Monday, March 28, 2011

Race weekend 03/26/11

A few CATs enjoyed the mountains at race pace this weekend. Congrats to Sophie Speidel (2nd overall female!), Michael Stadnisky, Marc Griffin, and David Snipes for their performances at Terrapin 50k and Chris McCartney and Nick Hamblet for rocking Bel Monte. Nick also received the Standout Award to Virginia from La Sportiva.

Race Results:
Bel Monte 50 mile Bel Monte Results
Terrapin Mountain 50 km Terrapin Mt Results

Article in iRunFar on Bel Monte 25K and Nick Hamblet's Standout Award: Bednosky and Woods win at Bel Monte 25k

Sophie Speidel's blog on Terrapin: Going Big at Terrapin

March madness" Mike Stadnisky's notes about Terrapin:
According the to the forecast, it was supposed to snow on Terrapin Mountain late Saturday night and early Sunday morning. This snow never made it to the trail however, as it was set ablaze by Sophie and Eliza on Saturday morning. Early reports say that the overlook is still smoldering this morning.

Congratulations to Sophie who took second female in the 50K with 05:44:15, Eliza who won first female in the half with 2:01, and Sniper who ran a 06:22:25 and then had us aching with laughter poking fun at the "prize purses" given to the male winners (new CR of 4:02!).

If I missed anyone, I'm sorry!

I'm not good at race reports, sorry in advance. From what I remember, it wasn't as cold as we expected it to be, there was a mountain, we ran for a bit, and Horton yelled a bunch at the finish. Fun was had by all (and the barbecue was awesome).

On a personal note, Terrapin was the finish to my "March Madness" series of races, spurred on by an icy relationship with winter running and exuberant spring fever. I ran three races this past month - Seneca Creek 50K (4:44:42), Instant Classic Trail Marathon (3:49:01), and Terrapin 50K (5:49:18). Time to recover before the devil goes down to Georgia for the Sweetwater 50K.

Nick Hamblet's blog on Bel Monte

And Chris MCartney's rundown on the Bel Monte experience:
-- It was really beautiful out there. I got a bit too cold a few times, but it was great running weather overall.
-- Bel Monte was my first ultra 3 years ago, and for whatever reason, I had forgotten about how rocky some of it is. Conversely, the rocky stuff along Torrey Ridge (which I've previously recalled with some abhorrence) wasn't quite as bad as I remembered. (But it was still terrible.)
-- The long climb/slog up the switchbacks to Camp Marty somewhere around mile 22 had me seriously questioning whether I'll make it through a 100 miler. (Explanatory note: I'm signed up for an August 100, and the elevation gain/loss profile is similar to that of Bel Monte.) Fortunately, I felt better after Camp Marty, so I haven't yet withdrawn from the August 100 -- but I'm still questioning the sanity of it.
-- I didn't wear my Garmin or use a stopwatch. I was going by feel only, with a big goal being to not push too hard. I think running "by feel" and not worrying about pace might be a good approach for me. I only had one bad patch (i.e., the aforementioned climb to Camp Marty), I felt reasonably well the last 8 miles, and I've had only moderate soreness since Saturday. With one exception ...
-- I turned the fire out of my right ankle three separate times. Ugh! This meant I had to walk the technical stuff on Torrey Ridge. (Hmm ... maybe that's why it seemed better than I remembered.) I don't typically twist my ankle very much; but when I have one good twist, it seems much more likely I'll twist it again later in the run. My ankle was pretty swollen yesterday, but better today. I'm optimistic that it won't be a long-term problem.

No comments:

Post a Comment