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 Run
Comments: I carried one water bottle with 3 hours worth of Hammer Sustained Energy and 2 Hammer Endurolyte Fizz in it. I filled my two Fuel Belt bottles with Endurolyte and some water. I knew this was going to be a super hot run so I planned on drinking lots of water at each aid station which were about 3 miles apart (give and take a few 10ths.) From the absolute beginning, I planned to walk every time my heart rate got into the upper 160's and walk until it dropped back to Zone 2. This plan worked perfectly! My average HR was 157 which is about 10 beats below my threshold for running. I think if it had been cooler, my HR would not have gone up so much, thus I would have been running more and gotten a better time. I'm happy with my time. No worries. OK. Back to the Hill Climb story. The first mile is on paved road but not flat. In fact, not one part of the race is flat! I started looking forward to the "flat" sections, though. Flat is a relative term when your racing a hill climb! The climb really starts just before mile 2. No problem. Mile 5 to 6 was really tough. Not sure why. Maybe that was one of the hot areas of weird inversion. Mile 8.5 to almost 10 was "flat." (Remember... "flat" is relative.) I ran the whole time! I even posted some sub-10 minute mile paces! Woo hoo! Miles 10 to 12 was pretty steep single-track trail. Everyone was walking. It was hot. I passed a few people during my "running" steps. The Mt. Ashland Ski Lodge is at a little over 12 miles. This was the last aid station before the top. From here on to the top was on the ski slope. It's a free-for-all in regards to the best path to the top. You can see the weather station at the top. One guy just behind me said "when you're up high, you don't look down but here you don't look up 'cause you don't want to know how much further you have to climb." Well said. The last mile is just plain steep! It took me 22 minutes to do the last mile. My left ankle (the one I dislocated back in December) was not happy. It just doesn't have the strength to give me much power. At the top, my husband, toddler, and Tanya's teenage son met us and took lots of pictures. It was great hearing them cheer us up to the top! The high in Ashland ended up being 106. The highest temperature ever recorded on this date was 108! Yikes! What would you do differently?: I missed out on some of my planned long runs and hill training runs due to illnesses in myself and my toddler. In the future, I'd like to get more of those done. Overall, I'm happy with my training.  Post race
Warm down: Sat at the top and ate chips, cookies and watermelon and enjoyed the view. We walked back down the road on the back side of the mountain back to the Lodge for an additional 2.7 miles for the day! Yep! I did 16 miles in total today! I got a fabulous massage at the Lodge for about 15 minutes and then drank a beer! Yum! I ended up with 41st of 88 women. Not bad for my first trail run ever! Nothing like picking a doosy of a race as a first trail run! :) What limited your ability to perform faster: The heat! Ugh! My left ankle needs more strength, too. That will come with time. There's really nothing more I could have done this year to strengthen it. Event comments: Super organized race. The emails from the race director are hilarious and worth the price alone! Last updated: 2012-03-21 12:00 AM
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United States
90F / 32C
Sunny
Overall Rank = 155/236
Age Group = F 30-39
Age Group Rank = 16/26
Ate blueberries, strawberries and 2 pieces of toast with butter about 3 hours prior to the race. Drove to Ashland with Tanya and drank my water bottle with 1.5 scoops of Hammer Sustained Endurance. As we were driving down the hill into Ashland, her car thermometer read in the 70's about 1/2 way down (6:30AM) and dropped a little as we drove into Ashland. There was a weird heat inversion going on. We knew the conditions were going to be pretty bad out there. Picked up race packet about 30 minutes prior to the start and organized my stuff. Ate 1 Hammer Gel and drank more water about 10 minutes prior to start.
Nothing other than walking to the bathroom. It was really warm. Tanya's car said it was 70 degrees at 7AM.