After 14 weeks of quality training I felt pretty good going into Capitol Peak 50m on Sunday. Despite having only ran that distance once before I was confident and didn’t expect too many problems. Actually I expected a PR since I ran pretty easy at Mt Hood PCT 50m last summer and came in with gas in the tank. Thus I opted for a simple game plan: run at sub 9hr pace until I cross the finish line or the wheels fall off, whichever happens first.
The race started with a bit of congestion on the first few miles of singletrack. The trails in the first 10 miles, which were characterized by huge gaping mud pits and water holes, were fun as long as the person in front wasn’t trying to come home mud-free. The hills on the first part of the course were a bit tricky too. They were very gradual, and in retrospect I should have walked a bunch more of them than I actually did.
On the climb up Capitol Peak (photo by Michael Scholl)
The climb up Capitol Peak was pretty rocky, and by the time I got to the following AS (at mile 21) I was about 15 minutes off 9 hr pace. I left slightly frustrated with my time, and quite frustrated with achy hamstrings. Despite the mini-taper they were definitely not feeling fresh. Following the summit the 55km people turned off the 50 m course and we were treated to some spectacular trail. Rolling singletrack with a carpet of oxalis, this trail was in fantastic shape and was really nice. I made the half way loop and headed back up Capitol Peak once again where I promptly lost the course. After a few frustrating minutes wandering around the summit telecommunications buildings the guy behind caught up and showed the way. We leapfrogged the rest of the day. On the technical descents I felt strong and ran well, and on the flats I just couldn’t keep up a good pace. My obvious weakness was the flats, and in the last 1/3 of the race I ended up walk-running them to a degree of which I am not entirely proud. No big deal, that's just the way it went. The climbs and descents went great though!
After a few more miles I finally pulled up to address a blister issue that should have been done few hours earlier. Rats, my first ever blister during a race. I pulled off my strategically placed anti nipple chafing duct tape, and tried to put the tape on my toes which had blistered and popped. McGuyver style! It worked for the next hour or so, and by then I was smelling the barn. The only problem was that the barn was still an hour away and all the last aid station had to-go was 100mg caffeine gels. I was already overcaffeinated so I opted for a partial bonk instead. The last few miles were not pretty.
The course was really fun and pretty much ate me alive. I got a new PR, but not by nearly as much as I had hoped. No regrets though, it’s nice to go out at an optimistic pace just to see what’s possible. Now that I’ve bracketed a too slow pace and a too fast pace my next 50m will be much smarter and will involve lots of walking from early on.
Things I did well: handled my water, salt and nutrition well. Set a good pace early, which was wildly optimistic, but it was what I was aiming for.
Things I did not do well: I ran too much. I should have walked a bunch more in the beginning. Lesson learned. At races longer than 50km I need to have a much more conservative pace. That is really valuable information going into my first 100m in June.
Overall race summary: Very fun, tough course. I still have no idea how to run a 50m, but I’m learning and I gained confidence and valuable information about pacing for distances longer than I usually run.
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