(This is a Greg N shot of me and the girl who I ran together through the last half. This is probably mile 29-30)
As I wrote before the race, Red Hot wasn’t a focus race. Training up to this point and for the next several weeks has, and will be, all been base miles, run at pretty slow paces. That said, I still was curious to see how I felt picking it up a bit and wanted to give it what I had to give, but really had no idea what to expect. I knew I had run pretty hard last year and finished just over 6 hours, granted I was nursing a pretty sore knee, but this winter hasn’t been exactly injury free with Achilles tendonitis, weird hip, lower back stuff and the still tweaky knee. All of it has mellowed out a bit in the last few weeks, but still wasn’t sure if they would flare up during the race. My longest run since Kalalau Trail in November has been a little over 19 miles, so no big mile long runs and exactly zero speed work. The last time I had really pushed any pace was at the Up and Over race in October. I didn’t feel undertrained for this race, but didn’t feel in prime race shape either.
I was late getting to the start again, and jumped in just as they said go. Things spread out pretty quickly and there was a pack of 20 or so off the front in a hurry. I found myself running with a group of 8-10 a bit behind the front pack that included Aaron Kennard and Cody. Things felt a little fast for me, so I told Aaron that I would see him in a couple of hours at the finish. A few minutes later I watched as he a Cody motored away on the flat road section. After that, three or four of us settled in to battle the wind and flat road for the first few miles. Looking around I realized the group included Wasatch and Western States winner Darcy Africa, who I was running just behind, Ian Torrance, and Hard Rock, UTMB winner Krissy Mohel . Gotta love Ultra running, being in a pack that includes that talent is pretty cool, but also a good sign that I might be a little out of my league. I felt good, so I stayed with them through the first aid station. Within a mile or two after the aid station, I started to question my pace, even though I felt ok., but knowing we had a long way to go and not trusting my fitness, I backed it off just a bit. The talent pulled slowly ahead and a couple of guys closed in from behind and soon passed, which was the only time I was permanently passed in the race.
From this point and for the next 10-12 miles I was running essentially alone, no one in sight in front or behind. The first 18 miles or so were tough for me. With the exception of a mile or two of more technical terrain, it was pretty much flat out road running, I don’t train at all on flat ground or on roads, so it was tough mentally to hold a steady pace. Also, the wind was ripping! Mentally this was taxing, but I kept telling myself that everyone else is dealing with the same thing.
I started to feel more at home and better as the course took us across Gold Bar/Golden Spike trail. The climbs, descent s, and more technical footing was a joy compared to grinding it out on the roads. Within a couple miles I started to close in a couple of guys in front of me. I caught one at the next aid station and we ran together for a couple of miles before getting caught by a guy and girl. The guy blew by fast, but I eventually caught and re-passed him, and the girl settled in with me and the other guy I had caught. The three of us ran together for a bit, until the girl started to push the pace, I went with her and we dropped the other guy. We ran together for the next several miles, pushing hard and closing the gap on a few runners in front of us.
Getting through the slick rock to the last aid station we were pushing, but as soon as we left the last stop, we really cranked it up. There were a couple of runners in just in front of us and, looking at the time, I thought I might be able to take more than an hour off my last year’s time. We ran hard through some deep sand sections and up and over some tough slick rock rollers. Soon we were on another dirt road section that was relatively flat to downhill, but the wind was roaring through here. We quickly closed the gap on one of the runners in front and passed, as we passed, he wisely jumped in behind me and the girl, drafting off us as we fought the wind. I was leading our little group and kept the pace pegged with everything I had. After a mile or so the guy we passed took the lead and I couldn’t hang on and he opened a 100 yard gap or so. Looking back, I realized we had also dropped the girl. I hung on a little back until, with about a mile and a half to go, the guy in front of me started walking. I caught up, tapped him on the shoulder and motioned to follow as I went by, looking back I saw he had followed, gave him a thumbs up, and we pushed hard for the finish. In that mile and a half we caught a passed a guy who passed earlier and one more runner picking up two spots.
I felt great to have enough in the tank to really push those last miles. I feel like in the last half of the race I really didn’t leave anything out there and put it all on the fire. Knowing this, I think I could pushed just a bit more in the first half, but feel like I ran smart and had a great day. I feel like the type of training I have been doing, well just started doing really, is paying off exactly how I want it to, by being able to hold a steady hard effort for an extended time. I beat my expectations by a good half hour, I was thinking a 5:45 would have been alright, and took almost a full hour off last year’s time, which I feel is a lot given it’s a 50K. Good start to the season, and hopefully a indicator of more good races to come.
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