The KodaFit Blog

Folks, I’m afraid this will just be a real quick one, but I needed to get something out here!

The Buffalo 50k went really well.  In the face of a goal to finish in under 8, I ended up finishing the course in a little over 6 hours, and actually felt really good at the finish, and in the days following.  Look for my full report in the next week or so.

The Buffalo Doo - which was a surprise race for me, went really well too.  It was a little on the small side, and a tougher course than last year, but I posted my fastest 10k to date, and felt strong through out the bike and second runs.  I ended up in 7th place, but in looking at the competition and their times, I’m pretty happy with that too!  Look for a report on this race too.

And then following the duathlon, I finally came down with flu.  The family have been trying for a couple of months now to get me sick…  There were sinus infections, colds and even a bout of strep which they tried to pass on, none of which succeeded, but this time they got me.  If you’re going to get flu, this one wasn’t half bad.  I was probably out for about 48 hours with it, but not feeling to worse for wear now, and truth be told, the rest probably did me some good!

Finally, with less than 3 weeks to go until my Ironman attempt, I’m in full blown taper mode, and balancing nerves and excitement.  I’m just trying to enjoy these final days and soak it all in!

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Well folks…  After slacking on my blogging duties for a whole week, it’s high time I did another post.

By way of follow-up from last week though.  The enemy which had amassed along the borders of my immune system launched it’s offensive with a Shock & Awe campaign late Friday night.  Saturday was a blur of sinus pressure, throat irritation and blood red ‘demon eyes’.  By Sunday things were looking a little better, and by Monday I felt well enough to return to work.  I hate how sickness likes to strike Friday night and clear up in time for the new work week, but if I am to be completely candid, I have a great job, which makes it easier, and work gives me an opportunity to escape five very active and rambunctious kids too!

Work outs this week were pretty minimal.  I did a good solid trail run on Monday at lunch, followed by three additional miles on the treadmill at night - 2 minutes climbing at a solid pace at a 4% incline alternating with 2 minutes below my 5k pace at 0% grade.  It was exhausting, but I really like it.  Light bike ride Tuesday, moderate run Wednesday and then a nice slow run yesterday.  Tonight I’m going to do another 20 minutes or so of very light running/jogging and that will bring us to tomorrow.

 TOMORROW IS THE BUFFALO RUN 50K!!!

I think I’ve put in about 15 miles already this week, but in my experience, I do better when I run the whole week before, probably because I stay loose.

The race will be my first ultra-distance event and the plan is to use it as a good mental prep and pacing session to prepare for the IronMan.  For the past two months my goal has been an 8 hour finish, but I think sub-7 could be very possible if I pace myself right and stay on top of my nutrition.

That all said though, it’s not an A race, and I’m not looking to break any records, personal or otherwise, which means, I’ll have time for a few distractions along the way.  Cell reception isn’t exactly great on the island, but I can get a signal in a few places, and I’m planning on pausing briefly at those places and tweeting my progress, likely with photo’s as well.

If you’d like to follow along on my journey, I’d be honored.  At the very least it’ll provide some good fuel for the race report.

You can follow along on my twitter feed, which is:

 http://twitter.com/kodafit

You can also follow along on Facebook if you would like as well, just make sure you get your friend request in before about 6am MDT tomorrow.

http://www.facebook.com/kodafit

The race starts for me at 8am Mountain Daylight Time (MDT).

I’m hoping to tweet about every hour or so, hopefully with accompanying pictures on TwitPic!

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Me and the wife always have a grand old time trying to find each other awesome gifts for Christmas.  Our kids get pretty spoiled around this time of year, but sometimes it pales in comparison to how we spoil each other.  It’s a fun time of year, and we both revel in it more than we should.

This year, my sweet wife continued her theme of the last few years of getting me triathlon related stuff.  It may be her favorite part of my new found obsession, and as an added benefit, she’s become quite knowledgeable about various products as she researches them, and looks at reviews and what not.

2 months ago, she’d never heard about Chamois Butt’r and now she nows more than me - except for how well it works, which is all I really care about.

I got a bunch of cool stuff from her, most of which will likely be reviewed in the weeks and months to come.  Finis Swim Paddles and a cadence tool, Dirty Girl Gaitors, lights for my bike, and the one I used more than any other this week…  An Evil Foam Roller.

I’ve been upping my mileage quite significantly this month, especially in the pool.  While that has seen some positive results, my cycling has been doing OK, and my running has really suffered, so last week I decided to right those wrongs and try and achieve more balance in my workouts.

Christmas made the swimming tricky with limited pool hours when I’m available, plus I hit my goal to swim the English Channel distance (21 miles) earlier last week, which impacted my motivation a little.

Monday and Tuesday I got a couple of good solid runs in at work on my lunch break, and Wednesday saw some good solid cycling miles get added.  Thursday and Friday didn’t happen due to Christmas festivities, but I hit the ground running on Saturday morning, quite literally.  I ended up running 12 miles, albeit rather slowly.  In my defense, much of it was in pretty deep snow, somewhere it was only the tracks from the deer and coyotes which I had to follow.  It was likely more of a power session that a speed session, since progress was real slow at times.  I’d try to run fast up a hill, and barely reach the speed of a fast walk, which is rather a downer as well.  But I got it done.

Sunday saw the day of the big bike, although it started off a little late due to a much needed sleep in.  I had to break it in half, but I’ve heard that’s good, and it gave me a break from being on the trainer.  The morning session had me watch the first of District 9, and then listen to a new Rage Against the Machine CD.  I would have kept watching the show, but at that point in the workout, I just wanted to put my head down and go.

Later that night, I got back on, finished the show, and then spun for another 30 minutes or so.  I ended up with a pretty solid 55 miles total, all with pretty high cadence (85-90rmp) which is good considering I’m usually in the 70’s.

Ended up with almost 23 miles running and 117 on the bike.  The only part I have yet to master is my nutrition, and I think that’s factoring into my muscle fatigue today.

Following my long run, and between biking sessions, I used the foam roller.  HOLY HELL!!!  It’s the kind of pain which feels good, because you know it’s working, but every so often, I’d hit a knot in my quads or something and I’d about go through the roof.  I think I got most of them worked out, and by the end it wasn’t quite as excruciatingly painful, but that aside, I still have the urge to paint a set of devil horns on the evil torture device.

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I’m about done with being cold.  Last night I decided to head out on a bike ride.  I layered, covered up what I could and even took the precaution of taking along a head lamp.

The training plan said I  needed to do 80-100 miles.  I figured that 40-50 would be realistic.

And so off I went…

Within 5 miles my toes were losing feeling and there was a definite chill in the air.  I should add that the weather man had temps predicted to be about 32 degrees - and this was the warmest it was supposed to be all weekend.

At mile 9, I reached for my Perpetuem.  I made it with hot water and figured that some warmish liquid would go down well.  It was already like it had spent the day in the fridge.

At 12.5 I reached the end of the trail.  My toes were completely numb and I was shivering a little.  The sun was setting to.  I donned the headlight, removed my glasses and started to head back.

IT WAS FREAKIN’ COLD!!!!

My toes were the worst part of the experience.  I could realistically see myself pulling of my socks and finding a couple of them black.  My face was freezing and my fingers were really cold.

With each mile it was a relief that I was that much closer.  At 25 miles I got back to my car and I was done.  It was during those last 5 miles that I resolved to purchase a trainer this weekend… WATCH THIS SPACE!!

You know how when your hands get really cold, and it hurts to put them under warm water.  I had that in my toes!

I took some solace in the fact that as long as I could feel them, it meant they weren’t dead, but it didn’t take away much from the pain.  When I got home, the weather service had the temperature as 24 degrees- Brrrrrrrrrr!

This morning, I had a trail run scheduled.  The local running store put it on, and I was supposed to meet a fellow Shark for it as well.

I got a text at 6:30 from my fellow runner saying that he could make it.  With that came the reprieve that no-one was counting on me.  I was still going to go, but I took my sweet time.  I hit the main gate to Antelope Island about 15 minutes late and realized the group had already left.

As I headed across the causeway, I tried to decide what to do.  I could run the same route as the group, and accumulate 13-15 miles, or I could head up Frary Peak.   I went up Frary Peak last weekend and only made it half way up.  In light of the snow storm supposed to be coming through tomorrow, I figured I’d try and summit it today, since it could be the last time this year.

All things considered it actually went really well.  I think it was colder than last night, but my toes were warm, and that made all the difference.  As I started the trail, I noticed that the peak had some cloudiness around it.  I like running in clouds, and so I was a little excited.  Little did I know that it was the business end of a wee snow storm.  It took me about an hour to get to the top.  I don’t think I quite hit the peak, but I blame that on taking a wrong turn.  1 minute I was on a good trail, the next I was scrambling along the top of a ridge with steep drop-offs on both sides.  Given that it was now snowing quite heavily and the wind was blowing really hard, I figure I would have to be an idiot to continue….  Well, I am an idiot, but I turned around anyway!

The run back down was great.  The path had quite a bit more snow on it, although it was only slick in a couple of spots.  My IT Band, which has been caused problems and cramped up on the descent last week was doing really well to.  With about a mile to go I stop in the shelter of some rocks and took a breather.  My stomach growled and so I pulled a bottle of Perpetuem from my hydration belt.  It was frozen!!!  Not completely, but after shaking it around a bit, it turned into a really nice smoothie.  After getting some of it down, I looked over myself to see how things were looking…

My head was covered in ice crystals as were my gloves.  My feet were surprisingly warm, although I’d caught a branch on the outside of my ankle on the way down and that was throbbing a little but other than that, I was in good shape.   My nose had started running a little from the cold too, and aside from the odd smattering of snot here and there on my face it was holding up well.  And then I saw the front of my running jacket - with 3 or 4 really nice snotsicles!!

It ended up being a 6.25 mile run and was actually quite enjoyable.  All credit to my La Sportiva trail shoes - Really starting to love them.  My hands could have been a little warmer, and a balaclava might not have been a bad idea for my face.

The only tricky part then was driving down from the parking lot.  The trail head is at the top of a 23% grade road.  The steepest paved road in Utah is what I’ve been told.  And there I was in my little Geo, at the top of a road which had no traffic since the snow and hadn’t been plowed.  It was a very slow, very nervous and very careful descent, but I made it down in one piece!

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I know, I know - that last one was a bit of a stretch, but it got me my third S!

Saving Money

I’m hoping to purchase a Computrainer in the next couple of weeks so I can train inside this winter.  I’m even more motivated after learning that I need to do an 80-100 mile ride this weekend, and well…  It’s 6am, and the temperature in the city I live is currently showing 15 degrees.   That’s like…  Negative 9 degree on the Celcius scale.   I’m not one who likes biking when it’s really hot, but 9 below is a wee bit ridiculous!

Anyway, the Computrainer is a little pricey, but I found a deal through the guys at TriHive magazine where if they can find 10 people to order them, they can get them for about $500 off, and you’ll get a free copy of the IronMan St. George course.

They’re still looking for people to make up the 10, so if you were on the fence about buying one, let me know and I’ll get you more information.

 Swim Update

Three days into December and I’m sitting at - 2.58 miles.  12 % of my goal for the month.   Hopefully by the end of the weekend, I’ll be pretty close to a third of the way!

Some Trail Running

I’m planning on a pretty extensive focus on trail running this winter.  Trail running is more scenic and safer that road running, it’s easier on your joints, and it generally has rougher terrain to strengthen you ankles.  The place I go also has a lot of climbing, which I really need in order to prepare for IMSG.

I’m headed out to Antelope Island for a run this Saturday.  There’s a group going at 8 for a training run on the Buffalo Run course.  I’m thinking I may join with them, or I may try and summit the peak (2000+ ft of climbing in just 3 miles).  Either way though, if you’re in the area and want to tag along, let me know.  The only thing better than trail running, is trail running with a friend!

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So, in keeping with my new goal of not putting stuff on my to do list, and then wondering why it’s still there months later…

Here’s my initial report on part 1 of the Running Form Analysis I did last night.

First, for those who are interested…

I went to The Blonde Runner for the analysis. Lora, the owner of The Blonde runner is an accomplished athlete and from what I’ve seen of her results, borders on being freakishly fast on her feet, so I figured it she not only talks the talk, but she walks the walk - or more appropriately runs the run - but that doesn’t rhyme!

You can find out more about about her form analysis services here.

My whole goal here is to hopefully improve both my speed and my efficiency when running. I know I’m not putting enough intensity into my running, but I’m feeling like something else is missing as well.

Which brings us to last night…

I ran a half marathon on Saturday, and so come Monday I was a little more fatigued than I would have like to be.

I figured I would take a very easy lunch time run, and use it as a chance to loosen up a little and get everything moving again in preparation for Tuesday. And folks, I swear I started out with those intentions!!!

As we started running, I turned my Garmin on so that I could track my pace and heart rate. I wanted to make sure I stayed below 140 bpm and I didn’t want to be running anything faster than a 10 minute mile.

The first part of our run was along the rim of the canyon above Memory grove. It has a very slight uphill grade to it, but is generally smooth and flat. For some reason, my Garmin couldn’t get a signal. It usually struggles in this area and last week, I even lost signal in a couple of spots. That’s interesting because no where else I’ve run does it struggle, and in fact back in April, I drove from East Canyon back to my house with the device inside the neoprene sleeve of my wetsuit, which was crumpled up on the floor in the back of my car, and it tracked the entire 50 mile journey!

Anyway, finally, right before the mile mark, it got itself ready… And it looked like we’d been running at a 9:40 pace. Ooops!

We went through the gate to City Creek park, and walked the first little way up the canyon. After a while I got antsy though and started a slow jog. We hit the next mile marker with an average pace of about 11 minutes a mile, but we walked a bunch, so that was still way too fast, and it was uphill. Dang it Mike - SLOW THE HECK DOWN!!!

We walked the next bit, which has some pretty hairy climbs, and after a half mile or so decided to hop onto one of the trails.

I’ve grown a real fondness for trail running. The leaves have started falling and so the trail is soft and crunchy underfoot. The canyon is still surrounded by trees in all phases of fall change, from green to yellow, to brilliant red. Surrounded by beauty, there still remains the need to watch the path ahead for rocks, slick spots and possibly snakes, although we think they’ve mostly vanished for the year. Looking around and concentrating on the path ahead, leaves little time to check speed and all of that, and so before I knew it, we were at the bottom again, and again, had gone waaay faster than planned.

The final mile has a slight negative grade, and I was feeling really loose and ready to go, so we pushed it a little and both finished feeling great!

Fortunately I don’t think that affected me much last night, which was good. I feared arriving at the track with stiff legs and no energy.

Long story about the journey there, but I arrived at the track a little early and set about a nice easy warm up. The plan was slow, but as usual I got lost in watching the kids practice football and looking at the mountains. Last time I was here was when the Olympic torch came through on it’s way to the Winter Games in Salt Lake.

I met up with Lora and another runner after a quick trip to the restroom… I was also worried about being dehydrated, but that didn’t appear to be a problem!

I gave her my guesstimate of 12 minutes for the mile and a half and set about filling out some paper work.

Did another half mile to make sure my legs were ready, and while I still wasn’t quite feeling as loose as the day before, I figured it was about as ready as I was going to be.

We started off and the first lap went really quick. The nice thing about running that fast, is all your mental faculties are focused on keeping it going, and so I think my form reverted to how I normally run. By the time I hit half way, I was spent, but knowing that I only had 3 laps left made it easier to keep going. I tried to relax a little and lengthen my stride, but you can only relax so much when pushing your pace and trying to beat the clock.

My Garmin auto lapped on each lap, but I didn’t look at it much at all, which was probably good too. I have a theory that it may actually be slowing me down - especially if I see great numbers and then mentally tell myself I can’t keep it up.

My splits were as follows:

Lap 1 - 1:41.98 (Avg pace: 6:47, Avg BPM: 156)
Lap 2 - 1:46.69 (Avg pace: 7:06, Avg BPM: 170)
Lap 3 - 1:52.20 (Avg pace: 7:28, Avg BPM: 171)
Lap 4 - 1:54.96 (Avg pace: 7:39, Avg BPM: 170)
Lap 5 - 1:54.20 (Avg pace: 7:36, Avg BPM: 170)
Lap 6 - 1:44.91 (Avg pace: 7:17, Avg BPM: 171)

My personal analysis…

My heart rate was pretty steady, and not too much higher than during the half mary on Saturday. Makes me wonder if I can go faster with minimal effort. Or does my heart top out at 170 or so, and that’s all I’m going to get from it…

I slowed on Laps 3, 4 and 5 quite a bit. I notice this in swimming too. If I do 10 laps, 5 or 6 will usually be my slowest. I think it’s mental.

Finally… My final time was 10:55 with an average pace of 7:16. That’s freaking fast for me. I’ve never timed myself over this distance, but that has to a personal record.

Now the Coach’s analysis and suggestions…

Most of this I’ll get in my followup appointment on Friday.

1 - I need to keep my arms closer to my sides. She said it might feel weird. I tried it afterward and it did. I’m also worried about chaffing, so I may have to stock up on BodyGlide for my runs!!

2 - Trunk rotation. Part of the problem is the way I swing my arms, but I’ll definitely try and focus on this.

3 - Lots of movement in my legs. Now your first thought is probably the same as mine… Hello?!? I was running. But I think it’s additional movement that is going to cause me problems by running with it, and may well be the reason I’ve had shin splints and IT Band problems. I was actually excited to hear this, because it means that there is room for improvement!!!

Actually my wife is a little concerned about the last item, and my getting it fixed. Apparently (and she’s not the first to notice) I have a distinctive run. It helps her pick me out in races, which is good, but as I told her… If I can get it fixed, perhaps she could just look instead for the guy who comes in first!!

I guess I’ll find out on Friday what changes I need to make. I’m totally psyched about this too. I’ve grown to really love running, and I think this will make the whole experience even better.

As a complete aside, as I got in my car to drive home, I started shaking and feeling weird… Kind of like when I’ve had a couple of late nights, and I take too much caffeine in one shot. It lasted till I got home and was combined with a feeling of optimism and general excitement about life. Usually with caffeine I get a little edgy and short tempered.

I had a great evening at home, and when the time came for bed, I really struggled to get to sleep.

Folks I think I got the runners high, and a good one at that!!!

I’ve never really been tempted to partake of illicit drugs, but if it’s anything like how I felt last night - IT WAS AWESOME!!!

Don’t worry though - I’ll only seek it through natural means!!

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On Saturday I tried out my first trail race, and my third half marathon.  My second half marathon is still on my to do list of races needing to be reported on, but I figured since that list keeps growing, I’ll just go ahead and do this one while it’s fresh in my mind.

The Mountain View trail is a single track trail on the east side of Antelope Island.  If you read this blog often you likely know that the island is a favorite place for me to train.  This was the first time they’ve held this race, and it was organized by Jim Skaggs, race director of the annual Buffalo Run on the same island.

Jim does an excellent job organizing races - at least in my opinion.  It’s hard to know exactly how to describe his organizational style though…  He has a great sense of humor which is reflected in the race description and accompanying legal documents, and while everything is organized exceptionally well, it still keeps the small, almost family like atmosphere.  I’m not sure if this is Jim’s style or if it reflects upon the ultra-running community, or if it’s a bit of both, but I like it.  I like it A LOT!!

Packet pickup was the day before, and we got a nice long sleeved tech running shirt, featuring the race logo, and a small back of electrolyte stuff, some ginger chews and BioFreeze samples!

The race logo is of a bison chasing down a runner - I was hoping that irony wouldn’t let this happen during the race however, but more of that later!

The race was scheduled to start at 9am, and I arrived on the island at about 8:30, which gave me a chance to meet up with friends and socialize a little.  Chuck, who is part of the Desert Sharks Tri club, and a fellow Rockin’ Roller from Red Rock was there, ready for his first half marathon, as was fellow Shark and avid trail runner Dave!  I also got to chat a little with Joanie, one of my lunch time running buddies from work, and my adopted mom (Which I’ll cover in my Top of Utah race Report!)

In the pre-race meeting, Jim talked about how he had only expected 50 runners or so, and there we all stood, a band of 125 runners all eager to get going.  I saw regular road runners, trail runners, triathletes and a couple of dogs.  We were quite the diverse group.

9am came quickly and it was ready to start.  The start was right at the Elephants Head Trail head, and headed through the White Rock campground, before heading up and over the island, and then along the Mountain View Trail to the Garr Fielding Ranch.

My race plan was going to be fairly simple.  I wasn’t sure if I’d get a PR, but I wanted to be close.  My plan was to start slow, and turn it on at the end.  Negative split was the name of the game, and I was going to play it hard!!

And we were off!!   I started at the back, and was grateful to find plenty of space between people through which to move.  The first half mile felt wonderful, and I felt like I had a good comfortable pace going.  Checking the Garmin, I noted that my pace was about 8 mins/mile and my heart rate was already over 160.  To put this into perspective, my half marathon PR is based on a pace of 8:35, and my heart usually hangs in the low 150’s for a running race of this distance.

Need to calm down Mike!!!

The next mile or 2, took us uphill.  I was still passing people and felt strong on the hill.  I’ve been working on hills for Silverman next month, and so this was good!  Halfway up, I got passed by a guy with an interesting gait.  He wasn’t going much faster than me, and so I tucked in behind him, increased my pace, and followed him up the hill.

After climbing for a little more than a mile, we crested a hill, and began a very rapid descent back down the other side.  It started off well, and then we had a short section of bush whacking through an area which had seen many bison walk through and leave some precarious holes.  It was like walking through a mine field, and the guy I was chasing kept asking if I wanted to pass.  I was grateful to have him in front.  It slowed me down, and let me take it a little easier.  Probably good since at least 1 other person twisted a knee in that area.

We hit the trail, took a sharp right, and it was now a straight shot to the ranch.  I’d slowed a little and my average pace was now holding at about 9 minutes a mile.  Time to increase it a little, which the guy I was following did, and for the next 2 miles, we ran together at about 8:30 a mile.  I think I was pushing him a little harder than he would have liked, but on the plus side, he was helping me run conservatively.

At mile 5, the trail got a little wider, and so I passed him, and took off.  I passed a couple more people prior to mile 7, and then began a short climb up the the Frary Peak parking lot.  On the way up, I hit 6.55 miles - Half way!  And my time was a couple of seconds over 58 minutes.  Looking good!  Time to pour on the gas.  Right before the aid station at Frary Peak though, I got behind 3 runners.  They were moving along well, but not quite as fast as I wanted to be going.  1 stopped at the aid station and I followed the other two through.  Half a mile down the trail, I found a wider spot and blew by them…  Settled back down into my rhythm, and was just getting it down when I found myself behind another runner.  That slowed me for another half mile, before I got by her, and then just as I was finding the groove again, my shoe lace came undone…

The worst part of the shoelace thing, is that I meant to double knot them right before the start, and I forgot.  I tied it without losing any ground to the runners behind me, and was off again.  It hurt, but didn’t take long to get running again.  It was about this point, that I heard the sound of trotting on the road, about 50 yards to my left.  I glanced over, and there came a large bison pull, galloping? down the road.  I’m always amazed at how heavy they look, and yet they can bound along on their thin little legs, almost bouncing.  Actually I say one actually bouncing last week - just weird.

The bison continued, and disappeared off into the grass on the other side of the road, still running.  I was hurting now, and it was getting hot, but I was still in control.  Minutes later the same bison reappeared, crossed the road and made a bee line for some runners ahead of me…  Uh oh…  My thoughts about the race logo came back…

I’m sure everyone involved was nervous, likely the bison too, but he crossed the path between two groups of runners, and then started grazing peacefully.  Phew!!

I passed through the final aid station and began the final 2 or 3 miles.  I can do this!!  And then lace #2 came undone.  I got it tied quickly, but getting up again and starting to run was really hard.  My legs were tight, and I couldn’t get my pace right.  In addition, I started losing ground on the girl I was chasing down in front, and I noticed people behind me getting closer as well.

I struggled through miles 11 and 12, and as I began 13, figured I could give it all I had for the final mile.  I caught and passed the girl in front with much huffing and puffing and then bore down and gave it all I had for the finish.  Thankfully, I had my Garmin counting the miles, and I had a good idea of where the ranch was, because until you hit 50 yards to go, you can’t see it.

I tried to sprint the last 50 yards in, but I honestly don’t think I moved any faster.  I finished in 1:56:10, which meant the first and second halves were within seconds of eachother.

My wife and kids were there to meet me.  My oldest son playing official photographer!  Chuck was there too, having rocked his first half in 1:47 and some change!

I felt a mix of nausea, likely caused by a clump of phlegm which had been in my throat most of the race, and total and complete fatigue.  I love finishing a race with nothing left in the tank, because I know I gave my all, rather than thinking I could have gone faster.

Finishers all got a pretty cool coffee mug, and the owners of Striders cooked up some delicious hotdogs and hamburgers for all participants and their families.  It was great to sit out on the grass with family and friends and reflect on the race.

Joanie and Dave both finished the race as well, as did 110 other runners.  Congrats to everyone who made the distance!!

Final thoughts on the race.  It’s an easy course in that it is fairly flat, but by flat I mean, no major hill climbs.  It’s never really flat, since you’re constantly on a slight grade, either up of down, and you spent a fair amount of energy concentrating on the path ahead to avoid rocks and bison turds!

I got my first blister in a race too - just a couple of small ones on the inside of my right foot.

I’d do this race again in a heart beat though.  It was well organized and the scenery was great.  I do like the half distance on a good downhill for some help with speed, but it’s always good to mix it up a little.  I’m actually thinking of registering for the 50k they do out on the island in March, and maybe the year after, I’ll give the 50 miler a go!

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