JFK 50 Miler Post Race Recap

Edited by: The Great Meg McNew 

Be forewarned: this will be long, but since it was my first real ultra I want to capture everything so I can look back one day.  What I ended up with was a day where I missed what I thought I was capable of running and almost quit halfway through. I was in a really bad place.  But thanks to friends I was able to salvage my day, finish my first 50 miler and have a very positive experience.  Like I try to explain often, sometimes it’s more than just your overall time goal that matters in running and this race is a perfect example.

Looking back, after 15 weeks of training and more miles than I‘ve ever run in consecutive months, I can pinpoint a 10 day window where I caused some overuse injuries that plagued my taper and race day. I ran the entire Baltimore Marathon as part of a relay team, blazing the last 10k, then followed it up with an 84 mile week. After that,  I ran  a PR marathon in Atlantic City, ugh.  In retrospect, I can see how dumb it looks, but in the moment I got carried away.  It’s a mistake I shouldn’t have made. I try to never let myself get carried away when training is going well.  It’s the easiest time to push too hard when you feel on top of the world!  But I digress to the race.

I had my plan all figured out and my crew ready to go.  2 scoops of Tailwind in my water bottle and 20 ounces of water I’d drink at crew stops, and I’d fill up with Gatorade and water at all other stops.  I had some GU’s on me, chew-able salt tablets, some shot blocks and some Advil.  I am a terrible technical trail runner so I expected to get burned up on the Appalachian Trail (AT), come down the Weverton Switchbacks, hit the C&O, and start reeling people in since running a consistent pace for 26 miles felt like something I could do.  On Friday I headed out to Boonsboro and hit massive amounts of traffic, man Frederick how do people deal with that mess!  Got to the hotel around 6:00 and opted for a night in to relax and keep the mind calm.  Slept horribly as I always do at hotels, but whatever, I slept well the night before.  I set about 7 alarms for 4:20 am and I was ready to go.

For once, I had a really good breakfast before a race:  an oatmeal, a GU wafer, a Starbucks Frappucino in a bottle and half a power bar.  About 800 calories before the race is a win in my books.  Pete and Meg were nice enough to offer me a ride over to the race start, and it was much appreciated since I was stressing a bit on morning race logistics, where to park, pre-race meeting, how to get back to my car at the end of the day etc.  So I met them in the lobby and off we went. Pete, as a veteran of these types of races, and having run JFK before, did a fantastic job calming my nerves.  As we walked down to the starting line it seemed like we didn’t have a lot of time until the 6:30 start and were pretty far from the line.  When we heard the National Anthem go off, it became a bit of a rush to get to the line.  So I threw my clothes off, rushed to tie my shoes, and we sprinted up the sidewalk to  the front with about 45 seconds to spare.  Then I heard Pete screaming “Nick, you forgot your water bottle!” Man, what a mess!  Got my water bottle and Meg and I started side by side next to a Panda… Spoiler alert: who knew 7 hours and 2 minutes later we’d also finish side by side? (Meg and me, not the Panda).

The gun went off and I did some dodging around people and caught a chase pack. At 3 minutes into the race, Jim Walmsley was already 30 seconds ahead.  All race long it was nice to hear people tell me I was 10, 20, 30 minutes behind  the leader; he destroyed the race, as expected.  A nice group of 9 of us chatted as we ascended the climb to the AT.  There were some interesting dudes in this group from all over the US telling some funny stories.  We hit the AT still mostly together 2.8 miles in, only 47 to go!  The first bit of the trail is pretty easy so I wasn’t shocked I was able to hang with the pack.  After that portion of the trail we began to climb the last 2 miles before we hit the AT, where we would have climbed 1200 feet before entering  it. We hit a pretty steep portion here and I felt I was working a bit hard so backed off and let a group of about 4 people go.  Finally we hit the rocky AT, which I knew would be my weakness, so I figured I’d get dropped.  In the next 4 miles I mostly held my own to my surprise (turns out I was probably working too hard though) and I really enjoyed having someone in front of me to show me the best way through the rocks.  At about 9.5 miles I dropped the pack of 4 people I was with and hit up the aid station. I filled up with water/Gatorade, had my 2^nd GU and saw 6/7th place entering the second half of the AT.  Six miles until we are out of the AT, that’s all I had ahead of me.  For most of these 6 miles I saw 2-7 places up ahead and it felt like I was gaining on them. Then at around 14 I caught the pack, but 2^nd and 3^rd place had already taken off.  The trail at this point gets very rocky and I watched someone turn his ankle really bad right in front of me so I slowed down a bit.  Another runner and I descended down Weverton Switchbacks together in 5/6 place and were careful to not fall down the side.  As I rolled out of AT in 5^th place, I found my crew and it took 3 minutes to get all settled.  Grabbed 3 GU’s, a new water bottle and for some reason retied my shoes… no clue why they were pretty tight?  I figured looking at past years if I came out of AT at 2:10-2:15 (hours) I’d be very happy. My watch showed 1:58, I found out later that was 3 minutes faster than Graham last year.  Yeah…. Oops.  Wished I had some opera singer like JD did in Scrubs to sing MISTAKE to me before I made it.

 

At this point I knew I was ahead of pace but I honestly felt great. Two people passed me as I hung at the aid station but caught them back on the C&O and started with a 6:57 mile and then proceeded to drop the pace a bit, 6:35’s for the next 2.  I felt a 2:55 – 3:00 marathon was something I could do all along so figured I’d settle into that pace.  I was now in 5^th place, rolling along with 6:30-6:45 miles, all alone.  Around 22 I saw 4^th place in front of me and it looked like I was reeling him in.  I caught him at the mile 24 aid station and as I passed him I heard someone coming really hard behind me. I looked back and it was Michael Wardian and he was MOVING.  He flew by both of us and the other guy went with him.  I tried to go with him but it felt too hard for 24 miles in so I backed off and then things started going south fast.  At around mile 18 my IT Band started to really hurt, not just soreness but like a shooting pain in the hip, then my ankle issue came after that and started to really hurt around 22 and the knee pain came back right at 24.  I have been dealing with each of these injuries for  the past 3 weeks, but never all together.  If I was smarter I would have taken an Advil when the pain started but it was the last thing on my mind at that point. I was too focused on trying to catch 4^th place.

At mile 25, it went downhill. I went from 6:45’s to an 8:17 mile. Everything was killing me now. I got passed by two people and fell back to 7^th.  I had heard from experienced ultra runners  that there are points in every race this long where you just feel terrible, but just be prepared for it and you will eventually feel good again.  Even knowing that, I wasn’t expecting to feel this terrible.  After  two  more 8+ minute miles and some walking,  I made it to 28 miles and saw Ryan.  I told him “I’m done, throwing in the towel,” he convinced me to jog up to the crew where everyone was soo helpful to offer me everything and anything I needed, but I was a MESS.  I’m sure everyone has a funny Nick story from this aid station. I nibbled on a power bar, I struggled to swallow Advil pills, I chewed and spit out a shot block, I drank 2 sips of a V8.  I was an absolute disaster, but after 11 minutes or so my crew convinced me to keep going and it was much appreciated.  I’ve never DNF’ed before and I am glad I didn’t this day.

And off I went, really struggling.  At this point all I was noticing is was that my entire left leg was just a useless appendage.  Sure, it hit the ground every other step, but it was providing me no benefit.  I could not get a normal stride going. Everything was constricted, no push off on any step, every lateral movement hurt like a bitch, and my ankle was on fire, but NBD only 22 miles to go!  8-9 minute miles became the norm here with walk breaks scattered in.  At mile 30.5 I ran into my old pal Terri and her aid station.  So much energy here; she was amazing, getting me pumped up, telling me I could do this, even getting me to take a selfie when I felt like death.  I can never turn down one of those!  I left that aid station ready to go, and I felt great for 800 meters.  At this point I realized my last GU was at mile 18, and had no real solids in me.  My stomach was swish-swoshing around and I was popping chew-able salt tabs like it was my job.  So I pulled out this chocolate GU and managed to get ¾’s of it down.  Since we don’t litter on the C&O I put it in my pocket, and so began “The GU incident Part 2”, but that story or Part 1 is not blog safe.  From miles 30.5 to 34 I still had some run/walking going on, and I was just getting past left and right. At around mile 34 I heard I was in 22^nd place, ugh who cares I just want to finish and die now. I looked at watch and figured I had 2 - 2.5 hours to go, ugh these numbers are so big.  At 34 I knew I’d see my crew in 4 miles and started figuring out what I wanted from them. I was going to finish this thing and I was going to get everything I needed to feel good there.  

Rolled up to 38 and could hear my crew shouting a mile away. These people are so amazing.  They knew I was struggling and gave me everything they could to help motivate me.  I took some Advil,had a Skratch Emergency pack, and politely asked Ryan how our other 2 runners Meg and Cantor were doing, only to have Sean say “Oh look there is Meg now”.  They told me to get going and so off I went, to the 41 mile aid station.  Three more miles of trail until we hit the roads and a giant hill out of the trail on which I was told to just walk.  At this point I was basically taking a cup of coke at every aid station; the stuff tasted so good.  At 41 hit the road and up the hill Istarted walking. As I hit the ascent I looked back and saw Meg like 30 seconds back so I decided strength in numbers would be better for both of us to finish this thing, although somewhat thinking she’d probably drop me.  She caught me and off we went, 8.5 miles to the finish.  Honestly, at this point, just having company to keep me sane and chat with was all that was keeping me going.  This road section sucked so badly though.  8.5 miles is so far at this point. All we seeing were more hills, and the mile markers seemed like they were not changing.  Meg was in third at this point, so our goal was to make sure no one caught her.  I started complaining about my leg just being destroyed at this point and she told me how she basically fell on the trails and devastated her back and probably broke her leg. We were a fun bunch of people at this point.  A couple well positioned aid stations with some coke and refills of our water bottles were great.  Around mile 46 our nice sunny day started to turn into something else.  The wind started picking up and temps started dropping.  Around 49 we almost got hit by a car and watched a State Trooper blaze after the guy that almost hit us.  As we rolled down the home stretch, we could hear our crew going nuts.  7 hours and 2 minutes earlier Meg and I started this day next to each other with her telling me to pull that Panda’s tail(I didn’t do it) and we finished . 01 seconds apart.  (Or as Dave P texted me later .0002 seconds per mile difference!)

I had a really rough day. Looking back, I went out too hard on the AT and was too aggressive early on the C&O, but I just can’t put my finger on how everything fell apart so quickly.  Sitting here 2 days later my left leg is still shot and I can’t walk, but I am not in the excuses business.  It happened, and I’ll learn from this and not make the same mistakes.  But as everyone told me many times, it’s ultra-running and anything can happen.  I am beyond blessed my crew got me to keep going and not DNF, and for me it was a very exciting ending to be able to finish with a good friend when she was having an absolutely awesome day.  We were both in  terrible pain during those last 8 miles, and for me it was a great to have a friend to run with and not end up walking.  Plus it made for a pretty funny Facebook Live video, complete with us all chugging a Jordan Dillen homebrew about 45 seconds after we finished.  I’ll always say I love running for more than just results, and everything about this race was that for me.  I went for it and blew up, and when I tried to quit, my friends wouldn’t let me.  I suffered a lot and got to run it in and finish with a friend, something I could never have done if I’d quit.  When I look back at my first 50 mile race I will always think of it as a positive experience because of everyone who was a part of it.  I missed my time goal; ah well.  But like my prerace post said, one of my goals was to have fun, and that’s just what I did. When I look back on this JFK 50 miler, I won’t remember finishing 22^nd.  I will remember my great friends all together at the finish line as we all were a part of a 7 hour day of racing together.  And it’s that feeling that will bring me back to the line to try another Ultra.

I want to thank everyone for their texts, emails, calls and nice words.  I am so thankful to have so many people in my life that support my love for running and my adventures.

Because of all their support, I want to shout out a bunch of amazing people that were a part of this:

All my Falls Road Running Teammates, who I train with day in and out thank you for everything.  Also to the Falls Road Running Store where almost all the items I used for this race were bought from.  

Dave Ploskonka, for all his JFK50/Ultra advice that I ignored 15 minutes into the race!

My amazing wife Kelly Klastava, who allows me to pursue these crazy running adventures while being 8 months pregnant and is nothing but supportive.

Tom Stott - for his great advice when all my injuries hit the fan during my taper.  He got me to the line feeling ready to go and calm.

Rich Wilson, Ryan McGrath, Tristram Thomas, Bryn Burkholder, Graham Peck, Mrs. Peck, Sean Caskey, Maggie Smith, Terri Gibbons, and Andrew Cantor for being the most amazing support people on the entire course.  I’ve never had a crew before and I couldn’t have asked for a more supportive group of friends.

Pete Mulligan, for being about as helpful as anyone could be and doing it all without a complaint and really without me ever asking him to do it.  Not sure how my morning or post-race would have gone without you, but it would have been bad.  

And my running partner Meg D: she and I had many funny conversations about who would beat who at JFK50, and after all that we basically tied (but she was the real star getting 3^rd overall).

Nutrition and Supplies

I’ve wanted to do a blog post on my nutrition products and supplies and give a shout out to some of many favorites for many months now.  So I finally decided to sit down and write all about them and give some insight to everything I use to help me stay on top of my running game.  These products have helped me to stay hydrated, to eat and fuel up better, and to stay on top of my game during my longer runs.  In my younger years a lot of these things I would just ignore and just fight through without fuel for a long run or something to recover after a run but I have been more rigid about these things in my accelerated age and I think it has done well to help me feel recovered and ready for my next run.  I hope you gain some insight or at least get some ideas from this post.

Water has always been something I have struggled to drink as I just usually don’t enjoy the taste of plain water, so I would always drink something with flavor like lemonade which is full of calories and no real value as a runner.  Water however is critical, half the time your hunger is just your body saying I am thirsty but I just usually feed it more food.  I stumbled across Nuun a couple years ago and have loved it ever since.  I use Nuun as an everyday drink, and it’s full of electrolytes to go with water to keep me refreshed all day and tastes better than pure water for me.  This allows me to drink more water on a daily basis but not get filled up on calories as nuun is low in calories.  It is however high in sodium and electrolytes so the Nuun Active I use is better if you are in fact active otherwise you may be overdoing your sodium intake for a daily basis.  Nuun has other capsules for different lifestyles of course but the active is by far my favorite.  It’s easy enough for me to bring to work and just drop into my water bottle and keep drinking my water throughout the day.  Also Nuun Active is the perfect hangover cure, if drinking too much is something you might occasionally do!

Another product that I have just started using is Tailwind and it is my new favorite nutrition drink during a run.  I’ve tried many things, Nuun Plus, Gatorade, Skratch but on my long runs when I want to take in calories and also fluid and electrolytes I just find tailwind to be perfect and light on my stomach.  It allows me to customize my drink from 1-3 scoops, and still be very light.  3 scoops is a bit much for my taste, but 1-2 scoops feels fine and helps me get in 100 - 200 calories which is critical for me to be able to drink my calories on the run and not upset the stomach.  For me sometimes on runs it is easier to drink stuff especially later on in a race/long run so having some calories to drink that my stomach can handle has been very helpful in these longer races I have been doing lately.

I do use Skratch also and I do love it, it’s just I cannot handle it during a run.  I find it to be perfect drink before or right after a run to get in some calories and it tastes really good.  The Orange and Lemon and Limes are by far my favorite.  I prefer to not drink it all day as unlike Nuun it has a decent amount of calories and I would rather during the day get most of my calories from real foods that add other benefits. I do find it to be refreshing and also a great drink prerace in the morning if I just can’t get my body to want to eat because it is too early.

Post run I swear by the science that you must put something back in your body.  If you went out for 40+ minutes or just had a really hard effort you need to replenish what you lost and you need protein to start healing all the muscle fibers you damaged on your run.  You really need to get that in within the first 30 minutes to kick start the recovery process.  I have been using Endurox R4 for the past 5 years and I swear by it.  It tastes great to me and it is something I look forward to after a run to get my body to begin recovering and ready for the next run.  I will use the industry standard of chocolate milk from time to time but I find it difficult to bring that and have it sit in my car when I run in the heat, Endurox is perfect to sit in the car and still taste pretty good post run.  Whatever you choose, get something that gives you carbs and protein post run and your body will thank you when you can begin recovering for the next run immediately.  Especially for us older runners recovery and injury prevention become too of the things I spend most of my day doing, on top of strength training to keep my body from withering away.

As far as the meals I eat on a daily basis I snack throughout the day at work and always have some fuel in my running bag just in case, but for meals I got introduced to the Runner’s World Cookbook about 2 years ago, and Kelly and I immediately fell in love.  While her first thought was, this better not be some terrible tasting healthy runner food cookbook, but then when we starting making the recipes we loved the taste and I loved all the health benefits from all the different meals.  We have been rotating two different Runner’s World Cookbooks with over 300 recipes for the past two years and these recipes have become many of our favorites that we even introduce our friends to at various events.  If drinking more water was 1 part of getting myself healthier and to lose some weight, these cookbooks were the other part.  I love the information on each recipe and what it can be used for.  There are recipes that are fuel for a long run, or a post recovery run, you name it, and it’s in the book.  We even started baking our own granola bars that I use as a quick pick me up before evening runs when I need some fuel and won’t have dinner until 830 in my second home Canton.  We just got Shalane Flanagan’s Run Fast Eat Slow Book and can’t wait to try out all the recipes in there.  For us it has been great to get in the kitchen and cook more recipes and try tons of new foods we would have never thought would go together.  Things like adding Oat Bran to your Meatloaf to get in some extra nutrients or mixing beets and avocado’s with orange slices for a delicious salad.  I’m not sure we would have ever tried these without these cookbooks.  Additionally I just love the benefits you can get from food as fuel for your run.  Each type of food has nutrients that can be beneficial for your next workout or long run.  I won’t go as far as to say without eating the exact right foods you can’t run fast, but I will just say that getting in the right balance of food can only be beneficial to your body and you’re exercising in the long run.  And go talk to a nutritionist as I am not one!

Some other fueling products that have become the staple of my long runs include Cliff Shot Blocks, I find them easy to get down on a long run and easy to carry in a small pouch.  I still continually using Power Bars and Power Bar GU’s on my long runs or for some fueling up on the run.  There are so many of different types of these products available it’s finding the right ones that will work for you while on the run to get in some calories.  Additionally since  I am also talking about the supplies that keep me running it’s no surprise from my posts online I absolutely love Under Amour running shoes.  I have been wearing the original bandits for 1.5 years now and I have just begun rocking the Bandit 2’s and they are even better.  For my training runs I am always usually rocking some pair of UA shoes to keep me going strong on my runs.

And finally I can tell you all about these wonderful products that keep me going but where do I get all my supplies?   I get everything I listed above from the best running store in Baltimore the FallsRoad Running Store.  On top of the things I listed in this post there are tons of other products you can try as fuel before, during or after runs and the store has tons of options that you can pick and choose to find out what works best for you.  So that about sums up the many products I use to stay hydrated, stay fueled and recover from runs and the shoes I wear while doing the running.  I hope some of this information is useful for you in your runs or whatever exercise you choose.

So what have I been up to lately?  Still training hard for JFK 50 miler in 12 weeks upping the mileage and getting in long runs on all surfaces.  Ran a few races finishing 2^nd for the 2^nd straight year at the Angel Park 5k, which is now becoming my white whale in my hometown.  And I won the MD Heat 25k this past weekend at Patapsco State Park, which was my first really technical trail race.  I absolutely loved this race and will devote a blog post to it and why I keep falling in love with trail running and why every runner should get out and run/race trails.  Otherwise enjoy the picture below with my cool prize from the Angel Park 5k.