USA! USA! USA!

So, where were we? Oh, right, I had just run an FA 50k and was well on my way to my first official ultra race. I haven't been updating as much as I would like but I've been queuing up some thoughts and things to write about so I'll have more regular updates.

With the FA 50k out of the way, I had my sights set on the MST 50k race here in Raleigh (Wake Forest). Before MST, I registered for Wrightsville Beach Marathon with a friend of mine. I figure it would be a normal training run and on top of that, I haven't run an official marathon since my first one in 2008. It all sounded great until I realized I got the dates mixed up. I was now scheduled to run a marathon and 50k on back-to-back weekends. Oh boy...

Wrightsville Marathon 2015

Wrightsville came and I decided that I was just going to take it easy with my only goal being to beat my first marathon time of 4:10. My friend David and I were standing at the start, in the dark parking lot of Wrightsville and we start talking about paces. I planned on an 8:30 mile pace for the first half, then an 8:00 pace for the second half with a 7:30 kicker in the last couple of miles. Then the gun goes off and it all goes out the window as we start to talk about, "what if we qualify for Boston?!". I only had a couple of miles above 8, the rest were all sub 8. This was also my first official race using Tailwind Nutrition. I had a leaking reservoir of water, 2 soft flasks for Tailwind, and a supplemental Hammer gel every 20 minutes.

The crowd really got me pumped up. You see, every aid station was manned by volunteers and different colleges. So there was an NC State station, UNC, etc. Get a bunch of college students in groups during a big event and you get the Megazord of support. Couple that with the fact I was wearing American flag shorts and rocking a sweet trail beard and you have a recipe for chaos. Every station I ran by echoed the calls of dozens of students chanting, "USA! USA! USA!" and/or "SWEET BEARD!" This usually got everyone around me pumped up as well. Good times.

Mile 25 or so. USA!

I only stopped once to pee and otherwise felt great. I did have some chaffing from my hydration pack (more on that in a later post) and I ended up running out of Tailwind towards the end. I used the aid station grab-n-go cups of water and Gatorade. The last couple of miles I was still feeling alright and posted 7:30s for mile 25 and 26 with the normal adrenaline-fueled .2.

Overall I'm incredibly satisfied with that time. Old PR of 4:10 to new PR of 3:26. While the excitement of going all out to try and get a Boston time was fun, I knew it wasn't realistic with my lack of speed training and increase in the slow-and-steady distance training, so I didn't go for it. I was supposed to take it easy and use it as a training run since I had MST 50k the next weekend. Oops...

OK USA!

Post Race Info

Strava Details - https://www.strava.com/activities/272298514

Lessons Learned:

• Steady pace until half way and then reevaluating for faster pace in the second half still works well for me.
• I'm still too small for the extra small vest I had on. Can't wear tank tops/singlets with it. The chaffing is real.
• Will not use soft flask bottles for main race bottles ever again. They sag into the pockets.
• I don't enjoy repeat loops in distances races.
• Almost dialed into a new nutrition plan. Confident I can use only Tailwind and be fine. It just works.

Gear List:

• Shoes - Inov-8 Trailroc 235 (discontinued...)
• Pack - Salomon S-Lab Advanced Skin3
• Nutrition - Tailwind, Hammer Gel

Next episode

MST 50k recap and I spontaneously sign up for another 50k two weeks after MST...