Land of the spiders

Four weeks until Western States and it is starting to seem very real. When I found out (from Twitter, where else?) that my name had been drawn in the lottery, back in December, I was excited to join such an iconic race but I didn’t really know what it would take to get me in 100 mile shape. I still don’t really know, or at least won’t find out until I (hopefully!) get to the track at Placer High School in Auburn, CA, which is the finish. But I know that I’ve got myself into the best shape I could have, given the strictures of daily life. I’ve slowly been building mileage all year, from 211km (131 miles) in January to 360km (223 miles) in March and now 412km (256 miles) in May. I’ve been running consistently for the last 10 years but I’ve never put in mileage like this, so for me it feels like a heavy load. I’ve enjoyed it, but I’m also ready for this race to be over so I can get back to a normal life. Many runners in the ultra community seem to do several 100 milers a year but I suspect that this is the only one I’ll ever do (especially if I can finish it!).

My ultra career is now about two and a half years old. After running a few marathons (PB: 3.22.59), I was gazing out my office window on a polluted day (unfortunately typical in Hong Kong), and started googling trail running events in New Zealand (which is where I’m originally from). I found the “Kepler Challenge”, a 60km race around a beautiful national park in Fiordland (lakes, mountains, forests, streams; Google “Kepler Challenge” now, I promise you won’t regret it). I figured if I could do a marathon then I could do this, even if it took me a long time. So I managed to get an entry and then in December 2010 took my family to the town of Te Anau for the race (little did they know this would just be the start of ultra-running tourism). It was a fantastic experience, unlike any running I’d ever done, and I was hooked. Of course, it being my first race, I blew up at about 40km and limped home, but the fact that I’d run in 7 and a half hours a track that many of my friends and family had taken four days to hike gave me a tremendous feeling of achievement.

Since then I’ve run various 50km, 60km, and 100km events in Hong Kong, along with CCC, little sister of the more famous UTMB, around Mont Blanc in Europe. The CCC is 100km, starting in Courmayeur (Italy), running up into Switzerland, and then finishing back in Chamonix (France). I trained for six months in 2012, doing what I thought was a heavy load (highest month: 286km). The CCC is very hilly (you climb about 5000m, or 16400 feet, over the course of the race), so you need to train for hill climbing as well as running. The weekend of our event saw a huge storm come through the mountains, so most of our race had us battling rain at lower altitudes and snow as we got up to 2000m (6500 feet) in altitude. There were 2000 competitors, which was enough pairs of feet to turn the trail in a muddy goop for hours on end. And I’ve never been so cold – at one stage I was shivering uncontrollably in a refuge high on a hill in what felt like -10°C (14°F), and as I mentioned in my last post I lost some feeling in my fingers that didn’t return fully for six months after the event! However, I finished, in 18 hours and 34 mins, a bit slower than I had hoped, but I really felt liked I survived something.

Since getting in to Western States, I’ve only run a couple of local events. In January, I ran the Hong Kong 100, a 100km event in Hong Kong’s hilly New Territories. The course has about 4500m vertical, approaching the CCC, and makes it a very difficult and tiring day out. I was fit, but not fit enough, and made the mistake of having an unrealistic target that I was aiming for. I made my target times through the first 40km, but then blew up again (is there a theme here?), feeling very sick and hopelessly weak just as I had to do another big climb. I struggled through about 8km to the halfway point, took a break for 20 minutes, then set off again feeling slightly better. With a lot of tender loving care for myself, I got through the next 50km and finished in 16 hours and 41 mins.  The lesson? Make sure you have a realistic plan and stick to it. Also, remember that the pace that feels easy during the first 20km is still way too fast, and is taking all the strength you’ll need for the second half of the race. Be nice to your future self, and slow down!

In March I ran a very hilly and overgrown 50km race, the Lantau 50. While my time was again a little slower than I thought I was capable of (7 hours 54 mins), I ran a much better planned race and came 30^th out of almost 600 starters. Its no surprise why I did better – just started slower, hydrated carefully, took on as many calories as I could stomach (particularly early), and I was able to maintain a steady pace throughout. Can I be that smart in four weeks?

The last few weeks have been building mileage and trying to get in long runs at least once a week. I’m not very scientific in my training – I have a general sense of the things I need to do to get myself in as strong shape as possible, then I try to do that while fitting in with all the other things in my life that I need to get done. Also, it’s hard to run for long distances in the tropical heat. This week I spent one day on a trail on Lantau Island, a big but relatively undeveloped island in Hong Kong. With a friend I climbed two big hills (Sunset Peak, requiring a climb of about 800m, or 2600 feet, and then Lantau Peak, requiring another climb of 600m, or 2000 feet). I then continued alone for the rest of the day, ending up on fairly disused tracks that were crisscrossed for miles by huge spider webs, on which were sitting huge spiders. I’m a little arachnophobic so this was not cool. But I was in the middle of nowhere and going back didn’t seem like much of an option, so on I went, chopping the webs where I saw them and walking right through the ones that I didn’t see. All this while the ambient temperature was about 32°C (90°F) and humidity was about 85%. Not surprisingly, 50km took 10 and a half hours. I’m hoping for dry California air and a lack of spider webs in four weeks time. Sure, there may be the occasional black bear, but at least you can see them coming (you can see them coming, right?).

One more week of heavy training, then let the tapering begin!