Monday, April 6, 2009

Umstead 100 (50 for me) race report - Lap Two

Lap Two

I am writing this up in long hand sitting on a plane on my way to the west coast for work (well, actually, I am not on the plane now, I am now typing my notes in a hotel room). I can never be bothered to get my lap top out while travelling, I’ll type this up later (like now).

Note to self: it is not wise to plan to sit in a plane so soon after an Ultra.

Right then, Lap 2. After my pit stop, it was off to race HQ to grab a gel for my water bottle. Overall rest time at the end of the lap was probably 5 or 6 minutes. Refill water bottle, grab some banana, and off I go.

Just after the turnaround at the end of the airport spur, I was lapped for the first time. It turns out I was passed by David James who was the eventual winner of the 100 with an overall time of 15:05. He was flying, at the time I thought he would never make it to the end if he keeps at that pace. It also crossed my mind that perhaps he was a fast runner who just got to the starting line late, and was trying to make up for lost time – but no, I was being lapped, as he passed he said, “Great running, keep it up” – certainly gave me a little boost. I was on my 14th mile, he was on his 27th. Incredible.

Somewhere around mile 15, I noticed a woman coming out of the woods, (one thing that was starting to stand out, was that all ultra runners, regardless of gender seem to have the same attitude when it comes to outdoor facilities.)

We were running parallel for a minute or so, at which point she started to look at her legs, and then she said, “Tick check”

I think, “Huh? Tit check? You’re not looking in the right place”. I remove my headphones and say, “Excuse me?”

“Tick check”

“Aah. Got it.”

This was my introduction to my main source of motivation for the next couple of laps, this was my new friend Frankie.

The miles started to fly by; both the conversation and pace were relaxing and comfortable. Soon we were upon the dog pile. “Surprised no one has stepped in it yet, and remarkable how fresh it looks considering I know it is at least 3 or 4 hours old” That was the 30 seconds wasted on lap 2.

At about mile 18, I did think to myself that in my last organized event, (OBX marathon), this was the point where the wheels fell off; my right calf muscle went, resulting in me limping the rest of the way.


Before I knew it, Frankie and I were approaching AS#2.

I was beginning to notice some chafing where the inside of my thigh meets my crotch. Nothing too bad, but it was the first time I had experienced anything like this with the Nike Dri-Fit shorts. No problem, just apply some lube and try not to think about it.

Refill the bottle with water and this time an “Acel Gel”. During my long training runs, I had been mixing/alternating between Acel and Hammer gels, so during the race, I was doing “Hammer, Hammer, Acel”. I grabbed some banana, M&M’s and some trail mix, and off we went.

Again the miles flew by, and Frankie and I chatted about running, everything and nothing. It didn’t seem long before the “sawtooth 79” section was done, and we were heading down Graylin.

With about a mile to go, Frankie pulled ahead, her blistering pace on the hills left me in the dust as I was starting to slow.

The chafing was still bothering me, so as I was approaching the race HQ, I made the decision to put on compression underwear. This is where I was praising myself for being incredibly smart – a) for thinking of bringing the compression underwear in the first place, and b) for bringing a towel so I could change without revealing too much!

Lap: Two
Accumulated miles: 25
Lap time: 2:46:36
Accumulated time:
Pace for lap: 13.17 min/mile
Accumulated pace:

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