I played a small part in the creation of the Team Foster Last Person Standing. I was brought in as an advisor when Nick Liermann contacted my friend John Sullivan. Nick was interested in putting on an ultra, but wasn’t sure what type of event. I had recently completed my first LPS, and was riding the high of such an awesome format. I advised on a few minor details, and that was the extent of my involvement. Nick and his team took the idea and create a amazing event for its first, and hopefully annual event on the SRT. If you are unfamiliar with the format it consists of a 4.1-mile loop, or out and back run every hour on the hour until everybody drops. Sounds simple, right? In this race report I detail what went right, what went wrong, and what I would have done differently.

What Went Right

Warm Clothing: I brought two types of jackets—a lightweight and heavier one for night that I could remove. It was VERY cold in sections, and if you slowed even just a bit, you felt it. I have NEVER raced this far in December. Of my 15+ years of running ultras I normally stop running this time of year. There’s good reason for that, I treat December as the transition season, to wind down, and explore some other activities. The big issue with December is managing the cold, but for the event I dressed in layers that I kept adjusting throughout the day. Not sweating was critical to success. I only felt cold once I stopped running at 12AM, and that was to be expected.
Real Food: LOTS of it. I had sushi and two containers of avocado rolls (with soy sauce for salt, it’s so good in a race), no-bake granola bars . I could eat these all day, they are simple AND amazing. It’s the mix of carbs, salt, sweet, and protein that makes a perfect source of energy. I also had a McDonald’s delivery from my parents that was a huge success in our tent.

John enjoying some burgers curtesy of my parents

The People The crew I was sharing my tent with helped keep the fun going. John Sullivan (@eyb) was with me until he had to leave for his Christmas party. I also shared my tent with his friend Jesse. Fellow runners are the secret sauce in these events. The longer you keep talking and socialize with other people, the longer you will last. I met lots of cool people during the event including many accomplished runners. The biggest mistake you can make in these events is not socializing with fellow athletes.
Coaching & Helping Others: I helped a few people with my coaching experience. There were two runners for whom I think I made a difference. I was giving unsolicited advice, which I’m sure everybody loves, on the trail regarding issues they were actively having, such as chafing, and being overdressed. They thanked me for the tips and I do think it changed how far they made it. The secret to longevity in this sport and in life is how much you direct your energy outward vs focusing on yourself. Times when you can help others, in turn, helps you in avoiding self rumination. It lifts you up and makes you forget your own problems. It’s why I got into coaching in the first place.

I helped a man climb a mountain, only to realize I too had reached the top.

Rich – He told my son I saved his life 😆

Foot Care: An early shoe change early in the race at mile 30 helped keep my feet happy. If you remember from my last adventure, ES100 included a host of foot issues. I came back to my tent and swapped to a carbon plate shoe and a double pair of socks. My feet felt great to the end. Injinji socks with a Darn Tough on top is how you create bullet proof feet. The double socks create a friction free barrier to avoid blisters.

Recipe for an amazing no bake oat bar to use in racing

No Bake Granola Bar Recipe

What Went Wrong

Terrain

In all my years of racing, I always treat December as my transition season. It’s a time to heal, and focus on other non-running-related activities. I haven’t been running much except for a few trail runs. That’s a key point here, zero road running leading into a road race! So, what’s the number one rule for performing well in a race? Specificity in training! Train the terrain!

I knew pounding the pavement was going to be an issue. If I could do it over, you would have seen me running on the road to get my body ready for that abuse. I learned years ago the benefits of softer terrain, especially as I grew older to prevent injuries. Removing road running has kept me mostly injury free for a 25+ running career. I think the road is unforgiving as we age, and personally, I find more enjoyment on the trails. I was OK with whatever the day gave me. I had my expectations set from the start that something was going to give without the proper training.

Food Shortage

My real food was gone by 10PM. Multiple jars of overnight oats, sushi, McDonald’s burgers with fries, and a thermos of ramen. What was left was four 250ml flasks of homemade gels. I used 4 of them on the next few yards. At that point all I had were gels I had purchased. Trips back to camp were not as rewarding as they had been earlier in the day.

Hydration

The cold was throwing off how much liquid I thought I needed to consume. I noticed just how dehydrated I was after I had dropped from the race. I dropped the ball here, but in my defense I never felt thirsty. By the time you realize your dehydrated its too late. Performance is the first thing to go when dehydrated. I passed the mile marker on my final yard at 15:00 a mile and realized it was over. Part of me didn’t want to push that hard, part of me liked the idea of sleeping in my own bed. I knew I had nothing to prove. This is VERY important detail here, the WHY is critical in ultra events, its what motivates you when it gets tough. I stopped there and made the decision to turn around. I was slowing and, in turn, not generating enough heat. The idea of getting enough sleep to be functional the next day for family was an easy decision. I headed back to ring the bell and end my race.

What Would I Have Done Differently?

What makes LPS events so fun is the people you do them with. Everybody starts together, everybody runs the same pace, and everybody is going through the same pain. It was fun running with John, and others that day. Hanging out with your friends, and doing what you love was an opportunity I didn’t want to miss. I jumped in because I had lent them the idea, and I knew it would be a fun event. They took the idea and created something pretty amazing, I look forward to doing it next year.

For their first year, I don’t think they could have run a better event. There’s only 2 MINOR things that I would change. The notification to corral is typically just a whistle vs using a PA announcement. Next year they should use a 3-whistle(3 minutes), 2-whistle (2 minutes), and 1-whistle(1 minute) roll call to return to start. It’s easier to know exactly when to walk over. People will use every second to rest before returning to the corral.

Runners with no crew should get some hot food assistance over night. The food can be as basic as ramen, or chicken broth. Those that have crew basically have an unfair advantage to assist them as thinking gets cloudy, and breaks shorten into the night. It’s impossible to prepare something like that when time gets short, but its a huge benefit. This is a small number of racers that would even need this assistance. Hot food keeps you alive in these events by warming you from the inside.

Mind you, these are minor things; other than that, the event was a major success on all fronts. I hope they come back next year and do it again, and the participants go even farther!

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My first experience running a LPS event can be seen here:

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.

bouncingsoles.com/about-patrick-durante/

DFL? Dead freaking last? How, what, why? Maybe coach needs a coach! Nobody is immune from a bad race. Why did this happen? We need to rewind a bit and go over a series of events that put me here. Where did things go off the rails, what fatal mistakes did I make? This wasn’t my A race of the season; I was more concerned about a last man standing event and pacing my friend at Western States. Eastern States was thrown in as a way to grab my qualifier for WSER. I laugh at the idea of “thrown in” because what person casually does Eastern States 100? It’s not a decision you should take lightly. You don’t just do one of PA’s hardest 100-milers without massive planning and effort. That’s what happened here. I just added it to the season and figured I knew what I was doing. While I had plenty of vert in training, it was three vacations I took that disrupted my ability to put in quality training. I missed critical training blocks leading to the race. It’s one of the reasons I ask people about personal plans as a coach leading up to a race. Vacations will disrupt your ability to do your best at your event. Not to say you shouldn’t take them, just be careful when you do.

It doesn’t matter how slowly you go, as long as you don’t stop.

Another mistake I made was my shoe change after the stream crossing (62.9 miles). I needed it sooner, not just a sock change at Hyner (43.2 miles). This was huge mistake. I knew from prior races that I need DRY shoes around mile 30. This is different for each runner, depending on how their biomechanics work, how much they sweat, etc. I made the call to push my shoe and clothing change to after Tomb Flats (62.9). While the clothing change with the poncho worked (a new addition to the race plan), the late shoe change plan backfired for my feet. This is clear in hindsight, but I wouldn’t make that mistake again on a rocky and technical course. It’s the high amount of friction in wet shoes that did me in and slowed me to a crawl. The amount of pain from blisters was just too great. I normally put dry socks in my pack at race start, and forgot to pack them. I also should have done a double layer sock combo, a toe sock wrapped with a tight sock on top. Its a new trick I have been using to cut down on friction rocky, technical runs. So something like this with a sock like this on top. Trust me, its not overkill if you want bullet proof feet.

There were some things that went right. This was the LONGEST I have ever run, at nearly 36 hours. One thing that did work well in this race versus others was using caffeine only in pills to make sure it was delivered exactly in the dose that I wanted, rather than in Tailwind or some other form. I did have a few cups of Coke, but in the past I have used coffee at aid stations. This kept me alert and awake over the night, whereas the first time I ran this race I was sleepy.

My mental game was on point, but in a split-personality type of way. I was reading the book “Do Hard Things” and this section stood out.

Before leaving the room, the researchers gave each child some coaching on how to persevere. They told one-third of the kids that they should think about their thoughts and feelings and ask, “Am I working hard?” The second third were given the same instructions but instead of saying “I,” they were told to use their name, such as, “Jill is working hard!” And the final group was told to refer to themselves as someone else they looked up to, for example, “Is Batman working hard?” With the instructions clear, the kids were left alone for ten minutes to work, distract, or do whatever they pleased. The six-year-olds who thought in first person, using “I” to reflect on their work, stayed on task only about 35 percent of the time, choosing the iPad for the majority of their ten minutes. The kids who referred to themselves by their name fared a little better, spending around 45 percent of their time on task. But it was the final group, which focused on Bob the Builder, Batman, or Dora the Explorer as the example of someone who worked hard, who stayed on task nearly 60 percent of the time. The more the child was distanced from his inner self, the longer he or she persisted.

“It’s easier to give advice to a friend than to yourself” is an adage that most of us have heard, and it largely holds. Should we quit a job or end a relationship? We’re often too close to the issue to have any sort of objectivity. We wrestle over the decision, with our inner voice offering a mix of justifications and rationalizations. Yet, if we see the same situation with a friend or acquaintance, the answer comes nearly instantly. We tell our friend that she needs to drop that guy without hesitation. This phenomenon doesn’t just hold true with giving advice, but also in helping us persist and navigate internal discomfort. It can be easily influenced simply by changing our grammar.

The six-year-old children were creating what’s called psychological distance. When we use first-person pronouns as part of our inner dialogue, the bond between ourselves and the situation is too tight. When we use third-person pronouns, our first name, or examples of others, it creates space between our sense of self and the situation. We transform into that friend giving advice, not blinded by our connection to the issue. According to work done by researchers from the University of Michigan, first-person pronouns tend to create a self-immersed world, while using words and phrases that create space produces a self-distanced perspective.

So how did I use this? Instead of saying, “You can do this,” or “Come on Patrick,” I replaced it with this image of the coach. Coach wouldn’t fail; coach would not DNF. “I” gave up multiple times, but coach didn’t. I kept referring to myself almost in the third person in this form, a coach doesn’t give up. A role model to others and my children, and as I kept talking to myself in the third person, this image of what I saw as a coach, that is what was the defining thing that kept pushing me forward. This idea that I’m something greater, that is inspiring, versus seeing myself as just another runner. I was giving myself advice vs rationalizing a reason to quit. I was the unstoppable coach, that yes, made a mistake, but wasn’t going to give up.

At one aid station I asked if they had anything to pop blisters; they wouldn’t give me anything, but they did have a spray bottle filled with alcohol to dry off my feet. That was another way I had done damage control when I couldn’t replace my shoes. It’s actually something I need to remember for the future—a small spray bottle filled with rubbing alcohol felt amazing for wet, soaked feet. I need to remember to pack that in my bags, because it helped bring my feet back to life.

Your crew is more important than you think, even if they are just waiting for you at the end. One of the things that was different for this race versus the nine before it was that my father was not there. This was also a test to see if I could race fully in the solo/no crew division. I did miss him; it did play a factor. When you know someone is waiting for you at the end, anyone is waiting, you find a reason to dig deep. I didn’t have that this race, and it showed. While my dad is older and can’t make it to all aid stations, the moral support he provides is critical to success. Having a father who’s willing to wait for you and help you achieve your dreams and pushes you forward in these events. He’s not the only one supporting me; there are many people also at home making this trip a reality. I had to start powering my mind with all the people NOT there that were helping, as well as the actual race volunteers. They were so helpful—you can see in the video the difference they made in my finishing.

For all your suffering in solo division you get a cup! Is it worth it?

An additional item that was a hit in this race was setting up the car as a sleeper after the event. I learned that if you let the car idle with the AC on and sleep in the back, it uses about 4 gallons of gas an hour. I slept well after I finished, in the back of the car with the AC on. When my feet went south and I was on my way back for the final stretch, it felt great to dunk my feet in any small stream I could find.

In the end, a finish is a finish at Eastern States 100. Initially I didn’t know how to process this DFL, I almost was embarrassed by it. That quickly changed and I was proud of it. To grit it out for 36 hours and be last was an honor. I am glad I recorded the entire thing as well, because I think the video came out well. It shows my struggle, and it shows we are all human, and nobody is immune to having a bad day. It seems like life likes to throw you the lessons you need to learn the most. I am STILL learning to take on these races, but the thing is I don’t give up. I keep improving, and I keep trying, because that’s just what “coach” would do.

Thanks for reading!