My First 100 Mile Ultra Marathon! - The Midstate Massive Ultra Trail 100!

oh yeah there it is my first buckle and everything still hurts [Music] hey everyone welcome back to my channel my name is Dave Dylan from chases amacom and today I wanted to share my experience at my first 100-mile ultramarathon that's right I finished I did it yes but there's a lot more to the story than that if you've been following my channel at all you might know that back in July I was signed up for another ultra marathon called Vermont 100 that race did not go as planned I fell apart completely I got severely dehydrated and I had to quit by mile 45 it was not a good day for me this is the moment where I decided I'm gonna drive this time around it went a lot better before we get into it make sure you subscribe down below so you don't miss more episodes like this so the race is called the midstate massive you can see it right there why did I choose this race well it was an opportune time for me I was training for the Vermont 100 and I didn't want to light all that train and go to waste the Vermont 100 was in July and the midstate massive took place in October that amount of time was perfect for me to recover and hit the trails again at the Mid State massive I am NOT a pro I'm not an elite I'm just an everyday guy trying to get out there and run a lot another cool thing about the midstate massive is it's a point-to-point race so it starts in southern New Hampshire it travels south along the Mid State trail and it finishes right on the border of Connecticut or Rhode Island and actually at one point on the trail that you are standing in three states at the same time there's not a lot of races out there like this in total the race is a hundred miles and about eleven thousand feet of elevation gain something to keep in mind though is most of this elevation gain happened early in the race within like the first 50 miles because Vermont was such an epic failure I wanted to give myself the best chance of success at the Mid State massive 100 so I recruited a team I had my sister Kelly her fiance Adrian my good friend Dave and my wife Jen and I'm so thankful they were there because they all helped out in their own way the plan was that Kelly and Adrien would be playing the part of my crew Dave signed up to pace for 36 miles of this race which is an ultra in its own right and my wife Jen finished off the last leg of the race with 12.8 miles so this whole crew aspect of things is totally new to me I never had a before it's funny because my sister she really wanted to do a good job so she was like in your ideal world what's the perfect crew do and I really didn't know how to answer that question realistically though all I wanted them to do was have a car full of my stuff in food I liked and also just smiling faces waiting for me to get there I mean who doesn't want people cheering you on right this race meant a lot to me recovering from Vermont was a mental and physical thing after Vermont I was pretty beaten down I didn't know if one hundreds were really in the books for me I didn't know if I had what it takes the best way I know how to come back from it was to face it head-on and sign up for another hundred training leading up to this race started back in April really ramping up my miles again and peaking at about 70 miles a week the taper period before the race was about two weeks long I did one week of very low intensity but still had my miles up there and then I did a solid six days of nothing just sitting on the couch letting my body fully recover for the abuse I was about to give it the night before the race I couldn't really sleep I was tossing and turning I kept coming downstairs and like fine-tuning my bags and you know removing stuff from my vest and adding stuff to my drop bags I didn't want to leave any stone unturned for this race I did utilize a drop bag the drop bag was important to have the extra layers because in New England in October we can have temperature swings of you know 60 degrees during the day and then drop into the 30s at night I didn't want to be cold during those night hours because I knew I wouldn't be moving fast the morning of the race I got up super early and I had a couple of cups of coffee to get my brain going a Kelly and Adrian came to pick me up at exactly 7:15 a.m. and we started our one hour drive to the starting line when I got to the starting line I was looking around at all the other runners and what they were wearing at this point it was like 40 degrees and raining and I didn't know how to start the race I didn't want to have too many layers on that I'd have to tear off quickly and I'm frantically looking around at all the other runners like oh he's wearing pants he's wearing shorts he's wearing this he's wearing that ultimately though I just went bare-legged with a small windbreaker that I could take off quickly once I started moving I also had a pair of gloves on the gloves are actually pretty clutch because my hands get cold pretty easily especially in the rain and then I just kind of paced around waiting for things to get going I really just wanted to start moving something unique about this race is it was we've to start so slower runners started earlier in the morning while faster runners start later in the day and I landed somewhere in the middle so my race start time started at 9:30 a.m. and I think there are about 20 other runners that started with me something interesting at this race is there was a mandatory app for your phone that you had to use for runner tracking the app is called race joy this was both for the race directors to track the runners and also for your friends and family to see where you are along the course this app was actually pretty cool it would also alert you if you want to of course the downside to this app is that you had to keep your phone charged the entire time of the race and that can be a challenge but my crew and Pacers found this app super helpful to see exactly where I was on the course and when they could expect me at the next state station okay so the gun went off at 9:30 and we all hit the trails some of the guys really came out hot I mean some of these people looked like they were running a 5k how fast it came out of the gate I tried to control myself and and back my pace off right off the bat because I knew I would blow out my calves before mile 30 if i gassed it too hard at the beginning I had a whole pea strategy set up and I made piece charts for my crew and myself but I knew that was super aggressive and I'd just be backing off of that as I went for the first like 15 to 20 miles I was averaging like a 12 to 13 minute pace and this was very comfortable for me I didn't feel like I was pushing myself too hard by each station for or like mile 20 I settled into a pace and I was running with a girl named Kate later in the race she actually ended up winning first place female Kate was actually super chatty and it was good to have somebody to talk to you at one point we're in through this like cow farm and there are a bunch of farmers out in the field making sure their cows didn't escape through a fence and as we approached them they saw our bib numbers and they typed them into the race joy app and they were like yeah Kate and Danny here they come they're actually cheering us on and knew our names because of the app is really cool Jade and I continue to run together she was kind of pushing my pace a little bit I like nice work Dave she was really taking off she was going a little too fast for me now this course is super hard to navigate mainly because they were heavily on the midstate trail markers that are already in place on trees and signs these markers can be really old they're like small yellow triangles sometimes they're faded or they're high up on a tree and they're really hard to see sometimes mid-stage yeah so we missed a lot of turns so thank goodness I had the course loaded on my watch because this course was a bear to navigate particularly when the Sun went down and I'm not really complaining about this I think it's actually a feature of the race you just have to know getting into the midstate massive that you got to keep your eyes peeled and there is definitely some navigation skills involved so at this point I was approaching eight station five I think that was at like mile twenty-eight getting a little loop you guys technical section called crow heel wedges this isn't as technical as it was but pretty slippery you're approaching eed station number five this was probably my favorite eight station of the entire course they had tons of food there's lots of people cheering yeah man 5-it this job how's it going eight station five was also the first spot where I could access my drop bag I'm like thirty miles in I'm feeling awesome my legs still felt fresh I was in good spirits everything was going well this is about the point where Keaton ice parted ways she took off down the trail and I just let her go because I couldn't hang with that pace that she was keeping five and a half hours in not many people out here so I think I'm near the front of my wave things are pretty good I'm really trying to dial in my pace currently averaging a 1330 piece so probably it's still a little too fast since that would give me like a 22-hour finish time but I'm sure the terrain ahead will slow me down after eight station five the Sun started to set things start to get a little bit dark and not just dark physically but mentally this was probably one like my fur little pinpoint kicked in the Sun was coming down my pace was slowing down luckily this low point was pretty short-lived check out this foliage though just beautiful this is New England in the fall right here pretty a man this course is super hard nope there's a mile 29 this course is really hard to follow like hard to see the blazes not a whole lot of signs and I ended up meeting up with a guy named Pat another runner so Pat and I decided to kind of team up he was running around the same pace I was and it was getting dark is better to be together so we wouldn't miss turns Andrew be easier to navigate plus two headlamps is brighter than one this is Pat guys let's see we got red Mile forty four point six and it is a pitch-black out and super hard to navigate this course so yeah only 60 more miles to go peace kick when the Sun finally did set navigation became really hard we were missing turns left and right Pat and I became really punchy at this point we had both been up for a long time and we've been running for a while as far as nutrition goes I mainly relied on tailwind in my water which is basically just like an electrolyte sugar mixture on top of that I leveraged gels quite a bit and in particular these gels I want to give a shout-out to you naved they supply these elite gels for me for this race and they worked out awesome they're a lot easier to kind of drink rather than eat on top of gels and tailwind I also made a lot of real food at the 8 stations and when I met up with my crew mainly I was looking for tortilla wraps with avocado in them those were awesome I also had a lot of potato chips and salty foods like that and then I liked a whole tube of Pringles when I met up with my career all right moving on Pat and I ran together through the dark hours and we actually bumped into this giant porcupine climbing up a tree scared the crap out of me because it was like cackling in the woods and I didn't know what it was that started to feel some ankle issues I think you had some some knee and ankle issues as he went on and this piece start to slow down a little bit we were both getting a little bit wonky at this point both of our heads are kind of in the clouds and we were talking a lot of gibberish okay mile forty eight eight station eight I finally get to meet up with my pacer Dave and get access to my drop bag once again my voice started to get a little raspy at this point and I don't know why I think it was maybe a little dehydration in like a mixture of all the sugar I was taking in was kind of wearing away the back of my throat after aid station aid Pat and I parted ways he had his pacer I had my pacer and so I set off down the trail with Dave and it was awesome to have Dave there downside is this is when my second low point kicked in I hit a slump a really bad one there you go this is Dave he's been facing me for what 28 2 miles we are at Mile 76 on the midstate massive 100 I feel like a pile of garbage so it's going well my mind kind of went downhill and my pace came down to a crawl at this point in the race there were a lot of Road miles and they were wearing on me man the roads were really hilly I couldn't even deal with going uphill anymore I was sick of it fortunately dave was there to like pull me out of that gutter he kept me motivated he kept pushing me to keep going I felt bad because it was pretty cold out at this point I could tell Dave was getting cold but he just wasn't complaining about it so we got the 8 station 9 this was a quiet aid station so there's no in cheering because was kind of in a residential neighborhood but the good thing here is they had broth like hot broth vegetable broth and this really hit the spot for me is you know salty warm I just a cold night so I was really happy to have that this was actually the furthest distance that Dave had ever signed up for I knew he could do it but 36 miles was actually gonna be his personal best distance so he was pretty excited about that we were watching the miles gill on our watches as we went really for him to hit that goal it was pretty exciting those road miles are killing me those heels were killing me I hated being on the road and when I hit little sections of trail was a nice relief however some flat road miles were welcome because they let me catch up on my pace a little bit so I was really struggling this probably took me like well over three hours to get through and I was just watching my pace drop on my watch my goal times slip away into the abyss I learned at Vermont I needed to adjust my expectations and I knew at this race this was my low point I knew I was watching myself at my low point and that I was going to come out the other side eventually the thing about hundreds is there's so much time to recover you can recover within the race so when I hit this low point I knew that I would come out this other side eventually I just had to keep fighting I adopted this new method of running where I would tilt my hat down like this so I couldn't see the road in front of me and that way I wasn't able to see the hills coming so I would just look at my feet and force myself to keep running oddly enough this method of staring at my feet and forcing my body to work was working Dave my pacer kept yelling out our pace after every mile and it was getting faster and faster he'd yell oh dude we just did a Levin minute mile and that was exciting for us because it was bringing the average pace of the whole race down and I was actually starting to get closer to my goal time this this momentum kept building up and the excitement kept me moving I got my second wind I was actually running again and Dave kept that positivity going yelling out the paces and getting ahead of me and making sure I had a goal and motivation an eighth station 12 we got to meet up with our crew for the first time Kelly and Adrian they had hot soup for me they had ginger beer they had Pringles and they had smiling faces and a big flashing sign that said go team Dave so that was pretty awesome it was very excited to see them I knew my pace was getting better so I wanted to keep moving I didn't want to spend too much time sitting at an aid station boy when the Sun came up it was a game-changer trails became a lot easier to navigate it got a little bit warmer and just generally a happier vibe I like night running at all but like 12 hours of that can get old fast camera work at eight station 13 and again my crew is there I was also pleasantly surprised that my wife showed up a little early and she met us there at eight station 13 as well it was good to see some familiar faces and get a big hug for my wife definitely made me feel a lot better made me feel human again Akai threw down some some muffins they had their leave at this point I'd hit his distance PR so we high-fived over that that was pretty cool and really at this point in the game it was kind of a blur I really don't remember a whole lot was going on I just remember looking at my feet and the sound of them shuffling along the ground so we finally arrived at 8:00 station 14 and this is where I'd be dropping off Dave and picking up my wife to pace me the last 13 miles of the race was actually really rugged the trails were super rocky there wasn't a lot of hills but they were very technical in on tired legs and beat-up feet it was pretty rough my wife is actually not really a trail runner either this was her first time I think trail running she's a great runner and she's very fit but she struggled a little bit on the technical sections and I felt pretty bad because I just kept hearing her twist her ankle behind me and and she was trying to stay positive but I could tell she was struggling a little bit really wants a belt buckle it was great to have my wife there right off the bat she had a big smile on her face and she was super enthusiastic she had music playing and she's yelling at me to keep moving and it was exactly what I needed at mile 90 of this race she definitely had me moving and it brought my spirits up a lot there's one more final climb that was really a buck kicker I saw some runners going uphill and it was like Oh at this point on the trail I actually passed a couple of runners and that gave me a little bit of a burst of energy so at Mile 95 I was like looking at my watch like holy crap this is really gonna happen and really up until now at this point it's hard to fathom that I was actually gonna finish I 100 miler and then we hear it the music in the distance the finish line music people cheering I could the finish line I could see the cones lining the finish line corridor and running up I'll never forget the moment just like music playing and people clapping and if the experience is something I will never forget [Music] I got through the finish line and shook the hand of the race director and hugged Kelly and Adrian and hugged my wife and it was like I couldn't believe I had accomplished this I can't believe my body had let me do this I ran a hundred miles from New Hampshire to Connecticut how many people in the world have done that so I crossed the finish line at 26 hours and 47 minutes landing myself in ninth place overall not too bad once I figure out how to get this thing mounted to a real belt I'm gonna start wearing it I really don't think I could have asked any more from my body than it gave me that day as a personal goal for me this is huge I can't believe I accomplished a 100-mile race I hope I had more races like this in the future my wife is already yelling at me for browsing through eltra sign up so quickly just a few days after the race so what's next for me recovery I'm going to give myself plenty of time to recover I'm gonna try to let my legs fully heal up I don't want to damage anything so overall an amazing experience I feel like I didn't share everything I could in this video so if you have more questions about it definitely comment down below and ask whatever you want it was a great overall race and I can't believe it was a first year event because it was well put together and executed they did a great job with the aid stations and with support and even with the maps that they provided that's all I got for today definitely subscribe down below and give me a thumbs up if you thought this was a helpful video or at least entertaining thanks again for watching have a great day

Channel: Chase the Summit

Views: 26,020

Rating: 4.9675455 out of 5

Keywords: 100 Miler, Ultra Marathon, Training, Running, Trail Running, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New England, Run, Midstate Trail, Trail Animals, North East, Fall, Folliage, Fitness, Excersize, Race, Foot Race, 100 Miles, Endurance

Id: VeyXhEP9nck

Length: 19min 51sec (1191 seconds)

Published: Wed Oct 23 2019