Date: August 6, 2017.
Time: 6:00 AM-ish
Location: Skyline trailhead, Three Rivers, CA.
Purpose: Final Long Run of a summer spent training for the upcoming Kodiak 100 Mile Ultramarathon in Big Bear.
I picked up Matt while it was still dark out. Summers in the Central Valley – and Augusts in particular – are notorious for searing heat. Although because of more frequent late-season fires, summers in California have become notorious for horrendous air quality.
The previous day, I was in a wedding for my old roommate and good friend, Brett Karraker. It was a blast. I arrived home late that night and slept very little, which was 100% intentional considering I wouldn’t be sleeping at all during the upcoming race. Intentional or not, there are no excuses considering the many times I’ve picked up Matt at 6 AM a few minutes after he arrived at his home from a 16 hour, through-the-night shift. During those runs, he would literally be sleeping in the car until we arrived at our starting point. He would only get his sleep after having completed our 16-20 early Sunday morning runs. I was as in awe watching him do it then as I am writing about it now. For Matt, everything was – and still is – training. This idea – that there are countless opportunities to train and sharpen one’s mental toughness, no matter the means – stuck with me. Everything you do has the potential to influence your training just as much as your training has the capacity to permeate into every part of your life.
We arrived at the Skyline Trail head, set to embark upon something that we’d never done before: a double. Our standard loop was the 7.5-mile jeep road climb up to the Cinnamon Gap sign. From there, it was (and still is) 7.5-miles back down for high-quality 15 miles. Our objective on this day was to stop at the car, fuel up, rehydrate, and head back for a second loop.
The purpose of this double loop was to emulate what we’d be experience in a race. We wanted to familiarize ourselves with fatigue and see how our minds respond to near dehydration, caloric depletion, and contending with the unrelenting desire to stop running. In a 100-mile race, all of that and more will happen at various points. The deeper you get into these races, the less you can BS yourself. Eventually, you’ll be exposed to what you neglected in training. Whether that happens at mile 20, 65, or 88, there is no way around it.
Sure enough, we ran out of water with a few miles to go. The morning sun lifted offering us little to no shade. Then the temperatures revved up to 100 degrees. Our only food remaining was down in the car. We started to unravel quickly, but we had no out. The only way to finish the run was to make it back to the car. Eventually, we did. In doing so, we knew with full certainty that we were ready for the big dance.
To date, that was the most difficult training run I’ve ever finished. I’ve completed longer training runs that were physically more challenging; but we wanted to test ourselves at a deeper level. First, on a hot summer day, two loops on a jeep trail is mundane. Second, by having the vehicle – our ticket home – as the turnaround point, it provided the opportunity for doubt and the desire to seek comfort to creep in. This was the point. Just like a race, when volunteers help, encourage or even offer pity, the desire to quit becomes increasingly more enticing. Nobody is forcing you to keep going. What’s the point anyways? You’ve gone far enough. Irrational thoughts creep in and you have to deal with them. Loop two gave us exactly what we were looking and more. Three weeks later, when we stood on the starting line, we had no clue how things were going to unfold, but we knew we were 100% ready.
Emulate the variables in which you’ll be exposed to.
