Across the Years, Decades, Centuries and Millenia
Eat Run Walk Nap, 24, 48 and 72 hour
Phoenix, Arizona

One of the main cool things about racing is testing your limits -- your
fitness, your resolve, and your spirit.  Achievement leads to personal
satisfaction, but also there is always the feeling that you could do better,
so it sets you to thinking about how to improve your performance next time.
On a track running perhaps achieves its purest form.  There is no terrain,
no footing issues, no net head or tail winds, no variation of any sort
except for the difference between the straight-aways and the curves.  So,
a track ultra is perhaps the ultimate test of pure running endurance.

The idea is simple:  Starting at 9:00 a.m. on December 31 see how many laps
you can do in 24-hours.  Every 2 hours we would reverse directions to avoid
asymetrical stresses on the legs.  That's it.  This seemingly simple format
presents a lot of hidden challenges:

(1) Its WAY too easy to go out too fast.  What's the slowest you can
comfortably run?  Well, you can't run that fast for 24-hours straight, no
chance.  So, how do you know how fast to run?  First, you have to have a
target.  I take my marathon time, look in the tables in Tim Noakes book
"The Lore of Running" and come up with 137 miles.  Gee, that's slower than
10 minutes per mile!  Still, 137 miles sounds like a lot.  How to pace it?
The top 24-hour performers do 10-20% fewer miles in the second half than in
the first half.  So, I should try to get about 75 miles in the first half,
something like that.  In the end I did 76 & 59 miles, not far off.

(2) At most races the faster you run the sooner you get done & get to sit
down, a big motivator.  Here the faster you run the more you suffer.  At a
24-hour you can't drop and have your non-result expunged from the record.
If you run 15 miles, 15 miles are recorded.

(3) In the day its hot.  At night it gets cold.  And you get sleepy.
And your stomach doesn't work because you are supposed to be asleep.

(4) There is no terrain, no a-priori reason to vary your stride.
Can you say "sore legs"?

Having performed crew duties for Steph at Across the Years 24-hour track
run last year I became enough intrigued with the event to give it a try
myself.  One clause in our marriage vows reads "I crew for you, you crew
for me," and it was my turn to be crewed for.  Also, her father, Dick,
also wanted to try the event again, so we would make a little family
vacation out of it, with mother (Cynthia) also crewing.

Also at the race were a number of old friends from our previous years here
as well as a group from the DM including Janet Runyan, Brenda Klein, and
Yo himself as well as their handlers.  Janet told me she was just planning
to run as long as she felt like it, then quit.  "Yeah right," I said.
Brenda said she was going for 100 miles, a common target at these things.
The DM set up their tent and aid tables on the opposite side of the track
from most everyone else.  I always enjoyed running by them as their crew
were constantly mixing up all kinds of concoctions.  They definitely have
some idea that there are secret ingredients to running (other than just
running).

I ran the first corner with Ann Trason, the top female ultra-runner in the
world for the past 12 years or so.  She commented on the pleasant temperature.
"Yeah," I said, "but in 2 hours we'll be cursing the heat."  "Positive thinking
is what we need!" she replied, and sped off.  Good advice, I thought.  Before
I had finished 6 laps Ann had already lapped me.

My plan was to walk 1 lap every 30 minutes.  This turned out to be an
excellent idea as I really looked forward to the walking breaks & it helped
me to break up the race into managable time chunks.  You never want to try
to bend your mind around a concept like 12 hours to go or 16 hours to go,
too daunting.  20 minutes to the next walking break is much easier.

Mid-day was HOT.  Though the temperature was only mid-70s the sun was intense
and the air was very dry.  It was hard to maintain proper hydration and
electrolytes, and my stomach became quite sour.  For a long time I took
nothing but Succeed Amino and salt.  It worked OK, but things got a lot
better after the sun set.

Though it was yet early I was kind of battling with John Yoder from Houston
for a long while.  He was running very smooth and steady, and we must have
traded positions a lot.  After dark Steph told me I was 3 laps ahead of him,
and I tried to keep track after that.  A while later I saw him checking the
line up (posted every hour), and when he started running again I fell in
beside him.  "Am I still 3 laps ahead?"  "Yes, but I'm going to slow down
soon.  I only want to get 104 miles and beat my PR."  Just goes to show you,
run your own race.  John walked most of the 2nd half and got 108 miles.

At around 5pm I notice that Ann's husband Carl was hanging around the timing
tent (the race was timed by ChampionChip) quite a bit.  I figured she must
be getting close to 100km and might break Hillary Walker's 40-44 age group
world track record of 8:27:36.  "Has Ann got 100K yet?" I asked Carl.  "This
is it right here," he said as she whooshed by me and across the timing mat.
Race time was 8:22 or so.  Turns out she also got age group world records at
30, 40 and 50 miles and 50km as well.

The early pace was maybe a bit much for Ann, and the cool night air really
seemed to make her legs bind up.  Between 7 and 9 pm she got only 40 laps
and I passed her pretty often.  She told me her legs were extremely sore so
I suggested that she get Steph to work on her.  I hoped that Steph would not
kill me for sending the worlds greatest ultrarunner to her for some work!
(This might be like asking a rookie brain surgeon to perform an operation on
Einstein)  But, it didn't help and Ann had to quit with only about 80 miles.
And several new world records.

Though Ann's departure left me in the lead I was sorry to see her go.  She
was an inspiration, and I had hoped she would slow down enough that I might
talk with her a bit and ask her how she deals with the pain and fear that I
was experiencing in spades.  Well, maybe she already told me: "Positive
thinking."  It wasn't much, but it was all I had to go on.  I kept shuffling
along.

At midnight we had a little New Years celebration complete with noise
makers, party hats, champagne (non-alc) and fireworks.  Everyone on the
track gathered to walk a lap together, while race founder Harold Siegloff
played his clarinet.

After that brief break I picked up the pace, shooting for 100 miles.  I
skipped my 00:30 and 01:00 a.m. walking breaks and hit the 100 in 16:08:45
(actually 403 laps, which is about 275 m over 100 miles), a new PR for me.
Too much effort expended though.  Remember, its a 24-hour race, not a 100
miler!  I walked 3 laps and ate some soup.

Steph's father, Dick, ran real smooth all day and into the night.  His
form has greatly improved.  Dick took up distance running a little late.
He did his first marathon last year at age 67, then went right into
ultras.  He did 68 miles at this race last year in 20:30 or so before
he stopped because he got too cold.  This time he got to 75 miles in
about 19 hours, but he was having trouble.  He sat down and felt some
tightness in his chest and some dizziness.  Dick has a controlled heart
condition, and decided that it was prudent not to continue.  He's still
gunning for 100 miles at one of these!

Young James Bonnett-Castillo, the RD's son, was a strong competator as
always.  Two years ago, at age 12, he became the first pre-teen ever to
run 100 miles in 24-hours.  This time he did 50 miles in around 7:30 and
100 miles in about 20 hours.  Then he took a break before coming back
out to beat his father's 24-hour PR.  James total was 111 miles!  If
ultra records were kept for the 10-14 year age group this kid would have
them all.

Janet ran smooth and steady with very little walking until close to the
end.  She took no breaks, and amassed an excellent total of 119 miles,
taking 2nd overall (young James was 3rd).

Yo ran and walked for a while, then retired to the DM tent for a drink.
He came out quite a bit later with a beer in hand and walked some more
laps.  His final total was 56 miles.

A small celebration errupted every time a runner broke the 100 mile barrier.
In all 13 of the 44 runners in the 24-hour race achieved this mark.  One of
the last was Brenda Klein, with the DM group.  Brenda ran very steady through
the night almost never waking, but often running with some one who was walking.
Sometimes she sang softly to herself.  Often she cheerily greeted other
runners.  Several men on the track were clearly smitten by Brenda's sweet
disposition and attractive shape, so she had a lot of company.  With 75 min
remaining her total was 93 miles, but with a strong late push she managed to
finish with 101.

I want to say that Steph was an absolutely outstanding crew.  She has a
lot of experience and often suggested things for me to try that helped
tremendously ("Your pace is flagging, why don't you listen to some music
for a while?")  She also ran/walked a lot of laps with me in the end, which
was great.  And, when she wasn't tending to my needs she was walking around
the track with anyone who needed some company, or helping fix some one's
feet, or working at the aid station, or giving a massage, or doing whatever
was needed at the time.

Things were working out quite well for me, and I continued my run/walk
strategy until 4:20 a.m.  Then, as must happen in these things, all hell
broke loose and I was reduced to much walking.  I don't know what happened,
things just didn't work and my spirit was totally depleted.  I was tired,
my legs were dead, I wanted to go to sleep.  The only consolation was that
I knew that "things always never get worse".  So, I walked and even the
slow walkers passed me for a while.  Nobody said, "Looking good" anymore.
Eventually, at around 5:30 a.m. I began to improve.  But, I was never able
to get back to walking only one lap per 30 minutes, and it was more like
run 5 walk 1.  When the sun came up my energy improved some more & I
started really gunning for my goals:  131 miles (the event record).
Hey, I can get 134 miles.  Hey, there's time for one more mile!

Then the race was over.  The sun was up.  It was time for a new day.

******
Right from the start I used a strategy of walking one lap each 30 minutes.
This worked very well and allowed me to break up the race into emotionally
managable bits, as I looked forward to, but not beyond, each walking break.
In the wee hours before dawn the track became very quiet as most of the
field were taking a rest.  My energy flagged considerably, and I was
reduced to much walking.  My spirit was totally depleted, I was tired,
my legs were dead, I wanted to go to sleep.  So, I walked and even the
slow walkers passed me for a while.  Nobody said, "Looking good" anymore.
Eventually, at around 5:30 a.m. I began to improve.  But, I was never able
to get back to walking only one lap per 30 minutes, and it was more like
run 5 laps and walk 1.  When the sun came up my energy improved some more
& I started really gunning for my goals:  I really wanted to beat the event
record of 131 miles, which was held by my friend Glen Turner from Boulder,
because the women's record here is belongs to my wife.  With concerted
effort I managed to eek out 135 miles before the clock ran out.

The finish was an anticlimax.  I guess its because there is no
"finish line" -- when the time is up you just stop.  But, stopping
sure felt good!