I Will Never, Never Learn...

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What was it I said in my last running post? Something about how going out too fast in my legs at the Blue Ridge Relay did me in and I had learned my lesson and would never, ever go out fast again?

I am such a liar. 

Ran the Salem Lake 30K this morning. 18.6 miles of mild trail and greenway. The day was warm, but the course provided a lot of shade, so temperature wasn't too much of an issue. What WAS an issue was the 8:24 pace at which I ran the first 6-7 miles. Stupid, stupid, stupid. 

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The Blue Ridge Relay Is In The Books

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It's over! We did it! Team MG Easy ran 208 miles in 30 hours, 45 minutes, and 41 seconds. That's an 8:52 average pace. 

I thought I would write a long post about the race but I don't think I'm going to, for the main reason that an experience like this is so hard to capture and I fear not doing it justice. I could tell you some of the details - maneuvering a 15-person white cargo van up twisting mountain roads that aren't wide enough for a moped; stashing wet smelly clothes in airtight plastic bags; eating GORP by the handful; tracking our kills (runners you pass on the course); the snap bracelet; the jokes (Nathan - You go, girl!); the dark hours between 1 and 5 AM when it was cold and everyone has passed the point of exhaustion and we still had to suit up and run; how much we looked forward to the transition zones so we could see Van #2 and hear their stories; the total camaraderie of being surrounded day and night by runners on the same crazy adventure as you... it was an all-encompassing experience. I feel like I've been gone for a month versus 48 hours. 

I did okay on my runs. I started out way too fast on my first leg and it cost me. Lesson learned. Start slow, finish fast. 

The other thing I learned is that the human body, particularly my body, is capable of handling much more than I give it credit for. My former way of thinking which looked like, "I can't run hard today because I just did a leg workout yesterday and I need to rest" no longer cuts it. If I can run up a mountain after being awake for over 30 hours, most of that time spent in a van, I can handle a P90-X workout followed by a run, don't you think?

Now that I've caught up on my sleep (I slept almost 16 hours yesterday), I already miss the race. I would totally run this monster again. I'm headed outside right now to plaster the 208/36 sticker on my car. 

We earned it. 

Running Commentary: Three Run Thursday

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And so it begins.

In a little less than an hour, Josh and I will be starting the first of our three runs for the day. We're getting the worst out of the way first. "The Hill" is a nasty 2.8 mile stretch in Mayodan with 7-10% grades that Josh trained on for the Grandfather Mountain marathon and that his wife is using to train for her upcoming half-marathon in Asheville. We'll run it twice. Here's the hill profile (thank you, Iris):

I only got 5 hours sleep last night and my eating was not-so-great yesterday, but I'll probably be tired and off my regular eating patterns on race day, so it's good practice, right? I debated whether to bike yesterday to make sure I was running on tired legs but decided against it. Feeling good about that decision at the moment. More later. 

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A Little Preview of Tomorrow's Misery...

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In the hopes of preparing ourselves mentally and physically for the Blue Ridge Relay, Barefoot Josh and I are doing a trial run tomorrow. We will do three runs throughout the day and see if our legs are able to withstand the lactic acid rush. Our schedule is as follows: 

  • 7 AM: The Hill, out-n-back x 2= 5.4 miles, elevation change: 1100 ft up and down (9 min pace)
  • Noon: Farris Park x 5 = 5 miles, elevation change: 615 ft up and down (8:30 min pace)
  • 6 PM: Local lap(s)= 5.5 miles 675 ft up and down (8:45 min pace)

 For a grand total of 16 miles, 2390 feet of elevation change!

I plan on doing a running blog post throughout the day, posting how I'm feeling before and after each run. I'm also going to run to the store and load up on bananas, bagels, peanut butter, and protein bars to simulate what I'll be eating on race day. 

Even though I think (know) tomorrow will be a brutal, painful, "why-am-I-doing-this-please-make-it-stop" kind of day, I'm secretly looking forward to it. I love a challenge.

Yesterday's Wall Street Journal had an article on Making Marathons Even Tougher and highlighted the Pikes Peak Marathon, one of the more brutal trail marathons around. Blair saw me reading the article and was like, "No. No. Hand it over. That's it. You are officially banned from reading anything in the media." 

He knows me well. I'm not even close to being in the competitive shape needed to tackle something like the Pikes Peak marathon. But that didn't stop me from spending 40 minutes on the site, reading the course description and thinking, "Hmm... maybe... someday..."

Cheers!