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Author: Patrick Durante

Patrick is an ultrarunner and coach from Philadelphia who loves documenting his running career. His mission is to provide useful tips and tricks to assist others along their ultra journey.  You can find his coaching services at https://ultraruncoach.com.

First State Trail Race – 2022

First State Trail Race – 2022

Published by Patrick Durante on May 23, 2022

What went wrong

I made the fatal mistake of running someone else’s race. I was running too much with a 25K person vs a 50K pace in the heat. I was just having too much fun and not really thinking. I should have known better, I have had races in the heat before and knew this could happen. Basically, I didn’t save anything for the 2nd loop, where the true race began. I had put too much stress on the body early and created a debt I was unable to repay. I should have slowed down, but my ego got the best of me. I was under the false assumption it was going to stay cooler because there was good cloud coverage. On the 2nd loop, as expected, the heat/humidity shot up and I started to slow down drastically.

What went right

The first loop was good, I was running with TJ and it was nice to talk with him. The only issue was he wasn’t doing the 50K, he was doing the 25K. He was in 6th place for the 25K when he crossed the line and I was right behind him. Why in gods name did I think that was a good idea is beyond me… I wore compression sleeves and filled them with ice, I had an ice bag on my chest, and I took salt tablets. Once I started getting dizzy I knew I was in serious trouble, it was at this point that I tried to find shade and lay down. There was a nice person who ran a bag of ice back to me, I should find out who that was and thank him. He didn’t have to do that and sacrificed a huge amount of time from his race because of my stupidity. All I could do at that point was wait it out until I could get back on my feet. I tried to get up but my leg kept cramping. As I started to walk back near the stone wall I threw up all the water in my stomach. Once that happened I actually started to feel much better. I have to use the aid stations more effectively if it’s this hot. Stop, don’t rush, take your time and relax. It would have maybe saved my race and given my body time to absorb the water. I should have known I also missed the sign that I wasn’t peeing. That can be an indication your body is not processing the water.

What would I have done differently

Tips for my next hot race:

  • You should be peeing! If not drink more water!
  • No records broken that day.
  • Painfully slow start.
  • Don’t be stupid, you can’t bank time!
  • Heart rate is a window into how your body is managing the heat.


I went to this race with zero planning and it showed. The only item missing from my heat strategy was SLOWING DOWN. Thinking I could beat the heat was such a stupid idea that backfired. I am glad it did. I am two weeks away from my first 100 of the season and I would rather learn the lesson here than there. That’s the power of the weather and I never respected it. If you disrespect the heat, the rain, the cold, it will END you.

The longer the race the more you have to create a plan and stick to it. You can’t just POWER through longer races. The mistakes of the beginning catch up with you. If there is heat in the forecast, then you need to go out PAINFULLY SLOW. Meaning so slow you almost can’t stand it. Put yourself at the back of the pack and just wait.

On the plus side, I did get some good footage to remember this failure. Enjoy!

How I ran my fastest Broad Street time in 18 years

How I ran my fastest Broad Street time in 18 years

Published by Patrick Durante on May 3, 2022

What went right

This was the first time I had access to a gym to do stretching and mobility leading up to the race.  I used two things primarily, this video 15 Minute Runners Flexibility Routine (FOLLOW ALONG), and this piece of equipment Technogym Flexibility I liked going to the gym to work on mobility because I normally skip that stuff. Doing it at the gym removes all distractions.

Mentally, I felt like I was in the right headspace.  I had a lot of good workouts and had taken 2nd place in a small 5K, this was a huge confidence booster.  I also just heard on a recent podcast about acknowledging the pain, don’t try to distract yourself from it, actually feeling it, and thinking about it.  Listen to where is it coming from and acknowledging its existence.  Why would you do that?  Because most try to ignore the pain, they listen to music to distract from it. It will only keep screaming for attention like an impatient child! I have 3 of them so I know how that sounds. 🙂

What we run from only stays with us longer. Find what you are afraid of most and go live there.

– Chuck Palahniuk

I listened to the pain and tried to live in it.  I felt by doing this I was more respectful of what my body was trying to tell me.  I did listen to it and it was not ignored, but I realized that is where true work begins in the race. 

“Lately, my main strategy has been to stay in it and like fully embrace how much it hurts and how painful that experience is because, in doing that I think it just reminds me that I’m doing something by choice and that, and to get to that physical state where it hurts that bad means, you know I’ve worked really hard to get to that point and to celebrate kinda being in the pain cave.”

– Courtney Dauwalter

I am reading the book the Courage to Be Happy when I came across an interesting concept. It was this idea that “history is written by the victors.”  That same logic goes for the version of yourself today, and whatever story you have told yourself.  Whatever version you are today was the result of wars that were fought inside your mind and events of your past.  That story you tell yourself is what drives your decisions.  The past doesn’t have to matter, the question is, “What should I do from now on?”  So the story I was telling myself is that I should be getting slower and I will be getting weaker.  That didn’t back up all the work I put in this year.  Maybe when I am 60 or 70 that might be the case, but I know a lot of people who are faster and older than me.  A part of me has learned that when you drop your fear of failure and your tension of succeeding you can truly run without limits.  I really didn’t care what happened and I was just grateful to be there with my family. I know there are only a handful of these races left see the tail end. I had 2 fig newtons and some coffee right before the start and got in my corral. During the race, I think I only grabbed 1 cup of water off a spectator.  

What went wrong

I had a complete camera fail.  I tried this new rubber wrist mount and it created footage that was too shaky.  I had to delete a lot of the good clips I recorded, but I did learn how to use this new program to save footage that is too shaky. View the clip in full screen to see the difference.

This will be very helpful for future races where I record my runs for my video journal. There’s a saying that is, “Nothing is learned when everything goes right”. I had no physical issues in the race, everything just felt good and the weather was perfect!

What would I have done differently

Not much, I liked adding the week of downtime for mobility, stretching, and hydration. It makes you feel like you are still doing something.  

Final Thoughts

The mental side of these races always becomes a big factor when it gets painful.  I focused on it instead of trying to distract myself from it, I acknowledged it and didn’t try to ignore it.  Basically, I just listened to my body.

The mind and body are viewed as one, as a whole that cannot be divided into parts. Tension in the mind can make one’s arms and legs shake, or cause one’s cheeks to turn red, and fear can make one’s face turn white. And so on.

– The Courage to be Disliked

I got to run one more time with everybody in my family and for that I am grateful.  I stopped caring about time, I stopped caring about pace, and the magic is once I did that I ran my fastest race…  WTF?

The race through my eyes, running the streets of my youth: