Another awesome Billy Yang (LA Runner) race video – My 2013 Run Rabbit Run 100 video
Yesterday, pretty soon after I posted my Run Rabbit Run 100 race report, videographer and friend extraordinaire, Billy Yang (www.larunner.com; @LARunr) posted a sick video he put together from crewing and pacing me at the race.
Here’s the video:
While watching the video and talking to Billy, he reminded me about a few things I forgot to add into my race report. In the interest of keeping a full historical record, here’s what I missed:
Hallucinations: I’ve read things about people having hallucinations during 100 mile races, but until Run Rabbit Run, I’d never been “fortunate” enough to experience them myself. My favorite story is that my first friend to do a 100, Assaf, told me he saw a Rastafarian dude drumming on a bongo in the middle of the night during Massanutten Mountain Trails 100. Rad! During Run Rabbit Run, in the mid-80 mile range of the race, in the pitch black night sometime between 4 and 5:30am, I started seeing things. I would look at a tree stump or branch and imagine it was a small animal. With the shadows from headlamps, that seems like a totally honest mistake. But every so often, things got weirder. At one point, I “saw” a kid or small person standing just off the trail with his arms out to the side as if holding them up to wave at me. This freaked me out for a second or two, until I realized that it was, of course, a tree. I also saw a stop sign – a full on red sign with white reflective lettering. I really have no idea what that was! As Sally mentioned after the race, it was probably because that was exactly what my mind was telling me I should do…
Naked guy: Also, around the time that I was seeing things, Billy and I noticed off to the side of the trail a dude’s white naked butt. I wish I had hallucinated that. He was a runner taking care of business, but it was a little disconcerting to see, especially in the shadows when I was hallucinating a bit anyway! After he finished, he caught up to us and had this crazy yo-yo going on where he would pass us running and then slow down and we would pass him. Then he’d speed up again. He had headphones on and didn’t say a word to either of us. I was pretty happy when we passed him for good.
High-Altitude Diuresis/Polyuria (over-active bladder syndrome): This was all Billy. From the time I picked him up to pace me around 11pm until we finished at 9:30am, he must have stopped to pee every 15 minutes. I mean, it’s nice to not have bladder issues, but this was crazy! It became a joke. After the race, Billy’s doctor-in-training friend Lori pointed out that this is actually a medical condition. I’m certainly no doctor, but it seems like it’s an indication that the body is adapting well to the high altitude.
Quick update on recovery:
I promised myself that after the race I wouldn’t run a step for two weeks. I ran a lot (for me) this spring and summer and definitely need some time off my feet to start recovering. I was worried that it would be tough not to run, but it’s actually been much easier than I’d feared. And I’m only going a little stir crazy. My ankle is still bothering me a little bit, which has made taking the time off even easier. I got on the bike with Lukas (who’s recovering from UTMB) last weekend and have made it to the pool a few times. Hopefully, I start some light running again next week.