Holiday Lake, aka the 32 mile tempo run

The evening before Holiday Lake this year,  I hoped with people that my race strategy was going to be a 1:50 first lap followed by a 3 hour second lap. My real goal (decided on Saturday morning) was to keep the chase pack in sight as long as possible.  Well after a 7:57 first mile they were already 20 seconds up and never to be seen again except for on their way back on their second loop.

From here I settled into a comfortably uncomfortable pace with Kristeb Chang and Kaylyn Peck, who were hovering near each other in 2nd female position.  After several miles we all began to wonder why everyone was young so fast.  From the first aid station, I was consistently picking up my pace mile by mile while still getting passed.  Kristen was curious about the pace so I checked my was (that I had programmed a 50k time estimator onto). 4:12 pace. Shit.  The absurdity made me chuckle, in the days before the race while I dealt with a cold, little sleep, little appetite, and a nagging left achilles/calf strain, I figured I should aim to break 4:30. We were running along in close to 30th place at 4:12 pace.  I shrugged it off since I wasn't breathing too laboriously and kept trucking along.   When fellow VT ultrarunner Wyatt L. caught up to me toward the end of the flat/fast 10 miles leading into the single track on the backside of the lake I did my best to keep with him, he's much better at turning over on the smooth terrain than me.  I love LOVE single track, the more technical the better, so when we left the mile 12ish aid station, I starting to push the effort a little.  This next 1/3rd of the course (4 miles in and 4 miles out of the turnaround) is mostly winding singletrack and I really enjoyed it.  I was able to shorten my stride a little bit, closer to the much more comfortable "ultrarunner trot" which help mixed things up, and every downhill was a nice reprieve for my hamstrings.  Somewhere in here I caught up to local speedster Jordan Whitlock, someone I didn't think I had any business being near in a race, and half-jokingly asked why everyone was running so fast.  The pace still didn't feel right for an ultra.

I came into the turnaround and fumbled for a minute trying to get gels into my shorts pocket. I hadn't had any dexterity in my hands since I took off my l/s shirt at AS1, so after a frustrating minute or so, I just got Rudy to do it for me--great crew! I glanced at my watch to see my split--2:09:51--and it was the fasted I had EVER run 16 miles before. OK.  On the next several miles of singletrack I made my first surge.  Wyatt had gotten into the turnaround about 30 seconds after me, and I knew he would catch me on the flat stretch if I didn't gap him here.  I ignored my breathing for the next 4ish miles into the next aid station and hammered all the way except for one climb where I had to hike in order to force down a gel.  Some brief conversation with Holly Bugin who went onto a new female course record and I started to focus on keeping my stride long. By mile 20, my hamstrings started to scream.  Another gel and I was able to grind to the mile 24ish aid station--15th place, much higher than I thought I was. I guess that surge on the singletrack worked.   Leading up to this aid station, I saw 3 people ahead of me fairly spread out so I figured I'd try to catch them.  It gave me motivation, and I sorely needed that.  I hit the marathon at 3:32, a 20 minute PR on the distance (though I've only done one very STUPID marathon), and kept trucking along.  I came into 11th place just before the final aid station, dumbfounded to be in that position.  It was the highest position I had ever been in at a Horton race, and Holiday Lake doesn't play to my strengths. From a glance at my watch, I hoped to force a sub 4:20 finish.From that aid station, I was very excited to get to the final hills and finally use some different muscles.

After the final "climb" I "sprinted" (as much as an ultrarunner can sprint) the last mile, windmilling my arms on the downhill road, to finish in 4:19:22, a 20-second negligible negative split, and after handshake from Dr. Horton and his remarks on my big PR (which are very meaningful coming from him!) I collapsed on the ground and stuck my feet up in a chair, laying there for about 10 minutes with a big, exhausted grin on my face.

Beast race #1 is done.  Next up is the back-to-back insanity of the Georgia Death Race 60-mile and Terrapin Mountain 50k, so back into the mountains I go.

Some info:
Nutrition:
<5 Huckleberry Hammer Gels (I didn't actually finish a couple of them)
~50oz water
2 cups mountain dew
Basically, very little calories.  With my regular nutrition pretty dialed, I don't think I crave carb as much during my runs, but part of this was that the fast pace being new and uncomfortable to eat through.

Shoes: Nike Streak LTs--5.3oz road flat.  GREAT shoe, who know Nike could do it?  Never had any issue during the race, and my feet weren't sore at all the next day.  A lot of underfoot protection for the weight.


This was also the first team race for our newly formed VT Ultrarunning Club, and I'm really happy for  how well everyone did.  We had several first 50ks and first ultras.  Everyone did very well, and more important, I think almost everyone finished with a smile.  I'm really happy we've developed this community to help each other push our limits.

5 Down, 1 To Go

Aside from a nagging achilles tendon (fixed with a shoe change), recovery from Grindstone went smoothly.  I took it easy basically the entire race there, which I guess helped a lot.  I did two interval workouts in the two middle weeks between races, and a couple tempo runs as well.  What else can you really do to prepare when you have a race only a month out from a 100 miler?  I topped out at a 48 mile week, which might actually have been more than I should have done, but everything worked out for the best. 

I had a very different thoughts going into Mountain Masochist compared to Grindstone.  Being 50 miles on an easier course,  I knew it would feel short and fast, and I had just spent about 5 months preparing to go slow for a very long time.  I was also excited to go and Hurricane Sandy only exemplified that.  I love bad weather and snow, so I actually thrilled to hear of snow on the second half of the course.  I figured that the snow would slow everything down a little and force some slogging (exactly what I can do right now).  I also figured that I wouldn't suffer as much as a lot of people nearby me, which would be beneficial late in the race.  I can never seem to get the right combination of clothes for 30ish degree weather, and I was warm once the sun was up, ditching my arm warmers at AS #3, and taking my gloves on and off all day.  Nothing really happened in the first half of the race.  I ran from mile 13 to the loop with Rudy, and we just methodically moved up through the places all the way. Relentless Forward Progress.  I stopped to fertilize the trees and he went on to a super great finish in 12th place in his second 50 mile. With the loop came snow, high up my shins in places.   The footsteps of those in front of me hadn't yet flattened out the snow, but just formed footholds awkwardly spaced apart, forcing a lot of awkward running and hiking.  If I had realized how big of a break this ended up being in the middle of the race, I would have probably run most of the climb up to Buck Mountain, but so it goes.  The snow was a blast, and I ran with complete reckless abandon on the downhills--something that I really love to do in the snow when everything is soft and smooth.  Talking to people after the race, I seemed to be the only person who really enjoyed going through all that snow.

 The snow got pretty deep and slog-worthy after leaving the mile 42 AS.  I left just ahead of Gary Robbins who (of course) caught up soon and we shared a couple miles together working through the awkward snow/ice covered trails.  He had actually run an extra 4.5 miles (the only way we were near each other) and was making his way back up, still having a blast.  Since I was wearing Montrail Rogue Flys (great shoe), he asked about them and the conversation turned to races and Grindstone as he was there too.  He told me my Grindstone time was "fucking awesome" which as a pretty great boost trudging up the steepest climb of the race before we go downhill the rest of the way to the finish.  Gary moved on and I stopped one more time before taking off after him.  I hit the last aid station with 4 miles to go at 8:36, determined to make a sub-9 hour finish, so I took a cue from cross country days, and started windmilling my arms to drive up my momentum.  The final mile of downhill ended up being ~5:56, super fast for mile 49 of a 50 mile race.  I took two bottles of my Succeed slurry, several packages of chomps, and two cans worth of mountain dew, plus some food at the aid stations.  The slurries have made racing a lot easier, I have energy throughout, and I think I've gotten pretty good at burning fat for fuel.  Few the few days after races, even after I've made up the calorie deficit, I seem much leaner than I used to.

I squeaked by in 8:58, meeting my original time goal for MMTR--before hearing of the snow conditions.  Plus 20th out of 297 starters is kind of cool, I'm not used to that.  This race actually took more out of me than Grindstone, so I'm taking it easy all week before putting in some focus work for Hellgate next month.  That will be fun.  Hellgate is something special, and so far everything this Fall has gone smoothly.  I won't DNF this time; I'm ready to suffer.  As soon as I crossed the finish line at MMTR, Dr. Horton said to me, "I hope you saved something for Hellgate."  I hope so too, I've got some redemption to take care of there.

Side note/more important:  This is the VT Ultrarunning Club's first true team race, and we had some great placing and 100% finisher's rate! Something that is definitely made even better by the course conditions.  Rachel maintained second in the LUS on her bum ankle, cringing all the way to the finish line.  David persevered through a rough day, Wyatt had fun all day, and I should probably ask Kelly how her run went.  Seeing people finish at and after twelve hours was very inspiring--those guys and gals are MUCH tougher than the rest of us, that's a long time to be out there and it hurts a lot more.  I was finishing back there just last year, I know how that feels.

See you people in 5 weeks.

Holiday Lake!

Yesterday was the 17th running of the Holiday 50k(++) near Appomattox, Virginia.  It's  fun race in its own right, and it's pretty fast; although it is a bit flat for my taste.  The two loops make for interesting play as you can try to negative split if you'd like.  I can't really write an exciting report of the race since the terrain is a bit uninspiring compared to a mountain race, and possibly since it's my second time at the race, but here you go.


I sort of tapered for the week leading up to the race in that I skipped my long run last weekend, and then got miserably sick on Sunday, preventing me from running much the past week even if I'd wanted to.   Toeing the line Saturday, I felt itching to run, but I wasn't really sure how I planned to run the race.  I got hurt last year after Holiday Lake and had to pull out of Promise Land in April, so I didn't want that to happen.  A nagging IT band the days leading up to the race had me planning a conservative race, and that's what I did, if only just to have fun.  My IT band was sore leading up to Horton's sound-off at the start, but after that I haven't felt it again. It's funny how those things work.  I picked a couple of the faster ladies who was running a nice pace and followed in behind her for a while, just cruising along.  After a few miles, they took off for faster times and I just kept hanging out.  After running with a Liberty student I've run with before (nicknamed Idiot...I wish I knew his real name), he told me he was aiming for sub-5.   Sub-5 is a nice little benchmark and it would be a PR for me so I decided then it would be nice fitness test to see if I could run comfortably all day and still hit that...and that's exactly what I did!

I coasted through the halfway point not paying any attention to the time and after grabbing a bag of energy chews (Pink Lemonade Honey Stinger are delicious!) from my bag, I headed onward.  After a while, a lot of people who had passed me early in the race started coming back as I just held my comfortable cadence, hiking the couple super steep hills and grinding out the rest of them.

There's long section of soft doubletrack that follows some powerlines at around Mile 22-24, and somewhere in there, the unexpected heat of the day and my adjusted stride from my still healing right ankle cause my right hamstring to grab.  Another awkward stride change to keep the leg straighter (I'm glad HL isn't technical!) and I was still trucking along.  At the next aid station I just grabbed salt off a plate and ate it,  which helped.  The two super cold stream crossings locked it up again though, so I grabbed more salt at the last aid station before moving on.

I felt a bit low with 3ish miles left (no calories for a while) and a nice Australian man gave me a gel that I sucked down and started picking up the pace some; he followed suit.  Somewhere around here, local runner/friend Rachel Corrigan passed me on her way to finishing 11th overall. She had a bit of a breakthrough race yesterday! The Australian and I were moving along nicely with like a mile left and he mentioned we were starting to cut the 5-hour mark a little close, so when we hit the road, I leaned into it and just let gravity take me down all the way to the finish.  I just squeaked by too.

So, I finished the first race of the Beast Series (which I'm leaning toward over the LUS) still feeling pretty fresh.  Today, I was a little stiff, but other than a nagging right knee from the awkward form I had for a while, I don't feel any worse for wear.  Next up is the Gahuti Ring-of-power challenge on March 3 in Georgia!