Ticket to ride, white line highway
Melle Mel
Tell all your friends, they can go my way
Pay your toll, sell your soul
Pound for pound costs more than gold
Coast to Coaster is a 232 mile journey run from the Cedar Point amusement park in Sandusky, OH to Kings Island in Cincinnati. The race has been lengthened 24 miles from the inaugural edition to move the course off some high traffic roads. It starts Thursday morning at 7:30am and runners have seven days to complete the route. It probably shouldn’t be much of a shock that this is a low key, very small event with only 21 runners signed up.
The Four Shuns
Runners can do this with a crew or uncrewed. I’m foregoing a crew for a couple reasons. Partly because it’s a big ask to have someone come along and hand me food/drinks every 5 miles for three days. Mostly though it’s because I enjoy the challenge of tackling a distance completely on my own. Normal races are fun and challenging, but it’s next level when all the shuns are completely on you:
- Nutrition
- Hydration
- Navigation
- Motivation
You need to be focused and dialed in mile after mile (after mile) with any one of these able to completely derail your race if you’re not careful. It’s like operating without a safety net. I’m experienced enough now that I can roll through 24 hours without breaking too much of a sweat. Day two is where I’ve started struggling in my two previous unsupported 200 hundred milers. It’s just so hard to stay on the ball when you get more and more tired. And things start going wrong. I’m looking forward to seeing if experience starts translating into improved performance.
PSA: Check Your Gear
I’m used to just grabbing whatever I used in my last race and heading out without any thought to whether it still works. This tripped me up at Buckeye where my power bank wouldn’t charge my devices so I made sure to check all my gear before this race and. . . my brand new as of last fall power bank won’t charge my devices. WTH?!?!?! So off to the store for a new one. Better to know now than 18 hours into a three day adventure.
ETA. . .
So half the fun of these adventures (well, OK, not really) is trying to guess a likely finishing time. I’ve gotten pretty good at estimating my hundred mile finishes, however I don’t have nearly the same experience out past the 200 mile distance. I completed Buckeye in 56 hours and the Mason Dixon Trail in 66 hours. The first was 30 miles shorter than C2C and the latter 15 miles shorter, but with an extra 18,000 feet of elevation gain with a decent amount on trails. I was still moving at a 20 minute pace at the end of both so 30 miles should translate into another 10 hours. Based on my hundred mile races, 18k elevation is equal to about 9 extra hours of finish time so that should cover the extra 15 miles. So 66 hours is a decent over/under for my finishing time.
I’ve got two hours of sleep budgeted into my Friday night time that’s not in the section pace in the chart above. I’ve had two different experiences with sleep in my prior goes at this distance. The first time I needed two hours of sleep on the second night split into 4 separate naps. The other time I only needed 30 minutes split into two naps on the second night and none the third night (1am finish). I was obviously tired both times, however I was never stumbling around and don’t remember being drowsy and fighting to keep my eyes open. I’m not arrogant enough to think this can’t happen though so will just play this by ear and get off the course when required. Good news is I should be able to spend most of the second night on the bike path and off the open roads.
Overall, I’m really looking forward to some white line miles.