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From Fellrnr.com, Running tips
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* '''Fuel'''. For this race I used [http://www.amazon.com/Ensure-Complete-Balanced-Nutrition-Chocolate/dp/B000ARTNJW Ensure Plus] as my primary source of calories rather than my usual [[Fellrnr's Go Juice| Go Juice]]. This was partly to experiment with a higher fat intake, and partly to reduce the stress on my wife who was crewing. Mixing the drinks is a real pain for the crew, and the Ensure Plus seemed to work quite well. I ended up drinking more than I expected, getting through 16 bottles, which gave me 5,600 Calories, 176g fat, 800g carbs, and 208g protein. The Ensure Plus remained palatable right to the end, and I might have had more of them if I brought a sufficient supply. Other than the Ensure Plus, I had a couple of soft, chewy cookies, but nothing else solid. I did fill a cup with Coke at aid station 3 (65 miles) and found myself cradling the bottle like a mother with a newborn baby, repeated filling and emptying the cup until I'd consumed a good portion of the 2 liters.
* '''Fluid'''. I drank nearly 2 gallons of my [[DIY Electrolyte Drink]], and this kept the well hydrated.
* '''Morton Stretch'''. The [[Morton Stretch]] worked amazingly well, and every time I did it, I felt stronger and smoother afterwards. The effects seemed to last for 30-60 minutes before I could feel the soreness and tightness return, though this is such a slow change and things are degrading as the race progresses so it's hard to put a timeline on how frequently to repeat.
* '''Downhill Training'''. It may seem bizarre to do [[Downhill Running| Downhill Training]] to prepare for a completely flat race, but I'm convinced that this is the reason why my quads remained stronger and pain-free throughout the race. In fact I had no quad pain or [[Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness]] after the race. [[Downhill Running| Downhill Training]] is so effective for a flat race because it builds up resistance to the eccentric stresses involved in the running, even running on the flat course.
* '''Mental tricks'''. 100 mile race is always an immense mental challenge, and the longer barren stretches of the graveyard exacerbate this. I found a number of mental tricks that I've used on other races became particularly valuable.
* '''Sunburn'''. In last year's race I sunburned my arms rather badly, so this year I wore my long sleeved [[UnderArmour HeatGear Top]]. This thin white top protected me from the sun and helped keep my temperature stable. In addition to the well-known long-term health risks and short term pain of sunburn, there are more immediate consequences for a runner. The redness of sunburn prevent your body from conserving heat when it's cold, and the skin damage limits sweating when it's hot. This means that sunburn makes it much harder to control your body's temperature. Sadly, I didn't think to put on my sun cap that would have shaded my neck and face, so these areas did get sunburned.
* '''Heart Rate Monitoring'''. I think I finally cracked the problem of my heart rate monitor strapped chafing during longer ultras, so it was nice to be able to have that information available. Sadly my, and Garmin 310XT ran out of power about mile 95, probably because I've not been using it for the last few months as I've been testing other devices. This meant that for the last hour of the race my subconscious was continually asking "are we nearly there yet", which was like running with an attention deficit three-year-old in your head.
* '''Shoes'''. Overall, my feet did well, with no blisters or serious problems. However, my feet were the worst source of pain, from muscular fatigue, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plantar_fascia plantar fascia] stress, general overuse and pounding. This is normal for me in an ultra, and I may need to focus more training and massage on my feet. I ran the first 50 miles in the [[Shoes| Altra Olympus]], which worked well. At the half way point I changed into Hoka Bondi to see if the change would make my feet feel better. I was surprised by just how radically different the shoes felt, and I had trouble running for the first quarter mile. The change did seem to move the pain in my feet around a bit, and as they say 'a change is as good as a rest'. I would have swapped back to the Olympus as I prefer them now and another change would be good, but by that point the idea of sitting down to change shoes was unappealing.
=Course Overview=
For those of you who are thinking about running the graveyard 100 I thought I'd include my perspective on the course.
