My First 100 Miler: Lessons Learned

 Hey hey hey!  Here we are, two weeks post Ultra, and I finally have my shit together (well, relatively) to talk a little bit about lessons learned from Candlelight.  This post is a little different, hopefully helpful for those debating anything beyond 26.2.

When I signed up to race this 24 hour event, 6 weeks pre race (OMG) I had a few things going for me - coming out of Boston, I had a solid base from marathon training (roughly 60 miles per week), and had some experience with ultras (Mind the Ducks 12 hour in 2014, 2016, 2018).  However, it had been a hot minute since I had run anything beyond 26.2 (ish) and even though Ironman is a 11-14 hour event, it doesn't really compare.  So I needed to work on a few key things - my run distance fitness, my nutrition, my outfit/gear selection, and mental headspace.

Run Fitness:  I did pretty well with this one overall, and I honestly am not sure if I got lucky or the prep was sound.   To find a plan, I fired up the ole googler and found a plan that seemed to fit my life, then I trashed it and made my own plan based on what I knew of my body and what seemed reasonable.  For those trying out an ultra for the first time, I'm not sure I recommend the former, but I knew I needed three things - a decent weekly mileage, back to back longish runs, and a few "key days".  With the six weeks I had, I opted to do a two week build, recovery, build two more weeks, then taper down.  I added a bunch of back to back to back 12 milers, and two long runs of 22 and 40.  With hindsight, I probably would have done the first long run a bit slower, but the 40 miler gave me confidence for nutrition and time on feet - the run portion took 6.5 hours and just over 7 hours accounting for stops for food and bathroom. 

I flexed the plan a lot, and shook out with 6 days of running a week.  I added speed one day (mile repeats) and the rest was all sexy (slow) pace.  One thing I did not do well - I rarely ran goal pace (13-14 minute miles) and that might have helped me find my rhythm on race day - but honestly - with the weather the day of the race, I don't know that it would have mattered.  I was grateful to bank the miles early at the race and when my body shut down due to nutrition, I believe it was mostly due to the heat.  I also swam 3 days a week on this plan, which was clutch - it gave some good recovery and allowed me to work some other muscles.  I parked my bike in a corner for a month and this was also wise - I did not need to add more leg stress (though I'm not sure what to do with it now that I'm doing two tris in August LOL)

Nutrition - This, along with clothing, is a piece I need to work on.  I experimented a lot on my 22 and 40 miler, and felt good about my nutrition.  It included roughly 300 calories an hour, in the form of skratch superfuel, gels, clif minis, and then the "real food" - dried cherries, beef jerky, peanut butter sandwiches, and even a burger delivery plan for 7pm.  

I ditched most of that race day - with the heat as it was, the only thing I could stomach was gu and gu sports drink, and after 13 hours of that, my stomach rebelled.  I tried the burger and the pizza that was offered, and some ramen at 1am, but honestly, the last 11 hours of my race were all fueled by ginger ale and coke.  I threw up four times, and that's why I knew  by 1am my "running" was over.  

If I did this again, I would experiment more in race conditions to what my stomach could handle, and experiment more with two or three a day runs on this fuel.  

Clothing/shoes - This was a stumper.  What the hell do you wear for this long and for weather flux?  Darned if I knew.  My biggest problem was my best run shorts were just casual Coeur shorts - great for a marathon but probably chafe city for more.  My best tights fixed that, but who wears capris when its 90 degrees?  Top?  Sports bra, but what about the sun??  And shoes - I train and race in Saucony - Rides and pros.  They work for four hours but are not designed for trails OR ultras. And about those socks...

So, you go with what you know.  I wore a sports bra and shorts, which worked well for about 8 hours, then the amount of ice I dumped in my bra got so ridiculous no amount of friction defense would fix my crotch (sorry for the TMI, but it was straight up painful to pee, and no one on the course that was a male would lend me a...well, you know #girlprobs).  I changed into my capris at 9pm and that saved me, though it was HOT!  I did well with sunscreen and did not burn, and ended up wearing my old endorphin pro 3s that had way too many miles on them but a nice big toe box and were comfy - though they are shot now and I found a big rock in them post race that I ran in for who knows how many miles!!  And for the zillion dollar question - no, I did not race in socks.  I fixed a hot spot once, and ended the day with two blisters on my big toes, which was hella impressive in my book with how wet my feet got from ice!

Mental outlook - This is, hands down, in my opinion, the defining piece of my race and the one I am most proud of.  I'll say it until I am blue in the face - the longer the race, the more you need to deeply believe in your "why".  Even though I only had 6 weeks to prep and I admittedly signed up due to the

bad influence of another running friend, (are we shocked) 100 miles is something that I've always wanted to do, and in a year of who TF knows what I want, I figured why the hell not. 

 Throughout the whole race, I never wavered on what I wanted.  And that's the key.  Because the longer the race is, it becomes not a matter of "if" anything is gonna go wrong - its "when".  And plenty went wrong.  My stomach.  My crotch.  The heat. I got tired.  But I KNEW I had to get my hundred, and at 2am when my miles slowed to 18 minutes I just....kept moving.  Toward the goal that I would not let myself fail at unless my body gave out.  And I got lucky - it did not.  But the most important muscle I own - my brain - would not let it.

It's also the stupidest muscle I own, hence my continued bad decisions.  LOL.  But I dont regret this one - it was a lot of fun, I learned so much, and got to meet some amazing people!  Hopefully this post helped a few of you that are debating an ultra - I am always here if you have questions :)

So what's next?  A few local tris with the best people, and maybe a few more fuck it races for 2024. But my big goals are now set on 2025.  Stay tuned :)