Running a 100k less than 7 months after having a baby takes a combination of great support and good luck. My support came especially from my husband, Nathan, as we generally plan our weeks around ensuring both of us get our runs in, and my coach, Stephanie Howe. I found out I was pregnant as I was in the process of hiring Stephanie. Stephanie would have her own beautiful baby boy two months after Caleb was born. Stephanie helped me keep moving during pregnancy and I was ready to start training again soon after delivery, so I decided to use my COVID-19 rollover entry to UROC 100k.
UROC (I cringe to admit that stands for Ultra Race of Champions) strives to entice elite athletes with a large cash purse for top 5 runners of each gender. COVID brought several changes this year: no cash purse (thus fewer elites), a 5 PM start to distance 100k runners from 50k/25k runners who would start in the morning, and, announced only 1 week before the race, an entirely different course involving repeats of out and backs almost entirely gravel road. The course change made me seriously consider skipping the race, but I was eager to race and needed to remember how to run for > 10 hours in anticipation of a fall 100 miler. Since now the course wouldn't be technical at all, I picked a reach goal of sub-12 hours to help me get excited again. I planned to schedule walking every 10 minutes since the course would be so runnable, but Stephanie told me not to be so rigid and conservative; she wasn't worried about me going out too fast. Gulp.
The first few miles were through grass and involved summiting a treeless mountain during a wind advisory - the wind was quite impressive and I hadn't calmed my pre-race jitters well enough to enjoy the 360 views. An early out and back gave me far too early information that I was 3rd female; I was running with an F6 bib but it seems a few of the women seeded above me chose not to start. I calmed down when we hit the gravel and began a section I had interpreted as "rolling" when looking at the elevation profile. While the hills were less than a mile each for this section, they were quite steep and contributed to the total 10k of vert. I was hitting my paces for a sub-12 hour finish (checking only at aid-stations as I had disabled the distance and pace functions on my watch), but I quickly realized that the amount of climbing the course included made sub-12 a less appropriate target. I stopped checking my pace chart altogether.
Miles 8-16 were a long, mostly gentle descent, and I ran the whole thing, chatting intermittently with a woman named Llewelyn who reported she had never showed up for an event so undertrained. Ha! She ran really strong and we spent more than 1/2 the race within 2 minutes of each other, cheering each other on at the many turn-around points. The sun went down while we climbed back up, and I found my body transitioning to "let's go to bed" mode as early at 8 PM. This was probably the closest I got to a low the whole race, so I just took my time climbing back up and ultimately decided to start taking caffeinated products a little earlier than planned, around 8:30 PM. The last section to the halfway point was only 1.7 miles, but most of it was climbing and it was quite slow. I took note that it might be tough to have much of a finishing kick the next time I returned there.
The halfway point had 2 treats awaiting me: a bottled Starbucks frappacino (SO GOOD!!) and my friend Adele, who ran a few miles with me and helped me navigate the grassy section in the dark since the flags used to mark the course had no reflective element. She then turned around so she could meet me again later. A short out and back revealed that the women ahead of me were nowhere in sight. This was no surprise, particularly as elite runner Aliza Lapierre was leading the race. Llewelyn was right behind me at this 36-mile turn around point and I realized that if I wanted to gap her, I should use the upcoming long descent with 10 miles of no turn-arounds to do it. I pushed just a little bit on the descent, mostly trying to help gravity to help me. Looking back, my splits were still 1 min/mile slower than they had been on the way out, but this was the main section where I passed runners. Overall, I was impressed that I seemed to be surrounded by experienced runners who knew how to pace well as my place in the pack didn't change much outside of this section.
The mile 46.6 turnaround had 3 treats! Adele was there to run with me again, I had opened up a 16 minute gap on Llewlyn, and I had never seen the woman who had been running in 2nd. So I was now running in 2nd place with a comfortable lead on 3rd and legs that felt strong. I was excited to go headlamp hunting on the climb back up, but what had been mild nausea the last few miles escalated a bit. I needed to walk a few minutes anytime I was due to force down calories. There were several sections my legs felt strong enough to run but my stomach advised I walk. It was nice to have Adele with me for another 6+ miles since my slowed pace meant I didn't catch anyone and was otherwise totally alone.
My stomach started to settle by mile 55 and I tried to pick up my effort a bit more, worried that I had lost my gap since Llewlyn had proved herself a strong climber. The final turnaround showed that I had maintained it, so I finished relieved that I didn't have to "race" up the final grassy climbs. My time was 12:46 for second female; final results aren't posted yet but I suspect Aliza Lapierre was far enough ahead that she may have already been back home by the time I finished. Lleywelyn looked great as she finished not too far behind!
24 hours out from my finish, my legs are tired, but I have more pelvic I-just-had-a-baby soreness than regular running soreness. The sleepiness after the finish was intense. I don't mean to imply that 32 is "old," but staying up all night is getting harder the older I get! I'm grateful to the race volunteers for filling my bottles and making the race happen, Adele for coming out to run with me IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT, Stephanie for helping me get to the start line fit and ready, and Nathan for helping me get runs in and feeding me so well while training + breastfeeding.
Fall race plans are 99% set but don't want to say for sure here lest I jinx it :)
Thanks for reading!
Jordan
