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.

Another Hurt Loop for Speed

Rex and I have altered our training approach. We are now working on Speed rather than distance. This mean mostly hard 20 milers and shorter runs over ground we will be running in the HURT. The goal is to get the times down so it becomes natural to push at desired paces over important ground.

We are climbing the Hogsback in sub 20's, doing the run to the three way at Center in 30, and making the top of Tantalus road by the upper 40's. This gives us the ability to hit the map room by 1:20 or less; a pace that carries us down to Paradise in 2:00, and back up to the bench at the grassy knoll in 3:00. The goal is do a down and up of Jack-ass by 4:20 or less. That puts us in line to do a 5:30 or so if we decide to run the downs back to Nature Center.

This is way beyond the race pace I intend but it is good to know I can do this pace if I need to. For a while there I was wondering if I could break 7:00. These sub-sixes are a real confidence booster as far as speed is concerned. Doing sub-sevens over three loops now seems entirely possible while just a few weeks ago I was not so sure I could do it.

We plan a half dozen of these over the next few weeks, and that will be the end of the training.

HURT 100 SPLIT TIMES

Here is an analysis of my HURT 100 split times

Spreadsheet

My averages over each section were

Nature to Paradise 2:40:48
Paradise to Jackass 2:00:00
Jackass to Nature 2:29:12
Average total Loop 7:10:00

Recovery

Out on the Kalawahine Trail.

One Definintion of Kalawahine is Cleansing Rain.

Well, the hallucinations have ebbed, and the periods of coma like inactivity have passed. I have managed to scrub the dirt off most of my appendages and the blisters are not as bad as I had feared when they were burning the bottoms of my feet. I still have GI problems, but I always have those, and for some reason nobody is the least bit interested in hearing about them.

I feel relatively good, I have some knee pain I do not like, but I will go easy for a few weeks. I am coming back into the world. The endorphin bath is always quite blissful, even with the tremendous pain and hardship it takes to get there.

loop 1: 5:59:00 Being Really Stupid actually slowed on last section to rest.
loop 2: 7:05:00 Minor Bonk coming into Paradise (chills/sweats, loss of balance)
loop 3: 8:11:00 Major Stop sock change, bonk (20 minutes) Loop run all in the dark
loop 4: 7:34:00 Gut Cramping (15 minutes slowing)
loop 5: 7:01:00 Gut Cramping (30+ minutes-- almost put me out. I just walked through it.)

35:50:00

I'm wondering what I can do next.

2009 Hurt 100

The HURT 100 Finisher's Shirt and the 100 Mile Finisher's Belt Buckle. (How do I attach the buckle to my swim trunks?

It took me 20 minutes to get my camera and have somebody take a shot. I came in and stood at the sign just like this for 10 minutes before I realized nobody gave a shit.

I finally grabbed Rex and got this picture. This is one of the most sincere handshakes I have ever made. Rex saved my ass at least twice on this HURT 100!


Fish was with me in spirit if not running right in front of me on the entire HURT. The training we did together is the base I depended upon. The last loop was a typical 'all out' run that we did again and again in training.

And......it wasn't. I wrote a long story about the last one I did in 2007. This one was less dramatic, but no less eventful. I once again finished in 35:50. This year with a lot of help from Rex, who paced me through the last section. Fish and I had run that last section out of Nuuanu so many times that it was just natural to let it all hang out. Thanks to Rex, who saved my ass at one aid station stop, and helped me through what appeared an impossible task of getting out of Nu'uanu, to Fish who has trained with me for months, and to Don who was with me at most aid stations and watched over my progress. I am most fortunate to have such good friends.

We who about to die, salute you!

Well I am not about to die, nor do I need to pay homage to a mad emperor, but the days are gone and the hours are fleeing, and the HURT 2009 is upon us.

I have trained well, I believe I have prepared well, and I am ready to meet the trails for as long as it takes to do five loops. It will be wet, cold, slippery, and unpleasant. But that is what it is. I have my idea of how to do it and that is the plan I will stick to.

Time now to simply do what needs to be done for the next 48 hours.

First New Year Run over Well Worn Trails

I was going nuts at home listening to a hard rock station and doing core training when I finally decided to call Fish and find out what he was doing. He called me back about an hour later and it turned out he was ready for a run too. We agreed a tener was all we could handle and set a 4:30 PM meet time below the water tank. Fish was waiting for me when I showed up before 4:30.

We hadn't even entered the park area near the trail head and it was obvious it was wet up there. The ground was a muddy plain where usually it was hard packed. I had opted to wear a hip bottle pack, which seemed a good idea considering we were only doing a ten miler. But it was already giving me problems. Bottle packs take me a while to get used to and I am always rash to just throw one on and go running. This was proving to be the case and I could feel my glutes tightening even as we headed across the bridge an onto the trail.

The heavy rains had seeped onto the grounds and were now finding their way out at lower elevations. There were small seeps, mud holes, and small flowing wisps of water all along the trail. It was a mess. Broadway, which is usually dry, was almost like Pauoa Flats, and it wasn't until we reached the end and made the turn at three balls, the beginning of the upward trail, that it finally dried out a bit. It was muddy all the way up the hogback, even in places that are usually dry. But we made good time regardless and hit the top in 17.

I was over the edge, past the bench and down onto the staircases quickly and trying to play that game between running and stressing my tendons to early into the run. Staircases always does that the first time through. We crossed the bridge at the bottom and headed up Twisters, the mud making the going a bit slippery. There was a group coming down and we weaved our way between them reciting the 'thank you ' mantra. We hit the top, dropped into Gingers and passed a another couple who were walking the course. I began to run a bit up into Easy's and was feeling good, but I could tell the bottle pack had been a bad idea. Coming down Rooty Run my ass started to tighten, and then my back spasmed. By the bottom I was telling Fish that I needed to cruise a bit to see if I could work out the spasm.

I was hurting as we started up Mango's and I was looking for a place to lie down and adjust my back. We made the first turn and I found a place where the ground cover was thicker than the mud and lay down and tried to pop myself into a straighter stance. It worked a bit. We moved on, and I adjusted the bottle pack a bit to take the weight off my right hip. It was muddy in the upper reaches as well. The old pig ruts were thick with mud; it's been years since I saw them like this. Farther on the flushes, seeps, and rills were working and the ground along the trail was at best soft, with deep mud in many places. We just ran through the slop.

The late afternoon was working into early evening and the birds were active along the trail; many of them reluctant to give us right of way as they foraged along the watery flows. The sun was far in the west, lighting up the lower landscape but casting the western slopes of Makiki valley in shadows. We pushed up the hillside, making time where we could, and hit Tantalus at just over fifty minutes. A good showing.

Kalawahine was aglow in the late day sun. The trails were wet, and many places showed the effects of the heavy rains of the early week. We pushed on at a fast jog, fast walk, and occasional run. I was feeling a bit better, adjusting the bottle pack now and then to alleviate the pain in my back.

Half-way down the trail we spotted a dog. The beast was heading out on the same trail we were running in on. Unfortunately we spooked it, and it took off ahead of us retracing its footsteps. Fish rued its fate. Dogs that get lost up along the trails have short lives. Hunting dogs are never well fed, and a few days off their feed and they are weak. A dog that goes a few days on the trails will likely weaken and end up being eaten by the pigs. A cruel reversal of how things are supposed to go. We ran the trail looking for signs of the dog, but it was spooked and just took off down the trail. We made the turn at the bottom of Manoa Cliff's hoping that it would try to retrace its steps and get out at the Kalawahine trail head.

It was wet and muddy on the up. The heavy rains had been doing some work on the trails, even over the week since I had last seen them. It was hard going but I pushed where I could, and just ignored the mud and trudged on. We made the Map room at 1:17. The sky still bright but the sun had set. We were in a race now, trying to get as far as we could along Manoa Cliffs before the light faded. We made the top of the trail and headed down Manoa Cliffs, the valley shadowed below us, the outline of Diamond head highlighted by the still bright southern sky. Lights were coming on below us. We ran on.

I used my light in the heavy groves and darker valleys. The mud was heavy, the trail was littered with greenery, the winds were suddenly whipping up and blowing hard down the valley. Most of the dead wood had already been blown out of the trees, so nothing was coming down on us. We ran quickly along the trail, making the bench, and then the stairs in good time. I didn't look at my watch, and just pushed on up the stairs and switchbacks, and into the muddy section near top. The final high steps came easy, the mud tracks were slop, we crossed the foot bridge and headed down through the thick mud at the top.

We were moving fast at the road and came out right into the path of a car that was speeding down the road. We must have made some scene because the driver slowed and watched us disappear off onto the Moleka Trail. I had both lights out now, and was pushing through the wet areas, going on memory. Whenever I could I ran. We hit the switchbacks and I pushed up, making it to the top and ten yards down the upper trail before my system was screaming for more O2. It took a minute before I was running again, fast, then slower as the roots got heavy, then cautious as we approached the steps. Down the steps and faster down the long slope toward the Bench at the top of Hogsback. I still had not looked at my watch.

Fish and I took the crossover at good speed. I ran Easies, and danced down Rooty Run, chugging the last of my water as we rounded Big Bend. Then we pushed down Center Trail. Hard to run now, and I was watching my knees. No need to be reckless. We counted our way down the slope; Bad Stairs, Concrete Pipes, Dams, into Hau Trees, around past the giant rubber tree that has slipped down the slope, down the steps, along the Lava Dyke, into Bamboos, the Gulch, Samoan Road, Green Hales, Yellow Brick Road, up the small rise and around and down toward Water Pipes, Fish and I running almost side by side as we hit Rocky Bottoms, then snaking through the final section where the Green Curtain used to be, out onto the last of the path before the Bridge. Over, up, around at a run, the next bridge, Right at the giant Norfolk Pines at the beginning of Broadway and the Korean sign. Down into Taro Patches, along the stream, past what is left of the old tree, and out. 2:12. In the mud, half in the dark. Not bad.

100 Days to 100 Miles

Posted to HURT blog on October 11, 2007

We have reached a significant mile post for all who intend to run the HURT 100. 100 possible training days remain. If your schedule has not allowed you time to do significant distance and rigor training then it is high time to make the commitment to the distance. If you have run the 100 miler before you know what you face and how you will train. If you have only run the 100K then you need to start asking yourself what it was that has defeated you in the past and to devise a plan to deal with this in the coming race. Then you need to commit to the hardship of the training and begin to suffer through the routines that will make you successful this year. Finally, if you have never run or completed the 100K you must begin to run the course under all kinds of conditions and to begin to understand what it is that you have gotten yourself into. For the new participant it is a major point of verifying real commitment to the demands of race preparation.

As of tomorrow the race is no longer some distance possibility. The race is very very close. The Holidays witll eat up time, the bad weather of the season will eat up training days, the need to work, and the inevitable cold or flu will also push into your schedule. With all this in the future we probably don't have much more than 10 good weeks of practice ahead of us, and, at best, most of us will only be looking at 5 to 7 long runs before the start.

This year is different. There are a lot of people wanting to run the race who are on the wait list. All accepted runners need to examine their plans to run the race, to judge their honest commitment, and, if it becomes evident that you can not meet the necessary training demands, to withdraw so that others can make a real attempt in your place.

This weeks 12 hour is a great opportunity to test your stamina and willingness to get dirty and slimy. It is going to be a hard nasty final few hours and a great time to understand gear and mental problems that come when you have gone some distance and are under stress. Newer runners should not miss this opportunity to suffer.

In the coming weeks we will be doing those endless Paradise-Nuuanu repeats. Going all day though the endless reps of these nasty hills is perfect for training and understanding. Even better try doing these ditties late at night when the siftings and the scurryings can set one on edge.

Good luck to everyone and train hard. Mike Muench