-----
Original Message -----
From: Alene
Nitzky
To: ultrarunning@yahoogroups.com
Sent: 9/1/2010 6:45:57 PM
Subject: [ultrarunning]
Lean Horse, a rant, and gratitude
I spent
the past 2 days sitting on my butt with my feet elevated because my feet were
so sore after the Lean Horse 100. Today I went back to work and spent 8 hours
on my feet and did okay. While I was on my rear end, I did spend some time
blogging.
I have my
race report, if anyone cares to read (several others have already been posted
here) http://alenegonebad.blogspot.com/2010/08/nirvana-at-night-lean-horse-100.html
I had the
pleasure of meeting Fuzz from this list, we didn't talk that much but we did
leapfrog quite a few times during the race, and Fuzz is one genuinely nice guy.
The other
thing I've been thinking about while writing is the tendency to not rest enough
after a long ultra, thinking you feel great, and paying for it down the road in
some way. I wrote this rant blogpost too. It touches
on body image, things that women tend to obsess about
but some men too. And more importantly it touches on philosophy of running and
longevity in ultrarunning. http://alenegonebad.blogspot.com/2010/08/rant-running-for-long-haul.html
We need to respect not only what running does FOR us, but also what it can do
TO us if we don't pay attention.
I also
want to share something that's been on my mind lately with the list here, just
because, even if it's not directly running content. I recently switched jobs.
I've been a registered nurse in ICU for a few years and just changed to an
oncology outpatient infusion setting, where we give IV medications such as
chemotherapy and biologic agents to people with cancer and autoimmune diseases,
among other things. In just a month I have heard more inspirational comments
and ideas come out of these patients' mouths than I've ever heard in my life.
Talk about great attitudes and desire to live life fully in every moment! On
September 18th I am hiking up Horsetooth Rock here in
We on
this list are so lucky as athletes, as human beings,
to be able to do what we do. Every day we enjoy the ability to run and
participate in ultras is a gift we can never take for granted.
Powerwalking in the dark shadows of ponderosa
pine in the
Just had to share.
Alene
(Mom of Buffaloes)
Final score:
I had to run the Lean Horse 100. It's inexpensive, it's close to home, it has
the same climate and terrain as
By the time I reached the finish line twenty-eight hours and twenty-two minutes
later, my feet had been screaming expletives at me with every step since about
mile 80. Ask my feet if they needed it.
But the real outcome of this race was that I was once again reminded of why I
do ultras, despite the temporary pain like sore feet. Running through the trees
and scenery of the
Overall it was a fun time and everything you could want in a 100 miler was
there. It wasn't my best race, not by far, but it was one of those gems,
low-key, easy on the budget, great scenery, nice
course.
Holley Lange from
The way things worked out, Holley ended up having muscle problems that resulted
in a painful 45 degree lean, and at about halfway she decided it was enough, a
wise decision. Marji gave Doug and Holley a ride back
to Custer, where Holley found a ride back to
Another nice thing about Lean Horse is the reasonable 6 am start time. It's
always great to get a decent night's sleep before the race. I need that.
I appreciate so much that Jerry, the race director, kept the pre-race briefing
short and to the point. It lasted no more than about 20 minutes. There is
nothing worse than pre-race events that go on for hours when all you want to do
is eat and finish preparing for the long day ahead.
The pre-race dinner was a little disappointing, but it is a low key event. They
had only hamburgers, bratwurst, and potato salad loaded with mayonnaise. None
of those things are appealing to me anyway, but especially not the night before
a race. I choked down a dry hamburger and then walked across the street to the
grocery store and bought a couple of frozen pasta dinners to heat up in my
motel room microwave. Ugh.
I saw a lot of runners I knew at this race, and I met a few for the first time.
I saw Badwater/Across the Years runners Dan, Jamie,
and Dave. Pat and Karen were there, along with Steph,
my super alpha crew chief at Badwater. Karen was
running and Pat and Steph were crewing for her.
I also saw Brad, who reads my blog and was running his first 100 at Lean Horse.
He ended up having an outrageously great race, finished 5th overall in about 20
ours. Way to go Brad! Congratulations! I saw him around halfway during the race
and he had his son with him, and he looked fantastic. Mike from
I met Fuzz from
I first met Ray around 15 miles on the
We talked about trees from our respective parts of the country, the Southwest
and
It was a great day. The weekend before the
race it had been 100 degrees in
The only glitch I noticed in the whole race was in the morning, 10 miles in, at
the Morph aid station. About a dozen of us showed up there at the same time. No
crews are allowed on the first 16 mile stretch which includes the
Other than that the aid stations were great, the volunteers were helpful and
enthusiastic throughout the course.
I started out with a plan: I wanted to see if
I could finish under 26 hours by pacing myself to go
to halfway in 12 hours. I got to 25 miles in 5:52 and 50 miles in 12:05. Might have been a little too fast given the heat of the day.
If it was a good day, and all went well, I know I could have done 26 or better.
It was a little hotter than I anticipated, but I could have avoided some of the
suffering by planning a little better.
The lessons will be repeated until they are learned. It was warm, and I didn't
cover myself from the sun with my jacket during the heat of the day, which
might have contributed to my lack of appetite. I did wear tons of ice on my
neck and my hat and sunscreen, but the clouds make you think it's not as sunny
and hot as it really is. I ate two sandwiches in the morning but all afternoon
I struggled with taking in calories, it was just too hot to be interested in
food. As a result, I was playing catch up with my blood sugar for most of the
second half of the race.
My hydration was perfect, I did my usual ice topped
with gatorade and a salt stick capsule in each bottle
until night time when I started getting sodium from the chicken broth in the
soup at the aid stations.
The one thing different about this race was that I never slept. Usually I take
a nap, but I never reached that weaving, inefficient place where I am dead on
my feet. I was drinking Starbucks frappucino and
double shot drinks from about mile 50 on for my main source of calories. Liquid
was the only thing I could deal with in the second half. I ate a lot of shot
blocks too.
Around halfway I had grabbed a baggie full of cantaloupe and strawberries from
my cooler and then picked up a banana at the aid station. After eating all that
fruit I felt nauseated from about mile 50 to 60. It eventually passed but I
couldn't deal with solid food anymore.
The middle section of the course was beautiful, between Custer and
One thing I noticed during the heat of the day were
the signs warning of rattlesnakes along the side of the trail. I also saw a
"Danger Buffalo" sign. I thought of this on the way back in, in the
evening because it would be warm, but the rain kept the critters away.
During the night I saw the horse poop, a few times there were stepped-on road
apples that looked like tarantulas, and the crickets in the grass sounded like
rattlesnakes. But I swear I wasn't hallucinating.
I completely enjoyed the course, especially the part at night, going down the
trail in the darkness, only with moonlight and stars in between the dark spaces
of clouds, the big black shadows of ponderosa pines, smelling the trees and
rain, seeing the moonlit meadows and beaver ponds, and listening to trance
music on my MP3 player as I powerwalked the Mickelson
trail.
I think it was nirvana, or heaven, or something, from about mile 55 through 75
in the darkness. I didn't use my lights hardly at all,
and I reached that place that is why I do ultras. That
feeling of being out there under the stars, moving forward, with music, like a
dance. It doesn't get any better than that.
I did try sleeping at mile 80 at the Lime Kiln road aid station, but after
climbing in the back of Doug and Marji's Ford
Explorer, five minutes passed and I realized I wasn't going to sleep, so I got
up and went on.
It did rain off and on at night but only enough to cool things down, never
enough to get soaked or have to put on heavy rain gear. It also cut down on the
dust on the
What I didn't count on was the impact the
Since Doug wasn't pacing Holley as we planned, I asked him if he'd like to pace
me down the
Every time we made the transition from going uphill to downhill and then back
up again, cresting a hill and bottoming out on the endless repetitive hills of
that road, the muscles and tendons on the front of my lower shins, and the
surface of my feet, were screaming. The pain only compared with my foot pain at
Badwater.
The bottoms of my feet felt like I jumped up and down with my full body weight,
plus a couple of 50 pound dumbbells, on top of spikes for 28 hours. Every step
was painful, and I wasn't the only one suffering. I had gaiters and my shoes
stayed gravel-free, enough that I never had to take off my shoes.
Going down the Argyle road in the morning, there were several runners who were having to dump out their shoes and then deal with the
nearly impossible task of getting them back on, and getting started again. I
tried not to stop at all once we hit the
At the Morph aid station at 90 miles I saw Fuzz. His eyes were wide open and he
was drinking a beer! He offered it to me, but I said no. Soon he came flying by me and finished about an hour ahead of me.
It warmed up in the morning, but I was hurting too much to notice the heat. I
couldn't manage running very well even when I reached the finish line. I could
not wait to get off my feet.
By the end I had a huge blood blister on my left heel, a smaller one on my left
big toe, a few little friction blisters on top of my toes, heat rash, and a hugely
swollen left ankle. I had taped my right foot because of my peroneal
tendon which has been bothering me, and my right foot looked 1000 percent
better than my left foot. I should have taped both feet.
I am also going to lose 4 toenails. Less weight to carry.
Doug and Marji were a
fantastic crew, and I was so glad they were out there. We sat there at a table
in the post-race party, and Fuzz joined us, there was more leftover food from
the pre-race dinner. Even as hungry as I was, I couldn't stomach the two day
old bratwurst they were serving. I got some fruit and my belt buckle, said
goodbye to people, and went back to the room to put my feet up while Doug and Marji unloaded my stuff into my car.
I got my training run for Across the Years. I plan to take it easy in September
and then hit it hard again throughout the fall into Across the Years. As much
as my feet hurt from Lean Horse, I imagine I'll be back,
it's too convenient and close to home to not run this race.
Sunday I took a long nap in the afternoon. After that I went for a short drive
around sunset to
Monday morning I drove home to
SteveQ
said...
Your description of the race has me thinking
that maybe - just maybe - I could do that race well some day. If I hadn't
driven 13 hours to get to the start, hadn't slept (sorta)
in the car, had eaten properly, and maybe had a few of the clouds you got, I
might've made it to nightfall.
Nicely done! Losing toenails in those last 20 miles notwithstanding, sounds
like you had a great time out there.
grrlpup said...
Congratulations, and thanks for posting
this! I have my eye on Lean Horse for a first 100 in a year or two. It looks
beautiful. :)
Alene Gone Bad
said...
Lean Horse is one of those that every
ultrarunner should do at least once. The scenery is worth it, as is Jerry's
low-key approach to the race. Personally I'd prefer any race without a circus
atmosphere, but Lean Horse is one of those well-kept secrets.
Good luck when you do go there.
mike_hinterberg said...
Great job, photos, and writeup!
You missed China Buffet (AYCE) in your restuarant
list -- for better or for worse!
SteveQ, definitely run it!
Alene Gone Bad
said...
Thanks Mike! Congratulations on such a
fantastic race!
I hope to see you on the trails/roads around here!
Brad said...
Alene- thanks for the inspiration. You
helped give me the mental game of my fist 100 and I found one of those rare
moments in life where everything is perfect while surrounded by family, freinds and peers. Seeing you when I was heading UP to
crazy horse was a nice boost.-Brad
Alene Gone Bad
said...
Brad,
congratulations on such a great race. I am glad you had one of those moments. I
hope I'll run into you again soon, but for now, rest, recover, stare at the
belt buckle- yes it's real-and enjoy the memories!
