Swamp Stomper

I really did not particularly train for this race...I ran a 20 on thanksgiving day and a 22 a few weeks later....other than that I had a 13 miler and a 15 miler as my longest runs...

I kinda went into this race with a different attitude than I usually approach races with...usually, I'm pretty tense in the days leading up to the race...however, since I hadn't focused my training for Swampstomper, I went in to it with the mindset of "ill just got out and see what happens..."

I was surprisingly relaxed, even Saturday night...normally I start to get really tense the night before the race...however, Lauren and I cooked up a good dinner and even had a few beers, not really putting much thought into the next day's event....

my alarm went off at 4:30 Sunday (I have to get up three hours before race time) and I got up and moving and had my coffee....I was still feeling pretty relaxed, and remained this way up until about 30 min before the race started.....

My plan was to go out at a moderately hard pace and hold it for the remainder of the race...one that has worked pretty well for me the last few races...I knew this race would bottleneck hard about 1/4 mile in so I made it a point to get up front before the trailhead...I didn't want to get caught up running with the 25k sprinters so I let a few of them go ahead and dropped in behind some folks I knew were running the 50k....

First lap went pretty well...hit the turnaround at 1:23 and counted 11 runners, some of them 25k, in front of me....kept up with a pretty good pace back to the end of the first lap, hitting my split at 2:28...

I filled my pockets up with gels and picked up my ipod and I was off again...at this point I knew I was in about 5th or 6th place, which I was pretty happy with so I just wanted to maintain that position and I had this goal in the back of my mind of a 5 hour race...I knew this would be tough, as I didn't know if I could keep up the same pace on the second lap....

I got in a group with 2 guys from Missouri...we played leapfrog a few times...I didn't think I was ever going to be able to get around them for good...every time I would catch and pass them, they would catch and pass me a short while later.....Finally, one of the guys dropped off and it was just me and John from Springfield....

When we were about a mile from the turnaround, we spotted the girl that was running in 4th place...this gave me the extra push I needed to pick it up....we didnt end up catching her until the actual aid station at the turnaround, but it was here that I was able to see just how small of a gap there was between myself and 3rd place....

I hit the turnaround at 4:01 and it was on...I told John that we only had an hour left and we were going to get on it as hard as we could....we took off from the aid station hard..I was running about as hard as I could go at this point...about a mile or 2 from the turnaround we spotted the 3rd place runner...shortly thereafter, we passed him and John said to me, "I'm not going to contest you for third, you're doing all the work" which I was able to respond in between panting "we are going to catch the 2nd place guy so we can both place"....though I really didn't think this was giong to be possible as the second place runner was moving really fast when I saw him last....

but anyway, we put the hammer down, so hard that I ventured off course in the mini bamboo forest...a few expletives later, we were back on the trail and back at it....all of the sudden I saw the seoncd place runner about 100 yards ahead...he turned and saw us and then picked it up...we trailed hard for 5 minutes or so before finally catching up to him...at this point John said to me "second place is all yours"....I kept the pace up, knowing that first place was way out of reach,my goal was going to be to break five hours...I pushed as hard as I could, not bothering to stop at the final aid station....all was looking well for a 5 hour finish until I got to the final hill coming out of the woods...this hill was a beast and I could not force myself up it any faster....

Finally came out of the woods and hit the concrete...at this point I had built up a 30 second or so lead on John (though he wasn't going to contest for 2nd)....hit the road running hard but didn't quite make the 5 hour mark, crossing the line in 5:01 and som change....maybe even 5:02 (haven't sen the official results yet)....

overall, my best race to date....a big time PR and my first podium finish....

came home and Lauren took care of my sore legs before we feasted on Papa Johns and beer....

all in all a great run and a very big confidence booster for this spring....

too sore to run on Monday but I got on the trainer for 45 minutes tonite...pretty easy spinning, nothing intense....hoping to get in a run tomorrow but I have a blood blister on my toe that makes it painful to put on shoes so we will see.....