Running 50 Miles on a Baseball Diamond

Who decides that running 50 miles in a small circle is a good idea? Probably no one you know. A member of our running league came up with a crazy idea. Let’s all run around a baseball diamond and see who can do complete the most laps/runs. The name of this interesting endeavor was “Foul Play”. I decided that sounded like an fun but challenging adventure so I got signed up for the event.

​The event was scheduled to take place the last full week of March 2020, Sunday thru Saturday. One member of the league set the bar at 260 runs on the first day. So on my first attempt I pushed a bit beyond that and hit 305 runs. I knew that would make that the target to beat for all the other contestants. I had to come up with another more substantial effort if I wanted to win.

While thinking about what to do for my final Foul Play run, I looked at professional baseball’s highest lifetime scorers. I found a list of the top 1000 lifetime runs scored. Before looking at the list I had fantasized about completing the same number of runs as one of the greats. I quickly realized that in order to run the same number as Ricky Henderson, Ty Cobb, or Barry Bonds that I would be running over 121 miles. That just wasn’t in the cards. So I started at the bottom of the list and worked my way up and found “Shoeless Joe Jackson” with 873 lifetime runs scored. I calculated that this would be just over 51 miles.

If I’m going to be running 50 miles anyway…

Our running league likes to give out custom bottle caps as awards for special achievements. The thought of running 50 miles hooked me. If I was going to run that far, I might as well try for the Zombie Dave Bottle Cap award. That award required the winner to complete a single activity that started at sunset and lasted till sunrise. At this time of year that would be 12 hours of running, and I was sure I would take me at least that long. Completing the challenge would also make me the first league member to achieve this prestigious award. So on Friday I Started about 10 minutes before sunset, about 7:45 PM, and embarked on my first all night running adventure.

And so it begins

Starting out things were clicking well. There were a few individuals in a nearby field that were giving me strange looks. Who is this guy running around the bases over and over again? But they eventually left and it was just me and the field. I settled into a pretty good routine, using a handheld clicker to mark off the laps each time I crossed home plate. The number of completed laps was slowly growing. Meanwhile I was keeping my brain occupied by listening to an audio book. Given that this was happening during the Covid-19 pandemic, I thought it was fitting to listen to Spillover. A book all about how viruses make the jump from species to species. It was not light listening but was very interesting.

As the night deepened my brain became drowsy and I started to become paranoid, seeing things moving in the distance. Having never done an all night run, this was a new experience for me. It was a strange and eerie feeling. I spotted a set of power meters installed around a wooden power pole which looked like someone watching me. Even thought I knew what it was it freaked me out virtually every time I rounded third base.

Time for a break

As part of “Foul Play” we had side achievements, one that I attempted was called “Benchwarmer”. To win this achievement you had to sit in the dugout for the longest duration between laps. So I took an hour during the activity to warm the bench, and fought to keep myself awake. Towards the end of my bench warming I was startled as another league member, Dave, walked around the corner of the dugout. We both jumped and I let out a bit of a yell/scream, it might have been a bit girly ;). I guess the paranoia of being alone and drowsy out there combined to really put me on edge.

Dave totally startled me, but it was nice to have someone else on the diamond with me. It was about 4AM when he arrived, putting me at 8 hours on the diamond. His arrival gave me some added energy which helped me get going after my bench warming session. But that was soon depleted leaving me at a walk. I was still listening to my amazing audiobook. But even though I was super interested in it I found that I was starting to nod and shut my eyes while shuffling around the diamond.

Asleep on my feet

After a couple dozen sleepy laps I decided that I needed to turn off my book and switch to some music. Almost immediately after getting some good music going my body perked right up. And after a couple laps I was logging some of my fastest laps for the night. It surprised me how I could go from almost not being able to walk any more to a good strong run in seconds. And this was after having about 40 miles under my belt for the evening.

Dave’s company was good, he stuck with me for 175 laps and left just as the sky was brightening in the east. I can honestly say that I don’t know if I would have made it through the night without his help. Even though we didn’t talk much, and ran at our own speed. Just having another human nearby gave me a ton of additional motivation.

The Morning Comes

I was able to squeeze in 45 miles before sunrise, but that still left me about 6.5 miles to complete. Running in the dark had brought it’s own specific challenges, paranoia and the like. Those were washed away with the coming of the dawn.The rising of the sun also reminded my body of just how long it had been working. So these final laps were the toughest mentally. I was so close to my goal, but it was a fight to keep going.

Continued effort finally brought me to my efforts conclusion. I completed the 873rd run and was elated at having completed my goal of running 50 miles on a baseball diamond. And to have honored “Shoeless Joe Jackson” with the effort. I had made it through the night, won my bottle cap award and hopefully had secured the first place spot for the event.

I Ran 50 Miles Overnight!

It was a transformative event, I learned that I could make it through a long overnight run. But that it would help to have other people with me. That the brain would play tricks as it gets drowsy, so you have to fight against them to maintain your reality. And finally that as good as an audio book is to pass the time, a good beat goes a long way on the trail.

On a side note, my Coros Apex Adventure Watch did a great job tracking the mileage. Because I was running in a circle rather than a square each loop was about 311 feet, and with 873 loops that comes to 51.42 miles, only .23 miles difference from what the watch reported… which is probably just my trips into the dugout to get food and be a benchwarmer. So I was quite impressed with it’s ability to track accurately with such a small loop.

Elapsed Time	Moving Time	Distance	Average Speed	Max Speed	Elevation Gain	Calories Burned
13:09:22 hours	10:53:19 hours	51.66 mi.	15:17 min/mile	7:40 min/mile	915.35 ft.	7,482 kcal

While thinking about what to do for my final Foul Play run, I decided to look highest lifetime scores for professional baseball and run the same number of their lifetime runs/scores, I found a list here: https://www.baseball-reference.com/leaders/R_career.shtml I quickly realized that in order to run the same number as Ricky Henderson, Ty Cobb, or Barry Bonds that I would be running over 121 miles... and that wasn't in the cards... so I started at the bottom and worked my way up and found "Shoeless Joe Jackson" with 873 lifetime runs scored. I calculated that this would be about 51 miles. So that got me thinking that if I was going to run that far, that I might as well try for the Zombie Bottle Cap award, and be the first to get that. So I Started about 10 minutes before sunset yesterday and finished up about an hour or so after sunrise this morning. As the night wore on and my brain became drowsy I noticed that I started to become paranoid, seeing things moving in the distance. And there was a set of power meters surrounding a power pole that totally looked like someone was standing behind the pole and looking at me. Even thought I knew what it was it freaked me out virtually every time I rounded third base. I took an hour during the activity to warm the bench, and fought to keep myself awake. towards the end of my bench warming I was startled as Dave walked around the corner, and we both jumped and at least I screamed a bit. But it was nice to have someone else on the trail with me. Dave gave me some added energy so I was able to pump several miles out and then I was back to a walk. I was listening to an amazing book "SpillOver" about how viruses jump from species to species. But even though I was super interested in it I found that I was starting to nod and shut my eyes while shuffling around the diamond. After a couple dozen of those I decided that even though I was enjoying my book I needed to switch to some music. Once I got some pounding music going it perked me right up and I was able to log some of my fastest miles, even after having about 40 miles under my belt for the evening. On a side note, my Coros watch did a great job tracking the mileage. Because I was running in a circle rather than a square each loop was about 311 feet, and with 873 loops that comes to 51.42 miles, only .23 miles difference from what the watch reported... which is probably just my trips into the dugout to get food and be a benchwarmer.

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