And on a Positive Note - Six Days and Beyond ...

My blog, as I’ve mentioned before, is titled “My Experiences with Running.” It’s named so as I started it following a hammering I got from a post I made on “the Big List” back in 2006. Apparently I got hammered again, or at least there was a lot of discussion about my last blog on The List. Since I haven’t belonged to The List since, “the incident of 2006,” as my wife affectionately calls it, I have no idea what was being said. With that said, I wanted to get back to my experiences once again since that’s what I can write about with certainty. They are after all MY experiences with running.

In retrospect, the Six Days in the Dome race was a very good experience for me. I learned a little bit about traditional multi-day racing and can tell I have much, much more to learn. It wasn’t until the last couple of days of the race that I allowed myself to relax and feel free to talk to some of the experienced multi-day runners. I very much enjoyed listening to Phil McCarthy, Josh Irvan, Ed Ettinghausen, Frank Bozanich, John Geesler (a very funny guy who’s running exploits I’ve been following for years), Mary Lou Corino, Bill Schultz (gave me sage advice about these races and insight into the politics behind them), Fast Eddy Rousseau, Martina Hausmann and others. It was also a pleasure to be in the company of Joe Fejes, Rimantas Jakelaitius (another who’s running exploits I have marveled at for years), Kenji Okiyama, Roy Pirrung, Valmir Nunes and my good friend Dave Johnston; most of whom I didn’t have much chance to speak to as they were running too fast to be able to talk to ~ of course. Then there was the language barrier with some but their smiles and even very tired and sullen faces spoke the international language of the love of running. I have to say, Valmir was a great cheerleader for the last four days of the race as was Martin Fryer ~ both who ended their respective races early. They spent many hours out there cheering everyone on. It was great to see them being so enthusiastic and friendly. There were also those I’ve known from past races and/or lives ~ Mark McCaslin, Francesca Carmichael, Dan the man Baglione, to name a few.

Goals:

• Stay out six days - goal met
• Meet people and have fun - goal met
• Don't get frustrated by what others do - mostly met. It was hard for me to deal with the other activities that went on in the dome unrelated to the race. Kids screaming, etc. It was also hard dealing with the negativity at times. I tried to stay away from negative talk and removed myself from it when I heard it. At times found myself adding to the negative talk and had to pull myself away. There’s this type of talk in most races but it becomes more obvious and intense when you’re in such close quarters for 6 days with 40-60 other tired runners.
• Do 372 miles – not quite. I ran 200 miles under 72 hours which was a first for me. I ended up with 211 miles in 72. Total mileage for 144 hours was 335.9. With 211 miles first half (average @73 per day) and 125 miles second half (average @43 per day), and an overall average, 56 miles per day.

I met a few of my goals at the Six Days in the Dome event. Some think of this as a mileage goal ~ and rightfully so. For me, my primary goal was to stay out on the track as long as I could; rub elbows with great talent (there were world and American record holders galore); get to know or at least talk to as many of the other racers as possible; have fun and NOT get injured. Though I did use this race to give me a huge carrot for increasing my training (I went from averaging about 40 miles per week last year to 70 miles per week this year), no one race is that important to risk injury. After all, I run purely because I love to run. Competition is fun no doubt and I will push myself if trained properly and the opportunity arises. To date my longest distance in any one race has been 370 miles. So for me 372 miles (100K / 62 miles a day) seemed the logical goal.

All photos by Ron Nicholl @ Ron Nicholl Photography

Frank Bozanich telling me what’s what.

Dan the man Baglione telling me how he’s going to steal my girl.

I didn’t have a good strategy in my head as to how to run this race. I thought I would just run until I had to sleep, although that might not be until the end of day 2 or beginning of day 3; I can stay awake a long time. I talked with Dave about it and he suggested that I run the miles I thought I should be running daily (presumably goal mileage / 6) and then sleep. I thought 62 miles was too little, especially for the first day and settled on 80 miles … in my head. Unfortunately, I am undisciplined and managed to run 90 miles on the first day even though I had about 5 hours of down time. I had to force myself to walk some of the miles and slept for 4-4.5 hours starting at about 2am.

Day one sporting my Ultra Marathon Maniac shirt and a Dr Pepper.

On day two I was brought back to reality and was barely able to run 65 miles. Closer to where I should have been but I knew going from 90 down to 65 meant day three could mean even less. I was able to put in 56 miles on day three and was not TOO far off. In fact, I had 211 miles and was very happy with my three day total. Good thing because that’s pretty much all I had to offer.

Self-prophecy or self-aware I’m not sure but day four was terrible. My right knee started to hurt from the hard (cement) track and I became frustrated trying to run. I went through all my shoes (form road to trail to Hokas) but nothing helped. By the end of the day I had put on my walking sandals to keep myself from being tempted to run. I needed to just walk. Day four total, 39 miles – yuck! It’s funny how that seems like low mileage. I ran a 30 miler yesterday and I was very happy. Albeit I ran that in under 5 hours and not in 20.

Relegated to walking …

Day five had a lot of ups and downs. I was walking and talking with others and just enjoying being out on the track. There were mostly only the competitors in the dome and we didn’t have to deal with noisy kids, randomly flying soccer balls, idiots crossing the track without paying attention to what was going on. At the end of this day, I was starting to worry about my wife who was running the Resurrection Pass 100 miler. As I leisurely walked around a safe environment, she was out there with the threat of inclement weather and wild beasts. I started to imagine her in an encounter with a bear and had to stop several times to pray. I also was dealing with the outfall of Dave leaving the track. I was not happy with the way things were going down and I let that get to me for at least half a day.  Day five total: 44 miles. Not bad for walking as slow as I do.

At the beginning of day six I posted to Facebook in hopes of getting a status on my wife. I messaged Matt Crow who I knew was there with Dugan Greenwell who had finished his first 100 miler by winning in a time of 18:57. I was stoked to find out not only was Shawn ok but she had PRd by over 3 hours (she was able to stay awake) and set a course record of 22:01. I couldn’t wait to see her that night and ask her about her race. I was feeling good and started moving around the track at very brisk walk (fast for me).

Day six night came and went and I was on the track with a few others as the clock moved ever so slowly to 11am. A Japanese runner who was trying to hit 100 miles for 24 hours asked that some help him to make his goal. I ran with him for a lap in my sandals and some others did more laps with him. Crazy but my legs didn’t feel too badly. We were in the last hour and I started running. I ran a bunch of laps on my own and started picking up the pace. I hit 333.33 miles, which looks cool on paper and asked my wife if I should quit. Wrong person to ask … “heck no!” I put on my shoes and ran out the clock putting up a few more miles. I think I was running an 8 minute mile pace for the last 4-5 miles. 

Finishing strong! 

The walking seemed to help my legs recover a lot quicker that I had realized. I was happy at the end with 335.9 miles (41.9 for day six).

In the midst of champions

What I learned:

• Don’t expect others around you to be as nice as you want them to be. Traditional multi-day racing is nothing like 100, 200, 300+ mile runs; that is, the people involved are a whole different breed. What these runners don’t know is that when you’re out there in the snow for days at a time without seeing another soul, you’re happy to see anyone and want to smile, chat and celebrate; not snarl and play mind games.
• Continue to bring my own food to races. I would not have been able to eat enough if I relied on the aid station food, just like in 100 milers. 
• I need less sleep than I thought. After the first night of 4-4.5 hours, I slept only 3 hours (3-6am) and another hour in the afternoon (5-6pm). If I’m not running, I need to be sleeping. This is how I ended up sleeping in the late afternoon ~ my knees needed the break. I did sit from time to time either to eat or just to take 15-20 minutes to rest my legs.  
• Make sure you know what the rules are. If they are not clear, ask for clarification. I don’t think we ever got a clear answer on what was considered pacing.

What next:

Will I ever run a six day again? Heck no! OK, that’s like saying, “I’ll never run a marathon again,” after my first marathon back in 1976.

On Thursday following the race I got a phone call from Dave. “Tony, we need to go to ATY.” I said, “I’ve already been thinking about it Dave.”  I haven’t pulled the trigger on it but I am looking into flights and my boss has already told me I can have the time off. So we’ll see. Never say never.

Two of my running heroes: David Johnston and Shawn McTaggart

What I’ve been doing since:

I had signed up for the Big Wild Life Runs – 49K. Not 50 but 49K, because we’re the 49^th state I guess. Anyway, I knew this would be only a week after the Six Day and was pretty sure it would be a slog to get to the finish. But with good weather and being on a familiar course, I thought I could do it. Day of race Shawn and I went out for a jog to loosen up the legs and get ready to hit the porta-potty. My legs felt ok and I was happy with how the weather was turning out. The gun went off and I found myself running at a brisk pace. There were about 100 folks in the 49K along with some marathoners doing the early start. After about a mile, I noticed there were only a few people in front of me. What the heck! Well, I feel good so I’m going with it. After a couple more miles of running low 8 minute pace, I had passed one runner and would stay in this position for the next 14 to 15 miles.

Focus, focus, focus!

It was fun running into the marathoners as I was on my way back after the first turn-around. I got to see all the ultra-runners behind me and all the marathoners as well. Between miles 17 and 18, Ginny Kinnebrew FINALLY passed me … like I was standing still I might add. She was just behind me at our first turn around (mile 12) and I kept thinking she would pass me any minute. When she did, she said something like, “I don’t know how you’re out here.” Me either Ginny. I struggled to mile 20 and then started to walk a bit. I thought, “Here it is. It’s going to be a death march to the end.” I started running again but about a minute per mile slower. As the course turned onto the Chester Creek trail, I knew the slight uphill grade would take its toll on me. I was ill prepared GU wise and was holding on to my 2^nd and last GU until I absolutely needed it. The last turn around was just beyond mile 24. I was hurting but was passing some of the slower ½ marathoners and starting to get passed by some of the faster marathoners. Knowing that we would now be heading onto a slight downhill, I tried to pick up the pace and ate my last GU. Heather Wolfe caught me at about the marathon point but stopped at a porta potty soon after. I was able to hold on to a decent pace until mile 28. I was sure that Heather was going to pass me as I was running at a snail’s pace, just struggling not to walk. I started up the last hill passing some ½ marathoners who were walking. I was again lifted by the drums that a fellow was playing on the side of the road. I pushed myself as best I could to the finish line ending up with a time of 4:21:35 (8:36 pace), 5^th overall; Heather and one other runner were less than 30 seconds behind me. Wow! How did I do that? I was elated and very hungry at the finish. I changed clothes and was back at the finish to watch Shawn come through. She had passed a bunch of people in the last miles to get 11^th overall and 3^rd woman.  “Hey, didn’t you just run 100-miler last weekend? “

Shawn cruising the uphill approaching Earthquake Park

I ran two more 30 mile runs in August (8/24 – Kesugi Ridge and 8/31 solo road run) to finish out the month with 490.9 miles. I think it’s my highest mileage month ever with 335.9 mile from the Six Day being my highest mileage week. Now onto September where I will be trail sweeping Kesugi Ridge next weekend followed by three weekends of racing before the season is over.