I woke up today still slightly under the weather. I hate it. I'm supposed to feel PERFECT right around now.
Regardless, I jumped in the shower, had breakfast and drove to Runner's Roost Lakewood to pick up my race packet. Changing distances was easy and free, so I went ahead and switched to the 50-miler. Wait, what? Yes, you heard right.
Listen, it's not that big a deal. With the course changes, the loop is 10.3 miles long with 650ft of gain. The 50k race requires athletes to complete 3 loops. That means, 50-milers complete 5 for a total of 51.5 miles and 3250ft of gain. Can I do this? Honestly, I don't know. But I want to make sure I'm eligible for awards. You'll say: "Yeah, keep dreaming". But last year, there was only one girl in my age group. This year, there's Courtney also. But I'll settle for third. Overall, there was 28 women... so I'll settle for top 30.
WORST CASE: If I'm not feeling it, I'll stop at 3 loops and get my medal for a 50k.
Strategy (WARNING- dorky data crunching): Well, that has to change too. I was aiming for a sub-6hr 50k and that means I need to run 11:20 min/mile average. I don't think I can run 50 miles at 11:20. So to hit my goal of a sub 6hr 50k yet have enough fuel to run 50 miles, this is what I engineered... 10.3 mile loops at 1h57m each, that means 11:21 min/mile average. I'd finish the first 31 miles in 5h50m42s which would mean PR for the 50k. At that point, continuing on to the 50-miler I can slow down to run an additional 2 loops in 2h15m each. That means 13:05 min/mile, so significant slow-down. Keeping that pace will have me finishing 51.5 miles in 10h20m-ISH. Again, PR for the 50-miler. SCORE! That gives me an additional 30min buffer to still finish my 50 miles in under 11 hours... so I can actually add an additional 1:27 min/mile in the last 20 miles. SCORE!
Anyway... Wish me luck!
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