[680] Cacapon 12-Hour

I woke up on Monday and wondered why was I so sore, then I remembered I ran a 12 hour race (11:15) on Saturday at Cacapon State Park in Berkeley Springs, WV. 

I think it is funny I don’t remember what I did over the weekend.  Like why I felt being beaten up. 

I was just being out of shape after three weeks with little to no running, nursing an injured leg.  But it was good to be back.  Now I could run and jump again.  My cardio has taken a nose dive.  While Cacapon was a good work out session, I could not really fly on the trail.  My average pace was over 20 min per mile so I will have to go back there to do better, maybe next year.

Timed event is a little different than other races.  Everyone had the same amount of time and the goal was to run as much distance as we could.  So faster runner likely finish with longer distance than slower runner.  It is a good way to train for endurance.

  The concept is same as any other races, but the execution is different.   There’s no DNF.  It was individual strategy of when to give up.  Most set a distance-like goal, for example to reach 26.2 miles or a 50k, then stop. 

For those who want to use all 12 hours, it requires that mental toughness of hanging on and pacing at the beginning of not going out too fast.  I set a distance goal for myself but also wanted to stay on the course as long as I could.

A friend and I drove up in the morning.  We arrived close to the start time, so almost all the parking spots were taken.  The RD said this was the first time where the lot is full.  We had about 50 runners.  I knew some of them.  We got our bibs and proceeded in setting up our own aid station.  The race had one aid station but we could set up our tents and chairs near there.  I did not need much so I did not set out anything but my water bottle.

The course is a 5 mile loop and has decent elevation climb, 750 ft of change.  It is runnable but also rocky, muddy, and enough hills to make it a challenging run.  I think most people could do 1-2 loops before tiring out.  I walked all my loops. 

My first loop, I was kind of slowing down to learn the course.  It was marked but some intersections seemed doubtful to me.  I just followed along the runners in front of me.

By second loop, I felt a bit of leg cramp, maybe due to the humidity, and 90+ degrees heat, I needed to slow down.  By third loop, the sun was fully out and I stopped for a half hour lunch and chat with friends.  On a normal race, a half hour lunch is too long, but on a timed race, I realized I have to maintain under 90 minutes per loop to finish with 8 loops in 12 hours.  So by the third loop, I realized the most I could do is 7 loops with a lot of time left over.  So, half hour lunch was perfect to squeeze in.

After lunch, I continue on for 4 more loops.  It was actually getting harder.  In my mind, I can go for 6 loops for a 50k without much struggle.  But whether I could motivate myself to do the last and final loop was another thing. 

By 4:30 PM, I finished 6 loops.  I had over 2 hours left, so, I tried for the final loop.   By now everything was familar to me.  I know the trail and all the ups and downs.  I just went with the float.  Halfway through the course, a storm seemed to about to start.  There were some rumbling of thunders. I told myself to pick up the pace or else I would be drenched in the rain when it arrives. So I tried move a bit faster.  My legs were heavy.  There was another runner near me too.  Together we raced back to the start/finish area.  We made it in the nick of time before the sky opened and poured down buckets of water.

I love being lucky. We had a good dinner  afterward and then a good rest.  The weekend was nicely tucked away.

Other thing that happened was Western States 100 took place over the same weekend.  I was glued to Youtube and twitter updates, keeping tap on friends who were running it and other runners in general.  I took part in the a small fantasy (betting) game, so have a personal stake on some of the runners.  It made it more fun to watch.  I had fond memories of being there last year, running in the race.  I felt blessed to finish and also fortunate at the same time.  I were not running in it this year, which I was glad because I knew I probably could not do it again of giving everything on the course and get a finishing time. 

The idea it was alright to take a DNF but at the same time it stinks to do so.  It hits close to home where I had to take some repeated DNFs.

It was incredible hard seeing and experiencing myself of runners struggle through their 100 miles.  Who knows if I could still manage to do what I did last year.  My next race is coming up soon.