Place………Name…………..Gender (Place)…..Age Group (Place)…….Time
1                   Scott K.                 M (1)                        20-29 (1)                 4:13:37

Well didn’t quite have the turnout I was hoping for (which was two people) at today’s Inaugural (and Possibly Last) Alamosa Fat Ass 50k.

I did, however, enjoy it….for the first 21 miles, the last 10.5 really started to hurt and feel like a drag. Why? Well the hurt part was mainly due to running 31.5 miles with zero elevation change. There’s a little bit of an almost unnoticeable ascent/descent, but probably not more than 3 feet, at two different spots on the course. Running on a FLAT surface, using the exact same muscles for the entire time with no break, is not comfortable. The drag part was definitely a result of running a loop that I do daily nine times. I already feel like I know every inch of the loop, so the excitement and adventure that makes the pain of effort on long runs in the mountains almost unnoticeable didn’t ever come in play. Translation: It started off kind of boring and was painfully so after 21 miles. Oh well, no one to blame here but me. I was hoping that if at least one other person showed up it would have made things more interesting, but didn’t get quite so lucky.

Splits for the 3.5 mile loop:
3.5 miles - 26:30 (Counter-clockwise) (Pace=7:34/mile)
7.0 miles - 25:57 (Counter-clockwise) (Pace=7:24/mile)
10.5 miles - 25:48 (Counter-clockwise) (Pace=7:22/mile)
14.0 miles - 25:53 (Clockwise) (Pace=7:23/mile)
17.5 miles - 26:21 (Clockwise) (Pace=7:31/mile)
21.0 miles - 27:26 (Clockwise) (Pace=7:50/mile) *changed bottles at start of lap
24.5 miles - 29:09 (Counter-Clockwise) (Pace=8:19/mile)
28.0 miles - 32:10 (Counter-Clockwise) (Pace=9:11/mile) OUCH!
31.5 miles - 34:17 (Clockwise) (Pace=9:47/mile)OUCH! *’aid station’ break at start of lap
4:13:37 (Pace=8:03/mile)

My thought was that I could just get a good long run in aim at hitting about 28 minutes (8:00/mile pace) for each loop. In the end, that ended up being about what I did but a little less evenly.

Having not actually timed my runs or tracked distance since returning to running, I really wasn’t sure what 8:00s would feel like. So I went out at about what I thought it might feel like, and was pleasantly surprised to run at below my planned pace for 21 miles pretty comfortably. I didn’t stop at all until then, and maybe had I not stopped to change bottles I could have continued running pretty strong, but just struggled to get into a zone again after that short break. (And no, I don’t plan on going back to timing my runs and tracking distance again anytime soon. I’ve really come to enjoy the lack of statistics and going by feel. But, that might change once I really start training for a race, like the 2012 Leadville 100 - my goal for next year.)

Some definite positives from this are that I didn’t really have any stomach issues, which were the big culprit to me when having to walk the last 4-5 miles of the Devil Mountain 50k last July. I took down three gels total (Honey Stinger banana), and listened to my body rather than taking them after X amount of time or X distance covered. Good thing to know for the future, I suppose.

Also fairly pleased that despite my legs starting to feel fairly dead, I nutted up and was able to maintain at least what would have resembled a running form and pace to on-lookers.

But the main positive from this is that I got in a good, long effort before the end of the year. After what I had planned to be an exciting summers was wiped out, this helpd out a bit mentally and has me looking forward to 2012, and mentally equipped with some knowledge of what I’ll need to work on. I’m still really pumped to run the Schaumburg Turkey Trot Half Maraton on the Saturday after Thanksgiving, but I don’t get quite as excited for that distance as I used to - still hoping for a 1/2 PR in that one though :)

I’ll also point out that I was glad, and very pleased, to have chosen to wear my Vasque Transistor FS. For a trail shoe that handled the climb up to Sandia Peak a week-and-a-half-ago so well, they also did a bang-up job on the flat, dirt and asphalt course of the Alamosa Fat Ass 50k.