My training for the Brazos Bend 50 miler was less than to be desired. I had taken five weeks off of running after Rocky Raccoon 100, and on my first six miler I felt winded. Goes to show how quickly you can get out of shape. I settled into the regular routine of daily runs. During spring break, I camped at Bandera for three days. The big day was four hours of hill repeats on Sky Island with 3000+ feet of vertical gain.
From the top of Sky Island
But then I got busy, got a cold, then a stomach virus, so I really didn't get in a proper long run for three weeks. I managed to do a 20 miler on Good Friday, a ten mile out and back on the Spring Creek Greenway.
My main goal for this race was to finish and get in the miles for the Bighorn 100 in June. Still, I had never really nailed a 50 miler. My PR was at the Texas Trails 50 in Huntsville State Park in December 2012. In that race I'd gone out too fast and crashed badly, finishing on 10:05. My A goal would be to go under nine hours, my B goal sub-ten.
The Course
I had never been to Brazos Bend State Park, but was excited to go in that there were supposed to be alligators on the trails. The course consists of three 16.7 mile loops of flat trails. The terrain ranges from gravel to smooth trail with a bit of pavement. The biggest climb was like eight feet.
You get to see a lot of beautiful wildlife of birds and, yes, alligators on the trails. Too bad my phone was messed up so no pictures.
The Race
I got up at 3am to get ready for the hour and a half drive from The Woodlands to Needville, south of Houston.
We started at 6am by headlamp, a fingernail moon sailing above the fog and swamps. The sun rose about an hour later but stayed under cloud cover. While it was hot and humid, this made the weather manageable for the first two loops.
For loop one, I tried to focus on running my own race. I let people pass me the first few miles and tried to run a steady, comfortable pace. After a few miles, started chatting with some folks and fell into their pace, which was a little brisker than before. While the conversation was good, I started to feel a bit tired by the end of the first loop. Mentally I added up the miles to go, always a mistake, and went I into a mini-low period. I finished first loop in a little under three hours.
I rebounded and for most of the second loop I race a slow pace of 12 or 13 minutes per mile. I'd run nearly every step at this point. I felt very good at this point and was ready to push it on the final loop at a little over six hours in.
Here is where I made my mistake. After saving up my energy at 33 miles in, I ran the first 4.7 section of the final loop hard. At the same time, the sun came out from behind the clouds. I started feeling weak with heat chills coming out of the first aid station of the loop. I walked a bit, then jogged very slowly, trying to recover.
Reaching the second aid station, halfway through the final loop, I felt the wheels coming off. I walked for a few minutes, thinking about how far the final seven miles seemed. I told myself that if I could run the three miles to the last aid station, I'd have earned a decent performance, even though the nine hour goal was gone and ten seemed to be slipping away. I did manage to jog to the next aid, seesawing with runners who would stop to walk then run faster than my pace. I don't know which was a better tactic.
After the final aid I walked a few more minutes, telling myself that I'll check my Garmin and see how close I was to ten hours. I started jogging for a few minutes, then checked my watch again with two miles to go. If I could run eleven minute miles to the finish, I might break ten hours. I started to run hard.
A mile and a half later came the blessed moment when I saw the green inflatable arch of the finish fast approaching. Either my Garmin had been wrong or the aid station split was a bit short. I hurtled across the line in 9:51:52.
This giant medal make me feel like Flavor Flav!
Reflections
First and foremost, I'm glad I got in the 50 miles to have a base for Bighorn. I feel good that this race did not devolve into miles and miles of walking as did Nueces and Hells Hills last year. I don't think I walked more than ten minutes at a time. Hal Higdon said we take our running victories where and when we can get them, so I'm happy I got a PR and made my B goal, even though I think nine hours was possible with a better performance.
The obvious lesson is that even with saving up energy until the last third of the race, which was great, I shouldn't then just start running as hard as I can. I should have gradually increased the pace towards the finish. Also, I really didn't have any strategic walk breaks the whole race, rather walking was reactionary. I should plan these, especially for flat races.
Thanks to Brazos Bend Trail Races and the volunteers for putting on a great race, and my family for supporting me.
I'm excited going into Bighorn 100. Now it will be as much Stairmaster as I can get and a lot of long runs...
