Escalation
“So once you hit your distance, you’re just gonna stop?” That was the question Nick posed when we were talking about Stories Ultra over the weekend. I’d told him yes - I had planned on the 15 hour at first since theoretically, on paper, with good conditions, I’d be able to run the 100k in less then 15 hours. But I wanted to hedge my bets - have time to chill out, bank some time for the unexpected and less then ideal conditions. So I was in the 30 hour race - but still planning on a firm stopping point. How ever long it took me, I would reach that 100k mark. So yes, that was the plan. Reach my mark and then call it a day.
The next question was "And if you reach your distance and you are in the lead, will you do a lap every so often to keep it?" We are used to the scoring of 24 hour mountain bike races, where it's measured in the number of laps first. Everyone does the same lap over and over again and the team with the most number of laps wins. If two teams have the same number of laps, the team that reached that point first wins. Very different then the running world for 24 hours, where it's total miles that matter. That's it. Just the total number of miles. And with Stories and the different loops, it's more complicated then just running a loop every hour. Purple might take me upwards of 2 hours to finish - but I suppose that everyone will be in the same boat at that point. Now, I wasn't planning on racing at all for Stories. My plan was to stay completely focused on the goal of 100k and nothing else.
But Nick wasn't done with the questions. He also wanted to know how I was planning on setting up the pit area. Was I going minimal with just my car or thinking full pit? Middle of February - it's bound to be cold at night, and even during the day. Last year, the lows hovered in the low teens, before factoring in the wind chill... How would I stay warm when I wanted to change clothes if I went minimal? And how would Kelly and Christy, my pit crew for the race stay warm? One thing lead to another with that conversation and all of a sudden, it was going to be a full pit just like at the 24 hour races. Hunting tent with heater to stay warm and dry, full cooking set up to be able to prepare warm food, chair to rest in - the complete works. I know that the campsites will be shared at Stories, so whom ever gets lucky to share with me will have access to the most organized, warm pit setup ever. And I don't mind sharing! We've got that dialed from years of 24 hour racing - I never really thought I'd use it for running though!
All of that got me thinking as I prepared the tentative plan. Tentative because who knows what will really happen once we start running. But in my mind, it's always better to have an idea of what might happen then to approach something this big totally blind. Even at ScD50k last year, I had a bit of a plan so I knew what to do at the aid stations. And having the tentative plan will help my pit crew, at least for clothes and shoes and such. Times change based on conditions and distance. But I will need to eat and drink regardless and having some ideas will make life easier - things like soup when it's cold, warm water in my bottles so things don't freeze - that kind of stuff. I wrote the plan up to 100k - three complete circuits and then the Red and Green loops again. Could I really just stop? What if I was feeling great and conditions were great? Why not have the option for 100m on the chart? It was just adding Blue and Purple for the 4th circuit and then one more. Plus Red a sixth time for good measure. And maybe, maybe a lap around Gold just for fun. All it takes it to keep moving. One foot in front of the other.
The next question was "And if you reach your distance and you are in the lead, will you do a lap every so often to keep it?" We are used to the scoring of 24 hour mountain bike races, where it's measured in the number of laps first. Everyone does the same lap over and over again and the team with the most number of laps wins. If two teams have the same number of laps, the team that reached that point first wins. Very different then the running world for 24 hours, where it's total miles that matter. That's it. Just the total number of miles. And with Stories and the different loops, it's more complicated then just running a loop every hour. Purple might take me upwards of 2 hours to finish - but I suppose that everyone will be in the same boat at that point. Now, I wasn't planning on racing at all for Stories. My plan was to stay completely focused on the goal of 100k and nothing else.
But Nick wasn't done with the questions. He also wanted to know how I was planning on setting up the pit area. Was I going minimal with just my car or thinking full pit? Middle of February - it's bound to be cold at night, and even during the day. Last year, the lows hovered in the low teens, before factoring in the wind chill... How would I stay warm when I wanted to change clothes if I went minimal? And how would Kelly and Christy, my pit crew for the race stay warm? One thing lead to another with that conversation and all of a sudden, it was going to be a full pit just like at the 24 hour races. Hunting tent with heater to stay warm and dry, full cooking set up to be able to prepare warm food, chair to rest in - the complete works. I know that the campsites will be shared at Stories, so whom ever gets lucky to share with me will have access to the most organized, warm pit setup ever. And I don't mind sharing! We've got that dialed from years of 24 hour racing - I never really thought I'd use it for running though!
All of that got me thinking as I prepared the tentative plan. Tentative because who knows what will really happen once we start running. But in my mind, it's always better to have an idea of what might happen then to approach something this big totally blind. Even at ScD50k last year, I had a bit of a plan so I knew what to do at the aid stations. And having the tentative plan will help my pit crew, at least for clothes and shoes and such. Times change based on conditions and distance. But I will need to eat and drink regardless and having some ideas will make life easier - things like soup when it's cold, warm water in my bottles so things don't freeze - that kind of stuff. I wrote the plan up to 100k - three complete circuits and then the Red and Green loops again. Could I really just stop? What if I was feeling great and conditions were great? Why not have the option for 100m on the chart? It was just adding Blue and Purple for the 4th circuit and then one more. Plus Red a sixth time for good measure. And maybe, maybe a lap around Gold just for fun. All it takes it to keep moving. One foot in front of the other.
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