Saturday, April 14, 2012

Glacier Ridge 50k race report

Here is a brief summary of my race at the Glacier Ridge 50k this morning. I put together a list of objectives prior to the race, so here is how I think I fared. This list was assembled in order of descending priority.

  1. Finish - yup.
  2. Have fun - again, yup.
  3. don't bonk - didn't
  4. eat frequently - I usually eat every 30 minutes but found this was making me a bit queasy, so I eased it back to every 45 - 60 and found that worked well.
  5. eat solid foods frequently - I usually eat nothing but gel and gatorade during a race, but that clearly has its limitations. today i ate a lot of potato chips at aid stations, chased by healthy amounts of pepsi. i even managed to get down a quarter of a pb&j. i have found that for a couple minutes after i eat, i usually get a little swirly in the stomach. I reckon this is because there is a competing demand for blood between my leg muscles, and my stomach (which is trying to digest food). overall, i think the queasiness is well worth it in terms of the extra calories taken in. so, i'll say success on #5.
  6. finish strong/balance the effort throughout the day - I definitely did finish strong. I don't think i got passed all day, and was able to hold off a young woman at the very end who made a charge. we had kind of a cat and mouse thing going on the last 5 or so miles and turned it into a friendly rivalry. I credit her with helping me push hard in the final miles. Mostly because I didn't want to get passed by a girl at the very end. as far as balanced effort, i ran all the hills through the first 10 miles or so, I don't quite know why. after a while I decided that this was a great way to blow up, so I power hiked most of the hills after this. overall a consistent effort though.
  7. beat last year's time - I think I shaved 20 minutes off my time from last year. I wanted to break 6 hours this year, but it didn't happen. my longest run prior to today was about 11 miles this year. not making excuses but perhaps not in ideal shape for the race. had a very strong base though, which got me through it. success on #7
  8. run the hills - did for 10 or so miles but wisely decided that this was a great way to turn the last part of the race into a death march.
  9. beat Andrew - FAIL....hung with my friend Andrew through the first 20 miles, we were pushing the pace hard. some context, Andrew is a 2:50 marathoner, ran 22 hours and change at Western States last year, and is a fantastically talented runner (and a great guy). Having said that, he is as competitive as they come and I wanted to beat him bad this year. we pushed REAL hard from ~ mile 15 through 20 and I decided that the pace was not sustainable for me, so I fell off the back. Lost him after a few miles, but in the back of my head I kept hoping to reel him in before the finish. he was done by the time I finished, he didn't know what his time was but said he hadn't been done that long before I showed up. he also said he struggled hard at the end. part of me wishes that 1) I hadn't run the hills in the beginning, and 2) I hadn't insisted on hanging with him at what I knew was a pace I could not maintain. perhaps if I ran my own race, I may have beat him? who knows. anyway, I did not beat Andrew but I'm ok with that...........he is an amazing runner and tough as nails, so i'm pretty happy that I came as close as I did.

Great day in the woods overall.

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