Sulphur Springs 50 miler - 4 loops of a hilly 20 km course.
We couldn't have asked for more perfect conditions. It was 4C when we started racing at 6 a.m., then it warmed up to the mid-teens as the day went on. The sun shone all day and the trails were almost entirely dry. Thanks to a good night's sleep at the Hottage, I was able to leave for the race just 50 minutes before its 6 a.m. start, so this was as civilized as any ultra I've done.
On one hand, I'm happy with this race because I bettered my 50-mile PB by over an hour and qualified for Western States. However, I'm not happy with how it played out.
I felt great at the start and ran the first lap steadily but without pushing hard. I was amazed to see 2:15 on the clock after the 20K lap - much better than expected, given how relaxed I felt. But the downward spiral began when a muscle in my left shin started hurting around the 30-35 km mark. It eventually radiated upward and inflamed my knee by the time I finished. For the rest of the race, I worried about whether it was something serious and I was stupid to continue. What if I missed out on UTMB because of this?
I polled my brain for everything I've ever googled about shins - and believe me, I have googled a *lot* since I had a slightly different shin issue at the end of the Oil Creek 100K. I considered dropping out but semi-convinced myself that it wasn't serious, even though the niggling worry never went away so I couldn't bring myself to push through the pain. I altered my running gait to a slow, awkward trot that made it hurt less.
I've finished strong in other ultras but in this one, I just faded away. My laps were 2:15, 2:31, 2:44 and 3:11. To be fair, I took it easy on my body in the last lap since I just wanted to do what was needed to break 11 hours and qualify for WS100 - but still, that is a very wide range of lap times. It had nothing to do with cardio or even leg strength. My quads/hammies feel quite good today. It feels like maybe my longtime gimpy ankle is misaligned and causing some imbalance that starts in my left foot and adds up over the hours. This didn't happen during our long mountain treks in Argentina so it's running-specific, and it didn't happen in the Death Race so it's relatively new. Hmm. I need to figure this out quickly, and Carbon has already given me a couple of good leads.
Other than that, things went fairly well. I saw lots of friends on the course and said quick hellos. I Leukotaped all the right places so there were no blisters or chafing. My clothing, pack and shoes worked well. I ate and drank enough. The hills didn't seem particularly big after training in the Hockley Valley. The only other negative was the frequency of portapotty visits - grrr.
The 50 milers are allowed pacers on their final lap so I invited 'Bent to join me so he wouldn't have to sit around all day. Too bad the pace was so slow by then that it was more of a power hike. At least he had time to take a few pics so I could show the course in my race report.
Congratulations to friends who had great races at various distances, and a big shout out to JohnnyM who placed 3rd overall in the 100-miler in spite of a knee twinge that knocked him out of contention for the win.
Special congratulations to the two Dontgetlost 100-mile relay teams who set out to break their record from last year (11:48). They both succeeded after an all-day tight battle between some truly amazing runners. The new record is 11:24. See Trav's log for details on the team members and run times, and check out Bender's impressive relay progress board below.
Here is Frankenjack demonstrating the forward lean.
And here are JP and Bender doing a speedy transition.
Time/distance adjusted since I accidentally turned off GPS briefly.