Dirty Dozen 12 Hour - 40.42 Miles Completed!

Running twelve hours on a 3.37 mile loop along the San Pablo Bay and a Eucalyptus tree forest hasn’t sounded like my cup of tea.   This was a race though that my wife has wanted to do for the last few years; however our schedule never matched up.  Needless to say we signed up for it this year and I have to admit I had a lot of fun!

The Dirty Dozen 12 Hour Endurance Race is a wonderful way to run as much mileage you can for 12 hours in somewhat controlled circumstances. The party like atmosphere is electric and the comrade between runners made the event very enjoyable.

Beth braving the cold and wind before the race.

We got to the start/finish at 6:15 A.M. to get our crewing station setup, which included a couple of chairs, our drop bags, and a cooler of Coca Cola and water.  Gale force winds met us but that didn’t squelch our enthusiasm.

My wife’s strategy was to go out slow and stay slow to get at least 10 laps or 33 miles in.  Here strategy was a success and made that goal in 8:40.  In fact she hit the 31 mile mark at 8:03.  She ended up with just over 41 miles
 

Sums up the first three laps!

For me, I was afraid of going out too quick.  I thought if I ran with a heart monitor and keep my heart rate a below 137 which I did effectively for the first 15 miles.  However, this strategy backfired with my first 5K time at 34 minutes and 10K at 1:11.  Keeping in mind that I had also hit the port-potty 3 times I was going too fast.  It was really evident that when I hit the half marathon at 2:33 (my Lagoon Valley pace was 2:27 and my PR is 1:51), my pace way off and inside desire to drop that I really needed to rethink what I was doing and just enjoy the run and push and see how far I could go.

Source: Allen Lucas

Once I reached that decision, the run became much more enjoyable.  The monotony that I feared on the run was non-existent.  The only problem I had was a section right after the aid station on the course where I was feeling the pebbles through my Cascadia 8’s.  At mile 23 (my traditional nemesis mile), I switched out to my Adrenaline ASR 7’s.  A much stiffer shoe but tougher, I didn’t notice the rocks again until my last big loop.

Allen going "Karnazes"!

One of the most enjoyable laps was at lap 8, where I caught up with Mr. Notthatlucas!  While I was changing out my shoes I caught Mr. Notthatlucas going all Karnazes downing a slice of cheese pizza!  While I was tempted, I had been on a regimen of watermelon, potato chips, and Coca Cola, and having made three trips to the bathroom was not feeling that adventurous. After taking a break, he and I both set out.  I would have to say this was the quickest feeling lap of the race up to this point.  It was really nice to enjoy the conversation and I never thought of how I was feeling or over-analyzing my running the whole time.  Thanks Allen, it was really a highlight of the run!

Beth and I running our lap. Source: Allen Lucas

At the end of my 9^th lap, I checked with Sam, race director, where my wife was and he let me know that she was also on her 9^th.  I hit 30.33 miles at 7:40 and wanted to cross the 31 mile mark with her so I waited and took a break.  She was only 12 minutes behind me and she took a little time with her before we made lap 10 together.  Like I said above, we crossed the 31 mile mark at 8:03.  Mr. Notthatlucas caught up with us on this lap, and passed us.  I think the cheese pizza must have really kicked in because he was really going a great clip.  Again, I haven’t run a race with my wife in a while, so running this lap, her reaching her ultra-distance was awesome.  I am so proud of her.

The Eucalyptus Hall.

After the 10^th I made the educated decision to sit for a bit and I let her go for another. I started feeling a twinge on my Achilles and did not want to push it.  I bravely walked over to the food tent and ate a sausage and a Coke.  This was a good decision, since after 30 minutes I felt good enough for another lap.  At this point I knew I could reach 40 miles and maybe 42.  I waited a little bit to see if Beth would show but decided to get going.  

Source: Allen Lucas

Lap 11 was my last big lap and it felt good.  I was able to run large parts of it and made it around in 45 minutes.  I made it back just in time for the baby loop to open up.  My decision was not to risk not getting back in time and get my final three miles on the loop.  Beth showed up after my first loop to secure that she had reached 40 miles (have I said she completed 41.11 miles) by doing one mini loop.

All said, I completed 40.42 and finished mid-pack (50 out of 91 finishers).  I am so happy that I set realistic goals on this one, because if I had solely focused on the 50 mile target I would have been crushed.  But keeping in mind that I ran this with really no formal training schedule (more minimal than anything else) and weighing 30 lbs. over my best running weight I am extremely pleased with the results.

Beth didn't know about the other picture! Source: Allen Lucas

Things I learned

I have to admit I enjoy this style of race and Beth and I have talked about doing it again next year.  Things I will be doing differently:

• I will pace myself better!  Yeah, the heart monitor helped keep me from going out too crazily; however, I need to go out slower.

• Don’t fear the food! I felt so much better after eating real food and probably could have covered farther distances if I would have nailed this.

• Have a proper training schedule! My training since last year’s Napa Marathon has been more haphazard than anything else.  This has been partly due to the stresses of starting a new company as well as a new schedule.  This has also been the primary reason for the weight gain. I have to get back to a proper training schedule.

• Just enjoy the race and the atmosphere!  This kind of race is so different than the seclusion of the point to point races (like the Diablo Challenge 50K).  Once I settled into enjoying the event I was much happier.

Source: Brazen Racing Volunteer

• Stop Obsessing! Ok, this one is hard for me to do.  I have a hard time shutting off my brain, so when I am running by myself I can be pretty hard on myself.  Even leading up to the race I was psyching myself out obsessing on the details.  When I was running with Mr. Notthat and my wife, my brain was shut off and I enjoyed the run.  While running endurance races are 90% psychological, I can lock my brain into finishing, but I need to learn to enjoy the run.

So two ultra-distance events are down for 2013 and this year is looking a lot like 2009/2010 where we completed 4 marathons in 13 months.  While I won’t say what events are on the horizon, I can say that there are a lot of fun runs coming up. Oh and Mr. Notthat beat me by 0.02 miles so it is definitely on like Donkey Kong for next year!  On to 50 miles!

Diablo Challenge - My first attempt at 50K

To say my first 50k was epic was an understatement.  To end up getting my first DNF was awesome!!!  Let me explain. 

My wife and I have been looking forward the Diablo Challenge 50K for months.  Last year we had run the 5K with our kids in the rain. Now our best laid plains included training for the Napa Valley Marathon, which was at the beginning of March.  This would be followed by continuing training past the marathon giving us a three week tapper.

However, we ran into a couple of problems.  Both my wife and I ran Napa injured (I ran with Achilles tendonitis, for my wife it was her hip). That, combined with warmer than expected temperatures, meant that we increased our Napa time a full hour from the last time we ran it, to 5:45.

That was ok.  We learned our lesson.  The biggie here though was that we finished.  And we knew there would be that race that we would know it would be time to call it.

The following weeks, life got in the way of our training schedule.  We were recovering from our injuries.  We both got the flu.  Followed by an "extended vacation" (a month of unemployment). 

Not to say we didn't do any training.  It just wasn't at the level that we had wanted, and definitely less than we would have for a standard marathon. That said our legs were fresh and ready to go.

We were alerted a few days before the race that we would be running our first Ultra in the high 80's to low 90's.  The good news though was that I got a job offer a couple days before the race, so we could focus on the race itself.

On race day, we were stocked with extra water and salt tabs and felt ready to go.  The course begins in the Round Valley Regional Preserve, winds just north of the Los Vaqueros Reservoir, then through Morgan Territory Regional Park, into Mt. Diablo State Park, then finally into Castle Rock Regional Park.  The 50K (31.6 miles) had 7,142 vertical feet.  Find the course description here.

Most of the run through Round Valley went well.  That is until we got to the first hill.  We knew that this would be the toughest hill with a total elevation gain of 1,400 feet. By the time we made it through the lush green Round Valley, it was already well into the 70's.  By the time we got to the top of the ridge, the heat had completely zapped our energy.  The views from the top were beautiful and definitely worth the climb.  You could see the windmills of Livermore to the south, the Delta to the northeast, and Mt. Diablo to the (far) north.  

We got our second wind and ran down to Morgan Territory Rd. to the first aid station.  We had at this point successfully completed 8.2 miles.  By this time though it was now into the high 80's and we now faced our second hill, a climb of  800 ft of vertical feet.  Most of this part of the course was fully exposed with very little wind.  The country was beautiful; however the heat was unbearable.  My biggest concern though was for my wife.  She has problems at time with an irregular heart beat.  This typically occurs when she is running in 80-degree plus temperatures.  She actually did pretty well this go around.  However, we knew that we would be running into the danger zone if we pushed past the half-point marker.

So that said, we called it at 15.6 miles.  We knew that this was the time to have our first DNF.  The decision came easy.

We also got a scare, one of our fellow runners also was having heart problems and needed medical.  We had a little over a mile to go, so I left my wife and kicked in to get help.  The search and rescue went out and got her.  My wife followed a few minutes behind.

Source: Brazen Racing

Back when we ran our first marathon, we said that we wouldn't do another.  Since then we have run 6 marathons and attempted now one ultra.  So I can say that we will attempt another 50K again.  It comes back to determination and the proper training and conditioning.

Will we run the Diablo Trails Challenge 50K again? Most definitely.  Brazen Racing, which is the race organizers, and the Save Mt. Diablo foundation have truly created a course that is wonderful, if a bit challenging.  With the right weather, we would have conquered the mountain.  We know it.