Coast to Coaster is a 232 mile journey run from Sandusky, Ohio on the shore of Lake Erie to Kings Island outside Cincinnati. 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 was lengthen from last year’s inaugural edition to get it off some heavier trafficked roads early on and should be the standard route going forward. The race started at 7:30am Thursday with runners having 7 days to reach the coasters. Derek, the race director, provided each runner with a spot tracker this year so he could more closely follow the runners as things can get very spread out and he’s running this race by himself. So an added bonus was that each runner was given a link we could send to friends/family to follow along.
There are a couple of different approaches people take to these races. Some prefer to get hotel/motel rooms overnight, stop into restaurants for sit down meals, take periodic breaks to rest, and generally just enjoy the journey of moving yourself from point A to point B while staying a little ahead of the generous time cutoffs. Other people think of these events as races and try to reach the finish line as quickly as possible. I took the latter approach.
Pre-Race Festivities
With a point-to-point course, the race needs to get uncrewed runners from the finish to the start. Derek rents a van for this purpose which provides runners a chance to connect and bond before the suffering fun begins. He also includes a stop off at the Ohio State Reformatory, which is where the movie Shawshank Redemption was filmed. Last year they did an unguided tour, however this year we got the Behind the Bars guided tour, which was a cool experience. Then we got dropped off at the hotel where I shared a room with Travis. Between the van ride, tour, and pre-race dinner, its a very unique and enjoyable vibe.
And We’re Off?
We shuttled over from the hotel, which was about a 15 minute drive. After a group photo and some last minute words from Derek, we were off in perhaps the slowest start in race history. Everyone walked off the start line and started looking around to see who would be the first to start running. About halfway across the parking lot a group of five broke away from the pack with three in the initial chase group and me right behind them in 9th place. I say that in a tongue in cheek manner as no one was even remotely trying to race.
I spent the first three hours leapfrogging with Travis who I shared a room the night before. It was awesome to continue our conversations from the previous night and helped distract me from what I had in store ahead for the next several days. My goal was to start out at a pace that I felt confident I could maintain for the first day, which was 13:30 per mile moving and 13:48 overall with stops factored in. I got to the check-in at the Edison Bench right on time with Travis, texted my selfie to Derek, and off I went.
No Desserts in Deserts
This is probably a good point to talk about resupply logistics. The biggest challenge for this race for those going for a fast time is the complete and utter lack of stores open overnight for long stretches. My gameplan was to rely completely on gas stations open 24 hours.
You’ll notice that the first overnight desert is 38 miles between Mansfield and Marion. I think I noticed at least one vending machine as I moved along, but it looked dark so who knows if it was even turned on. I didn’t want to stress about running out of supplies so went heavy on fluids and nutrition with the thought that the extra energy to carry it was worthwhile insurance against running out and blowing up. Been there, done that, please never ever again.
Planktown County Market was a late addition to my list as it’s only open till 5pm. My target plan had me arriving there about 30 minutes before it closed and thankfully I was still holding pace when I arrived as it was north of 80 degrees with no shade to be found. I thought I had enough fluids to get to Mansfield, but I definitely would have run out in the next 15 miles as I left with 70oz of fluids and still almost ran dry.
I definitely noticed the heat having a cumulative impact on me. I was handling it OK, but it was getting noticeable. Cold drinks from Planktown offered a short reprieve and then I backed off my pace to keep my effort at a low enough point. I had worked my way up to fourth place by this point and passed Kyle several miles later who said Addison was only about 30 minutes ahead. I wished him luck and kept grinding along. I caught up with Addison 4-5 miles before the Ohio State Reformatory check-in. We ran together and it was nice to have someone to chat with which always helps pass the time.
Mansfield: A Comedy of Errors
There was a huge dark cloud above us that was spitting out an occasional rain drop as we took our check-in selfies. This was definitely a foreshadowing for was about to happen. My resupply gas station was a BP on Longview road just past Route 30 not quite a half mile off course. Addison decided to tag along with me so down the road we went. We got to the corner and found . . . a vacant lot. Curse GoogleMaps for not having up to date information!
We backtracked and got back on course. Not quite a mile later I’m leading us down a street when Addison says we’re off course. I look at my watch and we’re still on course. We go back and forth for a couple seconds then he turns around and I wish him luck, which he probably thought was said snarkily when in reality that’s just my 13 hours into an ultra tone. Thirty feet later my watch beeps telling me I’m off course. Sigh. I turn around and catch up to Addison fairly quickly. He lets me roll on by though as by this point we’re both trying to figure out food options that will last us the next 12 hours.
I settle on a Shell that’s a little off course in town. I went heavy on fluids (over 100oz) and calories (2,000) then spent a couple minutes getting ready for the night. Out came the MP3 player, headlamp, and reflective vest. I fired up my tunes as I got back onto course. Once there I noticed not one, not two, but three open stores on the route out of town meaning I’ve just wasted a bunch of time unnecessarily. Very frustrating.
The Art of Ultra Nutrition
I know there’s science out there that supports X amount of carbs per hour as optimal nutrition, however I’ve viewed nutrition as more of an art than a science. Especially considering how variable your intake capacity can be depending on the weather or time of day. I had been pretty consistent in getting down 200 calories an hour up until this point in the race, however as the night progressed it became a little more challenging. I never felt bad, just that I was forcing down too much. My cadence had been to eat about 250 calories and then give it four miles to process. At some point over night, I switched over to 50 calories per hour and boom! Problem solved.
I was surprised to see it start raining overnight as I thought the forecast was supposed to be dry until the second night. Thankfully it was fairly light and periodic. The temperatures also weren’t overly cold. The run into Marion on Harding Hwy was busier than I would have thought for 5am. I was dragging a bit, but finally got to my gas station where I was able to replenish my stores and push on for the check-in at Harding Tomb. At this point I knew I was about an hour or so behind my target pace, however felt great about my effort and pacing with a decent amount of the extra time due to bonus mileage.
The four miles exiting Marion on Delaware Ave were my least favorite on the entire course. There was about 6 inches of shoulder combined with rush hour traffic heading into/out of Marion, which meant I had to keep stepping off the road. Over. And over. And over again. Very annoying. Eventually it ended (yay!) and I was back onto country roads. The temps were perfect for running and I was back to cruising along. It was along through here were I heard a beep and here comes Derek in the van. I was disappointed to see Miko in the passenger seat though as I thought he was still on the road ahead of me somewhere. Unfortunately, he had to drop and was on the way back to his vehicle.
The temperatures on Friday went from cool at 9am to hot-hot-hot in only an hour. By 10am, I decided to completely shut down any effort to run and just walk as steady as I could for the rest of the day. I needed an almost perfect storm of conditions to switch back over to running (i.e. short, shaded downhill section with a breeze). I didn’t think the temperatures were supposed to get as hot, but my body sure didn’t know that. I focused on keeping things very easy as I made my way through Delaware and then over to the Sawmill Parkway. The top portion of this I loved. The last couple miles were the complete opposite as the sidewalk disappeared, there was zero shoulder, and heavy traffic which forced me to walk on the thick grass on the side.
It was along through here that what I’m referring to as the Sawmill Parkway Incident occurred. Storm clouds had been massing for a while and I threw my rain jacket on when the first couple rain drops started. It pittered and pattered for a couple minutes before the downpour hit. And the rain was cold! It only took 30 seconds for me to realize I needed my poncho. Unfortunately, it was buried at the bottom of my pack. It took me a minute to fish it out (getting wetter). Then I’m trying to open this flimsy piece of plastic (and wetter), however I can’t get the damn thing open! By the time I eventually got it on, I was completely soaked and starting to shiver. OK, plan B. Thankfully, I’m in the middle of strip mall central so I jogged across the street and into some random fast food place. I opened up the weather app on my phone and saw this should be done shortly then had about a 90 minute gap until the next batch of rain was rolling through. I had about 5 miles to get to the Dublin Link at Riverside Crossing Park, which I was pretty sure contained a pavilion.
The rain mostly stopped after a couple minutes so out the door I went. It was in through here where the sidewalks disappeared from the Sawmill Parkway. It was afternoon rush hour so I wasn’t able to run on the roads and the grass was deep and difficult to slog. My pace slowed a bit and I’m starting to stress about making it to my pavilion (yes, I was already starting to get possessive about this still theoretic building). I pushed as hard as I could until the sidewalks reappeared soon before the turn onto Emerald Parkway. This was a mostly downhill section that I was able to make some more time while the clouds got darker and the threat of rain continued to build. Finally, I made the turn onto Riverside Drive and reached the park just as it started to rain. I pushed the extra half mile and was elated to see there really was a pavilion (yay, I’m saved!) and reached it at 5:21pm just as the rain got a little stronger.
The rain was predicted to last about 2 hours so I decided to use this time to rest up and recharge my phone and watch. I went to grab my power bank and noticed my pack was open. I started digging through the pocket, however couldn’t find my power bank. No. Oh, no. Nonononononono!!!! I dropped a pretty loud F-bomb then realized I was looking in the wrong pocket. Opened the right pocket and there it was. [satisfyingly deep sigh] I glance up to see two little girls (5-7yo) sitting in chairs about six feet away staring at me. Ooops. I apologized for swearing and they said, “that’s OK”. I told them it was most certainly not OK and they should not have to hear that kind of language. Apologized again and they wandered back to their family and away from the weird, homeless looking guy. I got my tech charging, wrapped my poncho around my legs, then closed my eyes to rest. I wasn’t able to sleep as there were a number of people walking around and talking, while there was a cool breeze coming off the river. It wasn’t raining all that hard (people were walking around in short sleeves for crying out loud), however I was terrified of getting caught out in another downpour. After about 90 minutes, I checked for restrooms and found a family one that was gloriously warm. I moved all my gear in there, locked the door, and holed up to grab a quick nap. It was too hot to sleep, however it thoroughly warmed me up and gave me the confidence I need to head back out onto the course. So I loaded up my pack and got back to it.
It took about half a mile for my legs to loosen up, then it was game on. The next several miles leaving Dublin were just under a 15 minute pace, but slowly crept up about a minute per mile as night fell. I was still moving OK, but it was starting to be a grind (shocker, right?). I hit Roberts Rd then C-28 and started thinking I could use some sleep. I thought there might be a spot for me to sleep not too far ahead and chugged along till 11pm.
I finally reached the spot I was targeting to sleep and the good Lord provided me the Grace Evangelical Church. At the time, I had no idea what type of business it was, just that it had a car port for me to get out of the weather in case it started to rain. I didn’t have a set period that I wanted to sleep. I woke up after 20 minutes and that wasn’t enough. Another 10 was still too short. After about an hour total, I woke up to rain outside. I checked the weather app on my phone and it said it would last for another 90 minutes. Guess that’s how much more sleep I was going to get since I had zero interest in getting wet again. It had been a number of hours since The Sawmill Parkway Incident, however the trauma remained with me. Heck, it’s possible that I’m permanently scarred.
Greatest. Day. Ever.
I woke up about an hour later and saw that it had stopped raining. Checked the weather app on my phone to confirm that it was done then packed up my gear and got back out onto the road a little after 1am Saturday morning. It again took about half a mile for my legs and feet to get back into a groove. It was about nine miles to the start of the bike path in West Jefferson and most of it was open farmland. The wind was whipping through pretty good and while I was a little on the cold side it was manageable.
I reached the trailhead at 3:30am or about 4 hours behind my estimated time of arrival. I was a little frustrated that it had taken me over 10 hours to only go 23 miles even though 4 hours of that was stationary off course. While I had a time in mind to finish the race (66 hours), it was more of an academic exercise for me rather than a goal time. I felt great and was moving well, which was the important thing.
I managed to make it till about 5am before needing to sit down off trail and grab some shuteye. Fifteen minutes was good enough to get me going, but I started getting tired again a couple miles down the trail. I stopped off twice more, but only managed to sit for maybe 5 minutes each time without sleeping as the wind was blowing hard and I wasn’t warm enough to actually nod off.
Once the sun came up, I was good to go. I had been managing to knock out 15 minute pace or better since I got moving again and this continued, which was a little surprising. I’ve had experience with a couple good hours on the 2nd/3rd morning only to fall back off after a while. My breath was half held waiting for this to happen again, but I was trying to stay in the moment and not think ahead. I felt good and was moving even better so that’s all that mattered.
8am rolled around and I’m still holding this pace. 9am and still rolling along. The day started very cool, was completely overcast, and there was a decent breeze blowing with a heavy enough mist that it almost felt like a light rain. So of course, my pace picked up and now I’m running sub-14 minute pace, which I was able to hold until 1pm. This is when I got into Xenia where there was a bit more elevation gain. This was also when the overcast skies became partly sunny and it started heating up. And so all good things must come to an end.
A couple miles past Xenia you jump onto the Little Miami Scenic Trail which you’re on for 32 miles. I met Derek at the first road crossing as he had to give me a new spot tracker since the one I had was getting low on battery. I told him this was the greatest day of ultrarunning I’ve ever experienced and how much fun I was having. At this point, the sun was really out and it was back to hot-hot-hot so I resumed my mostly walking heat mitigation strategy. My pace slowed back to the 16-17 minute range, but I didn’t care. I felt good and was rolling along. The final check-in at Little River Bar & Grill came and went and I was now down to the final miles. I slowly started to add more and more run breaks from my walking as the sun went down.
But This One Goes to 12
I’m now inside 10 miles from the finish. I was getting tired again and the last thing I wanted to do was nod off for 30 minutes or so this close to being done. There are a couple ways to stay awake when you’re starting to get tired. Having a milestone to reach helps (i.e. finish, check). Upping the effort level also helps keep you awake as your increased focus helps keep your mind active. So that’s what I did. I ran till I my breathing was a little too labored, slowed to a walk for 30-45 seconds, then started running again. My first mile doing this was my fastest of the race (12:59). The next one was a 12:07 (no, seriously). I wasn’t sure how many miles I could keep this up but one more turned into another one. Overall, I ended up running the last seven miles on that bike bath between a 12 and 13 minute pace.
There was a car parked at the end of the bike path with someone standing next to it. I thought it might be Derek, however it turned out to be PJ who ran the race last year. He was in town and wanted to come out and offer some encouragement. I’m always blown away by this community and he definitely lifted my spirits. There’s this massive hill after you exit the trail that really hit me hard. Borderline hands on knees hard. All 71 feet of it. I got up it and then it was a couple neighborhood streets, jog through a school grounds, past Great Wolf Lodge, and the short run into the finish. Word of warning: Derek likes to start taking video while you’re still forever out so start your run in early if you’re trying to prove to people you didn’t walk the whole thing.
Estimated vs. Actual Splits
OK, this is more for fun (obviously because of my finish). I think it’s also instructive that ultras are non linear. There is no steady decline. There are curves. There are reversals. Second winds, fifth winds, sixteenth winds. Highs, lows, and everything in between. Stay in the moment, keep putting one foot in front of the other, and eventually you’ll reach the post.
How The Heck Did I Just Do That?!?!
I’ve given this a decent amount of thought as this was my best performance ever and I’d like to replicate it again in the future rather than it being just a one off thing. I’ve come up with four contributing factors that I’m ranking in increasing order of importance:
- Conditioned to the distance. I’ve done a pair of 200+ mile efforts before which helped condition my body. I believe the only way to really condition your body to cover a distance is to cover that distance.
- Conservative early mile pacing. I went out at a pace that I was confident I could maintain for the first 24 hours. I didn’t quite achieve this, however this was mostly due to my bonus mileage and the heat.
- Easy effort during hottest parts of the day. If you think of a temperature gage with the left third a green color, middle third yellow, and right third red; I was in the red less than 1% of the time and in the yellow less than 10%. Easy means easy.
- Consistent nutrition from start to finish. 200-300 calories every hour and 50 calories per mile for the vast majority of the race.
When you look at this list, it’s not like I’m giving out any ultra state secrets: start easy, don’t overheat, eat a lot continually. This is pretty standard ultrarunning doctrine. As I’ve come to realize though, simple doesn’t equal easy.
Chasing10K Endorsement
Special thanks to Derek for dreaming up and organizing this amazing adventure. If you’re interested in journey runs, do this race. If you need a tune-up for HOTS, do this race. If you want to run from one amusement park to another (apparently it’s a thing now), do this race. If you’re looking to push your boundaries, do this race. What I’m trying to say is. . . do this race.
Happy Trails Roads!