We left for Phoenix on 12/30 - our weather was very mild for the holiday break, but it was very nice to escape the snow, ice and now mud that is everywhere as the snow is finally melting. We went first to the race course to sign in, get our tent loaded, and orient ourselves. Found and visited with some old acquaintances, and watched the runners go by. The 6 day race started on 12/28 so some people had already been running for a couple of days. They are another species of human!
Yummy dinner at a little hole in the wall Mexican restaurant and then settled into our hotel for the night, getting everything ready for a quick but organized getaway in the morning.
Brief event (can't really call it a race) recap... ATY is a loop course that measures about 1.05 miles. Mostly hard-packed desert dirt, there is a short 300' section of pavement on one side of the loop and a section of concrete sidewalk of about the same length on the other side. The course is at one of the National League Baseball spring training (Cactus league) facilities in Phoenix and curves between baseball diamonds and training facilities. Mostly flat, there is just a small rise of maybe 10-15 feet in one section. Port-a-johns at several points around the course mean generally no waiting, and a single large aid station that is incredibly well stocked with a variety of foods and snacks throughout the day. Runners change direction every 4 hours and we all have chips on our ankles to count laps. There is a display screen setup such that with every lap you can see your lap count/miles/kilometers/most recent lap time.
I started off running and did a mix of running/walking for the first 12 miles, then pretty much kept to fast walking unless I happened to be chatting with someone who was running. I'd say after 16 miles it was ALL walking, but I walk fast. It got warm mid-day (70's) then cooled off fast by early evening and was stinkin' cold (frost in Phoenix!) overnight. I was actually walking with my big down parka and a beenie - of course I still had running shorts on as I was unwilling to mess with my feet in order to put on tights... a mistake to be sure, my feet needed to be messed with.
My tummy was bad from the start - something in my body chemistry was messed up and I was peeing excessively with every drink, plus I was faintly nauseous pretty much the whole time. Made it hard to decide about eating, what to eat, when to eat and whether I even wanted to eat. (Obviously I did!). It just meant I spent a stupid amount of time visiting the portable toilets to pee. Have since decided that I do better with the low tech drinks like Gatorade and that other mixes don't suit my tummy chemistry. I had quite a lot of Glycofuse which is a 'supercarb' and while it works for recovery, I think it doesn't work for me for "during". Neither does plain water, the other thing I drank. I really do not think I was over-hydrated, I think I was low on salts.
Tom and I started off together for a couple of laps, then separated based on our preferred speeds for most of the day as we visited with different people, and stopped to eat, drink or make adjustments as needed. We got back together in the late afternoon, about 4:30 pm and then stayed together until I stopped a little before 3:00 am. We drew many comments about our strong power walking and it was fun to hear each other's stories from the day. We were efficient with quick aid station stops/pee stops and when we needed to add clothing. We enjoyed a quick mile just before midnight, picked up a couple of cups of ginger ale, and toasted the New Year with a sip and a few kisses, then kept walking.
The things I worried about, my right hamstring and both Achilles tendons were not a problem at all. My quads got nasty painful by late afternoon and I had an almost cramp in my left calf started about 3 hours into the race. It never fully cramped but nagged at me the whole time. Massive blister developed around 9:00 pm and the super fast lap we did to get "just one more" in before midnight (when there would be a brief celebration on the course) caused three separate blisters to merge into 1 massive blister that covers the ball of my foot.
So what stopped me? My head if I'm honest. Bad stomach was wearing on me, the quad pain was causing some knee pain (the muscle contracted and was pulling my knee cap up), and the blister was like stepping on something really hot with pins poking my foot. Several years ago, probably 2004, Tom and I did an 8 day 400 mile adventure race. We had to walk a crazy distance in cleated bicycling shoes and got massive and deep blisters on the soles of our feet. We were damaged/impacted by that for more than a year with foot pain and a nasty tendancy to re-blister. I just didn't want to risk that again - I have plans for this year and foot problems just don't come into it! So, I reached 100 km which had been an early goal and I allowed myself to be satisfied with what I accomplished and I stopped. Tom was ahead of me by 5 laps already (he ran more early in the day) and he wanted to get to 70 miles so he went on for 2 more laps before stopping. His blisters are much, much worse than mine and will cause him problems much longer.
Good things: I set the Garmin to auto-lap every 4 miles, that was a reminder to try and make 4 miles an hour. Didn't always accomplish it, but had a lot of Garmin laps right around 1 hour.
- Food I brought from home that I would do again: fritos, almond rice crackers, cutie oranges, boiled eggs, pepperoni slices, Ensure, Starbucks frappachino's, Gatorades. Ate gobs of Tums - next time take a bigger bottle! Didn't need all the Gu's, and don't want the Glycofuse next time.
- Aid station food that was great: egg burrito, bean pockets, M&M's, pizza - there was a lot I didn't eat as the wheat content was overwhelming and I can only tolerate a certain amount before I have intestinal problems.
- Next time I think I'll visit the first aid tent and let them do something with my blister, or pop it myself and bandage.
Merry Christmas and things!