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MY FIRST ULTRA        by Mick Evans

     My first Ultra kinda happened by accident as the result of some injuries sustained during Hood to Coast. My marathon goal this year was to PR at Victoria and training had not gone too well, some nagging injuries earlier this summer had delayed the start of my training program. I missed a couple of long runs during my visit to Wales, and with just 5 weeks to go, just when I needed to get some really long runs in, I was injured again. I decided to back out of Victoria, maybe do a marathon later in the year - but where?.

     Luckily, I discovered an alternative, I was browsing the running forum on Compuserve when I read a post from a friend who had completed a 50 miler. I recalled that there was some kinda ultra event at Champoeg at end of October. I did some checking and sure enough, there was a 50K on October 25th - I had 8 weeks to resume training for an easy marathon (plus 5 miles). All of a sudden it felt like a huge weight was lifted from my shoulders, my neck muscles relaxed and I gained 1 inch in height.

     My first goal was to get time on my feet on my Saturday longs runs. I chose to include walking breaks to quickly increase my running times. I had tried this once last year during a 20 miler and was amazed to find that I finished faster with 1min/mile walking breaks than running the whole way. I also thought that running at my normal pace with walking breaks would be easier on my legs than running slowly the whole way.

     My first long run was 14 miles, with 2 min walking breaks per mile - it went well except that I was going too fast. So, next week I did 20 miles with 3 min walking breaks and felt great. I also experimented with eating and drinking and found that at this slower pace I could stomach Gatorade and pretty much eat what I wanted during the walking breaks. At this point I lost control - I decided to do the Portland Marathon as a training run - it would be fun, with all the other participants, the crowds and the aid stations. Unfortunately, the late entry fee was more than I wanted to pay, and I won't do the bandit thing - so I entered the Victoria Marathon a week after. However, I was still excited to try a marathon distance with this run/walk scheme, so I did a 26.2 mile training run the day before Portland, and then did Victoria a week later. Both run/walks went extremely well, I did a 4:12 and a 4:03 and did not feel beat up afterwards. I even felt guilty at Victoria, strolling around after the marathon, skipping down steps while all around me the "Death Waddle" was in full effect. Realizing that I was playing with fire though I took it real easy for the remaining 2 weeks preceding Champoeg. To say that I was confident at this point would have been an understatement - not only was I expecting to finish, I was checking the age group results from last year and was considering upgrading to the "real" ultra - the 50 miler. Luckily, I was able to convince myself to stay with the "shorter" distance.

     The Champoeg Autumn Leaves 50s is a great Ultra for first timers, it's run on a flat 5 mile loop and you can stash your gear in a covered area which you'll run through each lap. There's water and Gatorade on the course, and in the shelter there was all kinds of munchies - pretzels, bagels, M&Ms - even defizzed Coke. The 50 mile started first at 7:30 am and before the start of my event I was able to see the 50 milers complete their first lap, the leader Alan Boyce came flying through at 7 min pace, mouth hanging open and sweating, he would keep up that intensity (but not that pace) for the remaining 45 miles.

    My plan for the 50K was simple, I wanted to finish in 4 1/2 hours (8:40 pace) and I would walk every mile for 1 to 2 mins to stay at that pace, and maybe run the whole last lap. We started at 9:00am and I noticed I was the only one walking, so as soon as I started running I started passing the backmarkers, then they would pass me during my next walk. Each time I walked though, not every one would catch up to me and while I was running I would gain on new people. This introduced a competitive element that was not entirely welcome at this stage of the run. At the end of 15 miles I was still at pace and feeling good, but I noticed my heart rate was too high during the runs, it was getting hot and I was sweating profusely. I knew from past marathons that this was a recipe for disaster, so I backed off a little and went for goal #2 - 9:00 min pace - surely that was still doable.

    As the miles ticked by I was helped immensely by the other competitors, we saw each other frequently on the out and back section of the loop and traded words of encouragement. It helped that Eb & Lee were out there orbiting as well. I was also visited by some old injuries, an achy foot on the first lap, a left calf twinge for the next 2 laps, and then some back spasms for a couple of laps, but none of them could stick around the whole distance, and I left them behind. I remained at 9 min pace till the last lap, I had a brief mental lift as I realized I had passed the marathon mark and was now in uncharted territory, that carried me for another mile. At mile 27 though, my legs turned to mush. I still had energy, but my stride was short and tight - these last 4 miles were tough, but I ran where I was supposed to and only walked at the mile markers (I was able to laugh at my original plan of running the whole last lap). The last mile was a grind, and I had trouble keeping my emotions under control. Then all of a sudden, there was the finish line at 4:42:54, and I was done. As I removed my tag, a volunteer came over with my medal and a door prize (1 quart of Hammer Gel - yum, yum) and, something I did not expect, an age group first place ribbon. I picked up my finishers shirt and started waddling for my van.

     My van was only parked a couple of hundred yards away, but there were "hills", my legs were like cement and it felt like someone had taken a ball peen hammer to the soles of my feet. I made it to my van, took off my shoes and socks stripped to my shorts and took a cold shower. It was at this point I realized that my dry clothes were in my bag at the finish line, so I waddled slowly back, the last mile was easy compared to this. On getting to my clothes bag, I put on a nice dry shirt, wrapped the towel around my waist removed my running shorts and then realized that my clean running tights were (you guessed it) back in my van!! So, with the bag on my shoulder, towel around my waist I waddled once more to the van - aren't these ultras ever over ??##??

     Actually the waddling helped, as I hung out at the finish line I began a regime of waddling, easy stretching and then some muscle massage with the "Stick". After I repeated this gently about 4 times my waddle progressed into a walk. The next day I felt pretty good, I could walk easily and a 9 minute test jog felt OK. Actually I'm amazed, I've done a 50K and 2 marathons this month and I feel great, maybe it's because I never ran further than 1 mile................