Crossed the finish line on Sunday for my 50 miler. It was a good race. I have had better races. I think the rain and cold got to me a bit.
Two days prior to my race I nutritonally focused on fruits, oatmeal and potatoes. No beans or veggies. Just the easier digesting foods. I did not overeat to carb up before a race. If I stuff myself silly with food I feel blah. And honestly, if you meet your calories everyday, there is not need to overeat.
Race morning I started out with a bowl of oatmeal, 1 cup cooked oats, lots of strawberries, raisins and lots of maple syrup. Toed the line at 6 am. Overcast, calling for rain.
About every 5-6 miles there were aid stations. But since I am gluten free I tend to stay away from most of the food there. (If I ingest any gluten during a race, I would be doubled over.) Though they always have potatoes but that wasn't going to be on my race menu. I have a waist pouch that surprising carries a lot of food. My goal was to eat 100 calories every 1/2 and I started that eating one hour into the race. I found a gel made of all fruit. I despise GU gel and all that other gels. There are quite a few companies coming out with fruit based gels so that is nice. On top of that I also brought some cliff blocks. These work great too. This was my fuel for the first 30 miles. I was right on target with eating even though I didn't always feel like eating. Everything went perfect. I arrived at mile 30 on the trail where my family was at about 1/2 hour earlier than what I thought I would be arriving. Cool. Feeling good. At this point on in the race, I was going to eat grapes for the rest of the time. I switched to my hydration pack because the hand held bottle I was carrying was making my arms tired. I stuffed bags of grapes in my pack, grabbed my friend who paced me and off to finish the last 20.
The last 20 didn't go as planned. By about 35 miles, I was wet and cold. We had an incline up to the turn around. The rain was coming down and all I could think about was my warm house. I didn't have rain gear, but I am tough and some how I plugged along. I do know that this course is a flatter course than I am used too. I knew going into this race I needed to train more flats. I really should have put in 3-4 25-30 mile long runs on the flats. All my long runs had been hill work and I power walk the hills.But none the less, I think I ran 47 miles out 50. You definately use different muscles. This is the only flat race I will be running in this year, the rest of them are hills. That is what I love.
I ran through the finish line, happy and tired. Came home and ate strawberries and oranges. And then later ate potoatoes with salsa.
Today, other than sore quads I have no issues. All is good. Just been eating and drinking lots of water. I may go for a light jog on Wednesday and Thursday Then this weekend pick back up my training for my next 50 miler.
I will be doing a write up for Forks Over Knives on my race. It will be a shorter version with pics. Just waiting on some pics to come in. So look for that. They sponsored me in this race! Thanks guys!
