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More Miles Last Person Standing Race Report – Backyard Ultra

Where do you draw the line?  When does hard become too hard?  That’s what I wanted to learn.  Could I manage my pain, pace, and mental demons in a Last Person Standing event.  A format that’s a 4.1 mile course, every hour on the hour until nobody’s left.  Here’s my recap on what went right, wrong, and how I would do things differently next year.   

What went right? 

There was something very different about the vibe of this race.  Where typically I will spend 10-15 hours alone in the woods in the later stages of an ultra, you start with the group every hour.  That made for more conversations, more friends to be made, and more smiles and miles to be shared.  

There’s 3 things I found that kept me running well into the night.  Real food, foot care, and mental daemon control.  Real food was one of the key things most people mentioned, but why?  You can’t stop eating, because once you do you can’t maintain intensity, and this will get intense.  I tell my athletes, when intensity goes up, nutrition goes up.  While real food did work, I also supplemented it with gels to hit carb targets, a strategy new to this year.  The issue I found is most people under eat in racing.  That’s where isotonic gels come in, you just force it down and it’s done. 

Some of the real food items I ate were cookies, bagels, overnight oats, ramen, sushi(California roll, I wouldn’t risk anything else).  Ramen was provided by the nice people working the aid station/start. They also made pancakes and smores, but sadly I missed them.

My “Real” food that I ate during the race

Gear purchased specifically for this race included: cooler, tent, and a reclining chair. I had a cheap dinky cooler that was 20 years old.  I invested in this Ninja that could keep ice for over 48 hours, if not longer.  It kept things cool, and had a refrigerated compartment for things you didn’t want to freeze. It worked very well.  

Home made gels, overnight oats, and star bucks drinks FTW

The ability to have cold ice and food at your feet was a game changer, and needed for most looped events.  I also brought out the Starbucks cappuccinos and BOY did they go down fast.   I dipped my hat in here every loop when temps started to rise.

Foot care

Thee first loop my shoes got soaked, and I knew this was going to be an issue.  On the 3rd loop I switched shoes, and rubbed zinc oxide all over my feet.  I learned about this method technique from running 2 wet 100 milers in PA.  Foot care gets you far.  If every step is painful you are in for a bad day.  Keep your feet happy and dry.  The people that power through puddles and never need a shoe change, god bless you, but that’s just not me.  I will use drop bags for spare shoes, 2Toms blister shield, or kill a man to get a dry pair of socks.  This is my longest distance with no shoe change, 50 miles, because my feet felt amazing! (Weather conditions and humidity can affect this greatly.  Plan accordingly!)  Another purchase was an anti gravity chair when they went on sale around Christmas.  It helped reduce swelling between rounds.  

Elevating for feet for the race felt o so gooood

The final item you will need is a pop up tent.  Why?  Because if you are out there for that long you want a chance to be outs of the elements.  Unless you have a tent or something else to keep you out of the rain.  Be prepared for all the elements when you are out. I’ve learned that weather can change suddenly, and having different clothes is critical. I changed my shirt multiple times, and I almost wish I could have changed my pants as I did get some chafing. Maybe next year I’ll invest in one of those pop-up changing tents… We saw both intense sun and rain on race day.

I kept massaging my legs between loops while I had time. Yet another way I tried to save my legs. See it here on amazon. Its been one of the best devices for self care.

I did this multiple times, in conjunction with leg elevation. I didn’t have any soreness or tightness that’s typical for this distance or amount of climbing. This went out the window when I only had a minute or two between loops, but I was sitting very close to the corral massaging my legs very late in the yards.  

Mental daemons

To slay my mental daemons I saved music until night.  I socialized, talked with people.  Filmed the course, and kept my mind busy.  As they saying goes, idle hands are the devil’s playground.  The same goes for an idle mind.  Keep it busy with the course, music, or talking with people. No negative chatter or complaining to other runners, that’s a recipe for a fast DNF!

What went wrong?

24 hour crew

My dad offered “crewish” support, as he referred to it.  I am self-sufficient in these events.  I know my dad’s limits, and what he can do at night.  He’s 73 so, I cut him some slack, and this is a hard ask to crew you for 24 hours.  My wife is managing the 3 kids back home, so she is not an option.  My father did fulfil a dinner request.  God bless his heart. 

Dinner was a 2 cheese burger meal. It was AMAZING! Thanks Dad!

He assisted on the first few rounds, and helped me break down all supplies when the race over.  What went WRONG here was me being humble enough to accept aid by strangers.  Multiple people asked if I needed help, and I declined.  This is not a fault of pride, or ego, but I didn’t even know how I would direct them.  My mind was fried, and it didn’t even know what it wanted,. Trying to convey that to someone to assist me seemed like more work.  The coaches who put on the race made me 3 cups of ramen and they were delicious.  I had my aid ready, and I just couldn’t think clearly what I wanted between rounds.  You know that quote about having a plan until getting punched in the face? Well things started to hurt and I stopped thinking clearly about what I needed.  I should have rehearsed my breaks better or planned what I would take in the later yards. I also shouldn’t have put my tent so far away from other runners. It might have been a bad idea to be secluded.

Focus on breathe – You are either in rest and digest or fight or flight.  I noticed that late in the race my breathing was getting short and choppy.  It was around the same time that I had issues keeping pace.  I noticed it only too late and then made an active effort to focus on breathing. I was using a 2-1 ration, 2 inhales, then 1 long extended exhale.  When we exhale slightly longer than we inhale it has a multitude of effects, besides calming me down, it triggers your parasympathetic nervous system.  That’s the rest and digest, food can process, your mind can think, and you are no longer panicking.  When I stopped focusing on my breathe I started to get anxious.  It was the beginning of a decline in mental and physical state and it all started with my breathe. I realized this far too late, and the damage was done. I was slowing down and aid station breaks were not going well. Panic set in. I regret not doing some type of loop rehearsal in training, with a plan for the later hours of the race.

Poop Loop

The dreaded “Poop Loop” might get you too! AI generated

Ah the dreaded poop loop.  Having raced for 20 hours I knew that it was coming.

It was the final blow to poor pacing and mounting race anxiety.  I pushed the pace so hard on the pool loop that it caused too much stress “in the end” 😜. On the final loops, I was slow the first two miles, then blasting the last 2 miles. It wasn’t an even distribution of effort over the entirety of the course. 

10 minute breaks in the beginning, down to 2-3 minutes near the end.

You can see from the graph here, I had some 10 minute breaks, then 8 then 5 then 3 etc.  My aid station visits were a mix of well executed, and panicked hair on fire, and I don’t have any hair!  I was unsure what food to take, and in the end I just kept grabbing gels and quit real food.  I know this for next time, have a well thought out aid station visit. Similar to transitions in a triathlon, it should be rehearsed! Plan your food strategy! Have grab bags you take with you! I’ve used them in the past races but forgot to do them here.

What would I have done different

I would have practiced the 4.1 course elevation in my long run. So for a 4-6 hour run I could have taken a break for 5 minutes at my car with aid.  My efforts in the beginning were not evenly spread .  If I had to do it again, I would have found a 500ft hilly 4.1 mile out and back and kept repeating.  Then practicing my 5 minute breaks. Elevating my legs, massaging them, eating food, etc.  I didn’t have any specific training for this race.  I ran a decent amount of vert, worked on mobility, and strength, and then gave it my best shot at a pace that felt comfortable.  Mud is something that’s difficult to train.  See “Rabid Raccoon 100” in the dictionary for a definition of mud. Having an LMS under my belt I have a better understanding of what pacing feels like.

The Dynamic Duo, Phil and David Perkins.

I went in with this irrational fear of getting eliminated on the first loop.  If you stay with the group that’s impossible.  Anxiety only built when I drop the ball on my aid station procedure. Part of me said, hey, I am an accomplished runner.  The 2nd part of me said, you have never done this before.  So I had a healthy dose of a realistic outcome.  I landed at 85 and was happy with 4th place DNF. I also knew of 2 studs on the course who were capable of over 200 miles.  I’m looking at you Phil! One more regret was not staying with the pack in the later miles. I think that could have extended my range. You assist each other in this race and its not as solo as you think.

The mental daemons in this race will break you. The warning whistles to return to the start line are a a constant stress. I would say that I wasn’t consistent with pacing and effort, I was running by RPE(relative perceived effort), but I shouldn’t have limited it more to an exact time. When night loops started I knew that things were going downhill. As time slips and you get closer to the cut off you realize you are not going to make it! You start thinking you are not good enough, you are not as strong as your competitors…Doubt crept in, and since I was alone I didn’t have anybody but myself to converse with. I said out loud “STFU” several times when negative thoughts kept playing on loop. Next year I will band together with a group, or have more conversations to make sure I stick with the pack.   

Final Thoughts

You would think that Last Person Standing, and running in general, would be a solo activity. This event made me realize that the old adage is so true: “If you want to go fast, go alone; if you want to go far, go together.” The people who went further were talking to their neighbors, telling them what their goals were, and sharing the burden of their challenge. I saw Corey take the course distance record for females. I saw a son fighting with his father to hit his 100K goal and not give up. I saw people run their farthest distance to date and be grateful they went one more. For myself, I learned that effort has to be evenly distributed; it is finite. All things fade in time; there’s no person who won’t fatigue. That’s true in my personal life as well. Everyone has their limits of how much they are willing to take. People in your life fall under three categories: “Friends for a reason, friends for a season, and friends for a lifetime.” This event is a chance to face fears, see your breaking point, and make a lot more friends for a reason. I think the power would be in coming back in year two: to see familiar faces and push that bar just slightly higher. To know that the limits in your life are fictional—you created them, so you can break them.  

Thanks for reading.  What’s next?  Pacing a client and friend at MOTHER FUNKING WESTERN STATES!!!!  LET’S GOOOOOOOOO

Philadelphia Trail Marathon – Race Report 2025

What went right

Mindset is the hardest aspect to train for in running. It’s the focus of most of my posts here. I constantly have to remind myself why I do it. Why do I get out there, explore new trails, participate in new races, and keep showing up? This was my mindset going into the Philadelphia Trail Marathon.

Except from the book “Do hard things”:

Lower the bar. Raise the floor. When trying to improve, most of us go for the lift-the-ceiling approach, judging ourselves by our best performance ever. In track, we would define ourselves by our personal best for an event. To get better meant running faster than we ever had before. Brian Barraza, a professional runner, sees performance in a different light. “My goal is to raise the floor. Being confident that whenever I step out on the track, I’m going to be able to run a certain time.” Instead of going all in for the massive breakthrough, Barraza sets a minimum expectation. “When you raise the floor, it allows for those days when everything is clicking to exceed expectations. It’s not that we are lowering our ceiling or playing it safe; it’s that we’ve developed the confidence to know that X performance is repeatable. That as long as we do what’s in our control, we can achieve a certain standard, no matter the circumstances,” Barraza told me one day after practice. As I watched this idea percolate through the athletes, I came to notice a trend. Those who raised their floors had an inner confidence about them. What once seemed crazy to contemplate was now the norm. Brian Zuleger, a sports psychologist out of Adams State University, taught me an exercise to reframe expectations. Instead of aiming for our best performance, something that we can only accomplish rarely, shoot for improving your best average. When we judge ourselves against our all-time best, we inevitably fall short more often than not. Instead, averaging out our five most recent performances gives us a still tricky but achievable goal. The aim is first to be consistent. Don’t lower your expectations just so you can become confident. Understand what you are capable of, and set a standard that falls within that realm or just a touch outside of it. Embrace reality. Understand that a breakthrough doesn’t come from creating a false sense of confidence; by developing the belief that you can achieve a certain standard, you free yourself up to take risks when the opportunity presents itself.

I would not try for my BEST performance, but one in the top 10-20% of what I was capable.  I realized that running a PR can’t happen every single time, but that’s what our minds want.  I had a 3:53 and a 4:13 in previous years.  Goal was 4:03, but I felt that my training, weather, and nutrition warranted a sub 4 performance. That’s what I had set as my target, but would have been happy with a 4:05. Note, the big change this year was I haven’t had any alcohol, but that’s a post for another day.

Clothing

I tested shorts with large pockets that can hold poles! They allowed me to skip all but 1 aid station. They held my phone, 8 SIS gels and 8 mint Oreos.  The downfall is no support for men, so I wore a compression under them.  

The secret weapon! Shorts with MASSIVE pockets in the waist.

Nutrition

Constant fueling and WAAAY more carbs than in training.  When intensity goes up, so does nutrition.  I was hitting around 60-70 carbs per hour and that seemed to be a sweet spot with the cold weather. If it was hot, it could have been higher. I carried no water and didn’t take any on the course. I used only isotonic gels and only 1 cup of soda near the end. DISCLAIMER: This was tested in a half marathon a few weeks before so I knew this would work. Please don’t go and run a marathon with NO hydration except a 1 cup of soda.

Photo Credit: Doug Rafalski

MORE gels and More cookies next time!  I could have had more Oreos and SIS gels per hour. They went down easy. I had zero GI distress. Will that same thing happen if I ate them for 24 hours?  No idea, but for 4 hours they worked well.  My test for the upper limit for fuel consumption has still not been hit. 

Shout out to Alex Takacs and John Berry, they cheered me on at the start, and its amazing how much a small act like that can make a difference in your performance and mental state.  

What went wrong?

I took the first half too fast, but it was a risk I knew I was taking.  I was eating WAY more than I normally do in a race and I intentionally pushed intensity.  While I would say this worked to a point, I would have run an even faster time had I ran a negative split. If you negative split then you tend to run your fastest time capable that day. At least that’s what I have found with my training in the past.

Pacing – The race kicked off, and I went out too hard.  I met Bill Durante, no relation, when my running group, the EYB runners, decided to meet up with Bud Wilson and his crew.  He was going HARD off the start and we went back and forth all race.  Bill was having a tough run, he said he didn’t have any contacts left, and resorted to wearing glasses in the race that kept fogging. The dude fell 5 or more times, but he still kept pushing the pace.  That in turn triggered me to push the pace, I do know better and still ran my own race, but it was a plus to run with him.

I was pumped to be running this race for the 3rd time.

What would I do differently:  

More food, slower first lap, and letting my ankle heal properly after I had injured it.  I was so concerned about missing training that I kept running on an injured ankle.  I did a lot to rehab, but didn’t give it enough time to heal.  There wasn’t that much I would change with this event.

There was a shift in mindset about anyone who passed me. I just finished the book “Let them” by Mel Robbins, and I will say that I kept repeating that to myself. Let them pass you, and LET ME focus on my feet, fuel, and breathing. I can’t control others in a race, and 99% of pain in life is caused trying to control what we can’t.

When we lack control, our stress spikes. When we have sense that we can impact the situation, our cortisol response is dampened. Control doesn’t alter just our hormonal response but also the experience that accompanies the stress response.

I can’t control who shows up on race day, how much they train, and how much of a natural athlete they are. I can control my thoughts, barely, but most of the time as I have written about automatic negative thoughts. I can keep repeating to myself core principles when I race, that the current moment may feel tough, but it will pass. Races are a huge reminder of that topic. When you are surrounded by hundreds of people with the same goal, but wildly different backgrounds and how they got there. No single person comes to trail running with the same goals, or training. Each one of them is trying to run “the best they ever could”, but how ridiculously is that? Stop thinking you will run your best, and try for something that’s more attainable. Raise the floor, shoot for a performance in the top 20 or even 30%. Have a hard look at your training and see if it matches your expectations. Did you put int he work to warrant the performance you expect? That’s where most people shoot themselves in the foot, unmatched expectations.

Each race this year will be a different mindset that won’t put as much stress on this idea to perform “better than I ever”. That’s an idea that no longer serves me. I hit my 44th birthday tomorrow. I am getting older, and not to say that my best days are behind me, I know that I need more compassion for myself and my expectations. That’s a question I would put out to anyone who ran this race. Did you goals align with the performance you achieved, or were they mismatched? If so, you might have been fighting an uphill battle the entire race. Thanks for reading!