Sunday, May 2, 2010

Mad City 100km

It has taken me a while to get this posted but I had a little extra time on my hands now that I'm nursing my blisters from the Monona 20km. So here goes a little recap on my first 100km experience.
Race day morning came early. The nice thing was the the Mad City 100km takes place at the UW Arboretum. I live very near the Arboretum because I love to run the trails, so I had planned on biking to the race start with my bike trailer hauling all my race gear. I woke up with plenty of time to eat breakfast and get to the race but upon waking up my stomach was not feeling very good. I spent most of my morning on the toilet and ended up having to sprint to the race to make it in time. I got to the start about one minute before the gun went off. I got my stuff together quick and was ready to go at the start but my stomach was still giving me some issues and halfway through my first lap I had to make a break for the woods. I ended up loosing a little time and decided to pick up the pace in order to catch up with the runners I was hoping to stick with. The next 4 laps were similar in form where I had to make bathroom breaks once per lap. After 5 laps I had lost sight of the faster runners and was feeling a bit sluggish. I could feel a little bonk setting in so I slowed my pace a bit (adding more walking breaks) to take in more calories and hopefully feel better towards the end of the race. Laps 6 and 7 slowly got better and my last three laps felt good (well as good as you can after running 7 10km laps). With all the running on pavement I was sure glad I had my extra cushy Drymax running socks. My feet felt great but my legs were another story. I wadded out into Lake Wingra for a quick "ice bath" and then biked home to clean up. All in all I was happy with the race. Even with the G.I. issues I still ended up 8th place male and 15th overall. I set a new 50km PR of 4: 25 and a new 50mile PR of 7:35. I now have an idea of how to pace for 100km and can't wait to take on this race next year.