47 is 47 and 12 Hour Run Part 2

So we were up early to head to the start line for the 8:00 AM start. The weather was going to be a good running temperature especially for something of this magnitude and it was supposed to be dry, no rain. Like i mentioned before, i originally had high hopes for this race. And i'm not an excuse maker, but training had hit a couple of snags about 1 month and a half out. I had an infection that caused me to do nothing at all for 10 days on top of a lot of work building up with plenty of traveling for it as well. Anyways, here goes the details...

Hour 1 went well, i finished 7 miles and was working the "Get out to an early start" strategy. I quickly learned on the first loop that this course was a set of 4 small hills rather than the flat square block that i had envisioned in my head. Being from NW Indiana that lacks a lot of serious hills, running these hills over and over again was not what i had really trained for...again though no excuses (it was nice to hear the founder of the race running his 31st version admitted that the course was tough).

Hour 2 went along just fine with 6.5 miles being completed. But something wasnt right and I could already feel the emotional roller coaster starting inside my head. Temperature was good, i decided to take a 10-15 minute break to be proactive against the physical and mental issues. I've learned from previous events that it isn't a smart strategy for me to just pound through these phases; this time i was going to try to what i call "recover through" the issues.

Hour 3-7 were rough and i averaged about 3-4 miles per hour. It was definitely up and down. Jessica started running with me and did about 10 miles over this span of time. I was definitely dealing with the strugles and getting through them. I'm not sure what the real problem was but it could've just not been my day. I ate some McDonalds and ate some pizza too. I was taking in plenty of water, gatorade/endurox, gel packs...anything to put calories in to help with energy levels.

Hour 8-10 went a little better as i was back on the high of the roller coaster; energy levels were definitely up a little bit. Jessica ran another 7 miles or so over this time; she was an animal and did 21 miles total on the day with me (8, 8, and 5). Which means that i'll be getting her into a half marathon soon and more after that, i know she likes it and can handle it.

Hour 11-12 were ok as i was now feeling the physical more than anything in my legs. Some cramping had set in within my calves and hamstrings. Darkness had set in a little and my feet were hurting a little now too.

So, in the end i did 47 miles. I've definitely had better overall results in some of my other ultras (my 50 mile road PR is 8:56, so i'm capable of being faster), but sometimes the value of the adventure is found in the journey itself rather than at the end. I learned some valuable race strategy lessons and had a great time with my family crew. I got to meet a bunch of new people, made new friends, and have tons of memories from this little weekend adventure in Eastern Ohio.

I know i talked about a self experiment and measuring a bunch of variables over the race, but during packing and planning, i forgot a bunch of those items. Looking back, it would've just been annoying with how the race was going. Maybe some other time, some other event.

So there was a connection between the mileage covered and the amount of money raised for the charity. I ran 47 miles. I raised $1,235 dollars (12 + 35 = 47). I know it's coincidental and sort of a result of statistical tweaking, but who cares. It still is cool and sometimes cool is just cool.

Later.

Go Run.