Flatlanders 12 Hour Race - St. Louis

Friday - Stephanie and I arrived in St. Louis in the evening and made a dash for the Sheraton Hotel. After a day of traveling and flying all we wanted to do was rest and eat. I have been on a day of low fat, low bulk (fiber), high carb foods eating almost non-stop. Once we made the short drive to the hotel we checked in, made sure we could get online, watched Survivorman and ordered room service. What a great way to end the day... a big bowl of pasta, watching Survivorman all while wearing a hotel robe. Nice!

Saturday - I woke up on Las Vegas time at 2:30AM. 4:30AM St. Louis time and did a 7 mile run. After the run we had breakfast, did the store run for race supplies and then I did nothing all day. Except, take two naps, eat, stay off of my feet and eat some more. Stephanie checked out some of the local malls and shopping spots. Dinner was the normal Mexican and then to bed.

Sunday - 4:15 AM. Time to rock! One cup of coffee, ProBars, Liquid Endurance and some final packing then we were off to the Fenton (Burb of St. Louis) City Park.

We put our crew area in the same spot as last year. I like familiar when it worked the year before. Steph set-up the bottles and some of the first items I would need to get going and I got my race number set and applied Body Glide all over.










The race started on time at 7:30AM. Weather conditions at the start were great. 63 degrees and sunny. The race went out super fast (7 min/ml pace). That is fast for a 12 hour race. Chuck Goetschel (5th place at the 2006 US 24 Hour Championships), Chris Roberdeau, Paul Schoenlaub (Winner of the 6 hour race last year 45.96 miles, moved up to 12 hours this year.) took off!!! I hung back. I told myself "run your own race" advice that would prove to be solid later on. They continued at this crazy fast pace for at least 2.5 hours. Then Paul took a break and the other two continued on.

I maintained my planned pace that would take me to 80.7 miles and all systems were go. I was running with my Garmin on and kept an eye on my my average pace per mile. The hours clicked by and I kept right on pace. The race continued on at a faster clip than I wanted to be part of.


















The race reached the 6 hour mark and my Garmin mileage showed 42.75 miles. Perfect! I felt great. Eating, drinking, taking my endurolytes as planned. One additional development with the leaders was taking place... they were having a rough time. Chuck was apparently on the rivot and Chris was in a spot of bother also. I took the lead some where around the 6.5 hour mark.

Hour 7 to 8 were still on track however, Bad news!!! The temperature jumped to 92 degrees, 75% humidity also the sun covered almost all of the course... no shade! It started to get hot and this worked on me slightly so slight that hours 8 to 9 I slowed and fell of of my goal pace.

Hours 9-10 - I go a little of my speed back but 80 miles looked rough. I grew my lead to 9 miles and kept on rocking the 1.4 mile loop.










Hour 10-11 - I got back on track with the pace mainly because it started to cool down and we got some shade back on the course. I ran strong and grew the lead to 12 miles.

The last hour - the race directors put us on a small loop (1/2 mile. 1/4 out and back) the last half hour and then use a flag with our race number that we place on the spot we stop at when the 12 hour gun fires! This is done to measure the EXACT distance we ran. It was close to the time I needed to jump on the small loop. I came into the lap counting area and the race director said I was running fast enough to do one more FULL (1.4 mile) loop. Glad he thought I was running fast. He said, you can do a full one but!... if you don't make it back before the gun the lap will NOT count! So... off I went on the full loop. I felt confident that I could do it. I would have to run a 7:50 to 8 min/mile pace for the loop after 11 hours and 45 minutes of running. I can do that!!!












With 5 minutes to spare I made it and jumped onto the small loop and ran a few loops here. The gun fired and I planted my flag and walked to Stephanie and a recovery drink. It was over... suffering done!

What did I do... I won, set a new course record and fell short of 80 miles by less than 1.22 miles! This is my 8th 12 Hour Race that I have ran and I have won all 8! Most of all... it was fun. Even with all of the pain and soreness that would soon start... I had a great time.

Thanks to all of the volunteers that counted laps, worked the aid station and gave me words of encouragement lap after lap. The race directors did a great job with this event.

Thanks to Dave at Brooks for the shoes, Hammer Nutrition and Motor Tabs. Most of all my wife Stephanie for putting up with my training schedule, early AM workouts, having me tired and beaten down for many weeks leading up to the race and for helping me kick-ass during the race. Crewing is tough. Crewing me is rough, tough and a royal pain in the ass! She is the best crew! There is no way I could have done it without her! Stephanie - thank you so much!

My equipment list for the race:

• Brooks Axiom 2 shoes
• Brooks Singlet
• Brooks HVAC Shorts
• Brooks HVAC hats
• Brooks Burn Ped Socks
• Up to 3 Hammer Gels an hour
• Hammer Perpetuem
  
• Hammer Endurolytes - Lots
  
• Motor Tab
  

Post race - we headed off to the awards ceremony and I started to feel like crap. This is normal for me. This horrible feeling of nausea, soreness and over all weakness sets in. After the awards and a short drive back to the hotel I took well deserved and needed shower and then it was room service in bed. I tried to go to sleep but the aching and pain in my legs would not let me catch even an hours worth of shut-eye. So, I watched 5 episodes back-to-back of Survivorman and stayed awake all night. It wasn't a long night we have to be at the airport at 6:15 AM for our flight back to Las Vegas.

More Race photos soon.