STRAVA Summary

Thursday, February 26, 2015

The Pistol

Again, it’s been a while since I’ve blogged. I’m still running, just finding it hard to find the time to hit the keyboard. The last blog posting has been sitting in my in box for months waiting to get posted. Since then I had been planning on some down time before starting training again in the new year, but…
About 2 or 3 weeks after the Bear I got a message from Will Jorgenson (RD of the Pistol in Alcoa Tennessee). He asked me about coming down to do his race at the beginning of January. Initially I said no, but the stress of the Bear failure was getting to me and I thought, I really needed to get back on the horse and show what I can do. So within a few hours I had signed up, booked flights and hotels and was ready. Just meant starting the training program a bit earlier than expected. To make a long blog shorter, the training went well, not perfect, but well. I had started going to the gym and doing some weight training and yoga as well. On boxing day I went with Theo to Hamilton to do the Boxing day 10 miler again and had a good race, setting a new PB with a 1:08 time. Confidence was high again.
I travelled to Knoxville on the Friday before the race (The Pistol) and settled in. I met up with Crystal from Ohio at the pre-race meeting and also met up with Aaron from Guelph. A rather lack luster pasta dinner was followed by an early night. The 100 mile start was at a nice 8 am. So no issues with getting up too early. The weather forecast was for about 8C during the day and then rain late in the night.
The race would be a multi loop course consisting of 9 x 11 miles. All paved bike path and some slight hills here and there. By all means this could mean a new PB. The unknown was the pavement and what kind of toll it would take on my legs.
I met up with Aaron at the start and as the gun went off we wished each other good luck.
I would try to keep a nice easy pace, at least that was the plan, but as usual I was moving faster than I really needed to. I met up with and ran with Max from Corning, NY and ran with him for a bit, before pulling away from him. To say the first couple of loops went well would be an understatement. I had to slow myself down when I checked at one point and I was running a 5:20/km. I went through the marathon point under 4 hours! I hit 50 miles at about 8:20, well under any 50 mile time I have run before. Up to half way I was moving quickly, but I had also gone through the required bad patches too. A few stops at Woody’s aid station helped, but as usual eating was a challenge.
At some point I expected to lap Aaron, as he had been dealing with some mechanical issues and was walking a lot. He also hadn’t got much training in! This kept me going stronger. I finally caught him as I finished my 6th lap, we decided to help each other out and see if that would get us through this. At this point I know the pavement was taking it’s toll. We walked for a bit and mixed up the walking and running for the next two loops. It was on the 6th loop that the rain started.
The rain was light initially but gradually picked up steam. By the 7th lap it was pouring down and we had to avoid the underpasses as they were flooded to probably waist deep. A lot of the path through the mid point of the course were also flooded to ankle deep water and there was no way around them.
For most of the race I was well ahead of schedule, about 18 hour pace. I knew it wouldn’t last and it was a matter of how good my finish time would be and whether or not I could get a new PB. Gradually 20 hours flittered away and then it was whether I could get under 21 hours, but that seemed remote too, especially with the turn in the weather. When I got to my 9th and final loop, Aaron still another to do, I thought I might as well just walk the whole thing, I wanted it over, but I knew I would still beat my PB. There was no incentive to go any faster than a fast walk. The rain had slowed down for most of this last loop, but just as I finished the wind picked up and the rain came down again. The only positive was that it was warming up a bit.
I finished in 21:11 an new PB by over 90 minutes. 14th overall and 3rdin my age group. Over all a great day (and night), but I couldn’t help think what could have been. If I could have kept my mind on track I might have finished hours earlier.

1 comment:

Robin said...

What a terrific result, congrats. Bet you are glad you made the decision to sign up!! Awesome.