Done: 123km in 24 hours

Yesterday during daytime I prepared the clothing and some food. After the kids came from the kindergarten at 6pm we went to Bakio, a beach town where we have a flat. A 7:15pm I started my 24-hour adventure. The car was my center of logistics. It was parked in front of the flat. In the trunk I had stored everything needed:

• a large thermo with hot tea, a few energy drinks, energy bars, home-made cookies, a sandwich, peppermint drops, chocolate, a banana, several apples, vitamin tablets, dextrose,
  
• head lamp,
  
• GPS,
  
• spare clothing (which I never had to use),
  
• ibuprofen pills, sports tape.
  

With the car as the starting point I would do my rounds and at the end of each round I would come back to the car. I could drink, eat, change clothing if necessary, etc. And whenever necessary I could go up to the flat for a hot meal, use the restroom or any emergency. I would carry basically nothing, just an energy bar some dextrose tablets, and a few peppermint drops; everything else stayed in the trunk.

On the very first lap I realized that the initially selected course was too steep. Especially on the downhill it put a lot of stress on my knees. Secondly, on the uphill I would start sweating and on the downhill I would freeze. Considering that I traditionally have knee problems, I changed the course to the beach promenade - nice and flat.

It was also a lot colder than expected. We had 3 degrees Celsius when I started, 1.5 degree at midnight and at night the dew on the cars and the beach froze. Luckily I had brought mittens and a hat.

The primary objective was to finish the 24 hours. So, after some brief initial running I decided to walk at least the first 12-16 hours. Should my knees feel fine I could always run at the end. Running at the beginning and then having to give up after 12 hours, was what I wanted to avoid at all cost.

My approach was to stop every 30-minutes for 1 minute to eat a few bites: either 2 cookies, a bite from the sandwich, half a fruit, or similar. This way I would steadily and continuously feed my body in small doses. Also every 30-minutes I would take a few sips of fluid (mostly hot tea and infusions). Since the temperatures were so low I was rather freezing than hot; I would sweat little (or at least I did not notice any sweat). Every 4-6 hours I planned a larger break to eat a full hot meal (vegetable stew, pasta, rice). The timing of these larger breaks were decided on the go. In total I took 5 real breaks (10 to 30 minutes) and a sixth short break to play with my kids (some 6 minutes). These full-meal breaks were at kilometers: 12, 32, 56, 78, and 102.

Hours 17 through 19 were the hardest. I was around the 100km mark. My left knee started to hurt slightly 10s of kilometers before. I was tired, deprived of sleep as I was up now for some 28 hours. Mentally I was down. My wife said that I looked like I was in bad shape. A lot of muscles hurt, especially a pair of specific muscles in my upper thighs. My back hurt. I was stiff. The sole of my feet hurt. And it cost me energy just to get my feet of the ground.

For unknown reason (or was it because I took an ibuprofen tablet?) quite suddenly after the break 19:30 hours into the adventure, I felt revived, re-vitalized, more energetic and fully optimistic. I think the break helped my get over a mental hurdle. The last 4 hours I was just cruising. I took it a bit slower on purpose to protect my knee.

After 24-hours I had walked 123km (76 miles). I was happy that I had not given up. I was also happy that I was able to cross the 120km mark. But above all, standing at the virtual finish line, I was looking forward to get some sleep.

My wife who had supported me during the adventure by preparing delicious hot meals and the thermos for me, now prepared a hot bath for me. Then the whole family had dinner together. The kids were quite happy to see me. And after dinner came the long awaited moment when I could go to bed. I slept some 10 or 11 hours. Since that was little (I was napping off while my wife talked to me during breakfast) I went back to bed for a few extra hours after breakfast.

Here for the very interested ones, the time and kilometer table:

km	pace (min/km)	24-hour time	day time	comments
0	-	-	7:15 PM
1	0:08	0:08	7:23 PM
2	0:08	0:16	7:31 PM
3	0:09	0:25	7:40 PM
4	0:08	0:33	7:48 PM
5	0:08	0:41	7:56 PM
6	0:09	0:50	8:05 PM
7	0:08	0:58	8:13 PM
8	0:09	1:07	8:22 PM
9	0:09	1:16	8:31 PM
10	0:09	1:25	8:40 PM
11	0:09	1:34	8:49 PM
12	0:09	1:43	8:58 PM
13	0:18	2:01	9:16 PM	break
14	0:09	2:10	9:25 PM
15	0:09	2:19	9:34 PM
16	0:09	2:28	9:43 PM
17	0:09	2:37	9:52 PM
18	0:09	2:46	10:01 PM
19	0:09	2:55	10:10 PM
20	0:09	3:04	10:19 PM
21	0:09	3:13	10:28 PM
22	0:09	3:22	10:37 PM
23	0:09	3:31	10:46 PM
24	0:09	3:40	10:55 PM
25	0:09	3:49	11:04 PM
26	0:10	3:59	11:14 PM
27	0:09	4:08	11:23 PM
28	0:10	4:18	11:33 PM
29	0:10	4:28	11:43 PM
30	0:10	4:38	11:53 PM
31	0:10	4:48	12:03 AM
32	0:10	4:58	12:13 AM
33	0:20	5:18	12:33 AM	break
34	0:10	5:28	12:43 AM
35	0:10	5:38	12:53 AM
36	0:09	5:47	1:02 AM
37	0:09	5:56	1:11 AM
38	0:09	6:05	1:20 AM
39	0:09	6:14	1:29 AM
40	0:10	6:24	1:39 AM
41	0:10	6:34	1:49 AM
42	0:10	6:44	1:59 AM
43	0:10	6:54	2:09 AM
44	0:11	7:05	2:20 AM
45	0:10	7:15	2:30 AM
46	0:10	7:25	2:40 AM
47	0:10	7:35	2:50 AM
48	0:11	7:46	3:01 AM
49	0:11	7:57	3:12 AM
50	0:11	8:08	3:23 AM
51	0:11	8:19	3:34 AM
52	0:10	8:29	3:44 AM
53	0:11	8:40	3:55 AM
54	0:11	8:51	4:06 AM
55	0:11	9:02	4:17 AM
56	0:10	9:12	4:27 AM
57	0:34	9:46	5:01 AM	break
58	0:11	9:57	5:12 AM
59	0:10	10:07	5:22 AM
60	0:10	10:17	5:32 AM
61	0:12	10:29	5:44 AM
62	0:12	10:41	5:56 AM
63	0:12	10:53	6:08 AM
64	0:12	11:05	6:20 AM
65	0:11	11:16	6:31 AM
66	0:11	11:27	6:42 AM
67	0:11	11:38	6:53 AM
68	0:11	11:49	7:04 AM
69	0:11	12:00	7:15 AM
70	0:11	12:11	7:26 AM
71	0:11	12:22	7:37 AM
72	0:11	12:33	7:48 AM
73	0:11	12:44	7:59 AM
74	0:11	12:55	8:10 AM
75	0:11	13:06	8:21 AM
76	0:11	13:17	8:32 AM
77	0:11	13:28	8:43 AM
78	0:11	13:39	8:54 AM
79	0:27	14:06	9:21 AM	break
80	0:12	14:18	9:33 AM
81	0:12	14:30	9:45 AM
82	0:12	14:42	9:57 AM
83	0:12	14:54	10:09 AM
84	0:12	15:06	10:21 AM
85	0:12	15:18	10:33 AM
86	0:12	15:30	10:45 AM
87	0:12	15:42	10:57 AM
88	0:12	15:54	11:09 AM
89	0:12	16:06	11:21 AM
90	0:12	16:18	11:33 AM
91	0:12	16:30	11:45 AM
92	0:12	16:42	11:57 AM
93	0:12	16:54	12:09 PM
94	0:12	17:06	12:21 PM
95	0:12	17:18	12:33 PM
96	0:13	17:31	12:46 PM
97	0:12	17:43	12:58 PM
98	0:13	17:56	1:11 PM
99	0:14	18:10	1:25 PM
100	0:15	18:25	1:40 PM
101	0:14	18:39	1:54 PM
102	0:15	18:54	2:09 PM
103	0:33	19:27	2:42 PM	break
104	0:14	19:41	2:56 PM
105	0:14	19:55	3:10 PM
106	0:14	20:09	3:24 PM
107	0:14	20:23	3:38 PM
108	0:14	20:37	3:52 PM
109	0:14	20:51	4:06 PM
110	0:14	21:05	4:20 PM
111	0:14	21:19	4:34 PM
112	0:14	21:33	4:48 PM
113	0:14	21:47	5:02 PM
114	0:14	22:01	5:16 PM
115	0:20	22:21	5:36 PM	break
116	0:13	22:34	5:49 PM
117	0:12	22:46	6:01 PM
118	0:14	23:00	6:15 PM
119	0:14	23:14	6:29 PM
120	0:11	23:25	6:40 PM
121	0:10	23:35	6:50 PM
122	0:10	23:45	7:00 PM
123	0:11	23:56	7:11 PM