I flew up to RDL100 on Friday morning and got the hotel and check-in all settled up then picked Dez up later at the airport. I didn't sleep that well that night but wasn't too concerned as I had slept good Thursday but I think the lack of sleep played in to some of the demise I experienced at RDL.
Race morning I was up and ready to go and once at the start line I was ready after a couple of bathroom stops, always feeling Nervous at the start of these races, which, I say is a good thing as it keeps it real.
I was ready to finish this race and get it under my belt. The weather was expected to be much cooler than last year, about low 80's so I was ready to enjoy that.
As the race started I just ran, not really looking at my watch for a while and just chatting and running with other runners. This went on for the first couple of aid stations but then by the 3rd and 4th, miles 15+ I soon found myself running alone. At one time when I was running with other runners I glanced down at my watch and saw I was running about 10 minute pace which is way too fast! and quickly calculated my arrival at the next couple of aid stations and once again, Way Too FAST! I felt good but just way too fast. I started slowing down because I know we are not even 20 miles in and I'm way ahead of projected time.
My nutrition set out to be Infinite, which I had customized for this race and used a few times in training which seemed to be worthy. As I started drinking it early on, say after 8-10 miles, it appeared to be working good and I was drinking water, my downfall was that I was not carrying other types of nutrition. Soon I grew tired of the Infinite and stopped drinking it simply because it was tasting too salty but the bad thing is I was not taking in other calories.
This went on till I got to Auburn damn mile 23 and I quickly had Dez mix up an Isagenix Shake and a few other snacks I took in. Knowing that I was not taking in calories, I tried to eat as much as I could at the aid station and thinking in the back of my head I need to grab some stuff to take with me but I was so focused on keeping moving that I totally left the aid station without getting other nutrition and I was not scheduled to see Dez till mile 31. This was the major fault that sunk my race!
I continued on to No Hands Bridge which is always a great aid station because the of location and the view of the bridge. I was pretty tired and just felt sleep but also hungry. I took in some Coke and ate a couple of things but nothing substantial and just wanted to get moving to mile 31. I finally made my way into the aid station at Cool Fire Station and was completely gassed. Ray Sanchez was there helping out and came over to ask if he could help with anything. I asked for soup because I was so hungry. He said, do you need salt? I said I don't think so I'm just hungry! He replied, hold on.. walked over to aid table grabbed a potato dipped in salt and said Eat this, tell me how it tastes. I took a bit and quickly spit it out, no way dude, way too much salt. He said Okay, you don't need any salt, your good. (he said that is a quick easy way to determine your salt balance, Tastes Bad=Salt is Okay, Tastes Good=You need Salt.)
So he gave me a peanut butter jelly sandwich, several potatoes and put some ice down my shirt and in my hat. He said I was too hot and needed to cool down. I felt okay but the ice actually felt pretty good so I just left it. Turns out I was overhead and didn't realize it. I sat there for about 15 minutes eating and then I started to head out. Ray gave me some tablets to go in my water that were from Herbal Life to help with energy, mostly they were vitamin based and overall I didn't really notice a boost in energy levels but they actually tasted good and was a nice change that just drinking water.
I continued on to mile 40 aid station where I was in self pitty and misery just because I was tired and out of energy. Molly at the aid station helped out with some simple snack and I had a drop bag here with a RockStar so I grabbed that, downed it and was talked into pressing on as this was an 8 mile loop and I would be back at this aid station. I took off and noticed a guy about 1/4 mile ahead of me so I worked to catch up to him so I could have some company as I had been totally alone since mile 23! When I finally got up to him and started talking he was in worse Negative State of Mind than I was and I knew I had to quickly lose him as I was starting to come out of my funk. I took off running down a long hill and got my wheels moving and just ran as much as I could because what goes down must come up. Soon I was at the bottom of the climb and starting to head back up a long climb which took FOREVER! It finally got dark and I was about 2 miles from returning to the aid station when this one runner approaching me goes: Hey man, did you lose something? as he shines his light on me. No, I said, Why? He replies: Oh, cuz your heading back to the aid station. I quickly laughed and said, oh, no dude, I'm still heading there on my first loop, sorry I'm not as fast as you! as I walked on.
I returned to the aid station, mile 48 and was cold, so I grabbed some extra clothes and slowly moved on back to Cool aid station 2 miles away thinking I would start my return to the finish line. During this time I was taking inventory on my condition, time, speed, etc.. and realized that I was actually at the maximum time to reach the 50 mile aid station, with this I knew I was going to stop, simply because in these races, you don't have a tendency to get faster as the race goes on. I rolled into the aid station looked for Dez and said I was done. Overall my body muscle wise was Ok, but I was exhausted and just lacking energy.
Taking the drop was of course another mental blow and a chip in my confidence in my ability to once again complete and finish my 2nd 100 miler. But I knew the overall demise of this race was the lack of nutrition early on in the race.
I recovered pretty well and returned to Vegas ready to get a couple of other runs in. I completed some smaller training runs and one 50k at Pioneer Ghost Run which turned out to be a tougher 50k than I expected but I managed to PR it by 10 seconds! ha! After Pioneer, I basically ran one more 10 miler and then showed up at the start of Coyote Springs 14 days later.
rockon'
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