Ultravirus 12 Hour

With the pandemic in full swing, all in-person races have been cancelled, and I heard about this 12 hour race from a friend, so I thought I would try it out. It also happened to be on my birthday!

The format of the race was to start at 5am and check-in online with evidence of having run 5 miles. There's no partial credit; you have to run at least 5 miles and then you get credit for one 5 mile lap. The winner is the one with the most 5 mile laps completed by 5pm. In the case of a tie in the number of laps, the runner with the faster time wins.

I found the flattest fastest 5 mile course I could from my house in Montara, but it still has some significant hills, with about 330' of elevation gain. I practiced on this route many times. I also practiced the check-in procedure with my wonderful wife and daughter, to minimize my stops so that I could squeeze in as many laps as possible. I thought the absolute maximum number of laps I could complete would be 15, which would be 75 miles in 12 hours.

How did it go? It was quite a long and sometimes challenging day, but was very fulfilling. I ran 14 5-mile laps (70 miles) on my "flat" course that still gave me about 4700 feet of elevation gain. I was 3rd place male out of 387 runners and I won $50! That almost covered the cost of registration and the shirt, so I'm definitely not into running for the money!

I'm super-grateful to have been joined by many friends along the way. Rob ran 15 miles with me (the longest he had run in a year) and he made it look easy. Mor ran 10 miles, including the final lap, which with his encouragement was the fastest of all 14. Julie surprised me with running a lap in the afternoon with me. Ana joined me for a couple miles during her virtual trail marathon. HMB Review sports reporter, August Howell, ran the slowest 5 miles of his life by doing lap 13 with me. Kristan was along the course multiple times and ran about 2 miles with me. Carol and Pete and Jen D. and Michelle and Mandy all cheered me on. Most of all, I want to thank my wonderful wife and my amazing daughter for their support and for staffing an aid station and doing the per-lap check-in process for me.

The HMB Review had a nice write-up on me.

Notes on the laps:

• Lap #1, started at 5am
• Lap #2, started at 5:45am
• Lap #3, started at 6:32am
• Lap #4, started at 7:19am
• Lap #5, started at 8:06am. Mor joined me!
• Lap #6, started at 8:55am. Ana joined for a bit!
• Lap #7, started at 9:43am
• Lap #8, started at 10:35am
• Lap #9, started at 11:25am. Rob joined!
• Lap #10, started at 12:18pm. Took 46:42. That's 50 miles in 8 hours 5 minutes. Rob ran this one with me, too.
• Lap #11, started at 1:06pm. Struggled. Rob, on the spur of the moment, ran a 3rd consecutive lap with me. Awesome! This was the farthest he has run in a year, but he made it look easy.
• Lap #12, started at 1:55pm. Struggling. Diarrhea. Julie surprised me by joining me!
• Lap #13, started at 2:50pm. Hit 100 km (62.1 miles) at about 3:10:36 pm. So, that's 100 km in 10 hours 10 minutes 36 seconds. Struggling. Tired. Sore. Diarrhea. August, the HMB Review reporter, surprised me by joining me. Later, my wife asked him if this was the slowest 5 miles he had ever run. "Yes, yes it was."
• Lap #14, started at 3:47pm. I went all out on the last lap; it was my fastest! Whew! My friend Mor surprised me by joining me.
• Finished: 4:32 pm. 70 miles.