Spoiler alert: The worst performances make the best race reports. Sorry not sorry if this one is a little dry.
I’ve written before about how success in running (and, really, life in general) is all about finding the right pond. It’s the inverse of The Peter Principle. Rather than constantly striving for bigger and better things which will inevitably lead to consistent failure (even elite athletes get old and can no longer win against the best), find the level at which you perform well and learn to be content there. Note that I didn’t say find the level at which things are easy. Performing well means being outside of your comfort zone and you’ll never do that if you are content with easy. So, even if you know there’s absolutely no chance of winning a race like Leadville, you should do it anyway just to force yourself to grapple with something very hard. But, if you only do things like that, you’re cheating yourself out of one of life’s really great experiences: winning a race outright.
So, while nabbing an Age Group award at Leadville was great, it still involved finishing TEN HOURS behind the overall winner. It was time to look for smaller ponds to finish out the year.
Big River 10 – September 17
I’ve run this race in Jefferson County a couple times before and have an odd Course Record: slowest winning time. Normally, somebody finishes the 10-mile route in about an hour but, for whatever reason, my 65:50 in 2015 was good enough for the win. With almost no speed training in the last year, I expect to be significantly slower and further down the list this year. I’m right on the first count; finishing in 69:20. But, I seem to be really good at picking the slow years for this one; I take the overall win. (It should be noted that I ran the whole way with the top woman, Alejandra Pascual-Garrido. We finished side by side but my chip registered first and the organizers didn’t bother to update the official listing to show a tie.) So, now I have the TWO slowest winning times.
Arrowhead 24-hour – October 7-8
I was signed up to run Chicago this weekend but, knowing that my speed is way off from three years of focusing on 100’s, I decide to skip it in favor of this low-key affair in Southern Illinois. The circuit is a nearly flat 2-mile gravel path that circles Arrowhead Lake. As such, it’s reasonable to think that I could knock out one of the better 60+ performances in the country for 24 hours. If nothing else, I’m nearly guaranteed a PR as the only time I’ve ever gone past 100 miles was the ill-fated Outerbelt run last year, where I didn’t get to 100 until the second day. The weather cooperates, dealing near-perfect conditions at the 6AM start.
Karolina Zavisiute has come along to crew and pace me. On a loop this short, crewing is a big plus because I never have to stop and don’t have to carry anything either – she just hands me what I need each lap as I pass. It only saves a few seconds each lap, but they add up. Plus, it’s just good mental discipline to care about seconds. Stop doing that and pretty soon you’re giving away minutes.
I cover 36 miles in the first six hours and then slow a bit (it’s not hot, but there’s no cloud cover at all, so the afternoon feels plenty warm). I hit 100K right at 12 hours. So far, so good, but I’ve taken it out just a bit too fast. By midnight I’m struggling to keep going at any speed despite Karolina running alongside to help keep me awake. I don’t hit 100 miles until 3:30 AM (21:30 elapsed) which puts the top 60+ distance (120 miles) out of reach. I soldier on for another ninety minutes to set a course record and decide enough is enough, packing it in with an hour remaining. My distance of 105.72 miles is easily enough for the win and ends up being the fifth-best distance nationally for my age in 2023.
Survive the Night – October 27-28
For those not familiar with the “Backyard” format, I’ll simply say that it basically involves running a loop every hour until everybody quits. At the highest level, this can go on for several days. Locally, they usually wrap up in a day or so. To shorten things up, Survive the Night uses a “leaky hourglass” rule where the amount of time you get to complete the loop drops once the sun comes up.
The course follows an extremely circuitous route through a paintball park. There’s been a fair bit of rain the day before so the tight turns are a bit slick. Being Central Illinois, there’s nothing that qualifies as an actual hill, but there are several slight inclines that provide opportunities for 15-20 second walk breaks (spreading the walking out so you finish each lap just before the time cutoff is a big part of hanging in on these things).
We start our first loop at 9PM. A light drizzle ensures that the course will not be drying out during the event. It also takes a toll on the field. Combined with a chilly wind, the conditions could best be described as terrible. By lap three everybody has fallen in the mud at least once. After a mere five hours, only Frank Evans and I present ourselves at the start line for lap six. I’m still moving reasonably well but Frank misses the cut at the end of six.
Nobody expected the race to be over by 3AM and it seems a bit cheap to get a Survive the Night win without actually surviving the night. The relay teams are still going at it, so I finish the remaining three night loops before claiming my prize.
Don Robinson Orienteering – November 11
I don’t recall ever getting three outright wins in a row (and, I’m pretty sure I’d remember that). A few years back, extending it to four at a local orienteering meet would have been a good bet to take. While we get a healthy turnout at local meets, there just aren’t very many local folks that take the sport seriously enough to be able to navigate accurately on a dead run. It’s not like I haven’t had worthy opponents, but when there are only 2 or 3 people in contention the odds are with you. Until now.
Between my advancing years and a new crop of Adventure Racers who have realized this is the most important discipline for their sport, this was the first year in quite a few that I’ve been beat every time out. Indeed, that persists as I finish second to Nathan Graves. On the upside, it’s a decent map, fun course, and beautiful day to be in the woods. I do chuckle at the irony of winning three running events in a row only to have that streak broken by what used to be my strongest discipline.
Hot Chocolate 15K – December 3
This one is a pacing gig but I decide to approach it like a race. Not in the sense of trying to win, but rather going through the rigor of my normal pre-marathon prep. I’m pacing the 7:00/mile group, which is close enough to my marathon pace that it makes for a good dress rehearsal; except that I’ll pull the plug at 1/3 the distance.
I taper the week before, bringing my mileage down from the mid-80’s I’ve been running most of the fall to 50 and throw in some track workouts designed to dial in the pace. Race day, I get up at 4AM to have my customary bowl of oatmeal and go for a short jog scheduled to finish two hours ahead of my warmup. Upon arriving at the Forest Park, I attend a quick meeting with the pace team, run my normal marathon warmup, and get into the corral.
The course is hilly by road racing standards and there’s a brisk wind from the west. Running even splits is quite difficult and, as it turns out, ill-advised. I hold back as we run east and downhill for miles 5 and 6, forgetting that I’ll be going back uphill and into the wind for 7 and 8. It results in a fairly big push to stay on pace and I’d feel bad about that if it resulted in blowing up the pace group. Fortunately, there are only two people left hanging on and, while one of them does falter, he catches back up on the downhill mile to the finish. I finish in 64:49 (6:58/mi) which makes it a complete success from a pacing standpoint. While I’m sure I could have stayed on that pace for another hour, the third hour would have been pretty ugly. So, there’s some work to do for next year (primary goal for 2024 is to get my marathon speed back). Offsetting that is the reminder that the bar does keep getting lowered with age: I win my age group. I’ve never done that as a pacer before.
And that wraps it for 2023 (I consider the Frostbite Series to be early season 2024 even though the first two races are in December). While it has been fun to play in the smaller ponds for a couple months, it’s time to get back out of comfort zone and into that area where success is possible, but failure is more likely. I believe the best goals are verifiable, attainable, and hard. Breaking 3 hours at Chicago as a 61-year-old seems to meet all three.
