Once again Limberlost lived up to its name and was quite a "Challenge". Wrapped up 4 Ultras in 4 weekends finishing the race in 9hrs18min44sec my slowest time at this venue! The course had a short new section adding a few hundred meters or so to the race making it 57km vs the advertised 56km. Last year I was 9hrs14min25sec so I would have beat last years time if the course were shorter ....ha ha it really doesn't matter!!!!
Slept great the night before getting up at 3:30 am then out the door by 4 am arriving at the race 3 hours later. Temps were comfortable when we started out at 8:00 am. It was going to get mid to upper 20s but the air was drier then it has been and the course is 90%+ shaded. Felt great through the first loop. I left the Garmin at home and was guessing somewhere around 1hrs45min but tripped the lap clock at 1hrs55min ...there goes a sub 8 hour day! I was hydrating well and taking my S Caps but I failed to start on the calories. All of the OUS races I have done this year had Gels available so I only took 4 with me for the times I needed it between aide stations or if they ran out. I wasn't expecting Gels on the first loop but was looking for them in lap 2 but there were none to be had! So I am 3+hours in somewhere around 21K and have not had even a single calorie. I knew that I made a fatal mistake but I also knew that I could make up the calorie deficit so I started stuffing my face with as much as I could get in! Struggled to find the 2nd gear through the last 7K of the second loop. The "Deer Flies" were absolutely horrible as the temps increased. I though they were bad at home but they were beyond annoying driving me batty. I had thoughts of packing it in after the 2nd loop but knowing that there were much longer days. Heading out on the 3rd loop I was still moving OK but I would quickly get out of breath and the heart would be racing a sure sign of metabolizing body mass vs burning the easy glycogen. After 29 Ks I had my first Gel of the day. Hitting AS1 I stuffed myself with giant M&Ms then grabbed a handful of pretzels. I was getting a pain across my shoulders and the occasional sharp stabbing pain mid back. I haven't had this sensation in a long long time and I was pretty confident it was a result of my under fueling ... " Hello , this is your heart speaking ... please stop". The third loop felt like it was my last one and seemed to take forever. The RDs pre-race blah blah blah said that the course cane be rather "grueling"... this was the days ear worm. Over and over and over again that stupid word echoed through my skull gruelinggruelinggruelinggruelinggruelinggruelinggruelinggruelinggruelinggruelinggruelinggruelinggruelinggruelinggruelinggruelingvgruelingvgruelinggruelinggruelinggruelinggruelinggruelinggruelinggruelinggruelinggruelinggrueling
Oh and the other wonderful thoughts were the other words the RD mentioned, three laps were 42.9km therefore anyone doing a 42.2 would end up running an Ultra that day. Gelled again half way through the third loop , ate as much as I could and started on Coke ... not the real thing but good enough. Another rather discouraging finishing #3 was getting lapped but a whole lot of folks finishing close to the 7 hour mark and having the AS folks commenting on my last lap and having to fire back "One more to go". Heading out on the fourth and final loop I Gelled again and was starting to feel better. The pain across my shoulder has subsided and I was no longer breathing like a fish out of water. So I cranked up the tunes feeling and moving much better and then WHAM .... down I went. Nailed a small stump that stopped me dead in my tracks. It was a soft landing in a bed of Spruce Needles which of course stuck very well to sweat soaked me! I have been wearing Metatarsal supports that more or less sit under the arch of the foot. Theses things stay put but the strike caused the cushion to move up under my toes so I had no choice but to stop , remove my shoe then preposition it. I was a little discouraged after the fall but walked it off. Getting to AS1 seemed to take forever but it was a great mile stone knowing there was a little less then 10K to go. I more or less was running pain free again and was breathing much better and running all but the steeper inclines. I finally felt like I was starting to get ahead of my fueling and was happy that that kept going overcoming the "Grueling" course. Finished feeling a little hot , little hungry but a whole lot of satisfied to have got er done.
Today , Monday I feel pretty good. There is no muscle pain whatsoever. The Right Knee is acting up again feeling rather stiff and and looking a but swollen. Its making the grinding noise again but there is Zero pain and once I get moving it the sound goes away and it doesn't feel stiff.
I have no races planned until the Dirty Girls Aug 9th. I am working this weekend so there will be no "long one" , that will have to wait until mid next week. Most likely do a "recovery run " tomorrow.
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