Thursday, October 26, 2017

Jacks 30k

Race: Jacks 30k
Date: October 22nd, 2017
Finish Time: 3:21 hours
Distance: 30k
Overall Total Climb: 148 ft
Elevation gain: 13 ft

Wow, my legs are tired! Yesterdays 50k kicked my butt. My body is very tired today, my lungs hurt and my chest is tight... this is going to be a tough race! With that said, thanks to my Altras and my Wiivv insoles my feet feel great, everything is just tired.
I slept OK that night, and didn't eat breakfast before heading to the race this morning. The race start for the 30k was 10:30am. This trail is local for me so I knew exactly what to expect going into it. Pretty easy 5 mile loop trail, with one tough portion that lasts about .75 miles long. I'd run it 3 times, then head back down the road to the finish line. I got this. As I took off running my whole body was telling me to stop. I couldn't breath. My skin hurt and my arms were tired, my legs felt like they had 20lb weights on them, everything was just tired. I carried on, entered the trail and started going. I decided to run as much as I could before I started integrating walk breaks, take it easy and try to loosen my body up some. We hit Cloud 9 (the tough .75 mile section of the trail) around 2 1/2 miles in. I had no problem running up the hills, but I could NOT run down them. I was nervous just walking down them! The muscles in my legs didn't want to work on the down hills! Hilarious. I did what I could and just took it easy, trying to run as much as possible. By the time I finished the first loop my body was feeling good and I was running more and more. My chest still hurt and felt tight so I was trying to be careful with that since I've never experienced anything like that before. As I finished my first loop I grabbed a couple avocado tortilla roll ups to try and satisfy the hunger I was starting to feel. It worked and I continued on! It was so hot and humid out my KT tape wasn't staying up on my calf. I was soaked. 

Heading out for my 2nd loop I was feeling pretty good overall. There was an aid station half way through the loop (just after Cloud 9) that had water/Scratch. A friend of mine was working the aid station so we chatted for a few. I was so excited to be half way done... already! After I left that aid station I struggled for the next 2 miles or so. My chest hurt a lot, so much that I was only running about 15-20 second segments, then taking 5 second walk breaks. I was wasting so much energy doing this, but couldn't seem to push myself to last any longer. I finally made it back to the beginning of the loop. One more loop? I feel good! I can do this! My body was loosened up and I was back to running, just having a lot of chest pain. I guess this is normal? Tired lungs? Not sure, but as I continued I ran more and more. Anxious and excited to finish my race. This was one of the hardest runs I have done. Such tired legs from the day before and pushing through. I breezed through the last aid station and had 1/2 mile to go to the finish line. It started pouring rain on me. Complete downpour I could barely see where I was going. It was exhilarating! I finished with a time of 3 hours 21 minutes. Not my fastest 30k but considering how tired my legs and body were, I was proud of myself for pushing as hard as I did!

The Race director Dawn was awesome. She always puts on very organized races, with well marked trails and amazing aid stations. She is out there from beginning to end cheering for people, encouraging people and making sure everything is taken care of. This is my 2nd year in a row running Jacks and I hope to make it an annual event.

I accomplished what I set out to do for my 100 mile training. This weekend I wanted to run my two long trail races, and push myself to not maintain a slow easy pace, and I did it. Now, to eat, sleep and recover!

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