Ghost Train 2013

Well... a year has passed and now it is time for the Ghost Train. It is quite cold on Saturday morning, a cool 26 degrees. As the morning rolls out it gradually warms. I start strong despite concerns about my sore knee and run the 1^st lap quicker than planned in 3:07:00. I slow down a bit in lap 2… struggle with some nausea, but manage it with Pepto-Bismal tablets which is very encouraging. However, while descending a technical stretch at mile 21 my left foot lands and skids forward on loose pine needles and slams into a protruding rock. I’m in comfortable, lightweight road shoes (no protection) and crunch my toes… very painful. I walk for a while until the initial pain subsides a bit. Slowing, I finish lap 2 in 7:08:00. I had visualized this race in four hour blocks... 15 miles to each block, that would deliver me to 90 miles in 24 hours if things went well.  At this point my knee was hurting, now I have a toe issue... but I'm ahead of schedule. I stop at my support tent, see Kristine, Shelby and Oriel which lifts my spirits. I change shoes (planned) and reveal a blood soaked sock. I don’t dare look and leave the sock on. I'm in heavier more padded shoes and also tights and a fleece (nightfall is coming). Oriel joins and paces me... it is dark when we arrive in Milford. We return with headlamps, the many jack-o-lanterns along the course are lit... very cool. Lots of walking on lap 3 (slower) and the pain continues to increase in the knee and toes. Although I hate to do it, I call it after 3 laps. I probably could have finished 4 laps, but I chose to stop at 3 so as not to wreck my knee… the pain is pretty intense. I have learned the hard way in the past that if you push an injury too hard you can easily end up not being able to run for weeks to months afterwards... it's just not worth it. Interestingly the knee pain masks the toe pain... I didn't think the toe was all that bad. When I get home I discover my middle toe is completely smashed, totally purple even after the blood is washed off, and the nail has lifted and is milky white… the toe is obviously broken. I finish 45 miles, a lot less than planned in 11:50:00. The race in some ways is a disappointment, but I did successfully manage a few bouts of nausea, my old nemesis, I ate and hydrated well. I am learning with each new race… and in this sport there is much to learn, far more than I ever imagined. Although I didn't run 60 miles in this race as planned, I did do it back in July. In my first year of ultramarathoning I have run three races… 30, 61 and 45 miles. Not as much as I had hoped, but not too bad for an old guy! I took Sunday off, but walked several miles with Bobafett yesterday. The training has begun for next year!

11/01: The official results are now in... each complete 15 mile lap over 30 miles is listed as a separate race on UltraSignup. So... in the 45 mile race there were 38 finishers, I was 25/38. There were only 2 of us in the 60-69 age group and I was first. Go figure... probably should break my toe more often... not! Make no mistake, I have no illusions about this, it's always fun to win but the field was not exactly deep. Nonetheless I'll take it. Now I go back to work... the real goal is a 100 miles in 24 hours, I'm a long way from there. 

Three Days to the Ghost Train

Well... I'm sixty, turned it last week. After the Lakes Race in July I experienced a kind of post race let down. I backed my mileage off a bit, not because I was injured... I was just sick of running 70 miles a week. So I took it easy during August. No biggie, I started ramping it up in September and then a bad thing happened. On the 16th I was descending a steep rocky section of trail, it had rained earlier, and I slipped and fell smacking my left kneecap on a boulder. Ouch! I didn't break anything but I was a hurting unit. Again I had to back my mileage way off or risk not healing in time for the Ghost Train. What a mess! So my mileage is off, my fitness reduced and instead of tapering the last two weeks... I had to increase my mileage to get ready for the race. I ran 68 miles last week... one week before the race. My preparation is completely ass-backwards. The good news is my knee is somewhat better, the bad news is my fitness is not where it should be. Oh, well... welcome to life. So, to the Ghost Train I go on Saturday... I have no clue what will happen. The original goal was sixty miles, having done that in July I was of course hoping for more now. We shall see. All Aboard!

24 Hours Around the Lake Race: Wakefield MA 27-28 July 2013

So, the first big event on my “ultra marathon” calendar has arrived. This all started last fall when I completed a 50K (30 mile) running race and announced that I would run a 60 mile race to celebrate my 60^th birthday this October. I’ve been training since last November, the Ghost Train Ultra Marathon falls on October 26^th, twelve days after my 60^th. Perfect, I had a whole year to get ready. Then in March I found a 24 Hour race in Wakefield MA in July. There is no set distance for 24 hour races, you run as far as you can until you can go no further… or 24 hours passes. Simple as that. Granted, the 24 was an ambitious undertaking ahead of the 60 miler… nor did it fall in line with my training schedule for the Ghost Train. However, 24s are far and few between and Wakefield is near by… it was irresistible. I cranked up my training schedule as quickly as possible and got ready as best I could. What follows is my account of the Lake race.

24 Hours Around the Lake runs from 7PM on Friday night until 7PM Saturday. My initial support crew, my daughter Shelby and her boyfriend Jason and I arrived at the race site at 4PM on Friday. It had been raining much of the day, but was a mild 71 degrees. The start/finish line is in a side parking lot of the Clarion hotel. The edge of the cone-lined course was dotted by support crews huddled under sun/rain canopies, camper vans and other support vehicles. The course is a 5K (3.1 mile) loop that is a mixture of pavement and sidewalk, not the best for running, but pancake flat. There are actually three races in one that all start together and share the course… a regular marathon with about a 175 entrants, a 12 hour race with 100 entrants and another 100 24 hour racers. We set up along the course in what would soon become a little village surrounding start/finish line. I’m not feeling all that great before the race, my stomach is uneasy… maybe it’s my nerves. Finally we line up for the start and it’s raining pretty hard… we are all soaked and more importantly the road is completely awash and all of us have wet feet, not a great way to start a long event.

The first couple laps go by quickly, I’m going pretty good. But, by 10PM my uneasy stomach is in full rebellion… I’m incredibly nauseous and in serious trouble. I have to slow down and pull myself together or I will be forced to quit. I make a hard choice and decide to walk a few laps even though I hate to do it. Walking is commonly practiced by ultra marathoners… just not usually so early in the race. There are no rules about it, some people even take short naps… it’s your 24 hours, you run the race as you see fit. By 1AM I start to feel better… I’ve lost time but I’m still in the race. I change out of my wet clothes… everything: shoes, socks, shorts and singlet. I have to re-lubricate all my chafe points… inner thighs, arms, feet etc. It’s a painfully long pit stop, probably 15 minutes… but necessary. The rain stopped at midnight, now the clouds have given way to a clear sky. There is a beautiful half moon… it is a wonderful warm breezy night. The Lake’s course is bounded by very busy and noisy roads that are right next to you. In daylight the sidewalk is heavily used by runners, walkers, kids on bikes and dog walkers. In the wee hours of the morning the roads and the course are nearly deserted. The large contingency of marathoners have finished, the daytime traffic (road and sidewalk) is non-existent and only the ultra marathoners remain. There are less than 200 of us strung around the 3 mile course. I’m running again, feeling OK and the night is incredibly beautiful, serene and tranquil. The world is asleep and I’m not… and I am hugely enjoying it.

The race takes on a rhythm as all races do, but the rhythm in longer races is slow and gentle, an easy rolling beat. Runners pass runners from time to time. Faster runners pass me… I pass slower runners. It’s a strange perspective… we only see each other from behind, no faces. We exchange runner pleasantries while passing… “nice job”, “keep it going” and the like. Some give the occasional squeeze of the elbow or gentle pat on the shoulder with a “looking good”. I like runners, we have our own thing going on. Most of us are courteous gentle folk. Most of us look out for and encourage each other. It’s a cool brother/sisterhood. The start/finish line village is mostly awake through the night, there are twinkling lights, soft music and laughter. At the end of each lap we take a right hand turn into the village… it feels good, another lap done. But it’s more than that… it’s a welcoming experience, familiar and inviting… a homecoming of sorts that makes the last mile of each lap more bearable. There is a double canopy three canopies down from us that is inhabited by a relay team (there is also a 24 hour relay team division with a few 6-8 person teams) that I had chatted with before the race. They are from Woburn MA, around my age and very playful and friendly. They were short a runner and tried to unsuccessfully to recruit me with promises of beer. They saw my retired firefighters plate on my truck and every time I come through they hoot and cheer, “goooo Greeeenfield”. I appreciate it… a lot. At about 3AM I’m coming into the village and the pop-up lawn sprinklers at the hotel spring into action. I swing wide into the street to not get soaked again. Pandemonium spreads through the village as several of the support crews have set up on the grassy islands in the parking lot. The islands are sprinkled too… I’m greeted by wobbling canopies being hastily carried off by surprised and giggling crewmembers. It’s a ridiculous scene, a very funny and welcome distraction.

Ten hours in and just before sunrise I become acutely aware of how raw my emotions have become. It’s as if all the veneer, all the armor that normally protects my psyche has been stripped away. I miss my wife Kristine enormously, it’s a palpable ache. I know she will be here in a few hours (she had to look after the dog overnight), but she can’t come soon enough for me. All my feelings are magnified and edgy… it must be the monotony  and fatigue of the race that has delivered this to me. I had guessed that I would discover new things during this event… but I don’t think I saw this coming. I don’t resist it… it’s a strange and liberating feeling, I let flow over me. Or perhaps, I let it flow out of me. It’s hard to describe, I don’t think I’ve been here before… not quite like this. I’m close to tears… but not crying. I think about what is important and what isn’t. It’s not that I haven’t thought about these things before, I often do. But now there is an edgy clarity to it. Things are very black or white. I’ve been thinking a lot lately about what it means to lead a purposeful and meaningful life… tonight it takes on a new urgency. I am filled with an enormous sense of gratitude for all the goodness in my life. Kristine, my children, my dog… my guitars, my bicycles and oh yes, my beloved running shoes, all forty pairs that my family often teases me about… the nice things I have acquired across my lifetime. My cup truly runneth over, I’m a lucky man. I don’t have a lot of money, I don’t own a big house, car or boat. I prefer smaller things and tonight it’s clearer than ever that is what's important.

 All’s good until daybreak, then my belly starts acting up again. I slow but push on. By 7AM I have covered 48 miles… well short of expectations. Morning brings a sunny cloudless sky and a rapid increase in temperature. By 9AM I am reduced to mostly walking again. My pre-race fantasies of covering 70, 80 miles or more have evaporated. My stated goal of staying in the race for the full 24 hours seems highly improbable. I soldier on, and my pacers begin to drift in. Pacing, to help encourage and keep the runner’s spirits and speed up… and keep them from wandering off course (especially in trail races) are commonly used in the second half of ultras. A wise runner uses them. First to arrive, Chris Kowaleski paces me and does his best to berate and cajole me into continuing and picking up the pace. Bill Woodbury has been tipped off about the stomach issues and shows up with Pepto-Bismol (which helps some) and paces me next. His approach is kinder and gentler but no less persuasive. Finally Kristine arrives and lifts my spirits and paces my final lap. I race for 16:29:00 covering 61.11 miles. The pace is slow, but this was never about speed. I have run two marathons back to back plus 9 miles… or another way of looking at is that I have run 19 consecutive 5Ks. The official race results which are not available for a couple days are even more heartening. I finish 28^th out of 91 overall, that includes all age groups. In my age group 50-59, which is my race, I am 3^rd of 13… I am delighted to find that I’m on the podium in my first attempt, I didn’t see that one coming.

This is by far the farthest and longest I have ever run. I came prepared to deal with the aches and pains of distance running, not an upset stomach… although belly problems are not uncommon in distance running. I was ready to do battle with aching feet (which I did have) tired legs and sore knees. Before the race Kristine had insisted that Shelby write with a sharpie on my forearm “Shut up legs”… one of our favorite sayings borrowed from the legendary German pro-cyclist Jens Voight. But my big opponent for the night was an uninvited guest, an upset stomach… arguably an even more difficult opponent. Official results not withstanding, my disappointment with the distance and time is tempered by my disciplined recovery early in the race… a hugely important lesson and meaningful victory. And I was rewarded for it with a few hours of strong happy running through the most magical part of the night… an incredibly sweet memory. The rest of my body, not my stomach, held up remarkably well. I’m stiff the day after, my feet are swollen and sore but otherwise fine. I only take one day off after the race… I run a strong and smooth 10K the next day. I will need to continue to work on nutrition and hydration… to control the belly thing. My long stated goal of running 60 miles to celebrate my 60^th birthday is clearly much more within reach. This has been an amazing experience. A big thank you is in order to the race organizers and the many, many volunteers who made this wonderful event happen. I thank my family and my friends for their unwavering support and of course most of all… my remarkable wife Kristine.

June

So... 6 months of training are complete. I've come a long way. I've lost 35 pounds, logged 1316 miles. I ran for 163 consecutive days. I broke the string, intentionally on June 11th. It had to happen... with my focused training (increasing long runs) days off would be needed. So be it! Shorter days of 6 and 8 mile runs have morphed into 15 milers. I have run a bunch of them this month. My long runs have grown longer. The third week this month, I ran a 26 and 30 miler in the same week... racking up 87 for the week. I have never run two marathons in the same month... never mind week. All good. However, despite all the hard work and base building.... it gets harder from here. My first ever 24 hour race is in 27 days... looming large and menacing. Sure, I have run upwards of 6 hours and likely could have continued for a bit... but, for 24 hours? Thinking about it is like staring at the end of your nose... it's familiar and nearby, but hard to bring into focus. Someone once said that "ultramarathoning is 90% mental, the rest of it is in your head". I like that saying, but I suspect that I am going to find my self in a very new place as I explore these uncharted waters. So... here's the plan. My diet has to be tightened up even though I'm comfortably at my BMI, I expect to lose another 6-8 pounds before the race. Sweets, wine and salty snacks... three of my favorite things... gone. Easy 6 mile filler runs... gone. A steady diet of middle (15-18 mile) and long (25-35 mile) runs interspersed with rest days, nothing else. Perhaps I should shave a monastic bald spot on my head for good measure. I need to run middle distance runs on consecutive days. This past week I ran two 15 milers back to back (b2b). This week I will run three, b2b2b... you get the idea. It's a lot tougher to do than it sounds... but it builds endurance, just what the doctor ordered. Then the week before the race... back it down, the big taper. So, that's the plan... we shall see. Kudos to Bill for his good work, he has asked me to run a 10K with him in the beginning of August... I will be there. 

Big Changes, Goals Met, Onward to October

So first, big congrats to Dave and his great work toward the Ghost Train.  Always an inspiration.  Well, I haven't posted since March, but that doesn't mean nothing has happened.  In April, Mike Daley and I did the Great Bay Half Marathon.  My goal was to walk it at a 16 minute/mile pace and we did it in 3:22:38, a 15:23 pace.  Very psyched.  My wife and I welcomed our son into the world (5 weeks early) in May!!  He spent 3 weeks in the hospital due to being early, but is in great shape and is now home with us.  I'm happy to say that, despite the craziness of a new baby and all that comes with it, I've not faltered in my daily treadmill/walking.  Yesterday marked 134 days straight of daily cardio as Mike Daley and I did the Leap 5K in Concord.  My goal was to do it in 14 min/mile or less and we did it in 40:14, which was 12:59 per mile.  Very psyched.  Perhaps the coolest thing was that I actually ran part of it.  This marks the first time I have "run" in an organized race in about 20 years.  Yes, it's slow and it was tough given my current weight, but it was great to do it.  I'm still looking for a good 10K to do in July.  The biggest challenge remains the weight loss, but yesterday was quite a wake up.  It was great to run, but I felt like I was towing a small bus.  At the 10K, I hope to be lighter and even faster.  Thanks to Mike for running with me!!  Onward. 

May

Things are getting interesting. This was a long month... 5 weeks, 273 miles. I have now run 1,095 miles in 154 consecutive days. I'm starting to focus on the weekly long run... similar weekly mileage, but shorter runs during the week and then a longer one on the weekend. I had hoped to be up to an 18 miler by month's end. I did that on May 18th. Last week I ran 21 miles. Today, in 94 degree heat I toughed out a 24 miler. Slow and steady I ran pretty well through 18 miles... I took many walk breaks during the last 6. Remarkably, even though I drank over 80oz of fluids and ate a bean and rice burrito... I dropped 9lbs during the run! Sacre Merde! I ran for 5 hours and 9 minutes at an average pace of 13:15 slow, but... respectable in the ultra world. My broken toe is mostly healed ('tis about time!). My weight is just under 200lbs for the first time in several years. Pretty exciting month for me, today was pretty epic... I know, strong language... you had to be there to fully appreciate it! Next month... longer runs. Until next time.

April

Another month, despite some setbacks I'm still mostly on track and have now completed 119 consecutive days of running. My tumble on the treadmill was worse than expected... my foot has still not completely healed after 6 weeks. The worst of it is my great toe which still aches, I now suspect that I broke it. My unwillingness to take time off has clearly retarded the healing process. Nonetheless, I have hung in there... I cut back my mileage two weeks after the fall by going from 65/week to 45/week. Interestingly this has created an unintended dividend. Those long weeks in March I was still walking some of the miles. Now I am running almost all the time, except for my 1 mile warmdown at the end of all runs. The net is less miles but the runs are much higher quality... not a bad trade off. I have 812 miles for the year and am running very consistently around the 10:30 pace. Yesterday is a good example... 13 miles at the 10:29 pace. This may not seem very fast and indeed it isn't... but anything faster in a long event would be suicidal. I've lost another couple of pounds, I'm well within my BMI... but would still like to lose another 10 to get ready for the long events. All in all, things are going well. I hope the others are getting some good training in... October will be here soon! May brings ever increasing long runs. My foot may not be great... but it is workable. I'm hoping my weekly long run will be up to 18 miles by the end of the month. Onward!