Marathon/Ultra Number 150 - Staunton 6 Hour

This past Saturday, November 7th, I reached another milestone number in my running career. I completed my 150th marathon, or longer, running event. It was also my 110th ultramarathon. I had reached marathon/ultra number 100 back in October 2014, which doesn't seem that long ago, but surprisingly now already six years ago. Since then, my participation in events, especially ultras, has certainly slowed down (probably to a healthy degree). As for ultra/marathon number 150, it was a welcome catharsis and just what myself and 56 other runners needed on a cool autumn morning. It was my first official running event since the pandemic started, and it provided a brief moment of our old "normal". It's been a long time, but it was exciting to get up before sunrise, do a chilly packet pickup in the dark and dart off into a day, or six hours, of running. Come to think of it, I hadn't run an ultra in the month of November since 2011, mostly because my Novembers were my Richmond Marathon pace leading months, but not this year. The photo below is the start of the Staunton 6 Hour with 56 others. I'm the blurry one on the far right (masks were worn just before the official start). Photo credit Staunton Road Runners.

So, let's be clear, I don't run much these days, so I knew several things right off the bat. I wasn't going to contend for a win and running for six hours was going to hurt. Nowadays, I run about 10 miles per week, consisiting of several runs of 3-5 miles, and an additional 10-15 miles of hiking. The rest of my time is focused on strength training, where the 7-8 lbs of muscle I've gained since June does nothing to help my running. Good, now I have all my petty excuses covered. That said, I expected far worse. The six hour course was repeats of a 1.34 mile loop that had one moderate hill section, some moderate downhill, and some flat around Gypsy Hill park in Staunton, VA. Despite living in the Shenandoah Valley for a decade, it was actually my first time visiting the park. The first 13.1 miles went by in 1:48, and then I hit the marathon mark in 3:52. My legs started feeling like bricks by mile 10, so it was my little ultra shuffle from there to the finish. 50k went by in 4:45, followed by an in-race announcement that Joe Biden had become President, and then I wrapped up my 37.5 miles in just under 5:54. For perspective on running fitness, when I ran my 100k personal best in 2015, I was at 42.5 miles at the six hour mark and still had 20 miles to go. All in all it was a good day with beautiful sunny weather rising into the low 70's. It was certainly nice to catch up with some old running friends and also reunite with some others I had not seen in years, including one that was running the 6 hour as her first marathon. 150 marathon/ultra stats: Age at the time of reaching 150 was 39 years and 139 days. Since my first ultra on November 20, 2004, at age 23, it took 15 years and 352 days to reach 150. About 50 of those were run between 2008 and 2010.