I Am Now an Ultra-Marathoner

Well, at this point I'm recovering sufficiently to be able to type...a bit of drama, but my legs were really sore the next day.

The day started off with temperatures in the thirties and snow flurries, which I don't know how it could snow and be above 32, but that is a different blog entry...see 'The Crazy 2007-2008 Effed-up Madison Winter', to be posted. The week before I swore off junk and tried to drink as much water as possible, but it really wouldn't be too helpful. With the temperature at an odd degree, I was not sure how warmly to dress, with the cold and wind. The day before, I purchased a clear running/riding raincoat to keep on for the first lap until I warmed up...which only took a mile. So, I ended up wearing a vinyl raincoat with minimal ventilation for the first loop because I didn't want to ditch it somewhere and loose it. So I ended up getting sweaty instead and dehydrating myself much earlier than needed.

I never felt like I was really going that fast, I felt like I was running efficiently within myself, but looking at my pace, I needed to listen to my head more than to my body. My first lap went well, I ran 49:15, 7:56 pace. I grabbed Gu and took off again for another loop. My second was even faster, a 47:05 loop for a 7:34 pace. My third was a bit slower, 50:29 and 8:08 pace, but I stopped to use the bathroom for a bit, so it was probably just about as fast as the second. My fourth was 50:54 for 8:12 pace. At this point, my stride that was easy and efficient for the first four loops because labored an fatigued. I had to stop, stretch my legs and shake them out to try to keep my legs from shutting down completely. It helped the first time or two, but after I left the 6km aid station, my legs were almost completely shot. My hands were freezing running back along the lake with a north wind coming across the lake with no wind break. At the end of the fifth lap, I was questioning whether it was worth continuing. I had only decided to do this on a whim. I thought running 62.1 miles would be an interesting proposition. My goal this year is to qualify for the 2009 Boston Marathon at Madison in six weeks or Duluth in ten. Rather than continuing another five, six, seven, eight hours or more, I decided that sounded like an extremely dumb way to spend a Saturday, so I decided to shut it down. After questioning Kathryn if it is worth it, I ran across the timing mat to complete my fifth loop and notified the race director that I was dropping out. The jog across the mat was enough to know that it would have been a long second 31 miles.

So what did I learn? Running 100km is a long race and you really should train for it, rather than deciding to run it three weeks before the race. It is also best to run a conservative pace even if you are feeling pretty good. If I can qualify for Boston this year, I will run Boston next year and run the 100k the following year. I ended up finishing the 50k in 4:21, a 8:25 pace, with the stopping at the end trying to decide if I would continue. It didn't seem like a long race to me actually because I was able to get back to the start/finish line every fifty minutes. It felt like a criterium to me, though the laps were a little longer. I did enjoy it in the end and will do it again. I still can say though, that I am an ultra runner after completing a 50k. It just wasn't the 100k I had planned.

Go here for the results.

Photos to follow.