Lean Horse 100 miler, questioning my motives

I start this race report with so much to say but yet so little. I struggle in my running life to find a balance between sharing all of the details of my experiences (as I am a coach), and yet somehow keeping some of my hobby private, sacred to me. Here is my experience at the Lean Horse 100 this year… one of the most beautiful events I have ever run.

The Lean Horse 100 miler is a 100 mile out and back course that takes place on the Mickelson Trail in the Black Hills of South Dakota. The race starts in Custer and goes almost to Deadwood before turning around and running back to Custer to finish on the High School Track. The race starts at elevation, approximately 5000 feet, and has a net gain of about 7500 feet over the 100 miles. The race also has a 50 mile, 30 mile, and 20 mile option. These are point to point.

Training:

Although Lean Horse starts at elevation and has a net gain of 7500 feet, I was not concerned about training for hills this year due to the railroad grade of the track. I did most of my training leaving from my house in Neenah, WI (flat as a pancake) and working a very strong run/ walk strategy. My Saturday long runs consisted of a 5 min run followed by a 2 minute walk and I would do this for between 18 and 22 miles. Sundays are strictly power hiking/walking days for me and these walks would last between 2 and 3.5 hours. Overall, I never broke 65 miles in a week and this strategy has worked well for me throughout the years. In my humble opinion (15 years of coaching athletes), most people are doing way too much running. I should also mention that I strength train 3 days per week, do yoga 1 to 3 times per week, and work on my running form until I am blue in the face. I use a Gymboss timer to time my run/walk breaks and a Timex stop watch to tell me when to eat. I do not use a GPS watch.

Prior to the race:

Greg and I got out to the Black Hills area about 5 days prior to the race and spent our time site seeing. There is so much to see and do in the area and I would highly recommend that if you do the race you spend some time before or after exploring the area. Due to the high rain that the Black Hills area received this year, everything was green and lush like it would be in the spring time. The only running I did the week before the event were a few 20 minute easy runs from the cabin we stayed at. We did hike quite a bit, but nothing that fatigued my legs.

The Race:

The race starts at 12pm on Friday which if I had to make one criticism of the event it was this. I am sure they have their reasons, but it meant that an early riser like myself spent hours twiddling her thumbs prior to the start.

The race starts at the Custer YMCA “downtown”. The field was small, maybe 65 athletes and there were very few women. I am used to this by now but this race seemed surprisingly under represented by females. My strategy was to start SLOW. I knew that the course would be deceiving…very runnable… and that could get someone in trouble early on. I set my run walk timer to a 3 minute run to a 2 minute walk… the race director said “go” and I pushed the start button on the timer.

The first mile or so is paved and then we made our way onto the crushed limestone of the Mickelson trail. I noticed early on that I was being passed by A LOT of people. “Am I going too slow”?... “Why are all of these people passing me”… “do they know something I don’t”… All of the voices that pop in your head. The experienced side of me knew to stick with my plan and let the others run their own race.

About 5 miles in… all at which are on a slight uphill… I caught my first glimpse of the Crazy Horse monument. This was just the start of the amazing scenery on the race course. A few miles later I came across Greg on his mountain bike. “Wow, all of these people are going way too fast this early” he said. I was so glad he made mention to what I was feeling. Onward with my run/walk I went.

Logistically it was tough to have Greg crew me or pace me on this run. We had brought the dogs with us and our cabin was 20 minutes south of Custer, in the opposite direction of the run. Greg and I both decided prior to the run that he would meet me at the 50k mark and then I would be on my own until morning. At the 50k mark Greg would hand me my headlamp and a coat and I had a drop bag of food at the turn-around. This was totally fine by me. I had done races crewed, un-crewed, paced, un-paced before. They all have their advantages and disadvantages and everyone has a system that works for them.

As I was running throughout the day I was marveling at the scenery but also dealing with some mental demons. You would think that with each additional race, an athlete would find the distance easier. I have found the opposite. My first few hundreds were “easy” per say. I was fueled by naivety, a little ego, emotional pain, and the drive to prove to others and myself that I could do these things. As I get older and wiser my motives have changed significantly and for whatever reason, that is what I focused on during the first 50k of Lean Horse. By the time I finally met Greg at mile 31 I was ready to be done.  “Why do I need to run any further, 50k is enough? Am I being selfish with all of this running and racing? What is my “why”?” All of these questions flooded my brain. I was in tears and pulled Greg aside. Like the wise man that he is, he listened and said nothing really. I was really hoping he would say something… give me permission to quit, tell me that I had nothing to prove… nope, not a word.  “Well, you look good. How are your feet? Let me get you some bug spray. I will see you in the morning”. Not at all what I wanted to hear from him but it was the tough love that I needed.

I don’t know what flipped my switch at that 50k mark, but I left the aid station crying and never once thought about quitting the rest of the race. The mind is a silly thing... A few miles outside of the aid station Greg surprised me on his bike. I know he wanted to make sure I was okay although he told me he wanted to bike up to a tunnel and then he was going to head back for the night. It was a morale boost for sure even though I knew I would be alone again for the next 50 miles.

The next section of trail from the 50k mark to Deadwood (at least what I could see of it) was breathtaking. We ran through a couple of old railroad tunnels, streams and creeks followed the trail, and the Black Hills were silhouetted by the sunset in the background. I ran mostly alone, following my 3 minute run/ 2 minute walk. My plan was to do this until the turn-around and then flip-flop the interval. Walk 3 minutes and run 2 minutes. I would do this until I couldn’t.

At some point… maybe around mile 45, I finally came across a running partner. The sun had set and my headlamp was on. Ryan asked if he could run with me as he hated running in the dark. I welcomed the company. We ran to about mile 60 or 65 together chatting the whole way. At mile 65ish Ryan picked up his pacer and I went on ahead. I kept with my run/walk.

 My nutrition plan was as it always is. Eat every 30 minutes, about 150 calories per hour. Alternate solid food with liquid/gummy/gel until about mile 50 and then see what the aid stations have. Usually at mile 50 I switch over to more savory food…things like potatoes, soup, chips, and tortillas. For some reason the aid stations lacked vegetarian savory food. The potatoes they had at the aid station were raw, and the tortillas contained cheese and meat. Now I am not blaming the race, rather my poor planning, but due to the lack of savory food I had to keep ingesting sugar. I believe that is why my stomach turned. By about mile 70, I was starting to deal with a terrible case of nausea. I have dealt with this before but typically for only a couple miles. I had to slow down. By mile 75 I was walking exclusively and by the time I saw Greg at mile 80 the only thing I could stomach was ginger ale and potato chips and not really much of that.

I sat down at mile 80 and told Greg to give me 5 minutes. It was early and it was cold. Up until then, my light wool running coat had kept me toasty throughout the 50 degree night but now the temps were in the 40s. I knew they would not stay there long but that in order to stay warm, I had to keep moving. Greg handed me my trekking poles and we agreed to meet at every aid station until the finish.

My nausea lingered and I got further and further behind on my calories. I was starting to feel a bit light- headed around mile 90 but noticed that as long as I nibbled on a bit of food every mile or so, I could keep it down and the sugar was like a little IV of energy. Just enough to keep me upright and moving.

Finally, the last aid station before the finish. I saw Greg once more and the friendly aid station volunteer shared with me that instead of the 5 miles I thought I had left, I actually only really had 4. This may sound trivial, but this news is HUGE in a 100 mile event. At this point the 20 milers were starting to come in so the trail seemed a little less quiet as they blew past me.

I kept looking behind me. The other pressure that I felt during this event was knowing that I was currently the 2^nd place women. In fact, I knew this from the 50 mile point on. It is a very different feeling in a race knowing that someone might be coming to get you. With 1 mile to go, I pretty much knew I had it. and a little pressure came off a bit. Would some phenome come flying past me to take the title? I had to be okay with that because my lightheadedness would not allow me to run.

Finally the track, the final ¼ mile to the finish. The brain and body are amazing and funny at the same time. I saw the finish line and felt great. Greg and I ran the last little bit… I crossed… and then I INSTANTLY had to lay down. “That’s it” my brain and body said. “Now lay in the grass and don’t move.”

It took me 30 minutes of laying in the grass to finally stand up and walk to the car, belt buckle in hand. I had completed the Lean Horse 100 with a total time of 23:09 and a 2^nd place female finish. If it were not for the stomach issues I probably could have finished in under 22 hours but it was still a personal record for me in the distance. I will take it.

What drives ME to run 100 miles over and over again? I no longer have to prove to myself or anyone else that I can do it and the emotional pain that I was medicating with endurance racing is gone. Maybe it’s the scenery, the people I meet along the race course, the demons I have to confront in the race, the ramen??? Or maybe it’s just the very simple fact that for some strange reason my body can do these things and for that very simple reason, I SHOULD.  I am not sure when I will figure out this question but for now I will continue to show up and learn from each experience.