satriales wrote:I've got a 38 mile race a week on Saturday (The Fox Ultra) It's the same one I did last year as my first ultra, plus it's local, so I know the course and feeling much better prepared than last year.
So I am just sitting in the bath having completed this race. It was my usual race of two half with the first being way faster than I planned, and the second being a painful plod.
I had set some goals and this is how they each went:
satriales wrote:Complete the race without injury (I have a 66.6 mile ultra 5 weeks after this!)
I took some ibuprofen near the end of the race to the deal with the pain, but unless that's masking something I think I'm just sore rather than injured.
satriales wrote:Beat my time from last year (8hr 40min) by at least an hour (7hr 40min)
I completed it in 7hr 18min. Success!!
satriales wrote:Don't stop at any aid station for more than 2 minutes.
The first two aid stations I flew past without stopping for more than 10s to grab food. Then aid station 3 I was there for a couple of minutes while I called girlfriend to tell her when I'd be expected at checkpoint 4 (in hindsight I should have done this while walking). Between CP3 and CP4 I struggled bad and was in a lot of pain. I convinced myself that I was going to quit at CP4, but I was well ahead of time and so gave myself 5 minutes rest to change my mind, which I did. The last CP was also just a minute or two.
satriales wrote:26 miles in there is the biggest hill of the race. It is one mile long and I want to run it without stopping. I can do it on fresh legs, but not sure I'll be able to at that point of the race.
strawberry float that! That was a stupid goal!!
That hill actually came just after CP4 when I was feeling the worst. I could hardly run on flat ground so there was no chance I was running that hill.
Overall I am really happy with my result. I just need to be doing longer training runs. I tend to max out at 18 - 20 miles just as things start hurting. Doing a few extra miles on sore legs can only help with getting used to it.
Good luck to anyone doing the London Marathon tomorrow. I shall be sitting on the sofa with my feet up watching it on TV.