PHUNT 25k - Run25k

This was my first time doing a 25k trail run. When I had signed up for the event it had options for either 50k or 20k, and at the time the 20k had been a bit ambitious for me. When I found out the short course had been bumped up to 25k I increased my training a little.

The race started fairly well. There were about 300 runners, and the course was a bit crowded over the earlier miles with a bottleneck at one narrow stream crossing. Once the crowd thinned out I found myself with a small group of people moving at around my pace.
I tried to take a GU 40 minutes into the run. I had never used the GU brand before, and I found it to be really thick. I almost choked on it, and I had to work at it over several minutes. Once I got it down I caught back up with the group. I was moving pretty fast, and hit the first aid station at mile 5 in 48 minutes which is way faster than I should have been running. I felt good, but I knew my pace wasn't sustainable. I refilled my water at the aid station and took a Powerbar gel, which is much more to my liking.
Over the next 5 miles my group disbanded as people either broke away or broke down. I started to power walk the inclines to save energy, and I found this to be a lot more efficient. Once I lost the last person from my group around mile 8 I took another Powerbar gel, then finished my water right before heading into the mile 10 aid station.
I refilled my water and as I ran out I glanced at the buffet of a snack table. I snatch a tiny pretzel, and it was probably the most delicious thing I have ever tasted in my life.
Miles 10 and 11 felt ok, but once I hit mile 12or so I really started to break down. The trails had gotten muddy and it took a lot of concentration and leg strength (which I didn't have anymore) to navigate safely with speed. People started passing me, and I started to struggle mentally. I kept having the thought "I signed up for a 20k, so no wonder this last 5k is killing me." I tried to have positive thoughts and get into a focused and motivated mental zone. Unfortunately, when I got into this zone, I missed a turn off and ended up being off course for about 5 minutes.
I had taken my 4th and last gel around mile 12 and my water had run low. While I hadn't needed extra nutrition for the first 10 miles, I was really wishing for more on the last 5. At mile 14 I passed a guy who looked really bad, and he wasn't carrying any water or nutrition. I gave him the last meager amount of water I had and made sure he was good before carrying on. The break was nice for me.
As I started to get to the end there were people who had finished earlier walking back on the trail telling people how long they had until the finish. This was a huge boost for me and I finished strong, or as strong as I could in my broken down physical state.

Nutrition. Next time I will stick to Powerbar gels only, and skip the GUs. I will also bring a lot more. At 242 pounds, 4 gels and a 10 calorie pretzel were probably not enough for a 3 hour run. I would probably also bring a fuel belt with a little more water in addition to the hand held bottle, or maybe just get a hydration pack.

The post race/25k aid station food was pretty amazing. It was random stuff people had brought so there were chips, homemade cookies and brownies, soups and even hot dogs. I drank a bunch of gatorade and tea, and a tasty peanut butter cookie, and then I walked for about 5 minutes. I stretched, walked some more, and went back to the food. I drank more and knew I wanted food, but the thought of things like potato chips and hot dogs made my stomach churn a little. I grabbed more gatorade and a brownie and went to stretch more, before changing and throwing the compression socks on. It would be another 30 minutes and 1 liter of fluids before I would be (very) ready to eat.


I can't complain about my result at all. I kind of had a goal of 3 hours for this race, but that was only because 3 hours was a nice even number. Limiters were inexperience and body weight, but I'm on the right track to improving both of those, so I feel really good about this race.


This was my first race with trail runners, and it's a completely different animal. This was low stress, lots of fun, and really friendly. I want to do more of these.