I intentionally didn't look at my heart rate at all during the race and tried to go off what I felt like I could maintain. My goal was a 1:35 (7:15) pace [7:40, 7:30, 7:20, 7:15 x7, 7:00 x2, 6:50 x1.1]. I typically negative split my training runs and my races, so I felt this was doable, so I only glanced at my pace and distance on my garmin during the run. My paces and average HR looked like this:

Mile 1 : 7:30 - 156,
Mile 2 : 7:14 - 171,
Mile 3 : 7:14 - 173,
Mile 4 : 7:03 - 176,
Mile 5 : 7:13 - 177,
Mile 6 : 7:08 - 177,
Mile 7 : 7:04 - 179,
Mile 8 : 7:09 - 179,
Mile 9 : 7:14 - 179,
Mile 10: 7:25 - 177,
Mile 11: 7:17 - 180,
Mile 12: 7:30 - 178,
Mile 13: 7:39 - 180 (the "big uphill"),
Last .1: 6:42 - 184 for the last portion (.22miles on my Garmin)

I never knew I could maintain such a high heart rate for so long. I might have to rethink what my LT might actually be, I was thinking it was around 170, not up closer to 180.

I started out in the area of the 7:40 pace area. The race started and I like being there because everyone always takes off too quickly. Knowing (guessing?) I was capable of maintaining around a 7:15, the "quick" pace most people shot out of there with was actually something I could comfortably hold and ended up not too far off my plan of a 7:40 first mile. With only 1551 racers, it things out fairly quickly (which is why it's 1 mile on the road before getting to the narrow trail. I am feeling GREAT... miles fly past, no problem, I'm taking in about 1oz of my ClifShot mixed drink each mile. I hit the 7:03 pace for the second mile and figure I should back it off a little, but 7:13 for the next mile isn't quite fast enough. But at the same time I'm trying to bank a few extra seconds each mile to prepare for that uphill at the end in case it catches me off-guard more than I expect). Figuring even 2-3 seconds per mile should give me a 24-36 second buffer in case my pace drops to a 7:50 or 8 minute mile for that last mile.

Plus, I had been trash talking my friend Ryan for the past month or two. He's a naturally faster runner than me... 6ft tall, 135lbs and only 25 (4 years younger than me), but he doesn't train much. He's very inconsistent with his training and when he does go out he goes fast and because of that has been fighting nagging injuries... yet, he's still naturally faster than me. It was his idea to do the race and I'm a 'yes' man when it comes to races. I was hoping some trash talking would do one of two things: 1) get him to train for this race more consistently so he wouldn't lose... or 2) get him to start training consistently after the race if he lost.

My half mary PR was 1:43 (7:52/mile pace), set 5 months ago at sea-level. Ryan was planning on going just under 7:30s for a 1:38 time. I set my goal to be 7:15s for 1:35... which meant going 37 seconds faster per mile than my previous PR while at altitude in Denver. I was going to need the best race of my life to pull this off and beat him. Hence the experimentation with all that caffeine.

There were about 8 of us doing the race total, some faster, some slower than us, but we also had our cheering squad of other runner friends not doing the race that day. It's an out and back race, so you really have to be on the run yourself jumping in and out of the car to see people multiple times. We had our spectators at the start, mile 6, mile 10 and the finish! The pictures of me show I'm clearly having a great time at mile 6 and 10. At mile 10 I was pacing a 7:14.1 I had banked 10 seconds so far towards my 7:15 goal, not knowing how far my friend Ryan was behind me. I was confident he'd be able to hit is 7:30 pace and was worried he might start feeling that it's been too slow and start dropping his pace to 7:00s, or even 6:30s or below like I know he's capable of doing in a 5k. My [quick mental calculation during the run] possible 15 second per mile lead over 10 miles = 2 1/2 minute lead could dwindle down pretty fast. But if he had started averaging 7:25s.. that 2 1/2 minutes would only be a 1:40 lead.

Around mile 10 that OTHER effect of caffeine kicked in. Although my legs felt good, my stomach didn't and I started having to focus on... [WARNING: GRAPHIC MENTAL IMAGES YOU PROBABLY DON'T WANT COME NEXT] ... focusing on not letting my @$$ explode all in my pants... [YOU'RE SAFE NOW]... and my pace started to drop a little. Mile 10 hit a 7:25, but I was able to push back to a 7:17 the next mile, but then some uphills mixed with internal caffeine issues still going on I slowed to a 7:39 and a 7:30.

Around mile 11 I heard someone come up behind me and just sit on my heels. I didn't mind, because I had been trading off drafts with other runners the entire time because of the slight headwind. But the thought: "
$!@#, that's probably Ryan sitting there waiting for the hill at mile 12... I can't look back because that just makes you look weak", so I never look back, but the guy never passes me! We get to the uphill and I leave whoever it was that was there... I guess it wasn't Ryan. I still never looked back... not even once during the entire race.

about 400meters from the finish I noticed a woman on the sidelines waiting to cheer someone else on that I recognized from the Moab 100 (a 100 mile Ultra) from 2 weeks ago. We had passed each other in that race so many times it was hard not to recognize her. So, without slowing down, I start to side step to turn and I yell "Great job in Moab!"... I get a semi-startled face turn and look at me and a quick "thank you!". I turn back around, still haven't slowed down and that side step motion I did made me want to cry. The top of my calves instantly cramped up. Every step I took I could feel the muscle fibers in the top of my calf not wanting to move at all. An old high school cross country coach once told me "When you cramp up, it's probably because you slowed down... so run faster!". Back then it was for 5ks, and by the time you cramp up you probably only have a mile or less left to finish... so I doubt he told me that to try to help me get rid of cramps I might have gotten, but instead because he knew if I got closer to the finish I'd push through it no matter how much it hurt. Well, 400m from the finish is not the time to slow down. I've continued to "speed up" when I'd cramp up ever since that coach said that and it's now natural instinct for me to do that. So sharp instant pains in my calves made me run FASTER! The pain was absolutely horrible... and when you see pictures from the beginning of the race compared to pictures in the last 100meters of the race you see that it's not just your normal "push hard and sprint" type pain on my face, but instead true pain which I have made actually get worse over the last 300meters because I keep speeding up!

I crossed the finish line, had the timing chip removed, had who finished a minute before me friend came over and say good job and I looked at him and said: "Hate to be a !@#$, but where's the nearest port-a-john?" and went straight for it. While I'm in there I hear the announcer say: "Here comes Ryan... actually, two Ryan's!" He finished a 1:12 behind me. I get to talk more trash to him now and hope he learns he need to train more so he doesn't get beat by people with less talent than him.


Probably not take quite as much caffeine before the race. Definitely avoid the coffee, the caffeine itself might not be completely bad. Only go for 1 5 hour energy (perhaps I'll try mixing it into my water bottle to dilute it and get a more consistent intake of it instead of all at once.

Also, more hydration, I think it was great until mile 7 when I ran out of my own concoction and had to switch to the courses water, which isn't as frequent enough for me to like... I like small amounts more frequently.

walked around, went back down to cheer on the rest of my friend finishing up behind me.


the "other" effects of caffeine.


Great race, I look forward to doing it next year... hopefully for a pre-Boston warm up?! (that's if I can manage to qualify this summer)