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| Cruising to the finish, bit of a melting clown face. |
In
mildly adverse conditions on Saturday, I raced my way to second place at the
51st JFK 50 Mile—the oldest and largest ultramarathon in the country. My time of 5:44:37 was the sixth fastest in
race history, and until David Riddle’s 2011 record run, it would have been the
course record. That goes to show how
quickly the sport of ultrarunning is moving along. Eric Clifton’s 5:46:22 was considered nearly
untouchable by many, and here we have six guys in the last three years running
faster (seven performances, as David Riddle ran 5:45:13 last year).
I'm happy with my performance for how I felt on the day, but a bit disappointed
with the result. I really wanted to shoot for a victory and course record, but I just didn't feel like I had a great day, and it was thus out of reach. However, looking at how my time stacks up in race
history, I can’t be too upset with the final time. If anything, it just leaves me wanting more,
because I know I can go 10-15 minutes faster on the right day. I didn’t fall apart too badly or anything, I
just never felt as good as I did at Tussey Mountain (the USA 50 Mile Champs)
last month. But c’est la vie. I might be coming down with a bug that zapped
a little strength on race day, or maybe I was sluggish for some other unknown
reason. It doesn’t really matter in the
end—all we can do is take what we have on the day and do the best we can with
it. And from that measure, I’m
satisfied.
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| Start in downtown Boonsboro |
This year’s race was relatively stacked, even if many people didn’t think so on paper. It was one of just a few times when four or more men have broken 6 hours, so the results showed this depth. The top competitors ran relatively close together for the first two climbs up to the high point of the course at 5.4 miles. I had David Riddle’s (and Max King’s) 2012 splits for these segments, and we were matching them without pushing too hard. Even at 9 miles (Gathland Gap), we were still more or less on pace. But somewhere along the second bit of the Appalachian Trail, we lost several minutes. This was a bit surprising, as I felt like we were moving at a decent clip. I did stop to water the flowers, but I was surprised to be at 1:58 when we hit the tow path. Last year, King and Riddle were at 1:54. I also ended up running behind some other competitors for a bit on that second half of the AT. I prefer to be leading a group or running on my own on technical trails, so I can truly run my own rhythm. When you’re behind someone, you sometimes slow down without really realizing it. This is all good to know for future reference; I need to move a bit better on the AT when I come back.
Hitting
the tow path and the beginning of 26.3 flat miles, it was quickly apparent that
my legs didn’t quite have it. I know the
quick descent down the bluffs (and really the AT generally) has the tendency to
sap your legs a bit, but I really didn’t feel like that was it. Rather, it just seemed I wasn’t feeling as
good on this particular day.
Specifically, my hamstrings were giving me a bit of trouble, feeling
like they wanted to cramp as early as 18 or 20 miles. I had rolled off the AT with Rob Krar in
fourth and fifth place, and as I settled into my pace, he left me in the dust.
Krar,
Josh Arthur, and Zach Miller began to run in a pack, clicking off six flats
into the distance. I was running 6:15s
or 6:20s and I didn’t think that it felt sustainable in the least. This was disconcerting. Iain Ridgeway was running maybe 6:40s in
front of me, so I quickly passed him, yet watched the lead pack disappear from
my fourth place position. Throughout the
next 12 miles or so, I kept telling myself to slow down to 6:30-6:40 pace—that
if I kept up the 6:15s, I was going to blow up.
But I kept on my calories, started popping electrolyte pills every half
hour, and slowly, I began to feel just a bit better. Passing a fading Josh Arthur and moving into
third helped a bit. As did the mental
hurdle of being past halfway. Somewhere
just past the 27 mile aid station, I started to feel just a little more
positive about my prospects. The lead
duo’s gap was no longer growing, and I was sitting squarely and comfortably in
third, three minutes back.
As
I worked my way up the Potomac River, I focused on staying as efficient as I
could, eating and drinking, and clicking off the miles. You’re on the tow path for a long time, but
somehow it went by rather quickly. In
retrospect, it sure doesn’t seem like I ran a marathon on that trail. Such are the mental tricks of racing I
suppose—breaking things down into manageable portions, in this case each aid
station.
Keeping
a steady gap to the frontrunners and hoping for blowups ahead of me, I kept
holding on. Somewhere around mile 38 I
began to fade slightly. I started to hit
some miles in the 6:30-6:50 pace range.
Coming around a bend near mile 40, I was surprised to find Rob Krar
walking down the trail in front of me.
If anything, I had expected to catch the unheralded Zach Miller, not
Krar. But such is the nature of
ultras—50 miles is a long way to race, and it’s easy to overstep the line. I asked Krar if he was alright, and he said
yeah. I told him to hang tough and
continued on my way. Speaking with him
post-race, he said his body just shut down on him.
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| End of the tow path at Dam 4. |
Coming
off the tow path, the short, steep uphill into the road section was the swift
quick to the groin that everyone promised it would be. During my course tour the day before, Andy
Mason stressed on three occasions that the roads could not be written off. That it was a grind to the finish, and those
8.4 miles would seem hilly at the end of the race. I did my best to mentally prepare for the
struggle ahead, and I think I managed it fairly well. I didn’t crush it, but I did maintain an average
pace of 6:50/mile or so. I had no one in
hot pursuit (though I was unsure of this at the time, knowing only what I could
see looking over my shoulder), and barring a major blowup from Zach, it seemed I
would be finishing second place.
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| Battling the wind on the roads |
When
I hit the last mile in roughly 5:38 flat, I knew I needed to find one more
sub-7 to dip under 5:45, a tough barrier on the JFK course. I was happy to pull that off, finishing 5
minutes and change behind Zach Miller in the end. Major props to Zach; his performance was
simply astounding. At 25 years old,
based on what I’ve heard, he has run no marathons and two 50k’s (including
Bootlegger two weeks ago, where he finished sixth), and this was his first 50
miler. He has run 31-low for 10k on the
track, so he has plenty of speed to run a good 50 miler. What’s really shocking is how much he
absolutely knocked it out of the park on his first attempt. I don’t think the wind—roughly a headwind
for the last 35 miles of the race—cost as much time as some people are saying;
maybe 2-3 minutes in my estimation. But
in any event, that puts Zach’s run very close to Max King’s CR of 5:34:59, run
in perfect conditions last year.
There
was a fair bit of carnage and some DNFs along the trail behind—including Krar,
Arthur, Jason Wolfe, Dave James, and Eric Bohn—with Mike Wardian and Iain
Ridgeway fighting gamely to third and fourth place finishes in 5:55:37 and
5:57:26. Again, this was one of the
deepest JFKs in race history, and it shows how ultrarunning is continuing to
become more competitive.
Some
thanks are in order to all the folks who make this wonderful race
possible. Mike Spinnler (RD) does a
stellar job, and I hope to come back in the future. Also, Eric Senseman, whom I first met this
year at American River, did an outstanding job crewing for me. Eric was slotted to race, but after a DNF at
Bootlegger two weeks ago, decided he was over raced and pulled the plug on the
season. Despite being rather ill, Eric
did a great job encouraging me and providing flawless logistical support. Andy Mason was also helpful and encouraging out on the course and was kind enough to give me a course tour Friday. Thanks to my sponsors as well for their continued support—I work with a great group of people. Congrats also to all the finishers
of this historic race; I met some great people this weekend.
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| My stellar crew, Eric Senseman |
Next
up is The North Face 50 Mile Championships in San Francisco in two weeks. A quick turnaround to be sure, but as it’s
the end of my season, I figured why not head out for the party. That race is always a blast. JFK was my focus for the fall, but since I’m
about to take a short break anyway, I’ll go roll the dice at TNF.
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| Recovery? Grab a Yuengling and a UGo bar! |
Logistics:
- I ran in the Salomon Sense Mantras, which I have raced in all year. They were great, as usual. Just the right amount of “shoe” for me, with a 6mm drop and a moderate stack height. (Excited to run in the Sense Pro soon as well—Sense Mantra outsole/midsole with an S-LAB upper!)
- I generally fueled well on Saturday, but I had some issues late race getting enough down. I realized no matter how much I like a product, I really just need variety during a race. I get sick of everything, so I need to mix it up a bit more.
- My Suunto Ambit data for the race can be found here.
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| The new Sense Pro! |
