Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Hawks 100


Sept. 10th was the inaugural Hawks 100 mile trail race in Lawrence, KS... Clinton Lake north shore to be exact.

This race was not open to anyone.  Qualification was a successful completion of 100 miler in last couple of years.  And to make matters worse, the race was basically unsupported in terms of aid stations...other than what you can stash at 3 spots on the course.  This was "old school" racing.

The course was 4 laps of 23.sumthing miles, and about 8 mile out and back to finish 100 miles.  Time limit was a generous 32 hours, with no cut-offs in between.  Twelve people signed up, and eleven toed the start line at 6am.

My goal was just to finish...even if taking 32 hours.  The first lap was good.  I held back as much as I could.  The trail was not easy...run-able in alot of spots...but only short sections.  There were lots of roots and rocky in lot of areas.

At start line, I had my truck with food and all the goodies.  At about mile 5 and mile 17 (on first lap), I only had gatorade, oranges, Ensure, and some gels, which was not enough to sustain a person for 4 laps of 23+ miles.

My first lap took 5-1/2 hrs complete...which was good... not really pushing it hard.  Before starting my 2nd lap, I ate good and drank alot of ice water.  There was only water available at 3 spots on the course, but no ice.  Afternoon temps started to climb.  At 30 miles, I started to walk more and more..thinking I need to save energy to make it back to my truck (mile 46), since I had minimal supply til then.  I also figured I'll do my running when the sun went down..thinking it would getting cooler.

At mile 40, my stomach was beginning to turn on me.  I was drinking OK... but my energy level was really going down, and I needed some food.  I finally made it back to my truck (mile 46-ish).  My stomach was now totally not happy.  I took my time and ate good.  I even thought about taking a short nap just so that my stomach would feel somewhat better.  I had plenty of time left.  I was at about 12 hrs into the race.  I had 20 hrs left to do 55 miles.

But I got impatient, and got back on the course for my 3rd lap.  It was less than 1/4 mile that everything I ate came back up.  My stomach was completely tore up now.  I was not holding anything down.  Now the decision was...should I go back and just rest an hour and try to eat again?...or continue?  It was now getting dark, and I would have to go 23 miles without eating anything...other than gels.  With the stomach as it is, gels didn't sound good.  I was slowly sipping water...and even that almost came back up as soon as it went down.  I was in sad shape now.  I finally made out to mile 55-ish at water aid station.  My strength was pretty much gone.  The first place runner had now lapped me.  I wished him luck, and I called it "done".  It was tough decision.

Sometimes things don't always go your way.  Time to re-group and go for another 100 next month.

Happy Trails!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Shi Da' - Just checkin in from Ktown. Great to hear you're still running strong. Just did a few miles with my 2 girls this morning. My wife will probably take in another marathon soon. I'm trying to get it together and get a regimen going. My mother is doing well and helping me w/my kids. Keep running & take care. Deswood

Jannick Kjaer said...

Hi AB,

I am sorry I am leaving a comment, I can't find your email. I am writing you in the hopes that you want to participate in an e-book we are writing about ultra runners.

We want to tap into the collective craziness (we mean that as a compliment:-)) of this community to challenge and inspire other non-runners to make their own life an ever-greater creative expression of their own goals and dreams… without limits.

Progress so far: We have currently contacted more than 250 ultra runners and received more than 60 answers.

We would ask you to answer a question about your experience with ultra running. Please note that these questions are related to your mental state and require that you are able to explain quite specifically what is going on mentally when running.

If you'd like to participate please shoot me an email at dreamit@juliossol.com.

Thanks!

All the best,
Jannick

AB said...

Hey Deswood. Good to hear from you. Glad everyone is doing fine. Let me know if there a marathon we wanna tackle. I'm always up for marathons.

thanks for the comment Jannick. Some of us are abit way out there...but all in good spirits.