19 miles, 12:06 pace

I had the opportunity to run with some really great Cincinnati ultrarunners today. Dave Corfman, RD for the Stone Steps 50k, sent out an e-mail on Sunday saying that there would be a training run on the Stone Steps course on the 4th of July. I was very pleased to hear this and was looking forward to meeting and running with him. Dave is a 5 time finisher of Mohican and finished 6th in the 150 miler at McNaughton park this year (did you read that Tom, I got to run for three hours with a finisher from the 150 at McNaughton!!!) When I got there this morning Dave was talking to another runner, Dan, who would be running his first 50k at Stone Steps this year. I went over and introduced myself. A few minutes later the other RD of the race, Andy Jones, arrived. Little did I know, Andy is the CURRENT WORLD RECORD HOLDER for 40 miles, with a time of 3:45 (I hope I got that right.) He is also the FORMER WORLD RECORD HOLDER and still the CURRENT NORTH AMERICAN WORLD RECORD HOLDER for 100 miles, with I time of 12:06!!!!!!!!! I have run 50 milers slower than that!!
As we started our run and Andy bolted to the front, I couldn't help but think if I was biting of more then I could chew. Of course that has never stopped me before, so why worry about it now? Some how I got positioned right behind Andy and chased him down the course. The first 2 miles were either down hill or mostly flat so I was able to stay with him. Then when I got to the stone steps, by far the largest hill on the course, he started running up them! Who runs up the Mt. Airy Stone Steps?? At this time I realized this guy was insane and slowed my pace to get as far away from him as possible. Dave and Dan were both right behind me. I told them they could pass at any time, if they wanted to catch up to Andy. They didn't accept my invitation.
The first loop of this course is the 5 mile loop that I run many times a week. I know it very well. We continued running and let Andy pull further and further out of sight. Dave and I talked about the buckle mishap at Mohican, and I asked him about the 150 at McNaughton. It was really great to have the opportunity to run with him. He is probably the best ultrarunner in Cincinnati (Andy doesn't run many ultras anymore.) After the first loop we ran the 3 mile loop which I have never been able to recreate on my own since the race last October. It is a bit confusing and I still don't know if I could do it with no markings.
At the end of this loop we were joined by Bob Engel (Mohican finisher, ran 110 miles at McNaughton park, has run many ultras) and another runner named Bob. I listened to Dave and Bob talk about some of the race they had done. Dave told me a good story about the 2006 McNaughton park 100 miler. If you go to the McNaughton website you will see a picture of a runner cringing in pain as he is being given and IV, here is the story:
The runner (can't remember his name) came in to the start finish line after his 8th loop of the 10 loop course. He was totally incoherent. He was not able to communicate with volunteers or race officials and the officials couldn't figure out what he was saying. This guy was completely out of it. The ambulance was called, by the time they arrived the runner was still not able to communicate and was showing no signs that he knew what was going on. The EMT told the race director that they would need to give the guy and IV as soon as the runner heard that he screamed "NOOO! If you give me an IV I'll get DQ'ed!" The RD told the guy "You have to get this IV!" The runner again replied "NO! you'll DQ me!" The RD then told the runner "I won't DQ you, you have to take this IV." the runner then agreed to take the IV. After a break he got back up and finished the race. WOW, that is a great story.
We did one more 5 mile loop then the group decided to call it quits. after everyone left I decided to run one more 5 mile loop to get the 16-20 miles I had planned. I ended up with 19. There were only about 7 runners total that showed up for the run, some ran part, some ran all. It was a great run with great runners.