The Leadville Marathon.
26.2 miles in 3:45.
8:36 pace with 6000+ vertical gain.
Course profile:
Whew. So happy to get that first race done! I had never stepped foot on the Leadville Marathon course so my time goal was arbitrary and really I just wanted feel OK and race well. Neither of those panned out. My climbing legs were absent from the gun and I never felt good on the climbs (excuse #1- too much biking in the last few weeks I think), a bad thing with that course profile. The winner, Marshall Thomson, was over a minute behind me at Mt Evans two weeks ago but today he simply ran away from me in the opening mile. By mile 4 I had completely disengaged from racing and started to think about my training on the bike this coming week (excuse #2). I hiked much of Mosquito Pass (miles 10-13) and on the descent I developed blisters on the balls of both my feet (excuse #3), something another athlete said also happened with her Hokas. By mile 16 I was in total shut down mode trying to run gingerly to avoid having the blisters open up (excuse #4) and I simply held a steady relaxed effort to the finish hoping that it was enough to put time on my fellow Leadman competitors. A bad race that luckily turned out OK so I can't whine (much).
Sunday my legs felt very good and I was able to get in a solid bike. The blisters are only mild and won't be an issue, had I tried to hammer the last 10 miles it may have turned out much worse... so a couple of positives.
The next race is the Silver Rush 50 mile mountain bike in two weeks. Last year this was the race that put me in the emergency room for a ct scan, so I have a demon. From the day I entered Leadman this race has weighed heavily on my mind, maybe more than the 100 run. It's a good reminder that in order to win Leadman you first have to finish and that anything can happen.
15 comments:
Nice effort...maybe not what you wanted for that particular race, but being almost an hour ahead of the next Leadman is great!
Best of luck with the rest of the series...
Yea but I can see from the chart the course is very flat from mile 24.3 to mile 24.4. :?)
Great start, and good job of keeping everything in perspective. I would imagine the lion's share of time differences will come down to the longer 100 mile distances.
Remarkable that despite all of your travails that you still finished ahead of Tim DeBoom. I wonder how he felt out there. Interesting comments on the bike training going in, which might have sapped your legs for the marathon, but will help you for the upcoming bike events. It's got to be very tricky trying to prepare for each and all of the events and be at the top of your game for all of them. What's with the shoes? You've worn them before without this problem. Was it too hot out (more sweat)? Was it your socks (friction)? I'm curious. Since you normally don't have issues with blisters, you probably don't do anything to prevent them like vaseline/body glide, etc. By the way, if I recall correctly, you were in the lead when you crashed last year, trying to tear up the course. I imagine that you'll be slightly less aggressive, or not, this year? Congratulations on a great start to Leadman!
sweet! Yes...finish or it doesn't count. Lot's of opportunity with all of this to accomplish so many different things. Sending you good vibes!
So the conventional wisdom says to take that race easy because you have bigger fish to fry in the series. Doesn't sound like you respected that but I think your goals are different.
Hokas = Blisters. They generate too much heat inside the shoe. I did better at WS100 with Injinji socks to combat that in that toes. Plus, water in the shoes never hurts. That being said, I haven't ever got out of that course without some kind of heal trouble. That last 5 miles down the road running 7 or so minute miles just pounds the shit out of you in ways you won't have to deal with the rest of the season.
Solid day Lucho! Go get it... Demons be damned!!!
Great Job Time!! It was great to finally meet you!! Best of luck with the rest of the Leadman. We're all pulling for you!
James
Tim! So proud of you, that is an awesome race on that course. And it's an end in itself, you know? Sometimes overcoming internal adversity is the biggest accomplishment. If you felt perfect, it would have been perfectly easy, and that will be no f**king fun when the book of Leadman is written.
BF, not so sure about Hokas and blisters. I ran a hot Bighorn race recently (+/- 10,000 feet of vertical) and only had tiny blister problems which were from stepping on the sides of rocks. I would be more interested to hear if he heel strikes any when going downhill. I think even a little of that creates a ton of repeated forward sliding of the heel inside the shoe.
Thanks everyone!
Mike- Tim DeBoom is a new dad and has only run long a couple of times this year. He was out there just for fun.
Brett/ Brandon- I think the blisters were from pushing the downhills. I need to wear them a bit more before Pb to get used to them or decide to ditch them completely.
Everybody is different -- read Fixing Your Feet if you haven't. Worthwhile. But I have heard more than not getting them because of the density of the upper.
I agree Brandon, no way to predict how a shoe will feel on everyone. Biomechanics are a huge cause of blisters so how your foot lands is key. I definitely don't like the uppers on the Hokas. I ended up cutting away a bunch of extra material to make them more supple.
Had same issue with balls of my feet in Bondi B's last year at Pb100. Ended up having to walk in from about the dam but still <25. Need to experiment with some duct tape or glide on my feet at Silver Rush.
Jay- I'm definitely nervous about them at Pb. I'm thinking about changing to my Nike Lunars for Hope Pass. I think it was the severe descending/ climbing that gave me blisters.
Good work man. All that elevation work paid off. Nice pace.
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