RUN 60K in 8hrs 48 mins, average pace of 14:30 ish min/mile. Ave HR 124 bpm.
Race start was 6:30am so we were up at 4:15. The last few long runs showed I was eating too much pre-run so today was only a lara bar and 2 poached eggs.
We dropped off our drop bags and hung out in the community center. I had a half a powerbar, while pushing away race anxiety. Everything felt good. What was I nervous about?
Packet pickup, race instructions, the race morning, and the start were all typical of my previous two ultras--minimalist and simple. So unlike triathlon, in which athletes are often fed through a machine of go-here do-that pre-race. We heard there were 900 runners for the races--a 10K, 23K, 26.2M, 60K, and 50M. The 10K peeps ran with us a few minutes, then the rest of us ran together on the trails with each increasing distance running an additional 11 mile loop. That meant for us 3 loops.
As we prepared for the start, we walked by the sailboats the Lighthouse Landing and laughed at the names. Typical prerace giddiness and happiness :) The field casually gathered, waited for the "gun", and took off in a quiet simple way!
The course: Just under 2 miles on a 2-lane road with a few slow hills to the trails. This section gave beautiful views of the sunrise over water and the canal. The 11 mile loop was a popular mountain bike trail so it was dirt with root, rock, and logs but not too much. The path was single track but wide, smooth, and mostly level. There were a number of minor creek crossings with a little mud, but nothing really wet or slick. The first half was relatively flat while the last half had the hills. Both ran along lakes (as in Land Between the Lakes!) and we had great views and light winds. This trail was remarkably different from what we trained on. This was dirt--soft and smooth. And really very nice on the feet!
Aid stations were 3-4 miles apart, and there were 3 in the loop and one at the drop bags. This made for an easy division of the loop into "quarters". Aid stations had the usual fare: bananas, oranges, trail mix, chips, Hammer gels, water, HEED, cookies, granola bars, candies. I didn't find much to eat at the stops until we found the big salted raisins from the trail mix.
It's not easy to summarize 9 hrs of running. But here goes.
Loop 1: All trail runners crowded the trail putting us into a train mostly dependent on the paces ahead of and behind us. I knew I wanted to walk more, but with people pushing behind me I felt the need to keep going even if it wasn't my expected pace. TH led out this loop. My race anxiety was kicking in again, giving me that "oh I'm too tired for this" feeling. I've had it before in races. It's like the weight of the day's potential is pushing me down, and it fades as the race progresses. I knew that if I kept moving it would fade. As the first AS, we stepped aside to let the train move through, and when we hopped back on we finally had our own space to run our pace. We settled in, moved through the loop smoothly and arrived back at the drop bag AS 3hrs into the race. The first loop seemed smooth and fast! Refill the Camelbak, biobreak, grab some apple chips from the drop bag along with more gel flavors, then off!
Loop 2: As we started loop 2, my race anxiety was gone. I had a layout of the course, we had a rhythm, and everything was feeling GREAT. The day was getting warmer so off with the beanie and gloves. Also off with the arm warmers--they were causing my fingers to swell. I led this loop and quickly noted a difference between my pace style and TH's. She's a metronome--straight and steady. I tend to walk quick hills and rooty areas and have more a speedup/down pattern. So when I led I kept wondering if TH was gonna run into me when I slowed. She didn't :) Now in the 2nd loop we had landmarks: the tent along the lake, the AS at the visitor's center, the rocky hill, the beautiful lake views, the meadows with tree frogs, the X wrong-way sign, the red tower, and more. They came and went, and soon enough we were back at the drop bag AS, about 5.5 hrs into the race. This was great news as it meant we came in 1hr and 45mins ahead of the cutoff to start the 3rd loop.
Loop 3: Started off with the realization that my sunglasses weren't on my hat like I thought they were! I quickly ran back to the drop bag AS to see if I could find them (and move my drop bag to the "finished" pile). I didn't find the, apologized to the timing guy who had to back my 2 passes out of the system, and caught up with TH who was walking until I caught up. In this loop, my long sleeved shirt came off and the fresh air felt great on my forearms. We kept our pace and rhythm in this loop, with me leading. We ran AS to AS, with TH reminding me of that when I started too look too far ahead into the race. I watched my Garmin for the 50K mark, after which every step we took was the farthest we'd ever run in one day. We just had to keep moving.
Last 2 miles: When we came into the drop bag AS for the last time, it was a wonderful feeling. We had less than 2 miles to go, and it was the 2 miles we were dreading. The idea of running miles 35-37 on pavement had us nervous, but I was surprised at how bad it wasn't. And pleased to see that TH, who had fallen back in pace in the 3rd loop, was rocking the pace on the inbound. She was way stronger than I was in this section and with her push I kept going when I wanted to walk. As we turned the last corner, she sighted the finish at the end of a line of orange cones. We cheered at seeing the clock--a sub 9!!As with everything else, it was a simple finish line with locals and specators high 5'ing us and cheering us on.
Post-finish: I knew from prerace calculations that things added up to 59K, not 60K. Earlier I'd resolved to walk any required distance to hit 60K. We did walk awhile, but after a while I just gave up. If I'd run a marathon and the Garmin said 26.1, I'd still log it as 26.2! So I stopped at 59.25km. We stopped into the community center the race was held at to change clothes, eat something, and grab our drop bags. I was surprised that I actually could eat food, usually post race or long run food sits like a rock and I feel sick. My peanut butter (peanut spread, really, ew but do what you gotta do) with my plantain chips and dates was a WONDERFUL post race treat.
Nutrition and Hydration: My nutrition centered around my EFS, Powerbars, and gels. I ate the other half of the prerace powerbar, then moved into sipping the EFS. In total I ate about 1400 calories: 2 powerbars (280), the EFS flask (400), sport beans (100), 3 gels (300), and about a quarter cup of raisins, a few cashews, and a bite of banana. That's it!? It seemed like too little but my post race analysis says otherwise. It was PERFECT. The 40 mins seemed to come too fast, might change it to 45 mins for the 50M. But the nudge to eat was one of the best ideas. Hydration might have been low for me, I wasn't peeing all that much. Maybe it was all in my poor swollen fingers! But as in practice I sipped water with each walk and whenever I saw TH take one. At the 3rd AS (about 4 miles) out I took a 2x caffeine gel as a boost. Earlier I'd eaten a 1X caffeine gel. The only thing I'll change is to do what I learned in practice but didn't employ here--EAT in the last few miles!! TH learned from me doing it and snuck in a caff gel at the last AS. I didn't and that's why she finished stronger than I did. Lesson learned!
Swimming: I know TH is a great swimmer, but she just can't resisted injecting some swimming into the run! In the first loop she lost some footing and butterfly'd her arms to regain balance. I'm amazed she hung on to it! In the 2nd loop she stumbled just before a creek and nearly dived in. In the 3rd loop, as we approached the same creek I pointed it out, only to hear her repeat the 2nd loop stumble! As much as I hate to laugh at someone stumbling, this was too funny.
The Shoes: The rule is nothing new on race day, and here I was running in the 8's after only about 9 miles of testing. Oh sure I was nervous. But these shoes performed awesome. The only hot spot was my usual inside the ball of the left foot (which was blister bandaid covered, as per practice). I snugged the laces after the first loop and this improved the slippy feel they had. The soles of my feet did start to hurt, but not a painful oh-my-god-I-gotta stop feeling. The 8's were a lucky hit. I think they'll be fine for the 50M. My soles might hurt, but they'll work.
The gear: I wore tights, BRR hat, BRR T, long sleeve shirt, the MarathonPro compression socks, the Camelbak, a beanie hat, long finger bike gloves, and the Club arm warmers. This was a perfectly layer-controlled system. The only thing I'll change is the arm warmers. As they did in a 26-er practice run at Lewis & Clark (but I wasn't sure I could blame the arm warmers then) they caused my hands to swell. I noticed that my fingers were difficult to flex in my gloves, and when I looked I was shocked to see fat puffy fingers! Wow were they swollen! TH said my arms were red and had lines from the arm warmers. So they are a NO for the 50M. Everything else is a GO, especially the shoes and compression socks.
The pace: We walked and stopped as needed and desired. AS stops took as long as needed. We kept moving and never had a OMG STOP moment. But we did what we needed and it was perfect. While the first few miles of the first loop didn't let us stop, once we got off the train the pace improved. I led the last two loops but would have been happy to trade off. TH slowed a little at the end and would fall back 10-30m. I wanted to run with her, and was happy to slow down to let her catch. Especially once I realized that when she did fall back, my focus wandered and I quit talking. I didn't just want to run with her, my run was better with her there. It not only gave me conversation, but thinking about her--pointing out roots and rocks, calling out creeks, listening to her footfalls, wondering if she was going to stop in time when I slowed--it all kept me alert. What will I do in the 50M if she falls back? I'm happy to wait.
50M: Sitting in the community center after the race, I overheard two runners talking about Potaw, the nickname for the upcoming Potawatomi. I introduced myself and learned they were running the 150 miles there! One who had run it before described it as constant hills, no flats, and last year--muddy. Hills so fast and steep that the mud left them unclimbable and undescendable. Another runner with a SLUG t-shirt said "oh man you picked Potow for your first 50?! Even I'm not that crazy!" Hoo boy.
Might come up with more later!
No comments:
Post a Comment