Over the years I’ve been fortunate to earn a few 100 mile plaques at the Virginia 24 Hour Run Walk for Cancer – a great, local event that raises thousands of dollars each year for the American Cancer Society. This year the main goal was to run as many pain-free miles as possible without causing further damage to the torn meniscus suffered last December, with a loftier [stupid?] goal of reaching 100 miles before the 24 hours elapsed.
Part 1 of the plan (reaching 25 miles in the first 4 hours) went well. The knee felt fine, so it was full steam ahead to Part 2 – running 1 x 3.75 mile loop each hour, with hopefully enough time at the end of the loop to ice the knee, elevate the legs and refuel/take care of any issues.
Amazingly each loop was completed in good time, but more importantly, with the knee feeling fine. Of course there were a few challenging moments throughout the day – mainly allowing myself to get low on calories and experience a bit of a bonk, and at some point in the middle of the night convincing myself that settling for 80 something miles would be perfectly acceptable.
Thankfully, daughter Shannon was on hand to (a) procure the best portion of Chick-fil-A fries I’ve ever tasted, (b) talk me out of quitting early and to just stick to the plan of reaching 100 miles and (c) grinding out 26.25 miles with me through the night after working all day at her busy job. By the way, Tailwind Rebuild works wonders in restoring low energy levels – even when you’re going through a rough patch in the middle of the night.
As always, wife Ally was there crewing and pacing for the full 24 hours, and it was cool to share some nighttime miles with good friends Howie and Julia too. Being part of Team Run4Life again was a true honor, and I’m really thankful to Andrea McHugh for allowing me a spot on the team who performed so determinedly throughout.
I ended up with 101.25 miles and another 100 mile plaque for the collection – my lowest mileage in 6 runnings of this event, but probably the performance I’m most proud of. A few months ago I honestly thought my ultra running days were over, so to run 100 miles again is kind of surreal right now. Not sure what future races have in store, but I’m more determined than ever to keep on training and keep on giving it my all.
Gear/Fuel for the Virginia 24 Hour Run Walk for Cancer: