Ted Corbitt 24 hour (or my 6 hour), Queen, NY. 10/5/13

I had to go out to the Ted Corbitt 24 hour mostly because this is a race that takes place once every 10 years. It seemed like a honor to be a part of this event.  It is also a Broadway Ultra Society event and I feel like this organization does such a great job putting on races that I am compelled to support the effort by trying to attend as many as I can.  I wasn't sure if I could actually make it out until the week before.

The race was a nice 1.2 mile loop a lot of Aid at the Start Finish line and a smaller liquid only Aid Station on the back side of the loop.  The course was all paved multipurpose path.  There were real bathrooms right next to the course, really really close.  I did not stay in the race long enough to have any complaints about anything.  I can say that the honeydew melon that was available at the aid station was just awesome!

This race was never good timing for me and a last minute commitment, so this was a train wreck for me from the start. First, I did not even send in my entry until the Sat before because I was not sure if I could or should actually go.  Back in July, when I heard about this race, I had decided that if I went I should only run for 6 hours in order to not be too broken down while tapering for a different race.  I have other races on the calendar that I would like to run well, and a 24 hour effort in early Oct would be bad timing.  I knew this since July.  But ultra runners is dramatic so of course as the race got closer I lost my ability to make reasonable decisions like a normal person.

Although the training I had planned for myself did not include a 24 hour run at this point, I did want a long long run by the end of this year.  For the past month or so, I had planned to run a longer race in December but that fell through so one part of my brain thought, "Well I might as well try to run as far as I can at this race to just get a long race done and I am in it anyway. If I am out there and feeling ok, I might as well just stay in it."   But the other part of my brain reminded me that running a 24 hour right now is really not in the plan so doing it is probably a bad decision.

Still, my plan up until Friday was to just go and run as a decent pace until I decided I was either doing too much damage and should stop or I was on pace for a good run to continue on. A big part of how far I would stay in it depended upon whether I could get someone to pick me up in the morning.

Then on Friday I got a call from my first job, while I was working at my second job asking me to come into on Sunday. This made me crazy.  Tuesday my car broke down and I needed to miss work, lose pay, and then pay to get it fixed, plus pay for the rental car.  The opportunity to work extra would mitigate some of that loss, but it would also make it impossible for me to stay up all night.

I also was trying to coordinate a plan with Sidney to see if there was a way for him to pick me up from Queens if I was too tired to drive myself home.  But was since he "on call" at work, he could not guarantee he could get me and would not know until the last minute.  There is no way I would attempt to drive myself home if I stayed up the entire night running, b/c I know how tired I get.  I knew there was no way I could function at work after not sleeping.

This meant it made the most sense for me to go to Queens to run 6 hours or so like I planned and then go home at a reasonable time.  But a big part of me really wanted to try to stay in it,  then sleep in my car until morning and then drive home, then go to work.  But the more I ran, the more that sounded like a horrible plan.

Having no settled plan was very unsettling for me. Sid told me in the morning that if I needed him he could probably get me. John P agreed to help me if I needed someone to drive Sid to me so Sid could drive my car.  I know had some back up if I was running great.  But still (1)  the idea of having to go to work Sunday was weighing on me and (2) I knew breaking myself down would be bad timing and made running too far less desirable.

I havent looked at my Garmin, but I ran around 10 minute pace for about 5 hours and 30 minutes before I made my decision that I was calling it at 6 hours.  I did not feel as comfortable and smooth as I wanted to feel so early in to the race. I knew it was because I was not focused on what I was doing.  I was not thrilled with the idea of going to work exhausted.  So I reverted to my original training plan, ran 35 miles in 6 hours and went home.