18-19 September 2010
Cleveland, Ohio
Here is my story of my experience at this event. My training for the event is explained at this page.
Friday September 17th I drove to Jim and Shelley Viggiano’s house in Rochester, NY and we caravanned to our hotel in Cleveland. We decided to not carpool since I was planning to go to Akron after the race to visit my son’s family, and they had to return immediately after the race. Even if I didn’t go to Akron, I planned to spend Sunday night in Cleveland and return to Syracuse on Monday.
We got to the hotel without incident and checked in, then Jim drove us over to the Edgewater Park race site, about 7 miles. We walked around the course and discussed where Jim would set up our tent for aid, etc. Jim was crewing for Shelley since he had stress fractured his tibia a few weeks earlier at mile 70 of his 100 mile Burning River 100 race. He offered to crew for me too, and I gladly accepted.
On the way back to the hotel we looked for food. I wanted pasta, something light. Like, angel hair with primavera and a medium sized caesar salad. We saw "George’s Kitchen" and the parking lot was packed, so we went in. It was more of a diner, but the food was very plentiful and good. I had veal parmesan and a small garden salad; not exactly what I was looking for, but it filled me up. Back to the hotel to fuss with equipment.
I spent a few hours organizing my clothes, coolers, etc. I had a cooler with cold things (cokes, red bull, accelerade, and fruit.) I had a dry cooler with chips, pretzels, clif bars, Hammer gel, cookies, kit kat bars, M&Ms, fig newtons, etc. I had a bag with clothes and another bag with all kinds of medical equipment. I was basically traveling prepared to be on my own, although I didn’t need to be. I took everything but my clothes for the morning and the cold cooler down to my car, and went to sleep. Some neighbors woke me about 1, but I turned on the room fan and it masked their noise and I went back to sleep.
Jim called me about 0530 and I went down to give him my cooler and let him back into the hotel (he locked himself out.) He went over to the race site and I went back to sleep. I had been having a nightmare in which I was being disciplined at work for taking too long of a lunch break.
Shelley called when she was ready to go and stopped at my room so I could brew coffee. In hotels these days, you get 1 towel, and 1 individual packet of coffee to brew. Shelley doesn’t drink coffee, so I got her to bring me hers. We took our bags and drove to the park. Jimmy had set up the tent next to our club mates. Jill, Matt, and Ryan had Mack crewing for them. I carried some more of my things to the tent and got my bib numbers. In this race, the timing device was inside a foam piece glued to the inside of the bib number. We each got 2 bib numbers so that we could have a clothing change ready without fussing with pins. We also had to write our age on the backside of old bib numbers and pin them to the back of our singlets. This was so other USATF National Championship competitors coming up from behind, or those of us being passed and lapped, could tell who was in their age group.
After pinning 16 safety pins, we posed for some group photos. Then it was time to move to the starting line. 15 years ago, when I ran the JFK50 mile race, I met a guy named Tom Green. He told me a terrific story as we were running and walking along the canal, and it turns out that he was the first person to ever complete the ultramarathon grand slam. i wrote about that in my JFK50 race report, and always remembered how inspirational that was for me. I knew from the race roster that Tom was in this race. I looked up his number, and found him shortly before the start. I went over and introduced myself and told him my story. We had a little chat. I saw Karen Riddle from Texas, who had been at MTD in May. I remembered her because Mack had been kidding me that I was second in my "age" - not my age group - and it turned out I was second to Karen.
At the start line, I was waiting for the national anthem, and the horn sounded - no anthem. Off we went. I decided to try running 2 laps, and then walk 0.2 miles after reaching our aid tent, which was maybe 0.1 miles past the timing station. It didn’t seem too hard, so I kept doing this. I initially decided to maintain this for the first 6 hours.
There were about 165 people in the race. At the start, everyone is bunched, and then the bunch slowly strings out. I was running aside Tom Green and we were chatting a little as the first people passed us from behind, Tom pointed out that these were probably the leaders and we were being lapped. The first time.
The first time I was lapped by Amy Palmiero-Winters was very surreal. She is a world class, champion ultrarunner. As she floated by, I was trying to start memorizing what people looked like from behind by clothing, shoes, age, etc. When I got to her shoes I realized, this is Amy. The amputee, single mother world champion who races against two legged world champions and beats them. How can you not be inspired by that?
David James started flying by me and telling me "good job" every lap. This guy was lapping me at least once per lap, and didn’t even know me, but talked to me. How can you not be inspired by that?
Tom Green and I talked several times along the way. He was going to see how long his knee would last. I was thinking about running with a guy from Maryland who I’d run with 15 years earlier in my 2nd ultra. He was the first man to complete all four of the 100 mile trail races in the country at the time, in the same year. How can you not be inspired by that?
I ran and walked for a short while with a man from Paris, France, named Pascal Peron. He has run several 6 day races and I was asking him about that. He told me you don’t sleep on the first day, then only a few hours each day, and maybe not at all on the last of the 6 days. Was I curious about such a thing?
Now I was going along, running my 2 laps and then walking to a tree I picked to mark 0.2 miles past our tent. It was 2.5 hours into the race and it was getting hot. I was soaked. I was hoping to keep my CEP compression socks and my Ghost 3 shoes dry. Perhaps if I kept them dry my feet wouldn’t blister on the bottom as they had in both my training runs. I would stop at the tent and dry my legs so the sweat wouldn’t run down my legs into my shoes. That probably helped my head, but not my feet. Every time by the tent Jimmy asked me what I needed. He made sure I was eating and drinking and not loitering. But it was getting hot. Sometime in the 3rd hour, I decided that I would keep this pattern for 3 hours and then walk for a while. It would not do to try to keep this up for 6 hours. I stopped running about 3:20 and started just walking.
About this time I decided to call a few friends. I called Tom and left a message. I called Dad and he had the website up. I had a message from Mary. I talked with her briefly. She was worried and thought, from watching the live webcast, that I had already dropped out. This was because my time and distance had not been updated for the last 90 minutes, but everyone else’s had been. I couldn’t imagine how this could be, but I hadn’t seen my name on the scoreboard in quite a while.
I have never seen the kind of timing system used at this race (and I’ve been in a few races.) There was an arbor over the start line with a large US flag and 4 antennas on it. Apparently they received a signal from the chip glued inside your bib number. There was a man under the awning there with computers, and possibly a webcam. Just beyond that, on the right, was a large flat panel display. The display showed the elapsed race time in large numbers across the top. Below that, each runner’s name, distance and lap count would flash up as the runner’s signal was received. At the start I was pumped to see "Greg Farnham 0.9 miles 1 lap" as I passed. When several runners were together, you might see your name, you might not.
After Mary called and told me my time wasn’t updated, I got pretty concerned. I told Jimmy that Mary said my laps were not being counted. Fortunately I was wearing my Garmin 310XT GPS watch, and I knew exactly how far I had gone. I asked Jimmy to see if he could talk to someone. When I came around he was at the start line talking to the timing guy. Then he ran to meet me at the tent and told me there was a problem, and not just me, Matt Chaffin’s laps were messed up too. So I tried to convey my distance so Jimmy could help the timer work this out. But what if I weren’t wearing my GPS? I wasn’t going to try to count my own laps for 24 hours. After a few laps, I started seeing my lap count on the screen again. And it was wrong. They had me for 7 fewer laps than my GPS indicated. Talk with Jimmy again. Jimmy talks with timer again. I go into a blue funk. This was really the only low spot I experienced mentally in the race. I was anticipating a bad spot in the 12-16 hour range, based on my training. In the second training event, the 14th hour was horrible. But no low spot ever came this day, except during the timing fiasco. One lap I came by and it was still wrong, and I told Jimmy at our tent, "what’s the point of continuing? The only reason to run this race is to get a 24 hour distance." I was getting really despondent. Then I decided that I had my GPS on, and there was really nothing I could do about the timing system, etc. The only thing I could do was keep moving. Why let myself become a victim of something I could not control? I pushed myself back into a positive outlook. And all through the race, this action was repeated and benefitted me. I forced myself to feel happy and good and positive. Eventually the lap count got fixed (until later...).
I found that putting a shirt on under my singlet helped me cool off.
Next I started having trouble with my feet. I felt hot on my left foot. I decided to stop in the Ohio College of Podiatry awning and let them have a look. They made a plaster out of moleskin and off I went. I think this was in the 18th mile, based on my GPS mile splits. On first leaving their booth, the patched foot hurt like hell. But after a half mile or so, it started feeling better. I initially panicked, and then found that after the patch is first applied, it takes a little pounding to seat it, and then it feels much better. Resisting panic seemed to be a big lesson. Just wait and see. This worked many times. In a race like this, many things will happen. You can’t prepare for them or know ahead of time what’s going to happen. You have to handle them as they come up. Missing lap counts. Debilitating blisters. Incredible pain. Dehydration. All these happened. None were relevant in the end.
During the first 3 hours, running and walking a little, my right knee (always the biggest worry) started hurting a lot, and the pain spread to the right hip. This made me think that I was compensating for the knee in some way that made the hip sore. I had been having lots of knee and hip pain in the preceding 6 weeks. I had received a cortisone injection from my orthopedic surgeon, Brett Greenky, the Tuesday before the race. It hadn’t helped as much as the injection prior to Mind the Ducks 12 hours, but it felt somewhat better. Now, here, in 3 hours, it was already becoming a problem. And, I started noticing cramps at 3 hours. My great nemesis from Comrades 2008. 3 hours into a 24 hour experiment. This is part of why I decided to stop running and only walk at 3 hours.
Sometime in this region Matt Chaffin and Ryan O’Dell were cranking out laps and we were encouraging one another each time they lapped me. On one lapping, Matt told me I should get an ice bandana on. I was really hot, but I’d never tried one of these. So Jimmy made me an ice bandana my next time by the tent and I wore it. The next time Matt and Ryan lapped me, I showed it to Matt, saying it was "doctor’s orders." He told me to get fresh ice in it every hour. Later on he saw me without it, and I took two laps to get it back on, thanks to his stern admonishment. It was a very hot day, and I sure am glad I saw the doctor that day.
Then I started having the hotspots on my feet and getting them fixed. The good I found in this is that it made me forget about the hip and knee pain. And I literally had no more problem with my knee or my hip. None. But, my feet were another story. After getting the left foot fixed, I was pretty happy, because the left foot had been the worst blister foot in training. But now, the right foot was getting hot. I stopped at the podiatry tent again. These people were wonderful and they were there the entire 24 hours. And they were busy. I personally visited them 4 times. The last 3 were on the right foot. This time was in the 24th mile. I didn’t have a blister, but under the 4th metatarsal it was getting hot (inflamed) and they made a plaster similar to that on the left foot. Leaving there I had the same experience - it hurt like hell and discouraged me for a half mile, then it felt better.
In the 7th hour I realized that I hadn’t peed since the first hour. I started drinking more and more water. When I did pee, it was dark brown. I had let myself get dehydrated. This should have been apparent to me at 3 hours when I had cramps, but somehow I overlooked it. I started pounding all the water I could get, but it wasn’t working. I decided to change from salt sticks to endurolytes. Salt sticks have more sodium, but endurolytes have more other stuff. When the cramps started at hour 3, I went back to one salt stick every hour, instead of every 2 hours. Sometimes 2 at a time, but it didn’t help. I started the 7th hour with 4 endurolytes. In about 40 minutes, I started feeling better. I told Jimmy I’d stick with endurolytes every hour from now on. This real-time learning and adapting was a little unsettling at first, but after a few of these (cramps, blisters, knee pain, dehydration) I decided this was OK. It was going to be dynamic like this, and I was going to just have to handle it. Every time a runner complained about something, I countered with a reason to be happy about something. Yes, it was hot. At least it wasn’t raining. Yes, we had 18 more hours. But we had already done 6. The mind can hold only 1 thought at a time. If it is a positive thought, then the negative thought can not be in the mind. Keep a positive thought. I told this to enough fellow racers that I started to believe it myself. That was my secret to success on this day.
I peed again in the 8th hour, and it was more normal looking. So I felt I had overcome the dehydration and I kept drinking and taking the E-tabs regularly.
Then I got another hot spot on the right foot. They took the first plaster off and made a larger one. This one also hurt at first, then felt better, then hurt some more. The 3rd time I stopped, the pain was incredible. I think it was about 18 hours in, about 3 in the morning. They poor guy tried taking the old plaster off, but couldn’t He said the skin was coming off with it. He offered a bigger moleskin on top of what was already there. I asked for a Novocain injection, but they weren’t allowed. So I took what he offered and got up and went on. I must have told Jimmy every time by how much my feet hurt. My legs hurt. My feet really hurt. Both of them now.
I stopped at 50+ miles to change shoes and socks and shirts. When we got my shoes and socks off, the patch on the left foot was coming loose, so Jimmy taped my foot with duct tape. I put on very thin sock liners instead of socks, then my 2XU compression sleeves, and my Saucony Ride 3 shoes, which were my widest shoes. My hands didn’t seem to be swelling much, and I think the compression socks and sleeves were doing the trick for my legs and feet. But the blisters on the bottom were devastating. Even with the moleskin, I could feel the layers of skin ripping apart. When this happens, there is a brief but incredible sharp pain. Then a little relief due to the decrease in pressure. A lower but severe pain persists until the nerves become fatigued and you get used to it.
I had decided I was going to continue for 24 hours. Stubbornly, there was no other alternative or rationalization. I would leave the track at just past 24 hours, or on a gurney. So the incredible foot pain had to be dealt with. Sometimes I could block it out. Focus on making my brain ignore it by focusing on ignoring. That didn’t always work. Other times, I was able to ignore the pain by thinking about other topics. I listened to the the last few hours of Lee Iacocca’s "Where Have All the Leaders Gone" and I listened to music to distract my thoughts from the pain.
Along in the wee hours, Jimmy started pushing me a little. I didn’t think I needed it, but he was there. I stopped at the tent for something (can’t remember what now) and I was fussing with it to get it adjusted or something and he said "you can do that while you’re walking." He was right. I started walking. I started thinking about how right he was. I had really only stopped to get my feet worked on, and that one time to change clothes. There had been no other rest breaks. The only times that I sat down were accompanied by the increased pain of having my blisters worked on. I didn’t think I was dogging it. Jimmy didn’t really say that I was, but what he did say always made me think this over, which I suppose, made me keep going a little better.
In the last 6 hours (it seemed like it took forever to reach the 4th quarter, but it really only took 18 hours) I started thinking about how far I would get. I had an initial goal of 72 miles. If I could get that, I would try for 75 (just because it’s a round number). I really was on a pace for this, but I know from experience that pace decays. There really was no way to compute things, and computations didn’t mean anything. The only thing that meant anything at this point was to keep moving to the end of 24 hours as fast as possible. I started thinking about running some more. Even though my feet were insanely painful, I had to try running. In the 19th hour I tried running from the port-a-cans to the finish line which I think was about 0.4 miles. I did this 2 laps in a row. My feet were so incredibly painful that it didn’t hurt any more to run than it did to walk. Once I got my quads working again and lifting my feet, running was OK. But I knew I couldn’t do that for 6 hours so I waited.
I remember Bob Brenner telling me that I could hurt myself more than anyone he knew. Even though I can’t seem to decide if that’s a good trait and a compliment or a bad trait and I’m just stubborn, I try to embody the notion when I need to. This night, I needed to be willing to hurt myself more than I ever had before. Many of you will be repulsed at reading this and think it is stupid. Maybe it is. I can say that I am not concerned about that, as I have chosen to do this and therefore will do it the best that I can. I think I did.
At some point I shed my iPod and earbuds. I shed my water bottle and carried it only when I needed to drink. I shed my headlamp and used it only when I needed to use the port-a-can. I didn’t stop at the tent. I grabbed what I needed on the fly (fly in this case being my 18:00 walking pace). Mack Duett was there and has a unique ability to say only things that need to be said. He reminded me at one point to use body glide. He was there when I needed something if Jimmy wasn’t (Jimmy, you will recall, had a wife running her first 24 hour too). What great guys!
Jimmy kept telling me if I wanted my goal I had to speed things up. I did a lap count down at the end of the race. It took 80 laps to get 72 miles. At 70 laps (they had corrected my lap count at this point) I started counting 10 and 14. The 14 was for the 4 extra laps I needed to get 75 miles. 10 and 14. Next lap, 9 and 13. I told Jimmy my count each time. He said I would have to pick it up. I was watching my pace, and I thought he was wrong, but I also thought he was not only trying to help, but he was helping. He kept my mind focused on my pace. That was necessary.
At the finish line, they gave me my block, and I had to tell them I’d be back around again before the horn.
At 80 laps (I was counting now) I reached 72 miles. And the timing system missed my lap. At 81 I tried to tell the guy. Sometime earlier they had missed 2 laps (this was the second set of missed laps) and we decided I would change bib numbers. Maybe there was something wrong with the chip in the first bib number. So after a second problem, I changed bibs, and things were working OK. Except, they missed my 80th lap. I told them on lap 81. He fixed it. I started running from the bathrooms to the finish line every lap with about 90 minutes to go. I knew I could get to 75 miles. On my 83rd lap, they handed me a wooden block with "22" painted on it. In this race, if you run to 24 hours, they give you a block with your number on it. They blow a horn at exactly 24 hours. Where ever you are when the horn goes off, you place the block on the ground. They measure from the finish line to your block to give you your exact 24 hour distance.
I finished an 85th lap. I kept going. At 11 minutes to go I decided to run to the horn. The horn went off, and I stopped just passed a little girl in blue who was walking. I placed my block on the path, and shook her hand. She said how happy she was. I asked if she wanted to walk back to the finish line. She said "where’s my boyfriend I want my picture taken" in a little pout. I said I couldn’t help about her boyfriend, but I had my cell phone and I could take her photo. So I did. She was happy because the World Championships next year in Switzerland are on her birthday. I asked where she was from and she said Poland. She gave me her name and e-mail address so I could mail the photos. I didn’t know who she was. Then she said I could find her on Facebook. What’s your name? Anna Piskorska. Uh oh. She was 7th overall, and ran over 129 miles.
I finished for the Rocket Ass Track Club, glad to be standing still (still standing?)
I shuffled back to the tent. Jimmy had taken everything down and lugged everything to the car and loaded it for me. I shuffled to the finish line. They were serving breakfast which sounded great. I had a pancake, hash browns and an egg and cheese burrito. I shuffled to the awards table and a lady gave me a finisher’s medal. Shelley came over to say good bye and I walked to the parking lot. Jimmy had already loaded my car. I was there, so I got in my car. I called the hotel to see about early check-in and they had a room, so I headed there, and the Viggianos headed home.
At the hotel, in my racing gear and a warm up jacket, the bellman thought I was a little odd looking and he was obviously on protection duty. So he was full of questions. But he was very nice, and impressed by what I told him about just running for 24 hours. He said I looked like a referee at a Bosnia-Serbia soccer game after getting beaten up by the crowd. I am sure I didn’t smell very good either. But I made it up to my room and got a shower and a nap. I woke up about 6 p.m. and called room service. I retrieved my cold cooler from the car and put on the TV for a football game. I talked with Tom on the phone for a while. I had big plans. I was going to party with beer in my room, a bag of potato chips and after the football I would watch a movie I brought with me - The Power of One. I fell asleep in the first quarter and slept until 3 in the morning.
I took another shower, took my stuff to the car and drove to the front entrance to check out and get some coffee. Edgar the bellman was still there and asked how I was. Then I got in my car, and drove home, stopping to retrieve the flower urn off Mom’s grave on the way.
I did some minor surgery on the blisters. Things were incredibly painful all day, and early the next morning (Tuesday) as I wrote this. In addition to the normal muscle soreness and the blisters, I have a scary little black patch on the front of my left shin. When I peeled my compression sleeves off in the hotel, it looked like I bruised my shin, from my ankle about halfway up to my knee, about 4 inches on either side. Maybe it’s a bruise, but I didn’t trip or fall or kick anything. It scares me a little. I put ice on it last night and elevated it, but it’s still pretty tender this morning. The swelling goes down into my ankle and foot. Perhaps it will heal over a few days.
As for now, time to go soak it in the tub and get ready for work.
I feel very good about this race. Even though I was poorly prepared, I ran as much as I could. I got my first 100K, beat my 12 hour PR, and exceeded all my mileage goals. I ran smart. I dealt with things that came up during the race. Most importantly, I governed my strength and managed to finish with nothing left. I ran harder and harder the last 2 hours to the end, and maybe I did overdo it. But I didn’t leave the course on a gurney. I left it at exactly 24:00:00.
I want to thank many people for helping me with this meaningful accomplishment. My best friend Mary ran a 12 hour ultramarathon with me, on no training at all, to help me prepare, and she made many trips to assist me in my very long training "events." The UM club and my fellow runners were very supportive. Especially Jimmy Viggiano for crewing the entire race, and Mack Duett for also crewing. I enjoyed walking with Matt Chaffin, Jill Perry, Shelley Viggiano, and Lou Scott and seeing Ryan O’Dell and Frank Leiter cranking out lap after lap. All the other competitors with whom I spoke were encouraging and pleasant. It was terrific to be there when Andy Clark got his first 100K.
I would especially like to thank the race organizers who spent so much uncompensated, selfless time volunteering to put on this fabulous event, from the race directors to the volunteers who I saw working all 24 hours, doing things like handing out food and water, picking up litter, shoveling sand from the track, sweeping goose droppings away, cheering us on, staffing the road crossing, keeping toilet paper supplied at the port-a-can village (really, I’ve never seen a toilet paper station before I ran this race!) getting USATF rule changes enacted to allow use of headphones, and planning and executing a superbly conducted national championship ultramarathon. Well Done, Northcoast 24! You certainly lived up to your commitment!
Here are my lap splits from the race website:
78 22 Greg Farnham 57 M 84 75.66300 23:56:05.00 1: 0.90 9:55 0:09:55.00
2: 1.80 10:03 0:19:58.00
3: 2.70 10:42 0:30:40.00
4: 3.60 9:27 0:40:07.00
5: 4.50 10:45 0:50:52.00
6: 5.40 9:53 1:00:45.00
7: 6.31 11:22 1:12:07.00
8: 7.21 9:55 1:22:02.00
9: 8.11 11:46 1:33:48.00
10: 9.01 9:53 1:43:41.00
11: 9.91 12:14 1:55:55.00
12: 10.81 10:00 2:05:55.00
13: 11.71 22:10 2:28:05.00
14: 12.61 1:20:31 3:48:36.00
15: 13.51 15:22 4:03:58.00
16: 14.41 15:15 4:19:13.00
17: 15.31 19:03 4:38:16.00
18: 16.21 16:00 4:54:16.00
19: 17.11 15:13 5:09:29.00
20: 18.02 0:19 5:09:48.00
21: 18.92 24:39 5:34:27.00
22: 19.82 15:35 5:50:02.00
23: 20.72 15:03 6:05:05.00
24: 21.62 14:37 6:19:42.00
25: 22.52 0:23 6:20:05.00
26: 23.42 0:56 6:21:01.00
27: 24.32 0:36 6:21:37.00
28: 25.22 15:07 6:36:44.00
29: 26.12 15:16 6:52:00.00
30: 27.02 10:09 7:02:09.00
31: 27.92 0:19 7:02:28.00
32: 28.82 5:38 7:08:06.00
33: 29.72 16:23 7:24:29.00
34: 30.63 15:22 7:39:51.00
35: 31.53 15:32 7:55:23.00
36: 32.43 16:39 8:12:02.00
37: 33.33 27:23 8:39:25.00
38: 34.23 16:22 8:55:47.00
39: 35.13 17:12 9:12:59.00
40: 36.03 17:17 9:30:16.00
41: 36.93 17:03 9:47:19.00
42: 37.83 16:20 10:03:39.00
43: 38.73 17:19 10:20:58.00
44: 39.63 17:25 10:38:23.00
45: 40.53 18:20 10:56:43.00
46: 41.43 26:13 11:22:56.00
47: 42.34 18:39 11:41:35.00
48: 43.24 16:15 11:57:50.00
49: 44.14 16:45 12:14:35.00
50: 45.04 18:15 12:32:50.00
51: 45.94 18:17 12:51:07.00
52: 46.84 17:12 13:08:19.00
53: 47.74 18:09 13:26:28.00
54: 48.64 19:10 13:45:38.00
55: 49.54 18:41 14:04:19.00
56: 50.44 29:39 14:33:58.00
57: 51.34 19:51 14:53:49.00
58: 52.24 22:11 15:16:00.00
59: 53.14 19:22 15:35:22.00
60: 54.05 16:55 15:52:17.00
61: 54.95 17:07 16:09:24.00
62: 55.85 30:59 16:40:23.00
63: 56.75 18:53 16:59:16.00
64: 57.65 0:35 16:59:51.00
65: 58.55 19:19 17:19:10.00
66: 59.45 18:08 17:37:18.00
67: 60.35 18:21 17:55:39.00
68: 61.25 19:01 18:14:40.00
69: 62.15 20:16 18:34:56.00
70: 63.05 32:10 19:07:06.00
71: 63.95 20:39 19:27:45.00
72: 64.85 22:24 19:50:09.00
73: 65.75 23:00 20:13:09.00
74: 66.66 24:33 20:37:42.00
75: 67.56 22:46 21:00:28.00
76: 68.46 23:21 21:23:49.00
77: 69.36 23:27 21:47:16.00
78: 70.26 21:03 22:08:19.00
79: 71.16 17:17 22:25:36.00
80: 72.06 21:05 22:46:41.00
81: 72.96 18:09 23:04:50.00
82: 73.86 16:54 23:21:44.00
83: 74.76 18:26 23:40:10.00
84: 75.66 15:55 23:56:05.00
Results Errata: The results reflect that I ran 84 laps plus 0.3 miles, when I actually ran 85 laps plus 0.3 miles. Although my GPS totaled 78 miles, that included little side trips to the podiatry tent, bathroom, etc. that are not official mileage. So in my personal results, my PR for 24 hours is approximately 76.86375 miles.
I have never had so much residual pain and soreness. I did some research on Thursday night based on the symptoms that I’ve never had, and I think I have a stress fracture of my left shin bone. I made an appointment with my orthopedic surgeon, but they couldn't see me until October 5. When I explained that I would like to see the doctor earlier than that because I think my leg is broken, she said they weren't allowed to discuss medical issues and I should call my family doctor. This surgeon has set one broken leg (for me) and operated on me 4 times. I see him frequently at Green Lakes. I am sure he would tell me to come right in. But, I called my family doctor, and their NP had an opening, so I could go downtown right away. When I told her I had run an ultramarathon over the weekend, she stopped to ask me "What's that?" soooo, we took X-rays, which were predictably inconclusive. Then she called my surgeon and got me in a week earlier, which made the trip worthwhile and I was happy. This will let me navigate the insurance regulations. Can't get an MRI to see a stress fracture until you get an x-ray so that you can't see it. Glad we're about to provide this type of medical care free to everyone that doesn't already work to earn it. Anyway, I see the surgeon on Tuesday, and decided to DNS the Falling Leaves 14K race in Utica this Sunday. Boo.
Well, that was a wrong diagnosis and the news is all good. I apparently tore a muscle from the front of the shin and it is sore where it tore. The discoloration was due to the muscle ripping a blood vessel when it tore. If it had been a stress fracture, there would have been pain the entire circumference of the tibia, not just a single point on the very front (where this particular muscle from the ankle attaches to the tibia.
So, a little rest, a little ibuprofen, and nothing crazy, and I’m back in business.
End Note:
After a couple of weeks of healing and reflection, I’ve decided that this type of event suits me and I find it challenging. I think I may pursue higher achievement in this format, but in no particular hurry. The next attempt needs to be made at considerably lower weight, after considerably more consistent and specific training. And it must serve some larger purpose, whether it be charitable, or philanthropic in some other way. I think that’s it for this "season."
