Race Day Writeup

My goal at the start was to run sub 10hrs.The race director started the race by squeaking a gaint rubber chicken into a microphone. I ended up in the lead, then shortly after the start Josh and I were running side by side. After chatting for a bit he says he might even try to break the course record today. Josh passed me a mile 1.5. Then Babit comes up behind me and we chat for a while. He passed at mile ~4. Alex comes up and we run until mile ~7. I think my pacing was fine, I was taking it easy and letting people pace when I wasn't comfortable with the pace. At mile 8 my legs are more swore than they had been at any point throughout my entire training block (other than right after my half marathon). I have to assume this is mostly due to running a half marathon PR 6 days prior. At this point I know it's going to be a long day. I finish the first lap well and seem to be solidly in 4th place. I was slightly ahead of schedule for my goal. I had a hot spot on my left foot, but after taking off my left gaiter, realize I don't have the dexterity in my cold hands to fit my problem in any kind of timely manner (turned out not to be a problem, it didnt bother me and was only a tiny blister at the end of the day). I swap out running vests and took 40 seconds to clip in on because of my cold hands. Second lap went fine. I did start to slow down for miles 30-34. I was feeling sorry for myself because of how much things sucked. My fuel on the day seemed great. I was getting in close to 400 calories an hour mostly between tail wind and spring energy gels. I also had some clif bar, fruit snacks, and chips. I took a salt pill here and there. Also I took 200mg of caffeine at the begin of the 2nd and 3rd lap. Okay so, I finished my 2nd lap and Brad is there to pace me. I shoved a handful of pringels into my mouth along with some water to wash it down. I grab another running vest and I'm ready to go. Great energy for a couple miles picking up Brad and seeing Rick. After that it a bit of a slog. I did think I can catch the guy it 3rd. I heard it took a 15 minute break at the aid station while I only took a minute. Before I could catch the guy in 3rd, someone passed me looking strong which was a bit demoralizing. It was slow going from there. Finally we made it to the downhill into Waterton canyons. I thought 11hrs was still within reach. I was annoyed with myself that I was barely even running downhill. I decided to get over myself and start running fast downhill regardless of how much I didn't want to. I know my body was capable of it. I was crying at first because of how much everything sucked. Then the reason I was crying quickly changed. I was crying tears of joy because of how fast I was running despite everything sucking. Then not a minute later, I fell and rolled my ankle. We had maybe a half mile to the aid station. Once there, a guy named Otter took car of me. He not only taped my ankle, but also he had a nutella, m&m, and pretzel tortilla roll that was quite good. I also downed ~750ml of coke. We left the aid station with 5.5 miles and ~2,000ft of climbing left. Even though it was almost all uphill and I had a sprained ankle, a ran some of that last 5.5 miles. My right quad was also toasted at this point. I couldn't run downhill because of it. I crossed the finish line after 12 hours and 2 minutes.

I still have very mixed feelings about the race. Obviously 12:02 is not close to my goal of sub 10, but I don't feel upset with myself. I honestly believe if I didn't do a half marathon the weekend before I could have done sub 10. My legs feeling so swore after 8 miles is not normal. I've done 19 miles on the course at faster than race pace and not even been swore. Spraining my ankle wasn't any fun and that's going to make keeping my run streak alive a real challenge. It's a bit horrifying how much 50 miles destoryed me and I have a 200 mile race. I don't see another path other than to learn and move forward though. What am I going to do, drop out of my 200 mile race out of fear? No, that's not an option. I'm going to doing my 200 mile race and kick ass in spite of having a rough time at 50 miles. Your set backs are either your story as to how you persevered or an excuse and I'm not in the business of making excuses. If I'm honest yesterday wasn't fun. I did get to see some beautiful fall colors and so much went right. The things that didn't go right are big, however.