Another Dam 50k

Sunday, June 03, 2007

So Dam Hot! Another Dam 50k
Englewood Metropark near Dayton, OH
June 2, 2007

While I was home this week, I was going to take revenge on my 50k from January when I chose to quit after the marathon distance. I was going to go to the same Buckeye Trail course and run it now. When I started asking around for anyone who wanted to join me, Josh suggested instead that I come down and run Another Dam 50k with him. I accepted.

Because I did not want to stay overnight down there, I had to leave at about 3:30am from my house to drive down to the race. It started at 8 am and I got there at about 6:45 to register. I was the first raceday registration and I got number 50, appropriate for my first 50k finish! After registering I milled around helping the volunteers move coolers and stuff to the aid station. When I went back to my car at 7:15 there was a message from Josh that he had overslept and wasn't coming to the race. Damn! I left my mp3 player at home because I was running with a friend.

Shortly after that Josh called and said that he wanted to still come and just start late. COOL! So we agreed that I would go ahead and run the first 4.4 mile loop and then look for Josh because that would be about the time he should show up.

So I ran the first loop in :44 and when I got back as I was filling my water bottle, Josh showed. I had pre-registered him and all he had to do was sign the paper and head out. Josh, you still owe me 30 bucks by the way!

We headed out together on the 3.5 mile shorter loop, which was almost entirely in the shade of the forest, so that meant at the end of my race, Josh would have to run a 4.4 mile loop to complete his 50k.

It had been Josh who proclaimed that we were going to run a very slow 50k because he is getting close to the Mohican 100 race June 16. He said he wanted to do a 16 minute or so mile pace, for a total of around 8:30 for the 50k. I was fine with this, my main goal was just to finish a 50k and get more training miles in.

Well, first let me tell you, that for me at least running a 16 minute mile is not feasible. It is harder to slow down to that type of shuffling pace. I need to run some, walk some if I want to do 16 minute miles. Well, everytime we walked for any significant time, we agreed that running felt better (especially later in the race) so we ended up just discarding this 16 minute mile thing and doing what we could. Honestly, our overall pace this day was just about what it would have been if I was racing the race for time. Our pace per mile based on my finishing time was 12:24. This includes all the time spent at the aid station between loops, which was a good amount as we really didn't hurry like we would in a race situation.

In fact, at the aid stations, I changed shoes twice, once even changing the insoles in one pair, to a set of gel insoles that I had frozen to see if the cooler temps would help the feet/overall feeling. The insoles had not stayed THAT cold in my little cooler with ice, so there was not much effect. I also spent about 5 minutes on one stop holding two frozen gel packs in my crotch, and a bag of frozen veggies (peas/corn) under each armpit, to help cool me down. This felt good, but it is hard to tell if there was much effect there either. Because there were no real stream crossings, I never got a chance to do the thing where I soak my legs to make them feel better.

We kept up a pretty constant pace through the race, slowing slightly, but in general we walked the same hills every time, and only sprinkled in a few small walk breaks at random spots. Again, most times if felt better just to keep running. I look forward to seeing the time splits if they publish them to see how much we slowed each lap. I did something here that I did at the Cleveland marathon. I left my watch in the car. I noticed somewhere around 23 miles in that I was already fantasizing about how good it was going to feel to lay down in the grass and shade and relax while Josh ran his last loop.

Before the last loop, I arranged a volunteer to hold my camera and take some photos of us when we can out of the woods the last time. Her name was Marna and the plan was that as we neared the edge of the woods, I would shout a loud "Hooo-de-hooo" and she would know to be ready. This had Josh cracking up as I did it very loudly three times. Marna heard us coming and got the shots (thank you Marna!)

During the race, we noticed that we were leapfrogging with one lady named Ingrid and a man named Al, who I came to calling the dirty old man, because about halfway through the race he tripped on a root and rolled across his back covering it in dirt. He was fine though.

Ingrid was the champion of getting through the aid station fast and we watched her closely. We weren't trying to hurry the aid station visits because our mindset was not to race per se, but we knew we could learn from her for real race days when we wanted to do a good time. She came into the aid station slightly behind us every time, and left before us every time.

Another funny thing about Ingrid was that during the first loop without Josh I was running behind her for some time near the dam, and I noticed that she brings her feet up kind of high behind her when she runs. Stupid me thought about saying something to her about her stride and this being a waste of energy....I maintained self control and kept my dam(n) mouth shut....well 5 minutes later as we are running across the face of the dam we are side by side and chatting when she tells me about the 5 100 mile races she has finished, etc....and I realize how dam(n) stupid I would have been to offer her running advice. She really was strong runner (she is 58) and was a motivation for me all day, thinking of if I will be able to run like that at 58.

I finished in 6:32:33. The results page shows splits of 1:24:22 (7.9 miles), 2:53:08 (15.8 miles), 4:41:39 (23.7 miles), and the finish of 6:32:33 for 31.6 miles. Another way of looking at it is that the loops took:
1st loop - 1:24:22
2nd loop - 1:28:46
3rd loop - 1:48:31
4th loop - 1:51:54

Here the loops I mention are the 3.5 and 4.4 combined, or 7.9 miles each. The course was 4 circuits of the 7.9 mile loop which itself was divided into the 3.5 and 4.4 mile distance loops.

Josh officialy got a 7:12:21 finishing time, but he was only really running about 6 hours 26 minutes, because of showing up late.

This is obviously a PR for me, because it is the first 50k I have finished. This was a very nice race to run, and on a day with 70 degree temps it would be an absolute ideal race setting. There were very few hills, and the only section that was kind of a pain in the ass was the mile or so running across the dam, and that was just due to the heat. The temps today were around 90 degrees in the sun. It was probably 10 degrees hotter on the dam than in the woods. I was running out of water by the end of the 4.4 mile dam loop every time due to the heat. I took about 9 S! caps during the race (electrolyte capsules - basically salt, etc.) These are taken to replace the salt and minerals you lose during sweating, and if not taken, a runner will cramp up excessively and usually have a hard time continuing. In fact, we ran into one runner who had a severe hamstring cramp and once he took some caps he recovered and ran the rest of the day.

Josh finished his last loop faster than I ran the first so in reality his time running the 50k distance was between 4-6 minutes faster than mine, but in the results of the race it will show that I was faster than him, because I started on time. I will take it. It will probably be the only time I ever beat Josh in a race! Thanks Josh for the invite, and for getting your ass out of bed and coming even if late!