Rocky Raccoon was only Liza’s third 100 miler, but she improved her finishing time over her time there last year by almost 6 hours! She won in 15:45:03, which is extremely fast for a trail 100-mile race. The terrain at Rocky is relatively easy, however, endless roots on the trail and rolling terrain still makes it a lot harder to run on than a smooth, paved road.
Liza’s next big trail race is the famous and highly competitive Western States 100-Mile Endurance Run on June 26, 2010, where she’ll be up against many of the country’s top ultrarunners.
How do you find time to train for a 100-mile race?
I am sorely tempted to email you a picture of the mountains of dirty dishes in my kitchen sink or the dirty clothes that completely bury the hamper—or really any part of our house—to answer that question. But basically, I've traded tidiness for training time. And my husband hasn't arrived to work unwrinkled in two years. I don't live near baby jogger-friendly roads and Asa (who’s two) just hates being in the jogger, so I never use it anyway.
When Asa was one, I enrolled him in a day school two days a week, so I’d run then and on the weekends, and one evening a week. Asa always awakes at 5 a.m. so I can’t get it together to run at 4 a.m. or earlier. I only work about two weekends a month or 11 days a month, which makes things manageable. I'd love to teach more, but I'm not good at keeping things peaceful when I do. It got a lot easier when Asa hit 18 months of age.
What contributed to your nearly 6-hour improvement over last year’s Rocky Raccoon [she finished in 21 hours 32 minutes]?
Last year I'd come from my grandmother's funeral (she died of pancreatic cancer) to run Rocky Raccoon. I ran well this year because she was smiling down on me the entire way.
Another big difference was that I wasn't stopping to nurse my son every 20 miles. And, while that made for a quicker turn-around at the aid stations, I did miss seeing the shocked looks on the faces of the people around Dogwood aid station when I came in yelling ‘Hand me the baby!’” I also didn't take a nap on the fourth loop this year [the course is comprised of five 20-mile laps].
But the biggest difference is that after last year’s Rocky Raccoon, I wanted to see what I could do if I really trained well, so I hired a coach, Amanda McIntosh. She had me start using a heart-rate monitor so that I would run within specific training zones determined by our VO2 max testing. It was hard because I had to run so slowly to keep my heart rate within the zone, but I've gotten used to it now and it works well for me. As a coach, Amanda is mindful of keeping time with my family a priority and arranged my long runs so they don't cut into family time.
How did you feel during the race?
I mostly felt good. My gluteus bothered me early on, but some ibuprofen took care of it. I planned to run at a comfortable pace, and that pace just turned out to be a lot faster than I thought it would be. If the "wheels came off" later in the race, it would be a lesson learned. I struggled during the fourth lap because I got behind on my nutrition a bit.
Later in the race, the darkness really slowed me down. The roots seem to multiply and get bigger during the night, as there seemed to be more mud, too.
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Later this week, I’ll bring you an interview with winner of the Rocky Raccoon 50-miler, Melanie Fryar.
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