Notes
Months and months of focused training boiled down to this race. Wow. First 20 miles felt great. I was eating clif blocks at the checkpoints, downing ice cold Nuun water, and drinking some of my tailwind. Pace felt good (8:00-10:00/mile), and was running with a guy named Christian. As it warmed up, it started getting much more difficult to eat or drink. My stomach would get queasy just at thought of eating or drinking. I started taking more time at checkpoints. I took maybe 10-15 minutes at the halfway aid station (about 29 miles) before going out on the 10.8 mile stretch from hell. It was hot, full sun, and it was a SLOG. Pace slowed considerably, legs tired, and I eventually had to sit down on the trail and force a Gu and some tailwind water into my body before cratering into the checkpoint. Spent probably 20 minutes there cooling off before I could eat. The rest of the race was run a little, walk a lot, repeat. Spent time at checkpoints getting blisters looked at and taking in calories. Severe thunderstorm swept up during the last section and poured. Afterwards a girl caught up to me and we walked the rest of the muddy way together. Couldn't eat after the race or that night. Legs sore for a couple days, but nothing bad. Took a few days to get an appetite back. Kind of hungry for another race though?