The past four years I have run my age in miles for my birthday. It started in January 2020 when I was turning 60 and wanted to do something big to commemorate that milestone. Debbie’s Birthday Freeze Fest was born. Then somehow it became my yearly tradition as it continued in 2021, 2022, 2023. Until this year. This year, my college-aged grandson Kadan wanted to run a trail race with his mom (our daughter Elizabeth) and of course, I wanted to participate in this family trail bonding. The race was the weekend of my birthday. “It’s okay,” I told myself. “My birthday Freeze Fest is not set in stone. I can skip a year if I want to.”
As the race neared, none of us had entered. Neither Kadan nor Elizabeth had been able to train. Finally about a week before the race, we decided to call it off. Immediately, my thoughts went to Freeze Fest. Could I pull together a plan for a birthday run in just a few days now that plans had changed?
Last year (2023), I had run 63 miles for my birthday, then about four weeks later had run a hilly road half marathon one week before Outlaw 100. It took a big toll on my legs. I didn’t want to go into Outlaw with trashed legs again. Should I run 64 miles five weeks out from this 100-mile race? Normally, it wouldn’t be a big deal, but I had been struggling with recovery since my 100K efforts four weeks apart at Run Rabbit Run and Heartland (September and October 2023, respectively).
I thought and prayed about the options before me: 1) Skip a birthday run. 2) Run 64 miles over a few days. 3) Run 64K instead of 64 miles. 4) Just run 64 miles.
I crossed option 1 off the list right away. I really did want to do a birthday run, plus it would be a valuable time to test new fuels before Outlaw. After consideration, option 3 seemed the best choice. It would be easier to plan and not so much stress on my husband to crew, since it would not involve running overnight. This would also mean I would not lose a night’s sleep, which is a large gain in the recovery department.
The only problem was . . . it felt like cheating to me! Sixty-four kilometers would only be about 40 miles. My kids laughed when I told them running 64K seemed like taking the easy way out.
“That’s right,” my son said tongue-in-cheek, “I mean, ONLY 40 miles!” I guess it is a matter of perspective. I solidified my choice of option 3.
The next decision was when to run. Saturday was out because I didn’t want a long run and possible late night causing me to be exhausted for church on Sunday. For some reason, I was not scheduled to work my usual Thursday shift that week, which made that day a possibility. Thursday’s weather looked much milder and drier than Friday’s. However, my kids were more available on Friday.
Running on Friday would also give me all day Thursday to hammer out my new nutrition plan and to prep everything for an early morning start the next day. (Early is a relative term for me!) I steeled myself to run in less than ideal weather and settled on Friday.
The final decision was where to run. My first birthday Freeze Fest was on the trails at Landahl. All subsequent Freeze Fests have been on the trails at Lake Jacomo. This year, I chose to move back to Landahl. It is much closer to my home (which would make it easier for my husband to come out periodically to crew for me) and Landahl trails are more compact loops (versus the sprawling trail system at Jacomo), which would make it easier for others to meet up with me.
If you have followed my ultrarunning journey, you know that digestive issues have been my nemesis. I experienced a monumental turning point when I began counting carbs instead of calories and set a goal of consuming 60 or more grams of carbs per hour in ultras. (My thanks go to Julie Shobe, ultrarunning dietician, for this insight.) Once I was getting in enough carbs, I no longer struggled with extreme tiredness, dead legs, terrible nausea, or gut-wrenching dry heaving beside the trail.
Because it gets hard for me to chew food in the second half of a 100-mile race, I found the key to getting in enough carbs consistently was changing to a liquid fuel base, supplemented with small bits of solid foods. For several years, my magic formula was my slurry mix of First Endurance EFS powder, Liquid Shot, and water. But a new issue crept into my races: diarrhea.
It took a disastrous experience at Run Rabbit Run 100 (RRR) this past September to open my eyes and cause me to examine what was happening. I dug through past training logs and race reports, struggling to discover the root cause of my lower GI issues. I talked it over with my ultrarunning support group (i.e., my family).
At first, we thought spoilage (food poisoning) in my slurries was the sole culprit. After all, the slurries should be refrigerated after mixing, and I had been carrying them around in my pack for hours during races. At RRR, I had carried the slurries in my pack for as long as 6 to 8 hours. However, when I used only the shelf-stable packaged components of my slurry at Heartland 100K (EFS powder to mix with water as needed and Liquid Shot straight from the gel pack) the diarrhea persisted (although not to the extreme degree I experienced at RRR). I am convinced that food poisoning was a factor at RRR because of the intense stomach pain and vomiting I suffered along with the debilitating diarrhea.
Let me insert a thought that has been on my mind for a while: I wonder how much of the digestive issues during ultramarathons could be related to food spoilage? Many foods served at aid stations should be kept in the “safe temperature zone” of above 140 degrees or below 40 degrees to prevent the growth of harmful bacteria. Perishable foods should not be out of this safe zone for more than two or possibly three hours, yet many sit on aid station tables all day. (Think boiled potatoes and turkey or ham sandwiches and roll ups.) During races, I have also been served mashed potatoes and soups that were tepid and definitely not being kept hot enough to stop bacteria growth. Consider yourself warned! I tremendously appreciate the hard work and sacrifice or race volunteers, but perhaps some basic training in food handling safety would be appropriate.
Back to my story. Since my experience at Heartland showed spoilage was not the only factor in my problems, I dug deeper. I asked questions on my ultrarunning Facebook groups and read articles online. I discovered a surprising fact: Maltodextrin—which is the main ingredient of the EFS and Liquid Shot I had been using, as well as many other running fuels—can cause diarrhea and other digestive issues in some people. Even more concerning was the discovery that some studies suggest maltodextrin can alter one’s gut bacteria in a harmful way. Okay, no more maltodextrin for me! Would this be the key to stopping the diarrhea issue? My birthday run was going to be my first test!
Since I was ditching my slurry, my entire race fueling plan had to be overhauled. I bought an online course on ultramarathon fueling from Julie Shobe to fill in a few gaps in what I had already learned and then buckled down to hammer out the details of my new plan. (I highly recommend Julie’s teaching. Find her on Instagram @ultra.running.nutrition) I spent hours on Thursday with charts and papers scattered on the table as I crunched carb, protein, sodium, fat, and fiber numbers on my calculator.
Once my plan was completed, I packed “hour bags” of solid food to go along with my new liquid carb base fuels: maple syrup, Skratch hydration, and Tailwind Recovery Mix. (Yep, I planned to consume a recovery drink during my ultra! It turns out that small amounts of protein during an ultra lasting more than six hours can help reduce stomach problems and also help with on-the-fly muscle recovery.) Each hour bag was labeled with the number of carbs it would total when consumed with one of the liquid fuels. I also numbered the bags because I wanted to eat them in a specific order—60 to 63 grams of carbs per hour in the earlier miles and 64 up to 68 grams of carbs in the later miles (which was probably a bit overkill for a 40-mile run).
Finally, I made a batch of sweet potato-rice-maple syrup mash (which I just call rice mash). Something wasn’t quite right when I pureed the mix in my blender. Usually it gets so thick the blender can hardly run, but this time it was runny. (Remember this. It will be significant later.) Hmmm. I double checked that I had added all the ingredients in the right amounts. I had. “Oh well,” I thought, and poured it into my reusable baby food pouches.
I was thankful to have a free day on Thursday to prepare! I used every hour and it was bedtime when I finally laid out the clothes I planned to wear and packed the last gear and fuel into my bags.
Even though this was not a race, I guess I must have been a bit nervous as well as excited, because I woke up at 5:45 a.m. before my 6:30 alarm went off. Might as well get up, I thought, and rolled out of bed. Maybe I could get to the trailhead earlier than planned and start at 7:30 instead of 8:00 a.m. I ate breakfast, did a bit of mobility work, and loaded everything into my van. When I got to the Argo Road trailhead, I stepped out of my van to begin loading my vest for the first loop. Only where was my vest? In dismay, I realized I had left one of my bags sitting on the sofa at home and that bag contained my running vest. There really was no option but to go home and get it, so I climbed back into the car.
I was thankful my original departure time had been ahead of schedule. I was able to drive back home, grab my forgotten bag, and return to the trailhead in time for an 8:15 a.m. start. Only 15 minutes later than planned.
I packed my fuel into my vest, grabbed my water bottles and headed out. It was about 27 degrees, cloudy with a light breeze, and the ground was frozen. When I was about a mile from the van, I realized I had forgotten to grab one of my homemade pumpkin brownies from the cooler chest to add to my first hour bag of fuel. Uggg. It seemed like I was forgetting all kinds of things today! I decided to finish the short loop I was on before heading back to my van to pick it up.
With my brownie procured, I turned back toward the west side of Landahl and 10/11 trails. These are the most rugged trails in the park and my favorites. My legs felt good and my choice of clothing layers was just right for the weather. Feeling happy to be on the trails, I thanked God for the day and for the ability to be doing this run, then turned on an audio book for company. I kept my effort level very easy with plenty of hiking and started fueling at 8:30 a.m.
The miles unfolded smoothly. About 11:45, I returned to the parking lot, where I my husband met me with a thermos of hot chicken noodle soup. It tasted wonderful! My husband joined me for a short loop as we waited for my friend Emma to arrive.
When Emma joined us, we ran the smoother loop of trail on Will’s (my husband’s favorite). While we were on Will’s it began to snow, smaller flakes at first and then huge snowball flakes which floated beautifully to the ground. After about 30 minutes, the snow tapered off to flurries.
At the end of that loop, Don went home, while Emma stayed for some more miles. We ran the Rim trail, which had some beautiful rocky sections, but the rocks were getting slick and Emma slipped, banging her shin. After finishing Rim, we decided to stay on the less rocky trails.
Around 3:20 p.m. we met my daughter Elizabeth at the parking lot (and I had more soup!). I had accumulated 22 miles and my legs still felt good. I had needed to make a few pit stops in the bushes, but I told myself it was not a sign of a problem.
Elizabeth is a professional photographer who works freelance for Mile 90 Photography. If you don’t know Mile 90, you must not be from the Midwest! They shoot many ultramarathons and other races and always provide outstanding photos. Elizabeth had brought her camera and set up my own personal photo shoot. She is so talented! Emma and I ran back and forth through the sections of trail Elizabeth had chosen while the camera went “click, click, click.”
After this bit of fun, we went back to the parking lot for Elizabeth to stow her camera and grab her running vest and then the three of us ran a loop on trails we had not covered yet. Drizzle and snow were still coming down lightly and it was close to dusk when we arrived back at the trailhead once more. I had run 27 miles. While chatting with Emma and Elizabeth, I had missed a fueling, so I tried to make that up while stopped at the van, as well as eating more soup.
Emma was finished, but Elizabeth stayed, plus my son Aaron arrived. (Unfortunately, my son Jared had to work.) We picked up fuel and lighting. “This is too easy,” I thought, as we headed out for another loop.
We picked up the pace and after a mile or so, my stomach started going south. Literally. “I guess I am just going to always have diarrhea now when I run long distances,” I thought in discouragement. My stomach started hurting and it got hard to eat. So much for easy. I remember looking at my watch. It was 6:06 p.m.
After a few more miles, Aaron needed to head home, but Elizabeth said she was staying until I was done. I called my husband and told him he didn’t need to come back out unless he wanted to, since I would have company for the rest of my miles.
I had been trying all day to get over to the east side trails, but had needed to stick closer to the parking lot to meet Elizabeth and then Aaron when they arrived. Now Elizabeth and I turned our feet down Tasty trail. When we had traveled perhaps 3/4 mile, we heard the sounds of a vehicle pulling into the parking lot. It was dark, cold, and snowing. Why would someone be arriving in these conditions?
We were both concerned that whoever it was had intentions of breaking into our vehicles. This was more concerning because Elizabeth had her expensive camera equipment in her car. We stopped and pondered what to do. “If they are breaking in, they will be done and gone before we can get back to the parking lot,” Elizabeth said. We decided to stop and offer prayers that God would protect our vehicles and then leave it in His hands as we continued onward.
I was feeling rough and had to make more stops. I tried to troubleshoot the problem. I did not show the signs of excess salt that I had read to watch for (swelling hands and excessive thirst), plus salty foods still tasted good. And it seemed impossible that I could be low on sodium. According to my pre-run number crunching, if I ate and drank my planned fuels, I would be consuming more sodium than I usually did.
Maybe I was pushing down too many carbs per hour? My hour bags were pushing 65 to 67 grams of carbs per hour. Maybe I should have stayed with 62-64 grams? After all, this was not a 100-miler.
I was hiking more than I was running at this point. Moving so slowly, it seemed to take forever to cover the 1.67 miles to the turnoff that led down to the creek crossing. Discouragement was weighing me down. My upcoming 100 miles at Outlaw loomed over me with the promise of more suffering.
I was not nauseous, but my stomach hurt. It felt worse after I ate. A good portion of my fueling at this point was my homemade rice mash. Did I mention it was runny with little hard chunks in it? I stopped eating and only sipped water for a while. Before long, I began to feel like I could vomit. Knowing vomiting usually resets my digestive system, I decided to push the issue a bit. I stopped and actually tried to puke. It took a minute or two, but the reflex kicked in and I started dry heaving. Nothing was in my stomach.
I knew I had to take in some fuel, so I sipped on maple syrup. It went down okay, so I drank a bit of Tailwind recovery drink, too. I did not eat any more rice mash. After a period of time, the diarrhea almost stopped (I had one more episode before I was done), and I started feeling better. Wait! Not just better, but good! I actually started feeling good and I could run again. I was so thankful!
The last few miles passed much more pleasantly. My legs still felt strong. Gratitude to God filled my heart! We got back to the trailhead right around 10:00 p.m. There was a truck parked in the parking lot with its lights off. I was glad I was not alone. (Our vehicles had not been tampered with.)
A short out and back across the meadow brought my watch to 40 miles and I was done! (It still felt wrong to quit at 40 miles, but I was ready to stop.) After some stretching, Elizabeth and I climbed into our respective cars and headed home. My van’s thermometer said it was 33 degrees. It had held steady in the low 30s all day.
At home, I dumped out the unused rice mash in the kitchen sink. The liquid trickled down the drain leaving chunks and even some whole grains of rice behind. I picked a few up. They were hard. This rice was definitely undercooked. I figured it must have been hard on my digestive system to try to break down undercooked rice. Could that have caused my lower GI issues. I turned to Google. A quick search of “diarrhea from undercooked rice” turned up some startling results. The entire first page contained articles warnings about undercooked rice causing . . . wait for it . . . FOOD POISONING! Arggggg! I had never heard that before.
It turns out that rice is commonly contaminated with spores of Bacillus cereus, a bacteria that produces toxins which cause food poisoning. In undercooked rice, more of this bacteria survives and it is likely to cause issues— like diarrhea. I could not believe that once again, I had given myself food poisoning during an ultra. It made sense, though, with how I had felt. Many of the symptoms I had suffered during my birthday run were similar to my digestive woes at RRR, but just on a MUCH milder scale.
In hind sight, I should have dumped that batch of rice mash when it didn’t turn out right. I should have checked the rice for doneness, but I cooked it in my Instant Pot exactly like I always have, so never gave a thought to the possibility of it being undercooked.
On the bright side, at least I learned this lesson at my birthday run and not at Outlaw 100. And there is still hope I can run 100-miles without diarrhea!
It is embarrassing for me to discuss my diarrhea issue, but I have decided to be open about it since I have discovered that so many other ultrarunners suffer the same affliction. Together, I hope we can find solutions. My learning and experimenting will continue—and you can bet I will be sure my rice is thoroughly cooked from now on!
“…whatsoever you do, do all to the glory of God” (1 Corinthians 10:31).
Next up — Outlaw 100!
Hundred 4 Owl Hollow 
It looks like I might get to meet you in person at Bent Oak. I’m a long time reader of your blog. I love your reports and your perseverance.
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Laura, that’s awesome! I look forward to meeting you!
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