If you think running for 6/12/24 hours around a track is hard…

… you are right. But that's only because running for 6/12/24 hours is hard, no matter where it is. Going in loops around a track is just a different experience - one that just might surprise you.

Running the 6 hour version of the Riverbank One Day was not on my radar at all.

Then Lynnard, at the wildly muddy Brazen Badger Cove (my pictures here) put a bug in my ear while watching me slog along: "There's nobody signed up for the 6 hour; you will win it!"

After I made it home and cleaned most of the mud out of my body, I started looking into the race. This was the first year of the race on a brand new high school track in Riverbank CA, which is just outside of Modesto. With the 6 hour starting at 8AM, that meant I wouldn't have to get up horrifically early to drive over. Also, the forecast looked very promising for no rain.

And Lynnard was right - there was nobody singed up for the 6 hour. And there were some friends signed up for the longer times, plus a few very notable elites that would be gunning for records.

So I did it - I signed up (the $50 race fee was very reasonable for all you got) and then started to get others to sign up.

Mrs Notthat just laughed - there was no chance of getting her to do this. Others responding to my Facebook post also laughed; I mostly hang out with trail runners, and the only thing to most of them that would be worse than a road race would be wandering around a track for 6 hours.

But then one person jumped in. And another. In the end, there were 6 of us in the 6 hour. My win was no longer guaranteed (or even possible, given who some of those people were), but the event entertainment level had risen dramatically.

Simplified course map. Double-click to see the detail.

While no course map was provided, it turned out to be well marked and not very confusing. (I was actually planning to make a joke about the course not being well marked, but it turned out to be extremely well marked, as you will see later.) The direction switched every 6 hours - at the time I started, we were going counter-clockwise, with a switch at my 4 hour point.

A slightly distorted panoramic view of the course at sunrise.

I arrived just as the sun was coming up. At that point, the 24 hour runners had been going for about 13 hours. Many of the 12 hour runners had finished and headed home already, with a second shift of 12 hour runners just getting started. (There ended up being 31 runners total in the event.)

The 6 hour is a sprint compared to the other races. (It's entirely possible I will never be invited back.)

Our start was fairly uneventful. I tried really hard not to go out too fast (in spite of that picture), and did OK with that.

Peter, the eventual 6 hour winner, had started at 6AM and, even with more time on his legs, consistently passed me like I was a turtle. Note the cones - no chance of getting lost. At all.

Having never done this sort of event before, there were some etiquette issues I needed to get comfortable with. Those mostly involved when to cede the first lane to a faster runner.

Our official distance was going to be based on the assumption that we stayed in the inner lane. If you stayed in the second lane, you would add about 7.7 meters distance each lap. That's not a lot, but over 100 laps, that's 770 meters of bonus distance that you are not getting credit for.

Early on, Jesse E. (who ended up with a bit over 50 miles and second overall in the 12 hour) and I finishing a lap. Picture by a "done" Jesse J. who, it turned out, has a very inaccurate idea of what "done" means.

Officially, as long as you were moving forward, even if you were walking, you were entitled to the first lane. Unofficially, if a runner was coming up behind you, you really should move a bit over towards the second lane and let them pass you on the inside. This was my intent, and it worked out that way, with very few times that a runner had to pass me on the outside. And this turned out to be much easier than expected, mostly due to the fact that, even on a track, the runners spread out quite a bit.

(There were some walkers that clung to that inner lane no matter what, and I was fine with that too - it really was no big deal to move out a bit to pass them, although my Garmin showed that this did add a bit of unofficial distance.)

Finishing a lap. I loved that wooden scoreboard on the right. The aid station was just beyond it, with the runner area for tents and drop bags and such on the left.

How cool is that! Bacon!

There were a lot of amazing volunteers catering to our every need. The smell of bacon cooking in the morning and pizza showing up later in the day was pretty amazing motivation.

Note that the volunteers are lined up along the inside lane - anything to make a lap go faster! If you asked for something, they would have it for you on the next lap. Except my horse. They never got me my horse.

ACK!!! Sweepers! Timed races aren't supposed to have sweepers!

Coming into this race, I had done very little actual running. I had finished the Badger Cove 10K the previous weekend, but I had done a lot of walking on the hills and the sloppier sections. I really had no idea how much running I would be able to do at this event, but hoped to at least run a 10K without taking a walk break. Anything after that would be gravy.

As it turned out, I really like gravy, and I ended up doing something I'd never done before - I ran for a whole Half Marathon without a walk break. My achilles gave me no trouble at all, which was a huge relief. The leg muscles, however, were openly rebelling against this sudden onslaught of activity. So after the Half distance was covered, I switched to a run/walk strategy which quickly devolved into a walk/walk strategy. I was still moving well though, and was passing others consistently (and getting passed consistently), so I just kept on going.

The Jester, on his way to winning the 24 hour event. That guy was ridiculously consistent.

Another interesting bit - I had assumed that I would get really bored running/walking in circles and would need a distraction. I rarely run races with music, but had brought a bunch of podcasts and music to help me get through this. And I never once thought of breaking any of it out.

Peter posing by the scoreboard when he was done. He ended up winning the 6 hour with 34 miles!

There was one person that gave me the most grief about running circles around a track. Then she signed up. (Seriously, trail runners are complicated. Or at least a bit odd.)

Diane got her four hours in and was happy with the result, going much further and running a lot more than expected.

Jose with Natalie. Jose ended up starting late, but still managed 75.8 miles in the 24 hour. Natalie won the 24 hour with an astonishing 92.9 miles!  

Ageless Bill setting one of the 3 or 4 records he managed that day.

I spent very little time actually staying with anyone - maybe a quarter of a lap here or there, but constantly seeing people worked just fine at keeping my mind occupied. (That and trying to do math along the lines of "how many laps do I need to break 100" or "how many to get to a 50K" and such. To be clear, this math often turned out to be significantly flawed.)

Also, I really didn't want to stop for anything. I brought four bottles of Tailwind, and so had four very quick stops to change out my bottles. I would leave the bottle at the aid station and grab it every 6-8 laps, carry it for a lap, then drop it back off. This worked very well until my Tailwind ran out. I had more, and intended to just mix up more, but when it came down to it, I wasn't willing to spend the time to do that, so I switched over to drinking the race-supplied electrolytes (which ended up not working out as well, but good enough to get me to the finish).

That's Jon Olsen with a handful of "pacers" - a group of boys that were just out enjoying the afternoon and joined in for a lap. I believe Jon was the first American to run 100 miles in less than 12 hours a few years ago. He was also the brains behind this race.

At the end of each lap, we got to see how long that lap took, how many laps you had run, and the total distance (in KM). I was thrilled to have gotten to 100 laps!

That guy's done!

My goal coming into this was at least 20 miles, and if all went well, 25 miles. I hadn't realized that 25 miles equalled a triple-digit number of laps, so that became my real goal - 100 laps. I ended up with 101 laps, which officially worked out to 25.1 miles.

Yeah, I was tired. This bit of grass in the shade was amazingly comfortable.

I got up off the grass long enough to pose with Carly, who beat me by a couple of laps (and was first woman!), and John who ended up a close second to Peter.

According to my GPS, I nailed an ultra! (By 0.01 miles.)

This was really funny - somehow my GPS was convinced I had climbed nearly 1000 feet while circling that track. There was a small bump at the timing mat, but, wow! (When I uploaded this, the ascent was corrected to 25 ft, which is still high, but possible. I guess.)

An example of why GPS isn't always trustworthy. I promise I did not cut the course like this shows!

My splits. No real surprise, although you can really see where I swapped my bottles and that my lap 101 was definitely a "victory" lap. You should be able to click this and see a larger version, if you are curious.

Once I was done, the race wasn't over. There was still 4 hours to go for the 12/24 hour runners. And pizza to be eaten (by me).

The amazing Bill setting yet another record.

Lynnard, who gets the blame for me being here, near the end of his race. He ended up with 84.5 miles!

Ha ha ha - I love the "STOP" sign in the background!

With just a couple of minutes left in the race, these two decided to try to get one more lap in. This is a bit risky because you have to cross the mat before 6PM or else that last lap doesn't count. I suspect this was one of the faster laps either of these 24 hour runners did the whole race.

Ed finishing his last lap with about 5 seconds to spare. No worries. He ended up with a bit over 500 laps and 124.5 miles!

One of the reasons I wanted to run this was the chance to see Jenni and Jesse. They both ran the 24 hour. When I showed up at a bit after 7AM, Jesse was in jeans and had called it a race due to injury issues. Jenni had just gotten up from a nap and decided she would push to get to 100K and be happy with that.

Ha.

It wasn't long before Jesse had changed out of his jeans and was with Jenni, putting in lap after lap.

This was near the end. I was starting to worry that we were going to have to tackle them to get them to stop.

Jenni ended up being second in the 24 hour with 76.5 miles (WAY over a 100K).

The haul. There is a coaster still to come - it will be engraved with our name and distance! And Ed the Jester gave me an updated wrist band!

This event was a blast - I'm so glad I did it and am already planning to be a 24 hour runner next year (100K or bust!).

I was totally amazed at how fast each lap went by. I was actually a bit sad when we reached the 3 hour mark since it meant we were already half done. (I will say though, by the 5 hour mark, I was very ready to be done - that last hour was tough!) I was also surprised at how reluctant I was to stop at the aid station - I just really wanted to keep going. No toilet breaks, no sitting breaks - just go!

Also, I was concerned about the constant left turns. Looping races with sharp turns are notorious for causing odd pains since you are very repetitively putting strains on the same parts of your body. But it turns out that, on a track, the turns are so gentle that you really have very little to do to make them. We switched directions in an effort to reduce any issues the turns caused, but all this really did was make the course look entirely different (for a few laps, in any case).

Things I would do different next time:

• I would either have more bottles already made up or would have taken a few minutes and got more Tailwind ready to go. I really think that would have helped me in that last hour.
• Leaving the bottle at the aid station worked out well, but next time I'll come up with a way to make it easier to grab and drop off - after a bit it was challenging to bend over and grab it.
• I should have put on sunscreen. It got pretty warm and the sun really beat on you. I figured since we were not spending much time going in any one direction, we would not really get much of a sunburn, but that was wrong thinking - it was a very even sunburn though.

For a first time race, this went exceptionally smooth. If I could suggest anything, it would be to have some way to more easily work out which runners were running which race. Maybe bib numbers, or colored dots on the bibs, or something on the scoreboard would have worked nicely. The food and volunteer support was amazing! A HUGE thanks to Jon and John from PCTR for all you and your people did to make this so much fun!

And I can now find the city of Riverbank on a map!

That's it - move along…

PS: Here is a link to more of my pictures.

PPS: Here is a link to all of my pictures, in an easy to download format.

PPPS: Here is a link to a movie I put together that shows me running an early lap, for those of you that might want to get a feel for what it was really like. It also includes a fun bit at the end showing the awesome volunteers giving Jenni her cheer overtime she went by (and Jenni giving a jump each time).

Progress is sweet!

Two weeks, two more races, and a bit of progress to report on.

We followed up the Brazen Bay Breeze race with the Inside Trail Lake Chabot race. This race has become our unofficial anniversary race since it often falls within a day or two of our anniversary.

Back in 2014, Mrs Notthat and I ran the 30K, then added on a bonus 1K to get to 31K - one K for each year of wedded bliss.

In 2015, I was a bit injured, so Mrs Notthat ran the 30K on her own while I did the 5K, but we both added 2K to get the total up to 32K (for one of us - I ended up with 4.3 miles, so I'm taking that as a good sign for our 43rd anniversary).

This year, we both ran the 5K. Since adding 28K to get us up to 33K was not going to happen, we opted to add 0.2 miles to get up to 3.3 miles.

The throngs of race fans were impressive!

Due to weather-related trail issues, the 5K runners ended up having the west shore of Lake Chabot to themselves. There had been rain earlier, but the weather was great for the race, and the 5K course was almost entirely on pavement.

Mrs Notthat decided to try to push it a bit in this race while I chose to aggressively hike it. The course has a few mild hills, which was a nice change and forced me to test my achilles a bit.

Mrs Notthat storming back to the finish line.

The Arch of Trees.

"Which way do I go?"

I was pretty happy with my result - a bit slower than at Bay Breeze, but the hills could be blamed for that.

GET A ROOM!

Once I finally finished, Mrs Notthat and I headed out to get the final 0.2 miles to bring us to 3.3 miles for our 33rd anniversary.

"Told you I'd win!"

When we finished the bonus distance, we found out that Mrs Notthat had won her age group! And a bowl a fruit!

I was happy that I came out of this 5K with no pain issues, and was starting to gain some confidence in my recovery. So I decided to hike the 10K distance at the following weekend's race, the new Brazen Victory.

The Victory race was at the Richmond Marina, with the course mostly following the bay shore. The day was perfect and the views were exceptional.

The trails were all paved for the 10K.

Looking across at the majestic Saratoga skyline. Or maybe Los Gatos.

"Which way do I go?" (This "kid" is running his first ultra at Way Too Cool as I type this. WOW!)

Mrs Notthat and Ekim (not his real name) are enjoying the shopping a bit too much.

Once the race was done (Mrs Notthat ran the 5K) we were all invited to shop at the Mountain Hardware employee store, which was in the building next to the finish line. There is nothing like hundreds of sweaty runners all hanging out in a nice store. Trying on clothes. (I doubt we'll ever be invited back.)

This race was the second half of a double series - do both races and get a bonus medal to "anchor" them to each other.

This 10K was the longest distance I'd tried to cover in about two months, and it went really well. There was absolutely no pain.

The next day I was really brave and ran a flat two miles. The last time I had tried this, about a month ago, it really hurt. This time there was no pain - which was hugely exciting! There was a serious conditioning issue though since after those two miles I was pretty much done.

But the important thing was that there was no pain. (There were also no hills, but those will get added in slowly.)

My plan is to slowly start building up the fitness and mixing in some mild hills.

Some flowers at the top of a mild hill.

I'm planning on a hilly 10K next weekend (Brazen Badger Cove), but I'm not going to try to win; just slowly running bits of it will be a big enough deal.

The wins will come later.

That's it - move along…

PS: Pictures from the ITR Lake Chabot race.

PPS: Pictures from the Brazen Victory race.

"Sir! I think he's still alive!"

(I don't know if that's a real line from a movie or not, but I'm going to pretend it is. I'll leave it up to your imagination to work out which movie. I fear it might be a Care Bears movie though. And I apologize now for what's going to be a long and whiny post. I've got to believe you've got something better to do than read this.)

It's been a REALLY long time since I last posted a thing here. A couple of years ago I invented a loose policy of only posting race reports on races of Half Marathon or longer, but that's biting me a bit now since the last Half I did was way back in early December (Brazen Summit Rock).

During that hill-infested race, I felt a mild pain in my right achilles - I've never had any kind of pain there before and decided it wasn't a big deal. (The bee sting on the other ankle was much more annoying in any case.)

The following week was the Coastal Quarry Lakes race, and I ran the 10K. I have a goal of some day finishing a 10K in under an hour, and even better, under my age in minutes (which is quickly coming to mean the same thing). This is a pretty flat 10K, so I went out hoping to at least challenge that 60 minute 10K goal.

Not long after starting the race, the achilles flared up, but not too bad. So I kept on running and figured it would clear up in a bit. Have I ever mentioned that my "figuring" during a race can be pretty wildly flawed? At about the halfway point, I knew it wasn't going away, and instead, was getting worse. I kept pushing, but was starting to worry.

This turkey vulture should have been the sign that got me to stop. 

I ended up walking a bit towards the end as the pain intensified, but came closer to my 60 minute goal than I thought I would (a bit over 70 minutes).

Mrs Notthat finishing her 10K.

I stretched a bit then walked back out to pace Mrs Notthat in. I had a hard time keeping up with her and realized I probably shouldn't have done that. But she's so dang cute!

Pictures I took at the Coastal Quarry Lakes race.

The following weekend was the Brazen Almost New Years Eve race. I had to do that race since the grandkids would be there and Brazen was doing it's traditional mega-medal thing if you ran that race and the one on New Years Day.

I bravely downgraded to the 5K and walked it. The pain wasn't bad with the relatively flat course, but it was still there.

Picture by Leahcim Il, not his real name. I believe Mrs Notthat is yelling "he's not with me!"

Pictures I took at the Almost NYE race.

For reasons that defy logic, I took that finish as a good sign, and for the New Years Day race, stuck with the 10K, although I promised I would start walking if the pain started up again.

The 10K starts relatively flat then slogs up a mean hill. The pain kicked in on the flat bit, before the 5K turnaround. I should have dropped to the 5K at that point, but, well, I'm not that bright.

Picture again by Leahcim Il. That's a fake smile.

I ended up walking most of this 10K, took nearly two hours to finish, and by the end, I knew I had a real issue.

Pictures I took at the NYD race.

So I shut it down. No running, no long walks even. (At this point, even a quarter mile hike would cause the pain to come back.) I started doing something that I never thought I'd do - using Mrs Notthat's "stick" to roll my calves. (Stretching my calves really seemed to aggravate the injury, but I was pretty sure that the calf was the problem. Rolling it with a stick is a way to stretch the muscles without putting strain on the achilles. I think.)

About two weeks after that race we headed to Oahu for the HURT race. I have a long-held dream of hiking/running a loop of that course, but this wasn't going to be the year.

I've written about HURT before, so I'm not going to go too much into it. This year we didn't tack on bonus nights, so we ended up being there for only a week, and ended up being almost solely focussed on the race. We shared a cottage with All Day and Mrs CK and had a lot of fun - the weather was great and the race was a blast.

This was our third year coming over for this race, and one interesting thing was that it was the first time that Mrs Notthat and I were not potentially going to do any pacing. (We missed you Aynwat! Not your real name!) Mrs Notthat worked with Mrs CK to crew All Day while I took a bunch of pictures and spent the night working the Nature Center aid station.

All Day's race didn't go as hoped (you can listen to his emotional but still fun podcast about it here), and the Bay Area nearly got skunked (thank you Sirhc, not your real name, for getting this done!), but being in a Hawaiian rain forest makes that all OK.

Picture by Kalani Pascual - note my backwards hat; I very rarely do that, but anyone that takes picture with an optical viewfinder will know why that makes sense.

Sirhc leaving the second aid station on his first lap.

PCTR Nhoj (not his real name) taking the scenic route though the creek.

Ekim, not his real name, leaving the second aid station. WATCH YOUR STEP!

All Day getting close to the third aid station.

PCTR Nhoj approaching his fourth aid station.

All Day getting LOTS of attention from Mrs CK and Mrs Notthat.

I like working the night shift (10 PM to 4 AM) at the Nature Center aid station since night time makes things really interesting. This race is five 20-mile loops. The trails are absurdly tough in the daytime when you can see them. At night, in addition to you not being able to see very well, the roots and rocks get extra slippery with the dew. This is when lots of runners start to get a bit shell-shocked and the reality of what they are trying to do really sets in. All Day was up for this. (For a while.)

Ffej, not his real name, has kissed the sign and rang the bell. He won.

The other fun thing about this shift is you get to see the winner come in. It's astonishing that there are runners that can actually finish this race in under 24 hours (three did this year).

Sirhc about a half mile from being done!

The next day I managed to capture a shot of the lone Bay Area finisher as he stormed the finish line. This is a very tough race with a low finish rate (well over half the runners end up dropping), so it's always impressive when anyone manages to hang in there and get all five laps done.

This place is for the birds.

Mrs Notthat and I did take one day to be tourists.

Of the whole trip, this was the only time either of us actually stepped into the ocean. We pretty much failed Hawaiian Tourist 101.

Just to bring this back to me and my issues, I did a fair amount of hiking around during this race (it ended up at about 6 to 7 miles with some climbing), trying to get out a bit from the aid stations to get shots of the runners. And my achilles was not impressed. That was sad.

Here are some links you might like:

A cool short movie from the race made by Ultrarunning Magazine.

Pictures I took during the pre-race meeting.

Pictures I took on the first day of the race.

Pictures I took on the last day of the race.

Pictures I took at the post-race dinner.

Pictures I took on our tourist day.

Back in the Bay Area, I chose to crew Mrs Notthat at the Brazen Coyote Hills race. It was a rainy day, so I broke out my sun.

The "sun" from the 2012 CIM Monsoon made a rare appearance.

The sun did reasonably well at keeping the rain away, or at least keeping it light.

Mrs Notthat near the finish of her 10K.

Pictures I took at the Coyote Hills race.

After that race, we took some time off from races. This wasn't easy since there are so many fun races this time of the year, but for me, it was my only hope to get back on track.

On Super Bowl Sunday, we headed out to our local, mostly flat park and I ran for the first time since New Years Day - it was not pain free, but it was certainly better. I was discouraged that I wasn't completely healed, but I was a bit encouraged that, at the end of three miles, I wasn't limping around.

Which brings us to this weekend, where I walked the 5K at the Brazen Bay Breeze.

Picture by Annahs, not her real name.

Mrs Notthat finishing her 10K, and decidedly NOT walking it.

I had no pain during or after this race, which I'm taking to mean that walking, even walking aggressively, does not put a big strain on the achilles, which is great news for me.

Pictures I took at the Bay Breeze race.

And that pretty much covers my last couple of months.

My current plan is to walk a 5K next weekend (ITR Lake Chabot since it's fairly flat) and maybe a 10K the following weekend (Brazen Victory - got to get the mega medal!). I'm not looking to try running again until after all that. The truly sad thing is that this means I'm not going to get to try to avenge my shot at a 100K at the Razorback race this year, and will end up missing out on a number of other fun races.

But that's OK - I'll take my time and get fixed. As you would expect, I've gotten a TON of advice on how to fix my issue and how to keep it from happening again (and I expect I'll get more now).

In the meantime, I'm going to try to post these things more regularly, even for the shorter races.

That's it - move along…

PS: If you really read all the way to this point, I'm both impressed and a bit worried about you - this thing has really droned on and on.