I’m heading back for my second go at RR100. Outside of a select few hundreds, I’ve been trying to pick new races to do over the years rather than going back and doing the same handful of races year in and year out. My repeat list consists of those that I absolutely love (Eastern States) and those that are convenient (C&O Canal, Devil Dog). This race definitely doesn’t fall into the former category, however is tangentially adjacent to the second. Brady Run State Park is on the complete opposite side of PA from where I live (5 hour drive), however my son now goes to college in Pittsburgh so this is a convenient excuse to visit him while he’s away.
I was going to be one and done with this race after last year due to the gimmicky creek crossing, however the race organizers adding in an option to skip it this year. The crossing wasn’t too bad last year, however the temperatures were unseasonably mild with temperatures only getting down to about 40 degrees overnight. So of course, the weather is looking to be even warmer this year. Go figure. My current plan is to cross the creek each lap, however I’ll take the 0.3 mile detour if I start feeling too cold overnight. I’m thinking I won’t need to take that option this year, but it’s nice to have it available when things start going sideways.
I’m interested to see what kind of time I can run this year. Last year was not my best race. While I’m not sure I can call it a “bad” race (I did finish after all), it was the last race where I my pace really fell off a cliff in the second half (4.5+ hours slower). Part of it was a low level of training miles leading up to the race (35 miles per week), part of it was the really poor, muddy trail conditions, and then getting off my nutrition plan during the afternoon. You can typically handle one challenge at a time during an ultra, but when they start stacking on top of each other you can pretty much throw out the window your gameplan. At that point, it’s all about survival.
This year I’m coming off my largest training block (60 miles per week). I’ve also got a much better pacing strategy for hundreds, which I’ve dialed in since the last time I was at this race. I’m going to start off pacing for a 24:45 finish time which seems like a rather odd number, but works out to a 14:30 pace. In a perfect world I’d shoot for a sub-24 hour race, but while I think I’m in better shape than last year there’s no way I’m 5 hours better. I can talk myself into being 45 minutes faster with less idle time (15 minutes I had at Angela Ivory vs. 62 minutes last year at RR100). The muddy course probably cost me another 45 minutes. Better shape plus more dialed in nutrition could be worth another 1-2 hours. So absolute best case is maybe 25 hours with everything going right (still waiting for that to happen) or 26 hours a more realistic best case scenario.
Even though I spend a bit of time thinking about paces and finish times, I’ve done enough of these races not to get to caught up in this once I’m out on the course. Dropping off target pace used to really mess with my mind (“oh no, I’m doing worse!”), but I’ve gotten well past that and can now just enjoy the experience. Even when the experience isn’t what I’d planned to have.