American River 50
04/15/07 06:30 PM *Adventure
Well,
the big day came. I trained as well as I could,
pushing the red-line without crossing it (the endless
quest to train as hard as possible without breaking)
and went out to see if I could beat my old 50 mile
personal best of 9:03 (set four years ago) with a
sub-9 finish. I was confident enough to begin to
wonder not just IF I could break 9:00, but BY HOW
MUCH?
Despite the predictions of occasional showers totalling all of 0.10 inches for the day Saturday morning arrived wet and it kept raining pretty much all day long. By early afternoon the horse trails that make up the last 20 miles of the course were getting pretty sloppy and slick. The temp never got above 55 so it was a tough day for crews and volunteers - the real heroes of the day. For runners it wasn't too bad. Not perfect, but cool is always better than warm when you are running.
I followed my plan of running 7/8 of a mile at about 8:20 pace followed by 1/8 mile of walking: lather, rinse and repeat 30 times until you reach the horse trails and things get more vertical and technical. I covered the first 30 miles this way by 10:38 AM - right on schedule. I worried if this faster than normal pace would burn me out (I was red-lining it again) but, though it was tough I was able to keep up the same level of intensity almost to the end. My pace got slower, as did everyone's on the steep and rocky and muddy trails, but I kept pushing- walking any significant uphill sections and running everything else. Some of the downhills were so technical that they weren't any faster than the uphills.
I realized for the first time (my fifth trip to American River) how many long sections of flat runnable trail there were mixed in with the steep technical stuff. Usually I haven't been fond of flat portions late in a race. Uphills I could walk, downhills I could run but propelling myself over the flat sections of miles 30-50 has always been tough. Yesterday, thanks to my training, I looked forward to these flat sections (some quite long) as opportunities to make up time.
I stayed on schedule and began aiming for a finish around 8:30, which I figured at this point was the best I could do if I really pushed. My calves began to tighten up because I was running faster than usual, thus pushing harder off on each step than usual and my body wasn't used to it. I was passing people consistently the entire race.
By the time I got to the last big hill (1000' climb in 4 miles) I was pretty much spent. Two guys passed me as I tried to move up the early steep portion; only the second and third person to pass me in the final 40 miles of the race. I realized 8:30 was just out of reach and pushed to make at least 8:38- which would be exactly one hour faster than last year. I got to the finish line in 8:35, beating my old PB by 28 minutes (more than 0:30 seconds per mile) and last year by an hour. I finished 92nd out of 500 starters; 9th out of 96 finishers in the men's 50-59 division. (Results here).
(Update: Whoops, the joke's on me, I guess. I just looked up last year's results and my memory deceived me. Last year's time was 9:33).
And when I got to the finish, I was finished. I had nothing left.
My three friends from church all finished as well, despite battling some huge impediments (injuries, sickness, lack of time to train, etc). My daughter, who began running last August and has barely been able to finish 50 kilometer races within the allotted times was concerned that she wouldn't be able to make the cut-offs at AR. I knew she could do the distance, but...
She made the first cut-off (mile 31.5) with 6 minutes to spare and finished with 12 minutes to spare. HOORAY!
I plan to let this time of 8:35 stand. Training that hard and running that hard were satisfying, but took a lot out of me. I'd rather have longevity in my running career than worry about moving up from the top 20% to the top 10% of my age group. Besides, if I can keep at this long enough, it will keep getting easier and easier to be at the top of my age group; maybe even take first place (there was only one 70+ finisher in each of the men's and women's divisions this year)!
Thanks to all for prayers and encouragements. Now back to more important matters.
Despite the predictions of occasional showers totalling all of 0.10 inches for the day Saturday morning arrived wet and it kept raining pretty much all day long. By early afternoon the horse trails that make up the last 20 miles of the course were getting pretty sloppy and slick. The temp never got above 55 so it was a tough day for crews and volunteers - the real heroes of the day. For runners it wasn't too bad. Not perfect, but cool is always better than warm when you are running.
I followed my plan of running 7/8 of a mile at about 8:20 pace followed by 1/8 mile of walking: lather, rinse and repeat 30 times until you reach the horse trails and things get more vertical and technical. I covered the first 30 miles this way by 10:38 AM - right on schedule. I worried if this faster than normal pace would burn me out (I was red-lining it again) but, though it was tough I was able to keep up the same level of intensity almost to the end. My pace got slower, as did everyone's on the steep and rocky and muddy trails, but I kept pushing- walking any significant uphill sections and running everything else. Some of the downhills were so technical that they weren't any faster than the uphills.
I realized for the first time (my fifth trip to American River) how many long sections of flat runnable trail there were mixed in with the steep technical stuff. Usually I haven't been fond of flat portions late in a race. Uphills I could walk, downhills I could run but propelling myself over the flat sections of miles 30-50 has always been tough. Yesterday, thanks to my training, I looked forward to these flat sections (some quite long) as opportunities to make up time.
I stayed on schedule and began aiming for a finish around 8:30, which I figured at this point was the best I could do if I really pushed. My calves began to tighten up because I was running faster than usual, thus pushing harder off on each step than usual and my body wasn't used to it. I was passing people consistently the entire race.
By the time I got to the last big hill (1000' climb in 4 miles) I was pretty much spent. Two guys passed me as I tried to move up the early steep portion; only the second and third person to pass me in the final 40 miles of the race. I realized 8:30 was just out of reach and pushed to make at least 8:38- which would be exactly one hour faster than last year. I got to the finish line in 8:35, beating my old PB by 28 minutes (more than 0:30 seconds per mile) and last year by an hour. I finished 92nd out of 500 starters; 9th out of 96 finishers in the men's 50-59 division. (Results here).
(Update: Whoops, the joke's on me, I guess. I just looked up last year's results and my memory deceived me. Last year's time was 9:33).
And when I got to the finish, I was finished. I had nothing left.
My three friends from church all finished as well, despite battling some huge impediments (injuries, sickness, lack of time to train, etc). My daughter, who began running last August and has barely been able to finish 50 kilometer races within the allotted times was concerned that she wouldn't be able to make the cut-offs at AR. I knew she could do the distance, but...
She made the first cut-off (mile 31.5) with 6 minutes to spare and finished with 12 minutes to spare. HOORAY!
I plan to let this time of 8:35 stand. Training that hard and running that hard were satisfying, but took a lot out of me. I'd rather have longevity in my running career than worry about moving up from the top 20% to the top 10% of my age group. Besides, if I can keep at this long enough, it will keep getting easier and easier to be at the top of my age group; maybe even take first place (there was only one 70+ finisher in each of the men's and women's divisions this year)!
Thanks to all for prayers and encouragements. Now back to more important matters.
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