Dirty Girls 24 Hour Trail Run - 25/26 July 2015 - Mansfield ON
120 Km (75 Miles) at 23:05:59
14/43 Overall and 3/6 M40-49
First 24 Hour Race
334.8 Miles Raced in 2015
When I was putting together my 2015 race plan, the Dirty Girls Run looked like a great opportunity to get in some long night trail running with their night 12 hour option in preparation for my first attempt at a 100 Miler on 12 Sept 15 at the Haliburton Forest 100 Miler. After having to drop at the Laurel Highlands back in mid June, I decided to amend my race plan to use the Laura Secord 100K and the Dirty Girls 24 Hour race to get some good experience in the longer ultras. My goals for the race were to work on night trail running, race nutrition and getting more experience on how I was going to feel after 12-16 hours of running.
Race Plan. Based on my experience at the Laura Secord 100K, I knew coming in that I wouldn't be fully recovered, that heat would be a factor and the my ability to continue to eat would be a major factor in the race. I planned on aiming to run the first 4 laps averaging 14:00/mile, allowing the pace to drop off by 3-5 minutes a lap as it warmed up in the afternoon. I also expected to be a bit slower at night on head lamp. My nutrition plan was aim for 1 gel every 45 minutes, 10 oz of Gatorade/Heed per lap, a meal replacement shake every 4 hours and grazing from the aid stations.
Race Course. Dirty Girl's is run on a 8 km (5 mile) loop at the Mansfield Outdoors Centre which is about 90 minutes north of Toronto. The loop itself was a mix of forest road and single track with at least 700 feet of climbing per loop. The course opened with a section of rolling single track before the first of two bigger climbs on a forest road. After about a mile it transitioned back to rolling single track to the midway aid station. The second half of the loop had more forest road including a long descent then climb on a gravel road before about a half mile of very twisty single track which led into the final descent, shorter but steep climb and final descent back to the start/finish area. The start/finish area was in a large clearing that allowed plenty of space to have a tent for the 24 hour and night 12 hour runners. I found the second mile of the loop in many ways the most challenging to run on as it had a number gentle climbs with plenty of roots to catch your trailing foot where my one descent face plant of the race took place.
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| First Big Hill |
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| Short but steep with roots |
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| Big Climb #2 |
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| Start/Finish |
Morning. I drove up the morning of the race arriving about 90 minutes before the 8 am gun which gave plenty of time to stake out some space for my drop bags. I decided to put up a tent on the grounds if I didn't Murphy's Law would ensure a late night melt down requiring me to rest (when I would want the tent). The 8 am gun saw the 6 hour, 12 hour day and 24 hours runner's get started. I largely was able to run my planned easy pace at the start with the opening four laps at 1:09:!2, 1:07:02, 1:09:08, and 109:46. I found I was getting around the course well, the morning was cool to start and I was getting through the aid stations well.
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| Home Station and Tent that I Happily Didn't Need |
Afternoon. I tried my first meal replacement shake after the fourth lap and quickly found that I needed to walk for 5-10 minutes after talking on that amount of calories for my stomach to settle (which I had been warned about). I took the opportunity on the sixth lap to stop and grab a few pictures. Although the morning had started out cool it was humid and by mid-afternoon the temperatures had climbed into the high 20'sC/low 80'sF and I found on lap 7 & 8 that was walking a little more often coming out of the aid stations to ensure that I wasn't overheating. Things started to become challenging on the ninth lap which started around 6 pm. By mid-lap I was starting to feel significantly nauseated, which led to plenty of walking on that lap and a change of the feeding plan. In addition I had started out on a pair of North Face Hayassa's and I found after 65+ km that the heel was really rubbing. At the end of the lap, I dealt with blister, changed socks and shoes to a North Face Ultra Trail Guide (which I had worn three weeks earlier for the Laura Secord 100K), grabbed my head lamp and settled in for the night section. My lap times for laps 5 - 9 were: 1:20:49; 1:27:50; 1:31:45; 1:31:45; and 1:56:49 respectively.
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| Mid-way Aid Station - Awesome Volunteers All Day |
Night and Finish. Sunset had been just after 8:30 pm and although most of the course was tree covered I found I didn't need my head lamp until about 9:15. I tried working with a head lamp and a lamp at my waist which I found worked relatively well and the entire loop was runnable through the night. Based on my nausea on the ninth lap, I really cut back on using gel and shifted to more real food, particularly Raman noodles and pasta salad which allowed me to avoid bonking. I did find that I took a little bit longer through the aid stations and was walking for at least 5-10 minutes after each aid station to let my stomach settle. I didn't find that it really cooled off until well after midnight either. By lap 12 I found that between the distance of the day, cumulative distance over the summer and the 700 feet of climbing (and descent) my legs were really tightening up, so I added one or two stretching breaks into lap as well however, I could still run until the last lap. I moved steadily through the night with first light occurring just before 6 am. After the mid-way aid station on the 15th lap, my legs had finally tightened up so much that I was really wasn't able to run anymore and walked in the last 4 km of lap. Completing 120K at 23:06, I decided to shut it down for the day since I had achieved my race objectives, got the 120K need for the Dirty Girls 24 hour belt buckle and decided the risk of injuring of my trashed wasn't worth trying for another couple of kilometres. My laps times for the night were: 1:35:41;1:34:39; 1:48:58; 1:43:46; 1:51:48; and 2:07:08. Garmin Connect file. This was the first race I had used my Garmin's 920XT Ultra Track feature and found it gave mixed results. Ultra-track shuts down the GPS for sections and then uses the watches accelerometers to work out the distance covered. I found that the watch was consistently long throughout the day.
Final Thoughts. Overall I was satisfied with my effort for the race. Although I had only achieved my C goal, I had still got in night running, plenty of time on feet, plenty of climbing and had another opportunity to try and figure out my long ultra nutrition. I think for warm day's I need to further reduce my gel intake (maybe 1/hour) and try more real food in the earlier sections. Next up is the Creemore Vertical Challenge 75K on 8 August.
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| Shirt and the 24 Hr Buckle for Making 120K |
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