Training Log Archive: Timato

Cloudsplitter 100

One of the races I'm chasing qualification for is UTMB. Looking for a fall race that would earn me at least 5 points Cloudsplitter came up. The distance was drivable and the course looked pretty hard, so I was interested and decided to sign up.

The night before they had a quick race briefing, the city of Norton is another good example of a small American city that fell on hard times and is trying to find ways to re-invent itself. One thing they're doing is focusing on outdoor activities given the lush mountains all around it. From the race briefing you could tell the city officials were really excited about the race and wanted us to have a great experience.

At 8 am on Saturday we headed off, a short run through town and then time to start climbing up High Knob mountain. The first 40 km were uneventful, I tried to make sure I wasn't going to hard and just enjoying the run. At the turn around there was a group of runners spread out in front of me, but no more than 1.5 miles in front. My left knee was starting to really hurt, and continued to hurt the rest of the race (esp on downhills). The way back was a bit harder because the slow gradual downhill we ran from one aid station to another was now a slow uphill. Also some of the river crossings were getting slick and hard to get through with all the runners going through. Hit the High know turn around and back out I went with no issues. The next out and back was pretty uneventful. The sun went down and we started to run at night. I passed a few more runners and since I knew what to expect now on the course I was mentally prepared for the sections that were harder.

I came back into High Knob aid stations feeling good. I had a quick change of bottles, grabbed some food and headed out to the new section of the course. Mike told me I was in 6th and the next runner was struggling, but a fair bit ahead of me. The next section was a lot of road and double track with long downhills, some of them just felt like they went on forever. I then entered the loop part of the course, this had some really tricky sections where you were climbing over rocks while crossing rivers and trying to figure out where the trail was on the other side. Near the end I passed the 5th place runner and came into the aid station to see Mike one more time. I grabbed my rain gear here just in case (as rain was in the forecast) and tried to get out before her. We then climbed 1.5 miles up to another aid station. I stayed stead, although had to stop at one point to put on my rain jacket, yet I couldn't really drop her as I saw her headlight in the distance behind me the whole way.

Back into the tricky rock section my knee was still hurting making it harder on the rocks. Near the end of this loop another runner passed me and was going way faster than me. When I saw Mike at the aid station he said he was running strong, but spent 20-30 min at every aid station with a drop bag. So I tried to get out quickly and see if I could hold him off, from this aid station it was 14 miles to the finish.

This section started with another big climb so I tried to stay steady throughout and runner the flatter sections. Made it to the top and still hadn't been passed. Now it was on a road with ups and downs. I did my best to run full out on the downhills and flats and do what I could on the uphills. At one point I looked behind me and he was only a couple hundred meters behind me. Damn. Eventually he passed me and we chatted for a bit, but then he continued on. I came into the 2nd last aid station just a few hundred meters behind me. Grabbed a quick glass of coke and 1/2 a banana and took off trying to chase him. From here it was mostly 8 miles of downhill with a few climbs. I ran full out just in case something happened to him. At the finish I'd only lost 12 min to him, which just shows how strong he was.

I was really happy with how this race went (except for the knee pain). I ran hard the whole race I felt and had a few low moments, but rallied and recovered through them. Definitely glad we went down to do this race.

Now time for the lotteries.

C • Congrats! 6

Group ride in very thick fog. Nice to be out, but the group struggled to stay together for the ride.