Notes
Pre-Race: Spent Saturday visiting with friends in the area. Had some good standard meals and was pretty well rested. Saturday night sleeping did not go well - combination of a soft bed, sore back and nerves I'm sure.
Standard breakfast toasted onion ciabatta with egg and cheese on it. Headed out for about an hr drive to the race. Stomach was not 100% but also not terrible so an ok start to the day.
Race director gave a few instructions at the start line and then went off to a bit of an abrupt start (I never mind a good surprise start - cuts out some of the nerves).
Loop1 Plus: Course started with an out and back 2.2 mile stretch, tried to keep it easy and relaxed and let people go, which paid off later. Still was probably a bit fast before settling in on the start of the first real 7.6 Mile loop. Quick pit stop at the lower end of the loop, and then grabbed a shotblock starting to head back to the start. Wasn't really hungry, but figured I need to start before then.
Loop2: Re-filled my water for the first time said hi to Joe and headed back out quickly, time was still passing pretty quickly and feeling pretty good. Another pit stop at the 3rd aid station on this loop and stopped to fill water as well.
Loop 3: At the start of this loop joe prodded me on how much I was eating... the answer was not enough and I knew that. Had a few chips, but the stomach was queasy, so I didn't have a lot of confidence in my stomach at the time. Was still feeling pretty good regardless so ditched my longsleeves as it warmed up and headed out fairly quickly and without headphones. Somewhere along this loop I started to hurt a bit more. The road had a lot of camber for the majority of the loop so my back was starting to hurt some (it wasn't great leading up to the race anyway) and i was noticing hotspots on my feet much earlier than normal. Concerning, but not a huge deal so just tried to keep things moving nice and easy - grabbed more water along the way.
Loop4: Was officially not feeling so great at the start of this loop. Had not quite finished a pack of shotblocks at this point and had a few chips and nothing more. Took some gingerale and talked to joe shortly before heading off again without my headphones/camelpack. Joe met me this time at the other end of the aid station. It had cooled of again so I took my longsleeves back, got more water, compained a bit about my stomach got some broth which wasn't as good as i hoped, some gingerale and walked a bit while drinking until I was on my way. It started pouring and the rain ran the salt on my face into my eyes, so that at some point it was really hard to keep them open. Was really wishing I had a visor at that point.
Loop5: Officially felt bad... lots of hurt and a stomach too queasy to eat. Had more gingerale, walked with joe for a solid 8 min and debated taking the camelpack (which also carried my phone to listen to podcasts with) I was worried it would feel heavy since I already hurt. This was stupid becuase it weighs nothing and it was totally fine when I started running plus I got to listen to Pocohontas, which was cool. As I finally got running again, I asked Joe to attempt to find me advil or something of the sort. It was waiting for me at the bottom of the loop, so I took some and had some gingerale and again did some walking with Joe before getting moving again.
Loop6: Aleive was magic. I was definitely feeling much better. I was warming up and got rid of the long sleeves yet again. Joe told me that I was gaining on the next 50 miler woman ahead of me and I new that if I did the last loop at the pace of lap 5 I would be borderline for breaking 9 hrs , which I really wanted, so I was deterimined to not do the walkign and talking that had cost me some time on the last loop. Did take my time drinking some gingerale but took off pretty quickly. At the bottom of the loop I took more gingeral said a quick hello to Joe and got moving quickly, feeling much better than I had on the last loop. I passed the woman ahead of me as well as another 50 miler on this loop. Was able to pick up the pace for proably the last mile or so and came in to the line at a run not a shuffle.
Qucikly laid down on the ground for quite a while waiting to become human again. Wasn't ready for food but did want to get on the road so after I had a chance to layout we headed to the car. Stopped at the bottom aid station to grab a grilled cheese sandwich as I had a craving driving by.
All of the volunteers were awesome. I was very pleased with my day even if it wasnt the most even of efforts.
Summary:
Fuel: 1.5 packs of shot blocks, a handful of chips maybe, sip of broth (failed experiment), probably ~3/4 can of gingerale (lifesaver)
Course: Paved, flat with a few gentle rollers, scenic, unfortunately cambered
Bisters: Many & large
Time: 8:49:46
Place: 2/9 F, 13/32 overall
People passed in last lap: 3