It's Not Complicated

A brief race report for Tunnel Hill 50

I was formulating this complex piece following my Tunnel Hill 50 Mile race. It was to be entitled, “There Be Giants”, and would wax between paragraphs of me on the course, and my training plans and aspirations over the past two years. The “Giants” in this case were both the size of the effort I was trying to execute and “Battle”, and the fact there were “Giants” of the sport, on the course with me.

It was going to be complicated, and like all complicated things was better in theory than in execution. And when something is complex and threatens to consume, say, more than a few hours of your time, you start procrastinating said thing. So it exists only in your mind, until your procrastinate for so long you forget details that seemed important at the time.

So there, look at all the time I saved you by just telling you and not making you read through something you would remember for like, what, 10 minutes? If I am being generous.

Not complicated is more like: “this is what happened, and how I felt about it”, simple words can convey a meaning far faster. Emotions just need a punch of prose, to leave you with the thing that goes fuzzy in your insides. Simple is almost always elegant. You probably don’t need to unravel some intellectual musing about something as simple as running.

So here it is. Simplified.

There Be Giants

It’s not often you are on the same field with the “experts” the “pros”, but ultrarunning is a sport like that. I crossed paths with Courtney Olsen, Anne Flower, and Caitriona Jennings, all of whom set American and world records in the 50 and 100 mile and 100 Kilometer distances at that race. “There be the Giant”, I would remark to myself as each floated by, larger than life. Making it look easy, and uncomplicated. Executing a plan.

Credit: Ultrasignup

They all had great days, Giant like days, I did not. I had a simple aspiration, not complex. Run just under a 9 minute pace for 50 miles, and break the AG 65-69 USATF record, which is 7:27:10. It seemed easy enough, I had run 32 miles in 4:22, I just had to “keep doing that” for another 18 miles, with THREE HOURS to do it. Simple plan. Simple execution. Keep going. What works in theory, however, doesn’t always pan out in reality.

Turns out the “Giant” grows bigger as the race gets longer. When he’s bigger than your nutrition plan, or at least the execution of your nutrition plan, the windmill blade lands with a cur-thunk on top of your head. Mike Tyson famously once said:

“Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.”

So I got to 38 ish miles, still on plan pace wise, and the lack of executing nutrition between 31-38 miles…..HIT. HARD. Like a Mike Tyson punch.

It really is that simple, and no amount of explaining, and excuses like “fatigue resistance”, or, lack of miles past 32, unknown territory. Blah blah Blah. I just reached a state of “Palate Fatigue” for gels. That, and since I had switched from a waist belt to a hand held, it made it hard to open gels while holding a water bottle. Fumbling with sticky hands, dropping things, getting gooey stuff EVERYWHERE.

That seems like a true, and simple, yet raw explanation, and nothing more complex needs to come out of it. A lot of my long training included stopping at my car to “do those things”, and the race plan didn’t account for it. My most recent efforts at distances longer than 32 miles were on a track, where I didn’t have to carry anything. At all. I had a crew every 443 meters (Pettit Center) or so.

A simple plan. Now I have data to help adjust for the next time.

It’s not complicated, it’s just running.

EDIT: For the race, I ended with a 7:57, and 2nd place in the USATF 50 mile championship for the 65-69 AG. Pretty simple results, actually, and not horrible by any means.