Reflection/Projection
It was an unseasonably sunny and windy day at the start of the pseudo "fat ass" year-end Recover from the Holidays 50k out at the Huntsville running park. To be honest there really isn't much more to say about the race than that. I mean what's there to say about a 3 mile loop that you run 10 times? I ran as a bandit last year and completed half the distance and, truth be told, perhaps should've done that again this morning but I committed my money and I'd rather not have a dnf on my record so away I went.
The thing about this race is that, save maybe for a short but very steep hill that you hit once every lap, the entire course is runnable so I was running almost all of the time except for the times I stopped at the aid station for a mint chocolate GU. Not taking any walk breaks and keeping my pace somewhat up-tempo started to take its toll on some certain leg muscles after a while.
I struggled to ignore nature's call for the last 3 laps cause I knew I was in the top 3 and didn't want to let up. Needless to say I had some great relief at the end of that race. By the time the last lap rolled around, I got passed by the guy that ended up coming in second. When he passed me it was clear he wasn't slowing down and was on his kick, which I did not really plan on having. In races like this I try to stay pretty consistent with my pace. To have a good finishing kick would be a bonus. I hung on to the third place finish and ended up with a very satisfying PR of about 4:07 (official results not posted at time of writing this), nearly 50 minutes faster than my PR of 4:55 set in April of 2009 at SweetH20.
I wouldn't call this race "fun" in any sense of the word. If I ever ran this thing again, it would be because I really wanted a new PR. This was really a check off the list. I think no matter what the race director does to spice this thing up, I would probably still not want to run it again. But then again, a year's a long time. Maybe I'll have sense enough to stop running these distances by then.
Oh, and a quick plug for my "sponsor," runbum.com :
(Worn: official runbum.com shirt, the one the cool kids wear)
Disclaimer: The rest of this post consists of personal stats and my 2011 racing calendar. Now would be the time to navigate away from this page unless you've run out of everything else to do, for example, you just came back from a dreary game of bowling.
On to stats:
After the bell rang I ended up with approx. 2187.94 miles for the year, an average of just under 6 miles per day, and about 182 per month
Highest mileage month: September, 239
Lowest mileage month: July, 121
Number of races run in 2010: 12
Number of ultras this year: 9 (up from 6 last year)
Total number of ultras to date: 15
Overall favorite race this year: StumpJump 50k
Favorite swag received from a race this year: Pinhoti belt buckle
Current PR's: (All set this year)
5k: 18:11 (in a toga)
10k: 40:02
26.2: 3:23:01
50k: 4:07:something
50m: 7:22:53
100m: 25:20:41
Next year's plan:
Now that I have my first 100 out of my system I'm going to try and start running faster. As such, I'm going to do my best to walk on Auburn's Cross Country team. I've looked at past years results and while I can't hope to compete well with the front running Kenyan's, I could still, maybe, hold my own with a respectable piece of the pack. As I was writing this post I realized I had only run one 10k and 1 5k and PR'd at both of them and also didn't have my best day at either. So just maybe I could convince Auburn's cross country coach to let a free athlete, if one could really call me that, practice with the best of auburn's runners.
So here's what I've got for my calendar for 2011 so far:
Mountain Mist 50k, 22 Jan
Cheaha 50k in Feb
Delano 12 in March (only because I can set another state record)
Mountain Man Memorial March (26.2), 16 April
Chewalcla (sp?) fat ass 50k, 7 May
Then comes LDAC and whatever else the Army has in store for me this summer. My schedule's far too tentative to plan anything out just yet. After summer, if all goes to plan the only races I'll be doing will be at cross country meets.
Praise the Potter, not the pot.
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