Ted Corbitt 24 hour run - Report

I participated in 16 hours of a 24-hour run (Ted Corbitt 24-hour run in Queens,NY) last weekend. I was aiming to go for 80 miles, but had to stop due to an IT band injury, worsening blisters under my foot and loss of the mental battle. Even though I didn't hit my target, it was a great experience.

Juniper Valley Park. I passed by this playground 48 times.

Since this was my first 24-hour, I was careful about preparing. I charged all my electronics, stocked up on food, prepared my shirts, shorts, nip-guards and what have ya'. With my bag ready, I had a good night sleep and got up early. After a quick breakfast, I got on the way. Aaand as soon as I got on the subway, I realized that I forgot my Garmin home! Way to be prepared, right? This actually turned out to be a blessing in disguise, but we'll get to that.

After an adventurous journey (sometimes they shutdown subways and Google doesn't always know and it tells you to take a route and then you are kinda stuck. Thankfully, there was a shuttle bus to bridge the subway gap and fortunately I had left early), I got to the race start. The start area had a very strong community feel. Most of the participants were long time members of the NY distance running community. Hence, there were a lot of: "Do you remember that race we did in '87, where Ted wouldn't let us stop running" type of stories. I just kept quiet and listened, wishing someone was there to take notes and write a book.

Before the start there was a little ceremony to remember Ted Corbitt and Sri Chimnoy, two distance running greats of the NY area. The Sri Chimnoy Marathon team was there to send us on our way with a song (that Chimnoy wrote for Corbitt) and provide a water stop midway through the 1.2 mile loop.

I started slowly. I don't know how slow, because as I said, I didn't have my Garmin, but I definitely didn't feel the need. I was keeping a conversational pace, without taking risks. I found the mostly flat loop to be a great help in this. In comparison, it is very hard to keep a good pace during Knickerbocker 60K due to constant up and downhills.

A sign like this could have explained what we were up to

I was calculating my pace based on my lap times and including the breaks I was around 11-12 min/mile pace for the first few hours. As the hours passed, the weather got warmer and the park started to get crowded. Come to think of it, it might have been useful to have one of those "What's Going On Here?" signs (they put these around NYC to inform people about ongoing construction work). I tried to explain some people what we were doing. Some wished me good luck, but some people just wouldn't accept it ("What do you mean a 24-hour run!"). So, when a group of teenage girls giggled and asked ("Are you guys running a marathon?"), I responded, "Something like that".

Around 4PM, 6 hours into the race, Courtney came to visit me. She did a couple of laps with me, which was very helpful. After she left, I was on my own again. I was still running but definitely getting tired. I decided to run/walk until 6PM (8 hours). I calculated that I could finish 35 miles by then. Assuming a very slow 20min/mile for the remaining 16 hours, I would still get 48 more miles to get to 83 miles total. At this point, my IT band and the blister under my foot were already starting to cause trouble.

As planned, after eating the race provided pasta at 8 hours I switched to a total walk strategy, hoping to cover some miles while resting and restarting running at a later point. I was doing decent walking pace (15-16 min/mile) and churning the miles down.

Then, the sun went away. And with the sun all the people in the park. The runners were spread out (there was about 50 of us to begin with anyway). So, things became really really quiet. At this point I could have really used my MP3 player, but it just wouldn't start. So, I kept chugging along, but I was slowly losing the mental battle. I became obsessed with the number of laps I had left. I kept calculating and calculating and calculating in my head. "I need 30 more laps, if I do one lap in 20 minutes, I finish at 7AM; if I finish a mile in 20 minutes, I finish at 8AM; but if I spent this much time in the break zone...." and then "I have 29 laps left...." etc. You get the point. I started to get seriously demoralized as the hours passed. My leg was starting to hurt pretty badly. I tried running, but I couldn't. I was imagining a stress fracture building up and forcing me to postpone my spot in the NYC Marathon.

I got coffee, rested a few minutes, did another lap. Rested some more, caught up with someone, did some more laps with them. I brought the number down to 20 laps or so for my target. My MP3 player started to work, but I wasn't enjoying my podcasts. I wasn't even listening to them. My brain was obsessed with numbers. Finally, with 17 more laps to go and more than 8 hours left, I decided to take a long break. Even nap a bit. Another big prep mistake right there, I didn't have long pants, a sleeping bag or a chair to sit on. As soon as I stopped my body temperature started to fall. I was shivering and I couldn't convince myself to walk another step. Besides, there were rats size of Dachsunds running around the park and I didn't want to get eaten by one during sleep. (on the upside, the little buggers provided quite a nice adrenaline jolt while we were on the course)

Escalator of Doom!

Finally, around 2AM, I decided to head back home. My knee barely bending, my blisters hurting full force. I was thinking about calling a cab, but the race director and one of the volunteers kindly drove me to the Subway stop. I was expecting an R train, an E showed up, I got on. Barely staying awake! Of course the escalator on the subway wasn't working. So, I dragged my injured knee, my rather large body and my giant bag of supplies (funny it didn't feel so heavy 16 hours ago) up the stairs. As you can see in the picture to the left it is the world's longest escalator! (don't quote me on that)

I got home around 3AM. Bruised and battered. I was a bit disappointed not to have hit my target, but I was happy to be home.

After a good sleep (Courtney considered checking if I was still alive, since I was still in bed at 9:30. Inconceivable!) I started to take account of my situation. I had just ran/walked almost 60 miles and stayed on the course for 16 hours, nearly doubling the longest distance and time I have done in a race. Bending my right knee was painful, but for some reason I wasn't worried about that. I had IT band injury before and it goes away with rest. I noticed some additional blisters that I didn't feel the night before, but those are also easily treatable. Aaand of course I was hungry! My stomach behaved really well the day before allowing me to fuel sufficiently, but I was hungry nonetheless. I estimate that I burned about 6000-7000 calories on the course and probably took in 3000-4000.

The walk to the diner for breakfast painful initially, but as I warmed up my legs loosened. I kept limping around the house the next couple of days, but by Tuesday I was already back to a decent walking speed. I even jogged to catch some traffic lights. As I write this report on Thursday, my knee is almost 100%, the blisters are gone and my energy levels have mostly recovered (no more naps!). Amazingly there is no DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness). I don't know why this is, but I assume it is because I didn't run fast.

And that brings us to the most important lesson I got out of this experience. The reasons that limit performance in a long race like this are very different than those in a shorter race, even a marathon. It is not glycogen depletion or muscle tiredness; it is mental depletion and little problems that get out of hand (like a blister). So, having a crew or running buddies, especially in the dark hours of the night would have helped tremendously. I also need to learn to get myself out of the "depressive" cycle and concentrate on the task at hand. As for blisters, I don't know what to do about those. Better shoes or socks? Any suggestions?

I'll admit going into a 24-hour run without much prep wasn't the best idea I had (don't ask, work just got crazy), but I think it still turned out OK. At least, next time I line up for one of these, I won't be the rookie!