This past weekend was the 3rd annual Steel City 12 hour race, and I had a chance to participate. As with other timed races, this one challenges runners to complete as many miles as they can within the time limit. This one, however, is a bit of a unique sign up as the race itself is more geared to helping the local community, not by signing up and paying race fees that will partially go into the community, but by actively mandating the race fee be paid in the form of socks, shirts, slightly used shoes, etc, for donations to the homeless in the area. Billed as a fat ass style race, there is no traditional registration fee, but each participant must bring at least a much needed donation in order to race, which includes chip timing, swag bag, and aid station fare.

The race itself takes place in Middletown, OH, in a park near a local air strip. The 1.52 mile paved path around the park acts as the race course. It’s fairly flat, with only a few small hills per loop. The race starts at 6pm and runs through the night, ending at 6am. This years race kicked off with a parachute jump complete with American Flag! Other races take note, every race should start with a parachute display complete with American Flag.

At 6pm, the race was off. I focused into settling into a groove. I took off a bit fast, mainly because I was talking with a few folks about upcoming races, but quickly realized it and told them I would be slowing down. I found my sweet spot and enjoyed mile after mile. It was a bit on the hot and humid side while the sun was up, so I tried to stay as cool as possible, since I was just planning to enjoy the evening.

Before the race had begun, I had already run 16 miles on the day with my training group, so my goal was a 50k, with a stretch of 50 miles. After about an hour into the race, I started not to feel so great. I am not sure if it was my dinner, or the heat/ humidity, but I was not feeling great. I started to do some walking with some of my friends at the race, in hopes that would help me feel better. The legs were feeling ok, but the walk break was nice, and did settle down the stomach. I was able to do a nice walk/ run for a good portion of the evening.

Once the sun set, I really started feeling better. I was able to do some good running here and took down quite a few miles. I even saw some skydivers doing some late night jumps, which was pretty neat to watch. I clicked off mile after. At some point in the evening, the race had some nice vegan soup, which tasted good and kept me feeling pretty good, combined with my usual nutrition.

After hitting a marathon, I started feeling not so great again. I began to walk quite a bit here in effort to just keep ticking off miles. I began to talk with some of my friends who were also running again, and sharing stories with others. I talked to folks who were hitting their first marathon, or working towards their first 50 miler. I even walked a loop with someone who had just hit his first 50k after just hitting his first marathon. He was feeling pretty exhausted, but we were only 6 hours into the race, so I told him that even if he kept walking, he would likely hit 50 miles and maybe he should just walk a loop or 2 to reevaluate, before calling it a day. (Spoiler alert – he ended up hitting 50 miles)

After hitting the 50k mark, I decided I would just continue to walk until time was called. I started walking slower and slower and was barely making progress. I took several rest breaks, but I had planned to finish the full 12 hours. I ended up stopping for about 30 minutes at the 9 hour mark I had mentally decided to stop when a friend finished one of his loops. He was 1 lap short of 50 miles, but mentally out of it. I told him I would walk the last loop with him to get him to his first 50. We got it done, but it was very slow. Afterwards, I called it a day at 10 hours and 38 miles. I was drained and felt the 16 miles combined with the 38 and the sleep deprivation made for a pretty solid day.

In all, the race was very nice. Since there is no registration fee, all the foods at the aid station are donated by local business. There was plenty of food, cookies, soups, etc. The race directors did a great job of trying to keep us all motivated and the other runners were really pushing themselves to hit their own limits.