[654] Devil Dog Ultras (100 Mile)

Another year another ultra. I started running in the Devil Dog since 2020, with a baby 50k, they branded as the Devil Dog lite edition (2020).

Then I came back intended to do a heavier one, the 100k the following year, but I dnf’ed at mile 41 (2021).

That did not feel so good, until I finished a true 100 mile the following year (2022).

My intention was always to go back to do a 100k that I DNF, but every time I signed up, a 100 mile seems to tuck at me.  It was the same last year (2023) and this year. I tell myself, some day, I need to do that 100k.

Devil Dog, I learned since my first race is it is “sneaky hard”.  Many races and ultras I did were on the mountains. Devil Dog course is in the suburb, just outside of DC, in the Prince William Forest Park. There are no mountains here. However, the constant rolling hills easily sap one’s strength over the course of the race for those who are unprepared.

Each year, I learned a bit of the lore. The race started in 2016.  This is its eighth year.  We have at least one person who ran it every single year. For me, it was my 4th time.

The race always has taken place in December.  We do usually have a mild winter but the weather is unpredictable.  There are those who still can remember the ice year (was it 2017 or 2018).  Night time temperature could be down to teens or possible into single digits. This year was my coldest Devil Dog (at 19 F the night before the start). Luckily that was the coldest time, and through the race, the temperature rose until 60s by the time we finished.  I prefered warmer than cold, but the wild swings in temperature is an extra challenge of what to pack.

Previous years, we had rain. Last year was worse for me.  This year, we had dry but cool running weather. I got by fine.

I stayed in a bunk house the night before the race like the previous year.  I guess words got out that this is more ideal than camping in a parking lot.  The race had no parkings available for runners or crew at the start.  So runners were shuttled in couple hours before the race unless you are one of the few who stayed at a cabin.

Two of my friends stayed with me.  They all slept well but me. I brought my earplugs too but it did not seem to help.  The room was warmer than I would have liked.  I ended up sleeping on the floor to be cooler until of course it got too cold and I went back on my bunk bed, by then it was almost morning. I did have an hour or two of closed eyes. It was sufficient.

Logistics is always my challenge.  I overplanned things, which I like to do a lot. They say I carried a whole kitchen sink to my race. I did. I packed three bags, 3 drop bags for all contingencies, and a food bag.  I even had a tent too in case the cabin did not work out, I would be outside camping in the woods. I made a backup for my backup plan, which was to hike back to where the car was (I think no more than 2 miles) and slept inside it. My friend Caroline liked that idea. (Back up to a back up plan is a joke between me and another runner).

So, I packed for night before the race, the night after the race (I knew based on experience, I wouldn’t make it home before bedtime and might as well plan for that), and I had to pack the stuff I would need during the race itself.

Then there is the food aspect.  For prerace dinner, I planned for Thai drunken noodle.  I also reserved two dinning tickets for Chipotle, which the race would brought for us.  It was quite an embarrassment I forgot to pay ahead and I did not have cash on me. Randy, my friend, spotted me before I got Venmo to work (there were dead zones in the park and cellular was unreliable unless you have Verizon). I gave myself the option either eat the Chipotle or the drunken noodle.  I later chose the Chipotle since those kind of food are easily spoiled.  (By the way, I had some left over Chipotle rice, but I could not find them the next day. I think I misplaced and someone tossed them out for me). I packed couple cans of soup, some coffee, a gallon of water, and a can of coconut juice, some candy bars. 

Plus, I had a crew.  Cheryl, a friend, agreed to come out to crew me. Because of the cold weather, I asked her only to come at 5 pm to prepare my evening meal and I should be able to pull it through for the rest of the race.  The food from the aid stations were quite sufficient in previous years.  I had ramen and rice in my dropbag for her to use, but of course, she brought her own. Her hot food was way better. She came out four of five loops and we (my pacer and I) had a full course meal when ever we passed by. It was a tremendous help. I would say, I probably would not have finished if not for her food.

Lesson.  Ultra is so interesting.  Way back in the beginning, when I ran marathons, the key was to carb up and eat a lot before the race.  Nutrition is everything.  You have some people calculating how many calories to consume per hour, like at Wasatch, a guy I ran with said, we should eat a candy bar every 20 mins.  Then, I went through a period where I learned carbing up the night before is not that critical.  The key is to eat the same as usual.  Carbing up too much is bad for health, as I have experienced.  I dialed back on my carbing. The focus shifted to eating during the race.  There was a period I spent too much time eating at the race stations that costed me my race.  I learned then to pack and carry food on me on my run and reduced my time spent at the aid stations.  You can get by with a candy bar here and there too. I was known as the guy who carried a bunch of subway foot-longs on my hundred miles (one in each hand when I did the MMT 100, there’s probably a picture of me doing that) and I would bite off pieces of it from time to time. However, it was not really working out for me and I don’t do that any more after my first MMT. So the last couple years or so, I went kind of minimalist, especially during the last few hundreds until it did not work out at Grindstone 100. It was a turning point for me, I believed I DNF because, I was out of energy for the last 20 miles due to not eating enough.

So for this race, I made sure, I loaded up with lot food the night before and the morning of. I had a full drunken noodle for breakfast and that took me over an hour to eat. I finished it just before the starting gun went off.

Having a crew who brought me food was a luxury I did not have at my other races.  I did have a crew at Western States, though I did not rely on them for food. This year Massanutten, Cheryl too was my crew, when she met me couple times (she was voluntering at the race, and remote location made it hard for crew to get to).

This Devil Dog was I actually had a dedicated crew throughout the whole race.  I lived or ran like a king, like in youtube videos of runners with a full group of people helping them.

Cheryl was there at 10 am (4 hours after the start).  I munched some too from other aid stations I passed. Then at 5 pm, I had really good food. Then again at 10-11 pm. It was very cold for my crew and I appreciated her being there.  I was relieved that she did not come out at 4 am.  I munched something from the aid station. The next round was at 11 am the next day.  By then finishing the race was certain, so my pacer and I sat down at a picnic table and we all had a short picnic before doing the last six miles with 3 hours to spare.

Summary or outtake for this race, I had my ups and downs, the nutritional aspect was not one of them.  I glad I had enough food and it provided me sufficient energy even until my very end.

What I could do better is on time management.  I made way too long a stop at aid stations.  Every time, it was 10-15 mins. We had three aid stations per loop for 5 loops.  I must have spent at least 2 and half hours being at rest. 

Even when we were behind on pace, I still made pretty long stops because I was betting I could run fast on my last loop.  I glad that panned out fine otherwise, it would have been a dnf.  I did have to run and hustle to catch back up on pace during my last 20 miles and was chasing cutoffs.

Over all it was an enjoyable experience.  I had a full cast of supporting friends.  Charlie ran the whole race with me.  Randy was too, I ran first three loops with him.  Wayne paced me three final loops.  I had a crew.  Caroline was my support at the start and finish as well somewhere in the middle of the race after she finished her race.

Pacing, my strategy was to walk the first four loops and run at the last loop, 20 miles.  The goal was to do 6 hours per loop (around 18 min pace). By second loop, Charlie was experiencing cramping issues, so we slowed down the pace a bit, but was still making about 6 hours per loop.  Third loop I was with Randy, we were moving faster, but it was night time, which our pace got bogged down.  Fourth loop, we were behind on pace by 30 mins compared to last year, because we started it a bit past midnight, we need to make it back for the fifth loop by 7 am (in 6.5 hours).  I arrived back at 6:45, which was great.  Changed clothes and went out thinking it would now be a cake walk to the finish.  However, I went out the wrong way.  That ate up a lot of time. By the time we made it back where we got off course it was 7:20, half hour later.  It meant, I was about 20 minutes behind on thr needed pace to finish and I was risking being cut at the next aid station, which my friend told me they would close by 8:30.  We ran and made it (station doesn’t close until 9 as I thought).  This was actually the same time I arrived there last year, but I did not know at the time. 

There were almost no more runners on the trail by then unlike last year.  I passed like only two people. We then rushed to the next station.  My pacer charged me to make it there by 11. And we did.  I finally caught up with Charlie again, whom I haven’t seen since maybe 5 am, 6 hours ago. Charlie this time took off while I stayed and ate at the aid station.  My pacer and I knew, we had enough time to finish. Afterward, it was just a nice brisk run.  I was not rushing. I knew I could do the final section in about 2 hours and was aiming to arrive at 1:30.  Race closed at 2 pm.

It was a surprised when we got to the bottom of the hill of the finish line at 1 pm.  We were ahead of my expect finish time. We ran it in and finished at 1:10:14 (cumulative, 31:10:15).

We were all happy.  I beat my previous time of 31:45, about 35 minutes better. It was also relatively low effort too.  I believe I could have gotten 30 hours if I put more effort into my run. 

I made a few new friends. This was my last 100 for the year.  9 in total. 8 successfully completed. What are the 9? (1. C&O, 2. Massanutten, 3. Old Dominion, 4. Western States, 5. Vermont, 6. Burning River, ,7. Wasatch Front, 8. Grindstone, and 9. Devil Dog). It has been an amazing year.