First a little background that leads up to this year’s
Heartland 50 mile run. I ran Heartland
50 last year, dropping down from the 100 mile option due to a prolonged case of
Plantar Fasciitis that came on after doing Badwater last year. As a result of all this, I wasn’t able to do
any long runs leading up to Heartland.
Thinking I can run on the “miles” leading up to Badwater I figured I’d
give it go for 50 miles versus 100 miles.
I still had the PF at the start of Heartland, but it didn’t get any worse.
As a result, I ran it relatively slow and finished around
12.5 hours. I felt pretty worn out and
thought to myself I feel like I ran 100 miles, not 50. Chalking it up to lack of training I left and
stayed in Wichita for a few days with a friend.
On the way home to Colorado the following Tuesday, I got progressively
achier and achier as I made my way home.
I was so bad when I got home my wife insisted I go to the ER the next
morning to check what is going on, as I could barely walk and I hurt all
over. I was immediately admitted to the
hospital with what turned out to be a bacterial Strep Series G infection. I was pretty much unable to walk at this
point. They reasoned that the open
callused blister on my right big toe was to blame for the introduction to the
infection. Other factors were also in
paly as well (lack of training, stress to the body and a compromised immune
system, to name but a few). I was in the
hospital for 8 days while they determined the extent of the infection. Luckily no organs were affected and it was
just isolated to my right hip area. A
side effect of the infection was that my body reacted negatively to previous
injury areas (knees and shoulder) which limited my walking and reaching for items.
I was released to a local rehabilitation hospital for 2
weeks to get my mobility back. Long
story short, I lost all my running base and had to start over from scratch the
early part of this year. I started off
slow and easy, and actually started doing longer runs of 10 miles or more by
early summer. On a lark I ran a 50K race
just two weeks prior to this year’s Heartland to do a “trial run” to see if I
am ready for 50 miles. I did okay,
survived it with little fanfare, although slow, but felt fine at the end. This gave me the mental motivation to proceed
to Kansas for this year’s Heartland.
I was pretty nervous about it all, going back to “scene of
the crime” and all, but I needed to get the monkey off my back if I was to do
any other ultras in the future. First
off, I went with wider shoes at the start (EE width) with a scheduled shoe
change at Teterville (25 miles) to an even wider shoe (EEEE width). Along with the shoe change, a sock change
would also be in order, with a generous re-lathering of foot goop that will
keep the feet protected from water and dirt and such. I even had a sock change at the Lapland aid
station for the way back (mile 37) if need be.
The recent deluge of rain the previous night and during the
day Saturday gave me some concern. I did
not want to get my feet overly wet so as to reduce the risk of blister
formation. I made up my mind that if it
was raining at the race start (6 PM) I would either not start or drop along the
way. Luckily, it rained just before we
were told to go and just a light rain fell on the 50 mile runners for about 10
minutes, then that was it for the rest of the race. Unfortunately the course was now muddy in
spots and fairly wet. I managed to keep
my feet dry for a bit, but by the time I got to Teterville my shoes and socks
were wet and needed changing.
I went out pretty slow, running my own race, getting passed
by most runners on the way. I didn’t
care, just “go easy and have fun” I thought.
I got to Battle Creek aid (8.5 miles) in a little under 2 hours. I got to Lapland (mile 18.5) in 4 hours. My plan was to get to Teterville in around 6
hours. I got there in 6:03. I spent nearly 40 minutes here tending to my
feet and change of socks, shoes, and getting out of my wet clothes into drier
and warmer clothes for the return. I put
on my jacket (on the advice of running friend Anne Watts) due to a strong
headwind going back. I never took it off
until I got back to the hotel.
I had planned on running the first 5 miles then go into
walk/run mode. I did better than I h
oped, running most of the way to Battle Creek aid. After that, the rolling hills take over and
you are forced to walk. All in all, I
ran about 75% of the first 25 miles. On
the way back, I ran about 80% of the way back to Lapland (miles 36). I pretty walked it in from there. The wind was pretty brutal from that point on
and the wind just took too much out of me to force a run. So I walked.
I finished in 14:23, which is about what I had hoped for a
finish time.
The good news: I only
had 1 tiny blister on the joint of my right big toe, but it didn’t pop, and I
didn’t pop it. I had hot spots for most
of the last 28 miles, but nothing that stopped me. Wide shoes and frequent sock changes were the
key for me in not repeating last years’ debacle. The bad news:
not really, considering all else going into this thing. Tony and Kyle did an awesome job, and I do
love the late start format of the 50 miler ensuring a run through the
night. Aid stations were all great and
handled all my requests and had good fare to consume.
I’ll be back next year, just not sure which format yet.
