Race day!

It’s go time! I was well prepared and ready to go. The weather forecast looked perfectly runner nice the whole day, mid to high 50s and cloudy. My goal was to sub-7 hours (roughly 13:30 min/mile) and as I studied the course the week and night before, decided that this was a race I could potentially PR so I set a stretch goal of 6.5 hours (sub 13 min/mile). My plan was to take the first 15 miles super easy, walking most of the steeper uphill sections that were in the half of the race then attacking the downhill the second half.

Everything was going according to plan in the first half. I took the climbing in the beginning nice and easy and I was feeling good. I was right at my stretch target pace going into the downhill and as I started attacking the downhill the plan started falling apart. Weird arm cramping issues started slowing me down and it started getting hot slowing me to a crawl then forcing me to sit and take a break on course. I got down on myself for pushing too hard, too early, and started to get frustrated with myself but I remembered the post I wrote last night. I need to reset my mindset. I am trained and prepared for cramping and overheating. I am still well within my goal of sub-7 hours if I just get salt in now and force myself to get up and start moving right now.

I got up and I was able to finish the race in 6:30. The race ended up only being 29 miles so it put me at 13:30 min/mile or right at my goal!

I was unable to track the amount of water I drank today but I did drink a full 32 ounces on my drive home. My sleep was crappy again last night only getting three hours (something I am still trying to improve on race days) and yah I’m pretty sure I covered my activity goal for today!