6/1
The Full Mo Ultra
The day I've been half-assedly sort of training for is finally here; while I've done a lot of volume in the last 6 weeks, I didn't intentionally train and peak for this, so I was hoping to run this a little less intensely and avoid bonking and having the last 6 miles being an hour+ of utter misery.
I thought I had a pretty nice mini-taper going into this, but I wasn't as fresh going into today as I should have been since I slept zero hours last night (I did nap an hour and a half yesterday afternoon, but that was it). I gave up trying to fall asleep at 2, had some coffee and white rice, and just bided my time until it was time to go pick up my buddies at 4:45.
We arrived at the northernmost point of the Monon around 5:30, after which we all puttered around and did the normal pre-race bathroom activities. Our plan was to go for sub-5 hours, which, assuming we ran reasonably close to 50 km flat, would imply a ~9:38 pace. It was a great day for a race, starting at 62 degrees when the race started at 6 and staying relatively cool and overcast until the last hour, when we lost the tree canopy and the sun came out and warmed things up to ~72 or so.
This is the fourth year the race has been run, and it was capped at 100 runners this year, which is an increase over the 59 finishers last year. While the final results have yet to be posted, I do know that the winner ran a 3:17, which is a 6:20 pace - fairly ridiculous. The starting line was as follows:
We started promptly at 6, and we managed to hold a pretty consistent pace for the first 26 miles, after which we mostly held on for the last 5 miles. The last aid station was immediately after Mile 28, which is immediately before the last big hill (granted there weren't many, but this one, a bridge over a semi-major road, was still pretty soul crushing), so the last three miles were pretty tough. Both of my buddies stopped at that aid station, but I was worried about being able to get back started if I slowed down, especially up that hill, so I just kept going and then suffered the last few miles by myself. My more fit buddy stayed back with my other one and paced him until the end, and they got in about a minute after I did:
31.16 mi - 4:53:52/9:26 pace/149 HR/178 MHR
I was pretty proud of this; outside of stopping for ~10 seconds each at two aid stations to refill my electrolyte drink, I didn't stop or really even slow down until the aforementioned Mile 29, and I paced it well enough (not perfectly) that I was still able to finish reasonably strong on a distance that was a fair bit further than I've ever gone. Here's me right at the finish:
I was pretty tired when I finished, but they had masseuses at the finish, so that helped; I had a lot to drink and a few snacks, and I've just been resting since. I'm looking forward to actually sleeping tonight, and I'll update if/when final times get posted, but I'm hoping to be in the top 30-40 or so.