As I sit here, essentially not running, it seems like a good time to review my races for the last year.
I have mixed feelings about the outcome of these races, mostly because I am a perfectionist regarding racing; but, also, because I know now that part of why I am sidelined is because of my decisions regarding races this past year. it’s a good thing to look back sometimes, even if all it does is teach you a lesson :-)
🔹November 20, 2016 Eweb Run To Stay Warm 10k, Eugene, Oregon. 2 FOA
I can’t honestly remember right now what my training was like leading up to this race. All I know is that I expected to go around 41 minutes and I didn’t. But, I still finished second female and felt like I gave it my best effort.
Looking back, I think I expected more of my fitness to carry over from the Prefontaine memorial 10K in September. One really can’t assume that fitness will hang on for eight or 10 weeks without doing much to maintain it.
It rained a lot during this race, and it could’ve gone much worse than it did! I ended up with a gift card to a local running store, and that made me happy. It’s always nice to “earn back “the race entry fee through effort.
🔹January 1, 2017 First run 5K, Eugene, Oregon. 1 FOA
Here, again, is another situation where I felt the fear of missing out.
I actually was concerned that I might go over 22 minutes for this race, but somehow, despite a horrible chest cough/cold, I managed to sneak past a lot of people who maybe didn’t even show up because of the weather. There were flurries coming down during this race and I was pretty excited to finish first place woman in 20:13. The icing on the cake was meeting my friends Lynn and Cody, and having a complementary meal at McGrath’s Fishhouse. Bonus was the gift card take-home, which I gave to my mom for babysitting the boys that day.
🔹April 1, Shotgun trail blast 25k, Marcola, Oregon. 1 FOA
Two things vividly come to mind regarding this race: Number one, how completely under prepared I was for the distance. (I always like to run up to or over the distance when it’s less than 20 miles for a race.)
I think I had one long run that may have approached 12 miles, then entered this race knowing it would be a “long run with friends “.
Somehow, the course, being looped, gave me just the opportunity to learn where to go fast and allowed me to not wear any sort of pack whatsoever. Traveling light is the best way to race -if you can do it.
I remember feeling amazing even on the final loop, and thought to myself, “I could have signed up for the 50 K today! “.
I’m pretty sure that the minimal training allowed me to build up my oxygen reserves and distance just enough to power through 25k, but if I had tried to do the 50K, I might not have been able to run for a few weeks afterwards.
Delusional or not, during the race, it definitely felt like racing a good 50k was a possibility.
This third, unprepared, race was a turning point in my thinking, which led me to think it was a good idea to train less and race hard.
🔹April 15, Hotsprings Trail Run 19mi (weather-adjusted course), McKenzie bridge, Oregon. 2 FOA
Could I get away with another race two weeks later? Yes. But I would have to let my body heal, which means reduced training again between the two races. I didn’t have a lot of time to get in much running between the races and, when you have a races two weeks apart, what should you do for a long run anyway? I figured I just wouldn’t do one between, and would run the Hot Springs Trail Run race by ear.
Racing spontaneously seemed to be working for me, and I wasn’t doing much in the way of workouts inbetween, except perhaps maybe some strides or a set of intervals. (Usually, when I race, I like to take a good week of only easy or recovery running afterwards. Frankly, my body just doesn’t feel like giving a hard push for a few weeks if I put much into a race.)
This race was an amazing effort that I was caught by surprise with. The course was rerouted because of snow, And in the process we had a situation with a hairpin turn and a few miles of running past other runners on the way into the finish line. Although the first place female was in a league all of her own (finishing while I probably had three miles left!), I got into quite a battle for second place with another woman, who ran on my heels literally for 10 miles.
If you’ve never ran a race with somebody breathing down your neck for 10 miles, it’s quite an experience!
Of all my races this year, this is the one I am the most proud of for tactical running and not caving in under pressure.
The woman I edged out was lovely to speak with, and, actually a couple years older than me, (surprise, surprise)! Our amazing prizes were medals and gourmet ketchup.
It didn’t hurt that we got to soak in the hot springs after the race. For that alone, I’m planning to do this one again next year. :)
🔹July 9, Mt Hood 50K, Clackamas lake, Oregon (5hr 12min, massive PR) 1st master female
I had signed up for Mt. Hood 50k a little late. Being 90th on the waitlist, I didn’t expect to actually get into the race. Luckily, I did some longer trail runs expecting to get into a race later in the summer. One of the runs was at Waldo Lake, where I expected to run around the circumference of the lake, but ended up getting to some snowy areas that had not melted, and decided to turn around rather than get lost. I ended up running for four hours that day; but, although that is a good amount of time on feet, it wasn’t much distance, and left a big gap between the long run and the 50 K.
Again, I thought that I could wing it and didn’t want to lose my opportunity.
I accepted the challenge and talked a friend into volunteering for the race. We were able to secure a campsite thanks to her volunteering, and stayed just minutes from the race the night before.
This ended up being an excellent dirt-track one that I would highly recommend. I created a pace chart for myself based on previous PR’s, knowing that I might end up fading really badly from the plan.
Quite surprisingly, I was able to follow the pace chart fairly well! It got a little rough toward the end, especially after 20 miles when it felt like my legs might fall off from the hips and glutes. But, I sucked it up and reminded myself that “it’s supposed to feel that way in an ultra “..
Now, in retrospect, I’m not so sure it supposed to feel that way if you trained properly. But I have never trained properly for an ultra, so that is still unproven!
When I managed to make it through the last six station and saw how much time was left to my previous PR, I figured I might have a good chance unless it was a long course. I was quite surprised to have some time in the bank when I crossed the line!
This cemented my thinking that it was perfectly acceptable to train very little and run a long way...
🔹Not a race, but a long training run
As part of a paid project for inov_8 this summer, I decided to find an opportunity to run 50K as a training run.
Strange things happened with the weather and with my opportunities to go run long and I tried to rally friends to go exploring in a new area, but nothing ever seemed to work out.
Then, in August, Oregon got hit with a horrendous fire season and half of the Rogue and Umpqua river areas were torched.
Right before August ended, I found an adventure and joined my friends Laurie and Heather on their training run in Williams, Oregon.
We had to reroute our planned run to a different stretch of the Pine to Palm 100 course; but, when we got there we discovered the trail was close due to fire!
Our plan B ran us right into a different fire. I ran out of drinking water and got quite sore during that long run.
I realized afterwards that perhaps 6 weeks is too long to go between long runs, but wouldn’t know it for a few more weeks.
🔹September 2, Sunset bay trail run, Half Marathon, Cape Arago, OR. 2 FOA
This was the last of the races for the year.
Having done the four miler, I knew not to go out hard in the sand. I assessed the runners and wondered how things would shake out. There were several younger runners, including one female I trailed for about half the race.
Near the halfway point, I rolled an ankle- a first for me in a trail race.
I was SO close to having the women’s lead! It hurt- but I definitely didn’t want to drop out. I managed to limp and then run again, feeling it as I went. We had to hit the top of the climb before running down and turning around - to run up to the top and back the way we came.
There was a fair amount of road, and combined with the relatively short distance, it was a true race with serious pounding. I tried to catch the woman leader, but to no avail.
At the end, we finished less than a minute apart, but I had a foot in bad shape and getting worse. I took 4 days off running after the race just to let it improve, but even in November, I can still identify the area when I stretch. It was a doozy!
Although I put my all into these races, I do wish I had put more training into a base before I took them on. That’s the one thing I think would have helped the most this year, besides strengthening and stretching.
Currently I’m experiencing ongoing hip and glute soreness, deep within. I suspect it’s a kind of tendinitis (external snapping hip syndrome with pain in the glute too.?), or possibly bursitis, but I’m just taking a break for a while to see if it will resolve.
I’m definitely not done racing, but need to balance things out differently next year with training. I got pretty lucky I did as well as I did, but I think i’d be a lot healthier as a runner with a more balanced schedule. So, that’s my goal for 2018: Plan my training better and follow through!
