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Comments: Other than doing a pre-race test my main goal here was to negative split to get the free NB shoes from the Strava challenge. I'd talked to a friend who was doing the 4:45 pacing for the first half and planned to stay with her then shave off some time for the second half. Because I was chatting at the start it took me a half mile or so to catch up to her, but it wasn't that difficult. So for the first half-ish I ran with her and a couple other ladies that were with that timing group. We chatted and it was a comfortable pace. We talked about races, and families and pets and... There were aid stations like every mile! It was nutz! Seemed like every time we looked up there was another aid station. When we got to about the 4 mile mark I told them they needed to help me remember to hand off the bracelet at the first transition spot. We got back to talking and all of a sudden there was a large crowd and someone called my name. I looked and realized it was time! I ran over, handed off the bracelet and caught back up to my group. We continued on for a couple miles before they asked me when I'm supposed to hand off. Big help girls, big help :) We were about 2 miles from the turnaround when I decided to try to hit the porta john at one of the relay stations. So I told the girls to have a great race and I'd see them later. I peeled off and started to walk toward the porta johns and saw the line. Oh heck no. So I got back on the trail and started looking for a discreet spot to hide behind a bush. About a quarter mile later I found one and got that taken care of. I hit the turnaround and knew it was time to increase my pace. We'd been doing 10:50 miles so my goal was to have my miles under 10:30 for the second half. I hoped that would be enough of a negative for it to count for Strava. I continued on and was feeling good. The temp was rising but it wasn't unbearable. I was about 8 miles from the end when my glute started to really hurt. I can only assume that it was because this was a very flat course and my legs are used to doing up and down. I started putting pressure on it, myotherapy style, as I walked the aid stations. That seemed to ease the pain long enough to get to the next aid station. So it didn't really force me to walk much, but it did kill my negative split. :( About 6 miles from the finish I decided I needed a distraction so I put in my headphones. I got a nice mix of my running songs and was nicely distracted when a friend rode up on his bike. He soft pedaled for a bit with me then took off to encourage others. As I got closer to the end I got a sequence of songs (it was on shuffle) that I call my DS2 songs. They are songs that for one reason or another remind me of DS2 and so they encourage me. I got all of those in a row, and then got "Lowrider" as I pulled in to downtown ABQ. It was a perfect theme song to end this race. About 4 miles from the finish a friend of mine had a bootlegged aid station. She was mosly out there cheering but those of us who knew her knew there were adult beverages to be had. As I approached her I told her that road races hurt! (she does trails too) She asked if I wanted a beer, I told her I wouldn't do the last four if I partook, and off I went. I was happy to turn off the MUP and back toward downtown. The neighborhoods provided more trees and lots of volunteers to thank. I was about a quarter mile from the finish when one of my RWB teammates and his kids were there for high fives. Then I rounded the corner with my eyes on the finish. More high fives and done! What would you do differently?: Maybe take the first half a smidge slower but I'm not convinced that would have helped. The first half felt easy and the second half felt great, until the glute.  Post race
Warm down: I talked with the RWB guy and his family for a bit but I told them one of our team was still out there so they went back to cheer him. I met up with "my relay team" and we headed for brunch. What limited your ability to perform faster: Maybe the heat a little bit, the glute pain, and the fact that I am training for longer distances Event comments: I didn't really stick around much for post race activities but this race is very well done. Lots of volunteers and a great atmosphere. Last updated: 2016-08-15 12:00 AM
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United States
New Mexico Cancer Center
75F / 24C
Sunny
Overall Rank = 74/150
Age Group = f45-49
Age Group Rank = 5/12
The day before this race I was at an aid station for a local ultra from 0600 to 1600, so about 10 hours on my feet. I was really treating this like a training run so no taper, no special treatment at all, just show up and go.
Friday before the race my co-workers lost one of their relay team (my boss) due to an injury. So I agreed to run the first leg of their relay which really only involved wearing their timing chip for the first six miles in addition to mine.
The night before I got my clothes and nutrition ready and decided to go ahead and carry my hydration pack just to treat this as a pre-ultra test. I went to bed early because I was tired from being at the aid station. Slept great and my alarm went off at 0515.
Got up, got dressed and slathered with sunscreen. Had part of a bag of Jelly Belly sport beans, grabbed a cup o' joe and out the door. I drove the half hour or so to downtown ABQ and parked in the parking structure. Fortunately, passing through the convention center to get to the start I was able to use a real bathroom and get the essentials handled.
When I got to the start area I met my RWB teammates for a pre-race photo. Then headed to where I was supposed to meet my co-worker to get the relay team bib. The marathon was to start at 0700, it was 0645 and no sign of the co-worker. I text him and he said they were parking. That was going to take a while so I asked him to send me a pic of the bib. With that pic I approached the table where they were giving the timing bracelets (for the relay only) and fortunately I know the lady who was running the timing. So she gave me the "bracelet" aka a triathlon ankle strap, and I was set to go. I found a couple more RWB folks and was chatting with them when the start gun went off. Oops guess I best get going...
not much other than walking around finding people