Last Saturday I ran the Iron Mountain 50 miler in Damascus. This was my second 50 miler, having completed MMTR last fall in the snow on a busted up ankle. At Masochist I did not hit my goals, but considering the conditions I didn't care too much. Sometimes close enough is close enough.
Going into Iron Mountain I set no real goals, mainly for two reasons. Firstly, it was a training race and not a target race. Remember that Grindstone is the goal right now. Secondly, I honestly didn't know what kind of shape I'm in right now. Most of my running has been focused on long, long, slow, and long.
But people kept asking me for a goal time, so I finally defaulted back to my MMTR goal of 10 hours. I kept hearing that the two races ran very close times. I was also careful to add that even though 10 hours would be nice, it was just a training run after all, and I had no intentions to push it.
I had decided weeks ago that I was going to implement my Grindstone strategy for this race: go out slow, run slow, and hike a lot. Oh yeah, and eat non-stop. So I packed a drop back with enough food for 200 miles.
I started off perfectly, I intentionally let everyone that I thought might sucker me into a race-pace disappear. The first 5 miles were run on the dangerously flat (read: fast) Creeper Trail, and I just cruised along letting everyone and anyone pass me. When we finally hit the first single track climb everyone I knew was out in front of me. (Well, everyone except Alexis who was determined to win the safe/slow starter race. Talk about competitive.)
From this point on (until mile 37) I ran about as well as I could ask for. I hiked well, ran smart, and ate like a teenager. Slowly working my way through the field of runners who started faster than me.
Somewhere around 14 miles in I came upon Jamie Swyers running with another girl. I knew that she was running the 30, and didn't expect to see her and Brenton at all before their turn around. I joked with her about running so slow, and I told her that I would run her to the Skulls gap aid station, and joked that if we found Brenton I would slow him down so that she could get ahead of him.
We caught him right before the aid station, but he didn't need my help slowing down, he was already having stomach issues. I went to my drop bag and dug out about 50 thousand calories to carry with me up the next climb. There was a little girl volunteering, and she commented about all the chocolate in my bag. I gave her a snickers bar, and headed out with arms and bottles full.
(Congratulations to Jamie who went on to win the 30 miler, and Brenton who finished under less than perfect conditions.)
The next section was a long gravel road climb, and I took advantage of the hiking by eating a ton of calories. By the time I found some runnable terrain I had successfully stored all my extra food in pockets and was ready to move again. I knew it was roughly a 20 mile loop back to the drop bags at Skulls gap, but I didn't know much else about this section.
The first half of this loop was really runnable and fun, and then we hit the "shoe sucker" section. Supposedly there was a waterfall somewhere, but I missed it as I was concerned with keeping my feet shod as I climbed up a hill with four inches of mud pretty much everywhere. There was a tough 3 mile hike, which consisted of what I would call bog-like terrain punctuated by creek-crossings every 200 yards. At the top of the hill there was an aid station and, luckily, more climbing.
I would guess it was about a mile or two of pretty steep gravel road coming out of that aid station. By the time I reached the top of that climb, probably five miles total from the bottom of the falls, the skies opened up with a steady rain. Which was better than the alternative, which would have been sunshine and 85 degrees with 2000% humidity. So I embraced the downhill and the rain, and started to run again.
When I finally got back to Skulls Gap and my drop bag, I was surprised both by how good I was feeling and how fast I had covered the distance. Especially considering that I had hiked almost all of the uphills so far. I asked how much farther and they told me it was only 13 miles. My watch said that I had been running for 6:55 at this point. And this is where I made my first and only real mistake of the day.
I wondered if I could run this thing in under 9 hours. Supposedly it was all down hill, and I had a little over two hours to do it. So I rushed through my drop bag, only drinking half a gatorade, and hurried away from the aid station. The race was on.
And the race lasted for about four miles.
First off, don't ever believe people when they tell you that "it's all down hill from here." Especially if you have more than ten miles of trail to cover. No trail is all down hill for 13 miles. Granted, there were no big or terribly steep climbs left, but it was a lot more rolling than I had counted on, and I discovered quickly that I could not hold my 10K pace for the last half marathon of a 50 mile trail race.
Sure, that seems like a no-brainer, now, in hind-sight. But 9 hours sounded so good, so possible, that I had to try. And try I did.
Right before my rocket boosters gave out I passed my buddy Decker on a particularly muddy stretch of trail during a particularly heavy down pour. He looked like I was about to start feeling, and I feel guilty that I didn't slow down and see if he needed anything. Sorry Decker. I had about one more good mile after that, and then the burn out hit.
It was a lot of work after the fun left. Every little roller seemed like an insurmountable peak. I found myself walking the flats before the hills a few times and had to yell at myself that I was still running PR pace. So I trudged my way through nine of the hardest, longest, soggiest miles of a race ever. Finishing with a very good time of 9:30. That's a 42 minute PR for the 50 mile distance. 18th overall (2nd female).
I would recommend Iron Mountain to anyone interested in trail running. It was a great course, with great volunteers, and great runners. Damascus is pretty cool too.
-Todd
Next up - Odyssey's Trail Running Rampage 40 miler
No comments:
Post a Comment