What ever it takes!

OK,  I finally got a chance to sit down and compose a race report.  It’s been a busy weekend. 

I had not really planned on running this race, my schedule only had me down for an 18 this Saturday but last week on my 20 mile run with Ryan Jonson we decided we both felt pretty good and it might not be a bad idea to get a 26 miler in on a assisted course.  This run would also put me over 100 miles for the week, I had contemplated cutting some of my other runs to at least to a little bit of a taper but decided to stick to the schedule which would keep me in the mental mindset that this was indeed a training run.  So we both signed up last weekend on kind of a whim.

Friday night I told my wife I was going to go sleep in the basement as to not wake her when I got up early,  It was probably a good idea. I don’t think I slept real good at all despite the fact I went to bed at 8:30pm, I didn’t even need my alarm clock to wake up at 1:40am.  Pretty sad. Got up, got ready, drove to Ryans to pick him up at 2:30 and we headed to the Energy Solutions arena and caught the first 3:15 bus up.  As soon as we arrived at the top I headed for the “Honey Bucket”  I did this a record 5 times in the 1:30 hour wait for the start.  I tend to have  a blatter problem only before races though.  It was a very nice morning, a little  on the cold side but beautiful view of the valley and the moon setting in the West.

Finally the infamous bagpipes started indicating the race start was about to begin, Quite a few laughs at the expense of the bagpiper but I thought it was cool since I had read it was tradition.   Lined up at the front, talked to a couple of interesting people.  When they would ask me what my goal was I would simply say “to have a fun time and a great race” my real goal was to get through it with a major blowup like in Ogden earlier this year.  5:30 prompt the race started.

Mile 1 – although I did line up towards the front I didn’t even attempt to keep up with the leaders, all I knew is they took off really fast, I’m guessing sub 5:00’s for the first mile or so.  I just got into a comfortable stride worked my way around a few people and caught up with Ryan.  There was a girl if front of us I thought was Allie at first.  I knew she was around  2:55 last year which is about where I wanted to be so I told Ryan to stay with her for a while and get into a good rhythm.  It was still pretty dark so I couldn’t see my Garmin but at mile marker 1 I looked down and saw 5:48 first mile.  We had said we would start out at a 6:30 pace J

Mile 2- about the same, feeling good hit marker number 2 and looked down at another 5:48.

Mile 3 – started running with the girl that I thought was Allie, talked about the blog and Sasha, she looked at me like I was nuts.  I asked her if she was Allie, she said “No, I’m Jenn.  Who’s Allie?”  Turns out it was Jenn Shelton the infamous Ultra runner party girl from the “Born to Run” book.  Found out right away, that she had a really foul mouth on her, must have been raised by sailors. Anyway we told her Allie was the defending champ from last year, she told us she hadn’t really trained for this properly just running her normal mountain dirt trails.  She was pretty upset that there where a bunch of Kenyans ahead of her, we told her we were pretty sure there was only 1 girl, so second wouldn’t be bad.  Hit Mile marker 3 at 5:53,  so a little slower but still way faster than planned.

Mile 4- I thought to myself, I can’t keep this up this is how Ogden started, flying down the first few miles feeling awesome and then blowing up at the end, told Ryan we should slow down a little, hit 4 at a 6:10 pace, more because if flattened out than anything.

We lost Jenn at an aid station, we ran through, she slowed down for a drink, must be an Ultra thing.   The course flattened out, I felt good still but could tell we were definitely slowing.  The next couple miles splits went like this

Mile 5 - 6:29

Mile 6 - 6:46

Little Mountain started, I had read how bad it was, we did slow down a bit, but there was a nice cool wind out of the canyon, which made it very pleasant.

Mile 7 - 7:28

Mile 8 – 6:58

Started coming back down the back side, I knew it was good downhill for a while the pace picked up.  I could see the Kenyan girl coming down in front of us on one of the hairpin turns about 400m in front of us.  Looked behind and could see Jenn about 200M behind us.

Mile 9 – 6:17

Mile 10 – 6:39

Mile 11 – 6:15

I had taken 6 gel packs with me on my race belt, slowly they kept falling out of my belt, I had not even had one yet and was already down to 4, so coming down the hill when I lost yet another one I actually stopped and turned around to get it.   I knew it would be bad news if I didn’t eat them.  At some point along here we had to run up the canyon about ½ a mile and then back down so we could actually see who was in front of us and who was behind.  Saw that the Kenyan girl was still about 400 M ahead, Jenn was catching up. 

Mile 12 – 6:25

Mile 13 – 6:37

13.1  about 1:24:00  Slower than Ogden ½ but I was actually happy about that cause I thought maybe I was taking it easier.  Still feeling good.  Started to get some sun though.

Jenn finally caught us around 13, I thought she was going to blow right by us, but she actually stayed with us.  I think she enjoyed the company since she had been running alone for a while.  I could tell she was a bit annoyed with our stupid questions though cause she was obviously starting to hurt a little bit.  We ran with her off and on for the next 5 miles, she slowed down on the up hills quite a bit. (another ultra thing)

Mile 14 – 6:32

Mile 15 – 6:24

Mile 16 – 6:21

Mile 17 – 6:27

Mile 18 – 6:52 through the neighborhood, some hills.

We where about 100M behind the Kenyan girl at 18 Jenn was about 50 behind us, I turned around and told her to hurry, we could catch her.  We actually slowed down a little bit to let Jenn catch up we hit Foothill and made a little surge to catch her.  Passed the Kenyan somewhere around 19.  I told Jenn at mile 20 Sasha was going to meet us to pace us in so to keep with us. She dropped back at that point.

Mile 19 – 6:26

Sasha was waiting right at the 20 Mile marker,  he must have recognized my blue tanktop cause he ran right out to meet me,  I quickly introduced myself and Ryan to him and off we went.

Mile 20 – 6:42

Mile 21 – 6:58

Mile 22 – 6:11

I started getting a side cramp, Sasha told me to ignore it.  Next downhill it went away.

Mile 23 – 6:43

Sasha is amazing, I can barely keep track of what I’m doing with a full out computer on my wrist telling me every detail.  He somehow predicted every mile we would hit and gave me my final time within 10 seconds, 6 miles before I even got there.  My Garmin doesn’t do that.  J

Mile 24 – 6:32

I started hurting pretty bad after 24, it was getting hot, and I was hurting.  Sasha pushed much harder than I would have let myself run these final miles.  He kept making me give him high fives every 200 M or so, which where making me crazy, but took my mind off of all the other destractions that could have stopped me.

Mile 25 – 6:36

Mile 26 – 7:06

I obviously died a little bit here, Ryan took off ahead of me for the first time all race.  Sasha was getting annoyed with my slowing down (which I do feel bad about) He wanted me to surge to the finish in a sprint.  I swear I tried but didn’t have much left.

Mile 26.2 Final Time  2:51:36.

Ryan finished 2:50:53

Jenn finished 1^st place womans over all in 2:54:23

Allie finished 2^nd place womans over all in 2:54:35

Anyway, awesome day, awesome race.  So many great things happened today. 

Thanks Sasha, and thanks Ryan.  I would have been a stranded lost sheep if I had been out there alone.

Sorry for such a long race report.  I had a great time reading others before this race, I hope someone will get something out of mine.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/41906478