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| Monaco |
The race started off a bit warm, but nothing crazy around 22 Celsius. Warmer than ideal conditions for a start of a 50k. Due to regulations of the World Championships athletes were not allowed to receive water or any support from ANYone on the course outside of the two water stops at each end of the beach. In essence, we did 16 laps of the beach front. Before the race some of the athletes were joking about the nice view we would have while suffering through the conditions at least. This joke came back to me in reality, more on that later...
After a quick opening 6.25 kilometers I knew that the race would be a fast one. Or would it? The wind and the heat had not really picked up to potential yet and I'm sure none of us pondered the idea that things would get much worse. I had a secret weapon on hand for the race that really saved me from dropping out. MIO allowed me to test out the new MIO Alpha Heart Rate watch, which features strapless heart rate technology. The weight of the Alpha was a huge plus as many athletes were using clunky GPS and Heart rate watches. I was lucky to have a light weight watch with large screen print so I didn't have to waste much energy trying to see what was displayed or worry about the watch snagging my jersey during the race. The watch shows overall time and you can shift between that and heart rate. Another great thing I found was that the watch has a button that lights up with green or red. Red meaning "bad" as in you are running way too hard or way too slow. Green for good, meaning you are in the zone you planned to be in. Using color for heart rate detection is genius. Here's why, in most big races and marathons, its too loud to hear something beeping so chances are you won't hear the signals of trouble coming. Especially in my case at this race. When running into a headwind your hearing is much worse so it was easy to just look down and look for color rather than trying to listen for a beep. The Alpha does beep to warn you of heart rate zone changes, which is nice if quiet, but the button lighting is great in any situation.
I had been playing around with the Alpha during training the last two weeks before the event and was able to detect early on in the Championship that I was running too fast for the fitness I had developed in such short time. Being that the longest tempo I had was around 12 miles since my break in September I knew the race would feel long. I paid attention to the MIO Alpha early on and slowed way down to protect my position (4th at that time) with hopes of coming back strong. I started to have some stomach pains and cramping with about 25k to go and at that point I was extremely worried that I would end up losing a few spots placing out of the top 5. Coming into the race my goal was to be top 5 and I knew it would be quite the task.
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| Heading into 20k. Photo courtesy of Josh F. |
I check back on my MIO Alpha after a few minutes heading into the headwind and realized I had slowed way too much with my heart rate dwindling around 140. Even with cramping I knew that my heart rate was too low and that I needed to pick it up. It was that last heart rate check that lead me to finish 4th at the World Trophy as I was able to put in a desperation surge over the next 10k and distance myself enough from the next two guys and hold on to my place. I remember coming into the last lap and taking about 5 seconds just staring at this beautiful ocean front and saying to myself, "I can't wait til this is over, I'm plopping right in that ocean straight from the finish line". I was so cramped at the finish that it took a massage and some hydration before I could actually get splashed by the Northern arm of the Mediterranean Sea also known as the Ligurian Sea!
The course in general was tougher than we all expected, as many dropped out early and some late in the race. The course had a slight hill in the middle of each 2 mile strip. Of course the headwind had to be on the downhill portion so going into each of the 8 directions into the wind it felt like an uphill race and coming back you had a slight uphill with the wind somewhat at your back. The wind more or less felt non-existent coming back as it didn't really push your tail as hard as it smacked you in the face. Great experience overall, I learned a lot from the top 3 guys who were all seasoned veterans of ultra marathons and marathoning and will use that as I prepare for my next battle!
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| Got a chance to watch the sun rise over the Ligurian Sea on one of jet lagged mornings of no sleep |
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