After my crewing experience for Dave Horner at Badwater, I decided to take my first crack at a distance over a marathon. Annette Bednosky did a spectacular job for her first attempt at Race directing w/ her very ecologically friendly New River 50k. The race took place on the New River State Park Trail starting & finishing in Fries, VA.
The 8am start time gave us perfect starting temperatures in the low 50’s and a cool fog rolling off the river. I enjoyed running the 1st 3-4 miles with Nick Whithead & Tadd Morris. Around 4 miles I began to increase my pace and took the lead. This was my first race over the marathon distance, so I was interested to see how my legs would respond to the new distance. I chose to wear my Raceblades for the event, & was not sorry I did so. I’ve been training through some Plantar Fasciitis in my left heel, so I’ve been doing my long & moderate long runs in the Raceblades with Sole Moldable inserts for extra arch support & cushion. I usually train in the Fireblades & Crosslites, so I’ll be switching over to them for my next races.
The New River Trail is an old rail bed, so there is no elevation change on the trail, which wore on my legs. As the race progressed, the fog burned off by the sun, and the temperature only increased into the mid 60’s, which was perfect. The wind was very calm & never played a factor in the race. By mile 16 I had a 4 minute lead, but still ran cautiously seeing my competition as we turned around at this point in the race. Though the early miles were around 6:30-6:45 per mile, I had dropped the pace to around 6:15 from mile 5-20.
I decided to carry a 4oz flask of Boost with me to take at 1 hr and 2 hrs, which helped immensely along w/ 6 Gold Honeystinger Gels, 3 20oz bottles of Heed, & 2 Endurolytes every 50 minutes. This timing took me numerous moderate & long runs to figure out, but it worked for me. At 20 miles I decided to ease up slightly not knowing what to expect with 11 miles to go. I slowed to 6:30-6:45 pace until the final 2 miles where I jogged it in at around 7 minute pace to finish 1st in 3:24. I enjoyed the a brisk soak in the New River, which helped me feel relatively good today.
My thanks to Annette for a great race & congrats to all who finished! I’m happy to end my year on that note & I look forward to February when I’ll run the Uwharrie 20 mile trail race. If you can make it to NC in Feb., Uwharrie is a great trail race having distances of 8, 20, & 40 miles. Registeration opens Nov. 1st. Register that day, or you’ll miss out! It fills up fast!
Tags: New River State Park, trail racing
October 14, 2008 at 4:32 am |
You had a strong run Saturday Aaron. Try as I might, I never closed any distance on you through out the race.
Also I see that you are heading over to Uwharrie for the 20 miler in Feb. I am planning on running the Uwharrie 20 miler a well if I get lucky enough to get in.
Good Running.
BS