Ultra Marathon Debut

Back in 2010 I came across this trail a buddy of mine had mentioned. Said it was great for guys like me so I went over and checked out good ol' Lake Youngs Trail. The Trail itself is pretty sweet. Wide open, no loose dogs to come nibble on you when you bend around a corner and the most appreciated asset of Lake Young's is you pretty much would have to try to get lost (as you just follow the fencing on the inside of the trail). The down side, you don't actually get to see the lake. Its gated, all 9.6 miles of the loop are gated. You hear rumors that there are top secret military experiments going on in there and that occasionally deers with 6 legs and two heads pop out over the gate. I have no idea and I'm not curious enough to hop over and check it out so that tells you something.

 Now, the ultra I ran. Being that I really loved the trail I checked to see if there were any races on it and found in fact there was an ultra. I was a bit hesitant to run an ultra being that I have not even run a marathon. Running an ultra was on my adventure bucket list so I figured I'll jump on it. An early start of 7am suited me perfect as I knew it would be a long day. I came into the race knowing that I've run faster than the course record up to 18 miles before so I assumed it wouldn't be too much harder to run another 10 or so miles at that pace. Boy was I wrong. Ultra marathons feel alot different than anything I've done. Its not so much that you are in anaerobic debt as you would be in a 5k or 10k, but you are in aerobic debt. After experiencing this I have come to a few conclusions about long races such as ultras.

For one, its a war of attrition. For the longer ultra marathons the guy who can fuel the best and whose body has the most stored nutrition I would say will usually be the winner. I didn't approach this race with a system of training for distances so long so my body was not really efficient as it needed to be over the final miles. I came through 19.2 well ahead of the record and calculated that in order to not break the record I would have to run extremely slow for the final lap. I did not down play the pain I knew a race this long could bring so I definitely did not lag knowing that the record was in my grasp. Slowly the hills started to feel a little different, each foot strike on steep descents started to send shockwaves up my spine and through my quads. I felt every step and even the colors of trees and the sky quickly shifted hues.

With 5 miles to go the hardest portion of the course still remained and for the first time in the race I was not comfortable nor was I confident. When I passed the 26.2 miles mark (Marathon) I got scared. Many marathon runners say they hit the wall with about 10k to go and thats usually run on flat courses. I still had almost 3 miles to go when I passed the marathon mark. With 2 miles to go the record was well within my reach, but the body was starting to shut down and still two steep climbs remained. I told myself I can't walk up this last climb, "I can't". There was a woman running that I had lapped and I looked back and she seemed to be catching me on the climb and for the first time in my racing career I didn't care what happened I just wanted to see a finish line. The lights flickered a few times and I felt like I was gonna have to walk.

 Heading into the finish area I saw this little kid cheering on some of the racers and it really spurred me on to finish the race strong. The legs had no lift and by the end I was barely cranking 7 minute miles but I knew beyond the trees I could finally STOP. Overall a great debut as I got a win and a new course record, but as far as competing in future ultra's....not happening (:

After the race many athletes shoot for water, protein, soda, snacks etc. I shoot for Wobenzym from Garden of Life first, and then the snacks. Wobenzyme is comprised of plant based enzymes, pancreatic enzymes and strong antioxidants. This mixture supports not only joint and inflammation health, but also immune system health. After a long race, and many many miles of pounding the body inflammation is something you can guarantee your body will experience so Wobenzym has been something I have found to really help me recover so that I can continue training hard without hiatuses in my workouts.