The Bristow 24/12 Run happens near Eugene.
Riley Smith/Go Beyond Racing
The Bristow 24/12 Run is happening on Saturday at the Elijah Bristow State Park near Eugene. Participants can run for 12 or 24 hours straight around a one-mile loop. Runners test themselves on how many laps they can get through before time runs out. We learn more about the race from Renee Janssen, a race director and Charley Boynton, a participant in this year’s race.
Note: The following transcript was created by a computer and edited by a volunteer.
Dave Miller: This is Think Out Loud on OPB, I’m Dave Miller. If you like your pain with a heavy dose of monotony, have I got a running race for you. The Bristow 24/12 Run is happening this Saturday at the Elijah Bristow State Park near Eugene. Participants can run for 12 or for 24 hours, doing loop after loop on a one mile trail. To win, all you have to do is run around more times than the other folks. But keep in mind the record for the 24 hour race is more than 127 miles. Renee Janssen is the race director. Charley Boynton has raced it twice, and he’s getting ready for his third go. They both join me now. It’s good to have both of you on the show.
Renee Janssen: Thanks for having us.
Charley Boynton: Yeah, thank you.
Miller: Renee Janssen, what went through your mind when you first heard about this race?
Janssen: Well, pretty much how you described it, that it would be monotonous and something that I would never consider being a part of.
Miller: But you say this as somebody who is a part of ultramarathons, right? You race for super long distances yourself?
Janssen: That is correct.
Miller: What distances do you do?
Janssen: Well, I mostly run 50Ks, which are 31 miles. But not in a format that is a one mile loop.
Miller: You run from one place to another, seeing landscapes change as you go?
Janssen: Exactly. For me, that’s the draw.
Miller: But Charley Boynton, you’ve done this twice now. What went through your mind when you first heard about it?
Boynton: Well, I first heard about it from a friend, and I couldn’t imagine why anyone would want to do it. But I listened to him after his first year, he did it in 2018, my friend Jason. And it kind of sounded interesting after he’d done it. So I tried it in 2019, and I was amazed with it because it doesn’t get monotonous. It’s always different. The way the heat of the day, the sun shines, the darkness, it changes constantly.
Miller: It’s like a running version of the “same river twice” idea, that you’re changing, other externalities are changing, even if theoretically you’re just a person running around in a circle, the circle feels like it’s changing. What did your friend tell you that first time that changed your mind, and made you think “I will try this?”
Boynton: I was a little intimidated by it, because I’m an end to the pack runner. So most races point to point or fixed distances, I wouldn’t make cut offs. Normally I’m too slow to really make the cut off, so I would get to a point and I wouldn’t be able to continue.
Miller: There was there was some sweeper who would come and say “sorry, for safety, we have to stop you because the race can’t be too spread out.”
Boynton: Absolutely. But in this format, there is no cut off. Your cut off is 24 hours, the same as everyone else. So you’re able to compete with everybody else on that same loop, get to know everyone, talk to everyone along the way, and just develop friendships. It’s amazing because you get some highs and you get some real lows, and you help everyone with those lows and highs.
Miller: Renee Janssen, what have you heard about the experience of this race for ultra marathon runners, people who are used to running for 30 or 40 or 50 or more miles, but how this race differs from the point to point races?
Janssen: Well, Charley did a pretty good job of explaining it there. The difference in this is the mental challenge of doing the same loop over and over again. And along with that is you pass your car every single loop, so it’s really easy to to stop and be done. But the physical and mental challenge of continuing and pushing past where you thought you could go to a distance you’ve never done before, that’s what makes this type of event a little more special than a typical point to point ultra distance race.
Miller: When you say you pass your car, meaning the parking lot is on the course? Or you run by it?
Janssen: You run by the parking lot.
Miller: Charley, is your car there the two times you’ve done it?
Boynton: Absolutely!
Miller: An escape hatch is right there. That seems like such a painful thing. I would think about just parking somewhere else so you don’t see the button to press to get out of this hellhole.
Boynton: It is very tempting. It’s tempting at like three in the morning when you absolutely do not want to be there, and you know there’s a sleeping bag in the back of your van, and it’s like “oh, that would be so nice,” but you just keep going.
I always tell myself that “I’m here for the 24 hour race. What am I thinking about? I don’t want to go lay in my van, I want to keep going.” So, you just do.
Miller: There is another version of an escape hatch here which is you could do the 12-hour race, which is still a good 11 hours more than almost anybody would do. Charley, did you consider the 12 hour hour option, especially for your very first run at it?
Boynton: Nope. I’ve done lots of 12 and 15 hour events by myself, self supported, not an actual event, but outings on my own. 24 was a timeline I hadn’t hit before. In fact, I’d really like to try a 48 hour eventually, maybe next year somewhere, just to see how far I could go in that timeframe.
Miller: You knew you could do 12 to 15, and so you were ready for a challenge.
Boynton: Exactly.
Miller: You said that those were self-supported, meaning just you and maybe a water bottle on a belt or something and a little bit of trail mix. What kind of support is available for this race?
Boynton: Oh, it’s an incredible aid station. Todd and Renee provide everything that we would ever need. Drinks, any kind of hot food, cold food, all through the night. If you want a burger, it’s ready on your next lap when you come back around.
Miller: The benefit of the burger, I imagine, veggie or otherwise, is that it’s calories, which is good for a body working hard. The drawback, I imagine, is that it’s a lump of chewed food bouncing up and down in your stomach. How do you figure out how much food to eat if the ultimate goal is to keep going?
Boynton: Well, people who run ultra marathons are used to eating unusual and unimaginable things. So I’m kind of used to that. But you eat what your body feels like eating. There’s certain things that you would imagine before you start the race that you want to eat, and all of a sudden that just does not look good. But pizza sounds amazing. You just have to listen to your body and eat when you need to eat.
Miller: And your body has a habit of saying pizza?
Boynton: Not normally, but for some reason, 12 hours in, pizza sounds really good. The first year I did it, we had shrimp cocktail at midnight.
Miller: Oh wow! With cocktail sauce?
Boynton: Absolutely! And you think it would be the worst thing to have. It was amazing!
Miller: I suppose if it doesn’t work for you, you know, pretty quickly and you don’t make that mistake again?
Boynton: That’s right!
Miller: It’s funny because the cocktail sauce seems key, without that it’s not shrimp cocktail. But with that, it does seem more challenging.
Renee the records here, I noted the 24 hour one, a little more than 127 miles, for the 12 hour version it’s 76 miles. At that elite level, are people running almost the entire time?
Janssen: Yeah, the people that are doing that distance are running pretty much the entire race, constantly.
Miller: Charley, what about you? What’s your plan for how to approach this event?
Boynton: My plan is just to keep moving. Stop whenever I can and as little as I have to. Number one problem I didn’t do my first time I ran it in 2019 was take care of my feet. My feet got blistered, I started feeling blisters, and I didn’t change socks frequently enough, and I let little hotspots turn into major hotspots and turn into full blown blisters that needed to be popped and dealt with at that point. The next year it was much, much easier. I took care of my feet. I’ve run several other 24s that I’ve done the same. You learn to take care of your feet.
And just keep moving. If you don’t, the problem is for me if I stop for an extended period of time, to get your legs moving and get back up on your feet and continue forward motion isn’t as easy as it sounds. So if you continue moving, start a little bit and eat standing up. Forward motion. It doesn’t matter how fast you go because it’s just going forward the whole time.
Miller: You noted that there’s a sense of community or camaraderie here, which is special, because you’re all the same people seeing each other for hour after hour. What kinds of conversations do you have with the other runners?
Boynton: It’s incredible. You share things with these people, and they share with you. We’re all in the same boat, we’re all dealing with the demons and the negative self-talk. You just listen to them, and help them through it, and reassure them that they can do it. It’s incredible. The trail and ultra community is an incredible community just for that reason. Even people you meet on the trails, everyone supports each other, everyone’s doing our best, and it’s very inclusive and welcoming.
Miller: Who do you feel like you’re running against, Charley, when you’re doing these kinds of races? Who or what?
Boynton: I’m running against the negative self-talk that tells you you’re not good enough and that you don’t belong here, and you can’t do it. And you just have to push that aside and know that you can.
Miller: The voice inside you telling you to stop, or that you can’t hack it?
Boynton: Yup.
Miller: Renee Janssen, you have another race, a number of other races that you manage. But one of them, the format is called a “Lastest Not Fastest.” What does that mean?
Janssen: Yes, that is a last person standing event which has become very popular in the last few years. And with that format, you have a defined loop, ours is a 4.5 mile loop, and you have one hour to complete that lap. And if you don’t make it in the hour, you’re done. And if you get done in the hour, you can continue on. And we keep doing that every hour on the hour until there is just one person left standing.
Miller: And how many 4.5 mile loops does that person do, generally?
Janssen: We have done this one a few times, and our record is 126 laps.
Miller: Oh, 126 times 4.5!? So meaning 126 hours as well, just over and over and over and over!?
Janssen: Sorry, 26 laps. and each lap is a 4.5 mile lap.
Miller: 26 laps! Okay. Although honestly at this point, it wouldn’t have surprised me if it had been 126. The human capacity for creativity when it comes to pushing bodies, it’s been extraordinary in the last couple of years.
Just briefly, Charley Boynton, who are your spectators? Who that loves you and cares about you is watching you do this?
Boynton: Well, my family always comes down and helps out. And I have two soon to be eight year old grandchildren that love to come to the event and give high fives to everyone along the route. So they’ll be there with me, with my kids and my wife will be there.
Miller: And the grandkids, can they run at all with you?
Boynton: They’ll run laps with me for sure. I’m not allowed to have pacers until 12 hours I think, right Renee?
Janssen: Right, that’s correct. After 8PM.
Boynton: My grandchildren don’t usually follow that rule. They like to pace with me.
Miller: We won’t tell anybody.
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