Sunday, February 12, 2012

Rocky Raccoon success and failures.

I finished. But did I get everything I wanted out of the race? Yes and no... Yes, I learned an awful lot about myself and what to do and what not to do as far as running 50 miles, but I didn't get a damn T shirt!!!! I wanted a Rocky Raccoon shirt, instead I got a sweater. At least its a nice sweater and not some junk though.

First off, the major key to running an ultra, in my pseudo professional opinion, is attitude. My training leading up to this race was waaaaaay behind. Since Thanksgiving my weekly mileage had taken a major plunge into the depths of 0~ single digit miles for a few weeks. The second to last week in December I did run a 21 mile trail run, by accident and finished that week with 50 miles, but aside from that week, the rest were crap.

I still felt confident though because I only had one real solid goal. FINISH I wasn't concerned about time or place our anything like that. Just complete the 50 miles, barefoot, in under 29 hours. I just knew I has to keep moving forward, and keep faith that I could do it. I think this positive mentality helped out alot. When someone would ask how I was doing, our how my feet felt, I would say something like "Amazing!" or "never felt better!" or something positive along those lines. I think I psyched myself out with this and never let negativity enter my mind.


I also screamed alot. Every few miles I would let out a war cry at the top of my lungs. Occasionally these yells of madness were answered with return yells. I think the longest string I counted was 6 yells.

How did this help? Hell, I don't know, but it did help! Ever seen any movies with epic fight scenes? Braveheart for example! No body charged head strong into battle in silence. No! everybody was screaming like a bunch of girls at a Justin Beiber concert Lionel of the Thunder Cats!!! Thunder, Thunder, Thunder Cats, HHHHHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!! or HeMan By the power of Gray Skull, I have the POOOOOWWWWEEERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!! Theres just something about a good war cry that gets the adrenaline pumping. David spent the night afterwards in his tent at the park and said that he should hear the 100 mile guys screaming all night long, so I'm obviously on to something here.

Hydration. People say to look at how much, and how often you pee to determine your hydration level. You can also go by the color of your urine. Well, I had to have peed at least 75 times during the race. And every time it was crystal clear and rather voluminous to say the least. My "strategy" was to drink what sounded good at aid stations, and drink some honey chia water while running. I ended up drinking several cups of water and gatorade at every aid station, along with the random honey milk (yummy!), heed (not yummy...), nuun (also not yummy...), and at the last aid station I had about a dozen cups of Mountain Dew. I also had a 700ml bottle of honey chia water at the beginning of lap 2. I don't think hydration was ever an issue at any point!

Caloric intake. I also ate like a piggy the whole time! The aid stations had cups full of M&Ms, which I love, so I ate alot of them... The sugar and caffeine in the Mountain Few really made a show! Since I haven't had a soft drink in years, it filled me with a sugary rush that got me through the last 5 or so miles feeling great!


Ok, so what didn't work? Where do I need to improve? Well, theres a few areas...

I need to start doing longer long runs. Miles 37 to 41 seemed to take 2 hours. I think if I got a few 30~40 mile runs in during training I would have had this mental problem.

I need to learn to poop faster. Mt normal day to day poops aren't rushed usually. I just relax and enjoy a good book or magazine and let things happen naturally. During a race its either shit or get off the pot.

Non moving time needs to be worked on. I would be willing to bet that I wasted at least 2 hours at aid stations easily. I need to spend 5 minutes at an aid station, max. Just grab some hydration and a few bites, thank the volunteers, and hit the trail.



I also think I need to buy some type of supply belt / backpack / vest thingy for my training runs, and work on going longer between replenishment so I could maybe hit every other aid station and save even more time...

posted from Bloggeroid

1 comment:

  1. Me and Susan ordered hand held bottle thingies this past weekend. I'll let you know how they work.

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