Antelope Island Buffalo Run 50 mile

The Antelope Island Buff Run has come and gone. I would have to say I was happy that I actually made it to the start line. Two weeks out from the race I got sick and then had a tooth infection and got my wisdom teeth pulled(1 week out). I was in so much agony! Tooth pain =no joke. It kept me up at night and all I seemed to have my attention on all day was the pain and nothing else! After a few days of being on pain meds and little to no running for at least a week I was starting to feel pretty crummy. I also could not eat any solid foods at this time which meant apple sauce pudding and ice cream. Dr. Jensen was super nice and referred me to Dr. Wiswell who ended up getting me into his office later that week. The operation was pretty quick and easy but left me a little out of it for a couple days post. I started running 4 days after surgery but was feeling heavy headed and the legs felt weak. On top of this I was having reactions to the antibiotics which resulted in fever(102.5) and night sweats that left me drenched(yeah it was a total blast) through all this I kept s positive attitude leading up to Antelope Island 50 mile with the intention that I would go down to the race and run if I felt good or volunteer if I wasn’t felling it. I was still having some tooth pain on thurs before the race but everything else was good so I started to mentally prepare for the wind and cooler temps that I would face. The race started on Saturday at 6am with a temperature of 23deg. So I layered up and did a few warm up loops around the camping area to get the blood flowing. I actually wasn’t too worried about the temp after talking with the 100 milers last night saying that the weather wasn’t that bad and that they were actually comfortable. I put on 4 layers on top with a beanie and tights down bottom. My right calf has been feeling tighter then usual leading up to the race so I used some 2XU compression socks which worked great. Goal for the race was to run steady, stay on top of nutrition and finish strong. The last one was the most important but I knew it wouldn’t be realistic if I didn’t pay attention to my pace and calories. I kept to the routine of a gel serving every 25min which seemed to do the trick. The race went out with Scott Jaime a Pearl Izumi athlete and 5 others running behind him including myself. I settled into a nice pace and was going back between fourth place and fifth place most of the day. I only had one rough patch on the day on a mind numbing out and back section that was 18 miles long. The challenge about this course was actually that everything was runnable which meant even if I wasn’t feeling well there where no excuses to not keep a jog going. I kept to that and ran a decent pace the whole run. In the last two miles I was still in fifth place and was just rounding the last bend before hitting the dirt road to the finish when I saw the green shirt that I was looking back at all day and the man of the name Harrison Fluman. At this point I was pretty toast and new it was going to be a battle till the end. I gave Harrison a hand shake and congratulated him on a nice run. We ran side by side during the last half mile before he broke away and got me by 13sec. Overall I was happy with the day and most important happy that I was able to pace smart,eat well and finish STRONG! Results: http://strideracing.com/2013/march/2013_buffalorun50M_overall.htm Next up is Zion 100 April 19th! Keep on runnin’ Posted on March 30, 2013 | Leave a comment | Edit