On running 24 hours…

On August 5, 2017, I had the opportunity to take on my first-ever 24-hour race event. In a year-long race schedule primarily focused on obstacle course races, this was one of the very few pure running events that I signed up for.

The event took place at the Mosquito Hill Nature Center in New London, WI. Rather than a traditional race event that involves runners going from the start line at point A to the finish line at point B, this event was constructed using a 5k loop at the venue. Racers had 24 hours to complete as many laps as possible.

One of the questions that I got asked prior to the event (or I could sense that people wanted to ask but didn’t for whatever reason) was simply “why?” or “what would possess you to do this?”.

In late 2016, I found that I really enjoyed longer distance events. I think it was probably during the Spartan Killington Beast in which I covered 14.5 miles and something like 6000′ of elevation in about 8 hours that I found I really enjoyed “the grind”. There’s something really fulfilling in pushing yourself hard and redefining what you thought possible. In November 2016, I finished a local 29-mile trail run with a decent time (something like 6 1/2 hours) and I knew that for sure I wanted to get a 50k or better on the schedule in 2017.

When the Mosquito Hill event popped up, I found myself thinking that it would be a really interesting test. Could I grind for that length of time without stopping? What kind of mileage could I log? It looked like August would be a pretty light month in terms of OCR scheduling, so why not give this a try.

As summer started, the event became even more relevant after I signed up for the Spartan Ultra World Championship race, a 24-hour OCR event. In Iceland. In December. I knew that I needed a trial run to make sure that I knew how my body would react in a long event and that I had a chance to test out hydration/nutrition in a 12+ hour timeframe.

Beyond the tactical reasons for signing up for Mosquito Hill, part of the why is tied into my reason for doing OCR this year. I grew up being ashamed of my body. All throughout elementary, middle and high school I was a fat kid with no athletic ability. I can still remember PE classes from elementary school and my inability to do really anything. As part of my continuing fitness journey that started in 2013, I feel I have something to prove to myself.

So, the “why” ended up being a combination of: “It’s hard. Go out and push the limits. Redefine what 100% is for you.” and “I don’t know if I can complete this, but better to try and fail than to be too scared to try.”

PREPARATION

In the months leading up to Mosquito Hill, I reviewed several websites and articles about approaches on training for an event like this. Most of what I saw seemed similar to training for a marathon or other long fixed distance race, with training mileage gradually increasing and then a taper into the event. I’d done something similar earlier in the year when I followed a 50k training plan in preparation for the Spartan Tri-State Ultra Beast race in New Jersey.

Knowing that I had some challenging OCR events in the month before that race, doing a full training/prep plan specific to this race wasn’t really feasible. Also, much of June was spent rehabbing a significant ankle sprain that I suffered on Memorial Day weekend. Much of the time in the weeks leading up to the race was spent focusing on OCR-specific training. Lots of inclines along with obstacle technique and relevant strength training. As odd as it may sound, Mosquito Hill wasn’t on my “A” race list. Those honors were bestowed on the two Ultra Beast races on the calendar in September (Vermont and Tahoe).

I did get a chance to see the venue three weeks before the event when I drove out and ran about nine miles, trying to make sure I saw most of the trails that were part of the race’s 5k loop. The trail on Mosquito Hill itself has one steep incline section, roughly a 17% grade for about 2/10 of a mile and about 250′ of climb and it was good to experience that. It also helped to know that I’d be running on grass, wood chips, dirt, crushed gravel and bit of pavement throughout the lap.

In the weeks before the event, I started to think about goals for the race. Truthfully, when you’re attempting something that’s so far outside anything you’ve ever done before it’s hard to do much more than throw a dart at the wall and hope it’s close. Besides the standing agreement with my wife that the first two goals are always “don’t die” and “don’t get seriously injured,” I settled on three objectives for the race:

• Finish the event. To me this meant I needed to be moving/making progress at the 24-hour mark and not quitting. While I had success at the Spartan Tri-State Ultra Beast, completing the course in roughly 12 1/2 hours, the two other Spartan endurance events I participated in (12-hour Hurricane Heats) both broke me mentally, so this was not a goal I took lightly.
• Apart from whatever short breaks I needed to reload supplies and refuel, no extended stops.
• Complete 80 miles. I figured that if I maintained a 3.0 mph walking pace for 24 hours that would net me just over 70 miles and I knew that I would be able to get some additional running miles in at the beginning while I was fresh. This distance goal seemed challenging as I would require me to maintain a consistent pace with few to no breaks but at the same time, was achievable.

There was some additional significance to 80. Shortly before the race my dad was diagnosed with bladder cancer and while the operation he had to remove the cancerous tissue was successful he had to start chemotherapy in July to prepare for an additional operation later in the year. He’s got a tremendous attitude and outlook on the situation and is determined to fight through it. I figured if he could be tough enough at age 80 to keep fighting, I could summon the willpower to fight through to 80 miles. Endurance athletes often talk about having a “why” that’s bigger than yourself so this went into my mental arsenal for the race.

The weekend before the race I ran the Savage Race event near Chicago twice. I like shiny things and completing the second lap entitled me to the Savage Syndicate medal. It’s big, it’s shiny and the middle of it spins. No brainer. In total, this was just under 13 miles of running on relatively flat ground plus about 50 total obstacles. The next day I hit the streets for just under 10 miles to get some miles on tired legs. That felt pretty good overall even if running the last 1.5 miles carrying a dozen eggs home from the convenience store was a little weird. Hashtag runner’s life…

The week before the race I tapered down with three miles on Tuesday, two on Wednesday and took the rest of the week off to rest up. I didn’t really change anything up with respect to nutrition in the week before the event. I’m not a big believer in “carbing up” or doing anything weird.

The day of the event was spent prepping my drop bin. I used an 18-gallon plastic tote for the race to hold all my stuff. The fun part about doing something that’s way outside what you’ve ever done before is that you’re really just guessing about what to pack. The tote contained:

• Two spare short sleeve dri-fit shirts
• One long sleeve dri-fit shirt (in case the bugs started biting after dark)
• Spare shorts and underwear
• Track pants (in case it got chilly or the bugs were bad)
• Extra compression socks
• Second pair of shoes
• Wide brim hat with mosquito netting
• Bug spray
• Sunscreen
• Anti-chafing spray
• Small first aid kit
• 5 32oz. Gatorades
• 4 8oz Red Bulls
• 4 16 oz. water bottles
• Hammer Endurolytes
• Assorted Clif Bars
• Clif Sweet Potato Pouches
• Several assorted single serve bags of M&Ms
• Beet Elite
• Primary and spare headlamp with batteries
• Chem-lights/glow sticks
• Charging cables for phone and watch plus external battery pack
• iPod and headphones

Additionally, I had my hydration pack with 2L bladder (water only) and a bag with some clothes to change into after the race.

Like pretty much all the other trail or OCR events I’ve done, my running gear was pretty simple. Dri-fit short sleeve shirt, dri-fit shorts and undies, compression socks and trail shoes. I chose my New Balance 910v3 shoes for this run since I didn’t need a super aggressive tread, they were well broken in and they had a bit more cushion than some of the OCR shoes I wear.

I arrived at the venue around 3:20 PM and got checked in. There were a total of 17 racers in the 24-hour division. I could place my bin in an area close to the start line. We had our pre-race briefing at 3:45 and were instructed that we needed to check in with the race staff after each lap since we were not using chip timer. Just walk up to the official tent and make sure they got your bib. We were also told that we would be running every other lap in the opposite direction. Run a lap, check in and go back out the way you came. Easy enough. As of 2:30 the following afternoon all runners starting laps would be sent out in one direction to make it easy for the “sweepers” to ensure the course was clear at the end of the event. We had until 3:15 to start our final lap. We were reminded that the 50k and 25k racers would be starting at 6:00 the next morning and the 10k racers would start at 7:00. Both groups would follow the same alternating direction plan that we would. Several of the racers set up tents and the last instruction that we got was just to let the race staff know if/when you were taking a break. Racers were free to stop for a while to sleep or leave the venue entirely. You simply had to be back in the race at the conclusion to be considered a finisher.

We decided that we wanted to start in the direction with that steep incline and with that…5…4…3…2…1…

AND WE’RE OFF!: 4:00 PM – 8:00 PM

The race started off really well. My body felt good and outside of the big incline I could run pretty much all of the first two laps. I knew from experience that trying to run the incline didn’t make any sense. It takes way less energy to power hike it and it’s almost as fast. The course was pretty much like I remembered it from the training run a few weeks before and that gave me a real sense of confidence. As I very often do on long runs I put one earbud in and started working through the backlog of podcasts I brought with me. I generally avoid music when running, mostly since I can’t help running to the beat of whatever’s playing and those changes in cadence can get awkward.

My plan on course was to sip enough water to stave off dry mouth, swishing it around to avoid drinking too much and then getting bloated. I would eat about every hour, taking in 200-300 calories plus electrolyte caps to maintain that balance. That plan worked well for me in previous longer events and allows me to eat a Clif bar or a sweet potato pouch which I can get down quickly. As I finished each lap I would put any wrappers into the bin (for later logging and calorie counts), grab replacements if needed and a swig of Gatorade if I wanted it.

I finished lap #5 around 7:30 PM and grabbed my headlamp. I was still feeling pretty good as I headed out for #6.

DARKNESS SETTLES IN: 8:00 PM – 11:00 PM

It’s impressive how quickly dusk gives way to the pitch blackness of night, especially in wooded areas. With the headlamp on, I was still making decent time. There was a stretch of trail on top of the hill which had a fair number of roots sticking up so I decided to walk that section while it was dark to avoid tripping and falling. Taking a tumble on the trail isn’t uncommon for me as I tend to not pick up my feet when I’m tired and I didn’t want to risk injury or just the discomfort of a stubbed toe with 16 hours to go.

As it got dark, I noticed that my headlamp wasn’t really all that bright. I hadn’t changed out the batteries prior to the race so I thought that was just a dumb mistake. It was enough light to see but it was nothing compared to some of the lights the other runners brought. At the next bin stop I swapped lights and the backup seemed a little brighter.

Once I was back out on the trail, it was still hard to see. I realized that my headlamp just sucked compared to some of the other racers’ gear and that my sad little beam of LCD light was as good as it was going to get. I think this was the catalyst for the worst round of negative self-talk that I have ever experienced. It’s not all that rare for me to get into my head when things start getting hard and in a typical long run this might last a mile or so, no longer than 20 minutes. Five hours into the race with about 20 miles under my belt, I started a fight with myself that lasted nearly two hours. I’ll spare you all the gory details but it was ugly, and here’s the kicker. The last two times that this negative self-talk has kicked up in the wee hours has been during Spartan 12-hour Hurricane Heat events and both times that negative self-talk won after I gave up and quit those events.

Somewhere around 11:00 I pretty much said, “You know what. I committed to this. I may not make it to the finish line, I may not hit the goal I set, but I am NOT going to stop simply because this is hard, because I’m tired and because I’m uncomfortable. I cannot, I will not allow myself to be a quitter.” And that was pretty much that.

I GO WALKING (IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT): 11:00 PM – 5:30 AM

Part of overcoming the mind games was just accepting that I wasn’t going to make great time in the darkness with my headlamp setup. I knew that I was going to be walking almost all the course until the sun came back. I just told myself that I was going to move with purpose and make the best time that I could under the circumstances. I was able to jog some of the downhills to take advantage of that terrain, but it was slow going.

At about 11:30 PM I passed 30 miles, making this the longest distance I had ever covered in a race. This was also a big help in establishing a positive mindset. At this point every mile, every step was a PR. If I could keep moving I was redefining what was possible.

I spent most of the overnight hours enjoying the audiobook version of Dean Karnazes’ Ultramarathon Man. Not only is that a great book, it seemed totally appropriate given the circumstances. Fueled by a great story, a few Red Bulls and the other grub in my drop bin, I forged on.

During the overnight hours, I took my only breaks. I stopped at the bin twice for about five minutes each time to stretch out my lower back.

Around 2:00 AM it struck me that I wasn’t seeing as many headlamps on the trails as I had earlier. When I checked in on the next lap, the race staff said that seven of the racers had opted to take a break. When I peeked at the clipboard I saw that I was maintaining pace with many of the other runners! This was another huge boost.

As the halfway point approached, I knew that my watch and phone were probably running low on juice. Since I was walking anyway it wasn’t a big deal to spend the next two laps getting them charged up. I love my Garmin Fenix 3 HR’s ability to charge on the go. I lose the heart rate data but since I wasn’t going full out it wasn’t all that important. I just wanted to maintain the cumulative mileage, time and elevation data.

DAYBREAK AND NEW FRIENDS: 5:30 AM – 12:00 PM

At roughly 5:30 it was bright enough to see without the headlamp, at least in the open areas, and that was awesome. I made it back to the bin around 6:00 AM with 16 laps completed and tossed the headlamp and the array of charging cables into the bin. I let the 50k and 25k racers take off and then headed out after them. I had done some quick math and figured out that my 80-mile goal was achievable but it was going to require more running. At this point I needed an extra boost so I threw on some tunes to keep me going. Good tunes are like the nitro button for me. Since I don’t rely on them all the time, they’re a big help when I do use them.

Somewhere around this time I realized that I had most likely broken open a blister under the ball of my left foot. It wasn’t totally unexpected and I didn’t figure that continuing to run on it was going to cause any real damage, just some discomfort. Thankfully it wasn’t too painful and I forged ahead with some ibuprofen and Tylenol as new allies in the fight to finish.

I saw most of the 10k racers take off at 7:00 as I came in from lap 17. During this transition, I needed to fill up my hydration pack and looked at the food on the aid station. I took advantage of some chocolate chip zucchini bread (omg, soooo good) and some Mountain Dew. By this point I’d gotten a little sick of Clif bars, pouches and Gatorade and the caffeine helped a little. So did a fresh, dry shirt. I was glad I brought the spare.

I SEE TREES OF GREEN: 12:00 PM – 3:15 PM

By noon I had completed 22 laps and the race staff told me that I was in second place in the 24-hour division! I knew I was a little tired but overall was feeling pretty good, you know…all things considered. My “run” had slowed to maybe a 15-minute mile pace but I was still pushing to the best of my ability. I knew that I could probably walk till 4:00 and still hit my goal but I was now motivated to finish well. I tried to keep my time between laps as short as possible but still grabbed more Z bread and Dew.

By noon, most of the 10k and 25k runners had finished so there weren’t too many people on the trails, just some of the friendly faces I’d seen for 20+ hours.

Speaking of faces, around this time I started to notice that lots of the trees and rocks really looked like faces. Neat! Shortly after this I was running through the “swamp” section of the course and saw a wedding photo shoot. How cool, I thought! Upon getting closer it was just a tree stump that just looked like a guy in a tux bending over talking to a photographer with a soft box. Shortly after that I was pretty sure I saw a large bull mastiff jump across the trail and I thought “oh boy, I hope that dog’s owner can find him!” only to realize that there was no dog. It wasn’t a deer either. It simply wasn’t there. I’ve pulled all-nighters before in my IT career, but I don’t think I’ve ever had vivid hallucinations like that before. It was an odd realization, knowing that you’re seeing things that aren’t really there but not being able to do much about it.

HOME STRETCH: 3:15 – 3:53 PM

I started lap 26 at roughly 2:45 PM and while it started out OK, I really started getting tired about half way through. Caffeine, adrenaline, zucchini bread, Clif bars and other assorted goodies got me to this point, but the last mile was really hard and I wondered if I was going to be able to make it up the hill one last time. Then a funny thing happened.

Just as I was about to the portion of the trail that goes up the hill on the switchback side I saw someone standing on the trail. It didn’t look like any of the racers so I thought it might be one of the race staff coming to check on me. Lo and behold it was my good friend, training partner and OCR buddy Matt! For just a second I thought he might be a hallucination but he was actually real which was a relief. He walked with me for the last portion of the last lap and was even kind enough to snap a few pics. His presence and the camaraderie gave me the energy to “run” that last half mile into the finish area where I was greeted by the other 24-hour racers and staff. I’ve never had a “pacer” before but I totally understand why people find value in having this support. I crossed the finish line at 3:53, having not only completed my goals of moving for the entire event and logging 80 miles but also finishing in second place in the 24-hour division!

Believe it or not, this is the first ever trophy I’ve received for an athletic pursuit. I’ve got plenty of finisher medals but I’ve never been on a podium. I was awarded a very nice wooden finisher’s medal, a wooden wall clock (given to all the 24 hours runners) and a jar of honey for my second-place finish.

RACE STATS

Total official distance: 80.6 miles/130 km

Total distance on the watch: 78.85 miles (GPS skipped around a few times and the course must have been a tiny bit shy of a full 5k)

Total time: 23:53:32

Total moving time: 22:41:56 (I was really happy with this, averaging less than 3 minutes  “rest” between each lap)

Total elevation gain: 7,874 ft.

Total calories burned: 9,351

Total calories consumed: ~6,700

Average HR: 108 bpm

Max HR: 173 bpm

Total steps: 214,674

AFTERMATH: SUNDAY AFTERNOON

Once everyone gave high fives and wished each other well, I brought my gear to the car and grabbed my clean clothes.

The body’s ability to keep going under the most difficult of circumstances is amazing. Equally amazing is how fast it goes into shutdown/recovery mode once that task is done. I managed to shuffle into the restroom, strip out of everything except the compression socks and return to something that looked and smelled more like a human being than a wild animal. Not knowing the blister situation, I figured it was better to wait until I got home to address that. As sometimes happens, the cumulative demand on my body sends a signal that it’s time to throw up. Even though I had eaten a lot there was nothing in my stomach. In hindsight, I realized that taking the Mountain Dew from the aid station (something I did not use in training) may not have been the best idea. Even if it was, I probably shouldn’t have consumed the better part of a 2L bottle in the lap breaks between 7:00 AM and 2:00 PM.

Once I got home (by the way, driving 45 minutes after running 24 hours is a terrible idea), I had to have help cutting the compression socks off. As I suspected, I had a large blister on the bottom of my right foot which was unbroken and an even larger one on the ball of my left foot which had popped early in the morning. I also had some minor irritation on a few other toes and one toenail that looked like it was probably a goner. Soaking in the tub for 20 minutes never felt so good. I bandaged up the blisters and applied Neosporin where needed.

AFTERMATH: THE NEXT FEW WEEKS

The soreness over the next two days was brutal. I ended up having to take Monday off from work so I could just rest. Due to the blisters, I ended up walking on the outsides of my feet that day and that was wildly uncomfortable so I mostly stayed on the couch. I did manage to drag myself to cryotherapy even though getting into and out of the car was tough. That seemed to help a lot. I was way too sore to foam roll or do anything other than soak my feet to get the blisters healed up.

I went back to work on Tuesday but was still moving slowly, doing the tin soldier walk most of the day (walking on my heels) to avoid putting pressure on the blister sites. More cryo, more foot soaking.

Wednesday was a good day. While I was still stiff, I could walk normally and the worst of the muscle soreness had passed. Cryo and foot soaking followed both Wednesday and Thursday.

On Sunday, I got onto the treadmill and jogged just over a mile and walked a little without much discomfort. Monday, I got about a mile of incline walking in.

On Wednesday the 16th I felt well enough to go out on an easy run. It felt great for the first 3.5 miles and then I got some crazy tightness in my left quad/knee that immediately brought that run to an end.

By the end of the second week, there was still some lingering joint soreness and a sense that even though my legs felt decent, it was going to be a while before they were recovered enough to really run.

REFLECTIONS

Now a few weeks removed from the event and (mostly) recovered, I think I’m ready to reflect on the event and answer some questions for myself.

Was it a success? Definitely. I blew away my previous PRs for both race time and distance. Beyond that I battled through a terrible bout of negative head space and won. My nutrition and hydration plan worked well (except for the Mountain Dew and that’s an easy fix going forward).

Will I do this race again? Not sure. It was a great event that was well organized, well-staffed and I have nothing but positive things to say about it. The date for 2018 has already been posted. I simply haven’t figured out what my personal goals for 2018 are yet and if this fits into them. My gut feeling is that I’ll be back but probably not in 2018. There are so many new and unexplored challenges out there. I’d really like to look at completing a fixed distance ultramarathon next year, possibly a 50 mile or 100 km event if I can find one that works out.

Will I do a 24-hour event again? Yup, in just a few months if the Spartan Ultra World Championships actually comes to pass. With the addition of 20 obstacles per 5 mile lap the race plan/strategy will probably be a lot different, but I know I can go the distance time-wise. Looking ahead to 2018, much like figuring out if I’m going to do this event again, it’s really a matter of figuring out my personal goals. The Internet wisdom of allowing a month or more to full recover seems to be spot on, so there’s a question of how an event like this fits into the overall calendar.