Paid and IN the Maniacs!!!!

Maniac #5549 (Bronze)

Lake Youngs Ultra - 28.25 miles in 4:20:28.

Wow, 28.25 miles is a long way to run. Even at such a slow pace. The knee held up. Now it has earned some rest.

The course was pretty tough for me. Most of the experienced ultra runners there said it was an easy course, but then I passed most of them in the last lap of the course :).

I had been thinking I would run a bit easier even than last week. I didn't expect to go this slow. Lot's of marathon maniacs in the race. I joined up with one of them in the first 1/2 mile and ran with her for about 5 miles. She was running her 4th marathon in 4 weeks to move up to a four star ranking in MM! She was running about 9:15 pace, which was a little slow for my comfort zone and about a minute slower than I would've gone if by myself. I'm glad I did that, though. It paid off at the finish line.

At the end of each lap we have to check in with the finish area so they can record our progress. I also stopped at the car to re-lube, and locked my key in the trunk! >:(

I borrowed someone's phone and tried to reach my wife, to no avail. Thankfully, I was able to get ahold of her a little later, when I was about 13 miles into the run, and gave her directions to the race. I found on the 2nd lap that the middle 3 miles are the best. Flat or downhill mostly, with fairly smooth paths (all of the course was on trails, with some on single track). The last 3 miles or so of each lap is tough, with a huge steep hill right before the finish. On the first lap I jogged up the hill. ON the second I jogged and walked up it. On the third I limped up it.

During the 3rd lap I actually felt really good until about mile 25. I had run a few splits a bit faster to test the waters and felt I could go even faster, but then the uphills began and killed me. Thankfully, all the people I had passed over the previous miles died, too, so I kept catching and passing with nobody catching me. As I said, when I got to the last big hill I had to limp up it. The grade was so steep that even walking up it made my quads start to cramp, so I did sort of a crab-like sideways walk. As soon as I got to the top I took off and felt pretty good again. I'm sure I could've gone longer if the next few miles were fairly flat and smooth.

Great experience. Afterwards I didn't have the usual nausea and cramping problems I typically deal with. I grabbed bananas and potato chips, then headed over to the barbecue for a hot dog, then a cheese burger, plus a few chocolate chip cookies, all within the first 20 minutes after the race. Normally I can't eat anything for an hour after a marathon.

Weather was pretty good. Mid 50's. It rained the first lap, actually got a little sunny the second lap, then turned gray again and sprinkled a little in the last lap.

Splits:

01 - 0:09:00 - 9:00
02 - 0:18:05 - 9:05
03 - 0:27:44 - 9:39
04 - 0:36:53 - 9:09
05 - 0:46:03 - 9:10
06 - 0:55:14 - 9:11
07 - 1:04:28 - 9:14
08 - 1:13:41 - 9:12
09 - 0:22:33 - 8:52
10 - 1:34:31 - 11:58 (includes stopping to lube, deal with key in trunk and get some food)
11 - 1:42:43 - 8:12 (fastest split)
12 - 1:51:47 - 9:04
13 - 2:00:49 - 9:02
14 - 2:09:29 - 8:40
15 - 1:18:34 - 9:04
16 - 2:27:20 - 8:46
17 - 2:36:29 - 9:09
18 - 2:44:52 - 8:23
19 - 2:55:16 - 10:23 (includes stopping for food and drinks)
20 - 3:04:26 - 9:11
21 - 3:12:59 - 8:33
22 - 3:22:19 - 9:20
23 - 3:31:33 - 9:14
24 - 3:40:15 - 8:42
25 - 3:49:11 - 8:55
26 - 3:58:13 - 9:02
26.22 - 4:00:37
27.22 - 4:10:01 - 9:24
28.22 - 4:20:07 - 10:06 (includes limping up the monster hill)
Finish - 4:20:28