My First 60 Miler

I ran my first 60 miler yesterday in preparation for the Yellowstone-Teton 100 coming up on September 19th.  I ran 30 miles out and 30 miles back.  I hid an ice chest on the side of the road 20 miles from my house so I could have access to it at both 20 miles out, and when I was 20 miles from home (40 miles completed).  This worked pretty well, for the most part.  The ice chest was fine -- I don't think anyone noticed it or messed it up or anything; the only issue is that the first time I came to it after 20 miles I wasn't really really really tired yet.  It would have been great to have had it right at 30 miles, but there is only so much I can do with these type of makeshift preparations I'm doing on my own.

I learned a few important things today:

First off, PB&J sandwiches work pretty well for me -- like they do for so many other runners.  I ate two sandwiches and wish I would have made/packed a third.

Second, I don't think eating immediately before starting my run was a good idea.  I had some oatmeal in the morning while I was getting ready to leave and it left me feeling like my chest and stomach were full of gunk.  I think I should aim to eat about an hour before starting the race.

Third, taking small doses of Ibuprofen every hour seemed to work well for me.  I've pretty much always got Ibuprofen flowing through my veins, but yesterday was the first time I made a concerted effort to keep taking it during a workout.

Finally, I think it would be to my advantage to start off the run with a large-ish sports drink in hand.  Yesterday I didn't have any hydration other than water until I hit mile 20, and I had plenty of Powerade once I had hit that first 'aid station' (ice chest), but I think it would have been a lot better to be drinking a mix of water and Powerade the entire time -- starting at mile 0.