2020 3 Days at the Fair 50K

Waited 7 Months For This

 

A week after my last race, Delano Park 12-Hour on March 7th, the racing calendar was essentially shut down. All sorts of restrictions were placed on travel, gatherings of any type, and what businesses could remain open. This was the year of COVID-19 and the coronavirus. At first races were optimistically postponed for a month or so, but it soon became obvious that that the pandemic was going to last much longer. Spring races were being postponed until the fall or cancelled altogether with registrations rolled over to 2021. My 2020 race calendar was a shambles. In lieu of in person races I registered for two long journey type races, the Great Virtual Races Across Tennessee 1000K (which was actually 1021.68K) and Tip to Tip - The Great Florida Traverse, a 901 miles virtual run from Pensacola to Key West. As much fun as it was to follow the virtual journeys of runners from all over the world, virtual journey races don't fulfill the same role as racing in person.

When 3 Days at the Fair (3DATF) was postponed, runners were given the option of running on the new dates or postponing until May 2021. Watching race after race being cancelled, even some of those that had initially been postponed, I had doubts that 3DATF wouldn't meet the same fate. Some time around mid-August I started to believe it would actually be held, my particular 50K race being on October 3rd. More than five months had passed trying to maintain my motivation and training schedule, but at this point, even with finally seeing a race on the horizon, my motivation to put out the effort for the longer or harder workouts was waning. It took a few unscheduled rest days and a couple run as you please workouts to get back to where I could focus on race training and preparation. As I finish my last back to back long runs before my two week taper, I'm starting to run the best I have in several years. I hope this is an indication that I can match or exceed my performance at Delano Park.

Leading up to race day I'm still uncertain whether to attempt a run 2:00, walk 1:00 schedule or stick with run 1:00, walk 1:00. I may not decide until I see how I feel in the first minute of the race.. The one thing I don't want to do is blow up in the middle and miss not only my stretch goal, but any semblance of a decent time. The weather forecast is ideal with the temperature ranging from 50F at the start to a high of 62F and no rain. The aid station is the only real unknown now. I'm bringing a lot of snacks to fall back on if necessary, but that would be less than ideal as it's more makeshift and lacks the foods I prefer and the variety to adapt to different tastes. That's my poor planning.

Race day began as promising. I was able to get a good breakfast at my hotel, and the weather held, so near perfect. The aid station looked promising, but more on that later. My biggest decision was whether to go for broke and possibly set a new M70 age group best, or starting conservatively and almost guarantee a solid, but not spectacular race. I still hadn't decided when we stepped to the starting line.

Once we started and I began to get a feel for the race, I decided to go ahead with run 2:00, walk 1:00. I was hitting a fairly fast pace with minimal effort. In retrospect that should have been a warning to limit the running rather than a sign to run more. My Garmin splits, which are always a little fast, indicated I was moving at an average pace between 12:45 and 13:05, which means my real pace was about 12:55 to 13:15. At that pace I was either going to have a huge age group best or hit the proverbial wall sometime in the second half of the race.

I was swinging by the aid station every two to three laps (a lap was one mile) for something to eat and drink. While the aid station was well stocked, I had a hard time choosing what to eat since they PB&J and grilled cheese sandwiches weren't out yet. My choices were probably too heavily weighted toward sweet and sugary. About 10 miles into the race I was getting to the point where nothing seemed to sit well in my stomach, not even my go to PB&J sandwiches. More than once I took only a couple bites of what I grabbed and had to throw away the rest. The consequence was that I wasn't getting the calories I needed to keep going, particularly at the pace I'd settled into. Since I wasn't taking many bites, the lack of calories came back to bite me. I first noticed the slowing pace around mile 17, so I switched to a run 1:00, walk 1:00 schedule. By mile 21 it was becoming more difficult to transition from walk to run. By this time all semblance of a good race had vanished and now it was mainly a matter of getting in the laps to finish. About that time I was coming up behind a friend who was in the 48 hour race. Rather abruptly I decided I'd like some company to help the miles go by quicker, so I slowed to a walk to share a few laps. We stayed together for the next 8 miles keeping each other company as I worked toward the finish and she worked toward her 100 mile goal. With three laps left I realized I would need to pick up the pace slightly if I wanted to finish under 8 hour. Since she was thinking she'd like a break before her final push to 100, I took off chasing that time. My legs really objected to trying to run gain, more stiff than tired by that time. I had finally found some food that was palatable, and I was also taking in liquid calories with Gatorade and cola, so had recovered somewhat. While it felt awkward at first running again, I managed to close out my last three laps in 14:40, 13:48, and 13:00. I finished in 7:49:41, far off any of my goals, but I think I (re)learned a few things along the way.

With one more scheduled race this year, I hope to apply my experience here a bit better and close out the racing season on a more positive note. Next up is Piedmont-8 in three weeks.