The 2023 Javelina 100 Mile

How my day played out after returning from a sacral stress fracture

Oct 31, 2023

Going into Javelina 100 I set my goals high. This event has grown so much since last I raced it in 2017, and now hosts one of seven “Golden Ticket” races where the top two performances on both the men’s and women’s side receive an auto qualifier for the Western States Endurance Run (WSER). This bumps down if someone who already has a spot at WSER finishes in the top two. For the field this year, one contender, Ryan Montgomery, already had a spot at WSER, so if he finished high enough in the field, it would bump down to three. The men’s field was deep. Deep enough that my assumption going into the race was that it would require a sub 13 hour performance in order to get one of the WSER spots. I made it clear going into Javelina that was my goal. After analyzing my 20-week training build following a sacral stress fracture earlier this year, I thought my “best case scenario” finishing time was just under 13 hours. I knew it would have to be as close to perfect, but I wanted to try, so set up my pacing strategy accordingly.

What does this mean? I am a pretty strong believer in even splits in ultra. This is something I started believing in 2019 after having a negative split at what at the time was a World Record for 100 miles and distance run in 12 hours. I have had some of my best performances when running a very tight margin on either side of even, and an experience that is so clearly better in my mind that I trust it (deep dive into this philosophy can be found here). Nick Coury is easily the most outspoken proponent of not just even split, but negative splitting. He writes in detail about it here. The hard part with this process is, and will continue to be, pinning the pace to the right outcome. As you can imagine, 100 miles makes it hard to really know what the optimal finishing time should be, but you have to eventually get around to choosing it. I have run plenty of 100s, and Javelina twice before, so I had a relative advantage in narrowing this down. Reviewing my training build and previous performances at Javelina 12 hours 55 minutes to 13 hours was as aggressive as I could justify, but as mentioned above likely required to reach my goal.

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The sport of ultramarathon doesn’t necessarily follow this conservative of a pacing strategy, so given how deep the men’s field was, I knew this meant I’d start out well behind the leaders, and likely even the chase pack. This was certainly the case, as I rounded the first of five loops outside of the top 20. I felt really controlled, and split 2 hours 48 minutes for the first loop. Javelina is a five loop course with the loop being just under 20 miles. There is a small extension to the first loop in order to get the total distance to 100 miles, making it approximately 22 miles. My first loop felt very smooth. At this point my confidence in my fitness and strategy was quite high.

Lap two is when the heat starts to kick in most years at Javelina, so I was ready to start a more aggressive topical cooling routine, and experience full sun exposure. I kept what felt like a controlled effort for loop two. The big difference in this loop was rather than the lead and chase pack slowly pulling away from me, I started to catch back up with quite a bit of the field. By my count, I passed fourteen runners on loop two, so my position in the field went up quite a bit. It can be hard to know exact numbers unless someone is counting for you, but I suspect I came through lap two somewhere around 6-8th place. My split for lap two came in at approximately 2 hours 31 minutes.

Naturally with the momentum in field position after lap two, I started to get a bit excited about the prospect of how far I could move up the field, especially as the heat of the day arrived. With that said, I did make a small mistake after lap two heading out for lap three. As I began loop three, I felt like the cooling I did at the end of the second loop didn’t quite feel like I hit the reset button the way I preferred when getting nice and wet with ice water and ice bandanas. I knew that it would be something I had to prioritize heading into the first aid station of the third loop and certainly be prepared heading up to the midway point on the loop.

The way the Javelina 100 loop works is the first half is a net climb. Nothing super aggressive, but definitely noticeable compared to the long gentle descent you get in the second half of the loop. After you leave the first aid station, which is about four miles from the start of the loop, you have the longest stretch between aid, with the most climbing. That stretch is 6.6 miles, and if you are overheating, it can be a huge hit to your pace, position, and morale.

The stretch from the start of the loop to the first aid station was slower than the previous two. I didn’t have to watch my splits to know, and my hope was that with a really thorough cooling, I could revive the ease I felt over laps one and two. I was still moving relatively well, but the balance of an easy split means there really isn’t much room for a slowdown, unless you have a scenario where you run your fastest stretch at the end. I felt stronger climbing up to the midway point on loop three compared to prior years and my splits hadn’t slowed too much on some of the main uphill miles on that loop. At this point, my mindset was to stay steady through the second half of loop three. I had Nicole and Chris DeNucci lined up to pace me for loops four and five. My focus was set on getting to them, and with some luck be able to return to my splits from the first two loops.

I got my first official read of the field after finishing loop three. I had moved into fifth place. As far as field position, this was a great spot to be. I was certainly within striking distance of a Golden Ticket. I knew the front pack got out fast, which increases the potential of blow ups and DNFs. My split for loop three was 2 hours 41 minutes.

I picked up Nicole as my pacer and we got out on loop four. My legs felt better than my energy levels did, so I knew I would need to focus on staying consistent with fueling, hydration, and cooling. We were moving well, but slightly slower than goal pace. My splits suggested that if I didn’t have a huge final lap, I would fall short of my initial target of sub 13 hours. It wasn’t clear at this point that the rest of the field was solidified at my initial predictions either, so hope remained that despite slowing, I could benefit from a bigger slow down from those ahead of me. There is also the added advantage of the sun starting to dip on the final lap, which can create an environment where a second wind arrives. I was hopeful, but also realized I needed to focus on small targets and not think too far ahead. For 100 milers, you have to maintain mental energy as much as physical, and nothing burns up mental energy more than letting your mind drift too far ahead and spin out of control. I came around the fourth loop with a split of 2 hours 45 minutes. Again, a slight slow down from the previous loop.

As mentioned before, with the final loop offering some cooling, there is always the potential you have a strong final loop compared to the hotter middle loops. For Javelina, this would be something close to a two and a half hour close.

I picked up Chris for the final loop and was thankful that I would not need to do as much cooling for the final loop. I would say if one thing bothered me more than anything else over the course of the day, it was how bogged down it felt to start each loop with extra weight from full bottles and ice bandanas. At this point I was craving being able to run with nothing but a t-shirt and water bottle, but knew it would be wise to wait until the final downhill stretch at mile 91 to pull that option.

Chris kept me focused and moving. Loop five was by far my best final loop at Javelina when compared to both my races here in 2016 and 2017 where I finished first and second respectively. In previous years, the climb up to midway often included a couple hiking breaks, whereas this year, I had the legs to run the whole thing, despite it being a bit slower than previous loops. I had been in a bit of a no man’s land since starting loop four. I had already moved into fifth, and had yet to see another runner. Word on the course was two of the men ahead of me looked strong and two looked pretty rough. When it comes to ultras, this type of feedback can be motivating, but can also be wildly inaccurate. There are no shortage of stories of people looking like death and ultimately surging, as well as people looking strong before imploding to a walk. Everything was on the table, so I knew I had to just focus on moving forward as best I could.

Lap five ended up being 2 hours and 49 minutes, so not that surge I needed to move up, but certainly not an implosion either. My five loops were essentially a slight slow down at a pretty linear rate. As far as ultra pacing goes, my splits would be considered pretty clean, but since my strategy was to get as close to even split as possible, it reads to me like my goal target time was indeed a bit aggressive for the day. In hindsight, I suspect had I paced closer to 13 hours 10-15 minutes, I may have been in a better position to have very even splits and get to the finish a bit sooner than I ended up arriving there. My final time was 13 hours and 34 minutes, which landed me in fifth place overall.

My initial prediction of where I would need to be to get a Golden Ticket turned out to be accurate as the top three runners ended up breaking 13 hours, one of which was Ryan Montgomery, meaning all three of the podium finishers will be heading to WSER in June. Despite being unable to match their paces this year and achieve my top goal for the day, I am grateful for what I consider a solid performance. It has been a while since I have felt like I really had a solid day, which has been mostly due to inconsistencies from injuries. This build up was by far the smoothest I have had in the past two years. I am optimistic and excited that I will be able to build from this training cycle and race towards some future goals.

I cannot close without congratulating the top finishers this year as it was a historic day for the Javelina 100. Three men under 13 hours is amazing. Only one other runner has broken 13 hours at Javelina previously, so having the entire podium under 13 hours is a step forward for the event and the sport.

Men’s Podium: