Count your Chicken after They Hatch: Lesson Learned from My First 50 Mile Ultra Marathon by Article Manager
My first triathlon coach gave me some very wise advice regarding preparing for a race. He told me that the things that we most worry about affecting us on race day NEVER happen. Instead, it's always something that we don't expect. So far, after 12 Ironman races, about a dozen marathons, four 24 hour world record attempts and my first 80 km ultra marathon, this advice has proven to be very true.
I was quite nervous going into this 50 mile (80 km) ultra marathon because it was my first shot at running farther than the standard 26.2 mile marathon distance. My right knee had been swollen and sore for about 3 weeks leading up to race day. Most of my training has been on steep hills and the constant downhill pounding really affected my right knee.
Thankfully, and true to my coache's advice, my knee injury never really bothered me during the race and instead I was inflicted by something else that I never expected- I got stupid and assumed my success, counting my chickens before they were hatched. I had eggs sold, the chickens cooked and the money spent. Basically, I got a bit stupid for a while and it cost me about 1.5 to 2 hours in additional running! Here's the story:
The race started at 5:00 am with the blow of a horn and I kissed Helen goodbye (she was running the half marathon that started at 10:00 am), turned on my headlamp and joined about 80 fellow 50 miler runners as we launched ourselves through the start line and disappeared into the forest for a very, very long day. A few minutes after we started our first climb I heard a voice calling out from behind me down the trail.
It was my buddy Dennis from Boulder, CO who had driven out to Bellingham, WA to run the race with me! It was so great to see Dennis and I had totally forgotten that he was coming out, so it was a really cool surprise to learn that I had someone to run with. Our paces were very well matched- I worked to keep up with Dennis on the up-hills and he worked to keep up with me on the downs. I think we were pushing each other.
The course is a brutal 13,000 feet of elevation and rated 4 out of 5 for technical difficulty, and 5 out of 5 for elevation. You are either running up or down - never flat. We were both feeling pretty good and after a few hours of 'warm-up', so we started to 'pick-off' runners one by one as the day wore on. We would see a runner down the trail and take aim, focus on our pace, eventually pass them and move on to our next 'victim'.
I was quite nervous going into this 50 mile (80 km) ultra marathon because it was my first shot at running farther than the standard 26.2 mile marathon distance. My right knee had been swollen and sore for about 3 weeks leading up to race day. Most of my training has been on steep hills and the constant downhill pounding really affected my right knee.
Thankfully, and true to my coache's advice, my knee injury never really bothered me during the race and instead I was inflicted by something else that I never expected- I got stupid and assumed my success, counting my chickens before they were hatched. I had eggs sold, the chickens cooked and the money spent. Basically, I got a bit stupid for a while and it cost me about 1.5 to 2 hours in additional running! Here's the story:
The race started at 5:00 am with the blow of a horn and I kissed Helen goodbye (she was running the half marathon that started at 10:00 am), turned on my headlamp and joined about 80 fellow 50 miler runners as we launched ourselves through the start line and disappeared into the forest for a very, very long day. A few minutes after we started our first climb I heard a voice calling out from behind me down the trail.
It was my buddy Dennis from Boulder, CO who had driven out to Bellingham, WA to run the race with me! It was so great to see Dennis and I had totally forgotten that he was coming out, so it was a really cool surprise to learn that I had someone to run with. Our paces were very well matched- I worked to keep up with Dennis on the up-hills and he worked to keep up with me on the downs. I think we were pushing each other.
The course is a brutal 13,000 feet of elevation and rated 4 out of 5 for technical difficulty, and 5 out of 5 for elevation. You are either running up or down - never flat. We were both feeling pretty good and after a few hours of 'warm-up', so we started to 'pick-off' runners one by one as the day wore on. We would see a runner down the trail and take aim, focus on our pace, eventually pass them and move on to our next 'victim'.
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