Perhaps it was the lack of sleep, but I got it in my head that I wanted to win the damn race. Because it was dark they had a guide on a bike lead us for the first lap. My strategy was to sprint out to the lead, then slow down to an 8-mile pace. My thought was that even if I didn’t win the race, I would know what place I was in because they would have to pass me.
As soon as they said start, I sprinted behind the guide. I soon knew that a 4:15 would be tough. The course was very sandy and while it was an easy course, it was a slow course. I slowed down after a couple of miles. Right before the aid station, four people passed me. But one said she was actually doing the 25K at the 50K start. I reached the aid station in 22:30 and the start pad in about 24:30, which was a little less than a quarter-mile past the aid station. During my second lap I caught 2 of the people who passed me. In my mind I was in second place.
I picked up a cup of Gatorade and a cup of water at the aid station on each lap. I stood by the garbage can and drank every drop in each cup. I had my first gel at the end of the 4th lap. I finally lost a guy who was about 50 yards behind me for most of the race on lap 5. At the start of lap 6 a person past me. He was looking pretty solid, with a FAST shuffle run. I resisted the urge to stay with him, thinking that there was no way he could keep up that pace. I was third now.
I had my second gel at the end of the 7th lap. I was still feeling pretty damn good. At the end of lap 8, I picked up my handheld and although I was starting to slow a tad myself, I thought there was a good chance I was gaining on the guy in second place. By this time, there were a few people who I lapped twice. I tried to speed it up on the final lap, but I never saw the second place guy. To my surprise, my sprint to the finish line was actually pretty good. I finished in third.
I was surprised when the results were posted. The guy who I thought was in second place was actually the race leader and the person who I thought blew away the field, must have blown up his legs because he did not finish. I was second out of 25 finishers. I think there were about 10 people who didn’t finish.
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this did not suck in the least.
That’s awesome man. Interesting about ’shuffle-guy’ obviously knew what he was doing.
Also interesting about the ‘race leader’, there’s always someone out there that wants to lead, even if it’s only for a few minutes. Just like with the Marathons. What’s the point if you are not going to finish….
Sounds like a great race, you were probably pretty well prepared for the sand, after Lost Dutchman and the runs at Usury, though hitting the same sandy spots for 10 loops must be tough. Running out a bit hard definately seems like a plan as long as it isn’t too hard. Our experience at Lost Dutchman was that we had no idea how well we were doing, that makes it hard to really go all out, had we push from the start and counted those that passed us out along the route, we would have been sure of our placement..
I think all those competitive record setting sessions earlier in the year have done more than you know.