Brian’s recap of last week’s Rogue 30km race

Following is my recap of last week’s Rogue 30km race (Jan 27th).  It’s a long story as it was a long race 😉

Rogue 30k Medal

Short Story: I finished the 18.64 mile race today

Long Story: Talk about trials and tribulations….

Today’s race started off just a little bit rough. For some reason I just wasn’t feeling real strong. I blame it on being out of bananas as I always have a banana as part of my pre-race prep. Or maybe it might have had something to do with that 28 mile bike ride I did on Thursday? I figured since the weather was so good that wouldn’t count against my tapering…. well really I just went out to far before I remembered the whole way home was against the wind

But I had done my research, knew the course map, and the pacers and what their paces were. All the pacers had marathon pace signs, so a 4:10 sign meant they would be running at the pace that would finish a marathon in 4hrs 10 min. I was debating between the 3:55 or 4:10 (8:57 or 9:32 pace). The 4:25 (10:06 pace) was also an option. I knew I had finished the 3m half marathon with an 8:38 pace and I was only going 5.5 more miles. Since I wasn’t feeling the best I opted for the 4:10 pacer.

This seemed to be working out fine for the first 10 or so miles – I kept up a steady 9:34 pace although there were some times I felt I was pushing a bit – definitely not running at my regular all-by-myself long distance run pace of around 10:30 ish but also running slower than at the 3M.

Feeling strong at mile 6
Feeling strong at mile 6

Unfortunately around 10.5 miles the wheels started to fall off. I had to let my pace group move ahead as I was starting to feel sore in all sorts of places. Over the next few miles my paces were dropping to 9:54, 10:12, 10:47, but I wasn’t even caring. I just wanted to finish the race… and was questioning if I could.

Would I cramp up? Would that sore calf or hamstring come back and get me? Did I start off too fast? Was it that long bike ride? Was it because I didn’t take in any carbs the first hour? Can I make it 8 more miles or 7 or 6…

People started passing me… but I kept chugging along hoping that putting in a few slower miles would let me reset. I made it thru the 13 mile mark at 2:06:40 (overall pace down to 9:44 now). I also started to see other people walking here and there, but I wasn’t going to stop til I had to. “The pain of running is temporary, the pain of giving up is forever”, I thought. No pain no gain, and blah blah blah…

My original plan was to run 18.6 then run over and hit the track for 5 laps and get in exactly 20 miles. Now I just wanted to make it. Forget my plans to try a full marathon in 3 weeks; I’m not even going to make 18. I’ll just have to switch to the half, no way I can do a full as I can’t even do this. My mile times kept dropping 11:12, 11:12, 11:28 and lots more people walking and my legs hurting and I’m trying not to cramp up by trying different strides and things and … then it happened.

The 4:25 pace group came chugging thru and I heard the pacer calling out to his pace group “Come on, it’s only 2 miles, keep up now, don’t let yourself fall behind us”. This guy was a deity of some sort. I looked up at that 4:25 pace sign and noticed it said 10:00 min/mile on it. I can do that! I picked up the pace and stayed with them, saying to myself I’ve got to hold on. You know what, it felt good, way better than 11:28 felt; it was using the right muscles in the right way (insert story here about how form is usually better when running faster – and how mine had probably been falling apart).

Airborne
Airborne at mile 18

Can I keep this up… apparently I can. We kept going along and now instead of running alone I was in a group of about 10. That surely helped too. I was feeling strong.

“Almost there, only 4 laps around a track left!” he called. It felt really good. “Two laps around a track to go”. I passed them up and started pulling ahead. “I got this – and I got the 20 miles”, I thought. I rounded the next turn and saw the finish line and sped up even more. I kept pushing and cruised thru the finish line but got stopped by someone who gave me a medal, then I kept running… ran to the track, did my 5 laps and finished off an easy 20 mile run. Or not….

My last 3 splits were roughly 11:19, 10:19, and 9:27 with a final time of 3:08:16 for an overall pace of 10:05.  Also set a distance PR as 20 miles is my new longest run, up from 16.5.

Now, just 1.4 more miles...
Finish line, now just 1.4 more miles…

It’s amazing how much of what we do is mind over matter. This was a great run for me, and if you read this, thanks for letting me share it with you.
-Brian

(505)

Author: Brian Scott

Father, Husband, and Triathlete

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