Santa Monica Mountains 50K

It's amazing what a difference 25 degrees and proper nutrition will make in a race! I went into last Sundays 50K a little nervous due to my first experience in an Ultra Marathon. Last Mays race pretty much wrecked me so I went into this race with the goal of finishing without bonking. My theory was that nutrition, mainly not taking in enough calories, had a significant part in my troubles. And then obviously the heat (in the 90's) was the largest reason that I and everyone else had such a rough day. The theory sounds obvious, but it was possible that the distance of 31 miles was just too much for me or maybe the 5,000' + elevation change. So, not knowing precisely why I felt like dying last May and having to do it all again, was both intriguing and a little intimidating.

Unfortunately the weather is something we have no control of. Fortunately, the weather was perfect. Well, perfect for the race that is. We camped Saturday night and it was FREEZING!

OK, camping is really cool, but camping the night before an Ultra Marathon isn't the best time to enjoy the great outdoors. You're supposed to get a good nights rest, not sleep with a rock jammed into your femur and be so cold that you lay there weighing the cost/benefit of the temporary warmth you might gain by peeing in your jammies vs. leaving your tent to relieve yourself the more civilized way. Due to my stellar pre race hydration plan, I was able to ponder that decision multiple times (I chose the 2nd option). In any event, it was nice to be 2 miles away from the start of the race.

So, it looked like the weather was shaping up to be perfect. I am gonna guess that it was in the low to mid 50's by the time we got to the race start at around 8:00 am. With about 30 minutes till the start of the race, I made one last check of my nutrition for the day. I would do a Power Gel every 30 minutes along with Nuun tablets added to my water. This part of my nutrition would be carried in my Nathan hydration pack and would be supplemented by aid station food approximately every 6 miles.

Besides nutrition and weather, I also planned to keep my heart rate at a level that I felt I could sustain for 7-8 hours. I picked a number that was, perhaps, a bit on the conservative side, I went with 170-175 bpm. That may seem high, but my max heart rate is 210 and 170-75 is my usual marathon range, so it would seem logical. But, when going up steep inclines, it is really hard to not let the old heart rate creep up. So to keep it in check will mean walking a good portion of the uphills and running the flat and downhill portions of the course.

With all of these details on my mind, I didn't get to enjoy the start as much as I would have liked to. I gave a quick wave to Wendell and Sarah (the most AWESOME race directors AND insane ultra runners). I talked briefly to my running buddy Lori

who I met at the race back in May and Phil, with whom I did the MT. Disappointment training run for the race that never happened.

Off we went! It's funny, I have built this story up so much, I feel like there should be more of a payoff. The truth is, the race was pretty uneventful. I felt really good the majority of the time. Maybe too good. Lori and Phil did the 30K and they waited for me when I came in to the aid station and said I looked like I just got home from work (yeah right, haha) I think I could have gone a little harder on the uphills. By the way, Lori and Phil are FAST! Lori got 3rd place in her age group and 1st in her AG for the series. Maybe trying to keep up with her in May is what did me in haha. Anyway, I kept to my plan, according to my Garmin I had an avg. heart rate of 170 and finished in 8:03. thats an hour and half faster than the last one. But most importantly I felt really good and am no longer intimidated by the distance. Next time I will race it and try to knock a whole lot more minutes off my finish time. Then I will most likely start this whole process over again with the 50 mile distance.

Here are some pictures from the trail. Notice the real technical parts of the trail where "running" is next to impossible. I think I could have shaved a good 10 minutes off my time had I not snapped so many pictures. But, it was a beautiful day on a stellar course with amazing people. What more could you ask for?

This is where I had problems last race.



This is the view from the place I sat for an hour. Notice that the only potential shade seems to be around that mountain.





This was the view for the last 2 miles. It's amazing how GREAT you can feel at the end of 31 miles when this is the scenery!

Paul

Again...... With the 50K

I have been meaning to sit down and write about my next race in the Santa Monica Mountains. I like to fill my blogs with as many links and pictures as possible, but that requires writing it on my laptop, which also means setting aside a block of time dedicicated to ONE thing. In a perfect world, I would NEVER multitask. We do not live in a perfect world, so I am tapping this into my iPhone while getting my miles in on the stationary bike.

I will be running the "Santa Monica Mountains 50K" next Sunday, Nov. 23rd. It will be an important race in terms of dialing in my nutrition and pacing, but at the same time, I will be running it with the top priority being "to have fun". The course is run on the same trails as my first 50k last May. The Sycamore Canyon 50k was a VERY challenging race for me and I go back with the goal of finishing in better shape than I did the first time. Brittany and I will be camping on Saturday night so I don't have to make the long drive Sunday morning.

Camping and running, sounds like a perfect weekend!

Paul