Yeti 24-hour Ultra Challenge

Run 5 miles every 4 hours for 24 hours. Easy, right?

Decided starting late Friday afternoon would allow me to have only 2 of the 6 runs in the dark, and 11pm doesn't seem that "scary". 3am is going to be interesting... but then I'm still finished before lunch on Saturday, take an afternoon nap (maybe) and then I'll have another day to recover before the week starts. Good plan I guess.

Run 1

Friday, May 1st, 3:00 p.m.

5.08 mi @ 9:13/mi avg

I told myself not to get too excited and go out too fast, and I accomplished that. Woohoo! I took a loop that I probably should have saved for another time, because the roads were busy on a Friday afternoon. Oh well, got it out of the way. It's one of the less interesting routes. It was warm, though! I haven't run since Tuesday, so my legs were a little stale... feeling good though.

One down, five to go.

Run 2
Friday, May 1, 7:02 p.m.

5.15 mi @ 9:44/mi avg

Lots of nature out on the evening run today - saw a turtle crossing the road, two white squirrels, and two rabbits. 

I helped him cross the road.

Legs felt alright, I made sure to take it easy on the pace but kept it pretty consistent. 

Long shadows of the evening

Run 3
Friday, May 1, 11:03 p.m.
5.10 mi @ 9:13/mi avg
I stayed up for this one instead of catching a quick nap - that was the right call (at least that's what I think right now). I was a bit sluggish to get started out, and my knees were aching a bit, but after I did a couple of laps I was warmed up and felt pretty good. The elevation in the neighborhood was crazy (see top right of the pic below) but overall felt nice. Thinking I'll go the opposite direction for the next run... or add in a few other streets. We'll see... the one mile loop keeps things simple, at least.

"I am the Night"
3rd run done!

Run 4
Saturday, May 2, 3:02 a.m.
5.10 @ 9:16/mi
Decided to run the exact same loops in the 'hood as the 11pm run. They provided a pretty good rhythm and avoided the worst hills (I walked up the worst one). Felt pretty similar to the last one, a little stiff to start but felt fine once I was moving and clocked sub-9 on a couple of laps. Definitely tired though.

Wheeeee

Once I got back in bed, I was so cold though!

Run 5
Saturday, May 2, 7:03 a.m.
5.06 mi @ 10:29/mi avg
Oh yes, the hip flexors are talking to me this morning, but overall not terrible. Definitely walked hills today (of which there were many), hence the significant drop in pace.

Grin or grimace? Hard to say... maybe both.

I did flow + deep stretch yoga when I got home (half-assed my way through the flow part, but looooved the deep stretch). We held frog pose for 3 full minutes and it felt amazing.

Run 6
Saturday, May 2, 11:00 a.m.
5.11 mi @ 10:06/mi avg
I opted to run the exact same route as Run 5 for the last run, just to save the creativity effort of doing something different. I walked the same hills, but somehow ended up ~30s/mi faster overall... guess it was the thrill of being DONE that drove me to the finish faster!

Dargan drew a medal for me 😍

I then enjoyed a bubble bath with candles and chocolate milk.

Reward.

Through the day, aside from just being tired, really only my right hip flexor is angry... everything else is obviously tired but nothing excessively sore. We'll see how I wake up tomorrow morning. Now, to eat everything in sight...

In summary, when I told a friend I thought this race sounded "oddly do-able" I guess I wasn't wrong... not to say it was easy, but as far as running 30 miles in 24 hours, this is probably the way to do it.

Event Totals:
30.6 miles in 4h 56m 23s