I apologize to my few loyal readers, but I have been too busy to write about Pike's Peak, and I wasn't really sure what to write anyways. I don't have a report to share. Here's the short story.
Colorado Springs and Manitou Springs are very cool towns, places I wouldn't mind living some day. There are some seriously good athletes out there, and the mountains are beautiful. But, I have to say, the race itself was a little anti-climactic. I was expecting struggle, pain, nausea, etc. Instead, I had a very easy race. Upon everyone's advice, I took the base of the mountain very conservatively. As I got higher and higher, I felt relaxed and strong and passed people the entire way up. At the top I saw my wife and friend, and they gave me some donuts, which I had requested in advance. I was way ahead of people I am never in front of. I also saw JT near the toip who went on to finish around 50th place I think. I'm expecting a top 20 finish next year, unless he's running Leadville 100 that weekend instead.
The run downhill went very quickly (~2 hours) and then it was over. I've been training for this race by running 12+ hour runs in extreme heat, and this race was over in under 6 hours without a hitch. I guess I just found it a little anti-climactic. That is not to take anything away from the race, it was fun and I was glad I did it. I think I just enjoy longer distances more than anything.
I'm thinking of going back up to CO and/or NM this fall. I have some vacation time and it seems like a fun roadtrip to drive up there and run some of the tough courses out there. We'll see.
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2 comments:
Congrats.. The training was harder than the race. That is part of why you did so well.
Wow. You must be in fantastic shape. I had to bust my ass to break six hours last year, and I thought it was brutal. Excellent job!
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