Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Slowly but Surely

I ran the Watershed Preserve 12 Hour race this past weekend in Redmond, WA. It's a great race- really well organized, lots of great folks, and a pretty fun loop too. I've run this race 4 years in a row now I guess. Last year I won and set a new course record (79.96 miles). This year I did not.

I finished the day at 64.something miles (basically 65), and it was a tough day. I felt fantastic for 4 loops (about 20 miles) and led at what felt like a comfortable pace. I remember thinking how nice it was to be out for a long run on such a beautiful day and how good I felt and hey, I might just go for breaking my record today... Then things took a turn on the 5th loop quickly. I still kept a good pace, but just was feeling worn out. Fortunately, a friend came out to pace me (a.k.a. in this instance "keep me company") and he joined me for the next 5 or 6 hours, which made the time pass quickly, even if my legs weren't moving quickly. I had some stomach issues and ended up throwing up a lot around 3pm. It was tough to recover from that and I never really got re-energized after losing so much fluid and calories.

My main goal for the day was to get in a long training run and be on my feet for 12 hours. I accomplished that goal and feel good about my run, despite it being a less than spectacular performance. I've been getting more sleep lately, and am training more consistently, so I know things will just continue to get better, which is great. Summer in Seattle is coming round the bend, and it's going to be another great one I suspect.

Video from last year;

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