Race Report: Eastern States 100

Where to begin? The buildup to this race was perhaps longer than any other I've done. After struggling with some minor (but annoying) injuries for several years, crazy weight swings, and major life changes - I was seriously wondering if my days of running ultramarathons were over. Could I actually get back into good enough shape to attempt another crazy one? Would my body hold up if I did? I signed up for Eastern States back in February during a time when my training was going particularly well (I was training for Georgia Death Race at the time). I saw a post on Facebook that there were still openings for Eastern States, so I figured "why not?" I also saw that they were trying something new this year - a "solo" division where you're not allowed to have a crew or pacer. So of course I had to sign up for the more extreme option of an already extreme race. LOL

So, I finished Georgia Death Race (barely). That seemed to validate that my fitness was where it needed to be, and that my body could handle the stress of a long event. The challenge there was hydration and nutrition, as I was vomiting the entire second half of the race. Still, it seemed I was on the right track. Following GDR, I continued my buildup for Eastern States, which has a similar amount of climbing per mile - just a lot more miles (103 versus 74). I purposely trained in the heat and humidity of the spring & summer, so that I would be as acclimated as possible for an August race. As race day approached, I felt like the training was sufficient - including endless hours on the stair machine since Raleigh isn't known for being very mountainous.

One minor hiccup leading into the race - I forgot to put my trekking poles in the truck before I left the house, and only remembered about 5 hours into the drive. A shame, since I had bought fancy new folding carbon fiber poles specifically for ES100. I briefly considered doing the race without poles, but decided to check if there was a sporting goods store nearby. No REI to be found, but there was a Dick's Sporting Goods just ahead on the highway. So, I stopped in there and bought a set of heavier aluminum telescoping poles. Definitely not as nice as the ones I had intended to use, but certainly good enough.

Anyway, check-in Friday night was uneventful, as was Saturday morning. Except, of course, that I had to wake up at 2:40 am to get ready and drive to the start/finish line at Little Pine State Park. The race started at 5am, which meant that we needed headlamps at the start. (Note to the organizers - start at 6:30 instead so we all get more sleep, and no one has to start with a headlamp. Just a thought...) There *was* someone at the start making pancakes, so I nibbled on several of those while waiting for the race to start.

The wait was soon over and the race began. We started off on the road in the park, and wound through one of the camping areas.  I'd say it was about 1.25 miles until we hit the single track - enough time to spread the pack out a little bit, but there was definitely still a bottleneck when we got to the trail. We hit the first big climb about 3 miles in, where things bottlenecked again. Normally, trail/race etiquette would have you step off to the side on a big climb like that if people are starting to bunch up behind you. Well, there were a couple runners that didn't get that memo, so we were climbing pretty slowly for a while. I wasn't too concerned, since it was forcing me to take a more conservative pace and not start out too fast. Others were definitely more frustrated.

The rest of the way to AS1 was uneventful. I arrived around 1:28, and was out around 1:30. So, a very efficient stop. AS1 only had water (no food), so I was still eating the food I started with - a concoction of instant mashed potatoes, corn starch, extra salt and sodium, and some caffeine powder added for good measure...  I finished that by the time I got to AS2, around 2:49. That was a 3-minute stop. At this point, I'm 11 miles in and feeling pretty good. I'm using the poles all the time - not just for climbing. I do remember thinking I probably should have trained with them more, since I'll be using muscles that I have not used to that extent. Oh well - too late for that now.

AS3 (17 miles) was the first aid station where I would have a drop bag, so I planned on making that a slightly longer stop. I downed a 5-hour Energy, switched to a different hat, and ditched my empty mashed potato squeeze tubes. Refilled water & tailwind (sport drink), and helped myself to the buffet. The highlights here were perogies and grilled cheese sandwiches. I grabbed some and ate them while I walked out of the aid station. Total time - 6 minutes. I'm 4:40 into the race now.

AS3->AS4 was one of my favorite parts of the course. There were two very long downhill sections. The first was not very technical, and quite runnable. I made up a lot of time here, and passed a bunch of runners. The second was more technical, but not super steep. Again, quite runnable if you're comfortable with that - which I am. That one was almost like downhill skiing in parts, and I was aggressively using my poles as I descended. I arrived at AS4 (25 miles) around 6:36, still high on adrenaline from the downhills. 5 minutes later, I was running again.

I don't recall anything specific from AS4->AS5. I arrived at AS5 around 8:27 and left at 8:32. So, I'm still being very efficient with my stops at this point. The goal was to keep most aid stations at 5 minutes or less. There were 5 aid stations where I had drop bags, and the goal there was 10 minutes or less, with the exception of the mile 61 aid station, where I planned an extended stop. But more on that later. So far, I am exactly on schedule, 3 hours ahead of the cutoffs, and almost 1/3 of the way to the finish (31 miles).

By now, things are starting to "get real". My shoulders are aching from using the poles. (My "downhill skiing" escapades didn't do them any favors, for sure.) My brain is starting to get a little foggy. I haven't reached my next drop bag yet, so haven't had a chance to get another 5-hour Energy boost. Around mile 35, I was on a gravel road, climbing, and just in a "low energy" part of the race. So, I have my head down, just focusing on getting up the hill. After a bit, I hear someone yell from behind: "Hey! When's the last time you saw a flag?" Meaning, of course, the ribbons that mark the course. I thought for a second, and I couldn't remember the last time I saw one. Fortunately, I had the course preloaded in my watch, so it was easy to check if we were off-course or not. We were. Fuuuuuuuuuuuck. Fortunately, it was "only" 1/4 mile. But we effectively added a half mile to an already long course. Three people  had followed me on the detour. In my defense, the turn was *not* marked well and was much easier to spot from the direction we were now coming.

Side note here... Garmin watches allow you to "follow a course", and will actually alert you if you go off-course. But the alert is so anemic it is USELESS. (As are the "turn alerts".) I wrote a custom "data field" that displays its own alerts for turns and off-course warnings, and it works great. Except, I recently got a new watch and it's full of bugs - including one that doesn't allow my data field to get the navigation information. So, I couldn't use my field, and had to rely on Garmin's pathetic little 'beep' to let me know if I strayed off-course. And, by the way, it only beeps once. So if you don't notice the whisper-quiet beep the first time, you'll never get notified after that. This is all to say that, for a company whose "bread and butter" is navigation, the user experience here is *SHIT*.

Well, after realizing the navigation error, that definitely "woke me up" and got the adrenaline going again. So, silver lining there... I continued on to AS6 (38 miles) and arrived 10:23. I was gone at 10:28. Now, I'm about 20 minutes behind schedule - most of which was due to the detour. Still 3 hours ahead of the cutoffs, though.

Not much to say about AS6->AS7. At this point, I'm just dialed in. I took some Tylenol at one point because my shoulder hurt so much. Also, the hand straps on the poles are now starting to rub the back of my hands raw. (I did see others wearing gloves, which I guess is something I need to consider for the future.) Aside from the shoulders, everything is holding up pretty well, except for the KT tape I put around my knees. Despite buying the "extreme" KT tape, and doing all kinds of prep to make sure it adhered as well as possible, it was already peeling away. To be fair, I was sweating *buckets* by now. The temperature wasn't bad (low-mid 80s). But the humidity had to be 100%. As long as I was in a runnable section, and had air moving over me, it wasn't bad at all. When I'd start a steep (slow) climb, I would be dripping sweat everywhere. So I certainly gave the tape an "extreme" test, but it failed and I ended up taking it off around mile 40, since it was just flapping around. I guess one highlight of this section was the "Fuzzy Friends Club" - definitely *not* a hallucination - that was maybe a 1/2 mile before the aid station.

AS7 was the second "drop bag" aid station. Just under 43 miles. I arrived 11:34 and had another 5-hour Energy. I seem to remember digging something else out of my bag, but I can't recall what it was. I left at 11:42, so was under my 10-minute goal for the "bagged" aid station. I'm 23 minutes behind my predicted schedule, and about 3.5 hours ahead of the cutoff.  The next section was a long one, so I was starting out with a lot of fluids, and grabbed a bunch of food from the aid station (perogies and grilled cheese again, I think.)

It's almost all uphill to AS8, so it's slow going and I'm sweating a lot. Also, as I left AS7 I started hearing thunder. Not too long after that, it started raining. The thunder was very frequent, but the tree canopy was so thick I couldn't see lightning if it was nearby. The thick canopy also kept the rain from being too annoying. Still, I couldn't help but think it was unwise to be going *up* the mountain while hearing thunder. Eventually, I got high enough that I could see the sky light up occasionally from the lightning, which allowed me to time the gap between the lightning and thunder. The first count was around 6 seconds, so that suggested the storm wasn't too close and I wasn't in imminent danger. The lightning/thunder gap increased over time, which meant I was moving away from the storm (or, at least, the lightning anyway). When the gap got to 10 seconds, I stopped paying attention.

The rain didn't slow the ascent much - since that's slow anyway. But any descent had to be done with care now. I couldn't just "bomb" down the hills and make up time. Also, the temperature dropped with the storm, so I wasn't drinking nearly as much as I thought I'd need to - which meant I carried a lot of extra weight up the mountain. Still, there was always the chance the storm could have passed quickly and the temperature rise again. So better to be safe than sorry, but the extra weight in my pack was *killing* my shoulders. I was watching time on my watch now so that I'd know when I could take another dose of Tylenol.

I got to AS8 (50.5 miles) at 14:30. As I approached the aid station, the rain seemed to be letting up. That was a relief. After nearly 3 hours, I had had my fill. I was starting to get a little chilled at this point. The sun was going down (so I got my headlamp back out) and I was in short sleeves and soaked. I of course hadn't thought to put a rain jacket in my pack, but I did have an "emergency poncho". I dug that out and put it on as I sat down to take a rest. Good thing, because the rain picked back up with a vengeance. I had some soup to warm up. My GPS data shows I sat there for 16 minutes. I don't recall it being that long, but the data doesn't lie. I took a few perogies and some Stove Top Stuffing to go, and starting walking. Now, I'm about 50 minutes behind where I thought I'd be, but still 3:15 ahead of the cutoff. 

There weren't any "crazy" climbs or descents going from AS8->AS9 (56 miles). I arrived at 16:30 and left 16:37. Not too bad, all things considered. I'm over an hour behind where I thought I'd be - but the rain was definitely slowing things down. I'm still 3:08 ahead of the cutoff. My legs are still fine, though I started getting some pain on the outside of the ball of my right foot. Most likely, I had a bruise from stepping on a sharp rock or something. My shoulders had reached a "plateau" of discomfort that was mostly bearable. The rain continued, which was frustrating.

AS9->AS10 is where things started to "go south". I'm pretty sure this was the section where I might have thrown up first.  (Hard to remember exactly when my stomach turned on me...) Unlike GDR, I felt immediately better after throwing up. (At GDR, I felt nauseated the entire second half of the race.) So I was hoping this was "one and done". It wasn't. I threw up several more times along the way. It seemed to get triggered mostly if I pushed too hard on an uphill, or if I drank too much. So, I slowed down on the uphills and took "baby sips" of water (like half an ounce at most). That helped, but I still couldn't eat anything. To make things worse, my feet were in pretty bad shape from being soaked for *hours* now. The rain did eventually stop. I think it was a total of maybe 6 hours. Fortunately, AS10 had another drop bag, which was where I planned my "extended stop" to change shoes, socks, and anything else I needed to. To get to AS10, we actually had to wade through a chest-deep river.  There was a rope strung across, and we had safety lines to hold onto. It was a neat experience - I've never had to do a water crossing that deep in a race before. AS10 was there on the other side of the river, and I made my way to the medical tent to see if someone could look at my feet. Fortunately, they weren't busy, so I had help immediately.

I wish I had thought to take a picture. I felt like I had blisters forming on the balls of each foot, just to the inside of the big toe. Once my socks were off, it was difficult to tell because my feet were so macerated. Think about how your fingers and toes are a little "pruney" after soaking in the tub, and multiply that by 100...  So it was impossible to tell if there was a blister there or not. And there really wasn't anything they could do. So I dried off my feet and let them "air out" a few minutes before I put on dry socks and shoes. I also changed my shirt and hat. I probably should have changed shorts, but didn't want to take the extra time to find someplace private to change.  I refilled water and probably grabbed some food (wishful thinking), and headed back out. 62 miles down. I left 20:08, nearly 40 minutes after I arrived. I'm now 2:15 behind my prediction (which I've now given up on). 1:52 ahead of the cutoff.

AS10->AS11 had another big climb. I had to go slow or else risk having to stop to throw up - which I did have to do anyway. At this point, I am *very* frustrated. I feel like my legs are fine to run and climb, but I can't push myself without getting sick. My shoulder is hurting again. And now that "bruise" on my right foot is *killing* me. Like, "sharp pain running up my leg" killing me. Not on every step. But enough to make me really question what the hell I'm doing. There was absolutely a point where I told myself this was my last race. I could deal with everything else, but the nausea was completely disheartening. It took forever to get to AS11. The multiple stops to hurl on the side of the trail really slowed me down. I'm also having a hard time staying awake. As I started getting close, I looked at my watch. At the time, I thought the cutoff was 24:30. I wasn't going to make it... It was close, for sure, but I figured I was going to come in around 24:40 - maybe 24:35 if I really pushed. That settled it. My day was almost over. I wasn't going to have to run anymore. The pain could stop. There were several people ahead of, and behind, me. None of them seemed to have a sense of urgency to get to the aid station. I figured they had all done the math as well and had realized it was out of reach.

I got to AS11 and, like every other aid station, the volunteers were awesome. Multiple people asked me what I needed. I said I just needed to sit a few minutes. As I sat down, I said to one of the volunteers "I guess I missed the cutoff, huh?"  They looked at me, slightly puzzled, and replied "oh no - you're almost an hour ahead of the cutoff." Well crap. Now I have to make a decision to continue or not. I thought the decision had been made for me. My stomach had actually settled down in the last 30-40 minutes, so I felt like I could eat something again - which I did. (A banana, I think.) Meanwhile, another volunteer is talking to me and says something along the lines of "it's only 30 miles to the finish" and "you only have 10 more hours to go". I know he meant well, but I wanted to slap him. LOL. You can't say "only" and "30 miles", or "only" and "10 hours"... At 24:45, I got out of the chair and started moving again. At least now I didn't feel like I was going to throw up. My foot still hurt like hell, though. I'm just 45 minutes ahead of the cutoff now.

I made good time to AS12. As I'm running, it started to occur to me that maybe my foot is more than "bruised". I've heard about runners getting "stress fractures" - is that what this is? It's certainly painful. But, so is a bruise if you keep pounding on it for hours... It's not really slowing me down - just very, very annoying. So I figure I'll keep moving forward until I can't. I arrived at AS12 at 27:16 and left 27:20. I had a drop bag there, but didn't get anything out of it. (I should have grabbed a 5-hour Energy, but forgot...) The sun has been up for a couple hours now, which helped a lot. I'm nearly 80 miles in, and 55 minutes ahead of the cutoff. 

AS12->AS13 had a couple climbs, and the nausea eventually returned. Only when I pushed hard, though. And It only seemed to be on climbs. When a section was runnable, I never felt nauseated. It was weird. At this point, I can start to feel like I'm going to make it, though there is still a long way to go. I also felt an overpowering sense of deja-vu. The trail looked *so* familiar and I was 100% sure I had run it before. I even "recognized" different landmarks. I don't know if "deja vu" is even the right term, the sense of familiarity was so strong. I still can't shake that feeling a week later, but I have no record (that I can find) of ever running in that area before. So perhaps my sleep-deprived brain was playing tricks on me. But I would have bet money I had been there before. I just don't know when.

AS13->AS14 had a couple more climbs. Now, I'm just sipping water and occasionally hurling on the side of the trail. (Mostly dry heaving, of course.) I think it was in this section that I had my only fall during the race. It wasn't even on the trail. The course took us through what appeared to be someone's back yard. There was a decorative bridge we had to go over. Then, there was what appeared to be a drainage ditch with a much smaller bridge over it. The smaller bridge had a piece of plywood for the surface. I'm running at this point, and as soon as my foot hit that plywood, my foot slipped out in front of me and I went horizontal in the air - landing flat on my back. This had to have look cartoonish - it certainly felt it. Like "slipping on a banana peel" cartoonish. I hit the ground hard enough that the "fall detected" alert appeared on my watch, counting down to where it would call 911 (I think). I fumbled and managed to cancel the alert before the call was made. Aside from a scratch on my arm, there was no damage. It was just really weird. I'm not even sure how the physics worked out to make me slip like that.

I made it to AS14 at 31:57, and left 32:01. All I did was have them dump ice into my Camelbak, then moved on. I'm about 92 miles in, and a scant 30 minutes ahead of the cutoff. I had a drop bag at AS14 also, but just ignored it. At this point, there was nothing in there that would help me.

AS14->AS15 is mostly downhill, so I made fairly good time there. I arrived 33:57 and decided to sit down for a few minutes. I sipped a little Mountain Dew for some caffeine. I can't remember if it was AS14 or AS15, but I saw (and talked to) the race director at one of them, though I didn't realize it until after I left. My brain was definitely useless at that point. All my physical and mental energy was focused on getting to the finish now. I left at 34:11, 34 minutes ahead of the cutoff.

The final segment has one climb, then a *lot* of technical downhill to the finish. Several runners passed me while I was sitting down at AS15, and I passed them all on the downhills. And then caught up to other runners, and passed them. And more runners. The final descent was so steep I couldn't help but think that, if anyone had anything left in their quads, this was certainly shredding them now (it was certainly shredding mine). I continued attacking the downhills, aggressively using my poles. I came out of the woods about 100 yards from the finish and passed 2 more people. I started running for the finish line, carrying my poles. I saw another runner about 50 yards ahead of me and decided to start using the poles and try to catch him too. Alas, I was not able to close that gap, as he was still moving pretty well. But I finished strong and even got a halfway decent picture as I finished. Final time: 35:18:08. 115th place out of 227 runners. Only 131 runners finished, so I was toward the end of the people that actually made it to the end. 96 people came up short of the finish line that day. A pretty high DNF rate. I'm thinking the rain had a lot to do with it, though the course is quite demanding even in good weather.

Some stats...

Total steps:        198,831  (114,405 Saturday, 84,426 Sunday)
Total calories:    14,131
Average pace:    21:02 min/mile
Moving pace:    16:15 min/mile
Moving time:    27:18:39 (note: I'm not sure why this isn't run time + walk time...)
Running time:    6:26:40
Walking time:    24:17:38
Idle time:        4:36:47

So what did I learn from all of this?

First, I need to get my nutrition figured out. I suspect I'm trying to eat too much, and that's why my stomach is rebelling. My thinking up to this point has been that these endurance races are part "competitive eating" contests. I'm burning 700-800 calories per hour. I'm trying to replace as much of that as possible. But what GDR and ES100 have taught me is that I'm capable of going quite a long time on *zero* calories. So perhaps I don't need to try to eat 700 calories per hour. Perhaps 300 calories per hour is enough.

Second, I need hand protection when using poles for an extended period of time. Now, if I had my "fancy poles", the straps had a much smoother material that probably wouldn't have rubbed me as raw as the nylon webbing of the replacement poles. Still, some lightweight fingerless gloves would have been useful. I'll probably have (minor) scars on my hands from this - not that I really care. But that's how bad it was.  I also need to train more with my poles, so my shoulder muscles are properly conditioned for the effort.

Third, while I'm capable of completing an event like this without a crew, it would have been nice to have one. If nothing else, someone to remind me to drink my 5-hour Energy. Or have a fresh shirt ready to change into. I fortunately didn't run into any major issues (other than the stomach problems). But if I had, a crew could have made the difference between finishing and not finishing, given how close I ended up being to the cutoffs towards the end.

Fourth, I regret not taking more pictures during the race. But I'm also glad I didn't spend any time on it. I thought beforehand that I might try to to video updates every hour or so. I would love to have a record of my thoughts, but it would have slowed me down. I'm glad I focused on the race and didn't lose any time trying to document it.

HUGE thanks to the organizers and volunteers of ES100. This is, without question, a world-class event. One of the best. I'm not sure when/if I'll be back, but that's only because there are a lot of other races I want to experience. Regardless, my Eastern States finisher buckle is now a prized possession for sure!

So what's next? I don't have anything on the calendar (yet). But I have some ideas about trying a few FKT (fastest known time) attempts.  Stay tuned!