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| Photo by Misty Wong |
Not Having the Race You Wanted – But Having the Race You Should have Expected
My lead up to the race did not go very smooth. While for the last few months I had been at 30-40 miles a week and got in a few 20-22 milers in at a good pace things were not right. First I have struggled with Plantar Fasciitis , or a form of it, for maybe 8 months and my right foot not only has been sore in the heel my feet just feel beat up on longer. One part of my training, which I did last before Yamacraw, was wanting to run a 50K training run as well as again run the Land Between the Lakes (LBL) 50 miler so my legs, and feet, had extended running time on them – but that did not happen this year. Truth is I had not run as far as this weeks 50k since last years race. While I had some good 20 mile training runs, great for marathon training, they were at a quicker tempo which is all well and good but did not give time on my feet and legs which is what I was missing in the build up to this years Yamacraw.
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| Photo by Misty Wong |
The other issue that reared itself was with my right eye at the end of February where I went blind in it for about 5 minutes. Initially I did nothing, just my nature to blow things off as an “oh that will pass event” but then decided it would be good to get it looked at and was taken right in once thy heard what happened. From there I was sent to a specialist and was told not to run till another visit later in the week. Due to all this I had to cancel my LBL 50 race as I did not know if I would get the OK to run at the next doctors visit or not and with all going on figured it was the best decision. It ended up that by race day I was able to run but only a short run and taking it easy. To this day, 6 weeks later, they are not totally sure what caused the hemorrhage in my eye and even now there are still lots of floaters and it can be really murky looking though my right eye as the blood clears up. It is more of an annoyance than anything as all through Yamacraw it seemed gnats were flying around me or that I had a fingerprint smudge on my right ey. Well at least it took my mind off of the race.
All of the above allowed me to keep up some lower miles but in truth not enough to really race 50K as I wanted to. After running 5:59:37 last year my goal for this year was 5:50 or there about – faster if I had a really good day. But that goal was based on a good build up like I had the previous year and similar weather. I have a problem lowering expectations on myself and that was what happened for this year’s race. What with my reduced training, sore foot and the course being muddier and more slippery on the rocks and bridges than last year and also with more water on the crossings my expectations should have been adjusted accordingly – but I did not.
Pre-race day predictions were for rain then snow and 35F temps but on race day other than some drizzle at the start and some snow near the end all we got were fairly consistent 35F temps with wind. While not everyone would agree as far as temps they were almost perfect, maybe 5-10 degrees warmer would have been good but 35F worked for me. So off we went and I ran a good first mile feeling comfortable and not pushing it but still was left behind. While I wanted to go faster I knew I just did not feel quite right and wanted to make sure my foot was good and warmed up before I pushed it any. By the second mile there are some stairs and rocks and I took it very cautious and started getting passed. The race just felt blah for me, not good - not super bad just blah and tired, and to tell the truth in the first 10 miles knowing I had 22+ to go I would have dropped out if it was easy to do but dropping out was not easy and I knew if I did so I would struggle more with it mentally later than just running poorly. So on I went and just kept up a steady pace getting passed by those picking it up later in the race.
One of the most interesting parts of the race was the river crossing that was too deep to wade across so they had a raft bridge set up. The idea was to walk raft to raft to cross and for most it was matter of sitting on the edge and swinging your legs across. For me, however, the issue was my legs cramped when I tried this technique so I had to do the “belly-flop” move form raft to raft which was quite slow and probably comical to watch. When you got to the other side you had to climb up, with assistance, a step bank by stepping on tree roots sticking out of the bank. Even when I made it up the bank I had to walk as the mud was very slippy and did not want to end up back in the river.
From the river the course begins to rise to the drop bag check point and then it is an up and down ride to the finish from there, with a few good steady climbs. Felt a little better in the last 7 miles and was able to keep up a good pace to the finish but still did not go down hill as well as last year, or at least did not feel so. Down-hills were my downfall this whole race as they often are in races but more so this year. I used to be, in my youth, a good descender but as I have gotten older, less flexible and less willing to take risks I just did not push the down-hills like I could or should. Most of the descents had a number of areas with rocks and roots that, to me, were slippy so I took it easy. To add to this my right foot was hurting which led me to just go slower than I wanted on the down-hills that were more runable. I also walked across most bridges, and also the wood planks set up to avoid the marshy areas, as they were very slippery as well. On the few sections that were level or only slightly downhill I was able to get up to a good pace but those areas are not excessive.
As far as fueling I preloaded before the race with my modified bullet-proof coffee as well as a cocktail of UCAN and SFuels Drink. For the race itself I stayed with using my SFuels drink which I really liked. I also cut up some SFuel Bars into small bite-size cubes and coated them in tapioca powder, you can also use arrow root powder, to help stop them from sticking together and this seemed to work. I have a hard time eating and running as my sinuses are not great so when I eat I do not breath but this helped having smaller sized bites. The only issue I had was that I put the SFuels portions in small baggies I had in a waist belt to be mixed at Aid Stations but I had issues getting it out of the baggies and wasted extra time mixing a new bottle. Near the end I did take a couple GU Roctane Gels and at the 20 mile Aid Station where we could leave a drop bag I left a bottle with the UCAN/SFuels mixture that I took. My take on my fueling was it did work but I need to be better at not loosing time. Also not sure if the UCAN/SFuels bottle at the end helped but it may have. I never had a bonk even though I never felt really energetic either so need to work on fueling some more,
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| Tongue Hanging Out Says it All |
Got to the end knowing I was not going to be able to break 6:30 and ended up with a time of 6:37:18 for 53rd OA and 3rd in the 50-59 age group. As I said at the start I left the race happy to have finished and for sure happier than if I had DNF’d but not pleased with my time having run 37 minutes slower than the previous year. Over the week since the race and thinking back on it I am not sure the actual running of the race was as bad as I thought. I am pretty sure my Aid Station stops were much slower than last year so at about 3 minutes a stop extra for 5 stations that accounts for 15 minutes. Then with walking all the bridges and wood planks may have added 5 minutes so my running was about 17 minutes slower which could easily be attributed to going slower than normal on down-hills. While many ran faster this others did not. For me the course being wet and me being overly cautious easily accounted for the extra time. None of this makes the race better but at least I can see that my running itself was not as off as I had thought and with the minimal training I did I should be more pleased with the run.
So there is my report. I really like this course even though it for sure does not play to my strengths with its descents. I want to come back and improve but due to schedules over the next couple years I will not get back till 2021 so that will be interesting as I will be 3 years older and seeking to run faster - so we will have to see. Bottom line is when you run a race make sure to look back after some time is allowed to go by so you can get a better look at what you did. Often you will find things were not as bad as you thought once you sift through "what you had expected" and "what you should have expected".
If you want to run a beautiful and challenging course this is a good race to do. The climbing is good but in all not too much. This is a good first 50K if you want one to do but you will have to enter early as the raced filled up this year and as it gets even more of a name for itself it will fill up even more quickly. Race website: Yamacraw 50K/20K/10K
#SFuels, #GoLonger, #Zensah #RunYamacraw
Nice race report. Every year is different, especially weather-wise here in Kentucky, changing the race a bit each time.
ReplyDeleteYep, makes for interesting races. We have lived here, about 1 1/2 hours north west of Stearns, for almost 6 years and the only thing predictable about the weather is that it is unpredictable.
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