Sometimes you just want a good long run.
This was, for the most
part, my motivation for entering this race. Given my recent training,
or, more accurately, lack thereof, I had no business entering an ultra;
on the other hand, given my natural proclivity toward such silliness as
"long" running, ill advised or otherwise, I had no business not
entering an ultra. That being the case, when my alarm went off at 3:45
Saturday morning, at which point I knew I had to make a go/no go
decision, my vocal choice was, "ah, what the heck..."
(I hope I didn't wake anyone upstairs...)
The
two hour drive to Nashville went by rather pleasantly, and as I
registered I went through the standard mental hoops of convincing
myself that "it's not really thaaaaaat far..." (Truth be told, it
isn't; I ran the 50-miler here last year and pansied out this year,
opting to drop to the 50k distance...).
With between 5 and 10
minutes to the start, I stripped off my thermal layers, hoping that the
37 degree morning would warm up significantly, lest my shorts and
t-shirt apparel prove unwise. Soon enough, though, the race director
yelled "Go!" and off we went.
Within a few minutes, the pack had
broken up, and I struck up a conversation with a couple of guys toward
the front. Johannes and Arras (not sure of the names... I'll have to
double-check when they post up results on the race website...) were from
out of town, and Arras was competing in his first ultra. They were
both in the 50-mile division, but we were flying through the first 10 or
12 miles, which was most likely fine by them; they both appeared to be
pretty highly trained runners and mentioned that they had trained rather
extensively for this race. I opted not to tell them that I was out
there on a whim. As much as I enjoyed running with them, at around the
12 or 13 mile mark, a combination of their extensive training and my
almost complete omission of such trivial issues as training convinced me
that if I wanted the second half of this run to be anything more than a
death march, I probably ought to slow down, so I eased off the throttle
and watched them bound off into the distance to get the top two 50 mile
spots.
The second half of the run was mostly just slogging
through to finish. At one point, the course deviated from what it was
last year; I thought this would be a nice portion of the run since it
took us onto some trails, but given my current lack of trail-fitness,
all the off-road accomplished was breaking up any rhythm I had, and try
as I might, I never got it back.
Don't get me wrong; I enjoyed
the rest of the run, but I never got the speed back, so I just kind of
jogged it out. Coming into the finish, I remembered my signature finish
from last year, and entertained the finish line crew with a nice jump
and heel-click to cross the finish line. The winner, who had shown up
at the starting line bare-chested (in 37 degrees...) and had put a mile
on Johannes, Arras, and me by the halfway mark, blew away the old course
record, nailing a 3:3x, which is a solid 50k time. I spoke with him
briefly afterward, and he informed me that he's looking to have a good
showing at the JFK 50-miler in a few weeks. I would wager that, barring
anything unforeseen, he should do well.
I hung around the finish
area, chatting with other finishers as they arrived, before finally
convincing myself to hop back in the truck for the 2 hour drive back.
All in all, twas a good day. I got what I wanted out of the race - a
nice long run and some time to just be "out there."
all for now... back to the real world... i guess...
(I'll post any pictures as I find them...)
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