Oh how I love this "race" my kind of race. I don't have to run fast...I just have to keep going. Five hours to run as much or as little as you want. Only problem is that you have to do it running around the track at the Olympic Oval.
I was lucky enough to have my daughter join me again this year and she not only completed her half again, but did 16 miles! WOW! It is amazing what you can do when you don't just sit around for five hours.
Marci came down to run with me this year too. It was SO nice to have her and Paul and Lisa and Kimberly and SO many others there to just run with and enjoy the company as we went around, around and around. Good company makes everything go better :)
Took a gu around 1:15, then at 2:00 I stopped to actually take in liquid, walk one lap to keep legs loose and then kept going. From that point on I did a Gu at the top of the hour (1st no caffeine then increasing caffeine amounts each hour) and endurolyte pills at the bottom of the hour. Worked like a charm! I would have Lauren grab my stuff for me and then have it ready to go as I came around so I wouldn't have to stop.
When it was all over I pushed the last lap, because I know that if you're tied with someone on lap numbers then they go with how fast the last lap was completed. I didn't want to lose by a few seconds :) I figured I'd completed at least my 50K, but they were having problems with their machine being overwhelmed with the number of "laps" recorded. Shouldn't have trusted them this year, but with a garmin that only lasts 60 minutes, if that, I had to trust them. Grr.
There were ladies lapping me the first half and a few that hung on afterward, so I figured that I didn't have a chance of placing. Plus, last year taking 4th and getting nothing stung a little bit. With fueling and keeping the pace this year I thought I'd be in the top 5ish, but certainly not podium. So, I was at the aid station table after I got my medal and got in engraved. They had lots of left over gu that they told us to take. I certainly got my years supply out of it! Then everyone started yelling my name. What?!? Oh, I had placed and they were trying to give me an award. Score! I had taken 3rd! I really didn't think I'd done that well. But, the 2 women ahead of me I'd remembered seeing pass me nearly the whole time. This year they gave awards to the top 5 (Grr!) and so the 4th place was Marci which was fantastic to be there with her! We'd stayed side by side unitl the last hourish. I loved spending that time with her. I love that girl!
When they finally got a final lap count up they had my laps at 115, which is just exactly a 50K...hmmm. Seemed a little short. Paul then said his foot pod recorded 32.2 miles and another participant said they'd counted their laps and had 33 miles (I was lapping both of these guys the last hourish). Talking to numerous others it was agreed that somehow the lap count was off. I'm not fighting my position in the overall. I think that was accurate...more than. But, I really feel my lap count was off. I'm confident in saying that I finished 33-34 miles. Looking at paces for that time it seems accurate as well. So, to be honest I'll claim 33, not 34, but I'm sure it was somewhere in between there. I didn't ever really take any long breaks. The longest was the walking lap at 2 hours. Otherwise I was keeping a decent 8:30ish pace the whole time. Anyway, long story longer...I'm claiming 33 miles despite only having 115 laps officially recorded and I took 3rd. It was a fantastic day!!!
| 
