Well things didn't go exactly as planned but I guess they never do. I did o.k. but felt terrible! I don't think a month is enough time between 50k's for me to recover and be ready to run strong again. I felt strong at Moab and was able to really push hard to the finish and pass people the whole way. this race was a different story. I tried to do a good taper but ended up doing a long hard bike ride on the wed. before the race. Dumb I know, but it was a memorial ride for a friend who just died and I needed to be there. I slept great and ate great all week and before the race. I drank plenty on the run and ate 4 gu's, yuck!! One every hr. I had a bite of a pb and j and a couple orange slices and potato chips and that was all. They lost my little drop bag so i had no chews and no peanut m and m's which was hard, I hate Gu! I carried one hand held which worked fine for this race. Kind of annoying though, I think I like wearing my water vest the best. My ipod kept shorting out which was also killing me! It came on the last 3 miles which saved my life! I need good strong tunes at the end to keep my mind of the pain! Onto the run.. I started of with the top 3 women (dumb in retrospect!) They were all from Montana and they were fast. I know Niki Kimball (won the last 4 buffalo run's) was one of them. I did feel awesome running with her but come to find out she was way sick and dropped half way through. We ran the first loop in 2:20, 40 min. faster then the last time I raced the 25k. It was not smart! My quads felt heavy and tired from the first mile on. The girls all left me in the dust on the first long downhill, not sure why that keeps happening? How can I be slow running downhill? Need to fix that. I caught them on the flats and hills but by the end of lap one they were pretty well gone. I was in fifth now and held that till the end. I barely stopped at the aid stations, ran by two of them. 3 quick potty stops-you have to be quick on the island there is no where to hide!! The top women were really spread out. 1st place was an hr. ahead of me (ouch!) and a 1/2 ahead of second place. There was no real incentive to push hard at the end, no one to catch or pass in sight, not that I could have. It was also really hot and that hurt me too, not used to that problem yet. I kept wondering the whole time "why am Io doing this" "is this even fun", "I should have gone climbing today, I had a babysitter for 8 hrs., why did I chose to do this" and many other things... I just felt crappy, tired legs, no real pain anywhere, stomach was o.k. just tired. So what went wrong? I should have rested up more between Moab and Antelope. I should not have done the bike ride, well yes I should have. I should have done the first lap slower, more comfortable then sped it up on the last lap. My problem is though, would I have had enough juice if I would have waited to catch anyone? Not sure. I ended up in fifth overall and 3rd in age group. Happy because it was a strong field, all of the top 5 ladies before me have ton of races behind them and most have done 50's and 100's. I felt good about where I came i but I want to have more fun next time, feel better. I need to train harder so I can win with better form or just stop trying to "keep up" and place and just race with the goal in mind to finish and have fun. I was really sore Sun-Tues. One toenail is gone. No real injury pains have popped up, just tired and sore. Went on some walks, did some yoga and a bike ride today and am feeling pretty good. Grand Canyon double in 5 weeks. the maybe a little break. i am suppose to do Pocatello 50 four weeks after the r2r2r but am thinking that may not be a good idea!
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