2017 Rock The Parkway Race Report
This was my 13th race. I woke up this morning to get the paper and looked to the west and there was almost a full moon.
Considering the health issues I have had since November, this was not a good sign. On top of that, my daughter woke up sick at 3:00 in the morning, and when I finally drifted back to sleep about 4, I had a dream that my wife was driving me to the race and I forgot my shoes. My phone in my dream starting ringing - alas it was my phone alarm going off at 5. Woke up groggy, yet relieved that I hadn't indeed missed the start of the race.
Have my usual breakfast of 2 pieces of peanut butter toast and half a banana, and had a pretty decent poop session. Because of the stomach issues, this has been my biggest worry for months, because things just aren't the same. Today, it seemed to be fine. So I had that going for me, which is nice.
My hot neighbor was also running, so she came over and rode with me, so off we went.
Weather was about 54 as I was driving to the race, and the forecast called for warming up to probably 68 or so by the time I was done. We have had a TON of rain here lately, so humidity was on my mind of course, since it seems I just cannot escape that. Either way, my expectations coming into the race were to just do the best I can with the limited training I was able to do, so if I was anywhere near 2:00 I would be happy.
When I signed up for this race, my goal was going to be 1:45, so I was in Wave A of this event. I was chuckling to myself looking around because, realistically, I didn't belong here. To reinforce the 13th race thing, I look over to a gal on the side of the corral and her bib number was 666. No ####.
. I'm doomed.
So the plan I decided on was what
@Juxtatarot suggested - just run by feel and adjust where necessary.
Miles 1-3 is pretty much an uphill start. The goal was to ease off the uphills and burn down the downhills where necessary. So I didn't want to burn through too much resources here. But my pace was probably a little higher than I wanted. But it worked out ok.
Mile 1: 8:39. HR 160
Mile 2: 9:02. HR 171
Mile 3: 9:16. HR 173
Heart rate was creeping up faster than I wanted, but the next 4 miles are pretty much downhill. Go time.
Mile 4: 8:42. HR 172
Mile 5: 8:42. HR 172
Mile 6: 8:35. HR 173
Mile 7: 8:37 HR 175
I stopped looking at HR at about mile 5. I was glancing at it periodically to see where I was, but I was feeling good. All systems were firing today in terms of legs, internal organs, lungs - all of it. I got to the halfway point and knew I was coming in under 2 hours. However, the Hill of Doom was coming. This is the part of the course that has been vexing in the past, so I knew I had to haul ### down the hill before I came out of that section. Once you get past the 7 mile mark it is a steady incline for almost three miles. I tried to hold it steady here.
Mile 8: 9:21. HR 175
Mile 9: 9:09. HR 174
Mile 10: 8:49. HR 174
Mile 10 was more of a push that I thought I had available. Once I came out of that mile I knew I was in good shape. At this point I'm feeling really good. Like, surprisingly good. My lungs are burning a bit, but my legs are solid. Some random soreness but nothing at all to worry about. I knew here that my legs were going to hold until the end. It was just a matter of my lungs and heart rate not losing steam. I had also been taking chews and gatorade all day, mainly because the temps are creeping up at this point. The rest of the course is downhill at this point.
Mile 11: 9:12. HR 175
Mile 12: 8:46. HR 176
Mile 13.1: 8:22. HR 174
Final chip time of 1:55:57. This was an HUGE win for me. No way I thought I was capable of this result with the amount of training I was able to put in. It's about 9 minutes off my PR, but considering where I was in November, I am on cloud nine with this result. Just like the PR last spring, I paced this thing perfectly (at least in my eyes) based on my fitness. I honestly pushed the pace more than I thought I was capable of, and for that I am proud of myself.
Thanks to all in this forum for all the advice, but more importantly, posting all of the positive results and great races and training you all do. It keeps me WANTING to get out there, especially on the days I just feel like I cannot.
A bit of a downer: as I was crossing the line, we were herded to one side of the finish line. A male runner appeared to be in severe cardiac trauma. There were giving him chest compressions as I was crossing the line, and I heard they had to bring a defibrillator out. The ambulance hauled ### out of there a few minutes later. So please say a prayer for this man that he comes through this ok. It was obviously a sobering scene and I hope and pray he is fine.
Super pumped to be able to spend 4-5 hours on the trails with him in his first true longish trail race, and test the leg out over a longer distance at what should be a pretty relaxed pace. 
But I've finally accepted the fact that I'm going to be under trained. There's simply no way around that at this stage. I've changed my mindset to just approaching this with the sole focus that I need to get my leg as healthy as I can in 8 weeks while gradually increasing workload and trust that I can gut out a 100 if I simply run (walk?!) a smart race. 
"Don't photograph my lawn!"
