Day 3,744-5 —Another Nice Summer Night!—

         Today, I still felt good and pushed myself a little to get in a few miles before I got back to work on my chores. I was still thinking about the race and wondering what I could have done differently, but still happy that I finished. Even though I really did not want to be there at all for probably about 2 hours, that’s how these things sometimes. It was good to talk to the other runners that I met. It was a good group, everyone was nice and the race director and the crew did a great job. I would do this one again. Not bad to get a night 50K plus in and have some good conversations with other runners. Also, the moon was spectacular: worth the price of admission.  

Reflections on the GYBK 6-hour race last night

I started the race exactly at the pace I wanted to, between 8:45-9:00 min miles. I was going to try to run as close to 40 miles (64.37 km) as I could, but if not it would be great to hit what I did last year at 36.x miles.

         I talked to a guy who recently moved to St. Louis from Arkansas on the first lap, and I drank water on the laps but didn’t carry anything. Everyone was zooming by me so fast on the first couple of laps, but everyone slowed down within the first couple of hours. I was not in the front, but it was rare for someone to pass me.

         I started talking to this guy I ran a couple of other races with and then had to immediately start walking. I suddenly had to use the bathroom, which was a theme for the next hour of the race. I just wanted to quit so bad after I hit 20 miles (32.19 km) at around 3:10 minutes. There was no way I was going to be able to make up that time, especially when I still wasn’t feeling great. All my clothes felt so tight and uncomfortable, and I just wanted to call it quits.

         When the moon came down, it was huge! One of the biggest I have ever seen and looked yellow from where I was standing. I wondered if there was a special moon event. I let myself take a couple more breaks just to convince myself to keep going. I knew I would feel better eventually, but by then it would be too late, and the race was almost over.

         It had been a stressful and long day already. It was my daughter’s 5th birthday party, which took all of my attention for most of the day. All of her friends and she had fun, and they all played outside in the water and with chalk, so it was good but also exhausting. I was looking forward to the run when talking to my brother, but I didn’t really know what effect the unusually busy day would have on my running.

         The weird thing is I didn’t eat a lot more than bread and watermelon, so I wasn’t expecting to end up feeling bad, but that’s how the diced landed. By my last full lap, I was finally feeling great and ran around 8 minutes and finished strong, completing 34.x miles according to my watch.

        

I talked to a guy that I have done some races before at the end of the run. We talked about how one of the things I like about doing the runs is I never know what is going to happen.