The drive was uneventful. I
listened to an audio book of The Google Story, while enjoying my
breakfast – buttered blueberry bagel, 12 oz. of club soda mixed with 4 oz. of
OJ, and about 10 oz. of a chocolate Silk and chia seed slurry.
The early departure and quick drive made for an early arrival. It was nice that all the pre-race activities
were housed in the community center – much better than hanging out in the car
for an hour+. I was able to go through my
pre-race ritual in comfort and use indoor plumbing instead of a port-o-potty. Not wanting to stroll around topless, I also
used the men’s room to apply a liberal coating of sunscreen. As I was doing so, one of the guys waiting in
line for the facilities jokingly asked “Hey, you want me to rub some lotion on
your back?” “Thanks, but I’d rather get
skin cancer” was my reply, and we all had a good laugh.
Outside, I ran into a few familiar faces before the start. Christy McLaughlin and Sean Wetstine spotted
me. I looked around for Rachel StClaire
as she had posted a picture from the start the previous night, but didn’t see
her anywhere. After the race, I saw her
Facebook post, noting that she had thought she registered for the race, but had
actually not, so she left and did a training run on her own.
I wasn’t paying close attention while milling about the start, and before
I knew it, a voice was counting down – 5, 4, 3…
I barely had time to pull off my shirt and push the start button on the
Garmin. Additionally, I found myself
right near the front, where I had no intention of being on a race of this length
and a field of this size. We crossed the
road and made our way through the parking lot, where I tossed my shirt on top
of my car. With temps starting out in
the upper 30’s, the air was chilly and refreshing so I kept my gloves on till
the second aid station. Over the first
few hundred yards, lots of runners went zipping by. Even over the first few miles, more runners
raced by, panting. I kept thinking to
myself “if I can hear your breathing a mile into a 25 or 50 mile race, you’re
working too hard”. I wasn’t foolish
enough to give unsolicited advice, but seriously…
It’s tough watching runners pass, even early on in a long race. There’s always a level of self-doubt. Should I be going out faster while the legs
are fresh and the temps are low? This
time, in addition to 165 races of experience, I also had physical issues to
hold me back. I was concerned about my
stiff knees after hammering the downhills on the previous week’s 50K. My calves were a bit sore having done some
training miles in my Vibram 5-Fingers, and running some hard, fast sprints as
recently as Thursday. And my Achilles
had also been feeling a bit tight. All
of these held me back to what turned out to be a smart pace early on. It wasn’t until the 6th mile that I
started to slowly pass people and other than a few that I traded positions with
for a while, no one passed me.
The mileage was pretty much spot on at all the aid stations. I like the accuracy and predictability. We went through a few short sections of soft
sand, but most of the course was nice and firm.
Somewhere around 6.7 miles, a creek crossed over the road. Most of us tried to gingerly walk over some
branches to keep our feet dry, but that didn’t work very well - one foot was
partly wet, and the other completely.
They dried off quickly enough and I looked forward to the cool water on
the return trip when the temperature would be higher.
There are two main climbs on each loop, but in between, there are lots
of small, sometimes steep, ups and downs.
This keeps things interesting, but makes it hard to get into a really
good rhythm for long. Approaching the
final peak of the first lap, at mile 18, I was feeling pretty fresh and
continuing to slowly pass other runners.
I caught up to Christy and we chatted for a few minutes Once we topped out, I tried to relax into
what I knew was going to be a fast, yet pleasant 7 mile downhill back to Buena
Vista and the half-way point.
A short way down, I came up on JT, from Colorado Springs. We talked for a while about last weekend’s
CMTR, and his upcoming Leadman, but after a mile and a half or so, I pulled
back a bit, as he was pushing too fast and I knew we weren’t even half done
yet. My decision was definitely
correct. I wound up passing JT for good a
short time later, and after the turn-a-round, he told me he was dropping out.
The top part of the decent had been a bit steep and fast, but the
bottom part followed the old Midland railroad grade and was perfect for
dropping my average pace, without killing the quads or destroying my
knees. I wound up running for a couple
of miles with Andy, who was a Leadville 100 regular and as we got close to
town, a gal caught up to us. It turned
out to be Christy. She recovered well
after the climb and was making up time on the decent. I told her she had a shot at her 4:15 goal,
and she was pretty close, missing it by just over a minute.
We made it down to the bottom, ran across a pedestrian bridge over the
Arkansas, and made our way through the parking lot towards the
turn-a-round. I stopped at my car,
swapped out the hand-held bottle for a fresh one, swallowed another Aleve, and
gulped down a can of Coke. I made it
through the turn-a-round 3 minutes behind my self-imposed schedule – not bad! Negative splits would put me right back on
goal.
I was feeling pretty good about my time, but knew that climbing back up
7 miles would slow things down, especially now that the sun was out in full
force. The climb wasn’t as bad as I had
anticipated, though. The railroad grade
actually allowed for a somewhat reasonable pace without over taxing me. I was passing other 50 mile runners, who had
clearly gone out too fast – payback! The
bottom half was also nice and social, as there were still plenty of runners
headed down. I exchanged a quick “great
job” or “nice work” with each of them, but after a while, it got pretty lonely
out there. I ran the rest of the way
back by myself – passing a runner every couple of miles, but never running with
anyone. This made the minutes tick by a
bit slow, but at least I was able to run my own pace.
All told, I passed 10 runners on the return trip (yes, I was counting),
including Sean - that made me feel pretty good.
Despite the fatigue of all those miles and the strong sun, I was still
able to throw down some pretty respectable splits for the last 3 miles (8:24,
8:29, 8:08). I crossed the line in
8:44:05, 14 minutes past my arbitrary goal time, but I felt that it was a good
race, none the less. Top 10 finish. My knees, calves and Achilles all held
up. And though I didn’t manage to run
negative splits, I was pretty darn close, running the second half only 8
minutes slower than the first. Hopefully
this is a sign of continuing maturity on my part, and not just a one-time
fluke.
I kept myself pretty well hydrated throughout, evidenced by the fact
that after the race, I was able to squat down to stretch and get back up
without any light-headedness at all.
Nutrition-wise, I ate 1 peanut butter pack, 2 Honey Stinger Wafers, more
than a dozen cookies from the aid stations, along with handfuls of chips and
pretzels, and quite a few cups of Coke.
Though I carried a couple of gels with me the whole time, I only used
one, about 4 miles from the end. I
swallowed about a dozen S-Caps throughout the day and used a single bottle at a
time, filled with Shaklee Performance, and some lemon juice to cut the
sweetness. Along the way, I just topped
off with water, which seemed to work well.
Unfortunately, at the last aid station, the volunteer apparently poured
Heed instead of water into my bottle. Even
diluted, it was an unpleasant surprise.
I made a very wise move and bought a bag of ice before settling in for
the 2 hour drive back home. I put some
in the cooler and split the rest into 2 bags, each strapped to a knee with a
long-sleeve shirt. I kept these ice
packs on for over an hour and they made a huge difference. The next day, I felt almost no discomfort at
all in my knees.
The race was well managed and run.
The volunteers, as usual, were wonderful and supportive. The only slight disappointment was that they
didn’t have results at the finish and took 4 days to post them online. I know, most people wouldn’t get hung up on
something like this, but that’s the overly competitive, obsessive, impatient
side of me.
The course was absolutely magnificent.
Most of it was on 4-wheel drive roads in the hills, east of Buena
Vista. Constant views to the snow-capped
14’ers of the Collegiate Peaks were stunning and the non-technical terrain
allowed for lots of gawking, without the fear of a face-plant. I would definitely run this race again and
recommend it to anyone who wants a scenic 25 or 50 mile challenge. The overall distance and the splits are quite
accurate and there’s a gain/loss of almost 3,000’ per loop.
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