Peak Endurance Coaching

Yesterday was the inaugural Cheyenne Mountain  50K Trail Race. With never having run that distance before and going into it without specifically training for this race I was not sure what to expect.  So I guess you could say I went into it with little performance expectations (or so was the plan). What I was really hoping for was the Colorado Springs weather to cooperate and to have a great long day of trail running.  Race day for me is great because there is no other plans that day or worries about being out for too long. Not that my great wife and biggest supporter has a problem with my long days, but as a Dad of 4 it is hard to stay away for hours at a time when I am not doing it to support the family.  I guess that is more of an internal struggle that most endurance athletes with families deal with.  Anyway, this race was supposed to be family friendly. The plan was to have three different events for kids. A kids fun run, a kids guided hike and last the zoo was going to have an exhibit set up. What an awesome idea!  Well, by no fault of the race director who did an amazing job setting this up, I guess the Colorado weather had other plans. When I woke up it was 34 degrees at my house at 6 am.  When I got to the race sight (only 30 minutes from home) it was 7:15 and had warmed up to a nice 39 degrees.  No worries though, there was still 45 minutes until start time for the sun to come out.  Unfortunate for all the kids the sun didn’t really make an appearance. I think the reason was the weather but all the kids activities were canceled. I have to say, my wife and kids were troopers and made it through the whole day.  The weather was ok for running but not for standing around waiting all day!

This race was set up with a 25k race and a 50k race. The course was set up in a figure eight shape. One lap was 25k so it was a two lap race for the 50k racers. The 50k started at 8 am and the 25k started at 8:30. I think there were 5 elite level runners in the 50 k race and they started with us amateurs which was kinda cool! Each lap was set up with two lollipop loops so depending on where you were on the course you had a chance to see the elite runners or your friends on the course, kind of. I say kind of because for me this was a very lonely race. The groups in this race broke up pretty quick. I think by mile 8 I didn’t have anyone in front of or behind me.  On the lollipop loops you would see people but it was hard to tell who was racing the 25k and who was doing the 50. The trails were amazing. This is a state park so I believe the funding to keep it up is pretty good. Throughout the course you run through a lot of Colorado Springs has to offer. You start the course in a main parking lot and head west and up up up up hill. You run through scrub oak and then up into a lot of Ponderosa pine. After you climb about 1200 feet you head back down through the start area and out through some open grass land. Oh, the wind really likes this grass area too. Most of the course the wind is blocked by tree cover but the grass is pretty open and I would guess we had about 20 mph wind on the east side of the course. But right away you are climbing the second half of the first lap back through the scruboak and into the ponderosa again. And also back up anther  1200 ft.  Lots of opportunity to see the local wildlife as well.  I saw tukey and one rattle snake. Theirs is also deer and bears in the area but I am guessing they were all scared off by the 300 racers in the area.

Aside from the race start and a couple road crossings the course was almost all single track trail. There was quite a bit of technical running with the trail being very winding with a lot of natural obstacles along the way. Their was also a few areas that were more like walking paths but I would say you really had to be on your game for 90% of the course.  That was apparent by the couple racers I say still going on with bloody faces.  So lesson learned, Don’t loose focus! They did a great job of marking the course as well. There was one unmarked Y in the trail but if you were paying attention the sign at this spot said “overlook” on it so that really means “Dead End”. The aid stations were well stalked.  The race was sponsored by Hammer so that’s what they had for gels and drinks. They also had BBand J’s, pretzels, chips, jelly beans, m&m’s  and cola. Their might have been more but that’s all I remember. 

I brought my own hydration. I used three packets of generation Ucan mixed into a 20oz. hand  held bottle. The first two were without protein and the last was with. Next time I might even do the last two with protein as my muscles were pretty trashed from all the climbing pretty early in the race. One lesson learned was, don’t give up your bottle at an aid station. I put my last packet of Ucan in my bottle and the volunteer took it, filled it with water and set it on the table where it fell over, dumping out a lot of my drink powder. I’m not knocking the volunteer because without them the race would probably not happen. That was more of a note to myself to fill my own bottle.  I took in one Hammer gel every 45 minutes for the first 3 hours.  After that I was getting hungry so started taking BB&J’s and pretzels as I passed the aid stations. With the way the course was set up you passed the aid stations 6 times per lap. I did take in one last gels around 5 hours. I could tell I was really fading from try to run on only Ucan and PPJ’s. I probably had a total of one PPj sandwich. It did take away my hunger but didn’t do enough to fuel me.

We did have light snow and sleet on the course and like I said I went into the race with low performance expectations. I say that but as soon as the gun went off I was in race mode and felt like competing. I can’t complain about my results. I ended up 22nd place overall with a time of 5:45:00. I also know that I reached my limited that day for distance with that kind of elevation gain (Total elevation gain was 5000 ft.) When I go for 50 miles I will have to train specifically for that distance and not just do it on a whim!