Landsford Canal 24 & Sweet H20 50K Race Reports

Both of these runs were meant as training runs for Western States 100 in June so I thought I would consolidate them both into a single entry.

I've never had this much fun with my training.  NEVER! 

I'm nervously anxious about the 100 miles out west.  I've never ran in that environment.  I do feel that some pressure is off of me because I'm not "racing" it.  My goal is to simply get to the finish line under 30 hours and have the most fun possible while doing so.

With that being said, here is what happened at Landsford Canal 24....

Weezy came up and stayed with me before the race and we drove down to the park on Saturday morning.  We arrived about 10 minutes before the start which was perfect for me, but not so much for him.  I love to just be putting my bib number on as the gun goes off.  Either way, it was no big deal for either of us and we were off and running.  Fast.

My training called for 34 miles and Wayne wanted to hit 50.  Since we knew this was just a "laboratory" to test out gear and nutrition we both went out like leopards hunting prey.  I covered the first mile uphill in about 8:20.  The next three miles were similar and finished the first 4.25 mile loop in about 35 minutes.

Pretty stupid for an ultra I know, but we were just having fun and clowning around.

We ran the next three loops together and a nice steady clip.  Wayne pulled ahead around the 4-5 loop and I settled into a shuffle.  This course is 80% road, 20% hard packed dirt trail and I spent a lot of time running over Fire Ant mounds on the side of the road.  I'm not used to logging high mileage on pavement and I sure didn't want to wreck my body. 

I ended up averaging about 50 minutes for each 4.25 mile loop and completed my 34 miles in 6:59.  Weezy also had a solid training run with about 51 miles under 10 hours.

I also wanted to throw some love to Andy Bruner who ended up tied for 2nd in the race and logged 100 miles in under 20 hours.  Great racing!

Claude Sinclair put on a great ultra event in this beautiful little park.  I'm not much of a road runner, but the mix of trail & pavement made for a nice hybrid event.

After Landsford I drove down to Weezy's house the next weekend and we ran the Sweet H20 50K ultra just outside of Atlanta.

Anyone who knows me, knows that I LOVE this race and the course!  With only about 1.5 miles of pavement, tons of varied single track,  twin river crossings, sandy beaches, and quad burning hills - well it just rocks on about every level of ultra running! 

My goal for this two loop course was to run steady all day.  Get in and out of every aid station in 60 seconds and try to simulate 32 miles at Western States.  My plan worked perfectly until I had some nausea issues on the final 5 miles.  Something just didn't sit good on my stomach so it was not a big deal.  I left it beside the trail and just kept running.  I ended up with a 8:14 finishing time which was a little slower than I wanted, but not enough to matter.

My legs were not very sore after the race and I was able to run the next day without any problems.  I'm feeling very confident about finishing the 100 in June and it's exciting to really be bumping up the mileage for the next month.