HURT 2010 Personal Stats

HURT 100

Statistics for Mike M.

...................N-P..P-J...J-N.......Total
Loop 1 2:03 1:38 2:21 6:02
Loop 2 2:39 1:30 2:22 6:31
Loop 3 2:35 1:59 2:23 6:57
Loop 4 3:21 2:05 2:30 7:56
Loop 5 2:47 1:53 2:16 6:56


Averages 2:41 1:49 2:22 6:52 34:22

(The formatting is difficult and I have given up.)

Well there is the raw data. Looking at it I have the following comments. If you keep in mind that the aid station stops are included in the NEXT loop then it obvious that my stops are difficult. Secondly the Nature Center is the worst.

I think what I need is one bag with just the essentials. Electrolytes, Muscle Milk, Lube, Lights. I started getting the staff to do my water, but even that can be a hassle if they don't know what they are doing.

I have to admit that I am often confused when coming in, but unlike a raw stash the aid stations are filled with very well meaning people who won't stop asking you stupid questions. I forgot to lube up at least twice, and that after I was busy trying to answer somebody's questions and forgot my emergency jar I always carry.

I am not complaining. I think the trick is to get the routine down better so I can get in and get out. I could have saved an hour of total race time with easy five minute short cuts in the aid station.

The short comings aside I believe I did much better than I ever expected to do. My new routines such as Muscle Milk on the heights, Blocks, low sugar, ice water, all seemed to aid me in maintaining my mental and physical acuity much longer than I have done in the past. Another factor was the Beano which I took to avoid gastric problems. It worked. I have run too many races with a gut full of gas and pain, or forced off the trail. There is an hour right there.

Of course having been out on those trails for 60 hours in much worse conditions just gives me a much better understanding of the problems I have to deal with while out on the trail.

The training, Many hundreds of miles of long slow jogging and walking, followed by faster 20 mile pacing loops, followed by even faster sectional pacing loops, gave me an understanding of the trail and the tasks I had to accomplish. Going up the first hill was often either a red flag or a caution just because I knew where I had to be at that moment to get where I wanted to go at the required time. If you know the terrain you can push the flats and light slopes and gain time if necessary.

100 mile running is a moving meditation. You need to be aware of every moment. Lose that awareness and you will either slow down, fall, or go too fast and injure yourself. You must always be in the moment. It is as hard as a long vippassana sit. The best thing you can do is put your head down and work on making the next step the best one you have ever taken. Don't look up at the heights, or whine, just head down and take your best step.

As I have said in the previous post, the weather was stunning. Dry, cool, and sunny. There was almost no mud on the trails. A few of the seeps were moist, but everything else was hard ground. I went down a few times, once quite hard, but it was inattention, not a slip.

I ended up with some knee soreness, I won't call it pain. I have blisters on my feet and some raw spots on my ankles from an old pair of socks that seemed to have shrunk a bit. I have some blisters, but nothing I wouldn't expect after the last loop where I ran too fast too far. On the trails I kept it together. I didn't bonk, didn't tighten-up, didn't hallucinate much, kept my electrolytes under control and maintained.

The journey for these races is in the preparation. I will remember this year for all the Runs that Rex, I, and a lot of good friends did over the past months. Getting out into the hills above Honolulu is always a treat, but to be able to visit many wonder places again and again was a wonderful gift from the spirits of the trails.

Like Rex said. It is just a foot race. I agree completely. But I also feel a good deal of satisfaction about the time, and the fact that I kicked some ass on the last loop. No body else over sixty finished the race, though Gary Marr at 58 tore up the course and came in almost an hour in front of me.

Hurt 2010

Rex and I had trained for months for this race. We ran in the night, the rain, the cold, and occasionally windy days that could scare you off the trails if you let the falling branches and trees become a personal thing. So it was a bit of a dissapointment to have the race fall during a period of extraordinarily dry weather. So dry there was no mud on the trails! Actually dust in places. You could step anywhere and get traction. Very atypical. But that is the weather for you.

Rex and I went out faster than we had planned. We tried to go slow, but it was hard. Our paces were reflecting the 5:30 training runs. We had to throtle back. It was hard. We actually walked the last three miles to the nature center because we were so fast. The first loop was a 6:02. The weather was cool in the morning and then becamse much hotter, but there was a nice trade wind and that cooled down the mountains a bit.

The second loop was about a 6:15, the third as a 7:10 or so. And then things went haywire and
Rex became ill, and I had to head out on my own. I was hoping he'd get it together and be able to catch up, but it didn't happen. Luckely Jan was pacing Rex and she could see to his problems and try and help him out. But the damage was done, and we were not running together.

I went on to run a 7:30 or something and then something in the Sixes. I ran the last loop out of Nature Center, as I am accostomed to due in most of my finishes, despite the fact that I was not on the bubble this year. I managed to catch up with about six other runners, and pass them. It cost me a very tender pair of knees, not to mention a lot of people wondering what I was trying to prove.

I'm pretty beat up. A few falls left welts and scars on my shinns. I have a lot of blisters from the hard running in the last loop. Most of all my knees hurt quite a bit.

I ran a 24:24 or some number close to that. It cost me too much to be cute. Hopefully it will not create any permanent injury. I'm writing this the evening of the finish. I am a zombie..whose knees hurt.

The End of HURT Training is on the Horiizon

At the 'Bench' on the Grassy Knoll above Nu'uanu.

I've been training so much I've been too tired to care about posting to a blog that very few people read, even if it is my diary of the trails. As you can see on the running log to the right of the text I have been out on the trails a few times a week for the last few months. After the 60 hour birthday run Rex and I have done a 60 miler, a 12 hours of Hogsback, another 60 miler, and numerous 20 milers for speed, mixed in with some shorter 10 to 15 miles runs for speed and timing. It has been a long hard process. A process that basically comes to an end about a week from now and a few days before the HURT 100.

Rex, Jan, and Ernst on Last 20 of Training Season at Paradise Stash

Today's run was not for speed, we are both kind of beat up and it seemed to make no sense in pushing too hard. But even with our relaxed pace we were putting down times that are very good and well within the realm of the times we want to be clocking during the HURT. We managed to make it to the three-way at Pauoa Flats in under 60, the bench in about 75, and then did an down and out of Nu'uanu in under 90 minutes. Even in its disjointed order the times speak of a 6:30 or so. Its about what we want to be doing, and if we can do it at a hard pace, rather than a run, then we have achieved our goals. (The opportunity to run, or need to, if the case may be, is there but it takes about 40 percent greater effort and produces only minutes of time savings on each section. Yes it adds up, but the toll on the body is just too great. Better to be smart and go slower at a good hard race walk.

People thought I was nuts when I decided to do the 60 hours of HURT for my birthday run, and Don got down right nasty with me when I decided to do another 60 two weeks later. By the time we did the Hogsback 12 hour night run he had quieted down, and after the last sixty he just gave me a pat on the back and told me I was a lot more crazy and capable than he had thought. Of course the proof will be in the 100 miles we run on the 16 and 17 of January.

The trails are in great shape, so I am expecting a hell of a storm in the week before the run. That's OK, I did three nights of rain on the 60 hour run. It was as cold and wet as I have seen up there on the ridges. It didn't stop us then and I don't see it making much of a difference if it does. Times will suffer of course, but that's just the was it is.

I wish everyone a Happy New Year. Get out and run a bit, or at least walk.