Executive Summary;
I finished in 101st place, in a time of 9:47:04 - an improvement of 21:34 over last year.
The Dirty Details;
As always I didn't feel like I did enough, I had a pretty good ramp leading to this race a couple of 70 mile weeks and some speed work in there as well. Hitting the weights (muscle burns more calories than fat :) ). I was feeling faster which was nice, but I was still heavier than I should be (see next blog post on this for upcoming)...
I went into this 50 miler like I am sure a few folks do - I like to carry as much of the nutrition I am going to use with me. I loathe stopping at aid stations, it is a waste of time. I love the North Face Long Haul Shorts they have the standard pockets, but the compression shorts underneath have a place for trash. I also picked up an belt to put my iPod and some extra nutrition and my fix it baggy (ginger chews, 12 hour Aleve, Tums, and sCaps). I had a zip lock bag for the turn around so I could replace my GU's and have a Vespa (still not all the way sold on that) and start the music.
We drove up the day before on Friday after the kids got out of school... Drove through SF quite a bit of stop and go, so it took us three and a half hours to get to the Healdsburg Running Company, who sent us down the road to the Dinner location because they had moved the bib pick up there. (Walking and walking everywhere). Got bib, then went to grab some grub at the Applebee's next to the hotel (we tried to get thrown out but didn't). Light but late dinner, it was maybe nine by the time we got into the room and settled (after a few trips back and forth to the room). I put my "kit" out and finally went to sleep at ten - I probably got the standard 3 to 4 hours of tossing and turning sleep until I beat the alarm.
Drove and met Guy and Loren so Melanie didn't have to drive the roads to the start. Got a big cup of coffee from Starbucks and we were off to Lake Sonoma.
Uneventful start I dropped my "drop baggy" grabbed my handhelds Guy, Loren and I chatted a bit and the next thing you knew we were off! The first 2 miles are paved roads, easy to go out fast on those I tried to settle into a good pace but looking at it after the fact, I did a 7:27 mile on the second mile. In all fairness it is a downhill paved run just before the single track we jump on so everyone gets pretty antsy (me included). Now going into this I thought 9:30 was easily achievable, I was having dreams of getting closer to a 9 hour finish. At this point (2 hours into the race) it was still possible.
The next few miles I got lucky and got into a good group for the single track we had very little passing except for one person that would pass then fall back then pass (repeated a couple of times)... I meant to remember her number so I could shake my fist of fury at her :) As always chatting with people is a great part of the way we run, I don't know if this happens in road marathons or not, but I sure enjoy it. I really meant to remember everyone's name or number at least - funniest thing is I can't remember nearly as much as I wanted...
I think I hit the turn at 4:26 - 14 minutes faster than last year. I spent a total of 42 seconds in aid stations to this point. I stopped at the turn around for 2 minutes 37 sec, thanks again for Jill and Maria at the turn around it went faster, nice to see friendly faces there!. I put on my music, refilled my GU, drank Vespa and filled bottles.
Headed back out for some climbs on the fire road. Still feeling pretty good. This fireroad on the way back seems to never end. I don't want to look it up now because I just hate it. I was solo some / most of this, as a side note this is where I need my race to hold on next year. After about 6 to the aid station I filled water and grabbed a coke (first non water / GU so far) it is soooooo good. This really can't be overstated. I spent too long though, 1 minute and 12 seconds The next aid station is my favorite - Wulfow! Manned by Greg, Sean and xxxxx from our Quicksilver Running Club. So nice to see them, sean tried to give me a pep talk but at this time I was seeing even 10 hours slipping out of my fingers, I was kinda down - but 2 aleve and 2 sCaps and dunking my head in the horse troff and I was off! Only 2 more aid stations and 17.5 miles left (and it seems about 4100 feet of climb left). Time to get a move on!
I should take a few sec to talk about my nutrition here because this is possibly where I should have bumped things up a bit. I was taking in GU every 30 to 40 minutes - I think I should have reeled that in just a bit and focused on for sure every 30 minutes, then I should have pushed it down to 20 to 25 at the Wulfow station - I was getting tired it was becoming more of an effort to trot the gentle climbs. I don't know what I was thinking - it gets to be more of an over thinking thing, and I am still pretty new at this so don't listen to me :) I should mention it here as well I did have 200 calories of tailwind in my bottle at the beginning because it is hard to choke down GU early in a race when you are feeling good so a good slow drip for the first hour is nice (I think :) ). Ok enough this will be in the "The Good The Bad and The Ugly" section.
Not much really here to report actually after Wulfow, I slowed down about a min a mile on what I should have been at, as I mentioned the climbs were taking a bit more out of me than they should have at this point. I dunked my boonie cap in every river as it was warming up a bit. They were a welcome relief, at the last aid station, they had just taken someone out on the boat (this station is only reachable that way), because she had been taking aspirin all day and not drinking enough. That is a sure bet for kidney failure (the aspirin alone) I hope she is ok, maybe someone will report back on that at some point.
The other item that PISSED me off. The last mile I got passed about 800 meters to the finish (I just couldn't keep him off me - MORE GU next time maybe?)... More fuel for the fire next year for sure!
Coming into the finish I got to see the family! Take pictures and embarrass my son by hugging him. I was sore once I stopped. Took two days off before I ran again, probably should have went for a short jog the next day just to loosen things up.
There you have it, not nearly as colorful as I would have liked but hopefully I will read this next year and learn from my mistakes.
Draft Done Posting - need pics and "The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly" section.
Draft Done Posting - need pics and "The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly" section.
