A short report. I was curious if I could run another 100 just six days after running 107.7 at North Coast 24. So I went ahead and gave Salt Flats 100 try. A couple others ran it after finishing Zion 100 a week ago. I worried about some aches and pains that were still there, but they weren't a problem a few miles into the race. We first ran 14 miles or so across the famed speedway....very cool. I didn't go out fast and instead hung back and chatted with friends for several miles. I then started to struggle so kicked it up a notch, 8:30 pace to see if I could work out the kinks. That helped for several miles and I passed a bunch, but by the time we got off the speedway and near Floating Island, I was again struggling on the flats, not enough recovery, heavy legs. But I hung in there. People started to find out that I had finished running 107 miles just five days early and they were facinated and impressed that I was ahead of them. Then something very interesting happened, we hit our first major hill on Sliver Island, several miles of constant uphill. Those around me were walking, but I discovered that I could run every step up the hill and do so pretty fast. I passed a handful of runners. This pattern continued throughout the race. I would struggle on the flats but on every hill, I could really charge up it and I kept moving up in the standings. However on the other side of Crater Island, we had to do a very long seven-mile mud flat run that you just couldn't run fast. Because of the slowness, I ran out of water with three miles to go and really suffered with dehydration. I ended up losing at least 90 minutes because of that. It took me 2.5 hours to finally recover. The sun was just about set and when I arrived at the mile 61 aid station, I felt fantastic. I decided that it was time to race. I put on a specific song that has a beat that really helps me run fast up hills. It worked. The next leg was to go up and over a pass on Silver Island. I ran like crazy up that hill, passing several, and by the time I reached the next aid station, I caught up with runners who had left me behind hours earlier. I then charged up the next hill passing more and as I ran down the other side, I had moved into 7th place and had my sights on the 6th place guy. I was really flying and having a blast. But, in the dark, I took my eye of the trail for a moment, tripped and took a major fall, resulting in a very bloody arm. I was lucky it didn't break. That totally took the wind out of my sails and at the next aid station I had to stop to try to fix up the arm. For the rest of the night, I had good periods whenever I had an uphill. The aid station folks were amazing and I was really surprised that they would all call out my name as I arrived because of my green light. There was another long stretch around mile 82 where I ran out of water again and slowed way, but I was still able to keep my position. The course seemed long to me for a 100-miler. I don't have proof, just my gut. I'll have to take a closer look. As dawn approached. I reached the start/finish area and crossed the line in 23:29, in 8th place. I was glad to score another sub-24 finish. I was very surprised to get it because of these back-to-back finishes. I think I came away with some new tricks that works for me in really charging up hills fast. I look forward to further developing those skills because it made a huge difference to run up hills while everyone else around me was walking.
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