100,000 miles for AT

[bobsmith1492]

+27 today. 26.3 mile trail race, about a mile of warm-up and cooldown. Rounding down to 27.

I'm gonna write a race report, but for now let's just say holy fvck what a difficult course. First off, it was hot and humid. Second, tons of roots and rocks. Third - gullies! Fourth, there was about 4000 of net elevation gain. The elevation profile looks like a jagged sawtooth waveform with a steady overall rise. Fifth - deerflies.

The bad news is that my time sucked - I came in at 6:57:xx. The good news was that my son finished! He came in 20 minutes after I did, but he did NOT DNF this time. I am really proud of him. Our next race is in a month and is 50 miles on a trail, but the course is much flatter. Hopefully I can make a better report after that race.

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Wow, nice work Mega - that's a loooong time to be running. Have you read the book "Marathon Man?" It's by the guy that did 50 marathons in 50 states in 50 days.

 

[Megatomic]

Thanks Bob. It was a long time to be on my feet and as such was a good workout for the next race. I'll get one more long run in before July 3.

I did read that book. And Ultramarathon Man also. I'm re-reading it now as a matter of fact. Lots of people hate on him due to his success, I dig him for that very reason.

 

[bobsmith1492]

Thanks Bob. It was a long time to be on my feet and as such was a good workout for the next race. I'll get one more long run in before July 3.

I did read that book. And Ultramarathon Man also. I'm re-reading it now as a matter of fact. Lots of people hate on him due to his success, I dig him for that very reason.

Whoops, yes I meant Ultramarathon Man... yeah he's pretty inspiring. I'd love to go longer distances but don't think my knees would hold up, unfortunately.

What's the longest race you've run so far?

 

[Megatomic]

The longest so far is 31 miles, or 50K. But this marathon was much more difficult as the terrain was TOUGH.

If you like reading about Dean's adventures, he's got another book out called "50/50: Secrets I Learned Running 50 Marathons in 50 Days -- and How You Too Can Achieve Super Endurance!". It's about his effort to run 50 marathons in each of the 50 states in 50 days.

 

[kamper]

28 miles for me this week.

I ran the half marathon in Ottawa today. All week we worried about the weather. The predictions were going as high as 30C but it turned out to be overcast and didn't go above about 20C which was perfect. I managed a pb of 1:48 (previous 1:53). I was quite happy to get in at better than 50% in my age category (M25-29) for the first time. My dad did his first marathon in 4:25, 5 minutes under his goal.

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I'll expand this a bit now that I'm back to having my regular internet connection. Ottawa is quite a well run event. The course is very scenic and pretty flat. It goes down the main drag past Parliament and the Supreme Court; it crosses the Ottawa river and goes through downtown Hull (Quebec) as well and as a result, has fully bilingual cheering. I don't know why, but I cracked up when I heard "Gatorade, suivi de l'eau! Chaque côté!" It also goes up and down both sides of the Rideau Canal and the full marathon had some additional scenery including the prime minister's residence. The water stations were well done and there was gel and sponges. About the only criticism I'd have is that the route sometimes got a bit too thin and too windy at other times, which made dodging other runners a bit of a pain.

I ended up starting way far back, partly because of the huge number of people and partly because they moved the corral flags after I was already jammed in. At first I had to go a bit slower than I wanted, until the crowd thinned a bit. I caught the 1:50 run/walk pace bunny at 12k and was able to hold a pretty steady pace of a little over 5:00/km from there. I tried to get away from the bunny, but he basically caught me every time at the end of his run cycle and I ended up finishing right behind him (but 2 minutes faster chip time because I started later). My goal had been 1:50 but I wasn't at all sure if I could do it, so I'm really happy not only with my time, but also with how steady I was able to keep it. With the exception of the first km, all my times were within about 30s, I ran faster in the second half and I finished more or less exhausted.

I think I'm going to try for a full marathon in the fall if I can work training around my 3 week vacation, which isn't likely to be conducive to running. The goal would simply be to finish. It's a bit humbling to realize that even if I could run this weekend's race back to back, I'd still be 26 minutes shy of qualifying for Boston.

 

[Megatomic]

Good job kamper, and congrats to your father!

 

[rise]

+27 today. 26.3 mile trail race, about a mile of warm-up and cooldown. Rounding down to 27.

I'm gonna write a race report, but for now let's just say holy fvck what a difficult course. First off, it was hot and humid. Second, tons of roots and rocks. Third - gullies! Fourth, there was about 4000 of net elevation gain. The elevation profile looks like a jagged sawtooth waveform with a steady overall rise. Fifth - deerflies.

The bad news is that my time sucked - I came in at 6:57:xx. The good news was that my son finished! He came in 20 minutes after I did, but he did NOT DNF this time. I am really proud of him. Our next race is in a month and is 50 miles on a trail, but the course is much flatter. Hopefully I can make a better report after that race.

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damn Jeff, you're a machine! congrats to you and your son. i look forward to your race report.

and good stuff by everyone in here, all the efforts are impressive imo, seeing as i muster up about 3 miles walking a day

 

[InflatableBuddha]

I'm still a couple of weeks away from running again, but I thought I'd pop back in here and congratulate kamper and his Dad, and also Mega for being such a warrior out there .

 

[Megatomic]

Thanks Paul and IB. I want to do some kind of short jog today, but I woke up with some serious DOMS this morning - worse than yesterday. Maybe walking around a bit will help.

 

[jme5343]

12 miles for me this week. Just found this thread, so I'll only add what I can actually remember running

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[Red Dawn]

+9 today

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[kamper]

I'm still a couple of weeks away from running again, but I thought I'd pop back in here and congratulate kamper and his Dad, and also Mega for being such a warrior out there .

Thanks. Total bummer about the layoff That's long!

 

[Barfo]

+5

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[kamper]

Good job kamper, and congrats to your father!

And same to you and your son. You guys are crazy, I can't imagine running for 7 hours, and soon you're going to run twice as far! But I mean "crazy" in the nicest possible way

 

[Megatomic]

Haha, I hear that a lot. And thanks.

We went for a measly 4 mile jog tonight and suffered every minute of it. I was out of breath the whole time and my legs were trashed. I wonder how long it'll take to recover? I have to get to training for the next one ASAP.

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[Locut0s]

25 since I last posted. The trip to hawaii combined with my hip injury forced me to slow down a lot. But I'm now starting to pick up again.

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[bobsmith1492]

+4

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[Megatomic]

I did a 23 minute 5k tonight and it felt great! I know y'all are wondering why I'm bragging about a slow 5k, and I normally wouldn't, but compared to how my jog felt last night it was amazing. Tomorrow I'm going to go for an 8 miler on my local trail.

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[Red Dawn]

+9, rather difficult as my foot started aching.Felt alright afterwards though, weird.

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[Megatomic]

6 miles on the trails right after work. Everything felt GREAT today, I'm done recovering, now it's time to get ready for the big dance.

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[bobsmith1492]

+6

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[SWScorch]

Congrats Mega on finishing what looks and sounds like one of the most grueling races in the state!!! You and your offspring did awesome!!!

I have ran 79 miles since I last posted and my legs are feeling it. I have a 12 mile trail race tomorrow too (although I'm only jogging it, but it will be tough nonetheless). W00t!

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[Megatomic]

Thanks man, I appreciate you saying so. It was the toughest physical challenge ever for me.

What race are you doing tomorrow? Sad thing is even jogging it you'd beat me by a huge margin.

 

[Megatomic]

9 miles on the trail this morning. It was HOT and HUMID so early, and the deerflies were out for blood. ugh

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[jme5343]

Another 6 for me, ran first 5k today, ended w/ about a 27:30, which I'm fine with.

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