Arkansas Traveller 100

Just a little recap of the Arkansas Traveller 100 Mile Endurance Run.  I finished the race in 21 hours and 46 minutes.  I would be remiss if I did not thank the following.  Thanks to God...who would have thought I would be blessed to be able to run my second 100 mile run this year. I doubted, He provided!  Read those last two sentences again...running is a privilege, literally a gift from God!  If you can run, be grateful and never take that opportunity for granted!  Thank You! Thanks to my wife, Julie, and my girls, Kelli and Megan who acted as my crew and my son, Matt, who was there in spirit supporting me from St. Paul.  Thanks to my pacers Scott Reichardt and Will Tucker.  I have been blessed to have a solid support group to run and train with over the last couple years.  You guys are the best of the best!  These are the most incredible, supportive training friends I could ask for!  There are so many others to thank and I can't name them all, those friends and family I have trained with and supported me in good times and bad.

AT Race Eve!

We headed down to Arkansas Thursday.  This was the first ultra I have run multiple states away from home.  It was not without its share of auto excitement!  Back in Omaha the van is now getting a couple new valves, alternator, and probably a new catalytic converter.  Getting there Thursday night gave us some downtime on Friday before weigh-in, pre-race meeting and pasta feed.  A little exploring the area, frisbee, talking race day strategies and vegging at the lake house was a perfect way to relax before the race. 

So many well wishers!

Mile 16, Strategy...

Up at 3:34 am to get us all out of the house.  We were like a well oiled machine, like we've done this before!  I picked up my race number and had all my crew sign it for motivation before we started.  The race began at 6 am with a shotgun start.  I had established a plan of how I was going to run it and pretty well stuck to that plan.  I ran a 10-11 minute pace for the first 48 miles.  In this stretch there were 3 places I would be able to meet up with my crew and pacers.  I met lots of folks, good ol' boys, talked with a lot of people and just had a great motivating run.  Aid stations were plentiful, every 3-5 miles.  You could have spent lots of time hanging out there and overall I was out of each in about 30 seconds.  The crew accessible aid stations cost me more time, maybe 4 minutes since I had to eat, update everybody, and make them all feel I was in good spirits.  The trail the first half was full of hills, rocks, single track, rocks, and some gravel roads.

Scott and I ready for pacing!

Coming out of single track!

Mile 48 allowed me to pick up a pacer for the first time.  The aid station leader held me back at the buffet line as my crew and many other crews were cheering for me to leave.  The leader told me I looked great but wanted to make sure I was eating now to take me the rest of the way.  She promise I would be out in 4 minutes, and she did.  With a handful of boiled salted potatoes, grapes, and some rock salt, Scott and I were back on the trail being cheered on as we left.  To me, picking up a pacer is the best part of a 100.  They are so fresh, so excited, so motivating.  I gave Scott one other goal.  From here to the finish no one would pass us.  It was a pretty big order, we were somewhere in the top third and I knew I could run better.  I would like to say if a pacer could pick a runner to lead Scott might have gotten the best hand he could.  For 16 miles we talked, laughed and ran most of the course...except some big hills.  We made it to the turnaround aid station and knew we were on the down hill with only 40 or so miles left.  It was a great segment.

Will and I on our way out

We got to the Copperhead aid station and traded pacers for another 17 miles.  Will got the same luxury of running with a pretty focused, driven runner.  Then the sun went down.  We started walking up more of the hills, they were really big hills.  He did a great job getting me though those.  He kept pushing me to run, we laughed, talked, strategized, etc.  Will got to witness my one really bad moment on the course.  Not only did he witness it, he was the brunt of my explosion!  I had asked him how far away an aid station was away and he told me it was half a mile.  He was pushing me and we were running.  That came and went and he told me maybe another quarter mile.  Then he figured out we might actually have another mile or more left.  What started out as joking turned into an all out assault on Will's math skills.  I said a lot of things I regret, I don't remember many of them and I said more "F" words in that time than I do all year.  He told me after the run that I told him he had better start learning math really fast.  A classic Mike rant at 70 miles in!  After that little issue everything went well again, our pace was starting to slow again as we were hitting some pretty rocky areas again.  Just before the aid station where Will was going to switch pacing with Scott again we let a guy pass us.  I think I called him a "persistent little bastard" and promised Will I would pass him by the end.

Last Crew Aid Station!

Scott picked me up at Lake Winona and we started climbing, talking about where we were at and telling Will we would see him in 14 miles to run the last 2 miles together with the three of us.  We started talking about what we need to do to run the last 16 miles to finish in under 22 hours.  He asked me if I had figured out what pace I needed to run to make it under 22 hours.  I just remember asking him if he really just asked me to do math at mile 87!  I may have to host a math class for pacers before the next 100!  We got through some really technical, rocky areas where we decided to power hike through.  It was a rough stretch but we kept talking, and laughing the entire way. It was tough and the rocks hurt but we got through it.  Somewhere between mile 87 and 90 I got a second wind.  Scott started to take advantage of that.  He worked me hard.  We started running miles with a 9-10 minute pace again.  All of a sudden we were back on track for a sub 22 hour finish!  We were getting in and out of aid stations in less than a minute.  We ran through some rocky areas which we were more tentative of earlier.  We passed more runners.  We ran up hills, we really demoralized runners as we flew up hills laughing and having fun as they struggled to put one foot in front of the other.  That persistent little bastard....we passed him too!

Pumpkin Patch Aid Station Rocks!

We got to the Pumpkin Patch aid station, the last before Crossroads where we could be joined by Will.  We wanted to just check in and check out so we did not lose time.  That did not work out.  The group of volunteers knew it was my birthday when I came in there earlier that day.  As we were getting ready to leave, they pulled out a cake they picked up for me and sung happy birthday to me!  We thanked them, spent a few seconds with them and asked if they would bring the cake to the awards ceremony later in the day.  It was so motivating!  We got out of there with none of the runners we had passed before arriving at the aid station as we exited.  We got back on the trail and passed a few other runners then got stuck on some really nasty, rocky trail again.  We power hiked for a mile or so with a couple runners right behind us.  We missed a trail marker and started to head up a rock trough when I said, "Scott, I think we are going the wrong way."  He shuffled back down and found the right trail marking, crisis averted!  As we got through the rocks we started running again.

A hug inside is as good as a
hug at the finish line!

We got to Crossroads, 2.3 miles to go.  No sign of Will so I yelled for him with no answer and Scott told me we were just going.  He pushed me hard and we passed two other runners.  We were going at a 9-10 minute pace again.  Scott was pushing me hard and I hated him.  My feet hurt so bad and I wanted to be done.  We were trying to think of why we did not see Will, hoping things were okay with them all.  Scott pushed me up the last hill, it wasn't steep, but it was long and I hated Scott more.  We turned into the finish path, the music started playing and we were joyous in our celebration.  Then we figured out Will, Julie and the girls were not there.  I told the race director and others near the finish our group was not there.  They decided to pinch hit.  We got high fives and hugs from strangers at the finish.  It was so cool!  Right after our little celebration the finishing music started playing again.  Scott pushed me hard to keep me ahead of one last runner.  My goal at mile 48 came true....no runners passed us the last 52 miles!  It was about 50 degrees and we were both in short sleeves, the group urged us to go inside and warm up.

Celebrating finishing 100 miles on
my birthday!

We walked in the building finding a place to sit (it had been over 22 hours since I had sat down).   As we looked around there was Julie, Will, Kelli and Megan sitting waiting for us.  They got some old info on where I was at in the run and were not expecting us to arrive in under 22 hours. We celebrated with them and with other runners.  As I took shoes off I found out I walked away


Finish line, later Sunday morning.
Scott, myself and Will

without a blister or anything to sideline me for any time.  Just a swollen foot from kicking rocks all day and it's better now!  Eventually we drove to the house where Will and Scott told me more stories about the run.  We laughed, talked and had a beer or two.  We all got showers and they went to sleep.  I laid in bed and just smiled.  My run could not have gone more perfect, rarely did I move into the "suck" zone on the run and when I did, I popped out of it fast.  Everybody else woke up and we packed up, went to the awards ceremony and drove home.  I crashed hard when we got home Sunday night as I had been up for almost 48 hours with a few brief moments of dozing off in the car.

Before the race I had set 5 goals.  All of them were accomplished!

1) Finish within the 30 hour cutoff and earn the opportunity to apply to run the Western States 100 Mile Endurance run next June.-DONE!
2) Finish within 24 hours and earn the big gold enamel belt buckle.-DONE!
3) Finish in under 22 hours and set a personal record running this distance.-DONE!
4) Finish in the top 20%.-DONE!, finished 18th overall!
5) Finish in the top 10 of my age group.-DONE! Finished 6th! Top 15%!
I earned an added bonus goal by finishing 2nd in the group of four Nebraska runners.  An even better treat since I was the oldest Nebraska runner!

Sub 24 hour belt buckle
25th Anniversary Commemorative
Railroad Tie 

Shoes: Saucony Perigrine 4.0
Socks: Feetures! light cushion socks
Pre-Race Weight: 163, Post-Race Weight: 163
10 Honey Stinger gels
20 salted caramel or vanilla bean Gu packs (race sponsor)
2 Ensure drinks
Handfuls of grapes and oranges
10 cups of Chicken Soup
40ish Electrolyte tablets
Cups and cups of Gatorade, Coke, Gingerale, Dr. Pepper, and Rootbeer
1 Red Bull