2022-06-04
A short report for a comparatively short race. This was a 50-miler, and I have to say I enjoyed how simple and contained it felt.
It really helped that I had run essentially the entire course before, in the 2019 111k race. This really freed up a lot of brain space as I (mostly) remembered what was coming.
On the way to the check in, I had to wait for the children's race to pass by (adorable). After collecting my bib, floundering through some Fringlish to find out where to sleep, and scarfing of pasta, I spent the night in a nearby gym, with about 50 other runners. There was thunder and rain during the night, and the start times were delayed a bit, so we actually got underway at 0615. The morning was cool, and I intentionally let myself go relatively quickly for the first sections, fearing (correctly) that the second half of the course would be much hotter, so I should take advantage of the good conditions now to push a little more. I was a lot further ahead in the pack than last time, which was helpful because a couple of kilometers in are some sections of muddy, traversing single track where the race is reduced to single file. Just after starting the road which brings you back down from the first big climb, I broke the clip on the bottom chest strap on my pack. I tied it off badly, then later a bit better, but this made the pack less comfortable when loaded. I already had a much lighter than usual load, as the gear requirements for this race are fairly modest and I didn't need to prepare for cold weather, running at night, recharging batteries, etc. Most of the weight I carried was water and gels. This was all in the front of the pack, which has a fairly large capacity for a running vest/pack, and this lack of balance, plus the broken strap, made it very uncomfortable to run with a full load of water (1L), which had some negative consequences later.
I soon settled in with the faces and bibs I'd see for most of the rest of the race. 7 or 8 of us bunched up at a 5:00/km pace on the flat section before the first aid station and the big climb to Le Soliat. On the climb we started passing people from the 111k race, which had started 45 minutes earlier, and which follows the same route as our 81k for about the first 40k, before splitting off at the summit of Le Chasseron, doing an extra 30k loop, and then rejoining the 81k course. This meant that one had to be careful not to unconsciously pace off of runners in the other race, and aid stations were quite busy.
I started to get hot on the biggest climb, up to Le Chasseron. I made steady progress, but slowed greatly near the top, as I felt myself beginning to overheat. I took a few minutes to reset nicely at the aid station, drinking a cup of extremely hot broth because I didn't know what they were pouring out of the pitcher.
I made my way down the big descent from Le Chasseron, narrowly avoiding wiping out on a wet stone slab, where I went "hurk!" and flailed but managed to stay upright. There is another aid station quite close, with the drop bags. It's not right on the course, though, and there is a sign saying only 9.2 km to the next one, so, like last time, I skipped it. Like last time, this was dumb and I should have rehydrated a bit there. The way to the next aid station (Les Places) was just as interminable as last time because I somehow remembered there being an aid station along the highway -there is not, but I think I hallucinated one last time and remembered that. Ugh. I was, however, proud that I kept up the pace and even passed a couple of people who were suffering as much as I was in the heat. I walked for quite a way after Les Places as I absorbed the large amount of liquid I drank there.
The next section was where I'd felt the worst about myself in the last race, as I'd walked some very easy parts and gotten passed. Here, I kept up the pace a bit, and was very happy when I discovered that an aid station I'd been expecting wasn't there, and I arrived at the next one! However, the elation was short lived, as while I was indeed at the parking lot at the Chapeau de Napoléon, there was now just a fence and no aid station. I was very thirsty at this point, and made my way down the road, which had been a triumphant, fast section last time. There was soon a thank-god fountain, but I drank too much of the cold water (well over a liter) and made myself ill enough to not be able handle the sloshing on the downhill for quite a while. I got passed several times here. The aid station turned out to have been moved to the bottom of the hill. Here is the only time I sat down, briefly, but I fairly quickly got up and staggered on while drinking some coke. I was slow on the approach to the next climb, but felt myself coming back into my own on the uphill, as my stomach settled. The downhill was a bit slow, but I felt close to the end now, which encouraged me, and I knew the strange profile of the remaining part of the course, so wasn't surprised by it.
I felt great running the traversing section here, euphoric as a light rain began and I reached down a few times to pick tiny, sweet, tart, wild strawberries from the bushes.
I ground my way up the very steep last climb and then the additional climbing beyond that (which I'd forgotten about) to reach the last aid station. I slowly made the tiny remaining ascent and was then on the all-downhill to the finish. In the heat, this felt much more painful than last time, but it was over quickly!
The biggest lesson to be learned from this one is to be cautious with rehydration. I think I did alright in applying the lessons of the Obwaldner Höhenweg (overheating is related to, but not the same thing as, dehydration) and respected when I was heat-limited (maybe next time I should train more in the heat). Inevitably, I got dehydrated and, from both the intense thirst and the fact that my pack wasn't comfortable to run in with a full liter of water in the front pockets (due to a broken strap and the less-than-usual amount of stuff in the back), I tried to drink too much at once, leading to nausea. Estimates I've read imply that you can only absorb as little as 0.75-1.0 L of water per hour. I drank well over a liter in a go several times at aid stations. On uphill sections you can probably afford to have things sloshing around for a bit, but I found that this was very uncomfortable on the downhill.
I also feel like I made some progress on efficient running, especially when tired.
I tried to learn to ski, but never felt like I was making headway, but I've found that a lot of what they tell you translates to running, especially downhill. On steep downhills, just like skiing, it can help to think about trying to smooth out the force in your quads as much as possible. Also, you need to lean forward more than you would naturally do. Related to to these points, and key for flat, tired, running, is "stay stacked". The idea that if you keep your body in alignment, your core doesn't have to work so hard. For extreme downhill skiing, if you don't do this you'll crash, but for running it's also helpful to think about keeping this alignment.
From skimming through a book from Lydiard, I came across the idea, which I'm sure is beyond obvious to anyone who ever ran track, that picking your heels up more "shortens the pendulum" and makes it easier to move your leg back forward. Essential for sprinters, but also very helpful for ultrarunner trying to maintain a decent pace most efficiently.
I continue to believe in my three one-word mantras as a sufficiently simple set of things to keep in mind while running this sort of route:
- Efficiency
- Eat
- Reset
I didn't take any photos, unfortunately, as I'd covered the entire course before, I was focusing on speed, and the combination of my phone's dwindling battery capacity and lack of a quick-to-retrieve place for it in my pack further dissuaded me from using it. There are some photos in my report from the 2019 111k, though!