when a 100km run is done after 60km…

Winschoten, september 11th 2021

It’s been a while since I’ve posted something here, but in these crazy times there’s just not been many big adventures… But this weekend it was time to race again! So time for a (slightly unstructured) long story about a long run, that wasn’t as long as it needed to be, but still was a great day out running!

And yes, there are mixed feelings about this one… You don’t go to a race to not finish, but I’m trying to look at the bigger picture, and not only did I learn a lot (as you do when things don’t go as planned), I also had a great day out (and in the end having great days is what it’s all about, since as an amateur athlete this is all about just enjoying what you do!)

Back to the beginning…

In june the swissultra Deca got cancelled (again…), and where last year I was relieved when that decision was made, this year it’s different… Not only had I found a way to enjoy training in a ‘social-distancing-world’ again (although my swim-training is missing a lot of hours…), I also need a goal, and the structure that comes with that goal, to distract me from the crazy world around me (that’s slightly oversimplifying the story, but you’ll get the idea…). So with a race that’s been my main focus disappearing from the calendar, I need a backup-plan!

A few ideas come to mind, but most of those include travelling, and at this time it’s uncertain how difficult traveling would be later in the season, so I know I “need” a local event, just to protect me from disappointment when there would be a travel-ban…

So time to tick of a bucket-list run! The “Run Winschoten” is a legendary ultrarunning-race that’s been around since 1976, hosting the Dutch National Championships on the 100km, sounds like a fun day out!

But…

After living with the complete focus on The Deca for so long now, I don’t want to schedule my entire life around my “backup”race… I talk to coach Jacomina, and ask if she can build a training plan that does include enough mileage, but does not include “having” to do a lot of crazy long runs… I want to keep it “fairly easy”, since I don’t want to put too much pressure on myself, and take time to “recover” from two years of cancelled races… So this summer my focus shifted; after a few years of tuning the “ultra-triathlon-multi-day-diesel-engine”, it was now time to reprogram the system to a “faster-because-it’s-only-one-day-diesel engine”. No ultrarunning this summer (I think my longest run was a marathon, then repeated by another marathon 2 days later), but a lot of shorter, faster runs, intervals, and mainly getting the body and mind ready to keep a good pace while being tired… And it seemed to work; my regular 20km-loop just got faster and faster, and it kept feeling as easy as always… (and not to worry: I’ve done the mileage throughout the year, so the ultrarunning mindset is pretty much dialed in!)

Raceday…

This time there’s no support-crew on-site; I’ve asked some people to come and help out, but they are all busy having other plans (or used that as a polite excuse to not come and sit by the side of the road all day… which I totally understand!), so I’m going solo… This could be a challenge (since during long races you can use all the help and energy you can get), but I decide to rethink this into something positive; this would be a great day to push myself through whatever happens myself, and not run away (pun intended) from any problem-solving or decision-making during the race! Luckily, the ultra-running community is awesome, and when I park my car next to Belgian runner Jennifer and her support Ludo we start chatting, and before we arrive at registration they offer me a spot to put my nutrition on their table in the support-zone. Not only does this save me bringing my own table from the parking to the event-field, it also means that now there’s a new friendly face near my nutrition, and friendly faces are always welcome… I set up, do the final pre-race routines, and go to the start…

And then it’s time to run… 10 laps of 10km… on a flat, paved road… how hard can it be…

Right before the start I get a bit emotional… It’s been almost 2 years since my last race (the linkeroevert marathon in Antwerp), and although racing is “a big deal”, I also realise that the world has changed, and we’ve been in a different world for quite a while now… But here, at the start of a run, with fellow-runners, race-marshalls and a small crowd, the world just feels “normal” again… This is going to be an awesome day!

The gun fires, and it’s time to run! I start out fast, but settle in a relaxed pace quite soon. Todays plan is simple; focus on nutrition, run easy, and try and never, ever, ever look at the time. I’m running “by feel”, and I feel good! The only downside is that is a bit warm, but very humid, so it feels even warmer than it is, and I know right from the start that my sports-drink is going to be even more important than ever!

I won’t write a full report about every km of the run, so here’s a few random “highlights”

• when settling into an easy rhythm and talking to a fellow runner (yes, on these long races you run at a pace where you can actually have a conversation) he asks me what my goal is today. When I answer “10 hours would be nice” he tells me he’s running on an 8 hour 30 schedule… Oops… so far for trying to run based on how I feel (it really did feel easy at that point!)
• For the first time in my ‘career’ I overtook a runner who was running on wooden shoes / clogs… I cheered him on, thinking it was awesome (and slightly insane) that someone would do a 10km on footwear like that (I assumed he was part of a 10 x 10km relay-team). Later I overtook him again, so this man was doing more than one lap… Turns out he was running the 50km on wooden shoes! (Not sure if he made it to the finish, but I do hope so, because he deserves it!)

 

 

• support on the course was amazing; I did read the stories about the local community embracing this event, but it was truly a party everywhere… And a fun part of a long, multi-looped race is that you see the party develop: in the first lap there’s people putting up tents in their front yards, in the second lap they’re having a coffee, and after a few laps there’s loud music, plenty of beers, and everybody is having a good time!
• there’s a dedicated “support” zone, where athletes can put up their own tables with nutrition, and since this is an official championships-race, this is also the only place where coaches can hand over drinks. This place is busy, and there’s a great energy when running through the park where the support-zone is located. The main source of energy is the Italian coaching/support team; there’s a lot of Italian runners today (using this race as a world-championship qualifier, let’s say there’s a lot of very, very fast Italians here today), and since it’s a looped course there’s always an Italian runner close by. Italian supporters and coaches are very vocal and passionate at their job, and that was basically free energy every time!

But with the highlights, there also are “lowlights” (that’s probably not the right word in this context, but still, there has to be an opposite to the highlights…)

The run itself didn’t go exactly as hoped… The pace is good (although the first 2 laps are way too fast), but I feel my first wave of light-headedness after 20km. Usually this feeling means a lack of electrolytes/salt, and that normally doesn’t happen so early on in a race (especially since I’ve followed my nutrition plan like clockwork!). I try to deal with it, getting a bit more drink in, and some salty nuts, but the feeling never gets any better… So I keep putting the food in, hoping things will be better, try some “backup” foods as well, but the feeling gets worse and worse… In the meantime I have some muscle-soreness in my calf-muscle, and a painful achilles (which normally does not happen until wáy, wáy further into a run), the temperature is getting to me, and at 25km I decide that I really have to rethink my ultra-sports future after this race (not a good sign when a thought like that pops up)… Let’s say things aren’t going too well, and it’s only been 25km… (that’s a normal “after-work-before-diner” run, so that should not feel like this!).

Somewhere in lap 4 I know that finishing is possibly not an option; I start feeling worse, and although I can still run a steady pace, I know it is only a matter of time… But deciding to quit can not be a decision made on emotion; this is a long race, and you just don’t stop when things are getting hard! So I keep running, and start to work out a mental strategy; basically, if I make it to 80km I will make it to the finish, since the last 20km don’t really count anyway (from 80km it’s just one 10km loop, and then a victory lap… – I know that by the time you get to that point it doesn’t feel like that, but early on in the race I need to trick my mind into making this thing easy!). By now the plan is to make a mental plan to get to 80km, but I can’t figure it out. 45km into the run I start thinking; “what was the goal today?”

You never go to a race to not finish: the goal is alway to finish… Then there’s “time-oriented” goals (I’ve told people “10 hours would be awesome”, but I’ve been secretly thinking “9,5 hours would be possible”), but for this race these goals are very rationally made-up. The intrinsic motivation doesn’t run as deep as during some other races; this is not a race that I’ve been preparing for all year, so I don’t have to finish by any means necessary. This one is not the race where I will risk an achilles-injury for, or, having depleted my energy reserves, want to feel physically sick from for the next two weeks trying to recover from pushing myself way too hard…
And this is not an epic trail-run, or the multi-year Deca adventure, where I want to finish no matter what, so stopping at an aid-station, taking a half hour break, recover with a power-nap or any other way, and then carry on? No, this was going to be a race, so I’m either racing, or I’m not…

The entire thought-process is almost impossible to explain or write down (and it would be boring to read anyway, honestly), but I take about an hour to make a decision. And just after the 50km point I decide that this is the final lap of the day, and I will stop at 60km (what makes the decision final was that it takes me nearly a full kilometer of walking to empty a bottle, and this struggle is getting harder and harder every lap…). If I was further into the run by now I might push it to the finish, but with still a marathon to go it’s just too far to push through, when it’s not the “main race” of the year (although it kind of is… but still, it’s just not worth the risk and recovery-time). So I fight my way through the final lap, make it to the finish, and try to enjoy the rest of the day…

Random thoughts after the race…

The most important thing: I had an awesome day! Met some great people, had a good run (I know, “good” is not what you usually say when you don’t make it to the finish…), and learned a lot… Nutrition has been my nemesis ever since going for longer events, and the frustrating part is that it’s continuing to be a bit of a ‘hit-and-miss’… Time to start working on that… again…

And even if it’s impossible to explain the thought process that goes on before quitting the race, I’m actually really happy with how I handled it; this was not a decision based on emotion, or made easily. It was very rational, and I took the time to weigh all the arguments, and in the end knew that continuing would just not be something what would bring me anything, but it would cost me a lot… So I also learned a lot about my drive and motivation when going on crazy adventures, and that will help with making new plans…

Oh, and some other good news… The legs were pretty good today, since I did manage to break my 50km ánd my 60km personal best time by over 5 minutes each… Not bad for a “sub-optimal day of running”

RUN winschoten – 100km (DNF)
60km – 5’22’02

(new PB: 50km – 4’15’05)