PREMISE:
I was contemplating to do a 100-miler in the fall of 2018 to measure where I am with my training and 100-mile running fitness. I haven't run a 100-mile race this year, though I tried other distance races.
I was looking at Mogollon Monster 100 (MM100), but I knew it is a tough mountain race and I am not ready for it. I also wanted to do Hallucination 100 which happens to be the week before MM100, as is was also on my birthday this year (September 7th), to get in some birthday miles. My friends Scott and Adam have signed up for Mogollon Monster 100, and I decided to go with them for a vacation and possible crew or pace.
RACE DETAILS:
Hallucination100 is at Hell-Pinckney area in Michigan (near Ann Arbor). It is a 16.67 mile loop, a total of 6 loops. The race start time is unique, as it starts at 4 pm Friday and goes until 10 pm Saturday. The course is mostly single track trails, with a flat towpath for about a mile and a portion of roads for about a mile, you go through the road section twice (out and back). The aid stations are approximately every 4 miles, with the main aid station at the Start/Finish campground. The aid stations, volunteers, food supplies are all good.
TRAVEL TO RACE:
My friend Johnnie agreed to pace me at the race. He is from St. Louis, he was going to drive to Chicago, and we both were going to drive to the race. We decided to camp at the Campground which is also the Start/End of the race. We started at 7.30 am CT Friday and were at the campground by 2 pm ET. We stopped a couple times for breakfast and lunch at McD. I also bought an extra sandwich for pre-race meal.
I decided to experiment a few things for this race. No crew, no pacer, drop bags, not changing much clothes, etc. Usually I had a friend who crewed me, I have run with and without pacers, never had a drop bag, and I may change socks, t-shirt or shorts. I had 2 pacers, Andrew and Johnnie, who volunteered to pace me and I took them up. Usually, I carry a hydration vest, decided to carry two handhelds - one with water and another with tailwind. (this was not a good idea, as I had not trained with it, and tailwind gave me nausea later).
PRE-RACE:
When we reached the campground, we met friends from Chicago - Linda, Holly, Lisa H, Lisa K, Melissa, Carleen, Ken... I am sure I am missing someone. Also met Dan Slater, who I knew only from Facebook and had just finished Big Foot 200 three weeks ago, he was running the half marathon (which he can run in his sleep). Met Amy R from Indiana, who had a goal in mind.
I was trying to rest my eyes before the race as I had woke up early in the morning, but couldn't sleep due to all the activity around me. At about an hour before the race, I changed to running clothes, and got ready to run.
I met Bill. He did not remember me, but if you google Hallucination 100, his video will show up. He is the elderly guy who I met in 2015 during my first 100, which was also Hallucination. We took a picture, and I showed him my picture with him from 2015. He was pleasantly surprised on this encounter.
RACE:
The race started at 4 pm, and ran in a good pace for the first loop. I felt fresh and happy with how I felt. It usually takes around 10 miles for me to warm up. I finished loop-1 in 3.5 hours. Put on the headlamps, and started loop-2. I met Lynn from Pittsburg and we ran together... this is where it happened. One moment I was feeling good, and the next moment, I was projectile vomiting. I felt great in my head and stomach, but my throat was having a bad sense of nausea.
I finished loop-2, Andrew joined me as pacer in loop-3. I ate some food at the main aid station, and as soon as I started running, I started throwing up on the side of the campground. We were 20 feet from the aid station. I asked if Andrew can check with the Chicago friends if they had any medicine for nausea. Johnnie had pepto tabs, he brought it from the car and caught up to us to give me those. It was a life saver.
I continue to have the nausea, ditched the handheld with tailwind, and ran just with water the next loop. I was starting to feel hungry but was also feeling worried about throwing up. When we reached an aid station, I asked the volunteers if they had any hot food. They didn't. There was a pizza box, I asked if they had pizza. I think it was for the volunteers. There were some leftover slices of pizza - a couple slices of veggie, a slice of cheese and a slice of pepperoni. I just took a slice of pizza, sat on a chair and ate it until all the food went down, worrying on when I am going to throw up. Once the food went down, I started moving.
I did the same two more times, i.e. ate a slice of stale pizza sitting down. I spent a total of 15 minutes each time.
Daylight started coming in loop-4 around 7 am, and the 50 mile and 50k runners started passing us. I started feeling good, with mile sense of nausea. I put on some Bollywood songs, and started picking up my pace. Something got into me, and I started running faster and faster. The aid stations started having food, I sat for 10-15 minutes in each main aid station (8 miles apart), and ate some solid food before moving.
Loop-4 and 5 flew by. Johnnie started loop-5 with me. I was hitting a low in loop-6, and now there was a real possibility of finishing the race below 26 hours, Johnnie started pushing me a bit. I was getting a bit annoyed internally but kept my cool and told Johnnie "I know you want me to finish before 26 hours, but I am in pain, let me keep moving and see how it goes". I did appreciate him keeping me on my toes. We passed a lot of running in the last 3 loops, said Hi to a few known faces and I was totally enjoying the run.
My time in this same race last year was 28:35. My 100-mile PR was 28:22 at Kettle100 in 2016. We kept moving at a decent pace in the last loop and finished at 26:08, a 2+ hour PR for a 100 mile and I was happy with it.
As we neared the finish line, I was getting emotional, and tearing up. When I finished, I couldn't hold back and was bawling.
POST-RACE:
There were several encounters with Ten Junk Mile fans, including the Race Director Gary :-) who came up to me and chatted a bit when I finished loop-5.
WHAT WORKED:
When I think of a better timing for this race, several things worked in my favor including the good weather (it was cloudy the entire time, no rain or sun). The two key things that I think that also worked well is my consistent training this summer and a positive mindset. I didn't run high volume for training, but I ran 4 to 5 times a week, peaking at 65 mileage week, with a 50-mile race end of July and a few other 30 - 38 mile runs.
WHAT DIDN'T WORK:
I still need to figure out hydration (tailwind gives me nausea), and food intake. I have never focused on this, but its about time now to figure this out...
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