A Marathon was Fun Enough.

L to R: Tony Clark, myself and Randy Albreicht before the start of the Hawk 50 miler.

This past Saturday I had the distinct pleasure of running in the Hawk 50 miler. To keep things short and sweet this time around. Initially I had planned on trying to rip off a solid time here. Mother Nature however had other ideas. As she often does during springtime in Kansas.

Leading up to the race it had probably rained six days during the week and a half before. Leaving us with about six inches of rain. The temps weren't too terribly bad. Mostly in the 50's and 60's for the first three weeks of the month. Praying that they would hold off for another week I felt that if it stayed cool. I still had a chance to run a solid race.  But once again Mother Nature had her say in that as well. Projected temps for the day were to hit into the upper 80's. With a heat index into the mid 90's.

Well crap! Anybody that knows me. Knows I'm pretty hit and miss with my races when the thermostat shoots north of 75 degrees. With the real cool Spring we had. I had absolutely no heat training under my belt. My goals quickly started to change with every hour it got closer to the start of the race. By the time race morning had rolled around. I had no plan.

I didn't know what the heck I was going to do or even what the heck I was doing there? I should have listened to the little voice in my head but hell, I already paid and I was here so  I decided to at least give it a shot.

The start of the race. Truly low key.

Right from the gun I took the lead. No surprise to anyone there. It was back to the same 'ol tactic I always pull. Off the front as hard as I could. For as long as I could. I just wanted to get as many miles behind me before it really started to stew down in the trees.

The course was a mess. Even messier than the month before at the Freestate Ultras. Where I had thought that those conditions were the worst I had ever seen. Man what did I know about bad.

One of the few dry sections. Still impossible to maintain any kind of pace.

Things were going O.K. Not great. I was sweating a lot but I was doing a real good job. Keeping up on the electrolytes and fluid. I was breathing normal and running relaxed. At mile 11 or 12 I think I had a 12 minute lead on the rest of the field. After that though. I started to feel the heat picking up. So I made a conscious decision to pull back a little on the pace.

Not long after that though I started to feel like this was as about as much fun as I wanted to have for the day. Coming into the Lands End aide station I had already made the choice to go ahead and drop down to the Marathon distance. At that point I had around 7 or 8 miles to go. I was done fighting the mud too at that point so I really backed off the pace.

Coming back into the start finish area after the small 3 mile plus loop we had to make to get the Marathon done. I stopped and chatted with Co-race director Collen Voeks for about 10 minutes before going on to cross the line for an official Marathon finish. My time for the day was a very humbling 4:20:45.

Looking back on it now I should have listened a little harder to that voice inside my head and made the smart choice to drop down to the Marathon before the start. Had I done that I think I could possibly have run a sub 4 hour race under those conditions. As it stood though my 4:20:45 was still nearly 36 minutes faster than the Official marathon winners time of 4:56:??.

John Knowles washing the mud out of his crack. At the usually only shin deep water crossing.

I've had a chance to really digest what this race did for me. What it means towards the big picture. Towards the rest of my season. Gladly I can say if anything. It was exactly what the doctor ordered. To be able to experience a bad race now and then I think is good for a runner. It helps you put things into perspective. It forces you to take a look at what is really important to you. Giving you a chance to see what you really need to work on for upcoming races as well as giving you that extra fuel you need to push yourself that much harder in workouts.

I'm happy with the choice I made to drop down to the shorter distance. I'll be able to jump right back into high volume training without having to take downtime for recovery. And as long as the weather stays hot out. I'll be able to get the kind of training I need. So as to be able to run a more intelligent race at the next one.

I just want to thank all the volunteers and folks involved with putting on the Hawk 50 miler. It's a huge undertaking to put on an Ultra event and though this first year race had a few kinks. It is nothing I feel that they won't be able to workout before next year. Now if we could just get Mother Nature on the payroll and see if she can't provide us with cooler weather for next time...

A common sight on the trail. This is what we ran trough all day...