On December 31, 2021, at nine o’clock am I toed the line for what would be the hardest thing in my life to date…
A 24-hour foot race
with the goal to get to over 100 miles, even 100.01
I ran until January 1, 2021, eight fifty-five am.
Corie was the crew captain and played the most important role in the success of this. A safe place, someone to make sure my nutrition, hydration, and recovery were in check. Someone to make sure we stuck to the game plan, to figure things out, to pull through – and she did with unbelievable precision. Thank you❤️
Pete was someone I randomly met on a bike ride one day. We raced the dirty German, a 50-mile race (and ran most of it together). We of course got to talking and stayed in touch. He’s done six, hundred-mile races and coached me for the months leading up to this Hainesport 24 hour race – teaching me his mindset, viewpoint, training, etc. Thank you❤️
I feed off energy and the energy and support of the crowd, race directors, volunteers, and fellow runners is one I’ll live with forever, thank you❤️
After some reflection, here’s an overview of the 101-mile journey, with of course some highs and lows:
The furthest I ever ran was 50 miles (twice)
And I was looking sturdy up to mile 60.
60-70 the wheels started to come off
70-80 was breaking the race down to manageable sections. Get to the tree. 100 strides – whatever it was
I played a game, how many strides could I do in a row? This went on for a few laps, 700 was the best.
80-88 was all tears, going through emotions. It was dark outside, about 4 am and dark in my mind. “Just get back to Corie” was my mantra
88 took me one and a half hours to complete. It was 5 am, the darkest time of the night. I had to stop and rest because of IT band issues.
I called Pete for help.
“You’ll be okay, The IT band is just tight – rest for 25 minutes and it’ll go away. Widen your stance – you’re running with a narrow stance, this will put less strain on the IT band”
I ended up resting for an hour.
Some fellow runner hit me with CBD cream
Then, I tried to drop out of the race
The race director told me to give it everything I had. It was only 13 miles, a drop in the ocean compared to what I’ve done, and that I had plenty of time.
About that…
At the time she and the volunteers thought I was doing the 100-mile race with a 30-hour cut-off, however, I was doing the 24-hour race. That means I had about 2 hours to cover 13 miles, about a 10-minute pace.
Not impossible… but I had 88 miles under my belt. Plus, my 13-mile training runs float around 10 minutes per pace – I told them I’ll give it a shot.
They dispersed to find me some Motrin, 1200 mg
I told Corie to help lace me up.
I was off and made it to 13 loops with 5 minutes to spare, with the help of such kind souls.
Thank you all for helping my goal get to fruition.
Joe DiAndrea 