Freedom Park New Year's Ultra Run

To celebrate New Year's, I spent 24 hours running the .9859 mile asphalt loop of Freedom Park in Morganton, NC as many times as I could. The simple course made things like aid and footing easy, but it also made the race mentally challenging and perhaps risky as I generally avoid running on pavement to prevent injury. Nathan, of course, was there as crew, and set up our tent just before the timing mats that runners crossed each time we completed a lap. The weather was amazingly perfect: chilly at the 8 AM start but then progressively warming all the way to the 50s and melting most of the snow during the afternoon before falling back down to the low 40s for the early hours of the new year.

Training for this race was abbreviated since I just raced a 50 miler in October but it generally went well. There were a few spots where I was more conservative that I would have liked to be due to old and new injuries sprouting up, but I quickly beat these pains into the ground with ice, advil, and a brief drop in mileage. With the blessing of an easier block in med school, I still managed to post my highest mileage week to date: 70 miles total (5 of those speedwalking, 65 running). Other than this modest increase in peak-week mileage, my training looked very similar to my training for 50 mile races.

I really had no idea of what to expect of myself in this new sort of race, so I set three tiers of goals for myself, planning to pick the most appropriate one at the halfway point of the race. As a baseline, I wanted to rack up 51 miles, simply more than I had ever run before. What I considered my most realistic/likely goal was to shoot for 75 miles, and my "reach" goal was 100 miles.

The first 20 laps went by very quickly. I ran some laps with other runners, chatting, and some laps solo. Each time I crossed the timing mat I took a minute to walk and usually eat something before resuming running. With this pattern, I averaged a little under a 10:30 pace for the first 20 laps.

After the first 20 laps, I decided I need to slow my pace down, so I started walking the steepest parts of the small hills on the backside of the course. There were 3 such hills and I walked sections of 2 of them and planned to keep this up until I had completed 40 laps. Even walking 3 times a mile, I was still averaging 11 min/mile. However, I still felt great (other than some sciatica which I muffled with some advil) and I wasn't straining so I kept up the quick pace. On my 34th lap, I caught back up with Chris, a man I had run with earlier, and I asked him whether we were still on the same number lap. He said he thought that I was actually a little ahead of him according to the leaderboard (whiteboard at the timing mats where they displayed the top ten runners) and that he thought he was on lap 33. I replied, "No, I'm on lap 40 so you're way ahead of where you think you are!" It was another couple of miles before I realized that I had mentally jumped ahead 6 laps--apparently counting is very difficult for me when running for so long.

After 35 laps, Nathan joined me for 15 laps. It was nice to have some company (I generally like to set my own pace in races rather than falling in with others which leads to a lot of time spent running alone). After 40 laps, we started walking the entirety of each of the 3 hills, but we were still running about 75% of the course. 2-3 times per lap I would need to double check with him which lap I was on--I was still having issues counting. At this point, I decided that as I was likely to slow considerably when it got dark, I wanted to get 50 miles in by sundown (about 9:30 into the race). With Nathan by my side, I reached the 50 mile mark (just under 51 laps) around 9:25 into the race, a 50 mile PR by 34 minutes. After this, we did a celebratory lap where we walked an entire lap and I ate a burger that the aid station volunteers had made for dinner.

I started out my 53rd lap alone again, but feeling awesome. I was well fed and my legs felt relatively fresh from just having walked. I maintained the run/walk plan I had held since lap 41, but when I was running, I felt like I was running about a 8:30 pace (this is probably not true, my perception of pace after that many miles isn't so great). I was also still very well hydrated--for the entirety of the race I was stopping for bathroom about twice an hour (apologies to any non-ultrarunners reading this, but we ultrarunners like to keep track of how often we pee). Since I had reached 50 miles well under 10 hours and was feeling so good, I knew I had to go for 100 miles. I was also doing pretty well overall (though I had to correct the race staff about my gender) but I made a conscious decision not to worry about how I placed and just try to get my mileage goal.

At lap 62 I stopped to change from my Asics 1150s to my Asics Gel Kahanas but this was a huge mistake. The Kahanas smushed my toes together and my already blistered digits were in agony. The shoes also felt as though they were painfully stretching my feet length-wise, reminding me of a torture device. I stumbled through that lap as quickly as I could before changing back to the 1150s, which felt wonderful. I maintained the sock change I had made however, and running on brand-new soft cushy Smartwool socks (thanks for the Christmas present, Nathan!) helped with the constant pounding on the hard pavement.

Every ultrarunner experiences periods of highs and lows in a race. Often the lows are associated with a deficit in calories, water, or electrolytes, but they don't have to be. My first low of the race came around mile 65 as Nathan tried to sleep and I stopped by the tent to grab some shot blocks. My hands were too cold to open them myself, I couldn't get them open with Nathan's pocketknife, and after 65 miles of running I had lost the dexterity to close the pocketknife. After about 5-10 minutes of fumbling around with things and cursing, Nathan came outside, helped me, and got me handwarmers. As silly as it may sound, this set me off for almost 10 miles of an emotional low point. I knew it would pass eventually, so I just kept pushing on until it did. Since this first low point was mostly emotional rather than physical, I don't think I slowed much. I finally came out of it when I ran a lap with a woman named Lana who is also from the Charleston area. I even ran hills which I had been walking (she was doing the 6 hour race which had just started so she was running more than I) to keep chatting with her. Then I found Chris again and ran another lap with him. With these social interactions, I felt worlds better.

After lap 77 and thus over 75 miles, I walked another celebratory lap with Nathan to recognize the landmark. When we finished the lap, it was just over 10 minutes until midnight but my grape-sized bladder had to go. I was scared to use the nearby porta-potties in the dark having dislocated my shoulder falling out of one last summer, so I took off for another lap to use the real bathrooms just off the course. While I could still run a 10 minute mile at this point, I couldn't run a mile and take a potty break in 10 minutes, so I was a little late to celebrate the New Year. After a kiss and a few sips of sparkling grape juice, I grabbed my ipod and took off, planning to walk another lap with Nathan after 90 miles.

These miles were pretty rough, but having the ipod helped. I was starting to tire of the food options but still doing well with nutrition. I alternated between eating shot blocks and chips or a piece of cold pizza (at this point it had been sitting out for awhile). Nathan and I walked lap 93 and then I went back to running, planning to walk lap 102 with him (mile 100), take a nap, and then go back out and walk a few easy laps for "bonus miles." When I finished lap 94, he had changed into his running clothes, and was prepared to run every other lap with me until I reached 100 miles. I was so excited that I nearly cried.

However, as we started lap 97, my weariness of the food options exploded into a huge wave of nausea. I could only walk this lap, stopping a few times to try to vomit. I felt a little better after this lap, but I still couldn't imagine eating any solid food even though I needed it to have enough energy to run. The only calories I consumed for the last 6 laps (about 2 hours) was about 10 ounces of gatorade and a cup of hot cocoa. This produced a significant calorie deficit and thus I could only manage to walk. Nathan walked with me these entire last 6 laps, which was incredibly helpful. He would hold whatever I was drinking and usually some food I had thought I might be able to eat but never managed to. I ran the last stretch of the course to finish 100 miles in something like 22:33 (I forgot to stop my watch and results aren't posted yet).

Given the events of the last few miles, I knew I was done for the race. I sipped some chicken broth as the sun came up and tried unsuccessfully to sleep some in the tent. Finally Nathan packed up and we headed for breakfast about 30 minutes before the race even ended. At that point, I was 2nd female and 4th overall and I'm pretty sure the final standings were the same (update-a number of men passed me after I finished so I ended up 6th overall). The winner ran 119 laps (~117 miles) with a foot injury before recognizing his large lead and calling it a night several hours early and the first female (2nd overall) was truly amazing-she kept the same steady pace for the whole race, hardly walking at all.

Overall, it was a great race. I certainly didn't expect to run my first 100 mile race before Burning River in July but it was a great way to get a taste of some of the challenges before adding in the extra factor of trails. But before thinking about Burning River, my next task is to recover from this race!

-Jordan