1 Details
Date: Saturday,
May 16th, 2015
Distance: 50K
Weather: Mid
High 40s to start, up to the low 50s during the peak. Sunny all day. Warmer than expected but no complaints. Perfect day.
Runners: Reid
and Kim in the 50k. Courtney, Kelly, Tanya, Marcus, Anne, Zoey,
Noelle, Brent all running the 25k. 600
people total on the course (200 50k, 400 25k).
Crew: None. The first race I was out there “alone”. Totally fine and buoyed by knowing so many
other people I knew were on the course.
Gear: Ultimate Direction
SJ Hydration Pack (got it on the Wednesday before the race and more on this
below), arm warmers for the start, Brooks shorts, multiple shirts, Hoka Stinson
ATRs, Gaitors.
Fuel: Perpetuem
Caffe Latte for the start of the race.
Gu for the last few hours after my stomach wasn’t right. Hammer
Endurolytes Extreme every hour then damn near every half hour after I started
cramping.
2 Training and Preparation
This year training is a
bit different as it is essentially focused on the Fall 100M race. The winter was just awesome for running on
trails. The weather was fairly mild and
we picked our spots often getting long runs in on Friday afternoon/nights when
the weather was typically 20 degrees warmer than Saturday mornings. We ended up doing tons of runs out at Afton
often doing the full race loop. As my
training is constantly evolving, I really didn’t focus on overall mileage at
all. Due to our hectic schedule with the
kids and Courtney running, I only managed to run about 4 days a week. But I really tried to make those runs count
typically running 8 miles or more on all of my “short” runs. I also didn’t have
too many “easy” short long runs. Most of
the runs were 15-17 miles. However, I
didn’t manage to get one 20 mile run in either.
So my training was really all over the place. Low’ish weekly mileage at 37 miles per week
in the 11 weeks leading up to the race.
Two weeks at 49 miles but none over 50 (or over 60 like years
past).
But through all of that,
I just felt stronger in general. I found
I could run on more uphills during the long runs, and also feel stronger on the
flats. I’m sure lots of this is me being
almost 5 years into running so my base is pretty large, but I think being smart
about training and really getting used to 10 mile runs being easy and making
Afton our staple for long runs all plays into it too.
3 Race Weekend Preparation
Courtney and I traveled
up after she got off work. Got in and
met up with Reid and Kelly who had gone up earlier and checked us in. Flew the DJI Inspire in the parking lot and
showed it off to Kim and Co. when they showed up. Got our race packets, ate
some good dinner and got to hang out with Kelly’s parents and settled in around
9pm. Courtney and I had been feeling the
lingering’s of colds coming on but I decided not to worry about it as there
isnt anything I could do at that point.
Turns out I felt pretty good.
 |
| Everyone hanging out pre race. Notice the 25kers in their jammies. |
4 Race Start to Oberg (Mile 0 to 7.75: 7.75 miles)
Interval Time: - 1:31
Time on Course - 1:31 Interval Pace – 11:45
Avg. Pace – 11.45
I wasn’t going to be too
conservative in the race. I figured I
knew how to deal with a lot of issues that have come up in the past and really
wanted to push running the flats and downhills versus years past. As per usual, the first couple of miles are a
bit of a conga line going over Mysteray and climbing up the backside of
Moose. I ran behind Robyn Reed for a
while and we chatted about her blog which inspired me in part to write these
race reports. After conga line’ing it
across the ridgeline on top of Moose we got to the descent. People were picking there way down and I just
decided to let it loose. I passed easily
15 people on the downhill here just flying.
I had one other guy behind me as we bombed the hill. I mentioned to him that I will probably pay
for that later but he said “you have to do it, right?”. I agreed as that was some of the most fun I
have had in a race to that point. We
went up and over Oberg and I just flew coming down into the aid station. My many hours running at Afton on the
downhills really helped during those descents.
I was surprised to see Kim and Reid just about to leave the aid
station. They waited for me to drop my
hydration pack out, change shirts, and fill up my bottles (one with Perp and
one with water). We headed out on our
way to Sawbill as a group feeling really good.
 |
| 50kers ready to go. |
5 Oberg to Sawbill (Mile 7.75 to 13.3: 5.55
miles)
Interval Time: - 1:11
Time on Course – 2:42 Interval Pace - 12:47
Avg. Pace – 12:10
We left as a trio with
some other runners. The first mile or so
out of Oberg are extremely runnable. It
was really nice to run at a decent pace for sections large-ish sections. This section at times was extremely
muddy. There were bits of mud on the
first section, but this eclipsed that and was easily worse than last year which
is saying something. I didn’t tip toe around anything this year from the get
go. I would just go right through the
middle trying to find rocks to jump on if I could. Often times you would find deep pools of mad
that were calf deep. I didn’t lose any
shoes, but it weighed on your legs slogging through this. I eventually lost Kim and Reid which wasn’t
much of a surprise. I stayed positive
through this section and ran much of it on my way into Sawbill getting ready to
go up to Carlton.
6 Sawbill back to Sawbill (Mile 13.3 to 17.7: 4.5
miles)
Interval Time: - 0:49
Time on Course – 3:31 Interval Pace –
10:52 Avg Pace – 11:55
Wow, I had no idea I was
able to get up and down Carlton so quickly.
Those paces and overall average pace all don’t seem quite “right”. I am using the course map to calculate paces
through the report but plan on going back to look at last years race in detail
to compare.
This was the first time
during the race I regretted bombing down Moose as I had a couple cramps on my
inner thighs that I have felt so many times before on the SHT. I just kept walking through the pain (slowly)
and doubled down on hydration and added a salt pill in. Managed to make it up with Kim who I ran into
on the way up all the way to the turn around.
A quick selfie at the top and we were back on the way down. Managed to run much of the downhill even
though cramps were lingering and come back into Sawbill feeling really pretty
good.
 |
| At the top of Carlton's peak with the man, the myth, the legend... |
7 Sawbill to Oberg (Mile 17.7 to 23.25: 5.55
miles)
Interval Time: - 1:32
Time on Course – 5:03 Interval Pace –
16:34 Avg Pace – 13:01
I hate this section. It seems to go on forever, and is always
muddy as hell by this point. Most of the
downhills are rivers of mud it is difficult to run on, and there are large
sections of flats that are just lakes of mud.
I am glad I have run this section many times before as I knew from
experience and landmarks that when you think you are close to the aid station,
there are typically a couple of miles left.
So mentally I was much scronger here than in the past even though I was
still dealing with cramps. My stomach
also didn’t feel great on the perp, so I switched over to Gu’s which I had
stashed in my pack. Overall it took
about 20 minutes longer on the 5.55 stretch than on the way out which sucks at
a 16:34 pace. Cramps and crappy stomach
certainly didn’t help but ugh.
I had passed out some
scratch off lottery tickets here on my way out.
I asked the guy if he won and he hadn’t scratched them off yet. I told him I was going to go to the bathroom
(only time all day) and he had to find a way to scratch them off. He did, didn’t win, but I high fived him
anyway and headed on out.
The Ultimate Direction
pack has serious storage capabilities.
Overall I was really happy with it but it would have been nice to run
with it a couple times to figure out its quirks. But happy in general and being able to really
monitor water intake was nice. There are
a couple of deceiving climbs in this section that I slogged through and managed
to run a bit coming into the aid station.
I was happy to have this section behind me with only the finish line
ahead.
8 Oberg to Finish (Mile 23.25 to 31: 7.75 miles)
Interval Time: - 1:56
Time on Course – 6:56 Interval Pace – 14:96
Avg Pace – 13:24
Cramping aside, I was happy
with my race so far. My stomach seemed
to be handling the Gu well, and I had my half-filled pack along with 40 oz. of water
in my bottles. I got up and over Oberg
walking all the way and decided to give running a healthy try on the way down
the backside. I had some tunes on and
overall felt really strong. I was
feeling really good on the downhill, but I ran into some cramps again that
forced me to stop on the downhill. It
was frustrating, but I took it ok considering everything else that could go
wrong. I made my way to Moose where
there were probably 15 people climbing up at this point between the 25kers and
50kers. I kept making sure that I was
sending out positive vibes to everyone I was passing at this point. I still love that about trail racing. Nearly everyone on the course will give words
of encouragement no matter how poor they are feeling.
I made it up Moose
without really stopping, but I was going pretty slowly at sections. Last year I just killed this climb, but I
didn’t really have too many issues to deal with to that point. I got to the ridgeline and walked most of it though
I managed some spurts of running. I was
able to half stumble/run down the backside of Moose which was nice. Having traversed this in the dark last Fall,
it was nice to do it in the light where you could see things a bit more
clearly. Made my way to hike up Mystery
which I was happy to do. I found Kim on
the climb up and found out she had really messed up her nutrition and was
having a really hard day. I gave her some
words of encouragement and made my way to the top and back down the backside of
Mystery.
I managed to run most of
the way down the hill (mudslides aside) and made it over the glorious river and
to the road. Ran all the way in as I
really wanted to finish in sub 7 hours if possible. I was hoping since I didn’t see anyone I knew
on the trail that was running the 25k that everyone in general had a good day. How I didn't manage to take a post race picture is beyond me. I had to move my phone to the back of my pack and need to find a more convenient place for it to take pictures on the course. But there is no excuse for a post race picture. Luckily someone else was at the finish line snapping photos.
 |
| Across the finish line. |
9 Post-Race and Recovery
Everyone finished the
25k and they all just killed it. I was
super proud of Courtney (knee issues), Kelly (9 months post baby) and Marcus (3
weeks post-surgery) all doing just awesome on their first tries on the
SHT. Tanya did awesome too and is really
getting a handle on this trail running thing which is nice to see. We made it back to the room took some showers,
hung out with Peter, and got some Pizza to go from Moguls which was really
good. Ended up sleeping like crap after
the race and we were all up and out of bed around 6AM. Packed everything up and headed home by
7AM. Got home early, mowed the lawn, and
hung out with the kids. Started getting
fairly sore that night and Monday morning the biggest issues are where I was
cramping (inner thighs and right calf).
All in all I feel really
good. It was another super fun weekend
and I love this distance. Just long
enough to really test you, but short enough you can have a normal day/night
afterwards. It was super fun to be
running the same race with Courtney and have Marcus and Tanya up there as
well. Good to see the group of people I
know who participate in these events grow.
I also made some contacts of folks that are well versed in 100M runs so
I hope to tap into those over the coming months.
Voyageur is next and
cramping early in this race at 50 some degrees is worrisome. Really need to acclimate my body to some heat
and figure out how I can handle salt/fluids/other fuel to offset some of what I
have felt. Then we can bring on the fall
race. Giddyup!
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