Running in Circles - Across the Years 2011-2012.

During New Years when most people are out drinking and having fun, for my third time I decided to head down to Arizona and run “Across The Years” it’s 24, 48, or 72 hour footrace around a loop course.

Previous years its been a 500m track around Nardini Manor, this time the new location as the LA Dodger training ground, for some reason they train in Phoenix Arizona. This new course was a 1 mile loop that past a few baseball fields and a lake. It was mostly a gravel path and only had a few little bumps, that over time seemed to grow to hills.

I naturally signed up for the 72hr otherwise what would I do for the rest of the time. This time I was excited to see my old friend from 2007, Carrie Sauter, we became friends in 2007 when running round the 500m track until we got silly and laughed a lot.

In 2011 I moved from sunny California with ultra marathons every week and great trails to Vancouver, also with great trails, unless it was 2011 with so much snow it wasn’t until August until I could get on most the trails. And the trails in North Vancouver and West Vancouver are very technical, roots, rocks and slippery mud. Most my running was on roads and easy trails. That was at least good training for ATY, except I wasn’t running much since I had also started a Masters program that was eating up a lot of my running time.

My first mistake was as I had got slower with my lack of training, Carrie hadn’t but we still ran together for the first few hours, after a marathon legs were feeling heavy, not a good sign you are only a few hours into a 72hr race. I decided to take it easy and let Carrie continue to fly around the track. By 40 miles my legs were hurting and I had to take a break hoping that would fix my stupidly of going out way too fast. After a break my legs felt worse. I stayed positive, knowing it usually gets better, I found a pace that seemed to work and just kept going until I felt it was time for another break. I took a lot of breaks.

I wanted to hit 100 miles in the first 24hrs, that wasn’t going to happen, ok 90 miles, I kept adjusting my goal, at around 70 miles I could hardly moved, I had to take a long break, I laid down for about 3hrs, used my stick and massaged my legs and tried to sleep a little. Once I got up I was moving much better and eventually completed around 80 miles in the first 24hr, it was under my goal but still possible for my 72hr goal of 200 miles. I took another break and let the fresh legged day 2 runners start.

I got to run with Carrie again who was now many miles ahead of me and also run with the ever colorful Tammy Massie who was doing the 48hr followed but a day of volunteering.

I pushed on forward to 100 miles that took me almost 29 hours, that was a pretty slow 100 for a flat course. I was not done yet but I also knew I was going to slow down and its was probably going to be a tough race. And I was still waiting for things to get better, I pushed on my 100 mile lap, that was fun for a mile but I now I was paying for it with unhappy legs. At least my stomach was good, I was eating well and probably getting fat :)

My legs just didn’t want to move, I started trying all the tricks I knew, but I guess having a base of bad training doesn’t have an easy trick. At least I was moving. It was just so slow. I tried telling my legs to go faster. My walk and run speeds were almost the same, sometimes walking was faster. The second day was just a slog, but fished a little over 60 miles in my second day, now had to do almost the same in my last day, that didn’t give me much time to slow down. I had taken 2 long breaks during the night so maybe my legs would come back.

I decided to try something different, I never really listen to music while running outside because I like to talk to people or enjoy the sounds of nature, hear my surrounding. But my good friend Katelyn Benton singer/songwriter had sent me some of her new songs. I Katelyn is also an ultra runner and I thought if anyone can get me going it would be Katelyn. I got my iphone and made a little playlist of her 5 new songs, starting the “Hey you Rockstar”, that’s about struggling to follow you dreams. It was amazing, off I went like a Rocket, my speed almost doubled, then “Invisible Man” came on a few songs later, this is a more uptempo song of hers, my speed doubled again, I even past the lead runner, ok he was about 50 miles ahead of me, I actually I past almost every runner. I was flying. Thank you Katelyn. If you want to hear Katelyns music please check out her blog at http://www.katelynbenton.com or on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/KatelynBentonMusic

I had was not at around 55 miles, and had be going for 51 hours, and had 13 hours to go 45 miles, I knew it was going to be tough but I wasn’t going to stop until I hit 200 miles or the time ran out, or my legs hurt, but my plan was to keep going as much as possible. Next planned break was at 200 miles and of course there would be a celebration break at midnight.

It was a nice day, my legs were feeling ok and I was still moving. I had music if I needed it but took a break from the music because I wanted to save it in case I really needed it later. The music gave me the runners high I was waiting for, it reminded me that anything is possible as long as you doing give up when it gets tough.

My paces gradually slowed down, but I was still moving ok, as it got closer to midnight my pace increased as I got more excited for the celebration, spending new years with my wonderful ultra running friends it very special. A little before midnight we stopped to pick up a glass of champagne, silly hat and noise maker. At midnight we all walked around the course drinking champagne, wearing silly hats, making noise and having fun. This is why I love ATY, its makes new years very memorable.

Standing around in the cold had led my legs to stiffen up and now I was doing a funny shuffle, but I was already at 188 miles so and had more than 8 hours to go 12 miles. Even with stiff legs I could do that… but there was a surprise in store for me. Each lap my legs became less stiff, the miles were counting down, less than 10 miles, at miles 193 I couldn’t hold back, I knew that feeling it was another runners high. endorphins had flooded my body, every muscle felt loose and fresh, I started to run, I dropped to a 9 min miles, it felt effortless, when before 15 min mile had felt like a sprint, I watched the miles pass. After 5 miles I eased up my pace a little, I wanted to save myself for an all out lap for my 200 mile lap. I walked a lap with my friend Kena Yutz, who had been having a really tough race. Then for my 200 mile lap, I went for it, it was fun ran a sub 8min mile and it felt great. I hit my goal. I could take my break, but I didn’t I kept going, walking now letting more miles past. My longest ATY was 204 miles, so I went to 205 miles then took a break. After an hour I got up for M&M pancakes, this is the best breakfast item after 3 days of running and walking. I saw Carrie and she talked me into doing a few more laps. Off we went and and did 4 laps. My total was 209.961 miles, I’ll call that 210 miles. Previously my longest foot race was 207 miles, so this was the my new PLR (Personal Longest Run)

It was an amazing experience, it was tough due to my lack of good training and running too fast with friends. But ATY is in my view one of the best ways to spend NYE.

The Coury family put on an amazing event, the food was great and I did actually gain weight on this run, probably all those cookies and other goodies I ate. Also a big thank you to all my friend who sent me messages and Katelyn for motivating me with her music.

Please check out Katelyn’s site http://www.katelynbenton.com or on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/KatelynBentonMusic

I’m going to request her to record a special ultrarunning song since she’s doing a Kickstarter campaign to raise funds for her next album. http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1603980128/katelyn-bentons-new-full-length-album