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* Men's individual Gold, Mike Morton, 172 miles (a new American Record)
* Women's individual Silver, Connie Gardner, 149 miles (a new American Record)
* The women's team won Gold and the men's team won Bronze.
Although I'm disappointed with my failure, the overall experience was wonderful.
=What's different about the World Championships?=
There are some obvious differences with the World Championships, and some rather more subtle ones.
* You are competing against the best ultrarunners in the world. Each country sets its own qualifying standards, so some smaller countries have lower standards and fewer runners, but everyone there is a top runner. Consider that 20 people ran over 150 miles, and I once won a 24 hour race with 117 miles, which would only get 132nd place in this race.
* The race has far more stringent rules, including dope tests for the winners. Pacing is not allowed, including a male and female competitor running together, as the man will be considered as pacing the woman.
* In addition to the individual competition, there is a team competition as well. The three men and women on each team with the highest mileage have their total distance added together. * This race was also the European championships, and there are separate medals for each. Each country can enter up to 6 men and 6 women into the world championships, but up to 9 in the European race, so some athletes were doing both events, and others just one. * You have far less freedom of choice in the world championships. You have to stay in the accommodation and wear the team uniform, both on and off the track. The USA team was sponsored by Nike, who provided the uniform and by the USA Track & Field which helped offset some of the cost of travel.
These different aspects of the event produce a remarkably different experience. There is a strong sense of being a team and of national identity.
<gallery widths=300px heights=200px caption="The Opening Ceremony">
As you can see from the map below, the course is essentially a rectangle, with four left turns and four straights. However, those straights are not actually straight, but slight curves. I was surprised how many runners stayed to the left of the path, even though the tangent for two sides was on the right. Though the difference between the tangent and the left is slight, over the course of 24 hours the difference becomes significant. The gap between the team gold medal and the bronze team medal was less than 1%. Over time, runners became aware of the tangent, which actually had some orange marks on the ground from the course certification, but it took longer than expected.
[[File:WC24 Course Map.jpg|none|thumb|200px|The course layout.]]
=The aid station=
The aid for this race was quite different to anything else I've experienced. There was a large tent that held the aid station with an area for each team. This tent was a few hundred feet long, with aid tables were on both sides of the track. We were very tight on space, with each runner having about 12 inches x 18 inches of table space (30cm x 45 cm). No aid could be given to a runner outside of the aid tent, and the crew were limited to within one meter (3 feet) of the front of the table and were forbidden to accompany a runner. This meant we only had one person in front of the aid table, which caused a number of problems. One person could not remember everything that each runner needed, or sometimes even understand what they wanted. Getting the wrong thing in a 24 hour race can be disastrous; one runner got tonic water rather than carbonated water. The two are similar, but tonic water contains quinine, which can cause diarrhea. Another runner could not get their usual drinks and had to eat cake instead, which caused some problems. One runner was given [[Caffeine]], which they'd never had before; luckily there were no serious adverse effects.
File:PolandTrip 071.JPG|Teams with fewer runners have less space. Here the Belgium team is objecting to just how little space they have.
File:PolandTrip 072.JPG|The Italian team has three [[Massage]] therapists; you can see one of their tables in the foreground.
File:PolandTrip 074.JPG|The Japanese team is well organized. They had a whiteboard up showing the positions of each of their team and the leader. This was great, as I had little or no idea how anyone was doing other than this board, which showed Mike M’s M's lead.
File:PolandTrip 077.JPG|You can see how little room each runner has for their stuff.
File:PolandTrip 090.JPG|Here is the aid station in use. You can see the yellow line that the crews had to stay behind, which was a great idea. It got ignored in the last 30 min of the race, but otherwise worked well.
=My Race=
My race started well, and I tried to go out slowly, which is tough when the leaders are passing you at a breathtaking pace. I was a little too aggressive, and I was on a 160+ mile pace for the first 8 hours. Things were going well at this point except for my left hip flexor and my feet. I stopped and massaged the hip flexor and it was fine after that. However, the rough brick section of the course was pounding my feet and the pain was quite remarkable. Some [[NSAIDs and Running|Ibuprofen]] reduced both the pain and some of the swelling, but it was still a concern. Somewhere near the 13 hour mark, my right hip rotator become painful and wanted to go into spasm. I stopped at the aid station to use [[The Stick]] on it, but within a few moments of stopping I became overwhelmed with nausea and light headedness and had to sit down. After 30 minutes I get moving again, which was a tough as I got quite chilled and stiff. I walked a couple of laps, and then when I tried a little broth, the nausea hit me again. I was stopped for 90 minutes that time and I was only able to get out of the chair after the team doctor gave me some prescription anti-nausea medication (probably Zofran). The medication removed most of the nausea, but things were still not quite right. I was able to stand, and after a while start walking again. At that point the competitive race was over for me, and so I tried some intermittent running, then resorted to simply walking. I was kept company by Deb for the last 5 hours, and we walked together, cheering on the USA team as they continued to lap us.
=After the race=
After the race, we had to walk across the park to the awards ceremony, which was a long way in the hot sun, taking the weary runners about 20 minutes or more. We had runners who could not walk, and had to find a motorized cart to take them. When we arrived, we found we were part of a large festival, which was nice, but we were outside in the full sun with no food or drink. After about half an hour or so, we were told that plans had changed and the awards would be back at the athletes village. So, we walked back across the park to take a bus back to our accommodations. Again we had to find a cart, which caused some problems when one of our runners became separated from their supporting family. Back at the athletes village things changed again and we were told we would have a meal before the awards ceremony. We sat down to eat about 4 hours after the finish of the race.
There were a number of things that worked well:
* The [[Fellrnr's Go Juice| Go Juice]] kept me well fueled. I was particularly glad of an extra 32oz (2 litres) after the race.
* I trained with a lot more [[Downhill Running]] and [[Downhill Intervals]] which may seem strange for a flat race, but it gave my quads far greater fatigue resilience. (I did find the inner part of the quad ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vastus_medialis Vastus Medialis]) got sore, which I've not had before.)
* My [[Best Running Watch|Garmin 310XT]] allowed me to keep track of how far I'd gone. Several other runners seemed unaware of where they were, and I like to know if I'm on pace or not. (I had to turn the GPS functionality off and rely on the[[Footpod]] to get the battery to last.)
* Because the laps are not exactly a mile, I wrote down my target paces on the back of my hand. You might think you could remember a couple of numbers, but it gets tricky to think after a few hours. With hindsight, I'll write down some key lap conversions (e.g. 50 miles = 52 laps) on my other hand next time. * Wearing an [[Under Armor Heat Gear Top]] prevented chaffing, which would have been a big problem given I had to wear a singlet as part of the uniform.
* I put some patterned duct tape on all my gear so the crew knew what things went with each runner. I'll do that in the future for all my gear. (I use this [http://www.amazon.com/Duck-280979-1-88-Inch-Penguins-Printed/dp/B007V4ONVU Penguin Patterned Duck Tape].)
* The [[Three Phase Taper]] seemed to work well, and I used [[Medium Intensity High Volume Intervals]] for the second week of the taper, doing 40x400, rest, 32x400, rest, 24x400, 12x400, 12x400, 12x400, 3 easy, rest, rest, rest, race.
* Listening to music helped me stay focused on my running and not worrying about being passed by others. My little [http://www.amazon.com/SanDisk-Sansa-Clip-Player-SDMX22-004G-A57B/dp/B005FVNGS2 San Disk Clip Zip] lasted for 14 hours and they're so cheap I had two with my. I also had a [http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B006OT2X0Q USB battery pack] that I didn't use, but another runner on our team used it to charge their iPod.
* Mid-race [[Massage]] works amazingly well. I fixed my hip flexor and if I could have got to my hip rotator properly, I think I could have at least reduced the problem there.
=Did not work=
As always, there are things that did not work.
=Things to change=
There are a number of things I will change next time around.
* As well as my [[Fellrnr's Go Juice|Go Juice]] I will also make up some [[DIY Electrolyte Drink]], as hydrating on the go juice alone can provide more calories than my body wants.
* A saw Mike Morton do some simple [[Stretching]] on each lap, which became the basis of the [[Morton Stretch]].
* Crunching down potato chips (crisps) and putting them in a drinking cup seemed to work well for some runners. It's far easier to eat them that way. * I tried super glue for the first time on a cut on my finger before the race, and I'm impressed with how well it worked, so I will experiment further.
* I need to practice slower running more, especially getting the forward lean right.
=USA Team Results=
==Men's Individual==
2. France, 470.198 miles<br/>
3. USA, 469.002 miles (Morton, Lewis, Fejes)
==Women's Individual==
2. Connie Gardner, Medina, Ohio, 149.368 miles<br/>
55. Deb Horn, Shaker Heights, Ohio, 111.225 miles<br/>
244. Carilyn Johnson, El Paso, Texas, 33.591 miles
==Women's Team==
1. USA 431.617 miles (Gardner, Bon, Lundblad)<br/>
2. France, 414.145 miles<br/>
3. Great Britain, 414.119 miles
[[Category:Race]]