After reading Barefoot Ted's account of his 2012 running of the Avalon 50 mile run on no more than 25 miles of training per week, I was very interested to see how I would feel since I also trained with fewer miles than would be considered typical for a 50 mile training plan, averaging about the same mileage per week as Ted and having no more than 40 miles in my peak week.
The Catalina 50 mile run begins at 5:00 am. Tony Rudd and Sarah Davis and I ferried over the day before and shared a nice little house on one of the main streets. This race has some of the simplest logistics of any race ever. We wake up at about 4:00, eat and get hyped before strolling the 2 minute walk to the start line, where we meet and greet for about 3 minutes and the gun goes off. It's 350 people running up a mountain in the dark with their headlamps on, and the stars watching from above. I'm pretty much in the middle with a trail of lights zigzagging along the switchbacks below and above me. It's cold, so I'm going a little faster than I want, just to keep warm. After reaching the top, we descend. A guy nose dives right in front of me and I stop to ask if he is ok, so does the guy behind me. A snappy yes is all I wait for to keep booking it down the hill. Nearly 2 hours in, the sun begins to rise. My hands are frozen bricks and I can't use them for anything. It's a gorgeous and warming sun rise. We reach the airport which was the turnaround for the marathon I did here 2 years before. This time we turn left and head for the opposite side of the island. This is barely the beginning of the day.
I will confess without any regret that I ran this run in shoes. The cold weather and the mean, 3 mile paved road descent at the end would have made this a painful run to have done in sandals. I am very pleased to have finished this 50 mile run, less fatigued than after most of my road marathons. A fact I attribute to increased endurance, but some of it is just becaue trails are much less taxing to run than roads.
By this point we were pretty spread out and I started seeing runners who had started their run early, at midnight and 2 am. Soon I saw the lead runners including the winner, Fabrice, who was a picture of concentration, as he ran every bit of the course, including the steepest of hills. It started to get real when I found myself alone above a gorgeous pristine beach and smelled the deliciously salty breeze as I walked up another hill around mile 37. Up until this point I had run my race almost entirely on the physical level. Now it started getting mental with the usual doubts and reasoning against running in favor of walking.
I arrived at the mile 40 aid station where they were playing blue grass music, serving lobster, buffalo burgers, wine, red bull and beer. I grabbed a can of kerns and some potato smothered in salt and continued on my merry way.
Walking up one steep hill around mile 42 I saw Sarah Davis was running back to meet Tony. She gave me grief for walking instead of running and I gave her a hug and walked on.
Around mile 44 I started to experience the same kind of goal defeat I had experienced at my ironman. It was a little different, because instead of realizing I couldn't reach my goal I realized I was well ahead of schedule and could easily walk almost half the remaining distance and still meet my goal, and I have to admit at least some amount of disappointment in myself for not pushing on and seeing just how well I could do. Instead I kind of took the middle ground and continued to walk/run toward the final descent. This kind of moment is the readon I do endurance sports. You really learn what you're made of. Then something interesting happened. Half a dozen or so runners began to slowly pass me and I realized the difference between us was that while I could run faster than them when I did run, I would quickly get tired and began walking again, and they would pass me again. They were all just running along very slowly but never slowing to a walk. I tried it myself but it just wasn't my style. I would pick up the pace and get tired again. I guess you have to train for this.
Around mile 45 it began to get emotional. I began simultaneously regarding what a ridiculous thing it was that I was doing, and yet how pleased I was with myself for doing it. I soon stared with disdain at the long steep paved black road that winded down into town. I began to laugh at myself as well as the 350 other nut jobs who were doing this along with me. A voice inside my head said "IT DEOESNT MATTER" and I regarded the double meaning: it didn't matter how my body felt, and it didn't matter how fast I finished or whether or not I even finished at all. It just is what it is, and so I ran on.
So next week I'll be doing trail work at Mt. Laguna to get my entries in the lottery for a chance to run the San Diego 100 miler in June. I'll also be back to run Catalina again, because I never saw a buffalo.
After taking my post race soak at the beach, I saw Ashley finish and soon Trace came out to usher us into Coyote Joe's bar for drinks with the guys who had come in 1st and 3rd. I didn't realize for the first 30 minutes that I was sitting next to the winner, who looked fresh as though he hadn't run at all, but had nearly broken the course record by finishing in 6:09. He was from France and had a ton of experience. I learned tons by listening to him talk about how he trains. It reaffirmed by belief that ultra running has not and perhaps cannot be so well understood as Marathon running. He only runs what he feels likee, never more, never less. No strict schedules or workout plans, and no speed work.
Of food, I consumed: 1 perfect foods almond/honey bar, 1/2 acai/flax bar, 2 rolls onigiri, ~1/2 potato with salt, 3 pretzels, 1 piece sliced banana, 10 grapes, 1 can Kerns nectar, 5 medjool dates, 1/2 sprouted corn tortilla with hummus, 2 orange wedges, about 12 ounces of electrolyte drink, 1/3 bottle of chia/agave/water blend, 7 salt tabs, and about 70 ounces of plain water. I believe I consumed ~2k calories total. The cold weather made digestion very easy. I never used the bathroom.
Smile 33 aid station: already farther than I've ever gone
Flick House and housemates Sarah and Tony
Dinner night before the run
