OR: 60k the year I turn 60
Where: Cooper Landing to Hope trailheads on the Resurrection Pass trail
About 38 mi, 3500 ft of up plus accompanying down.
When: August 4, 2007
Finally, looong, just like my adventure.😉 But it’s arranged by chapters
with the most relevant stuff to this group first. And, yes, this has
pictures and maps (links are down a little ways).
How did I get interested in wanting to go running for hours through the
woods and above treeline? Shortly after completing my first race (a
winter tri in Dec 2001 that was the only race with a running component
that I could do between field seasons – yes, that was in Alaska at +1F,
but swim leg was in pool), Doug whispered the idea of an ultra in my
ear. I can “blame” him.😉 Seriously, I thank Doug for introducing me to
such fun and challenge. When I started getting into more structured
running, I just wanted to run “a little more” with no real goal other
than stress relief in mind. Sooo, be careful what you whisper in
impressionable kids’ ears.
The ultra options in mainland Alaska are fairly limited, and any summer
races would have to wait until I retired in June 2005. But I needed the
time anyway to build base and get some muscle weaknesses / imbalances at
least partly straightened out. I volunteered at the Resurrection Pass
Trail 50/100 race in 2005 and 2006. The 100 miler starts at the Hope end
at 3pm on Friday and goes to the Cooper Landing end then reverses
direction. 50-milers start at 6am on Saturday, and official finishers
need to be done by 7pm Saturday (13 hrs for 50 milers, 28 hrs for 100
milers). There are aid stations / drop bags where the trail hits the
road (mile 38 for 50 milers; miles 12, 50, 88 for the 100 milers).
http://www.alaska.net/~develice/respass.html
http://www.pbase.com/rnicholl/respass100
After Lost Lake (15.5 mi) went comparatively well last year and at the
Lost Lake raffle I won a free night’s lodging at a luxury lodge near
start of this race. It just seemed like an sign that 2007 was the year
to try Resurrection Pass - at least the trail portion. And that
conveniently was about 60k so it made a nice goal for the year I turned
60. No more putting it off. <gulp> Preparing for it reminded me of my
1st race – the winter tri where I had to spend so much time figuring
gear out for winter biking – and my backpacking days. Even doing 38 mi
was a jump up of about 2.5 times over my next longest “race”, and
there’s no way I was going to be able to do 50 mi in 13 hrs, the cutoff
for the 50 mi race. Over the years, a number of people have opted to
just do the 38 mi of trail and accept a DNF on the 50, which included 12
mi of gravel road beyond the trailhead.
Executive Summary: Somewhat like last year’s Lost Lake, especially the
weather, but succeeded in main goals and a reasonable recovery. I had a
blast. I hadn’t scoped out course ahead of time, so it was truly an
adventure and I sometimes felt like a kid on Christmas morning.
Resurrection Pass Trail background
Resurrection Pass trail is the northern part of the historic route
(Resurrection Trail) miners used to use to get from the port of Seward
on Resurrection Bay to the Hope mining district in the early 1900s.
There’s some interesting mining remnants at the Hope end where the
stream channel has been restored to encourage salmon spawning. The trail
is currently maintained by the USFS and has a series of 8 fee cabins for
people hiking the whole trail, maybe 4-5 day trip. There’s also a number
of designated campgrounds with “bearproof” food containers. It’s
“heavily” used by hikers and mountain bikers, although I think I only
saw about 4 mtn bikers and maybe 15 hikers in my adventure. The Cooper
Landing end of it starts just across the road from the Kenai River /
Russian River confluence, famous for its salmon, combat fishing, and, of
course, bears that like fishing also.
http://www.fs.fed.us/r10/chugach/seward/rec/trails/res_pass_s.htm
http://www.fs.fed.us/r10/chugach/seward/rec/trails/res_pass_n.htm
My Goals
1. Make it to the starting line. - yep
2. Do the 60k of the Resurrection Pass Trail between the two trailheads
– the only road intersections. - yep
3. Have fun. – yep yep
4. Don’t be eaten by real bear. – still here although still wondering
about sounds in brush
5. Don’t be eaten by figurative bear. – reached trailhead without
meltdown, although almost dissolved
6. Consider completing the 50-mi course of the RP race being held the
same day IF I thought I could complete it safely even outside their
cutoff times. - No. I opted to live to run another day rather than
risking overuse injury of hip flexors and other core area stuff where
I’ve had problems before. I may run slow and seem mentally slow
sometimes, but I do tend to learn and be conservative.
Picture, maps, clippings
http://home.att.net/%7Eakrunning/RP2007Maps/index.html (maps, satellite
images, profiles, etc)
http://home.att.net/%7Eakrunning/ResPass2007/index.html (pics this year)
http://www.adn.com/sports/story/9198149p-9114556c.html (this year)
http://www.pbase.com/rnicholl/respass100 (pics in sun a few years ago)
http://akrunning.blogspot.com/ (This guy set new course record. See his
Aug 5 entry, in particular read is comment about weather in pass. Very
similar to my Lost Lake experience last year.)
Mental perspective
When you look at a satellite image or map (see map link above) of the
Resurrection Pass National Recreation Trail, it’s an awesome run up one
river valley over a pass and down another. Classic. A route just begging
to be run / hiked / crawled by someone who wanted to run / hike for many
hours through the woods and above tree line. Lack of roads also means,
there’s no aid stations, no safety patrol, no sag wagons. You’re
dependent on yourself to get to the next trailhead. If we’d had a
convenient 50k or even 50mi on 10-mi loops, I would have used something
like that as an introduction to longer distances. But that wasn’t an
option other than as training runs. So this was a huge leap for me – not
just in distance but logistics since I’d have to treat water along the
way and carry more gear than normal. A new challenge.
I planned things conservatively – a reasonable compromise between what’s
likely to happen and trying to keep gear light. One guideline I really
like when developing strategies is that presented by the RD of the
Iditarod Trail Invitational (a member of one of my trail clubs): if you
have any doubt as to your ability to keep moving, drinking, and eating,
take more gear. Running low on calories can get you in a real downward
spiral with hypothermia.
The Adventure
Weather had been forecast to be rainy, and the clouds moving in could be
clearly seen on radar for the previous couple days. The night before the
clouds were building ominously, but the morning was dry and overcast. I
had cold vegetarian pizza the night before and for breakfast, which
worked really well (tested in training). Pre-race briefing was about
5:55am (Fig. 1) when Jeff Bannish let us know that he had marked the
critical turns for us last night when he came through with the 100
milers. Thanks, Jeff. We at least got started on dry trails. This was
actually significant in the 3 course records set since the 100 milers
had started the day before – cool, dry conditions - and the 50-mile
winner was finishing about the time the weather deteriorated, about when
I hit the pass.
First part of trail had been brushed in the last couple days, which was
nice since vegetation had been pretty aggressive on many trails this
summer. Hmmm, this brushed area didn’t last that long. This could be a
long day running / hiking alone in tall veggies. Between pack weight, 4
mi climb (but only 800 ft), and early hour of the day, I had planned on
hiking the first hill. I was actually able to run more of it than I
thought. (Most of my local hills are in the 20-30% range, then 10% when
I start doing the gravel roads during breakup. So I had worked more on
hiking the hills with pack than actually running them. I’ll change this
next year.)
Then comes *first* bear scat pile, but pretty small. Less than 30 sec
later, I hear something big in brush. Gee, what’s that spike on hrm that
I noticed later. Reached for bear spray and took safety off, but never
saw what made noise – but I was looking behind me for awhile and not
giving impression of running away. I saw several larger piles in the
pass (vegetarian bears), but never any prints.
I proceeded onward and eventually heard Juneau falls in the canyon
below. Shortly after that I come to bridge crossing – about 10 min
before my time estimate. Filled 32oz water bottle, added iodine, and was
on my way. After the falls, it’s flat, with just enough texture to keep
from repetitiveness. The trail is also wider in through here (Fig. 3),
I’ve relaxed a little more regarding bears, and there’s some more
scenery. This is like really cool fun, more so than I thought it would be.
I hit the three cabins (Trout Lake then Romig and Juneau Lake) (Fig. 4)
just about right on schedule (see splits at end), then stopped at far
end of Juneau Lake for water swap as planned. By this time the clouds
are spitting and the wind is picking up a little bit, so I also put on
my Chinook shell – windproof, not breathable, water resistant, but it’s
so light that it dries out pretty quickly if the rain stops.
I proceeded onward run / walking toward Swan Lake and scenery started
getting more interesting with some interesting rock deposits (Fig. 6).
Arrived at the turn to head up to Devil’s Pass and started climbing
again (Fig. 7-9). I had been warned about robust veggies in here and
eventually reached the tall stuff. You could see there should be
scenery, but the veggies were just tall enough to prevent a good view.
Occasionally there would be a break. Then I could see Swan Lake tucked
in its valley (7) and eventually got high enough to see Juneau Lake (8)
and the wetlands above it.
Eventually the climb tapered out (maybe 1000ft in 4mi), and the veggies
got smaller and the scenery opened up. Very definitely having lots of
fun now since I really love alpine areas, although prefer them a little
higher with the real short vegetation – the stuff that’s too short for
bears to hide behind. It was kinda like Christmas morning with lots of
neat views as I got in the pass area.
The light rain was reminding me somewhat of Lost Lake last year. Then
the wind picked up a little and the rain increased a bit. Hmm, this is
just like Lost Lake last year. Legs start getting a little cold. How far
to trees? Too far. This was the mistake I made last year when my legs
got cold and lost agility. Time to put rain gear on – the water proof,
nonbreathable stuff with vents and hood. And a robust resin birch shrub
appeared on the windward side of the trail just about then. Perfect
place to drop pack and put rain gear on. I was still a little chilly
after getting stuff on so pulled up the hood for about 10 min. Worked
great. Anyway, I kinda laughed at the weather, enjoyed the scenery, was
thankful I had brought the good rain gear and worn the drainable shoes
that had performed so admirably at Lost Lake last year. Also in weather
like this, I think my body absorbs moisture from the air, as I was
definitely peeing out more than I drank. This is the weather when I know
my needs are less than 10oz/hr. This means fewer water stops. However,
increased pee breaks took about the same time the water stops would have
taken – and longer when everything started getting sticky wet later.
I passed a group of about half a dozen kids (maybe boy scouts and
leaders) who were backpacking. I think I was definitely having more fun
than what some of the kids looked like. I was walking at the time I
passed them, but one of the adults asked if I was one of the 100-mi
runners. No, I assured her I was only a pseudo-38-mile runner/hiker, but
I thought it was curious that she thought I was a runner and not a
hiker. It occurred to me later after seeing all the hikers with large
external frame packs and I only had a light day pack about 19 miles from
either trail head, that that must have been a give away – certainly
wasn’t my speed.
I passed Devil’s Cabin (Fig.13-14) and proceeded toward Resurrection
Pass, reaching it just about right on schedule for individual splits. I
started the gentle downhill, knowing that soon I’d be out of my beloved
alpine surroundings. The downhill is fairly gentle high above
Resurrection Creek. When streams come in from the right side, the trail
contours around them and drops downhill more steeply (maybe 10%) into
those incised valleys for the crossings and comes back up again. Of
course with the extra pee breaks I was needing, the rain, the downhill,
and the roaring side streams, lets just say we needed lots of extra pee
breaks. Some days are like that. I think the rain pants slightly
sticking to knees may have altered my gait a little so the downhills
were not graceful. Of course wearing CW-X shorts didn’t help matters
with the pee breaks and rain, but we rarely have weather warm enough for
cold-blooded me to wear loose shorts. I did discover that power hiking
plus some peeing was faster than running / hiking plus lots more peeing.
And I think every experienced ultra runner has suggested practicing
walking - either for the hills or tired legs at end, although they never
mentioned avoiding extra pee breaks.😉
Surprisingly, up to the last cabin (about 30 miles; 7 miles beyond my
longest run), I was able to maintain very close to my estimated splits.
Then the last 7.5 miles were hiked only (pee considerations) and that
was slower than anticipated (24). Arrived at 38-mi trailhead at 12:48:12
just before the cutoff time for the 50/100 miles. I accomplished what I
wanted, but it's a DNF at 50 mi. At one time, I had considered
continuing unofficially on the road portion, but given the hour, the
weather, the forecast weather, and a number of signals my body had been
sending me for the last couple hours, I decided to end the day on a
pleasant note, drive home in light traffic, get a hot shower, sleep in
my warm bed, and have a reasonably quick recovery. (The alternative was
continuing on another 4-5 hrs at the rate I was going on non-scenic
gravel roads and sleeping in my car, possibly risking overuse injury and
a much longer recovery.) Summer is short. Quick recovery means I could
still do more running this summer vs spending it recovering. I
accomplished my primary goal and opted to live to run another day.
One of the volunteers was still waiting at the trailhead for me,
apparently not realizing that I had my car shuttled to the trailhead
rather than the finish line - expecting to take about 12.5-13 hrs. We
drove to the finish line, and there was still some bar-b-que beef
sandwiches which went down well. Thanks to RD’s Pat Munz and Pam Richter
for putting on a wonderful race again and to Jeff Bannish for marking
the significant intersections when he came through with the 100-mi
runners the night before. They did say this was probably the worst
weather they’ve ever had for the race. I told them that’s because I’m
here. Last year Lost Lake had their first rainy race in 15 yrs – the
year I did it. People aren’t going to want me in their races at this rate.
What would I do differently in the race: Take more pictures of trail
conditions – excellent illustrations of benefits if you outslope a trail
vs having it incised.
I’ve also wondered if using Vaseline on legs (1) might have facilitated
getting shorts up when wet or (2) helped with the stickiness of the rain
pants on knees.
What would I do differently before the race that could be done
differently: Train running downhill in full raingear with wet legs and
pack on wet trail.😉 Hazards of short summer season and not having much
rain in early part.😉 Obviously with more time, I could have built a
larger base, more long runs, more intensity, etc, but given my recovery
rates, where I was, my knowledge or lack thereof of the course, etc, I
don’t think I could have built much more this year safely. At 60, if you
go over the injury line, it takes much longer to heal. And considering 5
yrs ago, my GP suggested I give up running because of my Achilles issues
and 4 yrs ago I overdid some stuff with hip flexors that took 1-2 yr to
recover from, I was happy with setting an achievable goal, but one that
I had to work harder than normal for. I was definitely challenging my
body this year.
Going forward, I would probably do some things differently, but exactly
what will depend on snow and breakup conditions.
Training
(I’m including the Training and Schedule sections just cuz it’s come up
here in discussions and I know some others are heading that direction)
This pretty much followed my past approach: go with the flow. I
periodize based on seasons (weather, not racing) and transition from
general (Oct-Dec) to specific (Apr-Jun). I do the best I can with snow
conditions and see what comes out the end in May-June (breakup may close
some trails from mid April to mid to late May). By general, I mean I’ll
do my xt class early in base and may xc ski for one of my runs or in
addition to runs up through January. But by March I’m not likely to ski
rather than run as I try to become more specific.
Most of the running year, starting last November, I ran (or did
“something”) 2 on / 1 off with some minor variations. Sometimes it was
run, sometimes my xt class, sometimes xc skiing. This increased
frequency gave me some flexibility to avoid the worst weather (no -20F
or 70mph winds on long runs, but did some in the 0-10F range or 40mph
winds) or dealing with slower recovery than expected. If I couldn’t hit
a workout on the 1st of the two runs, I’d just do it easy, then come
back the next day with something a little harder – or whatever worked –
or maybe not until the next pair of running days. Or I might do 3 in a
row, off, single day. While it did provide flexibility through much of
the winter, I found I was usually struggling with recovery and wondering
if I was sacrificing quality or quantity for frequency. But I figured at
some point, I would probably adapt to it. I think I was finally starting
to adapt just before taper, but still felt like I was juggling things to
accommodate the frequency.
Schedule
In an earlier thread about long runs, Doug and TrailRunner seemed to
agree that a few runs in the 7-8 hr range were what I should build my
long runs up to – and those runs spread over a few months. And that
advice was right on – I just wasn’t able to quite get to that level.
Typically the longest long run is about 5 wks before race and last long
run 3 wks out. Counting back from Aug 4, that makes June 30, the longest
long run. I’ve found the gravel roads in the Hatcher Pass area form the
best gradients to mimic the race course – long, gentle climbs (<5%).
They were plowing snow from one of my roads on June 12. duh. Exactly one
of my long runs was run in weather warm enough for shorts, and I was in
snow at least part of my runs up until the one 3 wks out. Specificity is
an issue.
Count back 3 months from this for the 3 longest runs = early April. We
usually are either at end of snow at lower elevations or into breakup.
Obviously, the mountains (with my more gentle slopes of gravel roads)
are still covered later. That leaves Oct to Jan to start rebuilding and
Jan-Mar for serious building to the long runs. That means the bulk of
base building is on snow. Trails in the mountains usually aren’t
available (past breakup) until late June / early July, which is
basically in the 5 weeks after longest run. I have yet to see any
schedule that can accommodate these conditions.
I liked Trailrunner’s approach of the 4-hr back-to-back runs since that
meant I didn’t need to worry about long runs and frozen water for more
than 4 hr in Feb. His suggestion was to do long runs every 2 wks,
alternating the single long run (7-8 hrs) with b2b (4hr/4hr with the 2nd
day being walking, with running if the body allowed). Because of the
soft snow and colder than normal temperatures earlier in winter, I
hadn’t made much progress on the long runs until middle of February –
after a weather meltdown and sudden packing of the loose snow. I worked
on building from 4hr / 2 hr to approaching 5hr/3hr then when I had
snow-free terrain on gravel roads in mid-April, I started just expanding
the long run, since I felt that had the biggest payback for me. With
b2b, DOMS was more of an issue than energy depletion – at least for me
and the intensity at which I could do them. My weakness seemed to be
more along the lines of keeping the body working continuously, since hip
flexors still had some problems after many hours. While the b2b could be
done more intensely (theoretically), I found that to work on my
weaknesses and start dealing with gear issues (hard to train with summer
gear in the snow), it seemed better to just focus on the one long run.
Because of getting gear together, driving to trail head, etc, it seemed
a better use of training time. I was only able to get 2 of the 7-8 hr
runs in, and usually I do much better on the 3rd of whatever. Oh, well.
I did have 3 in the 6-6.5 hr range.
Because of the lack of specificity on snow and during breakup, I just
tried to get my long run in every 2 wks. Then when I had terra firma to
train on, I moved it out to 2.5 wks. That provided the opportunity to do
some more quality workouts between the long runs, including intermediate
length run of 3ish hours with pack. All long runs were done with a pack,
and the last 3 of the longest runs were all done with pack setup close
to what I’d use, including the dual bladder and water swapping setup.
The experiments to get something that worked for me were amusing to say
the least as I sometimes got tangled in tubes or straps. This is why we
do long runs.
I do recognize the value of the alternating b2b and single long run that
Trailrunner suggested. I just couldn’t pull it off. And even in the
future, I may be better following a pattern like this year (b2b on snow
in freezing temperatures, then single long run when on dirt / gravel),
since it meshes with the weather and trail conditions better. I’d
definitely consider some single runs with pack in the 3-4 hr range,
which I only had one of this year.
Here’s my long runs in approximate hours:
2/17 4:01 + 2:19 hike next day
3/03 4:25 + 1:44 hike next day
3/15 4:43 gusts to 40mph + 3:21 hike next day in a less windy place
3/30 2:53 snowshoe “long” run/hike + 1:51 hike next day
4/12 3:11 run + 2:01 hike=5:10 1st non-snow run, gravel road, starting
big hills (1000+ft)
4/25 5:54 big hills
5/12 4:27 long run/hike after 1:42 race = 6 hrs total
5/27 6:29 flattish (couldn’t get to hill I wanted)
6/12 7:24 big hills
6/23 3:14 intermediate length with a little more vigor
6/28 7:44 longest long run, big hills
7/12 4:08 last long run
8/04 12:48 adventure
I did struggle with the longest runs, but some of that resulted from
running uphill with heavier pack than normal. I seriously questioned
whether I had bitten off too much for this year, but Doug politely
ignored the question, which I took as a response to just keep plugging
and I’d adapt if I did it enough times. FWIW, DOMS after a couple of my
long runs was much more severe than after my actual adventure. Duh.
Maybe that’s why we do these things.
General volume (run, power hike) averaged about 6-8 hr in non-long run
weeks, 11-12 hr in long-run weeks. On a 4-wk basis for the 12 wks prior
to taper, I averaged about 37-38 hr, 120 miles, 11,000 ft. (9.5 hr, 30
mi, 2750ft). Since I usually use something like 2-2.5 wks for
microcycle, weekly totals don’t have much meaning as you can see from
the variation.
Landscape Unit pacing: Charlie kids me about my pacing, so you’re going
to have to endure a split table, Dot style.😉 I run by effort and am
truly clueless about what pace (min/mi) I’m running while I’m actually
running it. But I was able to simulate enough landscape units of the
race (e.g. 4.5 mi, 1000ft climb or flat or whatever), that I used them
as approximate guesstimates of when I thought I’d get to certain
landmarks. This was primarily for guidelines and fluid/fuel strategies –
and also to keep myself moving if I was taking too many pictures. 😉
I did most of my long runs on gravel roads (some old mining roads,
washed out in places, as well as regular gravel roads). I recognized the
trail conditions would be different (single track, maybe overgrown, but
probably smoother footing), but I was hoping the differences would be a
wash. I do take pictures on my long runs also, so there was no reason to
suspect much different pace during race. Since the trail has 8 cabins
spaced along it, I used them as well-defined landmarks. I know they say
to just relax and enjoy your race / adventure, but knowing how slow I
am, I felt some goal estimates within the race would encourage me to
keep moving if I was slow (like stop taking so many pictures) or keep me
from panicking if I was keeping up with them (ok to take advantage of
some photo ops). I also needed time estimates to get an approximate idea
on hydrating and fueling. I ended up hitting my estimates within a
minute or two at all the cabins or other landmarks except the final
parking lot, and I think my goal there had been too aggressive, plus
that’s the last section where I was slowed by the peeing and sticky
shorts cuz the rain had everything so wet by then. I think my body was
absorbing the rain rather than sweating. The distances come from a trail
guide book. The trail has a cutoff that’s more direct between Swan Lake
and Devil’s Pass, so those two actual splits don’t actually correspond
to the planned route, but, hey, I took the time savings.😉
Goal Goal Actual Actual
Mi Mi Hrs Hrs Elapsed Split
Strt Splt Strt Splt
Juneau Creek Falls * 4.0 4.0 1.5 1.5 01:18:18 1.30
Bean CreekTrail Jcn 4.5 0.5 1.6 0.1 01:27:44 0.15
Trout Lake Cabin 7.3 2.8 2.3 0.7 02:09:59 0.70
Romig Cabin, Juneau Lk 8.8 1.5 2.8 0.5 02:39:59 0.50
Juneau Lake Cabin * 9.3 0.5 3.0 0.2 02:48:12 0.14
Swan Lake Cabin 13.0 3.8 4.5 1.5 03:48:58 1.00
Devils Pass Cabin 16.8 3.8 6.0 1.5 05:32:16 1.72
Resurrection Pass 18.5 1.8 6.7 0.7 06:14:55 0.71
East Creek Cabin 23.3 4.8 8.1 1.4 07:35:54 1.35
Fox Creek Cabin 26.3 3.0 9.0 0.9 08:33:21 0.96
Caribou Creek Cabin 31.3 5.0 10.3 1.3 09:53:47 1.34
Hope trail head 38.5 7.3 12.5 2.2 12:48:12 2.91
Fluid / electrolyte / fuel strategy: I made up baggies of sports drink
4:1 Clip2:Ultra + vitamin C (negate iodine) for 32 oz servings ahead of
time so all I had to do was dump one baggie plus treated water in
bladder, bleed air, and stick in back in pack. I’ve also liked SlimFast
for a non-fruity taste, and a more basic drink – heck, I like chocolate
milkshakes.
I started with 45oz of Clip/Ultra in the one bladder (mixed night
before), 22 oz of chocolate Slimfast in the other (frozen in the bladder
a couple days before and kept in cooler), and empty 32-oz scooper /
iodine treating bottle. At 1.3 hr in at top of first climb, I filled the
32-oz bottle and added iodine. The plan was about every 2 hr after that
to have a pit stop where I added the powdered mix to the bladder
followed by the treated water, then refill the 32-oz bottle and get the
next batch of iodine going. However, because of the weather and all the
peeing (certainly not planned), I only did a complete water stop once –
and that 2lb of treated water was carried for almost 10 hrs unused
(about hr 3 to hr 12.8). And I only used about 8 oz of Slimfast,
although I wonder if that might have stayed in better than the sports drink.
Here’s a table of amounts of what I used (or at least what I
remembered). Somebody here has to balance Dan’s sweat rate.😉 This is
for about 13 hrs of running/hiking.
Servings cal carb g Na mg K mg
3 wheat thins 390 60 750 0
1 Clif bar 250 44 110 220
4 Clif shot bloks 400 96 280 80
2 Raisinets 400 66 30 0
2 Succeed caps 0 0 682 42
3 Sports drink 450 105 528 44
0.7 Slimfast 160 29 160 436
Total 2050 400 2540 822
Per hour 158 31 195 63
68 oz fluids used
5.2 oz/hr fluids
Wheat thins almost always tasted salty.
Shoes: Brooks Trespass since they proved last year that they drain well
in the rain. I did test their Adrenaline ASR in the rain one day before
the race, and they absorbed so much water, they weren’t an option. (I
still have one more unused pair of Trespasses that were discontinued
several years ago.)
Gear: Gregory Iso pack worked really well for me. It has space for two
bladders – 1 for sports drink, 1 for Slimfast. My camera (Canon S410)
went in left belt pouch, and some food, like Clif bar and shot bloks in
the other. I used a Golite Team Pouch and CamelBak CommPak shoulder
strap pocket for more food. Between all the pockets, I could carry food
for about 3-hr (as it turned out almost 13 hrs) without having to remove
pack. So the plan was to stop about every 2-3 hrs, do the fluid swaps,
grab packet of food or anything else from pack then continue on another
couple hours. I had the swaps down to about 5-6 min (early attempts were
comical at about 10 min and getting tangled with tubes and straps).
Bears: Yea, I took bear spray with me, but depended on me making noise.
This is why you use the talk test when running. 😉
I really had a lot of fun and looking forward to next year when,
hopefully, I'll be better prepared. Having been on the course once, I'll
have a better idea how to train.
Dot
--
"Success is different things to different people"
-Bernd Heinrich in Racing the Antelope