Well, maybe I read too much, we decided to carbo load to the max last night and this moring, trying to get in 2400 calories, heard Japanese Olympic team members eat 2400 calories before a marathon and read in the Triathlon bible the same thing before an IronMan. Well, we went village Inn last night a pigged out pancakes, crepes, bacon, etc to load up. We at ham and eggs, banana, brownie. It is darn hard to load up on food in the morning. I not sure if any of it helped, just mor pit stops before the race.
We ran this race last year, tough 15 miler at 8,000 feet elevationi, first three miles rolls up hill, then the next 4.5 miles winds down dirt roads, drops down several hundred feet, feels like the hell hole 5K times 5. No starter gun, just a small race, about 50 running the 5K and 50 running the 15 miler. The starter - ready set go - Sylive was off like a shot, did not see her until the turnaround point. I settle into a 10 minute mile pace, sounds slow, but given the degree of difficulty running on a forest dirt road, not good footing, rocks, slants, etc. nice even pace. I ran in my clown shoes, really helped with the footing.
The first three miles were somewhat uneventful, except the 5kers coming back at us, kinda chaos as everyone was looking for footing on the dirt road, no crashes. At mile 3 the course starts its decent of 4.5 miles of downhill with a few switch backs climbing back up, This part as tough on my knee, slowed down a bit. (found out later than Sylive got a nice blister on the bottom of her feet going downhill) Getting blister is easy on this course with the poor footing and steep downhill in some sectins. I passed a few runners, maybe 2 or 3 on the downhill. I had a couple kept passing me on the downhill, I would pass them on the uphill. The guy, as we reached the last little uphill before the last steep downhill said, don't worry as he passed me, you will get me back on the uphill. One note, some teenage kids did a great job at the aid stations, already had the gu open, great job.
The turnaround, points Sylive was coming back up, about .5 miles ahead of me as I headed down, she did not want to talk, she was in a zone. I hit the turnaround the same time as the couple, they were going to run past the turnaround for some reason, I said, hey stop, this is the turnarouind, got them going the right way, good sportsmanship, I could have let them keep running, the guy was in my division. No matter, never seen them again, they faded as we started back up hill. I had one girl pass me on the uphill, I was surprised she did not run the downhill faster. I caught a glimpse of Sylive on the first swittchback going up, she yelled, I yelled back, seen her the next few swithchbacks, getting closer and closer, I finally caught her the last .25 miles before topping out over the last big uphill. She had a big blister and was walking, walked with her the last 100 yrds to the aid station, said I was going to run it in, she stopped to tend the blister, and most walked in the last three miles. I won't call it beating her or rubbing it in, she may have beat me without the blister.
The las three miles were tough, the first year in the last 14 years I have not been in marathon shape this time of year. Did a run walk the last 1.5 miles, walk 10 steps, run 100, on and on. The support kids were great yelling how good I was doing, sprinted in the last 50 yards, gotta put on the show in case of a photo op. Sylvie finished about ten minutes behind. We both won our division. As we get older, not many older people show up for the real tough races. One other guy in my division, the guy who passed me on thew dowhill and his wife was in Sylive's div. We took our medals, Sylive got us a couple of free shirts, we were done.
Takes from the day, need to get in much better running shape for the Iron Man, expect I will be ok for the half Iron as the course is flat and on asphalt. This is the longest run me and Sylive have done since last year's STG marathon. It was tough, felt weird, watching all the runners doing a long run as we drove to Pine Valley. As much trouble I have had with the knee, could have done about a 5 hr marathon today. I am going to sign up with my daughter and her husband to do Stg next year.
I know, this is a long race report, just something about a longer run that makes you feel good, still have the guts to carry on when dead dog tired.
Stay Kool, B of BS Rools out
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