Race 100 Miles as a LCer? YES!!!!!!
Hello Fellow LCer's,
As I posted last week in my journal I prepared for and completed a double Lost Boys 50 Mile Race. I ran the first 50 miles as a race participant, then turned around and ran/hiked/shuffled back the final 50 for a total of 100 miles. It took me 33.5 hours total. This includes crew stops to eat and fill up my camelbacks, change clothes, get ice, etc.
The race starts in the Barrego desert, runs up a wash, over a mountain, thru a valley, then up to an upper mountain meadow, then up into the mountains, finally ending at a school camp in the Cuyamaca Mtns.
The first 50 miles were tough for me. I didn't have the leg strength that I had last year but I did have the core body strength (that you Nat!) from lifting weights (upper body) and doing sit ups. I felt pretty good except for two sections were I felt lousy. I had doubts about finishing the first 50 at that time but the feelings passed and I got back on track.
I finished the first 50 in 14 hours and a few minutes. Last year I finished in 12:45. We were in no hurry as we needed to conserve for the second 50. Anyway, I got the finish, drank my dream shake (heavy cream, soy drink, strawberries, flax seed oil, flax seeds) changed my clothes, fillied up the camelback and headed back out with my buddies. We decided to stick together through the mountain section and we all ran/hiked in tandem. We covered those 18 tough miles and arrived back on the highway where we met our crews. At this point I knew that I would make it, as the hardest part was over. We ate some soup, filled up our fluids and headed back out. We went through the upper meadow section and met our crews again. More soup, then we began the decent to the desert. We arrived at the next highway crossing shortly after dawn. More soup and off through the sandy wash to the next point.
This was a tough section. It's really hard to run in soft sand, it made my calves tighten up and my feet were really sore at this point. I just ignored the pain (sometimes denial is a good thing) and trudged on. We arrived at the bottom of the mountain road for our final mountain ascent before the final drop down into the desert. This was the road that kept on giving! We kept going and going, surely the summit was just around the bend? NOT! It had a false summit, oh well, we kept going and finally reached the top where we filled up on ice and water.
We finally began the descent towards the wash. We walked/shuffled along a jeep road then finally climbed down into the wash. At this point we commented on how cruel it was for us to have to climb down boulders after covering 90 plus miles. We got through that section, cruised through another wash then arrived at the Boulders, the last climb before we hit the dirt road to the finish.
Our friend met us at the dirt road with cold drinks, I gave him my camelback and made an attempt to run the last 4.4 miles to the finish. I managed to shuffle along and actually sprint for a while to catch my friend who had gotten ahead of me. I mean we are talking a ten minute mile pace here! I finally caught my friend and we walked across the finish line together. Two eight year old boys (sons of our crew) constructed a "FINISH" line. They tied palm branches together for an archway and wrote the word "Finish" with little rocks, it was so sweet!
We were glad to be finished, the first thing I did was take off my shoes, put on my Tevas (sandals) and get into the cooler for my goodies, a cucumber, mango, apple and nuts, although the nuts were kinda soggy.
Three of us finished the 100. One friend in 31.5 hours, he's 60 years old. My friend, age 59 and myself age 43 in 33.5. We had no deadline and we were pleased with the result. This was my friend's first 100. I've run one other trail 100 although I unofficailly finished (after the cutoff) and I've run 100 miles on a track on three different occasions.
This is a first as a lowcarber. I did not carboloab before the race but I did increase my carbs a little bit. I am following Schwarzbein and consume an average of 70-90 carbs a day. During the race I used performance products such as GU and Zone bars for a hourly caloric intake of appx 200 calories. I drank three shakes when I could and ate chicken noodle soup. I was hungry for FAT! Lesson learned, I will include something with a little more fat in it for the next race.
On a humerous note, one thing that kept running through my mind was "Starchile's road to fabulous" (journal title). I don't know why it just did.
I thought about the annoucement I made in my journal and about all of the support that I've received from this forum. I must say that that kept me going when the going got tough.
I look forward to continued success and hope to train hard this summer, get stronger and get to my ideal weight. Thanks to all of you who have supported mt efforts.
Take care,
Maureen
|
|
Once again, Maureen .... YOU ROCK!!
