Race information
- What? Eagle Up Ultra
- When? June 24-25, 2017
- How far? 24 Hours
- Where? Canal Fulton, Ohio
- Website: http://ift.tt/2s2qsen
Goals
| Goal | Description | Completed? |
|---|---|---|
| A | ~81 miles | No |
| B | Move for 24 hours | No |
| C | Have Fun | Yes |
Planning
This was the second annual r/Running Meet Up and it seemed like it was going to be bigger than the first. The first year went so well that many people decided they couldn’t miss the second year. We started planning back in September/October 2016. Our planning started with over 60 people interested, but we narrowed it down to 20 or so.
We started by having people pick races that they thought would be good for a group. These races mainly turned out to be 24 hour ultras – that way people could run as little or as much as they wanted to. After we had a race list, we narrowed it down to a few months out of the year. Then we had a vote to see which race we would be running. Thus, Eagle Up was born.
After picking the race, we assigned positions to those who wanted them, to help things move along. Positions include:
- Executive chef – u/Lacecorsetdolly. Apparently she makes wicked good food.
- Sous chef – u/a_real_humdinger. He’s the bf of u/lacecorsetdolly. He can’t cook, but follows directions well.
- Shirt Fabricators - u/redkryptonite made the designs and u/theredinthesky had them printed.
- Financial Guru - u/laurensvo. She made sure everyone paid for what they ordered.
- Craftsman - u/Microthrope. He made everyone laser etched plaques with our team logo.
- Lodge Master - u/Runlowsky. He was in charge of finding the best deals on hotels in the area.
- Medical Eye - u/YourShoesUntied. His role was to keep an eye on people to make sure no one died. No one died.
- Sponsorship Sage - u/mattack73. His role was to get companies to give us free things.
- Gear Head - u/tipsy_topsy. Her role was to comprise a gear list to determine who was bringing what.
- Historian - u/Vermilionweirdo. Not sure exactly what he's doing with this role. But his goal was to document everything.
- Pit Crew - u/MrsCraigster38, Lady Shoes, u/thePsion, u/NonReligiousPopette, Mr u/Laurensvo, Mrs. u/BSHippo and Larry the Photographer. This was one of the most essential roles.
- I'm absolutely sure I'm missing other positions. A few people were named Sugar Daddies because they just wanted to throw money at things.
We had our race. We had our positions. Now we wait. Months went by and we would check in with each other to see who was starting to freak out. We had a couple video chats to get more acquainted with each other. Surprisingly, those went pretty smoothly.
Some people dropped out last minute. Some people joined last minute. Before we knew it, everyone was posting photos on Facebook of them getting into the car to head to Canal Fulton, Ohio. Oh, shit. What did we do?
Training
Training was great! Until May.
I got a couple twenty milers in that went well. My longest run in training was 51k - race report here. After that race, I only ran a handful of times prior to Eagle Up. Between a busy schedule of getting the house ready for 30 people to visit, and a bum ankle, I didn't want to overdo things.
Somehow, I was still hoping for things to go smoothly.
Pre-race
Friday, June 23, 2017. I head over to the race site a little early to start setting up. I find that a lot of the prime real-estate is already called for. So I take a not so prime spot away from others since we'll be needing a lot of room. I set everything up and wait patiently for everyone to arrive.
/u/mattack73 was the first to arrive and then the rain started. Downpours. Floods. I guess he brought his Florida rain with him.
Then others started to trickle in. They'd show up, set up camp, pick up their packet and chill at the camp site for a few hours. We sat around shooting the breeze. Then, it happened. I got a call around 6 PM from my wife. "PIZZA IS READY!"
All 30 of us head over to my house for pizza and beer.
Side Note: I was having an internal debate on whether to get good pizza or cheap pizza for everyone. The difference was $10 and $5 (per person) respectively. On one hand, I wanted everyone to experience the delicious pizza Canal Fulton has to offer. On the other hand, everyone had already spent a lot of money on this race. I had told the group about my dilemma, to hopefully get some insight to what they would prefer. Then u/theredinthesky comes out of nowhere and pays for half of the good pizza! This dude, let me tell you, is a punk. I got a message from him telling me to check my email, and there was money sitting in my account. I didn’t even get to tell him no. AND! He wasn’t even going to be there. This guy is extremely generous and selfless. But there was no way we’d be able to accept the money. Instead, as a group, we pooled our money (including u/theredinthesky’s pizza money) and purchased him a running stroller for him to enjoy with his new kid.
I ordered too much pizza (is that possible?) and people brought too much beer. Leftovers for days! We had a good time eating, drinking, and just relaxing.
This was the left over beer after we gave away four-six packs.
This was the pizza we demolished. We also gave away two full pizzas, and we have two in our refrigerator still. Little Caesar’s may be cheap, and I don’t care what anyone says, I enjoy the taste.
I told everyone I was going to kick them out at 9 PM so I could sleep. They all left by 8:40 PM on their own free will. So u/YourShoesUntied, u/ChickenSedan, u/MrsCraigster38, Lady Shoes and I sat around for a little while longer chatting. I let the Shoes Family and Chicken stay at our house because I've met them before and I knew they wouldn't try to kill me in my sleep. I couldn't say the same about some of the other people.
Race
Most of this race seemed to blend together. I'll comment on what I remember, but I can't recall when most of it occurred.
Lap 1:
Excerpt taken from my Traveling Singlet Report:
Saturday comes after what felt like an hour of sleep (really, it was closer to five hours). I made my way to the race site for the 6 am start. I met up with the group of 20+ redditors that I shared pizza with the previous night and we took a group photo.
We went over to the start line and waited patiently for the start. I'm surrounded by all these awesome people, most of whom I've never met before, and we're about to do some crazy shit - like run for 19 hours. What did I sign up for?
They blow the air horn and we're off! Once we get off the grass and up onto the tow path, I'm being followed by /u/YourShoesUntied, /u/docbad32, /u/runlowsky, /u/BSHippo, and others. We're running along as an easy pace and I'm giving them information about the course. Like, where we'll pass horses, where the haunted house is, and the largest (10 foot) hill of the entire course.
Not too far in, /u/BSHippo thanks us for going at an easy pace, otherwise he would have probably went out like a rocket. But, about half way through the first lap, he leaves us to go off like a rocket. That seemed to work pretty well for him.
I finished the first lap of 5 miles in about 50 minutes and make it back to the canopies. That's multiple, like 7. We were prepared for anything!
Unfortunately, you all know the age old adage - nothing new on race day. I had already risked my race by wearing a new-to-me singlet for 5 miles. I was ready to put my hydration vest on, so I definitely had to switch singlets. So I put on a new singlet and continued my journey with /u/docbad32 and /u/YourShoesUntied.
Lap 2 - 12.5:
I did a second lap with Shoes and Doc, and everything seemed to be going smoothly. There was a light breeze, but I knew the sun would come out eventually.
I think it was somewhere in lap 3 that u/YourShoesUntied decided to start walking. That left just u/docbad32 and myself. Shortly after, he said he was going to start walking, but I wanted to keep running so I said "See ya later!" Minutes later, I started walking. It was brutal.
u/Docbad32 passed me and wouldn't keep my company.
Maybe a couple laps later, u/BShippo caught up to me. FYI, it's "BS Hippo", not "B Shippo". We ran and chatted for a bit. Apparently my spirits weren't shattered at this point. I'm sure he left me when I started walking again. I was running about half of each lap at this point.
Then the sun started to come up. It was draining all of the energy.
At this point, I’m doing a 50/50 split of run/walk during the loop. At one point, I run and catch up to u/a_real_humdinger and walk with him for about a half mile. Then I run and catch up to u/lacecorsetdolly and walk with her for a bit. These two were a hoot. They always had an interesting story and were fun to be around.
I’m about 7 laps into this death march, and my feet are on fire. It hurts more to run than it does to walk, but the pain was crazy. But I came for the belt buckle. Even if I couldn’t finish the 50/50, I had to get the belt buckle. So I walked. I walked a lot.
I walked a few laps by myself. I walked a full lap with u/lacecorsetdolly. Apparently, I was walking too fast for her, but I thought she was setting the pace.
Then u/MrsCraigster38 decided to walk the last two laps with me. It was nice to have someone to talk to, even if I didn’t do much talking.
Then about 3 miles into my final full loop, my wife and I hear someone coming up behind us, and quickly. We thought it was one of two people:
1) u/Fobo911 because he started his 50k at 8 PM and was feeling fresh, or
2) u/itsjustzach, because when we left the aid station we told him to catch up to us if he was feeling it. And that dude is fast.
What I didn’t expect was the person to come flying past, shouting “Eat dick, Craig”. Well, that was u/YourShoesUntied, no doubt. I had been in front of Shoes for the entire race, past lap 2. I had waited at the aid station several times for him to come in, only to get bored and head out on my own. And finally, at 11 PM, he caught up to me. He looked like he was going to puke but he made it.
We walked the final 2 miles to the aid station and sat down for a few minutes. We said we would finish this race together, even if it hurt like a bitch. So Shoes, myself, my wife and Lady Shoes all get up to walk the last 2.4 miles to finish the 100k. It was painful and I dreaded it, but we finished.
19:05:21
Post-race
My feet were trashed. I had blisters on my heels and the balls of my feet. They burned when I walked.
u/YourShoesUntied, u/ChickenSedan and myself went back to my house to shower and get 3 hours of sleep. We woke up around 6 AM to head back to the race site to watch awards. We had quite a few people get an award!
We tore down our kingdom. Seriously, 7 canopies and probably as many tents.
We all went out to breakfast at a local mom-and-pop restaurant. They were happy to seat all of us! The food was delicious and very quick to our table. After breakfast, everyone parted ways and it was bitter sweet.
I’d like to give a shout out to our awesome crew! u/thepsion, u/nonreligiouspopette, Lady Shoes, Mr u/Laurensvo and of course, u/MrsCraigster38. They were on top of their game. No one died, or had any major injuries. I doubt any of us would have done as well if they weren’t there.
What's next?
I have a half marathon in September and a full marathon in October. After that, my race schedule is wide open! I probably won’t do another 24 hour race. 6 hour or 50K? Probably.
We'll probably start planning r/Running Meet Up 2018 here shortly. Since we started planning for this year so late, we didn't look at any races in January, February or March. I would like to change that for 2018.
<3
This post was generated using the new race reportr, a tool built by /u/BBQLays for making organized, easy-to-read, and beautiful race reports.
Submitted June 30, 2017 at 06:55PM by craigster38 http://ift.tt/2ts2cal running
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