Quick report on my 2006 run of the toughest race you’ll ever love – or hate 🙂
The Wasatch 100 course IS very tough – the worst for me was not the big climbs, but that there are dozens and dozens of short climbs that are not on the elevation chart, but still are very steep. Strangely the altitude didn’t seem to affect me as much as at TRT (or maybe what DID affect me at TRT was the heat, not sure). We had perfect weather – not too hot (except for a few spots) in the day, relatively mild at night.
The run didn’t go totally my way, however I still finished it nicely. (Note that on the very last part I did it nearly 10 mins faster than Wendell (all on the downhill) and was able to sprint into the finish). First mistake was I went out too slow in the beginning – something that I believe didn’t actually help me feel better, since I still got very nauseated at mile 35 or so – couldn’t eat much, ran out of energy. My heart rate was just way too low. Then, I got nauseated. At mile 50ish, Paul Schmidt (former SD100 race director) took very good care of me (he had to drop out with a back injury, sadly) – he fixed my salt intake (Endurolytes are no good!) and made me eat (I didn’t know grilled cheese sandwiches could be THAT good!). Afterwards, my energy was back, and I started moving better. Thw third issue was that I believe I got some tendonitis issues with the lower attachment of my hamstring (behind the knee). It freaked me out a LOT, and I ended up not running a lot where I could have gone faster (ergo the strong finish). However, it didn’t get too bad, and actually fast downhill running was easier on it than going slow … I ended up running practically all of the downhills late in the race, including the plunge (more sliding than running) …
I got in and out of Brighton fine (now I know WHY people drop there though – so warm & toasty!). On the last 25 miles I took about 30 mins back off Wendells time, so I was moving ok. I thought through the race he was farther ahead, else I might have tried to catch him.
In the end – a VERY tough and VERY beautiful race. I liked the organization. I think sub-30 is – if things go ok for me – feasible as well. I decided early in the race not to go for speed, since I wasn’t even sure if I was recovered enough to finish it, which made the race more fun for sure! Overall I liked it a lot. Unfortunately next year there will be a lottery as well…