The big fuss before the race was all about the weather. The forecast was for a dry start around freezing and then warming up to around 10C and getting wet towards 2pm. I had cold forearms at the Toad a couple of weeks ago and wanted to avoid a repeat so I opted for my Mazuno Breath Right Thermal long sleeve shirt / shorts / running cap / gloves. I went back a read previous blogs and felt reasonably confident that I had the clothes correct but I was afraid that I may be too hot in the later stages of the race. Once gain I decided on the Ultraspire pack and I made sure I had more Gels that I was going to need.
Race morning started at 4:45 am. Woke up to my alarm after a really deep sleep which is rather unusual the night before! Couldn't find my Wallet heading out the door, panicked a bit but came to the conclusion that I had misplaced it in the car or somewhere in the house. This was stress that I didn't need. AT 05:30 am I got gas in Hanover, picked up Anne Elizabeth then it was Tims for breakfast. The 2 hour drive to London seemed rather short ...lots of run talk with Anne. Arrived at the race before 08:00 am, took care of business then picked up the race kit and headed back to the car to get ready.
The race start was uneventful. I headed out on the first of 2 25K loops with a simple race plan that was to run as many 6:00Ks as possible trying to finish in just under 5 hours. It didn't take long before I remembered just how fast this trail race is. There are lots of flat straight sections where you could comfortably open up and bank a little time. 5K in I was thinking I would aim for some where around 2hrs25 for the first loop! Gelled on schedule at 45 minutes then on the hour I did an S cap followed by another Gel at 90 minutes. Did a second S cap at 2 hours and my third gel just before I finished the first loop at 2hrs15mins. Passed by the clock completing the first loop in around 2hrs28mins, a little slower then I wanted but I felt confident that I still could finish around the 5 hour mark. Heading out for loop 2 I was starting to feel a little bit tired bit was still moving well. I need some more calories and started Gelling every 30 minutes .... 2hrs45min, 3hrs15min, 3hrs45min and the last one a 4hrs15min taking an S Cap at the 3 and 4 hour mark. Temperatures had increased to the middle to high single digits at around 30K I noticed that I was getting a bit warm. The wind had picked up and there was a little rain that helped to cool me, I would say that I was comfortably warm. 30-40K I was watching my avg pace tick up a second or so every couple of Ks. I was slowing down and was really trying to keep it close to a 6:00 pace but it was getting more difficult. Just past 40K I tripped on a root and went down and rolled on my right shoulder and ended up back on my feet and caught another root almost falling again. It took a bit out of me but I set my focus back on what I was trying to do. With 10K to go the avg pace had crept up to 6:06 and I was beginning to see my sub 5 hour goal become unattainable however I felt confident that I could PB my previous best VB of 5:13:38. I was now thinking 5hrs3min and I was quite satisfied with that goal so I pushed hard to running as many 6:00 Ks as I possibly could. I kept a pretty close eye on the Garmin redoing the math every K that ticked by. With 5K to go I noticed that the legs were really starting to hurt but I was still moving along well and was no longer seeing the avg pace increase. I continued to push hard to the end.
I finished in 5hrs5min34sec logging an average pace of 6min7sec / km good for 25th out of the 79 finishers, 18th of 51 men and 4th in my AG. The overall winner was in my AG so I received a 3rd in my AG the first podium finish in a OUS event! This was the fastest 50K Trail Ultra I have ever done. My previous best time for this distance was a VB in 2009 5hrs13min38 seconds so this was a PB by 8min4sec. I am looking forward to doing the one again next year with a sub 5hr goal as the objective.
Congratulations on making the podium!
ReplyDeleteGreat result Ron!
ReplyDeleteFantastic run Ron! Congratulations!
ReplyDeleteCongrats again, and did you find your wallet?
ReplyDelete