Leadville 100 2009

Results were predictable. I had hoped, and there are people who have finished in similar situations, so I totally went-for-it.
For naught.
Twin Lakes return, cutoff, 60.5 miles.

The plan: 29hr pace. If you shoot for a 30hr pace, you'll miss some of the cutoffs, so you don't dare aim for 30.

What went right...
1) Hydration. I didn't overhydrate at any point. It was a clear sky which led to a scalding day. New studies have come out telling us not to drink unless we feel thirsty. That is stupid advice. They extolled that study during the pre-race meeting. I ignored it. Experience has taught me the hard way that on days like we had, there is no way to keep up with the rate of dehydration. Your best bet is to drink as much as you can. My dehydration was slight.

2) Pace. I was nailing my slow pace. Never did I try particularly hard.

3) Gear & drops. I nailed the logistics. I hadn't brought enough e-caps in my pockets, but then I packed extras in my dropbags.

4) Eating. I ate less. The theory was I have previously been eating too much. Evidence was (sorry for the graphics) farting a lot. Eating too much causes undigested carbs to reach the lower intestine. That leads to fermentation and the unavoidable gases. I didn't bonk, so I obviously got this right, but what a narrow balance!

5) Ibuterol. I sucked it down - maybe more than the advisable medical limits. It didn't keep my lungs from filling, but it still helped. It stopped the gu in my lungs from turning into a frothing foam. That is very significant, really, because foam reaches higher, faster, and blocks my alveoli easier. I still suffered some suffocation, but ibuterol now has concrete, classified benefits.

6) I ended up needing the bottles of Gatorade I packed in my dropbags because...

What went wrong...
1) My collection of hydration bladders was well-used. Some had slight leaks. I bought a brand-new MSR hydration bladder a few days before to guarantee no leaks. Race morning, I'm soaked at the start-line. My bladder came new with a sizable leak. And that was my only hydration container.
I tried duct tape, but that didn't work.
Finally, around 50k, I figured out that I could hang the little filler-cap flange on the side of the hydration bladder pocket to keep the top from sagging down. Since the leak was 2/3 of the way up, leaking became minimal. Improvise.

2) In order to keep from hammering my plantar, I had to put on the brakes. This trashed my quads. Not a little. My quads eventually became useless meat.

3) My plantar got hammered anyway.

4) Sharp pains proliferated. Limping on my right foot put more stress there, and so the right side started to disintegrate.

I sucked! I'm so out of shape.
As of now, I have logged 1150 miles this year, and nearly all of that was before three months ago. The past three months have been not-quite-sedentary. I hear so much bullshit about running hundreds. "It's all mental." If that were true, then a 300lbs slob could get off the couch and mentally force themselves through 100 miles of climbing and descents to cross the finish under 30 hours. We all know that can't happen. So several things have to happen, and you can't cheat on any of them. You have to get your body weight down, you have to get your VO2Max up, you have to get your logistics right, and you have to learn your body's needs and signals so you know what to give it under a variety of circumstances. I've got most of that, but my conditioning sucks.

I've been spending more time with my son, which is a good thing.