Notes
Writing my summary about a week after this race. Time to digest it all. Looking at ultrasignup this one bested my 50K PR by exactly 5 minutes to the second. A PR that was long past due to be broken.
First, the conditions. Really not that bad. It was cold, in the low 20s and breezy all day but dry and so cold that the ground never had a chance to thaw so no mud! I wore my new Road Runner Sports running jacket and the 2014 Holiday Lake Patagonia finisher shirt as a base layer. No complaints there. Under Armor Cold Gear tights with running shorts over top and grey Road Runner Sports running briefs. No issues there. First thing in the morning I got up and grabbed a shower stall so I could put plenty of Trail Toes on my inner thigh and the boys. I was having chaffing there the preceding few weeks but this helped a lot! No issues with chaffing at all! Probably helps that it was dry.
Second, race plan. The plan was to go by HR keeping things within my MAF (134-143) range for as much of the race as possible and let the results take care of themselves. Although I was thinking about times all week and fantasized about going sub 6. At the start people took off and I had to really dial back more than I thought I would. I was still about 150 most of the time going up the road. Some of this was probably just the heart waking up coupled with that first climb. I did get it dialed back and it was no problem for the rest of the first half. I really felt strong for most, if not all, of that first loop. I was on a nutrition plan of a gel every 30 minutes and I had my vest with two bottles and drank plenty. In fact I was peeing a LOT. That was kind of annoying. I brought some s-caps but was not on a plan for those. More on that in a moment.
On the second lap back I started mentally getting a little worn. I was by myself and I decided to stick in the ear buds. I got two songs in and lost internet which for some stupid reason with the Amazon player keeps songs from playing even if they are downloaded. I need to figure that out... Anyway I pulled into an aid station at about mile 23, topped off my bottles, another note I was not eating aid station food all race, just getting water, and as I was coming out of this aid station I saw some guys up on the hill ahead who looked like they should be behind me and I just got pissed at myself and went. I wasn't feeling like eating gels, I just felt mad and wanted run and pick off people. I thought hey I am almost 23 miles into this thing it is time to go. In hingsight this was probably way too early to go. But anyway a guy was staying on my heels and I looked back and he wanted to go too. So I said lets just see how many we can get. And we passed a lot of people. When we got to the next aid station there was about 8 miles left. He said, "do you need to stop?" I looked and I had plenty of water so I said no, lets keep going. I was able to hang on for about 2 more miles but then I hit a wall. He dropped me and I just felt the bottom fall out. I walked the next 2 or so miles to the last aid station and was just like "do you have food?" I was so bonked out. They got me some soup and packed me some cookies and basically kicked me out. This helped and I was able to walk at a decent pace until the last mile and then I ran most of that to the end. Finished with Matthew Andersen who I had dinner with the night before. Cool guy. He told some pretty interesting stores from his service overseas. Looking at the results I was running with David Griffith from NC and he finished in 6:17. So my bonk basically cost me 30 minutes. He was strong though. We were pacing to finish at about 6:18 so he kept it strong to the end.
So what caused the bonk? It was getting hard to eat the gels. I felt a little sick in the stomach. After the race I noticed a lot of salt on my face. Which is common for me but I think I under did the electrolyte intake. It was cold and I was peeing a lot and I must have been sweating a lot too. I drank lots of water but only two s-caps the whole race. The plan to address this is back on s-caps every 45 minutes, or in between the 30 minutes gels. This worked well at Promise Land last year. I don't want to abandon the Vega gels yet. I think they work well. I just need to keep the electrolytes up so I don't lose my head and gut.
This was a good reality check race. Even without the bonk I am not in sub 6 fitness yet. But my aerobic conditioning is improving. I will continue to do hills and even ramp that up a little as Terrapin and Promise Land approach.
Training the week after has been good. Legs not too torn up. Energy level pretty good. Resting HR on the mark and coming down over the week.