The Road to 100 Miles: Finishing the Race
Mission accomplished
This is the Final article in my 100-mile race series, you can find the first article here, the second article here, and the third article here.
After peak week, I had a 3-week taper period where gradually decreased training volume. As always during a taper, it felt like I was getting unfit as I wasn’t training as much. But I was able to trust the process and take it easy.
The race started at 8 AM, and while standing at the starting line I was thinking about all the things that need to go my way in order to finish the race. In races like this, it’s not just about the fitness. You need to be able to consume enough calories, having your body “accept it” properly. It’s also a technical course, so it would be super easy to end up with a sprained ankle.
We took off slowly, as there were 200 of us and the trails were narrow. After a while, the runners started splitting up and I found a good group to run with. The pace was a bit slower than I would have liked, but knowing that there was a long way to go, it was a good pace. I know that if I set the pace myself, I would run too fast.
I lost that group at one of the aid stations but found another one instead. They had a better pace. I ran with them until the next aid station, where I lost them as well. After that, I pretty much ran the rest of the race (roughly 110km) by myself.
At the halfway aid station, I changed my shoes and had some warm food. That gave me a boost. I felt good and ran for a good bit. Then things started to go south.
It was around midnight. My legs were hurting, and because of all the roots and stones/rocks, I didn’t want to or couldn’t run too much. It would have required me to use my energy to jump vertically instead of horizontally, in order to get over all the roots and stones. My toes were already blue from failing at that earlier in the race. Choosing to walk meant that I got really cold.
Walking alone in the forest, looking down at the ground to avoid the roots and stones, and being tired, led to crazy hallucinations. I was seeing and hearing things for hours. I felt like just focusing on the ground in front of me also made me more tired, but I had to do it. I was so tired, that I was seriously contemplating sitting down somewhere for 5 minutes to get some sleep, setting a timer for 5 minutes on my phone. I did realize that continuing after that would be difficult, so I was able to not follow up on that thought.
Morning came, and with about 1/4 left to go, my knee started to hurt while running and walking downhill. I’m guessing I had been running with bad form, or just differently, because of my legs hurting — so my knee was taking the impact differently. I immediately noticed that it wasn’t the normal fatigue-kind of pain, it was “more serious”. So I decided that I will not push it, I will just walk the rest of the race.
To keep my mind busy, I started counting how long it would take me to finish the race. I had 40km left, and I was going 4–5km per hour. I wouldn’t exactly say that was motivating, and it’s not something I would suggest doing.
Slowly but surely, I moved toward the finish line. And eventually, I got there.
Post-race thoughts
Overall, I’m super happy and thankful for how everything turned out.
- I was able to eat and drink steadily throughout the race. No real dips in energy and no serious stomach issues.
- The weather was pretty good. Except during the night and in some places where it was super windy, the temperature was nice. Not too warm and not too cold. A few times we got short bursts of rain/hail/snow, but they didn’t last for too long.
- No issues with my gear.
- No blisters or chafing that impacted my run that much.
What’s next?
Will I do another 100-mile run? Never say never, but I don’t think so. Trail running isn’t something I truly enjoy, at least not as much as needed to train for 100-mile races. The training also requires a lot of time, and it’s not something I’m willing to sacrifice right now.
But one thing is certain, I will not stop running.
