RUN 26.8 miles in 6:02 10th/34 females, 10th/13 females who did 26.8 miles. 27th/84 overall
Ave HR 136 bpm, Ave cad 160
4x 6.7 miles loops:
#1 0:00 to 1:25, or 85 mins
#2 1:25 to 2:53, or 88 mins
#3 2:53 to 4:33, or 97 mins
#4 4:33 to 6:02, 89 mins
Simple set-up for this race. Run as far as you can in 6 hrs, with the only cut-off that you have to start your last loop by 4:30am. You have a 10 minute grace period, if the RD says you look good, you can start up to 4:40am. So that became my 2nd tier goal: finish 3 loops by 4:30am. That way I can choose to run the 4th or not. That the option wasn't take from me. I'm pretty sure that's got something to do with my Reactance issues, lol.
I snoozed in the truck, staring up at the stars and enjoying nothing but frogs singing. "Up" at 11pm from truck to do biz, eat an orange, futz with gear. Cascadias, headlamp, Camelbak, had flashlight in Camelbak as backup. Otherwise, no other special gear. On board nutrition was a flask of Hammer Espresso gel for caffeine, 2 more of my gels, and a banana. I debated keeping the Camelbak bladder out and carrying instead a bottle in the pocket. Good thing I didn't do this, and a good lesson learned.
Prerace meeting at 11:45pm included the usual trail instructions and a Raise Your Right Hand Waiver of "if I get hurt, lost, or die, It's my own damned fault". LOVE IT! Air horn and go!
Trail: The mountain bike immediately preceding this race had smoothed out the dirt trail, all rock and root were clearly visible, and my concerns a few days ago about needing a new headlamp were for nothing, a save of $70. Our run course didn't entirely overlap with the bike race, so we had some wet and rocky spots to deal with. But otherwise...fast trail! The change in trail from singletrack to meadow to singletrack to dirt to rocks and wet sandy mud to the gravel hill climb to the start/finish was a pleasant mix. If this was a daylight run on dry trail, could be a fast smooth loop. But that's not today.
Nutrition: Pre race "dinner" of potato and egg. In race about 3x hammer gel, 1 orange prior and 1 orange in-race, banana, some potato bites. That's it!
Loop 1: There was a concurrent 10K race, and I got caught with them the first few miles. I tried to seed in the middle of the group (about 100 runners?). I was leading the congo line for maybe two miles and kept offering for those behind me to pass.
Around 3 miles I forced a walk break in a meadow section with a rutted out dirt trail. An ankle turner with drops and angles, so I walked this every loop. Around 4 miles I took some of the gel, a downside of the gel flask is you don't know how much you're getting. Upside is less mess, less waste.
First loop in 1:25, I didn't have a goal time but this was about right. Maybe faster than needed. Grabbed some orange and steamed potato, out for loop 2. This loop had me ahead of two guys for the first mile. One commented (as many did that run) about my M-dot tattoo, another pointed out how to find spiders in the headlamps, "disco balls" from their eyes. And once I started noticing them, there were a lot of spiders! As long as they stay on the ground, I'm good. Somewhere in this loop I realized I was sweating heavily, my Craft shorts were dripping wet. At times fat water droplets fell from my hat, it wasn't rain! Drink, drink and drink.
This loop went smooth, started picking up some landmarks and only one minor trip over a root at the beginning. Had some more gel around 9 miles, think I nom'd a banana too .Ended the loop, added water to the camelbak, bathroom stop, oranges and potatoes, and a double-stick mango popsicle, wonderful surprise! Out for loop 3.
This was my critical loop. I had to finish it by 4:30am and this put some pressure on me. But not bad. With the dark it was hard to follow the garmin time too closely, and had a laugh when I realized that the elapsed time on the garmin was the actual time of day! This was also the most pained loop for some reason, it hurt the most for legs. A few trips and stubs, but no falls. My gut was signaling potential problems -- the gel, the change in schedule, stress? It was mostly gas in the end, and it worked its way out. But something to keep in mind for longer races.
I was at this point debating...do a 4th loop? I had moments in #3 where I wasn't feeling up to it at all. Thought stopping at 20.1 would be respectable. I held off the decision until I made it up the hill to the start/finish. I negotiated with myself that if I did the 4th loop, I could do it with more walking and just enjoy the sunrise.
Finished in 4:33 and was given permission to go back out. Suddenly I felt great and went for it. Purple popsicle I split with another female, out to loop 4. She fell back a few mins in, and I kept going. Realized about now that I didn't add water to the camelbak, and this came back to bite me in a few miles.
I could see the beginnings of morning twilight, a faint color to the sky that gradually brightened. I knew the moon rose around 3:12 am and I was looking for it. As I popped out of the canopy around 3 miles along a meadow, there it was. Low in a pink/orange sky, over a foggy green meadow, a silver sliver of almost-new moon. This stopped me, paused to appreciate. Along the same time, the birds started their morning songs, these replaced the frogs and bugs that sang to me in the first loops.
This is why I run, these magical moments. But back to the race.
Now that I had daylight, I was running more surefooted and picked up pace. Or so it felt, I wasn't running faster it probably just took more effort to hold the pace. As the pale echoes of leaves appeared alongside me, as rock and root became visible without headlights, as the sun started to peak through the trees to glint upon tree trunks, as all this happened I was wondering -- where am I in the pack? How many other women came out for the 4th loop? There was no one around me! I was alone 90% of this loop. I started thinking I was ahead in the field of women? Bad thoughts to have, it drives the pace and that's not my goal. But I was happy to catch another woman around the dreaded dirt road section. The only things slowing me down was the head games. And my heart rate, which started climbing to 145-150 around the last few miles.
Around the 25 miles the Camelbak was empty. Stupid move, but only 1-2 miles to go. I watched for 26.2 miles and hit that at 5:59. Although not accurate (my garmin read the loops between 6.4-6.6) it's still a sub-6 trail mary. Up the hill, cross the finish, and DONE to the usual minimalist trail finish line. Feeling great! Sore but great. It took a seemingly long time to bring my breath rate down, but the HR came down on schedule. I was dripping wet, sore, didn't want to move, but otherwise feeling great.
Change clothes and clean up. Grab mini brekkie of 3 eggs, yogurt, and berries. Hang out just a little bit, then drive home. Long hour drive! I made it ok, only the last few miles were getting sleepy.
Once home, shower and tried to nap but failed. Watched a movie, updated my nutrition notes, gave up at one point and went to get the dog. Back to bed. Wash the dog, eat a dinner. Back to bed, where I finally slept 7pm to 4am.
SUMMARY:
1. Less nutrition than I use on training runs! Dial the training runs down?
2. Always fill the Camelbak.
3. Races drive an effort and mentality that training can't. Races are good for this.
4. The race pace and effort knock you back a few days. Too many races are bad for this.
5. My body is amazing. No injury, no pains, just some soreness and niggles:
--bottom of my feet, of course
--some sciatic/lower lumbar discomfort next few days
--tenderness on lateral right calf, kinda above where the distal fibula stress fracture was in 2016
-- not much from my upper back/shoulder
--no chest pain, just fatigue
-- over next few days a productive lower respiratory cough that got rough
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