DC 50
10/15/07 09:47 AM *Adventure
Determined to best my
time of 9:41 from back when I was a young lad of
40-something, I started out the race at a blistering
(for me) 11 minute per mile pace. I managed to
maintain that for the first 26 miles up and down the
east Bay hills, through the mud (it poured Friday)
and was actually passing runners steadily despite
starting faster than I prefer.
The next four miles are all uphill and took an hour, then I got back to my 11 minute pace for the remainder of the journey. The last six miles were absolutely miserable as my legs were shot (tingly and crampy and exhausted) and the heat (near 80) was making me woozy and dizzy. Plus I had to run this section at a ten minute pace to finish under 9:30. Despite the fact that three people passed me in the last mile (Bummer! - no one had passed me for the last 30-some miles), I finished in 9:27, utterly spent. If suffering and self-discipline build character, then I'm a real character!
Running through the Redwood and Eucalyptus groves and past the viewpoints of San Francisco added highlights to what was otherwise a tough day at the office. Today I feel like that guy from Petticoat Junction ("and there's Uncle Joe, he's a-movin' kind of slow at the Junction").
After the turnaround I saw Helen Klein, she was in last place (she was at mile 22, I was at 31) with two bloody knees and no chance of making the cut-off at mile 26. Still she had plenty of time to finish those last four miles to the cutoff in less than an hour which would have given her a sub-seven-hour finish for a tough hilly trail marathon. Not bad for an 84-year old!
The next four miles are all uphill and took an hour, then I got back to my 11 minute pace for the remainder of the journey. The last six miles were absolutely miserable as my legs were shot (tingly and crampy and exhausted) and the heat (near 80) was making me woozy and dizzy. Plus I had to run this section at a ten minute pace to finish under 9:30. Despite the fact that three people passed me in the last mile (Bummer! - no one had passed me for the last 30-some miles), I finished in 9:27, utterly spent. If suffering and self-discipline build character, then I'm a real character!
Running through the Redwood and Eucalyptus groves and past the viewpoints of San Francisco added highlights to what was otherwise a tough day at the office. Today I feel like that guy from Petticoat Junction ("and there's Uncle Joe, he's a-movin' kind of slow at the Junction").
After the turnaround I saw Helen Klein, she was in last place (she was at mile 22, I was at 31) with two bloody knees and no chance of making the cut-off at mile 26. Still she had plenty of time to finish those last four miles to the cutoff in less than an hour which would have given her a sub-seven-hour finish for a tough hilly trail marathon. Not bad for an 84-year old!
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