Yesterday was my fastest race
so far in the Running Ragged 20in20 Series.
Each time I go faster, I wonder if this is the race that’s going to make
me feel sore or tired the next day.
The hotel where I’m staying has
a pool area with a whirlpool, but it can only be used by one family at a time,
and you have to make a reservation. Last
night, I was able to use the whirlpool after dinner. I woke up this morning without any sore
muscles. Maybe the whirlpool helped.
For day 17 of the series, we
returned to Mississippi River County Park.
We were there last Monday and the previous Monday, but this time we were
on a different course, with hardly any roots.
Now that more leaves have fallen, the course we ran the last two Mondays
would’ve been more treacherous. It would’ve
been impossible to see the roots.
It was a cooler day today. It was 49 degrees when we started, and it only
warmed up a few degrees during the race.
In cooler conditions, I wear tights, so I wore the cheetah outfit again
today. Before the race, I noticed how
cold the wind was. I made a last-minute
decision to start the race wearing my Tyvek jacket.
I had to run one lap before I
could get a feel for the new course. We
were running on grass for the entire race.
I find running on grass to be more tiring than running on pavement or
gravel, so I kept my pace conservative. There
weren’t any new arrivals today. The only
runners keeping up with me in the first lap were two runners who were doing the
half marathon. By the end of my first
lap, I knew I would be the only one running the marathon in less than five
hours. That left me free to run at my
own pace. My only goal was to break five
hours.
In my second lap, I stopped
frequently to take pictures of the course.
We started at the same pavilion that we used for our aid station the
last two times we were in this park.
After leaving the pavilion, we
followed a line of green cones across an open field.
Then we entered the woods and
ran on grass trails that varied in width.
Where we needed to make turns, there were small green cones to lead us
around the turn.
Where we intersected other
trails, small red cones were used to block paths that we weren’t supposed to take.
At one point, we went up a
small rise to cross a dirt road. I usually
walked up to the road. I thought that
would be easier on both my right knee and my left Achilles tendon. This was one of three places where I walked every
lap.
The 50K course has a different
turnaround point in the last lap. It was
just a little bit before the turnaround for the marathon course, and it was
marked with a purple cone. During our
pre-race briefing, we were told there was only one place on the course where we
had to watch out for roots, and it happened to be near this cone. This was the second place where I briefly
slowed to a walk on each lap.
The third place I walked was
going around the red cone at the marathon turnaround point. I did this most days, because I don’t like to
run around a tight 180-degree turn.
Despite walking in those three
places, I was mostly running. My walking
breaks were more about safety and injury prevention than getting rest. I rarely walked for more than 5-10 seconds at
a time.
We were mostly running through
woods and meadows. It wasn’t until my second
lap, that I noticed we were next to a pond when we were near the turnaround.
By the time I finished my
second lap, I was feeling too warm with my jacket on. Although the wind was strong near the
pavilion, we were sheltered from it when we were in the woods. I wasn’t as cold as I thought I would
be. I needed to stop after that lap to
put my camera away, so I also took the time to put my jacket back in my drop
bag.
By now, the two fastest runners
in the half marathon had moved ahead of me.
Besides me, there were two or three other runners who were doing more
running than walking. They were also
doing the half marathon. Everyone else
doing the marathon was mostly walking.
In contrast to yesterday’s race, where I ran with Tim the whole time,
today I ran by myself the whole time.
To complete a marathon, I needed
to run 16 laps. To break five hours, I
needed to average roughly 18:30 per lap.
For the first half of the race, my lap times were mostly between 17:00 and
17:30. I wasn’t following a rigid pacing
plan.
My left Achilles tendon has
bothered me intermittently. I was
worried that running on grass would be hard on it. Amazingly, it never bothered me at all. I sometimes noticed my right knee walking up
to the road, but other wise I felt pretty good.
I did notice, at times, that I was using some different muscles. I could feel muscles that I don’t usually
feel. They were the ones that stabilized
me on the uneven footing.
During my 8th lap, I felt a few
drops of drizzle. It wasn’t a big deal,
but I knew there was rain in the forecast for the afternoon. I decided to put my jacket on again when I
finished that lap. I didn’t really need
it yet, but if I waited until I was wet, it would be more difficult to put it
on. When my arms are wet, the sleeves
tend to cling to my arms, making it difficult to pull them on.
When I finished that lap, I was
half done. I was on pace for about 4:37,
but I didn’t know if I would speed up or slow down in the second half. On one hand, I usually have the confidence to
speed up when I only have a few laps left.
On the other hand, running on grass might tire me out, forcing me to
slow down.
Before starting my 9th lap, I
put on my jacket. I kept it unzipped in
front, so it wouldn’t trap too much heat.
For the next lap, I felt fairly comfortable with the jacket on. Early in my 10th lap, I started to feel too
warm. The occasional drops of drizzle I
felt earlier had stopped.
Greg, who was going in the
other direction, commented that it was hot going out and cold coming back. After the turnaround, I realized he was
right. Going out, we had the wind at our
backs, and I got hot. Coming back, it
was a strong headwind, and I felt like I needed the jacket.
In my next lap, I commented to
Trisha that I was too hot with the jacket, but too cold without it. She suggested taking it off and tying it
around my waist. I waited until the end
of the lap. I made a bathroom stop, and
then I tied my jacket around my waist before heading out to start my 12th lap.
At this point in the race, I
would usually be thinking about speeding up.
I had no motivation to do that running on grass. I just wanted to keep moving at the same pace
and get each lap done. I was actually
slowing down. Now I was taking about 18
minutes for each lap.
I expected to be cold without
the jacket, but I was surprised how comfortable I felt. Then I remembered I was still in the warmer
half of the lap. After the turnaround, I
was running into the wind. My arms felt
a little cold, but overall, I still felt fairly comfortable. Taking off my jacket was definitely the right
decision.
Near the beginning of my 13h
lap, I started to feel drizzle again. It
wasn’t just a few stray drops now. I was
getting wet. I considered stopping to
put on my jacket, but my arms were already wet.
Plus, I would have to stop to untie it from my waist, which would take
longer, now that the sleeves were wet. I
pressed on.
By the middle of that lap, the
drizzle turned into a steady light rain.
I was getting cold. Again, I
considered stopping to put on the jacket, but I didn’t want to stand out in the
cold rain and wind while I did it. It
made more sense to wait until the end of the lap, when I could do it while I
was under the pavilion.
As I turned around and headed
back into the wind, I was freezing. Taking
off my jacket was definitely the wrong decision.
By the time I neared the end of
that lap, the rain seemed to be stopping.
As I got within sight of the pavilion, the sun came out. The weather was toying with me.
I kept my jacket on as I
started my 14th lap. Sure enough, as
soon as I got away from the pavilion and back into the woods, it started
raining again. At this point, I only had
three laps to go. At the pace I was
going, it would take about 54 minutes. I
could hunker down and endure being cold for 54 minutes.
By now, more of the runners
doing the half marathon had finished. I
was now the only person on the course who was doing much running. I was also the only one on the course who
wasn’t wearing a raincoat or rain poncho.
I had bare arms and wet clothes, but I was mostly running. I would be too hot in a rain poncho. Meanwhile, everyone else was walking. They depended on waterproof layers to keep
them warm, but they would be on the course for several more hours. I depended on keeping warm by generating enough
heat from running. Also, I only had to
hold out for a few laps.
As I started my 15th lap, I
would normally be telling myself, “only two laps to go.” Instead, I told myself, “only 36 minutes to
go.” That’s how I looked at it. Distance didn’t matter. I just had to keep moving for 36 more
minutes.
In the second half of that lap,
as I was passing some other runners, I must’ve taken my eyes off the
trail. As I was expecting my left foot
to make contact with the ground, there was nothing there but air. I stepped into a small depression that I didn’t
notice. My foot fell about two more
inches before it hit the ground. That
caused some momentary discomfort in the muscles that absorbed the shock.
By the end of that lap, the
rain stopped again. Predictably, as soon
as I entered the clearing and came within sight of the pavilion, the sun came
out. The weather was still toying with
me. I was noticing a pattern. The closer I was to the pavilion, the more it
seemed like it was doing to be sunny all day.
The farther away I was from the pavilion, the more it was cold, rainy,
and windy.
At this point it didn’t
matter. Even if it was still raining, I
wouldn’t take the time to put on my jacket.
With one lap to go, I didn’t want to waste any time. I just wanted to finish.
Now I viewed it as one lap to
go. In the last lap, I knew I was
passing each landmark for the last time.
Even still, I didn’t have any motivation to pick up the pace. I just wanted to keep moving.
The weather stayed nice for
that whole lap. I assumed the weather
was done toying with me, now that I was almost done anyway. After crossing the road for the last time, I
finally started to pick up the pace. I
saw a few runners near the end of that lap and promised them they wouldn’t have
to worry about any more rain. As soon as
I was finished running, it would be sunny for the rest of the day. (I was wrong.)
I finished in 4:41:19. I ran positive splits by four minutes, but I
really had no incentive to work any harder in the second half. I’ve always found running on grass to be
tiring. Running on wet grass is
worse. I broke five hours by a fairly
wide margin, and I easily won the race. Apparently,
I was the only one who wanted to put any effort at all into running on grass.
For the first two days of this
series, there were other runners who were much too fast for me. Then I finished first in the next six
races. In three of those races, I didn’t
expect to win, but I came from behind in the late laps. After winning six of the first eight races, I
wondered if I could win a majority of the races in this series. Today was my 11th win, so I’ve clinched that
goal.
As I was driving back to the
hotel, it started raining again. This
time, it was coming down in bigger drops.
I hope nobody is had at me that it didn’t stay sunny, like I promised.
Usually, when I get back to the
hotel, the first thing I do is ice.
Today, my first priority was to hop in the whirlpool. Nobody else had the pool area reserved. When I used the whirlpool last night, it was
all about preventing sore muscles.
Today, I just wanted to get warm.
After 30 minutes in the whirlpool, I still iced as usual.
Early in this series, I was
intimidated by the number of blank spaces on this medal. Even as I started filling them in, the number
of remained races seemed overwhelming.
Now, most of them are filled in.
I just have three races to go.
Race Statistics
Distance: 26.2 miles
Time: 4:41:19
Average Pace: 10:44
Lifetime Marathons/Ultras:
422
Minnesota Marathons/Ultras:
75
Series Statistics
Races Completed: 17
Under Five Hours: 17
Average Time: 4:39:31
Wins: 11
No comments:
Post a Comment