Washinton State 50k Record Preparation!

Here is the latest on my preparation for the Washington State 50k Record attempt. This past weekend I had a long tempo followed by a steady 13.1 mile effort at the Birchbay Half Marathon. This was stacked by a short rest and another short tempo with a little quicker effort. The race itself went well setting a course record en-route. The course had some rolling hills and a few long ones. Perfect preparation for the 50k Championship course in New York. I also was given the chance to sport my new shoe sponsor at the race Scott Sports! I was very impressed with how the Race Rocker performed and I really believe the shoes allow the foot to achieve a faster roll toward the toe off which really makes running uptempo pace feel a lot smoother! I will do a more formal write up about Scott shoes soon.

I went out a little under marathon pace and shortly started to fall off of it as I hit the long hills. Made a few wrong turns in the process, but I doubt it really costed me much as I was just kinda floating at marathon pace. The last 6k was pretty rough as we headed straight into a headwind for the finish. I really had hoped to run negative splits as the course is flat as a pancake the last 6k running alongside Birchbay sitting neatly tucked into Washington State just south of Vancouver BC. Joel Pearson the race director put together a great event and I do hope to come back in the future as I believe with the absence of wind and pre-race tempo this could be a smoking fast course!

Here is the post-race article: Thank you so much to the Pearson family for putting on a great event and also to the Bellingham Herald for the nice article!
http://www.bellinghamherald.com/2012/02/19/2401558/world-qualifier-sets-record-at.html