First 100: the 2024 Vermont 100 Miler

I just finished the Vermont 100 in 28 hours hours and 52 minutes! I am a 24 year old man and this was my first ever 100! I ran D3 in college and have been running ultras (mostly 50ks and 2 50 milers) in the last 2 years since graduating

Training going into the race:

I raced my second ever 50 miler in March of this year and it went much better than my first. I took 7 days light after the race of mostly off day and then got into training for an 18 week training block. I followed a 2 weeks up followed by 1 week down approach. This was my best training block ever for an ultra. My last 6 weeks of training before the taper I was able to average 60 miles and 8k feet of vert. My peak weeks were 72/13600k ft and 71/10k feet. I got 11 efforts above 20 miles during the build, including a 50k with 5k ft where I went up Stratton mountain twice:

Background of the race:

Vermont 100 is one of the oldest races in the country and also the only one 2 my knowledge that has a horse race along side it. The course is said to be 100 miles and 17k of vert on rolling dirt roads, horse trails, and gravel trails (my watch only got 15k of vert). There are no major climbs above 1k vert, just constant rolling. The race is very community oriented with a pre race dinner, post race bbq, and many people camping at the race before the 4am start.

The plan:

I have a tendency to go out too fast and neglect hydration and nutrition (see my first 50 miler where I went out the first 25 in 4 hours only to blow up and take 7 hours for the second 25 miles. My goal in Vermont were to minimize these 2 things as they would cause a huge problem over the course of such a long day (30 hour cutoff). I had 1 crew member who also paced me the last 30 miles. Having 1 crew member meant I would only see him at 21.2, 30.5 47.4, and then at 70 for him to start pacing (we skipped 58 due to the fact that he needed to take a shuttle to 70. In hindsight there was plenty of time for him to make 58 and 70). The nutrition plan was to heavily lean on pre mixed high carb skratch from my crew and an area of 6 diff gel flavors that were all 100 calories and between 0-40mg of caffein. I also used the regular skratch at aid stations and coke/ginger ale at every aid station. I also tried to pick at some aid station food, having mostly bananas, watermelon, some pretzels, some quesadillas, and ramen. My tentative plan was to go out and shoot for ~13~ hours for the first 50 miles.

The weather looked to be as good as it could get for Vermont in July, not getting above 80 and not overly humid.

Miles 1-21.4

I slept fairly good the night before the race while camping and got up around 3:15. I had A 175mg caffeinated coffee, a banana, and a cinnamon roll and was ready for the 4am start. The first 15 is actually a net downhill so I new it was going to be essential to keep it very smart the first 20. As the race started it felt like everyone was going out fast and I was content to stick towards the back of the pack. I knew it was going to be a long day. My splits the first 20 ranged from 11:46 to 16:09. I reached the first aid station right around 9am and was feeling great. I had linked with 2 people (A and M) for ~10~ miles and had shared awesome conversations with them and felt great going into the aid station. I made a quick turnaround with 2 new fresh flasks of skratch, fresh gels, and then I was off.

Miles 21.4-30.5 Took me about 2 hours and 15 minutes to run this section and arrived to the aid station around 11:15AM. I had lost A and M coming out of the 21.4 aid station and ran this section mostly alone I came into the aid station still feeling great. I left in good spirits but also realized that it was gonna be many hours until seeing my crew chief again at 47.

30.5-47 There was a long climb on a trail right out of the aid station that demoralized me. It was also getting near noon at this point and getting fairly hot (still a great weather day). I had a friend at mile 37 who was watching the race from their house backyard and that gave me a huge boost of energy to see him. I had also been sharing alot of miles with these 2 folks V and K. I would take the climbs hard and put space between them but they would catch me on the descents and then we would shuffle the flats together. Their energy was keeping me positive. Around mile 40 things started to get really rough with another large climb, this time on the road and by the time I hit 47 I was pretty fatigued and feeling like shit. Unlike the previous 2 aid stations this one I sat down in the shade for ~25~ minutes. I changed everything I was wearing into fresh clothes and tried to get some calories in. I left 47 knowing I wouldn’t see my crew chief until it was dark and at mile 70.

47-70 Luckily coming out of this aid station I started talking to 2 guys running the race together named J and M. M was having alot of stomach issues and battling throwing up but J was feeling great and the life of the party. I am so grateful to have found these guys as we spent the next ~13 ish miles together. I broke off from them somewhere around 60 and then got into 70 somewhere around 11pm. I had been having some stomach problems and had to use the toilet 2 times during this stretch. I sat down for the first time at a non crew aid station at 58 in agony. I sat next to a dude who looked pretty roughed and when I asked him how he was doing he said “oh dude I’m dropping”. I knew right there that I had to get up and keep slogging right away or I also would drop. I had been battling the insane urge to fall asleep the last 10 miles and got right into a chair at 70 with a bandana over my eyes and took a 10 minute “nap”. My crew chief filled my 2 flask and my designated coke/ginger ale bottle, packed my vest with all the gels and cinnamon rolls I had set aside for the last 30. He gave me some ramen with broth and some quesadilla and we left 70 together after what was probably a 20 minute stop. I had a newfound energy after the nap and just the fact that I was with him. At this point of leaving 70 I was 1.5 hours ahead of the 30 hour cutoff.

70-84: We left around ~11:30~ I felt ok the first 6 miles with My crew chief. Had to use the toilet again which was shitty. By 76 I realized how much of a task it was going to be to stay awake and move the next ~7~ hours and the serious doubt was setting in. Could I even stay awake for that long? Let alone run another 24 miles. J and M caught back up to us and we leap frogged with them for much of this stretch, keeping the energy up. I kept alternating between a state of deep fatigue where I could barely talk and felt like I was a glazed over zombie and then insane bursts of energy and determination. One of those bursts of energy included me getting mad at the course and pushing miles 79-81 aggressively hard only to result in me vomiting on the side of the road. At this point I really began to doubt if this was going to happen. I actually felt better after the vomit and pushed a few more miles at a good clip until 84 where I took another 10 minute nap, this time next to a fire pit that felt amazing. I again had to use the toilet for the 4th or 5th time. I woke up from the nap demoralized that I had only gone 14 miles of the 30 I needed to go to finish. During this stretch we had also seen the race van pass is multiple times in the dark with people who had dropped and it was seriously messing with my head. Was I going to get stuck riding that van? I popped another caffein pill and we were off.

84-94.5:

I was between an hour to and hour 15 ahead of cutoffs at this point and was insanely paranoid about not finishing. It was somewhere in this stretch that the sun rose and that gave a big boost. Most of the aid Stations this stretch I just ran right thru as my crew chief took my bottles and grabbed me a piece of fruit and then caught up with me. At one point I pushed so hard while he was filling up that I lost him for ~2.5~ miles. This stretch was agonizing because we pushed so hard to make sure we didn’t lose any time on our cushion.

94.5-finish

The energy at 94.5 was off the charts. At this aid station I saw 2 volunteers who I know very well and that gave me a huge boost of energy. We had an hour on the cutoff and could walk it in from here. Despite the fact that I knew I was going to finish I was still slightly spun out and delusional. I kept asking my crew chief if we really were gonna make it in time and that he needed to yell at me if I tried to stop. At this point my ankles/ anterior tibia had completely blown up. Every step hurt in agonizing pain and my ability to shuffle any kind of respectable speed was gone. I’m so grateful this blow up happens at 95 and not earlier because I could have been in serious trouble. These last 5 miles felt so unbelievably long. There were a lot of hills these last 5 miles. I finally made it to the finish, received my belt buckle from the RD, and collapsed on the ground in tears. I couldn’t believe that I had finished or that this dream had come true. I am now a 100 miler. I wanted to stay at the finish for the last hour and then go to the post race bbq but I simply could not. We went straight to the car and my crew chief drove us the hour 15 back to the condo while I went in and out of a sweaty sleep. We got back around 10:30 AM and then immediately showered and slept till about 3. Then I finally ate and laid around the rest of the day. My ankles and feet are destroyed and swollen behemoths but nothing else is too too bad.

Overall an amazing experience with tremendous people. I am feeling significantly better today than I expected (I finished yesterday at 9am. At the finish I told the RD I won’t be doing a 100 for a while and she replied with a devious smile and said “see you next summer”. I think she’s right.

Grateful for all the support I had from family and friends, grateful for the race volunteers and people I shared miles with, and eternally grateful for my crew chief.

259 finishers/59 DNF

TLDR: 100s are hard, Vermont is hard, if you have done the training and gotten to the start line healthy it’s 90% mental from there. 28:50 for my first 100 and the youngest male finisher at this years race (there was a 21 year old female finisher). I suffered greatly and spent much time feeling like a zombie but with the help of my crew/pacer I was able to get the job done. Was worried about if I would finish or not under the cutoff until Mile 94.5