ENDURrun Stage 4: The Hilly 10 Miler

Stage 4 is the only evening stage of the ENDURrun. The start is at 6pm, which is tough in itself. It’s nice to have the extra recovery time after the previous day’s 30K, but prepping for an evening race is very different. What to eat? When to eat? Do anything during the day or just take it super easy? I ate a fairly normal breakfast and lunch and then a snack around 4pm.

I arrived at Camp Heidelberg about half an hour before race start. I got myself ready, chatted with others, and then whacked myself in the knee with the vehicle door when I went to throw my extra stuff inside. Crap. Why am I such a klutz? It felt like it was going to bruise, but at least wasn’t right on muscle, so it didn’t feel like it was going to affect running too much.

Just before 6pm, Lloyd took attendance and we walked as a group down the hill to the start. This death march is done so that the race starts and finishes on an uphill.

The beginning of the race is pretty quick because after the short uphill, it is a gradual downhill for the first 3ish km. Once the course throws the runners back onto Wilmot Line, it is a steady series of large hills with one monster of a hill around the 5K mark. I ran the first bit while chatting with a couple of other runners so that I would keep myself from going out too fast, but when I glanced at my watch I did notice that I was going a lot faster than I felt I *should* be. I realize that it was because of the downhill and I wasn’t doing anything crazy, but it made me think about it a bit.

I tried to run by feel again today, wearing the watch, but not paying attention to the watch. I did look at it a few times throughout the stage, but not much at all. On the up hills, I ran up each of them quite steady (mind you a bit slow) with the exception of one around the 14K mark when my knee decided to act up a bit, so I walked for a chunk of that hill to give it a break. On the down hills, I let myself go as fast as I could while still feeling in control. This helped to get myself partway up the next hill without having to feel like I had to put out too much effort. While doing this, I did pass a couple of runners pretty much on each ‘down’ and then they’d pass me half way up the next ‘up’. It was kind of fun to keep switching positions with them. They pulled away from me in the last 3rd, but it was good while it lasted.

I finished today’s stage in 1 hour 22 minutes and a few seconds, finishing 3rd ultimate female. This was another PB for me as I came in 3 minutes faster than my previous best.

Tomorrow is Rest Day, so I will not have a race stage to report on. There may or may not be a Stage 4.5 post, depending on what goes on during the day.

Great run tonight everyone! It was great to see a lot of PBs again tonight. It’s now time for lots of rest and recovery before we tackle Chicopee on Friday morning.

Good night.

My post-race platter of food. It’s 11:30pm and I still feel full.

ENDURrun Stage 3: 30K Cross Country

Last night, I got to bed at a reasonable time, but for some unknown reason, I woke up several times in the night. I saw the clock at 2-something, multiple times between 3:00 and 4:00, and again at 5:00. I didn’t feel too tired when my alarm did go off at 6:00, but it was still frustrating to not have the good sleep I was hoping for.

Pat picked me up this morning and we arrived at Bechtel Park about a half hour before race start, which allowed a bit of time to get ourselves ready, chat with some other runners, and get to the start line without having too much time to get too cold (it was quite cool and windy).

My plan heading into today’s stage, which is a 5K loop run 6 times, was 31 minute laps. This would have me finish in 3 hours and 6 minutes, 4 minutes faster than last year. I wanted to be conservative, with the first lap nice and easy, and hopefully pick it up a wee bit and maintain consistent laps.

I felt very good out of the start, holding back and not going out too quick. I didn’t care if people passed me and I just kept to the plan and ran what felt nice and comfortable. Starting about half way through the first lap, I started running with or near Dusan, a man from my running group with Runners’ Choice who was running as part of a relay team today. He said he was hoping for sub 3 hours today (and that he did!). I was a bit concerned about sticking with him, but I felt like I wasn’t pushing it too hard, so I kept up. As we passed the start/finish line after Lap 1, I saw the clock and it started with 28. Hmmm… would I be able to keep this up?

Laps 2, 3, and 4 went by and I stuck with Dusan, but on lap 5 I went away on my own. I finished up the final 2 laps and crossed the finish line in 2:50:20, over 20 minutes faster than last year! I finished 2nd female today, but will stay 3rd in the cumulative results for the week so far.

I wore my Garmin today, but I was pretty good at not looking at it. I wanted to be able to look at my splits after getting home. I was pleasantly surprised at how consistent I was and was very happy to see that my first lap was my slowest, the second lap was my second slowest, and there was less than a minute between my slowest lap and my fastest lap. Today felt really good.

I was too cold after the finish today to really take any photos, but I did take one of my food. I ate a LOT today. As I told Chris Duke a couple times on the course… I was hungry.

Tomorrow’s stage is in the evening, so we have the luxury of a bit of extra recovery time after today’s tough stage. I am definitely looking forward to not setting an alarm when I go to bed tonight and look forward to a relaxing first part of the day tomorrow.

Great run today, everyone!

ENDURrun Stage 2: The 15K Time Trial

After completing yesterday’s half marathon, the starting order for today’s stage was made based on the finishing times. The person with the slowest time from yesterday started first and the person with the fastest time started last, with each runner starting 1 minute after the last.

I started 11th today. I had some issues with my Garmin this morning, and as I walked up to the start line, I turned it on again (was trying to save battery life as it told me it was low earlier) and it shut right off again, I tried again, and it did the same, so I took the watch off and ran without. I always run with a Garmin, so I was a bit concerned how this would work out… would I go out too fast? Would I end up trying to run TOO conservative and not be able to get up to the paces I wanted to run? I guess time would tell.

As I headed from the start line, I held back and made sure I didn’t feel like I was doing anything all that “hard” at this point, I wasn’t going to try to pass anyone in this first stretch before the turn, just over 2km down the road. I felt good, and passed my first competitor (Susan) at around the 4km mark (I think) [Edit: Susan has informed me that it was not until 5K :)]. At this point, I decided that I was going to count how many people I passed and how many passed me. It was a while before I caught anyone else, but starting around 6km, I managed to start catching up with some more people. I kept counting as I ran along.

When I turned around the final corner, with just over 2km to go to the finish line, I had passed 9 and I realized that I had not been passed by a single Ultimate competitor and thought maybe just maybe, I could be the first Ultimate to cross the line (this of course does not make me finish the stage in the fastest time, but would feel pretty darn good). Just after I had that thought, Jack passed me. I was passed by another with 1 km to go, but I did manage to be the first girl to cross the line (ultimate or otherwise) and I managed to pass every single person who started ahead of me! I was very happy with that and very happy with my race overall. I finished in 1:13 and some seconds that I’m not sure about (I will update this when the results are posted), which was 6 minutes faster than my previous best time on this stage 2 years ago.

Running without a Garmin was different and, surprisingly, it felt really good. I think the time trial format helped out because I wasn’t alone on the course without anyone around me, I had people I wanted to catch and I had people that I did not want to catch me. I don’t think I’m going to give up the Garmin, but I will think about running without it from time to time. 

After the race was over, it was time for some fluids, food, massage, the pool, and results. The gold jersey will be worn by Stefan tomorrow for the men and Catherine maintains her overall 1st place position and will wear the gold jersey for the women.

As always, it was an enjoyable post-race experience. I had a great time at this morning’s stage. I look forward to Stage 3 at Bechtel Park with the good weather forecast. It will be a nice change from the rain last year and the year before. I should now go knock on some wood to make sure I didn’t jinx anything.

Great race everyone! See you tonight for some sushi and tomorrow for another stage of the 2013 ENDURrun.

Photos from today’s stage:
Pre-race – they were baking bread ON SITE!

My delicious plate of food. Well, I actually didn’t eat the potato… I accidentally dropped it in the pool. In case anyone was wondering… they sink.

Post race