Summer Solstice 24 Hour Run 06-21-2014

On June 21st at 8:00am I headed out to run a 1.06ish mile loop at Crissy Field in San Francisco for 24 hours.

I went the the New Balance 980's
for this event and wore them for
the entire 24 hours.

I was a little worried going into the event since I haven't ran a 100 mile distance race since November of 2013, and so far I had only ran two 50 mile races in 2014.  I was also a little worried because my training runs over the last few weeks were not very strong due to the fact that I've been feeling a little under the weather.  I really wanted to run at least 100 miles within the 24 hour time limit that the event had, if not a little more than 100 miles.  There was also a very strong wind blowing during the race.

The event was starting off without a hitch, I saw my friend Ed before the race started, and he and I ran the first 10 miles together.  It was nice seeing Ed and catching up with him.  My friend Jack also managed to stop by and run a couple laps with me early on in the event.

As the day went on I found myself lacking in motivation and I honestly just wanted to stop and go home.  Mile 30-38 was pretty tough.  I managed to keep pushing and told myself to try to just make it to hour 12 of the event.  As I pushed passed mile 38 I started to realize that my problem might be my calorie intake.  I started to think that I simply might not have been getting enough calories in for the amount of time that I had been running.  I immediately grabbed a fist full of Twizzlers from my gear bag and got some fast calories.  Within 5 mins of eating some Twizzlers I felt re-energized!!  My pace started picking up and I was feeling ready to run again.

I used this bottle made by
Simple Hydration for this event.
It's become one of my favorite
pieces of running gear.

By the time I hit the 12 hour mark I was somewhere around 52 miles.  I was starting to feel better, but I was questioning if I was going to be able to hit that 100 mile mark at all during this event.

Two weeks prior to the event I detoxed from caffeine so that the caffeine would be more effective during the race.  Somewhere around 13 hours into the event I opened up a bottle of Dr. Pepper and I started using some caffeinated Gu packs.  I tried to introduce the caffeine as late into the race as I could.  I feel like getting in a good caffeine detox before any events is important for me.  Caffeine seems to be way more effective if I detox from it 10-14 days before every event.  There wasn't one time during the run that I felt sleepy.

During the evening the wind settled down and I was able to move at a decent pace and get a good amount of ground covered.  I was still questioning if I was going to hit 100 miles or more, but I just kept on pushing forward.

This is buckle I received for running
over 100 miles in under 24 hours. 

Every loop that I ran I was encouraged by John Brooks (the race director for Pacific Coast Trail Runs) to keep going.  As the hours went by I was very surprised how close I was getting to hitting my 100 mile goal within the the 24 hours allowed for this event.  As I got closer to the 100 mile mark John came up to me and told me, "I know you're tired and you probably want to stop soon, but do your best to run until the clock runs out.  You can run more that 100 miles today."

The awesome coaster all the runners
received for running for 24 hours.

I really just wanted to stop after I hit the 100 mile mark, but I took John's advice.  After I hit the 100 mile mark there was still time left on the clock, so I kept running.  By the time is was all said and done I ran an official distance of 102.98 miles.

One of the things that kept me motivated during the event was the fact that I had friends contributing money to the Bakersfield and to the Central Valley Ronald McDonald House for the effort that I put out at this event, and my good friend Chris told me before the event that he was going to donate $1.00 per every mile that I ran.

If any of you would like to still donate to the fundraiser I did, you can still do so at https://www.fundraise.com/micasa/24

My next race is the Cool Moon 100 this coming August, so now that is my main focus.  Last year the Cool Moon 100 kicked my ass, so I want to go in ready for it this year.


Until next time...

KEEP RUNNING!!!!