Day 4,477—it was Easier Yesterday and The Vero Beach Octopus 100 Part IX: the Final Arm!—

 

Start time: 7:39 a.m.

Weather: Mid 60s, wind 1.8 mi/h, Humidity 85%

      I got up a little before 6:30 today; both my cats and son were way too close to me. My tiny 3-year-old son is basically trying to push me off the bed, and my youngest cat, Perseus, is trying to claw my face as he steps on my hair. Come on dude! But I made up and out the door only a little after I did yesterday, and it was a beautiful day! I tried to figure out this route based on a modified version of my typical June run. Oh, I found out yesterday that I made it into the Run Rabbit Run in Colorado! It will be my first-ever Colorado race and the one I wanted to do when there are so many good ones in that state, so I am excited about that and no more pressure to think about doing any more races this year. I got 2 more 100-mile races to do, which will mean I will have completed 6 100-mile races this year and added 5 additional states to my total for the year. 6 is the perfect number of races because it is one every other month or two per season, which is ideal. I am super excited about doing this race; it is going to make this school year have a lot of great things to look forward to that happen earlier. I don’t love that the races are so close together, but the ones I just did were 6 weeks apart, and that was fine; these are 5 weeks apart, so that doesn’t seem that different. It is also a good time of the school year to miss.

The Vero Beach Octopus 100 Part IX: the Final Arm!

Arm 8: The Eighth Seal

Time of Day: 6 a.m.

Arm Distance: 8 Miles

Terrain: Sidewalk, Jungle Trail

        Somebody asked how many miles the last arm was while I was standing at the aid station after finishing the 7th Arm. I said 8 because that’s what it said in the race guide, and I had written all the distances down in the notes app on my phone, so I wouldn’t have to keep trying to remember during the race.

        “Actually it is 7 and a half,” chimed in the race director. I knew I had remembered correctly, but he was the race director, so maybe something changed. I was also happy to learn that I actually had a tiny bit less to do! It was only a half mile, but it put a huge smile on my face. I said that was great news! And I happily told every other runner who was about to start the lap, and they had the same reaction. It doesn’t seem like a lot, but I did 7 today, and it was whatever. 7 isn’t that big of a deal. It is closer to 5 than 10, but 8 is the opposite. 8 is somehow basically 10 miles.

        My hydration bladder was half full, and I headed down the ramp, then along the gravel road by my tent, and finally out of the parking lot. I recorded a short video and started running. I needed to do at least 15-minute miles to finish under 26 hours, which didn’t seem that bad. I had realistically run a lot faster than my watch said, but I took long breaks after each return to the Octobase. My watch has my idle time total at 2:50:55, while my idle time on the 100-mile race I did before this one was 1:08:52. I wasn’t trying to take forever at the Octobase. Still, I found that 20 minutes would pass before I had time to drink enough water and cool down, and then I would be trying to get ready to go out again. At most races, there are aid people pushing you to keep going by getting everything you need to do before you keep running done quickly. This time, I had all my own stuff to distract me, and even the simplest things, like changing clothes, just took longer.

        I passed the bridge and was running down this wide dirt road by the water. I saw the residents of the area go by on their routine walk. I passed a guy who made some comment about the loop we have to do at the end, but when I got down to the end, there was no loop like they said there was on the GPS file. Instead of going in a circle, I just ran around the box that registered that I had been there and kept going. I realized that must be the area that cut the arm from 8 miles to 7.5 miles. I was now smiling and laughing, realizing that I was going to for sure make it under 26 hours! I kept going and only took a moment to walk to record a short video. I ran into the finish line ecstatic that I was finally finishing this thing! I sat down afterward and had a great conversation with both race directors and the photographer. They even let me record a brief interview with them. I didn’t have the best framing, but I like the idea, and I want to keep trying to record interviews with each race director. They’re such cool people! They make me want to put on my own STL 100-mile race! I have thought a lot about it already, and I would love to figure out how to do a 100-mile loop course around St. Louis using a lot of the existing trail systems. I need to confirm whether this is possible first. I know 50 wouldn’t be hard to create a route for, but I don’t know if I can find 100; it would be so cool if I could.

Total Distance: 100.4 (officially) watch Distance 102.28

Lap Pace: 12 minutes and 22 seconds 

Race Pace: 15:19/mi

Lap Time: 1:38:56

Total Time: 25 hours and 38 minutes