Sawtooth Relay - solo
12 legs, 6 friends (I have no friends), 62 miles.
Decided to do this solo on January 1. They only accepted 5 solo runners, first come, first served. I was the first entrant.
I considered myself to be in pretty good marathon shape, but would really need to add on the miles. Worked my weekly total up to 80 miles. My long run was only 30. I ran a 30/20 back to back weekend three times.
The plan was to run the the first 5 legs (26 miles +1% grade) at < 4 hours. Walk the next 6 miles over Galena summit (+1700 ft), then just play the rest by ear. In January, I thought 10 min miles might be reasonable. In May, I was thinking 12 min miles.
The first 5 legs went almost exactly on pace (1 min ahead of schedule), but I was already starting to feel the miles.
Walked Galena summit. Smart, very smart. I was passed by only a couple of team runners that were working very hard. They were within eyeshot when I reached the top. Kind of rested the legs and gave up almost no time. WALK WITH PURPOSE!
Leg 7 was steep downhill. Ran it at a pretty good pace. It seemed like free time.
At mile 40/45 I was really feeling it in the quads. Walked about 1.5 miles. It felt like 4 miles. I was doing the math in my head. What if I walk the rest of the way? Didn't like the answer. Started running again. Switched fuel to little baked potatoes and flat Coke.
Pace picked up to about 8:30 miles and felt like I was flying over the last 10 miles
Finished in 10 hours 35 minutes.
Yesterday I was so glad that I set the goal and posted a time I am proud of. Told my facebook friends no more ultra's one and done. Today I am starting to wonder how munch further I could have gone or maybe I could have run this one faster.
Overall, I am very satisfied with the result. I thought 10 min miles was out of reach, but I got pretty close.
They have not posted the results yet. There were only 5 solo runners. We each chose our own starting time. One started at 12AM (I passed him on the road). I started at 3AM. I don't know when the others started or finish so I will have to wait to see how I placed.
Looking forward to concentrating on the marathon again and getting my time down.
| 