After a pair of 20 milers @ Clinton, I ran 25 miles at Darien in 3:08. I ran the first 10 miles with Kelly at about 8:15 pace, but ran the final 15 by myself around 7:00 pace. Near the end, I got a few under 7:00, including one at 6:40 and another couple sub-6:50. It was this run that had me feeling quite confident about Clinton.
The week before the race, I ran one loop of the course in 1:13:50, a personal record for myself and a time that had me considering going after the course record the following week. I definitely had self doubts as last year’s winner and course record holder, Logan Martin, was returning and appeared to be primed for another win. Also in the race were Joel Lammers (winner of countless 50k’s and 50 milers), Matthew Condron (Illinois Ultra Grand Slam Winner), and Christine Crawford (course record holder for the women). Also, Patrick Berger, the winner of the fall Chicago Lakefront 50K run was there so I assumed that the pace would be fast from the get-go. This was encouraging because it meant that I would have somebody to run with, but at the same time, I knew that there would be a fast pace from the start and that we would have to run the hills hard to finish well.
Kelly and I drove to the race, arriving around 7:00 am. Sam, Nonno, and Nonna also were coming to watch and pulled up about 10 minutes before race start. I felt incredibly spoiled because I never get a crowd for these races and now I had 4 present with Mom and Dad on the way. I was especially motivated to run well for Sam as he is a young soccer player that is interested in running. I hope that one day he will run long distances himself as I consider him to have plenty of motivation and talent for him to do well.
In the meanwhile, I joked around with Kelly near the start, warmed up, and tried to get comfortable before the start. The RD made a few final announcements and pointed out Logan Martin (who appeared very confident and looked very strong) along with Christine Crawford (whose resume is pretty intimidating by itself), who were last year’s champions and current course record holders. After a final countdown, the gun went off and us runners were on our way.
Immediately, Logan shot to the front, followed closely by another runner that I did not recognize. Both of these two were moving pretty fast so I decided to follow them closely. We took a left out of the parking lot and started straight up a steep uphill that was on the road for about 200 meters. From there, we hopped onto the single track trail. Entering the course, Logan led with the 2nd place guy just behind him. I was about 10 yards or so behind the 2nd place guy and when I checked to see who all was behind us, I noticed that we had already created a considerable gap on the rest of the pack. It was a bit intimidating, especially knowing that there were at least 4 very good runners that had either beaten me by considerable margins in the past or I had not raced against before, but had some very respectable races to their resume.
As we got into the woods, Logan quickly moved out of sight while I managed to keep an eye on the 2nd place runner. As we reached the 3rd mile, I started making up some of the distance he had originally put on me and passed him soon afterwards. Meanwhile, I noticed Patrick Berger lurking behind us in the woods and I expected him to make a move on us very soon.
However, I was feeling incredible by now and had no problem running these familiar hills. I didn’t really stop to walk any of these hills and although this frightened me, I moved up them with such ease that I did not think that running these sections would come back to haunt me. Also, it felt good to already be in second place and to be closing in on the former course record holder.
As I was coming into the first aid station at mile 5.5, I was “welcomed” by Logan’s sister, who strongly encouraged me to slow down. I laughed at her and told her that I would do my best to take it easy out there. I scooted down a steep downhill where Sam and Kelly were waiting for me at the bottom. I shot a quick joke at them, but did not stop. I grabbed a BOOST from Kelly and drank a couple sips before getting rid of it and grabbing my water bottle. I also took this time to rip off my shirt as I had forgotten to take 2 of them off before the race start! Off course, absent-mindedness plays its role once again. I felt really good at this point and glanced ahead, noticing Logan heading back into the woods, figuring he could not be more than 40 seconds ahead of me. Knowing that he was so close, I once again took off after him.
The guy I had just passed appeared to not be as beat as I figured and he caught up with me soon afterwards. We did not talk much, but I learned that his name was Mike Christensen and that he was relatively new to ultras. He was actually doing the run to train for a sub 3-hour Boston, which was coming up in 3 weeks. He was training for the hills and figured that Clinton would be suitable. I have never run Boston, but can only imagine that Clinton’s single track trails were a tad bit steeper than those on the roads of Boston.
At mile 7, the course crosses a field where you can see a little less than a quarter mile ahead of you. We spotted Logan scampering across the field maybe a minute ahead of us. Again, this was very motivating because I assumed that by working together the two of us would have little difficulty making up this ground. We kept at it even as we lost sight of him as the course turned into the woods. Soon after we pulled into the end of the first loop, and came out of the woods. Just as we popped out, we saw Logan leaving the parking lot, probably about 1:30 in front of us. Mom and Dad were here now and it was motivating to see them. I was in high spirits and joked around with them for a little bit. I also heard Logan’s sister telling us to slow down, now with even more intensity. I joked around with her for a second, but stayed in stride. Mike took it easy at the aid station, re-gathered himself and took off after me. I grabbed a BOOST from Kelly, but only took a couple more sips, giving me a total of about half a BOOST in me. I left with a gel and took off up the hill to start loop #2. We finished the first round in 1:15, only a minute off my PR for ONE loop on the course. This had me a bit worried, but my legs were still feeling good enough for me to keep going. I felt exactly as I had hoped to at this point and my pace proved it. I felt some warning signs at mile 12 and 13, but I honestly was not concerned. It was so minor that it was not worth slowing for.
I pulled into mile 15 still moving quite fast. I still felt great and although we could no longer see Logan, his sister was right by the entrance to the next part of the trail so I knew that he was still close. She was still giving me a hard time, which further enforced the notion that he could not be far ahead. I don’t even remember if I even drank a BOOST at this point, I’m really not sure what I was thinking, but somehow forgot how much I needed to consume while on this course. During my training runs that were just 2 loops instead of 3, I would take a full BOOST and some gels after EACH loop. By now, I had barely consumed one full BOOST and because this was a race, I was obviously expending more energy now.
Whatever gotta catch Logan. That’s all I’m thinking. Mike and I are talking less and now I’m walking a few more of the hills. Still moving at decent pace, but I could feel it slowing just a bit. Around 17 ½ miles, I told Mike to take over the front. I had been in front of him since mile 3 and was a little frustrated with myself for having him hang behind me the entire time. Of course, I can’t blame him, I wanted to lead, but its frustrating to think just how much of a difference something like that could have made. Of course, Logan was out front all by himself, but by now I knew that he was the better runner and that I would need to run with somebody else to at least keep him close.
I kept Mike fairly close for the remainder of the loop, but his 10 yard gap quickly became 15, 20, 30, and eventually 50 yards as we came into 20 miles. I figured that I would gut it out, but told myself that I needed to regroup if I was going to finish respectably. I hadn’t quite given up on a strong finish, but I walked a considerable amount around the aid station. For some reason, I hardly took any food again and tried to move quickly on to the next lap. I had some pop, but that will only do so much. Sam and Dad were waiting at the top of the first hill, but I was hurting so I didn’t say much and honestly couldn’t really hear what they were saying at this point anyways. I had run the 2nd loop in 1:20, only 5 minutes slower than the first loop. I was at 2:35 at this point and still figured that I had a shot at the course record, whether or not that meant beating the current race leader. 4 hours was a lofty goal, but I thought I could still do it. Plus, I had to have been a decent ways ahead of the next runner. At the top of the hill, you can pretty much see a half mile back and despite my slow pace, there was nobody close to me.
Once I got into the woods for the final time, I started to really fall apart. I almost considered going back to get food, but I was already a half mile into the course. I walked up a hill, got to the top and just fell down. I pretty much collapsed. I sputtered around for a bit and got in a bit of a haze. I was low on fuel and knew it. I wanted to just stay on the ground, but I knew that was not a viable option. After resting for about a minute or two, I regrouped and started running a bit slower down the trail. I was very tired and was obviously hitting the wall pretty hard. After lollygagging for a couple miles, Matt Condron passed me at about mile 23. I was still struggling considerably and was actually quite surprised that it took so long for him to catch me. But he showed no signs of weakness and I lost sight of him just a few minutes later. I had to take a knee for a second just to regroup. The hills were killing me and I was barely making it up them this time. I figured that I would be mentally strong enough to hang on, but my fuel tank was just too low at this point for me to get anything going. I had a gel but that wasn’t enough.
I could do little else but walk the uphills, while jogging the straight sections, and surviving the downhills—which were becoming increasingly difficult. At mile 24, another runner passed me. He was certainly running strong, but a mile later he was walking on the trail. As I passed him, he told me that his IT band was toast and that it was the end of the race for him. I struggled into the aid station barely moving down the hill. Sam, Kelly, Nonno, Nonna, and my parents were waiting at the bottom and as soon as I got there I started stumbling a bit and my vision got blurry. I honestly thought I was going to collapse again, but I leaned onto Kelly to keep me stable. Of course this was the worst possible time for this to happen to me. Mom was not too excited and immediately urged me to drop out.
I got into the aid station, where the volunteers were very supportive and offered to help in every possible way. I had to sit for a minute to wait for my thinking to clear up before I responded to them. When I did talk, it was a little slow and probably a bit slurred. One volunteer asked me if I wanted some type of sandwich, but said it would take 5 minutes to make and I really did not have that time. In a very worried/bewildered/slightly comical (at least for me) tone, she asked me if I had ever run this far before. I started laughing and explained to her that I had run 100 miles before so I think that this I had the basic experience.
I ate an entire peanut butter and jelly sandwich along with some other random candies. After about a minute, I started feeling considerably better. I saw Joel Lammers come in and pass me while I was sitting. Just as I was finishing my food, Christine Crawford was pulling into the aid station. I knew she was going to pass me, but wanted to at least have her push me a bit so that the last 4.5 miles were not at a complete walk. Plus, with the food I felt so much better than before and was able to start running again. Christine passed me about a quarter mile after the aid station.
Despite how I was feeling at mile 25.5, my condition was improving. I was running slowly, but at least I was running again. And luckily I knew the course because it made the past couple miles go by faster. I came in through the field around mile 27 just ready to finish. With about 2 miles left, another runner came behind and passed me. I tried to keep up, but was not quite as fast at this point. He slowly pulled ahead of me, but I did what I could to keep him in sight. At a mile left, I saw Sam waiting for me on the trail. I had always hoped that he would finish this race with me, obviously in much better condition, but it was nice that he was there anyways. I did what I could to run up the remaining hills and finally reached the downhill leading back to the parking lot. The fam & Kelly were there waiting for me and it was nice to see them. I mentioned to Kelly that I was so ready for post-race Olive Garden. I jogged across the finish line in 4 hours and 36 minutes.
Overall, I was a bit disappointed as I ran my slowest lap ever at Clinton over the last 10 miles. I suppose that I gave it a shot, but my mind was in all the wrong places and was unable to focus on important things such as nutrition and minor pacing issues. Looking back on the race, I believe I would have done much better had I consumed many more calories and hydrated a bit better. Also, I should have taken it a tad easier during the aid stations to allow my body a brief rest before going out and chasing the eventual course record holder. Blah blah blah blah. Wow, that was boring. Just had to throw that out there. I guess its best to write about my mistakes now so that I learn from them in the future.
Going into the race, I wanted to see if I could break 4 hours, 2nd goal being sub-4:05. Now I know for certain that sub 4 is possible (barely), but I will have to be smarter if I give it another try.
Another pre-race goal (although I was not banking on it) was to win. This was pretty foolish looking back on it and I now realize that Logan was not going to be beaten. Great job to him for setting the record (again) and to Christine for her run.
Me and Kelly post-race @ the Olive Garden!
Race results @ http://www.secondwindrunningclub.org/RaceResults/2009/Clinton09.htm
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