Training Log Archive: Timato

Event: Bel Monte Endurance Run 50 Miler
 

Long very very long.

So what to say about this race. Late last year I was listening to a lot endurance planet on my IPOD and for some reason it got me thinking "I wonder if I could do an Ultra?" So on Saturday morning there I find myself standing on an earth dam in the pitch dark with about 150 other people about to answer this question.

Luckily, Audrey decided to support me and came along to run with me. Without her there I probably never would have made it to the finish, and to this I'm really grateful. The first 4 hours went pretty well. By this point we'd been up and over the top once, completed the long decent and run along road/jeep tracks and arrived at aid station 4 I was feeling a bit tired but we were still moving well. This was probably the first mistake because looking back we were probably going to hard at the start and I should have probably run less and walked more up hill. Out of the aid station 4we started the next climb and that's when I threw up for the first time. We finish the climb and the decent and I was still doing ok but now feeling a bit more exhausted. We turn around and we start the climb again. Now I'm starting to feel even more tired and by the time we're at the top I'm feeling like I'm on jelly legs. We decend and continue on the trail, by now I'm feeling pretty low and finding it hard to run. Audrey convinces me to split the trail up into a run/walk combination and we continue on being passed by a number of people. We hit the 4th climb at about the half way point on the course. I've recovered a bit so the climb, while exhausting is doable.

Once we're at the top we hit aid station 7. I took some extra time to refuel here and discovered that cold potatoes and orange slices are just the best tasting thing I've ever had. Back down trail and we now start the reverse of the loop we'd just completed. At this point we're running for 3 minutes and walking for 1. That is until we hit the road on the back and I need to walk as we come to more hills.

Hitting aid station 9 I'm feeling pretty tired now, and at the same time we're about to start the final big climb. This was a very slow, slow climb. I needed to stop a few times and even sit down at the top. Once at the top I couldn't really run anymore. My hip was in a lot of pain and the quads were screaming at me ever time we started to run. We finally hit aid station 10 and we have 2 hours to cross the line before the cut-off. At this point I puke again. I grabbed some soup and we started walking up the hill before we come to the final decent.

I'm sure at this point I was going on only the knowledge that at the end of this leg I'd be done. Down we go and then along a ridge until we hit the paved road in the park, I think I did a pretty good job of running as much as possible. The trail during this whole section was very rocking and at times the decent pretty steep so we had to be careful at times with the footing. We're now down to a 2.4 mile run into the finish. We continue along the pavement (who sticks pavement at the end of a trail run?) and then cut across a trail and run into the finish.

Total time: 12 hours and 55 min. I finished under the cut-off, but not my best performance. I started this run with the goal to see if I could do it and I guess I proved I can, but to do it I needed Audrey's help and I still barely made it.

The day was finished off by sitting back at the hotel, watching some college basketball, and oh yeah, puking one last time to make sure I got anything left in my system out. So that's my experience at the Bel Monte Endurance Challenge, from now on I think I'll stick to a map in my hand and some nice good long bush wacking sections.

Note to Tim:
If you ever read this again remember how much this hurt and how much of a bad idea this was. If you still think you want to do this again then remember these things you probably need to improve before you ever do this again:
- You need to get more long runs in before the race and they need to be longer. You probably needed to build up your long runs to 5+ hours.
- You need more hill training, both going up and down, and the hills need to be longer
- You need to figure out why you puke when you run and fix this. 2 days later you're still dehydrated and only now does it not hurt to pee.

C • Report- short 25

Light run in the snow, and we thought all this snow pulsing was done.

Warm up before weights.

Just trying to keep the body loose for Saturday. I have no idea what to expect from this.

C • Have a good one! 5