After finishing the H.U.R.T. 100 in mid-January and getting
in to Wasatch, I sat down to plan the rest of my 2012 season. My initial thought was to do the 25 miler at
Collegiate but when my friend Joe Constantino from Houston told me he was going
to sign up for the 50 I decided to join him for the full distance. I continued to work with my coach Howard
Nippert after H.U.R.T. and put in a solid block of consistent training through
Feb, March, and April. I managed to hit
all my key workouts through the early spring despite a hectic travel schedule
and began to notice significant increases in strength and leg speed. The only concern I had going in to the race
was my perception of the quality of my long runs. While I had hit all of them, there was not a
single run that felt effortless and my paces were not quite as good as I’ve
come to expect on Howard’s program. I’m
still not sure why my long runs felt that way as my overall volume was lower
than the past few spring seasons and I felt well rested going into them. I guess some of it had to do with the higher
volume fall/winter due to H.U.R.T. preparation and I shouldn’t discount the
impact of racing 100 mountain miles in January.
I did my last long run 3 weeks out from the race and tapered the volume
a bit leading into the race. I hadn’t
really planned on putting too much focus on the race itself but I simply can’t
get to a starting line and not try to do well.
I didn’t have too much of a race plan other than to go out
with the leaders, eat, drink, and try and save some energy for the 7 mile grind
back to the course’s high point after the turnaround. I lined up in the front next to my buddy
Espresso Bob and set a good early tempo on the flat first 3 road miles. The lead pack only lasted for about 3 minutes
before 25 miler Josh Arthur took off at 6:00 pace and strung the lead group
out. E-Bob and I traded pulls for the
first 5 miles and a few other runners mixed in and out with us as well. It was hard to know who was running the 50 or
the 25 so I just concentrated on holding the appropriate effort for my own distance. Bob popped into the porta-potty at the first
aid which left me mostly solo for the next few miles until he caught back up at
the steep rollers around mile 11. At
that point I was able to really assess how I was feeling and unfortunately I
knew I just didn’t have that high end racing gear that carried me to the podium
at Jemez. I was having to put out too
much effort to run 8:30 pace and just decided to back off and call it a good training
day and a bit of a character building run.
After topping off my handheld at mile 11 I planned on skipping the mile
14 aid and refilling my bottle at the top of the big climb at mile 18. I settled into a relaxed grind it out mode
for the rest of the final lap and was only caught by one other runner on the 3
mile grunt to the course’s high point. I
drained the last of my bottle just before reaching the crest of the climb only
to find the aid station missing. It was
4 miles downhill to the next aid so I didn’t panic about running out of water
but I was definitely a little pissed off.
Ultrarunning is all about dealing with the unexpected so I quickly
shrugged off the inconvenience and continued to maintain a relaxed pace down to
the next aid.
Fortunately I made quick work of the next section and was
soon quenching my thirst at the mile 21 aid.
I downed an extra bottle at the aid and topped off for the final 3+
miles to the turnaround. I began to feel
the effects of running out of water on the long dirt road section down to the
turnaround but got to my drop bag and an impromptu crew of friends who had
finished the 25 miler ahead of me. I
took a little longer than I would have liked restocking my pockets with gels, grabbing
Scaps!, and topping off a fresh bottle of Perpetuem. I definitely didn’t feel like going out for
another lap, particularly with a 7 mile climb staring me in the face, but I
wasn’t going to waste all the training, tapering, and time away from my family
for an unnecessary DNF. I think I hit
the turn around 3:35-3:40 elapsed and began to feel moderately better with some
fluids in me. I ran every step of the
steep climb from the river to the dirt road and then proceeded to pick off a
couple of 50 milers on the climb back to the course’s high point. I always like the washing machine loop format
because the outbound runners give me a great boost with all their encouragement
and the back of the packers never fail to inspire (particularly the 80+
crowd). By mile 30 I knew I was running
in about 6th place but my “racing” mentality was long gone. I caught sight of Sean O’Day in 5th
place at the top of the climb but just didn’t have it in me to give chase. The only way I was going to pick up any
places was if someone in front of me faltered.
I settled in to a comfortable pace and just ticked off the miles as
quickly as I could. Sean remained about
a minute or two up on me through the next 4 or 5 miles and I finally lost sight
of him coming back through the steep rollers at mile 39.
I was running low on food at about hour 5 (for some dumb
reason I only took 4 gels with me on the return lap when my nutrition strategy
called for 5) and began to grab a cup of coke at each aid. By the time I hit the last aid at mile 45 I
was out of gels and needed to get some portable sugar to avoid a stupid bonk on
the final stretch. I grabbed a couple of
chocolate chip cookies which went down about as easily as a cup of sand. I was solidly on pace to break 8 hrs so I
just worked through the final miles, tried to ignore the monster headwind on
the inbound road section, and just maintained a running cadence to the
finish. I crossed the line in 7:52 for 6th
overall. While I am disappointed in how
I felt for much of the run I am pleased with the result as it shows some
consistency even on an off day. I’m not
sure what the takeaways are right now but I think it would have been helpful to
have a bit more food at my disposal just to see if that didn’t perk me up some
(I ate 8 gels, 2 servings of Pepetuem, 2 cups of Coke, and 2 cookies for a
total caloric intake somewhere South of 1500 kcal). Running out of water for 30 minutes certainly
didn’t help but I was already feeling low on energy and out of breath by mile
6. Overall, I think the Collegiate Peaks
Trail Run makes for a good 25 mile course but the lack of terrain variety or
difficulty, and limited aid station offerings will keep the 50 off my future
race calendar.
