So I think the title maddening city sums it up for our house hold after last weekend. There are many things as runners we can have control of but then sometimes there are things we have no say what so ever in.
Going into the race I knew that I was short on total volume of miles but also knew I had many good long runs in and was hoping my ultra running experience would pay off. Sonya on the other hand had put in a super great training cycle once more before this years race. I was thinking if I could keep up with her for like 50-70k then go from there. Race morning we where greeted with like 25-30 mph winds, temps in the upper 20's low 30's and rain/snow mix. Not ideal huh. After 40k My hip flexors and left hamstring were acting up so I dropped off of Sonya's pace, changed shoes and thought I would take it lap by lap. That next lap was a back and forth of OK one minute then bad the next. About 45k into the race I decided to save my body and stop at 50k. I believe I was like 4:14 or so at the 50k mark. I know this was best but very hard to do. I think for me the thing I learned the most was to not sign up for something like this without having your whole heart into it.
Now it was time to become super crew for Sonya and her quest. She was running very strong going back and forth with the 2nd place gal Connie. Last year she had to drop at 93k into this with hypothermia. Well at 80k our nightmare was happening once more. With her slight frame and the fact that you are running for like 7+ hours you can not be that wet for that long in those temps. By 85k she was having a hard time walking to fast and her body was shutting down. She was still in a solid 3rd place. When she got back to our car at 90k she knew she was done. I cried for her because I knew how bad she wanted this to make up for last year. Distance running can be cruel in this way. Un-like 5k or 10k races where you can race hard every other week we only get so many cracks at races like this a year. It was the best thing to do by stopping but very very hard also. The next morning she went back to the course and ran two loops, 20k in 1:55:10. She felt it would help her bring closure to this race. It was a hard weekend but sometime it goes that way. That's life and sometimes life does not seem fair.
I will have to say that Tim and the crew do put on a great race. I feel real bad for them and the weather they have gotten these last two years. Both this and his other race the Kettle 100 mile and 100k are first class races !!
My post race recovery has been good. I ran one loop also on Sunday and felt good. I took Monday off and ran between 5-7 miles every day this week so far. Today was a great 7+ mile run pushing my son Evan in the jogger. I might jump into the 25k at Trail Mix this weekend ? Will see.
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