Kodiak 100 finisher runs 22:13:57, banks a UTMB 2027 spot
The race report breaks down 13 weeks of training, three weeks at 7000 feet and two gels an hour.
One r/AdvancedRunning poster ran the Kodiak 100-miler on October 9-10 and finished in 22:13:57, good for an automatic entry to UTMB 2027. The full race report is worth reading because the plan behind it is spelled out line by line.
The build came after what the poster calls a mediocre Western States run, so the focus shifted toward speed. The base was the SWAP 50 mile/50k Champion plan, supplemented with extra high volume days. Over a 13 week block the average was 70 miles a week, with four weeks over 90 and two in the 80s.
The other half of the preparation was geography. The poster drove out to Big Bear Lake three weeks early to sit at the 7000 feet of altitude where most of the course runs, and used that time to run almost every section of the course at least once.
The fueling plan
This is the part most readers can actually copy. The plan was two gels an hour, one regular Carbs gel and one Salted Carbs gel, which works out to 400 calories and roughly 550mg of sodium an hour. In the second half the regular gel was swapped for a caffeinated one, adding 100mg of caffeine. SIS Beta Fuel electrolyte gels sat in the drop bags as a backup carbohydrate source, because the poster says the Carbs gels usually stay fine for 10 to 12 hours before the stomach gets wonky.
Hydration was plain water only, on the logic that the gels already carried enough electrolytes. Two 800mL soft flasks plus an empty 500mL in the kangaroo pocket to start, then down to 500mL flasks once the sun went down.
How the race went
Kodiak is a UTMB series race, and the poster entered the elite corral after sizing up the top 20 against previous years. The first climb went out at what the report calls an almost suicidal pace, followed by two falls on the PCT. A rough patch after Camp Whittle at mile 19.5 had the poster in panic mode, convinced the early pace had cooked the legs, before everything snapped back on the next easy section. Doble 1, at mile 33, came at 6 hours 15 minutes on the clock.
The mental framing was set the day before. Asked by his wife if he was excited, the answer was no.
I was focused on getting my mind prepared for the amount of discomfort that was to come
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