Boulder 100 - Race report, part one

I am writing this report at several thousand feet, having just took off from Denver. This is a good opportunity to bring up my first ‘top tip’ – “Don’t travel within a day of a 100 mile foot race”. It hurts.

I am currently listening to the song that was playing when I crossed the finish line, “Resistance” by Muse – I have loved the band and their music for a long time, but I will never be able to listen to this song again without remembering my first 100 mile finish.

Where to start…….. the beginning I suppose. I landed in Denver on Thursday afternoon, and checked into a hotel near to the airport. As luck would have it, there was a Wal-Mart within a mile. Perfect

Last minute supplies included the ingredients for “Jimbo’s Turkey Slider Burritos”, which was to be my staple food - flour tortillas, grated cheese, sliced turkey and avocado. In hindsight, next time, I will also slap some mayo onto them, they felt a bit dry late in the day.

Friday was spent actually making the burritos, driving to Boulder to find the reservoir, and also meeting with Karl King to pick up some Clip sportsdrink, and hanging out in the pool/hot tub.

I ate minimal solids – carbo loading the day before a run has always caused problems. Other than fruit for breakfast, a Jimbo Turkey Slider Burrito for lunch, my only other source of calories was Boost protein shakes. I had no stomach issues at all during the race, and no need for any sprints to find the Port-a-Potty (or even worse, a tree, because they were pretty sparse.)

Jimbo in the hotel on race day morning

On race day, I got to the start with plenty of time to check in, get my number pinned on my shorts, etc. I set the rental car up as my own personal aid-station, I had a great parking spot, not 50’ from the start/finish line.

The start was uneventful – for the first mile or so, we could several balloons taking off into the beautiful clear blue Colorado sky.

The view from the back

After the fist mile, I was dead last, and I am proud of it! :)

Anyway, rather than do a lap by lap recount, I will do a series of random musings and thoughts…………

The Course

The course is a 7.14 mile out and back. It is kind of like a lollipop with a very long stick. The first part is a loop around the parking lot, then still on asphalt with a slight up hill we head towards the dam. From there the surface was a densely packed gravel – very easy footing, occasionally there were some small rocks packed in with the gravel (they became huge boulders as I stumbled on them from time to time during the night). Just as we would start the dam portion, we would pass one mile.

The dam was in two parts, with some 90 degree turns in between and some small (very small) inclines. The end of the second part of the dam was 2 miles.

The next mile was easy wide trail, with some small gentle rolling hills, which took us to the ‘canal crossing’, which was a narrow bridge.

The gentle hills at about 2.5 miles - looking back toward the start

Near to the canal were signs that would promise “Certain Death” – one was right next to the trail, there seemed to be a delicious irony that we would pass this sign 28 times during the 100 miles.

With each lap, the "Certain Death" seemed to get a little closer :)

After the bridge, the trail became a bit narrower, and the hills seemed a little steeper and longer. By the end of the run, they had become fully fledged foothills of the Rockies. That last half mile or so took us to the half way aid station, where we turned around and followed the trail back to the start.

The longest, steepest climb - it wasn't much, but got steeper each lap

To be continued........
Boulder report part 1
Boulder report part 2
Boulder report part 3

Boulder 100 - quick update

Quick update - I finished the 100 miles in 26:29.

Perfect weather.

PR for 50 miles: 11:26

PR for 24 hours: 91.xx miles

I hurt. A lot.

But very happy - more to follow, including more pictures.

Hello from Colorado!

I made it safely out to Colorado - my baggage made it too, which is always a plus.

The weather looks like it will be perfect on Saturday and Sunday in Boulder. Tha's a relief, especially as this time last week I believe it was snowing. Looking like mid-60's for Saturday, going down to mid-40's on Saturday night/Sunday morning, and low 70's on Sunday. More importantly, it will be dry.

And... what d'ya know, there is a Wal-Mart just a mile or so down the road from the hotel, so I have already got all my supplies in.

So for the 100 miles, I will be feasting on such wonderful delights as:

• Trail mix and Dark Chocolate Peanut M&M's (this has been a staple of every ultra I have done so far)
• Avacado, turkey and cheese wrapped in a flour tortilla - I tried this at Hinson, and it was very palatable, plus provides fat, protein and carbohydrate in just one mouthful.
• Coke and Dr Pepper - to go with the caffiene pills - the wonder drug combo. Although I bought Coke, I tend to lean a little more towards the Dr. Pepper now - it is amazingly refreshing in the middle of the night.
• And finally some Milano cookies and potato chips.
• Plus of course whatever delights they have at the aid stations, and of course the Clip and Amino drinks.

I knew that I would feel better and less nervous once I got into travelling mode, and I really do. There is no more training to be done, just relax, sort out supplies, and then on Saturday, get from Denver to Boulder. That's it. There is nothing I can do now that can change the outcome other than to make sure I have not forgotten anything, and I will be checking and double checking all day tomorrow, and trying to get lots of sleep between now and Saturday morning.

Last evening run by the lake till the Spring

Tonight was probably my last run on a weekday evening on the technical trails around Jordan Lake until the clocks change in the spring. It was getting pretty dark by the time I had finished this evening, I took the above picture at sunset with my phone (hence the crapiness of the photo).

I'll miss the place, the pups and I ran there just about every evening after work when I was in town, I got pretty good at trail running there, and learnt a lot about running on root/rock strewn trails.

Ashley Nordell's Grand Teton report

I just stumbled across the Team Pearl Izumi-Smith blog, and Ashley Nordell's Grand Teton report.

Ashley says some very nice things about the 7 hours or so we spent running around the mountains together for her last 25 mile loop.

The thing I remember most is that last mile once we realized that a sub-23 hr run wasn't going to happen, but the win and course record were virtually certain. "Let's just enjoy it then". That last mile was great, and of course, one of the perks of my 'job' was to be the first person to offer my congratulations to Ashley.

Here's the link: http://piultrarun.com/2009/09/grand-teton-100-report-ashley-nordell/

Note: Edited May 2012 because the link changed

Countdown to Boulder

One week tomorrow, I will be going for a run - sometime around 30 hours later, I will forever be a "hundred miler". Wow.

It was only just over 6 months ago that the journey to this point started. That was when I set out for a run around Umstead State Park. That 50 mile run was life changing. Since then, there have been two 24 hour runs, a 50+K, a marathon in 90+ degree heat and countless training runs, including the 25 mile experience of pacing the women's winner (and new course record holder) at the Grand Teton Races. I also got to volunteer at the finish line of the Tahoe Rim Trail run, and became a life time member of the Mangum Track Club by running the traditional 15 mile route on NC back roads known as the "Shirt Run".

In addition, I have met many new people, and have met new friends - from the front of the pack all the way down, and each and everyone of them have inspired me in their own way. I have read countless blogs and race reports and made friends in the 'virtual' world too, some of these folks I may actually get to meet in the 'real' world one day.

What's my point? Don't know really - I suppose all of this is what has driven me to this point - to be on the verge of being a "100 miler".

So, next week. How do I feel? Well, I think I have used the analogy before - I alternate between being as excited as a 5 year old on Christmas eve, and having the dread of a condemned man the night before his date with the firing squad.

The 10 day forecast in Boulder is not as bad as it was yesterday. It at least looks like it will be dry (although they have had at least one snowfall so far out there). It will also be cold - well cold for me - about 50 degrees colder than it was here today(87F). Don't forget hats and gloves Jimbo! I will be OK in the cold (it will still be a bit of a shock to the system though), but wet and cold is not so great. Fingers crossed!

It's been one hell of a ride so far............

The lessons from Hinson

The official results are in, I managed a total of 81.64 miles. I am very pleased with that.

There were some lessons though:

Don't drink so much. I over salted, and drank too much (Jimbo drinking too much?? Never) - so much that my hands were swollen and my fingers were so swollen that I had to take off my wedding ring. One guy did notice and commented that as long as I was ok in the head, I needn't worry too much about it. I have since learned that "possible mental confusion" is a symptom of too much salt and fluid. Would I have been there in the first place if I wasn't suffering from mental confusion? When I look back, I was drinking the best part of a bottle per lap - that's too much. What I should have done, was stop taking S-caps, and drank only to wet my mouth until I had got back to normal. I wonder if that contributed to the pity party at 22 hours 17 minutes. Something to watch out for at Boulder.

Make sure I have everything with me! I left my charging cradle for my Garmin at home. Not a big deal really, but I am so anal about pace etc., that I decided to go get it - (Jess very kindly met me half-way home with it late on Friday night) - but it still meant not getting bed as early as I had hoped, and certainly stopped me relaxing.

Don't walk around without socks on. Yep - this was really stupid. I was wearing the crocs on Friday night, and a piece of grit was rubbing the top of my big toe. Yep, I got a blister before I had even started. Could this have had something to do with affecting my form, and hence causing additional blisters later on???