Another race that I don’t realize that I have on my calendar
until the week of.
THE LEAD UP
Sunday, Aug 9th:
Day after the 5K XC race.
My feet were too shot to safely run, after doing the race in spikes, and
then running around Spartanburg to find geocaches, in the slipper-like Hattoris. Did a 55 min strength session, instead.
Work this week was crazy: worked 8:30am-10:30pm on
Monday. Had a sandwhich from Firehouse
subs. Put 2 level 9 or 10 sauces on the
sub. One tasted hot… the other was
fire. Even the air around my sub burned
my eyes. It didn’t start hurting my
tummy til after I ate it (half of it), though.
Walking was hard.
The next day, I only worked til 7, so that I could try to
get in a run. The sandwich was so good
that I ate it again, knowing well what it could do to me. I tried to dilute it with extra Tomato, but
even tons of water hadn’t helped the burn in my stomach the previous day. I tried to run on the treadmill about an hour
and a half later, but I only made it 1-2 minutes. When not running, my tummy was feeling better
by then, but once I started running, it seemed to re-activate the
heat-producing compounds in my tummy. Oh
well… hope for tomorrow.
Wednesday, Aug 12:
Ran before work at my apartment complex’s fitness room, for
the first time ever. I should’ve tried
taking advantage of this before. They
open at 6, supposedly, so if I get everything for work ready before that, I can
do the run and get to work when I need to.
Did 5.0 in 41:34, 8:19 average, 2 degrees of incline = 7:59 effort. Legs woke up fresh, even t his early,
thankfully. Hungrier today during work,
as a result of the run. Worked til 8pm
tonight.
Was rushing through lunch and not eating as much each day
this week, with the crazy meetings. An
11 hr workday feels short, after going through this week. Had green smoothies this week, too… felt
healthy.
RACE REPORT:
15K is not much. I did
10 miles in 1:14. This was a trail race,
though, so I checked last year’s winning times.
I’m glad I did, because I realized that the winner took more than 2 hrs,
so I brought food and 7oz of water accordingly. There was only 1 waterstop,
which we’d pass twice.
The race started with about 1.5 miles of road, which
thankfully gave the field a chance to spread out before we hit the
trailhead. Learning from the last race,
I tried to pace better on the uphill.
The race went up the mountain (2000 ft up), then down, with the extra up
and down due to elevation changes on the trail on top of that. I did a wee bit of passing. Power walked on most of the ups. All about managing effort. Breathing heavy, even walking. Kept going up and up. Glad to have my 7oz of water in a soft flask
in my Salamon S Lab shorts, to take on the way up.
The view at the top was breathtaking, with a sheer drop… way
above the forested mountains below.
Turned my head to try to take in a few seconds of the view as I ran
ahead. The first part of the return trip
had technical down, with what looked like loose gravel. Took it conservatively. Then, runnable downhill. About 2/5 of the way through, caught up to
the 3rd place girl, and seconds later, the 2nd place girl
appeared. We were all in a tight row. With single-track, there wasn’t any passing,
and the 2nd place girl was taking it easy, but knowing that there
was open road for the last 1.5 miles, I knew I could save it and pass
then. I had a good kick. I took it easy, biding my time. Passed the 3rd place girl when
there was a chance, and she let us go.
Kept right on 2nd place girl, and she was able to keep
pushing. Kept on her heels for like a
mile. Then, I kind of ran out of gas and
she pulled away. She was able to cover
it all. Finally, road again, which still
involved some big uphills. The now 4th
place girl was not far behind, I saw in the last 500 or so meters, so I
sprinted to the finish. It took me a
while to catch my breath. Water tasted
so good.
Great race organization.
Well-flagged. Good food at the
bottom. Nice trail. Good setup with the road-based start and
finish. Good care from park rangers. A+++.
Got 3rd. 9.3 mi in 2:06:24.
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