Where's Waldo- August 22, 2009

Showed up the night before, early for a change. The prior entire year, I had had no “fire in the belly” for this race as my running partner, Geoff, would say. Last year’s brutal heat and the competitive field made me see this as an onerous training run. I actually got motivated the night before, finally. Woke and slammed some calories. Felt ok early on with cool temps. The day slowly warmed but was very reasonable. I could not run my normal pace from early on. Lots of training at a slow pace and a sore lower abdomen conspired to cause an unnatural, slightly painful stride. After the PCT 50 miler, I developed chronic lower abdominal muscle pain and it had not yet gone away. I felt strong otherwise and ran my own, slow race. An uggy belly hit me at 47 miles, and lasted most of the race. My goal was to finish initially at 11 hrs, then 11:30, then 12:00. I could not run fast enough due to my sluggish core and leg turnover. I finished in 12:30. Overall, a good day. I ran my own pace and had no problems that I could have prevented- except maybe if I tapered!