Attitude

Ran a 60k last night that I had been training for over the past 8 weeks, or so.  Overall, it went as good as could be expected, considering the challenges.  The heat didn't bother me, or so I thought.  But, at the pace I was running, which felt rather easy, I began having sharp gas pains at about mile 14, which would grind me to a halt on the trail bent over trying to ascertain any kind of relief.  Back to running, only to experience it repeatedly.

When I finished the first 18.6 mile loop, I had every intention of stopping, mainly because I didn't want to deal with the lower gut cramping for another 30k, which would slow me down to a pedestrian pace. Olga put a stop to that quickly and, before I knew it, I was back on the trail.  My legs felt the best they have in weeks on any run and mentally I was at a 10.  I just didn't have the patience or desire to deal with issues on the trail.

On my second loop, I went out a little slower to try and keep the gas pains in check, but, occassionally, I'd find myself bent over on the trail and have a runner ask if I was "ok" as they passed.  I was perfectly fine mentally and leg-wise, thankfully, just the gut issues.  At one point, a guy I was passing asked me how many miles we had ran.  My reply was that I had no clue.  I told him all I knew was the loop was 18.6 and that when we finished this loop we'd be done.  The mileage, to me, seem unimportant. I lowered my calorie intake and took advantage of drinking copious amounts of water.  Finally, at the second aid station, I caught up to a few guys I had been chasing down since the start.  I picked up the pace after leaving the aid station and did my best to hammer the next 4 miles to create a gap. I continued trying to build that gap after leaving the next aid station but, eventually, began having some twitching in my calves.  I believe I was ingesting so much water that I was flushing a lot of sodium out of my system.  Hence, the last 3 miles were much slower (10 min miles) than I would have liked since I would have to walk with the ebb and flow of the cramping.

I finished in a sprint, which I consider a rookie thing to do, only because I thought finishing with the minutes in the 30's seemed better than the 40's--hence, 6:39:59.

I woke up today with no soreness and a normal walk, which I attribute to good coaching from my wife and my lack of full on effort due to the heat, which affects me regardless if I want to admit that.  The best part of the race was having Olga send me out to finish what I started.  Second best thing was getting a flat tire on the way to the race and not letting it phase me one bit.  I had the tire changed and the car back on the road within 10 minutes.  Maybe, it's like one of the signs on the side of the trail during the race said, "...attitude is everything...".