Mt Hood / PCT 50m Race Report take II

Mt Hood / PCT 50m Race Report take II

            Since April was scheduled to take her first crack at the 50m distance near Mt Hood on Saturday I decided to come along and either take lots of pictures and get in a short run or see if there was any last minute cancellations.  A quick conversation with the RD 1/2 hour before start and I was in!

April pre-race:  attempting to take care of the thing that all runners want to take care of pre-race.

I decided to represent Western States this race and somewhat felt like a celebrity for doing so.  Every hour or so a runner or volunteer wanted to talk about it (more race day photos of me here).

            The field started by taking an immediate wrong turn and by the time the leaders had realized and turned back, I was in 6th place.  Bad!  I adjusted my speed accordingly and a few miles later at the first turnaround (1/4 of the way through) found myself in a much better place, 12th ... from last.  Ahhhh the 50m distance, who knows how to start these races properly?  Given my first crack at this distance at this race a year ago (2009 Mt Hood PCT 50 race report) and the Capitol Peak 50m (race report) earlier this year, evidently not me.  I was determined to pace myself conservatively this time and avoid walking any flats,  I actually did quite well.  I pulled into (poorly stocked, never been to race without fruit) AS after AS with father and son team Erik and Dave at around a pace that would lead to a 9:20 race finish ... but the hills on the second half of the course definitely took their toll. 

A portion of the climb back Red Wolf Pass AS, picture taken from my PCT05 thruhike (link to journal), it was actually much hotter than this on race day.

            Despite a very consistent pace on the flats and on minor hills throughout the race, which I'm very pleased with, the three big climbs added a good 1/2 hour to my time, leaving me with a 9:50, thus bettering last years time on this course by (drumroll please) 4 minutes, or approximately 5 seconds per mile.

Old style blazes on the PCT.  The design in similar to the now defunct/usurped Oregon Skyline Trail.  Nowhere but Oregon are these blazes found on the Crest Trail.

Things that went well

            1) Great pacing

            2) Great company - Dave and Erik paced themselves really well too and I was not able to respond when they put the hammer down and gapped me on the backstretch.  Great job guys!

            3) Running 50m on a whim.  It's pretty nice to be able to do this.

Post race pictures of my feet.  Thanks!

Things that did not go so well

            1) Stomach.  The nitty gritty in a nutshell:  wonky stomach for the first half of the race and reduced caloric consumption throughout, probably due to either heat and altitude or the cabbage salad I ate the night before that gave me indigestion.  This happens to me often in hot races at altitude, last year I fueled this race on watermelons, literally.  The first half of the race I was having some episodes that went like this.  After I ate a gu or a shot blok I would feel like there was something just stuck in my stomach, almost like a heavy hanging weight in my abdomen, painfully (sometimes actute) swinging back and forth.  No gravity pulling things along, no peristaltic motions, just a heaving grey mass food like substance stuck in my gut and refusing to move anywhere.  I am dreading seeing what this stuff looks like tomorrow.  Finally, 20 minutes later things would finally move along and I would feel great for a bit, until I started running out of gas, which when you consider I was reduced to fueling single shot blok by single shot blok, was often.  I dreaded putting anything down the hatch today.  Although things did get a bit better when I switched from Heed to water, I think I ate about 1300 calories for the 10 hr run.  Not enough.

            2) That 3 hour bike ride I did the day before the race.  Sort of dumb, but I'm getting ready to bike down the coast next week, so it was not optional.

April looking extremely happy to finish her first 50m in a very respectable time.  Great job out there!

In retrospect it's useful to try to discern why I only ran 4 minutes faster than last year.  Reasons 1 and 2 (not so well) listed above can only explain so much, so let me make a comment that I now find abundantly clear.  Training to run slowly (for 100 milers) makes one slow.  Spending the first 6 months of 2010 getting ready for Western States was fun and rewarding but I think my next challenge will be a 5 minute mile.