Academy of Pain

Overview

I ran a mostly leisurely 50.21 miles in the twelve hours from 6am to 6pm.

The Event

Academy of Pain is a timed event, where people run loops around the Albuquerque Academy for up to twelve hours. It is put on by Julie Tertin and her Albuquerque Trail Running Crew. This may seem like a dumb thing to do, and that's what it's billed as and that's what people want. See the discussion tab to read other people's praise.

The Conflict

This year AoP was held as the same day as the Burque Brew Tour Crowning. The Brew Tour has been held since 2014. AoP premiered last year (2022). There's not—yet—a huge overlap between the people who attend AoP and the Brew Tour, but I'm one of them and that left me with a dilemma.

Why Not Both?

The rules for many, if not most, timed running events are that you can leave the course any time you want, as long as you return to where you left, but when you're not on course, your miles don't count.

Since the BBTC race was only 3.8 miles, I could have done AA laps, then drove down to Bomb's Away, run the BBTC, drove back and resumed where I had left off, but that make it hard for me to run an easy fifty AoP miles, due to the timing. It would also curtail my socializing at BBTC. So, I chose to run from AoP to BBTC, run the BBTC race, then run up, and then continue to run AoP.

Sheepishly, I explained my plan to Julie in advance and asked her whether she'd count my miles outside the Albuquerque Academy perimeter as AoP miles. I would be happy whatever her decision was, because she's the race director and RDs have to balance a lot more than can be seen from the outside.

Reasons to not allow extra-curricular miles involve the difference in elevation change, the ability of a participant to cheat, the difference between whole loops (a loop is 3.3 miles at minimum) and mere mileage and the degradation of the social experience. Luckily, Julie granted my dispensation, so now it was just an exercise in logistics.

Preparation

For me, running a slow 50 miles requires water and probably calories. I'll also need to use a restroom once or twice. Although not strictly necessary, having a plan for where I'll run which miles will put my mind at ease, so I drew up this one:

Water was easy. I have a seven gallon water jug I keep in my truck (along with the lugaloo). I have a running belt that holds two six ounce water bottles. It'll be sufficiently cool that I can drink water between AA laps and use my the water bottles in my running belt to get me to Bombs Away, where they can be refilled for my trip back.

Food was easy too, sort-of. These events are done in a semi pot-luck fashion. You bring more of what you have than you plan to eat and you share what you have with others. I had a big box of leftovers from the Foothills Fat Ass, but it was at my mother's house, where my sister and I have taken over her den to use as storage. I didn't pick up the box until pretty close to race day, and then I saw that all that remained were things that required hot water (e.g. instant oatmeal, coffee).

I knew it would be chilly, so I figured I'd simply bring that box of stuff, two thermoses filled with boiling water and two stoves (a small JetBoil that heats a single serving very quickly and a larger propane stove that can heat an entire pan). People could immediately use the water from a thermos, and if they wanted to kill time and replenish it from a stove, great! If not, oh well, it's better than nothing.

I also brought a big baggie of various gels and a large package of Jolly Rancher hard candies.

I made a bunch of double espressos and laid out my clothes and electronics. I created a surprisingly large pile of things in the front-hall, including our thermoses, the stoves and fuel.

Race Day

I woke up at 5, weighed myself, ate a serving of oatmeal and started boiling water for the thermoses. It seemed like I had all the time in the world, so I also decided to make myself another serving of fortified oatmeal. I got distracted and of course water boiled all over the place. Time ticked away.

It took me many trips to load everything into the truck. Our front door doesn't work, so I have to go out the back door and around the side of the house. Time ticked away.

I drove the five minutes to the Cherry Hills Library parking lot and was about to start schlepping things the short distance (albeit with a traffic light in between) to the staging area when I saw people were running. I glanced at my watch and sure enough, it was 6am.

So, gang aft agley, I left everything in the back of the truck and ran.

I caught up with Julie, Dustin and a few others. They were headed counter-clockwise, so very briefly I was following my plan.

Initial "loops"

It was fun to run and chat with others. I got to hear a little bit about what people had done since I saw them last and what was upcoming. I was surprised to see my friend David, because all of his Strava tracks for what seemed like an eternity, were from Australia. I thought he might have moved down there, but it was only a six week relocation.

People were running faster than I had thought I'd run, which meant that if did "washing-machine" loops (i.e., alternating between counter-clockwise and clockwise), I would be at the corner of Wyoming and Academy well before 8:30. With that in mind, I decided that since my running was going to be mileage based rather than loop based, I'd opportunistically switch directions to link up with other groups of runners. This way I also got to spend some time with Geoff and Jan.

To Bombs Away

At 8:27 I headed south on Wyoming, five and a half miles south to Central. After a couple of turns I was at Bombs Away. I got there with plenty of time, which meant I spent a little time chatting with people (especially Perky & Prince Charming) and maybe a little time running back and forth to accrue some "buffer" mileage.

Ten AM rolled around and we were off. My initial plan was to run at a leisurely pace, but it seemed like I could finish as first male without having to red-line it, so I did.

Post BBTC

After crossing the finish line, I headed back up the course to run in with Dennis, then I turned around and headed back out again so I could run/walk in with his wife Glenda. This gave me a little extra mileage, a little extra tine to chat with them and also kept them in my sights so I could hand them the ticket for the free beer I won by being first male. I think we're even on beers now. They bought me two beers after the Black Friday Turkey Trots, and I was able to win a beer at V-Day and another here at the Crowning.

Eventually I went inside to briefly socialize and scarf two small bags of popcorn (probably not vegan due to the butter flavor), taking a third for the road. At 11:30 I bade au revoir and started running back up to Albuquerque Academy. This time I had something to do when I had to stop at stoplights: eat popcorn.

I got to my truck and used the water from the least efficient thermos (not actually a real Thermos) to heat up four servings of instant oatmeal. I also ate three caffeinated gels and drank a double espresso before grabbing a handful of Jolly Rancher hard candies and heading over to the trash can. I deposited the oatmeal wrappers and an empty potato chip wrapper, then peeled each of the Jolly Ranchers before stuffing them into my mouth.

I temporarily put my Albuquerque Road Runners crop top back on so I could use the library's facilities, then took it off, put it back in my truck, double checked that my truck keys were in a zippered pocket that I had zippered shut¹ and headed out for more fun.

Final "loops"

I had done 32 miles now, which meant if did five more loops I would be about a mile and a half shy of fifty miles. I had plenty of time to figure out a plan. By now there weren't nearly as many people on the course as there had been in the morning. It also wasn't clear exactly who was part of the event. As such, I cranked out loops washing machine style, saying hi to the lovebirds as I passed.

As I was finishing my post-BBTC fifth AA lap, I looked at the time and decided I did not want to run quickly enough to do an entire sixth lap. I had seen Julie, Dustin and their dog doing a clockwise lap while I was going counter-clockwise, so I decided I'd simply keep going counter clockwise past where I'd normally change directions, run into them, head to the finish with them and then do whatever short out-and-back I'd need to get my fifty.

Like many of my other AoP plans, that didn't happen. I did indeed continue going around counter-clockwise, but I didn't see the trio, so when I was about a mile from the start/finish with forty-nine miles on my feet I turned around and finished up. Luckily they were there so I got to thank them (but not nearly enough!), before grabbing my stuff, walking over to my truck and turning off my GPS sports watch.

Fear Itself

I very much looked forward to the Academy of Pain this year because I saw it as a test to see how well my right foot would hold up.

I developed a hot-spot in my foot after running the Deadman Peaks 106 miler six days after running the Javelina Jundred. My training for the Bataan Memorial Death March further aggravated my hot-spot and so I bit the bullet and had a shot of cortisone on March 10th (which was the day before the King of the Hill 10k ruck, nine days before the Bataan Memorial Death March and sixteen days before the Academy of Pain).

Wanting to run the Cocodona 250 in 2023, I figured if I couldn't run an easy fifty miles at AoP, I had no business even considering C250. I'm happy with my performance and will now see if I can muster the resources to enter.

Thank you, Julie!