Race start was 09:30 am , a bit of a break from the Summer 6/7/8 am starts. Had lousy nights sleep dreaming I was helplessly lost in an Ultra without trail markings. The alarm went off at 05:30 but after a 2 hour drive , race kit pick up and all the usual pre-race things I didn't really seem to wake up until I started putting one foot in front of the other.
Race plan was to get the 50K done in under 5hrs20min beating last years time. I planned on going out "fast" and playing the fade.
Race start was better this year. The 100+ 50Kers headed out at 09:30am ahead of the 900+ 25K participants....much better then the mass start. . 3K in I rolled my left Ankle , there was a popping sound and it hurt like hell. First thought was "fantastic now I have a reason to quit". Well I didn't stop and the pain subsided but never went away. I gauged the damages and decided it was a light to moderate sprain that would end up with a bit of swelling. 4K in we pass by a bathroom in the campground so I popped in for pee that I had to do before the race started but was too lazy to wait in a line up. Past the 5K mark I checked the avg pace 6:47 doh! With 7K left in the first of 4 12.5K loops I decided to pick up the pace and make to the "Skeleton Hill" with an avg 6:30 pace. With less then a K to go I checked the avg pace at the base of "Skeleton" and it was 6:25. Finsihed lap 1 of 4 on 1hr18min which was at least 8 min off where I thought I should be. Heading out on the second loop I did my first Gel of the day, cranked up the music and concentrated on chipping away or maintaining my avg pace. I was moving allot better on the second loop and ever so slowly continued to chip away at the avg pace. It had become overcast and I found that I was a bit chilled, mostly my exposed forearms I was wearing shorts and a tech T and had my UltraSpire pack on. Every hour on the hour I took and S Cap and was gelling every 45min to 1 hour. I had 2L of water with me and was drinking regularly I was also grabbing a cup of water at every aide station. I figured that I had the nutrition hydration and electrolytes dialed in. Finished loop 2 in 1hr17min a small improvement over the first loop. This is where I started to think about beating 5hrs20min. I felt that I had a 4 minutes banked and all I had to do was maintain my loop 2 pace perhaps slightly slower then pick it up in the final lap. Half way through the third loop I started to feel sluggish and the avg pace was ever slowly increasing. The Sun was out again and things were really getting warm in the exposed parts of the course. I felt like I was over heating and was really sweating allot. It was about this time that I realized that I hadn't been getting enough fluids or electrolytes underestimating the conditions. So with 18 or so Ks to go I doubled up the S Caps to a 30 min interval and started taking 2 cups of water at the Aide Stations. Finished the 3rd of 4 laps in 1hr20min giving up all but 1 minute of my banked time. Heading out on the 4th loop I believed I still had a shot at a sub 5hr20min time but there was very little wiggle room. I remember thinking to myself that it was great motivator to keep me running and prevent me from giving into the urge to back off. As I progress past each K marker I redid the numbers and felt always felt like a had a really good chance of achieving the goal so I kept pushing. Half way through the loop I had planned on one last Gel to give me a much needed finishing kick. To my surprise I had consumed all 7 Gels and only had a pack of GU Chomps. I wanted to gulp calories not chew them but not having any other options I managed to get 3 "Chomps" down ... I was not impressed!!!! Going into the last couple of Ks I really felt like I still had a shot at my goal so I really started to push even harder. When I crossed the mat the clock struck 5:21:00 rats, so very close to my goal.
So I sat down and quickly thought back to the lousy fist lap knowing that that we where I more or less blew the goal, the unnecessary bathroom break , the rolled ankle coming to mind. But then I realized that I had a pretty solid day running the entire 50K with the exception of the bigger hills. I didn't give up a single position in the last half of the race and was passing the odd 50ker here and there. Comparing 2012 and 2012 splits also made me realize that I had a pretty solid day.
Lap 2011 2012
1 1:14:33 1:18:11
2 1:14:15 1:17:27
3 1:20:03 1:20:12
4 1:31:06 1:25:16
Chip time was 5hrs20min58sec good for 56th out of the 125 that showed up at the starting line. I was 43 out of 86 men and I finished 9th out of 20 in the 50-59 age group.
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