A nice spot for the 1600m
Greenstar Breakfast
Some views from Inlet Shore.
The roving aid station. Way more than anyone would ever need.
Therapy!
More carefully targeted hydration. Really hard driving past all the breweries.
Party going at Brooktondale.
I’m a believer in this stuff. My feet were perfectly fine afterwards.
Look ridiculous don’t they. Can’t say that they help much over normal trail socks, but they certainly didn’t seem to hurt either. The jury is still out on these.
Part ultramarathon, part scavenger hunt searching for these things. This is the one on the east end of Lickbrook.
I am way happier in this picture than my face lets on. The final scan!
Lessons learned:
I still don’t know how to stay hydrated.
If you wear the right shoes, socks, and trim your toenails down as much as possible, your feet will be fine. Shoes with wide toe boxes (Altras) have been a game changer for me.
Ice Cream is not scientifically proven to enhance performance in endurance running, but pretending it does sure does make it more fun.
You can’t plan for everything. You should still be as prepared as possible.
It is probably smarter to have run all of these courses at least once prior to attempting the Ultra. It just adds the potential of adding extra mileage to a day that already has too many miles. If only I were more inclined to take my own advise.
Stats:
I lost 12 from weighing in that morning to returning the following morning. That’s a lot even for me.
I spent nearly as much time on my feet at Lickbrook (6.5hrs) as I did the entirety of the other 9 courses combined (50.6 miles in 8.00hrs).
I drank roughly 12 liters of tailwind and water throughout. It wasn’t nearly enough.
I had oatmeal and coffee before I left, a breakfast sandwich, ice cream, milkshake, banana, watermellon, cheese, and some sliced deli ham. I never really felt “low energy” or that I didn’t have enough food.
Per Garmin, I took around 110,000 steps.
Per Strava, the 10 courses totaled about 5670ft of elevation gain and loss.
Total mileage per Strava (not counting the false start at Hammond) 64.76 miles.
A few small gaffs at CBG and Lickbrook likely added somewhere between 0.5 and 1.0 miles.
All of my time estimates prior were within 12 minutes of actual except Lickbrook.
I came in 38minutes under budget (better than estimated) for the first 9 courses.
I came in 217minutes over budget for Lickbrook.
Brookton was the only other one that my estimated time was longer than my actual, by about 4 minutes.