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I have had almost 24 hours to mull this race over and I still don't know what to say about it.<br><br>
For those of you that don't know, this is a 4 lap race that is run in the Guana Tolomato Matanzas NERR<a href="http://www.gtmnerr.org/" target="_blank">http://www.gtmnerr.org/</a><br><br>
It was about 60 degrees and a little humid at the start. We got our normal pre-race briefing and were informed we would be running the course clockwise. The race director switches the directions of the loops each year between clockwise and counter clockwise.<br><br>
I was again hoping to break 5 hours. Just a simple goal and well off of my 50K PR but a barrier I haven't broken at Guana. I set my Garmin in the hopes that it would help keep me from starting to fast and that it would keep it's signal in the woods.<br><br>
The gun went off and I tried to settle into a what I thought was a safe pace. I ended up next to another lady and we chatted a little. Granted I suck at in-race talking. I guess since at most races I don't know people and I am so busy trying to concentrate on my pace etc I end up in a running zone. I get to the water station (37:51) and I take 2 cups of water and my gel pack and I feel good. One other lady that was running right behind me that was doing the relay ran through the water station and took off. I got moving again and after about a mile I caught up with another relay runner and the other lady I had been running with. THey were both looking down a trail at another runner that had missed the turn. They tried shouting but apparently her ipod was on. I volunteered to go chase her down. I picked up the pace, shouting trying to catch her. Finally I caught her after about a 1/2 mile???? No clue, I just know that i was getting winded since I had picked up the pace trying to close the distance on her. Finally I caught her and got her going back to the right trail. As we headed back she apologized and thanked me over and over and over for running her down and preventing her from getting lost. I think the trail would have dead-ended on her but I wasn't sure. I finished up the first lap in about 1:13:12. I was a little ahead of schedule even with the extra distance I ran and I felt good.<br><br>
After about a minute break to pack some more gel and get some gatorade I headed back out on the trail. The lady I saved was running with me on this lap now and she continued to apologize. I even had a few people that had caught up and passed me wondered how I ended up behind them. I explained and they all said well done etc. It was my good deed for the day and it was the right thing to do. I ended up running with another group of ladies and they were talking about an endless array of topics from pre kid weight to post kid weight to breast feeding etc. Kind of funny to hear them also busting on some guy that was apparently an idiot when he came to dealing with women. I get back to the water stop (39:51) and I still feel pretty good. I know my garmin has been losing the signal so I have no clue how accurate my pace guy is now. I continue to run the trails and my legs for the most part are holding up. I come back up on the start/stop drop bag area and I again take about a 90 second break. My split at this point is 2:27 and I am thinking, not bad, I am still on track for breaking 5 hours.<br><br>
The temperature is starting to rise and there is no breeze. I hate Florida in March. I head back out on the trails. Now I am starting to feel the fatigue and the weather and I guess the extra distance I put in to catch the lost runner. I get to the water stop (43:07) and I eat another gel, drink 2 glasses of water and head back out. I get to the water stop again and already my mind is just saying, this is like all the other years, I am good for 2 laps and then I crash and burn with 1.5 laps to go. I try hard to fight through those thoughts and I get my 2 cups of water and take another gel. I tell myself that I am not walking any of the course this year. After a short break I head back out for the second half of my 3rd lap. I continue to plod along and my legs are starting to feel tired. I look at my watch and it has lost the signal so I just use the time to gauge how much farther I have to go. The trail winds all over the place through the palmettos and I just follow the track. Ignoring the pain in my hip, my knees, my feet, all the normal pains you get when you have been running for 3 hours. I make my way back up the final part of the trail to complete my third lap. Total time is now 3:49:22. I didn't look at the clock when I checked in. I am just thinking, thank god almost done again.<br>
I take my last gel and drink more gatorade. After about a minute break I am back out, just wanting to get this stupid race done.<br><br>
My body is tired, my mind is tired and I ready to be done.<br><br>
How can I even think I can finish a 50 miler if I can't even handle a 50K?<br><br>
Why do I keep on doing this to myself?<br><br>
Why don't I just keep my runs to the shorter more sane distances?<br><br>
Those were all thoughts running through my head as I ran. I am no longer racing now, I am just trying to finish. As I was leaving a group of guys coming on to the finish line looked unbelieabley fresh and I thought they were the leaders. I learned later they weren't. THank Goodness. I would have been really p.o'ed if I had been almost lapped.<br><br>
I am heading back out to the final water stop and just hoping to finish without walking. I fight the urge to walk and I finally make it to the final water stop of the day for me. I drink 2 glasses of water, take my gel pack, even grab a couple of skittles to chew on and head out.<br><br>
Just a few minutes later my watch beeps at me and says something about work out completed!<br><br>
My mind just went Huh?? I can't be at 31.1 miles yet, I know I added some distance tracking down the lost runner but not that much. I just ignore it and keep on running.<br>
Then as I glance at my garmin it is giving me some wierd distance so I ignore it an just concentrate on my elapsed time. I know I am tired now. All the sudden my legs just stop running and the next thing I know I am walking. I have less than 3 miles to go to the end of the race and I am walking. I begin to hate myself again for getting so close and then losing it again. I walk for 2 minutes and then I start jogging for about 10 minutes. I walk again for 2 minutes and as I start jogging again I try and convince myself that I won't walk again.<br><br>
I keep my feet moving one in front of the other. I feel like I am walking and I am sure if you looked at me from a distance that is probably what I looked like as I did my runner shuffle trying to not trip on the roots. I make the final turn and head up the final 100 - 200 yards with the race director cheering me on and one of the ladies that caught me in final 3 miles cheering me on. I shuffle across the line, hit stop, put my hands on my knees and just stand there. One of the guys helping with the race timing offers to get me some water and gatorade. He asks me if I want anything to eat and I decline.<br><br>
I drink more water and gatorade, and then I grab a couple of soda's and finally head home. I climb in my truck and I see that my wife has called looking to make sure i am okay. I look up at the thermometer of my truck and I see it is now 73 degrees. Dang!<br><br>
I call my her back tell her I surived and due to poor cell phone reception that I will meet her at home.<br><br>
I stop at Publix and limp in there to get a 12 pack of Heineken Light and once I am at home I head to the back yard with a cold beer and my garmin. It is finally then that I look at my total time: 5:21:20. YUCK. It isn't my worst time but dang close. I then look at the distance covered. It says I ran 333.0 miles. Dang it really got screwed up in the woods. No clue how or why it did that.<br><br>
The overall places haven't been posted yet.<br><br>
Right now I hate this race and I am starting to think I will never break 5 hours for it. In a couple of weeks I will be over the dissapointment and I will start finding my next long run to try next Fall/Winter.<br><br>
Thanks for reading this.
For those of you that don't know, this is a 4 lap race that is run in the Guana Tolomato Matanzas NERR<a href="http://www.gtmnerr.org/" target="_blank">http://www.gtmnerr.org/</a><br><br>
It was about 60 degrees and a little humid at the start. We got our normal pre-race briefing and were informed we would be running the course clockwise. The race director switches the directions of the loops each year between clockwise and counter clockwise.<br><br>
I was again hoping to break 5 hours. Just a simple goal and well off of my 50K PR but a barrier I haven't broken at Guana. I set my Garmin in the hopes that it would help keep me from starting to fast and that it would keep it's signal in the woods.<br><br>
The gun went off and I tried to settle into a what I thought was a safe pace. I ended up next to another lady and we chatted a little. Granted I suck at in-race talking. I guess since at most races I don't know people and I am so busy trying to concentrate on my pace etc I end up in a running zone. I get to the water station (37:51) and I take 2 cups of water and my gel pack and I feel good. One other lady that was running right behind me that was doing the relay ran through the water station and took off. I got moving again and after about a mile I caught up with another relay runner and the other lady I had been running with. THey were both looking down a trail at another runner that had missed the turn. They tried shouting but apparently her ipod was on. I volunteered to go chase her down. I picked up the pace, shouting trying to catch her. Finally I caught her after about a 1/2 mile???? No clue, I just know that i was getting winded since I had picked up the pace trying to close the distance on her. Finally I caught her and got her going back to the right trail. As we headed back she apologized and thanked me over and over and over for running her down and preventing her from getting lost. I think the trail would have dead-ended on her but I wasn't sure. I finished up the first lap in about 1:13:12. I was a little ahead of schedule even with the extra distance I ran and I felt good.<br><br>
After about a minute break to pack some more gel and get some gatorade I headed back out on the trail. The lady I saved was running with me on this lap now and she continued to apologize. I even had a few people that had caught up and passed me wondered how I ended up behind them. I explained and they all said well done etc. It was my good deed for the day and it was the right thing to do. I ended up running with another group of ladies and they were talking about an endless array of topics from pre kid weight to post kid weight to breast feeding etc. Kind of funny to hear them also busting on some guy that was apparently an idiot when he came to dealing with women. I get back to the water stop (39:51) and I still feel pretty good. I know my garmin has been losing the signal so I have no clue how accurate my pace guy is now. I continue to run the trails and my legs for the most part are holding up. I come back up on the start/stop drop bag area and I again take about a 90 second break. My split at this point is 2:27 and I am thinking, not bad, I am still on track for breaking 5 hours.<br><br>
The temperature is starting to rise and there is no breeze. I hate Florida in March. I head back out on the trails. Now I am starting to feel the fatigue and the weather and I guess the extra distance I put in to catch the lost runner. I get to the water stop (43:07) and I eat another gel, drink 2 glasses of water and head back out. I get to the water stop again and already my mind is just saying, this is like all the other years, I am good for 2 laps and then I crash and burn with 1.5 laps to go. I try hard to fight through those thoughts and I get my 2 cups of water and take another gel. I tell myself that I am not walking any of the course this year. After a short break I head back out for the second half of my 3rd lap. I continue to plod along and my legs are starting to feel tired. I look at my watch and it has lost the signal so I just use the time to gauge how much farther I have to go. The trail winds all over the place through the palmettos and I just follow the track. Ignoring the pain in my hip, my knees, my feet, all the normal pains you get when you have been running for 3 hours. I make my way back up the final part of the trail to complete my third lap. Total time is now 3:49:22. I didn't look at the clock when I checked in. I am just thinking, thank god almost done again.<br>
I take my last gel and drink more gatorade. After about a minute break I am back out, just wanting to get this stupid race done.<br><br>
My body is tired, my mind is tired and I ready to be done.<br><br>
How can I even think I can finish a 50 miler if I can't even handle a 50K?<br><br>
Why do I keep on doing this to myself?<br><br>
Why don't I just keep my runs to the shorter more sane distances?<br><br>
Those were all thoughts running through my head as I ran. I am no longer racing now, I am just trying to finish. As I was leaving a group of guys coming on to the finish line looked unbelieabley fresh and I thought they were the leaders. I learned later they weren't. THank Goodness. I would have been really p.o'ed if I had been almost lapped.<br><br>
I am heading back out to the final water stop and just hoping to finish without walking. I fight the urge to walk and I finally make it to the final water stop of the day for me. I drink 2 glasses of water, take my gel pack, even grab a couple of skittles to chew on and head out.<br><br>
Just a few minutes later my watch beeps at me and says something about work out completed!<br><br>
My mind just went Huh?? I can't be at 31.1 miles yet, I know I added some distance tracking down the lost runner but not that much. I just ignore it and keep on running.<br>
Then as I glance at my garmin it is giving me some wierd distance so I ignore it an just concentrate on my elapsed time. I know I am tired now. All the sudden my legs just stop running and the next thing I know I am walking. I have less than 3 miles to go to the end of the race and I am walking. I begin to hate myself again for getting so close and then losing it again. I walk for 2 minutes and then I start jogging for about 10 minutes. I walk again for 2 minutes and as I start jogging again I try and convince myself that I won't walk again.<br><br>
I keep my feet moving one in front of the other. I feel like I am walking and I am sure if you looked at me from a distance that is probably what I looked like as I did my runner shuffle trying to not trip on the roots. I make the final turn and head up the final 100 - 200 yards with the race director cheering me on and one of the ladies that caught me in final 3 miles cheering me on. I shuffle across the line, hit stop, put my hands on my knees and just stand there. One of the guys helping with the race timing offers to get me some water and gatorade. He asks me if I want anything to eat and I decline.<br><br>
I drink more water and gatorade, and then I grab a couple of soda's and finally head home. I climb in my truck and I see that my wife has called looking to make sure i am okay. I look up at the thermometer of my truck and I see it is now 73 degrees. Dang!<br><br>
I call my her back tell her I surived and due to poor cell phone reception that I will meet her at home.<br><br>
I stop at Publix and limp in there to get a 12 pack of Heineken Light and once I am at home I head to the back yard with a cold beer and my garmin. It is finally then that I look at my total time: 5:21:20. YUCK. It isn't my worst time but dang close. I then look at the distance covered. It says I ran 333.0 miles. Dang it really got screwed up in the woods. No clue how or why it did that.<br><br>
The overall places haven't been posted yet.<br><br>
Right now I hate this race and I am starting to think I will never break 5 hours for it. In a couple of weeks I will be over the dissapointment and I will start finding my next long run to try next Fall/Winter.<br><br>
Thanks for reading this.
