Ultra Life Running: June 2016

Kettle Moraine 100 Mile Run - Saturday, June 4th, 2016

The Kettle Moraine 100 is a trail ultramarathon located near the "town" of LaGrange, WI. It starts at the Nordic Ski Area which is basically out in the middle of nowhere. The race is entirely on trails except some road crossings. The course is 2 out-n-back sections, the first out-n-back is 31 miles one way then 31 miles back to the Start/Finish area. You are then sent out on a 38 mile out-n-back in a different direction. I chose this race because it is somewhat close to Michigan and it is also a Western States 100 qualifier.

The race starts at 6 am which is actually later than most other 100 mile races. The later start time and the time zone change from Eastern to Central was extremely beneficial to me because I was able to go to bed earlier. My wife and I have two beautiful girls. Having a 3 year old and a 3 month old this was the first night in the past three months where I slept entirely through the night without waking up! With that being said, I arrived to the start line refreshed and ready to go.

My "A" goal was to finish under 24 hours and if not then at least just finish so that I can qualify for my 4th consecutive year for the Western States 100 race. I wanted to run with Peter and Lewis, two fellow Michigan ultra runners, for a little while just to have some company and I knew they would be close to my pace. I had run with Peter on two previous occasions and felt comfortable sticking with him. In these 100 mile races, you have to be conservative at the start and keep your heart rate at a reasonable level otherwise you will pay dearly for it in the last 20-30 miles.

Lewis and I cruising along

The most challenging part of this course are two sections of 6 miles each where there is no shade cover and the runners are completely exposed to the sun. This section is from miles 18-24 and then 39-45. The exposed conditions started to take a toll on Lewis especially and I also found myself getting light headed and dizzy. We were following a "run 25 min and walk 5 min" schedule which worked out well but it seemed that our walk breaks were timing up very badly with the conditions of the course. We would run for 25 minutes in the hot, exposed sun and then our walk break would be in the shade or on an uphill which we would be walking anyway...not ideal. We were still able to make it to mile 50 in exactly 10 hours.

Sometime after mile 50 Lewis was struggling and Peter decided to stay back with him. They are attempting to complete the Midwest Grand Slam this year, which consists of five 100 mile races all within about 2 or 3 months. Kudos to them! After I took off I felt a little bit of loneliness because for the first time in 10+ hours, I was actually all by myself. I was quickly able to focus on positive thoughts and put things into perspective. I was only going to be running by myself for another hour or two before meeting up with my first pacer, Mark, at mile 62. I started a follow a run 12 and walk 3 plan which was working out nicely. I continued this plan when I picked up my first pacer for about the first hour or two until it started to get dark out. Once it became dark around 8:30 it was difficult to anticipate the hills so we just started running everything we could besides the uphills. I couldn't help but laugh to myself as our conversation was somewhat one-sided. He was doing all of the talking and here and there I would mutter a couple words back. He did a great job of keeping my mind off of the pain and negative thoughts during our time together. Soon enough we made it to mile 81 where my other pacer/crew member Matt would switch duties with Mark. I was so thankful to have these two buddies at my side crewing and pacing me...it makes an enormous difference being able to have support in these endeavors.

Matt and I took off wasting no time. Matt was my pacer during the Burning River 100 (race report here) last summer, needless to say we were both on the struggle bus and literally walked the last 10 miles. This year was redemption and time to turn things around in a positive way! We were still running most of the time except the uphills which was very encouraging this late in the race. There are two specific moments I remember from my time with Matt. I have always wanted to see/hear an owl in the wild. It may not seem like a big deal to others but for some reason it is interesting to me. We were able to hear an owl calling out which was awesome. It was very close but I looked around and could not see it. As we continued running I could still hear it after 10+ minutes.

The other moment came after we passed somebody and a couple minutes later we came to what was called "confusion point". This point of the course splits off in multiple directions and we followed what the sign said but after a couple minutes after the turn I was paranoid so I had Matt run back and check to see if the person we passed made the same turn we did. He shut off his headlamp so the runner wouldn't be able to see him and booked it! As I was waiting for him to return back I turned off my headlamp and just stood there. It was a surreal moment in which I will never forget. There I was in the middle of the woods in Wisconsin, running 100 miles, staring at the star-filled sky in the pitch dark. I took that time to soak in the moment and simply just be. So often times in the day to day life, we become so occupied that we lose track of ourselves and our surroundings. These 100 mile races strip me down to the absolute core, like peeling an onion layer after layer until there is nothing left. My concerns, worries, and existence becomes so simplified that it is difficult to put into words. By experiencing this I am better able to appreciate the smaller things in life, the comforts, and my family. It simply makes me a better person.

Matt and I continued to run and push ourselves to the finish line. I started to do the math in my head and I was definitely going to be under 24 hours unless I somehow injured myself. We made it to the last aid station and it was 4.8 miles to the finish. I had an hour and a half to make it under 23 hours! We did our best to run everything except the big hills and continued forward towards the finish. It was still dark our so we had no idea where we were. Suddenly we saw someone with a headlamp looking at us, not running so we knew the finish was close. The clock and finish line came into view and I darted towards the finish for a personal best time of 22 hours and 26 mins! Good for 19th overall out of 133 finishers. My race was finally done and I had accomplished a personal best by 3 hours and I now have my Western States qualifier.

Overall this race went extremely well. I was able to squash any negative thoughts that were trying to enter my mind. My physical body was sore but nothing out of the ordinary for this distance. I didn't experience very many low points which is rare. The weather cooperated as it was mid 70s most of the day and only rained a couple of times but not very much.

Pumped up at the finish line

What did I eat/drink?

I used a product called Tailwind for the majority of my calories, which was absolutely amazing! It is powder that you mix into water for liquid goodness. Each Ziploc baggie that I carried had 400 calories. So each bag was good for 2 hours as I tried to consume at least 200 calories an hour which included 75 g of carbohydrate (the body can process anywhere between 60-90 g of carbohydrate per hour). I carried one handheld water bottle and one I tucked into my waistband.

Other than Tailwind, I ate a couple slices of watermelon, 6-8 pieces of boiled potatoes, 5-6 pretzels, and 2 Powerbar gels.

I didn't have any caffeine the entire race.

What I did differently this time around...