Went pretty hard at Discovery run last weekend and decided to not take a rest day until Wednesday. At that point I realized that legs were still fatigued and kind of beat up. So I pretty much shut it down for the rest of the week and did a ton of stretching, rollering, Yoga, etc. The smart strategy on a warm day with tired legs would have been to stick close to my prior PR pace (about 8:25s) The smart strategy would have been to listen to Morey1, who warned that the early phase of this race has some hills and I would be advised to hold back a bit in the early miles and push it when I got to the trail. Instead I thought to myself 'hey I did 8:15s last week at the 15k, what is another 4 miles at that pace?' Plus I thought I better give myself a bit of a cushion, so my average pace for first 2 miles was about 8:10. Then I hit the hills. Ok maybe this wasn't such a good strategy... By mile 5 I realized that hitting a PR might not happen. To my shock, when I got to the 1/2 way point, I saw that I was still on target to PR (just barely mind you) and I was hitting the trail which should allow me to pick up my pace back to goal pace. Things are looking good. However, my legs decided they were done. I tried to explain to them that we had another 6 miles to go. Then they threw a hissy fit. My pace dropped from 8:30s to 9:30s. I knew this was trouble because this was supposed to be the 'easiest' part of the course. Through sheer will and some nice pace booty I pushed the pace back to sub 9's for a few miles. However, somewhere during mile 9 the wheels came off and rolled down a ravine, never to be seen again. So I found myself singing 'keep hanging on' and that is what I did. It is hard to keep pushing when a PR completely goes out the window. Then I realized that hitting two hours was going to be tough. This helped me pick up the pace for the last few miles, but honestly I didn't have much fight left at that point. Crossed the line a bit after 2:00, physically and mentally beat down...and really sweaty.

Not be so full of myself going in. Listen to wise advice. Train more hills (this last one has already been in the works.)

Tried to stay upright. Then I wrestled with a peanut butter sandwich. I bet that was entertaining to watch.


I have made an amazing amount of progress on my running this year and have been thrilled with my results, however I think I got a little too big for my britches on this one. I started out racing at a pace I want to be at, not the one I am actually at yet. On a flat course, on a cooler day I might have gotten away with it, but not today.


Negative: Couple of things: they gave my timing chip to someone else. So they had to give me a new number. Results show two Jim Webers competing (at least I beat the other jmwebs) Second, water was a little thin at aid stations. Granted it was warm today, but that shouldn't happen.

Positives: the post race is an event all in itself. Hanging around with the awesome Donkeys is priceless. I don't say it enough, the Donkey nation is truly a wonderful group of people!