I realize this has been months after I’ve completed the Yeti 24 hour Ultra that I’m finally posting this, but! The information is still relevant and I hope you all will enjoy reading about my 24 hour journey anyway 🙂
This ultra running adventure started out the way that most of my running adventures do. I hear about a friend doing it and the idea blazes through my mind like a wildfire and before I know it, it’s a raging inferno that takes over all my thoughts so I absolutely must do it as well. In this case, it was my good friend that is in my Ragnar van fam and who I have also run many other races with. We are both ambassadors for Picky Bars and I saw her talk about it (many others were doing it too!) and before I knew it, I was announcing to my husband “hey, there’s this cool virtual race challenge… all I have to do is run 5 miles every four hours for 24 hours!”
Him: umm isn’t that like 30 miles?
Me: Yeah, but it’s split up into 6 different runs so it’s not that bad!
Him: When are you going to sleep?
Me: Oh, you know, maybe I’ll sneak in a nap…
He clearly thought I was crazy and hey, maybe quarantine brain played a part but all of a sudden I was just excited for something to plan for and do. In a time when so much is out of my control, this was something I could meticulously plan for and work toward and do. It was something tangible I could control and I think I really needed that. Also, I can never turn down a challenge… I’ve never run that amount of miles in 24 hours before so hey, why not? Sounded like a good idea! 😀
While there may have been a few times during that 24 hours where I asked myself why I’m a masochist and why I decided to do this to myself, overall, I had a great time and have zero regrets for tackling this crazy difficult challenge! What are runners if not tenacious slightly crazy people, right? Ha! Anyway, I wanted to recap my experience and provide some tips to those who may still be thinking of tackling this!
I chose to do run times of 6 AM / 10 AM / 2 PM / 6 PM / 10 PM / 2 AM because I felt like this would give me the best times running plus would give me a full night’s sleep the night before. I’ve done Ragnars where I’m up until roughly that time in the wee hours of the morning to do a run with barely any sleep so that last 2 AM leg time didn’t faze me too much and didn’t seem like it would be too bad. This combination of times seemed like the best configuration for me! I have seen some people starting in the early AM hours or starting in the afternoon and running through the night so the world is your oyster!
Pre Yeti Prep:
I didn’t do anything too major to prepare except LAUNDRY! Gotta make sure I had 6 clean sets of running clothes ready to go!
I had a rough idea of what my meals would be. I had my normal post run fuels I knew would be good on my stomach. My advice is to make sure you’re stocked up on things you know you’ll do well with – nothing new on race day, right?
My fave pre-run fuel/snacks/post run fuel: Picky Bars, Picky oatmeal (how bout dem apples!), turkey + tortilla wrap, bagels + peanut butter, pretzels. Basically, all my Ragnar van snacks really. Nuun for all my hydration needs (fave flavor: grape!)
Leg #1: 6 AM
4:45 AM: alarm wake up! I need all that extra time to:
1) press snooze (I do this every day, it’s just how I wake up, ha)
2) eat breakfast
3) stretch and foam roll and properly warm up. I am forever jealous of people that roll out of bed and go but I will always keep my warm up routine to make sure I stay injury free!! Thanks, hips, for all the extra work you make me do.
5:00 AM:
-Breakfast of Picky oatmeal + 1 tsp drizzle (I put drizzle on everything, really, that stuff is delicious – check it out)
-Fill my Nathan water bottle
5:30 AM: stretch, foam roll, glute activation for proper warm up
6:00 AM: run time! 5 miles, let’s go!
I made sure I went at a lower pace since this was only leg #1 so this felt comfortable and decent!
How I felt post run: GREAT! I was psyched to finish leg one of my Yeti ultra challenge adventure and felt totally pumped! I got home, changed out of my sweaty clothes and made myself a post run snack. I made a cup of tea and sat down with a book and it was totally relaxing and fantastic!
Leg #2: 10 AM
9:15 AM: time to prepare for leg #2 with my whole stretch/foam roll/warm up routine
9:40 AM: half a bagel pre-run snack
10:00 AM: Time for my 2nd run!
How I felt post run: Still feeling pretty good! The weather cleared up right before I left for my run so while things were wet, I didn’t get rained on. It started raining right as I finished so I felt pretty fortunate. My knee felt a little odd after this 2nd leg which was weird but it was on my right side (my right troublesome hip) so things feeling off on that side happens a lot.
I took a shower after this one and remember thinking man, it’s so nice to take a hot shower in between legs versus just body wipes during Ragnars!
12:00 PM: lunch and some relaxation time
1:00 PM: peering out at the weather, bemoaning the fact that it was absolutely POURING outside, just really coming down. I’m a PNW girl, rain doesn’t bother me but I was definitely whining about how hard it was raining. (“Why did I start posting about this to social media?? No one would’ve known if I quit now if I hadn’t!”)
Leg #3: 2:00 PM
This was a WET ONE. The type of wet where your shoes are squishing within five minutes, there’s water dripping off the brim of your hat and water streaking across your face. The good news was the rain kept most people off the popular flat trail I wanted to run on so I didn’t have to worry about it being crowded and having to try and social distance. So it worked out!
I definitely sped up and had some faster mile splits toward the end because I just wanted to get home and out of the rain 😉
How I felt post run: WET. Haha. I was starting to feel tired – manageable, since 15 miles is still in the range of how much I have run in this amount of time before but I could feel the tiredness set in. I also was worrying about my hip a bit since this was only halfway through and it was definitely tight.
3:30 PM: Decided to do a quick epsom salt bath for my hip! Disclaimer: I hate baths. It’s hard for me to stay in the hot bath sweating but I know the epsom salts really help my perpetually tight hip / other muscles. It just takes so much time! But I was really glad I did this because my hip felt much better afterward.
4:30 PM: Ordered a curbside pick up of burgers and fries from my favorite burger place for after my leg #4 run! Because yes, I run for *fill-in-the-blank-food-here* Anything and everything! 😉
5:00 PM: Made half a turkey bagel sandwich for my pre-run snack. Added avocado and Trader Joe’s everything bagel seasoning like I love to do.
Leg #4: 6:00 PM
I definitely felt the tiredness in my legs during this leg! I kept my splits even and my heart rate lower than my norm. I can see how low heart rate running is beneficial! I’ve heard it said that if you run at a low heart rate, you can “run forever” and LHRT is how a lot of people train for ultras. I never have but I can see the benefits for it, for sure!
After this leg, I hopped in the car to go pick up dinner! Dinner was curbside pick up from one of my favorite local burger places and I devoured it. Plus the ginormous side order of fries. I wasn’t too concerned going ham on dinner originally because I’ve definitely eaten large dinners during Ragnar and had no problems but as I sat there feeling super full afterward, I realized that the turnaround for running the Yeti is drastically different than during Ragnar. Meaning, I had way less time to actually digest said large meal. Learn from me: don’t go all out on a huge dinner. You’ll thank me later.
8:00 PM: Had a minor breakdown sitting on the couch where I tearfully told my husband I was just so tired and I didn’t wanna run two more freaking legs. Especially because in my hard head I had decided I wanted to run a slightly longer 5th leg so that I could hit a total of 50K (what was 1.1 miles more to hit that 50K mark, past Wendy had thought). Well, I sure wasn’t wanting to do that now that I was facing down running 6.1 miles instead of 5 for my 5th leg. Ha!
9:00 PM: Had a mental pep talk with myself and got my butt foam rolling for leg #5.
Leg #5: 10:00 PM
I am so glad my husband ran this leg with me. It was a rough one! I was tired and my food felt like it was too heavy in my stomach and it was just blegh. I did manage to force myself to get run that extra 1.1 miles though! I’ll be honest, if my husband wasn’t running with me though… it’s a toss up on if I would’ve made myself run that extra mile.
I jumped into a quick epsom salt bath again after this run and managed to lay down on the couch and sort of doze/lightly nap for about 30 minutes. I didn’t even foam roll before my next run. I was sort of just like, okay, last leg, just go get it done.
Leg #6: 2:00 AM
I decided to do loops around my neighborhood because I felt a little uneasy running too far out at that time of night. I live in a safe area! But I felt better about sticking close to home. However, this meant that I was doing like 5-6 loops and boy did that get old!
I also didn’t play any music because I didn’t want to put headphones in — just wanted to be able to hear my surroundings 100%. I did walk for a few minutes here and there because I started feeling kinda nauseous. It may have been some remnant of that big dinner still, I’m not sure.
It was a little anticlimactic when I hit that 5 mile mark and I stopped my watch – unlike a Ragnar where you still have your van and friends whisper cheering you on in those late morning hours, I just had my silent street (where I’m sure if anyone looked out their window was just wondering why this girl was running loops at 2 in the morning, ha!) I jumped into the shower asap afterward and collapsed into bed right away. I DID IT!
Post Yeti:
I didn’t feel too bad the next morning! Was just tired from the lack of sleep probably but overall, my body felt okay! The usual general soreness, of course, but mostly, I was just excited that I had completed the challenge! 🙂
Overall, despite the times during that 24 hr period when I whined about running and felt tired, I’m so glad I took this on! I’m super proud that I accomplished this and made me want to run a 50K race some day for real. This was honestly just what I needed in the middle of the stay home orders and the massive shit show that is 2020 (I mean, the shit show is still going…but I digress.)
Anyway, apparently, there is now a new Yeti challenge happening! It’s a 50 MILER challenge: running 8 something miles every 4 hours! CRAZY, I tell you! I may have briefly entertained this idea but I think it’s a little out of my reach right now, haha! Anyone out there thinking of taking it on? I’ll link it here 😉
Do let me know if any of you also did this challenge or if I’ve inspired anyone to do something similar. Hopefully these tips and my experience are useful to read about! If anything, I hope you enjoyed reading about my 24 hour adventure!
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