Coast to Coaster is a 232 mile journey run from Sandusky, Ohio on the shore of Lake Erie to Kings Island outside Cincinnati. I had so much fun last year that I just had to come back. Journey runs are conducted on open roads with no course markings. Instead, runners are provided a GPX file that can be loaded onto their watches and phones to ensure we remain on course. The race started at 7:30am Thursday with runners having 7 days to reach the coasters. Derek, the race director, provides each runner with a spot tracker so he can more closely follow the runners as things can get very spread out and he’s running this race by himself. An added bonus is that each runner is provided a link we could send to friends/family to follow along.
Runners can either be crewed or uncrewed. Crewed runners get support during their race, while uncrewed runners get the comradery of the van ride on the day before the race from the finish to the start. Uncrewed runners also get a tour of the Ohio State Reformatory (where Shawshank Redemption was filmed) or a complimentary lunch. I opted for the lunch this year as I did the tour last year, but most of the group did the tour.
Use Of Technology In Journey Runs
The difference between journey runs and normal races is that this is an unmarked course. So instead of following flags, you need to route find based on a GPX file that is provided. For this you need some technology to stay on course. I went with a belt and suspenders approach: Garmin Fenix 7 and Gaia GPS app. My Garmin will beep when I go off course, however seeing the mapping is much easier to read on the phone. Pro tip: the Gaia app still works with your phone on airplane mode so you can conserve battery life and still navigate the course. I also had a rechargeable battery pack and related cords to charge up my watch, phone, and MP3 player while I was out. This setup worked really well for me.
How Not To Start Out Too Fast
I was targeting a 60 hour finish, which would be about 4 hours faster than last year. The quicker time would be from less downtime (50%), fewer off course miles (25%), and quicker moving pace (25%). My strategy was to start out at an average pace I felt I could maintain for the first 24 hours. After trial and error (oh, so much error), I’ve figured out this is about 40% slower than my garden variety 20 miler training run pace. I was trying to average 13:15 pace each mile, which worked out to be about 25/75 run/walk. If this sounds ridiculously slow, that’s because it is. I got to the first check-in in 10th place. Over the last two years, the first runners to reach this point have all blown up at some point. During a race of this length, it’s impossible to go out too slow.
I spent many of the early miles by myself. I caught up with a couple runners in Norwalk and then played leap frog with them for a while. I knew I needed to maintain better than 14.5 minute pace in order to hit Planktown County Market and I was managing that somewhat comfortably despite the increasing temperatures. My first mistake happened there when I grabbed food for the next sections. They didn’t have a normal candy aisle, which is my nutrition of choice so had to pick among the thousands of bulk food items. I settled on largeish containers of trail mix and gummy bears. I spent the next 7 miles forcing the trail mix down (salty for the temps) and while I was able to consume it, it wasn’t a pleasant experience. The gummy bears were not exactly like Haribo, but they were better. It took me 100+ miles of slowly eating those before I finally dumped the final ones and swapped for Haribo. The trail mix was dumped at the next town.
My nutrition strategy is simple (like me). Fifty calories every mile with some combination of gummy bears, peanut M&Ms, Snickers, Twix, Cliff bars, and maybe one or two others that I’m forgetting. Fluids was mostly Gatorade (Fruit Punch, Glacier Freeze), water, orange juice, and whole milk. The milk I’d drink at the store with the rest going into my bottles to carry along. I’ll typically switch over to water during the hottest parts of the day as a way of not overloading my stomach with too many calories.
I caught up with Addison on the bike path just after leaving Mansfield. We were running about the same pace so ended up together for the next four hours. We passed Ian going around the reservoir who was in nighttime grind it out mode (been there, done that). I eventually parted ways with Addison as he had run out of fluids and had began hunting for water.
The rest of the night was spent grinding out 13:xx miles. I had set up one of the data screens on my watch ahead of time to just show lap pace and this is what I focused on for the remainder of the race (don’t judge). I was focused on effort level though and not trying to force a pace. I was making sure my pace target was slow enough that I was forced to walk at points each mile. The goal is moving sustainably and at no point did I want to feel like I was pushing it. Waaaaay too early for that.
As I was coming into Marion on Rt 309 sometime around 4am, a Sherriff’s car flashes his lights and pulls up along side me. Someone had reported me being out there and he wanted to check to make sure I was OK. I told him I was doing great and he immediately drove off. It wasn’t until a minute later that I realized I should have mentioned the race going on. Stupid ultra brain.
The great news about moving quicker than the prior year is that I was able to get into and then out of Marion before rush hour traffic really started. There’s long stretch of amazing country roads after leaving Marion. Among the nicest on the course. Then you get to Delaware, which probably has the worst roads. Or at least when I rolled through midday. I completely forget about how bad these were. Ugh. It’s also completely possible that the hotter temperatures were working over my emotional state. I’ve always found that heat hits harder the second day. 75 will feel like 85. Guaranteed. It was in through here were I gave up attempting to keep my pace under 14 minutes. I was still rolling sub-15 until the Sawmill Parkway where 15 was the new 14. After the Riverside Crossing Park check-in (wait, I’m in first place now?!?!), any thoughts of “target pace” went out the window (you know, if I had one of those). I saw Derek in through here and I noticed he had his phone out and I’m thinking “please don’t be filming this”. Thankfully it was just a picture which doesn’t show me nearly as worked over as I felt.
I saw Curt’s crew a couple times on the way to the bike path and he was great to offer me encouragement. This let me know Curt was still close though racing him was the furthest thing from my mind. I’m white knuckling my way through the heat just trying to keep it together.
I had originally planned to recharge my watch and phone once I hit the bike path, however decided to do it a little earlier. As I was taking my pack off, my headphone cords got caught up in my pack and the charging cord for my MP3 player went missing while I was distracted untangling the mess. I went back and searched the road, but no luck finding it. I use music as a crutch during all my long runs so this was going to leave a mark. I ended up being tuneless for the rest of the race, which was not ideal.
I hit the bike path in West Jefferson a little after 10pm. I hadn’t slept yet so thought this would be a good time. There was this wooden shelter over a porta-potty right at the trailhead. Score! Not two minutes after I had myself situated, a car pulls into the lot behind me. I didn’t hear anyone get out. It just sat there. This is the middle of nowhere. We’re half a mile from the nearest house for crying out loud. This weirded me out so I decided to head up the trail a little bit.
Two miles up I find what looks like a good tree to recline against and sit down to sleep. There’s a knob in the first spot so I shift around a bit where there’s now a ridge poking me in the back. I keep trying to find a comfortable position, but it’s beyond me. My legs are at a point though where sitting down and/or getting up off the ground is such a large project that it requires a foreman and several hourly workers to accomplish the task. Sigh. So I stayed resting my eyes when I start to feel a couple rain drops. Come on now! I had checked the weather a couple hours back and there wasn’t more than a 25% chance of rain. I already had my rain coat on for the temps and pulled my mylar blanket out when it got up to a light rain. Eventually I got up and tried to find a place there with more coverage and was not too successful. So here I am using this emergency blanket like a tent, I pull out my phone and fire up the weather app to see how much longer the rain’s going to last: 90 minutes. I’m six miles out from the next town which will take me 90 minutes. So I can either sit here (not sleeping and mildly uncomfortable) or I can move along in the rain. I chose option B and it was definitely the right decision.
London (mile 163) was the next town, which was a critical resupply for me as the next store was going to be 22 miles away. This works out to about 5.5 hours based on how I was moving. I was locked in to a 14:30 pace and I think being focused on running and walking to keep me at or just faster than this pace helped me stay awake. It wasn’t until I was back on the bike path about a mile out of town that I realized I had forgotten to get batteries to swap out for my headlamp. It had gotten pretty dim and while it was more than bright enough to light my way on the uber non-technical “trail”, it’s harder to stay awake without a bright light. The trick I discovered was to wear my headlamp on my forehead under my hat. While it didn’t make the ground any brighter, it did make things brighter around my head as the light reflected off the brim of my hat. Twelve years into this sport and I’m still figuring out hacks. Like why has it taken me this long to learn this? SMH
I ended up stopping three separate times to actually sleep. The first was about 1am where I got a solid 30 minutes. The next was only 2 miles further down where a random wooden bench looked nice (10 minutes here). There was a restroom in South Charlestown (mile 174) that I utilized for my daily constitutional at 5am and I figured while I had the room available, I might as well take another nap (20 minutes).
As I approached Cedarville, I got out my phone to find my gas station since I didn’t remember it from the prior year. Turns out I didn’t actually stop at it as it was 0.4 miles off course. I had planned my calories out perfectly and had just finished off the last of my stash. I really didn’t feel like doing an extra mile so decided to push on nine more miles without any food (i.e. short 450 calories). Thankfully, I still had a full bottle of water, which just barely lasted my to Xenia (mile 194). My energy levels ended up being fine and I was steadily cranking out 14:30 minute miles. I restocked there with enough calories to get me to the finish (2,000) as the only other food options are off course. I left with three full bottles of fluids (24oz each) knowing I could top them up at the Little River Bar & Grill (mile 215). The bartender there was even kind enough to put ice in my bottles. Pure luxury.
The final miles are always a challenge for me. I was still consistent with my pacing, but I just wanted to me done. I absolutely hate counting down miles, but that’s what I ended up doing. Eventually I exited the bike path (mile 230) and hit the massive climb (164ft) up into town. There was a short reroute this year and then I was running into the finish. I actually mistimed my run in, started a little too early, and had to take a walk break. Luckily, I got back to a run before Derek started filming me. Gotta look good for the finish, right? Final time 60 hours, 43 minutes or 3 hours faster than last year.
What Flawless Execution Looks Like
The truth is there’s no such thing as a perfect race. There are always going to be mistakes. And the longer the race, the more that will crop up. Here’s my list from this year’s race:
- Trail mix at Planktown Market – comfort issue, no lost time
- Lost MP3 charging cord – enjoyment issue, no lost time
- Choosing an uncomfortable tree – 45 minutes lost time
- Forgot batteries in London – no lost time
- Cedarville store was off course – 9 mile without calories, no lost time
Sixty hours and 232 miles and those are the nits that I’m picking. This doesn’t mean all of my miles were on pace. There were many above target due to late afternoon heat (day 2) and at resupply points where I could have been more efficient. I look at those “slow” miles though more as an investment and risk mitigation. They’re a feature, not a bug. Based on my now sizable ultra experience, I was able to choose an appropriate pacing strategy and then maintain it based on consistent nutrition and hydration. It’s funny how simple that sounds, yet how hard it is to put into practice. It’s taken me 12 years and 72 ultras to get to this point. Rome wasn’t built in a day after all.
Overall, I can’t recommend this race enough. Derek has created a great route that provides scenic tour of Ohio for runners (and walkers!) of all abilities. If you’re journey run curious, definitely check it out. I know I’ll be back.