Jensen Beach, FL to Fort Myers, FL
I started the 170 mile solo run at 12:01am Friday at Jensen Beach. Air temp 77 degrees and somewhat humid.
The first 50 miles were on the road. At first I asked my support vehicle (my roommate Melissa & her boyfriend Rob) to drive one mile ahead and wait. At one point, they drove one mile ahead but past the exchange point; I only carried a map of the current leg (36 legs). I had no idea if I should go straight or turn right. It took a while to get them on the walkie talkies even though the radios are supposed to have a 5 mile range. I regret not carrying my cell phone then. There were plenty of police on patrol; it was not comforting - it was likely that we were in a high crime area.
When we got on to rural roads, I suggested that instead of going 0.3 miles ahead -- that they should wait until my reflective vest was no longer visible and then begin driving ahead until they couldn't see light from my headlamp or flashlight. I would have the reassurance of either my car's headlights or taillights. In straight sections they drove about a half of a mile at a time.
By 5am, traffic was picking up. It's interesting how many cars drive on the shoulder until they noticed my reflective vest. The large trucks generated a refreshing wind as they blew past at highway speeds 6 feet away. It was disappointing when they tried to stay away from the shoulder. I'd have to step onto the road to catch the turbulent wake. It wasn't wise but it felt good.
There were a hit-and-run incident with one of the relay teams. A pacer on a bike was hit by the right mirror of a truck who's driver was focused on passing another vehicle. The cylist was ok and the police found the driver and arrested him. I also heard there was an incident with another pickup truck driver who directed road rage against a runner.
Dogs were of concern. I had my doggie mace ready. Fortunately the dogs were fenced in or chained up. There were many flattened animals on the road including turtles and long snakes. I think the owners kept the dogs from running loose on high-speed traffic roads.
I ran the 1st 50 miles in 10 hours. At that point I was optimistic that I could finish the 170 mile run by noon the next day.
The next 50 miles were on Lake Okeechobee's dike system. There was no shade and it was sunny.
It went downhill from there.
10am sunny and 81 degrees
11am sunny and 86 degrees
12pm sunny and 88 degrees
1pm sunny and 90 degrees
2pm sunny and 91 degrees
3pm sunny and 91 degrees
4pm sunny and 91 degrees
I tried placing a ziploc bag of ice on top of my head under a running cap but the cap wasn't deep enough. It did not occur to me to just soak the cap in ice water and let the wind create evaporative cooling. I also forgot I had packed an oversized sombrero sun hat.
I covered only 15 miles on the Okeechobee trail in 5 1/2 hours and slowed down to a 24 minute per mile pace. I decided to quit the race at 3:25pm and head back to Orlando. I did not think I cover another 105 miles by the 5pm cutoff the next day. Melissa said the forecast was for hotter temps the next day. The new mental math would forecast a finish around 6pm. It turned out to be about 5 degrees cooler with some cloud cover. If I brought my laptop - it would show an average pace of 14:12 min miles over 65 miles; my goal average pace was 14:28 min miles for the entire course. I didn't know I was ahead of pace.
The original plan was to run the first 120 miles in 24 hours and walk the last 50 miles in 17 hours. I did not plan to slow down to a 24 min mile in 91 degree heat.
I had considered starting at 8pm but Melissa was already taking Fri and Sat off and Rob took Friday. I couldn't ask them to leave work early on Thursday. Although we arrived at the start line at 11pm, I insisted that we start on 12:01 Friday so that it felt like I would be running for a day and a half instead of running Thurs-Sat (2 days). Foolish decision!
In making the decision to DNF, I failed to consider alternatives and failed to ask these questions:
a) to the race director - what is the real time cutoff for medals? Given the heat -- a lot of teams came in later than 3pm to 5pm and several dropped out.
b) to Melissa and Rob - how late can you finish? factoring in poor sleep and having to work on Sunday. Or do you mind if I did not finish, I just want to see how far I can go by Sat 5pm?
c) to Cathy who I had committed to giving a ride back to Orlando: what is the latest time from finish line? I ended up driving 415 miles to pick up Cathy on Saturday.
All creative thinking goes out the window after being awake 33 hours with a 2 hour nap before the race.
My thinking has always been rigid regarding time goals. I quit my first Rocky Raccoon 100 at 80 miles because I fell behind a 12 minute mile goal pace. This DNF decision was consistent with RR100 but I regret this decision.
Additionally, I took the Sat. 5pm cutoff time to be like a typical 30 hour hard cutoff for an ultra where there is no finisher medal, no support, no listing in the official race results.
The alternative was to pick up the pace. But the radiant heat from the sun was too much. There was no medical support. Heat would be less of an issue for the average relay team runner who would run 5 miles 3 times in 24 hours. Although I lost only 3 lbs, was still peeing regularly and my body temp was normal, I didn't want to risk collapsing on the trail miles away from help. Vehicle access points were miles apart. At this point, I decided there no way I am going to apply for Badwater 135 mile desert run since I can't take the heat.
In hindsight I missed something critical. I had a separate cooler for wet towels and ice water to spray down. I also packed a gallon size garden sprayer. Rob was on a bike with a backpack to provide support for the 50 miles on the Okeechobee trail. He could have carried the gallon size sprayer in his backpack and sprayed me down every tenth of a mile. There was a decent breeze that would have provided adequate evaporative cooling. Since I don't sweat much, the breeze wasn't very useful but I think an ice-cold spray would have gotten me through the 8 hours of above 85 degree heat. I recalled Dean's advice to stay wet and had only watched the Badwater video on Tuesday where the pacers were spraying down the runners. We passed a water truck watering a field and joked that it would be nice if it followed us. The only thing the driver said was that he was driving 2.5mph. Why did he mention that? Assuming he wasn't spraying pesticides, we should have just walked in the downstream of the mist! I had most of my supplies in the back of the SUV and completely forgot about the extra cooler and sprayer in the right rear passenger seat. Big oops!
My strategy was to deal with one leg at a time. Nutrition had to be geared toward the varying mileage of the legs. I wrote a checklist on post-its attached to a Google map of each leg. Besides nutrition, the list on some post-its included sunscreen, bug spray, recharging batteries, switching out the GPS watch, etc. At home, while cleaning out the car, I found a loose post-it note that said - "MISTER, wet towels, ice on cap" . I had apparently removed it from the Okeechobee map. While the other maps only contained one leg - this one page Army Corp map contained 9 legs and was covered with 11 post-its. I removed that critical post-it containing a reminder to use the spray mister, in order to look at the map. Also, had I known the exchange points were not really checkpoints for solo runners, I would have my support vehicle stop and do the next checklist every 5 miles; the mister reminder would be repeated on 10 pages. Too late now!
The towns surrounding Lake Okeechobee are pretty depressed. There was a construction detour on the dike that put us into the town of Pahokee. I wouldn't want to be running there alone at night or among the alligators both sides of the dike. One of the teams advised Melissa not to drive alone to the last 2 exchange points on the lake at night. When she went to buy some ice, she was followed around by the store clerk. I guess they thought she might be a shoplifter.
I didn't have an appetite and eat only a couple of chips and a half slice of pizza. My body was too busy trying to cool off. I had to rely on my fat stores and the calories from the drinks. I weighted in Sat. morning down 3.6 lbs from Thursday morning. A good start to trying to qualify for Boston this fall :) I packed 30000 calories for the run and consumed about 4500 calories over 65 miles. I gave a large bag of kettle chips (2800 calories - no trans fats) to a homeless guy who pestered me for money while I was filling up at a gas station.
Congratulations to Mike who wisely gave himself 65 hours and completed the 170 mile run with just a 1/2 hour to spare at 4:30pm. Dante who started 6 hours before I did, finished in 61 hours on Sunday morning.
I am grateful to Melissa and Rob for patiently driving the support vehicle for 22 hours.
So, maybe I will attempt this Relay again in the Solo division next year! Temps were 10 degrees above average on Friday and 4 degrees on Saturday. On Monday noon, it was 25 degrees cooler than it was 72 hours earlier. I could start at 8pm and remember to use the mister. George, the brother of one of the race directors, offered to crew, if I ever decide to do the Badwater 135 in Death Valley.
Yes, this a long writeup for just 65 miles, just two-fifths of the race. Maybe there would have been other showstoppers had I continued. Among our relay teams from Orlando - one DNF, one finished early and one finished at 7:30pm. I had a massage on Monday and there was only a couple of minor tight spots. Running 65 miles at an easy pace on a flat course really doesn't beat up the body - except for 2 damaged toenails. I had a more painful massage after running the Georgia marathon 2 weeks ago on rolling hills.
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