Crikey, that was hard!
30 km in 4:38 ... that's hours and minutes. Just go back and refresh your memory with that nasty little course profile.
The 4:38 is gross time. There was a 1 km traffic jam from the registration area to the start line and we lost 7 minutes for that. Then 13 minutes into the race we came to a dead stop for another traffic jam, which turned out to be because of a tight scramble around a few rocks in a creek bed. That held us up for an incredible 20 minutes or so. Something for the organizers to think about for next year.
Once we got away from the traffic jam, we were moving pretty freely. But before long, any kind of forward motion was acceptable as we scaled that bloody mountain side in the profile. Talk about steep. And narrow. Just one foot after the other, single file, no great hurry, and eventually it was over. The first 5 km took 1 whole hour!
The next stage though was almost 5 km of fairly steep descent on a narrow asphalt road. We could go fast, but it was hard on the quads. From this point on right until the end of the race we were constantly passing people with only the very occasional pair of guys (it was always two for some reason!) passing us.
We were turned off the asphalt at abut the 12.5 km mark and it was then trail all the way to the end of the race. The climb was tough to about 19 km, with some real nasty little uphill stretches of long steep fire trail, but soon enough the trend turned towards lots of smaller ups and downs, and we could push on a bit and past more people. But always going up, or down.
The final 3 km involved some very steep down hill sections that were pure agony. The cramp bears were nipping at the calves before finally changing strategy and getting me fair smack in the right hamstring less than 500 m from the finish line. I had to stop and a few people went past before I shook the bastards off and got going again to finish.
Had a nice wash-up in the river after the race and enjoyed some beers and a nice big plate of soba afterwards in downtown Musashi-itsukaichi :-) then snored my head off on the train on the way back to Shinjuku. Tired but happy as they say.
The photo shows my main sustenance for the race. A tube of condensed milk: 337 kcal from 65 g carbohydrate, 8 g protein and 8 g of fat. And absolutely delicious. Much better than a gel I reckon, which only offers about 180 kcal and no fat or protein. I highly recommend this to anybody engaging in endurance events. You know, like people who might be about to run 112km.
Tuesday night as I finally post this, and my quads are still killing me. Ewen's prediction of 3 days before I'll be able to run is starting to look a bit optimistic.
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6 comments:
My goodness that race sounds like a complete nightmare...that I would love to run!
Not sure about the traffic jams or the single file...those things would freak me out...but I love the ups and downs and the trail running. Looking forward to getting out and doing some around Brissy now the marathon is over.
Yep I'm thinking it will be at least 5 days before you can run. don't bother attempting whilst you are still hobbling and if stairs are an issue...avoid running running until you can do the stairs and walk normally.
I think you could have made it even more "fun" by not eating for a day or so before hand ! ;-)
Well done on completing...great effort!
This sounds like another run to put on my list of "never do it" !
Recover well.
I agree with Jon
I've never really understood the lure of trail running.
Still, I love to go a wandering along the mountain track and when I go a wandering my knapsack on my back, valderie...valdera...
Your hobbling like an old man is making me smile :)
Sounds 'fun' - a very tough course - that pace would put you over 6hrs at 6'. Tell the organisers to try wave starts next time to spread the field. Probably a great training course for Boston!
Thanks for the condensed milk tip - I'll give it a burl if I ever start doing long runs again.
OMG, what a run! Like Scott I don't see the appeal in trail runs. I do see the appeal in tubed condensed milk though - yummmmm!
I see the appeal in trail runs...for training. But not for racing. Because you're not really racing. You're just doing a very hard training run...on a day when there are a few hundred people clogging up the trail. Plus you're suffering too much and watching out for other people too much to enjoy the scenery. So no, those events, I won't even call them races, are not for me. But let's do some nice trail training runs this summer.
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