Pacific Rim 24hr

Well I went into the race with high hopes, I wanted to aim for 200k within 24 hrs, but that wasn't going to happen.

Steve Walters picked me up at about 6:50 to carpool up to Longview, approximately 61 miles away. We chatted about our goals and how we would achieve them. In order to achieve my goals, I wanted to complete the first 50k within 5 hrs, 50mi within 8 hrs, 100k within 10.5 hrs, 100 mi within 17hrs, and finish the day with over 200k. Steve wanted to finish 50k in 5.5hrs, 50 mi in 10hrs, 100k in 12hrs, and 100mi in 20hrs to finish the day with 105mi. (4 marathons)

When we started, I was close to the front along with Steve for the first couple miles, but the front runners were rookies running too hard to last, so I slowed up and let them run ahead. I watched in dismay as Steve took off with them and I thought to myself, "He'll regret that later! My goals are higher than his, why is he running 8:30 miles!?" When I finally was close to him, I reminded him that he needs to take walking breaks, or there's no way he'll last the night. I also tried to warn the other front runners, Fred and Jamal, but only Fred listened and later thanked me, saying that my advice saved him. Jamal, on the other hand, ran hard and fast and dropped out at mile 41.

In spite of the fact that Steve and I ran together, took it easy, and made sure to walk a little bit of every lap, we crossed the 50k mark in 4:52:44, a PR time for both of us. I was on track to achieve my goals, and Steve was over 30 min ahead of his. It was at about four hours into the race that my left hamstrings started to cramp a little, so I slowed up a bit and stretched my leg out whenever I could.

Between the 50k and 50mi mark I slowed even more because of the cramping, but made sure to take in as much water as possible along with some salt tablets. We stayed together, virtually stride for stride, and finished 50mi in 8:33:33. I was now a half hour behind my goal, but Steve was an hour and a half ahead of his. At 8 hrs into the run, I noticed something even more disturbing than the cramping earlier; although I was taking in a lot of liquids virtually every lap, I hadn't needed to use the bathroom since before the start, and I wasn't sweating hardly at all, except for salt that is. At this point I also became nauseated and my stomach was in turmoil. It seemed I could take in no more food or water, or if I did, I would promptly throw it up. I knew I was in trouble if I couldn't take in any calories.

Steve and I slowed more. At this point I was struggling to keep up with him even though we were taking two walking breaks every lap. My nausea didn't seem to get any better, my strength was failing, I still wasn't sweating or going to the bathroom in spite of all the fluids I was forcing down, and I was becoming more and more worried about my well being.

I decided that if I still wasn't able to use the bathroom by the 100k mark, I would walk out the 63rd mile and rest to see if I could get things straightened out. However, by the 100k mark (11:28:15) I was still having problems, so I alerted the race officials that I was leaving the course, and I went to take a nap. Before I got to the car to sleep, Olga showed up along with some other runners who had been running up at Chukanut and she gave me some sage advice: stop on salt and drink a lot more water. It made sense, I thought I had taken enough salt, by this point I had probably overdone it on salt and that could have caused all my problems. I took her advice but still went and took my nap. I rested and rested, but it wasn't until 7am the next morning (23hrs after I last used the bathroom) that I was once again functioning "normally."

I didn't run any more, and I really hated having to pull out of the race, but at least I got 3 PRs out of it. I watched the other runners finish, and Steve was able to achieve 107 miles for 5th place. First place went to Tim Englund with 121miles!

We got back to Portland and I went right to bed for some more sleep. I woke up a couple hours later and went to my Church's Evening service, followed by a meal with some friends at Laurelwood Pizza Co. I had the Davide's Special Calazone. A great way to recover after having some digestive / intestinal issues I know. ha ha. I'm all back to normal and ready to up the training to take vengance on this run at Ultracentric in November. I WILL do better! Lord willing.