Well. Where to begin? Last season ended with a stab at the Northface Endurance 50 miler for me in San Francisco on Dec. 6 and then started up again with the Antelope Island Buffalo Run 50 km on March 28. At the endurance 50 I struggled quite a bit over extremely vertical terrain to end up 7th female finisher, and about 1 hour off the lead, at 9 hours and change. I was humbled by the difference between that and how I felt at my first 50 a couple months earlier at Le Griz 50 in Spotted Bear, MT in October, which was relatively flat. Since I am usually strong on hills, I might have been cocky in my preparation for 7-10,000-feet vertical gain and descent in the Marin Headlands.
After all that running, it was nice to be relatively un-focused this winter with a lot of downhill and Nordic skiing. I still managed to get my long runs in, thanks to Nikki Kimball and crew from Bozeman, and Sarah Graves and crew from Billings. That made the transition back to racing this spring a lot easier. I drove down to Antelope Island, Salt Lake, UT with 3 excellent ultra-runners from Bozeman to find a course that was much more interesting and beautiful than expected. The terrain had about 2,300 feet of climbing per loop and spectacular views of the snow-covered mountains across the great lake. Given a nagging hamstring strain and faulty knee I was not expecting to do more than finish. However, by taking the first loop easy (a la Don Dimitri’s advice), I was able to pick up for a 3d place finish in 4:48 only 3 minutes behind ultra superstar, Nikki!
Our car ride home contained the first male, first female, second male (1st Masters) and third female, (1st Masters). It was certainly nice to celebrate such a victory at the Portneuf Brewing Co. in Pocatello, ID!
Sarah.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment