With Christmas quickly approaching I have no time to draft
an epic race report for this year’s Ancient Oaks 100 full of my usual drama,
hilarity and eloquent prose. So instead I quickly tossed together the following
FAQ based on questions I have been answering over the past few days. Enjoy.
Bob’s 2014 Ancient
Oaks 100 FAQ
1. Are you crazy?
Admittedly
2. Did you finish/what was your time?
I did.
My time was 28:22:47, a PR by 1:19:04 compared to my finish at the
Javelina Jundred last year.
3. Did you win?
No, but thanks for bursting my bubble.
4. Did you run all that time without stopping?
I walked some and took short breaks between
each lap around the course. The 3.46
mile loop has some small inclines and a section that had very serpentine single
track that was very rooty and I would usually walk those sections. Over time, the rhythm of the race became
automatic and oddly comforting.
5. Did you ever sit down?
I ran about the first third of the race
without sitting, except for a quick bathroom break and to tape my toes for
blister prevention. After that I would sit for a few minutes between laps to
rest, recover, eat, and try to address any issues I was having like hot spots
on my feet or chafing down under. FYI, lubing
the undercarriage is quite a difficult task late in the race and I lost all
sense of modesty about it. At the beginning of the race I would shyly step into
the bathroom with my Body Glide in my pocket. By mile 90 I would step behind a
parked vehicle, drop my shorts, bend over and take care of business in broad
daylight.
The shortest of these rest stops were less
than a minute to refill my water bottle.
The longest was about 45 minutes which included a 20 minute nap. The average was about 9 and a half minutes so
I think there is room for improvement here.
6. Did you sleep?
I took a 20 minute nap at the start of the
22nd lap. I think that was about 2:30 in the morning. I had been
suffering from nausea for quite some time and felt like I was weaving back and
forth along the trail. I hoped that the nap would refresh me and allow my
stomach to recover. It worked. During
that last lap before the nap, about 70 miles into the race, I think I was
feeling more fatigued than I ever have in my life. The urge to stop in my
tracks was irresistible. I kept visualizing myself bent over, hands on knees,
refusing to take another step. Luckily, I had the foresight to supply my pacers
with cattle prods.
7. This really sounds crazy, are you right in
the head?
Probably not.
8. What did you eat?
Dinner the night before the race was
delicious beef tips and mushrooms over noodles (thanks Jen!).
Breakfast before the race was 2 slices of
peanut butter toast.
Solid food consumed during the race:
2 Gu's
Peanut butter and jelly sandwich
Turkey wrap with avocado and cheese cut
into bite size pinwheels.
2 Taco Bell soft tacos
Lots of trail mix
Orange Slices
Chicken noodle soup – mostly the broth
A handful of french fries
Two bites from a McDonalds Sausage Biscuit
2 apples
Half a slice of pepperoni Pizza
A handful of wheat thins crackers
Fluids consumed during the race:
Tailwind Nutrition - 6 or 7 bottles @ 200
calories each
Water
Coke – about 2.5 liters
Gatorade
A few sips of coffee
9. How can you eat like that and run without
puking?
Oh, I puked. I actually learned some lessons during this
race about how I personally need to take in food that I think will benefit me
in future races. Namely, that I cannot
eat and run at the same time. I
initially tried to reduce my time at aid stations by grabbing a handful of food
and eating on the run, but what always happens after a few hours of running is
that my stomach rejects the food and I have difficulty even swallowing anything
in my mouth. This meant a lot of walking
while I was trying to get some food in my gut and a lot of wasted food that got
tossed aside. I found that a few minutes
to eat, and swallow, my food while resting at the aid station yielded much
faster lap times. It will just take some more trial and error to find the
optimum amount of rest so that I am not just killing time at aid stations.
I think I also figured out that I do not
need as much food as I thought I did.
Planning for the race I tried to figure out how I could pack in about
400 calories per hour. I don’t think I
ate anywhere near that much during the race.
I suffered two significant low points in the race, but I don’t think
they were related to nutrition.
10. Did you change shoes/socks/clothing?
I changed socks twice but wore the same
shoes, Saucony Kinvaras throughout the whole race. I did change into a dry
shirt several times. I wore long sleeves
at night and for a few laps a light jacket. I considered changing into dry
shorts, but figured there was no point. The new shorts would be sweat soaked in
no time anyway. I did suffer from chafing in my groin late in the race, so that
might have been a mistake. It was minor compared to previous races though and
was gone within 24 hours after the race.
11. Do you listen to music, don’t you get
bored?
I never use an ipod but I do listen to the
soundtrack in my head much to the dismay of my crew and runners around me when
I start singing along with the music. Unfortunately the song Black Widow was
stuck in my head the whole race and I had to listen to that one line from the
song “Like a black widow baby” over and over because I do not know a single
other word from it. I think I can
honestly say that I was never once bored during the race.
12. Why would anyone want to run 100 miles,
that’s insane?
I think we have already established that.
13. Did you get any blisters?
A few, but they did not impact my running.
I was pretty tuned in to my body this race. As soon as I experienced an issue I
was able to address it before it became a problem. I stopped twice to tape toes
when I felt the friction between them becoming an issue and avoided any
blisters there. I did have a few around
the base of my heels.
14. How many calories did you burn, you must
have lost a lot of weight?
My guess would be somewhere around 10,000
calories. However after getting on the scale two days after the race, allowing
a little time for the temporary weight loss from dehydration to adjust, I
weighed exactly the same as I did the day before the race. I did not lose a
single pound. I can't say that I gorged after the race either. It takes me a while to get my appetite back
once I stop running. I had a small cheeseburger on the way home, and then a
reasonably portioned dinner before going to sleep. I think I drank a beer and a
half and had some chocolate milk. I resumed my regular eating habits the next
day.
15. Who was that hot girl you were hugging at
the finish line?
I’m a lucky guy.
16. Do you
know how crazy this sounds?
Asked and answered. Aren’t you paying attention?
I can’t thank my crew enough, Jennifer Florida, Matt Vayda
and Mike Grogan for coddling me all weekend and of course race director Mike
Melton and his volunteers for putting on a great event.
