The Background
I was feeling kind of tired from work, though I had some good news about articles being accepted. I did a lot of stair repeats at work during breaks and a few 5-mile runs.
The Race
It was nice and cool. I felt really strong at the start, and ran all of the twisty, turny bike paths and bombed down the paved bike drop. I finished the first 7.8-mile loop in 1:28.
I met my goal of running to at least half marathon. Then I got tired, and I hiked another 2 miles or so, finishing the second loop in 1:50.
The sun came out, and it got kind of hot. Luckily there was a lot of shade on the course, so this was not a major factor. I shifted my goal from a sub-7 hour finish to a sub-8hr finish. I hiked the 3rd loop hard, finishing in 2:13.
I ran a short burst at the beginning of the 4th loop. Remembering I had a 100k in a week, I eased up the hiking a slight bit, but still moved briskly. In the last couple of miles, I passed a couple of folks, including one guy in a grey shirt who was sitting and adjusting his gear. Later, the guy in the grey shirt came running up behind me. Telling myself this was my chance to compete, I ran a burst to get away from him, then hiked as fast as I could to keep him behind me. After while, I couldn't see him anymore. With about a half mile to go, a guy in a red shirt came up behind me, and I did the same thing.
I thought I was taking it easier on the 4th loop compared to the 3rd, but I finished the 4th in 2:07, 6 minutes faster. Maybe brisk hiking with bursts of running instead of redlining it hiking is a better strategy.
I finished in 7:38, 41st out of 65 finishers and 74 starters.
Reflections
I gave this a good effort, but didn't push it as hard as some other races. I think it was a nice balance of being a training race and not completely loafing it. I'm glad I competed against those two guys who were going to pass me.
10 years after the 2015 Wild Hare 50k, I finished 37 minutes slower, about a minute a mile. 2015 was not a strong year anyway. I was in bad shape in my life and doing a one-off race which was my only finish in 2015. But it is nice that I was in the same general time range. What is better is that my life is better!
My pace was 14:46. So I would have banked a little over 3 hours for the Western States pace needed for Dinosaur Valley 100k (22 hours, 20:57 pace). So then I could have hiked 27-minute miles and finished. I still felt strong at the end. I should still ease up how fast I started.
Well, let's see if I can finish up the year with a 100k!
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