4.1 Miles per hour for 12 hours! May 9th 2020
After running 60 some odd laps around an 800 meter loop a week earlier my legs didn’t feel awful, I felt fresh and the longing for miles had returned. I don’t really have a strategy for the Great Virtual Race Across Tennessee, but I don’t really want to play catch up in August either, so I decided to join some friends for a Backyard Ultra challenge this past Saturday. At that point I was about 50 miles into the GVRAT with around 600 to go. I haven’t been particularly concerned about finishing because if push comes to shove I’ll just cram a lot of miles in a single week.
Nevertheless, HOTS has been up in the air, although currently it is looking more and more likely to take place. I’m more or less considering that I’ll have to get 333 miles done in a week (hopefully less), so that would be halfway to my goal of finishing GVRAT right there. On the other hand, if the event doesn’t take place I would probably be scrambling to get miles in. I accept that most people running GVRAT don’t have HOTS or Vol State on their horizons so they probably are approaching the GVRAT 1000K with a different strategy than me. I’m more or less taking it easy with the occasional ultra run in between! Honestly, I would prefer dragging it out all summer and enjoying the process of accumulating miles and making progress, but I definitely don’t want to be over halfway there going into HOTS and end up finishing part way through that race. A perfect scenario would have me finish them both at the same time! So I suppose I will aim to be at mile 288 at the start of HOTS and wrap both races up on the rock!
No matter what strategy I take, banking some miles would definitely be good, so early on the 2nd Saturday in May I built an aid station in my front yard using the back of my van to hold supplies and I set out with Spike the dog toward the Haas house where Ryan and Brent were waiting. We only live about a mile and a half apart and decided to build a couple of 4.1 mile routes between our houses where aid stations could be set up. I got to the Haas house at 5:45 and we began our journey from there, arriving back at my place at 6:30. Joe Dan was already there waiting and Brent departed on his own to meet up with some other runners. After 15 minutes of sipping Ramen broth and snacking on fruit Joe Dan, Ryan and I headed out from my house along our second 4.1 mile route arriving back at the Haas House at 7:30 AM. After another 15 minute break the three of us set out again, picking up my friend Andrew along the way, who is also doing the Tunnel Hill 50 this fall (his first ultra). Joe Dan and Andrew did several laps with us, and Ryan’s wife Dallisa also joined for several, and his friend David even joined us for around 20 miles as we went back and forth through our neighborhoods all day long.
As the day drug on the temperature rose. It was right at freezing when we started the run, but by the early afternoon it was up in the 60’s or low 70’s and I had to start peeling off layer. We kept our routine up the entire day, discovering that one of the two routes we were running was harder and that we consistently came in 5 to 10 minutes later. Ryan’s original goal had been to run 10 laps to get around 40 miles, but by the time we got there we had a little extra mileage from the 0.1 miles each lap and the mile and half I had gotten from jogging over early in the morning, and being that close to 50 miles it just didn’t seem right to not finish up the last few miles! We decided we didn’t have to stick so rigidly to the format after 10 laps, but we ended up doing two more full laps and a little extra, coming in under the cutoff both times anyways. We parted ways halfway between our respective houses and finished the last mile or so on our own coming in a little over 50 miles. Laz had announced that GVRAT finishers would be getting belt buckles and I didn’t feel it was right for me personally to get one unless I did a continuous stretch of 50 miles or more at some point in the race, and not knowing the fate of HOTS, I didn’t want to miss my opportunity when I was already so close.
The backyard ultra format is the format for the every-man ultra runner. We went 12 hours but if you’re considering doing a 100 mile race and are aiming for a 24 hour target, then the backyard ultra is the way to go. It forces you to slow down and only start your 4.17 mile lap at the top of each hour. Building the breaks in like that makes it easier for people to go longer and farther than they probably thought they could. If you are going for a faster goal, well, there are many strategies and approaches that work but a lot depends on your course. During Tunnel Hill 100 last November, Brent and I ran straight through until 33 miles or so before we started to do some walking. We then walked 0.2 miles and ran 0.8 miles in alternation for the rest of the race coming in under 20 hours. But Tunnel Hill is an extremely flat and easy course without any terrain features that naturally slow one down (i.e. hills, creeks, technical spots, single track). It’s almost like running on a track and lends itself to a systematic approach.
The backyard ultra format is also great for practicing aid station efficiency. My personal thought is that many people lose ultras on poor aid station utilization. In the backyard ultra format you are limited to a certain amount of time in your aid station every 4.17 miles. As the day goes on, that time gets less and less and less. Becoming efficient in aid stations is an essential aspect of ultra running and has an enormous impact on your overall time. I can’t tell you what approach you should take with aid stations, but I personally like to get in and out and on my way very quickly. I never sat down a single time at Tunnel Hill. I stuffed my pockets with food, refilled water if I needed to and grab two handfuls of whatever was on the tables and then went about my way. The backyard ultra format actually allowed me to sit and relax for 15 minutes or so at a time and this was a very different experience! I even had a Sonic burger and two Red Bull slushies! Of course, it’s unlikely that you’ll have a Sonic right on the course of your next 100 miler, but on a backyard ultra you can just make a course that goes past one!
I highly recommend anyone who has never run an ultra to try a backyard ultra. If you’re not a confident runner, don’t worry, the race format itself will keep you from making too many mistakes and will build in a routine that you just have to follow. The format will give you a lot of confidence because it helps you use your energy efficiently without going too fast in the beginning because there’s no incentive to do so. When you get to 40 or 50 miles and still feel relatively fresh (or at least a lot better than you thought you would), you’ll have such a confidence boost that you’ll be able to crank out even more laps. Before you know it you will have achieved something great.
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