Skyline to Sea 50K
I am happy to report that I survived the Skyline to the Sea Ultra Marathon: 50K, or 31 miles, 5800 feet of vertical ascent. I made the run in 6 hours and 6 minutes. It was a very hard run. But, I jumped the hurdle of running farther than a marathon. Before you run a marathon, you have the hurdle of running over 20 miles. After you run a marathon, everything past 26.2 miles is unknown territory, terra incognita. So the way to reach new levels is to gain new perspective by doing longer distances. After you run 31 miles, then 26 does not seem so long. Just like how, after you run 13 miles, 6 miles seems like a warm up.
Things I learned from running this race:
+ Never draw conclusions. Once you draw a conclusion about your abilities, or the future for that matter, you body will follow suit. For example, if you think you are done and can't run further, then you body will stop moving. If you think 31 miles is too far, then it IS too far. If you think it's do-able, then it is. This is called re-thinking pain and suffering.
+ The longer the race, the slower you should start. The rule is, the first third should be slower than the second third, and the second third should be slower than the third third. The last third you go all out. If you go out too hard in the first third, then the second and third thirds are pure suffering. Once you spend your reserves, your legs no longer work. I hit my wall at mile 12, and still has 18 more miles and around 3000ft of climb to go. I definitely hallucinated, but not too much. Just your usual 'every stick looks like s snake, every stump looks like a human' type hallucinations.
+ In other words, I went out way too fast on this race. My last 15 miles was hell, but a hell I endured.
As Virgil says in The Aenid:
"The descent to Avernus is easy; the gates of Pluto stands open night and day; but to retrace one's steps and return to the upper air, that is the toil, that is the difficulty."
Knowing this is one thing; actually following this advice is an entirely different story. "Controlled disclosure" is a rule for writing fiction as well as endurance running, but a difficult principle to put into practice.
+ Ultra marathoners are a different breed than regular marathoners. Regular marathoners are all worried about time and pace and what their final "score" will be. The competition is overt, egotistical, palpable. Ultra marathoners are in it for the beauty, the endurance, the race against the trail rather than other runners. I was amazed at how nice and encouraging all the runners were at this race. As I passed people heading back after a turn around, almost every single runner said a kind word to me, like "Good Job," or "Way to go." It felt very positive and communal, perhaps because this kind of racing requires a lot of effort and mental courage, and people in the races know that "human spirit" counts for a lot.
+ A 50K is to ultra marathons what a 10K is to a regular marathon. What this means is that, the 50K, though it sounds really hard (and is really hard) it's the bottom of the "Ultra" category. After the 50K, there is the 50 miler, then the 100 miler. Unfathomable distances, yet, distance and endurance is quite relative. Success depends on how you conserve energy.
+ Endurance running is a marriage of physical stamina, mental discipline, and energy conservation.
+ Every race is, at the end of the day, a race against yourself. When you run against others, all your training and wisdom goes out the door. You worry about how "good" other runners are, whether or not you can "beat" (ouch) other people. When you run against yourself, you leave your ego behind and enjoy yourself. When you are less concerned about the person next to you, you can begin to experience what it means to compete against your desire to beat other people.
(Of course, I only know this know because it's exactly what I did NOT do on Saturday.)
I am happy to report that I survived the Skyline to the Sea Ultra Marathon: 50K, or 31 miles, 5800 feet of vertical ascent. I made the run in 6 hours and 6 minutes. It was a very hard run. But, I jumped the hurdle of running farther than a marathon. Before you run a marathon, you have the hurdle of running over 20 miles. After you run a marathon, everything past 26.2 miles is unknown territory, terra incognita. So the way to reach new levels is to gain new perspective by doing longer distances. After you run 31 miles, then 26 does not seem so long. Just like how, after you run 13 miles, 6 miles seems like a warm up.
Things I learned from running this race:
+ Never draw conclusions. Once you draw a conclusion about your abilities, or the future for that matter, you body will follow suit. For example, if you think you are done and can't run further, then you body will stop moving. If you think 31 miles is too far, then it IS too far. If you think it's do-able, then it is. This is called re-thinking pain and suffering.
+ The longer the race, the slower you should start. The rule is, the first third should be slower than the second third, and the second third should be slower than the third third. The last third you go all out. If you go out too hard in the first third, then the second and third thirds are pure suffering. Once you spend your reserves, your legs no longer work. I hit my wall at mile 12, and still has 18 more miles and around 3000ft of climb to go. I definitely hallucinated, but not too much. Just your usual 'every stick looks like s snake, every stump looks like a human' type hallucinations.
+ In other words, I went out way too fast on this race. My last 15 miles was hell, but a hell I endured.
As Virgil says in The Aenid:
"The descent to Avernus is easy; the gates of Pluto stands open night and day; but to retrace one's steps and return to the upper air, that is the toil, that is the difficulty."
Knowing this is one thing; actually following this advice is an entirely different story. "Controlled disclosure" is a rule for writing fiction as well as endurance running, but a difficult principle to put into practice.
+ Ultra marathoners are a different breed than regular marathoners. Regular marathoners are all worried about time and pace and what their final "score" will be. The competition is overt, egotistical, palpable. Ultra marathoners are in it for the beauty, the endurance, the race against the trail rather than other runners. I was amazed at how nice and encouraging all the runners were at this race. As I passed people heading back after a turn around, almost every single runner said a kind word to me, like "Good Job," or "Way to go." It felt very positive and communal, perhaps because this kind of racing requires a lot of effort and mental courage, and people in the races know that "human spirit" counts for a lot.
+ A 50K is to ultra marathons what a 10K is to a regular marathon. What this means is that, the 50K, though it sounds really hard (and is really hard) it's the bottom of the "Ultra" category. After the 50K, there is the 50 miler, then the 100 miler. Unfathomable distances, yet, distance and endurance is quite relative. Success depends on how you conserve energy.
+ Endurance running is a marriage of physical stamina, mental discipline, and energy conservation.
+ Every race is, at the end of the day, a race against yourself. When you run against others, all your training and wisdom goes out the door. You worry about how "good" other runners are, whether or not you can "beat" (ouch) other people. When you run against yourself, you leave your ego behind and enjoy yourself. When you are less concerned about the person next to you, you can begin to experience what it means to compete against your desire to beat other people.
(Of course, I only know this know because it's exactly what I did NOT do on Saturday.)
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