The Dam Hill Run - 6 Hour Ultra - September 21,2013

 I was looking forward to doing this race for some time.   The Dam Hill Run was staged in Springnbank Park in London, Ont.  I grew up in London and had lots of great memories of time spent at that venue.  The format was kind of intriguing.  There were mats placed in such a way to provide us with a 21.1 km,  25 km, 42.2 km and 50 km.   The RDs was going to provide us with times in each of those distances.   It was hard not to want to zoom out of the gate but the format did play a big role in how my day went.  A week ago I was thinking 5:00 pace until Grant and I went out on the Georgian Rail Trail for a little 30K  constant Run.   Without taking in any resources I managed to get through 20K at a 6:00 pace before my legs turned to stone sue to a Latic Acid build up.   I should have know better then to think I could go fast without doing any speed work.   So the 6 hour race plan was revised to something a little more obtainable 6:00 pace as long as I could hold it.

 Race day started with the alarm going off at 4:00 am.   A pot of Coffee,  an hour in the new Hot Tub and I was off around 5:15 am.  Stopped at Tims in Durham  for breakfast arriving at the race just before 08:00 am.   Race kit pick up,  a few words with Chris, Christa and Kim then before I knew it we were off.

 I paced by my Garmin's average pace  until the Battery failed.    The 2.25 km loop started more of less flat for the first 0.5 km  then it was more or less a gradual downhill for a little over a km then the last half K of so were up a fairly easy hill.  Pace varied depending on where I was in the loop but I worked on keeping the average at a 6:00 pace.    I made it through 20 km on target and feeling pretty good.   I had done a couple fo Gels ,  an S Cap and drank a couple of bottles of water.   I had my Gels ,  Water ,  Cokes  and S Caps under the back of my car about 20 meters off the course.  The more I made the trek to the car the more pissed off I was that I didn't have it available on the course ... bad planning again.   So I made it though 25 km ,  in 2hrs30 min for an avg 6:00 pace.  I was starting to feel quite a bit of pain in my legs due not being use to running on pavement.    I decided to push the pace to the 3 hour mark and successfully made it 30K in 3 hours but this is where I started to struggle.    After last weekends run I was pretty happy to get as far as I did without breaking pace.   I felt like I was a little light on the Calories and S Caps and increased the intake of both.   Started on solids too eating boiled potatoes  and potatoes chips.    I struggled through the 4th hour but was still running just allot slower.   Just before the 4 hour mark I  was walking more then running.  The Garmins battery died at 4hrs14min at 39.5K.    Grabbed a slice of Pizza walking an entire lap.  I was soaking wet and cold so I  had my longest pit stop of the day changing into a long sleeve tech T and gloves.    I continued to walk the next lap and was beginning to wonder if I was even going to make it to the 50 km mark before the 6 hours was up.   Nearing the 5 hour mark I was slowly beginning to move again establishing a new pace and regular routine.   I would slowly run the first 2K of the loop then walk the other half K or so ...repeat ,  repeat ,  repeat.  Turned a couple of 16:00 laps somewhere around and avg 7:30  pace....I was pleased.   Really started to move in the last 20 minutes posting a 14 min  lap more or less back on race pace.   In the final 10 minutes of the day I was really pushing covering 1.5K in 7min38sec avg 5:02 pace.

I was a bit disappointed with the way the day went but I gave it an honest effort paid the price the fought hard to come back  I finished 8th out of 27 males 2nd out of 12 males over 50 years old covering 52.699 km in 6 hours.  


Race Splits...