Watt's Running

I went to bed at 10:45, but probably got to sleep at midnight. Just couldn’t turn my brain off. Got up at 5 AM. Got shaved, dressed and ate breakfast. Did all my normal things in preparation for a race day especially a long one. Left the house at 5:30 AM and drove to San Marcos, TX. It’s about a 50 minute drive. Arrived at 6:20 AM and parked. I went to the porta-potti. Then I rested in the car with the heater on. The outside temperature was about 45 degrees Fahrenheit. I changed my clothes a bit to adjust to the location, and temperature – took things off. Still had on two long sleeve shirts, shorts, gloves (two layers), and a hat along with ear covering. I found the 4:15 pace group lead by Dan-O and Kate just a few minutes before the start. This pace is 9:44/M. The race was through a series of country roads and rolling hills. Nothing much to look at – pastures, a few homes, and a large power plant – nothing exciting and after a while I’m so focused on ending the pain of the race I see nothing around me. Once the race started the crush of people (over 1000 of us) caused me to be about 50 feet behind my pace group. I sped up to catch them. At about mile 3 I was ahead of the pace group and I had to pee behind a telephone shed. I had felt the need for a while, but it was too late at the start to go. Now the pace group was ahead of me. Slowly over the next few miles I caught and passed them. I took a Clif-Shot every 5 miles and drank at every water stop. Around mile 13-15 I was getting tighter and stiffer. The last few miles were very tough. Especially when the last two miles ran into a headwind. Around then the two pacers passed me, but none of the original crowd was with them. The pacers were running alone (no Tony, or no Melodye, etc.). Nevertheless, I ran the whole thing (except for water stops) and finished in 3:15:10 or 9:49/M pace with a position of 512 out of 1120 and 16 out of 29 in my 55-59 age group. I was also disappointed that they didn’t hand out medals instead they gave out a coffee mug which I refused. Afterwards my legs were cramping badly and I could barely walk. I was so sore and stiff. So instead of staying and talking to friends I hopped in my car and drove home. During the drive I was yelling each time my legs cramped and throbbed. Thanks for speed control. By the time I was home at least the throbbing had subsided. On the way I rubbed my face and could feel and taste granules of salt. I might need to consider taking salts during my runs. This run was very tough for me. Oh, but I did PR (after the debacle of last year’s 20 miler where I ran faster, but hit the wall and walked the last 4 miles).

Here are my splits: