Got out for ATB on a wet, cold morning.
Decided to pace with my friends as a strategy to keep me from burning out as I have in the last couple of races.
It seemed to work well for the first 20k, although my calf was noticeable from about 8 k onward. I kept trying to ignore it, and had the group pulling me along past the 10 and 15k relay exchange points.
Once we got near 20k, the pace of the group picked up considerably. I was fighting to hang on to them as they slowly disappeared ahead of me. I was very concerned that if I was dropped I wouldn't have the legs to bring me in at my 3-hour goal. I ran like stink to keep up, and had one last flailing go at catching the lead group after the 21k water station.
When the pulled away again, I was done. Without the focus on the pace, and keeping up to the group, my leg started to really sing. My gait and cadence began to suffer and the pain started migrating up my left leg, behind the knee and into the glute. A parade of friends began to pass me at 22k and I decided to stop for a pee break at 24k to gather myself together for the final 6k.
You know what happened. My soleus seized up, and I was could hardly walk after the short break. The pounding down into and up out of the valley was not something I could contemplate with my leg feeling the way it was. I resigned myself to walk up the double switchback to the 27k mark. Even then, I couldn't get started again and my afternoon was over. I walked back to downtown Hamilton and finished with a time of 3:42 and change.
My splits were pretty respectable 1:06 (10k), 1:36 (15k), 2:06 (20k), and I was on my way to probably something around 3:15 for the full distance before the wheels on the bus began to fall off. I'm writing this two weeks later after a series of physio sessions and rest. I'm looking forward to getting six good weeks of training in before Ottawa at the end of May. | 