Capitol Peak 50

I've never had a great day at this race. In 2006 it was my first 50 and I was really slow and it was a blizzard up there. I guess I did great just to finish in 12:36. In 2007 I spent the night before the race in the hospital with my Dad and didn't get any sleep so I decided to drop down to the 55k. I didn't really have my mind on the race and it took me 7:14. In 2008 I ran a nice PR at Mt. Si 50 mile the week before so I wasn't very fresh. It was warm with some long snow patches and after 10:14 and a huge BONK I crossed the finish line. This year I ran Boston on Monday so I only had 4 days to recover from that PR race before toeing the line in Olympia. But really those are all just BS excuses for me not being in good hill climbing shape for this tough course.

I started out knowing this would be a long tough day. So I figured it would be a good 50 mile training run and I tried to hold myself back and not get competitive. I knew I would run out of gas early and I was expecting it, waiting for it. I started at a fast but comfortable pace. A pace I could probably run for most of the race if it was in July.

My legs made it to about the second A/S before I had to start working hard even though I had been consuming a good amount of calories. After the 3rd A/S I was spent and that was not even 20 miles. I wouldn't call it a bonk but I wasn't moving very fast. I continued to take in the calories and hoped my legs would remember how to burn fat. I passed the 50k mark at about 5:55 and still hadn't recovered. I haven't done any hard runs longer than 3:15 in a while so this new new ground for my body. It took about 2 hours, maybe 2 1/2 for my legs to remember how to work off fat instead of sugar but they finally did. Eventually I was recovered enough to make a strong finish for the last ~14 miles. I even passed a few people.

I did manage to squeeze out a PR of 19 minutes. That means I've PR'd in every race this year* except the fun run on 1-1-2009 but I did run a marathon the day before.


Here's how my year has gone so far. Yeah I'm faster but my mileage is way down.
12-31-2008 Last Chance Marathon 3:29:20, slowest of the year.
1-1 First Call Marathon 3:46:06, first double since 3-2007.
1-10 Bridle Trails 50k 4:42:07, 51 minute PR.
1-17 Capitol Peak FatAss 50k 4:55, new course but the fastest I've run down there.
2-7 Orcas Island FatAss 50k 6:19, 23 minute PR.
2-21 Yours Truely/12 summits 50k, with a group, not for time 8:12:59.
3-21 Chuckanut 50k 5:28:39, 13 minute PR.
4-4 Yakima RC Marathon 3:15:47, 3 minute PR
4-20 Boston Marathon, 3:15:27, 20 second PR
4-25 Capitol Peak 50 mile 9:55:40, 19 minute PR



Photo by Glenn

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