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Author: Patrick Durante

Loopy Looper 2021 – Mistakes you do not want to make in your looped Ultra race.

Loopy Looper - Patrick Durante
Photo Credit: Glassjar Productions
Loopy Looper 2021 – Photo Cred: Glassjar Productions

Recap of my race of the Loopy Looper 12 hour event at Cooper River Park in Pennsauken, New Jersey. The reviews consist of 3 topics, what went right, what went wrong, and what I would do differently. I call it the RWD race review.

right:
1) Brought lots of ice to the event in a cooler so I could soak drinks and towels.
2) This race was the closest I ever came to dropping. Taking in some salt and just waiting until I recovered save me from a decision I would have regretted for eternity. I took in food, talked with some people, and tried to regain my reason to get back out there once my initial goals had failed. Thank god the guy working medical at the event gave me some S-caps.
3) Bringing a chair for my air station. I would also have brought something to be in the shade. The sun was VERY intense.

wrong:
1) I didn’t realize how much the weather would affect me and I blindly followed a plan without accounting for the weather.
2) I didn’t put ANY sunscreen on so my body didn’t deflect any of that heat and it made my body work harder than it needed to.
3) Food strategy didn’t work, I didn’t like what I brought and ended up NOT eating it. It didn’t have enough salt in it. I didn’t eat enough at their aid stations.
4) Small pop-up tent would have been useful for my aid station, but unsure if its worth the investment. GET TO RACE EARLY AND GO TO SHADE UNDER TREES!

Differently:
Take salt, start PAINFULLY SLOW.
Racing in the heat = PAINFULLY SLOW START WITH NO RECORDS being broken. We all enter a race with a preconceived plan, but it’s our EGO that keeps us going on a path that might be a mistake.
Better food intake with MORE salt on a hot day.
I have had hot races before and I should have started painfully slow. Remember 2019 Vermont? I don’t care what pace other runners are going, just worry about yourself and what feels right. Have more than 2 shoes to rotate! I only had 2 road shoes and wish I had more and one with MORE cushion. I picked up a pair of Altra Torin 5’s to try out for the next 100-mile race. No negative thoughts. Stop asking people how they feel when you run with or by them. What do you really think they are going to say? Most will just complain about something and bring negativity into the race.

Don’t invite the devil inside your house by talking or thinking negatively.

-Patrick

Final Thoughts: This race was run in direct sunlight/heat, and I didn’t manage my pace and salt intake properly. I didn’t have any S-caps and I didn’t realize how much the heat would affect me with lack of taking in salty foods. It started with water building in my stomach that I could feel sloshing around. Once that started to happen I didn’t feel like eating. I made it back to the start and waiting until I felt better. All I could think about was dropping from the race. I had 2 chewable S caps and waited. It was like somebody switched off the pain/suffering. I knew that If I dropped from the race I would regret it for a long time.

The pain cave was SO bad that I almost quit. Using the sit and wait before you make any big decisions worked well. It gives you time to regain your thoughts.

Would you do the race again? I am unsure how I feel about the course and looped races in general. I need to get over this failure first before I can come to a decision. I might take one more crack at this race before I give up looped races. Overall it wasn’t that bad of a result. I still made it for 52.5 miles.

Just show up.

A quote I came upon that I relate to running or big challenges in life:

Hard choices, easy life.  Easy choices, hard life.

Jerzy Gregorek

Most of the time we don’t know when life will become difficult. Once things get difficult there is nothing you can do, you are now forced into the situation. Now you get to ride the wave! You are committed, all chips are in. With running we don’t know what will happen once the race starts, you just have to deal with it. Weather, injury, stomach issues, foot pain, it’s going to be something if you let it bother you.  The thing is, it doesn’t have to! Suffering is a choice! You actually get to choose how you feel about most situations, Some of that is dependant on the experiences you have had. So that’s what training, preparing, studying, and working hard does. It prepares your mind to manage and expect everything and anything that might happen.  If you are working hard, odds are, you already have felt difficulty. You have felt the pain, soreness, hurt, and fatigue of giving all your effort. Nothing new is going to happen you haven’t already experienced. So get up every morning and just START, just go, put the time in. With all things, it’s the first time that’s most difficult. We just have to make those hard choices that will make everything else easier.

Once the big day is here, there’s nothing left to do.  The money is in the bank, whatever happens, won’t be because of any last-minute decisions, it’s out of your control. Everything is your fault, win or lose, succeed or fail we have nobody else but ourselves to blame. I have had so many races go sideways and I used to blame everything. You can’t look at things that way because once you do everything is out of YOUR control.  We only get so many chances, so many days. How are you going to spend them? What will they add up to?

I hope you get what you’re after. Personally, I’m chasing experience, I want more time, I want to see more places, races, meet more people. Don’t waste a day. I won’t live a life of regret. The biggest issue is once you get to the end, can you look back and be happy with yourself? What have you accomplished? Every day can be an opportunity to prove to yourself you can do amazing things. 2020 will be filled with new challenges, getting out of my comfort zone. When you are a little worried, when you feel scared, when things are tough, that’s when you know you are on the right path. That’s the only time you will change.

It all starts with putting in the time.  Doing the difficult things BEFORE I get to that starting line. Put in the time before the challenge shows up. I’m not hoping for a miracle come race day, I just have to show up.