Tuesday, September 18, 2012

New race, same old story...


             Steamboat is my favorite mountain town in Colorado, I spent a summer there while living in one of the flat and humid midwest states and decided I'd pretty much sell my soul to live here.  When it was announced that there was going to be a 100 miler in the Yampa Valley, I knew I'd be at the start line.   I had high expectations for myself coming into Run Rabbit Run, I was injury-free and fit, and had not thrown up while running since I started taking more Endurolytes. 
             I was hoping for, and perhaps naively expecting, cooler weather - my stomach seems to hold up much better as the temperature drops. Still, at Olympian Hall (21.5) I thought to myself "geez, it's hot out and I feel great, this is a pleasant change" .  As it was, I dropped at the very next aid station, I'm at a loss as to why my stomach stops absorbing and I end up puking 1 or 2 hours worth of food all over the trail.  Short of literally stopping, I could not have gone slower on that section, or weaved across the road more often to stay in the shade.  

                                                          Some notable facts:

-I ended up with the unenviable distinction of being the first person to drop out of the Run Rabbit Run 100 (ever!).   
                                
-ShotBlocs and Gu are expensive!  If I threw up 2 hrs worth of food, we're looking at:                                               1 pack of Shot Blocs 1.90     
                                             2 gels                         2.10      
                                             4 Endurolytes.             .64     
                                                                               $4.64
-Five dollars at of Wendy's will get you 25 nuggets!  This is exactly why I need a sponsor.  People wonder why I dropped... I can't afford to pay $2.50 an hour to puke!

-My pacer, Andy, ended up picked up another runner to spend the night with, and ended up running more miles than I did.  In fact, many people did. 



My goal in this is sport has been to run ten 100's in ten years, and I'm thankful that this year is not over.  Fall is a great time for running, and a week ago I thought I'd miss it to recover from Steamboat, so I've got nothing to be upset about.  Once I put together a course and date, I'll share it with any interested runners.  You can be sure it'll be on a day with cool weather.