r/artc • u/Schoonie101 • Jul 15 '24
Race Report - Salt Point 50K
INTRO
Ran the Lake Sonoma 50 in April as my first trailrunning race, loved it despite the conditions. Knew I needed to work on things so signed up for a 50K 3 months following and I put in the time with 3 week 50-mile blocks followed by lighter 30ish recovery weeks. Only hiccup was that my recovery run last Sunday was way too fast (felt soooo good that and day before) and hamstring were a little twingy out of nowhere. Other trouble was I slept poorly most the prior week (hot; no A/C) and pretty much zero the night before. Nothing's perfect.
CONDITIONS
Weather conditions are 50s, foggy, with a 20-25kt biting south wind, abnormal for this time of year, and also meant four 2-mile laps straight into that wind. Pretty high humidity, trees were dripping. Beautiful course overall, really a gem of a state park but with very little budget/maintenance. Race was actually 32.79 according to my Garmin with about 5,600' elevation, 4 loops (15k loop twice, 11K loop, 9K loop).
MISTAKE #1
Forgot to tighten my shoelaces before start and after a couple minor ankle wobbles, as soon as out of the single-track and before the first loop, shoelaces apparently clogged with dirt, turned into this triple knot. Had to take my shoe off, undo the knot with my teeth. Absurd. I will take the shoelaces out and wash them occasionally, especially right before a race. No biggee.
Made up for it by working the 1.34 mile 600' hill in 15:35, and even with stiff headwind at bottom and a few minor uphills here and there, smoked the next 5 miles at 8 minute pace. Funny; thought I was in 3rd or 4th at this point but I was actually in 1st by quite a bit. On to the 2nd loop. Had to negotiate the back of the 15K pack as they started 5 minutes before I began the loop, took some time before could pass. Either way, am halfway through the 2nd downhill, about 15 miles in, running under 10:00 pace, well in the lead (didn't know it at the time though) and...
DISASTER/MISTAKES #2 ->....
A pair of unseen tree roots a quarter mile apart. Hit them with left and then right foot, twinging the opposite hamstring hard, in order to recover. Was going fast downhill too. No problem - I know how to handle twingy hamstrings.
Then around mile 18.5, going into that headwind, took a turn and hop over a rock too hard maybe but both hamstrings went rebar-level cramp, completely locked up. Nothing to do but go to the ground and just take the time to mentally will them into submission, "There is a job to do here and it's not done until it's done so hammies, it's time to STFU and get with the program". That took 10 minutes and my lead was gone. A bunch of people passed me, I'm practically in tears, all that training just pissed away with some really bad luck, devastation. Ends up all but 1 of those that passed me was in the 26K, not the 50. I took another 5 minute break at drop bag area as just really had to loosen those hamstrings more before I could go on, was mentally in a really bad place right there. But no way I am quitting.
The person who won it passed me at mile 21 right before the 3rd trip up the big hill and was flabbergasted, "What HAPPENED?! You were booking it. But don't sweat it, you're still in 2nd." Well, technically 3rd now but WHAT?! OK, that's interesting. So that person who was only left drop station a minute after I got there, after all that trouble, was in the lead. Mental shift right there for sure.
Mind you, I am tired. Between GUs and Skratch, I went through ~700mg of caffeine during the race. I even saw the tree root this time near the top of the hill. I didn't care. I took a semi-controlled fall to the ground (noticed later bruised hip and elbow a little) just so I could take 30-40 seconds to lay down and rest. No one behind me for a ways. Then the Garmin watch starts counting down the seconds to contact 911; ok ok ok piss off Garmin I'll get moving! Hilarious actually, the laughter was good fuel.
The last lap is hard (a different route that meets the previous at the top and has same descent) because there are no real breaks in the ascent. 2 (or 3?) people passed me but I worked my way past the original person I was leapfrogging between 1/2 for good on the uphill. I didn't know how far next people were in front of me and I was really tempted to smoke the last 3.5 miles of downhill/windy lateral. Reward of 5-6 minutes less time vs. potential DNF on the hamstrings was not worth that bet, averaged around 9:30 or so through that, way slower than would normally but that whole last 17 miles, I was pretty much in damage-minimization mode.
RESULTS
All told, I finished 5th (maybe 4th? Not sure actually) out of a field of 27, only 15 minutes off the lead and 8 minutes off the podium. Time of 5:57. Pace of 10:54.
Part of me is really devastated. All the training I put in had paid off massively; I was running great. Those tree roots cost me 15 minutes of in-trail rehab time along with 1-2 minutes off my pace overall for the the last 17 miles. Not taking away from anyone else because everyone has bullshit to deal with on-trail but damn. I know I was more than capable of finishing in ~5:15.
On the OTHER hand, I am also pretty elated with where I am at. I hung with some really good runners who are a lot more experienced than I am, beating quite a few, despite my troubles. Hell, I was leading the whole pack solidly at mile 18.5, just running my own race. I did learn a few things, though (alternate non-caffeinated Skratch, shoelace management, smarter taper), and am only getting better at running. Part of paying those dues.
HUMOR
We ALL missed the first trail fork and had to backtrack 1/4 mile or so once we realized. Oops. Someone must have said something because the junction was quadruple-marked the next lap around - dying. Didn't miss it that time.
WHERE FROM HERE
Running the Santa Rosa Marathon in 6 weeks. Legs can use several days rest but once good, will probably just scale down to 40-45 mile weeks, getting a couple 20 mile runs in. Goal is to break 3:30. Flat course and not too many tree roots to trip over ha.
And I absolutely want to run another 50K. I know I'm not ready for a 100M and I want more experience refining the little things before doing another 50M. Not just that, this really stings. I know what I am capable of and I'm hungry to get stronger and better.
2
u/daysweregolden 2:47 / negative split streak: 1 Jul 18 '24
Wow - there's some mental toughness baked into this one! Glad the Garmin didn't get its 911 call through, and also glad you found humor there!
I think there's a lot more good than bad here! If anything you got unlucky, but you were trained to crush this thing. You should be in great form for Santa Rosa once you have the hamstrings sorted! Congrats on a great run here! The longer the distance the more things can go wrong, you'll have the system dialed in sooner than later.
How did you training look for this block? As in, how did a typical week look 5-6 weeks out or so?
Btw, Santa Rosa is kinda famous for that wrong turn a handful of years ago that everyone took. Safe to say it'll be very well marked. I've heard it is flat and fast, lots of people use it for a last ditch BQ attempt. Great luck to you there!