#41 - Pacific Rim One Day Race 2008

DATE: March 15-16, 2008

LOCATION: Lake Sacajawea Park, Longview, Washington

In November of 2007, I thought about doing the Pacific Rim One Day Race, I first thought about doing a 100k, which would have been a personal best for me in distance. But as I talked with my friend Tim, I realized that running the full 24 hours was not out of the question, I desired to run 100 miles.

I woke up at 6am on Saturday morning and picked Tim up at about 7am and we drove to Longview. We arrived at about 8am and setup our supplies for the race.

When the race started (it was overcast and cool in the 40's). At the start with the sun peaking through the clouds, I felt great. The first 12 miles I was running fast and having fun. I was hanging in with the two other leaders and was running about a 8:30 mile. But I knew I could not keep it going. Tim saw me and warned me to take walking breaks. So in mile 13 I hung back and stayed with Tim. We ended up running together for the next 51 miles.

In the one mile loop we took short walking breaks and ran most of the loop. I began to realize that as long as I didn't fall about in the overnight hours I would probably run 105 miles, which would be about 4 marathons.

Tim's legs began cramping around the 50 mile mark. He then had some stomach problems, and things were not looking good for him. We slowed down, and at about mile 60, Tim told me that he might drop at 63 miles. I felt bad for him.

At this point I had run 64 miles in 12 hours and I was now heading into the night hours. This is the most difficult part of a 24 hour race. I slowed down, but kept running parts of the loop.

Between 8:30pm and 5am, I struggled to keep going, even though I was drinking lots of caffeine I was still struggling to stay awake. Those 8½ hours dragged on, and I slowed down in pace but kept moving.

But at 5am, I reached the 150k mark (93 miles). At that time, the caffeine started kicking in. I was also motivated being only 7 miles from the 100 mile marker. I pushed hard to get there and managed to get to the 100 mile marker before 7am. I finished 100 miles in 21:55:02.

At that point the sun was on the rise and I had two hours left. I knew I was going to keep going, but the pressure was less. I ran/walked the remaining two hours. Not only did I reach my 105 mile goal, but also did two additional miles.

I ended up finishing 107 miles in 23:46:24. I was so happy to be done, and enjoyed the whole experience. Shortly after the race was over, they gave awards to the top ten men. I finished fifth place, and received a nice plague.

Tim and I packed up our stuff and drove home. I managed to stay up for another hour for the ride home. I got home at 11:40am. At that point I took and nap, and relaxed the rest of the day.