After Uhwarrie 40 back in February, I really didn’t run a lot.   A decent amount of biking and running combined — but maybe just 4-6 hours per week total.  So why not jump into a 12 hour race on my favorite local trail?  🙂  I was able to get out a couple of weeks before the race and run the 2.9 mile loop 5 times, so it wasn’t all low running.  But other than that, no runs more than an hour to 1:15 or so for 10-11 weeks.

Race started at 7:00 a.m., and since it’s only 15 minutes away, it was an easy morning.  I went with a little ucan + beet root powder + grape juice, rather than hard boiled eggs or plantain pancakes, and it worked fine.

There’s not much to report in this kind of race — lap after lap, so I’ll just share my lap splits.  The race director / timer was able to keep detailed stats:

So that shows I probably went out a little too hard, but that is normal.    There were a few relay teams running, and I let the two lead runners go off, but I did want to be a bit towards the front to avoid any bottle necks.  There were 40+ runners all starting about 30 yards from the single track, so it was good to get in front and avoid the conga lines.

Around 5-6 hours in, I was seriously considering calling it a day.   I just wasn’t into it, I guess due to lack of training, and my lower GI was a bit unhappy.   And then I came in to the turn, Kelly and the kids were there ready to run, and I saw I was in 2nd!  That gave me motivation, which you can see a little in loops 11 and 12 that Kelly ran with me.  It didn’t last long, though, and I was soon back to 44 minute loops.

They had taken down the leader board around 8 or 9 hours in, as a storm was heading in, but I was certain Shannon had passed me and I was in third.  As I climbed the last hill before the steep descent to the finish line with just 25 minutes left on the clock, I got passed by Alan, who took third place from me.  I had nothing left to sprint it into the finish and he finished strong.  He and I were one lap down on Shannon and Randy, but at least I won 1st Chatham County Finisher and got a nice piece of pottery out of it.

I finished with 52.8 miles, and I had gone into the race thinking anything over 50 would be pretty good on this tough little single track, so I was happy.  I did have some GI issues in the second half of the run –  I blame it on the trip to Mexico just before this race!  🙂  So maybe I could have gotten one more lap out there.

GPS died about 7.5 hours in but here’s what it captured:

Gear wise not much to report — I still love the Altra Superior 2 and wore them all 52.8 miles…  I’ve switched from Under Armor compression to Nike compression, and that continues to work well.  Go-lite shorts, injinji socks, as normal. No shirt once it warmed up — and boy was it hot in the middle of the day!  I was carrying ice in my buff each loop from 2 – 5 p.m. or so.

Nutrition was vfuels, water+grape juice, MAPs (BCAAs), a couple hard boiled eggs, a bit of fruit.  And the race  brought out sandwiches at noon so I had one quarter of one, and pizza at 5:30 and I had one small slice.  One small bite sized brownie…  And one can of mountain dew spread over the latter six hours, and one small carton of coconut water.  Oh, and a few dates rolled in coconut flakes.

I do hope they run this race in the future – I still love the course!