Over the weekend, I joined one of the "official" training runs for the Run with the Buffalo race coming up soon . . . in short: good times. It was amazing to get out of winter and seemingly fly along snowless trails. I was able to run just under twenty miles at a better tempo than I have recently been slogging along at during my long runs, which has given me a little confidence going into the trail racing season. I tend to be generally conflicted about racing, since theoretically the idea in my mind is to compete against myself; however, I find it enjoyable to compete against others from time to time and better yet it's fun to get to know other runners then compete against them. I think the majority of my top races have been those where the first third to half took place with a small group of people and then the "race" began almost accidentally.
My top race experiences in no specific order (ultras first):
Squaw Peak 50: I finished in the Top 10 the second year I ran this race, which still stands out in my mind as one of my most competitive finishes considering both the field and the conditions (decent number of good runners and loads of rain/snow).
Leadville 100: I finished! And even snuck in under the 24 hour mark! Brutal fun. ELEVATION!
Boston Marathon: The history and excitement of marathoning in the United States still resides in this old school east coast lesson in running as fast as you can in a crowd! Despite a mess of travel and general chaos leading up to the Monday start I was able to keep myself mentally together and finish in just under 3 hours (and I do mean just barely).
Salt Lake City Marathon: Despite planning on a rather conservative race plan I found myself with a chance to break the 3 hour mark for the first time and pushed hard through the second half to negative split and run a sub-3 PR and qualify for Boston.
Mid-Mountain Marathon: I finished in the Top 10 both times I ran this race, but the second time was the best. I almost never do well when I go out fast and hard from the beginning, but knew that I wanted to actively compete for a strong place so I started up in the Top 10 right from the first. As the race went on, I continued to move along the course well and found myself in a silent duel for the last 5 miles that ended with me finishing in 4th place.
There are other races, and I suppose technically stronger finishes but these seem to be the ones that come to mind when I started jotting ideas down. It has been a couple of years since I ran a road marathon and in all honesty I am not sure there are any/many left in my future. Even at Boston, I found myself bored in the middle of the race and the only reason I would run another full on the road would be to try and set a PR (I feel like 2:55 or on a perfect day and a fast course maybe even 2:50 wouldn't be a completely ridiculous goal but it would take a lot of speed training and doing the kind of running I generally fail to enjoy thus at least for the time being my focus is in on trail running and at distances beyond the marathon. I prefer mountains to just about any other kind of terrain and I believe the mental game of running requires me to be on my feet for at least five hours in order to think of the run/race as an adventure, which is generally what I am looking for in my running. As things stand currently, I have become fascinated by the 100 mile distance, and it is ironically a DNF last summer at this distance that has created the shift in my view of ultras -- I think the 50 is my best distance in terms of competing against others, but in terms of competing with and against myself the 100 sticks out as the challenge I need to learn how to finish with consistency so that one day I might be able to truly race the distance.
No comments:
Post a Comment