The weather was great at the start, low 50's I think. After the 5
mile starter loop, I dropped off some layers.
I hadn't been watching my
pace at all until after the first loop and noticed it was slower than I
thought. I had a bit of a cough and I could feel it dragging on me a
little bit. In fact I was seriously considering not doing this race, however I did not want to skip another race. I was regretting that I had skipped the Georgia Death Race for a some other reason besides health related. Was not feeling very well by the end of the first big loop.
At mile 17 I had serious thoughts about quitting (I usually got those
thoughts but not until much later!).
When I was in the mid 20's for
mileage I thought to myself just make it to 30 miles then I'll just walk
if I have to. Made it to 30 miles, and then eventually I was
approaching the end of the second big loop.
I had a thoughts of just
walking the rest. I also thought, just at least start the third loop
and see how things feel. A few miles into the third and final big loop,
there was a runner at an aid station who was doing the 50K. She was on
her second loop and not long before was at the loop starting area on
the verge of quitting. She had sat down for 45 minutes until someone
convinced her to keep going. I walked with her for a bit as we left the
aid station where she told me about this stuff. Eventually I was ready
to run again. When you can't run anymore, walk for a bit, if that's
all you can do then keep on walking. But, what's happened so far for me
is that I'll see a nice flat section of trail or maybe a downhill
section and decide it's time to start running again. So, that was the
third loop. I finished about an hour slower than last year in 29th
place (males) (was 6th place last year), but I did finish, my cough didn't get
any worse, and as a bonus I got to spend more time on my feet for
training.
I learned some valuable lessons today and it was a refresher course of going when you think you can't go on anymore, something I'll need for Western States.
