US Champs Long, Bat Cave, Carter Cave State Park
Cold, below 0C at the start. I wasn't psychologically prepared for this, since spring has sprung in Kansas. And I wasn't dressed warm enough for a long (i.e. slow pace) for me, and I got cold, off and on, during the race. Also, I didn't have any caffeine this morning (don't usually drink it, but I have gotten into the habit of drinking some before a race). I hadn't slept well for several nights, and I really wanted the caffeine today. And my quads were tired. Oh boy, let's go out and do a long course!
I walked from the lodge to the start, both to warm up and to look at the model map. I laughed when I saw what was mapped as dark green; we would have mapped it as white in Kansas! I ignored the vegetation mapping through the whole race.
I felt off right from the start. Just a bit foggy and hesitant, not reading ahead as well as I usually do. Stopped at each control to look at the route choices, and then slowly moved on. I was clean through 4, though.
And then came 5. Picked a good route choice, and executed it well, up until I left the trail and started up the stream bed, just due west of the marker.
My goal for this year is to "STOP" whenever I hear that little voice in my head that something isn't right. I've done very well on that goal, so far. But that was about to end.
Here are some of the thoughts that I remember thinking, any one of which should have told me to STOP:
1. I've been out one hour and I always bonk I one hour. I should eat something. No, I'll eat when I get to the control.
2. I wonder how I will know when the stream changes from the blue line to the ditch symbol?
3. This stream is longer than I expected.
4. Where is the bend in the stream? I should keep going until I pass the bend.
5. There's a junior heading up the hill, I'll follow him.
6. There is no big reentrant here, I'll just keep going until I hit the big reeentrant.
7. Cross the big reenetrant, but the ditches on the other side aren't what I expected.
8. Down to the stream to relocate, look at the map in case I could have made a parallel error. Nope, only one big reentrant near my control
9. The stream bed at the base of the reentrant has lots more detail than is shown on the map.
Yeah, I was a hot mess. Of course I had gone way too far, to another reenetrant system east of 5. When I finally stopped and ate something, my brain function returned and I figured it all out. Ran all the way back down the stream and found 5 right where it should be.
I am so disappointed in myself. This is exactly the type of error I'm trying to avoid. I have to think of some way to program myself to eat on a regular schedule during a long race (maybe at 50 minutes?)
But I soldiered on, slugging my way up the hill towards 6. At this point I was really tired, and spooked, so I took the extra cautious route around on the trail to attack 6 from the south.
I looked a t the route to 7, and all I saw was the trail option (north of the red line). Never saw the option to stay low and take the road close to the finish.
As I neared the top of the first hill on the trail, I took a look at the rest of the course, and decided that I was done. No need to kill my legs when I had one more race tomorrow. And I certainly wasn't having any fun at that point. So I took the trail down to the road, and then into the last control and DNF'd. I was so ready to be done.
Popped lots of ibuprofen all night, and kept using my "stick" to roll out my legs in a desperate hope they could be ready for the middle.
Took a nap, and then a nice dinner with Tom, Lisa and Sandy at an Italian restaurant in Grayson.
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