 |
| All I want is pizza. |
--------------
So we headed up to Lutsen Friday late morning, arriving at Caribou Highlands (where the race ends) around 3. Our room wasn't ready so we hit the restaurant. I'm paranoid about what I eat the few days before so I ordered the meal I felt would be the least-likely to cause any, ahem, "issues" - a salad with plain roasted chicken. Pretty tasty, although my stomach felt a little off immediately after...
We check in around 4:30 and toss our bags in the room. Great room, although the back door didn't lock so we had to have a guy come out and fix while we went to packet pickup which was ridiculously fast. We headed back to the room where I took down a couple GF bagels and a banana and chilled for a bit. I think we watched Ice Road Truckers or something as we only got about 7 channels.
I debated going to the pre-race meeting but decided too much knowledge is better than not enough so headed up to the patio at 7. Weird to see all the faces I recognized from the million times I looked at pictures of previous races trying to gauge what equipment I should wear. Good meeting, about 30 minutes and I headed back and we watched a little more TV before deciding to hit the hay aroun 830 (as I had the alarm set for 330).
Unfortunately, just like the Voyageur Trail Marathon, I barely slept - maybe an hour tops - and finally got up around 315. I immediately made some coffee and had another bagel and banana, but my stomach was having none of it. I ended up puking a few times (I blame the restaurant) while getting ready. By the time 430 rolled around which is when I needed to leave to catch the bus to the starting line, I was puking pretty violently and was really unsure whether I should even do this. No sleep, puking and I'm about to hit one of the harder 50 milers in the country - which also happens to be my first of the distance.
I decided that even if I quit at the first aid station (about 7 miles in), at least I gave it a shot. I walked up to the bus and we hung out for a few minutes then took the 45 minute ride to the start, the entire time half asleep with my stomach doing backflips. By the time we got to the starting line, I forced down a GU and immediately felt a little better. Within a few minutes we were off and running. Ran with a group of about 10 people to the first station, keeping pretty quiet as my energy was down. I had a plan to take down an electrolyte cap and some food every hour which I stuck to the entire race. By the time I made it to the first AS I was feeling pretty good. A few chips, banana and water refill and I was good to go.
To the 2nd AS I ran alone for the most part, great scenery and not-too-tough climbs and decents, although you must keep your eyes on the ground or you will fall (which I did several times - glad I went with the dual water bottle as they certainly saved my hands/wrists from breaking).
Taking off from the 3rd AS I ended up running with another guy, chatting quite a bit. Good guy, good conversation and made this section (almost 10 miles - very steep and rocky) pretty enjoyable. Towards the end of the section I trailed off a little and finished the section alone which I didn't mind. Right as I pulled into this AS it started pouring. I ran for about 30 minutes or so before putting on the jacket (which folds up into a pocket I wear around my wrist - pretty great design).
The next AS marked the halfway point - Mile 26 - and I was feeling great. A volunteer told me I was looking strong and I was in good spirits. I fueled up and took off through the next section then bang - IT band started screaming at me. Running became painful so I walked, tried to run, walked, over and over. Took me a few miles to realize that when I ran, I'd be in pain for about 5-10 seconds then it would ease but if I walked and then started running again, same pain. So that was the strategy for the rest of the race. Fast-forward to the last section where my IT band said "no mas" and I essentially power hiked the last 7 miles. Here I ran into several Sawtoothers who looked exhausted but in good spirits. Some really great people at these events.
Coming into the last turn I decided to run the half mile or so and was pretty unreal to see the hundred or so people cheering. Very cool. I ended up finishing in 13:26 which was awesome as I had a goal of 14 and if my IT band didn't act up, I really think I could've done 12. Next time maybe.
For fueling, I stuck with bananas, chips, gummi bears, salted potatoes and some coke in the later sections. Other than that, GU and Shot Blox were my mainstay. My stomach cooperated the entire race which was what I was most concerned about.
All-in-all it was pretty unreal - to think I ran 12 miles on flat ground in March which was my furthest and nearly passed out, to just knocking out a 50 mile trail run - pretty sweet. I'm still limping a bit but already have my eye on Zumbro 100 in April. YEAH BITCHES!!
Oh I'm gonna die.
No comments:
Post a Comment