Wow, it's been over a month since I've posted. Near the end of April, I helped out with our local Capitol Peak 50 miler. I really wiped myself out flagging the second half of the course the day before the race. Between post holeing in the snow along the ridge and tossing branches I was exhausted by the end of the day. The next morning I was up early, stocking the aid stations, then I swept the last 15 miles. It was a great sunny day and I felt great by the end.
My next adventure was running the MacDonald forest 50K. Had a good trip down, spent the night at Jim Lofgren's house (he and his wife are incredible!). At the start, I hooked up with Todd Temple who I had started with at Waldo last year. He was going slow, so we ran together for the first 9 miles. However, when I got to Lovely Rita, the first uphill in the maze, I started to struggle and tried every combination of electrolytes and gels and aid station food, but nothing seemed to help till about the last 6 miles when I felt great. I guess I got dehydrated on the long downhill before the maze and took awhile to recover. I was really sore for the next couple of days, but after reading Eric Barnes blog about his Tacoma Marathon, I thought I might as well sign up for the Capitol City marathon the next weekend.
My next adventure, the marathon. I've never run two long races a week apart, but I was just sore, not injured, so I thought I'd give it a try. The plan was to try and qualify for Boston with a 3:35. The course is hilly so I just figured out my goal time to reach 18 miles and then decide what to do. It was a sunny day, but not too hot, so I started out slow then cranked it up doing 7:45s -8:10s on the flats and faster or slower on the hills. When I got to mile 18, I was right on the mark! I did two more miles on pace, then started to fade. I finished strong but with a time of 3:39, missed qualifying for Boston, but I beat my last year's time by 8mins. I also ended up with a third place age group trophy! Then afterwards, my mind fog cleared, and I realized I turn 55 this August and I easily qualified for Boston for the 55+ age group!
I'm getting excited for Cascade Crest, I'm finally up to training speed and not injured. Will be concentrating on hill work between now and Lake Youngs.