My last five years of running led directly to The Umstead
100. I took every baby step known to man before I ran my first 100 including
5k's, 10k's, 15k's, 10 Milers, Half Marathons, Marathons, 50k's, 40 Milers and Double
Marathons. On April 6th and 7th of this year, I ran 100 miles at the Umstead
100 Mile Endurance Event in a time of 21 Hours and 24 Minutes. I've broken down
the Umstead race report into three sections. The first will cover training
leading up to The Umstead 100. The second report will cover the actual race.
The last report will cover recovery and FUTURE PLANS!!!!!
The Umstead 100
Mile Endurance Event in Raleigh, NC sells out every year in far less than one
hour. It is one of the hardest races to get into because it is quite possibly
the best race in the USA for first timers in the 100 mile distance.
On the day
registration opened, I was working at Black Mountain Running Co. I had a plan
to close the shop down for a few minutes while I tried to register. Truth be
told, when I had my first break from customers, I looked down in horror to see
that I was late in getting to the computer. I was literally one minute late and
by the time I got to the website, it said that the race was sold out. After
throwing out every curse word in the book, I went to The Umstead 100 Facebook
page to see if others shared my dissapointment. To my surprise, I saw a post
from the race director that said 20 spots might open up in 20 miuntes as some
that got through will not finish their registration in the given 20 minutes.
Although I felt it was a total long shot at that point, I kept the closed sign
on the door for 20 more minutes. At the given time, I tried to get in the
system and you will not believe what the screen
said..........................Race Sold Out.
After throwing
out a few more f bombs, I felt like a failure. Because I have the tenacity of a
Bulldog, I tried the Facebook page one more time. I nearly laughed when it said
that 3 more spots might be available in another 20 minutes. My guess is that at
that point, there were probably hundreds trying to get 3 spots. At the given
time, I started hitting the refresh button on the Umstead registration page
like I was playing piano. Right as i was beginning to feel sorry for myself, a
different sort of screen popped up. When I saw that there was a 20 minute
countdown going, I nearly shit myself. I'm fairly certain I got THE LAST SPOT.
I took about five
minutes to fill out the registration and blew a kiss to the heavens when I
pushed the finalize registration button. The next screen was borderline poetry
in my mind. It said CONGRATULATIONS, you're officially registered for the
Umstead 100 Mile Endurance Race. I was literally screaming in excitement when I realized, holy shit, i'm going to run 100 miles and if I had ANYTHING to do
with it, I was going to run this bitch in less than 24 hours.
It wasn't long
after my entry that I started getting a plan in place to train for my first
100. I knew that 50-75 mile weeks would be the norm and I looked forward to
putting my body through the necessary paces. I decided that in addition to
running one marathon a month, the crux of my training would be 3 ultra
marathons back to back to back weekends. I figured if I was to learn how to run
tired, this would be the perfect way. I got to the business of siging up for
training races for Umstead. I decided on two ultras and one marathon. The Moab
Red Hot 55K, The Mt. Mitchell Challenge 40 Miler and The Asheville Marathon at
Biltmore Estate ended up being the races I chose.
Needless to say,
the month of February was going to be challenging. The Moab Red Hot 55K was BEAUTIFUL. I ran with my Brother, Scott and we had quite the adventure.
When I got to the finish line I silently asked myself if I thought I could run
3 times that amount in two months. My silent answer was a resounding hell yes!
The Mt. Mitchell
Challenge 40 Miler was in Black Mountain so I was very familiar with the race
course. I felt confident and ready as the gun sounded. It was a great day and
the conditions were stellar. I was happy that I was sticking to my plan of
"taking it easy" getting up to the summit of Mt. Mitchell and then
turning on the burners for the 20 mile downhill finish. The plan worked to
perfection and I ended up with a top 20 finish. I felt like it was the best
race i'd ever run and i was starting to scratch the surface of my potential.
The following
weekend, the conditions were far different at The Asheville Marathon at The
Biltmore Estate. It was cold. I wore pants. The race was rather uneventful and
it felt like it was going to be a long day. I got into my endurance zone and
knocked the race out. I crossed the finish line with my daughter, Hunter on my
shoulders somewhere in the neighborhood of 3:45. Really, I didn't much care
about the time. I was proud of the effort but even more proud of the fact that
I had survived the crux of my training for The Umstead 100. In one month, I was
going to be running my first hunj and I felt ready.
I tapered pretty
hard for Umstead so the last month of my training consisted of a couple short
runs per week. Although it was my first 100, I felt like I could go to Raleigh
and compete. Although finishing was my first priority, in the back of my mind,
I knew this was a race. As race day approached I knew that I was in a good
place. The only thing that would stop me was "bone showing". Even
then, I think I would've considered duct tape. Race day was upon me and it was
time to get to work.
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