Creemore Vertical Challenge 50 km - August 9, 2015

8th consecutive CVC 50K is in the books.     SO far the score is Creemore 7,  Ron 1 ...YIKES.  I only felt like I more or less ran this race as well as I could once logging a 5:46:49 way back in  2009 .

 It was much cooler this year and I really thought that I may be able to get it in around 6 hours  or just beat last years time  of 6:26.   Decided early on to more or less run some of the longer more gentle hills.  Logged a 10 min K doing that up "hill one" ... more of a fast walk time but it was a very slow run with really short strides and a higher cadence.   It made the hills easy and the HR and Breathing were still very much under control.    Ran all the way up to the base of "O2" then walked up with ease on the first lap.     I was gelling every hour and taking 250ml of water between aid stations.   Wrapped up the first loop felling great ,  really great ,  too great and there was a reason because I tripped the clock at 3hrs9mins ..... I was hoping to be Sub 3hrs  coming in around 2hrs 50min if I hopped to bring it in around 6 hours.   Heading out I decided to "pick it up" a bit and that is what I did.   I did the same run up "Hill 1" and to the base of "O2" getting through 40K in 5hrs4min.     I knew at this point that the sub 6hrs wasn't going to happen but I really felt that I had a crack and a 6hrs20min time if I could make it up O2 in one piece.    It didn't take very long before things started to go south!   Heading up "02" I started to feel dizzy and was seeing stars ... this is familiar to me and something that has happened more then once on this hill.    I slowed down as much as I could but I could not  continue moving uphill without passing out so I had no choice but to sit down.   10 minutes later I was able to continue up the hill but I knew the last 10K was going to suck!       The pace chart below tells the story of my day ....





I did manage to start moving again although it was allot slower.    Heading down `Hill 1`I managed to muster up a 7:21 km but that was the fastest of the final 10K`s.      Heading back to the start finish  there is a couple of small gully's that are quite steep.  I had a feeling that it was goning to be lights out again and I was correct .  Even though I was a half K from the finish I had to sit down and take a break or I would have passed out.

So I tripped the mat at 6hrs54mins happy yo finish ,  glad I was able to do it but dissapointed that I didn't manage things better.  

 The root cause of my problems was not getting enough hydration ... gels and electrolytes were good but I should have doubled up the water.   With thicker blood and the later stages of the run when I slowed down blood was pooling in my lower body and I wasn't getting enough to my brain.    If it wasn't  for the monster climbs and I could have kept going the affects of the dehydration would not have been felt until I stopped.   In retrospect I should not have tried to pick it up heading out on the second loop and I should have doubled up my fluids.