On February 6th I ran my first Ultra event of my sophomore trail career. The Jed Smith 50K was relocated this year to the American River Parkway due to closures and cutbacks in the State Parks pushing Gibson Ranch out of the running. The morning of the race I awoke to pouring rain at 5am as the weather people predicted (right for a change) and I wondered if I really wanted to run a race that entailed 5 loops around a very familiar area for several hours while getting soaking wet? I had been fighting a cold for the last few days and knew that running this race in the in climate weather probably wasn't what the Doctor ordered but I wasn't currently seeking medical advice. I was starting the race season that would culminate four months later with Western States 100 miler. If I could not handle a bit of rain today what business did I have training for WSER100 where surely the weather would be far more treacherous on the other end of the spectrum! I have kind of told myself that all my races leading up to WS this year would be run at 80% so as to not get injured, yet still allow my competitive juices to flow and justify any entrance fees.
Shortly after arriving at William Pond for the race I met up with some of my running buddies who I knew would be running it as well. Tony Overbay (who informally introduced me to the Ultra scene), Antonio Losada (a very skilled if somewhat age handicapped running friend), Ted Archer (a new running buddy and local phenom who has placed impressively at MDS) all toed the line together in a very low key race of approximately 65 runners. I had told Ted about the race just the week prior and mentioned he had a chance to win this even though there were at least two other runners who were very legit! Having him race this certainly would drop my place by at least one and with my other buddies also running it I was already prepared for 4th out of just those I was friends with.
Luckily, for us as the 50miler got under way minutes before our race the rain mellowed to a light drizzle and we were inspired that maybe we could shed some clothes and avoid being waterlogged. The course was flat,fast and an even mixture of the Parkway asphalt and easy horse trails that paralleled the rivers edge. As the gun went off Ted burst out in front of the pack and pretty much had a 40yd lead on everyone before I even hit the start button on my Garmin! He was out to win it even if he said otherwise. Tony and I ran much of the first lap together both wondering how our respective colds might hold up and whether either of us was going to make this a race of it. Since tony as well was fortunate to get into the lottery for WS too we both planned a leisure training run out of it. Antonio, usually the runner with tons of heart, poor pacing, and lack of desire for things like hydration and nutrition surprised me by hanging back from us. Usually I would expect him to go out stronger but maybe readjust his pace as the race went on due to the above information I described.
After the first lap Ted was clearly ahead of the other runners and I secretly wondered if by the final loop would he be lapping me on this 10K course. Towards the end of the final lap I lost sight of Tony a bit and was now wondering was I running this too fast for a supposed training run? This thought was not reinforced by the man running 10paces in front of me that was in his 70s, had a very awkward if not painful gait, who seemed focused on not letting a newbie trail runner past him. This guy appeared to purposely run through every little mud puddle as if to say this is how we do it on trails! Mud, sweat, and tears..... which is exactly how I felt if this guy was going to cross the mats in the next 4hours before me.
The next several laps entailed much of the same with my pace only dropping off by a few seconds per mile from my original 7:45min/mile first loop. I had eventually passed the older, if not more experienced ultra runner about 2.5 laps in and by the 3rd lap realized that this was not Tony's day as he made the wise decision to finish the day as a 30K since his cold was much worse than mine and he did not want to jeopardize his training season for the first 50K. Smart Man! Antonio continued to come into the aid station each loop just as I would be exiting and thought he was running a smarter race than I since he continued to either hold his pace or make up some time while I dropped some even if marginally so.
By the last lap I could start to feel my hamstrings not only tighten but flicker with notice that although my hydration of a bottle per lap seemed sufficient that maybe the lack of salt tablets at the race might be my downfall. I started to wonder if I would be walking in the last 5-6miles with my legs locked up much like a few months earlier at the Bizz J Trail Marathon where I came up a few minutes short of a BQ for just such reasons. I did what I could to get some Na+ in by eating some potato chips on the last lap and downing it with soda, knowing that it might help if only the mixture would stay down. I have a pretty weak stomach so it would be interesting.
Fortunately, the option of Ruffles and de fizzed Pepsi did the trick along with shortening my stride length enough to only marginally effect my pace. Another buddy Chris who had paced Ted into a 1st place finish shortly before headed back out to meet me with a couple miles to go and helped me finish off the course in 4hrs11min (8:03 pace). I finished 12th overall, Antonio finished only seconds behind me and Ted won the race with a stellar 3hr25min finish. That is kicking some ass!!!!!
Overall it was a good race with some smart tactics, learned experiences and a decent effort at keeping it around 80%!!! Let's hope the rest of the season goes as well.
No comments:
Post a Comment