Virtual Badger 100 Race Report

Why a Virtual Race? 

    When the pandemic began to visibly impact our daily lives around early March, I, like many others, thought that it would blow over in a few months and that we would be back to racing in summer. I even naively thought that I would still be running the San Diego 100 in early June. Of course, none of these expectations would prove to be true. Instead, many races have been canceled or postponed, while others have simply rolled their entrants over to 2021.

Without understanding the impact that the pandemic would have on ultra racing for the rest of the year, I found the rise of the virtual race quite odd. You pay a fee to run on your own time, your own course and provide your own support. This made no sense to me and so from early spring through mid-summer, I never considered participating in one. This is with a caveat of course. I participated in the global Quarantine Backyard Ultra put on by Personal Peak Coaching. I found the race format unique and with no race entry fee was required, I thought I would give it a shot.

In early June as some counties were re-opening in California and letting small groups convene to participate in a variety of activities, I had my first opportunity to race in person again. I ran the Loco Go Big or Go Home Challenge 100 in early June and thoroughly enjoyed being able to race in-person again. Impressed by the way that the race organizers were able to put in place COVID precautions and still put on a fun event, I looked for other races that were shooting for the same goal.

Perusing Ultrasignup, as we all do from time to time, I found that both Cool Moon 100 and Headlands 100 were trying to get special permits approved to run limited-entry races in August. Being the typical greedy masochistic ultrarunner, I decided I would sign up for both. Signing up for Cool Moon was no risk as we were simply put on a waitlist until Martin Sengo, the race director, could guarantee that we would be able to race. Headlands took a different route, explaining on Ultrasignup that if PCTR was unable to put on the race, we would receive race credit for the next two years to any PCTR race which seemed like a fair proposition (at the time of writing this, Headlands 100 has been rescheduled to late November). 

Fortunately, Martin was able to secure a permit from the Auburn State Recreation Area Superintendent to hold Cool Moon 100 with just 35 runners. I ran and enjoyed the race, having put in my heat training and placing 4th male, 5th overall in a year with a 46% drop rate. After completing Cool Moon, I was disappointed that Headlands had been postponed and began considering the idea of racing a virtual 100 in its place. I had never run two hundreds so close to one another (just 13 days in between) and so I decided to pull the trigger and sign up for the Virtual Badger 100.

I decided to run the Virtual Badger 100 on Friday, August 21, because it seemed like the smartest window to complete it considering the poor air quality with all the recent fires throughout California. The day before the race I received the race swag bag with a t-shirt, buff, arm sleeves, patch, and a few other goodies, including a bib number with the title “2020 Quarantine Edition” which was a nice touch.

The plan for the race was to set up an aid station on the porch outside my house and to run this 2.1-mile loop washing machine style until I hit 100 miles. This gave me the ability to carry very little on my person (just a handheld water bottle) and to refill whenever I needed to. My goal was to run the elusive sub-24 100 which I had struggled to reach in many races before. I had previously run two 24-hr races and never came anywhere close to running 100 miles so it was a bit of an ambitious goal, but over the past few months, I’ve lost a significant amount of weight and had a solid training block so I thought I would give it a try. 

Before Cool Moon 100, I had a solid training block culminating in three weeks of ~85 miles a week with a few heat runs a week which I completed wearing three layers on top (a long-sleeve shirt, Gore-Tex rain jacket, and heavy outer shell), as well as rain pants.. I had also run sub-27 at Cool Moon with about 14,000 feet of gain and unbearable heat and so I thought I had a much better chance on the flat loop around my house with quick and easy aid.

Unlike previous 100s, I decided to go out strong with a strict pacing plan. My goal was to run the first 50 miles in 10 hours (12:00 min/mile pace), leaving 14 hours for the second 50 miles (16:48 min/mile pace). The way I looked at it, if I could complete 50 miles in 10 hours, then I just had to gut out the second 50 miles at a pace not too much faster than a comfortable walking pace which seemed manageable in theory.

Race Morning, Friday, August 21

I got up at 3:40AM race morning, having packed everything on an aid station table that I just had to move outside before I started running. I readied myself, got dressed, and had a tall glass of a Naked smoothie to get the glucose flowing through my system. When the clock hit 4:00AM, I started my watch and began running into the early morning, smoky, California air.

I was able to knock off the first 7-8 loops no problem running about an 11-11:30 pace. Running early in the morning like this is one of my favorite things to do and the miles seemed to fly by. I had a few interesting Joe Rogan and Trail Runner Nation podcasts lined up which I enjoyed and alternated in between to pass these early miles. 

About 17 miles or so into the race, I began to feel the beginning of stomach rumblings. Usually, I am able to nip any stomach problems in the bud by popping some Gas-X and easing off the pace for a while. However, this time, that usual solution seemed to do absolutely anything. Compounding this early stomach pain, I was beginning to feel nauseous and unable to get insufficient calories. Over the next 5 miles, I had to make numerous pit stops at the house and eventually decided to go with the “Nuclear Option” (I believe it’s aptly named ;)) and popped a couple Immodiums which seemed to clear up the problem fairly fast.

I was able to recover and begin clocking off the miles again. During this period, I was also joined for a couple miles by my mom who would act as an on-and-off pacer and amazing crew throughout the race. Spending a few miles with her helped to clear my mind and get my focus back on track. Having lost quite a bit of time due to the early morning pit stops, I had fallen a bit behind pace. I pushed quite hard for a few miles and was able to hit 25 miles at about 4:59:51, just nine seconds ahead of my pace goal. This was reassuring and I was glad to have already knocked out ¼ of the race.

The next ten or so miles were fairly uneventful except for the slow rise in temperature and worsening air quality. I kept an eye on both of these and recommitted myself to racing smart, keeping cool, and not pushing the pace too hard. Around mile 35 or so, my dad hopped in to pace me for a couple miles which was a nice change of pace. He knows how to handle me during ultras, having paced me for nearly ~80 miles during the Bigfoot 200 last year and ~35 miles during this year’s Cool Moon 100.

My goal through this section was just to get to 50 miles because I knew it was all downhill from there. About this time, as the temperature began heating up, I was glad that I had prepared a cooler with cold drinks and ice. I began stuffing ice in my hat and the arm sleeves that came in the race swag bag to keep cool and hopefully keep my heart rate down.

My legs kept chugging along and the miles kept ticking off, but it felt like time was moving so much slower than normal. I would check my watch - 41.05 and I’d run for a bit, feeling good about myself and look down again to see 41.13… It was a struggle. So instead of focusing on my pace or the amount of distance I was covering, I instead focused on keeping cool and taking small bites of food and sips of Gatorade and staying on top of electrolytes in order to prevent the oncoming nausea I could feel the beginning of.

Getting close to the halfway mark, I recognized that I could indeed hit the 10-hour goal I had set out for myself and so I pushed the pace a bit and ended up hitting the 50-mile mark at 9:59:28. This was a pivotal point for myself in the race as I had not only hit my time goal, I was now over the hump. Every mile I ran from this point onward was closer to the finish line than the start and I was glad to have the extra four hours to complete the second half of the race. In addition, this was a 50-mile PR and no matter the result of the 100 miles, I knew I had something to celebrate. 

For the first time in 50 miles, I gave myself the luxury of sitting down. I put my legs up and let myself rest truly for the first time. I ate some fries from McDonald’s and drank some Gatorade, glad to have hit the halfway mark. My dad again joined me for some miles, which helped the time pass.

Back on the road and running, I was started at mile 57 by someone yelling and I turned to see that a man had pulled up next to me and was curious why he had seen me running back and forth past his house all day. I told him that I was shooting for 100 miles in a day and that I had about 40 left. He expressed his support and told me he would see me later. I honestly didn’t expect to ever see him again, but I should have known he would stick to his word.

My next mental objective was to hit the 100k (62.2-mile mark) in under 13 hours which would allow me 11 hours for the last 38 miles which at the time seemed manageable under any circumstance. With this newfound hope, I pushed it and hit the 100k mark at 12:53:03 (also a PR). I pumped my first a little bit and doubled down on my goal.

The heat of the day had mostly passed by and as the sun began to dip in the sky, I tried to knock out as many miles as possible before the night hit. During this section, both my mom and dad joined me for different loops to help pass the time. On one loop near 70 miles, the same car which had stopped me earlier pulled up next to me. I watched out of the corner of my eye as the driver hopped out of the car (which was still in the road)  and told me to keep running. 

“Okay, I thought...what does he want now?” A block down the road, I heard the patter of footsteps running up to me and the man asked “May I walk with you for a bit?” I agreed, happy to have some company and we struck up a great conversation. His name was Niraj, and he had just gotten into ultra running a few months ago (he ran his first 50k back in May). He asked me a lot of questions about the sport and what I was doing and seemed genuinely interested. He left me near the end of the loop, promising he’d be back for more.

As the daylight dwindled, I hit the 75-mile mark and entered a deep low. I remember telling my awesome crew chief (my mother of course) that I was in a “Low low...a low low low.” In these dark and painful moments, it’s always important to remember why we do these races: to find and draw on reserves we never thought we had. She joined me for a lap which perked up my spirit. It was also the first time I deviated from the 2.1 mile loop and began to add some different streets into the mix. The change of pace and scenery helped. 

Back at the aid station, I got a muscle rubdown with some Icy Hot, took a few Ibuprofen and kept chugging along. Just after the 80-mile mark, I was glad to see Niraj again. He had been waiting for me to come by his house to join me for some miles and was hoping to keep my spirits up. We talked about the low moments in ultrarunning, how to keep your spirits up, and about how to keep running injury-free.

At the end of this loop, I pulled an old trick out of the hat with a shot of brandy to take the edge off. My dad joined Niraj and me for another loop which passed by quickly. Niraj decided he had run enough and indicated that his wife was a little concerned why he wanted to run with this random guy that he didn’t know during a pandemic, and so decided to call it a day.

At this point, I was near the 85-mile mark and was just holding on with 15-minute miles at best. On my crew’s suggestion, I started doing 3-mile loops to decrease the number of times I had to hit the aid station. After another rub-down, I attempted to take a 10-minute nap but realized I was too jazzed by the whole experience and got up to keep running. Both my parents helped me extraordinarily from this point onward, alternating pacing laps for me. They kept me moving forward and staying focused.

Despite the company, I was low energy due to low-calorie intake all day and was struggling to keep liquids down. I tried chewing caffeine gum, but that seemed to only leave a bitter taste in my mouth. Instead, I opted for a slower pace and longer breaks between laps. At mile 94, I managed to stomach some fried rice and took one last break lying down with the legs up before going for the final push.

My dad helped me move through one more loop and all I had left was three more miles. I decided to take this one alone to have some time to reflect. As I ran along these roads which I had spent the past nearly 23 hours on, I felt happy and sad. I was happy that I had persevered and was going to succeed in my race, but sad that the race was ending. I ended up cruising the last two miles and finishing just under 23:15 with a time of 23:14:59.

As I reflect on the race and try to make sense of the moments and memories, I smile to remember the pain, suffering, joy, laughter, and happiness all mixed up in one 24-hr push. Running 100 miles is truly like experiencing life in a day.