A runner attempts his first 100-mile solo run from Long Beach to San Diego on just three hours of sleep. He runs the first marathon in 3:40, battles hills and heat, fuels on burritos and Red Bull, and finishes near Mission Bay with blisters and a leg injury.
Chapters
I really don't know how today is gonna be, and I think that's the exciting part of this journey. I might fail, but at least I'm attempting it, and I'm gonna fill you in along the ride. 2 hours in exactly, this is where we're at. Wellington Beach Pier. My heart rate is higher than I expected. It's because of 3 reasons. 1, I only slept 3 hours. 2, there's the excitement of running 105 miles today. And 3, I'm wearing a backpack of more than 8 pounds. I'm trying to run under 1:49. Don't want to have it go up too high. And then the alarm goes off, so that's a good thing. First marathon done in 3 hours 40 minutes. It's, uh, it's going well. The only thing is, is I realized that this is the first marathon out of 3— or out of 4, actually— and it's a little bit overwhelming to think that I still have to do 3 full marathons. So I'm really breaking it up in small chunks 5 miles each makes it easier on the brain. Sun coming out. We got a little hill ahead of us. Let's get to work. Little water stop. I'm going to pick up my burrito right here, right now. Hello. Burrito! Yeah, now we can get some real food in. Decided to change it up from all the goose and cliffhangers. San Onofre Power Plant. The boobies that you always see from the freeway. There they are. A couple of mountains in the background. And even here it's still very hilly. I underestimated underestimated how hilly it is. Like, where I was expecting to run 8:30, 9-minute miles, I really see my heart rate elevate. So, uh, bit of adjusting over there, but all good. 50 miles done. We are nearly halfway. That's an exciting feeling. And the sun is coming out, so it's soon going to start getting warmer. There's about a 7 mph headwind, so that keeps me cool, but I do have to work harder. I underestimated this. I truly did. This is the hardest thing I've ever done in my life. It seriously feels like I just ran up 10,000 stairs or something. 162.6. The lowest I've ever been in running. I'm so out of— I'm out of water. I'm out of energy. It's hot. There's not much I can change about that right now other than my attitude. There's supposedly a store here somewhere that I still haven't found yet that has some water. Do you know if there's a store somewhere? No, she doesn't know either. I kind of feel delirious. Been running for 9.5 hours. Things will get better, but yeah, I'm just super tired. I'm such a happy person right now. 2 minutes after I said that, I found a store. So I'm gonna fuel up right now, feel a lot better, and then we'll go again. 5 minutes after my Coke and I'm running again. That was all I needed. Unbelievable. I seriously just— I think I just got a glucose deficit, low on sugar, so I drank a Coke. And as if a curtain just removed, I have energy again. My legs are feeling 10 times better, and I can run again, and I feel happy. I feel there's hope that I'm gonna finish this thing. For a while, I was seriously doubting I was gonna finish it, but now that I'm on mile 71 I feel like I can do this, so here we go. I don't even know where we are, but mile 82, my legs are done. I can no longer run. I'm just gonna walk. Just like as soon as I start running, my legs are just killing me, so I'm just gonna walk it out. Just talked to Jimmy about what I was feeling, what I was going through. He recommended getting a coffee, getting some caffeine in. CVS is about the only store I could find, so see if they have some mocha. Starbucks coffee, Red Bull, Skittles, M&M's, and water. Score. I'm running again. Unbelievable. How the hell did I wake up from that? Feeling really shitty. It's the food again. The steepest hill of them all. We're at mile 88.8, my favorite number. Just walking this up, it's just way too steep for me to run right now. But, uh, yeah, I was able to run several miles back to back, so I was really able to catch up on some time, which It was great. And so now we're already nearing San Diego. Going away from the beach right now. Going up into the hilly area. Mission Bay Park! City of San Diego! I'm so happy right now. I'm gonna run to 100 miles. Not to 105. It's getting quite sketchy out. I lost my headlight. People driving kind of crazy. I'm very satisfied with 100 miles, so one more mile to go. I see a beach path. I'm gonna run. Ow, ow, ow! Oh, someone is jabbing a knife in my leg. Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Ow. Started in the dark, ran all day, saw the sun come up, experienced highs and lows, and now we see the sun go down. I really thought that the last 20 miles I would have to walk 18-minute miles. I missed the last train and everything, but I was able to keep running. 0.2 miles to go until I hit my first 100-mile run. It wasn't a mountain run, but there were definitely some steep hills there. 0.05 miles. A few more steps. 100 miles. I'm tired. Wow, that was a long one. I made it back. Back to Long Beach, back to my apartment. I have the hardest time walking right now. I don't even want to take off my sock. I think I have an old blister on my right foot. Yeah, legs are kind of rough around the edges.
