Captain Karl's- Colorado Bend 11 Aug 2012

Captain Karl -Colorado Bend (11 Aug 2012)

Second 60k ! I was not sure about this one. My plantar and my asthma were giving me problem the whole week. I had no confident in this race with so many odds against me. But I wanted to do this badly and so decided to just do it.

My heart sank when we arrived at the start line. The start line was at the bottom of the "hill'. Darn... I knew that this would be a uphill course. I started to question whether I can complete this.

The race director was not very encouraging at the race briefing. He described this course as the most difficult of the whole Captain Karl series ( There are 4 races in the series.. each about 3 weeks apart). He warned the participants of the the hills and the heat  ( we started out at almost 105F).

Surprisingly, despite all my worries, I felt good when I started. The strategy was to go "slow" and easy on the first loop ( 2 loops- each 30k) The BF and I went too fast in the last race and we suffered greatly in the latter part of the race.  We decided that we would go easy for the first loop for this race. We saw a cluster of runners at easy pace and decided to stick with them. The first 3 miles ( from start to first aid station)  was pretty much uphill. We followed the group which run/walk it.

We broke free from the group 2 miles after the first aid station.  The next 5 miles after the first station was pretty much runnable which was surprising as I expected the course to be "hard". Of course, this was just a tease. The terrain changed after we past the second aid station. Rocks and more rocks started to surface on the course. Big rock, steep inclined/declined for the next 5 miles between the second and third aid stations.

I struggled a bit during this stretch. I wore my powerstep. I had wore  it for 2 months but started to wean it off the week before this race. However, I decided to wear it for this race to as I was not sure how my plantar will react.  Big mistake ! The powerstep for some reason "over corrected" my pronation and cause my feet to slip the other direction. I never had this problem when I was wearing it in the last 2 months.  It was very uncomfortable. My left knee started to hurt and I could feel pain on my right ankle. I started to contemplate whether to stop after the first loop. I was in a mental wreak as the thoughts of stopping kept creeping into my head,  Luckily the terrain changed for the better after the third aid station. It started with steep rocky inclined, followed by steep rock declined and then a good 3 miles of runnable stretch.

We completed the first 30K in 4 hr 25 mins. Slow but decent split. My left knee was hurting a lot and I could feel my right ankle swelling. " Stop" or "Go"....... I knew I was taking a risk if I continue. But I really wanted to finish this.. so I chose "GO"

The second loop was done via power walk and slow run. The pain in the knee and ankle started to play mind games with me. I had to push the thoughts of DNF out of my head. It was a blessing that that I was running with the BF. It helped a lot as we pushed each other.

It took a lot of mental will to complete the second loop. I had to  block off the pain in my left knee and right ankle and the thoughts of DNF.  I was so happy when the BF told me that we have about 3 more miles to finish. My body woke up and started to run ... I just wanted to finished fast. I picked up pace and the BF followed.  We ran at 9.30ish pace for the last 3 miles to bring it home.

Done my second Utra ! in 9 hrs 43 mins ! I survived.. so did my knee and ankle. And Yes.. I am ditching the powerstep for good