At about 2:20 I took a 33Shake Chia Gel – first food in race - then took one per lap after that
• After 2 hours I started to sip on a 20oz water bottle per lap of Tailwind.  Near the end I was replenishing it with some water at the intermittent aid stations and refilled with Tailwind at the approx. 19, 30.2 and 41.5 mile aid stations
• I took another Vespa CV-25 at 4.5 hours and 6.5 hours and then took one at 8 hours just because I had  one and wanted to push the last 1.5 hours but probably did not need it.
• As far as other food I did try an Almond butter at 19 miles but as it was cold it was harder to eat so did not have any more
• One of the key advantages of OFM is not needing to us your standard carb laden gels endlessly during the race.  Instead I ended up using 3 GU Roctane Sea Salt Chocolate gels at specific times.  One before the hills after aid station 30.2, one before the hills after 41.5 then one last one about a mile from hitting the last 3 miles on the road to the finish.
• During the race I also took 3 S!Caps salt capsule during the run.

So that was my fueling.  Probably sounds more complicated than it really was.  Also, realize this is what worked for me and I did a number of trial runs to see how the extras worked on my system as again I train with very little in the way of fueling.  One thing I noticed was that while I did have a few low energy sections, not sure how much was due to lack of energy and how much was mental, I never really just felt spent.  Even at the end I was not famished as I have been before.   Take it from me OFM works.  I want to thank Peter Defty at Vespa as I messaged back and forth with him the month leading up to the race to work out some fueling strategies and it helped greatly.

Conclusion
The final outcome was good for where I was considering my training and experience at running that long.  My training up to the race included a 50K about month before where I ran right at 5 hours but that is a long way from 50 miles as while 20 may not seem like much more, it is when you already have 50K in your legs.  So I think I was in good 50K shape and I guess decent 50 Mile shape based on my results.  Will I run this race next year, not sure yet, will I run it again, absolutely.  I also would advise this race to anyone wanting a good trail race to start with as you have 4 choices of distances and while loop course have their disadvantage in that you can be tempted to drop out each lap and as the race allows you to drop down a distance and that may increase the temptation for some it is also an advantage for fueling and also for those wanting to try something new they are not sure of.  This is great race even if the weather is unpredictable because that is all part of trail racing and especially trail ultras.

Added 3/16/17:  Should not have missed this but wanted to also add that the aid stations were very well run and want to thank all those that came out to help in the less than ideal conditions.

Land Between Lakes Ultra
Race Results