#118 Badwater 135

Sat, July 11th:
Heather and I arrived in Vegas Saturday morning. I did a 2 mile run at Red Rock Canyon in 105 degree heat. I was wet from sweating; I thought the sweat was supposed to evaporate in the dry heat??

Sunday:
Status: My back was stiff from moving luggage and loading up water. I felt pain in my left calf and glutes.

We did a one mile test run at noon on Sunday at the Badwater race start ( -282 feet elevation) . The road temp was 167 degrees and the car thermometer read 116F. The white line is indeed 5 to 10 degrees cooler. The side of the road was just as hot. We averaged a 10:00 mile -- so I got over the fear of showing up for the race and refusing to get out of the car. The time spent in the 180 degree sauna at the Y definitely helped!

Bob from Drymax socks, had magnetic signs for our crew vehicles. Thank you Bob. At picket pickup, I asked last year's female winner, Jamie Donaldson, how often she changed her Drymax socks. Answer - every 20 miles. One of our signs blew off the vehicle; my crew found Jamie's sign on the road. Her sign is now a very large refrigerator magnet at home.

I was bitten by a bunch of fire ants while Heather posed for a picture with Charlie Engle - the guy who ran across the Sahara in a Matt Damon's documentary "Running the Sahara". We had first met him at the Boogie 50 miler. I asked Charlie if I should skip the long pants/long sleeves and wear shorts and a shortsleeve shirt. I spent $190 on the "space suit". He recommended shorts and a cotton shirt. I ended up not using the space suit at all.

After dinner, we walked by an outdoor thermometer. At 9pm it was 103F!

Monday: max temps 115-127 in the shade 165 asphalt

With my body clock still on East Coast time, I was fully awake by 4:30am.

We were interviewed at the start. Heather said I just ran 178 miles across Florida. I said that Badwater is shorter but a little bit hotter. I was about to say my goal was to finish when Heather chimed in with a 36 hour goal. I said that we are supposed to say finishing was our goal in public. We both broke out laughing.

I told the interviewer that Heather and I met the rest of our crew at a bar at Disney. We were meeting them for the 2nd time yesterday. They were a little bit surprised back in February when I took them up on the offer to crew after I learned that my application was accepted.

To Furnace Creek:
The Moeben hood given away at the packet pickup worked marvelously. I am all about trying something new during a race - since I never run long in training. The goal was to maintain a body temp of 100 to 102. I peaked around 101 and was below 100 most of the time. That's when I realized I had to do a lot of running. I had expected to take it easy and do a lot of walking to cool off. Now I had no reason not run it. Yikes!

To Stovepipe:
My feet were getting uncomfortably hot; the ground temp got up to 165F. I stood on a bag of dry ice at a couple of crew stops.

I ran a 9:46 pace to the 17.4 checkpoint. I was running a 7:30 to 8:30 pace between half mile crew stops. For the first 42 miles, I averaged a 10:54 pace. Some of the crew were trying to get me to slow down. But with a decent body temp and an excellent job of part of the crew to keep me cool, I argued that I was running a natural pace and would eventually slow down anyway.

To Townes Pass:
I left my copy of Pam Reed's book at home because my luggage was overweight. Little did we know that we would passing each other repeatedly for about 50 miles. (She started 2 hours later). Her crew and my crew got to know each other. My quads did not take a beating at all so I ran past her on the downhills. Eventually my left shin quit working. She finished 4hrs 42 min ahead of me as the 2nd place woman.

Since overnight temps dropped close 70 degrees, I expected record finishing times but the 10am wave said it was hotter this year.

I developed tightness in my left ankle from going downhill on canted roads. My bowleggedness already predisposes me to shin issues; my foot has to travel further than a normal foot. I learned that the winner had taken 24 minutes out for a massage. Maybe I should have stopped to massage the knot out or at least stretch it out. Instead, I ran with a limited stride for the next 70 miles. I had an opportunity to get a massage therapist on the crew but I did not follow through.

Tues:
I hit the 50 mile split at around 9hrs30mins. The 100 mile split was faster than the Keys 100, Rocky Raccoon 100 and Old Dominion 100. I suspect that weight loss during the race and the week before increased my running speed. The 135 mile split was faster than the 2008 Sunrise 170 miler and 2009 Sunrise 178 miler. I realized that with great crew support, this is a relatively easy course as long as you stay in your comfort zone.

I was living in the moment or thinking about what I needed at the next crew stop. Sometimes I felt like I was in the "Running On the Sun" movie. I missed out on looking up to see shooting stars.

To Lone Pine:
At Lone Pine, I was well ahead of my 36 hour goal. I decided the race was done and that it was a 13 mile walk to the finish line. My mind went elsewhere. I forgot to remind the crew I wanted to run across the finish line with a pancake rolled up as a burrito.

I got overhydrated and nauseated walking up the Mt. Whitney Portal. I didn't need as much fluids since I wasn't running. I gained 3lbs up from a target of 148. (I started at 155). My hands were swollen. I checked my oxygen saturation to rule out high altitude hypoxia; it was fine at 96 percent O2 sat. I reconfirmed that altitude was not an issue when I hiked up to 10,640 feet the next day.

Overhydration and hyponatremia were issues in Death Valley. Geoff Linton dropped out due to overhydration and excess sodium. "It was pretty complicated. Basically, fluid started to fill up my lungs," Linton said. "There were a lot of factors that are involved in this. The way they explained it to me, my salt levels were a little high, but were in a normal range. The problem was that there was too much fluid also that got sucked in. Any excessive fluids got sucked in to around my lungs."

To Finish:
My crew came up with the one-off design of a team shirt with "HungStrong" written on it. Since I have had a song adapted for me at our local runners annual victory breakfast called "Secret Asian Man" , I was game to wear the team shirt. I finished in 19th place in 33hrs45mins. The finish time would have been good enough for a 10th place finish last year. I caught up to everyone from my 8am wave except for 2 runners.

This year's competitors were a lot stronger than last year's' even though the leaders ran a slower race. I set the 36 hour goal based on how one of my closer competitors did at the 2008 Badwater. Maybe I should have set a more demanding goal, which would motivate me to get out of my comfort zone. Having a GPS watch that worked would have helped me keep pace; I may run with jerry-rigged charger next time.

We had an excellent adventure and my time goal goals were met. I didn't come to any great realizations. Except for 2 periods of nausea and 2 points of fatigue, I pretty much enjoyed running the whole race. I enjoy being in the zone or having "flow" throughout the whole process from application, to planning the logistics, to executing the plan. Some people tell me that I inspire them -- to do what, I am not sure? Dean Karnazes inspired a lot of people to get active even though they don't want to do what he does.

The ultrarunning community is relatively small. At this race, I got to saw hello and hang out with friends from other ultras and meet new friends. Charlie Engle from the Boogie 50. Kermit from San Fran 24 and Ultracentric 48. Adrian and Keith from Ultracentric. Dean from various marathons. Alisa and Nattu from the Keys 100. Rick from Iron Horse 100. From the crews - Mike C from the Dean's blog. Jenn and Lane Vogel, Lisa, Sister Mary Beth, Brian, Bob Becker from the Keys 100.

I regretted not stopping the car to chat with Dean on the way down the mountain; he wasn't having a good day and I didn't want to impose.

Crew:
Thank you again for your help -- I could not have done as well without you. I am just 2 legs for the crew. The crew kept me cool which made me run faster. Part of the crew rotated off. Heather stayed with me the whole time. She paced me for 45 miles. I didn't sleep or lose my mind. There really was a dead rabbit on the road.

Lessons learned:
If I run BW again, I might have a massage therapist on the crew. I didn't run any hills in training for this race so all I could do was run/walk intervals on the first 2 mountains. Next time, I will do weekly hill training so I can run up all 3 mountains.

Looking at some of the data my crew collected, it is amazing how the body knows to take in less sodium and fluid when it gets cooler by changing the mix of sports drink and water consumed. Since the sports drink was sweet, I am amazed that I drank less of it when I seem to need less salt. With the crew keeping me cool, my fluid requirements were a lot lower than anticipated for the conditions. I did not take any electrolyte capsules. One bottle got wet and all the capsules fused together.

My Drymax socks held up well. Blisters were not an issue in this race. My feet never really got wet.

I put my digital camera in the glove compartment. It is no longer working -- possibly due to the heat.

Crew lessons learned: for organizing supplies - buy plastic storage bins and label them. I couldn't find the Advil or Tylenol that I brought with me. I would like to have a better spreadsheet for capturing data and a transition plan for passing improvised steps to the next shift.

Rick's crew chief suffered a heart attack and is fine now. We should think through the scenarios should one of the crew members have a medical emergency.

Wed:
There was a forest fire which closed the finish line around 10pm. I didn't know until I woke up the next morning. It is like the 2007 Chicago marathon when I crossed the finish line before the race was canceled. Having the race clock time continue may not seem to be the fairest approach to those stopped by the fire and then were allowed to return to finish the full 135 miles, but I don't see any fairer way.

The mountain was re-opened in the morning. While we had permits to summit Mt Whitney (14500 ft), the mountain was closed at 3:30am anyway. We were so busy socializing that we didn't head toward the summit until 1:20pm.

We met Vicki and her husband on the mountain. She is a core Dean Karnazes's blogger. We also came across Mike C, another Dean blogger who was on Phil's crew.

We made it up to Mirror Lake at 10,640 ft before turning around at 3:20pm. We ran into Jenn Shelton, Connie Gardner and Jimmy D on the hike. They crewed for Shannon, the owner of Moeben.

We had to get to the 6pm post-race party before the beer ran out, so I handed Heather my backpack and ran down the hill on my good leg. It turned out there was no alcohol at the party (: Maybe we should have gone for the summit instead. We got in a good 9 mile workout on Wednesday.

Back home:
Massage - my lower left leg was really swollen and my calves and back were tight but my shins were fine. My quads and glutes were not beat up at all. Other than the ankle tendonitis, I was pretty much recovered. My leg press strength is close to max and I am ready to race again. I decided to run the 24 hour in Boston 10 days after Badwater.

It was as exciting reading the Facebook messages as it was running it. Maybe if I run it again, I'll rent a satellite phone (there is no cell service) -- so that my friends can tell me to run faster!

I lost 9 lbs. I caught a cold (maybe from congratulating the finishers and shaking hands). I had a bloody nose from the dry air - which doesn't help repel viruses.

What's next?
I am already thinking about doing Badwater 2010 if I can afford to. I think I can break 30 hours. (There may be some beginners luck when most everything worked.) The next challenge may be in endurance cycling or bike time trials. Or the 191 mile Ragnar run across FL. I am thinking about training for my first triathlon in 2010.

Postscript:
July 25th - I ran 114 miles in the Wakefield 24 hour ultra, finishing 2nd place. If I hadn't taken a nap on a park bench at mile 109, I would have gotten first place. Without crew support every half mile, and given that humidity -- it was a lot tougher to run than Badwater. On this flat course, I set PRs in the 50k, 50 mile and 100 mile distance. Running almost 3 mins/mile faster, it took 8 days to recover. But yes, dry heat is much easier to run in, even at 127 degrees!