Black Canyon 100k.
When Craig Thornley walked up to me after I crossed the finished line and asked if I wanted to run Western States, I cried. Not because he handed me a Golden Ticket and my dreams turned to reality, but because his next words were “too bad”.
I’m writing this to remind myself why I did not get anywhere near a Golden Ticket last weekend. The easy cop-out answer would be that the top three are just purely much faster runners than me and this is a course made for a marathoner/road runner. If that were true though, I think I actually should have placed a lot lower than I ultimately did. This is an attempt to play back the race mile-by-mile and remember what I did wrong to avoid making that mistake again.
I’ll start by saying I think I had a really solid run. I picked up about 40 places from Antelope Mesa at mile 7 to the finish. It’s just that having a solid run doesn’t mean anything in these races. You need to have the run of your life. I did not give myself the opportunity to have that run by starting out conservative and trying to remain as relaxed as possible in the early miles.
While I think the strategy would have served me well in a hundred miler, sixty-two miles is just not enough time to really reap the rewards of being that conservative, especially in a field as fast and as fit as Black Canyon. To compete and give yourself a shot at glory, you need to do something dumb and hope it sticks.
There is such thing as being dumb within your limits. There is no need to lead the race and push the pace, but if moves are being made by guys you know you can run with and have no notoriety behind their name around blowing up, you need to go with them or at least remain contact. At Bumble Bee aid 19 miles into the race, I was 13 minutes off the lead pack. That is 41 seconds per mile slower than the lead and that means over the next 43 miles I would need to run on average 18 seconds per mile faster than the lead to catch back up. That’s not even including stops and that is implying I’m having a perfect run with no lows. It is a massive deficit to make up when you stop and consider the caliber of runners you are trying to chase down, and you are banking on some of the best runners in the world to make critical errors that slow them down in a 7.5 hour race.
When you think of ultrarunning, 7.5 hours is a sprint. Can people get rocked and have spectacular blow ups in 7.5 hours. Yes for sure. Will that happen to veterans who have ran through execution of this race every day for the last month? Probably not, but it still could. It happened to some and I felt really good about myself passing them late in the race. I actually could not believe it was happening and assumed I had run well into the top ten given who I was passing. I think those were unfortunate fluke performances by those guys though and something you can never bank on is someone having a bad day. You must come into these races knowing that every person on that line is ready to have the best day of their life and you need to have that day too. That is championship racing and that is why it is so damn exciting.
Time to go into some details. I’ll outline things aid station to aid station for simplicity. My nutrition plan was as follows to account for 500mL fluid, 800mg Na+, 65g CHO per hour. Historically having bad GI issues, I operate on the lower end of carb intake which has worked well for me in races like Western States, especially when the weather is warmer:
500mL soft flask of Gnarly Fuel2o (500mg Na+, 25g CHO)
1 Maurten 160 gel (40g CHO) or 1 SIS Beta Fuel gel (40g CHO). After halfway, used caffeine-based gels as well but similar overall carb intake.
2 Sprays of BOA (300mg Na+)
Start to Antelope Mesa (miles 0-7.6): The infamous delayed start. Honestly who fucking cares. That did not feel like a big deal at all. I liked it actually. It calmed the nerves. Of course the pace started out hot. 6:17 first mile for me and probably 6 flat for the front front. I was happy where I was at. There was a critical point here around 1.5 miles where I saw Tim and Jared slowly try to bridge up to the back of the front group. I thought about going but before I could convince myself it was a good idea, the trail turned very muddy and I could feel myself over-exerting to try to make the move, so I stayed back and Jeff and I exchanged one-liners about how we are exactly where we want to be, at the front of the women’s field. Things felt great there and we weren’t running slow. Yeah it was muddy but whatever. Factors that affect everyone in the race should be considered neutral.
Antelope Mesa to Hidden Treasure (miles 7.6-12.8): Jamming with Jeff. We ran this downhill windy section at about 7 minute pace. Looking at Hayden’s Strava, seems like the lead pack was around 6:20 average. The frustrating part of this is just not knowing. Obviously I can run 6:20 miles downhill, but there is no knowing how that will make me feel at mile 50. It definitely made some people feel terrible way before mile 50 but all it takes is 3 people hanging on for you to lose. I guess that is the point in these races. If you don’t take those risks and play with the unknown a little, you will not be giving Craig a hug at the finish line.
Hidden Treasure to Bumble Bee (miles 12.8-19.2): Rollers on this section and carnage was already happening. I had no idea what place I was in but it felt far back. I started to get a little anxious especially rolling into the aid station and hearing the front was 15 minutes in front. I switched from a vest to hand bottles at Bumble Bee thinking it would feel nice to have some weight off my back. I’ve been down this road before and I swear if I ever tell myself that double hand bottles is a good idea ever again I’m quitting this sport because it just means I have an inability to learn from past experiences. It’s a small microcosm but trying to rock double hand bottles again is exactly why I started this blog - I. Keep. Making. The. Same. Mistakes. I like my vest. I love my vest. You are a vest boy, Rod.
Bumble Bee to Gloriana Mine (miles 19.2-23.8): I really started to feel the pressure here and decided it was time to start working. I hit my highest heart rate of the day at 174bpm (Polar Verity Sense armband sensor) up the climb out of the aid and tried to sustain that intensity for a little bit through the rollers to Gloriana. It is interesting to think how much extra energy I spent through this section in “chase-mode” running at a higher intensity, than if I had just run faster downhill in the beginning and had relative contact (5-8 minutes instead of 13-15) with the front group.
Gloriana Mine to Deep Canyon Ranch (miles 23.8-32.2): It seems like the field really started to string out here. Around every corner there were 2 or 3 guys shuffling along that I was able to pick up. I felt fresh and felt like I was going to have a good day. I was running around 7:20-7:30 pace through this singletrack which is what I visualized doing in my race prep. It felt sustainable. The hand bottles really started to bug me here as opening up gel wrappers became messy. I dropped a gel at one point and fell behind on fuel. This section is long without aid and is very exposed. I took a wrong turn at mile 26 with another guy and we went down fire road for about a minute before realizing the singletrack was above us. This cost about two minutes but not a huge deal. At mile 31 my watch beeped at me again telling me I was of course. I had downloaded the GPX from the previous year which was slightly different, so I flipped it for about 30 seconds before the guy behind me told me we were going the right away. About three minutes total lost in this stretch of the race due to navigation errors. Meanwhile I was starting to feel the fuel deficit as a result of the dropped gel and was slightly dizzy while my legs felt like bricks. Definitely suffered a minor bonk here but turned it around after seeing crew at Deep Canyon.
Deep Canyon Ranch to Black Canyon City (miles 32.2-37.7): I needed to come back to life at Deep Canyon. My legs were responding slow which was a terrible feeling knowing I was still so far off the lead, which had turned into 20 minutes at this aid station. Drank Coke and took 2 Tylenol, which always seems to snap me out of it. The first 1.5 miles out of this aid felt terrible. I felt sluggish on the flats, and the downhills were drilling my quads. Climbing felt great though and there were some steep fire road rollers out of there that I noticed I was cruising up. I knew this was going to be my strength on the day. The caffeine and anti-inflammatories kicked in about mile 34 and it was go time. The out and back section to the aid station was epic because you could see and count how many places you were away from some people. In this stretch I saw Tim, Ryan, Cole, Jared. Matt, and a number of others which gave me the perception I was in a good place. I took the aid station quick, filling a flask with Coke and headed out ready to catch those guys, which turned out to be a mistake. This was a critical aid station I took way too fast. The next strech to aid would be over 8 miles, had a good chunk of the course’s climbing, and was exposed. I need to drink a full flask here and fill up both of mine. Instead, I still had half a flask full so I didn’t refill it, and just filled the other one with Coke. The writing was on the wall.
Black Canyon City to Cottonwood Gulch (miles 37.7-46.4): Passing guys and climbing very well. Until I wasn’t. Around mile 41 I hit a minor wall on the climbs that felt very manageable. I was still running downhill pretty well and none of the climbs were really that long. At mile 42 I started having excruciatingly painful calf cramps on the uphills that I could tell were a direct result of hydration. It was a sneaky day for weather and I did not stay on top of it. The cool temps initially made it seem like heat wouldn’t be a problem, and it wasn’t really. the exposure really took it’s toll though and not refilling at that last aid station came to bite me in the ass. Calf cramps on the climbs robbed me of my strengths. There was a lot of shuffling on the ups until the aid station, where I took way too much time at (slightly over 2 minutes) but absolutely needed to. If I had managed my hydration better, this stretch would have been a big game changer for me to make moves in the race. I had been flying up the earlier climbs and my energy levels were good throughout so I could have kept that same pace and intensity going if there were was no onset of cramping. When I analyze data post-race, the big thing I am looking at is heart rate over pace on a graph - which Coros EvoLabs helps visualize very well. I know I hit very avoidable lows and bonks when my heart rate drops in a race because I’m unable to pick up the intensity. My heart went from a very steady 150-160bpm right before this low to 120-130, and chances of running to a top ten finish at best went out the window.
Cottonwood Gulch to Table Mesa (miles 46.4-50.8): Good lord this stretch hurt. Just managing the cramps and trying to get to crew as efficiently as possible. Got some fluids in at the last aid but definitely not enough. I needed caffeine and to overdose on Sodium. Felt absolutely shot running downhill too.
Table Mesa to Finish (mile 50.8-62.2): I knew this stretch would be critical. Tylenol, Coke, Caffeine Maurten, and Skratch Wellness (800mg Na) at this aid brought me back. Dani told me Janosch made up 20 minutes from here to the finish last year and I knew I had to make myself hurt. The first mile out of that aid was terrible. My mind was in a bad place and I could sense I was going to get caught here. Once the fuel from the aid kicked in I was able to turn it around. Still not happy with how fast I did the last climb - I feel like I had more in me. Cramps would come and go but held it together to finish ok. My splits through this stretch really should have been a minute per mile faster if I fueled better and didn’t let myself get to that rough place around mile 45.
I finished the day in 14th place ultimately - my worst finish ever in a Golden Ticket Race (I finished 5th at the 2019 Black Canyon, 4th at the 2022 Bandera, and 4th at the 2022 Canyons) but a PR in the 100k distance. There were key errors in last weekend’s race I was effectively able to identify through replaying the race and putting my thoughts down in this post and something I hope to continue to do for all of my A races moving forward. It is a bittersweet start to the season. How nice it would have been to knock out a Golden Ticket and coast the rest of this half of the year to Western States. On the other hand, this gives me more opportunity and motivation to race more in the next few months, maybe even trying again for another Golden Ticket at Canyons.
While I’m unhappy with how I raced and know I have more in me as a competitor, a big early season effort is always something to be excited about. The mistakes I made are so avoidable if I let myself learn from them and I’m starting this year off with unreal baseline fitness from a massive effort like this. 2024 is just getting started and there is a lot to look forward to.
2024 Black Canyon 100k - 14th place, 8:19:55
https://www.strava.com/activities/10737364206
