I've never been a huge fan of the 70.3. I am so not a sprinter. I have said many times that I would rather run a marathon than a 5K. It literally takes me 5-10 miles to start feeling good when I'm running. Same with the pool and the bike. If I can do a super easy 500 warm up in the pool-I always swim my fastest splits. If I start out hard-i just fall apart. I need that warm up to get into a rhythm. I'm much better at pacing an ironman than a 70.3. There is no time for a warm up at 70.3-you better go hard or you will be left behind. With exactly three weeks to go until Eagleman-I am starting to mentally prepare for this race. I really want to try and lay it on the line there. Racing on that red line is way out of my comfort zone. I have this huge fear of blowing up. At Eaglman I am going for it-there is no better time-I have nothing to lose.

Some tips from Smarty Pants...

Tom brings up some points near and dear to my heart as a nephrologist. First, i would say that the book A Step Beyond: A definitive Guide to ultrarunning has really been helpful to me as a novice ultrarunner. It can be purchased on Ultrarunning.com. Also the magazine Ultrarunning is a fantastic resource on races, times and all things ultrarunning.

As a side note, not only have I treated all of these issues I have personally experienced many of them :)

First with regards to hydration. Thirst does not start until 0-2% weight loss has occured and when thirst starts, you already starting to decline significantly in performance. Do not wait until you are thirsty to drink. This is especially important in high fluid loss states: sweating, vomiting, and diarrhea. Increased humidity and wind, even in the winter, will dramatically increase fluid loss.

That said, you can drink too much. So there are really 5 categories of electrolye/fluid imbalance:

dehydration with hypernatremia ie high blood sodium (not enough WATER): usually very thirsty, weight is down, salty foods taste BADnot urinating or concentrated dark urine so need to drink water but not take in salt tabs until back in balance.

dehydration (normal electrolytes, not enough fluid, ie sports drink): weight is down, urine dark or low, thirsty, dizzy, may be cramping if dehydrated enough, salty foods taste good, need sports drink or water and salt tabs

dehydration with hyponatremia (not enough volume and electrolytes): RARE, weight is down, high thirst, this is a difficult situation to get yourself into unless you have diarrhea and are drinking only water.

Hypernatremia ie high blood sodium (RARE)- thirsty but salty foods taste bad, desire for water high, this can occur if you take too many salt tabs without water.

Hyponatremia (common) normal weight, quesy stomach, salty foods are craved. This occurs from drinking too much water, usually seen in slower runners in a marathon or during a long race where someone is only drinking water or sodium free fluids.

The longer the race, the more likley that any or all of these can occur at some point durin the race. You have to determine you own sweat rate. This can be difficult. Once it starts getting hotter, try to run during the heat of the day. Weigh yourself before and after your run. If you drank fluids or urinated, you will need to figure that into your weight. Try different concentrations of fluids, gatorade, heed, perpetuem etc. Try taking different salts tabs and see how your stomach does with these. This will help you stay in balance during a race.

Diarrhea is almost always a sign of too much concentration of electrolyes or carbohydrates. So try cutting back on gels or salt tabs and drinking small amount of gatorade and eating small amounts of more solid food. Diarrhea can be a sign that you are going "too fast", that the bowel wont absorb or it can mean that your bowels are swollen if you have taken in too much salt tabs. Check you legs- are they swollen? If they are swollen above the ankle, you may have too much salt in your body. If you have taken in too much salt, you wont be craving it. The feet may swell at any time just from trauma or the shoes or socks being too tight so they are NOT a good indicator of your hydration. If your skin tents up when pinched ie doesnt snap back down when you pinch it together, you are dehydrated. Check this on the back of your hand of forearm gently.

Nausea or a stomach that is "sloshing around" means the stomach isnt draining. Again you may be going "too fast" and not absorbing or what you have been taking in may be too concentrated to absorb. Try to drink small amounts of normal temperature water slowly. very cold water can cause cramping. Pour the ice water over the head, but try to keep the drinking water not too cold IF you are having stomach problems. You can recover from massive vomiting. In 2007 when I ran CanLake it was in the 80s and I pushed too much gatorade. I puked from mile 25 to 35 and developed severe calf cramps and could barely walk. I started drinking small amounts of water and took a salt tab every half hour until I could run. I ran from mile 35 to the finish.

Any of these problems can be over come if you know what to look for. The best indictor though is yourself, and what has happened to you in the past. What may work for one person, wont work for the next. Dont give up. keep trying different things. I now eat a large meal (yogurt, banana and oatmeal plus 8 oz of perpetuem before my longs runs). This has pushed my bowels to be able to deal with having to digest while I run. I dont recommend trying this before a race though. Just in training.

After a race, almost as soon as I cross the finish, RAISING MY HANDS, I take a couple salt tabs to prevent cramps. Dropping you hands and placing them on your knees may cause you to throw up on the race directors shoes. This is not pretty. Sorry Tom.

I hope that this is helpful.

Matt Chaffin
manlius, ny

Toes

I just wanted to be very clear that those were not my ugly toes in the previous post. Although I do have to admit to wearing black only toenail polish as of late due to some "black toes"!

Matt's Massanutten Mountain Trail 100 mile ultra report

Yes, I am alive because if I am dead then I went to the wrong place. Never felt this sore after a race. It is comical. If it didnt hurt so much I would cry.

First to Jim and Bill- Why didnt you warn me?! :)

I could not in my wildest imagination dream up something this sadistic. It states that there are 81.3 miles of trail. What they define as a trail in Virginia isnt the same as anywhere else. When they say "trail" them mean look over this rock pile to the next tree with a orange blaze or a yellow ribbon. Move to that ribbon, repeat.

This year it was a new course but 90% of it along the MMT (again the T means "trail") as previously. We started at a new start at Caroline Furnace. I would strongly recommend getting a cabin. If not, the nearest place to stay is about 20 minute drive over the ridge. There is nowhere around to eat, no restaurants or stores. Bring EVERYTHING. Also the parking is 0.5 miles from the finish. Up and down a hill. Either leave a drop bag with all of your change of clothes at the finish (although I dont know that they "allowed" that.) Luckily a volunteer drove me to my car then I came back to the finish as there wasn't a lot of people there yet and took a quick shower before I left. Now, back to the race.

This was so outside my skill set of running. Its like the opposite of what I do in a 24 hour. There were several times at night when I got to the "top of a ridge", I started giggling hysterically. Luckily there was no one around. And in Virginia there is no such thing as "top of the ridge"- you just keep going up and down over the ridge line. In most states you climb to the highest point, then descend.

I went out slow. I wanted to be consistent, as Todd said. I was worried that my groin would act up at some point, but it never did. I couldn't imagine being on the top of a ridge and have that happen again, then trying to get down. Also about one week after BPAC my left Achilles area started hurting. It was a stiffness that improved with running and heat but after a run it would slowly come back. I saw my message therapist twice, and taped up my Achilles and calf, and luckily that never bothered me.

We climbed "Short" Mountain first. (You get the idea, I don't have to repeat myself here, we're in Virginia.) I power walked every hill. The up hills were easy for me. Profoundly easy for me, even until the end. I know- I am a freak and I really accepted that at this race. Some of the uphills that were dirt roads I ran and my heart rate didn't go up. I never knew that I could go up like that. Every runner that I passed ( and after I think 50 miles only the 1rst woman passed me-no one else did) was going up hill.

We continued along the western ridge up and down and there was a cool breeze and we were in the shade, temps starting the race in the 50s up to around 65 by noon.

I SUCK going down hill, especially if it was technical. After 37.6 miles I had to walk down all the steep sections. Runners were bombing down full speed over these cliffs, and I just was in shock watching them take off. I felt like a Marionette doll. I could not place my feet and keep my balance. What is that a lack of? Whatever it is I really need to start doing exercises to improve that or if it is a learned skill I need to start practicing. I really started to notice this coming down into Shawl Gap.

From Veach Gap to Indian Grave it was 9.0 miles. Nine miles on the MMT is a profound distance. It was getting hotter in the low 70s. I found two bonked runners on the ridge. They both could talk and were ok, but had been vomiting. I offered them supplies but they said that they couldn't keep anything down anyway. If you do this race, I recommend carrying a camel back. You need to bring way more food than you normally would due to the distance between aid stations.

From Indian Grave to Habron Gap it was on a gravel road. Normally I would say horray but it felt horrible pounding on the feet and much of it was in the sun. I made an ice collar at Indian Grave so that helped. You didn't need sunglasses because most of the time you were under trees or really needed to see where your footing was. But here it helped. Ate alot of dust from the buses pulling canoes down to the river.

From Habron Gap to Camp Roosevelt was also a long distance- 9.5. It felt like forever. At Camp Roosevelt I took off my camel back- a mistake. I was tired of wearing it and didn't like it on my back. I could feel sweat on my back and was feeling hot. I had a Ultimate direction bottle but stupid me, I had forgotten the hand holder. I took my small back-up headlamp, double looped it around the bottle and put my hand in it to hold it. 1.5 miles after leaving Camp Roosevelt, the lid blew up literally. I have no idea why. I just had accelerade in it. I had to hold the nipple over the hole to keep what was left of the liquid inside. Luckily, about 15 minutes later a volunteer from the next aid station was out for a run and he lent me his bottle which I returned to him when I came in. Thanks!

In my opinion, the eastern ridge is slightly more run-able than the western ridge, but it was the southern traverse of Jawbone Gap trail killed me. This starts at Gap Creek. It was a rock garden for 4.8 miles at the top, up and down constantly which just destroyed my feet. That plus the climb back up from aid station #14 to #15 really killed me. Surprisingly the climb up Birds Knob wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, although the new descent down the purple trail was not pleasant. Trying to get down Birds Knob as they had to do in the past would be quite painful.

It was a profound experience. I was able to run the last 3 miles down hill on a gravel road. Or at least it felt like running- it was probably just gravity and the fact that I couldn't stop if I wanted to.

Right now I am pretty sore but I can get around and do the stairs. This is a good way to test if your hand railings on your stairs are weight bearing. Feet are swollen with blisters under the forefoot but the skin never broke down and I didn't tape them so I am happy. No focal tendon pains. No groin pain- hallelujah. Shoulders are really sore from wearing the camel back.

I dont recommend doing this race in the Stonewall Jackson Brigade (ie alone without a pacer or crew) unless you have done several 100 milers before. Although the volunteers are excellent and the course was VERY well marked, the length between the aid stations is quite far, and if the weather were hotter or more humid it could have been real trouble. I feel very lucky to have run it in 25:33- the longest continuous amount of time that I have ever run.

Matt Chaffin
Manlius, NY

Race for the Cure

My ten year old, Alexandra Beatrice Chaffin-aka: Als, Ally Bea, beebs, ABC...-ran her first 5k yesterday. I am so proud of my girl. Not only did she run the 5K but she ran the kids fun run (1 mile) beforehand! That is my little angel on the left. I am so proud of you Beebs! You can do anything in the world that you put your mind to-ANYTHING!!! mom

First Hundy

FINALLY got my first century ride in this season. I feel like I'm a little behind schedule. Why is it that I always feel that way? Man did we get lucky with the weather. It was posed to be a mess yesterday and ended up being beautiful. It never did rain and after a few hours the sun came out and it was near 80 by the end of the ride. This is one of the reasons I think I am prepared on race day. If I have a scheduled long ride-I'm gonna do it. My feeling is if it happens to rain on long ride day that is just preparation for possible rain on race day. And for anyone who knows me-it seems to rain ALOT when I race! The ride was HILLY-a great training ride for LP and the wind kicked up towards the end of the ride. Of course it would not have been a long ride without my typical "mom glitch"=that is my 13 year old calls me just as I'm heading out to tell me he forgot his baseball bag. Now I wasn't at home-I had met my peeps at the y and we were riding from there. He needed it by 2:30 and it was now 8:45. So I tell him-"I'll do my best, but I'm riding a hundred miles so anything can happen". So the entire ride he was on my mind-which ANNOYED me since it was due to his lack of responsibility. Anyway, being the good enabler I am-I wanted to get him his bag on time. Because the route we took was so hilly it took a little longer than planned. Lucky for Nate, the route took us right by our house. I quick ran in and got the bag-throw it on my back-back pack style-road it down to the middle school. Everyone looked at me like I was a freak when I walked into the school in my bike gear-and I almost slipped and fell on my ass walking in my bike shoes. Back on my bike and 5 glorious miles downhill to the y. The ride had a total elevation gain of 4200 feet-that was alotta climbing! Good luck to my honey who is in No. Virginia this morning running 100 miles! The Massanutten 100 mile trail run-where there are lots of rattlesnakes-yikes-running with a headlamp with rattlesnakes in the vicinity makes me a little nervous. Especially since I almost sat on a rattlesnake once-more on that later! http://www.vhtrc.org/mmt/