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Bulldog 50K Ultra Run - RunUltra Marathon


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Calabasas, California
United States
Trail Run Events
85F / 29C
Sunny
Total Time = 5h 44m 6s
Overall Rank = 23/133
Age Group = M 50-59
Age Group Rank = 2/19
Pre-race routine:

Spent a lot of months rehabbing first right hamstring, then left. Wasn't sure I'd do this until three weeks before the race when I threw a 22.8 mile training run at myself to test my recovery. Did that run at about 5:40 50K pace, so that should have told me something. Ultimately I had adequate training for a 50K with 6000'+ of climbing, but only marginally.

Got to race venue way too early and hung out, generally a bit bored (although a bunch of folks from my running club were volunteering at check-in, which was nice).
Event warmup:

Nothing really. Just paced around...chatted with a couple people.
Run
  • 5h 44m 6s
  • 50 kms
  • 06m 53s  min/km
Comments:

Tale of two loops: Stayed on target pace for potential sub-5-hour finish for 18 miles...then came out into direct sun and 90F temps on second climb up Bulldog Motorway. Heart rate spiked...energy flagged...went into survival mode (there was a lot of that...and DNFs...going on all around me). Three short walk breaks during that second climb (ran 2.5 miles of the 3.3), but started walking all the climbs after mile 21.5. Ran out of fluids in pack around mile 28. Spent a whole lot of time managing HR and condition of my chronic bad back on the big descent after mile 24. Walked about half of the last half-mile, just to put a ribbon on the whole day. Dropped from 17th to 23rd during the last 25K.
What would you do differently?:

Maybe be a bit more realistic about the impact of 7 months of injury rehab and undertraining, combined with brutal heat (into the 90s during the second 25K loop). This was my 3rd 50K and it was my slowest by a full 25 minutes (and 40 minutes off my PR of 5:06 run only 9 months ago on an arguably tougher course).
Post race
Warm down:

Made a beeline for water and Gatorade at finish line. I was the most dehydrated I've been in a race in years...at least since 2012. Definitely a couple stretches where I was concerned about heat exhaustion and running out of on-board fluids with a couple miles to go was bad. Fortunately I was able to get rehydrated reasonably comfortably and get some food in me.

What limited your ability to perform faster:

Dehydration, first. Undertraining due to hamstring injuries, second.

Event comments:

Long time race director was out due to pneumonia and it impacted a couple things this year. Her fill-in was less verbose and so we got gathered at the start too soon, really. More importantly, I was told this created a need to bring in an alternated timing system and it failed...no 50K results post-race and none online for 2 1/2 days. For a race that often gets hot weather, this was especially bad...a lot of DNFs in both 50K and 25K this year.




Last updated: 2017-05-31 12:00 AM
Running
05:44:06 | 50 kms | 06m 53s  min/km
Age Group: 2/19
Overall: 23/133
Performance: Below average
Course: 2 loops, encompassing most of Malibu Creek State Park, including twice up the 3.3 mile "Bulldog" climb.
Keeping cool Bad Drinking Not enough
Post race
Weight change: %
Overall: Average
Mental exertion [1-5] 5
Physical exertion [1-5] 4
Good race? No
Evaluation
Course challenge Just right
Organized? Yes
Events on-time? Yes
Lots of volunteers? Yes
Plenty of drinks? No
Post race activities: Below average
Race evaluation [1-5] 3

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2017-08-28 9:28 PM

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Subject: Bulldog 50K Ultra Run
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