Labor of Love 100 Mile..part 1

After the HURT100 fell to pieces (no pun intended) I was in a bit of down slope because I was looking to break into the 100 arena or at least at HURT get farther than 27 miles. After coming back and resting up in Feb, I decided to train up my road legs for the local Labor of Love 100, by Calico Racing. It's located in Lovell Canyon, about 40 mins West of the strip, matter of fact I passed it many of times when commuting to Pahrump to work with the other doctor in the fall and I have run the LOL50k the last two years, did a solo marathon training run there for Old Pueblo 50 and volunteered for an aid station on the 50k course 3 years ago when I first moved into town and met Antonette and Cynthia who eventually recruited me into the Ultra running environment and I later ran Headlands 50m with all of them.

I was very familiar with the race course for the 100, which consisted of 4.5 out-back loops or 11 miles out, 11 miles back and a shorter 6 out/back on the last .5 loop. I had been asked to join a couple of course training runs from others but opted not to because I knew 4.5 times was plenty of that course and being as I knew it, there was no need for more enduring agony. The course is all on asphalt but it's an old forest type road and basically they used the cheapest asphalt mixture they could to build the road, so that consists of larger type rocks which in my opinion makes it feel like running on concrete compared to regular city asphalt roads and another reason not to partake in the training runs. Also the start/finish line is at the main highway about 4200ft and then gradually climbs to about 5600ft at the 11 mile turn around, and at mile 4 there is a nice ugly long (1.25m) steep pain in the ASS decent or climb depending on which way your heading, aka Biatch Hill from here on out and Yes, this is run 4.5 times. The last .5 loop you basically have to run to the bottom of Biatch Hill and then turn around and head back up, its mile 95 but once you top it at mile 96 its more gradual downhill all the way in.

The weeks leading up to this race I totally switched to all road surface and with the help of The Great One, aka Sweet Baboo or recently Big B (this guy has some great aka's) we talked about the training and mileage that I needed heading into this race. For the most part I was on track but towards the end, taper-ish, my left knee was not happy and gave me some patella tendinitis which I listened to and backed down my training immediately and entered taper on full cut back. This totally worked even though I felt like a lazy slug 2 weeks before the race and even the two or 3 days before the start.

I was busy the week before the race, moving, painting, packing, and working at an expo event the day before the race for 5 hours stretching people but I managed to get to bed at a decent time and being as I had race packed all week, I was ready to go come 3:45am when the alarm went off. I jumped in the shower, got dressed and ate some food before loading the last few things in the car. I checked the temperature at the closest spot available for the race and it said it was going to be 30* so I made sure to wear my Lululemon running pants I got a couple of years ago on a demo and have only wore about 3 times and been way too hot in them for the temps at those times of running. Dez was on duty for crewing later in the day so the morning time she was just dropping me off and I would see her later. One of the things we had to do was pick up Tim Duffy, a good friend who I have come to know from his wife, Catherine, who was on my TNT Tri team last year. Tim has entered the ultra world himself with a couple of 50ks and was looking to run the 50 miler but really put down the training time and miles and signed up for the 100 miler as well. Tim also owns a 37' RV which he decided to bring and set up shop at the half way point which was allowed for crews/aid station, so we basically had a mobile hotel at mile 5.5 on the course! Thanks so much to the Duffy's! it really made crewing for his wife and Dez so much more enjoyable and also helped from a running aspect at times (more on the not so much at times later) but now that I have experienced the RV crewing, Tim basically has to run all the races I running for the rest of my life, haha!

After picking up Tim, we all drove back to the start/finish line and it was about 6:45am which was perfect timing because the road was closing then and we didn't have to stand around too long in the cold to wait for the start. Tim quickly made his way to the portable heaters that were supplied and I said my see-ya-laters to Dez as she was going back into town and would come out later in the afternoon. At 6:33am the temperature out at the race was 21* and as you can see from the picture the heater was set to 85* ha!

START- Lap 1, Miles 0-22: Once standing with all the runners, the 100's had green race numbers and the 50s had orange numbers. I quickly saw Connie Dockendorf from NLV, a 2010 Badwater Finisher, 2010 Brazil 135 finisher, a great person so I always make sure to chat with her, I will be seeing her all day. I also chatted with a couple of newbie first timers as well and then it was the count down to the gun. Bang!!

I clicked my watch and off we went, all 33 One-Hundred competitors and the 50 milers. I was talking with a guy named Eric, his first 100 as well, and Tim came along side of us to join in the chat for a while. This would be the only time I ran with Tim other passing him going the opposite direction and lapping me! After a few miles it really started to warm up and all the layers I had put on really were over heating me and I was only at mile 3. I thought I could hang in there till mile 5.5 and drop the clothes at the RV but it was just too long of a wait so I peeled off layers. On Thursday at packet pick up I saw there was some cold weather in store for the race so being as I was at REI I bought a North Face Cipher Hybrid jacket. I was hesitant on spending $150 for the jacket but I was in no mood to freeze so I sunk the cash, little did I know it was more than worth it. This jacket has a Gore-Tex Windstopper layer and was completely amazing! It also has two zipper front panels on the chest that I would open to let more air in and later on use as a "kangaroo pockets". At this time I simply just took it off along with another long sleeve shirt and tied it to my waist and then dropped them at the RV come mile 5.5. Once I dropped the clothes at the RV, bathroom break and I was off again, the pack of runners had pretty much strong out as the long ass biatch of a downhill strung everyone out even more. I was okay with it and just put on the music and ran till the 11 mile marker where by this time I had seen many of the 50's and 100's make the turn around, (there was also a marathon group and they had pretty much the same course with a double turn around at the back end of the course, so I saw them too) I made the 11 mile mark, checked in, as all 50/100 were manually timed and off I went. I was feeling pretty good, weather was warmer and now it was all gradual downhill back to the start/finish expect for Biatch Hill. On the way past the RV I had to stop again to use the bathroom but it was in and out and I rolled into start/finish mile 21.88 at 4hrs 46 mins, with avg. pace of 13:04/mile. I knew this was too fast overall but I enjoyed it and thought just bank as much time as possible because the later miles will slow down. I quickly did my in and out and off I went for lap number 2!

Lap 2 - Miles 22-44: My overall plan was to transition in and out of the two turn around points and use any time I needed at the RV so no time could be wasted at the other two points. It was simply state my number in/out and refill my water bottles. My nutrition game plan was use Ultra, Amino, and Clip all by Succeed, PB&J's I had made, some other random things like chips, pop tarts, crackers and soup for the night. I also had Red Bulls and my Nuero1 for the night time. I did use some Gu's but overall only about 6 because they just got to me, ughh, and I ate a few Luna bars but those also got to me after a while. Paydays were good at times and frozen snickers hit the spot at one point. Around mile 23 I started having some slight cramping in my lower GI and pressure, I figured it was from the waist belt I was carrying but never had this problem in training but I knew it was somehow bothering me now. I have spoke to Baboo about waist belts and this is one reason he opts to not use them, I NOW KNOW WHY! I removed my belt and carried it for a while but I got tired of holding it so I finally made it sash like and slug it across my chest/back. It was annoying to run with it like that but I made it work till I got back to the RV come mile 28.5, by then I had dropped one of the bottles and cracked the lid so it was worthless and I used one bottle for about 2 miles. When I got to the RV I switched to my hand held and used it the remaining time, a smart move and will probably only race that way from now on. I reloaded my nutrition supplies in my other waist type carrier which was much more flexible and didnt bother my GI. Once I removed that waist belt I had no further problems but I did have to fight with my GI to settle down as it was quite disturbed and cramped for about the next 3 hours but finally went away. I won that Battle but it was totally uncomfortable.

Before I got to the RV I noticed that the weather was looking bad at the back end of the course and the clouds looked dark. Being as its higher in elevation 5 more miles from where I was at I decided to pick up my Cipher jacket, gloves and ear cover again. I figured worse thing is I have to carry it around my waist for a while. Well when I left the RV about 20 minutes later, the temperature dropped and it started to snow flurry. I was like, Cool, Snow flurries! but then it quickly started to just down right snow! I mean the kind of snow that sticks to you, that you can build a snow man with! I was quickly covered in snow on the front of my whole body and kept knocking it off so it wouldn't melt and make me wet. Luckily the Cipher jacket is water repellant. It was snowing so hard that I had to put the hood on to cover my face, pull my hat down so low, like a cholo, to keep from covering my face. I saw many other runners without jackets and just totally got caught in the snow and nothing they could do but run, they were freezing! This lasted for about an hour!! I kept moving and knocking snow off my body this whole time and finally just as my pants and shoes were starting to get wet it stopped. I was just about to the back end turn around and thank goodness it was done and the sun was shining back there. I made the check in at mile 33 and out I left refilling my water bottle.

Heading back to the RV was again nice because of the gradual downhill but it was windy and that was not too fun, once again I was so glad to have the Cipher as it had just paid for itself and the race wasn't even over. I stopped at the RV this time because Dez was now back and so was Tim's wife Catherine. I quickly chatted with them and as I was getting ready to leave I see Tim coming to door, so I quickly sit back on the couch and act like I am chilln'.. Tim see's me and says What the Hell are you doing here, get out there and run! haha.. we quickly chatted and off we both went, he is now 11 miles ahead of me! Round 2 with Biatch and I was cruising into start/finish and looking forward to picking up my first pace, Mr. Formualic! at mile 44. He had drove out from the start/finish area to see where I was and I was pretty close, about 2 miles, so he returned to get ready for his 11 mile pacing duties. I rolled in to mile 43.76 (start/finish) at 10 hours 37 mins, now on a 14:33 pace (still feeling too fast for my own good but I'll take it as once again the night is coming)

Miles 44-66 and the night to follow..

rockon'