Rocky Raccoon 100 Race Report

Now that was one heck of a long run!

Man, it was awesome while it lasted...I feel like on the course I did everything right: stayed nice and hydrated, peed almost every hour and it was clear up to about mile 60, ate like a fool, no cramping at all, started conservatively, moved from 13th the first loop to 7th the second to 6th the third, was on pace to run around 19 hours which was right at my goal...

...then about mile 75 i tweaked my ankle...kept moving on it because i knew if i stopped it would just tighten up, but i could just feel that baby...it got to the point where i couldn't flex my foot up or down, and on the trail this was not good...finished up the lap at about 14:30 and took an assessment, iced, wrapped, and hobbled out, walking, to see if i could finish up. My walk quickly became a hobble, and my lack of preparedness in regards to clothing began to take its toll as i started shivvering pretty severely..."just make it to the next aid station" was my creed at this point, but i knew inside that i was going to have to chalk this one up as a long training run...my foot just wouldn't allow me to continue...so I made it to mile 84.2 and called it a day.

Now, sure I probably could have put on more clothes, rested for a while, then tried to head back out, but it had taken me 1:25 to go 4.2 miles...i couldn't even walk fast...and truly, my goal for this one was not to just finish...if that were the case I would have just walked from the beginning...i wanted to do it right...some may say that is pretty egotistical, and that I am not respecting the distance, but i don't think so...i would rather bail out at mile 84.2 knowing that i did more than i thought i could that day, and be sure my foot is ok, and come back in a few months and try again...

So that's it...i feel very positive, and i am raring to hit it again...i am very confident that the distance for me is not a problem, and after assessing my foot, i think i had my shoes on too tight, and limited the blood flow, causing my ligaments/tendons to become weak and more readily available to sprain and overuse. When I took my shoes off my foot immediately swelled, and all the veins were just bulging...you could see this even before they took off my shoes! I had no idea about this, so lesson one learned. Lesson 2: longer training run. I think i had to get out there to find this one out. I need to go at least 50 in a day 3 weeks out, just to ward off fatigue. While i didn't cramp any and didn't really feel out of gas, I did get pretty tight. Lesson 3: have a pacer. My wife was going to do the last 40 with me, but she had emergency surgery on Monday, and couldn't go. So these are my big 3 "lessons learned". And I cant' freaking wait to do
it again!

trust me, I kept thinking positive, even as I was giving my chip back, nothing but positive energy, and even now, i don't regret a thing, and i am proud to be an ultrarunner, even one without a 100-mile buckle...yet...