You may have seen my post 2 weeks ago on “Leaving My Running Comfort Zone Again.” If you missed it, please check it out. The gist was that I was invited to a cool event that I have never tried and goaded into doing a 6 hour timed “ultra run.” The two events to recap were the Sole Survivor Progressive Race on July 9 in Crown Point, Indiana and the Christmas in July Races 6 hour run yesterday morning – well 12 AM – 6 AM!
So, I am proud to say, that I completed both of these events and had a blast. Here is the scoop…
Sole Survivor Progressive Race on July 9 in Crown Point, Indiana
If you did not see my post, a progressive race is actually a series of mini-races “Survivor” style. Basically, all participants run an initial distance. In this case, it was 3 miles – 6 laps around a .5 mile loop. Then the last x number of men and the last x number of women are eliminated. In this case, it was 3. Then they rolled a large die (one dice?) and the next race was 1/2 a mile times the roll. Then the last 3 per gender are eliminated until there are 2 women and 2 men left. This was the brain child of our new friend, Tim Fealy from Hometown Happenings.
Wendy and I arrived about an hour early to the fairgrounds and could not find any evidence of a race. We went toward Fancher Lake. Still nothing. Then we saw some folks and headed over. We found out that it was a pretty small field as this was Weds evening and a new event. It wound up being around 30 participants. More women than men. The race was low frills: $20 to enter, +$10 for a shirt and limited extras. That was cool with us! I need a shirt and a medal like another hole in the head!
Everyone was friendly – as friendly as can be when sizing up the competition. We met up with Mindy, Wendy’s friend from high school that got us into this. Tim and crew set up and told us the rules. In the final instructions, he asked “who is the blogger?” I raised my hand. He was floored when he heard the three of us came from Chicago to participate. Here is the how it played out:
- Race 1 – 3 miles. The strategy should be run only as fast as you need to to stay in. Hmm. Not how I roll. There were a few very fast men, then me, Wendy and Jamie 1, 2, 3. First roll of die – #1
- Race 2 – 1/2 mile! A different kind of race. 1 lap as fast as I could. Hello, track workout. Thank you, TTAU. We all made it on. Second roll of die – #4
- Race 3 – 2 miles. Again strategy should have been same as #1. Ran a bit too fast again. We switched directions. Wendy and I were 1 and 2 and we moved on. Field shrinking! Jamie and Mindy got “out.” Third roll of die – #6
- Race 4 – 3 miles. Aw snap. 2 local “ringers” led the women’s race. Yup, they had the right strategy in mind! We ran a good pace. Wendy and I were 3rd and 4th and we moved on. Fourth roll of the die – #3
- Race 5 – 1.5 miles. Aw snap again. Who runs 1.5 miles? A quick pace with the Indiana ladies leading again and Wendy and I giving chase. Only two would move to the last round. The expectation because it was getting dark was that we would run one lap to choose the winner. I went for it and wound up 2nd to the Indiana ringer, Brooke. They decided to roll the die. Aw snap. They pulled raffle prizes and gave me a Smoothie King card that I had been vying for! That did not change my despair of having to race more than 1/2 a mile more. I was at 10 miles at or below half marathon pace. My fault. Bad strategy. Last roll of the die – #4
- Final race – 2 miles. I can’t lie, I was ready to throw in the towel. But I didn’t. Brooke, the eventual winner, got a jump on me and never let up. I just smiled and enjoyed the ride. The other racers and crew/fans stuck around and cheered. I felt like a winner for sure! Wendy and a local 5th grader joined me for the last lap.
We had such a blast. We are trying to get Tim to do a weekend progressive race event so we can invite our friends and teammates out! I will keep you posted. I will also tell you about another one of Tim’s cool events, Walk a Mile in Her Heels, next week, too!
Christmas in July 6 Hour Run on July 19 in Lisle, IL
As I mentioned in my post, I have never done any distance over a marathon AND I am not a night person. So… this was a double challenge. A timed run is one where you run as far as you can in the alloted time. You can stop whenever you choose and your miles are counted. There is no set distance. He or she who runs the most miles wins. This race is laps around a .97 mile loop in Lisle Community Park. Oh, and the 6 hour race started at Midnight and ended at 6 AM!
They decorated the entire park with luminaries, christmas lights and major inflatable decorations! It was definitely dark. We could have used headlamps, but it was OK. There was a great aid station set up with all kinds of food including pizza in the middle of the night!
Kristin and I arrived just after 11 PM, got our packets and swag and nervously chatted with some other first time ultra runners. The logistics were super straight forward and we parked right by the start/finish area. We loaded on bug spray and body glide and put on our CEP Compression socks. I decided to go with my Hoka Conquests despite never running a race or more than 12 miles I’m them. It was like I had Tim’s dice with me!
We lined up at 11:55 and the horn blew at midnight. We were off. There were about 50 runners starting on a narrow path so the first half mile was crowded and slow. We were added to the ~100 12-hour and 24-hour racers, so we perfected the art of passing in the dark. The area by the start was bright but the remaining 3/4 of a mile was lit with luminary candles every 5 feet, Christmas lights and inflatable holiday decorations. The loop was terrific. I think the best one mile loop possible for me. It started on a small hill with switchbacks, then down hill, over a bridge around a small lake and back on the road to the high school.
Since this was 6 hours, I will tell you a bit about each hour:
- Hour 1 (midnight to 1:00 AM): Kristin and I ran together at a nice measured pace. Our “strategy” was slow(er) and steady. With the crowding and darkness, we were completing loops in ~9:10-9:20 pace. We ran into my friend, “A”, who was doing the 24 hour and got us into this thing at mile 3 and ran with him for a while. We ran 5 or 6 miles and took a bathroom/water break. We got used to the dark and talked non-stop.
- Hour 2 (1:00 AM – 2:00 AM): We continued our chat and picked up “A” for a few more miles. He had decided to bail and head home to be with his family and guests. He had not done an ultra since 2008 and had not really trained. He still got in 4 hours and over 20 miles. We mostly ran and took another quick pit stop. The time was going pretty fast and we had no issues. There was a ton of food out. We stuck with water and Gatorade and two gummy worms for now.
- Hour 3 (2:00 AM – 3:00 AM): We still had things to talk about and met another runner, Jonathan. We chatted all things running with Jonathan and we were all glad for new company and topics. We were sailing along and stopped at the timing station at 2:55 in. Jonathan was on 19 laps and we were on 18. I learned that the loop was .97 so we were at 17.25 miles or so. Not bad!!
- Hour 4 (3:00 AM – 4:00 AM): We ran the next loop with Jonathan and about 3/4 of the way in, I tripped and took a huge Superman dive. It was in a spot that I mentioned seemed like a perfect place to trip on loop 1. Ouch! I scraped my left side pretty good and cut my hands. Luckily, no real aches and pains or sprains. We headed to the first aid kit. I told Kristin and Jonathan to go ahead and I got patched up. I took out my iPod and decided on put it on Shuffle. I was happy that it contains a lot of guilty pleasures from Richard’s spin class! I ran for the remainder of the hour with just me and my tunes. I made it to lap 24 and felt very strong. The sky brightened. At 4 AM, the sun was starting to come up. Who knew?!
- Hour 5 (4:00 AM – 5:00 AM): I caught up to Kristin on lap 27. She was taking a walk break and I walked with her to the start area. It was my first walking break. We ran a loop or 2 and I decided to remove my compression socks and change shoes for variety. Kristin gave me some Honey Stingers. There was a beautiful sunrise and suddenly we could see everything and all of the other runners!
- Hour 6 (5:00 AM – 6:00 AM): We stopped at the timer and realized that I was a lap ahead from the solo hour. I was at 30 laps and Kristin 29. We decided to run to 32 laps for me (my goal was 50K or 31.2 miles) and then I would take a pit stop and jog/take pictures of the course while Kristin made up the lap. I ran, took pics and chatted with other runners. When Kristin caught up, we realized we had time for 1 more lap and ran and chatted our way through. When we finished our 34th lap, we were at 5:51 and decided that we did not have enough time or energy for trying to fit in another lap (only completed laps count).
We stood in disbelief that we had run 33 miles and made it through the night running and with no sleep. There were high fives all around. We got our medals and went to change clothes. The nice ambulance crew let me change in the back of the ambulance instead of the porta potty! By 6:15 the bugs were buzzing, so we decided to skip breakfast and head home.
We did it!! We were ultra marathoners! We were 4th and 5th in the women’s race and 7th and 8th overall! I won my age group (of 8 women) and Kristin was 3rd of 11. A solid showing! Unlike the progressive, I can’t say that I will sign up as soon as I see one of these again, but I will never say never!
I will run races from Runners4Wellness again. It was super well organized, we got awesome swag (a hoodie sweatshirt, a tech-t, a nice medal and more!)
I know this was long winded, so thanks for sticking with me. It is not often that I do 45 miles of running in two race events within 10 days! I will say that I am so happy that I stepped out of my comfort zone and pushed my limits. These events were definitely the highlights of my running year so far and I imagine they will be hard to beat!
Have you stepped out of your comfort zone lately? Tell me about it in the comments!
PS. Don’t forget my active giveaways.