Go slow to go fast.

It was a beauty of a day in the Colorado Mountains today near Pine....well...3 hours of it was exceptionally beautiful...the other couple hours I can't testify of specifically because my mind was not appreciating it at the time.  More on that below...but here's my race report:

Started at the front this time

I regretted starting at the back of the pack in my first 50K, so I flip-flopped and started right in the front this time.  I'm glad I did.  I warmed up really slow for about 3/4 mile before the race also which felt good.

My goal going into this race was to do it in 5 hours.  It was an arbitrary goal based on a training run with Cody in Logan a couple weeks ago where I felt good for 17.5 miles at 9:20/mile pace.  That run had as much total climbing as this race, so I figured, why not shoot for a 9:30/mile pace at this race and see what happens?  (I can give you several reasons why not in hindsight, but I'm glad I shot high in the end).

20 Miles of purely joyful single track in mostly shade

That pretty much sums up the first 20 miles of the race. I was LOVING being out there, and thoroughly enjoying the trail and the mountains.  Made a few acquaintances with people on the trail, which was nice, but mostly ran alone the entire time.

I settled in by myself just behind the lead group of about 10-12 runners.  Most of those were doing the 50 Mile course and so not in my race.  Apparently the 50 miler had deeper competition, since a bunch of them were going out very strong.    I wanted to do my own comfortable pace and within a mile and half they were mostly out of sight.  But I was ahead of and out of sight of the remainder of the runners.

Once I got to the top of the first climb I decided to take advantage of my weight and open it up on the down hill.  After a while I caught the lead 50 mile woman who was running a really strong pace.  I didn't pass her, and I actually eased up a bit and let her go a little ahead...I really didn't want to go out too fast and zap all my energy.

I passed right through the first aid station, didn't need anything.  I was carrying a 20 and 10 oz. handheld bottle, which ended up working perfect for me.  We just got a 10 oz nathan bottle with a strap, and I liked using that because it has a nozzle which just squirts water out when you squeeze the bottle without having to open the top.  I highly recommend that type of bottle cap, so much easier to use.

At the 2nd aid station at mile 9.9, the female 50 miler was leaving as I got there and I took 20 seconds just to fill my 10 oz and headed out.  I was carrying a clif shot and 10 power gel gummy things, which was plenty for the time being.

Here are my splits:

Aid 1 - 4.53 Miles - 42:44 - 9:25/mi - 1100 feet up

Aid 2 - 9.83 miles into race -  5.30 Mile from last aid - 42:48 - 8:04/mi - 300 feet up - 1000 Feet down

My pace at this point was in the 8:40/mile range, which I knew was faster than I was shooting for.  I'm not completely sure how to judge my overall pace in mountain runs, and I felt like I needed to take advantage of gaining time while I felt good...maybe the wrong feeling to follow, I'm not sure actually in hindsight.  I'm still trying to determine that.

20 seconds in Aid 2

Aid 3 - 5.63 Miles - 58:35 - 10:24/mi - 1000 feet up in 2.5 miles - then 300 feet down over 3 miles

I took it pretty easy going up this uphill, I was steady though.  I ran the whole thing, then I opened up my speed going down a bit, not as fast as the first big down hill though.  I caught up to Steve who was in the 50K about mile 13 and we chatted, then I proceeded forth.  Neither of us knew how many other 50K runners were ahead of us, but we were pretty sure it wasn't many (found out later from Steve that it was none, so apparently I took the lead of the race at this point.  Wish I would have known that, I would have probably eased up a bit.  Although, I really wasn't racing to win, I was just shooting for an overall time goal at this point.)

I was in Aid 3 for 1:31 refilling both bottles and eating some watermelon.

Aid 4 - 19.54 miles into the race -  4.08 Miles from last aid - 37:19 - 9:09/mi - 700 foot descent for 3.25 and then up 100 to the aid station

I was in Aid 4 for 3 minutes, I had to jog back to my drop bag and deposit my shirt so it wouldn't be dangling behind my pants.  My overall average at this point was up to about 9:11/mile.  I figured I still had a shot of averaging 9:30/mile overall, this would get me at the finish in about 4:55 if I could pull that off.  I had one more 1000 ft climb, some down hill, then a 3-400 foot climb, and downhill to the finish.   The first two 10 mile sections were pretty similar, and I figured that was pretty good figuring.

Then within a half mile after aid 4 all my figuring started to be rapidly thrown out as invalid.

Half mile up the trail I realized that I left my Vespa pouch on the water jug at the aid station.  Since that was a critical element of my race nutrition plan, I was somewhat dismayed and annoyed at myself for this.  This started a trigger of mental events that led me pretty much to mental worthlessness.  It was a strange and difficult experience.

This next section of the course annihilated me.  But I'm pretty sure I helped the course out a lot with a bunch of self-annihilation.

The mind is a funny thing I found out, and mine happens to be pretty stubborn and annoying at times like these.  Here is what was going on with my mind at this point:

1. Mind: That sucks that you forgot that VESPA pouch...stupid.
2. Me: I'll just run back and get it...no...that's lame, would add a mile and cost me tons of energy.
3. Mind: You really screwed up not taking that vespa.
4. Me: It will be fine, I've got plenty of gel, salt and water.
5. Mind: Nope, its totally going to screw up your race.
6. Me: huh....we'll see I guess
7. Mind: You're tired.  You only got 4.5 hours of sleep last night and 5 the night before...you can't expect to keep running fast on so little sleep.  You may as well quit now...you're way too tired.
8. Me: Yeah....I do feel pretty tired all of a sudden (strange how I felt fantastic half a mile ago).
9. Mind: This is getting hot, and tiring.  Why are we still running, this isn't fun anymore?  Let's just stop.
10. At about Mile 22 I succumbed to this one, stopped and stretched for 2 minutes, got passed by a dude.
11. Mind: This really sucks...and we still have 9 more miles of this...I really wish we could just quit at this point:

OK you get the picture.  It was a battle with my mind, , and my mind's demands grew stronger and stronger and would not let up,  and I lost that battle unfortunately.  I suffered pretty bad between these aid stations, and walked up the hill a lot, and lost huge time on my average.  And that was also a very handy little tool in my minds arsenal to dig at me with and discourage me with.

Aid 5 - I don't know...Not good.  stopped to stretch in the middle there somewhere.  Suffered through the 1100 foot climb.  Walked a lot.

At this aid station they had Ice, which was REALLY nice.  I was really sick of warm water at that point.  It felt good.  But it also felt kind of weird and messed with me a bit.  The ice and cold in my system was kind of a shock.

Suffer Fest 2010!

If someone would have notified me that Suffer Fest 2010 was starting today at precisely 10:15 AM, I'm pretty sure I would have stayed home and sat that one out. (Glad they didn't tell me that, because overall I loved the race...but did not enjoy the suffer fest portion.)

At mile 25 I was running down hill slowly and any slight uphill rise I was now walking.  My mind was out of it.  I didn't want to be out there anymore...I had definitely lost all competitive drive.  I just wanted to be done running, and went through my options of quitting.  Fortunately there weren't any quitting options, because I would have taken them.  I'm glad I didn't.

But I did feel perfectly justified at this point when I found a shady grove of trees off the side of the road and proceeded to crawl in and lay down on the ground.  My main justification to myself was that Killian Jornet was passed by Geoff Roes in the Western States 100 as he was laying in the river for who knows how long, and he still pulled off a 3rd place finish.  Perhaps a quick rest was just what I needed!  (it certainly was all the excuse I needed at that point)

Ahhhh.  Done.  Not running anymore.  Running sucks.  Why was I still trying to run?  Haven't I run far enough for one day?  Running is not fun for me right now...I've had enough fun for one day.  So I'll just lay here and that will be nicer.

It was nicer for the moment.  I was glad to not be running any more.  I was stretching, and relaxing.  But soon, my logic (and pride) kicked into gear and told me that I really didn't want to throw away a perfectly fine race out of complete mental weakness and that I would not be happy with myself for caving in to my mind completely.

A couple people (one guy, one gal, in the 50K) passed me unawares as I was laying there vegging.   I got up and got moving again after being in there for almost 4 minutes.  I did feel a little better.  But I walked for a couple minutes, and the backs of my hammies were kind of tight when I walked, so it was actually more comfortable to run again and I did.  It wasn't fun though, I assure you of that.  It was mentally painful.  It wasn't really physically painful, mostly mental.  It was really strange.

Why??? What's up with that?  Why couldn't I just kick my mind into gear and keep loving the run?  I was still in beautiful country, single track, gorgeous day.  But I couldn't convince myself it was fun anymore for the life of me.  Weird.  So I just focused on putting one foot in front of the other as best I could.

Finally after summiting the climb and running a LONG plateau, I hit the last aid station and it was virtually 3 miles of down hill from there.  I was able to pick up my pace to 7:30's and was FINALLY recovering energy and feeling pretty decent again.  Still not fantastic, but much better.  It was nice to be moving somewhat quickly again.

Finished!  Nice, very glad to stop running.

It was fun running in the last half mile to the finish with all my kids!  I couldn't keep up with Abe though...I tried...but by that point I was ready to stop and was content with my 8 min mile pace on the flat trail to the finish.

Total time: 5:39:15 - 10:52/mile average - 4800 feet ascent - 4800 feet descent.

Turns out I was 10th overall and 1st in my age group of 30-39.  I was pretty pleased with that result after the major breakdown I had. 

I didn't hit my goal of sub 5 hours, but I did hit my goal of being in the top 10, so that's cool I guess.

In thinking back now, I realize that I could have won that thing possibly.  OK, ok, 10th place is a far cry from first, but it is certainly possible that if I could have staved off the bonk somehow I could have taken won.  I was in the lead at Mile 20 and feeling good before my mistake and the ensuing mental drama.  I ended up losing by about 22 minutes to the first guy who came in at 5:17.  So take out the 6 minute nap stop, the 3 minute stretch stop, and remove the bonk and I think I really could have done it closer to 5 hours.  Which is kind of cool to think of.  I could see how running with the attempt to actually win a race would add another element of fun into the mix.  But I wasn't attempting to win this race at any point today, I was jut focused on hitting a time goal, which happened to be faster than the eventual winning time.

Even though running completely sucked for about 5-6 miles today...I'm over that.  I'm grateful for the the 20 miles of pure running bliss and the opportunity to put my body and mind to the test and see what I'm made of.  Definitely some room for improvement, which is great.  I'm happy that I shot for a high goal, even though I missed it, because I think I'm better for it.  It was a cool experience to attempt it.  And you miss all the shots you don't take right?

As far as the North Fork 50 race, I give it two big thumbs up!  A fantastic trail system and location for a race, a very runnable and very smooth, fun course, and well put on.  Great food and atmosphere afterward etc.  Great La Sportiva race shirts.  I'm guessing I'll be back next year to try to beat my time by an hour.  I'm pretty sure I could run that course in under 4:45 with another year of experience.  It would be fun to do it  (or maybe it would hurt even worse the last 10 miles...either way it would be less time in the pain cave I suppose).

Here are some shots running into the finish with the kids.   It was REALLY nice to see them at that point.