Another little race report …
SD100 was nice again. The organization wasn’t as good as when Paul was RD (course not as well marked – bunch of runners got lost – etc) but still a fun race. Weather was perfect (sunny but with a cool wind during the day, cold but not very cold at night). Karl set an amazing course record (15:48) and the finisher rate was great (70%). They also removed a lot of loose rocks from the trail.
Now my story: I started out the race feeling ok. I didn’t get my usual pre-race massage (vacation), and my legs were still a bit complaining, but I felt pretty energetic. Early on I hooked up with Pete Reily, a triathlete (9:30 IM) doing his first 100m ultra. Really nice guy, fellow physicist. I mentioned a couple of times I would be too slow for him, but he thought it was good to pace. We ran together nearly 20 miles, at about a 20 hour pace – I bet you see where this is going. Pete btw finished in 22 something, great job! Anyways, I was at mile 32 in about 6:45 and would of course pay for that soon … I felt I had overdone it, and I was tired and my legs were quite achy. Worse, once I hit the downhills (the course is climb, rolling, drop, same back), my knee started hurting (not IT band initially, more like runner’s knee) significantly. I reached the turnaround in 10:45 – still 45 minutes faster than last year, however with serious knee issues, walking a lot of the downhill. At this point I guess I could have dropped, but I figured that if I dropped now, I really would have to do Javelina, and if I was injured (or the knee pain persisted), my chance of dropping there would be large, thus giving me two DNFs. No good. Anyways, go figure, I decided to try to tough it out on the way back. Uphill was pretty good. In the night I started feeling a bit nauseated, and I was very hesitant to run, bc now both my knees were hurting (left it was IT band, right it was the runner’s knee). I figured I slowed down a lot and totally lost the will to push it, but I still felt giving up was out of the question. Interestingly I met a nice guy I met at the Bear and felt immediately much stronger, but he lost me on a downhill where I fell into a walk, and I felt worse again. Clearly a pacer would have helped. Anyways, I walked nearly all of the second half, and the last 6 miles were very painful – not running made my legs quite stiff and hurting badly. I guess I would have felt better if I would have ran some of the downhill! Anyways, I finished in 27:25, just minutes ahead of Catra, nearly an hour slower than last year! But I think I am uninjured, and I am proud I pushed through this very tedious second half, maybe the hardest and most frustrating race so far! Catra was also impressed that I didn’t give up despite missing my time goal (I was hoping for 25-26 hours), that felt nice! Of course she herself still had bladder problems and peed blood … and finished, crazy girl! Anyways, I was CERTAIN I would skip Javelina, since “my body is telling me it’s enough for now”, but 2 days later, I already forgot all the misery, and short of illness I will see some of you guys there!