As usual, it has been a long time since my latest Ultra 520K blogpost. In this post, we make steady (and slow) progress on the run route from Princeton to Summerland.
Day Three: Part C – Hours 1 – 2 Solitary Man
The first thirteen miles of the day went by fairly uneventful. Even though twelve out of the fourteen competitors in the race were ahead of me, I was in good spirits, taking my walk breaks every ten or twelve minutes, having something to eat and drink, and chatting with my crew. At the thirteen mile mark, at about 2:30 into the run, I was delighted to see and hear Steve King announcing my arrival to a crowd of….. five people! : my crew members Kim, Elise, Rio, the race nurse, and myself. The things that guy does to make us back of the pack athletes feel acknowledged.
At that point, I changed running shoes (should have changed sock as well), had a mini-celebration with my crew, and began to run with my wife Elise. This was probably one of the high-points of the day as I was feeling pretty good physically, the weather was quite mild, and I was on pace to get the run done well under the time cut-off.
Day Three Part D: Hours 3 – 5 We are The Road Crew
According to the topographic map of the run course, kilometres 20-40 were supposed to be the toughest of the day, so when we heard Steve King, playing music and announcing to a crowd of – just us – at the 26.2 mile mark, we all were feeling optimistic. We thought that the toughest roads of the day were behind us. We were very wrong.
As the day progressed and the temperature rose, so did the road. And as the incline got higher and higher, the quality of the road got lower and lower, well, at least for running on. The loosely packed gravel and washboard-like surface make it difficult for me to land my foot strikes and I had to prance around the road like a deer, trying not to hit the uneven sections. With this kind of surface, and plenty of fatigue in my legs, my wisest option was to not only walk up the hills, but down them as well. I wondered how the rest of the racers got through this section.
In the picture below, you can see me shouting my defiance at the hill after making it down another one. You can also see Kevin Watt’s steely resolve. You can almost see him thinking “I wish that stupid guy would just shut up & run!”
After a few more of these silly hills, I am pretty sure that I said to my running pacer, Kevin Watt that we were FINALLY done them and it should be easy sailing for the next 30 k. Wrong again. Through this section, Kevin was a real help, listening to me whine and complain and chiming in with a few short comments to keep me on track.
Day Three Part E: Hours 6-9 Her Name is Rio and She Dances on The ???
Once Kevin Watt heard enough of my whining and complaining and there seemed to be no end to the crappy road, it was time to change my running partner and have Kevin enjoy the solitude of his Ford Truck. Rio came to the rescue! Without a doubt this was the most difficult part of the whole event and Rio rose to the challenge. There was one part of the course, after I had a Red Bull and a gel that I thought the best way to make progress was to get mad.
Some rage and the accompanying caffeine rush should be good to get me through this section, I thought. Wrong for the third time! After about fifteen or twenty minutes of shouting insults at the hill, and some rage inspired self-talk, the Red Bull and gel wore off and I was back to my usual, finicky, self.
Maybe I should have trained more for moments like this. Maybe I should have just pushed through the discomfort. Maybe I should have stuck with golf. All of these silly thoughts zoomed through my brain as the miles went.slowly.by. Progress was slow but progress WAS being made. In spite of walking up hills, my average speed was still above 4.8 miles per hour, the speed I needed to maintain to complete the course by the twelve hour cut-off.