So I am late, about a month late to be exact! On March 23rd, I had the opportunity to run in my first mountain race while visiting Arizona, the Mesquite Canyon 30K. I was looking to treat it as a good fitness gauge and an early season challenge to get prepared for an aggressive spring schedule of back to back 50k races in MN. One thing I consistently do as each race approaches is lay out a game plan of goals, threats, and success measures. I think whether competitive or not, this is great way to frame your mental game before a race. For me, I knew my threats were hot weather conditions, limited aid opportunities, and sustained climbing. With limited early season trail exposure, running conservative at the beginning and pushing hard during the descents were my key goals. Ultimately, I wanted to run as aggressively as I could. For me, my measures of success were intake adequate hydration, attack the climb with consistency, and gain ground on the competition during flat and descending sections.
With that said, the race went extremely well on all levels. The course was gorgeous with the start being relatively flat to rolling for the first 5 miles. After reaching aid station one, the climbing began, scaling over 2700ft in 4 miles. During the first portion of the race I ensured that I was up in the lead section of the chase pack. When the gun went off, I knew immediately that pushing in the lead pack was a dumb idea for my level of heat and altitude acclimation. After reaching AS1, the distance to the next aid zone was 9 miles. During the 9 miles of no aid, we slowly made our way from the base to the top of the White Tank Mountain Range, with gorgeous views of the Phoenix Valley and some cactus blooms. The trail called for a decent mix of speed hiking and running as the grade and amount of steep rock dictated the pace. Luckily, it wasn't extremely warm yet and the climb had two decent little breaks in the action where the grade mellowed (maybe 5-7% grade). Even after studying the map, I really didn't comprehend when the descent would actually start into the valley. This may have been my only error (though minor). When I reached what I thought was the top, I assumed I needed to save a bit of energy for the dreaded next ascent. After a mile, I threw that idea out the window and start on a sub 5:30/mile free fall down to the valley. Here I was able to close my time gap, regain my lungs, and pass a few runners. Unfortunately, during this time, I really couldn't take in any views as there was a decent amount of exposure and risk to actually racing the trail.
AS2 approached quicker than I actually assumed. At this point, the race was more than 3/4 of the way over and I was feeling pretty good, minus a bit of wear to my flat lander quads that aren't too familiar with endless mountain descents. At this point I was mostly interested in closing the gap on the runners I could see ahead. The rest of the race (4 miles) featured mostly rolling desert vegetation and loose sand. Unfortunately, I ran out of miles to catch runners 3-7, finishing 8th with a gap of under 3 minutes between those in front of me. Although I was slightly disheartened by learning how close the race really was, I was elated to finish strong and amongst mostly local and western based trail runners!
Coming out of the race, I learned a few things that anyone can keep in mind while training for a race.
- First, familiarize yourself with the terrain - know the course profile and where you can play to your strengths. This is key to a strong finish and your best performance.
- Stick to the Plan - Coming into AS1 I knew it was important to top off my fluids and maintain my hydration plan. When I rolled into the station, they messed up and didn't have electrolyte drink ready. Instead of skipping it and/or drinking soda, I waited to get my bottle filled. Had I not, I would have had a major disaster going into 9 miles of unaided tough terrain. Overall, it made me lose contact with the chase pack, but I regained it steadily on the climb.
- Never underestimate the time to acclimate - I came in feeling fit and ready to lead. What I forgot was how tough heat acclimation can be. In the three days leading up to the race, I did my best to acclimate, but in the end you need many weeks of training at a much higher heat index in order for your heart rate and perceived exertion to go down. If you are going into a race that really matters, remember to train in the environment you will be racing in. Even though this was more of a "training race" for me, the temperature difference from MN was more than a 60 degree swing from what I was used to!
Coming up next, I will review 2 new products (Mountain Might and Tailwind). I will be racing Chippewa 50k on April 27th and will do a local race review shortly there after. Excited for Chippewa as I have heard great things and the competition will feature some of the best Midwest trail runners!