Two weekends ago, Sean & I drove up to Corona, CA to run a 24 hour race. After Across the Years in December, we said never again to one of these races but one of the founders reached out to Sean because he has the same last name and we found ourselves registering to run the Run4Kids 24 hour race that benefits the 100 mile club.
On the way up, we saw the poppy superbloom which was so beautiful! When I posted this in my instagram stories I got a bunch of comments about not walking on, laying on or doing anything other than staying on trail. Please, please don’t go off trail, the poppies are very fragile & if you walk on them, you aren’t just killing this years bloom but also future blooms.
Now back to the race, Sean registered for the 100 mile & me for the 24 hour. I was a little uneasy about the Friday 7pm start time because I had to work all day but it is what it is. I figured I’d go as far as I could and then call it a day when Sean finished.
What is Run4Kids & the 100 mile club? For 26 years, 100 Mile Club has been the program leading the effort in the prevention of childhood inactivity and obesity across the nation. Click on the link above to get a lot more information on the 100 mile club & Run4Kids.
We got to Corona relatively early, especially for us ;). I had to work all day and had an extremely stressful day & week. I was ready to get out there and start running but I was also exhausted. I did a blood draw earlier in the day and also wasn’t sure how that was going to affect me.
We weren’t paying attention and missed the pre-race runner meeting where they awarded people for their fundraising & told some stories, oops.
One of the many nice things about running at a school was that we had real bathrooms to use. It’s amazing how much of a difference that makes lol.
7pm was getting closer, the sun was setting and it was super pretty. I got a quick pre-race photo and then we were heading up to the start for the National Anthem. About 2 minutes later we were off!
The loop was approximately 1/2 a mile and it was a true loop. Interestingly, it was a lot easier to do this loop over and over again that some of the other loop courses I’ve done. I thought it was going to be really challenging since it was only a 1/2 a mile but that really wasn’t my challenge.
I started the race talking to a guy, Jamie who knew me from Instagram. He totally crushed it at his first 24 hour race getting 104 miles! I ran with him for maybe 2-3 laps before I got a work phone call that I had to deal with. That took me almost 2 laps to deal with and kind of got me off my game.
I did maybe 11 miles and then had to take a nap, I was literally so exhausted that I was sleep walking and not able to walk in a straight line. I had my Orange Mud transition wraps and my rumpl blanket, 2 jackets and my hat and so I slept on the ground for a good 1 1/2 hours. I felt better after that so around 11:45 I started up again. I got in another 9 miles or so & had to take another nap. I did another 5 miles after that & slept for about another hour.
It was the weirdest thing, but I guess because it was only a 1/2 mile loop and there was a lot of light on one side of the loop, most people did their loops without headlamps. I used mine for a good portion of the race, but did do about a half dozen laps in the dark.
Around 5am I got up and walked for the next 6 1/2 – 7 hours.
I managed to hit 50k before 7am so that was a nice goal. After that I took a short break, ate my picky oats, I brought a container from home ;). Since we have gone vegan, you never know what you are going to get at the aid station. But they did have Oreo’s lol so I ate a bunch of them too.
I kept moving and then my friend Andy started his race. I ran into him and we walked, talked & finished up my 50 miles.
At 9am they started the 5k & 6 hour run for the kids & their parents. There were 100s of kids and their families out on the track. I happened to be heading by when the kids started so it was a little crazy. But it was so cool to see the kids all in their shirts marking how far along they were in their 100 mile journeys.
I had to take a quick break at mile 44.5 to get changed, it got hot, fast! I was wearing my SeaWheeze reflective crops, which Sean really liked & said he could see them across the loop.
I had to take another quick break around mile 48, I needed to get some salt & a quick nap. It was warm outside but I was starting to feel chilled so I knew it was time to take a few minutes.
Finally I finished my last 4 loops! It took quite a while but I was pretty happy to have finished.
I got a sno cone for me & Sean and then settled in to wait for Sean to finish.
He had about 10 miles left to 100. He ended up winning the 100 mile distance in 19:25. It was so cool because some of the kids ran with him on his last lap.
It was a really cool event. I probably would prefer to just run the 12 hour in the morning if I was to do this again because running through the night, starting in after work wasn’t very easy for me.
The Run4Kids is truly a special event that I would recommend to anyone though. I was amazed at how much fun I had.
