Zelda 4 hour Ultra

 Several weeks ago, Jeremy with OMR Ultra dropped me an email about a 4 Hour Ultra that he was helping to organize. 

Finally after kicking around the idea for a week or two, I decided to sign up.

Fast forward to today, I headed across Charlotte to Mint Hill where the race was being run on a 2 mile neighborhood dirt loop. 

Siri guided me in to the back of this neighborhood. Otherwise, I would have been lost. 

I had told Jamie about this race, so we planned to run it together. 

My only goal was to get in some miles. I didn't even dip down my training for it. 

We gathered by the starting line, and I spotted a few familiar faces in the crowd. One face, I had not seen in several years. 

Steve S was running it.

I kind of chuckled on the inside. Here he was doing some strides and warming up his legs. I wasn't doing anything other lean against my car and chatting with a few others until Jeremy called us to the starting line. Steve looked like he was planning to run hard. 

The clock counted down to 0, and we were off. Steve and another young guy headed for the front. This young guy talked about getting in 30 miles. I wished him luck. I wasn't really looking for this type of effort. 

Steve and this guy were soon out of sight. 

My legs felt stiff and tired. Two or three laps passed before they started to feel at least a little like normal. 

Jamie and I chatted back and forth to pass the miles. As the morning wore on, Jamie kept telling me that the laps were getting shorter. I rolled my eyes and ask him if he was getting hot. After all, the temperature was getting pretty warm. When we stepped out of the shade, I could feel the sun burning on my arms even through the sun screen. I wondered if the heat was getting to him. 

About 10 miles, I felt my energy levels dropping so I pulled out a pack of Sports Beans. About a lap later, they started to kick in and I felt better. 

Around 20is miles, I pulled out the 2nd packet. Again, I felt better. 

Around this time, we saw the young guy that was talking about running 30 miles walking backwards on the course to the finish line. I guess that 30 miles was in the cards on this day. 

A short time later, Steve caught up to us. 

He looked strong running along.

Coming around with about 3 laps left, Jamie was starting to feel the heat and miles. About 20ish miles is his limit. He doesn't do ultras.

He stopped to take on some Gatorade so I got well ahead of him. 

I could see Steve in the distance so I headed off to catch him. About halfway through the lap, I did. 

While I felt tired, it was not nearly as bad as I have felt in recent races. 

We were only together for a second as I passed by but I was still nearly 2 miles behind him. 

I kept looking at my Garmin. I was trying to judge if I had enough time to do another lap. 

When I crossed the start finish, I had about 19 minutes and 20 seconds to complete one final lap. By Jeremy's rules, only laps inside of 4 hours counted. Meaning, if I was finished a lap after the clock shows 4 hours, the lap didn't count. 

I kept thinking that I can do this. 

I pushed in every section and waved to all the course workers one final time. 

I came around to the finish with 4 minutes and 30 seconds left so I did a couple of 7ish miles for the last lap. 

Not bad, I finished with 27 miles and 2nd overall to Steve. 

I realized that I really needed to drink more. After the race, I was downing all the water that I could get my hands on. 

Big shout out to OMR crew for a well done race. They raised about $2500 for the local animal shelter. They had hamburgers from the "Hill Bar & Grill" after the race. I don't eat hamburgers very often but after 27 miles, these tasted pretty good.

Cool Down Runner Adventures.