When I signed up for the Sawatch 50-50 this was one of several goals I had for myself. To find out if this back to back was possible for me. I see this as my biggest challenge to date, greater than the 50-mile races I've attempted. I want to keep putting challenges before me even if I should ultimately fail. After all, you learn more in life from your failures than your successes. If I kept upping the ante and trying new challenges I hope to keep seeing where this adventure can take me.
I certainly had my doubts what it would be like waking up that morning after a 50K and what my legs would feel like. I had my doubts because I've had plenty of other runs and activities where that day after I felt horrible. I remember the 17-mile I hike I did with my friend Matt in Yosemite Valley up and around North Dome, and the next morning I could barely bend my legs or go down a step. I even had a recent bout with sore quads after running the Marquette Marathon with my son Seth 4 weeks prior to these races. My quads were a mess for over a week. How could running the 50-50 possibly go better? I genuinely didn't know which was part of the fun. There was only one way to find out.
In short this is the report of my finding out the answer. I find there were three key elements to making the back-to-back 50-50 successful. (1) Training for back to back big days, (2) pacing the first race correctly, and (3) recovery. In my training leading up to the race I was practicing back-to-backs in two different ways. I would have one kind of daily routine where I would do 4 miles of uphill intervals on the treadmill in the morning and then in the afternoon head outside to run 4-6 miles. This helped train the body to get used to running again not long after the previous session. The other workouts were doing big back-to-backs on weekends shooting for combinations of like 20 and 13 miles or a 15 and 15.
When I ran the West Line Winder 50K on Saturday I was very cautious about active recovery during the race. I executed plenty of walk intervals during the race and kept my heart rate down never wanting to burn any extra matches or over-exert. It was one of those days where I knew I could have run the race much much faster than I did, and that's the point. I saved a lot of my body.
Usually when your body feels wrecked at the end of a long run or a race it is because you pushed the effort and spent all that you had, and normally that's good. But not when you want to go back out the next day for even more. I felt like I was able to keep things under control all throughout the Saturday race.
The third element was recovery. I detail some of this in my race report for the West Line Winder. I was eating all sorts of protein and anti-inflammatory foods all afternoon after the race. The body needed to replenish and fast and that was what I attempted.
Table of Contents
RACE RECAP
Start to Raspberry Out
We started in a rough and bumpy field for the first few tenths until this put us out on the road. I was taking it very easy in the field letting the legs loosen up from yesterday's big effort. Once we hit the road I opened up the stride and it seemed everyone was running in the lane of traffic and not on the shoulder. I was pleased in this first mile that there was no lingering soreness from yesterday which was a huge triumph. There was fatigue but as I got moving things were really feeling pretty good all things considered. The road began its descent through a large switchback. This felt steep on the down and while I made some good time on it I was really trying to make sure I didn't blow up my quads with the pounding this created. I used my trekking poles to lessen the wear and tear of the descent. The paved road switch-backed down to Princeton Hot Springs. We then followed the paved highway to a dirt road and gradually ascended on it for another mile. I was seeking to keep things easy to start and on the dirt road was doing walk/run intervals. When the dirt road ended it went into the steep trail ascent on the Colorado Trail. I had been on this segment of the CT before with my father when we did an out-and-back from the Hot Springs. I knew this trail climb was steep and going to be a grunt. This got the HR spiked and had me sweating. I was keeping a steady power hiking pace. I wanted to keep pace with the larger group of people but yet not completely spend all my effort here.
While yesterday I was incredibly conservative in not over-doing any effort, today I was opening up a little more. While I still had to treat it closest to a normal 50K and not completely overdue the first half, I knew I could eventually spend up all my energy in the race today.
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| Descending the road. |
My fueling on the way to Raspberry seemed to go well. I had intended to down 3 Gu's and then finish up both bottles and that all went according to plan. At the Aid I also downed a rice krispie treat and some potato chips for salt.
Raspberry Out to Treeline Aid
As we left Raspberry we moved through more flats along the Colorado Trail. It was actually a rather beautiful section with open meadows and some views of the valley. I was keeping to my run-walk intervals in here and I was getting passed by a number of people. While that's never fun I kept to my goal: "run your own race."
The climbing up through the trees was endless and certainly challenging. There were off and on steep portions. I ran short on my two bottles and began to plan a water fill-up. I had come prepared for this pre-race figuring I would want to filter along the way. I finally found a place where we came close to Brown's Creek and pulled out my Katadyn BeFree water filter. Much to my dismay it was acting plugged. It wasn't filtering properly and only a slow trickle was coming out. I tried to "swish" clean the filter in the creek but that didn't seem to help. I finally decided to fill the BeFree bottle and filter on the go. I would keep the squeeze on and hope the trickle would eventually give me enough. I was probably walking and filtering for 10 minutes getting my bottle half full and decided that was enough. Note to self, make sure the filter is working well before leaving home or starting a race.
On the ascent I was surprised how long it took until I finally saw the lead runners on their return. In fact it made me wonder if the race directors had let the lead runners take the original course. It was perhaps my subconcious still holding out that somehow we might all have a chance to still run the original course. It wasn't long after that thought I did finally see the lead runners. I recognized the lead male as Justin Grunewald. There were four or five other guys not too far behind him. And then I recognized the lead female as Addie Bracy. Once they came by it began the long procession of other runners on their return. This is part of what made the final approach to the Treeline aid station so difficult is when you see people you are running with earlier now seemingly far ahead of you and on their return.
The Brown's Lake area was quite beautiful and I enjoyed all the golden aspens trees on the hills along the north side. As we neared the Lake I was doing the math in my head with timing and hoping the Treeline Aid wouldn't be too much further. I was still feeling good with running and where the trail remained mostly flat along the lake I put in more running.
Pre-race I had looked at my map and had gotten the idea that the Treeline Aid would be about a half mile past the West end of the Lake. Not sure how I made this mistake in map measuring but it was a big mistake. As we began to ascend a hill beyond the Lake I kept thinking the Aid would be not much further. Then we crested the hill and into a downhill and a bigger basin with no Aid Station in sight. Then we hit a sign on the road that said "Aid in 1-mile" and thought "surely that's for Skyline, not for Treeline". Wrong. The Aid ended up being nearly 2 miles past the Lake. With every minute that passed I was saddened to see my 8-hour hope go out the window. It also tempted me into a downward mental spiral. I was feeling the fatigue of the day and then the "never-ending" slog to get to the Aid Station. This can happen in any race when the mind teeters into a giving up mentality as if everything is going wrong. It's part of the game, part of the challenge. I worked to fight through it all and just keep moving forward.
The final climb up to the aid station was on steep sections of dirt 4WD road and it took out a lot of physical and mental energy. It was quite the relief when I finally saw the Treeline Aid Station. It was well named, it was literally at treeline. The weather at the time was cloudy but was not raining. The race director Caleb was present there and his wife and a number of great volunteers. I spent about 6 minutes here just getting regrouped. The Volunteer checking us in must have seen I was from Michigan and he said with a bit of a smile "Go Green?" And I responded "Go Blue!"
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| (Credit: Freestone Endurance) (on the final approach to Treeline Aid) |
Treeline Aid to Raspberry In
As the downhill began I was very pleased to have my poles. I had used them on most of the climbs going uphill. I was using them very consistently on the downhill. They really helped on the steep sections of the dirt road where the loose dirt and rock were slick and the poles gave me a 4WD feeling. As the race lingered on the poles were also nice to guard against tired legs on the downhills. I used them enough that in the latter miles I was feeling a bit of soreness and fatigue in the arms from using them. The only major problem I had with the poles was stashing them when I wanted my hands free. My Ultimate Direction vest does have some attachment straps on the front but it gets awkward to use them when the soft flasks bottles are also full on the front. Many runners have a quiver they use not heir back for poles, that looks handy. Either way this is a solution I'm looking for in the future.
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| (Credit: Freestone Endurance) |
I ran with 3 or 4 other guys for many miles on the downhill as we seemed to stay in similar paces. I really used one of them to keep myself moving and at a speed I wouldn't lose him. I always find it helps to run behind others as it gives the mind time to rest and turn out. The return to the Colorado Trail did seem to take forever. I did my best not to look at my watch or the mileage and just waited for the landmarks like Brown's Falls and then the Little Brown's Creek Jct.
On the descent in treeline I had to begin to diagnose the upper right IT band. It suddenly became an issue giving me some sharp pains and I was worried if it got worse how that would affect my being able to finish. I really didn't want to walk this thing out, especially if I was in pain. After some testing of different movements I realized that if I kept my glutes engaged with each stride that seemed to help appease it a bit. Then sometime after I realized that I had my phone in the rear right pocket of my run shorts, same side as the IT band. I had put it there because it was a challenge getting it into and out of the SPI belt while also holding poles. I moved the phone back to the SPI belt and not long after the IT band thing really cleared up and I didn't feel it at all the latter half of the run out.
It was a relief when we finally returned to the flats of the Colorado Trail as it allowed me to begin to open up the stride a bit more. I had felt like I was being passed by more people than I was gaining through a lot of the descent and this began to bother me as I felt like I was still moving well. I was far from a death slog just marching things out. So I really got tired of getting passed. I started running harder, albeit not super fast, but I didn't walk at all and I ran all the way out to the Raspberry Aid Station. I had set a goal of hitting that Aid before 7 hours elapsed and with this running I beat it by about 5 minutes. Small goal achieved!
Raspberry In to Finish
At Raspberry Out several of the people who had passed me were still at aid station and it seemed many were taking their time. I went very quick and just emptied my drop bag, filled my drinks, and was out in under two minutes. I was really beginning to hit my stride. I was into new territory here and feeling great and moving with motivation. I was at mile 55 over 2 days which was a new high and I was still running. I covered the remaining flats after Raspberry with more running and then hit the hill climb on the CT. This was a grunt but I kept power hiking hard and passed two people on the way up.
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| (Credit: Freestone Endurance) |
The descent back down to the roads on the steep singletrack was quite tough as it is just so steep. You even end up hiking some of the down at this point. I was light running the top half but could feel my quads really loading. I did more hiking on the bottom half of the trail.
When we hit the dirt road I decided it was time to push again and I ran the whole road. It had the perfect downhill grade to it and I had a sense of determination in me at that time that I wanted to get all the way out to the paved highway without a single stop. My Garmin says I was averaging about a 9:50 pace through here which was pretty great.
There was a good feeling in all of this that I had found my all day pace, that I was over mile 50 over the last two days and still running. So there was this good in feeling like I had found the solution to be able to run and keep running for as long as I needed to. On the other hand that dead gas feeling hitting the pavement meant something was still going wrong. If you want to keep running endlessly you do need to pace it appropriately. I was seeing that my determination to run hard the whole of the dirt road was also me overdoing it. I expended a lot of energy there. Its also likely I was starting to get behind on fueling. You could also add on that my mind was starting to taste the barn and when that happens you better just get it the finish.
I was moving fast into the "just ready to be done" mindset which really begins to sap motivation to push. I spent most of the time along the paved highway recovering from my running on the dirt road and this took me to the dreaded final climb up from the Hot Springs. The final road climb was as hard as imagined. It was a pure power hike but I kept my pace as hard as I could. Even as it flattened out towards the top I resolved that I would save what energy I had left to run once we hit the dirt in the grass and the finishing field. The only motivations I had left were to finish and not get passed in the final mile.
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| (Credit: Freestone Endurance) |
When I hit the finish I was definitely done. Within minutes my body was getting into that post race shock. I found a chair to sit in and I pretty much didn't get up for about 40 minutes. It was success though and a great feeling. Back to back 50K's was done and for the most part done well. I never hit that wall where I could no longer run (that is, until he finish line). I overcame many challenges along the way. I didn't quite hit my "A" goals in terms of timing but that's a hard thing to do. I finished with something I could be proud of and that's definitely a victory.
NUTRITION / HYDRATION
Hydration
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| (Credit: Freestone Endurance) |
On race day it was in the 40s at race start but some clear skies. Temps hovered mostly around 50 degrees through the race. Skies were mostly cloudy. It never did rain on me the whole time. Not sure if the skies opened up behind me. By the time I returned to the finish the temps were hitting 60s.
GEAR / OTHER NOTES
GARMIN FENIX 7
I ran a course on the watch today. It was setup for the original course and so when we turned around at Treeline Aid it gave me several "off course" beeps until we got back to the junction with Little Browns.
GEAR
I used my Ultimate Direction Ultra Vest 5.0 today and it served me fine. I carried two soft flasks, one with water, one with electrolyte drink. I also carried a collapsible cup which I used once or twice for a swig of coca-cola at aid stations. I carried a 3rd soft flasks with just powder in it as a backup in case I didn't like the drinks the race was using. I carried my Gu energy gels in front pouches and that was it.
I was very close to using my Ultimate Direction Fastpack 20. With the original course and the cold, rainy weather forecast there was a lot of gear I was going to want. I didn't think I could fit it in the smaller vest. I tested this a couple times the night before just to see what would work. When the course change was announced and I knew we weren't going above treeline I ditched some of the extra clothing and gear and then I knew the smaller vest would work.
I carried trekking poles the whole day and I used them enough. They were out for all the uphills and downhills for assist. This choice was influenced by this being day two and the legs being more tired. Even so, there were enough steep portions on this trail they really helped. I would like to look into a quiver or a quicker means to carry and stash the poles. The attachment points on the front of the UD Vest are too difficult to work with especially when there are bottles in place.
CLOTHING
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| (Credit: Freestone Endurance) |
- I wore my Altra Lone Peak 8 trail runners the whole way today. I like their traction on the technical trails of this course. I was also a little blistered on my right big toe from yesterday and I wanted the bigger toe box for today. It helped!
- I wore my long-sleeve 14ers.com tech shirt and a navy blue pair of Northyard running shorts. The zip pockets on the shorts are super handy..
- I wore my Pikes Peak Marathon tech hat for the first part of the course today. When things remained cloudy in the latter half I took it off wanting more ventilation for my dome.
- Before the course change pre-race, I was close to bringing a long my running tights.
- I did bring a long my ultralight Ultimate Direction rain jacket. Did not use it.
- I brought along my light pair of running gloves. Used them for the first mile or two and then ditched them.
I outlined my details on training for this race and the Sawatch 50-50 in my race report for the West Line Winder.
Total Miles: 32.98 miles
Total Elevation Gain: 5,886 ft.
Total Calories Burned: 4,325 cals
Total Time: 8:43:32
RACE DAY SPLITS
Raspberry Out (mile 7.3)
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| (Credit: Freestone Endurance) |
01:38 -- 146 of 174
~2:00 at aid station
Treeline Aid (mile 16.1)
02:53 -- 135 of 174
6:39 at aid station
Raspberry In (mile 25.0)
02:18 -- 130 of 174
1:46 at aid station
Finish
1:44 -- 127 of 174
Big Splits
4:31 out (Treeline)
(6:39 at turnaround)
406 in (negative split!)
The embedded map has my track from race day as well as waypoints for the aid stations, the four major peaks, and a few other notable points along the way.
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