teva mountain games 10k

course map... note the elevation chart!

Isn't it awesome how endorphins make even the most brutal of physical challenges seem like the best thing ever?! I love endorphins... I think it's safe to say I'm addicted.

Seriously, the only way you could have been ready for this race was if you ran straight up and down mountains at 8,500+ feet every day. So it was nice to see that the incremental benefit of practical additional training would've meant only an extra few minutes.

Since I had no real clue what to expect I wasn't sure how to ration my energy and just kind of ran the way I normally would. We hit a short steep climb about 5mins into the race and there was literally a single-file line walking up it. I thought that was a bit ridiculous and ran up the face next to the line... rookie mistake! After that steep face was a long slow incline and I was pretty much dead from running up the face and most people I passed on the face passed me on that next stretch. The middle of my race was pretty strong... and by strong I ran steadily on the flat/down hill areas and survived the steep hikes (grown, fit men were stopping on them!). I felt really, really good the last mile and a half (not good as in fresh, my legs were wasted, but good as in tired but still pushing and going at a good clip) and was able to finish looking pretty strong.

Overall winner's time: 45m48s

Me: 1h23m33s (raw time, so probably subtract another 45s for the time it took me to get to the start line)

Lessons:

- I learned how to run quickly down hill!!! I realized I was previously standing up too straight which wasn't letting me use my momentum (making me slower and more tired). I got my butt lower, almost like I was skiing, and that made a world of difference. All of a sudden I was flying down hill while expending much less effort, not having as much impact on the knees and not slipping on the dirt/rocks as much. Yay for skiing!

- I need to get better at pacing myself section by section. I got better as the race went on but I need to learn to be more efficient in each section of the race. Unlike the flatter races you can't expect to pace evenly, you need to adjust to each section and run/hike optimally so you're not over-expending energy on some of the uphills and not under-expending on the downhills.

Taking a day-off to recover today but can't wait to get back on the trails tomorrow!