Just did the Seaton Trail "52K" Trail Race Saturday. I was up real early with not much sleep and a Gravol hangover. Leaving home at 3:30 am was tough but I arrived an hour before the race started. Weather look pretty favourable to a bit on the warm side. The race started at 07:00 am and I planned on being out there for 7hours and for temperatures in the low 20's. The start was comfortable until we hit the rive r2.5K in. The water was a bit of a shock but little did I know it would be welcomed later in the day. The course is beautiful, natural but the air sucked. There was a funny polluted smell to it similar to what I experienced in Sulphur last year. I realized how lucky I am to not have to deal with this sorts of annoyance. The course is an out and back. There were three aide stations but no Gels were out in the first loop. I drank, I ate Jelly Beans , Boiled Potatoes and Pretzels. I had Gels with me but decided that the food was OK on the first loop and I would do the Gels on Lap 2. The Garmin reported that the turnaround was at the 15K mark...YIKES , I didn't plan on a 60K day. It didn't take long for others to point that out but I overheard that the 2nd time out the turnaround would be at a different point. Felt pretty good making it back to the start , a little hot , a little tired and in need of some calories. The Gels were out and I dug in , 30K down ...22K to go or so I thought. It was almost 11am when I headed back out , the temperature and the humidity was really beginning to climb. I was listening to Q107 while running and the were expecting highs of around 26C. I figured out one of the things that make this course so tough as I headed out. We follow a river all the way out and occasionally climb the bluffs and dive back down. What appears to be flat is actually a constant elevation gain that is so gradual you don't even notice on fresh legs. Put 4 hours and 30+ Ks behind you and its a different story. The new turn around was 12K out from the start... the "52K" day suddenly became "54K" Not a really big deal but I was getting tired. With 42K behind me an 12 K remaining my only goal was to keep moving and that's more or less what I did. In Paris and at PYP I avoided the death march and I really didn't want to practice that at Seaton but I was getting close! Made it to the rive with a couple of brief "its not a hill" walks but I was still moving OK. I so wanted to walk it in after the river but managed to hang in there running to the end. I was really glad to be done , Garmin said 54.2K and 7hrs23min that's 23min off my goal time but give the extra 2K and the warmer weather I was OK with the results. I felt like I did a slightly better race then PYP. Looking forward 2 weeks the 50 miles at Sulphur looks like a real challenge but it is an easier course... not easy but not nearly as demanding as PYP or Seaton.
Congratulations on your race!
ReplyDeleteyou have got to get some better pre- race drugs.
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