ENDURrun Stage 3: 30K Cross Country Run

I went to bed at a decent time last night, but was awake by 2am and not really sleeping again until almost 3am because I could hear a mouse scratching in the wall. It seemed to quiet down after Ryan banged on the wall, so I was able to get another 3 hours of sleep. You gotta love old houses where you can hear mice scratching around in the wall every so often.

Today’s Breakfast: Quaker lightly sweetened apple cinnamon oatmeal with a bit of regular oats mixed in, yogurt, granola, coffee, and water.

When I arrived at Bechtel Park, the skies were grey and cloudy, but it looked like maybe, just maybe, the rain would hold off. The race started at 8am and I ran smarter this year and didn’t go out too quick. I was hoping to be relatively consistent on each lap, so I wanted to be sure that I chose a pace that I could maintain for the whole 30K.

Lap 1: I rolled my ankle around 2.5 km into the lap, which hurt and I wasn’t sure if it was going to be an actual injury or something that just hurt for a minute or two. Luckily, it seemed to be the latter.

Lap 2: This was a pretty uneventful lap. I ran around the course without any incidents or injuries, and finished this lap a bit slower than lap 1.

Lap 3: The rain started. It wasn’t raining too hard and it was actually kind of nice. I believe I ran this lap in a time between the times for the first and second laps, closer to that of lap 2.

Lap 4: The rain picked up. The lap was going well and I was catching up to David (another ultimate competitor) until just before the 4 km marker, where I managed to trip and slide down a muddy hill head (or shoulder) first. I gathered myself, put my muddy hat back on my head, and continued on my way with a very dirty (and a little bloody) left side of my body. I really didn’t pay attention to the clock at the end of this lap, instead I headed to the aid station for some water and electrolyte drink and had the wonderful volunteers offer to clean off my knee for me (it was both bloody and muddy). What service! This event definitely wouldn’t be the same without the volunteers!

Lap 5: The rain continued, but wasn’t heavy enough to wash the mud off my body.

Lap 6: This was the final lap; It was pouring, but still, I had mud.

Now that I was done, it was time to drink something, eat something, get changed out of my wet clothes, get a massage, eat some more, and then listen to the results.

Today’s platter of post-race goodness.

I finished today’s 30K stage in 3:10:45 (per Garmin).
Last year’s time: 3:14:18

I finally ran a stage faster this year than I did last year! I’m pretty sure I moved up at least 1 spot in the standings today as well. Perhaps my goal of beating last year’s time is still possible. I still need to make up at least 5 more minutes to do so, but I also have 4 more stages coming up. I hope to run those 4 without sliding down any more hills because the upcoming hills are pretty darn big!

Now it is time to rest up, ice my knee, re-fuel, rejuvenate, and get mentally prepared for the first of the mountain stages tomorrow: Horror Hill.

* I don’t have a photo of me after the slide down the hill, but if and when I find one, I will post it *