As most of you know, the Indiana Trail 100 was my focus race for my last training cycle. I trained
for 24 weeks leading up to this event. Leading into race week, I felt good about my training, and I hoped that it was enough. This was the first year for the Indiana Trail 100. This is Indiana's first 100 mile race and was held at Chain O' Lakes State Park near Albion, Indiana. The course is almost entirely smooth single and double track trail, or at least it was two days before the race. More to come on this!
Most of my spare time leading up to the race was spent packing and preparing food. My nutrition plan for the race included e mostly my own food. As such, all of my food had to be planned and packaged in advance. It's amazing how much planning and packing time this can take!
I had reserved a cabin in the park for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday night. My friends Todd and Aaron were going to stay in the cabin as well. Todd was also running the 100, and Aaron was planning to pace me for the last 2 laps. Some of our other Indiana Trail Running friends were staying in the cabin next door. On Friday, I drove up to Todd's house north of Indianapolis and we rode up together from there. As Todd and I drove into the park on Friday, we saw pink flags marking the course that disappeared into standing water near the lake. Not a good sign! The park had received six inches of rain on Thursday night!
At the pre-race instructions on Friday night, we learned that the race directors had spent the day building new trails and rerouting 3 sections of the course that were completely impassable. We also learned that there would be a considerable amount of standing water and mud on the course the next day. One of the race directors, Mike Pfefferkorn, explained the various sections of the course including some of these: "You're going to come to a bridge that's underwater. Just go ahead and cross it as there's no other way around."; "There's now a creek running through the middle of what yesterday was a parking lot."; and "When you come to the section where we have added a rope, please use it.". Everyone was in good spirits and no-one (including myself) seemed deterred by this information. Ultrarunners are the kind of people that really enjoy insane trail conditions.
After the race instructions, we headed back to the cabin to relax. I grabbed a snack and successfully abstained from drinking a beer with the rest of the group, while they made fun of meeting for eating several potatoes. The race was to start at 6:00am the next morning. Todd and I planned to get up at 3:45am so we could wake up, eat, and get down to the starting line in plenty of time. Aaron was on his way up from Indianapolis but wouldn't be in until late. I had hoped to get to bed by about 9:00pm, which I did. Unfortunately, I was so amped up that I couldn't sleep. I ended up getting back out of bed and was up until about 11:30pm. With my alarm set for 3:45am, I knew it would be short night. I awoke in darkness to the sound of Todd stirring about. "What time is it?"..."3:40, are you ready?"..."No." And so it began.
Two hours later, a mass of 243 runners (153 runners attempting the 100 miler, and 90 attempting the 50 miler) crowded together in the darkness at the start line. There were even some die-hard supporters that came out to see us off, including (among many others) my pacer (Aaron), Todd's pacer (Deb), and Terry Fletcher from Indiana Trail Running. After some words from the race directors and a moment of silence for the victims at the Boston Marathon, the starting gun went off
 |
| Starting off |
and the race began right on time. A mass of runners, headlamps gleaming, headed off into the dark cold morning.
Todd and I planned to stay together as long as we both felt it was beneficial. We hoped this would be until after we picked up our pacers (after 50 miles for Todd and after 67 miles for me). We had discussed lap times for a sub 24 hour finish, and I had these scrawled on my arm in black Sharpie. However, we both knew this was likely to be impossible under the wet conditions. In light of that, our plan was to take it easy for the first 2 laps and then go from there. That first lap was eye opening. The magnitude of what I had begun was upon me during this lap. At the start of the race, the temperature was around 30 degrees Fahrenheit with a wind chill around 20 degrees Fahrenheit. We hit the first water crossing about 2 miles into the loop. The water was thigh deep and ice cold.
 |
| Mud! |
There were many stretches of shin deep and knee deep water along the course. I learned later that someone had counted - there were a total of 35 water crossings for the 100 milers! When we weren't slogging through standing water, we were battling with ankle deep, sticky mud. There were 60 stretches of this mud! As we moved along, I knew that the challenge of getting through the cold of the night with 70 miles on my legs was going to be huge. The thought of it was daunting. I put that aside and focused on the task at hand.
 |
| Todd and I, end of Lap 1 |
Todd and I stuck together that first loop, and it went smoothly in 3:53. The sub 24 hour plan called for a lap time close to but no faster than 3:20. I felt that a slow start was critical to conserving vital energy for the rest of race, and I knew the conditions would force a slower pace. As such, I was content with this first lap. We had made steady progress throughout the lap. We walked the hills and most of the mud and water sections. Thus far, my nutrition and hydration seemed to be going smoothly. Our feet were hurting. This is not normal for me. In the last 50 miler I did, my feet were never sore, not even at the end. This seemed to be a side effect of the cold water. After the first lap, we stopped at the Indiana Trail Running (ITR) base-camp. Setting this up was Terry Fletcher's idea, and it was a great one. This provided all ITR members with a place to keep their gear, a place to sit and change shoes, and, even more important, a set of hard-working volunteers that helped us with
whatever we needed to make it through the next lap. This proved invaluable throughout the race. After the first loop, I felt good. I just dropped some off some clothing and grabbed some food. Todd was taking off his shoes and emptying them out. For some reason, I didn't feel this was necessary. This probably wasn't terribly smart. I headed up to the pit toilet while he finished, telling him I would walk until he caught up.
Before I finished and started walking, he took off thinking I was ahead of him. I realized this when I checked with the volunteer who was tracking the outbound runners. I pushed a little to catch Todd. Fortunately, Terry was out taking pictures a few miles in and let Todd know that I was behind him.
 |
| Early Lap 2 |
Before long, I caught up, and we proceeded together. This lap went smoothly, but I could tell that Todd was starting drag a bit the last few miles. I wanted to move a little faster, but I was glad go slow. I knew that going too fast early in a 100 miler can mean slowing way down at the end. Of course, knowing what pace is too fast isn't always easy. The lap went well. Todd and I were having a great time. The sun was out and the temperature was rising. The water didn't seem as cold. We finished the second lap in 4:09. Again, we were behind the sub 24 plan that call for a lap of 3:28. This time I took my shoes off, emptied them out, and changed my socks. Special thanks to Aaron and Debbie for washing our gear and laying it out to dry while we we moved on! With the run still going smoothly, we grabbed some broth from the aid station and headed back out for another loop.
We had 34 miles on our legs, and I felt good. My feet hurt from the cold, but I had gotten used to that. Plus, emptying all the mud and sand out of my shoes really helped! I didn't have any muscle soreness at this point, my nutrition and hydration were on track, and the sun was shining. In the first few miles of that lap, I wanted to maintain pace or speed up a little. However, Todd's back was bothering him. I ran in front, trying to maintain the pace we did on the previous lap. About 2 miles or so into that lap, Todd started falling behind. He wasn't far behind so I maintained pace, hoping he would be able to push through it. Soon, however, I looked back and couldn't see him. I reached the first aid station (around 4 miles into the loop), and I waited there for Todd. I had decided it was probably time for us to split up, but I didn't want to leave Todd without wishing him luck. After a few minutes, he caught up. We headed out of the aid station together. After a few minutes, I told Todd I thought it was time split and that I was going on ahead. We shook hands and wished each other luck. I felt bad going on without him, but I knew that Todd was a strong runner and that he would be fine. The rest of that lap I ran mostly by myself, talking with other runners as I came upon them. I felt good, and I was enjoying myself. I maintained pace but tried to hold something back. I finished this lap in 3:54 (sub 24 plan was 3:36), feeling good. I moved quickly through the ITR base-camp with help from Aaron to clean out my shoes. With 50 miles under my belt, I felt the race was about to begin. I told Aaron that I hoped to be back in 3:30. Aaron was planning to pace me the last 2 laps through the night. He said he would be ready to go.
As I started the fourth lap, I felt good. It was about 6:00pm. Sunset was at 8:30pm and civil twilight was to end at 8:58pm. I had a headlamp in my drop bag about 9 miles into the loop so I had plenty of time to get there before dark. I was pumped about this lap. I was 50 miles into the race, and I still felt good! I enjoyed this lap immensely. The sun was going down and it was a beautiful night. At one point, I was chasing a turkey up the trail. How cool that was! Taking stock, my nutrition and hydration was spot on. Nothing more than nominal soreness for most of the lap. In the last miles of this lap, I started to feel some tightness in my calves and some soreness in my ankles. However, I was still running strong. My lap time in that fourth lap was 4:05, including a long stop at the ITR base-camp. I spent some time there getting ready for the next lap. I was glad Aaron was going with me. I added a long sleeve shirt, emptied out my shoes, grabbed some food, and added a waist lamp (head lamp on my waist). I almost made a huge mistake at this point. I had been wearing shorts the last 2 or 3 laps. I had convinced myself that I would stick with the shorts, but take the tights with me just in case. Fortunately, Aaron talked me out of this, and I put the tights on just before heading out. After we headed out, we realized just how cold it was getting. Had I gone out there without tights, there is a strong chance that I would have gotten too cold to continue.
That first lap with Aaron went quite well. It was a cold, clear night. Owls were hooting. A bright waxing gibbous moon was shining. Through out this time, I was thankful to be out there. The time passed quickly. Aaron and I had not seen each other in months, and we had plenty of catching up to do. It was cold. Bitterly cold. There was no way to keep our feet dry, and my feet were so intensely cold from the beginning of this lap that I couldn't feel my toes. In spite of this, we were having a blast. My stomach was getting to be very acidic and I had some heartburn. I popped a large quantity of Tums during this lap and starting eating Saltine crackers from the aid stations. This definitely helped. My calves were tight and my ankles were stiff. We were running less during this lap than I had in previous 4 laps. However, when we walked, we walked quickly. I was hopeful that some brisk walking would loosen things back up. We made slow but decent time in this lap and finished it in 5:16. I had hoped we would make better time, but I still felt like we were making good progress.
When we hit the ITR base-camp, I was bummed to find it initially empty. Terry and Todd had been hanging out nearby and they immediately popped up, and I was super excited to see them. Todd had dropped after about 56 miles. He had headed out in the dark without enough clothes and had gotten so cold that he couldn't continue. After running for more than 13 hours, Todd decided to stay up all night to help me and the other ITR runners! At this stop was the first time that I realized I wasn't in great shape. For the first time in an aid station, I didn't know what I needed. At every other station so far, I had a list ready in my mind. Upon arrival, I quickly got what I needed (thanks to many great volunteers) and headed out. This time was different. We wasted some time as brain slowly figured out what I needed. More clothes? I added a balaclava because that's all that was left in my drop box. With my stomach acidity issues, I was a few hundred calories behind on my nutrition plan, and it was starting to show. I decided to wear two pairs of socks to keep my feet warm. This was probably my biggest mistake of the race. My feet and ankles were swollen (I didn't notice, but my shoes, socks, or ankle band timing chip were actually cutting into the sides of my ankles). Adding an extra pair of tight fitting socks could only make this worse. In hindsight, I should have stuck with a single pair of socks and switched to thinner insoles (which I had in my drop box). After some time, Aaron and I headed back out for the final lap.
We had walked through the big, warm, aid station tent to pick up some broth. Huge mistake. As soon as we started out, I was shivering. In addition, it was immediately obvious that my shoes were too tight. Still I didn't attribute this to the extra socks or the swelling. I wanted to find a place to sit and loosen the laces, but I finally decided to stop without a place to sit. I squatted down to untie, loosen, and retie my laces. This took time. My fingers were cold. The wet laces were frozen stiff. By the time I finished the task, my right calf had seized up. I couldn't straighten my leg! I tried with no luck to stretch it out. We walked a little, stretched it again, walked a little more. We walked 4 miles to the first aid station. My brain was in a fog. I forgot to eat. At the aid station, I picked up some Pepsi and asked one of the volunteers to fill a zip lock bag with Saltine crackers. We took off, still walking. The Pepsi and crackers settled my stomach quite bit. I should have eaten more, but I didn't. We continued to walk. I tried to walk fast. I tried to push, but every step was hard. I was cold so we would run short sections to warm up. Or I should say, I would move forward in a motion that was somewhat similar to a running.
When we finally came to road before the 9 mile aid station, I was happy to be on pavement and out of the mud, at least for a little while. As we headed up the road, we found Todd and Terry sitting in Terry's car waiting for us! This support and encouragement was huge for me. I couldn't believe these guys were still awake! It was close to 5:00am. With this boost, we ran some and walked some into the aid station. By the time we arrived at the Rally Campground Aid Station (9 miles into the last loop), I was in good spirits. I knew it would be starting to get light soon, and I was ready for that. At the aid station, thanks to encouragement from Aaron and a volunteer, I put down some bacon and some potatoes. This definitely helped. Knowing it would soon be light, I left one of my head lamps in my drop box. We headed out, with less than 8 miles to the finish line!
We still moved slowly in this last section, but I was thinking clearly enough to realize that I needed to eat. This helped. Seeing the sunrise over one of the lakes was spectacular. We walked most of this section, but the sun light helped our pace a bit. By the time we reached the last aid station I felt decent. We hadn't seen any other runners for hours (since the very beginning of that last lap). However, while Aaron and I were at that last aid station, Richard Plezia ran up behind us. He didn't even stop at the aid station! He ran up and waved, shouting, "Thank you! I love you guys". I had run with him a little early in the day, and I knew that he had finished twenty-five 100 mile races. I wasn't sure if he was shouting at me or thanking the aid station workers, but I took it as a challenge. I hollered back, "We're coming for you, Richard!". We took off after him, making our best time of that lap. For some reason, my feet stopped hurting, and I could run again. I said, "Hey Aaron, I can run!". We ran most of those last 4 miles, but we couldn't catch Richard.
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| Crossing the Finish Line |
About half a mile from the finish line, you come out of the woods, run a short way down the road (due to a reroute), and then pick up another trail alongside the lake. Reaching this road that last time
was a great feeling! We ran down the road, skirted the lake, and headed up past the parking lot to the finish line. Folks were shouting for us and giving high fives as we passed. I crossed the finish line in 26:58:32. I was super excited. They told me I was in 22nd place! I was absolutely shocked. That last lap seemed longer than the entire rest of the race. In reality, we finished that last lap in 5:39.
Here's a quick run down of my performance:
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| With my Buckle! |
| Section
| Pace
| Time |
| Lap 1
| 11:30
|
3:53:06 |
| Lap 2
| 12:00
| 4:09:53 |
| Lap 2
| 12:30
| 3:54:05 |
| Lap 4
| 13:00
| 4:05:01 |
| Lap 5
| 13:30
| 5:16:46 |
| Lap 6
| 13:00
| 5:39:39 |
Finish Time: 26:58:32
Here is a quick run down of the gear I used at the Indiana Trail 100:
- Inov-8 Trailroc 245 Trail Running Shoe
- Features Elite Ultralight Socks (3 pairs)
- Race Ready Running Shorts
- Pearl Izumi Fly Jacket
- Heavy Pearl Izumi Jacket
- Under Armour Long Sleeve
- Champion Long Sleeve
- Champion Tights
- Thin Nike Running Gloves
- Pearl Izumi Headband
- Buff
- Balaclava
- Nathan Handheld Water Bottle
- Nike Visor
- Petzl Tikka 2 Headlamp (waist)
- Petzle Tikka Plus 2 Headlamp
- Extra batteries
Here is a quick run down of my food intake before the event totaling 432 calories:
- Two hours prior, breakfast: a bowl of oatmeal with flax seed, raisins, and brown sugar.
- In the two hours before the run, I drank roughly 1 liter of water.
Here is a quick run down of my in race nutrition totaling roughly 6674 calories (247 calories per hour):
| Item |
Quantity |
| Lara Bar (2/3) |
3 |
| Oatmeal Cream Pie (half) |
3 |
| Peanut M+M's (handful) |
1 |
| Mini Snicker Bars |
4 |
| Bacon |
1 |
| Ramen Noodles (1/2 pack) |
2 |
| Cliff Bar (half) |
2.5 |
| Fig Newton (2) |
6 |
| Honey Sandwich (quarter) |
11 |
| Potato (half of 1 medium) |
1 |
| Pretzels (1 oz) |
2 |
| Raisins (1/6 cup) |
8 |
| Roctane GU |
8 |
| Trader Joe's Fruit Leather (2) |
4 |
| Gatorade (8 oz) |
8 |
| Saltine Crackers |
20 |
| Carmel Doughnut |
0.25 |
| Pepsi (12 oz) |
1 |
Before I wrap up this post, I would like to take a moment to thank many of the people that have helped me with this effort. A challenge such as this one is impossible to complete without the help of others. Without help from the folks on the list, I would not have been able to finish this race!
- My Wife, Nicole - Thank you for supporting my training and my goal of completing this race. Thank you for taking up my slack when I'm out running and for putting up with me when I'm whining about my legs being sore!
- Indiana Trail Running and Terry Fletcher - Thanks for all your support and advice during training. Thanks for your support before, during, and after the race! The ITR Basecamp was critical to my success.
- ITR Volunteers - Thanks for all your help at the ITR Basecamp.
- Todd Whisman - Thanks for your support during training and before, during, and after the race. I got a huge boost out of seeing you in the middle of the night!
- Aaron Walker - Thanks for giving up your weekend to crew and pace for me during the race. Thanks for getting me through the night!
- Kyle Bowling at Kentucky Sports Chiropractic - Thank you for helping me stay injury free during training!
- Elizabeth Brodfuehrer at Louisville Strength and Endurance - Thank you for helping me stay injury free during training!
- Jackie Dikos at Nutrition Success - Thanks for all your help with my in race nutrition!
- Race Directors and Race Volunteers - You all did an awesome job! Thank you for putting on a world class event.
Happy trails!
