Running race 7:37:00 [4] 52.46 km (8:43 / km)
Had a surprisingly good run today at the North Face Endurance Challenge Championship in San Fran. I say surpisingly because I did not feel like I'd had the time this past term to really focus on my running the way that I should have. I've also been battling a terrible chest cold (that I am hoping is not pneumonia again) that has gotten progressively worse and had me gasping for breath even walking around yesterday. On my entry form I'd guessed my time would be 8:30, so I was pleased to come in almost an hour ahead of schedule.
I'm terrible at details, but I am sure that Bash will provide lots - and pictures - to fill in some of the blanks. I think that we did the same course but her race added some other sections in. There were lots of hills. Big hills. Hills that took up to an hour to climb. On the plus side, what goes up must come down and all of the downhills were long and cruisy too. There was an ocean, that we saw several times, and a beautiful section through Muir Woods that I would love to run again. There was one section between two aid stations that was almost entirely runable, which made me suspicious. There were peanut butter and jam sandwiches at the aid stations, and salty potatoes, which made me very happy. The last three miles were all pretty much downhill. That made me - but not my feet - happy as well. There was free beer after the race. Mmmm, beer. Does it seem like a 6 year old wrote this race report?
Although my head and lungs feel crappy now, my legs seems none the worse for wear. Because I had trouble breathing it forced me to keep things slow right from the start. Where I would have probably normally gone way harder out of the gate, I stayed really conservative, which meant I still felt pretty good running by the end of the race.
So overall, I'd say it went very well for me. My time was only 20 minutes slower than my time at Haliburton last year, with many thousand feet more elevation. Got to meet Dean Karnazes out on the trail, which was cool too. Bash had a great race as well, but I won't spoil the surprise! I'm really glad she suggested this race though. Not only was it a super fun trip (complete with pre-race wine tastings) but now I've the point I'd need to do the CCC in 2013 if a group is going (I have no UTMB airs at this point!).
Oh yeah, and did I forget to mention it was about 15-20 degrees and sunny all day? ;)