run willow run

here is a tracking link for live results for the race tomorrow:

https://chronokeep.com/results/ultra-fest

information is sparse. this may tell you my times and place as i pass through aid stations. or it may only tell you my results when i complete the 100 miles, hopefully before 10pm pst.

the race starts at 6am saturday. i plan to run the first 50 miles at a 9 minute pace, on par for a 15 hour 100 miler; then hoping to only slow to a 10 minute pace which gets me comfortably under 16 hours (a 15:49 or so).

it helps that i have another fast course on new year’s eve so i have a backup plan. which is confusing: one could either take this one slower, knowing that december 31 will be the fast one. or, as i intend, to go for it on this one; and if the center cannot hold and things fall apart, i have a few months to regroup for a personal record attempt at the new year.

9 minute miles feel pretty slow at the start of a race (and indeed i plan to run a little faster because i have to pause to refill water, use facilities, and the like). 10 minute miles feel pretty fast at the end, but not impossible; in my june race i was around 10, and in my yeti virginia 100 of 2023 i was sub 10 for much of the end (it also helped that that was downhill).

it was in the 80s and very dry on my practice runs today; while this might be laughable to people from florida or arizona or palm springs, it could still slow down the pace; it means i have to drink more, which puts more strain on my digestive system. tomorrow has a high of 75. it will be in the 40s to start the race; i hope to run fast enough it won’t be cold at the end of the race. but i will have jacket and gloves with me.

my running was fun this summer. life was generally good. an infection in my jaw and sinus passage became intolerable; an endodontist ct scan showed that the roots of teeth 2 and 3 were “leaking” into one another, and there was a bacteria party that had eaten away at the bone between my jaw and my sinuses. she was surprised i went as long as i did without this becoming a nuisance, implying this has gone on in the long time. so in the long term i hope to be more sprightly without the burden of battling a sinus/jaw/root infection; it meant my nutrition for the summer was varied—o vitamix how you helped me through some rough weeks! so i have done almost no practice with eating or slurping gels while running. and my gut is recovering from two courses of amoxicillin, so my nutrition plan is to be as ascetic as possible. i have also bought pepto bismol for the first time. hopefully i do not have to use it.

i have gone back to the amphipod handheld bottle; it much more successfully carries gels and my homemade electolytes in its pocket than the nathan or ultraspire i used february to june. i’m also avoiding the ultraspire vest. here is a positive spin on it: my lung capacity keeps getting larger and ribs jut out more and more; and i was driven to distraction with the bottles in the vest bouncing on my bony ribs in june. i think i can make do with a handheld and a waist belt; jacket tied around waist underneath the belt; gloves draped in the waist belt.

time for bed; assuming that you will know how i did from the live results link i gave you at the start, i may wait for a longer reflection post for this race until i have some photos and cogitation.

time for bed.