I participated in my first "Ultra" last weekend. The Hinson Lake 24 was held in Rockingham, N.C.. This is a 24 hour endurance event where you see just how many running miles you can cram in before tomorrow gets here. The course was as good as we could have asked for. Relatively flat, tightly packed gravel or dirt, mostly shaded, 1.5 mile loop around a small lake. At first I thought that the boredom of a 1.5 mile loop would be just too much but after following the advice of my mentor, Jerry Rich, I positioned my car, tent, aid station only 60 feet or so off the course. This allowed me to pull off of the course for a brief break to get fluids, electrolytes, Vaseline, etc., without losing valuable time or distance energy. I am glad that the loop was only a mile and a half because it wasn't nearly as difficult to talk myself into another lap as it would have been if it was a 10 mile loop.
My pre established goals were 1) to run further than a marathon which would be a new PR, 2) 40 miles, 3) 50 miles, 4) 60 miles, 5) don't mess up my chances for a good B2B Half Ironman. I accomplished the first three and we'll have to wait 2 weeks to see about the 5th one. I ended up with 50.2 miles. Holy Cow!!! 50 miles of "moving forward" on your feet is tough, tough, tough! Jerry, Rick and I ran the first three or four 1.5 mile loops together. Then we individually set out to endure the balance of the daylight hours as best as we could. It rained (lightly) in the first hour or two. This caused the dirt and sand to coat and stay adhered to our legs. When night came it was DARK! I somewhat enjoyed the experience of running with a head lamp on. Even though I wore it around my waist to reduce the glare. I sent a text to Team Whetstone and said that "these were some pretty crazy people up here." Mary Beth quickly responded with "Y'all are all kinda crazy". I received some sound pre race advice from Ray Krolowicz ,a veteran of many ultras. He said "slow is good". I didn't realize the value of that good advice until about 8 hours later. We ran those first 4 laps in an average of 17:20 and didn't exceed a 20 minute lap until the 11th.
It was unique to be eating and drinking all day long while trying to run. I stayed dehydrated pretty much all of the daylight hours and constantly worked on fighting off cramps. I got so tired of munching on chips, pretzels, cookies and the like. About noon they brought out hamburgers!! You can imagine just how fast they got gobbled up. Now, in my 30 something years of running I have learned that my stomach cannot handle eating a meal with in an hour or two of a run. But, my brain said "you need some serious calories and chips and pretzels weren't cutting it". So I partook. Oh my!! Later that evening they brought out pizzas and again I partook, two slices. Pretty rough stomach pains!!
Of my 33 laps around the lake I only had 3 laps that I walked (no running) the entire lap. I'll call them the burger lap, the pizza lap and the belching lap.
Christi, Owen and Emma drove all the way up there to cheer me on. I talked them into doing a few laps with me. They were there for the pizza lap and the burger lap. I think they each got in a 5K that afternoon. Well, except for the fact that Christi carried Emma most of the way. They helped me through at least one of my rest/ crash stops. I hope that my exhaustion and bad attitude didn't persuade them not to come support me anymore. I was feeling pretty rough by this time. They lifted me up the whole time that they were there.
I took time for my second changing of shoes and clothes and pressed on until about 11:26 PM. Wow, 15 hours and 26 minutes of being on my feet, running or walking, that's a new PR. So is 50.2 miles of running in a day, so is 60.4 miles of running in a week.
If I hadn't been there with such good friends and family support I probably would have hated it. Jerry had forecasted that "I wouldn't hurt as bad as I would after running a marathon". Bologna!! Now that I have rested for a couple of days, I can say that I did feel the capacity to go further but not the desire to. We learn valuable lessons when we achieve and when we fall short of our goals. I can say that it was a successful weekend for that. Would I sign up for next year? No. Now, I don't recall saying this but Jackie say's that after my first marathon at Kiawah I said that I would never run another marathon.
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