Report on my final race of 2018, the Elk Kings 50k Trail Race.
The race location is in part of the Tillamook State Forest with 31.1 miles of forest trails and lots of pretty steep incline and declines, 1,981 meters (6500 feet) to be precise.
My name and number on the race bib. There were about 80 others in the race, the numbering doesn't reflect number of competitors. Trail races are low numbers in comparison to many hundreds or thousands in road races.
Earlier this year I decided to add this race to my calendar because I wanted to include a 50k ultra in 2018. It was also to gain a bit more race experience before next year's bigger things, like a 50 mile race in April 2019 which I have just signed up to and possibly something longer later in 2019.
As mentioned in my previous race blogs I've actually been doing quite well meeting and even exceeding my target finish times and as it turns out I've been getting quite far up the field at the finish line too, very much to my surprise!
For a 50k time target I looked at other races and finish times and decided that anywhere under six hours was where I wanted to be, it also fitted with my previous runs of about that distance. Another point to make is that trail running is much much slower paced than road races because your jumping over roots, through mud and climbing up and down mountains all at the same time. No flat smooth roads here!
This is at about mile 7, only 24 and a bit more to go from here! I was inside the top ten lead runners at this point, thinking to myself "did I go out way too fast already?"
The lead up to the race over the last few months didn't go as planned, but endurance efforts rarely go as planned so you have to be prepared to adapt and survive, which is also exactly what I had to do in the lead up to this race. My intended plan of lots of speed work sessions and hill repeats in the trails behind town didn't happen because of forest fire restriction closures.
In addition to this I had a non running related muscle strain in the month before the race, so that again held me back a bit. Luckily two weeks before the race I was able to get in one high mileage hard effort training week which got me back up to a reasonable level of fitness and then one pre-race-taper week to get to the start line feeling fresh again.
Due to these setbacks I was not feeling at all confident about this race. I had a bit of a paradoxical dilemma, do I turn up and not give it my best effort or do I just pull out and volunteer at an aid station to help others? I'm cursed with a mindset that if I decide to do something then I commit to it and just get on and do it, but at the same time I have to give it my best effort! Hence the paradox!
Anyway, race day arrived, and after the doubts the night before I was up at 3:45AM for my high octane breakfast of raw porridge oats and nut mix drenched in homemade coconut milk to help fuel the morning.
Arriving at the race starting location it was just below freezing and foggy, but the weather forecast promised a warm sunny day so that was a plus. I picked up my race bib number and some free swag, had another high calorie snack and got to the front of the pack at the start line with the mindset of "give it a good shot and see how it goes". It was all I could do at that point!
It turns out the race went well. I knew I was still in the top 10 somewhere and I kept pushing hard right till the end, where in the last mile and a half there was a bit of a race going on between three of us. That really pushed the pace up and we were hammering along at about 6:30 minutes per mile pace, which is pretty fast given that I'd already ran a relatively fast and hard 29 miles!
I was happy to cross the finish line and have it done and over with. Another great run done and my muscles burning telling me I worked hard, but it felt really good at the same time. You have to push really hard for hours on end to get to that point, and you have to have done it to be able to understand what I mean by it feeling good.
You crave more of that too, it's like an addictive drug!
Crossing the finish line 5hrs 33 minutes after starting.
My 50k personal record was 5 hrs 58, so I wanted to meet that or even better it. I blew that one clean out the water!
I got an age group prize. 2nd place in my age group. 2 seconds behind another runner that I ran with for most of the race who got 1st place, we both finished pretty much together.
Elevation profile of the route. Total of 6,500 feet up and back down over the 31 miles.
Course route map.
Thanks for reading. Keep watching for more of my running adventures.
