This year was my most enjoyable and by far the best performance that I have had in my five JFK50s. As I reflected on what made this year so successful, it came down to one rule: LISTEN TO ANNA BRADFORD!
ANNA BRADFORD PRINCIPLE #1: There is no need to do any training beyond your marathon training. I found that it is far better to be somehwat undertrained than even 1% overtrained. In the past I had run too many miles to prepare for the marathon and the JFK50. This year I ran about half as many miles, but performed much better (1 hour PR) than I ever had before.
ANNA BRADFORD PRINCIPLE #2: A fairly accurate prediction of your JFK50 finish time is to add an hour to your marathon time and then double it (e.g. 4 hour marathon would predict an approximate JFK50 finishing time of 10 hours). If you run within yourself, you should be able to set a goal that is reachable, but will still leave you enough energy to pull yourself on the massage table after the run. This prediction time has helped me from being discouraged (in the past, fearing that I was going to slow) or feeling like I was running too fast (this year).
ANNA BRADFORD PRINCIPLE #3: The race is going to hurt, but you'll get over it. The JFK50 does indeed induce pain, so don't be surprised when it hurts. The pain will only last a little while and your body will almost always recover and push forward.
ANNA BRADFORD PRINCIPLE #4: Be prepared and it will give you confidence that you are ready for anything. I brought a complete change of clothes, rain gear and extra food. I only needed a couple of Succeed tablets and some Tylenol from my crew during the race, but it was comforting to know that I was prepared.
Background
I traditionally run an October marathon and then try to maintain my conditioning for the JFK50 in mid-November. In past years, I've used marathon training programs from Hal Higdon, Jeff Galloway, Greg McMillan and other internet gurus. No matter the training program, however, by the time mid-September rolls around, I'm tired, burned-out and promise to never train for a marathon again. I slog through the rest of the training and then run a lackluster marathon. My marathon performances have been consistently far below how my training runs and shorter races have predicted I should run. In addition, I have always hit the wall (sometimes at mile 22 and sometimes, like last year, as early as mile 13) and I have been incredibly discouraged after each race. My thinking has been that next year I'll train harder and longer and, as a result, my performance will improve. As an anecdote to the discouragement, I have completed my year with the JFK50, because simply completing the race is an amazing accomplishment.
2007 Training
In the early summer of this year, I was surfing the internet looking for a new training program that would help me conquer the marathon and I came across a training program from several professors at Furman University. The program is from their research facility named FIRST, which stands for something like Furman Institute of Running and Scientific Training, and requires that a runner run only three times a week (the average mileage was around 28 miles per week and my peak week was around 35 miles), but each run was at a precise pace that was generally faster than I had been training. The FIRST program requires 2 -3 days of cross training and I chose to swim, as I was a competitive swimmer when I was 12 years old (I stopped swimming when I hit puberty, or, rather, when puberty hit me. I have a 14 year old boy who is going through puberty now: I believe in God and I also believe that He has a sense of humor.).
The training regimen was difficult, but my body was recovering from each workout quite well and I didn't have that worn-down feeling that I usually have had after tough runs. September rolled around I was preparing myself mentally for the burn-out and discouragement of marathon training, but it didn't happen. To the contrary, I was feeling crisp, strong, I had lost weight (I'm 15 pounds lighter than I was at this time last year) and I felt fit. I ran the St. George, Utah marathon and ran the best time I had run in about 15 years. I was exhausted after the run, but I stopped feeling soreness after 48 hours (it usually takes me at least 4 days to stop feeling sore).
Life got real busy in October and November (i.e. we are remodeling our kitchen, 4 kids are in school and my boss was being grumpy), so I didn't have time to do all the quality workouts that I wanted to in order to maintain fitness. I was a bit nervous the week before the race, as my longest run in the 6 weeks between the marathon and the JFK was 15 miles, so I wasn't sure how the FIRST program would translate into an ultra marathon performance.
2007 Race
The morning of the race, I was feeling under trained and unprepared. To compensate, I arrived at Boonsboro High School at 5:45am (In the past I arrived "just in time" and I found that I was a bit rushed getting to the starting line). I was early enough to check in and meet with my crew and had a chance to talk with friends that I had made during previous JFK50s.
When the time came, I made my way slowly to the starting line with the rest of the crowd. I tried to line up with folks who were aiming for a time of around 9:30, as that would be a 15 minute PR for me and I thought that on a perfect day, that time would be doable. I met Dana "Fugitive from PA" Beyeler prior to the start. We had run the AT portion of the race together last year and I was able to talk to him about his goals for the race (His goal was to break 9 hours, which he did by almost 20 minutes! Unbelievable! WAY TO GO DANA!). Little did I know that we would spend a large portion of the day running together and providing each other the support that we needed to make it through the final miles of the towpath. Shortly after the start of the race, I found Jim "Rehab" Ashworth and Jim "Refugee" Bradford. I decided that I would try to stick with the Jims through the AT portion of the race. While I wish that I could say that I had some strategic reason for staying with the Jims, the main reason I wanted to run with them is that they both are very funny. Running 50 miles is insane, painful and stupid (but not necessarily in that order), so having some fun people to run with is really the best reason to run with anyone.
We spent a good portion of the time together laughing (well, at least I laughed at my jokes) and encouraging each other. When we left the AT, it was 15-20 minutes faster than I had run that portion of the race previously. I started to panic that I had started out the race too fast, so I took my time getting some chicken soup from my wonderful support crew and walking to recover. I felt pretty good coming out of the Weverton aid station, so I started to run at a comfortable pace for 10 minutes and then walked for 50 steps and repeated. After several miles, I looked down at my watch and saw that I was going too fast, so I slowed down. I ran another mile and saw my pace was again too fast and slowed down. This pattern repeated itself for the first 7-8 miles of the towpath. I was tired, but I wasn't suffering, so I decided to go with how I was feeling - either it would be an incredible race or I would crash, burn and suffer horribly the final 8 miles (at that point, as you can tell, I wasn't thinking clearly, as no matter how your JFK50 is progressing, you will inevitably crash, burn and suffer horribly the last 8 miles of the race). I continued my patter of running 10 minutes and then walking 50 paces for the next 13 miles.
After a few miles I caught up to and ran with Dave "Jon" Yeakel (I kept referring to him "Jon" after the race because I was so exhausted - I think I even called my wife Jon) for a couple of miles and he indicated that he was on pace to run around 9 hours. Thus confirming to me that I was going way too fast and that I would most likely DNF or die. At that point in the race, however, I was feeling good (which, as I write this seems like such a perversion how could anyone feel "good" after running 24 miles), so I decided to pick it up a little to see what I could do.
At the aid station around mile 27, I saw that I was on pace to finish around 9 hours, which was about 30 minutes faster than my goal time. As I was getting the rocks out of my shoes, I said to my wonderful crew that either the day was going to be a homerun or a DNF. I left the aid station and picked up where I left off and continued to press forward.
Finally, at mile 28 or 29, the fatigue that I had been expecting since September, began to slowly seep its way into my bones. I struggled for most of the next mile trying to maintain pace and increased my rest segment to 100 paces. Fortunately, I saw Dana coming up from behind and I received a jolt of energy. I told Dana that I was going through a low and he slowed down and stayed with me until I pulled through it. Dana and I stuck together for the next 13 miles alternating 10 minutes of running with 100 paces of walking. We took turns helping each other pull through the lows and encouraging each other to maintain pace.
Around mile 34, we were moving pretty good and we saw "Special" Ed Cacciapaglia. Ed looked surprised to see us (but he might always look that way), but I think Dana and I were more surprised to see him. Ed was moving at a strong pace and we tried to keep up with him until he stopped for a walk break. Dana and I kept running as we were attempting to be as disciplined as possible of sticking to the pattern that was working so well.
Suddenly we were at 38 Special and we were only 11.5 miles from the finish! Both Dana and I were struggling with the monotony of the towpath and neither of us were sure if we could maintain the pace we had set. I picked up a pacer, chicken noodle soup, a succeed tablet and some Tylenol at the aid station and moved on with the race. I left the aid station looking for Dana, who had run ahead to his crew. He was sitting down and gave me the signal to go on ahead and that he would catch up. I hesitantly moved forward and kept running. I kept looking back over the next mile and could see Dana about 200 yards behind. Dana slowly moved closer and we were running together after about a mile.
Both Dana and I were suffering when we hit the towpath exit. We walked up the hill, but I could tell that Dana was feeling excited and inspired after cresting the hill. I pleaded with him to go ahead and run without me to the end, but he wouldn't leave. He stuck with me for another mile, but he finally couldn't hold back any longer and took off. He would finish about 10 minutes ahead of me with a phenomenal finish. I was grateful that he wanted to stick around a bit longer, but when you are feeling as strong as he was, I didn't want to hold him back.
I struggled for the remainder of the race. My pace slowed down 90 seconds per mile on average over the last 6 miles, but I was clearly on track to finish under 9 hours, and I was trying to maintain pace as much as possible. I was able to run the last mile of the race and was thrilled with my performance. It began to sink in that I was going to run my fastest time by nearly an hour. I saw the finish line and ran as strong as I could to the end. 8:51. Unbelievable. My finish time was so unexpected that my wife, who intended to show up "early", didn't arrive for another 10 minutes.
Conclusion
This year marked my 5th JFK50 miler and my 4th as a member of the Reston Runners' team. Anna Bradford, Jim Ashworth and the team have been so generous with support, caring and love during the last four years that this race represents the highlight of my running year. This year was a great year and I finally found a training program that works for me. Last year, I walked the final three miles. This year, I felt like I was running downhill for a majority of the race. After both races, I was excited as finishing the race is an amazing accomplishment in itself.