I recently ran my first 100k within 8 hours, which was the time limit to qualify for the 100k World Championships. Reports of such races and their specific details can be hard to find, so here’s my report. Written in case the details are of any help to anybody, and also to log for myself what worked and what to do better next time.
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The race started at 9:11 am (May 25th, 2024) near Amsterdam, The Netherlands. The course consisted of a 2.237km loop which we ran 44 times, preceded by one separate loop of 1.57km to reach a total distance of exactly 100k. Running such a short loop for 44 times sounds boring, but it has a number of advantages. One is that you pass the aid station every 2.2k, in my case about every 11 minutes, so you don’t have to carry a lot of supplies while running. Short loops also give a mental advantage: you can focus on just completing the current lap, and then another lap etc, instead of getting overwhelmed by having to run 100k. You also get to know the course very well, so you know all the downhills and flats where you can run a bit faster to make up for the slower (muddy or uphill) parts.
We ran in a big park. The tarmac start/finish area soon gave way to trails through lush and spacious fields of green, winding through patches of forest. Only a few hundred meters of tarmac each lap. One lane had lots of wild garlic growing there, smelling like you were in some spa or greenhouse. Pretty nice.
Running 100k within 8 hours means you have to run an average of 4:48 min/km (or 7:43 min/mile). I decided to run the first kms a bit faster to create some margin. The sky was overcast, it was warm and humid. No ideal conditions, but good enough for those paces. The first kms were around 4:30 which was a bit too fast, but heartrate wasn’t too high. A cyclist rode with me during the first loop, which was fun. I had only ever seen cyclists accompanying top marathoners, but now I was running in first place and I got to experience this for once. At one point there was a large puddle of rainwater. The cyclist allowed me to slightly leave the track and circumvent it, but that meant running extra meters and it was still muddy, so later in the race I just plowed straight through.
4:48 is a fine pace for an hour or two, so the first part of the race wasn’t very exhausting. I ran ~75% of the race in zone 2/on fat metabolism and the other 25% only slightly above that. The race had a great ambiance and a number of familiar faces, providing ample opportunities for short conversations while running. There were also lots of pedestrians (many accompanied by dogs) to say hi to. You were never alone for long, and this always gives me energy. Unfortunately I had to take 2 toilet breaks early in the race, so the margin of those faster first kms was soon gone.
I had a simple nutrition plan and strictly followed this during the first 4 hours. I had brought my own table (for the first time ever, what a pro thing to do). For every hour, there was a bottle of isotone sports drink on the table, with 2 gels and 1 gummy attached. This meant I ate one gel or gummy every 20 minutes, and drank about 350ml of isotone during the hour, totaling at 92g of carbs (about 368 kcal) every hour. This is quite a lot but it went down fine. Halfway I started drinking water in addition as I was starting to feel dehydrated. During hour 5–8 I only ate 2 gels per hour (plus the isotone, totaling at 70g of carbs and 280 kcal per hour). I want to be able to handle even more than 90g of carbs per hour, so definitely need to work on this. About 4 hours into the race my personal crew member arrived. She would be standing near my table every lap, so I just shouted what I needed (‘One new bottle with gels attached! And can you fill up a bottle with water?’). This was of great value and I would recommend bringing a crew member, I could have done without but barely. But hey, this only works if there’s someone who loves you enough to sit at a table for hours while you’re running around in circles…
After 3h30 rain started pouring down like a monsoon, creating large puddles and even streams of water on the trails. Some parts got slippery. Initially the cool rain was nice because it had been a warm day, but it got hard to maintain pace on the slippery tracks. I also had the feeling that the carbon shoes lost their advantage a bit on the wet trails, but I haven’t yet researched if this is a known phenomenon (shoes were Saucony Endorphin Pro 3). Today was my first race on carbon shoes, and up until this rainy moment I definitely experienced a boost. It simply cost a bit less energy to run those paces than on my normal shoes (in other words: at the same pace, my heartrate was now a bit lower than it used to be on shoes without carbon). I had the feeling the advantage of carbon shoes may be higher on flat tarmac than on those trails and especially the muddy/puddly parts.
Around 12:00, so 3 hours into the race, the participants running 50k also started their race. I was passed by new faces, and it gave energy to see their freshness. After a while one of them ran close behind me for a few kms, and this motivated me to maintain pace. I then started struggling and he passed me. I desperately wanted to stay close to him, to get a mental boost that would help maintain pace. So I joined him for about 2 hours. At first we talked a bit, but then I didn’t have the mental energy to keep talking, so we just ran in a silence that was only broken whenever we passed another participant and cheered them on. Running together was of great help (thanks so much, Joost!). However, we lost each other somewhere in hour 7. By then I knew those 8 hours were still within reach, if I could focus and run a bit faster. When you’re already running at your limit it’s extremely hard to accelerate, but I managed to do so on the flat parts and started shaving off a few seconds of every km. During the last laps, there was a small crowd of people at the start/finish, and it was great to see them every lap. The first 50k-participants had finished already and they were still hanging around with their crews, which added to the ambiance. Managed to finish with an official time of 7:57:54. Very grateful with this result. Someone gave me watermelon at the finish, bless him.
Sitting still after the race, the body becomes stiff and cold. The body’s heat regulation can be slightly off after a race, and I needed warmer clothes. It’s important to bring this stuff (I had some clothes and my crew had a blanket). The body also needed food, most of which was still in the car, so that wasn’t very smart. My body was tired and cold and my mouth had a bit trouble pronouncing some words, it was the strangest thing. Didn’t last long though. I’d run past the 100k mark before, but only as a split time in longer ultras and just once as a 100k, but that was a last low paced training before the Spartathlon. It was great to finally run a real 100k. During the second half there were a few moments where I thought “I’m never doing this again”, but you know how it goes and I already have plans to do it again : -). All in all it was a good day and a great experience.
What went well:
-Stuck to the nutrition plan during first 4 hours and maintained high carb intake during hour 5–8. Carbs weren’t a performance-limiting factor.
-Brought plant-based shawarma sandwiches for after the race, best idea ever
-Maintained (close to) goal pace throughout the race
-Bringing and having my own table: nutrition/gear easily for grabs in a non-crowded area
-Caffeine intake. Had coffee at breakfast (~225ml = 7.5oz) and another 175ml (6oz) an hour before the start. I’m sensitive to coffee and felt slightly on edge at the start, which is perfect. Had a 20mg caffeine gel during hour 2, 5 and 8.
What needs to be improved:
-Make sure to ingest 90g carbs/hour, even in those last hours. Also: train stomach up to 120g/hour.
-Need to bring more bottles of water, in addition to the isotone. Didn’t bring enough.
-Maybe ingest 2g of protein per hour? Urine was brownish after race, probably indicating exertional rhabdomyolysis (=breakdown of muscle due to extreme exercise). This is bad, definitely have to prevent/reduce this next time. Never had this before.
-I ran an extremely flat scheme and this gave a lot of stress until the last lap.
-Need to bring a trash can to dump empty gels.
-Bring post-race food, don’t leave this in the car. Also bring fruit juice or whatever, recovery starts the moment you finish the race.
-I just need to get faster
References
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