Here is my "Race" report from this Saturday March 30ths FKT Attempt.
This was the first time I have ever truly tapered for an event, and I am sad to say, I fumbled it. After doing some reading I settled on a 3 week taper plan. Turns out this probably wasn't the best for me, by the time the date rolled around I felt like I hadn't run long in months and was worried that all my endurance had left me. It was a real mind game.
Saturday morning my alarm went off 5:45 and followed my normal morning routine. Stacy and I got a hotel in Boston so that we wouldn't have to deal with driving into the city so early. The room was nice and I slept well, however, like with the previous 2 days I woke up with what felt like glass shards in my throat. Not ideal. I tried to push that out of my mind as I gathered my thoughts and my things. Walking from our hotel to the start line brought to light the first issue of the day. Due to my affinity for procrastination I hadn't synchronized the route to my watch, and Garmin was down! After a few seconds of panic I was able to get the route loaded into my Strava app and had come to terms with the fact that I would have to carry my phone in my hand. We arrived at the start and waited for my pacers. When they arrived Pat (pacer #1) saved the day by already having the route saved into his watch. We started a few minutes after 6:30am on what would turn out to be one of the hardest, longest days I've ever had.
Nutrition/Hydration plan: I wore a Nathan's hydration belt with 2x 9oz bottles and a pouch for Honey Stinger gels. One bottle had water, the other Nuun electrolyte solution and 4 gels in the pouch. I would take a sip of water on ever odd mile, and electrolyte every even mile and a gel every 3 miles.
Miles 0 - 10
Time: 1:24:02
Pacer - Pat with Guest pacers Fallon and Jillian
The first miles went by pretty uneventfully. Hopes were high, temps were low, and pace was comfortable. Fallon and Jillian accompanied Pat and I for the first ~2 miles then broke off to continue their own journeys. Stacy and her sister Karen were waiting for Pat and I at the first rally point at Mile 10. I swapped hydration belts while Stacy sprayed me down with some sunscreen, and then we were away.
Miles 10-20
Time: 1:26:35
Pacer - Pat
Pat stayed on for a second leg and we were going strong, at first. At about mile 15 I realized that the pace we had been holding with the elevation profile of the route and the strong 10-15 mile head wind was a mistake! What had been a friendly banter heavy conversation become very one sided as I started to hit the first of many walls. To Pat's credit he stayed his positive and upbeat self. He reminded me that slowing down wasn't a problem, and that he was here "for the vibes". His constant optimism, and incredible Scott Stapp impersonation pulled me through this rough patch and got this leg done.
Miles 20-30
Time:1:39:12
Pacer - Mike
I took the opportunity at this rally point to pause my run and sync the route to my watch. I also took some Ibuprofen. It went downhill (metaphorically) real quick on this leg. I had to take my first real walking break around mile 22. I was hurting, hips had tightened up, and my legs felt like they were made of lead. Mike did his best to keep me out of my head, and did help quite a bit. But his biggest contribution was just telling me that it was ok to stop and walk as long as I kept moving forward, and he pushed me to make the walking breaks shorter and shorter each time I stopped. His constant "atta boys" whenever I started running after a walking break gave me such a huge mental boost. I would have absolutely thrown in the towel without Mike pushing me.
Miles 30-40
Time: 1:43:09
Pacer - Matt
Before this next leg I switched shoes and took a big swig of Cucumber Lime Gatorade (big shout out to Pat for finding a convenience store nearby that sold it)the small mental boost from the fresh foam and the cucumberylime flavor lasted just long enough to get me out of this rally point. Matt took the strong silent approach to his pacing duties. He strode like quite guardian with one focus, getting me to the next telephone pole. He broke this leg down from miles, to kilometers, to poles. The goal was to just get to the next one. "Just run these next 4,5,6 telephone poles then we can walk up the hill" was the mantra, and it kept me moving.
Mile 40-50
Time: 1:45:03
Pacer - Fallon, Steve, Mark
Arriving at the last rally point was such a relief "Anyone can run 10 miles" was the chant for all around. I downed a 5 hour energy drink and some Gatorade as Stacy reloaded my belt one last time. Having multiple pacers for this leg was a good change of pace and really took the focus off of me for conversation. I was able to just focus on keeping my legs moving and let the others carry the conversation. I tried to limit my walking breaks to only as I took a gel (didn't always work). The lighthearted nature of the group made these last 10 miles go by pretty quick and before we knew it we were looking at the skyline of Providence. For those who haven't been to the Statehouse in Providence, it is up on a hill, a BIG hill. When we reached the bottom of the hill we hit one last stop light. I gathered everything I had left and decided I was go to move as fast as my legs would move up the hill, roughly 80ft of elevation in .10 of a mile. The hill was a blur as I gave it all the energy I had. I looked at my watch as I turned the corner to see it just crack 8 hours, well within the time I needed to secure the FKT. As I crossed the impromptu finish line that my friends had created, the full weight of what I had just done came crashing onto me and I could do nothing but try and catch my breath. I sat on the steps of the Statehouse, 8 hours and 50 miles away from the Statehouse that I started at, and finally relaxed.
Final thoughts and thanks:
I had been looking forward to this run for so long, for it to be over is bittersweet. It was much more difficult than I wanted it to be. I tried to prepare the best I could with a taper much unlike my usual training plans. Several lessons were learned. The greatest of which is, never underestimating elevation profiles.
People keep asking me "How'd it go?" and I've honestly struggled to answer them. How can you express that even though you hit your ultimate goal, you are still disappointed in the effort? I feel bad about feeling disappointed given how hard my wife and my pacers worked on that day to help me. But I had a better training block for this run than I ever have. I knew what I needed to do to hit my stretch goals, and I just couldn't pull it off. I could make excuses, I wasn't feeling well, there was a head wind most of the way, on top of the added stress from the crazy start issues with Garmin. But I just didn't have what I needed for my stretch goal, and I will have to find a way to be ok with it.
As always the hugest of thanks goes to my wife Stacy for putting up with my training, and being Team Captain!! And thank you to all those who came out to pace me, or just came out to support!!