Come race morning I felt great and ready to run. The field wasn’t too stacked for this race. Dean Dobberstein and Michelle Barton were the only two elite runners in the field that I knew of. Everyone else was like me – a regular person who enjoys trail running in their sparse free time.
When races start, I never go out hard with the elite runners because I know that’s dumb. I always start an ultra, ultra slow and build up my pace. Most of the first five miles were going to be a long climb, so I definitely didn’t want to blow my wad 30 minutes into the race. Dean and Michelle rocketed off from the start and a few people tried to go with them, but I let everyone go, even my running friends, Shannon Wagoner and Greg Hardesty. I figured I’d see them again soon enough.
I felt great all through the first loop of the race and moved into fourth place overall just before the turnaround point. This was the first race I was doing not wearing a camel pack, but just a hand-held as per the advice I received from Michelle. The camel pack never felt very heavy when I wear it, but I did feel lighter and faster without it during this race.
Iain Jones was the runner in front of me and at first I felt confident that I would run him down, no problem, but then the climb got to me. The climb from the turnaround point was tough and wears on you. After it peaks, there’s a bunch of ups and downs over the next several miles. I’d close on Iain during a few of the ups and think I’ve got him, but once I’d reach the top of the climb I’d see he’d put a good gap on me again until we reach the next climb. Damn, he was doing it right – easy on the up-hills to save yourself to run hard on the flats.
I was starting to wear myself out trying to chase Iain down so quickly. I had to remind myself I had 13 miles left to do it in, so I eased back on the pace and recouped some strength. Coming into the Ridge Park aid station (the biggest one on the course), I saw Iain was kind of dawdling and enjoying the company of the large aid station crew. I took this as a chance to pounce. I asked for a water refill of my bottle, ignored offers of food and other drinks, glanced over one table for a gel pack, didn’t see any, but grabbed an electrolyte tablet and I was off!
Leaving the aid station Michelle Barton’s dad gave me a big grin ‘cause I made a pass for position in the aid station. I jetted down the hill and back on the trail with a few seconds lead of Iain, but he made it back up pretty quick. He’s a tall guy with long legs and I knew it’d be tough for me to out run him on the flats. After we crested one hill and started going down a rough single track, Iain dropped off. When the course leveled out again, he caught back up. This is where I realized my strength over him as a runner – technical downhills. Coming up in another mile was the most technical downhill section on the course. If I could push on this flat section and keep him behind me, I could probably put some massive distance on him in the downhill.
I blasted down the trail like I was running a half marathon, all the while I could hear Iain’s big footsteps behind me, but I held him off coming to the peak of Rattle Snake. Then the technical downhill started and I hopped and leaped over those rocks as fast as I could in an effort to shake the big South African. Once I got to the bottom I looked back, and sure enough I had a good minute lead on him. I still kept my pace going, but made many a look over my shoulder to see where my adversary was. I normally never look over my shoulder, but I normally am not in the position for an overall podium and the chance to win some cool Oakley sunglasses, so I was really interested in keeping tabs on the people behind me.
When it came to the last couple of climbs, I was pretty tired, and my right achilies was hurting, but I had felt worse. Once I reached the final aid station I knew all the hard stuff was behind me and it was literally all downhill from here. I still did a lot of looking over my shoulder but was pretty relaxed and knew I had it. If need be I could push a tad harder. Once I rounded the corner for the final straight to the finish line I suddenly felt like I could run 100mph. I charged for the finish line pretty hard and could have broken into a full sprint, but didn’t because I thought that would have looked dumb. As I neared the finish line I glanced down at my Garmin and saw that I was going to break 4:30 – that’s a pretty fast time for a 50k, though this was a fast course.
After crossing the finish line I felt elated, but also that I could throw up, which totally sucks because I wanted to scarf down on all the food they had at the finish line. I did manage to get a veggie burger down and some chips, but not a whole lot else. Though when Molly handed me my new Oakley’s for finishing 3rd overall, I felt a whole lot better.
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